100: Chapter 100 Celestial Immortal Ascension
Leaving that cluster of reefs behind, the three of them journeyed westward.
After three days of travel, White Marsh's condition grew steadily better. The wounds left by the black threads had scabbed over, and its fur began to regain its luster. It walked beside Lu Mingyuan, constantly looking around, like a beast fresh out of a cage, curious about everything.
Zhang Qingyuan followed behind, holding the heart lamp, stealing glances at White Marsh from time to time.
White Marsh sensed it and turned to look at him.
"What are you looking at?"
Zhang Qingyuan hurriedly averted his gaze.
"N-nothing."
White Marsh snorted.
"Look if you want. I'm not a monster."
Zhang Qingyuan offered an awkward smile.
"Senior, have you really lived for hundreds of thousands of years?"
White Marsh nodded.
"More or less."
Zhang Qingyuan's eyes lit up.
"Then you must have witnessed many things?"
White Marsh thought for a moment.
"Many."
Zhang Qingyuan leaned in a little closer.
"Can you tell me about them?"
White Marsh looked at him.
"What do you want to hear?"
Zhang Qingyuan scratched his head.
"Anything. Just... things not found in books."
White Marsh fell silent for a while.
Then, it began to speak.
"Do you know how those Vicious Beasts came to be during the Ferocious Beast Great Tribulation?"
Zhang Qingyuan shook his head.
White Marsh said softly:
"They weren't born that way. They were born from the lingering resentment of the Chaos Demons. Those Demon Gods were slain by Pangu, but their resentment did not dissipate. It fell into the Primordial World, attached itself to wild beasts, and became Vicious Beasts."
"They possessed no sentience, only the drive to devour. Devour all living things, devour all Spiritual Qi, devour everything that could be devoured."
"The Primordial World back then was far more tragic than it is now."
Zhang Qingyuan listened, captivated.
"What happened after?"
White Marsh looked at the road ahead.
"Later, the Three Clans rose and exterminated the Vicious Beasts. But that resentment did not vanish. It merely settled, waiting for the next eruption."
It paused.
"The next time was the Dragon-Phoenix Great Tribulation."
Zhang Qingyuan fell silent.
Lu Mingyuan walked ahead, not turning back, but he heard every word.
He recalled what the Queen Mother of the West had said—that resentment had settled for hundreds of millions of years and finally gained consciousness.
That consciousness was An.
He looked up at the sky in the Northwest direction.
The Rift was still there, its color deeper than a few days ago.
On the evening of the fourth day, they arrived at a cliff.
The cliff was not high. Standing at its summit, one could see the distant sea and the sky in the Northwest direction.
Lu Mingyuan stood there, gazing at The Rift, silent for a long time.
White Marsh walked to his side.
"What are you thinking?"
Lu Mingyuan was silent for a moment.
"Thinking about Daoist Songyun's words."
"Which ones?"
"'Walk to the end, and you'll naturally know.'"
He looked at White Marsh.
"But I haven't reached the end yet. How much longer must I walk? Where exactly is the end?"
White Marsh did not answer.
It simply watched him quietly.
Lu Mingyuan said softly:
"The Queen Mother of the West said to keep walking, until the day it's mended. But when is that day? A year? Ten years? A hundred years? Ten thousand years?"
He paused.
"What if I never reach it?"
White Marsh spoke.
"If you don't reach it, then keep walking."
Lu Mingyuan looked at it.
White Marsh continued:
"Daoist Songyun walked for nine thousand years and still didn't reach the end. But when he died, he let go. Letting go... that was reaching the end."
It looked at Lu Mingyuan.
"Do you understand?"
Lu Mingyuan was stunned.
Letting go was reaching the end?
He pondered this for a long time.
Then, he suddenly understood something.
Not an answer, but a direction.
He stood there, gazing into the distance, motionless.
The sun slowly sank in the west. The clouds on the horizon were dyed gold, red, and purple, layer upon layer, like a vast painting.
A sea breeze blew, carrying a salty, damp scent.
Zhang Qingyuan stood not far away, holding the heart lamp, not daring to make a sound.
White Marsh lay at his feet, eyes closed as if asleep.
But it wasn't asleep.
It was waiting.
Waiting for Lu Mingyuan to find his own way out.
He didn't know how much time passed.
The sun had completely set, leaving only the last trace of red light on the horizon.
That red light reflected on Lu Mingyuan's face, illuminating his profile with striking clarity.
He suddenly moved.
Not turning, not stepping forward, but—closing his eyes.
He closed his eyes and stood there, motionless.
Zhang Qingyuan grew tense.
"Senior, Master he—"
White Marsh opened its eyes and looked at him.
"Be quiet."
Zhang Qingyuan promptly shut his mouth.
He stared at his Master's back, unsure what was happening.
But he faintly sensed that something was about to occur.
Lu Mingyuan stood on the cliff with his eyes closed.
Everything around him vanished—the sea breeze, the sound of waves, Zhang Qingyuan, White Marsh, the cliff, the sky, the clouds.
Only one thing remained.
The Rift.
Not the one in the Northwest, but the one within his heart.
Within that rift, there was a ball of light.
The light was faint, weak, like the last flicker of a candle about to go out.
But that was him.
It was what he had been searching for all along.
It was the answer to the question he had been asking.
He opened his eyes.
The last trace of red light on the horizon had just faded.
Darkness descended.
But at the very moment darkness fell, he suddenly smiled.
A very light, very faint smile, like the faintest ripple stirred by wind across water.
White Marsh looked at him.
"Found it?"
Lu Mingyuan nodded.
"Found it."
White Marsh asked:
"Found what?"
Lu Mingyuan said softly:
"Found the person I've been searching for all along."
The moment his words fell, something within his body stirred.
Not his Dantian, not his Meridians, not any place he could name.
Somewhere deeper.
A place whose existence he had never known.
In that place, there was a ball of light.
The same ball of light he had just seen.
That ball of light suddenly brightened.
Bright as the sun, bright as the stars, bright as the first light that cleaved heaven from earth at the dawn of creation.
Light surged from his body, illuminating the cliff, illuminating the sea, illuminating the sky in the Northwest direction.
That blood-colored Rift trembled once within the radiance.
White Marsh stood up, eyes wide.
Zhang Qingyuan's mouth hung open, speechless.
Lu Mingyuan stood there, allowing the light to pour forth from his body.
He knew what this was.
This was the Heavenly Immortal.
This was the light of a Heavenly Immortal's attainment of the Dao.
He had walked all the way from Earth Immortal, through the Abyss of the East Sea, past the Remnant of the Demon God, through White Marsh's acknowledgment of a Master, through the ruins of Songyun, through 'the heart is the pivot', through Daoist Songyun's notes, through nine thousand years of waiting, through the eight-thousand-year-long kneeling.
Finally, he had arrived here.
The light grew brighter and more intense, finally shooting straight up into the heavens.
The clouds in the sky were scattered, revealing a sky full of stars.
Those stars, one by one, were all glowing.
Just like the lights he had seen at the bottom of the Abyss of the East Sea.
Just like the characters carved on Daoist Songyun's stone wall.
Just like that ball of light within his heart.
The radiance lasted a long time.
So long that Zhang Qingyuan grew tired of standing and sat on the ground.
So long that White Marsh lay back down, resting its head on its front legs.
So long that the first light of dawn appeared on the horizon.
Finally, the light gradually receded.
Lu Mingyuan stood there, the same as yesterday, yet completely different.
Zhang Qingyuan looked for a long while, unable to pinpoint the difference.
White Marsh spoke.
"Heavenly Immortal?"
Lu Mingyuan nodded.
"Heavenly Immortal."
White Marsh smiled.
"Pretty fast."
Lu Mingyuan also smiled.
"Is it?"
White Marsh nodded.
"From Earth Immortal to Heavenly Immortal usually takes others centuries. You took—a few days?"
It calculated.
"From the time you left Kunlun until now, less than ten days."
It looked at Lu Mingyuan.
"How did you do it?"
Lu Mingyuan thought for a moment.
"I don't know."
White Marsh was taken aback.
"You don't know?"
Lu Mingyuan nodded.
"Truly, I don't know. I was just walking, and suddenly, I arrived."
He looked at White Marsh.
"You once said cultivation is walking. Those who walk don't think about how far they've gone. They just walk."
White Marsh was silent for a while.
Then, it smiled.
"Right. Just walk."
After daybreak, the three of them continued on their way.
After a few steps, Lu Mingyuan suddenly stopped.
He glanced back.
Behind him was that sea.
The sea where he rescued White Marsh, the sea concealing the Remnant of the Demon God, the sea where Daoist Songyun slept.
Gazing at that sea, he said softly:
"Senior, I'm leaving."
"The person you waited for has come. The words you waited to hear, you've heard. The answer you waited for—"
He paused.
"I haven't found it yet. But I know that one day, I will."
"On that day, I will return and tell you."
Having said this, he turned and continued walking forward.
White Marsh walked beside him.
Zhang Qingyuan, holding the heart lamp, also followed.
After walking a considerable distance, Zhang Qingyuan suddenly asked:
"Master, earlier you said you found the person you'd been searching for all along. Who is that person?"
Lu Mingyuan did not answer.
He simply smiled.
Zhang Qingyuan looked at White Marsh.
White Marsh also smiled.
"Don't ask. Your Master doesn't even know himself."
Zhang Qingyuan was even more confused.
"Then how did he find him?"
White Marsh thought for a moment.
"Because he wasn't looking."
Zhang Qingyuan was stunned.
"Wasn't looking? How can you find something if you're not looking?"
White Marsh looked at him.
"Some things, the harder you look, the less you find them. Stop looking, and they appear."
Zhang Qingyuan pondered this for a long time.
Then, he nodded, seeming to understand, yet not fully comprehending.
They walked for half a day. The sun rose to its zenith.
Lu Mingyuan stopped and sat on a large rock.
Zhang Qingyuan handed him a waterskin.
He took it and drank.
White Marsh lay at his feet, eyes closed, basking in the sun.
The sunlight was warm, comfortable on the skin.
Lu Mingyuan suddenly spoke.
"White Marsh."
White Marsh opened its eyes.
"Hmm?"
Lu Mingyuan was silent for a moment.
"You said, what comes after Heavenly Immortal?"
White Marsh thought.
"Golden Immortal."
Lu Mingyuan nodded.
"And after Golden Immortal?"
"Taiyi Golden Immortal."
"And after Taiyi Golden Immortal?"
"Grand Unity Golden Immortal."
"And after Grand Unity Golden Immortal?"
"Quasi-Saint."
"And after Quasi-Saint?"
"Saint."
"And after Saint?"
White Marsh looked at him.
"The Transcendent."
Lu Mingyuan fell silent.
After a long while, he said softly:
"And after the Transcendent?"
White Marsh also fell silent.
For a very, very long time.
Then, it said one sentence.
"After the Transcendent... is the present."
Lu Mingyuan was stunned.
He looked at White Marsh.
White Marsh also looked at him.
"After the Transcendent, is the present," it repeated. "Do you understand?"
Lu Mingyuan thought for a long time.
Then, he slowly nodded.
"It seems... I'm beginning to understand a little."
White Marsh smiled.
"Good that you understand."
It closed its eyes again, continuing to bask in the sun.
Lu Mingyuan sat there, looking at the road ahead, the distant sky, the sun overhead.
The present.
This very moment.
He was here, White Marsh was here, Zhang Qingyuan was here.
The sunlight was warm, the wind gentle, the road long.
This was what came after the Transcendent.
This was eternity.
He suddenly smiled.
A very light, very faint smile, like the warmth of sunlight falling on one's face.
Zhang Qingyuan looked at him.
"Master, what are you smiling about?"
Lu Mingyuan shook his head.
"Nothing."
He stood up.
"Let's go. There's still a long road ahead."
Zhang Qingyuan also stood up.
"Where to?"
Lu Mingyuan looked toward the Northwest.
"To The Rift."
He stepped forward.
White Marsh walked beside him.
Zhang Qingyuan, holding the heart lamp, also followed.
One man, one beast, one disciple, continued walking toward the Northwest.
Behind them, sunlight bathed the earth.
Ahead, the road was still long.
But he knew that no matter how far he walked, no matter how long it took, he would always return to the present.
The present is eternity.