Immortal Ascension

Chapter One: Immortal Ascension

Wudang Mountain was formerly known as Taihe Mountain. Located in Shiyan City in the northwestern part of Hubei Province, it was one of China's renowned sacred Daoist sites. The scenic area was traditionally said to cover "eight hundred li in every direction," and now spanned 312 square kilometers. Wudang Mountain possessed not only magnificent and unusual natural scenery, but also a wealth of colorful cultural attractions. Its terrain was extraordinary: one peak pierced the heavens while countless others gathered around it. It possessed both Mount Tai's grandeur and Mount Hua's peril. Cliffs, deep ravines, secluded caves, and clear springs were scattered everywhere, along with three pools, nine springs, eleven caves, twenty-four ravines, thirty-six cliffs, and seventy-two peaks. Since ancient times, Wudang Mountain had been an ideal place for Daoists seeking an immortal paradise. Daoist buildings spread across the entire mountain in magnificent scale, and legend had it that Great Emperor Xuanwu attained the Dao and ascended here in ancient times. Thus, it was praised as "an unparalleled paradise throughout the ages, the greatest immortal mountain beneath Heaven."

Ascension Cliff was praised by the ancients as Wudang's foremost immortal paradise. It lay west of Nanyan Palace. One peak rose abruptly from Ascension Cliff, surrounded by sheer cliffs on three sides. A narrow path along the ridge led straight to the summit. From there, one could leap to the top and gaze out, taking in the magnificent sight of Wudang's seventy-two peaks bowing toward the main summit.

Legend had it that Great Emperor Xuanwu cultivated here in his youth. He faced the wall for several decades, keeping his heart still as an ancient well and sitting as motionless as an old pine. He did not even move when birds built nests on his head. One day, when Xuanwu's Great Dao was nearing completion, Primordial Sovereign of Purple Qi descended to the mortal realm to test him. She transformed into a beautiful woman and tried to dress Xuanwu's hair and face, but Xuanwu fled from feminine beauty to a rock on the sheer cliff... The woman, ashamed and desperate, leaped into the ten-thousand-zhang abyss. When Xuanwu saw this, he also jumped down to save her. At that moment, five dragons soared into the air from the gorge, carrying Xuanwu up into the heavens. Later generations built the "Dressing Table" here based on the legend of Great Emperor Xuanwu's cultivation and ascension, and named the enormous rock jutting out from the cliff the "Heart-Testing Stone."

Above this "Heart-Testing Stone" was an unknown immortal paradise. It was the true place where Great Emperor Xuanwu was said to have cultivated. However, it had been arranged with the Great Array of Inverted Yin-Yang and Five Elements. Needless to say, ordinary people could not see it; even highly accomplished cultivators could not detect the slightest anomaly without opening their Heaven's Eye!

Five semi-transparent hundred-zhang peaks floated in the sky. All sorts of gemstones, crystals, and jade lay scattered across the slopes, radiating dazzling brilliance beneath the sunlight. Surging waterfalls plunged from the mountaintops, forming crystal-clear lakes at the foot of the mountains. When a breeze swept through, the splashing spray drifted away with it, bringing waves of coolness to the valley. The valley surrounded by the five peaks covered several hundred mu. Adult-sized ginseng plants, thousand-year-old fleeceflowers, and countless strange plants that even the most famous botanists of the modern era could not name grew everywhere. Small flowers of every color constantly released wisps of faint, refreshing fragrance. Sika deer wandered leisurely through the valley, while tigers, long believed by humans to be fierce and savage, strolled through it with surprisingly benevolent expressions. Rainbow-winged birds and snow-white cranes flew freely through the sky above the valley. At its center stood a simple thatched hut.

Two Daoists stood in front of the hut. From a distance, the two of them stood in the middle of the valley without seeming out of place at all. Everything looked so natural, as though they had always been part of the valley. Both wore blue Daoist robes, their hair tied high atop their heads. The Daoist on the left was rather thin and had a very ordinary appearance, like the boy next door. His only distinctive feature was his skin, crystalline and translucent, fair as porcelain—so unfairly flawless that even girls would gnash their teeth at the sight of it! The Daoist on the right was taller and slender, with a magnificent bearing, a tortoise-shaped body and crane-like bones, large ears, round eyes, and a beard as sharp as halberds. He was none other than Zhang Sanfeng, founding patriarch of the Wudang Sect.

Zhang Sanfeng was also known as Zhang the Untidy. He was the founding patriarch of the Wudang Sect and a grandmaster of martial arts. Later, he entered the Dao through martial arts and thus became known as Immortal Zhang. In his early years, Zhang Sanfeng traveled throughout the world, his whereabouts unpredictable, and specialized in standing up for those who had suffered injustice. Later, he traveled to Wudang and discovered that the mountain was blessed by nature and the spirits. He therefore brought his disciples to clear the wilderness, build a thatched hut, and cultivate the Dao. Not long afterward, he left Wudang Mountain, and the world never saw him again. In his later years, Emperor Taizu of Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang, fell ill and wished to have Zhang Sanfeng concoct an immortal elixir. In the 24th year of Hongwu (1391), he sent people to search everywhere, but they found nothing. He also sent Zhang Yuchu and others to look for him, but they likewise returned without results. In the 5th year of Yongle (1407), shortly after Emperor Chengzu of Ming, Zhu Di, ascended the throne, he dispatched Hu Ying, an investigating censor, with men bearing an imperial letter. They searched for ten years but ultimately failed to find him. According to legend, Zhang Sanfeng might already have attained the Dao and ascended. Later, under the stewardship of Zhang Sanfeng's four great disciples—Lu Qiuyun, Zhou Zhende, Liu Guquan, and Yang Shanden, also known as the Four Immortals of Taihe—the Wudang Internal Family Boxing, Wudang Swordplay, Wudang Qigong, and Five Elements Daoist Magic that Zhang Sanfeng had created all flourished. Wudang later rose above the other sects, standing shoulder to shoulder with Shaolin. Among the common people, it became known as "Shaolin revered in the north, Wudang honored in the south."

"Pan'er, I have cultivated here for nearly six hundred years, and I have finally seen through the Heavenly Dao!" Zhang Sanfeng gazed into the distance with emotion. "Now that you have also broken through the Nascent Soul Stage, becoming the first genius in the history of the cultivation world to enter the Nascent Soul Stage at the age of one hundred, the passage of time can no longer threaten your life. As long as you cultivate diligently, one day you will see through the Heavenly Dao like your master and shatter the void to depart!"

"Master, I still need you by my side to guide me. Please don't go, all right?" The Daoist known as Pan'er looked at the master who had taught and raised him for a century, his eyes red and filled with reluctance.

"Foolish child! Your master must leave eventually, and you must ultimately walk your own path! The road ahead is long; I shall search high and low! What a pity that your senior brothers are gone!" Seeing how unwilling his hundred-year-old disciple was to part, Zhang Sanfeng sadly reached out and gently patted him on the shoulder. His thoughts, however, had returned to West Lake in the year 1900. When the disciple he valued and loved most, Yang Shanden, had been unable to comprehend the Dao and enter the Nascent Soul Stage before finally leaving him, Zhang Sanfeng could no longer maintain his ancient-well calm after cultivating for several centuries. He left the cave dwelling at Ascension Cliff where he had cultivated for five hundred years and began wandering the world. Unexpectedly, he found an abandoned baby beside West Lake, and that baby helped him calm his grieving heart once more. Since he did not know the child's surname and had found him beside the lake, he gave the child his own surname and named him Hupan, with the Daoist name Yunming. From then on, Zhang Hupan became Zhang Sanfeng's final disciple. Zhang Sanfeng taught him medicine, martial arts, and the Heavenly Dao, hoping that when he shattered the void and departed, Zhang Hupan would inherit his legacy. Zhang Hupan did not disappoint him. He had actually broken through the Nascent Soul Stage, which cultivators could scarcely ever overcome, on his hundredth birthday. Zhang Sanfeng's four great disciples—Lu Qiuyun, Zhou Zhende, Liu Guquan, and Yang Shanden, also known as the Four Immortals of Taihe—had ultimately been unable to break through the Nascent Soul Stage throughout their lives. Unable to withstand the decrees of fate, they had one after another departed from Zhang Sanfeng before him.

The realms of Daoist cultivation were divided into four great realms: "Qi," "Dan," "Origin," and "Spirit." These were further divided into twelve minor realms: "Qi Guidance," "Qi Condensation," "Qi Transformation," "Dan Brewing," "Dan Condensation," "Dan Shattering," "Nascent Soul," "Infant Accomplishment," "Infant Breaking," "Spirit Severing," "Spirit Nurturing," and "Void Breaking." Each minor realm was further divided into early, middle, and late stages. Once a cultivator reached "Qi Guidance," it meant that he had crossed from the acquired state into the Innate Realm. His lifespan would increase greatly, allowing him to live to around two hundred years old. "Dan Brewing," "Dan Condensation," and "Dan Shattering" signified entry into the Golden Core Path, marking a cultivator as an expert of the cultivation world. His lifespan could then extend to five or six hundred years. The Nascent Soul realm was one of the great thresholds of cultivation. Once that threshold was crossed, the cultivator possessed a Half-Immortal Physique. As long as his Primordial Spirit remained intact, even if his body were destroyed, he could find another body and be reborn. His lifespan would scarcely be threatened any longer and could reach several thousand years. However, those who could truly cultivate to the Nascent Soul Stage were all peerless geniuses blessed with extraordinary luck. Even cultivators as gifted as Zhang Sanfeng's four great disciples—Lu Qiuyun, Zhou Zhende, Liu Guquan, and Yang Shanden—could only stop at the Golden Core Path for their entire lives, unable to enter the true path of immortal cultivation.

Zhang Hupan possessed not only extraordinary talent but also astonishing luck. As a baby, he had received the careful guidance of the grandmaster Zhang Sanfeng. From childhood, he had cultivated on an immortal mountain rich in spiritual energy, and he had consumed countless spirit pills and miraculous medicines. He had actually entered the Nascent Soul Stage at the age of one hundred, which could be considered a great miracle in the cultivation world.

A clear birdcall pulled Zhang Sanfeng's thoughts back to reality. Looking back at Zhang Hupan's reluctant expression, Zhang Sanfeng ultimately felt deeply unwilling and worried to part with the little disciple he had watched grow up. "Sigh..." Zhang Sanfeng sighed softly. Unable to bear seeing his disciple so heartbroken, he said, "Pan'er, as long as you also cultivate to the day you shatter the void, master and disciple will meet again someday!"

Zhang Hupan knew that Zhang Sanfeng had actually reached the Void Breaking realm fifty years earlier. For his sake, however, he had stayed an additional fifty years. Now that he had finally entered the early stage of the Nascent Soul Stage, his master had at last decided to leave. Although Zhang Hupan was deeply reluctant to see his master go, he also knew that shattering the void and pursuing the highest Heavenly Dao had always been his master's greatest wish. Zhang Hupan knew that he could neither stop nor prevent him. A century of cultivation could no longer restrain his tears.

"Master, please take good care of yourself when you go there! Your disciple wishes you a smooth journey through the heavens!" Zhang Hupan said, his voice slightly choked.

Perhaps joy and sorrow, happiness and grief were the most powerful weapons in the human world. Even immortals could not escape their blades. Although he knew that he could not hide from Zhang Hupan's Spiritual Sense, now that Zhang Hupan had cultivated to the Nascent Soul realm, Zhang Sanfeng still quietly turned his head aside and gently wiped away his tears. Then, pretending that nothing had happened, he said, "Pan'er, although you have cultivated to the early stage of the Nascent Soul Stage, you grew up in this valley and have never experienced life among ordinary people or tasted the bitterness and sweetness of the mortal world. This will be extremely detrimental to your future cultivation. Although you are now a hundred years old, your temperament remains as pure as a child's. Such a temperament allowed you to focus without distraction during the early stages of cultivation and achieve twice the result with half the effort. But now that you have entered the Nascent Soul Stage, if you have never experienced the bitterness and sweetness of the mortal world, your Dao Heart will be unable to advance another level, and you will be unable to drive away the interference of Inner Demons during cultivation. Therefore, after your master shatters the void and departs, leave this place and go to the mortal world to temper yourself!" (To be continued)