She lifted her foot again and set it down.
The illusion peeled away, and the world changed once more.
A vast ocean continually reshaped itself before her eyes, until a face once again filled her entire field of vision.
It was the Sect Master of Qing Xu Temple—Daoist Xuan Yuan.
The stern authority he had worn in her memories was gone, replaced by heartbroken anguish.
"Ling'er, have you forgotten your mission?
"Why haven't you sent the intelligence and cultivation arts of Gui Xi Sect back to Qing Xu Temple? And why have you started cultivating that Myriad Transformations Return to Origin True Manual yourself?!"
"Are you trying to betray your sect and fall to the demonic path?!"
"Master... I didn't... That manual was..."
"Didn't?"
The Sect Master of Qing Xu Temple cut her off.
"Then how did you break through to Foundation Establishment?
"With your aptitude, you should never have reached this realm!
"Don't try to make excuses. Are you going to claim that those devils took pity on you and forced you to establish your foundation?
"Or dare you say you've done nothing for the Demonic Sect—not a single thing, not killed a single person—and they still chose to value you so highly?
"I, too, already promised to cleanse your bones and wash your marrow. Foundation Establishment would have been yours for the taking.
"Why were you so insistent on this path, throwing yourself into the demonic way?! Do you know your crime?!"
Behind the Sect Master stood the familiar yet strange mountain gate of Qing Xu Temple.
Su Ling'er was about to explain herself when another voice sounded behind her.
"Junior Sister."
Lin Qingfeng had appeared behind her at some point.
"See? As long as you give up those pointless principles, power is yours for the taking."
He raised a hand and pointed gently at the ground beneath Su Ling'er's feet.
"You and we have always been on the same path."
Su Ling'er's gaze drifted downward. A sticky sensation clung to the soles of her feet.
Blood!
A vast pool of blood stained the bluestone of Qing Xu Temple. Bodies lay sprawled across the ground, scattered through the blood.
Her senior brothers and sisters—some had pitied her, some had mocked her, and others had struggled alongside her. Their severed limbs and mangled bodies faced her, their unclosed eyes staring at her.
In her hand, she held a sword still dripping with blood. The blood was warm.
Su Ling'er's mind went blank.
What was this?
Was this the choice I would make in the future?
Would I become an accomplice, slaughter my fellow disciples, and ultimately fall to the demonic path?
Impossible!
Absurd!
You heretical fiend, how dare you disturb my Dao heart!
Why had she, Su Ling'er, gone undercover in the Demon Den and endured all those humiliations?
To uncover the truth. To vanquish demons and uphold the Dao. To carve out a path to immortality for herself!
Even if she cultivated the Myriad Transformations Return to Origin True Manual, it was only to better conceal herself, so she could one day wipe out these true fiends!
Power was power. It had no right or wrong!
In a hoe, it could till the wilderness;
In a blade, it could defend the nation and slay its enemies!
Besides, she had obtained this cultivation art from a righteous senior who had been turned into a flesh puppet. Just because the firewood came from the demonic path, did that mean it couldn't kindle a flame to protect the Righteous Path?
The Dao was beneath her feet. She was the one who decided what it meant!
Break!
The world before her shattered at her command.
The Sect Master's anguished questions, Lin Qingfeng's seductive whispers, and the unclosed eyes of her fellow disciples all turned to drifting dust.
Su Ling'er kept moving forward.
This time, there was no blood or fire.
There was the warmth of sunlight.
There was a gentle breeze.
The aroma of food reached her nose, and the laughter of children filled her ears.
She stood at a fork in a country lane.
To the left was a peaceful little courtyard, with smoke curling from its chimney.
Beneath an old locust tree in the courtyard, a white-haired old woman sat in a wheelchair, smiling as several children ran around her, laughing and playing.
Her face was lined with wrinkles, but it was still recognizable as her own, aged.
To the right stretched a road with no end in sight.
Ahead lay towering mountains that scraped the clouds and a lonely sea of mist.
A figure was climbing steadily upward.
It was her again, only younger.
The old woman in the courtyard seemed to sense something. She slowly turned her head to look over.
She rose to her feet, leaned on her cane, and shuffled over to Su Ling'er.
"Come back."
Though the old woman's voice was hoarse, it was gentle.
"Isn't it nice here?"
She raised her hands, covered in calluses, and pointed to the courtyard.
The illusion began to unfold. Su Ling'er saw herself abandon her mission, heed the Sect Master's advice, and return to her hometown.
She never continued her cultivation.
Instead, she used what she had learned at Qing Xu Temple to help her family. She even married into a good family and spent the rest of her life caring for her husband and raising children.
She watched her parents' black hair turn white, strand by strand, and their backs grow more and more bent, until she finally laid them to rest with her own hands.
She watched her younger sister marry, her younger brother inherit the family trade, and her own children grow up, start families, and have children of their own.
A hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.
She stood before a bronze mirror. The old woman reflected in it was a stranger.
Yet somewhere in her memories, she could still feel what it was like to fly on a sword, and still recall her longing to draw qi into her body.
The aged Su Ling'er in the courtyard reached out and stroked her cheek.
"Child, what is it you seek in your pursuit of immortality?
"Eternal life?
"Look at me. In this life, I had the love of my parents, the support of my husband, and the filial devotion of my children and grandchildren...
"Every day I lived was a complete and happy one.
"And what about you?"
The old woman gazed down the lonely path that led to the mountaintop.
"What awaits you on that path to immortality?
"When you reach Foundation Establishment, form your core... perhaps even attain the legendary Nascent Soul realm...
"When you look back, your homeland will have changed beyond recognition, and not a single familiar face will remain.
"Then, no matter how much you have to say, who will you say it to?
"Is a life like that truly worth it?"
Was it worth it?
Su Ling'er kept asking herself.
She looked at that aged face and saw happiness, saw peace.
She also saw her own future: her life running out, her body turning to dust.
Then everything would return to nothingness.
All her unwillingness, all her struggles, all that she was—time would erase it completely.
She had yet to see the magnificent rivers and mountains of this world. She had yet to witness the vistas beyond Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and even Nascent Soul.
There were so many things she still wanted to do. She wanted to witness the world change, to see how the human realm would unfold and what it would ultimately become...
Was she really supposed to give it all up for a peaceful, fulfilling hundred years, and willingly turn to dust?
No!
She wouldn't!
A hundred years from now, when her life was drawing to a close and she looked back on it, she didn't want her heart to hold nothing but regret and resentment!
She looked at the old woman she would one day become and answered firmly:
"It's worth it!"
"I don't want to watch myself grow old in someone else's story.
"I want to see what kind of scenery lies at the top of that mountain!
"No matter how difficult the path may be...
"Even if I'm shattered to pieces in the end...
"It will still be the path I chose myself!"
As her words fell, the warm little courtyard and the children filling it turned to sand and scattered on the wind.
Even the old woman's face softened into a relieved smile, two streams of cloudy tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Then go.
"May your path reach the heavens, and may fortune bless your immortal journey!"
As the illusion vanished, the white jade staircase stretching toward the clouds appeared before Su Ling'er once more.
She didn't look back. Step by step, she climbed.
Seventy steps!
Eighty steps!
Ninety steps!
Beneath the Dao Seeking Ladder, one could hear a pin drop.
Every player tilted their head back, mouths agape, staring in shock at that slender figure.
Step by step, she climbed into the heights of the sea of clouds—a place none of them had yet reached.
"Am I seeing things... Ninety steps!"
"My god!"
"Are her starting Willpower and Dao heart stats way too high?"
"This is... she's the perfect material for cultivating the Sword Refining Art!"
"Senior Disciple Brother! You have to make sure she comes to our Artifact Refining Pavilion to cultivate the Sword Refining Art! Don't let her get away!"
At some point, Lin Qingfeng's hands, clasped behind his back, had tightened into fists.
Her aptitude was so poor, yet her will and resolve to seek the Dao were so unshakable...
If she didn't cultivate the Sword Refining Art, it would be a terrible waste!
She had to cultivate the Sword Refining Art!
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