It lay quietly on the ground, seemingly nothing more than an utterly ordinary pebble, without the slightest anomaly.
"Don't you wish to ascend?" Chen Yan's voice rang out.
The old Daoist withdrew his gaze and looked instead toward the distance, where Buddha light blazed brilliantly and Sword Qi howled with icy sharpness.
The great monk and that Void Return Realm sword cultivator were purging Demonic Beasts and Strange Spirits.
"I lost that qualification long ago. Haven't you seen all that I've done over these years?"
Everything he had done in the past had long since doomed him to lose that qualification.
If one could ascend simply by counting demon-slaying merits, then why make it so complicated? Wouldn't it suffice to set up a battle-merit ranking?
Merit and conduct did not refer only to the present.
Unfortunately, those two had been blinded by the desires in their hearts and could not see this.
Chen Yan paused. "Then you..."
If that was so, why had he come to the Filth Realm?
"I came to see Cheng Yu."
"Cheng Yu?"
"He was someone who, along with me, once reached the supreme Great Profound Realm and survived to this day. He is also the 'Demon Venerable' you all know so well."
Huh?!
That Demon Venerable had also been to the supreme Great Profound Realm?!
"Come to think of it, we named it 'Great Profound Heaven' because we admired the supreme Great Profound Realm."
So that was it!
So this was how Great Profound Heaven got its name.
"When you went there, you were like that... Then was he also...?"
"No. His divine abilities were not taught by our teacher; he encountered other opportunities. As for the details, I do not know."
At that point, the old Daoist suddenly let out a long sigh.
"He