She lifted her foot again, and it fell.
The illusion peeled away, and the world changed once more.
The vast scene reshaped itself before her, and a face once again filled her entire vision.
It was the Sect Leader of Qingxu Temple—Xuanyuan.
The authority she remembered was gone from his face, replaced by an expression of utter grief and disappointment.
"Ling'er, have you forgotten your mission?"
"Why have you not sent intelligence and the Cultivation Techniques of the Guixi Sect back to Qingxu Temple? Instead, you've started cultivating that *True Understanding of Ten Thousand Transformations Returning to the Origin* yourself!"
"Does this mean you intend to betray the sect and fall to the demonic path?!"
"Sect Leader... I didn't... That True Understanding is..."
"You didn't?"
The Sect Leader of Qingxu Temple cut her off.
"Then how did you manage to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm? With your aptitude, it should have been impossible for you to ever touch this realm!"
"Don't try to argue that those demonic scoundrels had a sudden burst of kindness and forced you into Foundation Establishment!"
"Or are you telling me you've rendered no service to that demonic sect, killed no one, and yet they still value you so highly?"
"I also promised you that I would perform a Marrow Washing, and that Foundation Establishment would be within your grasp."
"Why did you insist on this, throwing yourself into the demonic path?! Do you admit your guilt?!"
Behind the Sect Leader was the familiar yet strange main gate of Qingxu Temple.
Just as Su Ling'er was about to defend herself, another voice sounded from behind her.
"Junior Sister."
Lin Qingfeng's figure had appeared behind her at some point.
"You see? As long as you abandon that pointless persistence, power is easily within reach."
He gently raised his hand and pointed at Su Ling'er's feet.
"You and we are on the same path."
Su Ling'er's gaze drifted downward. A sticky sensation spread from the soles of her feet.
Blood!
Vast pools of blood stained the blue-gray flagstones of Qingxu Temple. Bodies lay strewn about in the gore.
They were her senior brothers and sisters—those who had once pitied her, mocked her, or struggled alongside her.
Their severed limbs and mangled torsos were turned toward her, their unblinking, dead eyes fixed upon her.
And in her hand, she gripped a sword still dripping with warm blood.
Su Ling'er's sea of consciousness went blank.
'What is this?'
'Is this the choice I will make in the future?'
'To aid a tyrant, slaughter my own sect members, and ultimately fall to the demonic path?'
'Impossible!'
'Absurd!'
'Vile demons and heretics, how dare you disrupt my Dao heart!'
'Why did I, Su Ling'er, go undercover in a den of demons, enduring humiliation and carrying this heavy burden?'
'It was to uncover the truth, to eliminate demons and defend the righteous path, to fight for my own path to immortality!'
'Even if I cultivated the *True Understanding of Ten Thousand Transformations Returning to the Origin*, it was only to better conceal myself, so that one day I could slaughter these true demonic scoundrels!'
'Power is just power. It has no concept of right or wrong!'
'In a hoe, it can till the wilderness.'
'In a sword, it can defend a nation and slay its enemies!'
'Besides, I obtained this Cultivation Technique from that righteous senior who was turned into a flesh puppet. Can you not use demonic firewood to light a fire that protects the righteous path?'
'The Dao is beneath my feet. I am the one who defines it!'
'Break!'
The world before her shattered at the command.
The Sect Leader's grief-stricken questions, Lin Qingfeng's tempting whispers, and the unblinking stares of her dead sect members all turned to scattered dust.
Su Ling'er continued forward.
...
This time, there was no blood and fire.
There was the warmth of light.
There was the gentleness of the wind.
The scent of a home-cooked meal reached her nose, and the sound of children's laughter filled her ears.
She stood at a fork in a country path.
To the left was a quiet courtyard with smoke curling up from its chimney.
Beneath an old pagoda tree in the yard, a white-haired old woman sat in a wheelchair, smiling as she watched several children chase each other playfully around her.
Though the face was covered in wrinkles, she could vaguely recognize it as her own, aged by time.
To the right was a road with no end.
Ahead on the road were peaks that pierced the clouds and a sea of desolate clouds.
A figure was climbing endlessly upward.
It was also her, only much younger.
The old woman in the courtyard seemed to sense something and slowly turned to look over.
She stood up, and leaning on a cane, she hobbled over to Su Ling'er.
"Come back."
The old woman's voice was hoarse but gentle.
"Isn't it nice here?"
She raised a calloused hand and pointed to the courtyard.
The illusion began to shift.
She saw herself abandoning her mission, heeding the Sect Leader's advice and returning to her hometown.
She no longer pursued Cultivation.
Instead, she used the knowledge she'd learned at Qingxu Temple to help her family, even marrying into a good household and spending the rest of her life as a wife and mother.
She watched her parents' black hair turn white, strand by strand. She watched their backs grow more stooped by the day, and in the end, she personally laid them to rest in their graves.
She watched her sister marry, her brother inherit their father's trade. She watched her own children grow up and start families, and then have children of their own.
A hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.
She stood before a bronze mirror, where a strange old woman stared back.
And yet, in her memory, the feeling of Sword Flight still lingered, as did the yearning to guide qi into her body.
The elderly Su Ling'er from the courtyard reached out and caressed her cheek.
"Child, what is it you seek in your pursuit of immortality?"
"Longevity?"
"Look, in my life, I had the love of my parents, the support of my husband, and the filial piety of my children and grandchildren... Every day I lived was complete."
"But what about you?"
The old woman's gaze shifted to the lonely path leading to the mountaintop.
"What truly lies on that path to immortality?"
"When you cultivate to Foundation Establishment, Core Formation... or even the legendary Nascent Soul Realm."
"When you suddenly look back, this homeland of yours will have long since changed beyond recognition, and not a single person you once knew will remain."
"At that time, even if you have a thousand feelings to express, who will be there to listen?"
"Is such longevity... truly worth it?"
'Is it worth it?'
Su Ling'er questioned herself repeatedly.
She looked at that aged face and saw happiness, saw peace and well-being.
She also saw her own future: a lamp running out of oil, her body turning to a pile of yellow earth.
Then, everything would return to nothingness.
All her unwillingness, all her struggles, everything—it would all be completely erased by time.
She had yet to see the magnificent mountains and rivers of this world. She had yet to witness the scenery beyond Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and even Nascent Soul.
There were still so many things she wanted to do. She still wanted to witness the world change, to see how the mortal realm would evolve and what it would ultimately become...
'Must I, for the sake of a hundred years of peaceful fulfillment, give up everything and resign myself to becoming a pile of dust?'
'No!'
'I refuse!'
'I refuse to look back on my life a hundred years from now, as my life span reaches its end, with nothing but unwillingness and regret in my heart!'
She faced her near-death self and said with conviction:
"It is worth it!"
"I don't want to watch myself grow old in someone else's story."
"I want to see what kind of scenery awaits at the top of that mountain!"
"Even if this path is hard to walk... even if I end up smashed to pieces... it is the path I chose for myself!"
As her voice fell.
The warm little courtyard and the yard full of children and grandchildren turned to flowing sand in the wind, dissipating bit by bit.
Even the old woman's face broke into a relieved smile as two streams of murky tears slid down.
"Then, go."
"May your path to the Dao reach the heavens, and may your fortune in immortality flourish!"
As the illusion faded, the white jade staircase leading into the clouds appeared before Su Ling'er once more.
Without looking back, she climbed upward, step by step.
The seventieth step!
The eightieth step!
The ninetieth step!
...
Below the Asking Dao Ladder, you could hear a pin drop.
All the players stared, heads tilted back and mouths agape, looking in shock at the slender figure.
Step by step, she entered the heights of the cloud sea, a place none of them had yet been able to reach.
"I'm not seeing things, am I... She's at the ninetieth step!"
"Oh my god!"
"Her base Will and Dao Heart stats must be insane, right?"
"This... This is an unpolished jade, perfect for cultivating the *Sword Refining Skill*!"
"First Senior Brother! You have to get her to come to our Artifact Refining Pavilion to cultivate the *Sword Refining Skill*! Don't let her get away!"
The hands Lin Qingfeng held behind his back had, at some point, clenched into fists.
'Her innate talent is so poor, yet her will and her heart for the Dao are so tenacious...'
'For her not to cultivate the *Sword Refining Skill* would be a criminal waste of heaven-sent talent!'
'She *must* cultivate this *Sword Refining Skill*!'