Heavenly Wheel Ascension

"WHAT?!" Duan Niu bellowed so loudly his belly quivered. He lunged forward, pointing a short, greasy finger right at Zhi Xuan’s nose. "Shadow Elder? This brat who can’t even tie his own hair? Mu Chen, you’ve gone mad from eating too many tree roots! He looks like a wanderer who can’t even afford a Cleansing Pill!"

Duan Niu sniffed the air around Zhi Xuan with his flat nose. "Hmm... no strong spiritual essence, no glimmer of Law. You’re a fraud, aren't you? Tell me, what’s your goal in approaching the pretty girls of this dying sect?"

Zhi Xuan remained unmoved. He merely glanced at Duan Niu’s hand pointing at his face. On his shoulder, Ao Sheng let out a very low warning hiss, his golden eyes flashing with bloodlust at the insult to his master. But before anyone could react, Duan Niu scooped up the little dragon in his hand without permission.

"Oho! A Golden Dragon?" Duan Niu’s voice was filled with recognition, as if he knew exactly what it was at a glance. He brought his face close to his hand. "My goodness, a Crimson Lotus rank? This is an insult to the heavens!"

"Ow, ow! Little dragon, don’t look at me like that. Those golden eyes of yours look like coins I’d want to steal," Duan Niu murmured, pinching Ao Sheng’s hard-scaled cheek. "Crimson Lotus... tsk, tsk. You must have eaten too many aphrodisiacs to end up this stunted, eh?"

Ao Sheng exploded in fury. Dark-golden lightning began to crackle on his horns, ready to incinerate the greasy face before him. However, before the bolt could strike, Duan Niu simply flicked the dragon’s nose with a chubby finger. Tuk! Instantly, the lightning vanished like a candle blown out by a gentle breeze. Ao Sheng was stunned, his tongue lolling out from the sudden daze.

"And you, Miss Moth... don’t hide there. Your wings smell like the fragrance of hell-flowers!" Duan Niu laughed boisterously. His free left hand suddenly darted behind Zhi Xuan’s collar with invisible speed.

Snap!

Xiao Die, the mystical Thousand Feathered Moth, was now pinched between Duan Niu’s thumb and forefinger. "Oalah! A red-eyed moth!" Duan Niu held Xiao Die up to the sunlight, observing the wing patterns with exaggerated clicking sounds of admiration. "Beautiful, very beautiful!"

Now, Duan Niu stood before Zhi Xuan holding a dragon in his right hand and a moth in his left, as if he were holding two carnival toys. Zhi Xuan remained silent. For the first time since emerging from the Secret Realm, a small furrow appeared on his brow. His eyes, deep as the ocean, watched Duan Niu with sharp intensity.

He felt no killing intent and no explosive spiritual fluctuations, yet the way Duan Niu had captured two Crimson Lotus-ranked beings showed that this fat man was no ordinary practitioner; rather, he showed signs of being a Weaver or even higher.

"Release them," Zhi Xuan said, his voice now carrying a heavier vibration of Law that made the air around them hiss.

"E-eh? So fierce!" Duan Niu pretended to be startled, but he did not immediately release Ao Sheng and Xiao Die. Instead, he leaned his face close to Zhi Xuan’s chest, sniffing the brown robes deeply. "Hmm... the scent of blood-dust, a hint of underground river aura, and... oh? The scent of immortal treasure!"

Duan Niu suddenly released both small creatures. Ao Sheng and Xiao Die immediately dove back into the collar of Zhi Xuan’s robes, emitting muffled hums and growls of irritation.

"You..." Duan Niu stepped back several paces, squinting at Zhi Xuan with one eye while stroking his layered chin. "You have the same scent as a treasure. Did you come here to follow me on a treasure hunt?"

"Duan Niu! Enough! You almost made Senior Zhang angry!" Mu Chen barked, though he himself wasn't sure he could stop the fat man if he truly decided to cause trouble.

Duan Niu laughed foolishly again, patting his belly which made a duk-duk-duk sound. "Angry? A man as great as him wouldn't be angry at a fat pig like me. Right, Senior Zhang-of-the-Messy-Hair?"

Zhi Xuan was silent for a moment, then he neutralized his face and offered a thin smile. He clasped his hands before his chest, giving a faint, acknowledging bow. "Senior Duan Niu, I am Zhang Shui."

"Ow, ow! Don't call me Senior! Just call me Big Brother Duan, or Landlord Duan, or... The Most Handsome Man on this Mountain!" Duan Niu smirked again, but this time there was a flash of profound intelligence behind his eyelids. "Zhang Shui... Calm Water."

"However, calm waters often hide trenches capable of swallowing the sun," Duan Niu murmured in a suddenly low tone, before exploding back into his silly laughter. "Come! Don’t stand here like a tombstone. My stomach is already singing for its offerings!"

Zhi Xuan followed Duan Niu’s heavy steps as he climbed the stairs toward the main building. Behind them, Mu Chen and the two female disciples walked with heads full of questions.

As they entered the Great Hall, the scent of nearly rotting sandalwood greeted their senses. Xu Yunchuan, the Sect Leader, was surprisingly able to sit up in bed thanks to Zhi Xuan’s earlier essence. His once-cloudy eyes were beginning to radiate a glow of consciousness.

"Master!" Mu Chen cried out, kneeling by the bedside with a face full of emotion.

Xu Yunchuan waved a trembling hand, signaling Mu Chen to be calm. His gaze shifted to Zhi Xuan, then to Duan Niu, who was now busy picking his teeth with a fingernail.

"This sect... has truly received unexpected, majestic guests," Xu Yunchuan’s voice was raspy, like the scraping of old parchment. He looked at Zhi Xuan with deep respect. "Senior Zhang, your kindness in extending this old life cannot be repaid even if I gave you this entire mountain."

Zhi Xuan sat on a shaky wooden chair in the corner. "I do not need payment in the form of bows. I want a quiet place to plant my roots for a duration I specify."

Duan Niu, who was leaning against a pillar, suddenly stopped picking his teeth. "Oho! Daoist Zhang? You intend to be serious about being the Shadow Elder?"

"Of course, Senior Duan," Zhi Xuan said with a small nod. "After all, I am also a wanderer. Thus, I need at least... the resources of a piece of bamboo and a single flower."

Duan Niu was stunned for a moment, then a thunderous laugh broke from his wide throat. "A piece of bamboo and a single flower? Hahaha! Daoist Zhang, you are truly skilled with words. You want to pillage Du Tianzong’s garden and rip the lotus roots from the Thousand Valley, don't you?"

He walked toward Zhi Xuan with steps that now felt much more stable, no longer wobbling like a water barrel. Duan Niu looked at Zhi Xuan from a close distance. "You know, plucking bamboo and flowers requires very strong hands. If not, the thorns will tear your skin down to the bone."

Zhi Xuan just stared flatly, as if the veiled threat were nothing more than a mountain breeze. "I have been used to harvesting fertilizer since I began cultivating."

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Xu Yunchuan coughed softly, interrupting the conversation between the two figures whose auras were slowly clashing in the narrow air. "Black Bamboo and Lotus Valley... they have long eyed what is buried beneath our feet. Senior Zhang, if you truly choose to stand here, then you have chosen to swim against a very powerful current."

"Sect Leader Xu," Zhi Xuan interrupted, his voice cold but certain. "Water cannot wash away a reef that has become one with the earth’s foundation. Let them come. In fact, I prefer it when the prey delivers itself to the door."

Duan Niu smirked, his eyes narrowing until they almost disappeared. "Fertilizer... you said they were fertilizer, didn't you? I like your way of thinking. Very efficient, very... devilish."

Zhi Xuan did not respond to the label. He took out the ancient scroll he had obtained from the blind man and placed it on the low table before Xu Yunchuan. As the scroll touched the table, the ancient aura stored within seemed to creep out.

Xu Yunchuan’s face suddenly turned deathly pale. His trembling hand reached out, but he pulled it back as if the scroll were made of hellfire. "This... how could this object be in your hands?"

"I bought it for a fair price," Zhi Xuan answered. "And now, I want to know what is truly hidden behind the name Pavilion of the Heavenly Path. Great Emperor Zhetian... what connection does this suffering sect have with the weaver of the heavens?"

A heavy silence fell over the room. Mu Chen and the other disciples held their breath, while Duan Niu suddenly went quiet, staring at the scroll with an unreadable expression—no longer lewd or silly, but the gaze of someone looking at a treasure.

Xu Yunchuan took a long breath, one laden with the weight of thousands of years. "The legend is true, Senior Zhang. The ancestor of our Pavilion of the Heavenly Path was someone who sacrificed themselves for the Great Emperor's ascension. That legend is now almost extinct since there are no successors left among us."

Xu Yunchuan closed his eyes, as if calling back memories buried under piles of historical dust. "Long ago, this place wasn't just a small sect on a remote floating land. Thousands of years ago, we stood equal to the Ancient Clans."

He coughed again, but this time not from poison, but from a passion rising within his aged soul. "However, a mortal cannot simply step beyond this lower realm and open a path to the Upper Realm as the Ancient Clans do. There are no more records of anyone outside the Ancient Clans ascending to the Upper Realm since Great Emperor Zhetian hundreds of thousands of years ago."

"That is because only she dared to stand and tear the sky for her path," Duan Niu interjected in a tone that strangely lacked any joke. He stood tall, his chubby hands now hidden behind his back. "I once read a legend about it. Only She, someone of mortal origin, was able to step beyond Heaven and Earth. But yes, after all that... no one has truly ascended to the Upper Realm besides those of the Ancient Clans."

"The Ancient Clans have a path inherited by blood," Zhi Xuan murmured, his voice low yet authoritative. "They ascend to the Upper Realm because the Heavens recognize their mark. But Zhetian... she stepped there by forcing the Heavens to acknowledge her. That is the difference between a guest and a conqueror."

He remembered the Heavenly Sutra fragment he had obtained with Feng Yaoyue, which left only a riddle about 'One needle, weaves the sky. One hair, opens the way to the Nine Heavens.' Now, he was deeply curious about what clues might lie in the fragment beneath the Pavilion of the Heavenly Path, which might leave a trace of how Great Emperor Zhetian pierced the sky.

If the essence of the needle was an unshakeable will, and the essence of the hair was a sacrifice not given by the gods, it likely meant that someone of mortal origin would require an immense sacrifice to achieve that ascension. Zhi Xuan turned the worn scroll over, letting his fingers feel the texture of the parchment, which felt like dried dragon skin.

"I heard," Zhi Xuan said, looking at Xu Yunchuan. "That the geniuses who appeared as Divine Transformation experts always failed when they tried to break through to the Sacred Passage, whether by mysterious misfortune or horrific cultivation deviation. Is this the interference of a tiger or nature itself?"

Xu Yunchuan bowed his head, letting his white hair cover his face lined with grief. The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became very cold, as if thousands of invisible eyes were watching them from behind the darkness of the old pillars.

"The interference of a Tiger... or Nature?" Xu Yunchuan repeated the words with great bitterness. "Senior Zhang, in our mortal eyes, both are the same. But if you ask if there is a human hand behind this curse, the answer is no. No one from the Ancient Clans needs to intervene to destroy us; they simply let us rot."

He took a deep breath, trying to steady his shaking voice. "Every time one of our elders reached the peak of Divine Transformation and tried to touch the threshold of the Sacred Passage, misfortune always struck without anyone knowing why. It is as if the lower realm itself has a law: those who are not of the Ancient Clans will rot at Divine Transformation without ever having the chance to ascend."

"All Divine Transformation practitioners know this," Xu Yunchuan continued. "For those of Ancient Clan blood, they are even picked up by their Clans from the upper realm without misfortune. For mortals, piercing the sky of this lower realm is like an impossibility."

"So, the Heavens of this lower realm possess a suppression of destiny," Zhi Xuan murmured, his voice sounding like a deathly whisper crawling between the pillars. "It allows the ants to crawl, but it will break the wings of anyone who tries to fly beyond the set boundaries. This natural law... was made only to serve those Above."

Duan Niu snorted, leaning his stout body against a wooden pillar that creaked in protest under his weight. "Exactly, Daoist Zhang. That is why many rogue practitioners prefer to become bootlicking dogs of the Ancient Clans rather than pursue their own path. Who wants to cultivate for thousands of years only to explode into pieces of meat upon touching the gate of the Sacred Passage?"

"Sacred Passage?" Zhi Xuan hissed, a thin smile touching his lips. "I, too, will reach the Sacred Passage one day."

Instantly, the silly laughter that usually exploded from Duan Niu’s throat was swallowed back down. The room suddenly became very silent, the type of silence that occurs right before a lightning storm destroys the earth. Mu Chen and the female disciples gaped, as if they had just heard a madman declare war on the sun.

"You..." Duan Niu narrowed his eyes, looking at Zhi Xuan with a completely new gaze. There was no longer a playful glint; all that remained was a pair of sharp eyes that seemed capable of dissecting a soul. "Saying such a thing in a land that has buried dozens of Divine Transformation experts... you are either extremely brave, or you truly do not know how cruelly the chains of destiny work."

Zhi Xuan did not flinch. He glanced at the scroll on the table, then slowly rose from his chair. "Chains exist to be broken, and destiny exists to be rewoven. If Great Emperor Zhetian could do it with a single needle, then there is no reason for others to continue crawling in the dust."

He turned and walked past the still-frozen faces toward the hall door. He paused for a moment, his robe fluttering slightly. "If the Ancient Clans are the masters of the Nine Plains, then I have already made the Ancient Clans look up at me standing at the heights many times."

"Senior Duan, let us go see those two sects," Zhi Xuan’s voice was calm as he stepped out of the main hall.

Duan Niu was frozen for a moment, staring at the silhouette of Zhi Xuan’s back contrasted against the sunset light entering the hall. He scratched his bulging belly, then a wide grin revealing rows of white teeth reappeared.

"Ow, ow! Truly a troublesome youth!" Duan Niu shouted as he hopped down from the pillar, making the wooden floor of the hall shake violently. "Mu Chen! Prepare the foulest wine you have! If I don't return, at least let me die smelling of alcohol, not dry bamboo!"

Without waiting for an answer, Duan Niu dashed out to follow Zhi Xuan with a movement more like a bouncing ball of meat. Mu Chen could only stand there, his fingers tightly gripping the edge of his master's bed. Zhi Xuan’s words about making the Ancient Clans look up from below continued to ring in his ears, burning his fear into a new obsession.

Zhi Xuan stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley, where the ocean and mountain winds met in a cold vortex. Below, the floating continent of Cang Hai stretched out in all its fading majesty. In the distance, a bamboo forest that looked like a sea of black ink swayed to the rhythm of an unnatural wind.

"That is the Thousand-Blade Bamboo Forest, the headquarters of the Black Bamboo Sect," Duan Niu appeared beside Zhi Xuan, no longer panting, but standing tall. "Every stalk of bamboo there has been tempered to become a sword blade. Du Tianzong, their sect leader, has a temperament as sharp as those bamboos. Once he catches the scent of an enemy, he will not stop until he turns his opponent's blood into fertilizer for his bamboo."

Zhi Xuan narrowed his eyes, his sharp senses catching the thick fluctuations of spiritual essence from the forest. "Has Senior Duan already tried to steal treasure there?"

"Steal?!" Duan Niu suddenly shrieked, as if he weren't a fat man who frequently stole treasures. "Hey, that is not called stealing. Rather, it is taking what belongs to nature."