Heavenly Wheel Ascension

"Great Zhetian..." Zhi Xuan whispered, his hand rising slowly, yet he stopped exactly one inch before touching the silk. "You left your mark here, not as an easy legacy to be plucked, but as a trial for anyone who dares to gaze in the same direction as you."

Mo Chen, standing several paces behind, felt his knees grow weak. The pressure emanating from the fragment was no longer physical; it was existential. He felt as though his existence as a Soul Transformation expert was merely a grain of sand before a boundless ocean.

Zhi Xuan could sense that this fragment was different from the one he had found with Feng Yaoyue. This one was not meant to be read; it was meant to live and possess. Closing his eyes, Zhi Xuan formed a protective barrier around his divine soul and released his consciousness to approach the fragment's domain.

Instantly, an explosion of visions struck his sea of consciousness. He did not see characters; instead, he saw a vision of the woman he had seen once before—the woman who held that needle, standing atop a nameless mountain, pointing toward the dark sky and commanding it to bow.

"The Heavens have no eyes, so I shall become its eyes. The Earth has no will, so my will shall be its law."

The voice echoed within Zhi Xuan’s soul, triggering the rotation of the Heavenly Samsara Wheel within his body at a terrifying speed. The silk fragment began to vibrate violently, emitting a clanging sound like thousands of swords being unsheathed simultaneously. The light radiating from the altar turned golden, completely swallowing Zhi Xuan’s figure.

Zhi Xuan immediately withdrew his consciousness. Blood seeped heavily from his mouth as he threw himself backward, staggering. Mo Chen surged forward with agility, supporting Zhi Xuan's body before the Senior could hit the cold floor of the cave.

"Senior!" Mo Chen’s voice was pale with fright as he hurried to help Zhi Xuan stand upright.

Zhi Xuan wiped the bloodstains from the corner of his lips with the back of his hand. His breath was ragged, and his sapphire eyes were still trembling. The pressure from the Heavenly Silk Fragment was not mere force; it was the weight of a fundamental law that a Weaver Transformation body—even at the peak stage—was not yet capable of containing.

"I am fine," Zhi Xuan hissed, his voice hoarse yet maintaining an unshakeable firmness. He released Mo Chen’s grip and stood tall, though a faint tremor still traveled through his fingertips.

"The fragment... it is alive," Zhi Xuan muttered. "I have encountered a Heavenly Silk Fragment like this before, but... this one feels as if it still possesses a lingering consciousness. Even Zhetian’s breath and will do not merely exist as writing; before they can even be read, they would collapse a person's soul."

Jian Dao stepped forward, his face etched with worry, yet he stopped precisely at the edge of the altar’s circle of light. "Daoist Zhang, did you see something? For thousands of years, this fragment has remained silent. Even the elders of the past did not dare to step inside here."

Zhi Xuan regulated his breathing, allowing the Heavenly Samsara Wheel to calm the turbulence in his sea of consciousness. "It is an enchanting arrogance—a power capable of governing Heaven and Earth. Zhetian truly was not an exaggeration."

Zhi Xuan looked back at the fragment, which was now beginning to dim, returning to its appearance as a fragile-looking silk scroll atop the altar. "Senior Jian, allow me to be alone here for a moment."

"Mo Chen, go outside with Senior Jian and Senior Duan. Wait for me behind the stone door," Zhi Xuan said as he sat cross-legged directly in front of the altar.

Mo Chen hesitated for a second, but after seeing the serenity beginning to envelop Zhi Xuan’s face, he bowed deeply. "This Junior understands. May Senior gain the enlightenment he seeks."

Jian Dao and Duan Niu nodded in understanding. Together with Mo Chen, they turned and walked out of the secret room. The black stone wall closed again with a soft rumbling sound, leaving Zhi Xuan in an ancient silence.

Within that silence, Zhi Xuan closed his eyes and sank into his sea of consciousness. There, he reappeared beneath the Devil Tree of Life. He looked up at Ruo Xianxue, who was still meditating on a branch of the tree. He decided to ask about the riddle left by Zhetian.

"Great Saint," Zhi Xuan’s voice was low and slightly respectful. "Before me now is the second Heavenly Silk Fragment I have encountered since Huang Tu."

Ruo Xianxue did not immediately open her eyes. Her supple eyelids remained closed, but her nine tails of darkness rippled around the Devil Tree of Life, as if every word Zhi Xuan spoke was a stone dropped into a still pond.

"You again, always disturbing my peace," Ruo Xianxue’s voice was melodious, followed by a faint snort. "Tell me, what do you want that you won't let me finish merging the pieces of the Ancient Devil Monument?"

Zhi Xuan did not answer immediately. He stepped closer until his shadow fell under the canopy of the Devil Tree’s branches, which were lush with the aura of death. "One needle to weave the Heavens. A single strand of hair to open the path to the Nine Heavens. It is a record that a single, unyielding will requires sacrifice to tear through the boundaries of the sky."

"'The Heavens have no eyes, so I shall become its eyes. The Earth has no will, so my will shall be its law.' What does that mean? Such arrogance... it is something never uttered by any god in this Lower Realm."

Ruo Xianxue slowly opened her eyes. Her double pupils of Sun and Moon seemed to swallow all the light within Zhi Xuan’s consciousness. She looked down at him with an unreadable expression—a mixture of pity and faint admiration.

"Arrogance?" Ruo Xianxue chuckled, a sound like silk rubbing over a pile of bones. "Zhi Xuan, oh Zhi Xuan. That arrogance is nothing compared to your own Dao Vow."

Zhi Xuan brushed her words aside with a wave of his hand. "This is not the time to reminisce about my oath toward Heaven and Hell. Speak, Great Saint. The trace of a Great Emperor... it will tear me apart if I do not understand it correctly."

"To be the eyes for the Heavens is to stand above the Sun, Moon, and Stars. Knowing that only you are capable of seeing them from above," Ruo Xianxue replied as she closed her eyes again. "You know Zhetian failed to create a Path to the Immortal Realm for mortals. And she stood upon the sacrifices of her followers."

"To be the will for the Earth is to ensure that every step you leave creates a change for every creature standing upon the ground," Ruo Xianxue continued. "It is how your every move will be remembered by those who watch you tear through the sky and forge a path to the Upper Realm. All of this is merely the tale of a mortal becoming an Immortal."

Zhi Xuan stood stunned beneath the shadows of the Devil Tree of Life. Ruo Xianxue's words seeped into his soul, triggering a vibration in the Heavenly Samsara Wheel that grew increasingly synchronized with the Heavenly Silk Fragment in the real world. To be the eyes of Heaven meant viewing everything from a single point, while being the will of Earth meant every breath and action became the center of others' destinies.

"Sacrifice..." Zhi Xuan murmured, his voice parau. "Zhetian did not fail because her strength was lacking, but because she tried to carry the weight of all mortals on her own shoulders. She wanted to be the path, but she instead became the abyss that swallowed her followers for the sake of a small crack in the heavenly gate."

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Ruo Xianxue nodded slightly, her silver hair shimmering under the glow of the devilish aura. "You are now at the same crossroads, Zhi Xuan. You gather followers, build a sect from ruins, and plant the seeds of fate in every person you meet. Will you be a bridge for them, or will you be the storm that devours them for your own ascension?"

"I am not Zhetian," Zhi Xuan replied with a gaze that turned cold again. "I will not be the eyes for a blind Heaven; I will destroy that Heaven if it dares to block my path. And the Earth... the Earth will only be the ground upon which I tread, not the law that binds me."

"I built this sect to be an ally if the Ancient Han Clan pressures me," Zhi Xuan continued. "To slash the Heavens themselves, I can do it with my own two hands. The Heavens are so cruel, locking mortals away to rot in the Lower Realm. One day, I will make the sky up there gape open until the boundary between the Ancient Clans and mortals can no longer be distinguished."

Zhi Xuan turned, turning his back on the Devil Tree of Life, but he did not walk away yet. "I have also sworn under the starry sky that there will only be me above Heaven and Hell in the future—nothing else but me, only I who am the strongest and singular above all."

Ruo Xianxue’s clear laugh, as cold as eternal ice, echoed and bounced between the dark branches of the devil tree. "Then that is the answer, Zhi Xuan. That fragment does not reject you because you are weak; it rejects you because you possess a similar arrogance. Two suns cannot share one sky, and two wills cannot inhabit one vessel."

Zhi Xuan fell silent, allowing his consciousness to be slowly pulled back to reality. He opened his eyes in the silent cave. The light from the altar was no longer attacking; instead, it throbbed softly, as if it recognized the soul that had just returned from a conversation with a Sacred Devil.

Zhi Xuan stood up, his brown robes draping majestically. He no longer tried to use soul protection. Instead, he stood tall with pure intent—not as a disciple begging for a legacy, but as a fellow ruler seeking to exchange insights.

"One Needle, the Eyes of Heaven. One Strand of Hair, the Will of Earth." Zhi Xuan spoke, grasping the comprehension. "We both share the same will—the will of a mortal who wishes to see the colors of the Upper Realm."

Instantly, the silk fragment on the altar stopped vibrating. The resulting silence was so heavy that the sound of water dripping from the cave ceiling sounded like a hammer striking bronze. The once wild light began to shrink, solidify, and form a transparent silhouette above the altar—a woman with her back turned to Zhi Xuan, her long hair trailing down until it touched the void.

The expanse of the altar changed; the room transformed into an illusion showing a river of stars and a sea of chaos that seemed endless, placing Zhi Xuan at the boundary between the Lower and Upper Realms. He looked up, gazing at the majestic figure of the woman whose back was turned. A feeling of wanting to kneel surfaced at the sight of such grandeur, but he suppressed it quickly.

"My every breath is the birth of stars; my every step is the submission of the heavens beneath my majesty," the voice echoed across the river of stars. "The Gods and Devils have seen me; my name is like a boundless field of flowers in every era."

"The Nine Heavens are like the palm of a hand that can be overturned, without knowing that something watches from behind it," the woman remained with her back turned. "At the end of my life, I vanished into the void with my friends. The Forbidden Land will soon arrive again. Nothing remains; everything vanishes like night swallowing day."

The silent expanse suddenly shifted again, stretching and throwing Zhi Xuan back into reality. He opened his eyes before the altar; the room was exactly as it was, with the fragment pulsing just the same. But the words of that woman—whoever she was—were deeply confusing to him.

Zhi Xuan panted, cold sweat soaking his temples. The final words of that majestic silhouette—about the Forbidden Land and the void swallowing everything—felt like a poison trying to freeze the flow of his spiritual essence. He stared at his own trembling palms, as if the lines of fate there had just been rewritten by fingers that were not his own.

"The Forbidden Land... will arrive again?" Zhi Xuan murmured, his voice nearly drowned by the roar of the waterfall outside the cave. "If a figure as powerful as Zhetian considers the end of her life as vanishing into the night, then what is the point of the struggle of mortal practitioners for these thousands of years?"

"That Forbidden Land again... the Great Saint, the warriors of the Great Emperor's Tomb, and now..." Zhi Xuan paused intentionally before continuing with heavy breath. "Zhetian said the same thing about the Forbidden Land. The Fall of the Nine Heavens, the Fall of the Great Emperor... even as I seek understanding of the Upper Realm, it feels as though I am getting closer to this 'Forbidden Land' that can toss the Nine Heavens aside like a fallen leaf."

"Will it all just end in the void?" Zhi Xuan whispered. "Forbidden Land... what does it actually look like?"

The silence inside the secret room suddenly became incredibly thick, as if the air itself had turned into a liquid that suffocated the lungs. Zhi Xuan looked at the Heavenly Silk Fragment, which had now returned to its previous state.

"If the Nine Heavens is just a palm that can be overturned, then I must become something that stands outside that palm," Zhi Xuan hissed, his gaze sharpening, piercing the black stone wall in front of him.

Zhi Xuan turned, walking away from the altar with all those unanswered questions filling his mind as he walked with a heavy step. The rumble of the sliding black stone wall welcomed his return to the real world.

"Senior!" Mo Chen immediately moved forward, but he was held back by a cold wave of Zhi Xuan’s hand.

"I have seen what I wanted to see," Zhi Xuan said flatly. He looked at Jian Dao, gesturing for the place to be resealed. "But even I gained nothing but unanswered questions. All of this... it is confusing."

Jian Dao looked at Zhi Xuan with an unreadable expression, but he did not press him. As a sword practitioner who had survived hundreds of years of storms, he knew there were things in this world better left locked behind a veil of mist. He moved his fingers, forming a seal that triggered the black stone wall to close again, swallowing the light of the Heavenly Silk Fragment into eternal silence.

"If someone with your qualifications feels confused, then that place truly is beyond mortal comprehension," Jian Dao said as he led the way out of the abyss. "However, Daoist Zhang, remember one thing. Unanswered questions are often the lamp that guides you in the right direction, even if it only illuminates one inch in front of your feet."

"Senior Jian, it is true that sometimes there will be a lamp in the darkness," Zhi Xuan replied. "But in there, seeing the Great Emperors, those from the Ancient Clans, or Zhetian fall during the ancient times... figures who were exalted, in the end, they all withered."

Zhi Xuan stepped out of the abyss, letting the sharp morning wind brush against his pale face. He turned toward Mo Chen, who walked faithfully behind him, the young man’s face still carrying traces of anxiety.

"This world does not lack experts capable of moving mountains or splitting seas," Zhi Xuan said, his voice now sounding very distant, as if he were speaking from a different dimension. "But this world lacks those who dare to look directly into the darkness that swallowed the Emperors. Mo Chen, if one day you see the sky above these Nine Plains crack, never turn your face away."

Mo Chen clasped his hands, giving the deepest respect. "This Junior will etch every word of Senior into his soul."

Duan Niu, who had been silent while chewing on a strand of spiritual grass, suddenly spat to the side. "Ah, speaking of cracked skies and fallen emperors... I have something I've been hiding, found it while wandering the Fallen Petal Ruins."

Duan Niu patted his waist, pulling out an object wrapped in yellowed rags. With a movement intentionally slowed to trigger curiosity, he unwrapped it. In his calloused palm lay a black shard.

"This is a fragment of Eternal Hell Copper," Duan Niu said. "Found it beneath the ruins of a palace in the Fallen Petal Ruins. It is said to be one of the Hundred Treasures of Heaven and Earth in the Immortal Realm."

Duan Niu stopped walking, causing both Jian Dao and Zhi Xuan to freeze as they watched him create a formation seal to isolate them. Slowly, Duan Niu sat down roughly and laid out a scroll that looked ancient yet still emitted an incredibly oppressive aura.

"In this scroll, it is mentioned that..." Duan Niu paused deliberately, a smirk playing on his lips. "There is a realm higher than the Sacred Passage which serves as the peak of the Lower Realm. And this fragment of Eternal Hell Copper gave me the knowledge of it."

The atmosphere at the bottom of the abyss, which was previously only cold from the eternal ice crystals, instantly turned chilling. The scroll Duan Niu placed on the ice surface vibrated softly, emitting an aura of existence that felt heavy and alien—something that did not originate from the energy order of the Nine Plains.

Zhi Xuan narrowed his eyes, his Heavenly Eye throbbing. He saw the fragment of Eternal Hell Copper not as mortal metal, but as a solidified clump of world laws. Its blackness was so absolute, it seemed capable of sucking in the moonlight falling to the bottom of the abyss.

"Sacred Passage... the Great Gate to ascension," Jian Dao whispered, his usually authoritative voice now containing a tremor of disbelief. "Long ago, I pursued that and failed... even someone like me, a Divine Transformation expert, was only one step away from the path of the Sacred Path. You... you claim to have knowledge of what lies even beyond the Sacred Passage?"