There is a progress bar in my cultivation of immortality

Upon hearing Wu Nian's words, Wang Ping immediately thought of some history that Quan Xing had told him a long time ago, and naturally thought of the senior from the Yuqing Sect who was about to advance to the sixth realm.

Unfortunately, the detailed information is lost to history because so many things have happened in the past 100,000 years, including several major wars that nearly led to the extinction of civilizations.

However, the Jade Purity Sect and the Taiyin Sect should still have relevant records. The images of Xuanqing and Baiyan appeared in Wang Ping's mind, and he thought of many things. However, he remained calm on the surface and said coldly to Wunian, "Your destruction is inevitable. I will not see you in the future."

Upon hearing this, Wu Nian looked seriously into Wang Ping's eyes, then a warm smile appeared on his face. He clasped his hands in a fist and said, "The future is not immutable; the future you see is not fixed."

Although he was smiling, his tone was very serious, because he knew the power of the Taiyan Sect.

As soon as he finished speaking, Tiangong and Diwen appeared in the distant starry sky. They deliberately kept their distance from Wang Ping, only cupping their hands in greeting before quickly glancing in Wunian's direction, as if afraid that if they looked at Wang Ping for too long, he would attack them.

Wu Nian then said, "How about we each take a step back and consider my previous suggestion?"

Wang Ping ignored Wu Nian, glanced at Tian Gong and Di Wen, and seeing that they had no intention of making a move, he knew that the basic trust between them had been lost. This was exactly the result Wu Nian wanted to see, because as long as the True Monarchs did not join forces, he would be an immortal being in the demonic world.

There was no point in staying here any longer. As soon as Wu Nian finished speaking, Wang Ping took Yu Lian and disappeared through the time-space passage. Seeing this, Yue Xi and Zhi Xin also followed Wang Ping and left immediately.

After Wang Ping left, Wu Nian's smile vanished. He turned his gaze to Tian Gong and Di Wen, sensing their hostility towards extraterrestrial life forms. He let out a soft snort and then concealed himself within the surging demonic energy.

Tiangong and Diwen exchanged a glance, both seeing apprehension in each other's eyes. Then, looking at the approaching demon race True Lords, Tiangong spoke up, saying, "Changqing hasn't been cultivating for long, and I'm worried that he might be bewitched by extraterrestrial life forms."

Diwen shook his head and denied it, saying, "Changqing should know the stakes. Xuanqing will remind him, and Quanxing will also remind him."

Tiangong's eyes flashed, and he said, "The sage is merciful," before ceasing to mention the matter. After a moment of silence, he asked, "What do you think we should do now?"

Diwen responded, pointing towards Mercury, "Focus on your cultivation. What happens next is beyond our control."

"Right!"

Tiangong was very unwilling, but there was nothing he could do. He then chatted briefly with the True Lords of the Demon Clan before returning to their respective dojos with Diwen.

...

Jiuxuan Mountain.

Hu Qianqian is no longer here, and the calico cat has returned to the spirit-gathering array that Yulian set up for her to cultivate.

Upon returning to his own dojo, Wang Ping subconsciously scanned Yang Rong, who was in seclusion, to confirm that she was not affected by the spiritual chaos. Only then did he send a telepathic message to Quan Xing, asking him to come to Jiuxuan Mountain.

But just as he sent the message, he suddenly felt a pang of heart palpitation. This was the Wood Spirit's reminder of fate. Wang Ping immediately stretched out his right hand to deduce. First, he deduced the matter of the Border Demon Lord, then the Dragon Lord, then the Heavenly Craftsmanship and Earthly Script, and even the Blazing Sun. Finally, he deduced the Thousand Wood Temple and the Taiyan Sect.

However, he couldn't deduce anything. Even when Quan Xing, led by the puppet, descended to Mount Jiuxuan and bowed to him, Wang Ping still couldn't deduce any information.

This made Wang Ping frown slightly. He hadn't frowned in a long time, not even when facing the combined attack of Tian Gong, Di Wen, and Lie Yang.

Just as Quan Xing was about to bow, he saw Wang Ping's furrowed brows and, recalling Wang Ping's recent achievements, his heart trembled. He quickly bowed and said, "True Lord, please forgive me for being late."

After he finished speaking, he bowed deeply.

At this moment, a person arrived at the Ascension Platform outside Jupiter's atmosphere. It was Li Miaolin, who was supposed to be in charge of suppressing the chaos. Wang Ping glanced at Quan Xing and told him to step aside. He then used a puppet to lead Li Miaolin to Mount Jiuxuan.

"Disciple pays respects to the True Lord!"

As Li Miaolin bowed respectfully, he presented a letter with both hands and said, "This is a letter of greeting from Daoist Wu'an of the Shangdan Sect. His master, Daoist Yuanzheng, passed away just a stick of incense has burned!"

Upon hearing this, a clear, emerald-green light flashed in Wang Ping's eyes. He reached out and the visiting card in Li Miaolin's hand immediately flew into his hand. As he opened the card, Yulian, who was perched on his shoulder, also craned her neck to read the contents of the card.

After reading the post, Wang Ping didn't ask Li Miaolin what had happened. Instead, he immediately started to deduce the cause and effect of the matter and quickly understood the whole story.

Yuan Zheng failed to advance to the fourth realm, which caused his spiritual veins and primordial spirit to be burned by the Samadhi True Fire. The reason he is advancing now is because the internal strife within the Shangdan Sect is serious and has split into several factions, all vying for the rightful place. He suffered a loss in the last debate, and Yuan Zheng is not the kind of person who would swallow a loss, so he gritted his teeth and rushed to the fourth realm.

The result is already obvious.

Wang Ping put away the invitation and looked at Li Miaolin, saying, "It's nothing, you may leave."

"Yes, disciple, resign!"

Li Miaolin retreated ten steps, and then, led by the puppet, transformed into a streak of light and disappeared into the horizon.

Wang Ping reached out and gently stroked Yu Lian's head, then looked at Quan Xing and said softly, "Back when I had just successfully cultivated Qi, it was Daoist Yuan Zheng who helped me improve my physique."

Quan Xing lowered his head, unsure how to respond, and could only listen quietly with his head down.

Wang Ping remained silent for a moment, then said to Quan Xing, "Wait here for me for a moment, I'll go take a look."

As soon as he finished speaking, he had already traversed time and space with Yu Lian and appeared at the headquarters of the Shangdan Sect on the Taiyan Planet. The Shangdan Sect had now turned its back on thousands of disciples.

At this moment, the Shangdan Sect's headquarters was shrouded in a depressing silence. The scene of the past, with its boiling alchemy furnaces and pervasive medicinal fragrance, was gone. In its place was an invisible heaviness that made the palaces and pavilions seem to have shrunk a bit.

The disciples who came and went were all dressed in plain clothes, and moved silently, like shadows.

The atmosphere inside the main hall was even more stagnant. The meditation cushion where Daoist Yuanzheng usually sat was empty, and a memorial tablet had been set up on the incense table in front of him. The smoke from the incense burned, but it only added to the desolation.

Several senior stewards stood with their hands at their sides. The past disputes and disagreements had not disappeared at this moment. On the contrary, they had become sensitive and fragile because they had lost the final arbiter. A silent tension permeated the silence. Wang Ping was indifferent to all of this. He went directly to the backyard where there were still traces of Yuan Zheng's aura. In a closed alchemy room, his apprentice Wu An was standing in front of the alchemy furnace with his disciples, talking about something.

The air in the alchemy room was stagnant and hot, filled with a strange, burnt smell. This was the remnant left behind after some kind of pure energy went out of control, pungent yet carrying a chilling sense of spiritual desolation.

In the central area, the futon where Yuan Zhengdao was sitting when he broke through to the next realm had turned into ashes, leaving only a charred outline on the ground. The jade tiles around the outline had an unnatural vitrified texture, indicating that they had been instantly melted by unimaginable high temperature and then cooled. The cracked lines spread out for several feet like a spider web.

Centered on this charred outline, the ground was covered with a layer of extremely fine white dust, yet with specks of golden light, as if it were the remnants of a spirit body after its physical body had been completely burned away. It faintly flickered with its last light before quickly disappearing.

These dust particles formed a faint, slightly distorted human-shaped mark, as if recording the final moment of Yuan Zheng's extreme pain and struggle.

The alchemy furnace beside it was silent and cold. The runes that used to flow on the furnace wall were now dull and lifeless, and there were even some tiny cracks. There was not a single spark in the furnace, only a deathly darkness. The spiritual energy it contained had been drained and burned away by the out-of-control Samadhi True Fire.

The entire room presented an extreme emptiness, where even spiritual energy could not gather; there was only a sense of nothingness and decay after being completely "burned through".

When Wang Ping appeared, Wu An was taken aback at first, then immediately bowed and greeted him with his disciples: "Greetings, True Lord Changqing, may the True Lord be well."

Wang Ping casually waved his hand, and Wu An felt a blur before his eyes, and he and his apprentice appeared in the small courtyard outside.

"This guy really did die!"

Yu Lian rose into the air, sensing the lingering aura of Yuan Zheng within the room.

Wang Ping stared at the remaining figures on the ground and said in a low voice, "Time really flies. It feels like yesterday just happened. Of all the seniors who gathered back then, I'm the only one left now."

A strange and unfamiliar sense of stagnation slowly spread from the depths of his Dao heart, like a tiny pebble thrown into a bottomless ancient well, the ripples spreading silently yet far-reachingly, stirring up the dust that had accumulated for thousands of years.

Wang Ping had long been accustomed to observing all things with his primordial spirit and measuring gains and losses with reason. For him, life and death were more of a transformation of energy forms or a link in the cycle of the Great Dao, because he had seen too many deaths and even created many himself.

But at this moment, facing Yuan Zheng's empty figure, which had not even left behind a remnant soul, a sense of melancholy that was almost forgotten about "humanity" quietly emerged.

He recalled himself many years ago, when his cultivation was low but his ambition was sky-high; he recalled Yuan Zheng's focused and slightly arrogant expression when he helped him improve his physical attributes; he recalled the figures of his old friends who had once discussed philosophy over wine with him and were full of vigor.

He went further and further on the path to immortality, but fewer and fewer companions remained by his side, some perishing in calamities, others vanishing into the passage of time.

He gained a life that seemed almost eternal, but he also seemed to have lost the most vibrant part of his life: the emotional connection that came from sharing experiences and affirming each other.

Reason told him that this was the inevitable price on the path of cultivation. Everything has an end, and you can't force it. But his deep-seated humanity sighed at this moment, for the complete severing of a relationship, for the permanent disappearance of a familiar mark, and for the inevitable increasing "losses" in this long life.

The vast, star-like aura surrounding him seemed to freeze for a moment, as if the boundless starry sky had also fallen silent. Yu Lian sensed Wang Ping's emotions, landed on Wang Ping's shoulder, and gently rubbed her little head against Wang Ping's cheek.

After a dozen or so breaths, Wang Ping said softly, "I shouldn't have disturbed their final reunion."

As soon as he finished speaking, he left with Yu Lian. The instant he left, Wu An and his apprentice were teleported back to the alchemy room.

Back at Mount Jiuxuan, Wang Ping had composed himself and was waiting for Quan Xing to bow to him again when he consecrated a tea set under the spirit tree.

As the aroma of tea filled the air, the calico cat leaped out from behind the spirit tree, sat down next to Yulian, and watched curiously as the puppet made tea.

Wang Ping picked up a cup of tea, first smelling its aroma to calm the lingering agitation in his heart. He slowly took a sip and looked at Quan Xing, asking, "You said that many people in this starry sky used to cultivate the demonic path, but were later cleansed by a Jade Purity True Monarch who triggered a tribulation of lightning?"

Quan Xing had been waiting for Wang Ping to speak, and upon hearing this, he quickly put down his teacup, cupped his hands, and said, "This is something that has been passed down orally by our clan elders, and they have instructed us to be wary of invasions by extraterrestrial life forms no matter what."

Wang Ping nodded and then asked, "Is there a more detailed record?"

Quan Xing shook his head and said, "That's all I know."

He feigned fear and a sense of not daring to lie.

Wang Ping gave Quan Xing a careful look, then smiled warmly and pointed to the teacup, saying, "Have some tea."

They then talked about trivial matters. Finally, Quan Xing said he wanted to hold a grand Dharma assembly, firstly to celebrate his improvement in cultivation, and secondly to celebrate moving to his new residence.

Wang Ping did not comment further on this.

Shortly after Quan Xing left, the spiritual chaos under the starry sky gradually subsided, but at the cost of most of the ecological zone of the Central Plains meteorite belt being cleaned up, and it was done personally by the two True Lords, Diwen and Tiangong.

In addition, the internal strife within the Star God Alliance led to the deaths of countless lives, and the Dao Palace almost disintegrated as a result.

"This situation is infuriating!"

Wang Ping suddenly wanted to drink, so he had the puppet bring out a jar of aged wine from the cellar. After drinking a cup of wine, he looked at the starry sky and said, "Our strength is still not enough, so I can't move left or right and can only waste time with them."

Yu Lian took a sip of wine and immediately replied, "The current situation is like the three-way standoff in the storybook, with you, that dragon, and that extraterrestrial life form."

As she spoke, she downed the wine in her own bowl in one gulp, then quickened her pace and continued, "In this situation, if you unite with one of them, you can quickly defeat the other."

Wang Ping shook his head and said, "Obviously, we can only choose the Dragon Lord."

Yu Lian said, "What if that dragon and that demon lord join forces?"

Wang Ping was taken aback upon hearing this, then fell into deep thought. After a long while, he looked towards the sun and said, "Although the chances of this happening are slim, just in case, we need to talk to Xuan Qing again." (End of Chapter)