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Chapter 118 Ascension Order

In fact, even though Xiang Qianhu held the power of life and death, he was not a core member of the powerful families that truly stood at the top of the Great You Dynasty.

He was originally unaware of the specific uses of the "Ascension Order" and the secrets involved.

The reason he was able to learn about the secrets of the Ascension Order was because, by chance, during a secret mission in the capital, he overheard a few words about the Ascension Order from a drunken bigwig.

There are many aristocratic families in the Great You Dynasty, but those that can possess "Daoist registers" are all behemoths with profound foundations.

Over the long course of time, these Taoist families often branched out into many lineages. However, only the core lineages that branched out during the founding of the Great You Kingdom were qualified to pass down their Taoist lineage from generation to generation.

In the world of cultivation, the higher a cultivator's cultivation level and the better their spiritual root aptitude, the more difficult it is for them to have offspring. This is an invisible suppression from the Heavenly Dao against these cultivators who seize the creation of heaven and earth.

Therefore, once a member of a Taoist family is found to possess spiritual roots, they may find themselves in an extremely awkward situation due to the difficulty of having offspring.

It is already extremely difficult for them to have offspring, and the possibility of having a boy is even more slim. The probability that the boy will be able to inherit the spiritual root and retain his Daoist status is so low that it is despairing.

Moreover, although the royal family of the Great You Dynasty outwardly treated these Daoist families with great courtesy, in secret, the royal family had always intended to weaken the influence of these powerful families with deep roots in the court and the cultivation world.

In order to limit and reduce the number of Daoist registers, the Great You Dynasty even issued an extremely strict decree: if a boy is not a descendant of the Daoist register holder, the Daoist register must never be passed down!

Any act of adoption or substitution by a collateral branch, once discovered by the Tongxuan Division, is a serious crime and may even result in the stripping of the lineage's right to inherit the Daoist register.

Therefore, in order to ensure that their family's Daoist lineage can be passed down safely and not be cut off, Daoist families often set an inhumane family rule: once a member of the family is found to have spiritual roots and embarks on the path of immortality, he or she will be directly stripped of his or her Daoist lineage!

If a disciple with spiritual roots truly desires to obtain the title of successor, there is only one path to take—they must first, while their cultivation is still shallow, quickly marry and have children, producing a boy with their own bloodline to continue their lineage before they can be permitted to continue their cultivation.

Even with such a compromise, the elders of the family still worry that the child, who has been born with great difficulty, might die prematurely or encounter some misfortune during his growth, thus completely severing this precious lineage of Daoist teachings.

Therefore, in most Daoist families, in order to avoid such risks, the elders are often willing to spend the family's wealth to generously compensate the family members with spiritual roots with a large amount of elixirs, spirit stones and other cultivation resources. Few are willing to truly pass on the "Daoist register" mark that carries the family's lifeline to a potential immortal cultivator who may die out at any time.

Therefore, in the eyes of most Taoist families, the greatest responsibility of their Taoist disciples has never been to cultivate immortality or seek longevity, but to honestly expand their lineage, reproduce, and pass on their Taoist lineage in a stable manner.

For this reason, under the deliberate intervention and strict control of the family's higher-ups, people like Xia Dong, who are both found to have spiritual roots and still have the qualifications to inherit the Daoist lineage, are extremely rare in Daoist families.

Moreover, even the higher-ups of the Tongxuan Division don't know how Xia Dong obtained his Daoist certificate.

Outsiders have no way of finding out.

However, since the Tongxuan Division did not confiscate Xia Dong's Daoist certificate, it cannot be said that his Daoist identity was fake.

All treatment must be genuine.

In addition, although Taoist families have strictly maintained the transmission of their Taoist traditions.

But the royal family of Dayou still managed to come up with a solution.

The royal family has come up with a brilliant scheme that is impossible to refuse—using the "Ascension Order" as the ultimate inducement.

According to the secret rules of the Great You Dynasty, if a Daoist successor is proven to possess spiritual roots and embark on the path of immortality, they can directly apply to the royal family for "upgrading their status." After upgrading their status, although they are still classified as Daoists, in order to distinguish them from ordinary Daoists who only know how to reproduce in the mortal world, this elevated status is respectfully called "Immortal Status."

Once you are registered as an immortal, in addition to immediately receiving the Foundation Establishment Pills that countless low-level cultivators dream of from the royal treasury, the most important reward is the "Ascension Token".

It was from a powerful figure that Xiang Qianhu learned that the Ascension Order was directly related to the several transcendent holy sects in the Three Islands Sea!

According to that important figure, all the gold, silver, treasures, and cultivation manuals in the world are as worthless as dirt in the eyes of the holy land sects.

Only by holding the Ascension Order issued by the Great You Royal Family can one knock on the door of the Holy Land Sect and obtain a heaven-defying opportunity to "extend one's lifespan".

Lifespan!

What a fatal attraction these two words hold for any living being, especially for an old man whose life is nearing its end?

Therefore, even among the most prestigious and established Daoist families, the Ascension Token is an extremely rare and closely guarded treasure.

After all, to win this token from the royal family means that a disciple with spiritual roots must inherit the Daoist lineage, which carries the enormous risk that the lineage's Daoist lineage could be completely severed at any time.

However, when weighing the pros and cons, greed and the instinct for survival often prevail in the end.

Because behind any Daoist family that can prosper in the Great You Dynasty, there must be a family patriarch with unparalleled cultivation.

The ancestor is the pillar of the family.

An Ascension Token often means that the lifespan of the family ancestor can be forcibly extended; and as long as the ancestor does not die, the family's power and wealth can continue to be steadily maintained.

Therefore, for every Taoist family, it is absolutely forbidden for the Ascension Token to fall into the wrong hands.

Of course, the opportunity to extend one's lifespan obtained from the Ascension Token can only be used once in one's lifetime.

However, even if it only happens once, it is incredibly precious.

However, Xiang Qianhu was also well aware that the Great You royal family's supervision of the "Ascension Token" was extremely strict. Such a treasure, which involved the opportunity to prolong one's lifespan, could not be forcibly seized by any outsider without the voluntary consent and transfer of the Token's owner. Once discovered by the Great You royal family, it would inevitably incur their thunderous wrath and severe punishment, and even powerful clans would not be able to protect it.

Of course, there is an unspoken loophole: the ascension token's owner's biological parents can demand it.

The Great You Dynasty has always touted "ruling the world with filial piety," believing that filial piety is of paramount importance.

Generally speaking, when children are young or inexperienced, they are powerless to resist their parents' will.

Whether handing over the Ascension Order under such "parental command" counts as "voluntary" is a very vague definition in the country, and they often turn a blind eye to it.

Moreover, when His Majesty deposed the Crown Prince many years ago, the most serious of the many crimes he listed was "filial impiety".

However, as soon as this Ascension Order is issued, Xia Dong's personal value and political influence will skyrocket.