Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

Chapter 120 Bitter Sea Realm

The capital of the Great You Dynasty.

In the bustling capital city, the long street where the Duke of Qi's mansion was located appeared unusually deserted.

Once upon a time, the Duke of Qi's mansion was a renowned top-tier Daoist family in the Great You Dynasty, with a constant stream of carriages and powerful cultivators coming and going.

But now, the bases of the two imposing stone lions guarding the house are covered with moss, and the vermilion gate has peeled off, revealing an undeniable sense of decay and desolation.

This decline did not happen overnight.

Many years ago, the Duke of Qi's mansion was embroiled in the incident of the deposed crown prince.

Since then, the Duke's Mansion has suffered a severe blow, losing not only a large number of elites from the clan, but also being forced to withdraw from the power center of the Great You Dynasty.

If it weren't for the fact that deep within the Duke of Qi's mansion, there was still a highly respected and unfathomably powerful patriarch struggling to survive, this once illustrious Duke of Qi's mansion would probably have long since become the first Daoist family to be removed from the list of prominent clans in the Great You Dynasty.

Even so, the Duke of Qi's mansion can only eke out a living in this corner of the capital, and acts with extreme discretion.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

On the quiet street, a dull and urgent knocking sound suddenly rang out.

Inside the gatehouse of the Duke's mansion, the gatekeeper, who was dozing against the charcoal brazier, was suddenly awakened.

He pulled his old cotton coat tighter around himself, muttering to himself as he jogged toward the gate.

This gatekeeper was a native servant of the Duke of Qi's mansion, and had spent half his life greeting and seeing off high-ranking officials and nobles. He had also witnessed the rise and fall of the family and was known for his keen eye for talent.

"They're here! Who is this distinguished guest?!"

The doorman pulled open the heavy bolt, slit the side door, and looked out.

With just one glance, the words in his throat were instantly choked off, and he felt as if he had been struck by lightning, his pupils suddenly contracting to their maximum size!

In my line of sight, several ghostly figures stood on the steps outside the door.

The leader was draped in a blood-red cloak, with a specially made black and gold demon-slaying longsword hanging at his waist. He wore a cold mask, exuding a suffocating aura of killing intent and bloodshed.

"Tong--Tongxuan Division---The Red-Clad Messenger?!"

The doorman's legs went limp instantly, almost collapsing onto the threshold.

Extreme terror gripped his heart like a cold, icy hand.

As a servant born into a prominent family in the capital, he knew all too well what that scarlet leather coat represented. The Tongxuan Division was strictly hierarchical, and the red-clad envoys were the highest-ranking and most ruthless executioners, often directly representing the will of the highest levels of the Tongxuan Division.

The red-clad messengers are usually like venomous snakes lurking in the shadows, rarely making a move. But when they brazenly appear outside the gates of a powerful family, it signifies a momentous event has occurred.

"It's over—it's all over—"

Menzi was pale, his teeth chattering uncontrollably, and only one desperate thought remained in his mind.

"His Majesty still remembers the matter of deposing the Crown Prince! After enduring for so many years, is he finally going to order the Duke's death? Our ancestor is still alive, he hasn't ascended to heaven yet, why is His Majesty in such a hurry, can't even wait this little bit of time—"

The doorman slumped against the doorframe, his back soaked in cold sweat of despair.

As he gazed at the glaringly bright red building, images flashed through his mind of ravenous soldiers storming into the mansion, the deafening cries echoing through the vast Duke of Qi's residence, and the utter devastation of the entire family being ransacked and their clan wiped out.

For a moment, the doorman was terrified and helpless. His legs trembled like leaves, and he leaned against the door frame, unable to utter a single word, just waiting for the knife to fall and wipe out his family.

The leading red-clad messenger frowned slightly, looking at the comical, terrified group before him. He snapped impatiently, "What are you standing there for? An imperial edict has been issued from the palace! Get inside and have your master set up an altar to receive it!"

"Good—good! Yes, yes, as you command!"

The doorkeeper was jolted awake by the cold shout, but due to extreme nervousness, he spoke incoherently and stammered.

You can't blame him for that.

The Duke of Qi's mansion hadn't received an imperial edict for far too many years, and even he, the old gatekeeper, couldn't quite remember many of the elaborate procedures and etiquette involved.

He didn't care about appearances; he tumbled and crawled over the threshold, shouting and yelling as he rushed into the inner courtyard to report.

Before long, the entire lifeless Duke Qi's mansion was disturbed.

The current Duke of Qi, who had already retired for the day, was sweating profusely and filled with trepidation. He led all the men, women, and children in his household to the front courtyard to kneel and welcome the red-clad envoy from the Tongxuan Division.

To the Duke of Qi's surprise, what arrived this time was not the imperial edict with yellow silk and gold scroll that proclaimed to the world, but an oral message representing a top-secret royal matter.

However, upon hearing the contents of the imperial edict, the Duke of Qi, who was kneeling on the ground, was struck dumb. He abruptly raised his head, his face filled with disbelief: "What? My Duke of Qi's mansion actually has a branch lineage outside that possesses Daoist credentials? And now this clansman wants to be registered in the immortal register, requiring the use of my Duke of Qi's mansion's Daoist seal?"

The Duke of Qi was shocked, his heart filled with turbulent waves.

Shocked, he was also troubled.

Although the Duke of Qi was nominally in charge of the household, the true patriarch was actually the family's patriarch.

The ancestor had long since withdrawn from worldly affairs, and the "Dao Seal," which represented the family's lifeline and could prove the Daoist identity of its members, had always been firmly in his hands.

Kneeling on the cold, hard bluestone slab, the Duke of Qi was filled with extremely complex emotions, a mixture of feelings.

Since being embroiled in the incident involving the deposed crown prince, the Duke of Qi's mansion has faced utter destruction.

The imperial court's purges were incredibly brutal. Whether it was the main lineage with Daoist lineages or the scattered branch lineages, they were all wiped out, with almost everyone dying or being injured.

The family's power was completely uprooted, and they plummeted to rock bottom.

Now, in this state of affairs, the entire Duke of Qi's mansion is empty except for him, the current Duke of Qi, who is left all alone with the title of Daoist.

What's even more despairing is that he has no sons, only a daughter.

The Great You Dynasty had extremely strict rules regarding the inheritance of Daoist scriptures, which could never be passed on to anyone other than their own male heirs. Therefore, it seemed that the Daoist scripture he possessed was destined to be lost forever.

Before receiving this imperial edict, the Duke of Qi was more desperate and clear-headed than anyone else: barring any unforeseen circumstances, it was only a matter of time before the once illustrious Daoist family of the Duke of Qi's Mansion completely disappeared from the annals of the Great You Dynasty.

Since the founding of the Great You Dynasty, thirty-six Daoist families have been enfeoffed.

Over the long years, these aristocratic families have experienced countless suppressions by imperial power and the ups and downs of the court. Some were even stripped of their titles and demoted to commoners. But no matter how tragic their fate was, they were always able to preserve a trace of their bloodline so that the lineage of their Daoist traditions would not be completely severed.

But now, if the Duke of Qi's family line ends, they will become the first of the thirty-six founding families to be completely eliminated and vanish into thin air.

This matter kept the Duke of Qi awake at night whenever he thought about it.

In fact, the Duke of Qi's mansion had another way out that could save their lives, namely the "Ascension Order".

During the family's heyday, they possessed two Ascension Tokens.

One of them had already been used by the family patriarch to obtain an extremely precious opportunity to extend lifespan; while the other belonged to a rising star from a minor branch of the family.

That young man was exceptionally talented and became the Crown Prince's personal guard at a young age, where he was highly regarded.

Unfortunately, fate is unpredictable. In the shocking incident of deposing the crown prince that year, the guard was also implicated and disappeared without a trace, along with the ascension token.

But now, the red-robed messenger has brought a shocking decree: someone in the clan has not only activated their Daoist register, but is also to be added to their Immortal register!

This means that the Great You royal family will, according to the rules, bestow a new Ascension Order!

The Duke of Qi was both overjoyed and bewildered. He couldn't fathom which branch of his family possessed such extraordinary good fortune.

But under the red-robed messenger's expressionless, cold urging, he dared not delay. He hurriedly accepted the imperial decree and rushed out of the city, heading straight for the remote and desolate Taoist temple outside the city to find his family's ancestor.

This ancestor was once a powerful and feared cultivator in the cultivation world of the Great You Dynasty.

In order to preserve his family's legacy, he even went so far as to use an extremely precious Ascension Token to forcibly extend his lifespan in the Three Islands Sea.

Even so, time remains merciless.

The ancestor is now old and frail, his life force depleted, like a flickering lamp that could be extinguished at any moment.

In the desolate Taoist temple, the air was thick with the scent of sandalwood incense, exuding a musty, lifeless atmosphere.

The Duke of Qi knelt on the prayer mat, suppressing his excitement and unease, and repeated the imperial edict delivered by the red-robed messenger to the ancestor who sat cross-legged under the statue, word for word.

The deserted Taoist temple was plunged into a deathly silence.

The old ancestor's gaunt face was hidden in the dim light and shadow. After listening, he simply closed his cloudy eyes slightly and remained silent for a long time.

The suffocating silence made the Duke of Qi increasingly uneasy. Finally, unable to suppress his curiosity and doubts, he cautiously raised his head and asked softly, "Ancestor, what exactly is going on with this Daoist register? How could the descendants of my Duke of Qi's mansion be scattered outside, without even our own knowledge?"

The old ancestor slowly opened his eyes, his voice hoarse like dry tree bark rubbing against each other, revealing a weariness that had endured many vicissitudes: "There is no problem with this Daoist book. It was not forged by someone else. It was personally stamped with the Daoist seal by me back then, and it was properly handled."

Upon hearing this, the Duke of Qi's eyes were filled with disbelief: "But Ancestor, the red-robed envoy clearly stated that the disciple about to be added to the list of immortals is surnamed Xia! His name is Xia Dong, not our Si! How can this be explained?"

"There's nothing that doesn't make sense." The patriarch sighed softly, his tone calm as still water. "He was originally from a minor branch. Minor branches can change their names and identities for convenience or to avoid enemies. Besides, their bloodline is quite distant from our main branch, so changing their surname isn't exactly a heinous crime."

The Duke of Qi pressed on, "Then who are his parents?"

A complex emotion flashed in the old ancestor's cloudy eyes, a mixture of regret and astonishment. He remained silent for a moment before saying, slowly and deliberately, "In that top-secret Daoist register, the name I filled in for his father was—Si Xuan."

"Si Xuan?"

Upon hearing the name, the Duke of Qi exclaimed in shock, "It's him!"

The Duke of Qi's heart pounded wildly, and long-forgotten memories flooded back into his mind.

Si Xuan was a martial arts legend among the young noblemen of the capital back then. He was none other than a trusted bodyguard of the deposed Crown Prince!

Si Xuan possesses exceptional martial arts talent. At such a young age, he is already only one step away from becoming a True Intent Realm Martial Arts Grandmaster.

Back then, many people asserted that as long as Si Xuan was given enough time, he would eventually break free from the shackles of the mortal body and cultivate martial arts to the level of true intent—that is, the "Sea of ​​Bitterness" realm!

For martial artists, opening the sea of ​​suffering is the starting point for physical immortality and transcendence, the beginning of stepping into mythology.

The difficulty and the magnitude of the achievement are comparable to a cultivator opening up their Purple Mansion!

Duke Qi never expected that the martial arts prodigy who had once shone like a comet but disappeared during the rebellion of the deposed crown prince would have left behind a bloodline outside.

The ancestor slowly said, "After a cultivator establishes their foundation, if they wish to form their core, they can settle for a mid-grade or even a low-grade external golden core. They don't necessarily have to take the arduous and perilous path of the Purple Mansion. But the martial path is different. Once a martial artist has cultivated to the True Intent Realm, the only way to break through to the next level is to risk everything and open up the Sea of ​​Bitterness."

Moreover, in recent years, the imperial court has secretly deciphered an extremely important ancient immortal site. Leveraging the secrets within that site, the court is now indeed able to cultivate its own "Purple Mansion" cultivators through clever means.

Duke Qi was greatly shocked. The Great You Dynasty could actually artificially cultivate a Grandmaster of the Purple Mansion? No wonder the Dynasty's attitude towards the major sects and aristocratic families has become increasingly tough in recent years!

The ancestor glanced at him, seeing through his shock in an instant, and sneered, "You don't need to panic. Those Purple Mansion cultivators who achieve their status through external tricks have a fatal flaw. Their hope of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage in this lifetime is almost zero. What's even more tragic is that they are like insects parasitizing the Immortal Realm. Once they leave the secret realm for too long and are no longer nourished by the aura of the Immortal Realm, their cultivation will regress, and in the end, they will die in the Immortal Realm, returning to the heavens. Otherwise, they won't even be able to reincarnate."

"So—" Duke Qi suddenly realized, and continued, "For the imperial court, martial arts cultivation, which doesn't rely on external methods but only cultivates one's own qi and blood, is actually more suitable for the current environment where spiritual energy is depleted!"

"Not bad." The old ancestor sighed, looking up at the dilapidated roof of the Taoist temple, his gaze seemingly piercing through the endless void. "Even the Three Islands Sea, which all cultivators dream of visiting, has been irreversibly depleting its spiritual energy over the years. It's just that the Three Islands Sea has such a solid foundation left from ancient times that its spiritual energy still appears very abundant today."

At this point, the patriarch's voice became extremely low and suppressed: "In fact, those truly high-level cultivators in the cultivation world today already share a tacit understanding that the immortal path will one day completely enter the Dharma-ending Age."

The Duke of Qi felt a strong sense of suffocation. The Dharma-ending Age meant the final twilight and doom for all cultivators.

"However, the Heavenly Cycle always leaves a glimmer of hope." The ancestor paused, then continued, "Ancient texts record that as long as one can cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage, there is hope of tearing through the void and completely breaking free from the shackles of this world."

The transition of the world into the Dharma-ending Age is an extremely long process. Although the spiritual energy of the outside world is now thin, the spiritual energy within those hidden realms and immortal sites still far surpasses that of the outside. Even ancient monsters at the Nascent Soul stage hiding within these realms need not worry about their lifespans rapidly fading or their cultivation levels regressing, as long as they do not emerge into the world.

The patriarch looked at the Duke of Qi and said with a bitter smile, "But once they go out, the laws of heaven and earth in the outside world will mercilessly drain their life force. Therefore, for the cultivators of the Great You Dynasty, once they are lucky enough to form a Golden Core, they must face a cruel choice: either risk leaving the Great You Dynasty and going to the Three Islands Sea to find a way out, or they can only completely bow down to the court, serve it with their lives, and exchange it for the qualification to survive in the secret realms and immortal traces controlled by the court before their own blood and energy completely wither away."

"However, you must understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Whether you choose to survive in these secret realms or head to the Three Islands Sea, you will pay a heavy price." The ancestor shook his head. "The Three Islands Sea is not a paradise that can be taken at will. There, without a holy sect as your backer, even if you are a Golden Core cultivator, life will not be easy, and you may even perish if you are not careful."

The ancestor's gaze was like a sharp sword, piercing straight to the heart: "In the end, the spiritual energy of this world is only so much left, and it is constantly being depleted. It's like a pot of soup that's about to boil dry; if you take one more bite, others can only take one less."

For a single breath of spiritual energy that could save lives and grant enlightenment, even fathers and sons could turn against each other, let alone strangers.

When he spoke of his own father and son, he seemed to be implying something.

Then there was a moment of silence.

The ancestor took out a light and exquisite seal and said softly, "This is the Dao Seal. I'll keep it for you from now on. Take it."

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"only.

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