Only at the Mahayana Stage Does the Reversal System Appear - Chapter 404

Chapter 404 Becoming an Immortal

“This is the Purple Thunder Tribulation of Destruction, one of the most formidable of the tribulations of Immortality,” said Immortal Changcun.

Taoist Jin’s Golden Pestle lived up to its reputation. The Purple Thunder merely shattered his clothing, leaving no physical wounds.

After the Purple Thunder, another thunder tribulation descended, leaving everyone solemn.

This was the obstacle that no cultivator could overcome—the Tribulation

of the Heart Demon. Taoist Jin, caught in the Tribulation, stood stunned. Everyone, with their sharp hearing, could clearly hear his mutterings through the thunder.

“The Immortal Realm knows I’m about to undergo the tribulation and has sent people to repair the Immortal Ladder. Contact between Jiuzhou and the Immortal Realm has been restored. I’ve become an immortal, I’ve become an immortal…” “

…No, don’t try to fool me. How could such a coincidence happen…”

“…It’s not impossible. I’m bound to become a celestial immortal in the future. It’s not impossible that the Immortal Realm is specially welcoming me…”

“Immortality! Immortality! Immortality! No one can stop me from becoming an immortal!”

Taoist Jin’s eyes were blank as his body reacted, receiving the tempering of the Immortal Thunder.

“Oh no! He’s about to achieve an immortal body! Stop him!”

Everyone was horrified. Taoist Jin had fallen into the inner demon tribulation, requiring the use of immortal thunder to achieve an immortal body. Without immortal power to support him, this body alone was a dead end.

Everyone used various means to call out to Taoist Jin, urging him to wake up.

The Immortal Tribulation forbade any external interference, blocking all means of communication.

Taoist Jin, bathed in the immortal thunder, grew stronger at a visible rate. At this moment, he broke through the inner demon tribulation and regained consciousness.

“Fellow Daoist Jin, quickly interrupt the Immortal Tribulation! It’s not too late!” Yuan Shang shouted. Daoist

Jin, sensing his physical form rivaling that of an Earthly Immortal, turned and smiled at the crowd, “It’s too late.”

Daoist Jin spread his arms, bathing himself in the afterglow of the lightning tribulation, savoring this moment of power, though with a touch of resignation.

“Longmei, I lied to you. I’ve actually been secretly cultivating for the past twenty years.”

“Why?” Longmei Buddha hadn’t expected Daoist Jin to do this.

“I can’t help it. Immortality is right before my eyes. Simply because I don’t have the Immortal Stairway, I can’t reach the Immortal Realm. I won’t accept this.”

“We are cultivators, cultivating to this day for the sake of immortality. Now we don’t know when the Immortal Realm will rebuild the Immortal Stairway. Should we keep waiting?”

“If someone from the Immortal Realm arrives in a hundred years, everything will be fine. But what if it’s a thousand, ten thousand years from now? I don’t want to keep waiting, wasting my time…”

Daoist Jin hadn’t finished his words when, without the immortal power to sustain him, his body disintegrated into ash before everyone’s eyes, dust to dust.

A lifetime of scheming and calculations dissipates upon death, returning to the Nine Provinces.

After Jin Dao Ren’s death, the atmosphere was heavy with silence, as if bidding him farewell, yet also as if worried about their own future selves.

Indeed, who, having reached the Tribulation Crossing Stage, would be willing to wait anxiously for the unseen reappearance of the Ladder to Immortality?

But what else could one do? Like Jin Dao Ren, the obsession with immortality runs deep in one’s bones, transcending the Tribulation, only to perish in the Tribulation of the Heart Demon?

In the past, no one feared the Tribulation of the Heart Demon. Before reaching the Tribulation Crossing Stage, one’s spiritual altar had been polished to a pure, flawless state, undefeated even by the tricks of the Heart Demon.

But now, no one is confident of surviving the Tribulation of the Heart Demon.

…

Another eighty years passed, and the Tiles to Immortality lingered elusively. The Nine Provinces’ high-ranking officials fell into a dead silence, seeing no hope of attaining immortality. Everyone aspired to cultivate, but feared excessive cultivation, fearing the danger of accidentally reaching the threshold of the Tribulation and following in Jin Dao Ren’s footsteps.

As for the extraterritorial demons, no one took them seriously. There was no need to cultivate to fight them.

Immortal Changcun had said that the extraterritorial demons were mere foes in the immortal realm, and that powerful immortals would naturally come to destroy them, leaving the Nine Provinces safe.

Before the disappearance of the Immortal Stairway, the Nine Provinces reached its peak. According to Immortal Changcun’s predictions, perhaps three or four individuals would transcend tribulation and ascend within a hundred years

—an incredibly terrifying number.

However, those who were supposed to ascend fell silent.

There were benefits, however. Those in the demonic realm who reached the Tribulation Stage no longer rapidly advanced to slaughter living beings, allowing the Nine Provinces to enter a rare period of stability, and ordinary cultivators no longer lived in fear.

Cultivators below the Tribulation Stage were determined to strive for progress, determined to stand at the pinnacle of the Nine Provinces. Conversely, those nearing the limits of mortal life became dejected and unhappy, drinking and merrymaking, finding temporary joy and forgetting the thought of becoming immortal.

But when they woke up, they stared blankly in the direction where the Immortal Stairway had vanished, lost in thought for a long time.

It was too painful.

Twenty years, eighty years, was merely the length of a single retreat for those in the Tribulation Crossing stage.

It wasn’t a matter of time, but rather a lack of hope.

If the Stairway to Immortality were guaranteed to appear in a hundred, two hundred, or even five hundred years, then no one would care about achieving immortality; they would simply wait.

But there had to be time.

Many visited the Immortal Master Changcun, hoping to obtain reliable information from this sage.

He couldn’t offer any definitive information, simply urging them to wait patiently.

While Changcun offered reassurances, he himself was the most uneasy.

The Stairway to Immortality would never appear again, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be the immortal realm descending to greet the Nine Provinces. It would be better for it not to appear at all.

Changcun named his cave Fengji Cave and refused to see any more visitors.

However, shocking news brought him back out of the mountains.

“Has the Long-Eyebrowed Buddha gone astray?!”

Upon hearing the news, Changcun hurried to Mount Xumi.

At this moment, the entire Mount Xumi was shrouded in dark clouds, and even the Buddha’s light could not penetrate the thick clouds.

The Long-browed Buddha closed his eyes tightly, muttering to himself, his aura of tribulation surging, clearly unable to control himself.

“What happened?”

Immortal Changcun was puzzled. Of all the people in the tribulation period, the Long-browed Buddha had the best character and could not possibly have gone astray.

The Long-Eyebrowed Buddha’s situation was too dangerous. He desperately suppressed his frenzied spiritual energy, refusing to break through the final barrier and overcome the tribulation of becoming an immortal.

The young novice monk replied, “Master, something has been amiss for a long time. He’s stopped chanting sutras and instead focused on deducing the Dao of Space and alternative methods of achieving immortality. I asked Master what he was doing, and he said he wanted to use the Dao of Space to find the immortal realm, or perhaps bypass the ladder to immortality and become an immortal.”

“I thought this was Master’s aspiration, so I didn’t pay much attention. Now I think, Master’s behavior is out of character.”

“Just now, Master, as usual, was multitasking in the Great Hall, chanting sutras while deducing the Dao of Space. But as he continued, his deductions stopped, his voice became increasingly rapid, and he was no longer chanting sutras, but the word ‘become immortal’.” The

young novice monk finally heard what the Long-Eyebrowed Buddha had been muttering.

The Immortal Elder Changcun sighed. After Taoist Jin left, Long-Eyebrowed Buddha was the one closest to achieving immortality. Becoming an immortal was not only his goal, but also his obsession.

The Buddha of Long Eyebrows, obsessed with achieving immortality, has strayed from the right path. If this continues, he will likely end up dead.

“This isn’t just a problem for Long Eyebrow; other Tribulation Crossing cultivators have similar obsessions, but Chang Mei’s is the most serious.”

(End of Chapter)