Madam, please ascend.

Chapter 354 Heaven's Gift of Pills
Meanwhile, deep in the vast East China Sea, on Ling'ao Island.

Wang Shenlai drank alone, living a life of debauchery, as if only in this way could he forget his sorrows.

Unfortunately, a ray of golden light descended from the sky, enveloping his tall figure and interrupting this moment of joy.

Wang Shenlai said with dissatisfaction, "You've come at just the right time."

No figure appeared, but a voice, neither male nor female, sacred and clear, descended from the sky: "King God, did you refuse to stay in the mortal realm because you couldn't let go of what's in this cup?"

"What's wrong with what's in the cup? This thing in the world is the most intoxicating!"

"absurd."

"No matter how absurd it is, it can't compare to you. Just because you were afraid of a sword that could kill you, you destroyed the entire Sword Forging Manor."

Heaven remained silent.

Wang Shenlai leaned against the painted boat, his face flushed, looking somewhat disheveled, and his eyes no longer clear.

He shook the wine jar in his hand and found that there was very little left, which made him somewhat depressed.

He said, "You took the initiative to contact me this time, so you must need someone's help, right?"

Heaven seemed to have no problem with this, and answered frankly, "That's exactly right."

"Well, I happen to have some questions for you, and I'm sure you won't refuse."

"You can try."

Wang Shenlai cut to the chase: "Why did you develop the seven emotions and six desires?"

The Heavenly Dao had anticipated his question and answered directly: "Do you know how many cultivators have grown in the human world over the past tens of thousands of years? As time goes by, more and more cultivators ascend to immortality, and the fused Great Daos become increasingly complex."

"You mean... you learned to be afraid of death from them?"

"Aren't you afraid of death?"

"I'm afraid, of course I'm afraid. If I die, the bloodline of the Sword Forging Manor will be completely cut off, and there's still one thing I haven't finished."

"Look, you have no rivals in the human world, yet you still have reasons to fear death."

Wang Shenlai asked again, "I've thought about it a lot, but I still don't understand what you're afraid of. You stand at the highest point of the Three Realms, and you should be immortal. You destroyed the Ten Directions Annihilation thousands of years ago. Yet you still fear death. Is there something in this world that can threaten you?"

The Dao of Heaven replied, "You and I are at different levels, so our perspectives are naturally different."

"What are you afraid of in the end?"

"You will know the answer once you come to the Heavenly Realm."

Wang Shenlai laughed loudly: "Go to the Heavenly Realm? Then I'd like to ask you, why have the celestial beings and humans been separated all these years, and why can those who have entered the Heavenly Realm and ascended no longer descend to the mortal world?"

Heaven fell silent once more.

"Originally, the Celestial Realm and the Human Realm were not so clearly separated as they are now. But ever since you gained humanity, no one in the mortal realm has ever ascended to the Celestial Realm. How do you explain this?"

"I... have my own reasons."

"Everyone has their own unavoidable difficulties; I never imagined I would hear such a thing from the mouth of Heaven."

The Heavenly Dao said, "Now there is an opportunity before you that can restore me to my former state."

Wang Shenlai laughed and said, "I don't have the ability to repair the Heavenly Dao. Do you want Song Xinci to ascend to heaven?"

“That’s right, I need her, I need the Supreme Dao of Forgetfulness.”

What exactly is your relationship with Song Xinci?

"She was originally a seed I planted in the mortal realm, waiting only for the Supreme Dao of Forgetfulness to mature before I could reap the harvest." Upon hearing this, Wang Shenlai, in a fit of drunken rage, laughed, "Haha, the person you planted with your own hands now refuses to ascend to the Heavenly Realm! You've shot yourself in the foot, how laughable!"

The Heavenly Dao's tone remained calm and composed, "But after she experiences a period of 'forgetfulness,' she will be even better than before when she re-enters the Heavenly Realm."

"How can you enter the Heavenly Realm again? She has already rejected you once, do you think she will agree to your request now?"

"After Song Xinci lost her Dao, it was I who intervened and saved her life by sheer luck. But she became a mortal and will forget everything. If she doesn't enter the Heavenly Realm, she will die an ordinary death like any other mortal."

Wang Shenlai's face turned extremely pale: "Did you tamper with it?"

The Heavenly Dao said, "This is the rule of the Three Realms. Not everyone can be like you, refusing to ascend without paying any price. You know very well that I have been tolerant of you in every way because I feel guilty about the Sword Forging Manor incident."

"But the more you understand guilt, the more you are like a living, breathing human being."

Wang Shenlai changed the subject: "Since Song Xinci is the seed of the Great Dao that you left in the human world, why not give her a break as well?"

"I only wanted one result from beginning to end: for her to ascend and complete the Heavenly Dao."

Suddenly, a golden light descended from the heavens, landing in front of Wang Shenlai before dissipating and revealing its true form.

It was a palm-sized jade box containing a celestial elixir that was both transparent and multicolored, radiating brilliant light.

"What is this?" Wang Shenlai's pupils reflected the image of the elixir, both illusory and real. The things around him, imbued with the elixir's aura, instantly became vibrant and alive, as if a watercolor painting had been tinged with a touch of vermilion.

The Heavenly Dao said, "The Ascending Elixir can give Song Xinci another chance to ascend."

Wang Shenlai's face showed bitterness: "And then they were separated forever, so that she would never see her beloved again?"

“Song Xinci is different from others. As long as she ascends to the Heavenly Realm… Anyway, she can wait for Yun Yi to ascend, and they may be able to reunite then.”

"I thought that when that time came, you would refuse Yun Yi's ascension, or even try to trip him up."

"Unfortunately, I haven't sensed any threat to my life from Yun Yi so far."

Wang Shenlai asked again, "Are you so sure that Yun Yi will help Song Xinci ascend to the Heavenly Realm?"

"Of course, don't you trust your own apprentice?"

Of course I believe it. Those two are both deeply in love. Once Yun Yi gradually discovers the strangeness about Song Xinci, he will definitely find a way to cure her.

At this point, let alone allowing his wife to ascend to immortality, even if Heaven were to take Yun Yi's life, he most likely wouldn't refuse.

"One last question: why didn't you deliver the pills yourself?"

"Simply because I am unwilling."

The Heavenly Dao did not say "why it is unwilling," it simply withdrew the celestial light silently, and the world instantly returned to normal, as if nothing had just happened.

Wang Shenlai sighed, took the initiative to put away the Zhixia Pill in front of him, and the moment he closed the jade box, the aura of the immortal pill was completely sealed inside, and the strange phenomenon disappeared.

Both he and the Heavenly Dao were well aware that whether Song Xinci could ascend again did not depend on her, but on Yun Yi.

The two had experienced the Soul-Connecting Gu and fallen in love; their lives were already intertwined, and they were inseparable.

However, as Wang Shenlai had a conversation with Tiandao, he found that the doubts about the matter only increased. The more he interacted with Tiandao, the more strange things he discovered about him.

Is there something else hidden?

He couldn't figure it out, and remembering that he still had a major task to complete, he decided to leave these troublesome matters to Yun Yi.

Zhi Xiadan was also handed over to his apprentice, who was to make the decision himself.

Wang Shenlai cast aside his troublesome thoughts, waved his sleeves, and began to concentrate on painting.

(End of this chapter)