Madam, please ascend.

Chapter 394 Severing Immortality
In the Realm of Longevity, there was a rare liveliness that had not been seen for thousands of years. A rustling sound rang out from the giant forest, and even the usually serious Xu Junfang showed a rare hint of a smile.

However, after the good times, it was time to say goodbye.

after a while.

The spiritual energy here is so abundant that even if Yun Yi and the others don't consciously absorb it, they will still be subtly affected.

According to Xu Junfang's calculations, if the three of them stayed any longer, their bodies would undergo an irreversible change—they would turn into a tree and be unable to leave.

Therefore, before Yun Yi could even offer to resign, the old man took the initiative to tell him to leave.

"I have passed on all my skills to Su Qing and Lan Zhenxin. Kid, now it's time for you to fulfill your promise."

Yun Yi felt a little heavy-hearted. According to the prior agreement, he needed to personally kill all the "Tree People," including Xu Junfang, and save them from the poison of immortality.

When he first agreed, he didn't think there was anything wrong with it, but after a while, Yun Yi had come to regard these trees as "people".

They are silent and do not show their emotions, but that does not change the fact that they are still living, breathing human beings.

Xu Junfang asked, "Yunyi, are you scared?"

Yun Yi said helplessly, "Senior, why do you have to provoke me? I just feel a little reluctant."

"I've heard you come from the Demonic Sect, so you shouldn't be a soft-hearted person, right?"

"This matter has nothing to do with being hard-hearted or soft-hearted. It's just that since I started learning swordsmanship, I have never killed anyone... I would never draw my sword against an innocent person if I am unarmed."

"That's a good thing; it shows you have principles and a bottom line, but—"

Xu Junfang then changed the subject: "You didn't simply kill us, you saved us."

Yun Yi's eyes were full of struggle.

"You've seen the scene of the Longevity Realm. It's boundless. You'd get tired of it long ago, let alone thousands of years. To be honest, when I first became a tree-person, I would occasionally dream about it."

"I dreamt of the wind, frost, rain, and snow outside, and the desolate desert. Even some things that I used to dislike the most were incredibly vivid in my dream, making me linger endlessly."

"But then, I don't know when, I stopped even dreaming. Every time I closed my eyes and opened them, all I saw were these children who had ended up like me, and the unchanging Longevity Realm."

"Nothing will change here, not even immortality. But a world without variables is essentially a world that remains stagnant, almost like a dead world."

“Look at these children at your feet. They are just like me. When immortality becomes the norm, we all yearn for death. Yunyi, you must see the sword in your hand clearly. Killing is also saving lives.”

Yun Yi never expected that the question that had troubled him endlessly in the world of the painting would find a different answer in the Realm of Longevity.

When the world is unjust and the meaning of life and death is reversed, killing or saving people becomes meaningless.

Xu Junfang said, "Yunyi, draw your sword."

Unbeknownst to him, the struggle in Yun Yi's eyes had turned into a faint sadness.

He held up the square and round object in his hand and asked, "What should I do?"

"Use your Great Dao to find the fatal weakness of everyone. Su Qing can't do it, and neither can Lan Zhenxin. Only you can find that point and sever our immortality forever."

"My Dao..." Yun Yi first closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and calmed his mind. When he opened his eyes again, his heart was as still as an ancient well.

He leaped into the giant forest with his sword, unleashing the full power of the "Rule of the Way," causing his eyes to be shrouded in an extraordinary light.

And the trees in his eyes had all changed their appearance.

Within the thick trees, beneath the bluish-gold inscriptions, lay bodies. They wore smiles, their eyes conveying encouragement, gratitude, and a hint of urgency.

Yun Yi sighed, “I wanted to ask you if you still have any unfulfilled wishes. But then I thought, thousands of years have passed, and you have long since become lonely ghosts here. Your parents are gone, and you have no descendants. Only your bodies, which have turned into trees, accompany you.”

"Besides immortality, you have nothing left."

The branches swayed gently, as if offering comfort and conveying a sense of open-mindedness.

So many years have passed, and I've long since let go of things that I couldn't understand before.

"Life's journey is long, and I, Yunyi, have come to see you off on your final journey."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yun Yi thrust his sword into the towering tree beside him, precisely hitting the "fatal point" on the trunk, which was also where the boy's true form was hiding.

Su Qing and Lan Zhenxin cannot see this place; only Yun Yi can find it through the rules and regulations.

His sword strikes were precise, and he did his best not to cause them pain.

The giant trees withered rapidly at a visible speed, their flowers and leaves fell, and the spirit beasts that inhabited them also left one after another.

From vibrant life to lifeless desolation, from the excruciating pain of longevity to the ultimate liberation of death.

The trees turned ashen, and the sound of falling leaves seemed to be a series of thanks to Yun Yi.

The man continued drawing his sword without pause, his expression calm. Since he was certain he was doing the right thing, he shouldn't have any reservations.

As he walked from one end of the giant forest to the other, there were two trees left in front of him. One of them belonged to the girl named Aning.

Lan Zhenxin stayed by A Ning's side, gently stroking the surface of the tree trunk and soothingly saying, "You've finally gotten what you wanted. If Qingwu knew about this, he would definitely be happy for you too."

Ah Ning lowered a vine and tucked a snow-white, crystal-clear flower into the woman's hair.

She could sense Lan Zhenxin's change, from initial greed to present acceptance; her understanding of the Great Dao had unknowingly been elevated.

Therefore, Aning was happy for her, as she actually had the opportunity to see Qingwu's "descendant" again and learned from her that Qingwu had always remembered her.

It feels so good to be cared for.

As Yun Yi's sword fell, the white flower in Lan Zhenxin's hair curled up, its petals turning yellow and then black. When she picked it up, she accidentally crushed it into dust in the wind.

Lan Zhenxin said, "There's only one left."

"Ah."

Yun Yi returned to the treetop, and the scene before him had undergone a complete transformation.

The lush greenery had turned into a landscape of withered trees, devoid of any greenery, except for the old man's place, which remained unchanged.

Xu Junfang had been waiting for a long time and took the opportunity to talk to Su Qing for a while.

There was nothing important in it; it was just the old man's ramblings before he died.

For example, how glorious the Qin Dynasty was back then, how ambitious and spirited the First Emperor was, and how he attempted to achieve the feats of a thousand generations in one lifetime, ultimately coveting immortality but failing to attain it...

He sighed. Sure enough, in the end, what he missed most was still the First Emperor.

Seeing Yun Yi slowly approaching with his sword, Xu Junfang asked with a smile, "Have you never killed someone in the Ascension Realm before?"

"Yes."

"To put it bluntly, the Ascension Realm is nothing more than undergoing the tempering of the Heavenly Tribulation, achieving immortality, and that's all. Kill him, obliterate his Great Dao, it's that simple." Yun Yi remained silent.

"Come on, use the life of an Ascension Realm cultivator to refine the sword in your hand! The path of the sword should be like this, forging ahead without hesitation. What are mortal cultivators or celestial immortals? In your eyes, they are all just targets for your sword."

Xu Junfang is right; not everyone has the opportunity to personally kill someone who has reached the Ascension Realm.

This was an extremely rare experience, and it was also his final way of repaying Yun Yi.

Once you've killed one Ascension Realm cultivator, you won't be afraid to kill several more. What does it matter if there's a difference in realm or cultivation level?

Xu Junfang said nonchalantly, "Kid, I may be old, but my eyes are still sharp. I know the sword in your hand is extraordinary. Killing someone in the Ascension Realm is nothing. Maybe you'll even have to contend with someone in the Immortal Realm in the future!"

Yun Yi bowed respectfully and said, "Disciple Yun Yi thanks Mr. Xu for imparting knowledge and resolving doubts."

"Good, good, good." The old man sighed repeatedly, his eyes reflecting the sword as it approached from afar. Its sword light was unmatched, and even those at the Ascension Realm would not dare to directly confront its edge.

Yun Yi gazed at Xu Junfang's face, covered in the intricate patterns of green wood. His sword hummed and trembled, the flowing lines of its blade like a river of stars, flowing into the core connecting the old man's body to the giant tree beneath him—

Right in his chest, there was a seed shaped like a heart, the shackles that had imprisoned him for thousands of years.

Yun Yi: "Under the Fangyuan Sword, immortality is severed. This is my rule."

The sharpness gathered at the tip of the sword suddenly surged, piercing the tree-man's skin.

The Mysterious Female Pill merged into Yun Yi's body, making the Dao of Rules more perfect, allowing the sword in his hand to slowly pierce into his flesh and blood, constantly approaching his heart.

Xu Junfang suddenly burst into laughter, and the green leaves and flowers on the gnarled branches fell one after another, bursting open in the canopy like a belated finale of fireworks.

Su Qing's fingertips dug tightly into her palm, watching the petals and leaves wither away inch by inch as they brushed past Yun Yi's shoulder, turning into tiny specks of light that fell into the shallows, returning to the purest spiritual energy.

Lan Zhenxin remained in the forest with A Ning, beside a withered tree. Although she was unwilling to admit it, she truly could not bear to see Xu Junfang die.

She was originally a ruthless and heartless demonic woman, but since there were no righteous demonic sects in the Longevity Realm, she was just an ordinary woman.

"Take care, Master." She murmured softly, thinking that Xu Junfang was the master of Qingwu Ancestor, and his seniority was too high. It shouldn't be considered presumptuous of her to call him Master.

At the same time, the moment the sword light pierced through the emerald seed, the entire Longevity Realm let out a mournful cry!
Xu Junfang's body began to wither from bottom to top, and the vines that entwined the ancient tree twitched and curled up like dying snakes.

Through Yun Yi's rules and regulations, the old man glimpsed countless fragments of time before his death:
The First Emperor's heroic figure as he unified the nine provinces, the carefree smiles of the children as they first entered the secret realm, and the young alchemist murmuring to himself by the Fountain of Youth, looking at his reflection in the water.

He said: Your Majesty, you are actually wrong.

The faces of young people begin to age, becoming like dried tree bark.

Xu Junfang sighed, "Your Majesty, we were all wrong."

The sword light spread out, destroying Xu Junfang's tree-man body and the "Path to Immortality" together.

As the last wisp of smoke dissipated, the towering trees collapsed one after another with a deafening roar.

The spirit beasts, with rainbow light in their mouths, leaped into the air, as if holding a funeral for this belated death.

Yun Yi watched the old man leave, then suddenly sighed, the worry on his face easing slightly.

He came to Su Qing's side and said, "This place is not safe to stay any longer; we should go."

"Okay." Su Qing pressed Yun Yi's head against her shoulder and hugged him tightly to comfort him.

Although everyone felt sad, Yun Yi, as the one who personally carried out the act, was experiencing feelings that others could hardly comprehend.

Lan Zhenxin flew over on the wind, "Oh dear, did I arrive at the wrong time?"

Yun Yi straightened up, didn't respond, but looked up at the sky above the Longevity Realm.

It looks exactly like a blue glass bead, without a speck of dirt on it, perfectly flawless.

Lan Zhenxin asked, "We can't find that door anymore, how do we get there?"

Yun Yi still held the three-foot-long sword in his hand, and said nonchalantly, "Then we can just cleave out another door."

Su Qing had already guessed what he was going to do, and immediately used her spiritual power to condense a jade ring, enveloping all three of them within it.

When she arrived, she was a Void Returning Realm cultivator who was of no use whatsoever; when she left, she was already a Dao Integration Realm cultivator.

With three Dao Integration Realm experts joining forces, they could even contend with Ascension Realm experts, so naturally they wouldn't be as afraid of Guixu as before.

Bai Ze whimpered twice, indicating that it had also improved and would definitely be able to lead the way properly this time.

Lan Zhenzhen glanced at Su Qing meaningfully, not expecting her to protect her. She thought to herself that this woman was truly "broad-minded".

Su Qing said softly, "Master Xu instructed us that we must not kill each other."

"Heh, who said I was going to kill you?"

"Even if you want to kill me, I won't agree." Su Qing's tone was calm, showing great confidence.

She was on the verge of death on the ship just moments before, yet now she can say such things, which makes Lan Zhenxin look at her with new respect.

Lan Zhenxin retorted defiantly, "I can't afford to offend Song Xinci, but now you dare to bully me too."

Su Qing didn't take it to heart: "I didn't mean to bully you."

While a beautiful woman was bickering beside him, Yun Yi was not disturbed at all. He secretly gathered his strength, while his eyes swept across the sky, searching for a suitable place to serve as a door.

Finally, he found a shallow crack in the crystal-clear sky.

"Get ready to go." As soon as Yun Yi finished speaking, Su Qing and Lan Zhenxin also looked solemn, preparing to join forces to face the life-or-death crisis that was about to unfold.

The sword strike that Yun Yi was most satisfied with in his life was the one that swept away the oppressive force of the Heavenly Dao for his wife, and personally sent her into the Heavenly Gate.

Since then, he has been unable to find his footing, and whenever he tries to replicate that sword strike, he feels that there are obstacles everywhere.

The spiritual energy was blocked and difficult to flow through the meridians, and the spirit of drawing the sword at that time was also lacking.

But at this moment, he found that familiar feeling again.

The Mysterious Female Pill helped him break through the barriers within his body, making him unstoppable and determined to—cleave the heavens with a single sword strike!
Yun Yi stood with his sword drawn, then suddenly shouted, "Open!"

The Fangyuan Sword, carrying a hundred miles of sword light, slashed upwards. Where the sword light passed, a smooth sword mark was cut into the crystal sky, which perfectly merged with the original crack.

Before long, the turbulent seawater from the Ruins roared in, squeezing and widening the crack. A sudden gust of wind whipped at the three's clothes; some spirit beasts hid, while others eagerly tried to slip away.

The sword energy, woven into a net, spread out like stars, forcefully created a haven of peace amidst the turbulent currents, keeping all killing intent at bay.

The crack gradually opened, revealing the afterimage of an immortal who had guarded this place for tens of thousands of years.

(End of this chapter)