Madam, please ascend.

Chapter 437 A Glimmer of Hope

The moment the last pillar of heaven collapsed

The world was completely silent.

All beings looked up and saw the sky shedding its clear, azure cloak amidst ripples, as if peeled away layer by layer by an invisible giant hand, revealing an unprecedented spectacle—

That is the heavenly realm that countless people dream of.

That is the Heavenly Realm that countless cultivators yearn for?

The celestial realm, now unmasked, is like a reef revealed after the tide recedes, towering and suspended above the heads of all beings. Palaces with steps made of white jade, and the Milky Way's weak waters cascading down from the cracks, seem like a tear stain left in the sky.

This is not a prosperous place, nor are there any immortals playing music and enjoying themselves; there is only endless desolation.

And there was that palace built of white jade, like a lonely moon hanging in the sky, emitting a cold silver light that penetrated the dust and gilded the mountains and rivers of the world with a layer of eerie frost.

Witnessing this scene, the cultivators of the mortal realm were filled with bewilderment. The heavenly realm they had been cultivating so hard to reach was actually like this.

What joy could one possibly find in enduring hardship in such a desolate place?

However, the torrent of spiritual energy that followed surged down from the celestial breach invigorated them, and they all rushed towards the sky.

Yun Yi remained motionless, as did the righteous path and the people from Burial Sword Valley.

Because his eyes were not blinded by the almost endless spiritual energy, he also saw the sky slowly sinking!

The mountains and rivers were the first to change, losing their normal shape; the rivers overflowed, and the earth's veins spewed out eerie and ghostly energy; the mountains twisted and deformed, and birds and beasts howled.

If the celestial realm truly descends to the mortal realm, and the earthly realm subsequently comes into contact with it, the three realms will once again merge into one and return to chaos.

How many people will sacrifice themselves for this new order?
Yun Yi's eyes lit up as he suddenly saw a figure rushing from the mortal realm into the sky like a shooting star, heading straight for the Moon Palace in the heavens.

It's obvious that it was the long-lost Master of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion. He has finally gotten what he wanted. I wonder what his feelings are.

The members of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion had already set up the "Overturning Heaven and Destroying Earth Formation". Now, taking advantage of the right time, place, and people, they were seizing the spiritual energy descending from the heavens at all costs.

The barrier to the Dao Integration Realm is beginning to loosen, and the Ascension Realm is becoming within reach, yet no one is willing to think that such a gift is truly given without expecting anything in return.

At this moment, Yun Yi finally understood what the apocalypse was.

Like the dazzling display of fireworks, followed by utter devastation.

Even though spiritual energy is almost inexhaustible, cultivators still instinctively compete for it, and as those who obtain spiritual energy increase their cultivation, they will face a new batch of opponents.

Once the fighting begins, there is no way to stop it, unless everyone dies.

Lan Zhenxin quietly moved closer to Yun Yi and said, "Doesn't it look like my Gu worms? It's interesting, even if I put enough food in the Gu refining vessel, they will still kill each other, as if it were their nature."

Yun Yi shook his head: "But a person is not a Gu worm after all."

Zhuque, both worried and excited, asked, "Can we see Miss now? But if there are no living Ascension Realm cultivators in the Heavenly Realm, could she already be...?"

Yun Yi replied, "She will be fine."

Nangong Zhuozhuo then asked, "According to the stories in the novels, when the world is turned upside down, a great hero should step forward."

Ye Nianyi said, "I don't care about heroes. If there is no tomorrow from now on, I just want to stay by your side."

Lu Ziwei looked unusually lost, her deep purple eyes appearing empty. She asked Yun Yi, "What else can we do next?"

Yun Yi: "I don't know."

Su Qing looked at Yun Yi gently and said, "No, you know. It's just that there are too many worldly ties that bind you."

"I……"

Suzaku: "Why are you beating around the bush? This isn't like you."

Yun Yi's gaze fell on the Ninth Heaven, and he said, "I just have a vague feeling that this is not the result Xin Ci wanted, nor is it the ending I wanted. I want to do something, but I also feel that I am being too ambitious and I am afraid that I will make things worse."

Su Qing: "But you once said that even knowing the outcome, we all have things we need to do."

Suzaku: "No matter how far you are from Miss, you will always be her source of strength, and that will never change."

When the world is turned upside down, the scenery on earth is different for everyone.

Yuan Duoqing, a member of the Righteous Qi Sect, held Chu Qiaoqiao in his arms, ignoring the extraordinary spectacle that had turned the world upside down, and kept murmuring, "Qiaoqiao..."

In the Great Xia Imperial Palace, Su Chengqian held a black chess piece in his hand, hesitating to put it down, as if he wished he could crush it into dust.

In Crescent Moon City, General Tie faced the nameless graves outside the city and scattered countless pieces of paper money. Ye Ling followed behind him, offering a cup of strong liquor to each lonely grave.

In Dong'an City, the proprietress who sold tofu pudding wiped her hands, looked at the sky with a pang of sadness, and muttered, "I wonder how Little Bean is doing. I really want to see him again. He must have grown quite a bit taller."

At this moment, an old man was still slurping tofu, completely ignoring the strange phenomenon.

Dou Li's mother said disapprovingly, "What time is it? You're still in the mood to eat?!"

The old man slowly wiped his mouth and said, "What's the rush? Even if the sky falls, we can't let good things go to waste."

Although he said that, he couldn't help but be stunned when he caught a glimpse of a sword light shooting straight into the sky.

"Good heavens, am I seeing things?"

A sword light arrived at the highest point of the mortal realm, blocking the falling celestial realm and the cultivators who were constantly fighting for spiritual energy.

He appeared so small between heaven and earth, like a small boat on a turbulent sea, or an ant in an endless desert.

However, with his appearance, the celestial spiritual energy seemed to have found a target and began to gather around him for his use.

Yun Yi's cultivation had already reached the half-step ascension realm. Now that he was no longer bound by the Heavenly Dao, it was a natural progression for him to ascend to heaven in broad daylight!

With a long roar, Fang Yuan's Dharma Image slowly appeared. With the blessing of his Ascension Realm cultivation, its aura was even stronger than Xiao Buyi's Vajra Dharma Image.

What a towering, golden giant!

……

In the ninth heaven, both Song Xinci and the Master of Futian Pavilion couldn't help but look at Yun Yi.

Song Xinci, dressed in a white dress and bathed in divine light, exclaimed, "One of you wanted to destroy the Heavenly Dao, while the other wanted to save humanity. What kind of experiences could have created two completely different you?"

As she finished speaking, the face of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion Master, which had remained obscured until now, gradually revealed its true form.

Similar to the method of creating a seamless garment, spiritual energy embroidered his eyebrows and eyes like silk threads, then moved on to his mouth and nose, until all the details were completed.

Looking at that face again, it was clearly Yun Yi!
The Lord of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion asked curiously, "You don't seem surprised?"

Song Xinci: "I expected this."

"It seems you have completely merged with the Heavenly Dao." "Not so. I am the Heavenly Dao, and yet I am not the Heavenly Dao. He is me, but I am not him."

The Lord of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion's gaze fell on the Heavenly Dao Sword, and he said thoughtfully, "So that's how it is. It seems that not only has Yun Yi's fate changed, but yours has too."

Song Xinci: "You keep referring to Yun Yi, but do you even know who you are?"

The Lord of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion: "That's not important. I am just a remnant soul from the old world."

What exactly happened in the Three Realms where you reside?

"Heaven's way was perfected because the Supreme Being forgot emotions, and all living beings in the human world were reduced to ashes."

Song Xinci remained silent.

It turns out that the Master of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion is Yun Yi from another realm. As for why he was able to survive, it is because he was one of the ones who escaped from the Great Derivation Number.

The master of Futian Pavilion suddenly laughed and said, "I came here with great difficulty, not to reminisce with you."

Song Xinci gently shook her head: "You have no sword in your hand, how can you kill me?"

"I have waited for this moment for far too long, and I will not let this opportunity slip by no matter what."

Song Xinci looked at that all-too-familiar face, the very face she had touched countless times and which was deeply etched in her heart.

But now it seems completely unfamiliar.

She suddenly asked, "Have you ever killed me?"

The Lord of Futian Pavilion suppressed his smile and replied, "Of course. In your previous life, you and Yun Yi died because of the Heart-Connecting Gu. The Heavenly Dao was not able to make amends and was full of flaws. I not only shattered the nine Heavenly Pillars, but also used the lives of billions of living beings to forge a sword that was powerful enough to kill the Heavenly Dao."

"And then? Why did you reappear in this life?"

"I don't know. After the Heavenly Dao died, the Three Realms suddenly became pitch black, and the sun and moon were nowhere to be seen." The Master of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion looked bewildered. "I don't know how much time had passed. When I woke up again, I was at the bottom of the Cloud Dream Marsh."

Song Xinci asked, "Is that the kind of Three Realms you want?"

"Of course not. I thought that sacrificing living beings could bring about new life, but without light in the Three Realms, how can seeds sprout?"

"Do you know why, even though the Heavenly Dao is clearly dead, the Three Realms still haven't escaped their fate of destruction?"

This time, it was the Lord of Futian Pavilion who remained silent.

Song Xinci said, "You should have already vaguely guessed the answer, which is why you didn't cause any suffering to the world in this life."

The Master of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion said, "I just can't believe that the Heavenly Dao has become so afraid of death because it has seen something that could destroy itself."

"But that is the truth. Since the creation of the Three Realms, extraterrestrial objects have appeared every ten thousand years. However, each time, immortals have to sacrifice themselves to save the Three Realms."

"What's different this time, that it could cause such fear in the Heavenly Dao?"

"Now that the heavens have descended to earth because of you, there is no longer any need for that false celestial curtain. Why not let you see the real outside world?"

"It's nothing but emptiness." The Master of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion frowned slightly. His Great Dao could traverse the void, so he had naturally seen that "empty" world long ago, a world without end.

But he had to admit that he had never seen such a terrifying behemoth.

As the blue sky backdrop was removed from the Song Dynasty porcelain, a celestial being, beyond description, finally revealed its true form.

Song Xinci said slowly, "You and I cannot understand its existence, so in our eyes it becomes something that is easy for humans to understand. But this is far from its true form. You only need to know that what you see now is just 'something from beyond the heavens in your eyes'."

The Lord of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion was so shocked that he could not contain himself. The extraterrestrial object in his eyes was a whale so huge that it was comparable to the Three Realms.

Its scales resemble mountain peaks, its crevices resemble rivers, and even more terrifyingly, it has opened its enormous mouth, about to swallow the three realms whole.

At this moment, the Lord of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion finally understood why, in his previous life, even though he had killed the Heavenly Dao, the Three Realms had fallen into darkness.

That was inside the belly of something from outer space!
In such a desperate situation, how can we start over?
It took the Lord of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion a long time to come to his senses. "Those Ascension Realm cultivators you devoured were all for the purpose of repairing the Heavenly Realm in preparation for its arrival?"

Song Xinci replied, "That was the choice of Heaven, not my choice."

"And what are you planning to do next?"

"Fight it with all your might."

"How...how could we possibly have a chance of winning?"

"When you decided to kill the Heavenly Dao, did you think you had a chance of winning?" Song Xinci looked at Yun Yi, who stood between the Heavenly Realm and the Mortal Realm, and asked again, "Did you think he had a chance of winning?"

Even if one has already reached the Ascension Realm, how easy is it to stop countless cultivators from killing each other for spiritual power on one's own?

This is clearly a desperate situation!
Whether it was the Master of Futian Pavilion, Song Xinci, or Yun Yi, they all placed themselves in dire straits.

After a long silence, the Master of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion seemed to have suddenly realized something, and said with a bitter smile, "The way to break the deadlock that the Heavenly Dao, which was repaired by the Supreme Lord of Forgetfulness, came up with was to burn the human world to the ground and start over?"

Song Xinci replied, "This is the best way he could think of: to leave the Three Realms before the world is destroyed, and so on in a continuous cycle."

"What a despairing cycle."

"But he deliberately left behind the one that had escaped, waiting for this 'one' to find a way to break the deadlock."

The Master of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion: "The Great Evolution number is fifty, its use is forty-nine, and one is hidden... So that's how it is, so that's how it is!"

He wondered again, "In that case, which lifetime is the real one?"

Song Xinci: "The one in which the Three Realms were able to continue is the real one. Otherwise, you can treat it as the Three Realms having a pipe dream."

"Haha, it seems my grand plan to overthrow the world is just a joke."

"You are greedy for life, but Heaven fears death. It's just that you all realized this a little too late."

The Master of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion looked at Song Xinci and asked curiously, "But why are you so different from others? You are very clear-headed, even more so than the Heavenly Dao."

Song Xinci smiled and said, "Because I met Yun Yi, he left me with humanity. He made me understand that the Supreme Being of Forgetfulness could not save the Three Realms from this calamity, only humanity could allow me to see everything clearly."

The gaze of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion Master fell on Song Xinci's abdomen, his expression moved. "No wonder Wang Shenlai kept saying that you brought a glimmer of hope to the Heavenly Realm. I never thought that this glimmer of hope referred to... a brand new life."

Song Xinci's expression was incredibly sacred: "I will fight it, not only for the Three Realms and for Yun Yi, but also for the child in my womb."

The two looked at each other speechlessly.

Gradually, Song Xinci discovered that the "Yun Yi" in front of her was becoming more and more like the Yun Yi she knew.

The Lord of Futian Pavilion said, "You have your choice, and I have made my decision."

Having said that, he stopped obsessing over fighting against the Heavenly Dao and instead leaped down from the Ninth Heaven, landing right in front of Yun Yi, who was struggling to maintain his form using the Square and Round Dharma Image.

At this moment, I finally met myself!
Having seen the world and all living beings, in the end, he finally saw himself!

(End of this chapter)