I am a mage and a wet nurse, so using seven swords is not too much, right?

"Humans can now be considered, at best, the top of the ten races, right?"

The immortal said in a hoarse voice, "As long as you behave yourselves, the human race's status will endure."

Ning Ruan: “?”

Li Mu: "!"

Human powerhouse: "..."

Ning Ruan's gaze suddenly turned in this direction.

He glanced at the human expert, then turned to the severed hand, "What if you don't obey?"

Immortal Soul: "..."

"Since you already know, why ask again?"

Disobedience is exemplified by the Cursed Raven Clan.

Ning Ruan then asked, "Were those cultivators who attacked the Cursed Crow Clan from the ancestral land?"

"Yes."

"The cultivators from the ancestral land have connections with you?"

"No contact is permitted except by divine will; if divine will allows us to possess you."

"..." They're quite adept at it.

Ning Ruan was at a loss for words.

But many doubts have been answered.

It was pretty much what she expected.

The only thing I don't understand is—

"Can't one ascend to immortality unless it's ordained by Heaven? Who decided that?"

"..." The immortal's spirit did not answer.

Ning Ruan tugged at the corner of her lips, "You didn't decide this yourselves, did you?"

"If it's not destiny, why can't I ascend to heaven?"

Immortal Soul: "..."

Ning Ruan: "How do we get to the ancestral land?"

Immortal Soul: "..."

Ning Ruan: "What exactly is the ancestral land? Are there cultivators from various races there as well?"

Immortal Soul: "..."

He could no longer remain silent.

His tone was full of authority and hostility: "You should listen to your elders. Knowing too much will not do you any good; it will only bring trouble to the human race."

"So you don't want to talk about it anymore?" Ning Ruan asked back.

The immortal's soul: "..." Of course, he couldn't possibly tell everything.

"I'm doing this for the good of your human race."

Ning Ruan: "If you're not going to talk about it, then forget it. There's no point in keeping you around."

Immortal Soul: "?"

He was about to speak.

Ning Ruan decisively placed it into the jade box, and then swiftly pulled out the spirit sword that had been binding him.

With the spirit sword gone and the curse mostly lifted, he should now be free.

But that annoying feeling of being confined is still there.

This time it didn't originate from Spirit Sword.

It was a jade box used to store the severed hand!

"What do you mean?"

The immortal's spirit struggled to maintain his composure.

But it wasn't hard to detect a hint of panic.

pat-

The jade box lid was slammed shut.

And the one who put the lid on was none other than himself.

It was the human powerhouse who had previously addressed him politely as "Immortal Venerable."

"Aren't you afraid he'll get angry if you do this, senior?"

"Heh." The human powerhouse glanced at her sideways. "You really wanted to kill him before."

Ning Ruan did not deny it, "Yes."

The human powerhouse regained his peaceful smile, "Ning Ruan, if you ascend to immortality in the future, even if you tell his true form what happened today, you will still have a share in the matter of killing him."

Ning Ruan: "..."

In the past, she wouldn't have understood why this powerful man always seemed to harbor some hostility towards her.

Now I can understand it a little bit.

She is destiny.

There will be an opportunity for ascension in the future.

But they didn't.

Most importantly, they didn't, not really because they couldn't ascend.

Rather, it seems the immortals above do not allow them to ascend.

To ascend to immortality, one must obtain permission from the immortals and be granted a spot.

Then one can imagine the hostility involved.

They were not the first humans to be chosen by destiny.

What about the destiny of those who ascended to become immortals in the past?

They don’t seem to have done anything about this situation. In fact, perhaps among the immortals who are hindering ordinary cultivators from ascending, there are those destined to ascend.

If that's the case...

No wonder the elders of the clan had such complicated feelings about their own destiny.

"Does the senior think I would tell on someone?"

"No."

"That's what the senior thinks."

"Would you tell on me?"

The human powerhouse looked at her, his usually gentle and smiling eyes now as deep as a bottomless, icy pool.

His gaze held a scrutinizing quality.

Ning Ruan did not answer directly whether she would or not, but simply raised her hand and pointed to the jade box, "Senior can give him back to me, and I will kill him with my own hands."

"It doesn't matter who kills, I'll do it too."

Human powerhouse: "..."

He almost choked on his words.

After a long pause, he finally uttered a few words, "Who told you I was going to kill him? He's an immortal."

Ning Ruan countered, "Not kill them?"

"But if we don't kill him, he'll definitely change his mind once he returns to his original form."

She said seriously, "His words are not credible at all. Even if we listened to him, he would definitely not let the human race go. After all, we now know what he didn't want the Cursed Raven Clan to know."

"!"

The human powerhouse almost couldn't help but point at her face and question, "Isn't this what you asked?"

But he didn't do it in the end.

He simply said calmly, "No need, I'll handle it."

Ning Ruan asked, "Then aren't you afraid that I'll betray you after I ascend to immortality?"

The human powerhouse immediately broke down, saying, "Do you think ascension is so easy?"

He raised his voice slightly, "Destiny only grants you the chance to ascend. If you cannot cultivate to that level, ascension will be irrelevant to you."

Actually, he wanted to say it more directly: given Ning Ruan's extremely arrogant and high-profile demeanor, it's a miracle she didn't die halfway through!

Fate is indeed hard to defy.

But how many have fallen by the grace of fate?

“Ning Ruan, don’t blame me for reminding you, this matter is different from the immortal artifact. If you spread this around, it could really bring disaster to the human race.”

"Don't worry, senior, I won't tell anyone."

Ning Ruan nodded in agreement.

Before the human powerhouse could relax, he heard Ning Ruan ask again, "Senior, you already knew about these things, didn't you?"

"Is the decline of our human race related to this matter?"

"!!!"

The human powerhouse, having reached his limit, said, "I don't know. You may leave."

Ning Ruan: “?”

"But senior, this is my home."

Human powerhouse: "!!!"

……

Ning Ruan ultimately failed to get anything out of the human elders.

General Li answered all questions.

But it's a pity.

When these things were mentioned, General Li's eyes became much clearer.

He clearly didn't know either.

Shortly after the two left, that evening, Ning Ruan received a telepathic message from General Li.

The message was very simple.

Just one thing.

"The senior still hopes you can go back with him."

Ning Ruan also sent a telepathic message, "What if Senior can't hold back and kills me halfway?"

Li Mu: "...Ning Ruan, it's not that bad."

He wanted to say that his seniors wouldn't do such a thing.

But when he thought of the scene yesterday where his senior was so angry with Ning Ruan that his sleeves were all wrinkled, he swallowed his words back.

"It's better not to go back. Although the Spirit Realm is safe, when it comes to cultivation, the Boundless Realm is naturally the fastest and more suitable for you."