Ascending to Immortality Through Fire

The day Liu Jin returned to the Sanyi Sect, the disciples at the mountain gate saw him and turned to run away.

They weren't scared away; they ran in to report the news. Not long after, Lu Jin and Li Muxuan rushed down the mountain path, one after the other. Lu Jin ran ahead, his breathing even and his steps steady, but his speed was noticeably twice as fast as usual.

Li Muxuan ran behind, constantly calling out, "Senior brother, you're back! Are you alright? Did Wugensheng do anything to you?" He was clearly running faster than Lu Jin, but he deliberately lagged behind by half a step, as if that would make him seem less anxious.

Liu Jin handed the bamboo box to Lu Jin, who took it. Li Muxuan circled around him to make sure he wasn't missing any limbs, then breathed a sigh of relief, before frowning again: "Senior brother, you smell of blood."

"It's not mine."

"Rootless?"

"Um."

Li Muxuan was silent for a moment, then turned to Lu Jin and said, "Senior brother beat up Wugensheng, the leader of Quanxing Sect."

"I heard that." Lu Jin, carrying the bamboo box, added seriously, "Senior Brother defeated Wugensheng, who can replicate other people's techniques."

Liu Jin didn't reply and walked up the mountain. Behind him, Li Muxuan lowered his voice and said to Lu Jin, "I told you Senior Brother wouldn't suffer a loss." Lu Jin also lowered his voice and replied, "You ran faster than me just now." Every word of their "whispered" conversation reached Liu Jin's ears, and the corners of his mouth slightly lifted.

Over the next few days, Liu Jin divided his time into three parts. One part was given to Zuo Ruotong, and the two of them sat facing each other in the lecture hall for two whole days, going through their experience of the third level of the Reverse Life Triple Stage from beginning to end.

Zuo Ruotong asked very detailed questions, from the anchor point of consciousness when fully transformed into Qi to the nurturing cycle of the Samadhi Fire, leaving no detail unexamined. Liu Jin answered one by one. At certain points, Zuo Ruotong would remain silent for a long time before expressing her understanding, and the two would then compare their interpretations sentence by sentence.

After two days, Liu Jin's biggest feeling was that his master was indeed his master. Even though his master's cultivation level had been surpassed by his own, his master still had a perspective on the Reverse Rebirth Triple Stage that Liu Jin had never thought of.

A copy was given to Lu Jin and Li Muxuan. It was supposed to be a "playful fight," but it was really just the two of them taking turns getting hit. Lu Jin took three slaps, diligently taking notes after each one. Liu Jin flipped through his notes, which meticulously recorded the angle and force of each hit, his own response, and his ideas for improvement, even including a simple diagram at the end.

Li Muxuan took two blows, but what he was most proud of was not that he had taken more hits, but that his tactic, which he had reviewed countless times, had finally worked. He had successfully anticipated Liu Jin's sidestep and changed direction in advance, making Liu Jin spend half a second more chasing him.

Li Muxuan excitedly ran a lap around the training ground, only to be caught and struck again by a palm strike. He lay on the bluestone slab, panting heavily, and suddenly blurted out, "Senior brother, will you come back?"

Liu Jin looked down at him.

"Stop pretending." Li Muxuan was still looking at the sky, his voice softer than usual, but without trembling. "You've explained everything these past few days, talked with Master for two days, fought with us for three days, and even went to the lower academy to see the new junior brother. You never used to go to the lower academy on your own initiative. The last time you arranged things like this was before you were aiming for the third level."

Lu Jin stood to the side, holding the notebook he had just finished taking notes in. He didn't speak, but his fingers, which were gripping the pen, were slightly white. Liu Jin reached out and pulled Li Muxuan up from the ground, then patted Lu Jin on the shoulder.

"I will come back."

"It's a deal." Lu Jin extended his fist. Liu Jin bumped it with his. Li Muxuan also extended his fist, and Liu Jin bumped it with his as well.

Liu Jin reserved the third portion of his time for himself. He tidied up the small room in the inner courtyard. He put the notebook into a bamboo box, folded the old clothes and placed them on the bedside table, and watered the orchid on the windowsill that hadn't bloomed in two years for the last time.

He lived in this little house for several years, yet he had very few belongings; a single bamboo box could hold them all. Zuo Ruotong said he was like a bamboo stalk, not the kind with lush branches and leaves, but the kind with deep roots and only a few leaves above ground.

The weather was exceptionally good on the day of ascension.

There were no dark clouds, no lightning, and no warning signs. Liu Jin simply sat cross-legged on the same blue stone he had first meditated for three days in front of the stone wall on the back mountain, and closed his eyes.

Then the dark blue flame mark between his eyebrows lit up, growing brighter and brighter until finally his entire body transformed into a streak of blue flame that shot into the sky.

There was no sound, no vibration, only a straight blue beam of light rising from the back mountain into the sky, lingering for a moment, and then slowly dissipating.

Lu Jin and Li Muxuan stood on the training ground, looking up. Zuo Ruotong stood at the entrance of the lecture hall, hands behind his back, watching the blue light disappear into the clouds. He lowered his head, raised his hand to rub the corner of his eye, unsure whether it was from the wind or something else.

......

"They ascended. They really ascended."

"The Fire-Swallowing Daoist, from that rock behind the Sanyi Sect, to piercing the screen with a single finger, to teaching Zuo Ruotong to break through, repaying the favor to the Zhuge family, and swatting Wugensheng away with a single palm strike. He truly finished everything in this world before leaving."

"Look at Lu Jin's expression. He didn't cry, but it was more heartbreaking than crying."

"Li Muxuan didn't make a scene. This is even more unsettling than making a scene."

"Master Zuo rubbed his eyes. He's never rubbed his eyes in front of anyone in his entire life."

"Let's not talk about them. Look at the last time Liu Jin looked back. He wasn't looking at the Sanyi Gate house, he was looking behind that grove of trees. That direction is the lower courtyard, the place where he first met Lu Jin, Li Muxuan, and Liu Deshui. This guy may not say it, but he remembers everything."

"Alright, that's enough. I'm going to go see where he went after his ascension. The live stream isn't over yet, so there should be more footage."

......

Liu Jin opened his eyes.

A white space came into view. A semi-transparent light screen floated in front of me, its edges glowing with a cold blue light.

The same white hall, the same cold blue screen, exactly as it had been years before when he was slapped awake. But this time, he was alone in the hall. A line of text appeared on the screen.

[Violation detected: Illegal damage to live streaming media, illegal cross-dimensional data collection. Violation level: Highest.]

[Punishment: Deprivation of the right to choose freely.]

[You will soon be forcibly transported to a punishment world. Countdown: 10, 9, 8...]

After reading the last line, Liu Jin only had time to say, "Give me a chance to explain yourself," before the white light engulfed everything.

This teleportation felt much more violent than the last. It was as if a giant hand grabbed me by the back of my collar and hurled me downwards, sending me through layers of void, the wind whistling in my ears and light and shadow flashing before my eyes.

He managed to adjust his posture as he plummeted downwards, his feet pointing downwards. He activated the Reverse Life Triple Activation, circulating Qi throughout his body to mitigate the impact.

Then he landed. He didn't create a large crater; he simply stood steadily on a patch of soft, muddy ground. The air was filled with an indescribable smell—damp, cold, and mixed with the sweet, pungent odor of decaying vegetation.

A thick, impenetrable gray fog hung overhead; there was no sun, no moon, and it was impossible to tell whether it was day or night. All around was a dense, impenetrable forest of black pines, their trunks twisted and their branches reaching towards the sky like withered fingers.

Liu Jin looked around and confirmed three things. First, this wasn't the Republic of China era. Second, this wasn't any world he was familiar with. Third, thirty paces directly ahead, a weasel was crouching in the middle of the road, watching him.

The weasel was a size larger than a typical weasel, with glossy fur and two tufts of white whiskers that curled slightly at the corners of its mouth. It perched on a moss-covered rock, its two front paws neatly tucked together, its tail dangling from the edge of the rock, the tip swaying gently.

The strangest thing about it was its eyes. They were amber in color, with vertical pupils and slightly yellowish whites. It was looking at Liu Jin with a thoughtful gaze that was completely unlike that of a wild beast.

Then it opened.

The voice was high-pitched and slightly hoarse, like someone who hadn't spoken in a long time suddenly clearing their throat, or like a rusty door hinge being slowly pushed open in winter.

"Young man, do I look like a human being?"