Chapter 1741: Chapter 934: Zhang Er and the Ancestor’s Ascension (Part 2)

It was said before that the contest between Tribulation Crossing Venerables hinges on who has a deeper understanding of the Taoist Law.

The one who can use the same level of mana to leverage more multiples of the power of laws has deeper "Daoist" skills and hence greater personal strength.

Even though Zhao Sheng has been a Venerable for less than three thousand years, his Daoist skills are not inferior to any fellow Daoist, and even stronger than some Venerables who took shortcuts.

...

Shortly after waking from meditation, my avatar, Dongzhenzi, hurriedly arrived here.

Despite not seeing each other for over two thousand years, as soon as my true self came into contact with my avatar, I instantly "learned" from the avatar everything that had happened over these two thousand years.

"Hmm, Five Zhas... still hasn’t awakened?" my true self’s eyes flickered slightly, suddenly asking with interest.

Dongzhenzi nodded, and said in a deep voice, "Ever since the true self successfully crossed the tribulation, Five Zhas has absorbed too much ’sweet rain’. For these two thousand five hundred years, it has been digesting the benefits of the last time, and still hasn’t completed a new transformation."

My true self revealed a slight smile, "Good! It seems that each of the Five Zhas has the potential to reach the Heavenly level."

However, Dongzhenzi was not as optimistic as my true self. Although Five Zhas had deep roots, it ultimately took a shortcut when ascending to Primordial Yang.

Moreover, Five Zhas had ignited the Primordial Yang Fire for thousands of years, its foundation is quite shallow, how can it so easily comprehend the mysteries of reaching the Heavenly level?

It should be known that some ancient Primordial Yang Spirit Treasures have existed for hundreds of thousands of years, yet they are still stagnant, completely without hope of ascending to a Heavenly Spirit Treasure.

What’s more, the difficulty of a Primordial Yang Spirit Treasure ascending to a Heavenly Spirit Treasure is countless times harder than the Unification Realm breaking through to Crossing Tribulation.

Since reincarnating for nine lives, Zhao Sheng knows less than twenty Heavenly Spirit Treasures, a number much less than the Immortals he knows.

Five Zhas hoping to use this opportunity to ascend in one leap to the Heavenly level is nothing but an impossible luxury.

Dongzhenzi didn’t want to dampen the true self’s spirit, so he took the initiative to mention another matter: "True self, the second ancestor left a message earlier, asking you to contact him after you awaken. The second ancestor seems to have something important to discuss with you."

Zhao Sheng pondered slightly, immediately recalling the memory scenes shared by the avatar.

"What matter can’t even the avatar hear?" Zhao Sheng’s heart tightened slightly, immediately instructing Dongzhenzi to quickly invite the second ancestor.

Dongzhenzi bowed in response, then his form flickered, disappearing without a trace.

Not long after, the second ancestor and Dongzhenzi arrived together.

Seeing the second ancestor appear, Zhao Sheng immediately got up and saluted, "Chonghe, greets the second ancestor."

The second ancestor Zhao Hongyun nodded slightly, then turned to look at Dongzhenzi, faintly instructing, "Dongzhenzi, you may withdraw first."

At these words, Zhao Sheng and his avatar were both taken aback.

Seeing this, Dongzhenzi said nothing, instantly transformed into a ray of flowing light and descended into the continent below.

Zhao Hongyun swept his long sleeves, and instantly a layer of space-time isolating barrier appeared around them.

Seeing him so cautious, Zhao Sheng couldn’t help but feel uneasy inside.

With a flicker of thought, seven or eight more layers of prohibition barriers appeared around the void.

Watching the layers of barriers accumulate around, Zhao Hongyun nodded slightly, seeming very satisfied.

Only then did he speak, "Chonghe, are you aware that this old man has not much time left?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Sheng’s heart trembled violently, and a layer of gloom suddenly emerged in his heart.

But on second thought, he felt he understood the second ancestor’s meaning.

"Second ancestor, could it be that you have achieved perfect merit..."

As he spoke, Zhao Sheng suddenly raised his hand and pointed upwards.

Zhao Hongyun sighed, slowly raised his head, and gazed into the sky.

Zhao Sheng seemed to empathize, also raising his head to look towards the upper sky.

At this moment, in the infinitely far depths of the void, there stood a hundred-zhang high ancient gatehouse, seemingly plain and unremarkable.

The stone pillars on both sides of the gatehouse were covered with marks of sword and blade cuts, some places charred black, as if scorched by a great fire.

And in the center of the gatehouse’s stone plaque, a large "Immortal" character was inscribed in bold relief.

The "Immortal" character was not written in Immortal Seal script, but rather woven and intertwined by countless Tao True Texts, full of indescribable mystery.

Even more strangely, each Tao True Text seemed to depict the true aspect of "Immortal".

Each time Zhao Sheng saw this "Immortal" character, he couldn’t suppress a compulsion, always wanting to step out of the grotto-heaven and fly to the gatehouse.

This seemingly plain and unremarkable gatehouse is actually the legendary Ascension Gate.

The Ascension Gate is neither recorded in books nor orally transmitted, only visible to Venerable Cultivators who have broken through to the Tribulation Crossing Realm.

After ascending to the Tribulation Crossing Realm, no matter where you are, whether your eyes are open or in meditation, as long as you desire, you can "see" this Ascension Gate at any time.

The longer you look, the stronger the urge to ascend to Immortal Heaven becomes in your heart.

Even if you forcibly try not to think about it, the longer you stay in the Tribulation Crossing Realm, the stronger the Ascension Gate’s pull on a Venerable becomes.

In the end, this compulsion and desire become so strong that it breaks one’s Dao heart, leading them to reckless attempts to ascend to Immortal Heaven.

After three breaths, Zhao Hongyun forcibly withdrew his gaze, and sighed, "Ah, everyone knows that the three ascension tribulations are as hard as reaching the heavens. Only at our level do we truly understand that the Heavenly Fire and Majestic Wind Tribulations are manageable, but the Heart Demon Tribulation is the most terrifying grand tribulation."

"Little did we know... ’Ascension obsession’ is our greatest Heart Demon!"

At this, Zhao Sheng felt a connection and let out a sigh as well.

Zhao Hongyun’s tone softened slightly and continued, "For some reason, ever since crossing the Majestic Wind Tribulation, my mental state and cultivation have advanced rapidly. All the evil devilish thoughts in my heart feel like snow melting under the blazing sun, and have soon been entirely resolved.

In less than three thousand years, I already feel my mental state and cultivation have reached their peak, and even various cause and effect obsessions have been smoothly resolved.

Whenever I think of other Fellow Daoists stuck in the lower realm for hundreds of thousands of years, I always feel a sense of panic but do not know where this thought comes from?"

Zhao Sheng listened silently to the second ancestor confiding his innermost thoughts, yet there was never any intention to offer words of comfort.

At their level, no words could shake their unyielding Dao hearts, nor could they change any of their thoughts.

Second ancestor Zhao Hongyun continued, "Chonghe, looking at the current situation, I am very likely to ascend to Immortal Heaven before the ancestor. But I always worry about one thing. Do you know what it is?"

Hearing this, Zhao Sheng’s heart sank, and he instantly understood the true purpose of the second ancestor’s visit.

"What is it?" As he spoke, his expression became exceptionally solemn.

Zhao Hongyun hesitated unusually for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "I am worried that chaos might get out of control in the future..."

As the saying goes, a sound drum doesn’t need a heavy hammer!

Zhao Sheng didn’t need to hear the rest of the sentence to fully understand the second ancestor’s worry.

Truth be told, he also found "chaos" extremely troubling.

This monster, endowed with the bloodline of the Primordial Clan, has infinite potential and can be said to "grow" every moment.

Even more pitiable and frightening is that apart from continuously expanding the territory of the Divine Continent and regularly extracting Chaos Divine Blood, there’s almost no better way to curb chaos’s "growth".

Everyone familiar with the inside story knows that if chaos cannot be completely restrained, it will eventually break free from all shackles, at which point the Divine Continent will fall, and the Zhao Family will surely be plunged into suffering.

Furthermore, the ancestor Zhao Xuanjing cannot attain "liberation" because he needs to restrain Chaos.

As long as Chaos is unresolved one day, Zhao Xuanjing cannot ascend to Immortal Heaven for a day.

Zhao Sheng and Zhao Hongyun both clearly understand the ancestor’s "stalemate" situation, but have no great solution.

As they say, succeeding or failing because of chaos is in the unpredictable play of fate, evident from the situation!

Zhao Hongyun, realizing his merit is perfect and seeing that he might soon attempt Daytime Ascension, pays more attention to the ancestor’s situation.

If the problem of chaos can be solved smoothly, it will surely increase his success rate of ascension to Immortal Heaven by another ten percent.