Entry: I Secretly Cultivate Immortality in the Martial Arts World

243: Chapter 243 Phoenix Brother Ascends to the Supreme Creation of the Little Luo Cave Heaven!The former Demon Realm is now the Xuanhuang Realm.

Since The Great Alliance took control of this Realm, Feng Bage had not left for even a single step.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to leave, but rather that he had unfinished business on his mind.

He had once promised Chu Xiu that he would slaughter all the Demon Race in this world, leaving none behind.

But plans couldn’t keep up with changes.

Revered Master Immortal Emperor Yuan Fang implemented the rule of The Great Alliance in the Xuanhuang Realm, and he didn’t blindly slaughter the Demon Race, instead treating them with distinction.

Those who were bloodthirsty by nature and beyond redemption had long since been cleaned out.

The remaining Demon Race either still possessed their innate goodness or had been educated to coexist peacefully with humans, no longer living by eating people.

Although Feng Bage’s hands were itching to act, he didn’t dare move without Revered Master Immortal Emperor Yuan Fang’s word.

He couldn’t exactly charge into the city districts where the Demon Race lived and drag out their elders and children—who were studying in schools or farming in the fields—to chop them down.

He couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing.

Neither could Chu Xiu.

So, that promise had been somewhat compromised.

Feng Bage was quite depressed about this, but there was nothing he could do.

Furthermore, he now knew that the Revered Master Immortal Emperor Yuan Fang who presided over the Xuanhuang Realm and his Revered Master Minghe in the Spirit Realm were not the same person.

When he first learned this, Feng Bage’s mind had to take several turns before he could barely wrap his head around it.

Later, he stopped thinking about it; they were both Revered Masters anyway, so it wasn’t a loss to call either of them Revered Master.

However, after this incident, he became extremely curious about that Revered Master’s true self.

Now that the Xuanhuang Realm had achieved complete great unity, it was time for him to leave.

Feng Bage was now at the Tribulation Crossing Peak.

In any Middle Thousand Worlds, this Realm was a ceiling-level existence.

In the past, if a Cultivator at the Tribulation Crossing Peak wanted to go further, there was only one path: Ascension to the Immortal Realm.

But that path was no longer viable.

It wasn’t that the path was blocked, but rather that these Middle Thousand Worlds had already disappeared from the perspective of the Immortal Realm.

Whether it was Emperor Cang or other Immortal Emperors, they had searched the entire Star Domain and could find no trace of worlds like the Spirit Realm or the Xuanhuang Realm, long ago categorizing them as cold cases.

If a Cultivator at the Tribulation Crossing Peak suddenly popped up at this time, ascended, and claimed to be from the Spirit Realm or the Xuanhuang Realm, the scene would be quite interesting.

How could someone ascend from a world that had already disappeared?

Where is this world now?

How did you get out?

A series of such questions would be equivalent to directly exposing the existence of the Cave Heaven under the noses of all the powerful beings in the Immortal Realm.

Gu Yan would not do such a thing.

Therefore, for all the Middle Thousand Worlds that had become part of the Supreme Creation Small Luo Grotto-Heaven, once their Cultivators cultivated to the Tribulation Crossing Peak, their destination for Ascension was no longer the Immortal Realm, but the Xiaoluo Cave Heaven main world.

This news had long since spread within The Great Alliance and was not a secret.

Feng Bage naturally knew this as well.

This time, he intended to head to the Supreme Creation Small Luo Grotto-Heaven.

Firstly, it was to further his cultivation.

Secondly, he wanted to see that Revered Master’s true self, whom he had never met, with his own eyes.

Speaking of Ascension, there was an interesting anecdote worth mentioning.

In those Middle Thousand Worlds incorporated into the Cave Heaven, Cultivators at or above the Void Refining Realm originally had to undergo a Great Heavenly Tribulation every three thousand years.

Under the Great Heavenly Tribulation, it was a narrow escape from death, with fewer than one in ten being able to survive it.

This was the test of the former Laws of Heaven and Earth for all those who practiced Heaven-Defying cultivation; no one could escape it.

However, ever since these worlds became subordinates of the Supreme Creation Small Luo Grotto-Heaven, the Great Heavenly Tribulation had never descended again.

At first, only a few Cultivators who happened to reach the three-thousand-year limit noticed this change.

They waited in fear for a long time, but there was no movement in the sky at all.

Later, as the news gradually spread, everyone became convinced that the threat of the Great Heavenly Tribulation had truly disappeared.

What did this mean?

It meant that Cultivators at or above Void Refining could theoretically live forever, as long as they weren’t killed by someone.

Lifespan was no longer a limitation, and Heavenly Tribulation was no longer a threshold.

This sounded like a good thing, but it also brought new problems.

Some Cultivators, without the pressure of the Heavenly Tribulation, began to act without restraint.

Since the heavens wouldn’t take them, they would cause as much trouble as they could.

This matter reached Gu Yan’s ears.

Gu Yan knew well that although the Great Heavenly Tribulation was cruel, it also had its purpose.

It acted like a sieve, weeding out those Cultivators with improper Heart-Nature or those burdened by Karma.

Now that this sieve was gone, another one had to be found.

He decided to establish a new rule.

The rule was this: within all subordinate Middle Thousand Worlds, any Cultivator at or above the Void Refining Realm, while no longer subject to the Great Heavenly Tribulation, must maintain themselves with moral virtue.

Those with insufficient moral virtue would face a Great Heart Demon Tribulation every three thousand years.

For those who could not pass it, their cultivation would regress.

How much it regressed depended on how much moral virtue they lacked.

If they lacked a lot, it was not impossible to fall from Undergoing Tribulation back to Body Integration, from Body Integration back to Void Refining, or even all the way back to Foundation Establishment.

So, what was moral virtue?

It’s a long story, but since a rule was to be established, it had to be explained clearly.

Virtue is what is gained through one’s actions.

To put it simply, whatever you do determines the virtue you accumulate.

Saving lives is virtue, educating the ignorant is virtue, protecting a region is virtue, and teaching the Dao is also virtue.

On a large scale, bringing peace, establishing order, and stopping slaughter are great virtues.

On a small scale, repairing bridges, paving roads, healing the sick, and guiding the younger generation are small virtues.

Virtue is not distinguished by size, only by whether you have performed it.

There are many ways to Cultivate virtue.

If a Cultivator is kind-hearted, they can practice medicine to save people and help the world.

If they are not skilled in medicine, they can set up an altar to preach the Dao, passing on their own cultivation insights to the younger generation and guiding them to avoid detours.

If they are not eloquent, they can do practical deeds, such as mediating disputes between Sects or protecting Mortals from being caught in the crossfire of Cultivators’ battles.

Those with great perseverance can even go deep into uncivilized lands to spread principles and change local customs.

All of these are virtues.

Conversely, harming the innocent, bullying the weak, betraying one’s Revered Master, using evil methods to harm others, and instigating conflicts for personal desire are all detriments to virtue.

If these things are done too often, moral virtue will be depleted, and cultivation will automatically regress.

When Gu Yan set this rule, he was still thinking that rules alone were not enough; there had to be a specific place for Cultivators to Cultivate virtue.

He couldn’t just have everyone squatting at their own front doors every day, waiting for good deeds to come to them.

At that time, his gaze fell to the side of the Hall of Longevity’s gate wall.

The eternal myriad heavens world tree was quietly rooted there.

The tree was now lush with foliage, having grown twenty or thirty leaves.

Each leaf was a complete world, varying in size.

In a few of those worlds, Immortal Emperor Yuan Fang had previously led people in to develop The Great Alliance, and order had already begun to take shape.

But most of the worlds formed by the subsequent new branches and leaves were still filled with endless slaughter and constant conflict!

Now, they needed people to pioneer and educate.

Thinking of this, Gu Yan immediately decided to move the World Tree to a different place.

He transplanted the tree to the foot of Mount Buzhou.

For no other reason than that the space at the foot of the mountain was large, allowing the tree to grow freely.

In the future, as there were more and more leaves and worlds, there would be no worry about lack of space to expand.

Furthermore, in his capacity as the Lord of the Cave Heaven, Gu Yan set a rule upon this tree.

At the same time, he established a gate beneath the tree.

On the doorframe, a line of words was carved, personally written by Gu Yan: ”Those who enter this gate must take the cultivation of virtue as their foundation.”

As for this gate, a teleportation portal connected to it appeared simultaneously within the headquarters of The Great Alliance in all subordinate Middle Thousand Worlds.

After all, not everyone was qualified to step into the main world of the Supreme Creation Small Luo Grotto-Heaven.

Now, with this branch gate, regardless of their cultivation level, as long as they were determined to accumulate moral virtue, they could enter from their own world’s headquarters and go directly to the leaf worlds within the eternal myriad heavens world tree.

From then on, all Cultivators at the Tribulation Crossing Peak who wished to ascend to the Supreme Creation Small Luo Grotto-Heaven had to not only have sufficient cultivation but also meet the standards for moral virtue.

If their moral virtue was insufficient, even if their cultivation reached the level, they would not be able to cross that threshold.

Feng Bage wasn’t particularly worried about this.

Although he had killed countless demons and humans, he had never lacked the moral virtue he should have.

Before leaving, he went to see Chu Xiu.

Feng Bage got straight to the point: ”Brother Chu, I will be ascending in the next day or two.”

Chu Xiu was drinking tea; hearing this, he put down his cup and nodded, ”Congratulations.”

Feng Bage added, ”With Brother Chu’s moral virtue, I’m sure you meet the threshold for Ascension as well.”

”Why don’t we go together?”

Chu Xiu was silent for a while, then finally shook his head.

”I won’t be going.”

Feng Bage was puzzled: ”Why?”

Chu Xiu picked up his tea cup and said slowly, ”Although this world has achieved great unity, as you know, deep in the Northern Region and on the edges of the Western Region, there are still several places where Devilish Qi gathers.”

”The Devilish Qi in those places is too dense; every so often, new demonic creatures are spontaneously generated.”

”Some of these newborn demons have no intelligence and kill on sight, making them impossible to educate.”

”Others are formed from pure malevolent energy, and even the Demon Race themselves do not recognize them as kin.”

”I know the people from The Great Alliance go to clear them out periodically. But clearing them out is one thing; someone still needs to keep an eye on them year-round.”

Feng Bage frowned, ”Couldn’t anyone else keep an eye on such things?”

Chu Xiu smiled and said softly:

”For others, watching over it is just a task. But I am different... I was born in the former Demon Realm and saw with my own eyes how the Human Race struggled to survive in blood and fire. That hardship is something I will never forget in my life.”

”Now it has been renamed the Xuanhuang Realm, and there is great unity under heaven, but I am always afraid that all of this is just a dream.”

”Even if one day I lose all my cultivation and fall back to being a Mortal, I would not be willing to leave this place.”

”This is my home; I want to guard it and see with my own eyes that it remains peaceful and maintains great unity forever.”

Hearing this, Feng Bage stopped trying to persuade him.

After a moment of silence, Feng Bage said, ”Alright, then I’ll take my leave first.”

”Take care.”

Chu Xiu nodded slightly, and Feng Bage said no more, turning to stride out of the city.

Feng Bage left the city and found a barren mountain to sit cross-legged. His Tribulation Crossing Peak aura surged into the sky, the clouds churned, and the Heavenly Gate opened of its own accord.

Nowadays, Ascension depended only on cultivation and moral virtue, requiring no elaborate rituals.

The gap in the clouds split open, and a soft light descended, enveloping him.

He took one last look at the Xuanhuang Realm, then looked up and vanished into the celestial light.

The Heavenly Gate closed, the clouds dispersed, and the wind fell still.

In the Xuanhuang Realm, everything was as usual.