Chapter 526: Confrontation
Chapter 526: Confrontation
"What happened?" Li Qingran asked urgently.
"It's... not really a big deal," Jade Compassion's middle corpse forced a smile. "Since my birth, I've known this day would come. You should know I'm one of the Three Corpses severed by Real Person Jade Compassion to achieve immortality. Eventually, we must reunite—this is my fate."
"I had hoped this day would come later. I calculated that if I consumed just ten pieces of that high-grade spirit vein daily, it would last me a thousand years. To live a thousand years with my own identity—I was content with that. But... but..."
Large teardrops began falling from the girl's eyes as she spoke. Wiping her tears, she pouted, "When Sword Master Chen was in danger that day, I had no choice but to consume the entire spirit vein at once. My cultivation did reach the Great Ascension Three Tribulations realm as I wished, but this also means the Three Corpses reunion is imminent."
"Once the upper corpse's desires reach their limit, and the lower corpse's main body has experienced all human emotions, we'll be recalled for the Three Corpses reunion. When that happens... I will no longer be me."
"You'll disappear?" Li Qingran's voice trembled slightly as she understood.
"More or less," the girl smiled with apparent acceptance. "Actually, severing the Three Corpses isn't just about eliminating them—it's a path to immortality. Another method is to send the severed corpses into the mortal world to experience what the main body never could."
"The righteous experience sin."
"The loveless experience affection.""The heartless experience life's partings..."
"When the Three Corpses reunite, it's as if one has lived countless lives and seen through everything. The mortal world then seems but a speck of dust."
"We sever because we cannot let go."
"We reunite because we've learned to let go."
"The Three Corpses reunion appears compassionate but is ultimately detached. This creates the strongest immortals—those who successfully reunite their Three Corpses also have the best chance of surviving the heavenly tribulation."
Li Qingran listened in silence, her heart heavy yet unable to find words.
Should she try to stop Real Person Jade Compassion's Three Corpses reunion?
Impossible—that would disrupt her path to immortality.
Nor did she have the power to stop a Great Ascension cultivator's ascension.
Could she preserve the middle corpse's memories?
Likely not—the middle corpse was fundamentally part of Real Person Jade Compassion.
She couldn't deny other aspects of Jade Compassion just because of her connection with this fragment.
This was the middle corpse's fate.
In the Three Corpses reunion, one corpse would inevitably become dominant.
Regardless of which, the middle corpse would cease being purely herself.
No longer could she use the joking nickname "Rice Bucket,"
no longer shamelessly set up divination tables for Moon Shadow Sect disciples,
no longer race sect monkeys while carrying boulders.
She would become the true Real Person Jade Compassion—
a perfected Great Ascension cultivator: noble, dignified, defying the heavens.
"Are you here to say goodbye?" Li Qingran's eyes held quiet sorrow.
Though their interactions had been few,
she'd grown accustomed to this lively presence who told fortunes for disciples.
Moreover, this girl had saved her master's life—
and the entire Moon Shadow Sect.
Without her, the demon race would have invaded long ago.
"Yes," the girl nodded, wiping away tears and sniffling as she composed herself. "I don't know exactly when, but I should still have some time in the Moon Shadow Sect."
Suddenly adopting a serious tone, she added, "Tu Shan Yue is a Nine-Tails Heavenly Fox at Great Ascension Perfection. Once she learns I've left the sect, she'll certainly lead the demons back. Please warn Sword Master Chen—if he wants to protect the sect, he must rapidly improve his strength."
Li Qingran gave a bitter laugh. "Master just reached Great Ascension First Tribulation. How could he possibly reach Great Ascension Perfection quickly? Cultivators like Real Person Yuyao and Monk Burning Karma at Three Tribulations have trained for millennia! Progress becomes exponentially harder..."
The girl shook a finger, her lips curving mysteriously. "Sect Leader Li, I wouldn't waste breath saying this to anyone else—normally such rapid advancement is impossible. But Sword Master Chen is different..." She paused. "Remember when I calculated his age?"
"Sword Master Chen's true age isn't half a year—he's actually just over twenty."
Li Qingran: "???"
Her master was twenty? A twenty-year-old Great Ascension cultivator?
Preposterous! Impossible!
Yet this girl's divinations were never wrong.
"Master is truly only twenty?" Li Qingran's eyes widened.
"Correct," the girl nodded solemnly. "I can glimpse heavenly secrets—I don't make mistakes! When I first calculated, I hesitated because I saw he wasn't from this world, so I said half a year old. But the calculation also showed over twenty."
"It was too unbelievable, so I didn't explain properly—just gave the more outrageous number for you and Sword Master Chen to figure out. Nobody else would believe it anyway."
Li Qingran stood stunned.
She'd assumed her master had been a millennia-old cultivator in his original world.
To think... barely twenty?
No wonder he sometimes seemed shy, lacking the usual elder's demeanor.
So many puzzling things suddenly made sense.
"I suspect Sword Master Chen must have a unique method to advance rapidly. His path to Three Tribulations will be unimaginably fast." The girl sighed in awe. "After all, he's already a twenty-year-old Great Ascension cultivator—what couldn't he achieve?"
...
After explaining her situation, Jade Compassion's middle corpse departed.
She knew when the time came, there'd be no opportunity for farewells.
Hence this advance notice to Li Qingran—vanishing without word would be rude.
Alone in the sect hall, Li Qingran's thoughts churned chaotically.
She grieved the impending loss,
yet another realization unsettled her:
If her master was truly twenty, and accounting for dimensional time differences...
Wouldn't she soon become older than him?
Moonlight rose and fell beyond the window,
until the girl's turmoil finally dissolved into a sigh behind the painted screen.
...
Chen Huaian returned to the Demon Sealing Pagoda's entrance hall.
The Well of Heaven stood open now,
thick spiritual energy misting the air
and veiling mountains of demon corpses.
Wang Shouyi and most Ascenders remained,
seemingly unharmed.
Yet tension hung thick as a drawn bowstring—
two factions stood in confrontation.
One group clustered around Hua Jin the True One,
who clutched her chest, face pale from worsening injuries.
Opposing them stood a contingent of monks
led by the familiar Monk Faming.
...