Chapter 658: You're Going to Die, So Ascend to Heaven

Chapter 658: Chapter 15: You’re Going to Die, So Ascend to Heaven

The Third New Southern Celestial Capital. The Immortal Banyan Tree. Atop the withered Divine Wood, the Victory Memorial Hall.

After dismissing all his deputies and assistants, Zhou Buyi sat alone at the pinnacle of the memorial hall. He smoked, lost in thought, gazing down from several thousand meters in the air at the bustling crowds of the world below.

Zhou Buyi hadn’t always been a smoker. In fact, he rarely drank, either. After he married Liuu Xizhao and they had children, he hardly ever attended social gatherings. According to his old friends, he’d become incredibly boring after marriage… but he had to spend time with his children. Back then, he would just laugh at his single friends, retorting that they could never understand what it was like to be a father.

Those were happy days. His family and friends were by his side, he was blessed with both a son and a daughter, and he and his wife respected and supported each other until the very end.

But such is the nature of Longevity. Happy, fulfilling days always come to an end. In a life so long, one experiences all the excitement and adventure there is to be had. After reaching that peak, life is no longer about ‘gaining’ things, but constantly ‘losing’ them.

Not everyone can travel between worlds, forever seeking adventure, battle, and the chance to surpass themselves.

When Martial Master Weilie passed away, Zhou Buyi took up drinking, as Weilie had always been one to invite others for a drink when he was alive. When Li Daoran died, Zhou Buyi began to read through the new Daoist canon, for it was the work his friend had spent a lifetime compiling. The story behind his smoking was rather interesting. His wife, Liuu Xizhao, was from the Hundred Herbs Sect. At a time when the Tianzheng government was publicizing the health hazards of smoking, she had a sudden flash of inspiration. Using various exotic Spiritual Materials, she treated the tobacco to create a ‘Spirit Smoke’—theoretically not only harmless but able to nourish the body with Spiritual Qi. As her test subject, Zhou Buyi smoked a great deal of it and even learned to make it himself.

Sometimes drinking with the old man who was both his master and his friend, sparring under the moon, or reading the Daoist canon aloud. Other times, tasting the food his beloved made, acting as the guinea pig for her new ideas, and playing games with the children…

「One hundred and fifty years passed.」

Now, he could only drink alone, read alone, and smoke alone. With every loved one he lost, Zhou Buyi learned something new. Call it a way of remembering, or simply an unwillingness to forget, but life needs its little rituals. And so it was, even if these rituals only served to stir the feelings of nostalgia, loneliness, and reminiscence in his heart.

And whenever Zhou Buyi smoked, he—a man who had outlived most Emperors—would ponder. ‘What’s the point of this so-called immortality that those rulers chased after? If a Transcendent wants to feel happy, they can just force their brain to secrete hormones. Isn’t that far more exhilarating than any pleasure the world has to offer? If immortality is just a means to hold onto power forever, well, that’s so boring it makes me want to yawn.’

Zhou Buyi still couldn’t understand why the Demon Emperor of old had used the Divine Wood Power to commit such atrocities. This became even more puzzling after he began studying the Divine Wood himself. He felt that the former Demon Emperor’s methods were like fashioning a simple carrying pole out of solid gold—to possess such incredible Divine Power, only to use it in such a crude and simplistic manner.

In the end, however, Zhou Buyi found something to rekindle his spirit. What lives longer than a single person? A collective. A group. Throughout history, few dynasties have outlasted their rulers. ‘As for the Tianzheng Alliance, which I built with my own hands,’ he wondered, ‘will I live to see its end? Or, to put it another way, can I sustain it until my own end comes?’

‘If it doesn’t end, then I’ll keep on living. And vice versa.’

‘Setting a few limits for yourself now and then is what makes life interesting.’

As this thought crossed his mind, the Immortal narrowed his eyes. He gazed down at the city, a metropolis countless times more prosperous than it had been in the past. With a flick of his finger, he knocked the ash from his cigarette, a faint smile playing on his lips.

‘When the time comes,’ he mused, ‘and I use the power of the Wood of Continuation to create a second or third Demon Dragon, or maybe a Giant Beast, what should I do then? Should I find my fourteen-year-old great-great-great… grandson, the one with such an incredible Talent for the Martial Dao, and have him practice my own Divine Skill? I could tell him, “Only by mastering this Cultivation Technique can you fight the Demon Dragon.” Or… should I use the power of the Wood of Continuation to forge an ultimate weapon for the final battle, something that looks like a machine but is actually a Wood Giant, and let him be its pilot?’

As he imagined such a world, a sense of anticipation welled up inside him.

“It’s really only at times like these that life feels a little exciting.”

But even as he smiled, Zhou Buyi sensed something. He turned his head, looking toward another part of the Divine Wood’s summit.

“Su Zhou…”

He was the last of his friends from the previous era, a Mark left behind by that bygone age. Su Zhou’s return was just like his arrival one hundred and fifty years ago—he still came in swinging, and he still saved Zhou Buyi from a desperate crisis. Aside from a massive increase in his power, this old friend with Dragon Blood in his veins hadn’t changed one bit. He was just as naive, or perhaps, just as resolute.

After all, “naivete” is a word Powerhouses use to describe the weak. A “naive” Powerhouse, however, can make the world submit to his will, turning that naivete into truth and worldly sophistication into a joke.

When faced with a true Powerhouse, it is the world that is the naive one.

As it happened, the man Zhou Buyi knew was exactly the sort of person who could force the world to acknowledge his philosophy of imperfection. Though a little perplexed, he used his Spiritual Power to burn the cigarette in his hand to ash and turned to meet him.

“What brings you here?”