Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 870: Individual Choices

~4 minute read · 1,086 words
Previously on Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal?...
White Sword summoned the River of Time and its defiant Time Dragon, subduing it to forge the Cangyun Mountains and Rivers Scroll, a world-sealing artifact where an instant outside equals three thousand years of compressed cultivation inside. He dispatched it to Real Person Jade Compassion with orders to confine talented cultivators within, forging immortals or risking emotionless monsters and lunatics. Though chilled by the cruelty that strips away mortal ties, Jade Compassion steeled herself and descended upon Moon Shadow Sect's Ascension Platform amid surging immortal aura.

...

Ascension Platform, Moon Shadow Sect.

Auspicious clouds scattered apart, unveiling her authentic appearance.

A profound hush lingered beneath the Ascension Platform for three full breaths.

Suddenly, shockwaves exploded like quaking mountains and raging tsunamis.

"That's Real Person Jade Compassion!!"

"It truly is her! The very first ascension in three thousand years!!"

Everyone instantly recognized that familiar face.

When Jade Compassion soared to ascension years ago, she chose not to conceal it. Rather, she summoned cultivators from every corner of the realm to behold the grand event.

Celestial blossoms cascaded from the skies, while golden lotuses bloomed forth from the ground.

That moment allowed some to shatter their life-or-death bottlenecks. Others grasped Divine Abilities and surged ahead in cultivation. Even ancient cultivators tormented by long-standing illnesses found renewed vitality amid the Great Dao's profound洗礼.

To the cultivators dwelling in Cangyun Realm,

Real Person Jade Compassion stood not just as the trailblazer of ascension over the past three millennia, but also as a figure akin to a mentor!

"Real Person!!"

A frail, white-haired Unity stage elder quivered violently as he dropped to his knees, tears flooding his wrinkled cheeks.

"You've returned at last... Did you encounter my sect's Patriarch?

His name was Li Yuntian.

If his soul gazes down from the heavens, kindly relay a word to his disciples and grand-disciples...

The sect is on the verge of collapse!"

This heartbroken cry ignited a chain reaction.

One by one, innumerable cultivators fell to their knees, bombarding the elevated platform with desperate inquiries.

"Real Person, what is the Immortal Realm truly like?"

"Why hasn't my family's Patriarch, ascended millennia ago, ever transmitted a message back?"

"Could it be... the Immortal Realm doesn't even exist?"

Confronted by these countenances brimming with longing, dread, and bewilderment,

Real Person Jade Compassion's grip on her horsetail whisk clenched ever so slightly.

Dare she reveal the harsh reality?

Reveal that the Patriarchs of these cultivators—those once dazzling, valiant prodigies—had all perished as souls under White Sword's ruthless blade? That the vaunted Immortal Realm was merely a blood-soaked arena dominated by White Sword?

Her eyes scanned these gathered cultivators.

She simply couldn't utter it.

Such words would demolish their Dao Hearts. The final pillar supporting Cangyun Realm would crumble.

"Silence."

Though her voice remained soft, it rippled like a pristine spring winding through peaks, instantly quelling the tumult.

Her eyes passed over the assembly, filled with grave mercy.

"Your Patriarchs never forsook you."

"Nor did they forsake your sects."

It was a fabrication.

"They... all perished in combat."

Whoosh—

Chaos detonated across the entire area.

"Impossible! Our Patriarchs wielded immense Divine Abilities, had ascended to Immortality long ago—how could they fall?!"

"Does the Immortal Realm... face wars as well?"

"Indeed." Real Person Jade Compassion inclined her head, her tone subdued. "A colossal conflict tied to Cangyun Realm's very existence.

The Immortal Realm once suffered invasion from foreign foes, left as barren wasteland.

To defend this world's portal and bar the war's inferno from scorching the Lower Realm, your Patriarchs... all sacrificed themselves beyond the Gate of Heaven."

"The Immortal Realm now rebuilds."

"My return to the Lower Realm serves to lead you, to carry forward the martyrs' legacy, to... reconstruct the Immortal Realm and exact revenge!

Ascension's hardship over these three thousand years stemmed from the Immortal Realm's exhaustion, lacking the strength to draw cultivators upward.

After three millennia of recovery, the Immortal Realm has regained its vigor.

The Immortal Gate stands ajar. Ascension awaits you all!"

Gusts swept over the Ascension Platform, bearing echoes of weeping.

"Patriarch!!"

That earlier Unity stage elder, absorbing these revelations, slumped powerless to the earth, howling in grief.

"So... you shielded us disciples and grand-disciples all along..."

"I loathe it! I despise my pathetic cultivation base, unable to bear your load!!"

This deception proved flawlessly poignant, profoundly heartrending.

It bestowed upon death the noblest justification.

Amid the throng, certain individuals saw their Dao Hearts fracture, their ultimate hope—that illusory patron reveling in celestial paradise—now toppled.

Yet others wore peculiar looks.

A skeletal, shriveled elder cultivator, learning of his foe's Patriarch's demise, froze in shock before erupting into wild, hysterical laughter.

"Well died! Splendidly slain!!"

"You old thief! You stole my Opportunity, killed my wife and children, and even after ascending you still threw your weight around! Now you're dead too? Hahahaha!"

"This calls for a great drink!!"

Laughter mingled with tears.

Such were the countless expressions of sentient beings.

Real Person Jade Compassion observed in silence, sighing deep within.

Very well.

With resentment, with awe, with this sorrow and fury...

Maybe then they could endure a bit more within that painting.

"Do you wish to ascend?"

Real Person Jade Compassion abruptly asked.

Her wrist flicked lightly.

Whoosh—

The silver [Cangyun Mountains and Rivers Scroll], glowing faintly, gradually opened up mid-air.

No scenic landscapes appeared on it.

Rather, it looked like an endless abyss, radiating a chilling sense of time's relentless flow.

"This scroll is named the Cangyun Mountains and Rivers Scroll."

"It holds a complete world inside."

"One moment outside equals three thousand years within the scroll."

These words landed, and the noisy assembly went completely quiet at once.

Breaths from everyone became labored.

Three thousand years in just a moment?

Didn't that mean soaring to the heavens in one leap?!

"Don't celebrate prematurely."

Real Person Jade Compassion's tone grew cold.

"These three thousand years are 'withered' by the flow of time."

"No human realm exists inside, no joys or sorrows, not even the sensation of 'living.'

Just perpetual, dull, endless cultivation day in and day out."

"Entrants might lose their minds, overwhelmed by time's corrosion."

"Or they could erase their identity entirely, cut off all wants, turning into soulless husks obsessed only with cultivation."

"This path is a shortcut."

"Yet it's also a path to doom."

"Enter or stay out—the decision rests with you."

Gazing at the dazed group of cultivators,

Real Person Jade Compassion let out an inner sigh.

Outlining the advantages and risks marked the extent of her help.

Usually, when it came to White Sword's commands, she'd seize every possible gap, yet White Sword never called her out, always pretending not to notice.

She couldn't tell if he overlooked her petty tricks or just scorned them.

All hinged now on the cultivators' personal decisions.

...