Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 871: Are there any normal people left?

...

Silence hung heavy.

A chilling hush descended.

Ascension tempted strongly, yet turning insane and losing one's self cost far too much.

Everyone hesitated in that moment.

"I'll enter."

A raspy voice shattered the quiet.

From amid the crowd, a middle-aged man strode forth.

"You?" Real Person Jade Compassion gazed at him. "Aren't you afraid of madness? Aren't you afraid of losing emotions?"

"Forgetting emotions?"

The middle-aged man let out a laugh.

Grimmer than any sob.

"Should I forget emotions... this painting saves me."

He looked up. No thirst for immortality shone in his eyes, merely revulsion toward his past.

"Over a thousand years of cultivation in this life, five loves I've known."

"First, my junior sister. Needing Foundation Establishment, she borrowed a hundred thousand low-grade Spirit Stones from me. Then... off she went with the stones and senior brother from the next peak."

Scattered stifled laughs rose from the crowd.

The man stayed straight-faced. He pressed on:

"Second time, a mortal woman. Her mortal frame didn't repel me; we became Dao Companions. A year passed, she birthed a child. That babe's dark skin mirrored the Kunlun slave who delivered produce often."

Laughter swelled some, sympathy deepened.

"Third, a sect's Peerless Talent. To secure her top spot in the grand competition, I burned my cultivation shielding her. But... 'Disperse Cultivation Powder' in my tea, lest I hinder her."

"Fourth time, that woman cherished me deeply. True love, I thought. Three years on, her 'male concubines' filled two banquet halls."

"The fifth time..."

His voice caught.

"Thirty years beside her. True love both ways. Vowed: not born on the same day, but die together."

"Last year though... an assassin from my third Dao Companion stabbed her heart."

"I slew the assassin, slew that harlot."

"Revenge fulfilled."

"Yet my heart... lies vacant."

Twin trails of cloudy tears slid down his lined cheeks.

"Real Person."

The man dropped to his knees, kowtowing hard.

"'Love' bites too harsh, poison shredding the guts."

"Madness holds no fear, nor turning to stone."

"I crave only... to wipe this cursed mess clean away."

"Grant me Immortality, power to sever it all... claim this worthless life."

Real Person Jade Compassion beheld him, emotions churning within.

In this world, no blade wounds deeper.

Just 'love', that lone word.

"Go on in."

She breathed a soft sigh, stepping aside.

"Thank you, Real Person, for this boon."

The middle-aged man rose. Eyes forward, he marched without a backward glance into the landscape painting.

*Hum.*

His form faded away.

With a pioneer's step, the masses surged.

"I'm going too! Done with this rotten world!"

"My lifespan dwindles. Gamble beats rotting away!"

"Forget emotions for me! Immortality too!!"

Legions of cultivators poured like a fish school into the scroll.

Power for some, flight for others, bare survival for the rest.

Within half an incense stick's burn.

The square's cultivators dwindled past half.

Real Person Jade Compassion tracked the fading figures, eyes landing on one corner.

There.

A band of moon-white robed cultivators stood.

Moon Shadow Sect.

Not a stir from start to end.

Supreme Elder with flowing white hair and beard to the fresh Qi Refining disciples—all waited still, ascension irrelevant to them.

Up front, a known face gripped a purple clay teapot, sipping straight from the mouth leisurely.

Zhang Mengchu—one of Moon Shadow Sect's elders.

Real Person Jade Compassion knew him clearly.

Having swiped Zhang Mengchu's wine once.

"Elder Zhang."

Real Person Jade Compassion descended leisurely from the elevated platform, coming to stand in front of Zhang Mengchu, her expression brimming with intrigue. "With you already reaching the Eighth Stage of Void Fusion, merely a single step from the Great Ascension Stage, why hold back from entering?"

"This serves as a shortcut to ascension."

Zhang Mengchu set aside the purple clay teapot, caressed his thin goatee, and grinned slyly like a cunning old fox.

"Real Person, you're pulling my leg."

"Ascension sounds great, sure, but cramming this old man's frame into that jar to marinate for three thousand years? I'd likely emerge as jerky."

"Regarding shortcuts..."

He wagged his head, his keen eyes gleaming with deep insight.

"This old man grasps no lofty truths."

"Yet this old man gets that cooking demands blazing fire to thicken the sauce, or gentle heat for a slow stew."

"Skimp on time and scorch it with intense flames, and the dish comes out raw or charred."

He gestured toward the painting, then upward at the heavens.

"Pursuing the Dao stresses that the Dao Follows Nature."

"Should Heaven decree this old man's death, that's destiny knocking. This old man passing on aligns with the Heavenly Dao."

"Should Heaven decree this old man's immortality, that's my natural path, like a melon dropping ripe from the vine."

"Trapping oneself in a prison, driving oneself insane to chase that 'fruit'..."

Zhang Mengchu chuckled, emptied the tea from the purple clay teapot onto the earth, where it morphed into a strand of azure vapor.

"That's not pursuing the Dao."

"That's..."

He lifted his gaze, fixed it on Real Person Jade Compassion, and articulated slowly:

"...kneeling and begging for life."

Real Person Jade Compassion froze briefly, then couldn't suppress a twitch at her lips.

Not bad...

He perceives matters sharply, no doubt.

Cultivators near Chen Huaian stand out remarkably.

"Furthermore."

Zhang Mengchu abruptly extended his arms, embracing the pair of lovely young female cultivators flanking him, and declared with a radiant grin, "This old man enjoys Dao Companions now, plus boundless years ahead. Daily existence rivals a Divine Immortal's bliss, its delights beyond words... *Jiejie~* So why endure torment in that landscape painting?"

Real Person Jade Compassion: "..."

She glanced at the girls by Zhang Mengchu, separated by countless generations in age, and her lips quirked involuntarily.

Next, she eyed Su Qinian whirling in the washing machine.

And Lin Fan clutching his flying sword, cheeks flushing repeatedly with a savage smirk plastered on.

I slipped up.

She retracted her earlier notion.

In the Moon Shadow Sect's upper ranks, normal folks seem scarce.

...

By rights, Qingran's storyline should follow, yet checking the outline reveals some points left unclear. Still, it's nearly complete.