Chapter 409: There Is Still Hope for the Future
When Bai Hongtu learned he had been summoned back to the Nine Provinces, he knew his chance to visit the River of Time was gone.
If even Jiang Li had returned from the River of Time, what point was there for him to go?
“How did you return from the River of Time?” Bai Hongtu asked curiously.
“I met Emperor Shun, the ancestor of the Ji family. He sent me back. You’d never guess what I did there,” Jiang Li said smugly, his tone mysterious as he prepared to boast about his experiences.
“Did you travel tens of thousands of years back and storm the Immortal Realm?” Bai Hongtu asked.
Jiang Li: “…”
That was not a question he could answer.
“Weren’t you looking for Immortal Elder Changcun? Let’s go. You can share your historical insights when we get there,” Yu Yin said, striding into the Dao Sect as if she were its sect leader, with Jiang Li and Bai Hongtu following behind.
“Immortal Elder, we’ve come to visit you again!” Jiang Li called out cheerfully, entering the Secluded Cave as if visiting a lonely old man.
Immortal Elder Changcun, immersed in his books, closed the ancient tome upon hearing Jiang Li’s voice and chuckled. “Visit? Every time you come, you bring problems with you.”
“You’ve brought quite the crowd this time—Hongtu and Xiao Yin are here too. Make yourselves comfortable. This cave has nothing but books, so don’t expect much hospitality.”
Remembering how he had just seen Immortal Elder Changcun age from youth to old age over nine thousand years, Jiang Li felt a pang of emotion.
“Immortal Elder, we recently visited a world where no one cultivates immortality, but some possess superpowers. The Outer Realm Demons have barely infiltrated there.”
Hearing this, Immortal Elder Changcun secretly sighed in relief.
No Outer Realm Demons was good. Every time Jiang Li sought him out, it always involved those fiends. Maintaining the web of lies he had spun over the years had been exhausting.
“However, someone in that world wielded time-based superpowers and sacrificed their life to send me into the River of Time.”
Jiang Li looked at Immortal Elder Changcun with a knowing smile. “Care to guess which era I visited?”
“I went to the Nine Provinces nine thousand years ago. I witnessed the destruction of the Celestial Ladder and learned the truth about the Outer Realm Demons.”
“R-Really?” Immortal Elder Changcun forced a smile, his composure cracking as cold sweat dripped down his back. He hadn’t expected Jiang Li to drop such a bombshell right away.
There was no way to talk his way out of this one.
“Wasn’t the Celestial Ladder destroyed by the Outer Realm Demons? What’s so surprising about that?” Bai Hongtu asked, confused.
“Wrong. The Celestial Ladder was destroyed by the Dao Ancestor.”
“What?!” Bai Hongtu was stunned. “The Dao Ancestor of the Immortal Realm destroyed it?”
“You could say it was destroyed by the Immortal Realm’s Dao Ancestor, or by your Dao Sect’s Dao Ancestor. The Dao Sect’s Dao Ancestor was one of the three incarnations of the Immortal Realm’s Dao Ancestor. After merging the three incarnations, he shattered the Celestial Ladder.”
“Then the Immortal Realm’s Dao Ancestor left the Nine Provinces and destroyed the last remaining Celestial Ladder in all realms—the one in the Mingzhong World—before passing away there.”
Bai Hongtu shot to his feet. “You’re saying the Immortal Realm’s Dao Ancestor is dead?! Are the Outer Realm Demons that powerful? Does that mean they’ve already conquered the Immortal Realm?”
Yu Yin’s expression was equally grave. Jiang Li’s revelation was earth-shattering. If the Immortal Realm had fallen to the Outer Realm Demons, even if the Celestial Ladder were rebuilt, no one would dare ascend, and no one could become an immortal.
The Immortal Realm had become the stronghold of the Outer Realm Demons.
“Actually, there are no Outer Realm Demons.”
“No Outer Realm Demons? What do you mean?”
“You’ve seen the weathered stone stele left behind by the Dao Ancestor in the Mingzhong World, right?”
“Of course. The stele mentioned the Dao Ancestor encountering enemies and leaving the Immortal Realm severely wounded. Immortal Elder speculated it was due to internal conflicts in the Immortal Realm that affected our Dao Sect’s Dao Ancestor. Now that I think about it, Immortal Elder’s theory must have been wrong.”
“I saw the complete stele.”
Jiang Li didn’t elaborate on himself, instead projecting an illusion of the stele into the air.
“…The Heavenly Dao has gained sentience… All cultivators below the immortal level in the Immortal Realm have perished… Earthly Immortals devour one another, becoming monsters of various forms… Wait, isn’t this description of Earthly Immortals exactly what we call the Outer Realm Demons?!”
“Ancestor, what in the world is going on?”
Immortal Elder Changcun sighed. “Jiang Li, since you already know the truth, why not keep it to yourself? Why must you reveal it?”
He knew the secret could no longer be hidden.
When he first fabricated the tale of the Outer Realm Demons, many had questioned it. Over time, those from that era gradually fell in battle, until only he and Venerable Sumeru Buddha remained.
After Jiang Li killed Venerable Sumeru Buddha, he was the sole survivor.
As the only living witness from that time, people naturally believed whatever he said. By now, no one questioned the origins of the Outer Realm Demons.
Though Jiang Li had his suspicions, he could only suspect. As long as Immortal Elder insisted on his original story, Jiang Li had no way to disprove it.
Never had Immortal Elder Changcun imagined Jiang Li could visit the River of Time—and travel back nine thousand years.
Even Ji Zhi could only go back three hundred years. How had Jiang Li done it?
Did the River of Time just let him pass?
If possible, Immortal Elder Changcun would have taken the secret of the Outer Realm Demons to his grave, ensuring no one else ever learned the truth.
Knowing the truth would do the Nine Provinces no good—not nine thousand years ago, and not now.
Just as he had repeatedly warned Jiang Li: if he could avoid ascending, he should; if he could avoid opposing the Immortal Realm, he should.
Given Jiang Li’s temperament, conflict with the Immortal Realm was inevitable if he went there.
No matter how strong Jiang Li was, he couldn’t surpass the Immortal Realm. No one could oppose the Immortal Realm alone.
Even his master, after merging his three incarnations and standing at the pinnacle of the immortal path, had been slain.
Seeing Immortal Elder remain silent, Jiang Li explained to the other two: “There are no Outer Realm Demons. What we call Outer Realm Demons are actually immortals.”
“For nine thousand years, we haven’t been slaying demons—we’ve been killing immortals.”
“Earthly Immortals became monsters that ravaged the Nine Provinces, while Celestial Immortals submitted to the Heavenly Dao and schemed across all realms.”
“Perhaps Immortal Elder already knew about the changes in the Immortal Realm when the Dao Ancestor shattered the Celestial Ladder. But back then, revealing the truth wasn’t an option. Among the cultivators of nine thousand years ago, few sought to maintain order—most were self-absorbed demonic cultivators who saw the world as theirs to exploit.”
“Cultivation leads to immortality. With the Immortal Realm gone and ascension impossible, revealing the truth would have driven cultivators to despair and hastened the Nine Provinces’ downfall.”
“Immortal Elder fabricated the lie about the Outer Realm Demons for the sake of the Nine Provinces.”
“Jiang Li, if you understood the reasoning behind this, why reveal the truth now?”
Jiang Li’s expression turned solemn. “Because I received the Dao Ancestor’s final request.”
He projected the scene of the Dao Ancestor’s last moments for Immortal Elder Changcun to see.
In the vision, the mortally wounded Dao Ancestor told Jiang Li with his dying breath that since Jiang Li came from the future and was even stronger than him, there was still hope for the future.
Watching this, Immortal Elder Changcun’s vision blurred. He covered his face and wept uncontrollably—whether from seeing his master’s death, releasing nine thousand years of bearing lies and solitude, or both, no one could say.
There was still hope for the future.