Upon the great scroll, Chen Xu ascended step by slow step.
He spoke unhurriedly, "All of you seek to beco Immortals, yet after becoming Immortals, you desire Immortal Servants, Immortal Children, the grandeur befitting Immortals.
If so, then is a Daoist estate not essential? Is a cave-dwelling not necessary as well?
Having acquired an estate, a dwelling—would you not seek a legacy to preserve?
Would you not desire Immortal Mountain, spiritual veins, treasured dicines..."
He painted a scroll of everlasting life, stirring rounds of assent from below.
Many, hearing his words, could not help but nod in agreent as they replied again and again:
"Indeed, these are necessary. Such should be the way upon becoming Immortal, else what aning is there in ascension?"
Chen Xu smiled and said, "Yet Immortal Mountain, spiritual veins, treasured dicines, cave-dwellings, Daoist estates—none of these things appear from nothing.
If you were truly to ascend to the Immortal Realm, you would be an Immortal, but so would he.
What you desire, all living beings likewise desire.
Since these are coveted by all, how could there not be conflict?
Where there is conflict, how could there not be division of strength and rank?
If there must be superiority and inferiority, then life and death beco inevitable.
With life and death, resentnt is born.
Greed, anger, delusion, resentnt; rivalry for fa and gain—are even Immortals spared?
If so, then what aning remains in ascending to the Immortal Realm?"
His words, though asured and unrushed, advanced layer by layer; not fiercely delivered, but each one like a sharp blade, unforeseen, that pierced through the illusion of the so-called Immortal Realm.
In an instant, his piercing words drew cold sweat from all who listened, fear taking root in their hearts.
Such incisive piercing provoked fierce reaction, and soone, unwilling to yield, cried aloud:
"At the very least, ascension grants everlasting life! How could that be aningless?"
Yet Chen Xu replied, "Who says that ascension surely brings eternal life? Was this spoken by an Immortal descended from the heavens?"
"This..." The one responding was dumbstruck, but could not help but say, "But from ti immorial, it’s been said: those who ascend gain everlasting life."
"Chen Xu, though you have unmatched achievents, you yourself have not ascended. How then do you know that ascendants do not attain eternal life?"
Chen Xu sighed inwardly for a mont: ...
Yet—he himself had already ’ascended’.
But sotis, to speak the truth makes it seem all the falser.
Chen Xu said, "Should ascension truly bring eternal freedom, why, through countless ages, do legends alone speak of Immortals, yet Immortals themselves are never seen?"
"Then, then what do you an?" The challenger pressed anxiously, "Could it be, you intend to monopolize the path of ascension?"
Pair after pair of eyes fell upon the scroll beneath Chen Xu’s feet.
This scroll, descending from the heavens, had seed mysterious from the mont it appeared.
As Chen Xu stepped upon it, ascending all the way, countless conjectures had already stirred as to the scroll’s true purpose.
None moved hastily in a short span, in part because of Chen Xu’s imnse repute, in part because most harbored a ntality of watching and waiting.
When faced with the unknown, people instinctively wish to first see who will make the first move.
Moreover, Chen Xu’s discourse on ’ascension’ drew every ear and eye with curiosity.
He was, after all, surrounded by a certain halo of legend; many wished to know what Chen Xu had truly comprehended within this Twelve-Layered Tower.
Unexpectedly, the deeper his words went, the more intolerable they beca.
When soone questioned whether Chen Xu sought to ’monopolize the path of ascension,’ it was as if a long-stirring door had been thrown open within the hearts of the onlookers.
In a flash, even more voices surged forth like waves.
"Chen Xu, you say the Twelve-Layered Tower touches the heavens. Is it that you intend, by this scroll, to...to directly ascend?"
A clamor arose!
To ascend upon the scroll?
What an utterly preposterous notion.
In ordinary tis, none would believe such a thing.
Yet with Chen Xu at the center of this conjecture, faintly, so actually seed to believe it.
Soone shouted, "Chen Xu—speak plainly! Through the Twelve-Layered Tower, can one in truth ascend?"
"You have enurated so many flaws of the Immortal Realm—what, in the end, do you intend?"
"However flawed the Immortal Realm, it is still the Immortal Realm."
"Your words are but groundless guesses—why should we trust in you?"
...
Wave after wave of questioning—Chen Xu’s prestige could no longer withstand them.
These vast, billowing voices of doubt crashed toward Chen Xu from all sides like a tidal wave, overwhelming and unstoppable.
Amidst the crowd, the Immortal Master Lanyue smiled at the corners of his mouth, his right hand hidden in his sleeve, secretly forming seals unceasingly.
Almost no one knew: this surging uproar was not rely born of Chen Xu’s own missteps, but also because of Immortal Master Lanyue’s covert interventions at this very mont.
The grand banquet in the Twelve-Layered Tower was itself hosted for so unspeakable purpose.
Lanyue set the table and bid all to enter, not out of leisure or the re pursuit of fa and revelry.
He was the personal disciple of Xuanqing, the current Master of the Pure Void Temple; while Xuanqing secretly refined the Ninefold Everlasting Pill, how could Lanyue be without ulterior motives?
Now, as Lanyue acted in secret, little did he know Chen Xu had already guarded against him.
Chen Xu seed entirely unworried by this tide of suspicion; on the contrary, amidst the boundless roar, he smiled once again.
With a faint smile, he intoned: "Beyond the world, ti flows as it wills;
who among mortals can fathom birth and death?
All the rise and fall of a hundred years—
to the eye, it is but a passing dream!"
He laughed aloud, and his gentle upward steps, unnoticed till now, suddenly quickened.
As if in that instant he broke free of shackles, stepping into an altogether new realm.
No one knew—when Chen Xu spoke before of ’ascension’, appearing to debate the multitude, in truth, he had been seeking the Way within himself.
First, by the marvel of the non-dual divine art, he touched upon ancient secrets within the Twelve-Layered Tower, causing the scroll before him to descend from the heavens.
And so, stepping upon the scroll, with each step he sought enlightennt.
At the outset, every step he took pressed unbearably upon him, feeling as if between heaven and earth, boundless invisible forces opposed him from every side.
In his dialogue with the masses, he seized the chance to grasp the mysteries of pressure in heaven and earth, while ever deepening his comprehension of his own true form and dharma.
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