Aspiring to the Immortal Path - Chapter 1298: The End

Yellow sands howled over a desolate world.

Clang!

With a crisp clatter, two trembling swords fell from the heavens.

This signified that a will had utterly disappeared.

“Yu Cheng” opened his eyes and looked around.

There was only devastation.

After that battle, nothing was left.

Only desolation and corpses.

Yu Cheng’s face morphed back into that of Tang Jie.

Now that he had taken back his own body, he naturally wouldn’t keep using Yu Cheng’s face. This wasn’t some disguise spell art, but rather his body shaping itself according to his will.

The golden light erupted from under his feet, the light of Dao Unity once more descending on his original body.

Life began to return to the deceased body.

He started to breathe, his chest rising and falling, but he still didn’t move.

This was because the Divine Soul had been extinguished, the will obliterated.

But this was fine. What the original body lacked, the avatar possessed!

Tang Jie walked up to the original body, and the two of them fused.

After being separated for so long, they had finally reunited.

At the moment the two fused, an enormous golden beam of light shot into the sky.

With a howl, the halo expanded to fill the entire dimension, and there was a humming as the entirety of the space trembled.

The combined Tang Jie seemed to realize what had brought about this change. “Did this happen because I brought together the Heavenly Dao Realm and the Dao Unity Realm?”

Tang Jie expanded his senses.

This new realm covered the entire dimension, placing it all under the control of his will.

And this was a folded dimension!

This folded dimension that contained a vast sea of stars was completely enveloped by his realm.

He could sense every existence in this dimension, and he knew that he could change it all if he wanted to.

He was the supreme master of this dimension!

Transcendence!

Tang Jie was stunned!

Wasn’t this what Yu Cheng had been seeking all this time?

And now, it had happened!

Tang Jie suddenly understood.

The Heavenly Dao Realm and Dao Unity Realm represented the Great Daos of two different worlds. Only when they were combined could one truly transcend!

This was the real way to transcend the Heavenly Dao!

Only by bringing together the Daos of two worlds, completing one’s Dao in the truest sense, true unification, could one produce a change!

Tang Jie could now sense that he was no longer under the control of either Heavenly Dao.

He had surpassed them and could even sense that they were trembling in fear!

If he were to return to the Stellar Chiliocosm, nothing would be able to stop him. His will would reach the ends of the universe, and his power would come with it.

Nothing could stand in his way!

“How laughable… The thing we were searching for was on us this whole time.”

Tang Jie shook his head.

This was Fate. After so many twists and turns, one might find oneself right back at the start.

He waved his hand, and phantoms appeared in the world.

There was the Western Heaven Buddha Ancestor, Nine Disaster, and also Yu Cheng…

The wills of the deceased had yet to completely dissipate.

They had been summoned by Tang Jie, and when they saw how Tang Jie had changed, they all smiled in satisfaction.

Yes, they understood.

Even though they were not the one who had transcended, they were content.

If one heard the Dao in the morning, one could die content in the evening.

With another wave of his hand, their souls dispersed, entering the cycle of Reincarnation.

Tang Jie began to ascend.

He ignored all spatial restrictions, going straight from the sixth floor subspace of the Heavenly Dao Tower to the seventh floor.

There, he saw an hourglass. On its upper half was an ethereal Heavenly Dao Tower, and on its bottom half was a phantom of the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel.

Grains of sand flowed from top to bottom, seemingly without end, but if one looked down at the Heavenly Dao Law Wheel, one would find that it was a third full.

This was the switch that would change epochs.

Tang Jie chuckled and ignored the hourglass, continuing his ascension.

He passed through the seventh floor, flying higher and higher, as if there was no end.

As he continued flying, a scene would occasionally go by, each of them concerning events of the past. There was Yu Cheng, Nine Disaster, Xu Miaoran…

More and more scenes appeared, the conversations going on within them eventually merging together into a single great clamor.

Sound and imagery gradually combined into a single torrent that led straight forward, far into the distance.

Tang Jie was walking along this river, and as he did, he could see the universe changing around him.

He saw that this was already the 3,421st change of epochs, saw countless lifeforms thriving and dying, saw numerous people trying to transcend and failing, saw that what he had experienced had already happened countless times before…

As he traveled along the River of Time, he could see the sheer majesty of history, and he could also see that he was just a single tiny mote of sand.

A scene suddenly popped into his eyes.

It was a temple in the Western Heaven Buddha Kingdom. A monk was reading a treatise, and his intense ardor for the heavens made him seem particularly dazzling.

It was Nine Disaster.

Thus, he said, “Nine Disaster.”

The young Nine Disaster raised his head in shock. “Who’s there?”

“I am the Heavenly Dao. Today, I have a task for you.”

Nine Disaster looked around in terror. “This is impossible!”

Tang Jie raised a hand, and a ball of thoughts entered Nine Disaster’s mind.

Trembling, Nine Disaster fell on his knees and brought his palms together. “This lowly monk understands. So this is this lowly monk’s destiny… Yes, this monk has decided. He is willing to depart to the other shore…”

Tang Jie nodded. Walking past this scene, he came upon another. It was the same temple, but this time, a girl was seated there.

Tang Zixi.

She was earnestly reading a Buddhist text.

Tang Jie took out his own copy of “Inquiries to the Buddha”, and the book in his hand flashed before gradually dimming. At the same time, the book in Tang Zixi’s hand became suffused with a golden glow as it silently transformed into a Dao armament.

Smiling, Tang Jie left the scene and continued forward.

He saw the Pool of Demonization, where a Titan was in the middle of a tough battle. It was Yu Cheng, who was making his way to his objective.

Tang Jie waved a hand, and as Yu Cheng reached the fissure, it transformed into two doors. A will entered Yu Cheng’s mind, telling him the purpose of the two doors and guiding him back to the starting point.

After doing this, Tang Jie continued forward. He saw a husband and wife on an arduous journey. The man had become a demon, but the woman refused to leave him. Thus, he informed them that there was only one place that could resolve the husband’s demon nature.

He continued onward and saw a demon jail, where a young man and woman had been imprisoned. This time, it was the woman who was a demon. Thus, he created a crack in the jail and then led the two there, upon which they broke the wall and escaped the jail. But the man clearly had no feelings for the woman, and when he escaped, he bound the woman in the prison. Tang Jie then led the man into the world behind the fissure and told him that he must not advance to Saint Immortal there, or else he would forever be bound there. This allowed the man to escape when the time was right.

Finally, he came to one last point in time. There, Xu Miaoran was leading the Rosecloud Domain in utterly routing her foes. He cast Wang Yao’s soul there. Here, he would find a new life.

He continued down the River of Time. He saw Xu Muyang, the Vermillion Bird, Yiyi, many friends, and also many enemies. He did not try to change the past, only filling in the blanks, until, finally, he reached the end.

Yes, there was an end to this river.

It was a door of light.

Leading to an unknown world.

Tang Jie knew that if he went over, what awaited him might be a vaster world. There, perhaps transcending the Heavenly Dao was only the starting point.

Tang Jie did not fear challenge, but if he went, he would be giving up on all that he had here.

Should he go or not?

After some thought, Tang Jie split off a part of his will, which took the form of another Tang Jie.

“Go,” Tang Jie said. “Bring the name of Tang Jie and my story to that unknown world, and find that new limit.”

Tang Jie ultimately chose not to enter that door of light.

He wanted to stay here, with his wife, children, and friends.

His clone looked back at Tang Jie and smiled.

He turned and walked to that door.

And disappeared into the light…

(THE END)

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Translator’s Afterword:

With that, “Aspiring to the Immortal Path” has officially come to an end, and many thanks if you stuck it out to the very end. As the novel drew toward its end, it was clear that the author became a lot messier about details and world-building in the later stages of the novel, and it became considerably less enjoyable to translate and read, particularly with all the word filler and lack of attention to detail. The big reveals at the end were still very interesting, but the ending was so accelerated that it didn’t feel like there was much time to ferment them.

In summary, the novel was good at the beginning, but once Tang Jie leaves Rosecloud and gets more and more powerful, the author runs into the problem of basically all the other characters fading into the background, and it’s hard for Yu Cheng to be a villain when he barely interacts with the main character.

Anyways, again, thank you for reading to the very end. I will take a break before I decide on my next project, but when I do, I hope you will all enjoy it!

Editor’s Afterword:

I hope you enjoyed this novel as much as I did. It’s been part of my life for so long now, it’s bittersweet to see it go.

Still, I look forward to seeing where our own door of light takes us next. Perhaps I’ll see you there. ღ(ゝ◡╹)ノ♡