"Cough... cough, cough..."
In a certain desolate wilderness within the Lower Layer of the Upper Realm, Nie Shiyun coughed as he pushed aside the surrounding foliage, looking around in all directions. "The sensation of passing through space won't be pleasant"—he only now recalled the words spoken by the twins back then. He hadn't expected this "unpleasantness" to be so severe; it was comparable to riding a roller coaster for eight hours straight.
He wondered if Bairong and the others had suffered just as much when they crossed over. Nie Shiyun’s throat was parched and burning, so he immediately drank a bottle of spiritual herb fluid to soothe it.
Earlier, Nie Shiyun had clearly felt that the rift connecting the two worlds had opened because it sensed this immortal artifact from the Upper Realm, using his own Soul Transformation cultivation as a catalyst. During the process of arriving here, the immortal artifact in his hand had been violently pulled forward, while he himself felt a faint sense of repulsion. Nie Shiyun guessed this was because he had used an irregular method of ascension, but he had no other choice. He could only grit his teeth and endure it, desperately holding the immortal raiment in front of him.
He looked down at the Purple Silk Immortal Raiment in his hands. Sure enough, the recently repaired garment was damaged again, and the damage was even more severe than last time! Upon inspection, he found several large holes on the back and sleeves. This was beyond his expertise as a weapon refiner; he would likely need to find a cultivator who specialized in weaving spiritual fabrics to produce the necessary cloth before it could be fixed.
"Such dense spiritual energy..."
After putting away the immortal raiment and surveying his surroundings, Nie Shiyun couldn't help but take a deep breath. After reaching the Soul Transformation stage, his cultivation efficiency in the lower world had become as slow as a tortoise. But now, simply standing on this land, his mind felt expansive, and his body greedily drank in the surrounding spiritual energy like a parched field meeting a spring rain. It was no wonder rumors claimed the Upper Realm was such a wonderful place; for a cultivator, the ecological environment here was indeed far superior.
The first thing Nie Shiyun tried was using a communication crystal. Unfortunately, the crystal remained unresponsive, no different from an ordinary stone.
Forget it, he hadn't expected things to go that smoothly anyway. Nie Shiyun helplessly put the communication crystal back and looked at his feet.
There lay a high-level array the likes of which he had never seen before, though more than half of it was currently in ruins, clearly non-functional. He estimated that this might be the passage through which cultivators from the lower world ascended. He tried to study it for a moment, but as expected, he couldn't even understand its most basic principles. Nie Shiyun didn't expect to fix such a thing the moment he arrived in the Upper Realm. For the time being, he took out a brush and paper to sketch it out, deciding to return and deal with it later once he had improved himself.
The surroundings were silent and deserted. The wildly overgrown vegetation seemed to tell a tale of a place that had not been stepped upon for thousands of years.
After recording the array, Nie Shiyun departed on his flying sword. Knowing nothing about the situation in the Upper Realm, he decided to proceed with caution, intending to find a town first to gather information.
This flight lasted for ten whole days.
Nie Shiyun thought to himself that if he were in the lower world, he would have nearly traveled from his cave estate to the southern Demon Clan forests by now. Yet here, he had only just spotted his first town! Just how vast was this Upper Realm?
Along the way, his body had already adapted to the dense spiritual energy. Nie Shiyun even felt that his cultivation, which hadn't budged for a long time, was showing signs of loosening. Upon entering the town, he observed that the lives of the people here didn't seem much different from those in the lower world. He felt a sense of relief and decided to find an inn to rest after gathering some information, then enter his jade pendant to cultivate.
With Zhai Bairong absent, he couldn't afford to be so extravagant with his use of medicinal pills. To be safe, Nie Shiyun first went to a pill shop. He did not suppress his cultivation, walking into the shop normally while quietly observing his surroundings. As expected, no one reacted to him being a Soul Transformation cultivator—there was neither respect nor disdain. It seemed that in the Upper Realm, Soul Transformation was a common level of cultivation found everywhere.
"Fellow Daoist, what would you like to buy?" the cultivator behind the counter greeted him indifferently.
Nie Shiyun scanned the medicine labels. Seeing that the names of the pills were mostly the same as in the lower world, with only a few he didn't recognize, he felt at ease and asked for some Spirit Recovery Pills.
"Five hundred Immortal Crystals."
Nie Shiyun froze. Immortal Crystals?
"Do you only accept Immortal Crystals here?"
The cultivator behind the counter looked a bit confused. Then, seeing Nie Shiyun pull out several spirit stones, he said in surprise, "People still use low-grade spirit stones these days? It's possible, but it's too much trouble. Do you not even have five hundred Immortal Crystals?"
Nie Shiyun was speechless. Forget five hundred, he didn't have a single one.
Seeing Nie Shiyun's difficult expression, the other man understood. With a look as if he were staring at a freak, he rummaged under the counter for a long time before pulling out a thick ledger.
"The current exchange rate of spirit stones to Immortal Crystals is... one thousand to one. To be honest, although our shop accepts equivalent exchange, I really don't want to take fifty thousand spirit stones in one go! Why don't you go to a merchant house to exchange them and then come back?" The cultivator's face was full of reluctance.
Nie Shiyun: "..."
Fifty thousand. For a few bottles of Spirit Recovery Pills.
He really wanted to direct the words Xuan Yang used to scold him at the man across from him—*Why don't you just go and rob someone!*
"That's true. Then... I'll go check the merchant house." Nie Shiyun quickly nodded in agreement.
He knew now that the spirit stones in his hand had depreciated severely! In that case, money had to be spent where it mattered most. Since he still had a reserve of Spirit Recovery Pills, he shouldn't waste money on them for now.
The other man also breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but grumble in a low voice, "You look quite young. Just how long have you been staying in some backwater mountain gully..."
Nie Shiyun gave a couple of awkward laughs, not answering directly as he hurried away.
Leaving the pill shop, Nie Shiyun went straight to a merchant house. He could skip the medicine, but he had to exchange his spirit stones for the local currency. Fearing that taking it all out at once would attract too much attention, he only exchanged half of his savings. One had to realize he had come prepared, yet several large bags of heavy spirit stones ultimately turned into a small pouch of Immortal Crystals. Seven hundred and twenty in total.
"I'll give you seven high-grade ones. Or would you prefer them all in low-grade?"
"...Give me the high-grade ones."
One high-grade Immortal Crystal was worth a hundred low-grade ones, so the seven hundred and twenty were condensed even further. Looking at the twenty-seven pieces of new currency in his hand, Nie Shiyun’s heart felt incredibly complicated.
"Young man, were you trapped in a mine or a farm doing labor before, and only recently made it out?" The manager of the merchant house was a rather stout man who seemed to enjoy chatting.
"I am..." Nie Shiyun didn't understand the meaning behind his words and didn't answer for a moment.
"Hmm? No, looking at your cultivation, you shouldn't be that old. No newcomers have come up from the lower realms; those heartless bastards haven't snatched any labor for thousands of years..."
It was hard to judge the situation from just a few snippets, but Nie Shiyun didn't want to expose his special method of ascension. He could only play dumb and follow the man's lead, making up a story. "The lower realms? I don't quite understand the specifics. Anyway, these spirit stones were left to me by my parents before they passed. I lived in a place like a village before."
"I knew it! So you're a descendant of someone who escaped from a farm! No wonder you look like you've never seen the world."
Nie Shiyun silently cursed the fat man in his heart several times.
Business at the merchant house was slow. Seeing that the manager didn't suspect him, Nie Shiyun talked in circles and managed to fish out quite a bit of information. Perhaps because his act of playing dumb was quite successful, he really did learn several key pieces of information.
In the Upper Realm, cultivators were born at the Golden Core stage. Above Soul Transformation were three stages: Void Refinement, Body Integration, and Great Convergence. Beyond those three stages were True Immortal, Golden Immortal, and Immortal Emperor. Put this way, Soul Transformation was indeed a level found everywhere.
Thousands of years ago, when the ascension channels were still functional, some members of the Demon Clan and even fellow humans developed wicked intentions and stood guard near the channels. They would wait for unsuspecting Soul Transformation cultivators to finish their arduous tribulations and then strike while they were weak. If the newcomer was a tough nut to crack, they'd leave it be, but if they felt they could handle them, they would seize the opportunity to capture the person for forced labor.
Dignified Soul Transformation cultivators from the lower world would arrive in the Upper Realm only to fall into such wretched states. Most felt fury in their hearts, but due to the gap in power, they could only submit. Those who already had families in the Upper Realm to receive them could avoid this disaster. Many of these families were themselves involved with these mines and farms. Although there was constant resistance and many cultivators escaped every year, the practice never truly died out. Some cultivators who had once been captured even rose to prominence later, only to turn around and exploit the newcomers themselves.
Of course, as the ascension channels closed, this tradition gradually faded away.
Nie Shiyun was truly speechless upon learning this. There really was oppression wherever people existed...
"By the way, Manager, do you know where the Phoenix Clan lives?"
"You'll have to go to the port and take a Celestial Ship to the Middle Layer first, then go from the Middle Layer to the Upper Layer. The Phoenix Clan's territory is there. But what is a kid like you looking for the Phoenix Clan for?"
"My mother said she never saw a phoenix in the lower realms. Her lifelong wish was to see the form of a Beast God with her own eyes. I want to go see it for her sake." Nie Shiyun had already memorized his "backstory" after chatting for so long; the lie came naturally.
"The Phoenix Clan are all incredibly arrogant! You likely won't see them even if you go. Not to mention the ship fare is deathly expensive, and the prices of goods and land in the Middle and Upper Layers aren't something a rogue cultivator can afford. Sigh, if I ever earn enough money, I'd like to go up there too..."
Nie Shiyun thought to himself that it seemed the wealth gap between the "Upper, Middle, and Lower" layers of the Upper Realm was massive.
As the manager spoke, he became melancholy and began pouring out his woes to Nie Shiyun, telling him how his Daoist companion had run off hundreds of years ago with an old man from a Great Family in the Middle Layer, preferring to be someone's concubine rather than run a small business with him.
"It's getting late..." Nie Shiyun tactfully reminded him. But the manager seemed to have finally found someone to vent to; once the floodgates were open, they wouldn't close. He couldn't leave. He saw several people pass by outside the shop, all casting sympathetic glances at Nie Shiyun inside.
Nie Shiyun finally understood why this fat manager was so willing to tell a stranger everything.
The neighbors probably automatically detoured whenever they saw him!
After chatting for an hour, Nie Shiyun’s head was filled with the fat manager's emotional, fluctuating tones.
"By the way, Manager, do you know why the human ascension channels failed?" a numb Nie Shiyun asked casually.
"Oh, everyone knows that. I was still young then, and I heard it from my elders. Thousands of years ago, there was a great war between ancient demonic beasts. The four Divine Beast clans fought tooth and nail, crashing straight from the Upper Layer down to the Middle Layer, and then falling to the Lower Layer. That upheaval destroyed several villages and towns in the countryside! Not just the human ascension channels, but those for the Demon Clan and other lower realms were all broken."
"Don't the four Divine Beast clans take responsibility?" Nie Shiyun pressed.
"Good heavens, who would dare make them take responsibility? You'd have to be out of your mind," the fat manager clicked his tongue. "Anyway, their own ascension channels are within their territories, all tucked away in the Upper Layer."
Nie Shiyun’s spirits lifted; it turned out he could still get some new information. It wasn't a waste of time to empty his mind and listen to this man's past romantic grievances for an hour.
The sky had turned completely dark. The shop manager finally had his fill of talking and let Nie Shiyun leave. Exhausted, Nie Shiyun immediately found an inn, spent a hundred Immortal Crystals for the most basic small room, and lay on the bed to organize the information.
From what he had seen these past few days, the Upper Realm was simply too vast. Moreover, he heard the Middle Layer was even more expansive than the Lower Layer. Expecting Bairong and the others to come down and find him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. In contrast, the target of the Phoenix Clan's territory was much larger. Since repairing the channel was currently hopeless, his primary task for a reunion was to head to the Upper Layer of the Upper Realm.
Before that, he needed to at least be able to maintain his daily expenses and the fare for two Celestial Ship journeys. Even if he exchanged all the spirit stones on him for Immortal Crystals, it would only amount to a little over a thousand. He also needed to prepare enough talismans and pills for self-preservation in this world where Soul Transformation cultivators were everywhere, while continuing his cultivation...
The road ahead was truly long.
Nie Shiyun hadn't felt weary in a long time, but after the past ten days of exertion combined with the mental tension of arriving in a strange environment, he once again experienced what "fatigue" felt like.
The Upper Realm wasn't as mystical as he had imagined; it was just a new world with a better cultivation environment and a much larger territory. Having lived leisurely for a hundred years, Nie Shiyun didn't hate this feeling of starting from scratch; he even felt a hint of excitement. The only thing that felt uncomfortable was the empty other half of the bed.
"Bairong..."
Nie Shiyun whispered softly. The room was very quiet, so quiet that the faint sound of the candle burning could be heard. Nie Shiyun’s whisper, filled with longing, was even softer than that sound.
Bairong was probably like him right now, sick with longing and tossing and turning, unable to sleep?
Thinking of that image, a smile couldn't help but spread across the corners of Nie Shiyun’s mouth.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 上天界 | Upper Realm | The higher plane of existence Nie Shiyun travels to. |
| 下层 | Lower Layer | The bottom-most division of the Upper Realm. |
| 中层 | Middle Layer | The middle division of the Upper Realm. |
| 上层 | Upper Layer | The top-most division of the Upper Realm. |
| 仙晶 | Immortal Crystals | The currency used in the Upper Realm. |
| 炼虚 | Void Refinement | A cultivation stage above Soul Transformation. |
| 合体 | Body Integration | A cultivation stage above Void Refinement. |
| 大乘 | Great Convergence | A cultivation stage above Body Integration. |
| 真仙 | True Immortal | A high-level immortal rank. |
| 金仙 | Golden Immortal | A high-level immortal rank. |
| 仙帝 | Immortal Emperor | The highest known immortal rank. |
| 仙船 | Celestial Ship | A vessel used for travel between the layers of the Upper Realm. |
| 回灵丹 | Spirit Recovery Pill | A common pill used to restore spiritual energy. |
