“This question…”
Jiang Yan slightly furrowed his brows, the purple-gold runes between his brows shimmering with a faint watery glow.
“How so? Is it something you can’t say? If it’s inconvenient, you don’t have to say it.”
Zhongli added, and Jiang Yan shook his head.
“It’s not that, it’s just that the cultivation system has been around for too long, and I don’t know exactly how it came to be.”
“I also don’t understand how we got to this point.”
“However…”
Jiang Yan gently extended his hand, a jade scroll condensing in his hand.
The words on it were unfamiliar to Zhongli and the others, but strangely, they understood their meaning just by looking at them.
Huangting Jade Scene Scripture.
It seemed to be the same thing that Jiang Yan had been reciting earlier.
But Gan Yu remembered vividly that it should have been a slightly yellowed, aged paper book.
Jiang Yan stared at the Huangting Jade Scene Scripture, silent for a moment before lightly smiling.
“The Dao has fifty, Heaven’s mandate has forty-nine, one escapes.”
“This one that escapes represents a sliver of hope. Everything in the world has a sliver of hope.”
“Even if something is impossible, there’s still a sliver of hope.”
“Cultivation is to cultivate that one that escapes, constantly breaking free from the cocoon of life and death in the face of nine deaths and one life.”
Zhongli was a bit dazed, but after a moment, he slightly nodded.
“There’s a sliver of hope in the world…”
“I understand. It seems your cultivation of Immortality is indeed more complete and extraordinary than ours.”
Liu Yun on the side pouted, but didn’t refute.
Jiang Yan waved his hand with a smile.
“I also said before, I don’t look down on your Immortals from Teyvat.”
“So-called cultivation, learning from others’ strengths, any world, any system, all have something worthwhile.”
“It’s just that, Immortality, in the eyes of cultivators, is absolutely impossible to be naturally born. This is an attitude cultivators must have.”
“Naturally born, born as an Immortal, can be a great divine being, can be a primordial celestial being.”
“But Immortality is a chance for transcendence given by the Dao to all beings in the myriad worlds.”
“Immortality is an absolutely sacred future in the eyes of cultivators, so cultivators are very stubborn about the definition of Immortality.”
Zhongli suddenly understood, and Liu Yun’s expression improved as well.
“So, your realm classifications are very strict.”
Jiang Yan nodded and smiled.
“That’s right.”
“Then are you not an Immortal yet?”
Liu Yun couldn’t help but interject, somewhat depressed.
“You’re not lying to us, are you? The strength you showed earlier, I felt like you could easily take down the Archon.”
Zhongli’s face turned black, but luckily, the hood covered it, and others couldn’t see it.
But he couldn’t help but scold Liu Yun for not having a brain in his head.
“I have no need to lie to you.”
Jiang Yan helplessly shook his head.
“I’m seemingly only one realm away from truly becoming an Immortal, but in reality, this one realm can trap countless cultivators.”
“Many talented cultivators may need thousands, even tens of thousands of years to break through this realm.”
“You still don’t understand the definition of Immortality in the eyes of cultivators.”
Saying this, Jiang Yan glanced at Liu Yun, raised his palm, with a kaleidoscope of light flickering within.
Like a star sea sinking into it.
This is definitely not Elemental Force!
Zhongli’s heart sank, he carefully sensed it, but besides noble and profound, he couldn’t feel anything else.
“Liu Yun Zhenjun, what I told you just now wasn’t an exaggeration.”
“So-called Immortality, coexisting with heaven and earth, shining with the sun and moon.”
“Having survived the Three Calamities and Five Tribulations, one will no longer have to worry about birth, old age, sickness, or death. One will have transcended the three realms and escaped the five elements.”
“Traveling to the North Sea in the morning and to the Cangwu Mountains in the evening, picking stars, capturing the moon, changing the sky and the earth, or even… creating worlds, these are all the abilities of Immortals.”
“To put it bluntly, Immortals are life forms above the world, Immortals are above the world, at least that’s the case in Teyvat.”
Hearing this, Zhongli sighed with longing, and Liu Yun’s eyes also sparkled.
Just the fact that their Immortals can be above the world alone puts them far ahead of Teyvat’s Immortals.
“What an unbelievable cultivation system. In that case, we call ourselves Immortals, but it seems a bit presumptuous.”
Liu Yun grumbled dejectedly, not saying anything.
Jiang Yan shook his head.
“You don’t need to say that. I’ve seen your Immortals too, your abilities are indeed mysterious and profound, not weaker than many of the cultivators’ abilities.”
“It’s just that your combat strength is a bit weaker.”
Liu Yun became even more annoyed, glaring at Jiang Yan, but he couldn’t retort.
In terms of combat strength…
Compared to cultivators like Jiang Yan, Liu Yun and the others were indeed at a disadvantage.
Jiang Yan didn’t continue talking about combat strength and continued.
“Just as humans are the starting point of the human path, Immortality is also the starting point of the Immortal path.”
“Cultivation is an endless journey, there’s never a stopping point.”
“If one day your progress stops, you think you’ve reached the end.”
“That doesn’t mean your cultivation has come to an end. It just means you’ve reached the furthest you can go.”
Jiang Yan looked at the sky with some emotion, and softly said,
“Mortals want to cultivate, cultivators want to become great beings, great beings want to ascend to Immortality, Immortals want to become celestial giants.”
“Celestial giants want to achieve the Dao.”
“After achieving the Dao, what then? I guess it’s like me now, continuing to walk the path.”
“This path is one that no one can stop, and it’s a one-way street with no turning back.”
It seemed like Jiang Yan was talking to Zhongli and the others, but it also seemed like he was comforting himself.
In any case, Zhongli and the others didn’t interrupt.
After a moment, Jiang Yan came back to himself, and with a gentle smile, said,
“Heaven and earth are limited, but the human heart is boundless, so, Immortality seeks inwards, not outwards.”
“Only by cultivating oneself and the Dao can one become a true Immortal.”
Zhongli felt that Jiang Yan seemed to be teaching him how to cultivate.
But for a moment, Zhongli was unsure of Jiang Yan’s intentions, so he could only patiently continue asking.
“The ability you used just now is not Elemental Force, nor is it divine power. Is that a unique ability of cultivators?”
Hearing this, Jiang Yan stretched out his hand again. This time, everyone saw it more clearly.
First, various elements, gold, wood, water, fire, and earth rotated in turn, even occasionally evolving into the seven elements of Teyvat.
But strangely, these elements, which normally react with each other when they touch, strangely merged together.
One person controlling all elements is already unbelievable.
But then, Jiang Yan raised his hand and pinched another strange hand seal.
In an instant, his whole body was enveloped in golden light. At this moment, even Zhongli couldn’t help but frown.
Jiang Yan’s defense, it seems, he couldn’t break through at all.
It’s absurd!
Even Zhongli had never seen anything like this before. Besides Elemental Force, there’s this kind of magical power that has no elements.
Jiang Yan extended his hand, the golden light dissipated, and he then joined his fingers into a sword.
In an instant, Jiang Yan, who was previously warm and gentle all over, instantly became like a unsheathed sword, sharp and imposing.
The bone-chilling cold light cut through the clouds in the sky, Zhongli’s artifact, the Archaic Petra, which was hidden somewhere, also directly broke free from his control.
As if it had a spirit of its own, it danced around Jiang Yan, it seemed like the sword was even happy.
Zhongli was about to say something, but suddenly, his ears twitched, and he turned his head in disbelief to look at the sea of clouds below the cliff.
Jiang Yan stood up straight, the Archaic Petra deftly and agilely slipped under his feet, as if supporting Jiang Yan to rise into the air.
Jiang Yan clasped his hands behind his back, the wide, dark robe billowing in the wind.
With long hair and a purple-gold rune on his forehead, he looked like a Daoist immortal.
For a moment, Gan Yu blushed again.
But Zhongli and Liu Yun’s eyes stayed fixed on the sea of clouds behind Jiang Yan.
Something…
was approaching.
The endless bone-chilling gale came first, violently pushing away the clouds behind Jiang Yan.
This time, Zhongli and the others saw clearly.
It was countless rivers, upon closer inspection, they could be distinguished.
Rotten, brand new, with soil, some broken…
They were densely packed, all swords.
These swords without or with owners, gathered behind Jiang Yan, following his intentions, like a blooming Epiphyllum.
They swirled, blooming into a flower of death.
The cold light shimmered, making Liu Yun and Zhongli’s eyes sting a bit.
Jiang Yan stood gracefully on the Archaic Petra, slowly raising his hand and pointing with his index finger.
The already sharp rain of swords became even more bone-chilling.
“No Elemental Force, what is this?! Archon?!”
The commotion finally alerted the other Immortals.
A divine deer, a celestial crane, and a green-haired boy quietly arrived.
It was the remaining members of Liyue, Yuehai, Lisha, and Xiao.
Upon arriving, they first looked up at Jiang Yan with thousands of swords on his back.
Their pupils contracted in unison, subconsciously surrounding Zhongli.
“Don’t panic.”
Zhongli forced his voice to remain calm, and leisurely said,
“This is Daoist Jiang Yan testing his sword.”
“Jiang Yan… Daoist?”
Xiao and the others were even more confused, but since Zhongli said it was alright, they were relieved.
After all…
This posture was too frightening, if they really fought, they would probably be strung up like candied fruit in a minute.
“Daoist Jiang Yan, this move is very unique, does it have a name?”
Zhongli seemed to be infected by Jiang Yan, and he asked aloud.
From the nine heavens, Jiang Yan’s lips seemed to curve upwards slightly.
“Sword Control!”