Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

One day ago, the Wang Family's mortal enemy, the Golden Core Family, the Zhou family, suddenly located Fragrant Swallow Valley and trapped dozens of the Wang Family members inside the valley.

To ensure not a single remnant of the Wang Family escaped, the Zhou family even deployed three Foundation Establishment and a team of Qi Refinement Late Stage clan members this time.

There's no hope to hold onto; the Wang Family was doomed this time.

At the end of the Thousand-mile Talisman, it was written, hoping that Zhao Sheng and his family would escape quickly, to prevent the Zhou family from targeting the Zhao family, intending to eradicate them completely.

The Wang family had moved to Ganzhou over sixty years ago and had been safe all this while; why did the Zhou family choose now to come knocking?

Beyond his shock and anger, Zhao Sheng was deeply puzzled, and Wang Yuqi didn't know why either.

He quickly guessed a possibility, "Could it be because of that Foundation Establishment Pill?"

Over the past dozen years, due to the additional income from perfume, the Wang Family's annual profits increased significantly, saving up three to four hundred Spirit Stones a year.

And Wang Zonghai was already nearly ninety; if he didn't attempt Foundation Establishment, he wouldn't have many years left to live.

Thus, six months ago, the Wang family unanimously decided to gamble all their wealth to let Wang Zonghai try Foundation Establishment.

For the past half a year, aside from selling their ancestral property, the Wang family also repeatedly engaged in unprofitable trades, forcefully involving their son-in-law Zhao Sheng.

A month ago, the Wang family finally splurged over twenty thousand Spirit Stones to purchase an inferior Foundation Establishment Pill.

Zhao Sheng's guess wasn't wrong, indeed the disaster stemmed from the Foundation Establishment Pill, but it was an indirect factor. The final item that the Wang family sold, a hereditary spiritual artifact, the Red Dragon Sword, was the direct cause of this annihilation of their clan.

The Red Dragon Sword was the most frequently used spiritual artifact by the Patriarch of the Wang Family during his Foundation Establishment.

Because the Red Dragon Sword appeared at a workshop in the Liang Kingdom, a Foundation Establishment Clan Member of the Zhou family happened to see the Red Dragon Sword at an auction, which alerted them to the Wang Family's remnants hiding in the Liang Kingdom.

The Wang Family's ancestral home was in the Desolate Domain of the Da Yong Dynasty, once a Golden Core Family; their family ancestor and the neighboring Zhou Family's Golden Core Ancestor were archenemies.

So, after the Patriarch of the Wang Family passed away, the Wang Family fell and was pushed by all. Led by the Patriarch of the Zhou Family, the Wang Family was eventually defeated and their clan's Great Array was broken, nearly wiping them out completely.

Wang Zonghai and his group were the last of the Wang family to escape.

"Husband, what should we do?" Wang Yuqi was utterly distraught and clueless.

"Don't panic! Leave everything to me."

The Wang family was beyond saving; the most imperative thing now was to save the lives of his entire family as much as possible.

Now, Zhao Sheng faced an exceptionally tough decision. He had eight children; the oldest, Zhao Chenggong, was sixteen years old, while the youngest, Zhao Chengle, had just turned one.

Besides, there were over a thousand clan members at the Nanyang Zhao Family.

The Nanyang Zhao Family should not be a big problem. Considering they were merely mortals, the Zhou family might not regard them highly and might not opt to kill them.

However, the Zhou family would not spare his family, as there was a tradition in the Cultivation World to eradicate thoroughly.

"Dayong Zhou family! This blood feud of a family ruined and scattered, Zhao will repay tenfold. Even if not in this life, then in the next or the one after... Someday, I will make the Zhou family pay with blood for blood."

Having thought this, Zhao Sheng grimly made a cruel decision.

To maximize their chances of survival, he and his wife would only take Zhao Chengle and flee, while the other seven children would be taken by close kin, trying to escape separately.

Having made his choice, Zhao Sheng did not hesitate and immediately sought out the Family Head Zhao Hexing, to inform him that the Wang Family had perished and that his own family needed to escape without delay as well.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hexing's face turned ashen, and he stood frozen on the spot.

Zhao Sheng had no time to delay, regardless of Zhao Hexing's reaction, he repeated his plan once again.

Decades of serving as the Family Head were not in vain, Zhao Hexing quickly calmed down and decisively gathered seven of his most trusted clan members. In just a quarter of an hour, he had everything arranged properly.

Four hours later, Zhao Sheng, with a face full of sorrow, watched as the carriages carrying his children split up and drove towards the unknown.

For safety, no one in the Zhao family knew the final destination of the escape, not even Zhao Sheng.

When fleeing, each of the seven children carried a family keepsake on them to facilitate future recognition.

Zhao Sheng did not know if he would ever see his children again in his lifetime.

"Madam, stop looking. We need to go!"

Zhao Sheng placed Old Eight into a sleeping bag, securely tied it on his back, then forcefully pulled Wang Yuqi, who was staring blankly into the distance, and jumped onto the backs of two Thousand-mile Divine Steeds.

"Take care!"

Zhao Sheng looked back and saw Zhao Hexing, whose hair had suddenly turned all white, and nodded solemnly.

Clip-clop!

The two Thousand-mile Steeds snorted excitedly, their hooves clattering, and galloped away like arrows shot from the bow.

As Zhao Sheng's family disappeared far into the horizon, Zhao Hexing suddenly burst into tears.

...

In the summertime, Heavenly Pillar Mountain towered into the clouds, its cliffs lush with greenery, and wild vines and unknown plants covered almost every nook and cranny.

Zhao Sheng stood at the edge of the cliff, looking far into the distance, with only boundless clouds beneath his feet, where looking up revealed no end. The sound of the wind all around was tumultuous, roaring like the tide of the ocean, pushing clouds and squeezing fog, beating against the rocks beneath his feet as if trying to sweep the cliffside's occupants into the endless Cloud Sea.

From his vantage point, looking left and right, the mountain walls stretched far away, seemingly endless.

This stretch of precipice, though not small and had some cliffside depressions, was just a minor and remote corner within Heavenly Pillar Mountain, which crossed thousands of miles with peaks that soared out of sight; it was rarely visited by medicine collectors.

"Heavenly Pillar Mountain, Heavenly Pillar Mountain... have you really pierced the heavens? I wonder if one day, when the endless Sea of Clouds and Heavenly Gang disperses, will I be able to see the full view of this mountain?"

A perfectly normal thought, one that nearly every medicine collector on Heavenly Pillar Mountain might have felt impulsively.

Over the years, Zhao Sheng had traveled up and down the boundless cliffside countless times, and regardless of the weather, whether clear or cloudy, he had never seen the sea of clouds above his head or beneath his feet ever clear up.

Heavenly Pillar Mountain was a renowned place in the Cultivation World, known as the Axis of Heaven and the center of the world, and it was also a paradise for loose cultivators.

Twenty-three years ago, the family of three, Zhao Sheng, escaped to the vicinity of Heavenly Pillar Mountain and settled down here incognito.

To accumulate cultivation resources for Old Eight, Zhao Sheng quickly became one of hundreds of thousands of medicine collectors on Heavenly Pillar Mountain. He busied himself daily collecting various spiritual medicines in exchange for spirit stones, magic talismans, and other cultivation resources.

The mountain was rich in spiritual medicines, among which the most famous were Purple Qi Mushroom and Moon Dew.

Moon Dew was too mysterious, only appearing at heights thirty miles and above on Heavenly Pillar Mountain. The place was too high and too perilous, unreachable for those below the Foundation Establishment Realm.

So, leaving out Moon Dew, let's talk about Purple Qi Mushroom.

Purple Qi Mushrooms are categorized into four grades according to their age: White, Green, Red, and Purple Ganoderma.

Lingzhi less than a hundred years old is White Ganoderma, between a hundred and five hundred years old is Green Ganoderma. Lingzhi over five hundred years old turns red as fire, and a thousand-year-old Lingzhi shades into purple, which is where the name Purple Qi Mushroom comes from.

It is famous because the Red Ganoderma over five hundred years old is the main ingredient for refining Foundation Establishment Pills, while the thousand-year Purple Qi Mushrooms are one of the main ingredients for Golden Core Formation Pills.

Just these points alone show how sought after Purple Qi Mushrooms are in the Cultivation World!