Chapter 186
The heavenly tribulation for the Immortal Master of the Spiritual Realm lasted a full day and night.
The tribulation grew stronger and stronger—by the time ascension approached, the lightning had become unimaginably fierce. Even a single strike would be enough to obliterate a Soul Formation cultivator on the spot.
Even Mu Jue, after resisting for a full day and night with all his might, was left with torn clothes and nearly no strength left.
So—
When he had only a sliver of strength remaining, panting and collapsing to the ground, he didn’t even have the energy to look up and admire the burst of golden light above his head, or the Heavenly Gate opening wide in the sky…
In Mu Jue’s wavering vision, he suddenly saw Jian Yunlan not far off, carrying bags and bundles like a traveler rushing to catch the last train home for the Spring Festival—cheerfully hurrying over…
“?”
Mu Jue couldn’t help but mentally type out a question mark.
Wait, who are you exactly??
They were ascending to the Upper Realm, not going home for New Year’s!
Mu Jue: Who else has experienced this? Who ascends to the heavens with arms full of bags like some clueless bumpkin? This is outrageous!
After surviving a full day and night of heavenly tribulation, the first person he laid eyes on was… this guy. He nearly blacked out on the spot. This was going to haunt him for life.
But then, all his internal complaints got stuck in his throat.
Because as Jian Yunlan drew closer—
A rich, mouthwatering aroma of marinated food wafted through the air…
Mu Jue: Gulp. Gulp.
Tears streamed from the corners of his mouth.
Jian Yunlan walked up and waved five fingers in front of Mu Jue’s dazed face. “Hey, you okay? We’re supposed to ascend to the Upper Realm today, remember—”
Mu Jue was silent for two seconds, then suddenly grabbed Jian Yunlan’s hand with excitement, unable to hold back the drool pouring down:
“Bro… you smell amazing!”
“……”
*
Half an hour later.
The golden Heavenly Gate that had appeared to welcome the ascension of the Spiritual Realm’s Immortal Master waited patiently in place.
However—
Mu Jue was still eating… and eating… and eating…
It wasn’t that there was a ton of food.
Jian Yunlan had prepared the marinated dishes mainly for the Taotie. While he’d made plenty, he wasn’t planning to share too much with unrelated parties. So he very stingily gave Mu Jue one marinated egg and two chicken feet.
Even so, Mu Jue savored them like a royal feast!
When he finished, he even clutched the bones and sucked every last drop of flavor out of them before he was willing to part.
Mu Jue: “This stuff’s too good to waste… slurp, slurp.”
Jian Yunlan: “……”
Golden Heavenly Gate: “……”
Finally, just as the gate seemed about ready to close in annoyance, Mu Jue reluctantly put down the now completely flavorless chicken bone and stood up.
“Stand behind me,” he said quietly to Jian Yunlan.
Jian Yunlan quickly stepped in behind him.
From the Heavenly Gate, golden light began to pour down, enveloping both of them in its glow.
Suddenly, the entire world fell silent.
Radiant light flowed like waterfalls, and the cry of a phoenix echoed faintly. Jian Yunlan felt the ground beneath his feet disappear—but it didn’t feel like falling. Instead, it felt like he was rising, soaring toward a vaster world…
In that instant, boundless universes, endless realms, and infinite phenomena unfolded before his eyes like a grand scroll.
It was a strange and awe-inspiring feeling.
Even in his mortal body, Jian Yunlan felt as if his very blood was connected to mountains, rivers, and lakes. Every beat of his heart seemed to echo with the rhythm of the world itself.
When that profound sensation abruptly ended, he felt solid ground underfoot again.
Except—it wasn’t ground. It was… air?
Jian Yunlan: “?”
The air beneath his feet had become so dense it seemed solid, allowing him to stand in midair.
“This is the true Mountain and Sea Plane,” said Mu Jue beside him, glancing around with cold, detached eyes. “Also known as the ‘Upper Realm.’”
“How do you feel after passing through the Heavenly Gate?” he asked.
Jian Yunlan: “Profound.”
Mu Jue: “You’re welcome.”
Jian Yunlan: “…..”
So smug. Like he wasn’t just slurping chicken feet with wild abandon a few minutes ago!
As first-timers in the Upper Realm, the two of them looked around curiously. But the moment Jian Yunlan got a proper look, he realized something was off.
In his imagination, the Mountain and Sea Plane should’ve been full of floating clouds, vibrant flowers, and peaceful, heavenly scenery.
But right now, beneath their feet was a bottomless abyss. And in the center of that abyss stood a lone mountain, shrouded in murky gray mist, surrounded by copper walls and iron bars…
It looked… suspiciously like a prison?
Jian Yunlan hesitantly glanced at Mu Jue, about to speak but holding back.
Mu Jue: “If you have something to say, say it!”
Jian Yunlan blurted out: “Uh… Lord Immortal Master… did you ascend to become a prison guard?”
Mu Jue: “……”
You’re a prison guard! Your whole family are prison guards!
Mu Jue nearly cracked a tooth from clenching his jaw. He had to repeat the words roujiamo and braised chicken feet in his heart several times to calm his urge to kick Jian Yunlan off the cliff.
“The person you’re looking for… is likely here,” Mu Jue said darkly. “But I can only bring you this far. Whether you meet them or not depends on your own fate.”
The person he was looking for…
The Taotie… is here?
Jian Yunlan’s eyes lit up as he looked toward that looming prison.
Even though it had only been a few days, just the span of crossing two planes, Jian Yunlan felt as if it had been ages since he last saw Taotie.
And finally—now, they were so close.
He wondered if, back in the Genius Baby is Three and a Half plane, when he’d crossed the Great Rift Valley of East Africa just to find his little Taotie, he’d felt this same way.
Just as Jian Yunlan was about to leap down, Mu Jue suddenly called out to him, his voice a bit awkward.
Mu Jue: “Hey… about that marinated food—could I get a little more? Consider it my fare for bringing you here.”
Jian Yunlan grew stingy: “You haven’t had enough? No way. I brought it for someone else. You already ate a lot.”
Mu Jue grew anxious. “No, I’m not keeping it for myself! I want to take some back—for someone else!”
Jian Yunlan: “Who? Your new prison guard coworkers?”
Mu Jue let out a deranged, broken scream: “AAAAAHHHHHH!!!”
“……”
Mu Jue, clutching a small bag of marinated snacks, walked back through the golden Heavenly Gate they had come from.
“I’ll leave you here,” Mu Jue said.
Jian Yunlan, still standing in the same spot, replied: “Oh, okay—safe travels, then!”
Mu Jue gave a nod, his eyes flashing with hesitation and hunger.
After a moment of internal struggle, he turned back and said, “You have someone you’re looking for, and I have someone I’m looking for. From here on, we part ways. We probably won’t meet again. So can I have just one more marinat—”
He turned around—
The space behind him was empty.
The person who had been standing there just seconds ago… was gone.
Jian Yunlan had already run off!
Mu Jue: “……” Damn it! If I’d known, I would’ve asked sooner!
But now, standing before the Heavenly Gate again, there was no point dwelling on it.
In theory, a Golden Immortal who transcends tribulation is only allowed to pass through the gate once. After entering the Upper Realm, all past karma is severed, and they are no longer connected to the Lower Realms.
Unless… they’re still tied down by unresolved obsessions.
Mu Jue had such an obsession.
And so, this time, he turned away from the Upper Realm, even before his new life had begun. Carrying his small bag of marinated snacks, he stepped into that golden light—
He was returning to the mortal world to seek out that one man in a simple blue robe.
—The mortal husband he had killed a century ago in order to attain enlightenment.
*
At the same time, a familiar mechanical voice rang in Jian Yunlan’s ear:
[Congratulations! You have completed the main mission: “Convert an Immortal Master with a Roujiamo.”]
[Preconditions for the ultimate main mission have been met.]
[Ding! The Ultimate Main Mission has been unlocked for you!]
[Reward obtained: (Ultimate Street-Vendor Tricycle) x1. Note: Ultimate Plus Pro Max model—one cart outdoes five!]
[Reward obtained: (Size-Change Spell) x1. Note: You can resize any food however you like!]
[Ultimate Main Mission: The Jun Tian Prison is a maximum-security facility for the worst criminals in the Mountains and Seas Plane. Heavily guarded, full of deadly traps… or is it? Use hot, fragrant marinated delicacies—braised pig trotters, chicken feet, quail eggs, and dried tofu—to pave your way through Jun Tian Prison. Follow that path… and find the one you want to see most!]
A stream of cheerful ding-dong alerts echoed nonstop in Jian Yunlan’s head, accompanied by a chaotic shower of random rewards. It was so noisy that his brain started to buzz, and for a moment, he really wished he could mute it all.
But then he thought over the system’s words more carefully.
“Ultimate” main mission.
Just the word ultimate carried serious weight!
This only confirmed what he already suspected—Taotie was almost certainly inside Jun Tian Prison.
No matter what, he had to go in.
Resolute in his decision, Jian Yunlan leapt down.
The gates of Jun Tian Prison were primarily black and gold, like a colossal altar embedded between heaven and earth.
And compared to the massive, imposing gates, the two guards standing in front of them looked especially… underwhelming. Even a bit pitiful.
Many found it surprising that the most secure prison in the entire Shan Hai Plane was guarded by just two wardens. But the truth was, Jun Tian Prison didn’t rely on the number of guards to contain its prisoners.
Jun Tian Prison was itself a direct embodiment of the Heavenly Dao’s will. Every corner of it was under the Dao’s control.
Aside from the Warden who held real power, most prison guards were just symbolic—meant not so much to prevent escape, but to stop outsiders from stumbling in and getting themselves killed.
After all, not a single inmate in Jun Tian Prison was someone you could mess with.
In front of the prison gates—
The old guard and the new guard both wore dark black iron armor, but rather than looking imposing, they seemed downright dispirited.
The two of them yawned at the same time.
“Sigh…” the new prison guard sighed.
“Sigh…” the old prison guard also sighed.
It was their 3,000th day guarding the gates of Jun Tian Prison.
The employee benefits of Jun Tian Prison were excellent, but the one downside was that the shifts were incredibly long.
They only changed shifts once every 10,000 days.
The two of them had already stood here for over 3,000 days, and yet they were still nowhere near halfway through their shift. The changeover was still far off in the future. During these 3,000 days, they had talked about everything from the eight trigrams of the Mountains and Seas world to poetry, life philosophies, and more, but time still passed slowly.
During the long, unchanging shifts where day and night blurred together, both their minds began to slip into confusion.
“Big Brother,” the new guard said, “What do you think? If only we could go to one of those earthly market food stalls, get a plate of marinated snacks, and a pot of wine, sit by a fire, eat, and chat… how happy would that be…”
The new guard smacked his lips.
The old guard was also a bit tempted by the thought. “You’re right about that.”
—And then, as if their wish had been granted, reality seemed to bend to their desires.
Both of them suddenly twitched their noses.
From somewhere, the scent of hot, marinated food wafted toward them…
