Immortal Ascension Tower 25 MEMORIES OF THE SAINT WHO WISHED TO CHANGE THE WORLD

"It couldn't be that you... Have such a memory?" The girl sucked a breath in as she felt shock once again, "No way! How could you possibly get your hands on such a precious memory?"

Cheng Hao raised his eyebrows and chuckled bitterly: indeed, it would require quite some time for him to instill in the young girl the thought that maybe, just maybe, his words about being a really old and powerful figure could be true… As for right now however, that would have to wait.

Furthermore, it was much more fun this way.

The youth smiled and he raised his index finger: actually having a cultivation base, right now he would be able to do more than simply exploring a person's consciousness! Sharing a memory or two wouldn't hurt too much...

Plus, the girl had the right to know just whose records she was trying to beat... and at what level of strength she should be aiming at! After all, amongst all of Xu Ling's armies, those capable of standing up to a Xiao Lan at full power were all figures that had lived for thousands, millions of years even. Of their generation, only Xu Ling, the Evil Saint himself, would have been a match to the handsome youth with flowing purple hair and mesmerizing emerald eyes…

Cheng Hao paused his index finger a few inches away from the girl's forehead and awaited for a few breaths. Seeing no sign of the girl refusing and the fact that she actually had a somewhat excited and anticipating expression on her face, the youth treated her silence as a consent. Without further ado, he gently pressed his finger in between the girl's thin eyebrows and sent a strand of will into her sea of consciousness. As soon as he did so, the girl felt her sense of reality warp as her vision suddenly grew blank!

Xiao Wu opened her eyes. She looked around and found herself standing on an unfamiliar terrain: the land was barren, with countless broken barricades and shattered weapons laying about on the crimson, blood-stained ground. The air carried the scent of blood and the sound of weapons clashing, of men and women fiercely shouting names of imposing techniques. The number of cultivators engaging in battle were countless, the level of the fighters varying drastically, to the point that while at times only a few rocks would be sent flying, at others even the sun in the sky would occasionally be outshined by the might of a particularly flashy skill. However, if one looked closely, he would find that the opponent of those countless cultivators was really but a single person…

Xiao Wu found herself on a tall garrison of what looked like a tall tower, looking at the scenery through the eyes of a man wearing exquisite golden robes. Behind him, a large army of countless cultivators, both human and not, laughed and enjoyed the spectacle the one person battling against thousands of enemies cultivators was putting up for them. The man did not use any flashy techniques or anything of the sort. Instead, he seemed to hold what looked like a black sword in his hands and, with minor movements, he would cut through hundreds of foes. Side-stepping to the right, jumping and crouching, the sword-wielder was like an army himself as each of his strikes, albeit casually executed, still carried the hint of some mysterious law that allowed his attacks to break past even the toughest defense.

When facing enemies ambushing from below, the blood-soaked black blade would pounce downwards, taking as many lives as the number people it would meet in its path!

When the opposing cultivators came from the front, the blade in his hands would sweep out overbearingly! Be it swords, axes, spears or shields that the black blade was faced with, all would shatter, fragment, snap and splinter regardless of material or size, with the wielders soon following their weapons' demise!

Striking from above was all the more in vain: as if turning into a dragon and rising to the heavens, the black swordsman only needed the fraction of a breath to tear apart the encirclement of a thousand men, leaving behind a thousand corpses in his path towards the sky.

This cycle that repeated endlessly brought the seemingly endless army down to its knees: the man's strikes each took a hundred souls to meet Yama, effectively negating their advantage in numbers; this, coupled with the apparent absence of fatigue he was displaying, turned the man into a devil in the eyes of his opponents, giving birth to countless deserters breaking the ranks, action which even the more so eased the man's eradication of his enemies. After a few more breaths had passed, the original army of tens, hundreds of thousands, was no more, felled by the sword dance of a single person.

Victoriously looming over the battlefield like a death divinity, the man donning robes colored black, white and purple waved his hand and the black blade still dripping blood faded away like an illusion. He turned to look towards Xiao Wu - or more accurately the person whose body she inhabited – bowed slightly, and disappeared as well.

Xiao Wu, who was seeing through the eyes of the person standing on top of the tower, suddenly heard someone approaching. The person whose memories she was experiencing turned around at that moment: the incoming figure was that of a young man donning a set of impeccably speck-of-dust-free, black, white and purple colored clothing.

Xiao Wu recognized the approaching youth to be the same cultivator that had slaughtered the hundred-thousand-strong army below. It looked like he had not disappeared just then, but had actually ran back to the tower where her host was standing.

Xiao Wu had, however, no time to spend amazed at the speed that couldn't be discerned with the naked eye. Instead, she found herself shocked to see into the youth a person that, if it weren't for the difference between their countenance, looked exactly alike to the famous figure whose portrait hang in every single hall of the Xiao Clan Mansion; Xiao Wu's ancestor and world-renowned genius– Xiao Lan!

Wearing black, white and purple colored robes, the man had a calm and peaceful expression on his handsome face; behind him, a cascade of long, straight, purple hair flowed like a waterfall down his back, past his shoulder blades, and down all the way below his waist. The purple strands swayed gently with the wind as the man approached in no hurry, seemingly staring right at her...

Xiao Wu compared the youthful looks and the pair of thin lips arranged into a wide, carefree smile with the severe and proud expression that the person in her Clan's portrait donned: based on the aura and the feeling the two gave off alone, the youth before her eyes and the imposing man in the portrait would seem like two different people. However, upon closer inspection, the irrefutable proof of his identity, the pair of emerald eyes glinting like sharp blades and sharp features as if sculpted with a sword, convinced Xiao Wu of this person's identity without any chance of doubt: this man was most definitely her redeemed ancestor, Xiao Lan!

"It is done, boss." Xiao Lan lowered his head respectfully. Then, his expression changed slightly as he spoke once more, " They are coming, boss. The Heaven Devouring Dragon just sent over a strand of will, informing me that our spies in the Tyrant Dragon Hall have confirmed the two peak HighGod stage Grand Elders and one hundred God stage Elders of the Tyrant Dragon Hall to have all just left the Hall's territory."

God... and HighGod stage?

Xiao Wu widened her eyes in shock and found it hard to breathe as the notion of those four words were properly understood by her brain. The God stage, the eleventh stage and the highest stage of the Ageless Realm, was a stage that would allow one to rule as an unhindered conqueror in any second-rate plane of existence... even in the True Earth, outside of the Nine Heavens (True Heavens), where spiritual energy was abundant and Heavenly Beasts that had been alive for many millennia flourished, a God stage would still amount as being above average! And as for the HighGod stage? Well, although the two words apparently only differed by four letters, there was an insurmountable chasm between the two.

A God might be a peerless existence at the peak of the Ageless Realm...

But an HighGod already belonged to the Immortal Realm!

Normally, a single HighGod facing dozens, hundreds of Gods would only need to wave a sleeve to suppress each and every single one of them! What kind of concept was that? An HighGod, a being that had surpassed both the Mortal and the Ageless Realms, a being belonging to the first stage of the Immortal Realm, an existence told of only in legends… and two of them at that?

Even her Xiao Clan only had a few HighGods, and as for those who surpassed the HighGod stage... apart from her Ancestor and the esteemed Elders and Protectors that had accompanied Xiao Lan in his fight beside Xu Ling who were still in seclusion after the battle one thousand years ago, there were none.

And yet, why did Xiao Lan look so calm? Could this memory possibly be from the period he had already broken through to the Immortal Realm?

"No. At this moment in time, Xu Ling is currently still at the peak God stage, while Xiao Lan has just reached the bottleneck of the Ancient stage and should also soon step into the God stage soon."

Cheng Hao's voice sounded in Xiao Wu's ears. The girl waited for some more exposition on the current situation, but the golden-eyed youth spoke no more.

If that's true, then how is ancestor planning to deal with two HighGod stage powerhouses with their current cultivation?

Even after inquiring a few times however, the voice of the other child would always repeat the same thing in a tone that was both enigmatic and trembling with anticipation: "You'll see soon..."

Xiao Lan's robes fluttered in the wind as the soon-to-be Xiao Clan Master bowed slightly and smiled serenely, "My Lord, Xu Ling... what should this servant do?"

Had Xiao Wu been in control of the man's body, one would have been able to see her eyes widening to the size of tennis balls.

Xu Ling, the Evil Saint... is also here?

After Xiao Lan was appointed as the Xiao Clan Master, he had also elevated the figure of Xu Ling in the Clan's eyes into one higher than his own, to the point it basically turned into the awe of a mortal subject towards a deity. Although this view may have faded during the years, the figure of the genius, handsome and powerful Xu Ling was like that of an idol in the majority of the Clan's younger generation… with Xiao Wu being no exception. Or, at least, she carried a feeling of admiration towards the Evil Saint on par with what she felt towards Xiao Lan... And due to that, how could the nine-year-old Xiao Wu not feel excited at the chance of seeing her idol?

As soon as Xiao Lan's mouth had uttered the words Xu Ling, she had immediately begun trying to look around. Unfortunately, with her view strictly bound to the first person perspective of the man wearing golden robes, she was unable to freely search her surroundings. Seeing how Xiao Lan was bowing in her direction however, meaning the target of his bows and questions was most likely behind her... it likely meant that she was extremely close to Xu Ling! Just as she was feeling excited however, Xiao Wu also couldn't help asking herself a question... To be this close to the Evil Saint, these memories would have to be of a person with extremely high status in the Rebel Army, maybe standing on equal footage as Xiao Lan as one of Xu Ling's few trusted aides. This would make this memory extremely rare and, possibly, incomprehensibly pricey, if sold.

And if that were truly so, how could Cheng Hao, a Clan-less boy born in the lowest-rate plane of existence, possibly get his hand on such a precious memory?

His knowledge on stuff regarding the Evil Saint was extensive, she had had experienced it first-hand, and he also had such a precious memory... If so, could it be the claims of him having actually met with all those famous figures of the past carry a hint of truth? And what about those jokes about conversing with and helping Xiao Lan creating the Triple Little(Xiao) Qi Scripture... Could they actually be something more than a funny joke? The more she thought of this, the more Xiao Wu realized... that she actually knew nothing of Cheng Hao's background, and that those little things she did know, either did not make sense, did not add up, or were simply too unbelievable!

And yet, even if they might not make sense in the small picture, on a wider canvas, just maybe they could fit as perfectly as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle! Even if they do not add up, just maybe it's just because I've been putting together the wrong information! And even if something might sound unbelievable... who's there to say it cannot be the truth?

Xiao Wu fell in a slight daze as her impression of Cheng Hao - how he seemed to be able to read her like an open book, his inhumane and heaven-defying feats, his mind-boggling knowledge – all seemed to point in the same direction... before she could come to know of what that direction may be, her thoughts were interrupted by a voice... a voice that was extremely close-by...

"Mmmm... so those two have ultimately chosen to intervene?"
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