Am I the only one who didn't ascend?

Chapter 543 Nightmare
The long and sincere dream began in childhood.

Childhood dreams are beautiful but short-lived.

In the prehistoric times, humans were just one of the countless creatures on earth. They were far from being the dominant beings of later generations, and they had never established a large country. They didn't even have the concept of "surnames". In Chi Cheng's time, humans could only form small tribes and barely survive. Killing and being killed, hunting and being hunted were all part of the daily life of humans in that era.

Chi Cheng lost his father at a very young age. According to the murals of the elders in the tribe, his father Dan Xin was a smart and strong hunter. He had led the young people of the tribe to capture precious prey countless times and held feasting ceremonies. He also had a keen intuition and could always detect the danger in advance and lead the tribe to migrate in time.

But the powerful hunter encountered an incredible evil when he went out hunting, and no trace of his body was left.

Later, Danxin's most trusted assistant Jinmu took over. Jinmu was also strong and intelligent, but his temperament was a little mean and dull, so he was not as popular as Danxin. However, after Danxin's death, the tribe had no choice but to make Jinmu the chief hunter.

And Jinmu is Qingyuan's father.

After Danxin's death, Jinmu inherited everything that once belonged to him: his status as chief hunter, the spears and arrows that he carefully polished and maintained, the ointments made from herbs, animal blood and oils... and his wife and children.

From an outsider's perspective, Jinmu's performance in the first few years was impeccable, and he was generous and magnanimous to both Danxin's widow and Chicheng Jinmu. However, as time went on and Jinmu's position became more stable, his mean side gradually emerged.

Jinmu no longer treated Qingyuan and Chicheng equally. He would leave the best of the prey to his biological son Qingyuan, and assign the more strenuous and difficult tribal chores to Chicheng. At the same time, when teaching hunting techniques and tempering Qi, blood, bones and flesh, he always concealed something from Chicheng.

Everyone in the tribe knew that Jinmu was intentionally training Qingyuan to be the next chief hunter, and Chicheng, the child of the previous hunter, obviously posed a threat to Qingyuan.

Everyone could see Chi Cheng's talent. Although there was no systematic way to become an immortal in the ancient times, he had an extremely keen sense of and ability to control the spiritual energy of heaven and earth since he was a child. He had almost mastered the art of guiding energy into his body at the age of seven without any guidance. Although it was not perfect, it made him more alert and his blood and qi expanded.

Among his peers in the tribe, Chi Cheng has never looked the strongest, but no one can beat him in a one-on-one competition - except Qing Yuan.

Qing Yuan, who was a few years older than Chi Cheng, became the best hunter of the younger generation under Jin Mu's careful training. He was already tall and strong at the age of ten, and could fight tigers and lions, and even complete extremely dangerous hunts independently. Moreover, he was much more generous and tolerant than Jin Mu, and both the elders of the tribe and the teenagers of the same generation praised him highly. Even Chi Cheng, who was treated harshly by Jin Mu, became close to Qing Yuan.

So people actually have never understood why Jinmu is so mean: Chicheng is a good person, but not good enough to threaten Qingyuan, and Chicheng never had that intention.

Chi Cheng owed Qing Yuan a life-saving favor after he encountered danger in the forest not long ago, which made him even more unwilling to compete with Qing Yuan for anything.

However, just when everyone thought that Qing Yuan could inherit the chief position, Jin Mu became even more harsh. He accused Chi Cheng of being ignorant of danger and almost implicated Qing Yuan, and almost exiled a seven-year-old child from the tribe. Thanks to the collective opposition of the tribe, especially Qing Yuan's fierce protest, he gave up... But he still severely punished Chi Cheng, beating a young child to pieces in front of everyone.

Such unreasonable harassment became more and more serious in the next two or three years, and Chi Cheng's situation naturally became worse and worse.

At first, people would still stand up for him, but the injustice would fade away with time, while Jinmu's hostility would grow day by day. When people gradually realized that Jinmu's exclusion of Chicheng was irreversible, they were forced to face a simple choice.

Golden eyes, or sincerity?
For the tribesmen struggling to survive, this choice was not difficult to make. Even Chi Cheng's biological mother was reconquered by Jinmu in a short time and no longer recognized Chi Cheng as her son.

So Chi Cheng chose to leave when he was ten years old. That year, he completed a hunt alone according to the tribal rules, and the prey was a little bigger than Qing Yuan's. However, after returning to the tribe, before being harshly harassed by Jinmu, he announced that he had the ability to survive independently and did not need to stay in the tribe any longer.

Naturally, Jinmu would not stop him, and even generously gave him some hunting tools in accordance with tribal tradition. The other people in the tribe had expected this day to come, and they were speechless besides sighing.

The only person who reacted strongly was Qing Yuan. He was already thirteen years old at that time, and his size was almost catching up with Jinmu. Many people believed that within five years, he would be qualified to take over the hunting bow from Jinmu and become the chief hunter of the tribe.

"So, why do you have to go? In five years, no, three years at most, I will definitely surpass my father and take the bow from him. By that time, no one in the tribe will exclude you anymore. You and I are as close as brothers, why do we have to separate now!?"

In response, Chi Cheng simply asked, "If your father is unwilling to let go, will you really take the bow?"

So Qing Yuan was speechless.

No matter how harsh and unkind Jinmu was to Chicheng, he was impeccable in treating his biological son. For Qingyuan, Jinmu could give up his life without hesitation. If Chicheng owed Qingyuan a life, then Qingyuan owed his father countless lives.

"Believe me, your father won't let go. He won't let go until I leave."

Qing Yuan was even more speechless. As smart as he was, he knew that what the other party said was true.

So he had no choice but to use the method he was least willing to use.

"Chicheng, I have never been able to convince you, so between us brothers, we should not use words to determine right and wrong. Let's just follow the rules of the tribe to decide."

Chi Cheng said: "I owe you a life... If you insist on keeping me, I will accompany you to the end."

Ten-year-old Chi Cheng, in front of the rapidly growing Qing Yuan, was still as small as a child. Moreover, due to Jin Mu's troubles in the past few years, Chi Cheng had almost no food every day, and relied on Qing Yuan's private assistance... Although his blood and qi were not exhausted, they were not full. On the contrary, Qing Yuan, after being almost forced by Jin Mu to feed him the blood and flesh of various spirit beasts, had an almost indestructible body, and his blood and qi were boiling, and even the night could not hide his edge. The contrast between the two was so obvious that when Qing Yuan swung his fist, he was already sure of the result.

However, the result of the brief fight that night in the dense forest outside the tribe was beyond many people's expectations. Qing Yuan tried his best, but he was unable to stop Chi Cheng... and it was at that moment that he understood his father's painstaking efforts.

Why was Jinmu doubly harsh on Danxin's son? Why did he play an annoying role even at the cost of his hard-earned prestige?

Because Jinmu was indeed worthy of his title, with a pair of sharp and piercing eyes. He had long seen that Chicheng's true talent was far superior to Qingyuan's... Even though Jinmu had made things so difficult for him, and he was almost deprived of food and drink, and had no superior body-building training methods, Chicheng could still draw the nutrients he needed from heaven and earth with his own understanding.

Such talent cannot be suppressed by any external force. Three years later, Qing Yuan might just barely surpass Jin Mu. But Chi Cheng will definitely reach a height that no one can understand. At that time, the position of chief hunter or great elder of the tribe will be within his reach.

Of course, this is also a ridiculous paradox. When Chi Cheng can already look down on the tribe, why would he care about the empty title of chief hunter? And if Chi Cheng's talent is so good, what is the point of Jin Mu's suppression?
However, for Jinmu, who has pinned his life on the title of chief hunter, there is no paradox. At the same time, his suppression did succeed in driving Chicheng away.

The enlightenment that night made Qing Yuan so heartbroken that he even missed his final farewell to Chi Cheng. The next day, Chi Cheng left the tribe alone without taking anything with him or telling anyone, and walked alone across the Kyushu continent.

After that, the dream accelerated. As a spectator, Wang Luo could clearly see that after leaving the cage of the tribe, Chi Cheng was like a fish in the sea, growing at an almost incredible speed. After just a few years, he felt the time, figured out the way to build a foundation, and built a top-grade foundation accompanied by the fire in the Luzhou mountain. After more than ten years, he traveled to Wuzhou and learned the art of refining from the local tribal witch, and used it to improve his own foundation and achieve the golden elixir.

This progress was dazzling even in the highly developed immortal civilization of later generations. Of course, it was because Chi Cheng was gifted and lived up to the reputation of the Immortal Ancestor. It was also because Chi Cheng followed the will of heaven. In the past twenty years, it seemed that he had received help from the unknown, and his fate with immortality continued.

After achieving the golden elixir, although Chi Cheng was far from being among the top in Kyushu, he finally understood the existence of "Tao" and even vaguely deduced the possibility of ascension.

So he immediately set off and returned to his hometown of Jingzhou, eager to share his enlightenment with his old friends. He firmly believed that as long as everyone could embark on the immortal path together, they would become more united and stronger, and then use this as a starting point to achieve a great era for mankind one day.

Of course, what he couldn't wait for the most was to meet his amazing brother in his memory again... After not seeing him for a few years, how is Qing Yuan? He must have become stronger, maybe even stronger than himself. And the tribe must be very different under his leadership.

In that late night competition, Chi Cheng narrowly won, but he always felt that the other party was showing mercy... and he had no other way out at that time, so he gave it his all. A narrow victory by a hair's breadth is not enough to be considered a victory. If Qing Yuan can also practice immortality, then there will be one more person to take care of him on the long and unknown road ahead.

However, when he returned to his hometown after traveling thousands of miles and taking several months, he found that everything had changed.

The tribe did grow, but in a way no one had expected.

The tribe, which once consisted of only a few hundred people, had expanded more than tenfold in size, and in addition to its own growth, it had apparently also annexed other tribes.

The merged tribes occupied an entire hilltop and built a fortress with ferocious antlers on the outer walls. Then, even though he was miles away, Chi Cheng could clearly smell the bloody smell lingering above the fortress.

When he got closer, what he saw and heard shocked Chi Cheng even more.

This large tribe after the merger turned out to be a bloodthirsty den of demons... The broken limbs of living creatures and piles of rotten flesh made of corpses could be seen everywhere in the castle, and some of the corpses still had clear human outlines.

In the city, no matter whether they were men or women, old or young, everyone had a mad look in their eyes. If there was any disagreement, they would start fighting in the street, and they would not stop even if blood was dripping and flesh was tangled. The source of the madness came from the top of the mountain, the most luxurious brick and wood palace in the city.

In the palace, Chi Cheng met his former brother.

A disfigured brother.

It was already… difficult to call it a human being, more like a pile of disordered flesh and blood. He sat high on a throne in the palace, his face with collapsed skin and flesh, his four eyeballs trembling constantly, looking in different directions, greedily looking for all the nutrients that could be taken into his body. From a big mouth that almost took up half of his face, a yellow-brown corrosive spray was constantly gushing out.

On his torso, as if stitched together, there grew a lot of flesh and blood from other people, and on his chest there was a row of human faces, wriggling like parasites. Among those faces, there was one that belonged to Jinmu!
It can be said that if it weren't for this face with golden eyes, Chi Cheng would hardly dare to confirm that the monster he saw before his eyes was his most trusted brother... But the rationality accumulated from years of traveling made him quickly realize that the truth was so cruel.

And when Chicheng saw Qingyuan, Qingyuan naturally saw Chicheng as well.

Even though it had been nearly twenty years, Qing Yuan still recognized him immediately and let out a surprised laugh.

"Chicheng? You're back? Over the years, I've been thinking about you and regretting my defeat that day. So after you left, I worked harder than ever before. I successfully took the bow from my father and inherited his Qi and blood cultivation method. After that, I won the treasures of several surrounding tribes... I absorbed them all and became stronger than ever. Now, you're back, and we two brothers can finally join hands again."

However, when Qing Yuan said "let's go hand in hand", his abdomen opened up bloody and drooled greedily.

"Chicheng, you have become stronger than before, so come here, join hands with me... and lend me a helping hand!"

Chi Cheng was silent for a moment, did not answer, but silently drew out a jade sword.

(End of this chapter)