For this reason, an aggrieved Chen Xingzhou had a falling out with Lei Yaoxing, which unfolded the prelude to the turmoil.

But...a few lackeys and a sniper?

Could such insignificant roles really be fit for the task of drawing the curtain?

Since there was to be an assassination, why at the endpoint? Wouldn't placing a rock in the middle of the road be more convenient?

If the aim was to be foolproof, wouldn't it be simpler just to shoot wildly in a crowd? If Ji Jue had really let go and not cared, would that bullet have truly hit its mark?

And that mysterious woman who indirectly set all this in motion at the club, where did she take the scent of her perfume?

Why did Lei Wuye seemingly become from hale and hearty to on his deathbed over several months? Why did Lei Yaoxing make one misstep after another, gradually making enemies of everyone?

Why was this funeral so timely?

And the bullet shot at Chen Xingzhou, unnoticed and unimpeded by anyone, such an incredibly skilled shot, whose hand did it come from?

Too many mysteries, now rendered untraceable and unverifiable with time.

As the new speaker came to power, everything would soon be covered by dust, buried underground along with those who knew too much.

Yet at this moment, Ji Jue couldn't help but start to think, what if it had been him... In their shoes, what would he have done?

The answer is no answer.

It's as if now, some outcomes are fated to be without resolution.

So, this is where it ends.

There's no need to delve further into the rest; this is the outcome everyone will be content with.

To the craftsman apprentice Ji Jue, the dark side of Cliff City's upheaval was over, everything that followed had no connection to him.

His world did not lie within this wasteland.

"Goodbye, White Deer."

Ji Jue turned and looked at the surging waves below the riverbank.

In the reflection of the tide, the White Deer stood silently in the distant wilderness, quietly observing everything.

Survival, hunting, competition, death.

This chaotic and cruel wilderness...

From beginning to end, the White Deer witnessed it all.

Is the White Deer the only witness to it all?

That moment, the youth who bade farewell to the wilderness raised his head and finally saw.

Enveloping the mortal world above, a colossal vision that embraced the universe—immense, shapeless, as vast as the sea and rising like a flame. Like an endless road stretching into the horizon, proceeding ceaselessly upward, toward greater heights...

It was watching him, always had been, in silent vigil.

As if it had been waiting for a long time.

In the quiet instant of the mortal world, under the eaves in the cemetery, the remaining raindrops fell, breaking up in the tender greenery, revealing a glimmer of light.

The conversation inside the hall paused suddenly, as if struck by a revelation, they turned to gaze toward the distant sky.

"Superior induction?"

Tong Ting looked up, suddenly moved. "I've never seen 'that one' show such favor to a craftsman."

"I thought it would be White Deer."

Elder Lin shook his head in regret. "Such a pity."

"The Superior flows from within all things, hunters, and beasts pursue the hunt and the wilderness. But from within the wilderness, spiritual beings can also harbor a desire to transcend, a longing to ascend..."

The elder of Chongguang Church looked up at the vast Ascension, smiling silently, "Even now, are not all of you also harboring intentions of Ascension?"

Ambition and ideals are one and the same.

All things in this world arise from this.

Some say that humans evolved from monkeys.

Perhaps the moment a monkey first thought to walk upright, that simple wish was destined to lead the world to its present chaos and madness?

This longing to transcend is indifferent to good or evil, high or low, morality, or social rank.

When a beast gazes upon the world, after fear and hesitation, the instant it conceives a desire, the first primate comes into being.

All of the world's myriad things, everything stems from that initial longing to transcend.

That is the origin of the soul.

"So, you were here?"

In the sound of the tide, the boy who left the White Deer behind sighed lightly and stretched out his hand toward the sky.

He clenched that glittering radiance that fell from the heavens!

For an instant, he seemed to see countless phantoms, roaring toward him like a tidal wave.

All that had been, all that Ji had been...

A babbling baby reaching for a toy, the survivor in the Fierce Flame shedding tears, crawling from the rubble, a disheveled young craftsman bowing his head, gritting his teeth to carry bricks, the fortunate applicant receiving a wrench from Lu Ma, the student proudly entering the gates of Tianmen University, a soul not content with decay rising from nightmares, returning to the mortal world, the Ember Chosen One with the edge of transformation striking down with his sword...

And now, the craftsman bathed in the sea breeze looks again at the scorching sun and the sky above.

From past Ji Jue to present Ji Jue, continuing as one from the remnants of time.

Age, identity, situation, seemed wholly different yet somehow unchanged.

In this, all living creatures are undistinguished.

The dying Lei Wuye still grasped at power in his final moments, the downtrodden Chen Xingzhou swore to rise above, Lei Yaoxing who waited many years wished to take over everything, and the unwilling lackeys aimed to climb to power...

Even if their appearances and identities differed, the drive stemmed from the same source.

The poor long for wealth, the weak dream of strength, those without anything covet power, and those who dislike their situation resort to ideals...

Even when stuck in the mire, unable to extricate oneself, there is still the urge to look up. Gazing at the sky, one can't help but long to...reach for the stars!

Once such a thought surfaces, it can never be forgotten.

Thus, the heart longs to climb, growing ever more fervent.

Ultimately unstoppable.

In this way, the frog in the well yearns for the light beyond its reach, the trapped beast instinctively chases after the mountainside.

Struggling, striving to ascend.

Higher peaks may lie beyond precipitous ones, and beyond the high heavens, perhaps even higher heavens exist.

But as long as there are heights in the world beyond reach, this longing to surpass cannot be extinguished.

—This is [Ascension]!

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