Chapter 296: Satellite
The price was Sima Qiudao’s life.
But Sima Qiudao didn’t regret it. In the last moment of his burning life, he came to space.
He saw a sight he had never seen before.
It was a sight that no one in the Jianghu had ever seen.
He was lucky!
The sky? No, there was no sky anymore.
If the thin layer of white clouds enveloping the sphere beneath his feet could be considered “sky,” then he had already stepped on the sky.
“The sky” was beneath his feet!
“The sky” was beneath his feet!
The thousand-year-old aspiration of the Ascension Path had been fulfilled by him!
He had come above the sky, to a dark, cold, and infinitely vast world.
Cold, it was truly cold.
Even though he had burned his lifespan and all his blood and Qi, he still felt cold.
In this world, the sun was a large ball of fire emitting light, while the moon was a smaller sphere. The distant stars were also spheres, and the world beneath his feet was a sphere as well.
Was everything a sphere?
And these things were merely a drop in the ocean of this dark world. Within his sight, countless stars emitted light.
Those stars must all be spheres! Those stars must all have their own stories!
It turned out that we were truly frogs at the bottom of a well.
Sima Qiudao couldn’t help but think.
Soon… Sima Qiudao could no longer think.
His lifespan had been burned out, he could no longer breathe, and the low temperature of space froze him solid.
He was dead!
But he had no regrets, only joy.
He only hated that he couldn’t see more of that magnificent world!
So his lifeless eyes gazed into space, his naked body facing away from the planet’s atmosphere.
His corpse drifted in space, captured by Earth’s gravity, becoming a satellite.
The first artificial satellite in the Jianghu was a person.
After Sima Qiudao’s rocket reached a certain altitude, the people of Flying Heaven Peak could no longer see the crooked rocket.
It was too high for the naked eye to see, even for Shi Feizhe.
When they saw that the rocket had ascended without exploding or falling, the Daoists of the Ascension Path cheered!
That was the fruit of their years of hard work!
“What are you shouting for?” Li Qingshan turned around and said, “The Sect Leader went with it!”
Oh right, they now had a dead Sect Leader, so cheering like this was a bit…
“But the Sect Leader lived for so long, being able to ascend to heaven before his death is a happy funeral! So…” Li Qingshan said, “We should shout even louder!”
“Congratulations to the Sect Leader for successfully ascending to heaven!” he shouted.
“Congratulations to the Sect Leader for successfully ascending to heaven!” The Ascension Path members, who were initially stunned, also started shouting along.
It was nothing like the usually solemn and serious Ascension Path.
But at this joyous moment, even the rigid Daoist Xiao didn’t say anything.
From the moment they joined the Ascension Path, they knelt before the ancestral tablets and swore to fulfill the wishes of their ancestors.
Now, the rocket had soared into the sky, they had succeeded.
Li Qingshan looked at his fellow disciples, took out a magical sword, and said, “Yesterday, the Sect Leader passed the position of Sect Leader to me. After his ascension, I am the Sect Leader of the Ascension Path.”
The magical sword was a ritual object of the Ascension Path, the personal weapon of the first ancestor, passed down as a symbol of the Sect Leader’s authority.
“Greetings, Sect Leader!” Dongfang Yanyan said.
“Greetings, Sect Leader!” Daoist Xiao said.
Following their lead, the rest of the Ascension Path also said in unison, “Greetings, Sect Leader!”
โฟโฟโฟ
In fact, over the past few years, everyone could sense that Li Qingshan would be the next Sect Leader. Since Li Qingshan became a True Realm martial artist, Sima Qiudao often let him convey the Sect Leader’s orders.
Moreover, Dongfang Yanyan of Earth Fire Peak and Daoist Xiao of the Guardian lineage agreed. The three of them, as martial artists, were the top fighting force of the Ascension Path.
No one dared to disobey.
“The second matter. The Ascension Path will join Yangzhou’s Aerospace Institute.” Li Qingshan said.
This decision caused an uproar among the Daoists below and the invited guests.
Especially the invited Daoists, who found it difficult to accept.
I knew you Ascension Path people were flirting with Yangzhou, but I didn’t expect you to surrender directly.
Surrender is surrender, can’t you guys invite us along?!
Don’t invite us here, only to leave us aside to be made fools of!
Yes, these Daoists were all opportunists, quick to change their allegiance.
If they could surrender to Yangzhou, if they could survive, they wouldn’t have instigated Sun Daoren of the Yellow Heaven Path to clash with Shi Feizhe.
“Esteemed uncles, esteemed fellow disciples!” Li Qingshan, holding the magical sword, addressed them loudly, “Hear me out!”
The Ascension Path members quieted down and looked at Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan said, “Our Ascension Path has resided on the Snow Mountain for a long time, but we are not isolated from the Jianghu. Everyone here, esteemed uncles and fellow disciples, must be aware of the situation in the Jianghu.”
Of course they were aware. The Ascension Path was an anomaly in the Jianghu.
The Daoist priests in the Jianghu were either greedy for money, lustful for women, deceitful, or practiced unorthodox methods.
Otherwise, would he, Li Qingshan, have killed the Daoist of the True Dragon Path while catching a fox down the mountain?
“Forget about them, but the Great Dao is also lonely for us!” Li Qingshan added.
These words immediately resonated with them.
On the path of the Ascension Path, they were indeed lonely, the only ones in the Jianghu. Many of their doubts could not be answered.
In the Ascension Path’s library, there were many handwritten notes from their predecessors, filled mostly with doubts.
“But Yangzhou is very similar to us.” Li Qingshan said, “They, like us, are researching the theories and methods of ascending to heaven. Even the idea for this rocket came from Yangzhou.”
“By joining them, we can continue our pursuit of ascension, and perhaps one day, each of us can safely fly to the heavens and safely return.”
“Ascending to heaven will no longer be the end for us, but the beginning.”
“We will ascend to heaven, to explore the world above!”
“I’ve heard it’s a boundless world, a world we can’t explore in a lifetime.”
“Esteemed uncles, esteemed fellow disciples, wouldn’t it be interesting to explore such a world?” Li Qingshan spoke his mind.
Exploring the unknown world above held no meaning for ordinary people, but it held great significance for the members of the Ascension Path.
Since the heavens were there, how could they not go and see?
Now it was Sima Qiudao, and in the future, it would be them!
Without such an aspiration, how could they endure the loneliness on the Snow Mountain?
“I am willing to follow the Sect Leader!!” someone shouted. It was Gu Chi with the square face.
He had been to Yangzhou a few times and felt that Yangzhou was a good fit for the Ascension Path.
“Follow the Sect Leader!”
“Exploring the world above must be very interesting!”
Sima Yanyan looked at Li Qingshan with gratification.
He felt that Li Qingshan had inherited the spirit of the past ancestors of the Ascension Path, worthy of being the current Sect Leader!
Note: “ๅๅฎๆ” is a dialect from Hunan, meaning to be made a fool of.
