Immortal Ascension Through Marriage: Investing in My Wife Get Returns

The majestic, sweeping skies of the immortal illusion stretched outward into an infinite horizon of breathtaking divinity. Lin Yuan stood at the very edge of the celestial balcony, his consciousness entirely submerged in the dream domain.

To call it a mere dream was an understatement. The sensory feel flooding Lin Yuan was indistinguishable from reality. The ambient Qi of this Heavenly Court was so unfathomably dense that it existed as a heavy, rolling mist of liquid gold that clung to his robes and absorbed directly into his skin.

With every breath he took, it felt as though he were inhaling the birth of entire galaxies and exhaling the absolute, fundamental truths of the Great Dao.

He stepped off the polished celestial jade of the balcony. Gravity did not pull him down; instead, the rolling golden clouds solidified instantly beneath his boots, offering a surface softer than spirit-spider silk yet as firm as divine iron.

As he walked through the sprawling, floating architecture of the heavens, the sheer scale of it left him in profound awe.

Towering pagodas reached toward the zenith. Waterfalls of pure liquid cascaded from floating islands, their rushing waters creating a harmonious symphony that resonated perfectly with the rhythm of his own heartbeat. Majestic true dragons soared lazily overhead, bowing their heads in absolute reverence as they sensed his presence.

This was the absolute apex. This was the legendary Immortal Realm that countless cultivators slaughtered each other to reach.

Lin Yuan approached a central, colossal palace that seemed to act as the axis of area. The massive gates, forged from an alloy of pure sunlight and condensed space, swung open silently to welcome him.

Inside, there was perfection. A solitary throne, carved from a crystal of pure tribulation lightning, waited at the end of a long, sweeping hall.

He walked the length of the hall, the silence echoing with a supreme majesty. When he finally turned and sat upon the throne, the entire domain seemed to let out a collective sigh of completion.

Here, there were no bottlenecks. Lin Yuan looked inward at his cultivation and found that he possessed the power of a true, eternal god. With a mere flick of his wrist, he could feel the sensation of celestial constellations realigning to his will. With a single thought, he could extinguish the suns that hung in the sky outside the palace doors.

Lin Yuan sat upon the throne, experiencing the absolute fulfillment of every cultivator ambition. He drank ambrosia that tasted of ultimate victory and absolute peace. He watched the immortal beasts dance through the golden clouds for what felt like a millennium. He possessed eternal life, limitless power, and absolute sovereignty over his domain.

It was a paradise so utterly flawless that it was terrifying.

Lin Yuan slowly realized the danger of Lord Zhao Shenming’s Dream Dao. The domain did not fight the host with physical attacks. It fought the host by offering them everything they had ever wanted. It eroded the heart not through suffering, but through absolute comfort.

Why return from this? a formless, seductive whisper seemed to echo from the golden clouds outside. Why return to the dirt, the blood, and the endless, exhausting struggle? You have conquered the heavens. You are a god here. Stay in the light. Rest upon the throne. Relinquish the pain of the lower world.

For a lesser cultivator, this illusion would have been an inescapable tomb. They would have gladly surrendered their physical bodies in the real world to starve and wither away to dust, just to spend an eternity ruling this fabricated heaven. They would have lost themselves completely to the obsession of absolute power.

But Lin Yuan was not a lesser cultivator.

He sat upon the throne for what felt like five hundred years of unbroken silence. He experienced the perfection of immortal life, yet he knew, without a trace of doubt, that it was still an illusion. No matter how perfect an illusion became, an illusion was still an illusion. He would not allow himself to wither away within this mere dream!

Lin Yuan’s deep purple eyes, which had grown slightly dull under the intoxicating weight of this illusionary eternity, suddenly sharpened with a brilliant clarity.

Perfection that’s false is nothing but an elaborate cage, Lin Yuan thought, his will violently reasserting itself over the reality.

His mind flashed back to the physical world. He thought of the bitter, freezing rain. He thought of the warm, golden-silk peach congee he had cooked just that morning, and the beautiful, radiant smile on Bai Qingyue’s face as he hand feed her.

That was his Dao. His path was not about escaping to an empty heaven where he sat alone on a throne. His path was about dragging the heavens down to achieve immortality without loneliness.

"I have seen enough of this false heaven," Lin Yuan’s voice boomed, shattering the absolute silence of the colossal palace.

He gripped the armrests of the throne. He did not gently try to wake up; he unleashed the full fury of his Thunder Rain Dao Intent to assert his will within the dream domain.

CRACK!

A massive fissure appeared in the ceiling of the immortal palace.

The dream domain, sensing the rejection from its host, attempted to clamp down, the golden mist swirling into clinging tendrils that tried to bind him to the throne. But Lin Yuan’s willpower was overwhelming. He stood up, his physical and spiritual intent aligning perfectly.

"Shatter!" Lin Yuan roared.

The entire immortal illusion exploded like a pane of glass struck by a hammer. The shards of the fabricated reality dissolved into grey mist, rushing past his consciousness at the speed of light.

Wooooom!

Lin Yuan’s perspective violently inverted once more, rushing out of his spiritual sea and slamming directly back into his physical body.

Lin Yuan’s eyes snapped open in the physical world.

He was sitting cross-legged on the spirit-grass mat in the cultivation chamber of the master pavilion. The room was bathed in the soft light of the morning.

He inhaled sharply, his chest heaving as if he had just fought a brutal battle. His forehead was covered in a fine sheen of cold sweat, and his heart was hammering violently against his ribs. The Dao Stone rested heavily in his palm, its internal grey mist swirling at an agitated pace before slowly settling back into a dormant state.

Lin Yuan stared at the crystalline orb, his chest rising and falling as he grounded himself. He had spent what felt like five centuries sitting on a throne in the highest heavens. Yet, glancing at the angle of the sunlight filtering through the window, he realized that barely a single incense stick of time had passed in the real world.

A slow smirk spread across Lin Yuan’s face, followed by a low chuckle that filled the quiet cultivation chamber.

"What a terrifying Dao domain," Lin Yuan whispered, his voice filled with genuine awe and profound respect.

He finally understood how Lord Zhao Shenming had reached the Spirit Severing realm realm without ever leaving his palace. The Seek the Dao with the Illusion of the Heart was indeed profound. It possessed the power to effortlessly dissolve a cultivator’s ego, testing their deepest desires and exposing the hollowness of their ambitions. If a cultivator could navigate the agonizing paradox of that dream without losing their mind, the tempering of their soul would be flawless.

Lin Yuan tightened his grip on the Dao Stone, his eyes burning with ambition. He had just successfully dominated the illusion of a perfect heaven. Now, he was ready to enter the River of Years Pagoda and use the dream domain to live out a mortal life until his Mortal Heart had matured enough to be severed by the blade of his Dao.