Want to Ascend? Then Fall in Love

Hello...can you tell me the average length of each arc??? 

Eek I just realized another thread was created for this a while ago! damn the search system for this forum can be out of whack sometimes

https://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/if-you-want-to-ascend-make-love.67084/ 

I was procrastinating from studying, so I finished translating the first chapter!!

https://penjournalhappy.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/want-to-ascend-then-fall-in-love-chapter-1/ 

I'll summarize each of the mini Reincarnation Arcs! TBH all of these reincarnation arcs are like very convoluted therapy sessions for both MC and ML lol. (The flashback arcs too!!)

1)  The jade strip gives the two of them a mission: Gu Jianshen (ML) has to give a home to Shen Qingxian (MC).
They decide to do this by getting married lol. Since MC is obviously reluctant to do this with their real bodies, they decide to do it in the mortal world by temporarily incarnating as normal people. MC gets incarnated as a young noblewoman, while ML is incarnated as a wandering warrior. (Both do retain their memories for this arc.) Initially the difference in their social status makes marriage impossible, but MC manipulates events so that he/she is saved by ML, impressing MC's noble family. Right when they're about to get married, the mortal emperor takes a liking to MC's female body, so... these two OP cultivators forcibly change dynasties with extreme ease, making ML the emperor LOL.
Ironically enough, the mission gets completed because the family of MC's incarnation is so wonderful and loving, that the act of ML helping MC choose this incarnation counts as "ML giving a home to MC"

2) Next mission: Shen Qingxian has to make Gu Jianshen trust him. Yeah, ML has deeply buried trust issues.
For this incarnation, they decide to make Gu Jianshen lose his memories.
ML ends up being the young prince in a very hostile royal household, who is already paranoid of betrayal at a very young age. He meets MC, who's basically the royal tutor / Taoist priest. MC feels a very strong protective instinct towards baby!ML, but baby!ML is so paranoid that he fears MC is going to betray him at all times. This creates hilarious (yet sad) misunderstandings, such as:
MC thinks ML is being lazy, when ML is actually trying to avoid looking too competent in case MC will turn on him.
MC pretends to be ill to make ML stop being lazy, which actually makes ML extremely confused ("I thought MC wanted to usurp the throne, why is he so willing to let me govern now")
Even when MC and ML get into a relationship, ML receives misinformation that tells him MC is just using ML as an emotional replacement for ML's father (the previous emperor).
...Yeah this one was just a clown fiesta of trust issues. In the end, they clear up their relationship.... right before MC dies from illness in ML's arms.

2.5 Memory time!! No reincarnations here~
MC and ML uncover parts of their memories that were sealed, and discover that they were actually childhood friends!!
(For a bit of backstory, they already knew they started out in the same famous sect, but they couldn't remember ever meeting each other. However, ML was infamous for having slaughtered his own Shifu and his disciple-brothers in that sect.)
Once upon a time, ML was just a serving boy in the sect's cafeteria. MC's penchant for red/gold colors made him attracted to ML's red eyes, and the two struck up a friendship over food.
Yep baby!MC and baby!ML were so cute... Once upon a time, MC was super naughty and rebellious. Once upon a time, ML's greatest dream was being a chef LOL.
MC encouraged ML to enter the sect as a formal disciple. While they were on different Peaks, they still had a secret meeting place--they even had a room with two beds <3
Unfortunately, when the two of them are having fun out in a town, MC gets kidnapped and tortured by one of the former sect members. ML saves him and kills the kidnapper using the power of his special constitution. Unfortunately, ML's constitution demands a price: all their memories of each other.
Later on, after they separated from this memory loss, ML's shifu was investigating his mysterious constitution. During this investigation, ML's constitution basically exploded by accident. That was why ML's shifu and disciple-brothers died.


3) They get another mission: Shen Qingxian has to get jealous for Gu Jianshen. To fulfill this mission, they decide to make a reincarnation where Shen Qingxian is the one who loses his memories this time.
This is the one Scriptor mentioned as poor Gu Jianshen's hell mode.
Basically, ML's incarnation is the enemy prince of Yin, who conquered the Jin nation that MC was the prince of. Before they arrived, ML's incarnation had spared MC's incarnation... because he crippled MC in order to make MC his concubine.
When ML arrives and sees this scene, he's like "oh shit, is this even fixable" lol. Yeah, the memory-less MC absolutely hates his guts.
However, ML does his best to be warm and gentle towards MC. MC plans to use this affection to destroy the Yin nation, but he does get somewhat attached to ML. He eventually leads a coup, during which ML gets stabbed protecting MC from ML's father. MC has successfully reclaimed the throne, but he has lingering obsessions with the comatose ML. ML finally wakes up and promptly pretends to be amnesiac, so he can stay by MC's side for the rest of their lives.
(And as Scriptor mentioned... MC indeed ending up getting jealous because ML once said MC's true name. Hey, it worked out LOL)

4) Oh god, MC and ML get the worst task yet: ML has to enter a relationship with an MC who is his father figure. (MC and ML both highlight how icky this is. They're like 'wtf jade strips why are you doing this to us'.)
This ends up being a modern-day reincarnation! ML loses his memories this time.
The teenage MC rescues ML's pregnant mother from the pursuit of the criminal underworld. When ML is born, MC becomes ML's godfather. The pursuers come back and ML's mother falls into a coma after protecting them. Given MC's sheer overpoweredness, MC becomes like a rival mafia boss or something like that LOL.
Meanwhile, the growing ML is, uh... having some very questionable feelings towards his own godfather, and feels extremely guilty over these thoughts.
MC actually thought ML was more innocent than this, so he puts in entirely unnecessary effort to seduce ML once ML comes of age. This involves leaking to ML how the two of them are not blood related (ML is promptly ecstatic upon hearing this haha).
Something something "ML's mom finally wakes up after many years in a coma" "ML is discovered to have genetic modifications and is kidnapped by evil scientists" "ML is injected with an aphrodisiac medicine that MC helps 'solve' for him" "ML becomes a famous researcher/professor".
Hilariously enough, ML's mom pursues archaeology and actually digs up historical evidence of MC and ML's past reincarnations LOL
Anyway, they make it work

4.5) Another flashback/memory arc! It's revealed that when MC and ML were about 2000 years old, they actually met and fell in love again! This was when ML had already entered the demonic path. But both of them were helping to secure the situation in a corrupt country, and became fascinated with each other. ML sent MC tons of paper crane messages by night, while going on dates with him during the day. Because of the corrupt country's machinations, both of them ended up stuck in the dangerous Third World, where cute fluffball monsters "forced" them to keep kissing each other.
After they resolved the situation, MC and ML were truly in love and ready to give up everything else to be together.
Unfortunately, destiny would never be that kind. MC was already tentatively practicing the Sealed Heart Technique, so if he chose to retain his love with ML, he would lose all his cultivation progress. While ML ended up using his unique constitution to save MC's comrades and friends from death... at the cost of losing the memory of all their time together. MC goes to see a ML who doesn't acknowledge their relationship. MC is absolutely heartbroken and decided to seal his heart for good, which turns him into the ruthless and manipulative man he was at the beginning of the novel.


The final two arcs are parallels to each other. Both explore the Paths that MC and ML practice.
5) This is a modern/sci-fi reincarnation arc focused on examining what exactly it means for ML to walk the Path of the Heart. ML lost his memories once again, and became an artificial intelligence/robot. ML falls in love with MC but is again extremely extremely insecure about how he's not human. ML questions whether his affection can be real. MC has learned about the Path of the Heart from ML himself, and reassures him (something like "your affection is real if you think it is real" or something like that).

6) I think this final arc was actually an illusion constructed by ML, focused on examining what it means for ML to walk the Path of the Heavens. MC loses his memories in this one, and becomes a cute Lotus Spirit. In this world, all the flower spirits worship a mysterious God who loves some flowers and neglects others. MC's white color makes him loved by God, but MC resents how God neglects the red-colored flowers. ML is in fact God, playing multiple roles to get MC to question what exactly faith is.
(Yeah this arc was hard for me to understand given my poor level of Chinese lol)



Finale: After such a long and arduous journey... ML and MC have an argument.
-ML knows MC wants to ascend (even though thanks to their love, MC is happy just being with ML).
-ML is afraid that him being with MC will make it impossible for MC to ascend.
-ML tries to leave MC for his own good
However, a crafty and in-love MC draws ML back in so they can be together permanently.
The jade strip also acts decent for once, giving them a series of tasks about being together in public. In the end, they can truly ascend to the heavens together <3