Okay, he's halfway to ascension! Cool! Shang Qinghua is not as close to ascension as he should technically be for the Qing generation to ascend together, because he has not worked on those aspects of his cultivation the way he should have, but he didn't actually expect himself or the sect to survive long enough for their ascension to be a going concern, so! Anyway, if he ascends to the heavens, Mobei-Jun won't be there, so really, he's just probably not going to do that, whether or not he lives long enough to theoretically achieve it.

"It was definitely disorienting. It, uh, yeah, immortal sage kind of thing? You... do spiritual techniques and meditation and shit and gain magic powers, basically. And stop aging. Which is why I still look like I'm twenty."

"Seeing ghosts when no one else can and not knowing why, while working in the funeral industry, sounds... interesting." Actually, that sounds fraught to the point of probably shouldn't have brought it up! Moving on! "Hi, Bob." Shang Qinghua doesn't know English well enough to have real context on Bob being a weird thing to name a bird! "Nice to meet you, too."