Chapter 441 - 364: Third Layer Tribulation
The moment the Yang Spirit returned, the grand visions surrounding Chen Sheng had not fully dissipated yet, when a piercing chill suddenly assaulted him from deep within the void.
This was no ordinary chill, but a hostile and repulsive force stemming from the world’s origin, as if his mere existence as a Refining Void Great Power was a blasphemy against the laws of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The thick Spiritual Mist surrounding the Dao Platform, resembling a Cloud Sea, rapidly retreated with every breath.
Previously actively entering his body, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was now crazily fleeing, as if it had seen a venomous snake or scorpion, and even the Spirit Crystal Vein beneath his feet had lost its luster, turning into ordinary bluestone.
More terrifying was an invisible heavy pressure descending from the sky, targeting not his physical body but directly pressing onto his Yang Spirit and Dao Domain.
The Yin-Yang Dao Domain had just unfolded when this pressure squeezed it to shrink by more than half, making the Dao Rhyme between the collision of black and white particles sluggish, and even the mystical artifact Zhouchun Baojian suspended overhead dimmed by three degrees.
"This is the treatment for a Void Refining Cultivator in a Small Thousand World."
Chen Sheng’s expression remained unchanged, his fingertips lightly flicked, and a Yin Yang Rune flew out, quickly stabilizing the Dao Domain.
He could clearly perceive that the entire Xuanhuang Realm’s laws were targeting him, hidden within the operations of mountains and rivers was a repulsive rhythm, while the radiance of sun, moon, and stars carried a sense of suppression.
Even the dust in the air avoided his figure under the guidance of the laws.
"Luckily, I broke through in this realm, borrowing the resonance of the laws during the breakthrough, or else I wouldn’t have maintained my realm."
Chen Sheng understood, recalling the predicament Four Seas Wanderer faced when his true body descended upon the Heavenly Abyss Realm back in the day.
That Void Refining Great Power had just stepped into the Heavenly Abyss Realm when the world’s laws forcibly compressed him from Void Refining to Divinity Transformation, with his Dao Principles tightly imprisoned, let alone the absorption of Spiritual Qi.
If not for Four Seas Wanderer’s preparatory refining of the Four Seas Bead to store Spiritual Qi, leaving behind considerable trump cards in the Great Void Domain, he might not have lasted that long.
In comparison, his situation was already considered favorable.
During the breakthrough, the Yang Spirit temporarily resonated with the Xuanhuang Realm’s laws; although he didn’t obtain the realm’s imprint, it weakened the suppressive power of the laws, allowing him to maintain the foundation of the Void Refining Realm!
This was the reason he chose to break through in this realm—to adapt in advance, preparing for the later harvesting.
...
"After all, this realm is not my home field; the Heavenly Abyss Realm over there should be much more accommodating."
Chen Sheng looked up at the sky, his gaze seeming to penetrate the barrier between worlds, falling upon the Heavenly Abyss Realm.
He understood the rules of the Small Thousand World, where every living being born in a world comes imprinted with the realm-specific stamp from birth, serving as a sort of "household register," allowing the realm’s laws to naturally accommodate them.
Just like when his Yang Soul was in the starry sky world, the Creation mark granted by Dharma Master Hong Jue enabled him to ignore all repulsion and remain unharmed.
The Heavenly Abyss Realm is his birthplace; he achieved Celestial Venerable of Divinity Transformation there, resonated with Heaven and Earth long ago, and later became a bridge between two realms, harvesting origins, gaining favor from heaven, thus drastically reducing the suppression.
As his thoughts flowed, Chen Sheng remembered the secrets recorded in ancient texts!
Many Void Refining Cultivators, after breaking through in a Small Thousand World, would first backwards harvest the origin of their own world, plundering it to strengthen themselves.
Naturally, Chen Sheng would not act this way; he had long regarded the Heavenly Abyss Realm as his foundation.
He lowered his gaze to the nine radiant gates around the Dao Platform, those gates that once carried him as he suppressed Celestial Venerable and connected two worlds, now began to faintly tremble under his Void Refining aura; the starry Runes on the gate body continuously flickered, clearly no longer sufficient to bear his inter-world travel.
Other cultivators would have been anxious by now, but Chen Sheng remained indifferent, instead slowly closing his eyes and immersing his Heart Spirit into the mystical artifact Zhouchun Baojian above his head.
Upon breaking through to the Void Refining Realm, his Yang Spirit achieved Great Success, control power surged several times, the restrictions within Zhouchun Baojian became clear as palm lines, and now he could touch the core’s seventh layer of restrictions.
His Yang Spirit Power surged into the Baojian like a tide, washing away those sealed restrictions one by one.
The patterns on the surface of the Baojian became clearer, sometimes exuding the weight of suppressing the universe, sometimes flowing with the agility of connecting two realms; although not fully refined, the might had already increased by more than double.
Beneath the Dao Platform, Chen Fengxing, Peng Xuan, and others had already sensed the abnormality between Heaven and Earth; they could clearly feel the world pressure targeting the Dao Platform, instantly their expressions changed drastically.
"This is..."
Peng Xuan, recalling the simple introduction within his bloodline inheritance, immediately understood:
"The world’s suppression after breaking through to the Void Refining Realm!"
Chen Sheng remained silent, although the grand visions surrounding him were absent, he naturally exuded a calmness that wouldn’t change in the face of a collapsing Mount Tai.
In no time, everyone saw the radiance of the mystical artifact Zhouchun Baojian gradually revive, growing more in awe!
Confronted with a desperate situation where the world is hostile, the Emperor Venerable could still calmly refine the treasure; this state of mind and strength, is the true demeanor of a peerless strongman.
...
Time flowed like a gentle stream; ten years passed like a flick of a finger.
On the Celestial Sacrifice Platform in the Xuanhuang Realm, Chen Sheng sat cross-legged, the Dao Principles around him restrained like a deep pool, only the mystical artifact Zhouchun Baojian above his head continuously radiated a gentle glow.
Over the decade, he repeatedly refined the Baojian with his Yang Spirit Power to increase his control over it, even able to spiritually roam between two realms with its aid!
In the palm of his hand, he condensed ninety-nine crystal-clear radiant gates, engraved with the Runes of two realms’ laws, sometimes streaming starry light, sometimes manifesting Yin-Yang Dao Patterns.
On this day, Chen Sheng finally opened his eyes, lightly flicking his fingertips, ninety-nine radiant gates like a swarm of bees flew up and converged, weaving into a magnificent passage ten thousand feet wide before him.
The walls of the passage are joined together by portal runes, forming a vast star map. Black and white energies flow slowly within, bearing the suppressive power of the Celestial Compendium and embodying the traversing laws of the two realms.
This passage is enough to support his free travel between the realms!
"The retreat is complete, we can begin!"
Chen Sheng’s voice was calm and unperturbed, his gaze seemingly piercing through layers of clouds, straight to the core of the world origin above the nine heavens.
For ten years, the rejection of the Xuanhuang Realm for him had never diminished; origin laws clung to his aura like leeches, and any slight change would bring suppression. This hostility had long made him weary.
Now the passage was formed, he no longer needed to endure it.
With a thought, Chen Sheng poured all of his Yang Spirit Power into the Celestial Compendium, which suddenly burst out with a brilliance greater than when breaking through to Void Refining. The brilliance expanded in the air, transforming into a Dao net covering ten thousand miles.
The net’s strands were woven from Yin-Yang Dao Domain, suffused with alternating black and white Dao Rhymes. At each net’s eye were inlaid ninety-nine star pearls condensed from portal light, each emitting the power to suppress a piece of void.
This Dao net, once formed, descended like a canopy from the void, precisely enveloping the ever-flowing river of origin deep within the Xuanhuang Realm.
"Rise!"
With a gentle shout from him, the Dao net tightened suddenly, its strands like living creatures drilled into the river of origin, firmly capturing the formless and intangible Power of Origin.
Immediately, the Dao net spun madly with the Celestial Compendium as its axis, like a giant wheel stirring the heavens and earth. In an instant, the entire Xuanhuang Realm was engulfed in a cataclysmic tidal wave of origin.
The world changed colors in the span of a breath!
What was once a clear sky was instantly covered by an inky black cloud layer, within which surged Red Golden Power of Origin, rolling and roaring like boiling magma.
The sun and moon were swallowed by the clouds, leaving only countless distorted spirit lights flickering in the sky, depicting the scene of rampaging Spiritual Qi and Law collisions.
The earth shook violently, fissures reaching millions of feet deep extended to over a hundred million miles around, ejecting not magma but the purest Origin Qi.
Yet this aura carried a violent intent to kill, condensing in the air into countless invisible Law Blades, chopping towards the Dao Platform.
Even more terrifying, the void began collapsing, countless small spatial fissures opened and closed around the Dao Platform, attempting to devour this deviant desecrating the origin.
"Boom!"
A force far exceeding any Law suppression experienced in ten years descended from the nine heavens, like an invisible Divine Mountain pressing on Chen Sheng’s shoulders.
The Void Refining aura around him dissipated rapidly like a punctured balloon, the Yang Spirit light dimmed, the Dao Domain shrank violently—Early-stage Void Refining, Late-stage Divinity Transformation, Mid-stage Divinity Transformation, Early-stage Divinity Transformation.
In just three breaths, his realm fell by two major levels, and his aura continued sinking, with a subtle trend of slipping towards the Nascent Soul Realm.
Below the Dao Platform, Chen Fengxing, Peng Xuan, and others observing from afar had their expressions change drastically.
They could clearly feel the terror of that suppression force, so much so that even Chen Fengxing, at Nascent Soul Perfection, felt his Dharma Body was nearly about to shatter.
But when they looked towards the center of the Dao Platform, they saw Chen Sheng still sitting cross-legged, his spine straight like a pine, his expression calm without a ripple, as if the pain of realm descent and the terror of Law suppression were irrelevant to him.
"Yin-Yang Dao Domain, turn!"
Chen Sheng finally moved, his fingertips forming a complex Dao Incantation, channeling all remaining Divinity Transformation power into the Yin-Yang Dao Domain.
Though the Domain had shrunk to a thousand miles, under his control it spun wildly, transforming into a black and white Dao Principle vortex, fiercely colliding with the Celestial Compendium above.
The Compendium was moved by the Domain, emitting a sound resonating throughout the heavens and earth. The passage formed by ninety-nine portal light doors suddenly released radiant glows, forming resonance with the Domain, forcibly preventing further realm descent.
"Early-stage Divinity Transformation is enough."
Chen Sheng lightly exhaled, stabilizing his aura at Early-stage Divinity Transformation, yet still bearing the overlooking posture of a Refining Void Great Power.
At this moment, The Xuanhuang Realm’s river of origin boiled completely, a giant eye, formed by condensing Power of Origin, appeared within the black-cloud layer, its pupil reflecting scenes of world birth and destruction.
An apocalyptic pressure emanated from the giant eye—the world origin had been thoroughly enraged, brewing its most terrifying massacre.
Chen Sheng glanced at the giant eye, understanding in his heart:
"The descent and harvest of realms have three tribulations."
"The first tribulation’s rule suppression I have felt, the second mortal massacre tribulation is of little concern, as all Celestial Venerable of Divinity Transformation in this realm are subdued by me, the rest are no threat, within short time, no worries also."
"The third origin Dao tribulation, though fierce, needs to proceed gradually, I am only harvesting for decades, not as to this extent."
He was utterly unconcerned by the brewing massacre, instead accelerating the harvest by the Celestial Compendium’s Dao net, each stirring absorbing vast amounts of Power of Origin into the Compendium, transforming into pure energy stored away.
The chaos between heaven and earth became increasingly intense, Law Blades struck on the Dao Platform’s light shield, making loud metallic clashing sounds.
The pressure from the origin giant eye caused numerous cultivators to crawl on the ground, yet Chen Sheng still stood proudly atop the Dao Platform.
He simultaneously endured the suppression of Early-stage Divinity Transformation and effortlessly harvested the origin, exhibiting a stance as steady as a mountain amidst the apocalyptic phenomenon, thoroughly convincing the watching crowd.
Only half a month later, the Celestial Compendium suddenly brightened with a gentle golden light, a pure origin pearl flew out from the Compendium, landing in Chen Sheng’s palm.
Feeling the abundant Power of Origin within the pearl, Chen Sheng gently smiled and looked towards the increasingly violent heavens: "This is just the beginning."