Chapter 28 - Great Luo Tribulation, Continuous Creation of Techniques, Kunpeng’s Assault
Chapter 28: Great Luo Tribulation, Continuous Creation of Techniques, Kunpeng’s Assault
Atop Celestial Pillar Peak, Zhong Yue focused his mind, intently sensing the figure on the Flower of Qi.
Yet, no matter how his primordial spirit scanned, he found nothing, as if the figure did not exist.
Just as Zhong Yue prepared to employ deeper methods to investigate, his expression changed drastically.
“Not good—having attained Great Luo Golden Immortal, my Great Luo Tribulation has come.”
Startled, Zhong Yue hurriedly summoned Shi Gandang and Bixia.
“You two, guard this place well. Your master has matters to attend to and must leave. Under no circumstances allow villains to seize this land.”
Shi Gandang and Bixia exchanged glances, their eyes filled with surprise.
Zhong Yue had sat silently on Celestial Pillar Peak for eight thousand years, never speaking—yet his first words were of departure.
Still, they dared not question, immediately kneeling and proclaiming loudly,
“Master, rest assured, we swear to guard it with our lives.”
Zhong Yue nodded slightly at their words.
With a flick of his finger, two streams of light entered their minds.
“This is the method to control the Yin-Yang Five Elements Grand Formation. You shall station yourselves at the formation’s core. Await my return, and do not leave without permission.”
“Take heed, take heed.”
With his final words, Zhong Yue vanished from Celestial Pillar Peak.
In truth, leaving Mount Tai to Shi Gandang and Bixia left Zhong Yue uneasy.
Their strength was too weak; even with his refined Innate Yin-Yang Five Elements Grand Formation, they could at best fend off ordinary Great Luo Golden Immortals.
Against a Taiyi skilled in formations, they might not hold out long.
Fortunately, the Innate Yin-Yang Five Elements Grand Formation not only repelled enemies but also obscured heavenly secrets. Unless luck was exceptionally poor, no Great Luo would come knocking.
Leaving Mount Tai, Zhong Yue journeyed west, stopping only when he reached a desolate, uninhabited land.
No sooner had he paused than the sky darkened with dense clouds, fierce winds howling.
Countless Zixiao Divine Thunders flashed, purple lightning dragons surging within the thunderclouds, spanning hundreds of thousands of li.
The Great Luo Tribulation, known as the Tribulation of Attaining the Dao, was a trial of the Heavenly Dao.
Great Luo Golden Immortals transcended the Three Realms, unbound by the five elements, eternally anchored above the river of time.
Such beings posed a burden to heaven and earth. The Heavenly Dao, impartial, sent tribulations to test cultivators.
Passing this tribulation brought boundless fortune—henceforth, heaven and earth might perish, but I endure; sun and moon might decay, but I remain, attaining great freedom and transcendence [dà zì zài, dà xiāo yáo]^.
Failing meant turning to ash, countless eons of cultivation lost in an instant.
In truth, this was only possible because the Heavenly Dao was not yet fully perfected, allowing Zhong Yue to break through before facing the tribulation.
In later eras, with the Heavenly Dao complete and the Primordial Wilderness fully under its sway, the tribulation would strike before the three flowers could bloom.
At that time, the Great Luo Tribulation would be truly fearsome.
In a barren mountain of the Primordial Wilderness, Zhong Yue halted, immediately forming hand seals, retrieving countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures to establish a protective formation around himself.
He also summoned the Primordial Fan to hover three inches above his head and the Seven-Star Dragon Abyss to channel the vast power of the stars to bolster himself.
Had the Void Mirror not been left at Mount Tai as the formation’s core, he would likely have used it as well.
The Great Luo Tribulation was not to be underestimated; even with full confidence, he had to prepare meticulously to avoid capsizing in the gutter [yīn gōu lǐ fān chuán]^.
No sooner had he completed these preparations than thunder exploded in the sky, billions of lightning bolts pouring down, transforming the surrounding hundreds of thousands of li into a sea of thunder.
Protected by an innate supreme treasure, this thunder sea, fearsome enough to daunt ordinary Great Luo, posed no threat to Zhong Yue, not even ruffling his robes.
Bathed in the thunder sea, he voraciously absorbed boundless refined energy. Occasionally, he allowed some lightning to strike, attempting to temper his body with its fearsome power.
Time passed, and Zhong Yue’s aura grew ever stronger, his physical form nearing flawlessness.
Gradually, within this thunder sea, he entered a state of enlightenment.
【You tempered your body with thunder, finding the efficiency lacking. Emulating the physique of ferocious beasts and using the Heaven-Devouring Demon Art as a foundation, you created the sacred body-forging technique, Immortal Heaven Art.】.
【Immortal Heaven Art: Seizing the mysteries of sun and moon, usurping the fortune of heaven and earth, nourishing the immortal embryo with myriad spirits, achieving sainthood (Quasi-Saint) with the body at great mastery.】.
Countless pieces of information flooded Zhong Yue’s mind. As the Immortal Heaven Art was created, a devouring force, far more terrifying than before, surged within him.
This devouring force emerged with the momentum of swallowing the world [jīng tūn tiān xià]^, drawing the entire thunder sea towards Zhong Yue like a colossal vortex funnel.
Zhong Yue sat at the centre, withdrawing all protections except the Primordial Fan, kept as a safeguard against unforeseen accidents.
Within his body, vital energy surged wildly, as if Zhong Yue had transformed into a colossal furnace, allowing the thunder to converge and temper his flesh.
As the thunder gathered, Zhong Yue’s body grew increasingly formidable, an oppressive aura radiating outward, as if the void itself might collapse under its weight.
The body-forging continued, and his enlightenment did not cease.
Countless streams of information swirled in his mind, simultaneously refining the Immortal Heaven Art and giving rise to new insights into various Great Daos.
The most prominent among them was naturally the Thunder Dao.
The Zixiao Divine Thunder, one of the two supreme thunders of heaven and earth, governed slaughter and judgment, ordinarily impossible to approach so closely.
Now, due to the Great Luo Tribulation, after withstanding the thunder’s destructive force, it became Zhong Yue’s fortune.
Infinite thunderlight shimmered across his body, Zixiao Divine Thunder coursed within, tempering his flesh, while runes of the Thunder Dao flowed through his meridians.
Under his heaven-defying comprehension [nì tiān wù xìng]^, truths of the Thunder Dao emerged, flooding Zhong Yue’s mind.
【You tempered your body with thunder, closely sensing the Zixiao Divine Thunder. Under heaven-defying comprehension, your insight into the Thunder Dao Laws surged rapidly.】.
【Your proficiency in Thunder Dao Laws increased, combining with the Five Elements Great Dao, you successfully comprehended the divine ability—Mastery of the Five Thunders.】.
【Your comprehension of Thunder Dao Laws surpassed half, integrating with your Qiankun Great Dao, you successfully refined the divine ability Mastery of the Five Thunders, creating the Primordial Dao Technique—Thunder of Creation.】.
【Thunder of Creation: Innate thunder, thunder of slaughter, capable of opening heaven and earth, embodying the essence of Thunder Dao Laws. With a thought, heaven and earth are born; with a thought, all beings perish.】.
—
While Zhong Yue underwent his tribulation, an uninvited guest quietly appeared at the periphery.
“A Great Luo Tribulation? How can this be?”
“Last time I sensed him, he was merely at the early Taiyi Golden Immortal stage. How could he prove the Great Luo in just tens of thousands of years? Have I tracked the wrong person?”
The speaker was an old man with a goatee, clad in a mysterious black Daoist robe, his demeanour tinged with a trace of unruliness and defiance.
This was none other than Kunpeng, the master of Beiming Palace, who, for unknown reasons, had pursued Zhong Yue here.
Footnotes:
大自在，大逍遥 (dà zì zài, dà xiāo yáo):
- Meaning: Literally “great freedom, great transcendence,” it refers to the ultimate state of liberation and ease attained by high-level cultivators, free from worldly constraints and cosmic cycles.
- Origin: Rooted in Daoist philosophy, particularly Zhuangzi’s concept of xiaoyao(carefree wandering), and common in xianxia to describe the spiritual freedom of immortals or saints.
- Cultural Significance: The phrase embodies the Chinese ideal of transcending mortal limitations to achieve spiritual autonomy, reflecting Zhong Yue’s aspiration to rise above the Primordial Wilderness’s trials.
- Meaning: Literally “capsizing in the gutter,” it is a Chinese idiom meaning to fail unexpectedly in a seemingly easy or trivial matter due to carelessness.
- Origin: A common proverb in Chinese culture, used in literature and xianxia to caution against underestimating challenges, as Zhong Yue does with the Great Luo Tribulation.
- Cultural Significance: The idiom reflects the Chinese emphasis on vigilance and preparedness, underscoring Zhong Yue’s cautious approach despite his confidence.
- Meaning: Literally “whale swallowing the world,” it metaphorically describes an overwhelming, all-encompassing force or action, here referring to the devouring power of Zhong Yue’s new technique.
- Origin: A literary expression in Chinese, often used in xianxia to depict vast, unstoppable power, drawing from imagery of a whale’s massive consumption.
- Cultural Significance: The phrase conveys the Chinese fascination with grandiose, cosmic-scale phenomena, highlighting the awe-inspiring might of Zhong Yue’s Immortal Heaven Art in the narrative.