When the dark red curse mark that had lingered in the depths of Zhao Qishan's consciousness for months, devouring his soul, was completely dissolved, even the last wisp of remnant was wiped away, the sinister death aura that had lingered in the room for months dissipated completely.
Chen Du lightly withdrew his fingertips, and the divine sword that had been floating in the void returned to his sea of consciousness, falling silent.
At that very moment, his mind was jolted violently!
A torrent of Calamity Qi, far more powerful, concentrated, sharp, and scorching than ever before, descended from the depths of the Heavenly Dao and crashed into the divine soul realm.
This Calamity Qi is completely different. It is no longer a collection of fragmented Dao power, but a primordial tribulation power that is as condensed as molten gold and as heavy as a starry sea. Every strand of it carries the Heavenly Dao's oppressive power to shatter illusions and suppress darkness.
Chen Du focused his mind slightly and quickly estimated the total amount.
A full thirty million years of Calamity Qi!
The heavy weight of the tribulation filled his sea of consciousness, so profound that it caused the entire universe of his soul to tremble slightly.
He slowly exhaled a long, stale breath, his eyes deep and unfathomable.
The rewards for killing a Xuanwu Divine Hall spy who had reached the Stellar Eighth Metamorphosis from billions of miles away would never be so generous.
When he was tracing the source of the attack with that sword strike, he had vaguely sensed something unusual.
That dark red curse mark was definitely not a single soul imprint.
It was like a thin snake leading to a dark abyss, its thread connecting to even deeper, more hidden dark veins. He severed the surface of the snake with his sword, but clearly disturbed the Lie Dormant presence deep within its lair.
That hidden aura was extremely subtle, instantly receding and burying itself deep in the shadows, leaving no trace.
The Calamity Warning only explicitly indicated the visible Stellar Eighth Metamorphosis, but the Heaven's Way's Gift never fail to come true.
The Calamity Qi of thirty million years has long exceeded the reward level corresponding to the Stellar Eighth Metamorphosis.
The answer is obvious.
There is definitely someone standing behind them, possibly even a 13th rank.
The Xuanwu Divine Hall's foundation was far more terrifying and profound than he had anticipated.
This hidden, dark organization, lurking in the shadows and spanning countless ages, has tentacles that reach throughout the court and the country. It is a tightly knit, hierarchical structure with countless agents and a complex web of intrigue, far more than just a simple court power; it is an ancient, malignant tumor rooted in the darkness of the heavens.
Chen Du understood immediately and did not hesitate for a moment.
With a thought, he poured all the 30 million years of heavy Calamity Qi he had acquired into the [Heaven's Way's Gift] innate talent source.
Buzz! The innate Dao Seal roared more violently than ever before, its entire body alternating between light and darkness, its Dao Resonance surging layer by layer, and its foundation was once again sublimated by a massive amount of Calamity Qi.
After a brief tremor, four invaluable and unprecedented Heavenly Dao treasures were simultaneously born from the origin of the Sea of Consciousness, quietly floating beneath the Black Hole Dao Domain, shining brightly.
The first item was a brand new, peerless longsword.
The sword is long and straight, with naturally flowing lines. It abandons all embellishments and is covered with layers of dark gold tribulation source patterns. The patterns intertwine to form a complete diagram of birth and death, which is perfectly related to Chen Du's innate tribulation path and is closely connected to it.
Nine extremely fine ancient lightning marks are embedded on the spine of the sword. These are the thunderous Dao Resonance of annihilation and judgment of Heavenly Dao, Lie Dormant the sword body and not easily revealed to the world. Once unsheathed, they will be accompanied by the Tribulation Thunder Annihilates the World.
This is a truly complete and flawless Thirteenth Tier Tribulation Divine Sword.
Chen Du probed deep into the sword's body with a wisp of Divine Thought and instantly understood its entirety.
Within the sword's body lies a self-contained loop of laws, where man and sword share the same origin and the way of the sword is unified, allowing for infinite advancement with his cultivation.
The second item is a set of close-fitting divine armor.
It is pure black throughout, with a texture as solid as the deep space of the universe. Its surface is covered with billions of fine tribulation patterns, which crisscross, nest, and overlap to form an absolute defensive array without any blind spots.
In the center of the chest of the armor is a fist-sized dark gold primordial core, which is the foundational hub of the entire divine armor, absorbing calamity power, automatically sustaining power, self-healing wounds, and providing constant defense.
Thirteenth Tier Tribulation Divine Armor!
His Divine Thought delved into the area and discovered a flawless, top-tier defensive law clearly unfolding, perfectly echoing and deeply resonating with the Tribulation Armor Law within his body.
It can conform to the physical body, can be stored in the sea of consciousness, and can change its form at will. It is as light as a feather, yet it can withstand the bombardment of the laws of the heavens and the power of stars collapsing.
The third thing was a dark golden light that was extremely deep.
The halo was thick and substantial, rising and falling silently, carrying with it the sediment of a vast and boundless era.
It is a complete understanding of the Tribulation Source Law spanning six billion years.
It is not fragments, not pieces; it is the complete path that a certain ancient calamity-bringing master has traversed step by step over six billion years, encompassing all trials and errors, all breakthroughs, and all the true solutions to bottlenecks—vast as the sea, including all eons.
The fourth item was a sword manual.
The pages were ancient and desolate, without pen or ink, without words or title. With a touch of Divine Thought, a brand new sword pattern, far surpassing the previous one, slowly unfolded.
This is not a move within the first sword technique, but a completely new and independent second sword technique.
The first sword of the Primordial Tribulation-Extinguishing Sword has four forms, with Tribulation Birth being the first one.
The scroll before us is another completely independent path of annihilation and killing, with a higher level of Dao, a more solid foundation, and overall power surpassing that of the first sword.
Chen Du stared at the flowing Dao patterns on the sword manual, and with a slight thought, he named this sword strike "Tribulation Ruins".
The first sword strike is the calamity that arises from the smallest thing and spreads step by step. The four consecutive moves slowly weave a killing trap, representing the birth and unfolding of the calamity.
The Tribulation Ruins, on the other hand, directly overturn all things, with a single sword strike.
All things returned to the Tribulation Ruins, without being gradually devoured, but instead directly opened up a silent Tribulation Domain, burying the opponent along with his laws and foundation into the abyss, its power completely overwhelming the first sword.
The Four Divine Treasures have appeared in the world, Dao Resonance fills the sea of consciousness.
Chen Du gently closed his eyes, focused his mind, and unleashed his [Divine Revelation Reading] talent at full speed, pushing his heaven-defying comprehension to its limit.
The insights gained from six billion years of calamity instantly transformed into a boundless sea of Dao, violently washing over the entire sea of consciousness.
Countless ancient Dao traces, the evolution of time, bottlenecks in the Great Dao, and profound mysteries of the Dao of Tribulation unfolded layer by layer, which he instantly dismantled, filtered, recombined, and integrated with the power of divine revelation.
He understood the long and arduous path that his predecessors had traversed in a single thought.
He crushed the cultivation bottleneck that had bound previous generations for hundreds of millions of years in an instant.
The profound insights repeatedly washed over, solidified, and refined his karmic origins, making the foundation of the Ninth-Level Domain increasingly robust and solid, and the Dao root increasingly refined and pure.
At the same time, the [Tribulation Ruins] contained in the wordless sword manual slowly took shape under the nourishment of a massive amount of calamity source insights, and the complete sword principles, calamity path framework, and order of birth and death emerged one by one.
The first sword strike, a four-move sequence, progresses gradually, with calamity arising from the smallest details, layer upon layer, to crush the enemy's laws.
[The Tribulation Ruins] is a completely different supreme path of calamity and slaughter. With a single sword strike, the desolate Ruins of Annihilation are formed in an instant. All laws collapse and dissolve within the Ruins, and all things return to silence, leaving no room for maneuver.
The Way of the Sword is perfected, and the laws return to one's body.
After a long while, a dark golden light flashed in Chen Du's eyes, and he slowly opened them, exhaling a breath of pent-up turbid air.
His eyes held a restrained sharpness, and his aura returned to calm, yet his inner strength had already surged several levels once again.
With the Thirteenth Tier Tribulation Divine Sword at his side, he possesses both offensive and defensive capabilities;
The Thirteenth Tier Tribulation Divine Armor protects the body, making it impervious to all magic.
With insights gained from six billion years of calamity as a foundation, his Dao foundation is now flawless.
The second sword of the Primordial Tribulation-Extinguishing Sword, [Tribulation Ruins], has been completed. It is independent of the four forms of the first sword and its power is even greater.
He slowly rose, stretching his shoulders and neck. Dark gold runes swirled beneath his skin, then quickly receded into Return to the Ruins.
The distant chimes of the bell from Qingfeng Temple at the foot of the mountain drifted through the layers of forest, their sound serene and soothing the evening breeze.
Outside the temple, life is peaceful; inside, a young man forges his sword.
Unbeknownst to anyone, this seemingly ordinary mountain Daoist temple possesses layers upon layers of hidden strength, its power unfathomable.
The Xuanwu Divine Hall, which had once lurked in the shadows and probed step by step, remained completely unaware.
They had provoked someone far beyond the control of wild mountain cultivators who could be easily manipulated.
Rather, he is a Thirteenth Tier supreme Dao Lord who truly controls the Tribulation Birth and can be overthrown with a single sword strike.