Boom!
A deafening roar erupted from the sky. But what descended was not the Lightning Tribulation Ximen Qing had imagined...
Instead, it was an enormous pillar of golden light.
The pillar of light that reached straight into the heavens enveloped Xiao Feng...
Could it be that this was not a Heavenly Tribulation? Had he guessed wrong? Ximen Qing grew suspicious.
At that moment, he saw that the Lightning Tribulation had instead descended upon the Dragon's Roar Mountain Range hundreds of miles away...
Though he did not know why this had happened, a smile appeared on his face.
It seemed this Heavenly Tribulation had not been caused by Xiao Feng after all...
But just as he was about to step forward...
Boom!
A bolt of purple lightning suddenly descended from the sky and struck fiercely before him. Startled by the unexpected lightning, Ximen Qing staggered back again and again.
He never could have imagined that the lightning would not strike Xiao Feng, but him instead! In his terror, he could not steady himself and fell flat onto the ground.
When he focused his gaze ahead, a massive crater appeared before him...
"Damn it, what is going on?" Ximen Qing growled unconsciously.
The world-destroying Lightning Tribulation brought by the World-Overturning Black Cloud struck toward the Dragon's Roar Mountain Range.
In contrast, a pillar of light reaching into the sky enveloped Xiao Feng.
And whenever he moved even slightly closer to Xiao Feng, the Heavenly Dao Tribulation Lightning that had originally been striking the Dragon's Roar Mountain Range would actually bombard him instead!
It felt like a mother who had just given birth, fiercely protecting her child in a terrible temper. Whoever approached would touch her raw nerve...
What exactly was going on?
Ximen Qing was filled with doubts, but under the threat of the Lightning Tribulation, he did not dare step forward again. The power of the Heavenly Dao Tribulation Lightning was not something he could withstand.
When the golden pillar of light descended, it paused for an instant, blocked by the barrier surrounding Xiao Feng. Yet the moment the pillar touched it, the azure barrier around Xiao Feng instantly dispersed and returned to that pendant...
The golden pillar of light completely enveloped Xiao Feng. In just an instant, he felt his entire body, including his internal organs, become wrapped in a warm current...
This... is a Lightning Tribulation? Xiao Feng questioned inwardly.
But clearly, no one answered him.
Beneath the warm current, he felt as though he was undergoing a cleansing... a cleansing that remade him from the inside out.
His bones crackled, his blood seemed to be sublimating, and his hair, skin, and eyes... were transforming. It was a transformation from within to without...
He felt a special power surge through his damaged Mystic Veins, roaming freely within them...
At that moment, a pagoda appeared above his body...
It was the Buddha Relic Tower!
At this moment, Xiao Feng felt that his Spiritual Sense had become exceptionally sharp...
His muscles and tendons... began expanding and contracting...
He felt the qi of heaven and earth continuously rushing toward him...
This was the divine art of the ancient Desolate God—the Great Path Buddha Relic Art!
This Mystic Art specialized in cultivating the body. The Great Path Buddha Relic Art had twelve realms in total. The first six were the limit of what "humans" could cultivate, while the latter six belonged to a domain only "gods" could reach.
This divine art did not rely on mystic power to exist, but instead depended on the soul and the power of heaven and earth.
Perhaps because he had never suffered any serious injuries before, even though his comprehension of the Great Path Buddha Relic Art was profound, he had only reached the third realm.
And now, was the Great Path Buddha Relic Art that had constrained him for twelve whole years finally beginning to break through as well?
As the Buddha Relic Tower spun wildly, the terrible injuries covering his body gradually began to heal.
The Buddha Relic Tower above his head began to emit a faint golden glow—the fourth realm of the Great Path Buddha Relic Art had been achieved!
The golden pillar of light began to fade...
"Is it over..." Xiao Feng murmured in his soul. What exactly was this?
Seeing the golden light gradually disappear, Ximen Qing was just about to step forward when another purple Lightning Tribulation struck down fiercely!
Ximen Qing...
He could only continue waiting, his eyes never leaving Xiao Feng for even a moment...
At that moment... a second beam of golden light slowly descended from the heavens. Its warm aura once again enveloped Xiao Feng's entire body, and this time, he felt changes occurring within his Soul Sea.
As its name implied, the Soul Sea was where a mystic practitioner's "soul" resided.
Anyone who stepped into the Initial Mystic Realm would, upon looking inward, discover that it resembled a boundless ocean, stretching endlessly without limit, just like a person's thoughts...
His Soul Sea began to tremble...
At this moment, he felt that every drop of water within his Soul Sea was being cleansed and purified again and again...
Becoming purer and more translucent...
An indescribable numbness spread from his spine throughout his entire body...
Pleasure was no longer enough to describe Xiao Feng's current sensation... His body trembled involuntarily amid that numbness...
As that intoxicating numbness faded, the second golden light enveloping Xiao Feng's body began to disappear...
This time, Ximen Qing had learned his lesson...
Sure enough... just as expected, a third pillar of golden light that reached into the heavens descended once more.
Golden mystic light began to envelop him, and the golden Buddha Relic Tower appeared above his head once again...
The Buddha Relic Tower spun madly, drawing the power of heaven and earth around it continuously into Xiao Feng's body, constantly strengthening his flesh, tendons, and bones...
The fifth realm of the Buddha Relic Tower had been achieved!
By now, all external injuries on Xiao Feng's body had completely healed...
And within his damaged Mystic Veins, dazzling radiance shone beneath the third golden light.
His damaged Mystic Veins began healing bit by bit...
At this moment, Xiao Feng sensed a tremendous breakthrough in another divine Mystic Art...
The God-Demon Forbidden Canon was also known as... the Evil God Art!
Xiao Feng had contemplated this Mystic Art for eighteen whole years, but it was as though a shackle had firmly blocked his progress. He had always been just one final layer away, yet he could never break through...
Now, beneath this heaven-bestowed golden light, was it finally beginning to break through as well?
The core formula of the God-Demon Forbidden Canon echoed through Xiao Feng's mind... This Mystic Art, already so familiar to him that it could not be more familiar, had actually changed under these circumstances...
An entirely different understanding began to flow through Xiao Feng's soul...
The Mystic Veins within the human body were like a flourishing tree. That tree had branches, and each branch corresponded to one of the fifty-four mystic gates in the human body...
And for a tree, there was no question that the trunk... was the most important part. At this moment, an abrupt mark suddenly appeared where the "trunk" should be.
This mark resembled a mystic gate. Its color was dim at present, but when Xiao Feng looked inward, he could see the deep crimson glow contained within it, as though a violent demon god had been sealed inside that mark...
As the first mark appeared within his Mystic Veins, the third wave of golden light finally dissipated as well...
And just as Xiao Feng expected, the fourth wave of golden light began to descend...
By now, Xiao Feng had already noticed something was wrong. He should have been undergoing a Lightning Tribulation, because he could feel that the shackles binding him for twelve years had broken. His mystic power had officially entered the God Spirit Realm...
It was even continuing to rise.
The power accumulated over twelve whole years had now become the "fuel" driving the continuous growth of his mystic power...
This was clearly supposed to be a Lightning Tribulation carrying destructive power, yet what shone down was not heavenly lightning that would reduce him to ashes, but golden light that allowed him to constantly break through his shackles...
Like a blessing?
Before heaven entrusts someone with a great responsibility, it must first temper their will... Every grievance, unwillingness, and pain... would surely... surely be repaid someday. It definitely would.
Xiao Ling'er's words rose in his mind without warning.
Could this be my reward?
Before you continue