The Essence of Calamity, the Invisible "Threshold"

Since the opening of the Star Source Era, the leap from Rank 3 Star Envoy to Rank 4 Calamity had always been an impassable chasm before countless powerhouses.

There were two reasons why breaking through to Calamity-class was so difficult.

The first lay in obtaining something called Calamity Source.

This Energy Core, which contained fragments of rules, usually required one to venture deep into the most dangerous cores of Fallen Zones and kill a Calamity-class Star Beast to obtain it.

And during the early Star Source Era, the process could even require deadly battles against other Star Envoys. Difficulties lay everywhere.

Yet even after overcoming this problem and crossing that threshold, there was still another invisible, untouchable, yet brutally real "threshold" in the later stages of the breakthrough.

In Tiandao's own words, this "threshold" was the minimum basic attributes required to break through to Calamity-class.

If a Star Envoy's body was a vessel, then a Rank 3 Star Envoy's vessel was an iron bucket, while a Calamity-class Star Envoy's body had to be a special-alloy chamber capable of withstanding nuclear reactions.

And why was a Calamity called a Calamity?

Why could a Calamity possess such immense destructive power?

The answer was actually not complicated: "destructive power."

A walking Calamity was far more than simply "a little stronger than a Rank 3 Star Envoy."

Every breath they took could disrupt the surrounding star energy.

Every step they took could split the ground into spiderweb-like cracks.

Sometimes, this influence was visible. For example, wherever a fire-type Calamity passed, vegetation would be scorched yellow and withered by the heat.

At other times, it was hidden—even the Calamity themselves might not notice it. For instance, in areas where a water-type Calamity lived for long periods, the humidity in the air would become so high