The chaos receded, yet the entire Cangming Nether Ruins still floated within a vacuum devoid of rules and laws. Time had lost its measure; no wind blew, no waves surged, and all things beneath heaven and earth waited silently for the verdict of the newborn Dao laws.
After the fourth Dao-Heart Tribulation came to an end, the Heavenly Tribulation did not immediately descend in full force.
Unlike the savage crushing onslaught of the first four lightning tribulations, the fifth tribulation sank into a long silence.
That silence lasted three days and three nights.
The remaining Tribulation Clouds in the heavens no longer churned restlessly. Instead, they slowly descended and condensed, layer upon layer wrapping around the entire ruins and turning into a gray, lifeless canopy.
No lightning flickered, and no heavenly pressure leaked out. Yet every remaining current of heaven-and-earth energy froze completely still; even the folds of space were smoothed flat.
This was the unique omen of the fifth Saint Tribulation—Self-Born Dao Lightning, creating laws and giving birth to the Dao.
The first three tribulations had tested a cultivator's foundation; the fourth had interrogated a cultivator's true heart. But this fifth tribulation granted a cultivator the sole qualification to "defy the Dao and establish laws."
If one could bring forth a Dao belonging solely to oneself from nothingness, the Heavenly Dao would acknowledge it, and one could enter sainthood by breaking convention.
If the Dao patterns were false and the Dao heart unsteady, the long-brewing Tribulation Clouds would instantly become a killing blow, erasing soul and Dao foundation together without leaving the slightest chance of survival.
Above the Black Sea, Qin He kept his eyes tightly shut, not a trace of spiritual power stirring around him.
His shattered, charred body hung silently in the air. The blood scabs and