Breakthrough to the Fifth Step

Li Cangxu pressed his finger against the Parchment.

A flash of blood-red light.

The drop of soul blood seemed to fall into a bottomless pool. The moment it touched the contract, gray-gold patterns swallowed it whole.

The next instant.

Lines of text on the Parchment lit up.

[Identity confirmed.]

[Trial participant: Li Cangxu.]

[Cultivation: Peak Fifth Step Path Severing Realm.]

[Agreement status: Signed.]

Before Li Cangxu could make out the last words, the contract snapped shut. It turned into a Gray-Gold Mark and burrowed straight into his forehead.

The contract was sealed.

Huang Yan's enormous black-and-white fish face forced itself into a remarkably human, kindly smile.

To Li Cangxu, it looked like the compassion of a divine beast.

To everyone in the Abyss Core Layer, it meant just four words.

A practiced hand at work.

Huang Yan spat out a black bubble that wrapped around Li Cangxu.

"Go on in."

Huang Yan's voice was deep, carrying the lofty authority of a divine beast.

"Someone inside will receive you."

Li Cangxu's heart jolted.

Someone will receive me?

It really is the True God Trial!

They've even arranged the whole process!

He was about to cup his hands in thanks when his vision abruptly went dark.

When light returned, he was standing on a vast continent.

Li Cangxu looked up and froze.

The sky was no sky.

It was layer upon layer of slowly rotating Cosmic Bubbles.

Inside each bubble, the embryonic form of a complete Great Dao arose and perished. Star rivers drifted like dust, while tides of chaos rose and fell along the edges.

The distant mountains were no mountains, either.

They were sleeping Immune Behemoths.

Their backs rose like mountains. Between their scales flowed White Flame capable of crushing a Great Universe. With every breath, they drew