The Truth from Eight Thousand Years Ago, the Beginning of the Calamity

Emperor End-Tribulation Celestial Venerable's voice was calm, yet his words carried immense weight. Sitting quietly in this secret realm, his expression serene and composed, he looked at the disciple before him and spoke with an easy smile: "I merely sat here, drawing upon the power gathered over five tribulation eras, to temper your Dao heart for twenty thousand years."

"If you were nothing but rotten wood, incapable of being shaped, then even if I gave you twenty thousand years, or a hundred thousand—"

"—you still wouldn't be able to take this step."

"You've done well."

The Imperial Venerable Realm was so profound that even Qi WuHuo, who had already experienced so much and cultivated a thread of Imperial Qi within himself, needed twenty thousand years of cultivation to put down roots of Imperial Prenatal Qi in his body and strengthen it through breathing and practice.

The price, however, was everything this incarnation of Emperor End-Tribulation Celestial Venerable had accumulated over several tribulation eras.

He had sat in meditation for five tribulation eras.

All of it had vanished into a Yellow Millet Dream.

The resolve and years contained in those few casually spoken words were so weighty that anyone would be moved by them.

Qi WuHuo saw the middle-aged Daoist before him begin to turn hazy and insubstantial, slowly fading away. As a divine thought formed from a Dao Ancestor, Great Dao Lord Yuchen could fight on every front—even clash with the Three Pure Dao Ancestors.

But Emperor End-Tribulation Celestial Venerable, whose foundations were even deeper than Great Dao Lord Yuchen's, had undergone such a change in an instant. That showed just how much the finger strike had cost him.

Qi WuHuo exhaled a breath of stale air, clasped his hands, and bowed deeply. "Disciple thanks Teacher."

A hand pressed down