Having successfully survived the fourth Decay Tribulation, Chen Yan felt every cell in his body rejoicing.
Its foundation is more solid, and its consciousness is increasingly clear and penetrating.
His control over his own power has reached a completely new level.
With a thought, he was instantly pulled out of the Scroll World.
The next second.
Ten thousand meters above the ground, Chen Yan sat cross-legged, suspended in mid-air.
The gale-force winds at high altitudes are extremely fierce; if they hit an ordinary person, they could instantly tear them to shreds.
But these strong winds, blowing against Chen Yan's skin which was as white as mutton fat jade, did not leave a single white mark, nor could they even move a single strand of his hair.
After three years of intensive training and resource accumulation, his life level has reached the pinnacle of the Grandmaster stage.
Now, all that stands before him is the final hurdle of the Five Decays of Heavenly Humans – the fifth sign, Life Extinction!
The intensity of these first four periods of Decay Tribulation was outrageously high.
Even his first Decay Tribulation was comparable in power to Meng Ran's second Decay Tribulation, and perhaps even more terrifying.
Having endured more Tribulation Power, the benefits that came with them were naturally enormous.
As long as he can successfully collect a sufficient amount of tribulation energy, reaching the Martial Saint realm will only be a matter of time.
" Blue Star."
Chen Yan looked down at the scene.
Although he was still inside the planet, the view from this altitude, with the outline of the land and the vastness of the ocean, was still quite spectacular.
Compared to the vast universe, Blue Star is still too small.
Chen Yan raised his head and looked up at the deep starry sky.
The more one cultivates oneself, the higher one's level of life rises, and the more one realizes one's own insignificance.
Even if you can reign supreme on a planet and fear no one, you are still insignificant when the scale is expanded to the boundless universe.
Black Tide.
That catastrophe from the depths of the galaxy.
Even a being of Xie Xuan's caliber, the Martial God of Yinghuo, couldn't withstand it.
"The task is arduous and the road ahead is long..."
Chen Yan felt a complex mix of emotions as he sensed the surging, roaring torrent of Indestructible Internal Breath within his body.
Once he has overcome all five tribulations, it will be time for him to break through to the realm of Martial Dao Great Saint.
Looking back, I was just a little Karami who secretly grinded progress behind my mom's back, and even taking supplements was strictly limited.
In the blink of an eye, he had already become Martial Dao Grandmaster had survived four tribulations.
This cultivation speed is truly unprecedented and unparalleled.
Chen Yan grinned and muttered a couple of sentences to himself.
"I am the Heavenly Emperor, and I shall suppress all enemies in the world!"
"At the summit, standing proudly above the world, where I Chen Yan, exist, there is heaven!"
Self-motivation complete.
It was enjoyable, but the real-world problems immediately came to the fore.
Chen Yan rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.
Where can I find such a robbery?
The reserves of the Heavenly Human Tribulation Array in the Painting Saint Secret Realm were completely drained by his previous four Decay Tribulation.
Now he's like a supercar with amazing skills but no charging station to find.
After a moment of contemplation, Chen Yan closed his eyes and called upon the Heavenly Mystery Book deep within his consciousness.
"I humbly request the Heavenly Book, how can one reach the pinnacle of Grandmaster status in the fastest possible time?"
"List all the methods to me, from easiest to hardest."
Within his sea of consciousness, the pages of the Heavenly Mystery Book shimmered with a hazy light, swirling rapidly.
Soon, lines of text appeared.
[Method 1: Cultivate the < Indestructible Scripture >, and after 193 years you will have accumulated enough tribulation energy to break through the fifth Decay Tribulation in one fell swoop.]
Chen Yan stared at the words, speechless for a moment.
193 years?
The daylily buds are completely cold now!
By then he will be 202 years old, an age that most martial artists on Blue Star don't even live to see.
If we really waited almost two hundred years, the Black Tide would probably have plowed up the Blue Star eight hundred times over.
"Having too much cultural heritage can also be a problem."
Chen Yan sighed.
Although he has never actually fought a real Martial Saint, he can now deal with Grandmasters or Great Demon Kings of the same eighth rank in a way that is no different from killing chickens and dogs.
He had calculated that, if he played all his cards, he would definitely not be afraid of the Martial Saint.
The Heavenly Mystery Book had previously indicated that the total amount of tribulation energy he consumed to break through the first four Decay Tribulation was enough to support more than ten ordinary martial artists to break through to the Martial Saint.
Their appetite is too big; conventional methods simply cannot satisfy them.
Chen Yan continued reading.
[Method Two: Cultivate the < Indestructible Scripture >, set up a Heavenly Human Tribulation Array under the starry sky of the universe, and after sixty-eight years, you can accumulate enough tribulation energy to break through the fifth Decay Tribulation in one fell swoop.]
The Heavenly Human Tribulation Array left behind by Xie Xuan is indeed a good thing, directly reducing the time by more than half.
"But it's still too slow!"
Chen Yan shook his head.
He was already used to the rocket-like speed of advancement, ideally passing through a Decay Tribulation every year.
He couldn't wait sixty-eight years.
Keep scrolling down.
[Method 45: Cultivate the < Indestructible Scripture > on the surface of a star, comprehend the ultimate Yang source, and accumulate enough tribulation energy in five years to break through the fifth Decay Tribulation in one fell swoop.]
Chen Yan's lips twitched slightly.
Go to the surface of a star?
Shall we have a barbecue in the sun?
His physical body is strong, but not strong enough to bathe on the surface of the sun!
Are the ideas coming out of this Heavenly Mystery Book getting more and more unreliable?
[Method Sixty: Cultivate the < Indestructible Scripture > and confront the Black Tide. After a year, you can accumulate enough tribulation energy to break through the Fifth Decay Tribulation Decline and gain initial insight into the Tribulation Dao.]
Chen Yan rolled his eyes.
Facing the Black Tide?
Xie Xuan has already been reduced to a remnant soul. If I were to go there now, it would be like delivering takeout, and with a five-star review at that.
[Method 137: Go to the most perilous place in the universe, the Ruins of Finality, and sense the calamity energy. You can accumulate enough calamity energy within a day to break through the fifth Decay Tribulation and comprehend the Tribulation Dao.]
Words kept appearing on the Heavenly Mystery Book, seemingly endless.
Chen Yan Chen Yan almost dazzled by the answers, but he focused his energy on the first few dozen methods. As for the rest? He could just watch and see; given his current circumstances, they were simply impossible for him to implement.
The Ruins of Finality sounds like some kind of terrifying place.
But after careful consideration, Chen Yan felt that among the dozens of methods mentioned above, there were still some solutions worth exploring further.
"It seems the conventional approach won't work."
Chen Yan set his sights on the Heavenly Mystery Book itself.
This thing is just a fragment right now. If we can find the other half and piece it together, our deductive reasoning ability will definitely take a leap forward. At that time, we might even be able to come up with a perfect solution for a rapid breakthrough.
"I humbly request the Heavenly Book," Chen Yan asked in his sea of consciousness, "Where is the other fragment of the Fragment of the Heavenly Mystery Book now?"
Within his sea of consciousness, the surface of the Heavenly Mystery Book shimmered with a hazy light, and those mysterious patterns began to swirl rapidly.
A minute passed.
Two minutes passed.
The Heavenly Mystery Book, which usually answers every question and makes rapid deductions, completely stalled this time.
The light on the paper flickered, and the patterns kept rearranging and scrambling. After calculating for a long time, I still couldn't piece together a specific coordinate.
Chen Yan grew impatient and simply withdrew the order.
"Can't figure it out?" Chen Yan raised an eyebrow.
This was the first time he had encountered such a situation since obtaining this divine object.
After a little thought, he quickly understood the logic behind it.
They are all fragments from the same source, of the same level, and probably of similar size.
This is like two top hackers attacking each other, neither of them able to hack into the other's system. There is a natural mutual restraint and shielding mechanism, making it impossible for either of them to calculate the other's location.
Moreover, after using it frequently over the past few years, Chen Yan has also figured out some of the details of the Heavenly Mystery Book.
This thing is amazing, but it is not omniscient or omnipotent; it has a definite upper limit to its computing power.
"In that case, I'll see just how far you go."
Chen Yan sat cross-legged in the fierce winds high in the sky, and began his extreme test with great interest.
"I humbly request the Heavenly Book, how can I break through to the Martial God?"
Martial God, also known as Starry Sky Life, are terrifying beings who are a whole realm higher than ordinary Martial Saint.
Upon hearing this question, the Heavenly Mystery Book trembled violently. Then, lines of incomplete and unrecognizable gibberish flashed wildly across the page, accompanied by a faint static.
After a full half hour of deduction, the Heavenly Mystery Book ultimately only emitted a blurry gray mist, offering no useful information whatsoever.
"As expected." Chen Yan nodded to himself.
The scope of this Heavenly Mystery Book secrets is, at most, limited to realms below Starry Sky Life. Once it touches upon higher-level laws and powers, it becomes completely helpless.
The testing is still ongoing.
Chen Yan took a deep breath and posed the second weighty question.
"I humbly request the Heavenly Book to reveal the true nature of the ' Black Tide ' that destroyed the Yinghuo Civilization."
Upon hearing this, a sudden change occurred within his consciousness!
The Heavenly Mystery Book, which had originally emitted a soft golden light, instantly turned into a dazzling scarlet red.
Black, Void Fire suddenly ignited at the edge of the book's pages, and an extremely evil and chaotic aura surged through the mental connection, rushing straight into the depths of Chen Yan's soul.
Chen Yan felt a sharp pain in his head and quickly severed the mental connection, forcibly suppressing the surging blood and qi.
Looking again at the Heavenly Mystery Book in his sea of consciousness, the black fire had been extinguished, but the book's luster had dimmed considerably, clearly indicating that it had suffered a significant backlash.
"Good grief, I almost got myself into trouble." Chen Yan rubbed his temples.
The level of the Black Tide had completely exceeded the limits that this half of the Heavenly Mystery Book could withstand. Just deducing its essence almost provoked some indescribable backlash.
Despite suffering two consecutive defeats, Chen Yan was not discouraged; instead, his competitive spirit was ignited.
He stared intently at the withered Heavenly Mystery Book in his sea of consciousness, the image of the book that had accompanied him all the way and was also the greatest secret about him surfaced in his mind.
"The last question."
Chen Yan silently recited each word in his mind.
"I humbly request the Heavenly Book to reveal the origin of my ' Martial Dao God-Ascension System '."
Quiet.
An eerily quiet atmosphere.
There was no red light, no black flame, and no garbled text.
The Heavenly Mystery Book that had been floating in mid-air in his sea of consciousness, exuding an extremely high level of prestige, didn't even struggle for a second after hearing the question.
"Smack!"
The pages closed instantly.
All the light went out completely at the same time.
The entire book fell straight down from mid-air, crashing heavily to the bottom of his mind, and then remained motionless.
Chen Yan tried to touch it with his Divine Might.
No response.
"???"
The biting north wind, carrying dark red sand and dust, raged across the barren land.
This is Zero Rift.
It is known as the most dangerous region on Blue Star, bar none.
High in the sky, thick, leaden-gray clouds never disperse.
Sudden.
A crimson meteor violently tore through the clouds, accompanied by a piercing sonic boom, and suddenly plunged into a chaotic ruin below.
The gale was forcefully pushed aside, and the air currents surged.
Zhao Xinyue, with wings on her back and feet treading on raging Heaven-Burning Flame, hovered above the ruins.
She had a delicate, oval face, fair and translucent, with striking and beautiful features, and a shapely figure. However, the oppressive aura emanating from her at this moment was enough to make any low-level life form kneel down on the spot.
"They're quite good at hiding things."
Zhao Xinyue looked around, her red lips slightly parted, and she murmured a sentence softly.
A vast and keen divine sense, centered on her, spread out in all directions like an invisible giant net, penetrating inch by inch into the depths of the earth.
Last time I killed the Rotten Bone Corpse Demon here, I was in such a hurry that I didn't have time to carefully clear away the traces of those eighth-tier demons around me.
Those beasts were cunning; as soon as they saw their leader was dead, they all vanished without a trace.
Now that she finally had some free time, she naturally wanted to settle accounts with these guys slowly.
soon.
When the divine sense network swept across a certain area, it detected an extremely subtle yet incredibly violent demonic aura.
At the same time.
The eighth-tier demon " Corpse Ancestor Hanba," which was lying prostrate in a cavern a hundred meters deep underground, suddenly stiffened its enormous and withered body.
It sensed it.
Above its head, a terrifying aura that even made this Eighth-Rank Great Demon King tremble was firmly locked onto it!
"Found you."
In mid-air, Zhao Xinyue raised an eyebrow, raised her fair right hand, and with her fingers pointing like a sword, slashed fiercely at the ground below!
Phew--!
A sharp bird cry echoed through the sky.
As she moved, countless strange birds, entirely black with metallic-looking feathers, emerged from the void.
This is Qingyuan Bird.
Thousands upon thousands of Qingyuan Bird gathered together, emitting a long cry like the king of birds. The energy between heaven and earth was drawn in and began to converge wildly.
The jet-black True Essence surged forth and rapidly condensed in mid-air, transforming into a black blade tens of feet long and solidified as if it were a physical object.
"Go."
Zhao Xinyue pressed down with her fingertips.
The enormous black blade, with its overwhelming power, slashed straight down towards the ground.
The hard rock strata were more fragile than tofu in the face of this force.
Rumble!
Amidst a deafening roar, the earth was ripped open, leaving a gruesome, bottomless gash.
Soil flew everywhere, and pebbles flew through the air.
The Rift stretched downwards, precisely cleaving open the cave ceiling hundreds of meters deep.
"Roar!"
A roar of shock and rage erupted from underground.
Immediately afterwards, a gaunt figure, shrouded in a thick aura of death, soared into the sky amidst billowing black smoke.
It is none other than the Corpse Ancestor Hanba!
Its face, with its blue skin and fangs, was filled with savagery. As it waved its hands, ten sharp, knife-like fingernails gleamed with a ghostly green venomous light, aiming straight for Zhao Xinyue's face.
"You little human girl, you've gone too far!"
The Corpse Ancestor Hanba, roared repeatedly.
A dignified eighth-tier demon, already forced to hide underground like a coward, is now having its secrets exposed. How can it possibly tolerate this?
Faced with this fierce counterattack, Zhao Xinyue didn't even blink.
"Left."
She silently recited a sentence in her mind.
Within his sea of consciousness, half of the Heavenly Mystery Book was emitting a soft glow.
A second before the Corpse Ancestor Hanba made its move, she had already clearly seen all the trajectory of its attacks.
Foresight!
With a gentle flap of the wings on Zhao Xinyue's back, she slid half a meter to the right at an incredible angle.
The Corpse Ancestor Hanba's claws, sharp enough to tear through steel, barely grazed her nose, not even touching a single hair on her head.
"What?"
The Corpse Ancestor Hanba was greatly alarmed.
Before it could react, Zhao Xinyue had already struck out with her palm.
The Heaven-Burning Flame burst forth from her palm, transforming into a fire dragon that slammed into the chest of the Corpse Ancestor Hanba.
"Ah--!"
A piercing scream rang out.
The powerful physical body that the Corpse Ancestor Hanba was so proud of was burned through by this domineering Fire Authority, leaving a large hole. The foul-smelling corpse fluid sizzled and was instantly evaporated into Void.
Its massive body crashed to the ground like a kite with a broken string, smashing through more than a dozen small hills before finally coming to a stop.
Zhao Xinyue shook her head, not surprised by the result.
With the precognitive abilities granted by the Fragment of the Heavenly Mystery Book, and the assistance of the Qingyuan Bird, she can now completely overwhelm most eighth-tier demons.
but...
Looking down at the Corpse Ancestor Hanba, which was still struggling frantically despite being severely injured, Zhao Xinyue frowned slightly.
Although his attack methods were unpredictable and varied, they were still lacking in absolute killing power.
"Fine, I'll just finish them off with a couple more blows."
Zhao Xinyue sighed, raised her hand again, and prepared to completely destroy this demon.
Just then...
A sudden change has occurred!
Zhao Xinyue froze instantly, a feeling of unprecedented horror washing over her.
She felt as if she were being watched by some indescribable, terrifying being.
The feeling was like someone walking in the wilderness at night, suddenly being locked on by a van full of people with guns.
There's no way to avoid it, no way to escape it!
"What happened?!"
Zhao Xinyue was terrified. She could no longer care about the Corpse Ancestor Hanba and immediately focused her mind on the Heavenly Mystery Book for help.
However.
The scene in her mind completely stunned her.
The Heavenly Mystery Book, which had been quiet and radiating a soft glow, suddenly seemed to be acting strangely, with the light on its pages flickering and changing erratically.
The mysterious and complex patterns on the pages were completely out of control, constantly rearranging, disrupting, and then disintegrating...
The entire sea of consciousness was thrown into turmoil by this shock.
"I humbly request the Heavenly Book! What exactly happened? Who is targeting me?"
Zhao Xinyue called out anxiously.
However, the Heavenly Mystery Book, which usually answers every question, seemed to be caught up in some extremely intense struggle and had no time to pay attention to her at all.
It's blocking!
It is frantically expending its computing power to resist the deduction and spying of another force of the same origin!
Taking advantage of the brief few seconds that Zhao Xinyue was stunned.
The Corpse Ancestor Hanba below seized the opportunity and broke off one of its own arms without hesitation.
The severed arm exploded, turning into an extremely dense cloud of blood mist that completely enveloped its body.
Blood Escape Technique!
In order to survive, this Eighth-Rank Great Demon King directly burned its essence, transforming into a streak of blood-red light, and fled into the depths of the earth at an incredible speed, escaping hundreds of kilometers in the blink of an eye.
When Zhao Xinyue came to her senses, all that remained was a pool of foul-smelling blood.
"They ran away?"
Zhao Xinyue bit her lip in annoyance.
We were so close to completely eliminating this hidden danger.
However, she had no time to care about the fleeing demon.
The tremors within my consciousness continued.
She could only endure the dizziness and hover in mid-air, vigilantly guarding against any unknown attack that might come at any moment.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Time passed by, second by second.
finally.
The feeling of being locked in one's mind receded like the tide, disappearing without a trace.
The flickering light on the Fragment of the Heavenly Mystery Book gradually stabilized, returning to its previous soft state. The disordered patterns slowly pieced themselves back together.
Everything seemed to have returned to normal.
"Call..."
Zhao Xinyue let out a long breath, her forehead already covered with fine beads of sweat.
Although that brief exchange did not result in any physical damage, the mental pressure it exerted was far more terrifying than facing several eighth-tier demons directly.
"I humbly request the Heavenly Book, what exactly happened just now...?"
She asked herself the same question again.
Quiet.
There was no response from within his mind.
The Fragment of the Heavenly Mystery Book floated there silently, seemingly lying flat and playing dead.
Zhao Xinyue asked three times, but received no hint whatsoever.
"Even you can't figure out the other party's background?"
Zhao Xinyue's expression turned extremely solemn.
Over the years, she has relied on this half of the Heavenly Mystery Book to turn misfortune into good fortune and achieve success in everything she does.
This was the first time she had ever seen the Heavenly Mystery Book exhibit such a "crash"-like reaction.
Who exactly is that entity secretly spying on us?
Why lock yourself in?
Could it be that some great terror, even feared by the Heavenly Mystery Book, is hidden deep within the Zero Rift?
Thinking of this, Zhao Xinyue couldn't help but shudder.
She glanced down at the bottomless Rift below, then at the vast, gray expanse in the distance, and a chill inexplicably rose in her heart.
"This place is getting weirder and weirder."
Zhao Xinyue pursed her lips and made a decision from the bottom of her heart.
"If you're not 100% sure, try to avoid this area as much as possible, lest you really get yourself into trouble."
If I can't afford to offend them, can't I at least avoid them?
With a sudden flap of her wings, she transformed into a streak of crimson light and sped off towards the outer edge of Rift Zero Rift without looking back.