In the Immortal World, the Mortal World, and countless other worlds, countless spiritual beings underwent tribulations to take human form every day.
Even the Immortal World was no more than a grain of sand in the myriad heavens and worlds.
Yet the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book encompassed every living being in all these worlds. Any being about to undergo a tribulation would appear within its pages.
With Chen Xiao's current cultivation, however, he could only see and control the beings on the first page of the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book: those facing the Transformation Tribulation.
The Mortal World.
In a vast desert, the blazing sun hung overhead, scorching the earth. Waves of searing heat swept across the sands, yet not a trace of life could be seen.
At the desert's center, a corpse a hundred zhang long lay motionless upon the golden sand. The ancient battle armor had been worn away by the years, its surface riddled with jagged cracks.
Though the corpse was enormous, it was clearly human. He had long black hair and a handsome face with sharply defined features, as if carved by an axe and chisel. He had been dead for countless years, yet his body showed no sign of decay. Had a gaping hole not been torn through his chest, with his heart missing, anyone who saw him might have thought he was merely a powerful cultivator asleep.
Even in death, waves of terrifying pressure still radiated from him.
Suddenly, in this desert that had gone ten thousand years without a trace of moisture, a gale sprang up. Black clouds surged in from every direction, blotting out the sun. In an instant, the scorching desert became a world of night. High above, the blazing sun vanished from sight.
A pair of enormous crimson eyes slowly opened behind the dark clouds.
The Eye of Heavenly Punishment.
"The pressure radiating from this corpse is even greater than that of the High Immortal who appeared in Moon-Gazing City that day. What level of powerhouse was he, to still possess such overwhelming might after ten thousand years in the grave?"
Chen Xiao, transformed into the Eye of Heavenly Punishment, gazed silently down at the hundred-zhang corpse. A corpse in the mortal realm was more terrifying than a High Immortal from the Immortal World. The waters of the Mortal World ran deep—that was the general view among the immortals of the Immortal World.
No immortal went to the Mortal World without a good reason.
"When he was alive, this powerhouse must have surpassed even the Supreme Immortal Realm. He would have been a hegemon in the Immortal World, yet somehow he died in the Mortal World."
High above, Chen Xiao looked down at the giant corpse and sighed inwardly. Ten thousand years of cultivation, lost in a single moment. It stirred pity in him for all living beings.
Now that Chen Xiao had become a heavenly tribulation, he was Heaven itself, the embodiment of the laws governing all things. Heaven was impartial, but this Heaven had been given human emotions.
Above, crimson bolts of lightning roared through the churning black clouds, illuminating the desert that had been plunged into darkness.
Beneath the corpse, a black shadow slowly crawled out and stood atop it. It was only a shadow, a hundred zhang tall, identical to the corpse beneath its feet. Its black body had no discernible features or texture; it was an empty darkness, blacker than the dark itself.
Its featureless head lifted high, facing the Eye of Heavenly Punishment in the sky.
That was right: the one about to undergo a tribulation and take human form was this shadow, the shadow of a powerhouse who had been dead for ten thousand years!
When Chen Xiao first discovered this, he had been badly shaken. Fortunately, he had already encountered a magical treasure about to undergo a tribulation and take human form. Now that a shadow was facing the same tribulation, he was at least somewhat prepared.
He couldn't help marveling at the wonders of the vast world.
Chen Xiao had the experience of his previous life and had thought himself well traveled, but only now did he understand that everything he had ever known was but a single grain of sand in the boundless sea of the myriad heavens and worlds.
The enormous shadow stood proudly in the air, roaring again and again at the tribulation lightning above as it brandished a giant shadow sword, just like its own body.
"Even as nothing more than a shadow, this dead powerhouse possesses the cultivation of the Mahayana Realm. Impressive."
Chen Xiao nodded to himself. The shadow had not yet undergone its tribulation, so it could not separate from its original body. For now, it was merely a shadow capable of moving. But once it passed through the Transformation Tribulation and took form, its future would be limitless.
Boom!
With a thought from Chen Xiao, a crimson bolt of lightning fell from the heavens. Dozens of zhang thick and a thousand zhang long, it struck directly toward the shadow below.
The shadow threw back its head and let out a fierce howl, raising its giant sword to meet the crimson tribulation lightning.
But in the next instant, something strange happened.
The crimson tribulation lightning swerved slightly, bypassed the giant sword, and plunged into the shadow's body.
"By the name of Thunder Virtue, I issue the decree of myriad tribulations. First Tribulation Disciple, take your place!"
Chen Xiao's voice rang across heaven and earth. Its rumble spread like a heavenly proclamation, and the tiny creatures hidden in the desert trembled beneath its boundless might.
In the next instant, crimson lightning wrapped around the shadow. Its body convulsed and began to shrink.
At last, a black shadow about the size of an ordinary person stood dazed atop the corpse. Though it remained pitch-black from head to toe, still like a shadow, it was utterly different from the towering figure that had stood there before.
Its body now had depth; it was no longer a flat, two-dimensional shadow. In the very center of its forehead was a crimson lightning mark.
After a moment, the shadow seemed to understand what had happened. It dropped to one knee and called out to the sky, "The First Tribulation Disciple pays respects to my master."
"Rise," Chen Xiao said impassively. "You came from a shadow and took form through a shadow. I'll call you Shadow."
"Thank you, Master, for bestowing a name!"
Shadow spoke, then rose from the corpse and leaped down.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Immediately afterward, three enormous bolts of lightning fell from the sky, blasting a pit hundreds of zhang deep into the earth. A gale swept up the corpse and cast it into the pit, then another gust smoothed the earth over it.
"The strong deserve the dignity befitting the strong, even after death."
As Chen Xiao spoke, a streak of crimson light shot down and lifted Shadow from the ground. Then the sky cleared once more.
Chen Xiao had returned to his room.
"Just as I thought. Becoming one with a heavenly tribulation and commanding all things has changed my temperament quite a bit." Chen Xiao frowned. He couldn't help thinking of the corpse in the desert. In the past, he would definitely have stripped it of everything it had: the shattered armor and the giant sword beside it were both extraordinary treasures.
But while one with the heavenly tribulation, Chen Xiao had felt as if he stood high above, looking down on all things with pity. He hadn't been able to bring himself to do anything like that. He had even buried the corpse.
"My cultivation is still too weak. I can't hold on to my convictions, and that grand will keeps swaying me." Chen Xiao sighed. He understood that as his cultivation rose and his temperament was tempered, he would be able to hold on to his true self and prevent this from happening.
The First Tribulation Disciple, Shadow, was now no more than a faint silhouette, floating quietly beside Chen Xiao.
"Go hide in my shadow. My cultivation is too weak; I still need a few hidden trump cards."
Chen Xiao spoke to Shadow.
"Yes, Master."
Shadow's voice was ethereal, seeming at once close by and far away on the horizon. The sensation was exceedingly strange.
The next instant, Shadow shifted slightly and merged into the silhouette beneath Chen Xiao's feet.