Shrouding the Heavens: Those Years as the Empress's Strictest Master

His voice rang out in Li Qingjue's mind at the same time. The girl offered no resistance whatsoever, doing as instructed and silently contemplating it.

"This is the Quieting Spirit Mantra. It can help you cleanse the distracting thoughts at your source and preserve the clarity of your spiritual platform. When you devour the origins of others in the future, you must be even more cautious and refine them even more thoroughly."

"As your master, I have removed the flaws and traps within the Devouring Source Scripture. After your own cultivation and your comprehension and integration of the Dao, the method you now cultivate is already vastly different from the original Devouring Source Scripture. It is no longer that original scripture..."

Ten Years, the Tower Collapses, Taking Every Scrap of Soul (3.2K)

"You have already unintentionally created a cultivation technique suited to yourself. However, it is still only in its infancy. Your attainments are shallow, and your time cultivating has been short. The method you created is far from complete. This technique takes an unorthodox path, devouring the origins of those unlike yourself, and its hidden dangers run extremely deep..."

Tan Lin's calm voice continued to arise in Li Qingjue's mind, guiding her patiently step by step:

"Especially the origins of those whose realm and constitution greatly surpass yours. Their origins contain fragments of will and imprints of the Great Dao. You are a snake trying to swallow an elephant. If you cannot thoroughly refine and purify them, the accumulation will eventually erupt one day, causing you to fall into depravity and become a fiend, lose yourself, and suffer eternal damnation..."

At this point, Tan Lin paused before changing the subject.

"Perhaps you have already felt it lately. The hostility in your heart has been growing heavier and heavier. That is not a good sign..."

As he spoke, Li Qingjue had already grasped the Quieting Spirit Mantra in broad strokes. She silently recited it within her sea of consciousness.

In an instant, a cool and peaceful aura flowed through her limbs and bones before finally surging into the depths of her soul.

It soothed some of the hostility and restlessness that had arisen from her frequent devouring of others' origins and successive slaughter of enemies recently. Even her injuries, which had yet to recover, seemed to ease somewhat.

In truth, the primary source of that hostility came from Cang Yuhang alone.

The other origins she had devoured during this period did not even amount to a fraction of Tyrant Blood.

Cang Yuhang had lost control while cultivating the Devouring Source Scripture, and because the level of his origin was too high, that loss of control had indirectly affected her as well.

"Furthermore, when you devour the origins of others again, use this mantra to transform hostility and the baleful blood aura of foreign origins into demonic qi. Let it fill only your fleshly body and not taint your soul. That will preserve your true self."

Tan Lin spoke slowly.

"This disciple understands. Thank you, Master!"

After a while, once Li Qingjue had refined the origins of the master and servants, she opened her eyes and was about to kowtow to Tan Lin, only to be held up by an invisible force.

"No need for such formalities."

Tan Lin's remnant soul waved a hand and spoke calmly.

He knew that this guidance would merely help her avoid a few detours. With her talent, realizing the separation of the physical shell and soul and using demonic qi to temper her body was only a matter of time.

At the end, Tan Lin's remnant soul glanced at the faintly spreading scent of blood around them, as well as several concealed auras farther away.

"You have continuously devoured others' origins for more than a year. I fear you have already drawn attention. This place is not suitable for a prolonged stay... You have now reached the perfection of the Other Shore. It is time to ascend another level..."

As he spoke, his deep gaze seemed to pierce through the world within the tower and look toward the endlessly distant void beyond.

"The Big Dipper is vast, and the universe is even more boundless. The road before you is still long..."

Yet the more Li Qingjue listened, the more something felt wrong. She raised her head and looked at Tan Lin with slightly reddened eyes.

"Master... You are not leaving again, are you?"

Her voice was filled with unease and reluctance.

Tan Lin could not help but laugh. She had clearly misunderstood his meaning. His remnant soul lowered his eyelids and said frankly,

"You have seen my condition. It is highly unusual, and I am destined to be unable to remain by your side at all times. But the day of our true parting is still far away."

Only then did the tense little face beneath Li Qingjue's bronze mask relax somewhat.

Then she asked,

"But Master, though this disciple has reached perfection in the Other Shore realm, I have not entered the Dao Palace Secret Realm. How can I enter the small world on the next level?"

"Devour those few sneaking over here, and won't you become a Dao Palace cultivator?"

Tan Lin's voice was faint.

After leaving those words behind, his illusory remnant soul sank back into the ring and fell completely silent.

Days and months passed like flowing water, and time sped by like a galloping horse.

Ten years seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

The tenth-layer small world of the Drill Tower.

Unlike the boundless starry sky of the ninth layer, this place was a void realm akin to primordial chaos before creation.

Earth, water, fire, and wind raged within it. Fragments of laws were like sharp blades of forbidden artifacts, while countless powerful Primordial Era war souls and law-born creatures roamed about.

The bronze puppets that acted as enforcers in the lower levels could be found everywhere here. Every one possessed combat power at the peak of Saint King or even touched the threshold of Great Saint.

This was once the place where the Human Emperor had deduced the true harmony of yin and yang. After failing, he turned it into an ultimate proving ground for tempering the strongest generals under his command.

Only peerless prodigies could enter, and only those with great perseverance could gain enlightenment here.

In the more than ten years since the Weapon-Refining Grounds emerged, the Saint King cultivators from within and beyond this domain who had fallen here could no longer be counted on both hands.

Their corpses were entered by Primordial Era war souls one after another and came "alive" again. The laws of the small world manifested, turning them into new enforcers and trial puppets.

However, they could only move within this world. Once they left the Weapon-Refining Grounds, they became duckweed without roots, liable to be extinguished by the slightest wind.

Rumble...

On this day.

This place, where cultivators below the Saint King realm found it exceedingly difficult to survive, was filled with an annihilating aura that had not appeared for a million years.

At the center of the boundless chaos, the powers of the Lunar Holy Emperor and Solar Holy Emperor swept about as a peerlessly beautiful immortal figure sat quietly in meditation.

Her spirit pet, the Cloud Leopard, which had always been inseparable from her, could only remain on the ninth level because of the Saint King-level distinction in this place.

As she sat in meditation, Gu Qingying no longer covered her face with a gauze veil, revealing a jade-like face so beautiful it stole one's breath. A small tear mole at the corner of her right eye made her seem like a goddess truly existing in this world, radiating heavenly splendor.

At this moment, the aura emanating from her exquisite body had risen to a terrifying height.

Even the place where she sat was like a star undergoing fusion, making all who beheld it turn pale.

Ten years of tempering within the tower. She had climbed from the bottom layer upward while suppressing her cultivation, once again comprehending the mysteries of the Sea of Reincarnation, Dao Palace, Four Extremes, and Dragon Transformation secret realms.

By now, she believed she had tempered every realm before the Immortal Platform to flawless perfection, her Dao foundation incomparably solid.

At this very moment, she no longer suppressed herself. Here, she intended to trigger the Great Saint Tribulation!

Whoosh...

Above her head, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden Diagram unfolded completely. The eight goddesses within the painting merged into one, then sat behind her back-to-back with her.

With this, Gu Qingying's aura became even more terrifying.

"Today, I shall enter the Great Saint Realm."

Gu Qingying slowly opened her autumn-water eyes. Within them seemed to cycle the flourishing and withering of spring and autumn, the changing of ages.

She murmured softly. Her voice was not loud, yet it clearly spread throughout the tenth-layer world, where there were still more than ten Saint Kings lingering, and even passed through the tower to faintly echo across the heavens above the Vast Mountain Range.

"This... What is this?!"

"Is she about to break through?"

"This is the Great Saint Tribulation! The divine maiden who holds the diagram of Spring Autumn Pavilion is about to attain the Great Saint Realm here!"

"This woman truly possesses heaven-defying talent. Not only is she the greatest beauty in our Big Dipper, she may even be the foremost heavenly prodigy of the past thousand years..."

"Heavenly Martial Holy Land must be regretting it so much their intestines have turned green by now, right?"

"The Ancient Road is about to open and the great era is about to begin. If she steps onto the Ancient Road with Great Saint cultivation, who could stand against her?"

"..."

"Retreat quickly! A Great Saint Tribulation is no trifling matter, especially Gu Qingying's Great Saint Tribulation. We must not get swept into it..."

The aura of tribulation clouds spread.

Within the tenth layer, the Saint Kings still tempering themselves there either turned pale in horror, wore grave expressions, or fled at high speed, afraid of being caught up in the Heavenly Tribulation.

Outside the tower, countless cultivators who sensed the disturbance erupted into an uproar.

Before the great era had begun, how long had it been since anyone in the Southern Region of Eastern Wasteland had undergone a Great Saint Tribulation?

Amid the uproar, the cultivators gazed at the towering uppermost level of the Drill Tower. They could not see the small world within, but they could see endless tribulation clouds gathering above the tower.

Lightning writhed like dragons, and the annihilating aura shook heaven and earth.

Rumble rumble rumble!!!

The next instant.

The incomparably terrifying Great Saint Heavenly Tribulation descended with a crash!

An endless sea of lightning poured down.

Within that lightning sea was no ordinary thunder. Strands of chaotic qi, yin-yang Dao laws, and fragments of space-time Great Dao laws all manifested as humanoid lightning and charged together at Gu Qingying.

Whoosh...

Gu Qingying no longer sat in meditation. She rose to her full height and rushed out of the Drill Tower, while the "Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden" behind her merged with her as one.

The goddess diagram unfurled. Her robes fluttered, her crystal jade shoes touched the ground, and she entered the painting alone to clash with one humanoid bolt of lightning after another.

The more she fought, the stronger she became. She struck those humanoid bolts back to their original forms and refined them with the supreme divine power of the goddess diagram!

Within the painting, she moved with the grace of a startled swan and the elegance of a swimming dragon, strolling through the sea of tribulation. With every step, golden lotus flowers of the Great Dao bloomed and withered beneath her feet.

Her bearing stunned the crowd. Every cultivator who witnessed this scene, friend or foe alike, was captivated and entranced, their souls utterly ensnared.

Because she refined the humanoid lightning, her Great Saint Tribulation lasted an entire day and night.

At last, Gu Qingying emerged gracefully from the Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden Diagram. With a gentle sweep of her jade hand, the remaining clump of tribulation clouds scattered with a boom. Threads of auspicious light and radiant colors then descended, draping over her exquisite body clad in a plain dress.

Immediately afterward.

A vast Great Saint pressure that stood above all living beings flashed by in an instant.

The Saint Kings on the tenth level were dumbfounded. She had only just passed her tribulation, yet without needing to adapt, she could already control the aura of a Great Saint at will?

Whoosh...

At the top of the tower, Gu Qingying's immortal figure stood suspended in the air. Her waterfall-like dark hair danced in the wind, her robes fluttered, and a streak of divine radiance became a gauze veil that covered the peerlessly beautiful face that had already bewitched the souls of all living beings.

However.

Just as the various lineages outside, shocked beyond measure, prepared to offer their congratulations.

Crack... Crack...

Rumble!

The Drill Tower, which had emerged nearly twelve years ago and contained a clash between Primordial Era methods and modern methods, suddenly began to develop dense cracks across its body. They spread rapidly like a spiderweb!

It teetered on the verge of collapse.

The Great Saint Tribulation triggered by Gu Qingying was like the final straw that broke the camel's back, causing the Drill Tower to begin collapsing completely!

"Not good! The tower is collapsing! Get out..."

"Move!"

"Run for your lives..."

At that moment, cries of alarm and screams rose one after another without end.

Inside and outside the tower, chaos reigned.

Countless cultivators surged frantically from the exits on every level like a tide, terrified that being one step too late would leave them buried with the ancient tower.

Amid the chaos, Gu Qingying descended gracefully and came to the spirit pet Cloud Leopard, which had also exited the tower.

Her expression was composed, and her shimmering eyes were calm, as though she had long expected the Drill Tower's destruction.

However, her calm did not last. She noticed that the Cloud Leopard's condition seemed somewhat unusual.

"Qinghan, what is wrong?"

Gu Qingying's dark brows furrowed slightly.

Whine...

The Cloud Leopard raised its head and looked at the master who had raised it for nearly a thousand years.

At this moment, its once-lazy vertical eyes were filled with emotions too complex to describe: attachment, guilt, pity... and, more than anything, farewell.