"Crackle—"
Within Jiang Ming's Sea of Bitterness in his dantian, a towering figure stood between heaven and earth. It swallowed the lightning striking him as easily as drinking water. In an instant, that humanoid bolt of lightning seemed to brighten slightly.
Having just been struck by lightning, Jiang Ming seemed to glimpse a figure with a human face and bird's body, two green snakes hanging from its ears and two red snakes coiled around its arms. It vanished in a flash.
What had happened?
"Crack!"
Before Jiang Ming could think further, another bolt of lightning as thick as a water bucket slammed into him. His whole body crackled within the lightning, glowing as though he had become a light bulb.
Yet in the next moment, after completing another round of tempering his body, the lightning within him was once again devoured completely by that humanoid lightning. Everything was perfectly controlled: Jiang Ming would not be harmed, yet he would still receive the benefits of the tribulation lightning tempering his body.
In the end, Jiang Ming endured seventy-two lightning strikes. The final bolt was as thick as a millstone, like five bolts of lightning striking his head at once. It swallowed his entire body and lasted for three breaths before finally stopping.
Jiang Ming stood within the pillar of lightning, as though he were about to be torn into powder. The vast heavenly might was terrifying beyond measure. Even though cultivators had evolved, they remained incomparably tiny before it.
Then, a crimson lightning snake was thrown out by the Divine Form in his Sea of Bitterness and coiled around his body.
The next moment, Jiang Ming felt as though he had become part of the lightning itself. Instinctively, he opened his mouth and inhaled. The power of lightning transformed into pure vital essence, which he swallowed into his body to temper his limbs, organs, and extraordinary meridians.
Finally, most of the lightning power was joyfully devoured by his Life-Bound Sword. The Light Stone it had originally consumed had already been reduced to dust.
At that moment, his Life-Bound Sword transformed into a sword of light resembling silver lightning. Dragon and phoenix Dao Patterns appeared upon it, along with a faint imprint of humanoid lightning that flickered in and out of sight.
"Clang—"
Accompanied by a crisp sword cry like clashing metal, his Life-Bound Sword transformed into a Lesser-Grade Dharma Treasure amid the final bolt of lightning.
Boom!
At the same time!
Several illusory lotus petals faintly appeared around Jiang Ming's Nine-Colored Lotus Platform. The lotus platform completely rose from the center of the liquid oceanic dantian sea, circulating twelve-colored divine radiance as it suppressed the dantian sea. The Life-Bound Sword descended and happened to pierce the lotus heart at the center of the platform.
It was about to transform into a Twelve-Petaled Treasure Lotus Platform, or perhaps it could be called the Myriad Phenomena Platform.
Just as Jiang Ming thought the transformation had ended, "Rumble!" Purple-gold True Essence boiled within his Sea of Bitterness. Starting from the twelve-colored lotus platform at the center, surging demonic qi rose into the heavens, turning the twelve-colored lotus platform into a Black Lotus Platform in an instant. Not only that, his purple-gold True Essence Sea also became a black ocean of demonic essence.
Demonic qi billowed from Jiang Ming's body. In the blink of an eye, he seemed about to become a Great Demon who slaughtered all living beings.
"Kill, kill, kill—"
Endless black qi surged from the depths of Jiang Ming's Sea of Consciousness, boundless and inexhaustible. It was as though he had returned to Shushan, returning to the very instant when a single thought had turned him into a demon. His Dao heart questioned the heavens—this was the final step of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Stage.
"The heavens question all beings. The heart of heaven and the heart of man are both the Great Dao."
"If cultivating the Dao protects all living beings but cannot protect the one I love, then what Dao is that?"
"What is the difference between becoming immortal and becoming a demon?"
"—"
Jiang Ming was speechless. So this was what had been waiting for him? Hadn't he said he had let it go? A single thought became a demon, a single thought became a Buddha—hadn't he ascended?
So it had been waiting for him here?
"I refuse to accept this. Others cultivate and grow stronger in pursuit of longevity, but I only want Lingzhi to live."
"My poor daughter."
"Father, Ming'er was unfilial. I failed to protect Lingzhi."
Jiang Ming: "..."
So the memories of his previous life and this life had both come out to cause trouble, huh?
They were all joining in to see whether Jiang Ming would go mad?
"I don't care about the Demon Dao, Human Dao, Buddhist Dao, or immortal Dao. I only want to grow stronger. I want the heavens to no longer obscure my eyes, and the earth to no longer contain my body. When I am strong enough to reflect all heavens and reverse Samsara, the dead can all come back to life. Then there will be no more obsessions.
"If that still isn't enough, then I'll become even stronger."
"You cannot escape your own world because you cannot see hope. You cannot transcend heaven and earth only because you do not know how vast this world truly is. Once you understand it, you will be able to surpass it."
In this life, Jiang Ming only wanted to stand at the very, very highest point. He did not want to become part of anyone else's story. He only wanted to live freely as himself for once.
"So be a demon, then. You should try being a demon. You cannot be hunted down, and you cannot disguise yourself with the Seventy-Two Transformations. I am you, and you are me. I will always be watching you."
Obviously, the demonic obsession from Jiang Ming's previous life had never disappeared. It had all been a lie—talking about letting go. From the moment one picked something up, one could never truly put it down. One could only pretend nothing had happened and let time dull everything.
"Yes, I refuse to accept it too! Why aren't you going to destroy the Li Family right now? Aaaaah—"
The painful memories of Jiang Ming's current life surged violently.
"You don't understand. Even if I fall into the Demon Dao, even if demonic qi billows around me, I am still a kind and gentle person. I have my own plans.
"I will handle the Li Family properly."
Jiang Ming questioned his own heart, his expression calm. It was normal for a person to have a few messy thoughts.
Outside, he slowly opened his eyes. Dense demonic qi surrounded him, black qi curling around him as his black hair danced wildly, tangled with rolling demonic clouds and baleful energy. Even his eyes seemed to have darkened somewhat, yet they remained bright and gentle.
"Big brother?"
Nannan carefully studied Jiang Ming and spoke with a trace of fear.
"Don't be afraid. I used a spell to change my appearance. This is what I truly look like now. Once I turn back into a monk, this will be our secret. Don't tell anyone else, okay?"
Jiang Ming transformed into the monk Sanzang, but he was still shrouded in dense demonic qi. Even black demonic patterns intertwined across his bright bald head.
"Cough, cough. Be good, don't be scared. I've finished cultivating. This is a change after my cultivation technique reached great success. How about I let you touch my shiny bald head?
"How much time has passed now?"
Jiang Ming asked.
"I remember someone brought food thirty times."
Nannan raised both hands and carefully counted on her fingers.
"Thirty times, once in the morning and once in the evening. That means fifteen days have passed."
Jiang Ming immediately understood. He had actually spent fifteen days trapped within his Dao Heart Tribulation.
In truth, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Stage would not have taken him long. He had mainly been delayed by this trial of questioning his heart.
Usually, a person only had one life, and even that was enough to leave them overwhelmed, with countless regrets, apologies, joys, and sorrows.
But he had lived three lives. Especially the middle one—he had lived for far too long. Even after becoming a demon, he had continued on for more than a hundred years. Saying he had let it go so lightly had been far too easy.
Jiang Ming had long known it would not be so simple. Sure enough, it had caused trouble for him.
This was entirely that damned system's fault. He was practically insane now.
If it had not made him awaken in his previous life, he would not have had all these other troubles.
Fortunately, it had only arranged three lives for him. If there had been more, he truly would not have been able to bear it.
As Jiang Ming complained inwardly, a grain-sized Black Lotus between his brows slowly rotated, shimmering with purple-black gloom before becoming completely still.
This breakthrough had, overall, been a complete success.
Foundation Establishment Stage—comparable to the Dao Palace Secret Realm of the Shrouding Method.
Uh!
As for his True Essence turning black—yes, it was simply black, not demonic qi.
Just a color issue.
No big deal.
He could just come up with some excuse after going out. For instance, this was the Buddhist-Demon One-Thought Heavenly Art of his Western Desert lineage.
Right, he could take inspiration from the Chen Family Profound Skill in Tomb of Gods.
Because of the breakthrough, he had become shrouded in demonic qi, with demonic clouds coiling around him, demonic qi soaring skyward, baleful qi, murderous qi, evil qi, resentful qi—one could say that demonic qi was the fusion of negative emotions. Once one entered demonhood, the demonic sea had no shore.
Nannan looked into Jiang Ming's eyes, hesitated for a second, then happily ran over. Jiang Ming crouched down and caught her in his arms, lifting her high.
He then placed Nannan on his shoulders. She immediately curiously touched the black demonic patterns on Jiang Ming's head, probably finding them strange.
He looked somewhat like Wutian Buddha, but far more handsome. At the very least, his demonic patterns would not appear on his face. At most, he looked a little unconventional.
See? The first hurdle had been passed.
Xiao Nannan had recognized at a glance that he was the same sunny, handsome, warm, and radiant monk Sanzang as before.