The seven Golden Core Law Fragments were obtained by Lu Chen after he destroyed the Black Collar Prison Heaven Cave, slaughtered Golden Core experts, and refined them with the Heavenly Fragrance Furnace.
When Lu Chen fused one Golden Core fragment into the Soul Severing Saber, he froze.
It was still a peak-grade low-grade spirit artifact.
The essence of the laws had leaked away without being absorbed.
Lu Chen's heart ached so badly he twitched.
It seemed that not every Golden Core fragment could be fused into it. It needed to match the bone saber's attributes, or be compatible with the Law Fragments fused into it before.
There was another possibility. The Golden Core fragments came from relatively low-level Golden Core cultivators, after all, and were insufficient to make a low-grade spirit artifact undergo a transformation.
He tested it with the superb mortal-grade bone saber wielded by his clone.
It fused perfectly.
It transformed into a low-grade spirit artifact.
The three clones each had a low-grade spirit artifact.
He continued, fusing three more Law Fragments into them and raising each one to the peak of low-grade spirit artifacts.
Four peak low-grade Soul Severing Sabers.
Each was worth at least five thousand low-grade spirit stones, making twenty thousand in total.
Selling them would count as no small fortune.
He paused and took out that Martial Dao Will Fragment.
Law Fragments could forge low-grade spirit artifacts. What would happen if he fused in a Martial Dao Will Fragment?
Gritting his teeth, he fused the Martial Dao Will Fragment into one of his clone's external furnaces.
With a hum, the external furnace shuddered violently, and mysterious patterns gradually appeared over its surface.
They looked like an Asura, though still rather blurry.
The furnace trembled, and an Asura phantom swung its fist in a savage blow, sending ripples through space.
Lu Chen's eyes bulged.
Martial Dao True Form!
"Not bad. A peak low-grade spirit artifact!" Lu Chen clenched his fist fiercely.
The external furnace had transformed into an Asura Furnace. Not only could it attack, but it could also enhance its refining power, while its defense had risen by a huge margin.
He had gained another trump card, one that could also be used to throw people off the scent and protect his true treasure, the Myriad Manifestations Furnace.
After playing with it for a while and calming himself, Lu Chen took out the Lightning Fire Essence, a fire-attribute demon core, and an ice-attribute demon core.
He would refine them and prepare for a breakthrough.
Once he succeeded, he would be able to unleash Shaped Attacks of any attribute.
That was absolutely monstrous.
Unlike other Martial Dao Cultivators, who could at most unleash three types of Shaped Attacks.
He had no such limitation.
As long as he had refined something before, he could use it as a reference and launch attacks with the same attributes and forms.
It would greatly enrich his methods of attack.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The three treasures with mutually opposing attributes were swallowed by the Myriad Manifestations Furnace. The instant they broke apart, their violent energies made the furnace shudder fiercely.
It felt as though it would explode the next moment.
The three collided and annihilated one another without end, wave after wave.
Yet beneath the refining of the Myriad Manifestations Furnace, they raged even as they fused.
In less than half an hour, they finally formed a ball of white energy.
With a thought from Lu Chen, he drew it into the Qi Sea Furnace within his dantian's sea of qi.
Bang! Bang! Bang...
The originally condensed sphere of qi and blood suddenly exploded, turning into boundless energy that surged toward the white energy ball.
It reshaped the energy sphere.
A white energy sphere, an Attribute-less Energy Sphere.
As the white sphere grew larger and larger, Lu Chen's aura also grew stronger and stronger.
At a certain moment, space trembled. With a thunderous boom, a startling clap of thunder erupted from the flat ground, accompanied by a terrifying storm.
Eighth Level of Qi Surge Realm.
The energy accumulated by the Myriad Manifestations Furnace surged in, continuing to gather around the small white sphere.
This was a stable, gradual process, and it consumed an enormous amount of energy.
After the storm, Lu Chen sat as still as an old monk in meditation, without a single movement for a long while.
Xiong Yao and Fang Jiuding had also reached critical points in their cultivation.
Both showed signs of breaking through.
With a wave of Old Ancestor Tianyan's hand, the twenty-seven statues erupted with dazzling pillars of light. They gathered at a single point in the sky, then burst into a massive curtain of light that descended from above and enveloped Tianyan Academy.
At the same time, Lu Ran of Tianyu Academy had also reached a critical point in his breakthrough. Dense clouds piled up, and heavenly thunder rumbled.
Tribulation clouds. He was about to undergo tribulation.
And there were two layers, above and below.
The Martial Dao Heavenly Punishment and the Cultivator's Heavenly Tribulation formed simultaneously.
He was breaking through in both Martial Dao and cultivation at once.
This was an absolutely unprecedented sight in Great Yan.
Even the old monsters of Tianyu Academy came out to protect him.
Lu Ran had prepared countless magical treasures as well, welcoming the baptism of heaven with absolute confidence and bearing.
A solitary peak ten thousand zhang high pierced the sea of clouds. Lu Ran stood at the cliff's summit in a violet-gold robe, his unbound long hair billowing like an ink-black waterfall in the gale.
His brows were sharp as swords, violet lightning flickering in his eyes. The chains wrapped around his left arm crackled with a sizzle.
The sword embryo hovering above his right palm spat out sword light.
This was the Natal Spirit Artifact personally bestowed upon him by the Tianyu Academy's headmaster.
"Come!"
At his low cry, the dark clouds spanning a thousand miles suddenly collapsed inward.
Two gashes split open in the heavens:
In the upper layer, purple lightning writhed like dragons within the tribulation clouds, as the cultivator's Golden Core Lightning Tribulation transformed into the Nine Heavenly Gates;
In the lower layer, the Earth Vein roared, and the Martial Dao's True Martial Heavenly Punishment condensed into an eight-hundred-mile Magma Fire Purgatory.
A hundred miles away, the Purple Robe Elder watching the tribulation wore a grave expression.
With an earth-shaking boom, heavenly lightning from the nine skies wrapped around Earth Core Poison Fire, transforming into a hundred-zhang violet-red flood dragon that lunged straight at the cliff top!
Lu Ran shattered the mountain rock beneath his feet and leaped into the sky, his coiling-dragon robe snapping like a battle flag.
The lightning chains on his left arm lashed out with countless electric serpents, weaving a lightning net in midair that caught the flood dragon's head;
The sword embryo in his right palm stabbed into the dragon's neck, sword light flowing upstream along the lightning-fire veins and violently tearing the tribulation dragon into starfire that filled the sky!
He licked away the blood from the corner of his mouth. Beneath his torn garments, knotted muscles were exposed, every scar gleaming with the luster of gold and iron.
The second wave of tribulation came even more fiercely.
The upper tribulation clouds condensed eighteen Lightning Armored Divine Generals, while nine Lava Giants crawled out from the lower sea of fire.
Lu Ran finally drew his sword. The incomplete sword embryo let out a dragonlike tremor, and wherever its edge passed, it plowed black rifts through the void!
"Sword Devours the Eight Desolations!"
The sword radiance surged a thousand zhang, splitting into endless afterimages as it fell.
The broken halberds of the Lightning Armored Divine Generals and the severed limbs of the Lava Giants rained down. Yet the moment they came within thirty feet of Lu Ran, they were ground into powder by the suddenly appearing Martial Dao True Form—a Coiled Purple Lightning Demonic Dragon!
When the seventh lightning tribulation descended, heaven and earth suddenly darkened.
A bronze giant hand wrapped in chains reached out from the tribulation clouds. The Dao Pattern for "punishment" in its palm shone so brightly that all living beings fell to their knees;
Seventy-two Demon Sealing Pillars rose from the fire purgatory below, their carved reliefs depicting the miserable fates of cultivators from every generation who had failed their tribulations.
Lu Ran finally dropped to one knee. His battle robe had been reduced to tatters, and the heavenly pressure had crushed his back until ghastly white bone showed through.
The sword embryo cracked inch by inch, yet just before it could collapse, he reforged it with the Essence Blood from his palm!
"My Body is My Dao—why should I fear heaven's might?!"
With a long howl, he spat out a mouthful of Essence Blood onto the blade.
The sword light surged, shattering the bronze giant hand.
Then the sword light fell, and the Demon Sealing Pillars burst apart one after another. Violent energy churned and crashed like an ocean tide.
Yet he forcibly endured the baptism of that violent energy.
When the ninth lightning tribulation transformed into the Heavenly Dao Executioner's Blade and fell, Lu Ran shot into the sky.
The Crimson Firmament Sword had fully taken shape, its blade wrapped in lightning-patterned chains torn from the tribulation clouds!
"Break!"
The sword light severed the executioner's blade, and its aftermath split apart the tribulation clouds.
Before the fire rain filling the sky could touch the ground, the violet lightning dragon devoured it all.
Lu Ran walked down from the void upon lightning and fire, every step branding a burning footprint into the heavens.
His shattered body healed at astonishing speed. Gilded Dao Patterns flowed across his new skin, the lingering fire of lightning tribulation danced in his left eye, and Martial Dao Killing Intent settled in his right.
Majestic and imposing, his battle intent surged without end.
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