Sacred Forest.
It was a forbidden land of the Hengyuan Plane in the God Realm, passed down from ancient times.
There were many legends concerning the Sacred Forest.
Some said that an invincible existence who lived forever dwelled within the Sacred Forest, while others claimed that a terrifying undead demon lived there.
No matter which account it was, they all agreed on one thing: a supreme existence resided within the Sacred Forest.
Through the long river of time, millennia-old Lineages had continually been replaced, ten-thousand-year empires had risen and fallen without cease, and even the mightiest divine kingdoms had gradually vanished into the currents of history.
The seas had turned into mulberry fields, and the years had changed.
The only thing that had remained unchanged in the Hengyuan Plane was the Sacred Forest.
No one knew how many years the Sacred Forest had existed. Even the oldest ancestors of the Hengyuan Plane only knew that it had been passed down from the ancient era.
That day.
Thunderclouds suddenly gathered above the Sacred Forest and swiftly spread outward. An astonishing power of destruction continuously permeated the air, and before long, the entire Sacred Forest was shrouded by this terrifying destructive force.
Yet these thunderbolts of destruction continued spreading beyond the Sacred Forest at an alarming speed.
Before long, the Divine Martial Continent, where the Sacred Forest was located, was enveloped by the thunderbolts of destruction.
Within the Divine Martial Continent, the ancestors of countless super sects and old monsters of imperial dynasties were all jolted awake by this destructive power.
Tai Wuji, the patriarch of the Wuji Dynasty closest to the Sacred Forest, stared at the rolling sea of thunder in the sky, his heart filled with terror.
Even a single bolt of this destructive lightning would likely be enough to blast the Wuji Imperial City into nothingness.
"What kind of divine lightning is this?"
"How could such terrifying divine lightning exist between heaven and earth?"
Tai Wuji was stricken with panic.
"Have you found out yet? Just what is going on with this destructive lightning?" Tai Wuji asked the imperial experts beside him.
"Patriarch, we have found out. The source of the destructive lightning lies in the forbidden region of the Sacred Forest!" an imperial expert said. At the mention of the Sacred Forest's forbidden land, his voice could not help trembling.
"The Sacred Forest!" Upon hearing this, Tai Wuji and the experts of the Wuji Dynasty all fell silent as cicadas in winter.
"Could it be that supreme existence is about to attain the Heavenly God Realm and is undergoing the Heavenly God tribulation?" a Wuji Dynasty expert guessed in shock.
Tai Wuji shook his head. "Even a Heavenly God tribulation would not possess such terrifying tribulation lightning."
An extremely ancient imperial ancestor mumbled, "I heard that Lady Wan Beibei once entered the Sacred Forest and received guidance from that existence. Only after she emerged did she unify our Divine Martial Continent!"
"Even the Nine Absolute Martial God of the Martial God Hall entered the Sacred Forest. Could that existence have already surpassed the Heavenly God Realm?"
As the outside world discussed and speculated,
the terrifying sea of thunder blanketing the Divine Martial Continent suddenly compressed into a terrifying pillar of lightning and crashed fiercely toward the Sacred Forest's forbidden region.
The instant the terrifying lightning pillar struck, blazing light burst forth.
Everyone's eyes stung with pain.
When they opened their eyes again, heaven and earth had returned to normal. The sky was still bright and clear, the sun hung high overhead, yet the terrifying thunderclouds had vanished without a trace.
Everyone looked at one another in bewilderment.
At this moment, within the Sacred Forest's forbidden region, a terrifying ball of lightning had condensed at Lu Yiping's fingertip.
This ball of lightning was precisely the tribulation lightning that had struck earlier. He had gathered it between his fingers and continuously compressed it until it became a lightning ball the size of a human head.
Such terrifying lightning had actually been condensed at Lu Yiping's fingertip!
Under Lu Yiping's continued compression, the lightning ball kept shrinking until it was finally the size of a thumb.
Then, Lu Yiping swallowed it in one gulp.
At once, streams of lightning qi erupted from every pore across his body.
But they soon came to an abrupt halt.
After absorbing the power of the tribulation lightning, Lu Yiping stood up and stretched his limbs. The Longevity Art had finally been cultivated to its final layer.
He simply had not expected it to bring down a tribulation lightning neither too great nor too small.
Now that the Longevity Art has reached its final layer, I should have the strength to protect myself even if I face a great calamity of heaven and earth, right?
It was time to go out and take a look.
He wondered what the outside world was like now.
Lu Yiping strolled to the book pavilion and began his daily leisurely routine.
Within the book pavilion stood cabinet after cabinet of books. They were all cultivation methods and secret manuals left behind by Deity Realm experts who had fallen during the War of the Gods.
The walls surrounding the book pavilion were covered with a dazzling array of divine artifacts.
During these countless years, aside from cultivating the Longevity Art, he had spent his time reading these books. They contained cultivation methods and secret manuals, as well as Zither, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting, medical principles, Array Formations, beast taming, alchemy, astronomy, geography, and everything under the sun.
Several days later.
Dressed in a pale blue robe, Lu Yiping, who appeared to be only in his early twenties, emerged from the Sacred Forest's forbidden region.
Before long, he arrived at the edge of the Sacred Forest.
Surrounding the Sacred Forest's edge were the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Among these mountains were no shortage of ferocious beasts in the God Realm and even the True God Realm.
Lu Yiping looked at the boundless mountain range before him, strode forward, and vanished into the vast peaks in the blink of an eye.
The farther outward he went, the more sect experts he encountered who had come to hunt beasts.
These experts came from every sect and school, and their cultivation methods and Profound Techniques came in all manner of varieties. Yet regardless of the cultivation method or Profound Technique, Lu Yiping needed only one glance to understand it completely.
However, just as Lu Yiping was about to leave the Hundred Thousand Mountains, he saw a boy of thirteen or fourteen killing a low-level monster, a Fire Rabbit. Lu Yiping stopped.
The boy used a sword, but his swordsmanship was truly too dreadful to behold. Moreover, his sword technique was incomplete, and many of its moves had been practiced in a half-baked manner.
After the boy killed the Fire Rabbit, Lu Yiping walked over.
When the boy saw Lu Yiping approaching, he gripped his longsword tightly, his face full of vigilance.
Lu Yiping did not mind the boy's wariness and asked, "Little brother, who taught you this Asura Sword Technique?"
"Asura Sword Technique?" The boy shook his head. "This is the Demon Purging Sword Technique, not some Asura Sword Technique."
Lu Yiping was startled.
The boy ignored Lu Yiping, picked up the Fire Rabbit, and hurried toward the outside of the mountains.
After thinking for a moment, Lu Yiping followed him.
Before long, he saw a small village.
Wisps of cooking smoke curled above the village.
When the boy returned to the village entrance, he saw a villager coming out from inside. The villager called out to him, "Xiao Yu, you went hunting beasts again? Your father is looking for you."
Upon hearing this, the boy quickened his pace and ran back into the village.
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