If five hundred years formed a cycle.
Then Chen Xia was witnessing that cycle. Whenever his Divine Sense spread out, it would sometimes merge with heaven and earth, sensing the voices of all living beings.
According to what the Qi refiners had said.
This was a sign of becoming a god.
He was about to become part of the Heavenly Dao, or even replace it and become the sole god of this world.
This process still needed time to accumulate.
Chen Xia was in no hurry. He waited patiently.
He had already cultivated his Great Turtle Breathing Technique to perfection, but no prompt for the next stage of the cultivation method had appeared.
Chen Xia reckoned that the Great Turtle Breathing Technique would only upgrade according to his fortune after he reached Nascent Soul. Otherwise, it was because his fortune was insufficient, and he needed to add some points to it.
His strength had now reached 350, his fortune 40, and his Law Power 0.
The standard build for a muscleheaded warrior.
Actually, Chen Xia also felt there was no need to put points into Law Power. He could just get some magic resistance later.
Putting points into strength was for hitting people harder, while fortune was for landing critical hits and hitting people even harder.
The two complemented each other, so he could alternate between them.
Still, Chen Xia was somewhat interested in Law Power. If he had spare points in the future, he planned to put one into Law Power and see what happened.
Aside from that, Chen Xia's connection to this small world was growing ever deeper. Sometimes, he even felt that he was heaven and earth.
Because of this, tremors would pass through his mind-the indistinct sounds of heaven and earth. They had begun sounding occasionally ten years ago, a series of urgent vibrations.
Chen Xia felt that it was something like a...
Warning.
But what exactly was it warning him about?
Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis?
Though these disasters could spell utter destruction for ordinary people, they had no effect on heaven and earth. In fact, heaven and earth itself caused these disasters.
Then what else could it be?
Chen Xia soon thought of it.
Cultivators from outside. That palm strike that had destroyed a city back then.
That was why heaven and earth was issuing a warning. It did not belong to this world, and could even obliterate its Great Dao.
Chen Xia had also grown tense over these ten years. To resist that giant hand, he had quickened the pace at which he wrote his Dao Chapter, hoping to complete it before the hand arrived.
If he could use the Dao Chapter, Netherworld Deadly Realm, to drag the giant hand into a room by force and steal thirty percent of its strength, Chen Xia was confident he could win for certain.
The whole point was that not only would he cuckold you right in front of your face, he would even give you a vicious beating afterward.
So Chen Xia was very busy now, refining Mystic Primordial Qi by day and writing his Dao Chapter at night.
The giant hand had last appeared roughly four hundred years ago. If five hundred years was the interval, Chen Xia would have to face the pressure of that hand in another hundred years.
Chen Xia had already thought it through. When the time came, he would have three choices.
Fight or run.
Actually, there was no need to think about it, but with permutations and combinations, there were two more options.
Run if he could not win the fight, and fight if he could not outrun it.
He really was spoiled for choice.
Chen Xia laughed at himself and redoubled his cultivation, striving to be able to hammer that giant hand to death a hundred years later.
But life was always full of things that caught people off guard and denied them a perfect ending.
Today, the imperial city suddenly went dark. Darker than night, because at least there was moonlight at night.
The people came outside one after another and looked up at the sky. The shadow looming overhead seemed like... like...
A finger?!
And the finger was still descending. Though it was still dozens of li away, the air currents it stirred up had already whipped fierce winds through the city.
The people were utterly terrified. As soon as the powerful officials and nobles received word, they prepared carriages, hoping to flee.
But the entire palm spanned a hundred li. Even without stopping to rest, a carriage could travel only fifty li a day. How could they escape within a single day?
Those who remained in the imperial capital began waiting for death, though they did not merely sit idle. Some began frantically kowtowing to Chen Xia's statues, hoping the immortal could save the world.
Some had already lost hope and could not stand the sight of others kowtowing. One man sent a statue of Chen Xia tumbling with a sweeping kick, then pointed at it and raged.
"It's useless! No one can save us! Stop pinning your hopes on some immortal! It's nothing but a rumor from a few hundred years ago! Just wait to die! Wait to die!"
One of those kowtowing picked up the statue and sighed. "Curse all you like. There's no need to kick the immortal."
"Ah!" The man who had kicked it also heaved a heavy sigh. How could he not hope for an immortal to save the world? But there simply wasn't one!
The giant hand in the sky drew ever closer. People could already see the deeply furrowed fingerprints on its fingers, with lightning swimming through them like little snakes.
Everyone understood now. The immortal would not save the world...
The immortal was going to destroy it!
At the very center of the imperial city.
The reigning emperor walked shakily to the center of his bedchamber and bowed down in worship. Forcing down the tremor in his voice, he spoke respectfully.
"The emperor of Great Xia respectfully beseeches the immortal to emerge!"
He struck his forehead heavily against the floor, the sound of his kowtow echoing around him.
Once that sound faded, his surroundings fell utterly silent.
The emperor of Great Xia trembled. He thought of what the late emperor had told him, of the legends passed down through the ages, of the offerings he made to the immortal's statue every year.
Unwilling to accept it, he kowtowed heavily again.
"Please, immortal, save the world!"
This time, even the wind fell silent.
The corners of the emperor's mouth trembled. He rose in anger, pointed at the floor, and cursed.
"The tens of millions of people of my Great Xia make offerings to you every year and regard you as the supreme existence! Why are you acting like a turtle with its head tucked away, hiding and refusing to show yourself?!"
"Are you afraid of that giant hand in the sky, only daring to hide yourself and flee in advance? What kind of bullshit immortal are you? You're nothing but a treacherous scoundrel who takes shortcuts and seizes opportunities!"
Cursing was not enough to vent the emperor's anger. He even stamped heavily on the floor several times to show his fury.
When his anger faded, he sat down on the floor in despair, staring blankly at the giant hand in the sky.
Perhaps there had never been an immortal in this imperial city at all. Perhaps it was nothing but a lie successive emperors had used to secure their rule.
How had he believed it too?
The emperor gave a bitter laugh, covered his face with both hands, and could not stop himself from sobbing.
"Then let me die along with my realm!"
A hand suddenly settled on his shoulder, accompanied by a voice carrying a hint of laughter.
"When it comes to flaming people, you're still far too polite."
The emperor looked up in astonishment, tears still in his eyes. He stared blankly at the young man before him, his expression instantly turning to shock.
The young man before him shared many similarities with the immortal's statues. Though he could not call them identical, there was at least a fifty-percent resemblance.
It was mainly his bearing, that air of serenity.
And he could still remain so serene under these circumstances.
"I-Immortal?!" the emperor asked in disbelief.
"Be good. Don't cry. Go stay in the back and watch me perform," Chen Xia coaxed him as though soothing a child.
In terms of age, the current emperor really was a child before him.
The emperor flushed and hurriedly rose, cupping his fists and bowing to Chen Xia. "Greetings, immortal!"
Chen Xia's lips spread into a grin. "Then you'd better take a good look. You won't get to see it again."
The emperor raised his head, but he had only caught a glimpse, not yet seeing clearly.
Chen Xia's figure was already in the sky, his foot abruptly stepping forward.
Dark clouds gathered across the entire sky, shrouding hundreds of li and even enveloping the giant hand.
Scarlet lightning was already dancing within the dark clouds. Occasionally, a lightning dragon that had gained sentience poked out its head and peered down.
A terrifying, primordial wilderness presence emanated from within. A pale-blue eye gazed out from the dark clouds, as though staring across eternity, searching for the one undergoing the tribulation.
This was a hundred-thousand-year lightning tribulation.
Great Emperor level!