After a hundred thousand years of silence, he emerged in a single day.
Lin Chen stood above the nine heavens with his hands behind his back, his robes fluttering lightly, untouched by dust. His gaze was indifferent, as though he had witnessed the vicissitudes of countless ages, yet also as though nothing in the world mattered to him.
Beneath his feet lay the ruins of a High Antiquity battlefield he had just shattered with a single finger. Countless vicious spirits and lingering souls from High Antiquity, which had once terrorized entire regions, had been reduced to nothingness by that casual gesture before they could even wail.
"Is... is this the legendary ancestor who spent a hundred thousand years checking in at his sect's forbidden ground?"
In the distance, several figures trembled as they prostrated themselves on the ground, lacking even the courage to raise their heads.
They were prodigies and elders from several nearby great sects. They had come seeking fortuitous opportunities, only to witness the terrifying sight of Lin Chen annihilating myriad spirits with a single finger. Such power had long since surpassed everything they understood about the "strong." It was like facing the supreme Heavenly Dao, filling them with awe and terror from the depths of their souls.
Lin Chen paid no attention to these antlike beings.
His gaze pierced layers of clouds, turning toward the tribulation clouds gathering rapidly overhead, blotting out the sky and sun.
The air pressure between heaven and earth plummeted.
Wild winds howled, the earth cracked, and mountains and rivers for ten thousand miles trembled faintly. An oppressive might capable of making even the Saints of the heavens pale descended from above, shrouding the wilderness.
"Is that... a heavenly tribulation?"
"No! This isn't an ordinary heavenly tribulation! It's... a Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation! A world-destroying heavenly tribulation that only appears when a being violates the Heavenly Dao's rules and grows stronger than heaven and earth can contain!"
"Run! If we don't escape now, the tribulation's aftershocks will grind us all to dust!"
The cultivators from the great sects were scared out of their wits. They turned and fled, wishing they had two extra legs.
They knew perfectly well that once a Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation appeared, everything within ten thousand miles would become scorched earth. Even an Immortal Emperor caught within it would face certain death.
Lin Chen watched the increasingly dense tribulation clouds, now pitch-black, and a faint, mocking smile curled his lips.
"A hundred thousand years, and the Heavenly Dao is still just as dull."
He murmured softly. His voice was quiet, yet it rang clearly throughout heaven and earth.
As his words fell, no brilliant divine light erupted around him, nor did he activate any heaven-shaking secret technique. He simply stood there quietly.
Yet that very calmness made even the world-destroying heavenly tribulation falter for an instant.
[Ding! The host has encountered the Heavenly Dao's Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation. Passive effects triggered: Immunity to All Techniques, Reverence of the Heavens.] [Ding! The host's hundred-thousand-year check-in rewards have automatically taken effect: Chaos Dao Physique automatically activated. Grants immunity to all damage from the Heavenly Dao and allows the host to devour the power of heavenly tribulations to strengthen himself.]
The system notifications sounded in his mind. Lin Chen had long since grown accustomed to them.
Over a hundred thousand years of checking in, he had acquired countless heaven-defying abilities. This tribulation of the Heavenly Dao was a catastrophe for others, but to him, it was merely a free "dust-cleansing ceremony."
Boom-!!!
The first tribulation lightning finally descended.
It was neither ordinary gold nor purple, but pitch-black World-Destroying Divine Lightning, ten thousand zhang thick. Like a world-destroying black dragon, it crashed toward Lin Chen with the might to crush the heavens and annihilate myriad worlds.
Wherever the lightning passed, space collapsed layer upon layer, and even time seemed to twist and freeze.
The cultivators fleeing in the distance felt the breath of death envelop them. They spat blood, their bodies on the verge of collapse.
"It's over! Against tribulation lightning of this level, that ancestor... can't possibly survive!"
"It's too powerful! This isn't something human strength can withstand!"
They had already closed their eyes, unable to bear watching.
In their eyes, no matter how powerful Lin Chen was, he could not possibly endure such forbidden divine lightning head-on. His body and soul would surely be blasted into oblivion.
Yet-
Pop!
A soft sound rang out.
The black World-Destroying Divine Lightning struck the top of Lin Chen's head, only to dissipate soundlessly like a raindrop falling onto a lake, without raising even a single ripple.
Lin Chen's robes stirred slightly. Not a hair was disturbed, and his eyes remained indifferent.
Not only was he uninjured, he even narrowed his eyes slightly in contentment.
"The flavor... isn't bad."
He offered his assessment softly.
In the distance.
The fleeing cultivators had already prepared themselves for Lin Chen's demise, but even after waiting a long while, they felt none of the earth-shaking explosion they had expected.
Instinctively, they looked back.
That single glance froze them to the spot, their minds blank, as though an immobilization incantation had been cast on them.
The black World-Destroying Divine Lightning that had driven them to despair had actually... disappeared?
And the young man in white still stood unharmed in the void, without so much as a tear in the hem of his robes.
"He... he took forbidden divine lightning head-on? Without a scratch?"
"How is that possible?! That was a Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation! Something that can kill even an Immortal Emperor in an instant!"
"What kind of monster is he?!"
The cultivators completely broke down, their entire understanding of the world shattered.
Above the firmament, the Heavenly Dao seemed to have been enraged as well.
For a hundred thousand years, no living being had dared disregard its majesty like this, nor had any being ever faced a Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation with such casual ease.
Boom-!!!
Boom-!!!
Boom-!!!
Three bolts, ten bolts, a hundred bolts, a thousand bolts...
Countless bolts of black World-Destroying Divine Lightning crashed down without pause, packed together into a world-destroying sea of lightning that completely engulfed Lin Chen.
Nothing remained between heaven and earth but endless thunder and lightning.
Ten thousand miles of land were instantly blasted into nothingness, leaving only pitch-black spatial turbulence.
Yet even so, not a single scream or explosion came from within the sea of lightning.
Instead.
An even more terrifying, more boundless presence slowly rose from the center of the lightning sea.
Lin Chen closed his eyes, allowing hundreds of millions of bolts of divine lightning to wash over his body.
His Chaos Dao Physique operated at full strength, furiously devouring the power of the heavenly tribulation.
The power others considered lethal was now being converted ceaselessly into his reserves, causing his presence to soar once more at a visibly perceptible rate.
"Not enough."
"This little bit of power isn't even enough for a warm-up."
Lin Chen slowly opened his eyes.
What a pair of eyes they were.
They held no divine light, yet seemed to contain the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, the past and the future.
Wherever his gaze fell, even space submitted, and even the Heavenly Dao's rules trembled.
He slowly raised his right hand and gently clenched it toward the firmament.
"Now."
"Disperse!"
That single word fell.
Boom-!!!
The world-destroying lightning sea that had been crashing down madly came to an abrupt halt.
The next second, it surged backward like a tide, drawn entirely into Lin Chen's palm, turning into streams of light that merged into his body.
The tribulation clouds filling the sky dissipated at a visibly perceptible rate.
The apocalyptic scene from moments before vanished in an instant like smoke and clouds.
Sunlight spilled over the earth once more, as though everything that had just happened had been an illusion.
Deathly silence filled heaven and earth.
In the distance, the surviving cultivators had long since fallen to their knees, trembling all over. Their foreheads were split from kowtowing, blood flowing without cease, yet they remained utterly unaware.
As they gazed at that white-robed figure, nothing remained in them but endless reverence.
Invincible!
This was true invincibility!
A being even the Heavenly Dao could do nothing against!
Lin Chen withdrew his hand. Feeling the power within him surge once again, he shook his head slightly.
"Still too weak."
"The Heavenly Dao amounts to no more than this."
To him, the heavenly tribulation really had been nothing more than a tickle.
A hundred thousand years ago, he had already surpassed the Heavenly Dao's limits and become a being who stood above all heavens.
Just then.
Several powerful presences rapidly approached from every direction.
Their presences were vast, their oppressive might astonishing. Every one of them was an Immortal Emperor whose name shook an entire region.
"Which fellow Daoist is undergoing tribulation here? You actually summoned a Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation and emerged unharmed?"
"I am Immortal Emperor Beixuan, stationed here to guard this region. Fellow Daoist, please show yourself!"
"A Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation has appeared. A heaven-defying figure must have emerged. We must investigate!"
Several Immortal Emperors descended into the void, their gazes grave as they surveyed the land below.
When they saw Lin Chen, their pupils abruptly contracted.
"What a young cultivator... Could he have summoned that Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation?"
"Impossible! There isn't the slightest trace of an Immortal Emperor's presence on him. He looks just like an ordinary person!"
"No! Sense him carefully! It's as though an ocean of chaos is hidden within his body! Unfathomable!"
The Immortal Emperors' expressions changed drastically. They no longer dared underestimate him in the slightest.
They had lived for endless ages and seen countless prodigies, yet had never encountered such a terrifying being.
The young man before them seemed ordinary, yet even Immortal Emperors like them sensed a lethal threat from him.
"Who exactly are you? Why did you summon a Forbidden Heavenly Tribulation and disrupt the order of heaven and earth?" Immortal Emperor Beixuan asked gravely, a barely perceptible tremor in his voice.
Lin Chen swept his indifferent gaze over the Immortal Emperors.
In his eyes, these beings who stood high above the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, revered by myriad races, were no different from the cultivators who had prostrated themselves earlier.
"Disrupt the order of heaven and earth?"
Lin Chen chuckled, his tone disdainful.
"I, Lin Chen, spent a hundred thousand years checking in here, and only emerged today."
"This Heavenly Dao isn't qualified to kill me."
"Neither are you."
His words fell.
Lin Chen made no movement. His gaze merely sharpened slightly.
Boom-!!!
The Immortal Emperors instantly turned deathly pale and spat golden imperial blood. As though struck by a primordial divine mountain, they were blasted backward, slamming heavily into the void and punching enormous spatial black holes into it.
The Immortal Emperor bodies and Immortal Emperor Principles they took such pride in were as fragile as paper beneath that single glance from Lin Chen.
"Pff-!"
"Impossible! What realm are you in?!"
"He severely wounded us with one glance... Is this... the Supreme Realm? No! He's a being beyond the Supreme Realm!"
The Immortal Emperors were terrified, scared out of their wits.
They finally understood just how terrifying a being they had provoked.
This was not someone they could contend with. Even if they exhausted the strength of all heavens, they could not harm so much as a hair on him.
Lin Chen could not be bothered to spare them another glance.
These ants were not even qualified to make him lift a hand.
He turned his gaze farther away, toward the endless All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, a trace of anticipation in his eyes.
"A hundred thousand years of playing it safe, and I've finally become invincible."
"This little realm can no longer contain me."
"It's time to see the true All Heavens and Myriad Worlds."
His words fell.
Lin Chen took a light step.
There were no earth-shaking phenomena, no grand spectacle of the void shattering.
His figure simply faded slowly into the void, as though he had never appeared.
Only a group of trembling cultivators remained, along with several grievously wounded, dying Immortal Emperors whose hearts now bore an eternal shadow.
And a single saying, echoing between heaven and earth, an everlasting, immortal legend.
After a hundred thousand years of checking in, I emerged invincible!
Meanwhile.
In the deepest reaches of the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.
Several supreme beings who had slept for endless ages suddenly opened their eyes.
"What a terrifying presence..."
"A transcendent has emerged!"
"A presence from the lower realms... In a single instant, he crossed endless planes and reached the heart of all heavens!"
"Quick! Seal every passage! We cannot let him upset the balance of all heavens!"
These beings were the true rulers of the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, known as the Supremes of All Heavens.
In their eyes, everything in the lower realms was dust.
Yet now, they felt a threat unlike any they had ever known.
However.
Their orders had only just been issued.
An indifferent will instantly enveloped the entire All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.
"Noisy."
Just one simple word.
BOOM-!!!
All the Supremes of the Heavens instantly froze, their souls trembling as they prostrated themselves on the ground, without even the courage to raise their heads.
Before this will, they could not even summon the thought of resisting with the supreme power they took such pride in.
Lin Chen appeared at the very pinnacle of the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds.
He lowered his head and looked down at the trembling Supremes of the Heavens below, his gaze utterly unruffled.
"From this day forth."
"I, Lin Chen, shall be the sole sovereign of the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds."
"Those who obey me shall prosper."
"Those who defy me shall perish."
His voice was not loud, yet it branded itself into the depths of every living being's soul.
The Supremes of the Heavens all bowed their heads.
"We pay our respects to the Sovereign!"
The myriad races of the myriad worlds bowed in worship with one voice.
"We hail the emergence of the invincible Sovereign!"
After signing in for a hundred thousand years, Lin Chen finally stepped out of the forbidden land, swept through the lower realm, cowed the heavens, and ascended to the supreme pinnacle, truly achieving-invincibility upon his emergence!