Deathly stillness. The pain of eternal Demonic Energy erosion, along with the tug-of-war between Buddha and demon, ice and fire, deep within his consciousness, made up the entirety of Ming Xin's senses.
Buried deep within the core of The West's polluted earth veins, the embryo named the "Slaughter Buddha Seal" was like something abandoned in an endless abyss.
Only the layer of gray-white Nirvana Buddha Light flowing across its surface stubbornly flickered with a faint glow amid the tar-like Chaos Demonic Energy.
[Energy accumulation... 45%... 50%... 55%...]
The system's cold, rigid prompt was the only measure of time amid this eternal torment.
Ming Xin's consciousness drifted between deep slumber and painful wakefulness. Every time he briefly awakened, he desperately circulated the Buddhist Sect's meditation techniques from his previous life.
It was not to seek any Transcendence, but to keep his "self" from being completely worn away amid the ceaseless pain of erosion and balance.
The desperate eyes of that young girl, the trafficker's cruel grin, the coldness of the knife piercing flesh—those fragments of his previous life instead became the final coordinates anchoring the existence known as "Ming Xin."
"System... analyze... the optimal Energy Absorption route..." During another gap between waves of agonizing pain, he laboriously sent out his thoughts.
[Calculating... Current environment: high-concentration Chaos Demonic Energy, trace amounts of fragmented earth-vein spiritual energy, and weak residual Tribulation Killing Intent. Optimal plan: strengthen the active devouring efficiency of the 'Killing Origin' toward external Demonic Energy. Use 'Nirvana Buddha Light' as a purification furnace to increase energy conversion efficiency. The host must actively guide the Killing Law runes...]
Guide the Killing Law. Ming Xin's remaining consciousness gathered every ounce of his will.
He no longer passively endured the scouring of that cold killing intent, instead attempting to understand and communicate with the source power deeply rooted within the Spiritual Treasure's core.
It was a pure will of "Terminus"—cold, merciless, cutting off all things. It did not distinguish good from evil, only following the law of existence—Destruction was its Dao.
Buzz... buzz...
Inside the Slaughter Buddha Seal embryo, the dark gold Slaughter runes that had previously flowed only instinctively began to change subtly under Ming Xin's difficult guidance.
Like venomous snakes granted intelligence, they became more nimble and more aggressive.
The portions of the runes extending from the embryo's surface no longer merely resisted the Demonic Energy's erosion passively. They became countless greedy straws.
More actively and more ferociously, they pierced into the surrounding sea of viscous Demonic Energy!
Hiss, hiss, hiss—!
Chaos Demonic Energy several times more violent than before was forcibly drawn in and devoured!
Rampant, frigid, filthy energy filled with the desire for Destruction surged wildly inward!
Ming Xin's consciousness was instantly drowned by even fiercer pain, as though his soul had been cast into boiling Netherworld Demon Flame!
"Nirvana... suppress!" He roared at the very brink of mental collapse!
The Buddha nature deep within his soul, inherited from his previous life as Buddha's Son and tempered into extraordinary resilience by endless suffering, erupted together with the Nirvana Dao Rhyme contained within the Slaughter Buddha Seal itself!
The gray-white Nirvana Buddha Light suddenly blazed! It was no longer merely protective, but transformed into the phantom of an icy furnace that enveloped the embryo's core!
The rampaging Demonic Energy pouring in was forcibly swept into that Buddha Light bearing the will to end all things, burned and tempered!
The destructive nature within the Demonic Energy was forcibly neutralized and annihilated by the Nirvana intent of the Buddha Light, eventually turning into threads of extraordinarily pure, cold, strange energy that carried both Buddha's Nirvana and demonic Destruction.
It was greedily absorbed by the Killing Origin at the core.
[Energy conversion efficiency increased by 17.8%... Energy accumulation speed increased... 60%... 65%...]
The system's prompt became slightly faster.
This was a painful and slow process. Every active devouring was accompanied by agony as if his soul were being torn apart.
Every Nirvana suppression felt as though he were throwing himself into a blazing furnace to be forged. But Ming Xin had no other choice. This was his only path to survival in this dead end and, ultimately, to breaking free from the form of an "artifact." Form Transformation!
Only by transforming into a human and possessing a true Dao Body could he truly seize control of his own Fate. Only then would he be qualified to explore this vast Primordial World, and only then might he have the chance to uphold the obsession in his heart: killing to protect life.
Time passed amid endless pain and meager growth in energy.
No one knew how many more Primordial World years passed. The gray-white Nirvana light membrane on the embryo's surface became denser and heavier, like a jade shell wrapped around a strange stone egg.
The indistinct seated figure atop the seal knob became increasingly clear. Its face remained Chaos, but the Dao Rhyme of Terminus and Life Force intertwined around it became deeper and more restrained.
After being continuously tempered by Buddha-demon energy, the Killing Origin became like a dark star slowly pulsing at the embryo's core. Each pulse stirred the Demonic Energy around the embryo into tremors.
Then, amid this prolonged torment, one day—
Boom!!!
An indescribable, terrifying pressure, as though it originated from the Heavenly Dao Origin of the Primordial World, pierced through endless layers of earth-vein rock and the viscous sea of Chaos Demonic Energy without warning.
Like an invisible heavenly canopy, it descended upon the Entire Primordial World!
This pressure was supreme! Boundlessly majestic! It stood above all things!
Whether it was Ming Xin hidden deep underground, gods and demons soaring across the nine heavens, or innate great powers cultivating in Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands—
At that moment, every soul instinctively felt as tiny as dust and trembled with the urge to bow in worship!
Immediately afterward, a vast, indifferent voice, seemingly devoid of emotion yet clearly resounding through every corner, every inch of space, and every living being's consciousness throughout the Primordial World, rolled forth like the voice of the Great Dao:
"High upon the ninth cloud I lie, Upon a prayer mat, the true Dao I realize.
Beyond Heaven and Earth's dark and yellow span, I alone shall lead the teaching clan.
Pangu birthed the Supreme Ultimate; Yin, Yang, and the Four Images followed their route.
One teaching passed to three friends; Two teachings, Elucidation and Interception, then commenced.
Leader of all the Mystic Gate, One breath transformed into Hongjun."
"I am Hongjun, and I have now attained the Dao and become a Sage.
Seeing that Heaven and Earth's teachings remained incomplete, I would, three thousand years hence, expound the Primordial Dao within Purple Heaven Palace, amid the Chaos beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, and explain the opportunity to become a Sage.
All fated beings of the Primordial World may come and listen!"
As the voice faded, that vast Sage pressure receded like a tide. Yet the information it contained stirred unprecedented towering waves throughout Heaven and Earth!
Sage! Attaining the Dao as a Sage! Primordial Dao! The opportunity to become a Sage!
Every word was like a world-opening thunderclap exploding in the hearts of all sentient beings possessed of intelligence!
In an instant, the entire Primordial World boiled over! Countless ancient beings who had cultivated in seclusion for hundreds of millions of years awoke from slumber, their burning gazes fixed upon the illusory realm beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens!
One overwhelmingly powerful aura after another—domineering, ethereal, or sinister—rose into the sky, carrying their owners' excitement and yearning as they tore through the void.
They transformed into countless streams of light, rushing madly into the mysterious depths of Chaos like moths drawn to flame!
Purple Heaven Palace! Listening to the Dao! The opportunity to become a Sage! This was a heaven-shaking event capable of changing the Primordial World's entire order and deciding the course of future Infinite Tribulations!
Yet all that clamor, upheaval, yearning, and struggle seemed to have nothing to do with—
The Slaughter Buddha Seal embryo still struggling in pain, buried deep within the core of The West's polluted earth veins.
That terrifying Sage pressure descended and receded like a hurricane sweeping over the deep sea, stirring the sea of Demonic Energy surrounding Ming Xin into violent turbulence for a brief moment.
It even shook the Nirvana light membrane covering his embryonic shell into ripples, but that was all.
Hongjun's Dao hymn entered his consciousness with absolute clarity, every word like the tolling of a great bell.
A Sage? Purple Heaven Palace? Expounding the Dao?
After a brief shock, Ming Xin's consciousness swiftly regained its coldness.
"The Dao of a Sage... the Primordial Dao..." A trace of bitterness spread through his consciousness. What an unreachable realm that was. Such an opportunity belonged to the Primordial World's greatest powers!
And him? He was merely an Innate Spiritual Treasure embryo buried in demonic soil, unable even to control his own form and struggling for survival amid pain!
Form Transformation was still a distant prospect. How could he cross that perilous, unfathomable Chaos and reach Purple Heaven Palace?
Those so-called "fated beings" certainly did not include someone like him, whose very existence was in constant peril.
The news of Hongjun becoming a Sage was like a stone dropped into a deep pool. It stirred a few ripples in his consciousness before swiftly sinking away.
Rather than bringing hope, it was like a cold mirror, reflecting the absolute humiliation and despair of his current circumstances.
An enormous chasm lay before him—the insurmountable divide between different levels of life!
"What does it have to do with me?!" Ming Xin's remaining thoughts erupted with even fiercer stubbornness and unwillingness.
There was even a trace of viciousness stirred by that immense disparity. "Listen to the Dao? Become a Sage? Survive first! First... achieve Form Transformation!"
He utterly crushed the faint fantasy Hongjun's ascension had brought him! He forcibly suppressed every stray thought, and his consciousness plunged even more frantically into the endless struggle between Buddha and demon within himself.
The Slaughter runes devoured more ferociously! The Nirvana Buddha Light tempered more brutally!
He no longer thought about Sages expounding the Dao or Primordial opportunities. He had only one most primal, most urgent desire—to break free from the embryo's restraints! To stand between Heaven and Earth in the form of a "human"!
[Energy accumulation... 85%... 90%... 95%...]
The frequency of the system prompt seemed to increase, its coldness carrying a trace of unusual meaning.
The clamor of the outside Primordial World and the coming grand event at Purple Heaven Palace seemed to be completely cut off.
Deep within this forgotten demonic soil of The West, only that gray-white, stone-egg-like embryo remained, radiating increasingly intense, cold, murderous fluctuations amid eternal deathly stillness and filth.
The energy within the embryo finally reached an unprecedented critical point under Ming Xin's nearly self-destructive active devouring and Nirvana tempering!
Buzz—!
The embryo itself began to emit a low resonance! The gray-white Nirvana light membrane across its surface surged violently like boiling water!
The outline of the seated figure atop the seal knob abruptly became clear, radiating tangible pressure! The dark star of Killing Origin at the core—
Its light flared brilliantly. Every pulse was like the beating of war drums, causing the surrounding space to groan beneath an unbearable strain!
The vast energy accumulated over countless tens of thousands of years finally broke through the limit the embryo could contain!
And at that very moment—
Rumble!!!
Above The West's polluted earth veins, the ancient demonic clouds, heavy as lead and ever-present, were forcibly torn apart by an invisible power born of Heaven and Earth's laws!
A terrifying tribulation cloud unlike anything before, spanning an unknown number of miles, gathered madly at a visible speed amid deafening thunder!
The tribulation cloud was not the usual profound black or violet. Instead, it displayed an extremely eerie, heart-palpitating shade of dim gray!
It seemed mixed with countless particles of Nirvana and congealed bloodstains!
The clouds were incomparably heavy, layered upon layer. Countless thick gray-white thunder dragons, each as large as mountain ranges, rolled and roared within them!
These bolts of lightning possessed neither blazing light nor explosive destructive force. Instead, they radiated a deathly chill capable of ending all things, freezing souls, and wearing away all Life Force!
Even more horrifyingly, amid those deathly gray-white bolts—
There were faint strands of black lightning snakes, thick as ink and radiating an aura of Chaos and Destruction—mutant demonic lightning drawn into the heavenly tribulation by the dense Demonic Energy of this place!
An unprecedentedly terrifying heavenly might, cold and murderous, carrying the dual wills of Nirvana's end and chaotic Destruction—
Descended like hundreds of millions of icy mountains! It firmly locked onto the existence about to break free from its shell deep within the earth veins!
The Slaughter Buddha Seal's Form Transformation tribulation—the Nirvana Demonic Tribulation! Had descended!
Buried deep underground, Ming Xin's consciousness had never been clearer. He could clearly "see" the tribulation clouds above him, radiating endless Destruction and the aura of Terminus!
That terrifying heavenly might even pierced through the heavy strata and viscous Demonic Energy, acting directly upon the origin of his soul and bringing immense terror born from life's instinct!
Yet there was no fear in his heart, only a near-burning resolve!
"Three thousand years of struggle... endless pain... what I waited for... was this day!"
All his will, all his power, all his pain and unwillingness condensed into an incomparably firm belief. Like a drawn sword, it pointed straight at the heavens!
"Heavenly tribulation... come!"
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