The Door Beneath U Minh

Hao Nhien slowly exhaled and stood.

The older Yin Soul Sect cultivator laughed.

“Take your time.”

“We’re in no hurry.”

Hao Nhien planted the Fire Spirit Sword against the stone and looked at him.

“You plan to wait until my tribulation ends?”

“You think you have another choice?”

Hao Nhien wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

His gaze passed over the three men, then moved to the mist behind them.

“Perhaps you misunderstood something.”

The man on the left frowned.

“What?”

“I never said I intended to remain standing here.”

All three expressions changed at once.

Spirit Wings erupted behind Hao Nhien.

BOOM!

The stone beneath his feet shattered.

His figure shot toward the three Yin Soul Sect cultivators with speed far beyond what anyone who had just endured two waves of heavenly tribulation should have been capable of sustaining.

At the same time, the dark clouds above shook violently.

The three cultivators instantly realized that the tribulation’s lock was moving with Hao Nhien.

“Are you insane?!”

The older man shouted.

Hao Nhien did not answer.

He had no intention of escaping the tribulation through speed.

From the moment it began, he had already felt that the force had locked directly onto him.

No matter where he moved, when the lightning truly descended, he would still have to face it himself.

What he wanted was their reaction.

If this was truly a Yin Soul Sect base, then these people would know which places were dangerous, which places could be used as shelter, and—most importantly—which places they did not want an outsider approaching.

When the tribulation came at them, their instinctive escape routes would reveal information Hao Nhien did not even need to interrogate them to obtain.

Sure enough, all three scattered immediately.

The man on the right rushed south.

The man on the left turned east.

The older man instinctively retreated toward a patch of gray stone behind him.

But after moving barely half a step, he abruptly changed direction and avoided that area.

Hao Nhien noticed.

The gray stone lay beneath a low cliff.

From the outside, it looked no different from the surrounding terrain.

But when Hao Nhien swept his spiritual sense across it, he noticed something unusual in the fluctuations there.

Something was hidden.

He had no time to examine it more carefully.

Thunder exploded overhead.

The third wave descended.

This time it was no single bolt of lightning.

The force gathered into an enormous pillar of light that pierced through the thick mist and locked directly onto Hao Nhien.

His sea of consciousness shook violently.

It felt as though an invisible sword had slashed directly toward the deepest part of his soul.

The Soul Art began circulating automatically.

One cycle.

Then another.

The faint traces that had once been filtered from the force of belief in Lac Van and Hoa Van reacted at the same time.

They had already merged into the stable foundation of his soul.

Now they became part of what allowed him to maintain his consciousness beneath the terrifying pressure of heavenly tribulation.

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No one far away was sending power to him.

No mysterious force was taking the tribulation in his place.

Everything Hao Nhien could rely on remained what he himself had accumulated.

The Soul Art.

The foundation of his cultivation.

And the control over his soul forged through repeated brushes with death.

Even so, the pain surpassed anything he had experienced before.

Physical injury could be located.

Meridians could be protected with True Qi.

But when the tribulation struck the soul, it felt as though his awareness itself were being pulled apart and torn open.

The Soul Sword trembled violently within his sea of consciousness.

Hao Nhien clenched his teeth and concentrated on maintaining the Soul Art.

He did not try to devour the lightning.

Nor did he force his soul to resist it head-on.

He needed only to keep his consciousness unified, preventing the external disturbance from tearing apart his soul while the Golden Core remained incomplete.

And he kept moving.

The older Yin Soul Sect cultivator looked back.

When he saw Hao Nhien still capable of advancing beneath the pillar of lightning, his face turned deathly pale.

“Impossible!”

Hao Nhien barely heard him.

The sound of the tribulation drowned out almost everything.

The distance between them continued shrinking.

The man no longer had enough time to escape.

He immediately raised both hands and formed a seal.

Yin energy gathered into a thick barrier before him, attempting to prevent Hao Nhien from drawing closer.

Hao Nhien saw it.

He did not slow.

The Fire Spirit Sword appeared in his hand.

External wind force around Spirit Wings was compressed in the same direction.

Every bit of True Qi he could still mobilize gathered into the sword strike.

“One Sword Breaks Ten Thousand Arts!”

The sword descended.

BOOM!

The Yin barrier shook violently and shattered.

Sword-light tore through the opening and swept across the man’s body.

Blood burst from his mouth.

He was thrown backward.

Before he could regain control, he crashed directly into the patch of gray stone he had deliberately tried to avoid.

The instant his body touched the ground, the surrounding space fluctuated.

A thin black veil appeared.

It covered the entire rocky area beneath the cliff.

Hao Nhien recognized it immediately.

A concealment formation.

But before he could examine it, the pillar of heavenly lightning still locked onto him pressed down even harder.

Lightning swept across the ground between him and the gray stone.

The newly exposed black veil was dragged directly into the tribulation’s range.

BOOM!

The mountain shook.

Massive slabs of stone shattered.

Part of the slope collapsed.

The black veil distorted violently beneath the pressure of the lightning.

Formation lines that had been hidden deep within the terrain were forcibly exposed.

They flashed.

Then began cracking apart.

The Yin Soul Sect cultivator who had fallen into the area screamed.

He had already been badly wounded by Hao Nhien’s sword strike.

Now, unable to escape from the lightning striking the formation itself, his protective Yin energy rapidly collapsed.

His body blackened.

His aura weakened dramatically.

The other two cultivators immediately retreated farther.

Hao Nhien had no time to care.

The third tribulation had now truly reached deep into his soul.

His sea of consciousness shook again and again.

The Soul Sword trembled violently.

At the same time, the spiritual liquid within his dantian was suddenly pulled toward the center faster than ever.

The forming nucleus began to complete itself.

The entire dantian did not instantly turn into one solid mass.

Instead, the condensed structure at the center gradually reached stability.

The remaining True Qi began naturally circulating around it.

One center.

One nucleus.

For the first time, all the True Qi within his body possessed such a clearly defined heart of circulation.

Hao Nhien sensed the nucleus continue contracting.

The last necessary portions of spiritual liquid were refined and drawn inward.

Then a deep vibration passed through his dantian.

Not a sound heard outside.

More like the sensation of a boundary finally being crossed.

The Golden Core formed.

A small Golden Core quietly appeared at the center of his dantian.

It did not release heaven-shaking light.

It created no dramatic display.

Yet every current of True Qi passing through it became purer, denser, and deeper than before.

Hao Nhien felt the difference clearly.

This was no longer Foundation Establishment.

The amount of power he could mobilize, the precision of his control, and the connection between soul and True Qi had all stepped into an entirely new state.

But he had no time to celebrate.

The final heavenly lightning was still assaulting his soul.

He had to continue maintaining the Soul Art until the violent fluctuations gradually weakened.

At last, the pillar of lightning faded.

The dark clouds overhead began separating.

Gaps opened to reveal the stars above U Minh Mountain.

The wind returned.

It swept through the mist that had been churned apart by the tribulation and carried it across the cliffs.

Hao Nhien slowly opened his eyes.

He stood on a section of stone that had been almost completely destroyed.

Much of his clothing was scorched.

Injuries covered his shoulders and arms.

His breathing remained heavy.

But the aura around him had changed.

There was now a depth and stability vastly beyond anything he had possessed at Foundation Establishment.

He checked his dantian once.

The Golden Core remained stable.

Only then did Hao Nhien raise his head and look around.

The mist over U Minh Mountain had not completely dispersed.

But the concealment formation struck by the tribulation now carried a massive fracture.

Dense Yin energy began leaking from within.

It brought with it a decaying smell that immediately made Hao Nhien frown.

He sent his spiritual sense through the crack.

What lay beneath the shattered rock was not a natural mountain interior.

Black stone steps descended into darkness.

Large doors and corridors extended through the underground space in a clearly constructed arrangement.

Several chaotic auras were moving inside.

Some retreated hurriedly.

Others seemed to be gathering toward the location where the formation had just broken.

Hao Nhien looked at the hidden structure.

The corner of his mouth lifted.

“Yin Soul Sect.”

“So you really were here.”

The remaining two black-robed cultivators had retreated far away.

One stared at the shattered formation with a deathly pale face.

He clearly understood what that concealment formation meant to the stronghold.

He also understood rebuilding it would not be simple.

He turned toward Hao Nhien, his voice trembling with both fear and rage.

“You…”

“You did that deliberately!”

Hao Nhien looked at him.

“You only realized now?”

The man clenched his teeth but did not dare approach.

He had just witnessed Hao Nhien survive a Golden Core tribulation.

He knew he could no longer judge the man before him as a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The other cultivator reacted differently.

He looked toward the underground entrance now exposed beneath the broken stone.

Then he looked at Hao Nhien.

The fear that had first appeared on his face slowly faded.

A cold smile replaced it.

“You think breaking the concealment formation and entering Golden Core means you can do whatever you want in U Minh Mountain?”

Hao Nhien did not answer.

He simply watched him.

The man glanced toward the crack leaking dense Yin energy.

Then he spoke slowly.

“You opened this door with your own hands.”

His smile deepened.

His voice dropped.

“All that means…”

“…is that you’ll die even more miserably.”