Chapter 559: [The Great Tribulation Approaches, All Factions Mobilize]

Time flew by.

As Wu Dao’s incarnations roamed All Heavens, he discovered that the Tribulation Qi within Hongyuan was increasing at a terrifying rate. It grew worse with each passing day, like a powder keg being continuously filled.

The restrictions of the Celestial Punishment were also rapidly loosening, gradually allowing for the use of even stronger Great Emperor-level Power.

The source of all these changes lay within Shanhai Pass.

The Mountain and Sea Realm had launched a frenzied, all-out assault on the Ten Celestial Passes, regardless of the cost. The fighting grew more brutal by the day, generating an immeasurable amount of Tribulation Qi.

The All Heavens Lords who had entered the fray later were gradually finding it hard to hold on. They set aside their pride and prejudice, joining forces to resist the Mountain and Sea.

But as the war grew tighter, even if their hearts were bleeding, the overlords of All Heavens had no choice but to send more Power and Daoist Lineages to Shanhai Pass. The Common Lords began to deploy their clans’ hidden reserves, and some All Heavens Emperor’s Lineages even relocated their entire Ancestral Lands.

They had no choice.

Once Shanhai Pass was breached, the Common Lords might be able to struggle on and survive one tribulation, but those beneath them would undoubtedly be the first to face a great cleansing of extinction.

Fight, and there was a sliver of a chance.

Don’t fight, and it was certain death.

Everyone knew what to choose.

‘The military district’s Guan Lord has been replaced again.’

A month after his transfer to the Eight Celestial Passes, Wu Dao, deep within the Realm Sea, sensed the sorrow and grief permeating the military district. Another All Heavens Emperor… had fallen in battle beyond the dikes.

In just one short month, this was the second All Heavens Emperor to die in battle.

The previous one, Bachuan Emperor, had fought a Mountain and Sea Origin Clan’s All Heavens King to the death half a month ago, only to be ambushed by another All Heavens Ancestor King. Nothing of him was left.

An All Heavens Emperor. In Hongyuan, during times of peace, one was enough to support an entire All Heavens Emperor’s Lineage.

But in the Eight Celestial Passes…

HUUU…

Wu Dao reined in his thoughts, his heart indifferent.

His own losses during this period were not small either. Many incarnations of the Wu Clan had died, suddenly reduced to tribulation ash by the aftershocks of the battlefield.

His main incarnation, Wu Shi, despite having the Holy Spirit Emperor’s Plate, still ended up in a miserable state every time. A casual aftershock from an All Heavens Ancestor King was enough to overwhelm him completely. He was constantly surviving in the cracks of the battlefield, utterly wretched and frustrated.

Fortunately, his deterrent power in the Great Emperor Domain remained unparalleled. During this time, he had slain many Mountain and Sea Ancestor Kings.

Against those below the Ancestor King level, he could annihilate droves of them with a single aftershock.

He had accumulated a massive amount of battle merits.

Most of these battle merits were exchanged for Five Tribulations Dao Source to sustain his daily Cultivation consumption.

As for Wu Shi’s battle merits, Wu Dao stored them all away. He planned to wait until he advanced to the All Heavens Emperor’s Battle Power, at which point his authority would increase, allowing him to exchange them for an All Heavens Emperor’s Weapon for protection.

‘It’s about time.’

After another month, Wu Dao felt his Two Tribulation Yuan Magnetic Path had reached a state of completion, unable to advance any further.

His Magnetic Field Power had also broken far beyond ∞^33, getting stuck in a wondrous domain.

The growth rate of his Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles began to skyrocket, pushing towards an even greater infinite domain.

But Wu Dao knew. Cultivation was not like nested mathematical operations.

After the Great Emperor realm, each checkpoint was a qualitative transformation of an infinite domain. Without a metamorphosis of the existing foundation, it was impossible to build up from the bottom.

Mathematically, there were all sorts of methods and axioms to find shortcuts, allowing one to defy intuition and bypass the impossible to achieve the possible.

But true Cultivation on the path of the Dao couldn’t just casually define axioms to bypass barriers. It required a true metamorphosis, a Breaking the Cocoon, to repeat the ‘computational’ process of advancement once more.

No destruction, no creation. Rebirth in nirvana!

The Third Tribulation. It was time to begin!

With the experience from last time, Wu Dao knew in his heart that breaking through to the Third Tribulation would certainly take longer than the Second Tribulation.

During this time, he could have the Primordial Sect collect the Dao Realms needed for his Third Tribulation cultivation in advance, to avoid having his Dao Wheel stall after his breakthrough like last time.

The Primordial Sect of today, without the Human World and Dragon Hunting Tower as competition, had completely grown into the foremost scourge of All Heavens, its dark tendrils reaching every corner.

The Seventy-Two Primordial Demon High Priests were advancing by leaps and bounds in the Great Emperor Domain. They consistently remained in the first echelon allowed by the loosening Celestial Punishment. At the same time, they could also create some low-level Great Emperor incarnations to oversee the Primordial Sect, which was enough to deal with the so-called All Elements Alliance.

They didn’t require much of Wu Dao’s attention. Only when the Seventy-Two Primordial Demons couldn’t handle a situation would Wu Dao’s incarnation descend as the Primordial Son to sweep away all obstacles.

This was a rare occurrence, however.

After receiving the Supreme Oracle, the behemoth that was the Primordial Sect quickly sprang into action.

Led personally by Great Emperor High Priests, they used the All Heavens Main Altar Points as springboards, unleashing darkness and fear. They began to bathe All Heavens and Myriad Realms in blood, collecting Third Tribulation Original Dao Realms and Star Mother energy for Wu Dao.

The Primordial Sect’s large-scale operations triggered a landslide and tsunami-like reaction across the Hongyuan Heavenly Realms. Countless people cursed and cried out in grief. The Zuyuan Alliance did its utmost to intercept them, leading to a series of massive and brutal battles erupting throughout Hongyuan.

But Wu Dao cared about none of this.

A predator high on the food chain feels no guilt for killing its prey, just as a human doesn’t weep with empathy for an ant they’ve stepped on.

The world, nature itself, is essentially a primitive game. The only difference lies in the form it takes.

If you can’t recognize this truth, just because you’re the one being eliminated, you’ll think the strong should sympathize with the weak, that the strong are all darkness and injustice.

But when you become strong enough, you won’t care about the beings you’ve eliminated, whether directly or indirectly. Instead, you’ll feel it’s perfectly natural and justified.

When weak, strive to be strong; when strong, strive to be stronger.

Wu Dao understood this principle even in his previous life.

He wouldn’t preach and demand others to live by his standards. He would only see his own path through to the end, never regretting it!

“Let’s begin.”

In the Endless Chaos Sea, Wu Dao degenerated into his Second Tribulation Particle state.

“Yes, Father God.”

The Little Star Mother nodded obediently. She manipulated the Extreme Dao Bell’s field to construct an Extreme Dao Reactor. The intensity of the destructive magnetic field within the Extreme Dao Furnace began to soar, tearing at the micro-magnetic forces of Wu Dao.

During the process of destruction, even though the so-called pain was beyond imagination, Wu Dao’s will remained silent, like a bystander. He quietly observed his own process of self-destruction.

‘At just the Second Tribulation, the difficulty of destroying my Dao Particles has already reached the level of an All Heavens Emperor. If it’s like this when I attempt Dao Attainment…’

Wu Dao’s immortal consciousness blazed as he thought about the difficulty of breaking through in the future.

‘I fear even a Dao Artifact wouldn’t be able to tear me apart then.’

CLANG—

The sound of a Great Dao chain snapping, like the tolling of a great bell, pulled Wu Dao’s thoughts back.

The self-destruction was entering its final stage. Endless Tribulation Qi surged and billowed. Maintaining a calm consciousness, he once again entered the origin of all things—the Third Tribulation of the Primordial Magnetism Path!

…

Ten days.

Half a month.

One month.

Wu Dao’s departure was silent and unnoticed, causing no ripples in Shanhai Pass.

Within a month, Wu Shi had gone through three more superiors. This proved that the brutality of the great war was not slowing down, but was instead escalating continuously.

「Two months later.」

Wu Dao’s first apprentice, Wuchen, and second apprentice, Jiang Han, broke through to the Quasi-Emperor Realm one after the other amidst the continuous battles at the Seven Days Pass.

“Kid, the plan’s been moved up.”

Wuchen had just ascended to Quasi-Emperor when the Big Black Wolf inside him spoke with a solemn expression: “The Tribulation Qi is growing too fast. At this rate, the Martial Ancestor will definitely dissipate his Dao completely before long. Without the Martial Ancestor suppressing Shanhai Pass, the sixth Dao tribulation will begin immediately. We don’t have much time. Whether you dare to risk it all is up to you. Let me be straight with you…”

At the same time, the Big Black Wolf also revealed many things it had never told Wuchen before.

For example, it had chosen Wuchen primarily for the reason Wuchen had guessed: to use his connection with the Eighteen Netherworlds to ‘resurrect’ the Reincarnation Emperor in the future.

He also explained some detailed plans. Contacting the Human World was a crucial part of the plan.

Now that Hongyuan’s decline was becoming more and more obvious and the Tribulation Qi was increasing daily, the original plan to wait until Wuchen became a Great Emperor to contact the Human World had to be moved up.

It didn’t force Wuchen. Through the trials of life and death over the years, it had developed some affection for Wuchen. It truly admired this kid who had risen from nothing, refused to submit to fate, and fought for the Dao with all his might.

Therefore, whether he was willing or not was entirely up to Wuchen to decide. Strictly speaking, his absence wouldn’t have a huge impact on the plan; it would just be much more troublesome.

If he didn’t agree, the bond between them would be severed.

“Fine!”

In the end, after careful consideration, Wuchen gritted his teeth and chose to take the risk. He really had no better options.

The karma from his master weighed on him like a great mountain. But that was secondary. Because if he proved to be useless enough, to have no value, there would be no ‘reaping of the fruit’ to speak of.

The main reason was the pressure of the imminent Great Tribulation.

This Dao tribulation, compared to the five Dao tribulations since the Heaven Opening, was on a completely different level of severity!

The Mountain and Sea was determined to devour Hongyuan whole. They had even given birth to the Great Dao of their own civilization. If Hongyuan were to fall, every civilization, great and small, nurtured by the old Great Dao would cease to exist!

In the current situation, it was truly a case of “every man is responsible for the fate of the world.”

It didn’t matter if you were black or white, good or evil. As long as you were a being nurtured by the Primordial Path, a link in the chain of civilization, no existence could escape this tribulation!

To not risk your life was to wait for death. To risk your life was to have a sliver of hope.

The choice Wuchen faced was more or less the same as the one faced by all the powers of the Hongyuan Heavenly Realms.

If there was even a sliver of a chance for survival, he would not let it go.

…

In comparison, the second apprentice, Jiang Han, had no say in the matter at all.

“Come to the Divine Ruins Heaven.”

After Jiang Han ascended to Quasi-Emperor, the Great Freedom Celestial Demon manifested as the shadow of a youth in white robes within his body without any warning, and cheerfully stated the cruel truth.

“Senior, didn’t you say…”

Jiang Han’s heart sank. He was only a Quasi-Emperor now and hadn’t found any trump card to resist the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King. He really didn’t want to have a showdown just yet.

“That old grandpa is about to give out.”

The Great Freedom Celestial Demon’s single sentence made Jiang Han fall silent again.

Given the Great Freedom Celestial Demon’s status, there were few in the world worthy of its respectful address. Especially at this point in time.

The Martial Ancestor. Was about to give out. And once the Martial Ancestor fell…

HUUU…

Letting out a slow, heavy breath, Jiang Han looked directly at the Great Freedom Celestial Demon with unprecedented seriousness and said:

“Senior, do I have a chance?”

“Heh heh.”

Hearing this, the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King gave another carefree laugh and said, “If it were that monster, your master, he’d definitely have a chance. But his appetite is too big.”

‘Master…’ Jiang Han was silent for a moment. ‘For the Great Freedom Celestial Demon to call him a monster… can I really reach that level?’

But at least there was hope.

“The Divine Ruins Heaven, is it? Fine.”

In the end, Jiang Han, who had never liked to gamble, who never did anything he wasn’t sure of, still chose to bet on that slim chance.

Having reached this point, he mostly understood what the Great Freedom Celestial Demon wanted to do and why it had chosen him.

Whether he could get through it or not, he had no confidence. Even if he did, he might just be paving the way for someone else.

But this was his only chance.

If he didn’t take a desperate risk, unless he could replicate the path of the legendary Wushi Domain Lord, he would have no chance of resisting when the Great Tribulation arrived.