Chapter 175: CH. 175 | The Primordial Dao
***
Ten years passed.
Ling Weixi stood atop the surface of her sacred pool, arms crossed, her focus fixed forward.
Her gaze rested not on the water statues nor anything else nearby, but on a man who’d been sitting within her pavilion for a very long time now.
He remained deep in cultivation, calm and steady, drawing in the flow of spiritual energy without pause.
But ever since he’d begun working through his heavenly enlightenment inside that dimension, nothing of real significance had come of it.
That gave her genuine cause for worry. Ling Weixi rarely offered outside cultivators her help in breaking through to Soul Formation.
This marked the first time in centuries she’d extended that kind of aid to anyone.
Still, she held high hopes for Lin Tian. Beyond carrying the golden mark of a Star Realm Sovereign, he’d also received direct guidance from her own enlightenment.
With both of those advantages behind him, he should have broken through in far less time than this.
Could something have gone wrong for him?
Ling Weixi’s worry only deepened. She summoned a qi orb of her own and sent it drifting forward, attempting to slip into the dimension of heavenly enlightenment where Lin Tian remained sealed.
But the barrier formed by his own spiritual qi turned her orb away entirely. It bounced back, returning to her body untouched.
Her mind grew more restless. She began searching for some way to speed up his process of heavenly enlightenment, the only path she could see toward easing the dread building in her chest.
I can’t intervene directly in that dimension. Its rules are bound to him now.
Nor can I wake him. Doing so would disrupt the very process of understanding his dao concept.
Every possible option ran through Ling Weixi’s mind, but each time, fear held her back. The golden mark Yun Feng had left on him was what she feared most of all.
To her, if Yun Feng had already marked Lin Tian’s body and soul, then he alone held the right to claim that inheritance.
If Ling Weixi acted recklessly now, not only would Lin Tian lose his chance at breaking through to Soul Formation, she herself risked losing her own qualification to receive Yun Feng’s inheritance.
Amid her mounting doubt, her eyes caught the faint ripple of small waves stirring across the surface of her sacred pool, waves that hadn’t been there a moment before.
The stone ceiling of the cave trembled violently, and she could hear thunderous booms echoing from somewhere beyond the valley’s cavern walls.
With her mastery over spiritual energy, Ling Weixi understood immediately what was unfolding.
Her focus snapped back to her small pavilion above the pool. She watched Lin Tian’s body blaze with a white gold radiance, the flow of spiritual energy through him surging larger and stronger by the second.
"It seems he’s succeeded."
From within Lin Tian’s body, she watched a golden soul emerge, drifting free while his physical form remained locked in its cross legged seated pose.
"That’s his primordial soul. It’s time for the heavens to acknowledge him."
"He’s broken through the very threshold of Peak Nascent Soul... one step away from Soul Formation now."
Lin Tian’s golden primordial soul shot upward, tearing through the cave’s stone ceiling, passing through layer after layer of the surrounding rock until it emerged fully into the open sky above the valley.
Ling Weixi refused to let this moment slip by, the first chance in centuries she’d had to guide a Peak Nascent Soul cultivator all the way to Soul Formation.
Moving in a flash of light, Ling Weixi left her sacred spring behind, her soul’s form touching down on the grassy ground of the largest floating island within the valley’s scattered dimension.
Her eyes stayed locked on Lin Tian’s primordial soul drifting through the sky, drawing in the essence of natural spiritual energy from throughout the valley’s dimension, forging itself into a true immortal soul.
She watched clearly as the natural spiritual energy flowed steadily into the primordial soul’s body, accompanied by a soothing, cool boom of qi that swept calm across the entire space.
"He’s done it."
But disaster struck without warning.
Ling Weixi’s attention snapped to the sky above Lin Tian’s primordial soul, where black clouds gathered and churned into a violent vortex, golden lightning crackling and roaring as it threatened to tear his soul apart.
"A heavenly tribulation?!"
"Wait! Why would he trigger a heavenly tribulation of all things?!" Ling Weixi cried out, stunned.
Elsewhere, Yun Feng, who’d remained seated cross legged in quiet wait this whole time, sensed at once that something had gone terribly wrong.
The valley’s dimension shook violently, its sky, forever clear until now, churning black with storm clouds and crackling gold lightning.
Yun Feng’s eyes snapped open, his head tilting up sharply, his gaze cutting into the sky with fierce intensity.
"A heavenly tribulation?!"
"A cultivator breaking through to Soul Formation, and this draws down a heavenly tribulation?"
"There’s no mistaking it. The dao he’s chosen doesn’t align with heaven’s own path. They see him as a threat, one they mean to destroy!"
Yun Feng could feel the intensity of this tribulation, far more violent, far more destructive than any ordinary one.
If that golden lightning struck Lin Tian’s body or his primordial soul directly, he wouldn’t survive it.
Junior... you’ve just proven to me that I chose the right heir after all.
He raised his hand, drawing the full power of the golden palace into his own being to face down a crisis this severe.
Yun Feng’s soul began condensing, growing denser, more solid. His eyes snapped wide open, blazing with brilliant golden light.
With a single sweeping motion of his hand, Yun Feng tore straight through the dimension and stepped through, fully aware that entering the valley’s dimension would drain what remained of his soul’s essence.
But it was a sacrifice he had to make, to see his hope and resolve carried forward by someone else. Without Lin Tian, Yun Feng would have to wait far longer still.
Back on the Saintess Spring Valley island, Ling Weixi channeled her power to manifest herself as a towering blue giant, her projected form radiating strength equal to a Sovereign Soul.
Beside her, to her complete surprise, a golden rift tore open through the dimension, and her eyes went wide, a broad smile spreading across her face.
"My husband?!"
"Forgive me. My heir seems to have caused you quite a bit of trouble," Yun Feng said, stepping out of the golden rift, his soul’s form now fully condensed and solid.
"It seems this may be the final act of our shared struggle and resolve, Yun Feng," Ling Weixi answered.
"You still haven’t found your own heir. Have you given up on that?"
"I’ll pass my last remaining soul essence on to him instead. A heavenly tribulation this severe... it marks him as someone truly exceptional, truly different."
"Perhaps... he can find someone fitting to carry on my own dao inheritance in turn," Ling Weixi said.
Yun Feng turned to her with a faint smile, nodding in agreement. Truthfully, after thousands of years of waiting, this marked the first time they’d stood together again, fighting side by side, even if only as projections of their soul’s essence.
Still, it left them with a memory all their own. Every last hope they carried now rested entirely with Lin Tian, a wish that he might carry their resolve and their aspirations forward.
Yun Feng manifested his soul’s essence into a flawless projection, matching Ling Weixi’s towering form in size and stature.
Both giant projections turned their eyes skyward, watching the massive, powerful golden lightning gathering to strike Lin Tian’s primordial soul.
The man’s eyes narrowed sharply, "They’ve arrived!"
The golden lightning tore free from the churning vortex of black clouds, surging straight toward Lin Tian’s primordial soul. Yun Feng and Ling Weixi moved at once.
They unleashed their strongest attacks against the lightning. Ling Weixi struck with a lotus of icy blue, while Yun Feng hurled a spear forged from heavenly essence straight into the bolt.
The golden lightning clashed head on against the icy blue lotus and the heavenly essence spear, both soul cultivators pouring everything they had into the exchange.
A powerful boom of qi tore through the air, shattering the floating islands scattered around the Saintess Spring Valley, tearing open cracks in the dimension itself, the sound thunderous enough to split eardrums.
"HYAAAA!"
Yun Feng and Ling Weixi screamed, pouring every last ounce of their strength into the clash.
The heavenly lightning was finally forced back, driven away, retreating into the churning vortex of black clouds.
BLAST!
A massive explosion tore through the sky, scattering the clouds instantly, leaving the valley’s dimension bathed in clear light once more.
Even so, countless floating islands had already been shattered and torn loose, tumbling from the sky in the aftermath of that violent clash of spiritual qi.
Yun Feng dropped to his knees, the immortal energy within his soul drained severely from unleashing his strongest attack.
Ling Weixi turned and rushed to his side at once.
"Y-Your immortal soul essence...?"
"I poured a portion of my strength into sustaining the Heavenly Golden Jade Palace. That place... must survive, to keep our hope alive," Yun Feng said, his voice weak.
"Let me share what remains of my primordial strength with—"
"No need... Ling’er."
Yun Feng turned, and so did Ling Weixi. Someone shot upward at tremendous speed from within the Saintess Spring Valley, soaring into the sky above.
A golden primordial soul had fully condensed, forged flawlessly from the essence of heaven and earth itself.
Lin Tian and his primordial soul had become one once more. The moment his body and soul fully merged, a boom of spiritual qi rippled outward, sweeping across every corner of the valley’s dimension.
The floating islands shattered by that earlier clash began mending themselves, reassembling piece by piece exactly as they’d been before, the surge of primordial energy radiating from Lin Tian restoring the entire ecosystem, bringing back an existence that had endured all this time.
His appearance had changed dramatically. He now wore a long, opulent black robe etched with golden patterns across several parts of his body.
His long black hair, neatly styled, was held in place by a hairpin fastened tight.
"His primordial soul hasn’t shattered. His primordial essence runs powerful and stable. The union of body and soul... it succeeded."
"At last... our hope hasn’t been in vain."