Chapter 266 - 265: Heaven’s Might (3)
CRACK-K-K-K-K!
A sound like the shattering of a continental-sized mirror echoed across the sky.
The Nine Heavens Ward—the ancient seal created by the founding gods of the Nine Provinces, designed exclusively for binding the demonic Hollow Beyond—was caught in the crossfire of the Heavenly Dao’s localized wrath. The seal, which Emperor Tianxu had noted was already beginning to weaken, could not withstand the sheer escalation of Heaven Might directed at Lin Yuan.
The ancient ward began to crack further. Massive, jagged black fissures tore open in the sky above Sky Jade City, resembling bleeding wounds in the firmament.
Instantly, a horrifying, suffocating miasma poured through the cracks.
It was a demonic aura, putrid and heavy, carrying the exact same sickly, rotting scent as the Blood Asura Dao that the vengeful assassin Xie Chen had unleashed earlier.
But this was not the aura of a single, crazed cultivator. This was the ambient atmosphere of the Hollow Beyond bleeding directly into the mortal plane. The demonic energy was so potent, so inherently hostile to orthodox cultivation, that the light of the arena turned a sickly, bruised purple.
The Five Emperors standing upon their thrones instantly shivered, their Void Refinement auras recoiling against the invasive corruption.
"The Ward!" Emperor Xiyan screamed, drawing his massive warlord blade, his eyes wide with absolute panic. He pointed a trembling, armored finger down at Lin Yuan. "He is resisting the suppression! The Heavens are increasing the pressure to compensate, and the collateral force is tearing the Nine Heavens Ward apart!"
"This fool will cause the seal to shatter!" Emperor Beiming roared, summoning a massive shield of Black Tortoise energy to ward off the descending demonic miasma. "If the Ward breaks completely, the demons of the Hollow Beyond will pour into the Nine Province! We will be overrun before the Sacred Ground cultivators are even ready!"
Emperor Nanheng snapped her vermilion fan open, her face a mask of furious, terrified realization. "Fortune you say, Tianxu?! You thought he was the fated one destined to save us?! Look at the sky! This boy will bring absolute destruction to the Nine Provinces if he doesn’t die early on from this tribulation!!"
"He is not trying to destroy the world!" Emperor Tianxu bellowed back, his Qilin aura flaring to its absolute zenith as he attempted to stabilize the space around his throne. "He is simply refusing to die!"
Down in the crater, the demonic aura of the Hollow Beyond swirled around Lin Yuan, mixing with the invisible, crushing weight of Heaven Might.
The pain was beyond mortal comprehension. His Qi was locked. His Primordial Spirit was suppressed. He had nothing left but the sheer density of his flesh and bone.
Lin Yuan slowly, and agonizingly, lifted his head. His neck muscles bulged, veins standing out like thick, purple cords against his jade-like skin. Blood poured freely from his eyes, his nose, and his mouth, painting his chin and his black and white robes in a macabre display of defiance.
His deep purple eyes locked onto the cracked, bleeding sky above.
𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
He thought of the agonizing days in the forest region around Azure Cloud City, tempering his mortal flesh with beast blood until his screams went hoarse. He thought of the time spent in the isolation of the Rivers of Years Pagoda, swinging his sword until his mind fractured and healed a thousand times over. He thought of Bai Qingyue’s smile, whole and radiant, standing on her own feet just moments ago.
I did not walk this path to be erased by the heavens, Lin Yuan’s soul roared.
Lin Yuan planted his boots firmly into the bedrock.
He drew in a massive, ragged breath that sucked the demonic miasma and the ambient oxygen into his lungs.
He pushed his Rank 10 Ancient Beast Body past its limit, past the threshold of cellular endurance, and directly into the realm of absolute defiance.
Lin Yuan opened his mouth and shouted.
"BREAK!"
It was not a spell. It was a roar of pure physical exertion.
The sheer kinetic and acoustic force of his roar, backed by the unyielding foundation of a rank 10 physical vessel, acted as a localized detonator.
The invisible, crushing force of Heaven Might suppressing him violently shattered.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The force of the Heaven Might dispersing was catastrophic. A massive shockwave of pure, displaced Heaven energy exploded outward from the crater.
The shockwave slammed into the spectator terraces. The Void Refinement barriers of the arena, already weakened by the tournament and the cracking sky, instantly collapsed.
Tens of thousands of cultivators—from the Lower Division disciples to the Upper Division grand elders—were violently thrown backward, coughing up massive mouthfuls of blood as the foundation of the area violently shook. The grand, floating pagodas of Sky Jade City swayed dangerously in the sky, their ancient masonry cracking under the atmospheric displacement.
Behind Lin Yuan, Bai Chen and Su Yin were thrown to the floor, shielding Bai Qingyue with their bodies as the shockwave shook the very foundation of the floor beneath their foot.
Lin Yuan stood in the center of the crater.
The invisible weight was gone. He stood fully upright, his chest heaving, his body covered in his own blood, his pristine black and white robes hanging in tatters. But he was alive. His Primordial Spirit pulsed vibrantly within his spiritual sea.
He had survived Heaven Might!
But the Heavens were not finished. The Great Dao did not accept defeat.
Above the shattered, bleeding sky of the Central Continent, the cracks leading to the Hollow Beyond temporarily ceased their expansion as a new, infinitely more terrifying phenomenon began to manifest.
The clouds turned pitch black, swallowing the sunlight entirely. The air grew so dense with static electricity that the hair on the arms of every surviving cultivator stood on end.
Deep within the swirling, abyssal clouds, massive, serpentine arcs of pure heavenly lightning began to gather, illuminating the darkness with flashes of blinding, lethal violet.
The first stage was merely a test of existence.
The true Tribulation was about to begin.