txolops Chapter 144 Shattering the Tower and Condensing the Elixir, Purple Lightning Tribulation Descends
Chapter 144 Shattering the Tower and Condensing the Elixir, Purple Lightning Tribulation Descends
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A huge vortex of spiritual energy appeared in the sky above Changning County.
On the left side of the vortex, there was a dazzling golden divine light, with chanting sounds, as if countless gods and Buddhas were chanting in the clouds, expressing their compassion and wishing to save all living beings.
On the right side of the vortex, there was a deep, dark demonic aura, with howling ghosts and wolves. One could vaguely see mountains of corpses and seas of blood rolling in the demonic mist, violent and tyrannical, slaughtering the world.
At the very center of this vortex of gold and black, a faint, dark red lightning bolt, like a world-destroying spear, was slowly gathering, radiating a terrifying pressure that commanded the submission of all living beings.
The snow has stopped falling.
Countless snowflakes, like goose feathers, defied the laws of gravity and hovered silently in mid-air.
The wind has stopped blowing.
The swaying branches, gray tiles, and wooden sheds all froze in place, losing their color.
……
In front of the steamed bun shop in the west of the city.
Young Li knelt down in the snow with a thud, clasped his hands together, and kowtowed to the clay sculpture of a scholar on the street corner.
In his eyes, amidst the golden sea of clouds, there was a faint image of a giant Buddha statue, draped in a long robe and holding a folding fan, looking down upon the human world.
That was Gu Qingtian, whom they had worshipped for decades.
"Lord Gu has appeared! Heaven has shown its mercy!"
As Xiao Li shouted, the word spread quickly among the neighbors in the long streets and alleys, from one to two, from two to three, and from three to a hundred.
Soon, tens of thousands of people came out of their homes and knelt down in the wind and snow.
They didn't understand the extraordinary phenomena of immortal masters breaking through, nor did they understand the laws of heaven and earth.
All they knew was that in the past ten years, it was that Commander Gu who gave them a full meal and a peaceful world where they were not bullied by immortal masters.
This extremely pure faith, without any impurities, converged into a pillar of light illuminating the darkness within the faint yet vast thoughts of mortals.
The beam of light ignored the terrifying vortex in the sky and crashed straight into the ground of Changning County.
……
On the city gate tower, Xiao Chen's knees buckled, and he almost knelt down.
"Such celestial phenomena, such overwhelming pressure..."
He struggled to lift his head, gazing up at the sky, his pupils dilating in shock.
"Even the arrival of a Nascent Soul Ancestor wouldn't cause such a world-changing phenomenon! Could it be that some reclusive powerhouse is about to awaken in Changning County?"
Xiao Chen gripped the hilt of the Broken Karma Sword slung across his waist tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.
……
Inside the accounting office in the backyard of the Demon Suppression Bureau.
Song Hong was checking the accounts with a wolf-hair brush in hand, the tip of the brush just touching the Xuan paper.
At the very moment of that strange phenomenon, with a sharp crack, the pen shattered without warning, splashing ink all over her face.
She looked in horror toward the direction of the secret room, her heart pounding like a drum.
"Junior Brother is still in seclusion down there! If even the slightest aftershock of such a celestial phenomenon were to leak out, wouldn't Junior Brother be reduced to ashes?"
Song Hong gritted her teeth, tears of despair welling in her eyes.
Is my junior brother still alive?
……
Spirit Sword Mountain, the main peak of the Flowing Cloud Sect.
The sect leader of the Flowing Cloud Sect, who was resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them and appeared on the mountaintop in a flash.
Several sword lights flashed in succession, and the leaders of each peak gathered here, all looking solemnly at the southern sky.
"What a terrifying vortex of spiritual energy! The spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a thousand miles is being depleted to varying degrees. Who on earth is breaking through with such a domineering method that devours the entire world?"
One of the chiefs swallowed hard, his voice hoarse.
Dressed in pristine white, Ye Gucheng looked in that direction, his brows furrowed, and a name flashed through his mind.
Gu Changsheng, from Changning County.
That kid has been stuck at the Foundation Establishment stage for quite some time now. Could it be that he's on the path to Core Formation?
The thought had barely crossed Ye Gucheng's mind when he shook his head and gave a self-deprecating smile.
He had seen many strange phenomena related to the formation of the Golden Core. Even in ancient records, when the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment condensed a first-grade Golden Core, the strange phenomena it triggered were at most limited to covering an area of a hundred miles, with spiritual energy transforming into auspicious clouds and mythical beasts.
But the pillar of light piercing the sky in the southern sky, half sacred and half eerie, with its terrifying fluctuations that even distorted the rules, could absolutely not be the Core Formation stage.
Ye Gucheng's usually calm eyes were filled with an unprecedented solemnity as he gazed toward the direction of Changning County.
Even though they were thousands of miles apart, he could feel the turbulent spiritual energy of the world there.
"This aura... far surpasses that of a Golden Core cultivator, even exceeding that of a Nascent Soul cultivator! The true meaning of rules contained within it faintly reaches the threshold of the Divine Transformation realm. Could it be that a Nascent Soul expert is breaking through to the Divine Transformation realm here?!"
Ye Gucheng gasped, his grip on the sword hilt tightening.
He immediately abandoned the idea of going to rescue the person.
If such a terrifying being were to wreak havoc there, even someone at the peak of the Golden Core stage like him would perish with just a breath from that being.
Ye Gucheng sighed softly, "It's a pity about that kid Gu Changsheng. He painstakingly built his career for decades, but in the end, he only benefited others. Under such divine might, he has no chance of survival."
Sect Master Qingyunzi, with his white hair and youthful face, rode on flowing clouds and issued an order:
"All members of the Liuyun Sect shall immediately activate their sect-protecting formation. Without my written order, no one is permitted to step outside the sect gates. The area towards Changning County is hereby designated as an absolute restricted zone; anyone who dares to spy on it will be executed without mercy."
Regardless of who the senior who broke through in Changning County was, as long as they chose the territory of the Liuyun Sect, they have already gained some good karma.
If the breakthrough is successful, the Flowing Cloud Sect will be safe and sound as long as they do not offend them.
Even if the breakthrough fails, the fall of a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator is enough to sustain the Flowing Cloud Sect for hundreds of years.
……
At the same time, deep within the forbidden area of the Azure Dragon Sect.
Inside a stone coffin that had been sealed for five hundred years.
An old monster covered in green hair and skin and bones crawled out.
His eyes, which flickered with ghostly light, gazed at the sky above Changning County, his withered lips trembling violently.
"The aura of a Nascent Soul cultivator... Why would such a barren land as the Great Wei possess the aura of a Nascent Soul cultivator?!"
The green-haired monster did some quick calculations, its sunken eyeballs falling to the ground, and it let out a genuine cry of surprise:
"A god of utmost good, a demon of utmost evil. How could anyone in this world forcibly fuse these two diametrically opposed origins? Who is it?! Who is stealing the destiny of this world?"
This Nascent Soul cultivator, who had been asleep for countless years, couldn't muster the slightest courage to investigate after witnessing this power. He simply closed the coffin lid again and continued to play dead.
……
In the depths of a vast ocean in the Eastern Continent, isolated from the world.
A giant deep-sea turtle, as large as a mountain, slowly emerged from the water.
On the shell of the giant tortoise, there is an ancient Taoist temple encased in bubbles.
Inside the Taoist temple, an old Taoist priest, emaciated and covered in cobwebs, slowly opened his eyes.
His weathered eyes were filled with an undisguised shock and longing.
The old Taoist priest stood up, took a step, and arrived at the edge of the tortoise shell, gazing in the direction of Changning County.
"How many years has it been? Finally, someone in Dongzhou has taken that step again."
The old Taoist priest's withered lips trembled, and turbid tears slid down his wrinkles.
His gaze pierced through layers of earth, landing on the demigod-like phantom.
"The path to immortality, the gateway to godhood. My path is not lonely."
It wasn't just him.
The four demon kings deep in the Ten Thousand Mountains, and the extreme demonic cultivators of the far northern ice plains.
Countless ancient beings hidden in the shadows were awakened by this aura on this day and turned their gaze to this small Changning County.
Everyone believed that a peerless expert with extraordinary talent was undergoing a once-in-a-millennium tribulation of Nascent Soul in that remote little county town.
No one would associate this earth-shattering phenomenon with a Demon Suppression Division Commander named Gu Yan.
Because in everyone's mind, such earth-shattering power is only worthy of the legendary Nascent Soul stage.
Before such power, even a Golden Core cultivator is but a speck of dust, let alone Gu Changsheng, who is only at the Foundation Establishment stage.
……
Inside a cave not far from Changning County.
The elderly Grand Elder Zhao Wuji was taken aback when he saw the strange phenomenon that had ripped open the sky above Changning County. Then he burst into hearty laughter.
"Hahaha! Heaven's sins may be forgiven, but self-inflicted sins are unforgivable! Gu Changsheng, you coveted the wealth and power of Changning County, unaware that it was the slumbering place of an unparalleled calamity!"
Zhao Wuji laughed until tears streamed down his face.
"With such a drastic change in the heavens, not only will you, a useless Foundation Establishment cultivator, be reduced to ashes, but even the hundreds of thousands of ants in Changning County will be reduced to dust! My son, can you see this in heaven? Heaven has avenged your great grudge!"
……
In the great rift valley where the Blood River Sect was stationed, on the enormous throne of white bones.
The Blood Swordsman looked up and let out a wild, maniacal laugh.
The laughter echoed throughout the Grand Canyon, causing countless water droplets to fall downwards.
The aura that was originally at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage on his body is now transforming towards the Golden Core stage due to the breakthrough of his physical body.
The terrifying aura of bloodlust transformed into a tangible sea of blood, churning beneath the throne.
Hundreds of elite members of the demonic sect were forced to their knees and tremble under the sudden and overwhelming demonic power.
"Congratulations, Sect Master, on achieving your divine skill! May your legacy last for a thousand generations!"
The demons danced wildly, offering their congratulations in unison.
No one knew that this was not the Blood Swordsman's own power at all; he had merely shared a bit of the residual energy that overflowed when his main body broke through, thousands of miles away.
……
The underground chamber of the Demon Suppression Division in Changning County.
Gu Yan knew nothing of the turbulent events outside, the horror of mortals, and the misjudgments of powerful beings, nor did he care.
He sat cross-legged on the white jade futon, focusing all his attention on the agonizing moment between life and death.
The charred, severed finger of the Nascent Soul stage was quietly hovering three inches directly in front of his brow.
It was like a bottomless black hole that devoured everything, continuously pouring out the destructive rules belonging to the Nascent Soul stage powerhouses.
This is a high-dimensional power that surpasses even the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages. Even a mere remnant of its essence is enough to bring Gu Yan's physical body to the brink of collapse.
Bones were breaking inch by inch, and meridians were snapping like bowstrings, but they were forcibly reassembled under the impetus of divine and demonic power. Every inch of flesh and blood was subjected to excruciating pain, like being slowly sliced to death.
Gu Yan closed his eyes tightly, clenched his teeth so hard they made a grinding sound, and swallowed the pain in his throat.
The veins on his forehead bulged, and the sweat turned into white smoke before it could even drip off.
The path of cultivation is inherently defying the heavens.
Now that he has chosen the most difficult and domineering path of cultivating both gods and demons, there is no turning back.
He painstakingly managed Changning County for ten years, attracting countless families to worship him; he also spent ten years traversing the demonic sects, accumulating immense karmic burdens.
These two extremely repulsive forces forged an incomparably powerful Tower of Heaven within his Qi Sea.
However, if one wants to form a true supreme golden core, this foundation must be completely crushed.
In this world, only the rules of destruction within the severed finger of the God-Transformation Realm can withstand the mighty axe that opens up the heavens and the earth.
Two terrifying glints suddenly flashed in Gu Yan's eyes; his left eye was pure white, and his right eye was pitch black.
"broken."
He roared in his heart, then unhesitatingly released his divine sense, guiding the destructive Nascent Soul rule between his brows into an invisible giant blade that cleaved the heavens and earth, and slashed fiercely at the towering Divine Demon Tower deep within his Qi Sea.
"Boom!"
A deafening muffled sound erupted from Gu Yan's body.
The tower that had accompanied him through countless life-and-death battles, as solid as a rock, was gradually covered with cracks from the top to the base under the domineering strike of the Nascent Soul rules, and then it exploded.
The tower collapsed, and disaster struck.
The white divine light and black demonic energy, which were originally tightly bound by the tower, were like two primordial beasts that had broken free of their chains, and continued to rage wildly through Gu Yan's limbs and bones.
God wants to purify all the filth in the world, while the demonic forces try to devour all life in heaven and earth.
These two diametrically opposed primordial forces engaged in an extremely fierce battle, using Gu Yan's physical body as the battlefield.
"puff."
Gu Yan spat out a mouthful of dark red blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, his face turned bluish-purple, and his breath became extremely weak.
Fist-sized lumps swelled up in his dantian, a sign that his violent spiritual energy had nowhere to go and was about to burst his body.
If these two forces are allowed to continue colliding, he will surely explode and die within three breaths, never to be redeemed.
At this critical moment of life and death.
Above Changning County, the pillar of faith formed by the devout prayers of tens of thousands of ordinary people ignored the swirling snow, the oppressive power of the Divine Transformation Realm, and the earth's veins and rock layers. Like a divine punishment guiding heaven and earth, it pierced straight into Gu Yan's Baihui acupoint on the top of his head.
This is the concern of the common people, this is the incense offering of countless families.
Perhaps the power of mortals is insignificant when taken out alone, like a drop in the ocean.
But when tens of thousands of people unite as one to pray for Gu Qingtian, who brought them peace and tranquility, this power of prayer transforms into the gentlest yet most resilient bond in the world.
Ten years of good deeds have finally yielded good results today.
The vast power of incense and prayers surged into the dantian, like a timely rain, generously covering the rampaging divine light and demonic energy.
It does not favor either side, but with all-encompassing compassion, it forcibly establishes an extremely fragile buffer zone between these two irreconcilable forces.
Gu Yan's consciousness, which was on the verge of dissipation, gradually cleared.
He keenly seized this fleeting glimmer of hope, frantically forming hand seals in front of his chest, his fingertips creating afterimages as he formed an ancient and profound Daoist seal.
"Melt it for me!"
Using the buffer of the incense and the power of the vows, Gu Yan transformed his divine sense into two enormous hands that blotted out the sky. His left hand gripped the divine light tightly, while his right hand squeezed the demonic energy fiercely, compressing it frantically toward the center of his dantian.
"It's not enough; we lack the ultimate furnace that can forge these two elements."
Gu Yan suddenly looked up, his brows facing the severed finger of the Nascent Soul stage.
Heaven and earth are born and perish; after the worst comes the best.
Since destruction has reached its extreme, there must be a glimmer of hope within this deadly situation.
Gu Yan opened his mouth and took a deep breath.
The severed finger, which had been suspended between the eyebrows, turned from its charred surface into ashes and fell away.
And in the deepest part of that fly ash, a bright emerald light, no bigger than a grain of rice, shone forth, yet contained boundless creative power.
This was precisely the wisp of rebirth life that remained deep within the bones of the Nascent Soul cultivator before his fall.
The emerald light followed Gu Yan's breath and entered his dantian, like a spark falling into a cage filled with gunpowder.
"boom."
Using the vitality of Nirvana as the catalyst, the rules of transformation into a god as the furnace fire, and the incense offerings of countless families as the cauldron.
Under the relentless pressure of Gu Yan's domineering divine sense, the divine light and demonic energy, which were originally incompatible, finally began to merge in an unprecedented way.
The energy vortex, which was ten zhang in size, was forcibly compressed to five zhang.
Five zhang then three zhang.
One zhang (approximately 3.3 meters).
Three feet.
Gu Yan's body was convulsing violently, and his bones were making a grinding sound.
Nourished by the vitality of creation, his shattered bones are reconstructing, transforming into jade bones that faintly glow with pale gold; his blood is being purified in the boiling process, turning into essence blood as heavy as lead and mercury.
As the cyclone is compressed smaller and smaller, the mass and density contained within it increase exponentially.
In the end, all the divine light, demonic energy, and incense, along with the imprint of the rules of the transformation into a god, collapsed into an inconceivable singularity.
Gu Yan's dried-up Qi Sea was right in the center.
A round bead, no bigger than a longan, quietly appeared.
The surface of this bead is a pure, compassionate white on the left and a deep, violent, and tyrannical black on the right.
At the boundary between black and white, a thin dark red line perfectly divides it, which is the trace of the Dao left by the severed finger of the Nascent Soul cultivator.
The shimmering light of the beads faintly reveals the ancient, heavy, mountain-like texture of the Black Tortoise shell.
The Golden Elixir of Gods and Demons.
become!
The moment the Golden Core was formed, an unprecedentedly powerful force, like a bursting dam in the Milky Way, surged out from the Qi Sea, flowing through Gu Yan's eight extraordinary meridians and his limbs and bones.
The horrific gash on his body was sprouting new flesh at a visible speed, which then intertwined and healed.
The newly formed skin was crystal clear and flawless, radiating a terrifying aura that was even more resilient than the finest magical artifacts.
Gu Yan slowly opened his eyes.
In his left eye, a deity seemed to sit atop a cloud; in his right eye, a demon lord seemed to tread upon corpses.
He rose from the white jade futon and casually made a grasping motion towards the void.
"Smack."
The air inside the sealed room exploded with a loud bang.
With his physical strength alone, he managed to create a visible white cloud of energy.
At this moment, if Gu Yan were to face the arrogant Qingmu Zhenren again, he only needed one punch to smash him, along with his golden core, into a pile of minced meat.
Even when facing a powerful cultivator in the early Nascent Soul stage, he had enough confidence to fight head-on with this Divine Demon Golden Core that was imbued with the rules of the Divine Transformation stage.
Ten years of drinking ice cannot cool the burning passion in one's blood.
Once the elixir is perfected, one can look down upon the world.
Gu Yan raised his head, his chest surging with heroic spirit, about to let out a long, exhilarating roar to announce his return to this world.
However, before he could even utter a sound, his expression suddenly changed.
In the darkness, an extremely dangerous, terrifying omen of death pierced his brow from the highest heavens.
Above the sky in Changning County.
The enormous vortex of gold and black that originally followed the flow of Tai Chi was now shattered.
The snowflakes, suspended in mid-air, lost their support and, following the laws of gravity, gently fell to the ground.
The cold wind, which had stopped flowing, blew through the streets and alleys again, making a mournful sound.
That pillar of light, connecting heaven and earth and the faith of mortals, was forcibly severed by an extremely domineering will of heaven and earth.
The spiritual energy vortex, covering an area of hundreds of miles, was deepening in color at an alarming rate.
In the blink of an eye, the sacred golden light and the evil demonic energy were completely swallowed up, leaving only the dark purple tribulation clouds as thick as ink.
Deep within the calamity clouds, a fierce wind howled and thunder roared, as if an ancient thunder god were beating war drums in the sky.
The dark red lightning that was originally hidden in the center of the vortex frantically absorbed the power of the tribulation clouds, swelled against the wind, and transformed into a thousand-foot-long, ferocious, purplish-red lightning dragon.
The thunder dragon poked its ferocious head out from the clouds, its pair of lightning-like vertical pupils piercing through the gale, through the Xuanwu formation of Changning County, and through the thick rock layers, locking onto Gu Yan in the underground chamber.
Heavenly Tribulation.
Moreover, it is the rarest of all, the Purple Heaven World-Destroying Lightning Tribulation recorded in ancient books, which is specifically used to strike down rebellious demons.
The net of Heaven is vast and inescapable; it will never allow an anomaly to exist in this world who has simultaneously stolen the divine path, the demonic path, and even tainted the rules of the Nascent Soul stage.
The heavens were enraged and were about to personally unleash divine punishment to completely obliterate this monster that had disrupted the balance of heaven and earth.
Inside the secret chamber, Gu Yan looked up at the heavy stone slabs of the dome, his gaze piercing through the obstruction to meet the eyes of the world-destroying thunder dragon in the clouds.
There was no panic or fear in Gu Yan's eyes. He slowly suppressed the wild joy at the corner of his mouth, and his face became colder than thunder and harder than ten-thousand-year-old ice.
With a thought, a brand-new black robe appeared out of thin air and draped over his body. Then, he extended his right hand, as white as jade, and gently grasped the worn-out folding fan.
Immediately, the bluestone slab beneath his feet shattered.
His entire being transformed into a black and white pillar of light that pierced through the heavens and the earth, breaking through the dome of the secret room and the roof of the county government office, and hovering directly in mid-air above Changning County.
The strong wind whipped up his blue robe, making it flutter loudly.
He stood alone beneath the apocalyptic clouds.
Within the calamity clouds, the first crimson lightning bolt, carrying an earth-shattering, world-destroying aura, crashed down upon the tiny figure swimming against the current.