Chapter 1569: Yuan's Advancement to Dao Merging

Dark clouds gathered thick, lightning flashed and thunder roared.

This starry sky above the Immortal Gate mother star boiled over, bolts of lightning falling one after another, each one a fusion of the web of rules, drawing upon the rule-force of an entire stretch of heaven and earth, its might far surpassing that of Void Refinement cultivators, capable of wiping out Void Refinement cultivators in swathes.

In the ancient era of the Ancient God Domain, any one Dao Merging Divine Lord could dominate a realm.

And now, the Immortal Gate was finally about to produce its own Dao Merging cultivator.

Amidst bolt after bolt of Lei Ting, Yuan's aura began to change, his magic power and divine soul swelling to their limit, then suddenly leaping to a higher level in an instant; his divine soul scattered through heaven and earth, no longer confined within the fleshly body, everywhere and in all things, possessing a certain indestructibility, his Dharma body and divine soul undergoing a qualitative transformation.

A bolt of green-purple Lei Ting descended, scattering like a waterfall, revealing the gaunt Daoist within.

Yuan had successfully completed his breakthrough from Void Refinement to Dao Merging, and had successfully withstood the first bolt of the Dao Merging heavenly tribulation!

"The first step had no mistakes…"

Divine Mechanism True Honored One and the other Immortal Gate Void Refinement cultivators held their breath, devoting all their strength to comprehending.

The Dao Merging heavenly tribulation Yuan now faced would, in the future, be their tribulation as well; the more profound mysteries they could comprehend now, the higher their chances of surviving the heavenly tribulation in the future.

This kind of observing another's Tribulation Crossing was no small opportunity for cultivators of the same realm.

"For a Void Refinement cultivator advancing to Dao Merging, there are generally three aspects of work to be done, namely magic power, divine sense, and rules."

The voice of the Great Sun Sword Master slowly drifted over, entering the ears of every Immortal Gate Void Refinement cultivator, beginning a meticulous one-on-one explanation tailored to each of their individual circumstances.

"Magic power: within the dantian, using a specific Void Refinement Tribulation Crossing Mi Fa, compress your own magic power with the aid of the pressure of the heavenly Lei Gao Jie, causing it to break through or come to the very brink of breaking through its limit."

"This aspect places extremely high demands on the purity of a Void Refinement cultivator's magic power; if the purity is insufficient, even a peak Void Refinement cultivator cannot break through.

If a cultivator's talent and aptitude are lacking, the expedient methods are to rely on talismans, pills, or special cultivation Secret Realms; these can be exchanged for with battle merits within the Immortal Gate, and new auxiliary breakthrough methods are currently under development."

"…These aids are, in truth, unorthodox paths; even if one completes the Dao Merging breakthrough, cultivation at the Dao Merging stage will often be extremely difficult, requiring the aid of pills and other external forces to make progress, and the probability of breaking through to Heavenly Man is almost zero. It is not the proper path, merely a measure of last resort."

"Everyone should still pay special attention to cultivating their foundation and accumulation on a regular basis…"

"The second is divine sense…"

"The third is rules: the originally linear rules within the rule-space must split into a web. This step is extremely difficult; the Immortal Gate currently has no external aid to assist, and one can only constantly participate in high-level scientific research experiments on a regular basis, or use instruments to observe the rule webs in nature, and through these various means comprehend how one's own rules split into a web.

Your rule is the rule of flame; you should pay attention to observing the various flames in heaven and earth—the fire of wood, the fire of meteors, the fire within water, and so on—and observe the deep-level rule forms of these fires…"

Jiang Ding's voice entered the ears of a Void Refinement cultivator who cultivated the rule of the fire dao, and also entered the ears of other Void Refinement cultivators; what each one heard was entirely different.

His understanding of the various rules of heaven and earth had reached an extraordinarily terrifying level; not only the six rules of the sun, but also the rules of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, space, karma, and so on throughout heaven and earth—all came to him with effortless ease, and his explanations were profound yet lucid, often able to easily allow Immortal Gate Void Refinement cultivators to gain comprehension.

In fact, this was not some chance occurrence born of opportunity.

Over the course of many past years, the Great Sun Sword Master had often discussed the Dao with the many Void Refinement cultivators of the Immortal Gate; this kind of explanation had already been carried out countless times.

Today, it was merely because there was Yuan, a ready-made example, that the Immortal Gate Void Refinement cultivators could comprehend more.

This kind of opportunity, rare for Void Refinement cultivators outside, was standard fare for Immortal Gate Void Refinement cultivators.

This was one of the most important reasons why the foundations and accumulations of Immortal Gate Void Refinement cultivators universally surpassed those of cultivators from other sects; another advantage was the deep participation in the Immortal Gate's various scientific research projects, the unity of production and learning, the unity of knowledge and action; these various advantages had given rise to the Immortal Gate's present abundance of prodigies and outstanding talents.

"Oh?"

"Quite the nerve."

Suddenly, the Great Sun Sword Master's voice paused, his gaze turning toward the distance, landing at the edge of the Dao Merging Lei Gao Jie.

An invisible, bone-chilling, terrifying pressure instantly sent a jolt through all the Immortal Gate powerhouses, rousing them at once from their Dao comprehension, instinctively activating their military formations in coordination.

Layer upon layer of military formation rule runes flickered, countless warships erupting with formation patterns, guarding the central sun, together forming a terrifying grand array that suppressed the entire solar system.

The heavy pressure landed on a corner at the edge of the Dao Merging heavenly tribulation, freezing that spot solid like divine iron; divine soul, matter, energy, karma, space… every existence within heaven and earth froze, unable to move in the slightest.

The invisible mist of samsara dispersed, revealing a grotesque, monstrous worm within.

It had the head of an aged old man, but below the neck it was a constantly writhing maggot-like form; its body was hazy and indistinct, carrying a dreamlike quality. Even the Immortal Gate's quasi-eighth-tier spirit-child radar had failed to scan it in the first instant, and it had nearly burrowed into the Dao Merging Lei Gao Jie.

The Great Sun Sword Master's sword soul had issued the warning, and only thus was it dragged out.

"A Son of the Ancient Gods…"

A contemplative look appeared in Jiang Ding's eyes.

He recalled the Heavenly Man remnant soul he had slain during his trip to the Ancient God Dao's Hidden Scripture Pavilion back then; it had attempted to seize his body at the time, but was crushed, and he obtained a few fragments of memory.

In those memories, the Ancient God Ancestor had, during the Nascent Soul stage, chanced upon an arm of an Ancient God, which descended from the heavens and appeared before the Ancient God Ancestor; this was the second great opportunity the Ancient God Ancestor obtained,

and one of the important factors in the Ancient God Ancestor's rise.

Only, in the later period of his life, the Ancient God Ancestor seemed to have been on the verge of being body-seized by the life born within the Ancient God's arm, or perhaps the Ancient God Ancestor had done so deliberately, intending instead to seize the life within the Ancient God's arm; it was impossible to tell.

The secrets within were unknown to anyone, long since buried by the passage of time.

The only thing that could be known was that the destruction of the Ancient God Dao was related to the life born within the Ancient God's arm, and the Ancient God Ancestor's slumber was likewise connected to this.

Now, a life form similar to a Son of the Ancient Gods, yet greatly different, had appeared.

What did this signify?

Did it mean that the Ancient God Ancestor was beginning to gain the upper hand in the struggle?

All of this, Jiang Ding could not judge.

Clang!

Amid the radiance of the solar system, from within the military formation of the Immortal Gate Central Group Army fleet, a resplendent existence drew its sword.

A terrifying sword intent enveloped the heavens and the starry river; a single sword, like a golden thread leaping from a star, flashed once through the solar system, piercing through three stretches of starry sky, then returning to its scabbard.

The heavens and the starry river fell into stillness.

A moment later, the starry river resumed its flow.

Everyone held their breath, looking toward the starry sky.

At the edge of the Dao Merging Lei Gao Jie, the struggling old-man-headed Son of the Ancient Gods went rigid, a golden thread slicing it open from the center.

Not only here.

On Mars, within Jupiter, whether hidden in the deep sea or the earth's core, two aberrant Sons of the Ancient Gods were likewise cut in two by a single sword, losing their vitality.

They were sealed by layers of solar rule webs, fashioned into specimens and preserved, to be used for future research.