Chapter 205: Ancient Heavenly Dao: A Bit Gross, Family

Before the Great Array of the Zhou Tian Star Inspection surrounding the Gu Family's divine island, voices rose in a din, and the heads of every Dao tradition were jammed together.

Treasure light surged into the sky, casting the starry heavens across billions of miles in a riot of colors.

The Ji Family, the Pantheon, and the Ancestral Dragon Nest—three victorious powerhouses—are now queuing to complete entry formalities.

Ji Tianyou, the ever‑aloof True Immortal, now watches with a heart twisted like a knife as her family's centuries‑old foundation is hauled in truckloads into the Gu Family's treasure vault.

The Nine‑Heaven Celestial Marrow and the Immortal Divine Lotus—rare treasures usually deemed too extravagant to even glance at—have now become chips to buy a single ticket.

"True Immortal, this time we've completely emptied our old reserves."

A senior elder of the Ji Family lowered his voice, his flesh ached so badly he gasped for cold air.

She wasn't speaking nonsense.

The offered treasures amount to less than ten percent of the Ji Family's holdings.

But fixed resources and liquid resources are fundamentally different!

More importantly,

Giving away this much means that for at least ten thousand years the entire Ji Family will have to tighten their belts to get by!

"Silence."

Ji Tianyou's mask was frosted with cold, yet her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the white‑jade stone steps behind the Great Array that rose straight into the clouds,

"If Tianling can endure, the Ji Family will become a double True Immortal lineage; beyond that, our ties with the Gu Family will grow closer.

If we can thereby obtain some of the Gu Family's secrets—such as those incorporeal substances, or how Gu Cang… the Immortal King proved his Dao to become an Immortal King, or the secret of how Gu Yuan fought across more than a dozen great realms—then securing this first slot guarantees the Ji Family no loss!"

The senior patriarch of the Ji Family's eyes lit up: "Renowned True Immortal!"

…

On the other side, the Ancestral Dragon Nest is where the Dragon Emperor, stuck in the Half‑Immortal realm for an unknown number of ten‑thousands of years, has personally arrived.

Although his lifespan reserve remains ample.

But he knows he has passed his peak.

Under normal cultivation, breaking through to the True Immortal realm is almost hopeless.

So, upon learning of this chance, he will seize it at any cost, thereby achieving the True Immortal realm!

…

The Pantheon is represented by the Primordial Divine Lord, who sent a withered‑wood Ancestor that they venerate on the highest tier of the temple.

The Ancestor's qi and blood have long withered, hanging on a single breath; without another breakthrough, he will turn to dust within ten thousand years.

…

"Ladies and gentlemen, money and goods are settled." Gu Lin Tian closed the ledger and shouted loudly,

"The Gu Family's Immortal Hall's first batch of trial officials, please embark! The ugly truth is, our family only provides the venue; whether you die or survive on the road, whether you can survive the tribulation, is entirely up to your own fate. No refunds or exchanges, everyone, step forward."

The cold, thin words made everyone grind their teeth, yet no one dared to object.

Ji Tianling, the Dragon Emperor, and the Withered‑Wood Ancestor exchanged glances, gathered their breath, and stepped onto that ascension road radiating a murderous aura.

As soon as they set foot on the first step, the surrounding scenery underwent a cataclysmic transformation.

The path to becoming an immortal is far from a simple staircase; it is a tailor‑made infernal realm matching each individual's foundational Dao.

Ji Tianling cultivates the Way of Water. The white‑jade stone steps before her turned into an endless expanse of weak water.

This weak water is so dense that even a feather cannot float, birds cannot pass, and each drop weighs over a thousand pounds, striking the Dao‑heart directly.

She summoned the Ji Family's secret "Sea‑Stabilizing Pearl."

It is a True Immortal artifact.

It is also the proof artifact of a Myriad‑Glaze True Immortal.

If driven to its limit, it could even fix an entire cosmic sea!

Fueled by an extreme zeal for ascension, Ji Tianling trudged laboriously through the weak water.

With each step, her protective aura eroded a bit, her skin cracked inch by inch, in a terribly fierce manner.

…

The Dragon Emperor faced a suppression of his bloodline.

On the ascension path, nine lingering remnants of ancient ancestral dragons manifested, blocking his way.

This required him to shatter his old true‑dragon shell, achieving the ultimate leap of his life tier.

The Dragon Emperor unleashed a thunderous dragon roar, abandoning all defenses, allowing the ancestral dragon remnants to tear at his scales and siphon his sinews.

He intends to use this external force to completely shatter his decaying flesh, leaving only a fragment of true spirit intact, and to remake a True Immortal dragon body from the ruins.

Compared with Ji Tianling,

the Dragon Emperor's situation is far better.

After all, among the three,

he is a demon race, has lived longer, and his foundation and combat power surpass those of the same Heaven‑Emperor realm by a noticeable margin.

…

The Withered‑Wood Ancestor is the most tragic.

He cultivates the Way of Withered‑Soul Prosperity, and the ascension path thrust him straight into a nether illusion where ten thousand ghosts gnaw at his heart.

Millions of vengeful ghosts, formed from foes he slew in his past, ravenously devour his soul.

The old fellow's lifespan was already near its end, his soul withered; this ordeal almost caused his immediate Dao‑extinction.

Yet he stubbornly clung to a "die within the True Immortal realm even if I must die" resolve, turning his soul into a rotting piece of wood, allowing ten thousand ghosts to gnaw at it while he steadfastly guarded his spirit platform's clarity.

These three are top‑tier figures in their respective Dao traditions, their foundations far deeper than Gu Zhan's could ever match.

Gu Zhan barely cleared the trial only because of Gu Cangsheng's bright‑day protection, while these three are truly fighting with their own lives.

The Heavenly Dao is impartial.

If they pass.

Their combat power would also be much greater than Gu Zhan's.

As can be seen.

Breaking through directly from the 18th stage to the 20th-stage True Immortal Realm, as opposed to going through the 19th stage and breaking through after walking the path to immortality.

The difference is enormous!

……

……

It took a full three days and three nights.

Above the firmament of the Primeval Immortal Realm, thunder suddenly roared.

Three dilapidated wooden doors appeared in the void, each pushed open in succession by three blood-drenched hands.

"We did it!" Ji Tianyou clenched their fists, nails digging into their palms.

The heavens and earth changed color, and the wind howled wildly.

Three stout True Immortal qi pillars shot up into the sky, disrupting the laws of the Primeval Immortal Realm.

Following closely behind was a Heavenly Dao tribulation that made one's liver and gallbladder feel torn apart.

Pitch-black tribulation clouds swirled above the Gu Family's Divine Island, and the Heavenly Dao's Eye coldly gazed down upon these three stowaways attempting to defy heaven and change their fate.

Ji Tianling's head was the first to be struck by a bolt of Gui Water Divine Thunder as thick as a water bucket.

She let out a fierce shout, throwing out all of the Ji Family's bottom-of-the-box defensive treasures. The treasures shattered one after another in the lightning's light, and she was blasted to a charred black, yet she stubbornly endured.

The Dragon Emperor faced off against the Geng Metal Tribulation Lightning.

His newly reforged True Immortal Dragon Body was split open, flesh torn, and golden dragon blood sprayed across the vast sky.

Yet the Dragon Emperor laughed maniacly, using the might of thunder and lightning to temper his newly born bones, stubbornly enduring the most difficult nine heavenly thunderbolts.

The Gu Family members stood by with folded arms, and Gu Yuan even leisurely watched the show while holding a teacup.

Saying that if there's no after-sales service, they will not intervene at all unless the other party pays extra.

The people of the Ji Family and the Ancestral Dragon Nest watched from below, hearts pounding with fear; seeing their own ancestor survive the tribulation, they collapsed limp on the ground and wept with joy.

The two successfully attained the Dao, then retreated to one side to bathe in spiritual rain and consolidate their realm.

Next up was the Withered Wood Ancestor of the Hall of Myriad Gods.

Just then, an unexpected change occurred.

The Heavenly Dao of the Primeval Immortal Realm, over just a few days, seemed as if someone had forcibly entered it.

First it was Gu Zhan and four others, and now it's these three.

It's utterly disgusting!

The bottom line of the rules was severely provoked, and the Heavenly Dao's will went completely berserk.

The ordinary True Immortal tribulation clouds that had been hovering above the Withered Wood Ancestor's head suddenly collapsed inward, their color shifting from ink-black to an eerie purplish-red.

An aura of annihilation capable of destroying heaven and earth enveloped the entire starfield.

"Is that… the Nine Netherworld Extermination Purple Lightning?"

The Withered Wood Ancestor looked up at the tribulation clouds pregnant with purple light, his eyes filled with despair.

He had already reached the point of being at the end of his rope.

Now faced with this excessive heavenly punishment, what could he use to block it?

The first bolt of purple lightning struck without warning, without an earth-shaking sound, only utter destruction.

The Withered Wood Ancestor didn't even have time to let out a miserable scream before his barely condensed True Immortal body was halved, his soul's fire like a remnant candle in the wind, trembling on the verge of extinction.