Chapter 164: Heavenly Tribulation

Even without knowing the heavy history hidden in the shadows, the Great Wilderness itself is a land of clear mountains and beautiful waters; only the Fire Domain has absolutely nothing to do with such scenery.

Space was like a peaceful slumber; suddenly a stone dropped, ripples spreading. A handsome youth stepped through the Void, a gentle smile on his face.

"Finally back!" Jiang Xuan looked at the familiar yet strange land, a leisurely smile on his face.

Jiang Xuan took a single step out, his body appearing outside the Fire Domain. The surroundings were silent, but in the distance a trading venue had inexplicably appeared, many people inside hawking forged weapons or flames collected in the Fire Domain by special methods.

Seeing Jiang Xuan appear, the few people on the periphery merely glanced indifferently before withdrawing their gazes.

Jiang Xuan walked into this street-stall trading market, a trace of doubt on his face, arriving at a stall to look at the Black Iron Long Swords and various weapons displayed there.

"Young hero! Want to buy a Cold Iron Sword forged with my ancestral craft?" The burly man sitting cross-legged in the stall rubbed his hands, looking at Jiang Xuan with anticipation.

"Stall owner! I remember there wasn't this stall area here before; how did so many people suddenly appear setting up stalls here?"

Seeing the other party only came to ask questions, the burly man's expression instantly turned cold: "Ah right! Before there were no stalls; later on — there were stalls!"

Jiang Xuan's face darkened. "You're stalling, stalling! What's the difference between this answer and no answer at all?"

A single thread of hidden Rule Power circulated in his subconscious; very quickly Jiang Xuan found the answer to the problem.

To put it plainly, this matter also had a bit to do with him, because when he previously forged the Immortal Trapping Sword the commotion was too great, so many outrageous rumors spread — inheritances, Immortal Fire, Emperor Weapons and such — attracting countless people to search the shallow layers of the Fire Domain, and countless others to stake out and investigate outside the Fire Domain.

They waited bitterly for several years yet never saw any more treasures emerge, so these people gradually grew bored; while staking out they began exchanging and selling resources for cultivation and self-strengthening, and slowly this place became a trading ground, maintained jointly by many Powerful Forces and Loose Cultivators.

Time slowly passed; the investigation was cancelled, but this stall area remained.

Reading the thoughts seeping from the other's subconscious, Jiang Xuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Back then he just made a slightly bigger commotion; it wasn't enough to make so many people stake out and investigate, right!

Just as Jiang Xuan prepared to withdraw that thread of Rule Power containing Hidden and Consciousness Authority, he suddenly felt he was being targeted!

That thread of Rule Power manifested outside was instantly erased, as if it had never appeared in this world at all.

This erasure reminded Jiang Xuan of the Mysterious World, where the Eye erased the Fallen Mother Nest's Authority in the same way.

Before he could find the source of this sense of crisis, the Sky split open like a collapse, a crack spanning the heavens; a pair of calm, indifferent eyes slowly pushed out from that sky-rending fissure.

The next moment, alarm bells rang in Jiang Xuan's heart; a pressure descending from the heavens made Jiang Xuan — whose Rule Power was already comparable to a Quasi-Emperor — feel his legs tremble!

Not a single surrounding cultivator escaped; in an instant they were all crushed by that pressure targeting body and Soul, falling in unison like worthless straw.

Endless light circulated through Jiang Xuan's body; he took a single step out, appearing above the Star Sky!

Those indifferent eyes showed no change whatsoever, still spanning the heavens in the Star Sky; only, those indifferent eyes actually revealed a trace of human-like doubt and anger!

Jiang Xuan forced his body straight; the Xuanhuang Mother Qi Pagoda manifested its true form, enveloping Jiang Xuan within.

Those giant eyes gazed deeply at Jiang Xuan; above his head, dark clouds faintly shimmering with starlight condensed in the Star Sky; that pressure grew even more intense!

"I have to undergo Heavenly Tribulation?" Jiang Xuan stared wide-eyed at the gradually forming dark clouds.

If Ye Fan's Four Extremes Heavenly Tribulation at the Hualong Pool could be described as covering the sky and blocking the sun, then Jiang Xuan's current Heavenly Tribulation can already obscure the Star Sky — how should that be counted?

It's not that Jiang Xuan thinks he can avoid Heavenly Tribulation; rather, Heavenly Tribulation only occurs when one is about to break through a Cultivation Realm, drawing down Heavenly Tribulation as a catalyst.

As long as one successfully endures the Heavenly Tribulation, not only can one smoothly break through to the next Cultivation Realm, but the subsequent Heavenly Dao feedback can also stabilize the Cultivation Realm.

But Jiang Xuan doesn't need to break through a Cultivation Realm at all; in the Mysterious World he never absorbed the Spirituality materials scattered by the Original Creator that bolster constitution, so his physical quality hasn't changed much since leaving the Mysterious World — still only comparable to a Saint.

And his Rule Power is now also at a Bottleneck; relying on the Dao Pattern blessing from the Eight Trigrams Furnace entering his body, he barely surpasses a Great Sage, but his other Magic Weapons can't keep up, so he cannot truly reach Quasi-Emperor.

No breakthrough is possible in a short time; this Heavenly Tribulation cannot be here to help him break through.

Recalling that thread of Authority Rule Power he used, Jiang Xuan's eyes snapped open.

He suddenly thought of a possibility.

Could it be because the Rule Power of the Mysterious World deviates from this world's Rules? Or that the "Error" Authority offended the Heavenly Dao's rights? So this is sending down Heavenly Tribulation to exterminate him!

Looking at the Heavenly Tribulation obscuring the Star Sky, Jiang Xuan couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Before, he still thought Ye Fan's constitution was not tolerated by the Heavenly Dao, sending down such a terrifying Heavenly Tribulation to kill Ye Fan, feeling Ye Fan's Cultivation Path was full of hardships.

Now it's his turn very quickly!

Ye Fan was merely not tolerated by the Heavenly Dao; looking at the intensity of this Heavenly Tribulation of his, he's probably already been marked with hatred by the Heavenly Dao!

Accompanying the Heavenly Dao pressure manifesting in the Star Sky, gazes capable of shattering the Void and sensing Fluctuations turned toward the patch of Star Sky where Jiang Xuan appeared.

"Heavenly Tribulation actually descending in the Star Sky? What is this person's background?" Pair after pair of gazes crossed Time and Void to look here.

"This degree of Heavenly Tribulation — even an Immortal Ascension Tribulation might only be on par. What peerless genius is inside the Heavenly Tribulation!" In the Void, a youth dressed as a scholar opened his eyes, gazing across myriad stars toward this place.

"Heavenly Tribulation descending under the Heavenly Dao's gaze — such a scene is truly unprecedented, never seen before!"

……

Although countless gazes watched this Star Sky, no one was willing to come take a look at this Star Sky.

The Heavenly Tribulation already covers the Star Sky; anyone who enters risks being noticed by the Heavenly Tribulation, one careless move and they could lose their life in the Star Sky — far too dangerous!

Jiang Xuan, standing in the center of the Star Sky, calmly and resolutely raised his head to stare at those dark clouds; his eyes held not a trace of fear.

Under that ever-heavier pressure he grew even more upright, like a nail driven to pierce through this Star Sky and the Heavenly Dao!

(Chapter End)