Chapter 570 2: Breaking Through to the Tribulation Realm (Part 1)

As a Demon Cultivator, Fang Cheng had always acted without inhibitions.

Besides, this silver-haired woman didn't exactly look like a "good person" herself...

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he completed the Soul Search. To his surprise, the woman's Divine Soul was incredibly resilient and completely undamaged.

Moreover, there was a hidden power within her Divine Soul that greatly astonished Fang Cheng.

It turned out the silver-haired woman's name was Mo Liushang. She was one of the Elders of the Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace City, the greatest power in the Profound Nether Domain.

The "Master" Mo Liushang spoke of was the City Lord of Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace City.

This person had a mysterious background. When he first appeared in the Profound Nether Domain a thousand years ago, he already possessed a Tribulation Realm Cultivation.

Later, he founded the Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace City, took on Disciples, and passed down his teachings. His power gradually grew until he became the undisputed number one in the Profound Nether Domain.

This Spiritual Palace City Lord advocated that "flesh and blood are weak, but Spiritual Mechanisms are the path to ascension." His Secret Technique of Spiritual Machinery Refining was unfathomably profound. His Disciples only needed to cultivate and strengthen their Divine Souls, and then through modification with Spiritual Mechanisms, they could possess unbelievably tyrannical strength.

Cultivators from Spiritual Palace City hunted Demon Beasts and other Cultivators. Using a Secret Technique, they would plunder their victims' Divine Techniques and refine them into Divine Power Relics. These relics were then loaded onto their Spiritual Mechanical Bodies, allowing them to possess various Divine Techniques while bypassing countless hours of hard work.

This was one of the reasons why Spiritual Palace City was able to become the number one power in the Profound Nether Domain in just a thousand years.

Currently, there were thirty-three sects and over a hundred noble families in the Profound Nether Domain that revered Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace City as their master and paid them tribute annually.

Mo Liushang was not a Disciple of the Spiritual Palace City Lord, but rather the product of one of his "Secret Technique experiments."

According to Mo Liushang's memories, the Spiritual Palace City Lord had used ten thousand young boys and girls for a Divine Soul Secret Technique experiment. In the end, Mo Liushang was the only one to survive.

Her Divine Soul had been modified by the Spiritual Palace City Lord's Secret Technique, granting her two heaven-defying traits: near-immortality and infinite division. Because of this, she earned the Spiritual Palace City Lord's favor and was vigorously nurtured to become his right-hand woman.

Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace City had two paramount inheritances.

The first was the "Celestial Craft Creation Scripture Fragment," a Supreme Treasure Technique that the Spiritual Palace City Lord had obtained from the Upper Realm. The method of refining Spiritual Mechanisms originated from this scripture.

The second was the "Sutra of the Buddha's Hidden Talisman," which the Spiritual Palace City Lord created himself by combining the Celestial Craft Creation Scripture and teachings from the Buddhist Sect.

This was a Divine Soul cultivation method. Once mastered, one's Divine Soul would become so resilient that it could unleash more than one hundred and thirty percent of a Spiritual Mechanism's power.

It could even split the Divine Soul to control multiple Spiritual Mechanical Bodies.

The effect was similar to Fang Cheng simultaneously controlling multiple Tier Five Feather Divine Soldiers.

Generally, the Body Separation Technique had a significant drawback: the avatar's strength was often inferior to the original body, making it feel rather useless in many situations.

Alternatively, if the avatar's power surged, it might turn on the original body.

However, the "Sutra of the Buddha's Hidden Talisman" had no such flaws. The divided Divine Souls could be gathered or dispersed, making it more like "copying" the Divine Soul rather than "splitting" it.

The "Sutra of the Buddha's Hidden Talisman" also contained two Secret Techniques. One allowed a person to condense pure and flawless Spiritual Essence of Divine Sense through visualization and chanting Buddhist Scriptures.

The other could refine this Spiritual Essence of Divine Sense to strengthen the Divine Soul.

'This is a bit like the method for refining Merit Talismanic Coins in the Nine Revolutions Profound Origin Technique.'

Fang Cheng couldn't help but sigh with emotion. The ways of demons and devils in this world truly had much in common.

In the Profound Nether Domain today, Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace City sat high above all. The thirty-three sects and numerous noble families below fought amongst themselves, vying for resources while enslaving lower-level Cultivators and forcing them to condense vast amounts of Spiritual Essence of Divine Sense for the annual tribute to Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace City.

At the same time, these sect and noble family Cultivators purchased large quantities of various Spiritual Mechanisms from Nine Heavens Spiritual Palace City to modify their bodies and further enhance their strength.

Once they became a Spiritual Mechanical Body, there was no need to arduously cultivate Divine Techniques anymore; they could just plunder them directly.

The accounts Fang Cheng had read in ancient texts—which claimed that the Human Race was in decline and the Demon Race ran rampant in the Profound Nether Domain—had now been completely overturned.

After the sect and noble family Cultivators converted to Spiritual Mechanical Bodies, they only needed to cultivate their Divine Souls to rapidly increase their strength. As a result, these major powers had completely monopolized high-level combat prowess.

After all, cultivating only the Divine Soul was far easier than simultaneously cultivating the Divine Soul, physical body, and Magical Power.

And this was without the sect and noble family Cultivators having the method to refine Spiritual Essence of Divine Sense. If they were to obtain the "Sutra of the Buddha's Hidden Talisman," their development would likely be even faster.

The ones who truly suffered hardship were the Loose Cultivators at the bottom of the Cultivation Realm.

Talented Loose Cultivators were easily coveted by experts from sects and noble families, who would find ways to plunder their talents and refine them into their own Spiritual Mechanisms.

Untalented Loose Cultivators couldn't afford Spiritual Mechanisms and were completely unable to resist the Cultivators from sects and noble families, thus they were frequently oppressed.

Once a Loose Cultivator was reduced to a Spirit Slave, they became a beast of burden for the rest of their life, forced to produce Spiritual Essence of Divine Sense for the sects and noble families with no hope of ever escaping their fate.

From Mo Liushang's Spiritual Memory, the Loose Cultivators in this domain had a much harder life than those elsewhere, and there were basically no remarkable figures among them.

What Fang Cheng found regrettable was that Mo Liushang's Divine Soul did not contain the "Sutra of the Buddha's Hidden Talisman" inheritance.

When the Spiritual Palace City Lord passed down his techniques—whether to his Disciples or Spirit Servants like Mo Liushang—he simply had them refine a Divine Power Relic and bestowed it upon them directly, letting them nurture and strengthen it on their own.

The method of forging Spiritual Mechanisms from the "Celestial Craft Creation Scripture Fragment" was practiced by the Spiritual Palace City Lord's direct Disciples, but when it came to Tier Five Spiritual Mechanisms, they still had to request them from the City Lord.

As a Spirit Servant, Mo Liushang naturally wasn't qualified to refine Spiritual Mechanisms herself; the ones on her body were all bestowed by the Spiritual Palace City Lord.

Fang Cheng carefully compared the differences between the Spiritual Mechanical Body and the Feather Divine Soldiers. His conclusion was that the Spiritual Mechanical Body had a wider range of applications and greater potential!

The Feather Divine Soldiers were derived from the Upper Realm's Mystic Sky Divine Puppet Treasure Technique. They primarily relied on the Supreme Nine Heavens Jade Pure Great Brahman Purple Star Xuan Du Jade Talisman, using the Thunder Pool as a core to activate various Divine Techniques.

It was only because Fang Cheng had such a profound understanding of various other Divine Techniques, having reached the Great Success Realm and returned to a state of simplicity, that he could use the Feather Divine Soldiers to activate the Great Inference Celestial Net Sword Array and the Mixed Element Seven Tribulations Diagram.

Any other Cultivator, however, would only be able to activate thunder-attribute Divine Techniques.

Compared to the rich diversity and limitless potential of Spiritual Mechanisms, the Feather Divine Soldiers, while powerful, did not have as high a ceiling.

Now that the Demon Lord's avatar had escaped and a great calamity was imminent, Fang Cheng, despite his great interest in the Mechanical Spirit Dao, could only set it aside for now.

The most urgent matter was to advance to the Tribulation Realm first!

By breaking through sooner, he would have more ways to respond when facing the incredibly powerful Demon Lord.

Everything else could be disregarded.

For Fang Cheng, the Profound Nether Domain was relatively remote and isolated, making it a perfect place to break through to the next realm.

He had discovered from Mo Liushang's Divine Soul that she possessed a Water Mansion deep in the vast ocean, which was very suitable for secluded cultivation and breakthroughs.

He walked out of the blazing fire, casually summoned the Golden Radiance Tower Ship, and departed in style with Mo Liushang in tow.

...

Deep beneath the sea, it was chaotic and dark. Layers of Arrays blended with the undercurrents, concealing Mo Liushang's Water Mansion. Without intentionally searching for it, the place would be extremely difficult to find.

Furthermore, the seabed was immeasurably vast and teeming with Great Demons, so ordinary Cultivators would never venture down here.

Mo Liushang had established her Water Mansion here mainly so she could hunt the Great Demons of the sea and then conveniently refine them to improve her Cultivation.

Following Mo Liushang's memories, Fang Cheng opened the Arrays and entered the Water Mansion.

This Water Mansion was built by Mo Liushang from Undersea Profound Ice Crystals. She had used a Water-Repelling Treasure Bead to hold back the immense pressure of the sea, creating an open space.

Standing inside the Water Mansion and looking up, the seawater flowed steadily past, appearing as a clear, aquamarine expanse.

Two Cold Gold Treasure Pillars stood at the periphery of the Water Mansion. Atop them were Treasure Beads that emitted an extremely brilliant light, illuminating the interior as brightly as day.

The palaces and corridors within the mansion were tall and exquisite. The roof tiles were replaced with five-colored seashells, which shimmered with a myriad of dazzling colors, casting countless iridescent shadows and a boundless, otherworldly glow.

The main hall was furnished with elegant luxury, exuding a sense of grace and warmth. There was also a faint, elegant fragrance of winter plum. It seemed that even though Mo Liushang had walked the Mechanical Spirit Dao, her feminine nature remained.

Fang Cheng casually suppressed Mo Liushang inside the Nine Yi Cauldron. Then, he spoke softly to the faint cyan mark of a great tomb on the back of his hand, "Elder Feng, I am about to break through to the Tribulation Realm. I must trouble you to be my Guardian."

A flash of light appeared in the great hall, revealing a woman in a black dress of ultimate beauty.

Her face was exquisite, yet filled with peace and tranquility. She possessed a gentle and dignified grace, not the cold, aloof nobility that kept others at a distance.

This woman was none other than the Tribulation Realm Great Power from the Jade Flower Realm, Ascendant Feng Yan.

Back then, Fang Cheng had invited the Dragon Elephant Wanderer to break the Bright Mandala Embryo Barrier within the extraterritorial great tomb. As a result, Ascendant Feng Yan had made a promise to Fang Cheng to protect him through the Third Celestial Tribulation.

Fang Cheng speculated that this woman had passed at least the Seventh Celestial Tribulation, and perhaps even the Eighth Celestial Tribulation.

With her as his Guardian, he wouldn't be worried even if the Demon Lord's avatar came personally.

Feng Yan looked Fang Cheng up and down a few times and nodded. "You have quite the fortunate destiny. To think you've come this far in such a short time. With your foundation, it's highly likely you'll attract a Celestial Tribulation when you break through to the Tribulation Realm. You must be careful then."

Fang Cheng humbly accepted her guidance.

The Celestial Dao of this World Heaven had been corrupted by the Demon Lord. During a tribulation, the Celestial Tribulation would be warped. Its power was not only greater than in other World Heavens, but it also contained all sorts of demonic thoughts. A single misstep could lead to being corrupted by demonic influence and turning into a Demon Fiend.

During his years in Qianyu Heaven, Fang Cheng had learned much about the various heavens. He discovered that the risk of a Tribulation Realm Cultivator from the Red Profound Realm perishing during their Celestial Tribulation was almost five to ten times higher than in other World Heavens!

After her reminder, Ascendant Feng Yan said no more. She quietly walked out of the great hall, sat cross-legged in the void, and silently stood guard for him, completely motionless.

Fang Cheng set up some restrictive arrays in the hall, then sat down cross-legged. He took out the Cyan Dragon Divine Pill he had refined in Qianyu Heaven and swallowed it in one gulp.

A roiling medicinal power, like a great river, instantly swept through his entire body!

Fang Cheng circulated his Heart Method, and in the void behind him, an immortal gate boomed open.

The immortal gate was a hazy expanse from which an extremely dense wave of Spiritual Qi and Celestial Dao Spiritual Mechanism surged forth, pouring down in a vast, tumultuous torrent.

His Divine Soul was serene. Behind him, the Netherworld Giant Kun Dharma Aspect materialized, swimming around him as it devoured and refined Magical Power.

After many years of ascetic cultivation, his Magical Power had already reached the peak of the Dharma Realm.

His physical body had broken through its shackles long ago, advancing to the Fifth Transition Level and rivaling that of a Tribulation Realm Body Refining Great Power.

Within his sea of consciousness, a Golden Giant Buddha as majestic as a mountain slowly rose...

His Divine Soul Cultivation also came from the "Infinite Light Buddha Scripture," a gift from Ascendant Feng Yan.

Among the many Tribulation Realm inheritances, this scripture was an exceedingly rare, top-tier cultivation technique. Fang Cheng had benefited immensely from it, especially in his Divine Soul cultivation.

He had comprehended this scripture to the Perfect Realm, and his Divine Soul now possessed a trace of indestructible, diamond-like Buddhist rhythm.

With his Magical Power, physical body, and Divine Soul all at their peak, and with the help of the Cyan Dragon Divine Pill, Fang Cheng charged toward the Tribulation Realm bottleneck in one explosive push.

...