Chapter 516 - 448: Three Calamities of Hongyuan, Dragon Hunting Tower Caught in the Crossfire

「After returning to the Six Celestial Passes.」

Wu Dao didn’t make any major moves. While mastering the Asura Battle Banner, he was also pushing for a breakthrough to the One-Tribulation level of the Primordial Magnetism Path.

His ’vacation’ was two months long.

Only after two months would he be transferred to the Seven Days Pass.

By then, he had already perfected his cultivation for the First Tribulation. His reserves of Hongyuan Five Tribulations Dao Source were also plentiful, and on top of that, his Incarnations were continuously reaping battle merits.

He was confident enough.

He was confident enough that within these two months, he could break through to the One-Tribulation level and officially attain Quasi-Emperor-level combat power.

The battle in the Fallen God Cosmos.

His shortcomings had been laid bare. His personal strength couldn’t keep up, making him too reliant on external items and overly cautious in his actions.

But there was nothing he could do about it.

It was to be expected, considering he was always fighting in the big leagues.

’That little bastard, the Three Lives King, is at the Seven Days Pass, and the Great Dao Celestial Punishment there is almost nonexistent...’

Wu Dao thought of the Three Lives King, Long Chen, who had plundered his previous body’s Immortal Dao Dantian. If a chance arose to settle this karmic debt sooner rather than later, he certainly couldn’t let it pass.

Speaking of which.

Among the many people with whom he was bound by karma.

The Three Lives King was the most unique.

Take Su Chen, Mo Chen, and Ye Xuan, for example.

While they were still tempering their dispositions and Dao hearts and building their foundations in the Primordial Greenhouse,

Long Chen had dared to enter Shanhai Pass to train while only in the Dharma Realm. Based on the timeline, he had been in Cultivation for less than fifty years!

In the mere ten years since entering Shanhai Pass,

he had become a Quasi-Emperor.

He could truly be called a peerless genius of his generation.

However,

the explosive growth of his cultivation likely began three years ago. When the Mountain and Sea forces launched their massive invasion of Hongyuan, the Great Tribulation gave rise to great fortune, allowing him to soar to new heights.

Su Chen, Mo Chen, and Ye Xuan,

on the other hand, had not been so lucky.

Before the fortune of the tribulation descended, they had run into Wu Dao one after another and met their doom.

The first of them, Su Chen, was only at the Cave Heavens Realm.

Mo Chen entered the Creation Realm after a period of training on the Emperor Star, while Ye Xuan had a bit more time and achieved high-tier Creation Realm combat power.

If those three hadn’t died,

when the fortune of the Dao descended three years ago,

and entered Shanhai Pass at the same time and at a similar level of cultivation, their achievements might not have been much less than the Three Lives King who went before them. After all, they were all favored by fortune to some extent.

Mo Chen, in particular, was a bearer of Celestial Destiny and Fortune.

He was the type for whom the Great Dao itself would open a backdoor to aid his Cultivation. Unfortunately, he ’died’ before the golden Great Era could even begin.

Speaking of Mo Chen,

ever since the battle on the Taiyi Emperor Star,

Wu Dao hadn’t received any further information about him.

He didn’t know if the Celestial Court had changed its strategy, preparing to cultivate the bearer of Celestial Destiny and Fortune in a completely isolated environment, like fattening up a pig in a pen.

However,

no matter how they cultivated him,

once Wu Dao reached a certain level in the future, the pull of karma would ensure that the bearer of Celestial Destiny and Fortune would inevitably resurface.

He wouldn’t need to go looking for him.

For now, his primary target

was the Three Lives Army Master, Long Chen, in Shanhai Pass.

There was another one as well.

His previous body’s childhood sweetheart.

The little bitch who stole his previous body’s Celestial Treasure.

That Celestial Treasure was no small matter. The Celestial Punishment Sword could command Celestial Punishment, making its wielder a walking arbiter of the Great Dao.

This was another significant karmic debt.

Her origins were in the Fuguang World, but she hadn’t surfaced yet. He wondered if she had been hidden away and was being secretly cultivated by the Fuguang World’s Common Lord, Chaos City.

After all, Chaos City’s Su Chen was already dead.

They would surely not pass up another bearer of the Celestial Mandate from the same Celestial Domain.

HUMMM~

As his thoughts churned,

Wu Dao sensed that the auras of his Primordial Demons had transformed once again. They were approaching the limit of the Great Saint realm, just one step away from becoming Saint Masters.

The Primordial Demons had entered Shanhai Pass somewhat late.

They had only entered six months ago.

They had only been engaging in minor skirmishes in the Sea of Death, so the heaven-defying aspects of their Primordial Magnetism Demon Bodies and the Primordial Dao Wheel had not been fully utilized.

Now, with Wu Dao overseeing them,

the Seventy-Three Primordial Demons were like unbridled wild horses. With all restraints removed and an ample supply of Dao Source, their cultivation was advancing by leaps and bounds every day.

’Not bad. Once the Primordial Demons have grown strong enough, perhaps I can have them guard the Primordial Sect.’

Wu Dao’s thoughts ebbed and flowed.

He was considering the future development of the Primordial Sect.

As his Dao practice grew deeper,

the Original Dao Realms he needed would become increasingly difficult to hunt. Clashes with the top factions of the All Heavens would be unavoidable.

In that case,

he would have to face a problem.

It would be difficult to recruit new talent. The Quasi-Emperors beyond the Great Venerable realm were all well-known figures backed by major powers. They lacked for no resources and would be hard to entice or convert.

Under these circumstances,

it would be necessary to cultivate a group of powerful personal guards to watch over the Primordial Sect.

As for his Incarnations,

they were his Dao Source harvesting machines.

Keeping them in Shanhai Pass would generate far more benefits than stationing them at the Primordial Sect.

The Seventy-Three Primordial Demons,

developed quickly enough. As long as they had sufficient Dao Source, it wouldn’t take them long to become Quasi-Emperors.

They were perfect for filling that gap.

Hm.

To be precise, seventy-two of them.

It was better to keep Nangong Li, the Heaven and Earth Profound Sect, with him at all times in case of unforeseen circumstances.

"From now on, you will not go out to battle. Focus on your Cultivation, and do not worry about Dao Source."

With this in mind,

Wu Dao sent a command to the Seventy-Two Primordial Demons, preparing to fatten them up like pigs to rapidly increase their strength.

"This... As you command!"

Although Zhao Jianji and the others were somewhat disappointed,

they also understood that their current strength was indeed lacking. Only by increasing their power could they better serve the Alliance Leader.

"Father God, the believers who fell in battle have all been resurrected."

Just then,

Star Mother’s voice sounded.

The Venerables and Great Venerables who had died in the Fallen God Cosmos had now all had their Life Magnetic Fields reconstructed by Star Mother and been fully revived.

This was the advantage of the Primordial Sect.

Once you joined,

and had your Life Magnetic Field information recorded,

it was no different from being on the Divine Investiture List. Until you had completely lost all value, even suicide was impossible. If you died, you would simply be resurrected to continue contributing.

"Good. Reward them according to their merits. Also, speed up the collection of One-Tribulation Dao Realms. It’s alright if their quality is a bit lower; the main thing is the Dragon Vein. Keep the hunting targets in the Border Wilderness region."

Wu Dao slightly adjusted the Primordial Sect’s subsequent missions. What he mainly wanted was a "One-Tribulation pacifier" to suckle on; it didn’t necessarily have to be a Great Venerable’s Dao Realm.

Of course,

it couldn’t be too low-quality either.

One that would break after just a few days of use was worse than nothing.

"Star Mother understands."

...

After arranging everything,

Wu Dao gathered his focus to cultivate wholeheartedly. He polished his perfected Initial-Tribulation Dao Vein, hoping to advance his Primordial Magnetism Path to the One-Tribulation Dao Practice as soon as possible.

However,

he still set aside a sliver of his consciousness

to monitor the aftermath of the battle in the Nether Ancient Dao State through the Primordial Sect Disciples active throughout the All Heavens.

「A few days later.」

The situation in the Fallen God Cosmos finally blew up.

The Human World and the Primordial Sect had fought a great war over the Asura Emperor’s Tomb. Both sides had dispatched large numbers of Venerables and Great Venerables, and later even mobilized Quasi-Emperors.

Even...

at the final moment,

the Human World had brought out a page from the Book of Death!

This news caused a massive uproar throughout the Qingming World and was impossible to conceal, because Jin Yang and all the others who had participated in that battle were dead!

That’s right, all of them were dead!

The Human World had been far too audacious.

After obtaining the Nether River, they had activated that page from the Book of Death and blood-sacrificed all the Quasi-Emperors, including Jin Yang. For a short time, not even the Celestial Punishment could touch them!

If the manifested projection of the Dao Artifact, the Infinite Daoist Palace, hadn’t scared the Human World away, the entire cluster of cosmoses surrounding the Fallen God Cosmos, and even the Border Wilderness of the Nether Ancient Dao State, would have likely suffered a bloodbath!

Although the Human World had fled,

they had left a blood feud in their wake.

Many of the Emperor Peak Quasi-Emperors from the Qingming World had been brutally slaughtered by them. The resulting feud was immense—a grudge that would not end until one side was annihilated!

Of course,

the Primordial Sect hadn’t gotten off lightly either.

Wu Dao, wielding the baleful will of the Asura Emperor, had also killed a good number of Quasi-Emperors from the Qingming World!

In an instant,

the Primordial Sect, the Dragon Hunting Tower, and the Human World

went from being seen as malignant tumors

to being elevated to the status of the Three Calamities, scourges that everyone in the All Heavens felt righteous in wanting to exterminate. They were the kind of factions whose names would make even a novice cultivator spit on the ground in disgust.

Unsurprisingly,

within the Dragon Hunting Tower in its unknown location,

the faces of a group of Supreme Elders turned as black as the bottom of a pot. They cursed the Primordial Sect and the Human World, those two bastards, for inexplicably landing them with the blame yet again.

Honestly,

ever since the great battle in Chaos three years ago,

the Dragon Hunting Tower had taken a severe beating.

They had become much more low-key and restrained since then.

Their infamous reputation had just begun to fade.

But now the Human World and the Primordial Sect had jumped out to stir up trouble, dragging the Dragon Hunting Tower’s name through the mud along with them!

What was even more infuriating

was that because the Dragon Hunting Tower was perceived as the strongest,

it was directly named the head of the Three Calamities of Hongyuan. The All Heavens Lord had even vowed to personally see to their extermination, leaving them no path to survival!

"Human World! Primordial Sect! I’ll fuck your great-grandmothers!!"

A Supreme Elder in the Dragon Hunting Tower roared, so furious he was spouting vulgarities. With those two bastards causing such a ruckus, the Dragon Hunting Tower wouldn’t dare make any major moves for the foreseeable future. How could he not be enraged?!

’Which son of a bitch is cursing me again?’

Deep within the Mire of Flesh and Mud at the Six Celestial Passes,

Wu Dao felt an immense wave of resentment coming for him along a karmic thread, but it was blocked by his Bitter Dust Robe. He guessed it had to be an enemy cursing and attempting to scry his location.

It was nothing more than impotent rage, however.

Ever since arriving in Hongyuan, he had grown used to sensing all sorts of curses and scrying attempts through the Bitter Dust Robe every day.

「Time flew by.」

No one from the Seven Days Pass urged him to hurry.

They had said his vacation was two months, and they meant it.

Wu Dao was happy for the peace and stability. He spent his days digesting massive amounts of Dao Source, and with the acceleration from the Primordial Dao Wheel, he grew ever closer to the barrier of the First Tribulation.

HUMMM~

As the two-month period drew to a close,

the silent Wu Dao finally opened his eyes in the abyss of the Mire of Flesh and Mud. His one hundred twenty-nine thousand, six hundred Initial-Tribulation Dao Veins were completely perfected!

He could feel the barrier before him.

Without breaking through this limit,

it would be impossible for him to advance any further.

The First Tribulation.

It was time for the official breakthrough!

After taking Star Mother and an ample supply of Dao Source with him,

Wu Dao opened a Faith Channel and left Shanhai Pass, descending to one of his Incarnation’s Space-Time Anchor Points within the Sea of Chaos.

Shanhai Pass, after all, was a place where the Great Dao manifested.

The Primordial Magnetism Path he walked was a heaven-defying one. If he broke through to the One-Tribulation level there, there was no telling what kind of unpredictable Dao tribulation it might attract.

To be on the safe side,

the vast, Endless Chaos Sea was the most suitable place for his breakthrough. Even if he had to use the Extreme Dao Bell, he still had the Heaven and Earth Profound Sect as a fallback.

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ~

Within the Origin Space of the Extreme Dao Bell,

Star Mother mobilized the Extreme Dao Bell’s Power of Origin to construct a Guardian Dao Domain. Layer upon layer of high-energy, high-pressure Extreme Path Magnetic Fields formed the shape of a furnace, and inside that furnace sat Wu Dao, who had adjusted his condition to its absolute peak.

"Hah, let’s begin."

Wu Dao took a shallow breath. The Bitter Sea Nirvana Dao Essence in his will stirred restlessly, on guard against the Great Celestial Venerable trying the same old trick.

But he estimated that,

given his previous failure,

the Great Celestial Venerable probably wouldn’t waste his effort on a useless attempt.

Instead, he would likely wait until Wu Dao could no longer hide and was forced to face him directly before settling the score.

This was not good news.

The timing of the Great Tribulation depended on when the Mountain and Sea forces launched their final assault, something completely outside of Wu Dao’s control.

If the Sixth Tribulation officially began,

and Wu Dao had not yet grown strong enough,

if he lacked the strength to contend for the Tribulation Dao Fruit,

then the fate awaiting him would be one with no path to heaven and no gate into the earth. There would be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, and no backup plan could save him!