Chapter 517 - 449: One Tribulation, Three Lives Battlefield

"Increase the pressure."

Outside the Extreme Dao Furnace, Star Mother materialized as a shadowy image of Yaya woven from starlight, faithfully carrying out Wu Dao’s command.

She saw that Wu Dao had already voluntarily broken himself down into the state of Initial Tribulation Dao Particles.

She hesitated no longer.

She began to operate the Extreme Dao Furnace, increasing the pressure of the internal field to gradually tear apart the magnetic forces holding the Initial Tribulation Dao Particle structure together, helping Wu Dao rapidly enter the Primordial Creator Domain.

Break the limits, be reborn from the ashes.

From a state of primordial nothingness, one entered the Creator Domain to reshape the self and complete a metamorphosis. This was the path that followed the second stage of the Essence Devouring Art.

「By this point」

Relying on his own power alone,

it would have been difficult for Wu Dao to rapidly shred the Initial Tribulation Dao Particles while keeping his consciousness intact. The magnetic force holding their structure together was simply too freakishly powerful!

To achieve a rapid transformation,

he could only rely on external force!

Relying on his own power was too slow and far too perilous.

BUZZZZ—

Inside the Extreme Dao Furnace,

the pressure of the Extreme Dao field soared rapidly.

When it reached a certain critical point—

BOOM!!

It was like the great explosion of countless singularities!

Amidst a magnificent and incomparably resplendent tableau of destruction, the Initial Tribulation Dao Particles were utterly torn apart, beginning to assimilate into the Primordial Path!

Before they were completely assimilated,

Wu Dao had to race against time to pass the First Tribulation!

WHOOSH...

Wisps of thin Chaotic Qi Flow drifted about.

After a brief moment of muddled chaos, Wu Dao’s consciousness once again entered that wondrous domain where the Great Dao was first opened and all Daos were born, just as it had during the Initial Tribulation.

However,

this time was different.

The Great Dao was far more complete.

It was no longer in a state of muddled, unconscious chaos. The 129,600 Dao Veins were like torrents flowing out from the Chaos.

Within these torrents, countless worlds were born.

Light and shadow flowed and shifted, changing at extreme speeds.

The civilizations within flourished, corresponding to the Primordial Magnetic Civilization inside Wu Dao’s body.

’Is this real, or an illusion?’

Wu Dao’s consciousness positioned itself at the very source, observing the myriad Primordial Magnetic Civilizations that branched off from the All Things Dao Veins. He tried to sense them, but they felt as illusory and unreachable as the moon’s reflection in water.

BZZZT—

Before Wu Dao could ponder it further,

a violent surge of Chaos Qi obscured everything.

Within the Chaos,

just like the Initial Tribulation last time,

a great many Dao Veins were born. They no longer appeared as a Tree Diagram, but as Daoist Masters with all sorts of bizarre life forms.

"The Great Dao is singular, and I shall be its master!"

A foul, pitch-black, tentacled creature, wielding a Dao unknown to Wu Dao, unleashed a will as cold and tyrannical as his own and attacked the surrounding Dao Masters.

Evidently,

the First Tribulation of the Primordial Magnetism Path,

just like with Hongyuan, had given birth to intelligent beings similar to the first, simple Divine Spirits.

They were no longer in an instinctual, ’single-celled’ state, but possessed a beast-like ignorance. Both their intelligence and Dao power were immensely greater!

This meant

that the advantage Wu Dao had with his complete intelligence

was much smaller compared to the Initial Tribulation. His enemies had evolved from single-celled organisms into Fierce Beasts, and the difficulty of passing this tribulation would be greatly increased!

But so what?

Never mind a pack of beasts, even if every single One-Tribulation Dao Master were a carbon copy of himself, he would never feel fear or retreat!

His Dao!

It was either break through or perish, advance or die!

There was never any option to retreat and try again!

"KILL!!"

Wu Dao’s killing intent was frigid as he struck out with the Primordial Magnetic Celestial Saber, cleaving through the nearest Dao Master—a massive sphere of light—and devouring it whole with the gaping maw of a Taotie!

In this wondrous domain,

victory and defeat were decided by a grand game of ’eat-to-grow.’ Whoever ate the most became the strongest. Only the one left standing at the end would earn the right to challenge the three fundamental Extraordinary Powers of Essence, Qi, and Spirit!

Kill, kill, kill!

Devour, devour, devour!

In the intense free-for-all, Wu Dao quickly became a Fierce Beast himself, frantically slaughtering and devouring the strange and varied Dao Masters around him!

「Outside」

’After the Initial Tribulation, Father God’s will has become even more incredible.’

Star Mother mobilized the field of the Extreme Dao Bell to suppress the Initial Tribulation Yuan Magnetic Path Particles that were constantly dissolving into the Dao, slowing their rate of assimilation.

At the same time,

she discovered with immense pride that Wu Dao’s will was far more stable than last time.

He was no longer playing with fire, constantly teetering on the line between life and death. Instead, he seemed to be handling it with ease, advancing with unstoppable momentum.

Within the domain of the One-Tribulation Dao Tribulation,

Wu Dao had transformed into a battlefield meat grinder, constantly devouring Dao Masters from all directions, and soon became the largest presence on the battlefield.

Finally,

after a brutal and bloody struggle,

he successfully tore apart and devoured the even more powerful three fundamental Extraordinary Dao Sources, perfectly passing the First Tribulation without any major setbacks.

The Great Celestial Venerable also didn’t pull any dirty tricks.

This made him sigh in relief.

Finally,

he glanced at the Primordial Magnetic Civilizations within the Chaos-shrouded torrents, still obscured and unclear like flowers in a fog.

A seed of doubt was planted in his heart.

He returned to the outside world at the last possible second before his Dao Particles completely dissolved into the Dao.

Next,

it was time to forge the stronger structure of the One-Tribulation Primordial Magnetic Dao Particles, complete the overall metamorphosis of his Dao Body, and bear the One-Tribulation Primordial Magnetism Path.

Compared to the Initial Tribulation, which laid the foundational framework for the fourth stage of the Essence Devouring Art,

the First Tribulation did not exceed this fourth stage.

The process of getting stronger was like continuously pouring water into a well-built bucket; the difficulty of forging the Dao Particle structure was far, far less.

SPLASH—

Upon Wu Dao’s return,

Star Mother immediately threw the massive amount of prepared Five Tribulations Dao Source into the Extreme Dao Furnace, to serve as nourishment for Wu Dao’s transformation.

RUMBLE—

The final Dao Particle

instantly transformed into a black hole.

It began to guzzle down the Hongyuan Five Tribulations Dao Source like a whale. Standing in the Domain of the Creator of Nothingness and Existence, he began to fundamentally reshape a stronger One-Tribulation magnetic field structure, metamorphosing towards the essence of a Great Venerable.

In other words,

this One-Tribulation Dao Particle,

once its forging was complete, would become the Cosmic Seed of the Primordial Magnetic Cosmos!

The process went without a hitch.

When the first One-Tribulation Dao Particle was completely forged, the two ’Dao Strings’ inside it, symbolizing its One-Tribulation Dao status, began to vibrate at their limit.

Absorbing Dao Source as fuel,

they rapidly multiplied their own kind!

In the shortest possible time,

with an ample supply of Dao Source,

the number of One-Tribulation Dao Particles broke through the countless mark—a nayuta... ten to the hundredth power, to the thousandth power, to the ten-thousandth power, to the trillionth power...

Another "shortest possible time" passed.

With even more Dao Particles and a qualitative leap in their ability to absorb and digest, their rate of reproduction became even more terrifying.

Exponential growth became dust in the wind!

The growth efficiency of Wu Dao’s Dao Particles, approaching infinity, became even faster.

...

...

Some time later,

the seemingly endless growth finally ceased, or more accurately, it began to stabilize. The growth efficiency no longer made any major breakthroughs.

The Primordial Magnetic Tree Diagram was constructed.

The 259,200 One-Tribulation Dao Veins grew countless fine capillaries, linking together the Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles.

This meant

that Wu Dao’s Primordial Magnetism Path had officially stepped into One-Tribulation Dao Practice, and the transformation had stopped.

Wu Dao was not surprised by this.

The structure of Hongyuan was a set of smaller infinities nested within a larger infinity.

A Great Emperor-level being

was capable of easily creating and destroying a small infinite set of space-time, which is to say, a complete Grand Cosmos.

His current essence was only that of a Great Venerable.

If he didn’t continue to undergo qualitative transformations,

he could grow for ten thousand years and still never dream of breaking through to the Infinite Domain.

However,

he wasn’t being overly ambitious.

Right now, every single one of his Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles was a Primordial Magnetic Cosmic Seed. Their individual volume couldn’t compare to the Cosmic Seed of a normal Great Venerable.

But his advantage lay in absolute numerical superiority!

His combat power data

still ignored realms and remained far ahead of the curve!

"Congratulations, Father God, on reaching a new peak on the Great Dao!"

Seeing Wu Dao stabilize, Star Mother joyfully leaped into his arms. The little girl was getting more and more clingy.

He dotingly rubbed Star Mother’s little head.

Wu Dao let out a slight sigh of relief and opened his attribute panel—

[Physique: Primordial Magnetism Path]

[Extraordinary: Essence Devouring: All Things, Initial Tribulation (129600/259200)+]

[Transverse Cultivation: Infinite Primordial Scripture - Holy Body Perfection Second Step+]

[Divine Cultivation: Juntian Creation Scripture·Great Venerable+]

[Soul Cultivation: All Phenomena Divine Luo Scripture·Great Venerable+]

[Divine Origin: Lower-Rank Great Venerable]

[Celestial Treasure: Bitter Dust Robe (Emperor’s Artifact 100%)]

...

[Teleportation Points: ...]

Primordial Magnetism Path, First Tribulation!

Two hundred fifty-nine thousand and two hundred Dao Veins!

This wasn’t just a doubling of quantity.

More importantly, it was a metamorphosis of the Great Dao itself!

It made Wu Dao’s combat power defy all common sense.

Once again, with the essence of a Great Venerable, he had leaped across thirty-three minor realms to reach the ranks of a Zero-Level Quasi-Emperor, capable of creating a nascent Inner Universe!

As for his fully unleashed state,

that would be even more monstrous!

’The end of one cycle is the beginning of the next, all things are made anew?’

Wu Dao focused his attention on the increased number of Dao Veins. The 129,600 gained during the First Tribulation perfectly corresponded to the number of a "Yuan," a cosmic epoch.

One Yuan contains twelve "Hui," or divisions,

and also represents a cycle of 129,600 years.

In his past life’s legends,

every time a Yuan passed, all of heaven and earth within the Great Dao would undergo a cycle of renewal. One would either be annihilated in the Great Tribulation or be reborn through its flames.

From a temporal perspective,

this argument didn’t hold up. Never mind the Great Dao, 120,000-odd years was an infinitesimal amount of time on a cosmic scale.

But from the perspective of Dao Veins,

if the Great Dao gained a Yuan’s worth of Dao Veins with each tribulation and metamorphosis, it would indeed bring about an unimaginably great and new change for all of heaven and earth.

’Hongyuan has experienced five Dao Tribulations since the Heaven Opening, which means it has 648,000 Dao Veins. It seems... the gap isn’t that big?’

The thought was wildly ambitious.

He then shook his head with a self-deprecating laugh.

His Primordial Magnetism Path was far too nascent compared to the Primordial Path; their magnitudes couldn’t be compared simply by the number of Dao Veins.

If he didn’t take extraordinary measures

and just followed the normal path of Dao Attainment,

even when he reached the Fifth Tribulation, he would have the same status as the other All Tribulations Provers. At most, he would have pre-forged the subsequent four tribulations, giving him abnormally monstrous combat power.

To transcend with the posture of a Five Tribulations cultivator...

Unless...

WHOOSH—

Reining in his thoughts,

Wu Dao stopped thinking about such lofty matters. He put away the Extreme Dao Bell and the Incarnation that had been concealing it, opened a Faith Channel, and left the Endless Chaos Sea with Star Mother.

BZZZT—

The moment Wu Dao left,

one after another, the thoughts of Primordial Giant-class beings swept across the area he had just occupied. They exchanged grave thoughts—

"This is the fourth time!"

"If we can’t find them, and just let them continue to grow..."

"The fact that they’re still growing proves that Dao-thief isn’t invincible. The Great Tribulation will descend soon enough. They won’t be able to hide then!"

"The Great Tribulation... sigh."

...

The exchange of Divine Thoughts in the Chaos

was unknown to Wu Dao.

During the tribulation,

he had used his clone to wield the Extreme Dao Bell and hadn’t exposed himself. No matter how the Primordial Chaos beings of the All Heavens scoured the Chaos, they would never be able to break through the karmic concealment of the Bitter Dust Robe to find him.

As for his combat power breaking through to the Quasi-Emperor level,

Wu Dao did not announce or report it.

There was a spy from the Mountain and Sea Realm among the higher-ups of the Hongyuan Alliance, and Mountain and Sea was lusting after his body. He had no desire to be targeted by a premeditated plot in the next great battle.

However,

what Wu Dao didn’t expect

was that before Mountain and Sea could target him, that little bastard from the Seven Days Pass couldn’t hold back any longer.

Because,

one day before his ’vacation’ ended,

he officially received a direct transfer order from the Seven Days Pass—

"Primordial Heavenly King, hear this order. The situation in the Three Lives Battlefield is critical..."

The Three Lives Battlefield!

The territory of the Three Lives Army Master, Long Chen!

A coincidence?

Not a chance in hell!

"Heh..."

Wu Dao let out a cold laugh and put away the Battle Merit Order, with no intention of defying the military order.

The karmic entanglement between him and those few little bastards was too deep. Even with the Bitter Dust Robe’s concealment, Long Chen must have sensed something at ’close range’.

Long Chen was the Crown Prince of the Profound Yellow World Ruling Dynasty of Ascending Dragon. Coupled with his significant status as a vessel of the Celestial Mandate, and the fact that the Rising Dragon Celestial Dynasty held an elder’s seat in the Elder Council...

...by pulling some strings,

transferring him to a specific war zone,

right under their noses,

and then adding the authority of a Military Lord into the mix...

...plotting against a Celestial King like him would be all too easy.

"So you want to make the first move? Let’s see just how fat your horse is, and how sharp your blade!"

Wu Dao rolled his neck, a friendly smile on his face.