Chapter 215: Kunyun Enters His Life Tribulation!

The capital of Great Shun.

Almost exactly as Kunyun dismissed the Heaven and Earth Pavilion and his true body departed, Wang Ping, sitting beside the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron, abruptly opened his eyes.

And he wasn't the only one.

Deep within the Imperial Palace, a bolt of lightning flashed across the blank Spirit Tablet resting at the highest tier of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Muffled thunder rolled, sounding like a man roaring with laughter:

[It's here! It's coming!]

...

Within the Immortal Gate's Divine Weapon Courtyard, in the Daoist temple Kunyun had visited, Kunyun's master—the white-haired Daoist—also raised his head and gazed into the distance.

His name was Tianxing.

Unlike Kunyun, the qi he cultivated was the Mysterious Halberd Revolving-Transformation Renewal Qi, rooted in human Yang metal. He was a rare anomaly within the Immortal Gate.

Now, he too rose to his feet.

Immediately after, this Qi Refining practitioner of the Divine Weapon Courtyard turned slightly and nodded at the empty Meditation Mat beside him. "Daoist friend, I will go on ahead."

...

In Shuzhong, within Longxing County.

Chenlong, Xuanhe, Shenhou, Xugou, and the rest of the Imperial Tribute Hall suddenly sensed something and looked toward the Great Shun capital.

"The First Seat... is she coming?"

As a Great Grandmaster, Chenlong possessed the sharpest Divine Intent and sensed it instantly.

A second later, however, a gale swept past like an invisible, massive hand, forcefully pressing everyone's heads down and preventing them from looking any further.

"Do not look."

A white-clad woman seemed to stand amid the fierce winds, her voice ethereal. "What happens next is not something your minds can bear to hold. It is best that you do not watch."

...

Stepping out of the Imperial Palace, Wang Ping, clad in his Daoist robes, looked up at the sky beyond. Deep within his sea of consciousness, a bright talisman awakened of its own accord.

The Heaven's Will Profound Blade!

Clang!

Following his gaze, he saw the immortal blade hanging high outside the Eight Trigrams Furnace. This Heavenly Work Spiritual Treasure, renowned as the ultimate killing weapon, seemed to have been triggered.

...It is finally here.

Wang Ping's eyes burned bright. Soon enough, his vision caught a streak of light hurtling from the depths of the Cosmos with overwhelming momentum.

It was Kunyun!

Wherever he passed, the normally silent Cosmos echoed with rolling thunder. Lightning flashed and sparks flew, faintly outlining a towering dragon. In an instant, he arrived outside the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Almost simultaneously, the gleam of the Heaven's Will Profound Blade swiftly locked onto him.

However, the blade's light soon faded.

Kunyun wasn't surprised. The immortal blade was the Eight Trigrams Furnace's final safeguard, prohibiting any Qi Refining Tier power from entering the furnace's internal world.

But that restriction only applied to the Qi Refining Tier. He was merely at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer, here to undergo his life tribulation. Naturally, the Heaven's Will Profound Blade would not stop him.

Moreover, it clearly was not that intelligent.

The blade spirit revived on its own, most likely sensing the shift in destiny. It seems all the factions have made ample preparations for my tribulation.

Since that was the case, there was nothing more to say.

The next second, Kunyun strode into the Eight Trigrams Furnace—into the very heart of his fated tribulation. The world before his eyes instantly transformed.

In a daze, he seemed to see a bloodstained execution block radiating palpable murderous intent. And right now, like a condemned prisoner about to suffer the ultimate punishment, he was walking step by step up to his own block... This was what destiny had prepared for him. Several figures surrounded the platform.

They were the executioners about to put him to death.

Yet when Kunyun tried to see their faces clearly, the entire vision plunged into darkness in the blink of an eye. Then, he opened his eyes.

It was still an illusion.

"...Heh."

After a moment of silence, Kunyun let out a soft chuckle. Tossing the vision he had just seen to the back of his mind, he stood instead atop a boundless sky.

Looking down at the world below, he said softly:

"I have entered my tribulation. Who wishes to kill me?"

Boom!

Before his words even faded, an explosive roar like thunder rang in Kunyun's ears. Immediately after, an all-encompassing Buddhist chant echoed across heaven and earth.

"Amitabha!"

Kunyun had already elevated his essence, qi, and spirit to their absolute limits. Even so, amid the sky-filling chants, he remained an insignificant ant. An overwhelming golden light enveloped him, coalescing into a massive hand that sought to snatch him straight into its palm.

The Brahma Nation! An Ascetic Monk!

In a flash, Kunyun's consciousness felt as though it were plunging into an endless cycle of reincarnation. Boundless emotions erupted from the very depths of his heart.

In that single instant, he seemed to become countless different people.

Most of them were mortals. Some toiled their entire lives until their hair turned white; some were born frail and plagued by severe illness; some died for love; others lived to exact bloody vengeance.

A rare few times, he was a cultivator—but lacking a true spiritual root, his path was hopeless. He was consumed by fear, sorrow, and despair until his lifespan finally ran out. Even on his deathbed, the agony of seeing the Great Dao just out of reach tortured his soul, driving his mind to the brink of collapse.

Birth, aging, sickness, death. Parting with loved ones. Meeting with enemies. Sorrow, grief, and despair. The pain of desires forever unfulfilled.

Countless lives, countless cycles. These felt like his past incarnations, the myriad experiences his true spirit had endured before becoming Kunyun.

Finally, everything merged into a single, massive talismanic character.

[Suffering]!

To live in this world was to endure infinite suffering, making true freedom impossible to grasp—Kunyun had almost completely sunk into this despair. How could one ever escape such agony?

The answer was simple.

"Enter my Land of Ultimate Bliss; bow to my Great Brahma Heaven!"

The majestic voice spoke exactly ten words, yet as they reached Kunyun's ears, they transformed into an ocean of scriptures. Every glowing word threatened to brand itself into his sea of consciousness.

Until another voice rang out:

"Bald donkey, what utter bullshit!"

A piercing white celestial light instantly tore through the sky-filling Buddha radiance. The sonorous chime of a sword drowned out the chanting and sliced apart the giant hand meant to capture Kunyun.

Below, inside the Great Shun capital.

Tears of blood streamed from Wang Ping's eyes, but he managed to glimpse this clash between Qi Refining practitioners. He saw the true form of the sword light that had sundered the Buddha's palm.

It was an auspicious cloud.

The sea of clouds churned, radiating five-colored brilliance before condensing into a dazzling, ethereal hue that burned through the canopy of the sky. It looked as though an invisible figure were raising a sword to cleave the heavens.

Wherever it passed, all anomalies were erased. Kunyun broke free from his stupor. All the suffering invoked by the Buddhist chants vanished completely. Even the memories of falling into the cycle of reincarnation were slain by the blade, leaving him with only a vague recollection of being in grave danger.

A Qi Refining practitioner and an Ascetic Monk!

Witnessing this, Wang Ping was deeply shaken. I can't even see the details of their clash, but there is no doubt—two of them are already fighting!

Bang!

A deafening explosion shattered the clouds and tore the sky wide open. Right beside the sun, a pitch-black, gaping ring of light appeared, faintly revealing a dense expanse of stars within.

The very next second, the tear sealed shut, returning the sky to normal. Yet Wang Ping, whose spiritual sense had already evolved into divine sense, managed to catch a glimpse. A fraction of a second before the black tear closed, two figures, as towering as planets, rose within the Cosmic Deep Space.

One was the auspicious cloud.

The other was a Buddha statue.

The two collided, detonating waves of blinding light in the silent Cosmos. From the looks of it, the auspicious cloud held the upper hand, suppressing the Buddha statue?

Wang Ping had no time to ponder this.

Because at that exact moment, deep within the Dashun Imperial Palace, movement stirred within the Imperial Ancestral Temple—a heavily guarded sanctum whose doors were perpetually shut, accessible only to the Old Emperor.

Creak...

The sound of wooden doors being pushed open echoed. The temple, which should have been completely empty, was being opened from the inside. Then, a person walked out.

No, that was not a person.

Wang Ping couldn't even describe what this thing was. It looked like a skeleton devoid of organs, save for a beating heart forged entirely of lightning.

Inside the heart sat a miniature figure with glowing red eyes and a chilling gaze. Every time the lightning heart pulsed, a new scorch mark would appear on the miniature figure, as if it had been struck by a thunderbolt, only for it to heal instantly in a ceaseless, eternal cycle.

Was this a Corpse Dissolution Immortal?

While Wang Ping tried to comprehend the sight, another figure suddenly caught his eye. It was the Old Emperor; surprisingly, he was also inside the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

The next second, the two figures merged into one.

The eerie skeleton vanished—or rather, it wore the Old Emperor's flesh, donning a human guise before recklessly unleashing its terrifying aura.

Rumble!

In the blink of an eye, the world in Wang Ping's vision changed once more.

The sun, moon, stars, mountains, and rivers all vanished. All creation was swallowed by an endless expanse of darkness, until a single streak of white light illuminated the void.

That light was [Lightning].

Wang Ping's eyeballs instantly exploded in their sockets, turning into streaming blood. The agony only subsided when the resonant hum of the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron echoed out.

Had the Treasure Cauldron not protected him, that [Lightning] would have crashed through his eyes and into his sea of consciousness, pulverizing everything!

Why is the battle of a Corpse Dissolution Immortal even more exaggerated than that of a Qi Refining practitioner and an Ascetic Monk... or is this just the nature of a Corpse Dissolution Immortal? They can't rein in their own phenomena? Wang Ping was horrified. Only after the Treasure Cauldron Spirit sent a telepathic message into his ear, assuring him it was fine, did he heal his eyes and look back up at the sky.

Then, he witnessed another miraculous sight.

Right in the center of the darkness, a spark of fire suddenly ignited. It wasn't blinding, nor was it overwhelmingly fierce, but it burned steadily. Like a bright lantern, it too illuminated the boundless dark.

In that moment, a chilling sensation swept over Wang Ping's entire body.

It's him!

Mingyou had made his move!

Due to the unique properties of the Discerning Truth and Illusion Illuminating Qi, he didn't even dare utter the man's name in his heart, especially not while he was taking action.

He definitely knows!

Just as I expected! Kunyun discovered You Xuexin's identity as a protector wisdom consort and used that to persuade him, turning him into an ally for his life tribulation!

Wang Ping stared as far as he could see. Compared to Dashun Taizu, this Corpse Dissolution Immortal, the lamplight illuminating the heavens seemed much more normal. At the very least, he could look at it directly.

However, the might contained within it wasn't a bit weaker than Dashun Taizu's; in fact, it was even stronger. The brilliant radiance flickered rapidly as it collided with the lightning piercing the heavens. There was no sound, nor was there the massive commotion typical of Tribulation Transcending cultivators fighting. Only a profound silence flowed between them.

Along with one minor disturbance.

The sky tore open.