“He’s really undergoing tribulation! This is the great calamity birthed by the Nihility Heaven’s laws!”
“For a mid-martial world to assault high-martial—this has never happened since antiquity. Can he succeed?”
“It will be difficult! Yet there is no denying it: this plane’s lord is a heaven-defying genius!”
The wanderers standing on the icy dead land exclaimed in awe.
The oppressive might filling the Nihility Heaven made their bodies tremble uncontrollably. It was primal terror—the power of the heavenly laws themselves.
Even without seeing inside the origin space, they could now perceive the terrifying thunder sea gathering outside the Five Phoenixes.
A thunder pool formed of pure lightning, gestating an apocalyptic tribulation.
Laws and principles intertwined had always been the most terrifying slaughter.
Countless proud sons of heaven had turned to ash beneath tribulation lightning.
The ascension tribulation of an entire world was infinitely more dreadful.
Most crucially, ascending to high-martial required an astronomical amount of energy and resources accumulated over eons.
This world clearly lacked such deep foundations.
That was its greatest weakness.
Of course, the true fatal obstacle was that the Nihility Heaven’s laws forbade the birth of high-martial worlds!
BOOM!
A muffled explosion rang out, like cloth being torn apart inside every heart.
The thunder pool churned; roars of strange beasts echoed within.
The world’s transformation had truly begun.
Seven-colored spiritual rain fell—this was great fortune. Bathing in it granted metamorphosis.
It was the redistribution of energy and resources.
Yet whether the Five Phoenixes could actually evolve from mid to high-martial depended entirely on the tribulation brewing inside the origin space.
…
Origin Space.
Lu Ping’an’s expression was grave as he gazed up at the thunder pool forming above.
A stifling wind seemed to rise, whipping his white robes.
A line of small text flashed across his vision—long-absent system prompt.
[World Ascension Trial Commencing…]
Lu’s face remained calm; he had expected this.
Compared to the low-to-mid-martial trial, this one was far deadlier and more complex.
A tribulation manifested by the laws themselves—nothing like before.
He was not surprised. Mid and high-martial were completely different tiers.
Mid-martial had a ceiling; high-martial opened limitless possibilities.
Lu exhaled slowly.
This tribulation—he had to face it alone. No one could share the burden.
Only he existed in the origin space.
Yet he felt no great fear.
The spiritual pressure chessboard hovered before him. Leaning back in the Thousand Blade Chair, he showed no trace of panic or despair despite the looming apocalypse.
He even propped his chin on one hand and began casually setting up a game.
BOOM!
The thunder pool roared.
The next instant—heavenly punishment descended.
The sky collapsed, the earth cracked, rivers ran dry…
Apocalyptic phenomena appeared above the origin space and even in the Nihility Heaven itself, visible to many wanderers.
Everyone’s hair stood on end.
These visions were too shocking!
This tribulation was too terrifying!
The rivers running dry were not ordinary water—they were thunder rivers formed from the breached thunder pool, cascading lightning.
This was heavenly thunder tribulation!
Yet no one in the Nihility Heaven could see Lu.
They saw the tribulation but not the one enduring it.
Because the entire world was undergoing tribulation; Lu was merely bearing it on its behalf.
If he could not withstand it, he could choose to give up—no danger to his life, but the world might collapse.
BOOM!
Lightning poured from the thunder pool like scattered glass beads, leaping through the void.
Their terrifying sharpness made souls shudder.
The once-dark Nihility Heaven now blazed like daylight.
Countless low and mid-martial worlds within felt suffocating pressure.
Their plane lords quaked in fear, believing some great calamity had come.
They could not see the source—only endless, despair-inducing oppression.
Inside the origin space.
Lu’s white robes flapped wildly.
He rolled up his sleeve, picked up a piece, and placed it on the board.
Grid lines intersected; star positions glowed; yin and yang played out across the board.
Heaven as the board, stars as pieces.
Lu gazed calmly as the law-manifested thunder pool unleashed its horrors.
Countless lightning bolts crashed down.
The origin space itself trembled as though the earth quaked and mountains collapsed.
Yet Lu’s expression remained serene, a confident smile playing on his lips as his hair danced.
“Thunder as war drums, lightning as banners—who dares strike them?”
His words fell as another piece dropped.
Dong!
Terrifying aura exploded from his body like the pounding of blood-boiling war drums, clashing against the myriad lightning and shaking the heavens.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The origin vortex spun violently; the four origin stars bathed in the thunder sea.
With every impact, impurities were burned away; the stars grew purer and stronger.
The Five Phoenixes vortex expanded.
It absorbed the thunder pool’s power, growing larger, spinning faster and smoother.
The evolution toward high-martial became ever more certain.
In the Nihility Heaven.
The wanderers cried out in shock.
“The first wave… he survived!”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Someone gasped in disbelief.
So casually!
Perhaps this world truly could become the first high-martial world in the Nihility Heaven in countless millennia!
Dong!
Yet the moment that thought arose—
Lightning within the thunder pool wove together into an ancient bronze bell covered in verdigris!
Terrible runes crawled across its surface—manifestations of laws and principles!
The wanderers were stunned.
They did not recognize it, but outside the Nihility Heaven, watching mighty beings gasped.
“That’s the weapon of a supreme expert who once fought an Ancient Emperor?!”
Many were horrified.
A weapon that had clashed with an Ancient Emperor?
The tribulation actually manifested such a thing?
Any being capable of battling an Ancient Emperor was unimaginably terrifying.
Even these mighty beings felt dread—followed instantly by uncontainable excitement.
What did this vision mean?
It meant the Nihility Heaven might truly contain relics of an Ancient Emperor—or even the entrance to his tomb!
“Could it be… only a high-martial world born in the Nihility Heaven can reveal clues to an Ancient Emperor’s tomb?”
One mighty being speculated.
Though only a guess, it sent the others into raptures.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The verdigris bronze bell tolled.
Mighty tolls spread outward; thunder waves rose like overlapping tsunamis, crashing forth.
Lu’s eyes narrowed—he felt the danger.
He brushed a hand across the Thousand Blade Chair’s armrest.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Silver blades howled out, blooming around him like a cascading galaxy.
They formed a sword array.
The crimson Phoenix Feather Sword led the formation against the enemy.
Dong!
Bell waves and thunder sea slammed into the sword array.
Screeeeeech—
A grating screech stabbed eardrums and set teeth on edge.
The Thousand Blade Array and Phoenix Feather Sword churned.
A fire phoenix cried shrilly, resisting the tribulation lightning.
It held!
Outside the Nihility Heaven, wanderers and watching mighty beings were dumbfounded.
He blocked a tribulation manifestation of a weapon that once fought an Ancient Emperor!
Every heart trembled in disbelief.
Could he really succeed?
A tribulation they believed impossible to survive—had been survived.
“Once this world succeeds, it may directly reach Yān-Eight or even Yān-Seven high-martial!”
One mighty being exclaimed.
“Hah… so what? It will be a fleeting flower. Once the world’s protective veil lifts, we descend and it dies like a mayfly.”
Another sneered coldly.
Soon silence returned.
The tribulation grew deeper, more terrifying—law-empowered lightning that shook souls.
Many mighty beings fell silent. Even they would pay a terrible price against such punishment.
Inside the origin space.
Sword light scattered like waterfalls, embedding into the surroundings.
The Five Phoenixes origin vortex had grown enormous—far beyond mid-martial limits.
Every time it withstood the baptism, it absorbed vast energy and tribulation resources, growing stronger.
BOOM!
Yet the great tribulation was not over.
From the thunder pool emerged a living creature—a thunder dragon!
Though not truly alive, its mere appearance exerted boundless pressure.
“That is the mount of one of the supreme experts who besieged the Ancient Emperor!”
Another mighty being roared.
“An Ancestral Dragon!”
Hiss after hiss rang out.
What kind of tribulation was this?
Was ascending to high-martial truly this hard?
But remembering the Nihility Heaven’s restrictions and legends, they fell silent.
“Once this world births high-martial, I dare guarantee it will be inextricably linked to the Ancient Emperor who died here! The entrance to his tomb will surely appear within!”
One voice rang out, each word resounding.
Yet to their astonishment—
The Ancestral Dragon was torn apart alive.
Thunder scattered everywhere.
Inside the origin space.
Lu had transformed into the Demon Lord, stepping through the void bathed in lightning like a god-demon, ripping the dragon asunder.
It was not a true Ancestral Dragon—only a sliver of its aura.
A real one would have been invincible to him.
Demon Lord Lu was cold and merciless.
His Indestructible Demon Body wreathed in demonic qi stood equal to the lightning.
From the torn dragon, he seized a thunder dragon pearl pulsing with ancestral dragon aura.
“Ancestral dragon qi—perfect for evolving my little heavenly dragons.”
Demon Lord Lu’s narrow, sharp eyes glinted as he pocketed the pearl into his Spatial Ring.
Demonic qi roared; more thunder beasts formed and charged.
This was a unique, lonely war.
If anyone could witness Demon Lord Lu’s supreme bearing, they would be stunned.
But no one could.
The tribulation was too dreadful.
Even the Indestructible Demon Body bled divine-demon blood that threatened to collapse the void.
Yet the thunder pool was nearly dry—the law tribulation was ending.
But it still held one final, most terrifying strike.
All remaining tribulation power condensed into a single palm.
Substantial, every line and fingerprint visible, wreathed in seven-colored light—like a supreme expert slapping across the river of time, laws gathered upon it.
In the Nihility Heaven.
Every watching mighty being trembled.
Even Qi Liujia, who had left the dead continent, stared intently.
BOOM!
This strike was truly horrifying.
Even Demon Lord Lu’s indestructible body cracked at the brow—as though about to be erased from existence.
The Thousand Blades turned demonic; Phoenix Feather Sword wrapped in thunderflame shot skyward.
Around Demon Lord Lu formed a terrifying sword-qi vortex.
BOOM!
“If the rules forbid it, then I will shatter the rules!”
The oath Lu once swore now rang true.
He was breaking the rules!
The cracking brow bloomed like a gorgeous flower.
The sign of primordial spirit condensation.
Anyone who saw would be shocked—
A being who could withstand such supreme tribulation had not even formed a primordial spirit!
Pfft!
The palm was pierced clean through.
Demon Lord Lu stood drenched in blood, as though fished from a crimson sea.
Dong!
The thunder pool exploded and vanished utterly.
Countless arcs of lightning scattered and faded between heaven and earth.
The origin space fell silent once more—deathly silent.
The Five Phoenixes origin vortex had become unimaginably vast.
Like an expanding starry sky, the four origin stars orbited peacefully within.
The law tribulation—had been shattered by Lu!
Just as his grand ambition declared:
If the rules forbid it, then shatter the damn rules!
…
Five Phoenixes Continent!
Everyone bathing in the spiritual rain felt their souls quake.
The entire continent underwent terrifying change.
The earth split open; vast energy surged upward like pillars holding up the sky.
The world was expanding—at a frenzied pace.
But mere expansion was not what shocked them.
Across the continent, miraculous phenomena appeared.
Northern County.
In the far north where snow fell endlessly, auroras danced in the sky.
Atop a snowy peak, a radiant snow lotus bloomed.
It released spiritual energy so dense it formed mist, flowing with prismatic light.
A supreme spiritual herb—if consumed, it could trigger massive metamorphosis.
This was fortune born of the world’s transformation.
Southern County.
The expanding land birthed a colossal lake; water gushed from underground.
Immense spiritual energy and strange power surged.
A spiritual beast excitedly leapt in—only to emerge as bleached bones moments later.
A lake of both crisis and opportunity.
Such phenomena occurred everywhere across the Five Phoenixes.
People were stunned—this transformation far exceeded imagination.
Powerful new spiritual beasts appeared as though born from nothing, bearing terrifying bloodlines capable of uprooting mountains.
Yet even these were not the most shocking.
The true marvel was the transformation of cultivators.
The spiritual rain intensified; seven-colored radiance bathed the world.
The Five Phoenixes became a realm of immortals.
In every city, cultivators broke through in droves.
Ordinary folk bathed in the rain and with a single thought formed Qi Cores—some even reached perfected Qi Core in an instant, bodies strong enough to shatter millstones with a punch.
Qi Core cultivators instantly stepped into Body Storage.
Bottlenecks shattered; realms soared.
Body Storage to Heavenly Lock, Heavenly Lock to Nascent Soul.
Many Nascent Soul cultivators even broke into Infant Transformation.
On the blood-colored battlefield, those closest to the rain experienced the most dramatic metamorphoses.
Almost everyone advanced at least one realm.
The Body Storage armies all broke into Heavenly Lock.
Heavenly Lock cultivators entered Nascent Soul.
Many veteran Nascent Soul cultivators stepped into the Yin God realm of the Three God Realms.
“This is supreme fortune!”
The Overlord’s eyes blazed—he too had broken through, bathed in the rain, stepping into Yang God realm.
Nie Changqing, Kong Nanfei, and the others all advanced significantly.
Those who had comprehended Dao Intent improved the most dramatically.
Du Longyang, Ye Shoudao, the Empress, and others made massive leaps within Yang God realm—half a foot already into Primordial Spirit Unity!
Everyone was stunned.
…
Light laughter rang out like sudden thunder in the darkness.
It was joyous, unrestrained laughter.
The wanderers stared in horror at the withered figure walking out from the dead continent.
“Qi Liujia?!”
“He actually came out?! What is he planning?”
“Isn’t he afraid the laws will kill him?!”
They gaped in disbelief.
Even the snake-tongued beauty and the flame-armored expert were shocked.
As top wanderers, they knew why Qi Liujia had remained on that continent.
He was terrifyingly strong—invincible among wanderers.
If ranked, Qi Liujia was undoubtedly the strongest, because he was a true mighty being!
He had left the Nihility Heaven, achieved mighty being status, then returned.
Once, Qi Liujia had been brilliant—a radiant sun in the Nihility Heaven.
With his Liujia Array Sect, he had nearly birthed a high-martial world.
Every wanderer had been dazzled by his glory.
He had represented an entire era.
With the help of the Nine-Word Array Symbols, he had come within a hair’s breadth of success.
Yet in the end—the laws struck him down.
His world collapsed, its origin carved up by outsiders.
His flesh and primordial spirit were severed.
He could only wither away on the dead continent, half-buried already.
Many wanderers had watched the once-peerless genius decay into a dried corpse.
It was the death of an era.
Even his Nine-Word Array Symbols had been mostly stolen by other high-martial mighty beings under the guise of apprenticeship.
“What is he doing?!”
The wanderers cried.
BOOM!
Around the dead continent, chains of law coiled like order itself, trying to bind him.
Qi Liujia’s withered face wore deep, profound eyes.
He smiled.
The Five Phoenixes had succeeded—he felt boundless joy.
It gave him the determination to do what he now intended.
He raised a hand and struck out array runes.
The runes wove together, severing his aura, deceiving the laws.
The dead continent remained, countless runes churning in the surrounding void.
Qi Liujia, hunched and ancient, walked forth.
Though he still looked old, his flesh seemed to regain vitality, his spirit surging.
He lifted his head—weather-beaten face wearing a faint smile as he gazed at the distant figures stepping across the void, wreathed in flame.
Step by step, he advanced.
He would buy Lu some time.
He would not allow greedy wolves to destroy the Nihility Heaven’s—and his own—final hope.
…
Nihility Heaven.
Silence.
Only ragged breathing and heavy sighs remained.
“It actually… succeeded.”
“The first true high-martial origin in the Nihility Heaven—unprecedented in history…”
“Unbelievable. This is supreme fortune.”
A mighty being spoke.
“This world’s origin has successfully crossed from mid to high-martial…”
“Newborn high-martial origin—fellow daoists, let us claim our shares by skill.”
A calm voice rang out.
The next instant.
Outside the Nihility Heaven.
Blurred silhouettes emerged.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
They stepped across the boundary.
Each one’s aura threatened to collapse the void.
The Nihility Heaven’s laws were terrifying, but these experts came prepared.
Saint-tier artifacts hovered above their heads, concealing their presence from heaven.
They strode in.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Screams exploded as wanderers caught in their auras detonated—continents shattered, flesh turned to mist.
The instant the Five Phoenixes became high-martial—
The mighty beings moved!
The Nihility Heaven was their orchard.
The Five Phoenixes origin was the ripening fruit.
They had come to pluck it!
Suddenly, every expert halted.
They looked up—the saint-tier artifacts above their heads trembled under oppressive auras.
Confusion filled their eyes.
Before them…
A hunched old man stood quietly, hands hanging at his sides.
He smiled at them.
And within that smile lay boundless killing intent.
