Wei Yuan's gaze shifted gradually upward, but that colossal finger blocked his entire field of view.
The young boy had never imagined such an enemy would appear. Despair had initially contorted his face as he cowered in the corner. But the instant he saw blood seeping out from under the fingertip, he went mad. He threw himself forward, kicking and punching with all his might, before sinking his teeth in viciously!
With that bite, the boy's mouth filled with blood and several of his teeth shattered, yet he left behind only a smudge of blood on the golden finger, failing to break even a speck of skin.
Having exhausted every other resort, the boy finally hurled his head against it with desperate fury!
Once again, a sound like a shattering watermelon echoed out. The boy slowly slumped down, collapsing into the pooling blood.
Wei Yuan's vision plunged into pitch darkness as his connection to that enigmatic world was severed. He drew a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
Without a doubt, that boy bore Wei Yuan's face—not merely resembling him, but being Wei Yuan himself: a Wei Yuan from some outer world, or from some fragment of time.
Wei Yuan's cultivation was vastly different now. Even across that distant spatial link, he could sense a distinct Dao rhyme of heaven and earth. It was no illusion; it had truly happened. In some world out there, a Ji Liuli and a Wei Yuan had been exterminated.
At this moment, Wei Yuan's heart was calm—as tranquil as an eternal, unmelting expanse of ice.
He walked out of his immortal manor and flew to the tribulation-transcendence grounds specially designated by Qingming. Ji Liuli had already secluded herself here half a month ago, waiting for the opportune moment.
Naturally, the area held no defenses against Wei Yuan, and he walked straight into the quiet chamber where Ji Liuli resided. The chamber was completely bare, devoid of even the slightest decoration. Ji Liuli floated cross-legged in midair, an ethereal, otherworldly aura lingering about her form.
Her eyes slowly opened, thoughtful, before she said gently, "Don't be sad. It's just dying once; it only adds a bit more difficulty when ascending to immortality. As for you, you've accompanied me to death so many times, and you were still so young..."
Wei Yuan had not expected her to turn around and comfort him. The emotions he had bottled up suddenly surged forth.
Ji Liuli sighed softly. Her feet touched down, and she stepped up to Wei Yuan, gently cupping his face. "Look at you. You're already a great cultivator unmatched beneath Immortal Heaven, yet you can still cry?"
"Why do they keep killing us again and again?"
Ji Liuli did not know the answer either. She said, "I don't know, but for our enemies to be so persistent, they must have ample reason. Whether we know it or not makes no difference."
"I will find out."
The previous world fragment had been brought out by the Buddha Child, and this time, the finger that had pinched them to death belonged to a golden body. As long as he captured the Buddha Child, he would be able to uncover part of the truth.
Wei Yuan composed himself and asked, "How are you feeling? When will you undergo the tribulation?"
"I am in peak condition. Let us begin right now." An amber wisp of aura surfaced above Ji Liuli's head, instantly resonating with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. Tribulation clouds rapidly formed.
The tribulation clouds were originally leaden gray, spanning a full thousand li across. While not comparable to Wei Yuan's clouds that routinely stretched thousands or tens of thousands of li, they still ranked among the very highest among the realm's cultivators.
Yet with Wei Yuan present, the tribulation clouds inevitably underwent another shift, transforming into a brilliant crimson that illuminated heaven and earth in blinding radiance!
When mortals in the cities of Qingming looked up at the celestial phenomenon, most merely voiced a few words of admiration before returning to their daily tasks. As folk of Qingming, there was one thing they had seen more than anything else: tribulation clouds of every imaginable variety.
The clouds in the sky grew brighter and brighter, until waves of fiery heat could be felt descending from above, like midday in a scorching desert.
This was a fire tribulation, using true fire to temper the physical body—a fitting test. Seeing that it was neither a heavenly demon tribulation nor a phantom spirit tribulation, Ji Liuli's confidence swelled. She charged straight out of the quiet chamber and soared into the sky.
Patches of white mist began to fall from the heavens. In truth, these were flames of extreme intensity. The instant they landed upon her, bursts of radiance erupted around Ji Liuli's body; every single protective dharma treasure she had prepared for the tribulation was utterly destroyed in that very first wave of fire.
Ji Liuli paid it no mind. She had intended all along to endure the heavenly tribulation with her fleshly body; the dharma treasures had merely been supplementary garnishes.
Yet only a few wisps of the fire tribulation had fallen when the tribulation clouds suddenly turned a platinum hue, faintly exuding the aura of the Buddhist Lands!
In an instant, all the fiery clouds rolled back upon themselves, condensing toward the center. Soon only a hundred li remained, and the tribulation clouds in the sky had transformed into what was practically an immense platinum sphere!
Suddenly, a thin beam of light descended from the sphere, striking Ji Liuli! The instant the beam appeared, it made impact, carrying extreme heat. In a flash, Ji Liuli's hair and eyebrows vanished entirely, while a layer of black formed over her skin and spread across her whole body in the blink of an eye!
Her garments and dharma robes instantly vaporized. From head to toe, she turned pitch black, which then took on a grayish-white shade. The grayish-white was swept away by the searing gale, only to turn black once more, then grayish-white again.
Wei Yuan's expression changed drastically. This was Ji Liuli's dharma body failing to withstand the intense heat, being charred layer by layer and refined into tribulation ash. To be refined by the heavenly tribulation layer upon layer like this—only Ji Liuli could endure it; had it been Bao Yun or Xu Henshui, they likely would have been reduced to flying ash within mere breaths.
The pillar of light still carried a faint aura of the Buddhist Lands. As was common knowledge, Buddhist power excelled above all else at refining and purifying. Enhanced by it, the heavenly tribulation's power grew by thirty percent out of nowhere!
The might of this heavenly tribulation was already comparable to an immortal ascension tribulation!
Who could possibly survive such a tribulation? If everyone faced this, how many across all of history could have ever attained Scenery Command? And if not everyone faced this, then what kind of Heavenly Dao was this?
Wei Yuan seemed to see an eye peering down coldly at him from an infinite height. The Heavenly Dao was truly this unjust!
Seeing that Ji Liuli had been reduced to a skeletal frame, the outline of her bones already visible, Wei Yuan hesitated no longer. He directly retrieved a sealed contingency plan and issued orders in an instant.
In an instant, countless cultivators felt their hearts jolt as the commands reached them. They immediately dropped whatever work they were doing and sprinted toward the nearest nodes of the Great Array of the Zhou Celestial Stars.
The assignments were all dispatched via the Splendor of the Many Realms, giving each person an explicit, concrete task, even if none of them knew the overarching objective.
Within breaths, thousands of cultivators were in position and began activating the formations.
Beneath the immortal city, the Qingming boundary stone began to pulse with light, emitting a low hum that reverberated through the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.
More and more cultivators took their places. Formations activated one after another, and the boundary stone's hum and brilliance grew steadily stronger. Wei Yuan had long since formed his spirit manor, possessing access to several dozen Great Dao authorities in total. Bolstered by the grand array, Wei Yuan's perception of Qingming's Heavenly Dao became clearer and clearer.
A moment later, hardly any flesh or blood could be seen on Ji Liuli; even her internal organs had been refined away. She was like a skeleton clinging desperately to life amidst the heavenly light.
Wei Yuan lifted his head toward the heavens, his divine sense already split into tens of thousands of strands, ceaselessly issuing tasks and activating formations.
Moments later, nearly a hundred thousand cultivators were in place, setting the formations into motion. Yet at that moment, Wei Yuan suddenly noticed several hundred cultivators dawdling and failing to arrive on time. Dozens of others had not only refused to report, but were actively obstructing other cultivators from taking their places in the formation.
At this life-or-death juncture, with Wei Yuan issuing direct orders through the Splendor of the Many Realms, someone actually dared to disobey? With lives on the line, Wei Yuan instantly mobilized the Great Array of the Zhou Celestial Stars. A rain of fire descended from the heavens, instantly reducing the cultivators who were obstructing others to flying ash!
Those who had deliberately delayed were all branded with the mark of a convict and given a time limit of half an hour to report to prison on their own, on pain of death if they were late.
Under such thunderous measures, no one dared to slacken any longer. Finally, before the final deadline, the vast majority of the one hundred and twenty thousand cultivators who could arrive in time were in position.
Wei Yuan mobilized the full power of Qingming, reinforcing it through the grand array, before letting out a sharp shout that reverberated across ten thousand li! The entire Heavenly Dao of Qingming shook violently. Within Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness, the sea of clouds and jade lake drastically shrank as hundreds of millions of points of mortal fortune vanished into thin air!
Under such tremendous might, heaven and earth trembled, and a colossal glyph slowly manifested within the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth across the expanse of Qingming!
High in the firmament, the smiles instantly vanished from the faces of several arhats who had been watching with amusement. The moment they saw that glyph, they were seized with panic and shut their eyes at once. Yet one arhat was a fraction too slow, and molten gold instantly streamed from his tightly shut eyes.
Within that glyph was none other than a portion of the Three Realms Ruyi Sutra that Wei Yuan had yet to finish writing! Powered by hundreds of millions of points of mortal fortune, driven by the power of the Qingming realm, and reinforced by over a hundred thousand cultivators—uniting these three forces—this scripture was branded directly onto the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth!
Higher up, an immense dharma idol of a Buddha, previously composed, was seized with shock and fury, blurting out, "How... how dare he?!"
Wei Yuan's act was tantamount to acting on behalf of Heaven, altering this realm's Heavenly Dao over a localized area. At this moment, he was not an immortal, yet he surpassed a true immortal!
With this imprint established, even the will of the Heavenly Dao was bound by constraints, no longer able to run rampant above Qingming as it pleased. For instance, heavenly tribulations could no longer be arbitrarily altered or heightened.
Wei Yuan faintly felt that he had made contact with the Heavenly Dao. Millions of firefly-like sparks immediately surfaced across Qingming and rose into the sky. With each spark that vanished, a hole opened in the tribulation clouds.
The pure white beam of light began to shift in color—from white to blue, from blue to red, and finally into a dark crimson.
High in the firmament, an incomparably immense will emerged, seemingly enraged beyond measure. Thunder erupted from the clear sky as countless bolts crashed and flashed wildly, yet to no avail. No matter how it urged the tribulation along, the clouds in the sky continued to dissipate, until the beam of light could no longer hold together and scattered into drifting sheets of heavenly fire.
By this point, that will seemed to realize that further persistence was futile. It let out a heavy snort that manifested as countless booming thunders, before finally dispersing the heavenly tribulation.
Wei Yuan looked up into the vast sky and suddenly said, "What you have bestowed today shall be repaid tenfold! Once I finish writing this scripture, I will ensure that creatures like you, who refuse to die cleanly, end up locked in cages!"
His voice reverberated through the nine heavens, echoing long and unbroken.
The sky above cleared entirely; those entities, real or illusory, had vanished without a trace.
The heavenly tribulation had ended. In midair, Ji Liuli had been reduced to a charred skeleton. After a moment, fine cracks appeared across the blackened surface, which then peeled away in flakes to reveal a skeleton resembling white jade.
Next, flesh and blood regenerated over the bones, layer upon layer, patch upon patch. In the blink of an eye, a brand-new Ji Liuli was reborn between heaven and earth. The surrounding scenery shifted, revealing mountains of lapis lazuli and pooled vermilion solidifying in the void, alongside fiery-red immortal trees shimmering with radiant light. Amidst them drifted misty vapors and thousands of auspicious rays, while cinnabar and jade scattered in dazzling brilliance—a veritable immortal realm of lapis lazuli and radiant sun!
Ji Liuli opened her eyes, her pupils brimming with flowing heavenly fire. Her figure flashed, and she was already standing beside Wei Yuan, whispering softly in his ear: "To borrow a phrase from an outer world... would you like to try me at thirty-nine degrees?"
Chapter 1220