With little else to do over the years, Bao Gu had taken to fabricating the heavens, earth, mountains, rivers, and all the myriad things. Though what she created were only illusions, she had continually simulated, explored, and deduced the workings of all things, reenacting their entire course from birth to death and from nothingness to existence. In truth, she was evolving the Dao.
Her comprehension of the laws of the Heavenly Dao had advanced another level. She no longer merely borrowed the Heavenly Dao’s power through various means; she had risen from the level of “borrowing” to that of “creation.” This was a technique of the Dao Realm, an expression of her comprehension and mastery of the laws of the Heavenly Dao. It was the very method she had used to annihilate the Supreme Immortal Lord moments ago, and it was what had drawn a reaction from the Heavenly Dao and given rise to the thunder tribulation.
Then there was the consciousness that had drifted outside her body. By continually fusing with and devouring the Xuantian Sword Intent floating around it, she had tempered her consciousness into something extraordinarily powerful. What had once been no more than a faint spark had grown into a mighty existence capable of changing its form at will.
Earlier, the Heavenly Tribulation had grievously wounded her and all but extinguished her life force. Because she had received treatment in time, her body had been near death but had not actually died; she had been placed in the Immortal Burial Grounds while still alive.
With the geomantic energies of the Immortal Burial Grounds drawing in spiritual energy, her body had been nourished for several centuries. Its vitality had gradually returned, and her injuries had slowly healed. Compared with those who were buried there only after death and became immortals through ghostly bodies or corpses, she had been spared the most important—and most dangerous—step: obtaining life force from the Heavenly Tribulation and “turning death into life.”
She had been half-immortal to begin with. Now, after more than eight hundred years of “secluded cultivation,” with her injuries healed and her Dao Realm cultivation having reached great mastery, even she had no idea what kind of tribulation she would have to undergo.
She thought the most likely possibility was an Immortal Ascension Tribulation. Alternatively, the laws of the Heavenly Dao might have sensed the powerful “immortal” force within her, a force that did not belong to this realm, and were suppressing her cultivation.
She also considered that she was a being native to this realm, while the Xuantian Sword had already been suppressed by the laws of the Heavenly Dao. It was still under that suppression and unable to display the power a supreme-grade King Weapon ought to possess. The possibility of another suppression by the laws of the Heavenly Dao was vanishingly small.
The most likely outcome, therefore, was an Ascension Tribulation.
Bao Gu had decided to ascend to the upper realm—but definitely not now, and certainly not alone.
Whatever kind of tribulation it was, she could only weather it first and worry about the rest afterward.
While Bao Gu was still weighing the matter, the Heavenly Tribulation above her had already taken shape.
Previously, whenever she underwent tribulation, she had either relied on the Xuantian Sword to protect her or endured the thunder head-on, taking the strikes passively. Now, with her comprehension of the Dao Realm, her understanding of how thunder tribulations formed and her ability to wield and control power had reached an entirely new level.
Thus, when the heavenly lightning descended, she was already able to meet it head-on by evolving the Dao herself!
The heavenly lightning crashed down toward Bao Gu. The aura around her changed abruptly. She raised both arms, and a tremendous force suddenly surged up from all around her and beneath her feet, rising to meet the descending lightning.
From afar, countless cultivators stared without blinking at Bao Gu, who stood at the center of the Heavenly Tribulation.
This was a level of Heavenly Tribulation that the cultivators of the present age had never seen before.
Even Qu Yirou, who had mastered lightning to perfection, and Yu Mi, whose cultivation was firmly held at the Mahayana Stage and who could undergo tribulation at any time, felt that if they encountered a Heavenly Tribulation like this, they would be no more than tiny ants dropped into a vast ocean, doomed to be annihilated in an instant.
The sheer power of this tribulation made them almost suspect that it was not a Heavenly Tribulation at all, but Heaven’s punishment. Their hearts clenched for Bao Gu.
Yu Mi did not even dare keep watching, yet she could not bring herself to look away. Terror made her eyes feel as if they would split as she watched the bolt of heavenly lightning crash toward Bao Gu.
However, when the lightning descended, she saw Bao Gu, standing at the center of the tribulation, casually raise an arm. A force no weaker than the Heavenly Tribulation itself suddenly whipped up from thin air and crashed toward the lightning.
The force of the heavenly lightning collided with Bao Gu’s attack high in the sky. The released energy formed a gigantic, visible shock wave that spread outward in every direction at the speed of light, twisting space itself.
The powerful cultivators of the present age displayed their strength by meeting heavenly lightning head-on. But when they did so, they were actively striking at the falling bolt; what they actually faced was merely a flash of lightning carrying the might of the thunder from the Heavenly Tribulation.
Bao Gu’s attack, however, was not aimed at the descending bolt. Instead, it swept across the entire area covered by the Heavenly Tribulation and crashed into the thunderclouds overhead, actually matching the tribulation blow for blow.
Immediately afterward, the Heavenly Tribulation sent down a second strike.
Bao Gu once again blasted upward to meet the heavenly lightning, stopping the descending attack high in the sky once more!
The energy contained in the thundercloud above her was simply too immense. If the force of the Heavenly Tribulation drove straight through and struck her, the outcome would be even worse than last time; she would have almost no chance of surviving.
She could only use her understanding of the Dao to summon the might of heaven and earth, along with the power generated by evolving the Dao, and scatter the descending force of the Heavenly Tribulation high above.
The Heavenly Tribulation did not appear out of nowhere. It too had a process of formation, descent, and dissipation, no different from the myriad things in the world. The only difference was that it formed by a different method, one known to humankind.
This was the most mysterious power of the Heavenly Dao. At Bao Gu’s current level, she could not even glimpse its threshold. She was no god, not even a True Immortal or an Earth Immortal.
The only thing she could do was use the methods she had comprehended to summon and unleash enough power to scatter the descending force of the Heavenly Tribulation and ensure that it did not strike her.
The attacks of the Heavenly Tribulation were exceptionally treacherous. Even within a single wave of descending thunder, there were distinctions between the illusory and the real, the strong and the weak. As the Heavenly Tribulation descended, she had to identify swiftly and accurately where its true striking power lay, and from what direction and position it was falling toward her.
Against a Heavenly Tribulation this powerful, she had no time for the slightest hesitation. She had to make the correct response in the shortest possible time, bringing every insight from her lifetime of cultivation into play.
She blocked the descending force, then drew the stray energy released after it dispersed into her body, refining it into her own power to replenish what she expended while resisting the Heavenly Tribulation.
One strike after another descended.
Bao Gu remained calm, utterly devoid of emotion, as if the entire world had fallen silent.
She remained that way until the roiling thunder tore the firmament open. A dazzling wash of immortal radiance spilled down from the high heavens, and a force from beyond the Nine Heavens broke through the boundary of the realm.
In that instant, even Bao Gu’s breathing halted. One thought flashed through her mind:
“An Immortal Ascension Tribulation. I can’t leave!”
With that thought, she drove every bit of energy she could command to the absolute limit. A surging, sky-shaking force roared straight into the Ninth Heaven and slammed into the dazzling thunderbolt that had broken through the realm.
The thunderous force, however, tore through the power Bao Gu had sent against it and brutally poured into her body.
Bao Gu felt a force too powerful for her to resist shatter her with a thunderous boom, while an even greater surge of vitality granted her an entirely new life.
At that instant, she fell into a state of ethereal stillness. The feeling resembled her consciousness leaving her body, yet was different—more subtle and more wondrous. She seemed to have broken free of the restraints of heaven and earth, as if entering a boundless world of freedom.
The exquisite sensation of her soul nearing immortality made her drift in bliss, wanting to follow that radiance immediately into the world filled with endless vitality.
But she could not bring herself to go. She could not bear to leave her Senior Sister, who was still in this realm.
At that moment, she sensed that the nature of her existence had changed. One step farther and she would become an immortal, but if she did, she could no longer remain in this realm.
To stay, she had to sever the momentum carrying her forward—the trend of her evolution toward “immortality.” If she did so, she might well suffer a backlash.
When immortals from the upper realm came to this realm, they were suppressed by the laws of the Heavenly Dao because their states of existence and their methods of manifestation were different.
Bao Gu called forth the Xuantian Sword, which was itself under suppression by the laws of the Heavenly Dao in this realm. She sealed all the immortal spiritual power from the upper realm that she had drawn into her body inside the Xuantian Sword.
Then she used the sword’s power to seal her own body tight, preventing her constitution from transforming any further toward immortal qi. At the same time, she sealed seventy percent of the power within her as quickly as possible.
She completed all of this in the brief span of an incense stick.
Once she had sealed herself, the force from beyond the realm vanished, and the firmament torn open by the Heavenly Tribulation closed again.
Bao Gu felt the power of the Heavenly Tribulation disappear and silence return around her. Having achieved her wish of remaining in this realm, she let out a long sigh of relief and sank onto her back, almost limp with exhaustion.
Her body felt as if the immense force inside it might tear it apart, and she was also overcome by extreme weakness from having exhausted herself. She now understood exactly what Jun Ye had felt like when he had once been so weak that he fell into an unresponsive coma.
This was precisely her current state. “Immortal qi” circulated through her body, but her physical form was still that of a cultivator from this realm. It felt like forcing a foot seven inches long into a five-inch shoe—painfully cramped.
Fortunately, she had fused with an immortal weapon—the Xuantian Sword—so her physique was half-immortal and far, far stronger than that of an ordinary cultivator. She would not be squeezed so badly that she could not even walk. Otherwise, she might well have ended up following in Jun Ye’s footsteps.
Every cultivator present had seen the Gate of Immortality open and had witnessed Bao Gu pass the Immortal Ascension Tribulation. Yet no one could understand why Bao Gu had not ascended, instead lying on her back in midair.
She lay there without plummeting, leaving everyone uncertain whether she had been injured.
Yu Mi rushed to Bao Gu’s side as fast as she could and asked anxiously,
“Bao Gu, are you all right?”
Bao Gu answered with a hum.
“I’m all right.”
Then she added,
“Senior Sister, if you ever undergo an Immortal Ascension Tribulation, ascend immediately after you pass it. Forcing it down is too painful.”
Yu Mi said,
“If it’s so painful, why did you force yourself to stay? My cultivation has already reached perfection at the Mahayana Stage, and I can undergo tribulation at any time. If you ascend to the upper realm, I’ll undergo my tribulation immediately and go find you.”
Bao Gu asked,
“What if you become an Earth Immortal?”
Yu Mi fell silent for a moment.
“Could you not say something auspicious for once?”
Bao Gu said,
“I’ll remain here and wait for you. When it is time to ascend, I can do so at any moment.”
She paused for a moment. Once the discomfort had eased, she rose to her feet.
“All right. I can move now.”
Yu Mi feared that Bao Gu was merely forcing herself to hold up. She stared at her in open disbelief.
“Do you want to rest a little longer?”
Bao Gu really wanted to pretend to be weak and have Yu Mi carry her home. But there were far too many cultivators watching. She could hardly act spoiled toward Yu Mi as if no one else were there with so many eyes fixed on them.
So she said,
“No need to rest. I’m fine. I’m just not used to it yet.”
Yu Mi asked, puzzled,
“Not used to what?”
Bao Gu gave a hum and explained,
“Although I sealed myself in time and prevented the laws of the Heavenly Dao from forcibly suppressing my cultivation, I still feel as though I’m being squeezed by that suppression. I’ll be fine once I adjust.”
Jade Shura’s voice rang out,
“Cramped? Bao Gu, are you bragging or showing off?”
As she spoke, she came over, circled Bao Gu once, and snorted,
“Some people really do turn misfortune into a blessing.”
And now there was another True Immortal! One after another, they were all heading to the upper realm. Thinking about her own cultivation, Jade Shura felt so ashamed that she was embarrassed even to call herself Bao Gu’s friend and had no face to meet anyone.
Fortunately, her skin was thick enough to withstand it.
Qu Yirou, Si Ruo, and the others who were close to Yu Mi and Bao Gu all hurried over.
Si Ruo looked Bao Gu over again and again.
“More than eight hundred years, and you made one giant leap from the early Tribulation Transcendence Stage to become a True Immortal!”
She slapped a palm against her forehead.
“How am I supposed to face myself, after cultivating for more than eight hundred years without making the slightest progress?”
Seeing that Si Ruo was even more miserable than she was, Jade Shura instantly felt balanced again and thought she could face the world once more.
Qu Yirou caught Jade Shura’s radiant grin, which she made no effort to conceal, and gave her a long, pointed look. Seeing cultivators from every direction drawing near, and with Bao Gu’s condition still uncertain, she said,
“This isn’t a place to catch up. Shall we go to Youying City?”
Seeing that Bao Gu had completed her tribulation but that her condition remained unclear, Bao Nianhui activated the flagship’s boarding passage. A bridge constructed by a formation descended from the flagship and came to rest beside Bao Gu and the others.
The group stepped onto the bridge and was teleported aboard the flagship.
Jade Shura saw Bao Nianhui waiting for them in front of the teleportation formation. She gave her a mischievous wink and said,
“The Supreme Immortal Lord had run rampant for all these years, only to kick your master—a slab of Daluo Scarlet Gold—and be wiped out in one move. Young Lord, did that feel satisfying?”
Bao Nianhui pressed her lips together in a smile.
“It did.”
She went to Bao Gu and called out,
“Master.”
Then she asked,
“Are you all right?”
Bao Gu said,
“I’m fine. Let’s return to Youying City.”
Bao Nianhui nodded lightly and issued the order to return to Youying City.
