354: Chapter 354: Finally Achieving the Mahayana Stage

The matter with the Dragon Clan of the East Sea only took three days.

Now that the Righteous Path and the Demonic Path had secretly united, dealing with a single Yao Race was simply too easy.

The night Li Changsheng arrived at Zhenbei City, the two of them spread out spiritual maps in their respective tents.

Then they analyzed them together.

In the end, it was summarized in one word.

"Do it!"

Thus, they rose simultaneously and flew toward the east.

The Guixu Vortex and the law seed trailed two purple-gold streaks in the night sky, like two parallel blades cutting through the clouds.

The Void Realm ships of the East Sea Dragon Palace hovered on the sea hundreds of miles away; the three main warships carried the elite of the Dragon Clan and water-element forbidden Formations.

The leading Old Dragon King coiled on the bow of the largest ship, his dragon whiskers drifting in the sea breeze like two silver snakes.

When Xiao Ran and Li Changsheng descended from the clouds, the Old Dragon King's pupils shrank into two vertical slits.

He saw the layer of purple-gold light around their bodies.

That was a sign that the power of Law was about to overflow.

He did not order an attack but slowly stood up from the bow, his voice, like a dragon's roar, suppressing the waves: "You two, must you drive us to extinction?"

"The Righteous Path advocates peaceful coexistence; we have never driven anyone to extinction," Li Changsheng said.

"I will make a decision: the Dragon Clan shall retreat to the deep sea and swear not to come ashore for five hundred years."

"Leave the Void Realm ships behind, recall all Dragon Clan scouts, and cede thirty percent of the ownership of the East Sea Spiritual Vein to the Northern Territory."

"If the Dragon Clan wishes to come ashore for trade in the future, they must pay tariffs according to the rules of the Northern Territory."

As expected of the Righteous Path, every word spoke of peace, but every condition was soul-crushing.

The Old Dragon King was silent for a long time.

He wanted to resist.

But he saw Xiao Ran, who was restless in the distance.

In the end, he lowered his head, and the spiritual light on his dragon horns dimmed slightly.

"Five hundred years; I hope you two can keep your word."

Li Changsheng laughed: "Old Dragon King, rest assured!"

The Old Dragon King did not speak again.

The three Void Realm ships turned around and headed toward the deep sea, the spiritual light of the dragon patterns on the hulls extinguishing layer by layer, like lamps sinking into the water.

Only a few gradually calming ripples and an empty skyline remained on the sea surface.

Xiao Ran and Li Changsheng stood in the sea breeze, watching the three ship silhouettes disappear over the horizon, and exhaled simultaneously.

"Let's go, it's time to go to the place for our Breakthrough."

Three days later, in the Far North Land.

The grey-black wasteland stretched from beneath their feet to the end of the skyline; not a blade of grass grew, and even the wind carried a dry, cracking cold.

The firmament was very low, so low that it felt like one could reach out and touch that purple-gold cloud layer.

The clouds had pressed down to a height of less than a hundred zhang from the ground.

The pure white halo in the center of the vortex poured down, shrouding the entire wasteland in a light that was both gentle and so heavy it made one unable to breathe.

Xiao Ran and Li Changsheng stood in the very center of the wasteland.

They were separated by about ten zhang, and the law seeds floated out from their respective glabellae, hovering in mid-air and slowly rotating.

The two seeds stopped at a distance of three zhang from each other.

Then, as if drawn by something, they simultaneously approached, overlapped, and fused, turning into a fist-sized purple-gold ball of light hovering between the two.

The surface of the light ball flowed with chaotic patterns; the dark color of the Guixu Vortex and the gold of the law seed intertwined within it, forming a slowly rotating galaxy.

Su Qinghan stood on a low hill at the edge of the wasteland, reinforced by a Formation, wearing a black cloak.

Behind her were Man Shan, Fairy Hehuan, Poison Lady, and several Core Disciples that Li Changsheng had brought from the Supreme Dao Palace.

The Righteous Path and the Demonic Path had reached a consensus.

Everyone watched the two figures in the distance in silence, watching the purple-gold light ball hovering in the air.

"It has begun," Su Qinghan said softly.

Xiao Ran and Li Changsheng moved simultaneously.

They sat cross-legged and formed hand Seals.

Their movements were identical, as if they were looking into the same mirror.

Two completely different streams of Spiritual Qi surged from their bodies—one chaotic like a vortex, the other brilliant like a galaxy—converging in the air and injecting into the interior of the purple-gold light ball.

The light ball suddenly expanded, growing from the size of a fist to the size of a millstone, and then from the size of a millstone to cover the entire wasteland within a hundred zhang radius.

A purple-gold pillar of light shot into the sky.

That pillar of light was too bright, so bright that everyone on the low hill had to raise their hands to shield their eyes.

The light pillar pierced through the purple-gold cloud layer above, like a giant sword piercing the skin of the firmament.

Under the impact of the light pillar, the clouds churned, tore, gathered again, and then tore again.

Finally, a huge opening cracked open in the sky directly above the light pillar.

The light shining from inside that opening was pure white, purer than sunlight, warmer than moonlight, and more ancient than any other kind of spiritual light.

Every Cultivator in the Northern Territory saw that purple-gold pillar of light.

Some crawled out of their tents to look up, some pushed open the doors of their closed-door Immortal Caves, and some knelt on the ground.

On the main peak tower of the Eternal Night Demon Sect, that ghostly blue bead trembled violently under the reflection of the light pillar, as if resonating and paying homage.

Every corner of the Southern Territory could see that purple-gold light on the northern horizon.

On the Gobi Desert of the Western Regions, great Yao peered out from sand dunes; on the East Sea, Dragon Clan scouts surfaced from the water to look.

The entire Cultivation World was silent at this moment.

All struggles, all schemes, all grievances paused for a beat; everyone was watching that pillar of light connecting heaven and earth.

The process of the Breakthrough lasted for three days and three nights.

The first day.

Xiao Ran's Guixu Vortex trembled violently under the impact of the Law.

The chaotic core deep within the vortex began to contract, collapse, and re-expand; every pulsation caused the Spiritual Qi tide within a thousand miles to fluctuate accordingly.

A dark pattern emerged on his glabella, spreading from his forehead down to his jaw, like a river that had been Sealed for ten thousand years that had finally found its outlet to the sea.

The power of Chaos within the vortex rearranged itself inside his body, changing from disordered to ordered, from devouring to circulating.

The second day.

Li Changsheng's law seed began to disintegrate.

Countless fine cracks appeared on the surface of the purple-gold light ball, and light purer than the light ball itself shone through the cracks.

Fragments of Law peeled off one by one, merging into the spiritual light around his body and seeping into his Meridians and bones.

The third day.

The light pillar began to retract. The purple-gold light ball had expanded to the point of covering the entire wasteland, and now it was contracting layer by layer toward the center.

The Nine-Nine Lightning Tribulation descended late on the third night.

Nine golden bolts of heavenly lightning struck down from the pure white crack in the firmament, each as thick as a water vat, wrapped in a destructive aura that terrified the heart and soul.

When the first bolt of lightning struck, Xiao Ran opened his eyes.

The Guixu Vortex condensed into a dark barrier above his head, swallowing the Lightning Tribulation, crushing it, and dissipating it.

The second, third, fourth, and fifth bolts.

He withstood the first five bolts of heavenly lightning by himself, and the dark pattern on his glabella became clearer with each impact of the Lightning Tribulation, like a quenched blade taking shape.

When the sixth bolt of heavenly lightning descended, Xiao Ran's figure swayed.

Li Changsheng opened his eyes behind him.

Fragments of Law condensed into a small golden sword in his palm, the tip of the sword pointing toward the sky.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth bolts of heavenly lightning.

He took the remaining three, and the small golden sword drew three arcs in the air.

Each one split the rushing lightning in two, scattering it into golden debris across the sky.

The ninth bolt of heavenly lightning was the last one, and also the most terrifying one.

That bolt of lightning struck from the deepest part of the pure white crack, wrapped in the Origin power of the Mahayana Law; Xiao Ran and Li Changsheng stood up from the ground simultaneously.

One swallowing, one transforming; the Guixu Vortex and the small golden sword converged in the air, the two forces entwining to meet the ninth bolt of lightning striking from above.

When the lightning hit their combined strength, the whole world was silent for an instant.

Then it erupted with a deafening roar, forcibly shaving three feet off the surface of the wasteland for a hundred miles around.

The light pillar retracted suddenly the moment the ninth bolt of heavenly lightning dissipated.

Su Qinghan felt her eyes flash from the light that extinguished in an instant.

When she could clearly see the scene in front again, only two figures were standing in the center of the wasteland.

The purple-gold light around their bodies had already been retracted into their bodies, but that aura made all living beings within a thousand miles bow their heads in the same instant.

The pure white crack in the firmament was slowly closing, closing until the last sliver of the gap.

A faint phantom of the Heavenly Gate flew out from the crack.

It was purple-gold, with two lines of characters carved on the door frame that she could not understand but could feel the power of Law within.

The phantom of the Heavenly Gate hung in the firmament for about ten breaths, then dissipated in the wind like melting snow.

The Heavenly Gate has opened.

The Mahayana Realm, which no one had stepped into for ten thousand years in the Cultivation World, now had two people standing in it simultaneously.

The wasteland was quiet for a long time.

"It is done."

The entire Northern Territory had not had a Mahayana Stage for ten thousand years.

On this day, two appeared at once.

The two turned around simultaneously in the very center of the wasteland, one facing north, the other facing south.

Purple-gold light flowed around them, like two ancient statues that had just stood up from heaven and earth.

In the night sky of the Northern Territory.

The pure white afterglow left behind after the phantom of the Heavenly Gate dissipated was still slowly flowing on the horizon, like a torn-up galaxy slowly returning to its place.

And in this world, no one could stand before them anymore.