557: Chapter 557 Two Methods of Tribulation Transcending

[You feel the earth-shaking changes within your body.]

[Your Divine Soul is skyrocketing, your Physical Body is transforming, and the spiritual energy flowing through your Meridians is like a surging river; every inch of your flesh and blood is cheering.]

[During Void Refining, the Divine Soul was the Divine Soul and the Physical Body was the Physical Body; though they were one, there was always a slight gap. Like two pieces of jade fitted together, seamless but ultimately not a single piece.]

[At this moment, that final gap has disappeared.]

[The Divine Soul and the Physical Body have completely merged into one, indistinguishable from each other, with no "you" or "me".]

[You feel that you are complete.]

[You raise your hand, and with a thought—a drop of essence blood seeps from your fingertip, floating in mid-air.]

[That drop of blood is not large, only the size of a grain of rice, but it glows with a faint golden light, and within it, runes faintly circulate like a miniature star.]

[You bite the tip of your tongue and inject a wisp of your life Origin into it.]

[In that instant, you feel your consciousness split into two.]

[One part is inside your body, and the other is in that drop of blood.]

[It's not a split, but a duplication.]

[It's carving a part of yourself into this drop of blood.]

[You leave a sentence for that drop of blood.]

[Not spoken with your mouth, but carved with your will.]

[Carved into the blood, carved into the Origin, carved into that wisp of will.]

["If I fall, wake up in my place."]

[As the words fall, that drop of blood vibrates slightly, its golden light receding, turning into an ordinary drop of blood that hangs there quietly.]

[This is the hallmark of a Body Integration Cultivator—Essence Blood Rebirth.]

[As long as this drop of essence blood remains, even if the Physical Body is destroyed and the Divine Soul is extinguished, it will slowly awaken over a long period of time.]

[If one year isn't enough, then ten; if ten years isn't enough, then a hundred; if a hundred years isn't enough, then a thousand.]

[One day, you will wake up.]

[You let out a long breath.]

[Before you have time to think, you suddenly sense three familiar auras deep in the sky.]

[You look through the Void Realm—it's Old Ancestor Wuji and the other two.]

[With a movement, you appear before the three of them.]

["Body Integration has been achieved; your path has advanced another step," Old Ancestor Wuji nodded slightly.]

["What are your plans next?" the Grand Elder added, his tone flat.]

[Murong Changge's gaze was gentle: "Should we announce it to the Sect and hold a celebratory feast?"]

[You glance at the three of them and shake your head slightly: "Forget the celebration; I don't like crowds."]

[Pausing, you say: "However, there is one thing I don't understand."]

["What is it?"]

["Do you three Senior Brothers know why Ancestor Lu failed his Breakthrough back then?"]

[The three of them fell silent for a moment.]

[Murong Changge sighed softly and spoke slowly: "Him? It was because of a person."]

["A person?"]

["A childhood sweetheart," the Grand Elder took over, his gaze looking into the distance. "Fairy Zixia. She was the number one beauty in the Immortal Realm back then, and also one of the female Cultivators with the highest natural talent."]

[Old Ancestor Wuji nodded, his voice deepening: "The two of them grew up together, cultivated together, and adventured together. Everyone thought they would become Dao Companions."]

["What happened later?" you ask.]

["Later, Fairy Zixia perished in an accident," Murong Changge's voice was very soft. "She died right in front of him. He fought with his life to save her, but he couldn't."]

["From then on, he became like a different person," the Grand Elder shook his head.]

[You fall silent.]

[A Cultivator at the Peak of Body Integration, who has lived for untold years, yet has always kept a person in his heart.]

[Kept her there until his Lifespan was nearly exhausted, until death.]

[What he pursued was the Dao, yet he could not let go of his feelings.]

[The Dao and feelings are originally two different paths.]

[He stood at the crossroads, unwilling to give up either. Thus, he could not reach the end of either.]

[The Breakthrough failed not because his Aptitude was insufficient, nor because the Opportunity hadn't arrived—it was because he himself couldn't move past it.]

[Moving past it means truly letting go.]

[Letting go means forgetting.]

[But the Dao and feelings are originally two different paths.]

[Everyone says that cultivating immortality requires forgetting one's feelings.]

[But if you forget your feelings, is the immortality you've cultivated still your own?]

[Ancestor Lu stood at the crossroads, unwilling to give up either, so he could not reach the end of either.]

[So it became a tribulation deep within his heart.]

["He has less than twenty years left," Murong Changge said softly.]

["Yes, it's a pity. Otherwise, our Wuji Immortal Sect would have another Mahayana Cultivator."]

["Is there no way?" you ask.]

["There are several ways," Murong Changge spoke slowly.]

["First, he must let go himself. But this path is likely blocked, otherwise he wouldn't have failed his Breakthrough."]

["As for the second, it is not only very difficult but also goes against the laws of the Heavenly Dao; it requires the corpse of a Mahayana Cultivator to change one's fate against the heavens," the Grand Elder took over.]

[You wrinkle your brow.]

["As for the third—" Old Ancestor Wuji paused, "Go to the Chaos Sea and find the Chaos Green Lotus. With this Heaven And Earth Treasure, one will surely step into the Mahayana realm."]

["The Chaos Sea again?" your heart stirs.]

["That's right," Murong Changge nodded, his gaze looking into the distance. "The Chaos Sea is formed by the convergence of Chaos Qi. It is the source of all Innate supreme treasures; the Chaos Green Lotus, the chaos dao fruit... countless legendary Innate supreme treasures are all nurtured there."]

["If that's the case, why not go in and search for them?"]

["Danger," the Grand Elder took over. "The Chaos Qi in the Chaos Sea can corrode everything—Physical Body, Divine Soul, Magic Treasure, Spirit Treasure, without exception. Even if a Mahayana Cultivator enters, they must constantly use the Power of the Great Dao to protect themselves; a slight lapse in attention and they will be swallowed by the Chaos Qi."]

["Countless high-level Cultivators have entered," Old Ancestor Wuji's voice deepened. "Never has anyone come out."]

["Never?" you are stunned.]

["Never," Murong Changge repeated, his voice very soft. "Those who encounter a Bottleneck, those whose Lifespan is nearly exhausted, those who are at their wit's end—they all eventually risk going there... many go in, but not a single one comes out."]

["So..." you look at the three of them, "Ancestor Lu isn't going?"]

["He has already gone!" Murong Changge shook his head.]

[Old Ancestor Wuji suddenly spoke: "Since you have already reached Body Integration, I am also preparing to head to the Chaos Sea to undergo tribulation and achieve Ascension. From now on, the Wuji Immortal Sect is in the hands of you three."]

[Your brow furrows—you understand what he means.]

[The Jade Slip he gave you wrote it clearly. After the Peak of Mahayana, there are only two paths for Undergoing Tribulation.]

[The first path is to trigger the Heavenly Tribulation and endure it head-on.]

[From ancient times to the present, no one has ever succeeded.]

[Not a single one.]

[Those who couldn't withstand it didn't even have ashes left.]

[The second path is to go deep into the Chaos Sea and undergo tribulation and Ascension within it.]

[No one knows what the outcome is.]

[None of those who entered have returned.]

[Ancestral Master Wuji took this path, and in the end, there was no word from him.]

[But for countless years in the Immortal Realm, all Mahayana Cultivators who reached this step chose the second path.]

[It's not that the second path is better.]

[It's that for the first path, one doesn't even have the qualification to gamble.]

[With the second path, there is at least a sliver of hope.]