103: Chapter 103 Nascent Soul Tribulation

Su Yu left.

He did not say another word to the demons within the boundary wall.

The arrogant laughter of Xue Du was left far behind him in the wind and snow.

Yet, that laughter felt like a cold thorn, piercing deep into his heart.

On the journey back, Su Yu did not fly.

He chose to walk step by step across the mountains and rivers under his rule.

He passed by one newly built city after another.

The markets were bustling; merchants traveled north and south, and the sounds of hawking and laughter were endless.

He passed by fields of golden crops.

Nourished by Spiritual Qi, the crops grew taller than in the era of demons, and farmers bent over to harvest them with steady, satisfied smiles on their faces.

He passed by a small village.

Several children chased and played in the sunlight, their laughter crisp and clear.

Under the old locust tree at the village entrance, several white-haired elders squinted, basking in the sun peacefully.

They no longer had to worry about people from the Zhenfu Division knocking on their doors in the middle of the night.

They no longer had to worry about their children being taken away as blood food.

All of this was the peace that Su Yu had carved out, inch by inch, over two hundred years.

But now, in Su Yu's eyes.

This hard-won two-hundred-year golden age.

Had become a silent countdown ticking away above his head.

At most, one hundred years.

Once the Lord of the Abyss awakened, these fields would become desolate again, these cities would revert to Blood Refining Workshops, and the smiles of these children and elders would turn into wails of despair once more.

And what about him?

He was merely a Golden Core, not even at the Nascent Soul stage.

Although Su Yu was confident he could achieve a Breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage within the next hundred years.

But what good would a Nascent Soul be?

To face the Lord of the Abyss, who was at the Void Refining stage, with the body of a Nascent Soul?

That would be like a mayfly trying to shake a tree, like throwing an egg against a rock.

That was an existence that even the nascent Heavenly Dao, having exhausted all its Origin, could not completely destroy.

Su Yu's steps grew heavier with each stride.

Yet his gaze became firmer with each step.

In this life, from the Prince of Zhennan of the Great Xia, to an orphan of the Qingmu Su Clan, to a Disciple of the Cangxuan Sect, and then to a two-legged sheep in the breeding pens of Black City.

When had he ever bowed his head to fate?

...

The 191st year of Hanyuan.

Su Yu returned to the capital.

He did not make the matter of the boundary wall public.

If this matter were to spread, it would only cause the world, which had just stabilized, to fall back into baseless panic.

Following the well-established system of the past two hundred years, he left behind a detailed decree for the administration of government.

The Chief Grand Secretary of the Cabinet would act on behalf of the government, replaced every five years, with appointments based solely on merit.

This Empire no longer relied on any single person's Bloodline to function on its own.

After handling everything, Su Yu walked alone into the long-sealed place of seclusion deep within the imperial palace.

The stone door slowly closed behind him.

The civil and military officials all believed that His Majesty the Emperor was going to pursue the ethereal Dao of longevity.

No one knew.

This Human Emperor, who had ruled the world for two hundred years, was racing against time for the survival of the entire world.

The place of seclusion was deep and silent.

Su Yu sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, his mind sinking completely into that profound state of Cultivation.

The Creation Melting Furnace Art was a supreme Cultivation Technique he had created himself, where every breath was a form of Cultivation.

And his Spiritual Root, under the tempering of these hundreds of years and the feedback of the Luck of humanity, had reached Perfection.

First Grade!

This was a celestial talent that countless Cultivators could never reach in their entire lives, and it was the highest point an Acquired being could ever attain.

With this First-Grade Spirit Root, combined with the Creation Melting Furnace Art and that overwhelming Luck of humanity.

His speed of Cultivation could be described as advancing a thousand miles in a day.

One year.

Three years.

Five years.

Inside the place of seclusion, Spiritual Qi gathered towards Su Yu like a frenzying storm.

The First-Grade Golden Core within his body, tempered by the double refinement of the Power Of Faith from the masses and the vast Spiritual Qi, grew more radiant by the day, becoming so thick and powerful it almost threatened to break through the shackles of his physical shell.

Finally.

Less than ten years.

"Boom—!"

Above the capital, a pitch-black thundercloud surged without warning.

The thundercloud rolled, electric snakes danced wildly, and a terrifying pressure capable of destroying heaven and earth descended from the Nine Heavens.

Nascent Soul Tribulation!

The perfect Golden Core within Su Yu's body had finally reached the critical point of breaking the core to form the Nascent Soul, transitioning from Mortal to saint!

"It is time."

Su Yu slowly opened his eyes, a sharp light exploding in his pupils.

He stepped out of the place of seclusion, his figure rising from the ground, meeting the sky full of thunderclouds as he hovered above the Nine Heavens.

The first trial.

The Six-Nine Heavenly Tribulation.

Fifty-four bolts of Lightning Tribulation, containing supreme heavenly might, struck down one after another from the thundercloud!

The power of this Heavenly Tribulation was enough to level a mountain; ordinary flesh and blood would turn to ash upon contact.

Yet Su Yu stood with his hands behind his back, allowing those purple lightning bolts, as thick as water buckets, to strike him fiercely.

"Come."

His Human Dao Golden Core was condensed, and he was protected externally by the golden Luck formed spontaneously from the Power Of Faith of the masses.

The more fiercely the Lightning Tribulation struck.

The more solid and translucent his Golden Core became through the tempering!

The fifty-four bolts of Heavenly Tribulation exploded against him, failing to make him retreat even half a step.

Below in the capital, countless Mortals witnessed the strange phenomenon in the sky.

They did not know what was happening in the sky, but instinctively knelt in the direction of the imperial palace.

"It is Your Majesty! Your Majesty is Undergoing Tribulation!"

"May the Heavens bless us, may Your Majesty succeed in Undergoing Tribulation!"

Simple and pious prayers rose from the Mortal world.

Strands of the Power Of Faith, following the mysterious Karma, trickled into Su Yu's body, helping him withstand the Heavenly Tribulation of this first trial.

The fifty-four bolts of Heavenly Tribulation dissipated, but the pitch-black thunderclouds in the firmament did not vanish.

Instead, they surged even more violently.

Su Yu slowly opened his eyes, his expression grave.

He knew that the true danger of the Nascent Soul Tribulation had only just begun.

The Six-Nine Heavenly Tribulation was, to him, merely a whetstone to temper himself.

But the true danger of the Nascent Soul Tribulation was never external.

It was internal.

Before the residual power of the Heavenly Tribulation had dissipated, Su Yu's Divine Sense suddenly sank, dragged by an invisible force into a boundless illusion.

Heart Demon Tribulation.

This was the most dangerous trial of the Nascent Soul Tribulation.

It used illusions as blades to expose the deepest obsessions and most painful scars in the life of the person Undergoing Tribulation, using them to strike at the heart.

Those whose state of mind was not firm enough would sink into this boundless illusion, suffer Qi Deviation, and have their Divine Soul destroyed.

Within the illusion, scenes shifted.

Wind and snow, misty rain, lonely smoke in the desert; familiar scenes unfolded one by one before Su Yu's eyes.

The Heart Demon Tribulation used illusions as blades, specifically targeting the deepest obsessions and scars in a person's heart.

It did not stir up Su Yu's greed for longevity, nor did it provoke his fear of the Lord of the Abyss.

It plunged straight into the softest part of Su Yu's true spirit.

It was the very people he had personally buried over his four lifetimes.

The scene froze on the sickbed of the eldest branch of the Qianlong Su Family.

Sixty-nine-year-old Su Cheng was gaunt and withered, his eyes sunken, yet he was still using his last ounce of strength to explain the secret lines and roster of dead soldiers of the Dingyuan Trading Firm to his father.

Those hands, thin as firewood, clutched the token tightly, as if clutching his own humble yet burning life.

"Father... the secular income is very stable..."

Su Yu's eyes trembled imperceptibly.

The scene shifted again to a warm chamber sealed by heavy snow on the mountain.

Ninety-something-year-old Song Qingwan lay on the bed, the light already gone from her eyes.

She turned her head with great difficulty, looking at his face that remained forever in middle age, her breath as thin as gossamer.

"Husband... the year you chose me in the Internal Affairs Hall... was the greatest blessing of my life..."

Her hand grew cold inch by inch in his palm.

The illusion was merciless, scene after scene.

It was Qing'er quietly stopping her breath in her sleep on a spring afternoon.

It was Lin Xiu closing her eyes stubbornly and contentedly while wearing her noblewoman's ceremonial dress.

It was the faces on the summit of Mount Tai in his first life, some shocked, some angry, some resentful.

It was Liu Ruyan, smiling gracefully while holding an oil-paper umbrella by the Qinhuai River.

It was the proud swordswoman on the summit of Mount Hua, stubbornly lifting her chin covered in snowflakes...

One vivid and stunning face after another danced on the tip of his heart, only to turn, one by one, into cold tombstones in the graveyard.

...

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