Aotian landed on the ground in front of everyone, completely unscathed, letting out a disappointed sigh as the heavens failed to answer his request to send a few more bolts crashing down over his head.

Rihai rolled her eyes at her husband, a small smile she couldn’t hide appearing on her lips.

The two old men, Liu and Long, on the other hand, twitched their mouths, feeling that this young man enjoyed making them witness things they had never seen before. It was the first time in their lives that they had seen or heard of someone asking the heavens for more lightning after passing a tribulation.

Cang Song and Hui Lang simply watched him with admiration, especially the latter, who had a subtle glint in his eyes. Aotian, as his master, knew that this old man with a showy heart would soon try to reproduce a similar scene in his own tribulation.

Finally, he turned his gaze to Young Master Chun, who looked back at him with caution and uncertainty, much of his madness temporarily cast aside. It was surprising that he still hadn’t fled, considering the strong sense of foreboding he felt.

Aotian gave him only a superficial glance and then sat cross-legged on the ground, closing his eyes.

It wasn’t that he had forgiven the boy or anything like that. Although he now seemed pitiful, that was only because Aotian was no longer the weakling he had imagined he could crush at will.

If Aotian hadn’t had sufficient strength or backing, it would be Young Master Chun who would be mocking him at that moment, trampling him and doing countless other things that would likely involve humiliating and torturing his relatives and friends.

Knowing Chun would not have spared him, Aotian also had no intention of sparing him in return.

But before that, there was still nearly an hour until the scheduled battle between them, and he could use that time to assess his gains.

[Host: Long Aotian

Cultivation: 1st Level of Nascent Soul

Body Cultivation: 1st Level of Nascent Soul

Physique: Mortal

Qualifications: Perfect-Grade (Supreme) Five Element Spiritual Root]

‘Ten minutes, I broke my fastest tribulation record again.’

Aotian reflected, amused.

When Rihai advanced, she had spent about an hour mentally preparing, another twenty minutes condensing her Nascent Soul, and finally the tribulation had been the quickest part, because after entering the clouds and provoking it, it had taken less than a minute to finish.

Except for the tribulation, which took practically the same time for both of them, Aotian was many times faster in the rest. After all, it was the 1199th time he had gone through this process, and he couldn’t have been more familiar with it.

‘Time to tally the gains.’

A smile appeared on his lips.

Whenever he advanced in cultivation, it wasn’t merely an individual rise in strength, but a complete elevation of the sect’s overall level.

He quickly controlled his newly advanced avatars to generate enlightened minds immediately and felt his mental power grow once more.

At the moment, he possessed 6 ancestors, 1 sect leader, 120 inner elders, and 1200 outer elders.

48 Tribulation Transcendence Minds

((7 enlightened minds + 1 own mind) × 6 avatars)

7 Void Refinement Minds ((6 enlightened minds + 1 own mind) × Sect Leader)

6,120 Soul Formation Minds ((5 enlightened minds + 1 own mind) × 1020 avatars)

1,505 Nascent Soul Minds ((4 enlightened minds + 1 own mind) × 300 avatars + main body)

Total:7,680 minds.

Aotian smiled as he checked the numbers.

With the exception of the three hundred outer elders he had separated to explore the path in search of perfect foundation, the rest had taken advantage of the high energy of the Dew of the Dragon’s Lament and carried out insane, unobstructed breakthroughs.

If it weren’t for Aotian advancing with a supreme foundation and this synchronizing with his avatars, correcting their foundations, he believed the Soul Formation realm would have been their limit.

Even with the sect’s techniques, the crazy advancement they had previously made—going from Golden Core to Soul Formation in just over a year—was unprecedented, leaving countless problems and hidden dangers in their foundation.

Moreover, their bodies had become resistant to the dew and, from this point onward, even with Aotian correcting their foundations, it would not be easy to advance so rapidly, even with pills. The dew was a natural marvel, formed over millions of years, with properties of refining and correcting a cultivator’s foundation.

It was an absolutely top-tier treasure, though it carried a dark history behind it.

‘Huh?!’

While analyzing, Aotian was suddenly surprised by something he noticed in his avatars.

He quickly scanned the Souls of all of them and saw that each had exactly 10% purple spots, just like his. This was natural, since their foundations were synchronized with his as he advanced in cultivation with his main body—but this time, something was different.

The foundations laid by the Nascent Soul realm avatars were identical to the main body’s and incredibly strong, which was to be expected. Yet the other elders had undergone drastic changes.

Especially the Soul Formation avatars, with that purple portion enveloping their souls, had their foundations directly corrected to something close to a Supreme Foundation, strengthening countless times over.

The sect leader also seemed much stronger than the ancestors had been in that same realm, and his foundation no longer appeared weak or lacking in quality.

As for the ancestors, now in the Tribulation Transcendence realm, Aotian had no way of assessing how much they had improved because of the purple spots, as it was the first time he had reached this realm with his avatars.

‘The three Body realms: Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core.’

‘The three Soul realms: Nascent Soul, Soul Formation, Void Refinement.’

‘I see… when I advanced to Nascent Soul, my accumulation was so absurd that my soul directly acquired properties that should belong exclusively to a supreme soul in the Soul Formation realm, as old Liu said.’

‘And that translated into an extreme refinement of the foundation of all my avatars in the Soul realms, on a scale that hadn’t happened before. The least affected was the sect leader, but even so he became at least three times stronger than the ancestors were in that same realm.’

‘As for the Soul Formation avatars, who previously possessed only a fragile realm, I can’t even estimate how much they strengthened, but they certainly surpassed ten or even twenty times the strength they had before my breakthrough.’

Reflecting on all this, he felt quite excited and concluded that it had truly been worth seeking a supreme foundation.

‘Perhaps the supreme foundation is what’s necessary to solve the world’s crisis and allow my avatars to enter the immortal world without being corrupted by the Immortal-Tier impurities there, or causing another disaster here.’

Opening his eyes, with a sharp gleam flashing through them, Aotian stood up and clenched his fists, feeling much of his confidence restored.

And now, he even possessed avatars in the Tribulation Transcendence realm and was no longer as helpless as before.

Moreover, this fact meant that he could finally put one of his essential plans into action.

A malicious smile appeared on his lips, and his eyes narrowed with shrewdness.

‘Time for the Void Refinement sects to pay the doctor’s fee for saving the world—in this case, mine.’

‘I’m not asking for much, just a few Void-Tier herbs, treasures, and inheritances will be enough, hehe…’

His fox-like grin widened at those thoughts.

Meanwhile, Rihai, Hui Lang, and Cang Song stared at him in a daze, blinking hard and quickly as if trying to dispel some illusion.

For a second, they couldn’t help but see Elder Bao Hui’s image in Aotian.

Ignoring their reaction, Aotian simply laughed and walked until he stopped in front of Young Master Chun, who watched him cautiously, with even a trace of fear.

“Well, I finished with some time to spare, so let’s begin,” he spoke with a faint smile, but his eyes were slightly cold. “You know, maybe I would’ve let you run if it weren’t for the fact that I can see what kind of person you are.”

Aotian spoke seriously as a piece of information crossed his mind, only making him more determined about what he would do next.

[Mission: Cross the Path of the Enraged Young Master Chun

Description: Survive when you encounter the furious Young Master Chun after he is released alive and loses the World Authority.

Participants: Unrelated and innocent people along the path who are vulnerable to harm by him or his underlings.

Danger Level: Fatal]

Seeing that, Aotian’s killing intent intensified.

The danger level detection was a kind of reliable divination, though quite limited. But if used correctly, it still allowed one to deduce many things.

Young Master Chun, despite his apprehension, had no intention of fleeing. He still wished to tear Aotian and his friends to pieces, reclaim his lost authority over the world, and erase the extreme humiliation he had suffered.

“Come, little worm! You’re the one who has to run!” he shouted furiously, entering combat mode, waiting only for Aotian’s protection to drop.

“You’re the one who asked for this,” Aotian replied calmly, boredom in his eyes, as a sword appeared in his hand.

Energy then began to swirl around his hands and feet, materializing scales in those areas and transforming his arms and legs into blue dragon claws.

Smiling, his draconic right hand tightened around the sword, while the claws of his feet sank into the grass and his knees bent slightly.

Then, in a sudden burst, his body vanished from that spot.

When he reappeared, he was behind Young Master Chun, his back turned to him, the sword pointing to the side, completely clean.

And his opponent? He merely widened his eyes, not even having seen Aotian’s movement. Before he could react or open his mouth, a red line stretched across his neck.

By the time he understood what was happening, his head had already separated from his shoulders, and a jet of blood spurted out as it fell to the ground.

Without a head, the torso lost control and dropped to its knees forward before collapsing completely.

Silence spread across the field, and all the witnesses drew in a sharp breath at the oppressive power Aotian had revealed.

Soul Formation Perfection against an early-stage Nascent Soul. What should have been a one-sided battle—like a human crushing an ant—was entirely overturned by Aotian.

Perhaps he was the only one not surprised by his current strength. Even before advancing, he had the capacity to win, and after the breakthrough, his power had taken a colossal leap.

Between the Golden Core realm and Nascent Soul lay an enormous abyss. It was as if from Qi Refinement to Golden Core there were quantitative changes, but from Golden Core to Nascent Soul there occurred a qualitative transformation.

“NOOO!! YOU!! You destroyed my body!! My Sacred Physique! You destroyed it! I’ll make you pay!!”

A shrill scream full of hatred and grief sounded from the fallen body on the ground, as a small blue soul emerged from the corpse’s back, staring at Aotian with wide eyes filled with extreme rage and madness.

“Hooh… I thought you were going to play dead,” Aotian teased with amusement, shrugging, unconcerned by the other’s grief. “But tell me, how do you plan to defeat me now without a physical body?”

Young Master Chun’s soul clenched its teeth, consumed by hatred at seeing him mock and underestimate him.

“Even without my body’s roots, I can still use my sacred talent once with my soul roots! Let’s perish together!”

A furious roar echoed as an extremely heavy energy began to circulate around him at high speed.

‘Oh?! He actually explained it just because I asked! Fascinating!’

Aotian blinked, impressed, but despite the playful thought, he remained secretly attentive to the enemy’s movements.

If he hadn’t wanted to experience the different abilities of special physiques to prepare for the future, he wouldn’t have given the enemy the chance to execute a desperate attack.

As soon as Young Master Chun activated his talent, enormous pressure arose in the surroundings.

The grass began to wither, the air grew drier, and even Aotian felt his body slowly dehydrating.

“HAHAHA!! Prepare to die!”

Laughing insanely, Young Master Chun’s soul in the sky kept his hands raised above his head, while an extremely realistic and powerful water spear manifested above him.

All the surrounding water elements were drawn in to form that spear, but Young Master Chun’s soul also began to flicker.

‘It seems having only half the roots is exacting an extremely painful price on him… well, I’ve seen enough, that’s enough playing around.’

Aotian quickly analyzed everything and turned serious.

With each passing moment, that spear stirred his sense of crisis more, and if a few more seconds passed, he might truly be in trouble.

He stored his sword, and with his claws sinking into the now dry, brittle grass, he propelled himself forward at high speed.

“No! Not this time!!”

Young Master Chun’s soul, intensely focused on him, widened in alarm the moment he saw Aotian bend his knees. With teeth clenched and fully aware of what would happen if he did nothing, he moved.

Without waiting for the spell to finish, he thrust his hands forward, propelling it with ferocious force, making the spear vanish as a streak of blinding light.

At the same instant, Aotian also moved, disappearing from his spot.

But with thousands of minds processing everything at extreme speed, in his perception both he and the spear moved slowly.

‘It’s not enough.’

Seeing that spell creating faint cracks in the void, he knew his claws wouldn’t be able to stop the spear, and he might even lose his arms if he tried.

‘I’ll use this.’

With a thought, the cells throughout his entire body vibrated and began multiplying at extreme speed, activated by his physique that had reached the Nascent Soul realm.

Aotian’s body began to grow and, when he clenched his fists and threw a punch, about to collide with the spear that was already extremely close to him, his size had already reached 16 feet tall.

Everything happened in an instant, and a dragon claw the size of a person’s head collided with the fierce blue spear with overwhelming force.

BOOOMMMM!!

A massive shockwave exploded from the clash, and several scales on Aotian’s fist shattered as he violently crushed the water spear with extreme force.

Blood spurted from his hand, but his fist remained unstoppable, cracking the spear and shattering it into fragments that dispersed into the air, returning to their pure elemental state.

With the spear destroyed, his fist continued forward and, with its remaining force, a wave of energy shot straight ahead, vibrating the air in its wake and striking directly at Young Master Chun’s fragile soul, whose eyes were wide in shock.

“NOO—”

Pop!

With a faint pop, like a fragile bubble bursting, the soul was erased from the world before it could even finish its final scream.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep