456: Chapter 471 Overcoming the Five Calamities [Part 1]

Deep within the canyon, Lu Ming sat cross-legged, gradually calming his surging emotions.

At this moment, the three Laws each occupied a corner of his Dantian, minding their own business. That brief balance made him feel more powerful than ever before.

A thought involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

“It is about time to undergo the five calamities.”

The five calamities were each a test from Heaven and Earth for a Cultivator; the slightest carelessness would result in the destruction of one's Divine Soul.

In the past, he hadn't dared to act rashly because his strength was insufficient and his foundation was lacking.

Although he was extremely confident in his strength, added to the fact that he had the karma golden book as a backup, if he didn't have a hundred percent certainty when undergoing a tribulation, how was that different from seeking death?

Lu Ming did not want to bring trouble upon himself for no reason.

But now...

Feeling the resonance of the three Laws within his body once more, the corners of Lu Ming's mouth curled up slightly.

It could be said that he was currently in the strongest state he had ever been in since he started cultivating.

With Golden Core Perfection and the three Laws of Yin and Yang, Tiangang, and Xun Wind added to his body, his strength had already far exceeded the scope of an ordinary Golden Core True Person.

Never mind Cultivators of the same rank; even if Yun Chenzi in his Peak state stood before him now, Lu Ming was confident he could crush him head-on.

Undergoing the five calamities in such a state was more than enough.

Moreover, he was now only short of these five calamities to finish the final step of the Golden Core stage.

One step further, and it would be undergoing the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation.

Thinking of this, Lu Ming couldn't help but be taken aback.

“Wait, I've already passed the Earthly Tribulation. Aside from the final Heavenly Tribulation when reaching the Nascent Soul stage, it seems there's nothing else to undergo.”

Previously, he had wanted to take the Heavenly Fate Path to Dao to promote to Nascent Soul True Monarch, but he later discovered that with the Heavenly Dao acting like a schemer behind the scenes, that path was definitely blocked.

He would inevitably have to honestly pass through the Three Tribulations and Five Calamities like an ordinary Cultivator.

Then the question arose: where was his 'Human Tribulation'?

To be more blunt, where was his the dao-obstructing person?

It seemed that up until now, there hadn't been any sign of it appearing.

Lu Ming frowned and pondered for a long time, then his heart stirred.

“Could it be... it hasn't been conceived yet?”

It wasn't strange for him to think this way, simply because before entering the Xuanling Secret Realm, he hadn't yet refined that strand of fortune within his body.

This meant that until the end of the Secret Realm, before the Heavenly Dao caught him having refined the fortune and realized that he, this ant, had already escaped its control, he was still the Heavenly Dao's most loyal lackey on the surface.

And toward its own lackey, the Heavenly Dao naturally wouldn't easily send down a Human Tribulation to obstruct his path to the Dao.

Doesn't this mean that I am currently in a 'protection period'?

“Holy crap, it's a bug!”

The more Lu Ming thought about it, the more sense it made.

Right now might be his safest period of time.

However, according to this line of thought, he probably had to Breakthrough to Nascent Soul once before leaving the Secret Realm.

Otherwise, as soon as the Secret Realm ended, the Heavenly Dao would realize that the fortune it left on him had completely disappeared.

This would bound to incur immense malice from the Heavenly Dao.

Lu Ming wasn't sure what the Heavenly Dao would do to a traitor, but he didn't want to try it at all.

But as long as he broke through to Nascent Soul True Monarch, he would have a certain amount of self-preservation power when facing the Heavenly Dao outside.

“It seems I must speed up the progress.”

Having understood the key point, Lu Ming felt a sense of urgency in his heart.

He really didn't want to face the Heavenly Dao. Although various signs indicated that the other party didn't actually have intelligence and didn't deliberately target any single person's behavior, but merely followed its own rules and operated on its own.

But as the saying goes, under the Heavenly Dao, all living beings are ants.

Thinking of the fates of Li Daoxuan and Yun Chenzi, Lu Ming felt uneasy, as if ants were crawling on his skin.

They hadn't provoked the Heavenly Dao either; they had simply touched upon the Heavenly Dao's interests, and so their fates were manipulated and their Karma was toyed with, making him, the greatest 'variable', become the one acting on behalf of the Heavens to clear the hidden dangers.

And since the Heavenly Dao could make him an agent of its will, it could naturally cast him down as well.

Once he stood on the opposite side of the Heavenly Dao, he might also become the one to be executed, and those days would be quite hard to endure.

“It seems undergoing the five calamities is imperative.”

Lu Ming was not a procrastinator by nature; since he had decided, he would act decisively.

He took a deep breath, slowly closed his eyes, and sank his mind into his Dantian, the power of the three Laws surging simultaneously.

He released his own Aura without reservation, like lighting a bright lamp in the dark deep sea, beginning to trigger the existence in the unseen.

A moment later, feeling that his state had been adjusted to its Peak, Lu Ming suddenly opened his eyes, a brilliant light flashing within them.

“Come!”

Rumble—

With Lu Ming's shout, the wind and clouds above the canyon suddenly changed.

The originally calm sky was as if stirred by an invisible giant hand; dark clouds surged frantically from all directions, covering the entire firmament in an instant.

Those dark clouds were not ordinary rain clouds, but displayed a bizarre dark red color, as if soaked in blood, with firelight faintly flickering amidst the churning.

The Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth began to riot. With Lu Ming as the center, the Spiritual Qi within a hundred-mile radius was like boiling water, frantically surging, colliding, and tearing!

Countless visible Spiritual Qi vortices formed in the Void Realm, spinning and converging toward the canyon! The scene was as if the entire world was exerting pressure on him!

Lu Ming looked up, expressionless.

He knew this was not the descent of the Heavenly Dao, but merely the power of rules filling the world; even a Secret Realm could not completely isolate it.

And along with his triggering, the Qi of calamity also gradually began to permeate the surroundings.

Lu Ming knew the main course was coming.

But it didn't matter; he was already prepared.

The thoughts only flashed through his mind for an instant, but the wind and clouds outside were already rising.

The first calamity, descend!

Between heaven and earth, a sudden deathly silence fell. All sounds disappeared.

The sound of the wind, the sound of water, the roar of the surging Spiritual Qi—all sounds were completely erased at this moment by some invisible force.

In its place was a deathly stillness.

Then, first, a speck of red light appeared on the horizon, followed by a red lotus quietly blooming in the Void Realm.

That red lotus was about ten feet in diameter, its petals layered, each one as crimson as blood, emitting a heart-palpitating light.

Above the petals, flames were dancing.

Those flames displayed a nearly transparent glazed color, breathtakingly beautiful, yet containing the power to destroy everything.

Where the red lotus bloomed, the surrounding temperature suddenly soared, and the Void Realm began to distort. No—

A heat that reached the depths of the Soul rose up with a roar.

The Karma Fire Calamity!

This calamity did not harm the Physical Body or damage the Divine Soul; instead, it pointed directly at a Cultivator's Karma.

It would ignite all the various Karmic Obstructions a Cultivator had created in their life.

The slaughter between Cultivators was a Karmic Obstruction.

Hunting Yao Beasts and harming living beings was also a Karmic Obstruction.

Even picking Spiritual Plants and taking the natural treasures of heaven and earth to nourish oneself was likewise a type of Karmic Obstruction.

And the more Karma one carried, the greater the power of the Karma fire.

And at this moment, more and more of those red lotus Karma fires bloomed.

One, two, ten, a hundred... in an instant, the entire canyon was covered by red lotuses!

The red lotuses were dense and layered, like a burning sea of flowers, submerging Lu Ming within!

Clearly, this was because a certain someone had created too much killing Karma.

And now, before Lu Ming's eyes, countless images also began to surface.

It was every person he had ever killed.

Liu Dong, Chang Yun, Huang Quan... the faces of those people, some clear, some blurry, some he remembered, some he had already forgotten.

But at this moment, they appeared one by one before his eyes, staring at him with hollow eyes, silently accusing him.

The scene shifted to every evil deed he had ever done. Deception, calculation, slaughter, betrayal...

Those past events he had long thrown to the back of his mind were now triggered one by one by the Karma Fire Calamity, like adding oil to a fire, making the red lotus Karma fire boil once more.

If it were an ordinary Cultivator, they would have already been swallowed by endless regret, their Dao Heart collapsing and their Divine Soul destroyed.

But Lu Ming...

“Huh?”

Almost in an instant, Lu Ming's expression went from tense to guarded, and finally from bewilderment to dumbfoundedness.

Simply because he had absolutely no karmic fruit on him at all!

The sky full of red lotus Karma fire was continuously scorching his Divine Soul, burning his Physical Body, and igniting his Karmic Obstructions.

However, this did not cause him the slightest bit of harm!

In Lu Ming's perception, this fire had almost no temperature; instead, it was warm and cozy, like soaking in a hot spring in winter, so comfortable it made one want to stretch.

“Pfft—”

Lu Ming couldn't hold it back and suddenly laughed out loud.

Although laughing was a bit inappropriate in this kind of situation, he really couldn't help it.

There was no other way; this scene was too dramatic. Even Lu Ming found it extremely strange; it was truly something one rarely sees in a lifetime.

“The golden book is awesome!”

What else could he say? He could only say the golden book was awesome.

This is what it means for ten thousand kinds of Karma to not touch the body!

No matter how many evil things he had done in the past, as long as it was transferred through the golden book, nothing remained; it vanished completely.

It was equivalent to him being directly whitewashed.

To anyone looking, Lu Ming would seem like the kind of Saint who wouldn't even step on an ant. This kind of person simply wasn't a bad person; even if he really killed someone, it would be the other party's fault.

Enemies: “...”

So we died for nothing!

“Invincibility, how lonely it is!”

Feeling the warm Aura around him, the corners of Lu Ming's mouth turned up.

Originally, he thought the most difficult to endure among the five calamities would be this first one, the Karma Fire Calamity.

After all, along his journey, he had killed and looted, cheated and deceived, burned and pillaged countless times.

The number of people who died directly or indirectly at his hands could only be described as exaggerated.

By this count, his Karmic Obstructions had accumulated to a terrifying level.

Originally, he had planned to use the Tiangang Law to directly tank through it, but who knew it wouldn't be that much trouble at all; the karma golden book naturally solved all future troubles for him.

Praise the golden book.

“Since that's the case, then I won't be polite.”

Lu Ming smiled slightly, his vast magic power surging, with the Tiangang Law added to it.

A majestic Aura erupted from his body, like a blazing sun rising in this canyon!

The Tiangang Law already had the mystery of being impervious to all techniques; not only could it break Spells and Divine Abilities, but it could also break all falsehoods and all Karmic Obstructions!

Not to mention that the current Karma fire caused him no harm, so its power could be said to be pitifully weak.

Thus, this sky full of Karma fire phantoms, which looked extremely intimidating, instantly melted under the impact of this golden light, like snow meeting a blazing sun!

It was forcibly crushed and turned into nothingness by the Tiangang Law!

Karma Fire Calamity, broken!

“Too easy, give me some more intensity!”

Having passed the calamity he was most wary of, Lu Ming also began to show off.

Perhaps his appearance was too punchable, for the moment his words fell, the second calamity followed closely behind!

Between heaven and earth, endless water vapor suddenly surged.

That water vapor surged from the depths of the earth, seeped out from the Void Realm, and converged from all directions, turning into a vast ocean in an instant.

That water was not ordinary water, but displayed a bizarre mysterious black color, heavy enough to be suffocating and deep enough to make one's heart palpitate.

The Mysterious Water Calamity.

mysterious water: when the world first opened, Chaos was not yet divided and the clear and turbid were not yet distinguished, a wisp of the most Yin and most cold Qi sank into the Nine Serenities. After ten thousand years of condensation, it turned into mysterious water.

This water was as heavy as a thousand pounds; a single drop could crush a mountain Peak.

It was also bone-chillingly cold and could freeze the life force of all things.

But the most bizarre part of this water was that once a living being fell into it, they would sink forever and never be liberated.

As the saying goes: Three thousand weak waters, all who enter sink, nothing can cross.

At this moment, that mysterious water was like a living thing, turning into countless black water dragons, pouncing toward Lu Ming from all directions!

Each water dragon was a hundred zhang long, complete with scales and claws, emitting a suffocating and terrifying pressure!

The water dragons opened their giant mouths, inside of which was endless darkness, as if wanting to swallow Lu Ming along with his Soul!

Lu Ming frowned slightly and struck out with a palm!

With the Tiangang Law added, this palm strike was powerful enough to shatter mountain Peaks! A golden palm Aura whistled out, striking one of the water dragons!

However, that palm Aura entered the water dragon's body but was like a clay ox entering the sea, disappearing without a trace.

Not even a splash was made.

Lu Ming's pupils shrank slightly; he felt the bizarre nature of that mysterious water.

It wasn't 'taking' the attack, but 'devouring' the attack.

Any power that fell into it would be melted, neutralized, and devoured by that most Yin and most cold mysterious water.

Even as strong as the Tiangang Law was, at this moment, it actually seemed to have no way to start.

“Interesting.”

The corners of Lu Ming's mouth turned up slightly, and he didn't panic.

He raised his right hand and lightly clenched his fingers.

Law of Xun Wind, fully activated!

A cyan light erupted from his palm, turning into a cyan tornado that connected heaven and earth!

That tornado spun frantically, sucking everything within a dozens-of-mile radius into it!

Those countless mysterious water black dragons, the moment they touched the tornado, were torn to pieces by that extreme, violent wind power!

mysterious water splashed everywhere, but it couldn't get even slightly close to Lu Ming!

The Law of Wind: extremely fast and shadowless, violent and peerless!

Even the mysterious water would be affected!

However, that mysterious water seemed to have gained intelligence; seeing that turning into dragons was useless, it changed its strategy.

BOOM!!!

The entire ocean moved.

It didn't turn into water dragons or any other form; instead, the entire ocean, like a moving sea, overturned toward Lu Ming!

The scene was as if a corner of the sky had collapsed, with endless seawater falling from the heavens!

It seemed as if the entire world was your enemy, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide!

Overturning the Heavens and the Seas!

The Mysterious Water Calamity condensed all its power into one, seemingly wanting to completely crush Lu Ming with its overwhelming momentum!