Chapter 880: Chapter 360: Breaking Through the First Calamity
To be honest, the projects of Xian can now yield results due to the favorable timing, location, and harmony among people.
If at that time, Emperor Zangwu had indeed become immortal and did not leave behind this Immortal Fate...
The Night Emperor would probably have had to follow the traditional Civilization Dynasty, silently developing his Taoist System over a long period.
At the very least, he would have to wait a million years.
To await the arrival of the next Sacrificial Era cycle.
By then, emperors from future eras would rise in tens of thousands of years of history.
One legendary Tao Venerate, Taoist God, and Taoist Saint would emerge after another, while formidable figures would appear in the Netherworld...
Even the Night Emperor’s own children would have to contend with him for the position of becoming immortal.
The Night Emperor can defeat Emperor Changjin once or twice but cannot keep winning forever.
But now?
In less than five thousand years of the era’s burgeoning beginnings, belonging to a Taoist Era,
the immortality achievements of the previous Sacrificial Era have been brought forward.
Sacrificing an Emperor Zangwu who did not become immortal yet brought greater possibilities for future generations.
As the Night Emperor said, such coincidences mark the Heaven’s Chosen.
"Did it really succeed?"
Upon receiving the news, Emperor Zangwu hurried to the entrance of the laboratory, appearing surprised and saying:
"I truly bet right, the potential of the Taoist System is extraordinary."
"I merely waited a few more thousand years to become immortal again. In reality, it’s not a loss; I can still complete the Immortal Path Foundation and become immortal with the Taoist System!"
"Compared to the Martial Arts Immortal, this Taoist Immortal has unlimited potential."
"Chance, indeed it is chance!"
Emperor Zangwu was very pleased, feeling an exhilarating sense of joy.
Nothing compares to being a gambler risking it all and then winning big - it’s more thrilling and satisfying.
The Masked Emperor, the Prime Minister, spoke: "However, it is heard that though it is possible to replicate several Xian positions, it requires a lot of resources, needing to continuously recharge Xian’s body to fill up and condense the Immortal Fate."
"This is already very good."
The enthusiastic disciple, Night God Banquet, also couldn’t help but praise: "This is all part of the great system father pioneered—Taoist!"
He paused, looking at Emperor Zangwu with anticipation: "Like father, you are both unparalleled figures throughout history, each pioneering a great era!"
Night God Banquet was extremely excited, becoming immortal... does this mean he would have a place in the future as well?
As known.
In this world, the Sacrificial Era has cycled many times.
Many ascended immortals left all sorts of information.
In past eras, it wasn’t that there hadn’t been geniuses with Immortal Fate researching, but they couldn’t produce any results.
In today’s stage of destiny...
"Good luck, truly versatile!!"
Emperor Zangwu couldn’t help but think while waiting outside, with plenty of scholars gathered around, drawn by the wind of hope.
Crack.
Soon, the laboratory doors opened.
The Immortal Aunt, Mudworker, and other project leaders came with a group of scholars, announcing the good news.
"The experiment is basically completed, and the path to becoming immortal can proceed. Elder Emperor Zangwu can try first and enter the Xian shell."
"You are more experienced, having walked halfway there before; see what is different this time."
Emperor Zangwu, without hesitation, directly entered the laboratory.
This Xian’s essence is, in fact, a composite of various divine techniques capable of recharging.
Among them, there are even sneaky incorporations of Jiu Shui and the Masked Emperor from next door, All Saints Form...
Various ever-changing divine techniques undergo meticulous procedures to recharge this Xian shell.
Three days later.
Emperor Zangwu brought good news.
This Immortal Fate is no different from before, capable of evolving people and enhancing the essence of life.
This news caused all Taoists to cheer.
"We have witnessed great history!"
"From today on, we don’t need the cyclical Sacrificial Era anymore. No longer is one era just one Immortal Fate, for we have broken the earthly rules!"
"Hahaha, we truly are Heaven’s Chosen."
"We have developed a conventional pathway to ascend to immortality!"
Everyone was extremely excited and thrilled, anticipating the routinization of becoming immortal.
At this moment.
Jian Xin, as the Emperor of the Heart, descended accompanied by a Celestial Soldier:
"Has our era just started, and we’re already becoming immortal? Our foundation is still insufficient, isn’t this too hasty?"
The Night Emperor paid no heed to his slightly misaligned foolish son, walking slowly with his wife Ye Tian’ai, smiling faintly:
"Indeed, this is a happy worry."
He was still polite towards Jian Xin,
"In every other prehistorical civilization, they pushed their own civilization to its peak, only we are not at the peak yet, and at the start, we are already prepared for ascension."
Though he said so, the Night Emperor did not fear in the slightest.
The allure of becoming immortal was too great for him; he wanted immortality and the qualification to cross worlds to fight back to the Nine-State!
The neighboring Nine-State was already about to contend for the Xian position aloud.
His eyes were bright with snow, full of anticipation, "Should catch up, right? Aiming for that enormous immortal position over there is another chance!"
He left his foolish son, chattering away around Emperor Zangwu’s teacher.
—Bringing his wife, returning home in glory!
...
...
Ning Zheng suppressed the tribulation, and upon exiting seclusion to check on the intelligence from outside, she saw this scene and frowned slightly.
Is the neighboring place becoming immortal...??
This speed is quite fast.
Only eight hundred years, and Ning Zheng here is just over a week.
"However, is he serious? Planning to take his wife back to the Nine-State?"
Ning Zheng had a bold idea flash in his mind, and his expression turned peculiar.
"That fellow... could he be thinking of bringing his beautiful childhood sweetheart back to the Sword Casting Manor, and showing off crazily to those goofy blacksmiths pretending to be little Daoists and Taoist Nuns?"
He can’t be that childish, can he?
He surely can’t?
He has already become the Night Emperor, a mythic emperor who opened an era...
However.
Thinking from another perspective.
The true Night Emperor, bringing his wife back... what about this counterfeit Night Emperor?
This artist who painted the "time-traveling" Night Emperor, what will do?
Looking at him in shock: Who are you, and how did you bring my wife back from the Celestial Destiny World? Return my wife!
Two Night Emperors, fighting over a wife...
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Ning Zheng shifted his thoughts, and dismissed the idea of watching the drama. Instead, he cursed:
"What an artist, engaging in such absurd, tasteless antics, probably just waiting for the Night Emperor to snatch the wife and start a fight?"
But speaking of it.
The next door just resolved the cause-and-effect tribulation, and in eight hundred years, a civilization exploded.
Indeed, I shouldn’t underestimate others’ speed to roll up their sleeves, nor can I underestimate the capacity of the idle blacksmith adventure team.
They aren’t traditional silly slacker blacksmiths, they’re capable, having grown into super blacksmiths over thousands of years.
This made Ning Zheng a bit tense,
"Now that the breakthrough has been over ten days, the foundation seems stable. Looks like it’s time to seclude and break through the first realm."
He faces the Three Calamities and Seven Tribulations, a total of ten stages.
The first three stages of Self-Transformation: Body Me, Soul Me, Command Me.
Ning Zheng built a Protective Shield, isolating the outside world.
[-1 Billion]
Suddenly, his body exploded, collapsing like a flood, shattering, disintegrating, he emitted a silent dead aura all over.
A pungent decaying corpse smell permeated his surroundings.
Soon, his skin rotted quickly, dissolved, revealing black-red stinking flesh and internal organs, which also dissolved, leaving only bare white bones.
He died.
The physical body completely died.
This is the Self-Transformation Realm, its essence is: Butterfly Transformation, breaking the chrysalis into a butterfly.
Each previous body cycle was like a silk worm perfecting the skeleton, skin, eventually breaking out.
Those who cannot break the chrysalis are destined to become dead embryos.
Each molt, bone renewal, essence transformation of the self is an ordeal.
If successful, transcends life.
If failed, the body dies, Tao vanishes.
This step is extremely risky, choosing to spend many years carefully honing the body before attempting to pass the first Body Me tribulation.
Every cultivator in the Self-Transformation Realm is a super genius, as long as resources are adequate, time is plentiful, what seems like a life and death realm actually poses little risk.
Thus the essence of the Self-Transformation Realm is meticulous work, achieving Perfection before Butterfly Transformation, unless like Ning Zheng, who is too lazy to grind time and just charges ahead, facing life and death.
But Ning Zheng doesn’t care.
He has a rich foundation, a perfect physical body, and abundant destiny!
At this time, Ning Zheng remained only a skeleton, still rotting.
Crack! Crack!
His bones shattered, like decayed, easily broken dry wood, breaking inch by inch.
This is seeking life in death.
This is the first body calamity among the Three Calamities.
This is the last realm before becoming immortal.
Others may cultivate only one system, thus they undergo only one of the Three Calamities.
They cultivate only one divine technique, thus face only one of the Seven Tribulations.
Their Self-Transformation Realm has only two stages; for them, before becoming immortal, they only need to endure one calamity and one tribulation.
Yet Ning Zheng is different, Three Calamities and Seven Tribulations, only then achieving Perfection.
Just as Ning Zheng was preparing to slowly get through this tribulation, suddenly his body’s Hundred Billion Tribulation Core emitted a strange, mysterious power, quickly absorbing the decaying tribulation qi on Ning Zheng undergoing.
"The tribulation in my body is absorbing the body calamity I’m going through?"
Ning Zheng didn’t have time to be surprised.
A new, massive, rebirth-like transformative force slowly awakened from within his body.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
With each breath, expanding and contracting, his body began to rapidly reassemble.
Vast life force started to surge, flesh, bones, viscera continuously regenerated.
His bones became radiant like jade, blood like golden liquid, veins filled with explosive power.
"Such a strong body, this is truly breaking the chrysalis into a butterfly."
"No wonder... cultivators and divine beasts in the Self-Transformation Realm would fall and transform into treasures of mountains, various jades, divine gold, immortal herbs."
"No wonder their bodies can forge extremely terrifying immortal weapons, divine artifacts."
The top immortal artifacts in this world are forged from various Self-Transformation Realm materials, because their bodies at this realm transcend, already forming various top treasures.
At this moment.
Ning Zheng felt his body could also forge all kinds of divine weapons, being excellent forging materials.
