Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension Chapter 1488 - 804: Catastrophe Strikes (Part 2)

With every integration, the crimson glow enveloping Zhao Sheng's skin intensified, while the bewildering force doubled in strength.

Time blurred into uncertainty, yet Zhao Sheng's thoughts swarmed with demonic urges, as myriad chanting voices hammered at his awareness without cease.

Boom!

Abruptly, flames burst forth from the void amid heaven and earth, dividing into vibrant five hues that blazed with ferocious intensity.

Successive pillars of multicolored fire materialized from nothing, swiftly coalescing into an immense ocean of flames.

The inferno roared upward toward the heavens, seeming poised to incinerate all existence, which in turn muted the persistent chants!

Clarity surged through Zhao Sheng in a flash, marking a pivotal shift in his mental state.

Instantly after, a gleam of spiritual radiance ignited, summoning rows of enigmatic "flame scripts" within his consciousness from the ether.

"Hah, Four Directions Immortal Monarch, Eastern Heaven Demon-clearing Immortal Monarch descends... my intent is like fire, refining demon and returning to truth!"

Zhao Sheng's face grew solemn as he chanted spells in a steady stream, forming over a hundred hand seals, until a purple blaze erupted from the core of his mind.

Whoosh~

As the final ancient demon-refining chant concluded, a fist-sized purple flame burst from his brow, diving into the five-hued fiery ocean where the conflagration exploded outward in all directions.

Guided by his inner will, the Demon Refining Heart Fire darted across innumerable "frequencies," altering the "will wave frequency" in thousands of variations within moments, thereby "purifying" the Five Emotions Demon Fire.

Astonishingly, the Five Emotions Demon Fire acted as kindling for the Demon Refining Heart Fire, transforming the multicolored blaze into an expansive purple fiery expanse.

Flames engulfed the whole realm, reducing illusions to cinders, as the echoing chants faded sharply, rendering this domain exceedingly "brittle."

In every path the fire advanced, fissures of varying sizes ignited open right away.

Zhao Sheng exhaled deeply in relief, striding fearlessly into the flames, where the crimson light scorched by the heart fire swiftly dissipated and grew faint...

Simultaneously, the foreign force binding his divine sense and mana began to falter rapidly, starting to yield just a bit.

Moments later, the chants ceased entirely, and this segment of heaven and earth exploded apart with a deafening rumble.

Zhao Sheng's eyes snapped open, with flickers of five-colored fire dancing in his irises.

Upon his return to awareness, a widespread purple blaze sprang up from the cadavers scattered on the ground, rapidly reducing them to drifting ash clouds.

...

While Zhao Sheng thwarted the foe's plot, far across immense spacetime, within a colossal Great Sun, a massive avian head abruptly lifted.

The phoenix stirred to life... yet again!

Its stare pierced the shadowy emptiness, locking onto a precise location, as a devastating intent rippled through the Great Sun: "...Finally found you, Kui Niu!"

Right then, endless fiery surges rolled over the Great Sun's exterior, and the phoenix's manifestation gradually submerged into the molten waves, invoking the Great Sun Divine Escape to shift to a distant Great Sun across a thousand Constant Years.

This star system hosting the Great Sun featured merely three worlds, one largely obliterated, the other two bearing scarred terrains like battlefields of a colossal conflict.

Amid the initial and final planets stretched an asteroid field, littered with myriad bodies, remnants drifting even in the vacuum to cluster into corpse mists.

Evidently, this belt had evolved gradually from the savage shattering of a planet.

Should Zhao be present, he'd instantly identify this compact stellar setup as the long-ago Demon Suppression Star System.

Uninterested in the system's backstory, the phoenix concentrated solely on detecting a strand of five-hued flame glow amid the void.

All at once, massive fiery billows erupted from the Great Sun's face!

...

Within the vast stellar array encompassing the Taiyi Spirit Realm, the central Great Sun poured out boundless radiance and warmth without end.

In a flash, the Great Sun's glow subtly waned, then flared back to full luminosity.

Naturally, this oddity went unnoticed by all, and none realized an unknown Tribulation Crossing Venerable had entered the system.

From the Great Sun's surface, a fiery column ascended gradually, bearing a figure clad in a feathered gown at its peak.

The garment burned with scarlet intensity, radiating an aura of unmatched tyranny beyond words.

A silver mask concealed the woman's features, etched with an image of a phoenix unfurling its wings in soar.

The phoenix swiveled, directing her sight toward a massive orb, ringed by a stellar band at its edge.

Composed of vaporous worlds, the star ring shimmered with majestic splendor.

Her vision glided past the ring, zeroing in on a specific landmass of the colossal world, her eyes igniting with fervent blaze.

The instant after, she vanished into nothingness.

...

At the same time,

Zhao Sheng observed the bodies dissolving into dust, his spirit weighed down heavily.

Yet the very next instant, his visage twisted in alarm, an overwhelming unexplained dread swelling inside, hinting at looming peril.

With rising cultivation levels, a cultivator's senses and perceptions sharpen progressively, bestowing the skill to "evade threats by their trace and heed instinctive urges," and ultimately attaining the arcane realm of "foreknowledge."

Ever since entering the Unification Realm, Zhao Sheng had cultivated a subtle intuition resembling "near foreknowledge."

Absent intentional concealment of celestial omens by a supreme power, he typically perceived approaching hazards in advance.

Right now, for the first time, an overwhelming aura of catastrophe loomed over him.

Zhao Sheng scanned his surroundings, his divine sense enveloping thousands of li across every angle, but detected no hint of the threat's source.

As moments ticked by, the foreboding intensified sharply. Zhao Sheng's chest constricted, his divine sense narrowing to a slender thread that delved into the Jade Void Cave under Dragon Head Peak.

No one?!

Zhao Xuanjing wasn't secluded in cultivation within the Jade Void Cave; his whereabouts remained a mystery.

Can't wait any longer!

Sensing the threat mounting, Zhao Sheng resolved himself, his form blurring as he teleported straight to the Five Thunders Cave Heaven.

Beneath the skies, nothing offered greater safety and concealment than one's personal cave heaven. Thus, confronting unseen perils, he opted to shelter briefly inside to dodge the disaster.

No sooner had he withdrawn into the cave heaven than, over the Four Holy Continents, a masked figure in feathered attire materialized from void; it was the Great Venerable Phoenix herself.

The Phoenix's gaze wavered faintly while surveying the terrain below, whispering to herself: "...vanished?"

"Haha, you can’t escape. Someday..."

Howling astral winds dispersed her utterance, carrying away the scarlet-clad silhouette.

...

Five Thunders Cave Heaven.

Amid a shimmer of luminance and shade, Zhao Sheng materialized abruptly atop a ridgeline.

Once back in the cave heaven, the dread of doom vanished in an instant!

Sigh~

Zhao Sheng released a prolonged exhale, offhandedly clearing the chill perspiration from his brow, gradually easing his inner tension.

"Where does the danger originate from? Red Eyebrow Demon Path? Or... Taiyi Spirit Palace? Or perhaps..." Thoughts whirled chaotically in his head like a tempest.

Zhao Sheng reviewed the incidents repeatedly, abruptly grasping: "No, it’s not the Red Eyebrow Demon Path, but the Five Emotions Demon Fire!"

The revival of the Five Emotions Demon Fire had sparked his intense alarm.

Reflecting on its source, Zhao Sheng at once pinpointed the peril's origin.

Yes, it must be that old woman Phoenix who came for me!

This is... tricky!

At that realization, Zhao Sheng's heart clenched, his countenance turning profoundly severe.

...

After half a day, Zhao Sheng summoned a cloud cluster and settled into a cross-legged pose upon it, his features etched with concern.

Even after pondering for hours, no strategy emerged to fully evade the Phoenix's hunt.

Only by hurling the Kui Niu Treasure from his Purple Mansion past the Nine Heavens could he hope to elude her detection forever.

Though he'd gauged the Tribulation Crossing Venerable's might as maximally as feasible, the Phoenix surpassed the norm; a Lord Wanxing backed her.

He understood clearly that the vaunted Divine Beast Treasure was in truth a Demigod Device, and the Divine Beast Messenger served as a meticulously forged corporeal form by Lord Wanxing.

It remained unpredictable if Lord Wanxing might manifest in the Mortal World via the Phoenix's authentic form during a critical juncture.

Provoking Lord Wanxing's intervention would spell certain doom for him.

Weighing options repeatedly, Zhao Sheng turned his attention to a particular restrained fractured brush.

A mere mental stir caused the Hundred Generations Book to ascend gradually from the Soul Sea's depths... A barren, snapped pen adhered to the volume's base, inert as a lifeless relic.

Zhao Sheng extended a thread of divine sense, gingerly approaching the fractured pen.

Bang!

Struck like thunder, agony tore through his soul, plunging him into immediate blackout.

After an indefinite span, Zhao Sheng roused gradually, assaulted by throbbing skull pain and a vision drowned in red.

His fingers brushed his orbital rim, coming away slick with abundant scarlet fluid.

At the same time, within the Purple Mansion Soul Sea's profundity, the Primordial Spirit's dharma form grew lackluster, marred by countless fissures across its exterior.

A single wisp of divine sense's contact had inflicted grievous harm upon his primordial spirit.

The fractured pen's might proved horrifically immense!