Chapter 1297: Thousand Years of Waiting
Looking at Suo Mingzhang, Yan Zhaoge said in a deep tone, “Senior Suo, please take care of your wellbeing. It’s very risky for you this time.”
“I know. Not only the Immeasurable Heavenly Lords, but even the Maitreya Buddha might also not favor me.” Suo Mingzhang smiled, “When the Immeasurable Heavenly Lord comes to capture me, the Maitreya Buddha would definitely not let go of the chance to reap some benefits. However, he might purposely give the Immeasurable Heavenly Lord some time.”
If he couldn’t withstand the short amount of time, nothing would matter anymore.
If he could and waited until the Future Buddha attacked the hollow Immortal Court together with the Blessed Lands, the Immeasurable Heavenly Lord would be forced to be on defence. As a result, he would temporarily give up on focusing on the Three Clear lineage.
Despite having a.s.sistance to help with their defense, the Blessed Lands would gain support as well. To fend off the Future Buddha, the Immeasurable Heavenly Lord would have to defend the Immortal Court personally.
However, withstanding such a race in life and death was too tricky.
It was so difficult that no one would have the confidence in withstanding it.
“Please do help me take care of Junhuang’s corpse. I might not be able to return to visit him as frequently.” Suo Mingzhang let out a rare sigh.
His entire body was clad in raging flames. The dragon scales on his skin vanished, and his dragon horns disappeared as well.
The flames were growing stronger and stronger. Only Suo Mingzhang’s appearance seemed to have reverted to his original state.
However, from the perspective of others, something felt different about him.
He felt… even larger.
As everyone was in a daze, his head had already got near to the six stars materialised by the North Star Emperor.
When Jiang Shen heard the conversation of Suo Mingzhang and Yan Zhaoge, he already started frowning. Now that he saw what was happening, his entire body trembled, “Daoist Suo, have you reached such a level, and can take that step to advance now?”
“Not now, but a thousand years ago.”
Suo Mingzhang looked sad.
The melodious sounds of wind chimes seemed to resound beside his ears.
Indeed, a thousand years ago.
A thousand years ago, when he returned to the Flame Dragon World to visit his parent’s graves and left Shao Junhuang’s hand fan there, he could already take this step forward.
For him, making this advancement wasn’t a matter of whether he could, but whether he wanted to.
At that time, he didn’t want to.
The reason being if he took this step forward, he might be targeted by the Immeasurable Heavenly Lord and the Future Buddha.
He liked martial arts and enjoyed venturing martial art techniques. However, he wouldn’t fight with someone to death for no reason, especially if it was a match that he knew he would lose.
Even if he were to fight, it would be when he desired it, or when he wanted to witness more profundities of the world. At that time, even if he were to risk his life, he wouldn’t be afraid to do so if it meant gaining more insights into Dao itself.
Of course, he was even more unwilling to be illuminated by others.
If he were to take that advancement, he would have to continually float within the void, just like the North Star Emperor, the Southern Extremity Longevity Emperor, and the Incongruence Divine Mother to prevent all of it from happening. He would be floating around while being half-asleep to avoid being located by the Immeasurable Heavenly Lord and the Future Buddha.
While it doesn’t mean that he would have to conceal himself from the world eternally, he would have numerous restrictions.
He was unwilling.
He had more important things that had to be done.
Locate the whereabouts of Shao Junhuang.
At that time, one thousand four hundred years and above had pa.s.sed since the disappearance of Shao Junhuang.
Suo Mingzhang had been searching for a thousand four hundred years as well but ended up finding nothing. As a result, he wanted to continue his search.
At that time, in order to locate Shao Junhuang, he forced himself to remain in the same realm for a thousand years and stopped himself from taking that advancement.
Now, in order to take care of Shao Junhuang’s descendant, he purposely remained in his realm of cultivation. After a group of enemies had appeared, he would just wipe them out in one go.
As a Virtual Immortal Realm, he couldn’t do anything when the North Star Emperor was protecting Jiang Shen and Yang Ce.
If that’s the case, he would take that step forward and become a Grand Heavenly Immortal!
As for the treasured light imbued with faith power that filled the skies…
“Immortal Court, all pests below the Heavenly Lord.” Suo Mingzhang’s expression wasn’t sad anymore. Within his gaze, flames seemed to be surging vigorously. He looked at Heavenly Lord Zhao, the Treasure Confinement Heavenly Lord, and all the other Grand Heavenly Immortals.
“The Heavenly Lord I mentioned was the Immeasurable Heavenly Lord, not the bunch of you.”
Beneath the Heaven Severing, the myriad of laws was ineffective. The flames on the short-haired man’s body had engulfed the entire World beyond Worlds and were even growing outwards.
The Immortal Court experts that realised something was off didn’t give Suo Mingzhang any time. They started their barrage of continuous and fanatical attacks.
All of a sudden, the few Heavenly Immortals and a group of Immortal Realm experts worked together. The ripples of their fanatical strength could almost tear the Dao universe apart.
The cosmos was only able to maintain itself from collapsing because of the North Star Emperor’s efforts to support it.
Jiang Shen and Yang Ce were concentrating on Suo Mingzhang’s condition nervously.
You couldn’t become a Heavenly Immortal as you wished.
One would have to pa.s.s the Immortal Mortal Tribulation to ascend from a Martial Saint to a True Immortal; one would have to cross the Pure Profound Tribulation to ascend from a True Immortal to a Profound Immortal; one would have to pa.s.s the Profound Origin Tribulation to ascend from a Profound Immortal to a Virtual Immortal.
Similarly, to advance from a Virtual Immortal to a Heavenly Immortal, one would have to pa.s.s the Origin Heavenly Tribulation!
The Origin Heavenly Tribulation that was much scarier than the Profound Origin Tribulation!
In the long pa.s.sage of history, numerous Heavenly Monarchs perished under this tribulation. Worse still, the majority of the people were afraid of it and would instead remain in the Heavenly Monarch Realm.
Facing the besiegement of numerous experts, with four great Heavenly Immortals within, how would Suo Mingzhang safely pa.s.s this tribulation and face this situation? After all, he had to face enemies from outside, and from within as well.
This made all the Immortal Court expert’s nervous emotion to relax.
However, in the next instant, brilliance radiated from Suo Mingzhang’s eyes.
Tribulation was nurtured from within the body and expanded from inwards to outwards.
Brilliance flickered across Suo Mingzhang’s body. After all the brilliance condensed toward his eyes, they transformed into blazing flames which shot out from his eyes.
The flames transformed into a road which led to the heavens. It isolated Suo Mingzhang from the others.
Everyone’s hearts sank when they saw it.
He instantly pa.s.sed the Origin Heavenly Tribulation and overcame the calamity that descended upon him. He even turned the inner tribulation to an outer one, which stopped the external foes!
Previously, when Suo Mingzhang announced that he could become a Heavenly Immortal a thousand years ago, not many people believed it.
However, seeing this scene, everyone had no more doubts!
The blazing flames separated the cosmic void. Even when Suo Mingzhang was within, he seemed not to be a part of the cosmos anymore.
Between the two flowers on his head, a third flower appeared in the centre!
Three Flowers Converged Crown, Five Qis Unification!
Heavenly Immortal’s grand physique was an everlasting and unbounded existence.
Grand Heavenly Immortal Realm!
Within the brilliance, Suo Mingzhang’s figure started fading.
Only layers of flames were continuously being shot out. Seals surged from the fiery light and remained in the cosmos for a long time.
A star arose from the sea of fire.
It wasn’t an imaginary star, nor was it materialized from Suo Mingzhang’s power. It was a real star!
The vast and boundless void was being affected by Suo Mingzhang. Multiple stars surged out of the blazing fiery sea one after another.
Whenever the dazzling starlights got near, boundless flames were devouring its surface.
The blazing hot flames of the sun started collapsing in the centre, its strength becoming even more overbearing.
The fiery world that Suo Mingzhang transformed into made the entire Dao universe on the verge of burning.
The flames’ crackling sounds emitted a music tone as profound as the North Star Emperor’s sonorous sound and resounded throughout the entire universe.
Within the Dao universe, no matter if it’s the World beyond Worlds or the Roving Jade Heavens, or even all the lower realms and s.p.a.ces, every living being could hear this melody and witness the fiery lights which engulfed the entire world.
The miraculous thing was that despite the melody being profound, everyone could understand what it meant.
Among the martial arts pract.i.tioners born after the Great Calamity, the first Heavenly Lord had appeared!