Immortal Kingdoms

When the phenomenon reached a certain extent, someone finally muttered shakily, "This is no longer a heavenly tribulation, it's a retribution!"

Dark clouds engulfed the entire mountain range at this point and no one could pry past them to spectate the ongoing tribulation. Moreover, they could hear the crackling thunderstorms in the belly of each cloud, about to descend like the advent of a pandemonium.

This much power brewing in the dark cast a spell of despair on everyone present at the scene, making them feel stifled. At this point, everyone realized that the high divinity undergoing the zero rebirth must be Leonardo—otherwise Rosaline and a group of women wouldn't be standing to the side, with abundant worry in their eyes.

Rosaline's had to keep a protective domain around the group as their strength wasn't up to par, let alone two non-cultivators in their midst.

News about this tribulation was quickly sent back through the proper channels to both interested and irrelevant parties—the outcome of such divulgence remains unknown.

While all of this happened, things were getting even more hectic within the dome of the tribulation.

The laws from the sub-dimension were already starting to surface on Leonardo's body in myriad phenomena; sometimes cold and sometimes hot; sometimes radiant and sometimes dark; sometimes dusty and sometimes ash; all the laws seemed to clash.

Leonardo's skin began to splinter but that was not all, he could feel the mental barrier of his sea of consciousness together with the spirit bend as well.

As a medium of law, his body was about to disintegrate and disperse throughout the region of his domain, assisting in the assimilation of the foreign sub-dimension and the native forces to the core mainland.

Leonardo quickly began to lose sensation throughout his entire body—there wasn't any pain, it was all numb.

A faint indistinct heartbeat thumped in his deep consciousness moments before his mind and spirit blended into the world, a faint voice echoing in his mind.

"Cold flames of vengeance thrumming from my heart; thumping through my veins; what are exalted gods but pitiful victims in my hands?!"

Thump!

A faint black ripple of energy spread from Leonardo's body the moment it dissolved into threads of law, leaving behind a levitating black heart that the laws wound around yet didn't dare touch or approach.

This black wave didn't only propel Leonardo's consciousness to proliferate the entire mountain range unhindered by the suppression of the natural laws, but everything seemed to progress too smoothly instead.

While this happened, unbeknownst to Leonardo, the entire mountain range became a gray area in the perception of everyone who was directly or indirectly paying attention to this region.

Star lords and those above them didn't need to be physically present to pry into the situation of the rebirth tribulation—it was unknown whether or not they even cared about it.

However, for an entire batch of the natural laws to suddenly go incognito in their perception, although the ripple caused by this wasn't something people in the star realm could fully perceive or comprehend—that's precisely what made it so intriguing.

Leonardo didn't know that his advancement was about to magnetize the attention of the secular world martial factions to his fledgling kingdom—but he wouldn't care either way.

He knew that whenever he received help from his King's Karma, there would be a price to pay, and not always would there be someone to help out.

For example, the last time the black heart intervened, if he wasn't careful, everyone around him would have been exterminated by the Interstellar Supreme Court; Rosaline had even died once and planet Earth was destroyed.

Thus, even if he didn't know what repercussions this might cause, he was mentally prepared.

He was currently immersed in a great feeling of standing as an overseer or perhaps an overlord. That mysterious push of energy seemed very compatible with his innate martial intent, driving his fluidity of commanding and comprehending the fragmented laws greatly.

He had assumed it might take a few years for him to mend these laws after drawing the sub-dimension into his domain—he didn't want to finish his tribulation before he perfected the laws even if he had to go through the tribulation for years to come.

The black heart, however, instantly solved this problem.

All of these laws seemed docile while the spatial nodes smoothed connected—whether it was due to the split soul or the throne fragment, Leonardo didn't know.

Nonetheless, the sub-dimension and the four intertwined domains smoothly overlapped while the dark retribution clouds past the domain grew even stronger, as though infuriated that Leonardo isolated them outside.

It was like blatantly kidnapping the precious children of the heavenly laws and brainwashing them into servitude.

Once Leonardo's consciousness spread to anchor all eight directions including the four extremities, the entire mountain range shuddered—even the main mountain seemed to go silent and inconspicuous under the energy waves from the black heart.

Even as Leonardo tried to probe the heart with his mind; it was fruitless.

He could only feel a sea—an ocean of black blood tossing and turning inside the heart, nothing more.

Crack!

Space shuddered and blurred as two worlds seemed to overlap, images of the familiar yet unfamiliar sub-dimension began to flash by on occasion.

The laws of the two worlds began to clash and fuse, supplementing each other while complementing strengths and weaknesses.

These were the foundational laws that will soon construct Leonardo's new body and hence, the entire process was solemn and delicate, especially when Leonardo's consciousness began to wane and dim during the assimilation.

This was the last process of the first phase; death.

Leonardo was about to experience death and blend into the natural world as one only to experience rebirth and become one and whole with his domain.

If the domain was breached at this delicate moment—a cultivator can forget about ever experiencing a rebirth in this lifetime. Thus, unless absolutely confident, no one would dare take this step.

Leonardo was different—the four domains had already been fused into a sturdy fortress, not to mention reinforced by a mysterious energy that even Leonardo couldn't understand despite being its source.

Time trickled by but no one was impatient, this was rebirth and it would take a lot of time.

No one anticipated it to end anytime soon and thus, many people began to depart from this location as they didn't really care.

Half a year later, only those who truly cared, be it for good or bad reasons, stood far from the edge of the domain.

Rumble!

The land shook as the domain began to shrink considerably, drawing everyone's attention.

"Done already?"

The rebirth realm from the Magistrate Manor was surprised, expecting it to take at least a year and at most five or six years judging by the records left behind by Memento Mori's rebirth realm cultivators.

"Is there a problem?"

Rosaline asked from a distance, furrowing her brows.

"Not a problem per se…" the woman felt a bit awkward, how could she explain this?

She thought for a moment and said, "The rebirth realm could be said to be a foundational step for everyone who seeks higher realms and typically, the duration of the tribulation reflects the number of laws someone grasped and whether or not they completely fused with these laws…"

She felt weird that someone with Rosaline's strength didn't know about these things but she explained them nonetheless.

Now that Rosaline thought about it, she did spend three years understanding and mending the laws of the vampire clan's dimension, not to mention it was very compatible with her, to begin with yet it consumed so much time.

Seeing as a flash of understanding appeared in Rosaline's eyes, the woman didn't say anything anymore as she assumed that Rosaline's worry for Leonardo momentarily clouded her judgment.