Spirit Vessel

"I knew it was you, Beiming Zhishang." The Divine King spoke.

He was the uncle of the current Grand Chancellor, Beiming Moshou and a top expert from this clan who was in the same generation as the Divine King. They fought three times and he lost all three.

"Feiyun is a deadman. Long Chuanfeng, you won't be able to protect him." Zhishang sneered.

"You're courting death if you want to kill my successor!" Two golden rays shot out from the king's eyes like thunder flashing in the sky. Zhishang quickly retreated into the clouds and summoned his Moon Mountain Cauldron to stop the two rays.

"Rumble!"

The king channeled a yellow spirit energy and condensed it into a saber before slashing forward.

This was the fifth slash of the Dragon King's Saber Art. The yellow dragon energy materialized into physical form and split the sky. This was countless times stronger than Feiyun's art.

"Boom!" The cauldron almost broke from the impact. Zhishang's shoulder had a large wound after being struck by the saber art with blood gushing out.

"Long Chuanfeng, you… you have actually reached ninth-level Heaven's Mandate, a Paramount Giant now…" Fear appeared on Zhishang's face.

"Just using the power of the eighth-level alone is enough to take you down in three moves." The Divine King replied.

The two exchanged their best moves again. Some amazing techniques actually had comparable might to a spirit treasure.

After just three moves, Beiming Zhishang vomited blood and lost for the second time. He didn't dare to linger around this time and screamed: "Long Chuanfeng, you win this time but it's not just my clan today. There are experts even stronger than me coming. You're going to pay a great price to protect the boy."

Zhishang disappeared from sight instantly using a heaven-defying art.

"You think you can leave that easily?" The Divine King was truly enraged today and wanted to kill him in order to make a point.

He has been quiet for too long so people have forgotten about his bloodthirst. They actually dared to come and try to kill his successor? That's simply not putting him in their eyes.

Must kill to intimidate others!

"Whoosh!" He swung his palm and a saber wave in the shape of a dragon flew out towards the horizon, aiming straight for Zhishang.

This was the sixth slash of the saber art!

A second miserable scream resounded for a thousand miles. A beautiful rain of blood fell down from the sky; another Giant has fallen.

"Long Chuanfeng… you win this time…" Zhishang used the other wounded Giant to stop the saber wave and seized the chance to escape.

"He's good at running." The Divine King wanted to attack again. However, a powerful shockwave came from behind him. Another person has attacked Feiyun while he was away.

He slightly shifted his body and rushed back with a jade seal in his hand. The power of the spirit treasure caused thunders to strike everywhere in the sky.

Two more half-step Giant and an actual Giant have been killed. Their body exploded into a mist of blood up above.

The Divine King was simply unstoppable with flowers of blood staining his clothes and circulating white draconic energy. He loomed above and declared: "Try if you wish to die!"

His majestic voice caused the clouds to tremble.

The scene became eerily quiet. None of the hiding masters dared to retort.

The blood of the Giants was still burning and painting the mountains red. Everyone felt that this was the scene of hell.

He was too powerful and had eliminated three Giants and two half-steps. Who could actually oppose his murderous prestige right now?

Feiyun was fighting against the tribulation underground but he could still feel the amazing battle raging above. It was definitely of the Giant level.

The twelfth lava wave was much more powerful than his imagination. It shattered both the six diagrams and the Heaven Battle Altar. The aura surrounding his body was being melted away. His flesh was finally invaded by this earthly energy. Luckily, the nine thousand beast souls were stopping this refining process.

Half of his hair has been burnt with wounds everywhere but he still managed to rush out of this lava wave.

"Feiyun has surpassed the twelfth wave now, is he first-level Heaven's Mandate…" This speaker immediately shuts up before finishing.

"Wait, he's not coming out completely but drilling even deeper. What the heck is going on?" Many experts used their divine intents to find him and found him sinking even more below.

At first, he was several hundred meters deep. Now, one thousand… two thousands… and even more. He almost disappeared from their sensing range.

These divine intents were stopped by the thick soil. Even first-level Heaven's Mandate had a range limit of one thousand meters underground.

The Divine King had a tinge of joy and austerity in his expression: "This is the legendary thirteenth wave."

Everyone was shocked including Zhang Badao. This was the first time they heard about it since they assumed the twelfth was the limit.

The king explained: "In the 'Marvelous Record', one supreme genius had been born in this region with an outrageous innate talent. He brought about the thirteenth wave during his Earth Tribulation. This wave is deep underground so one must get down in that ocean of lava to surpass this tribulation."

"How come I've never heard of this before?" Zhang Badao was astounded. There were too many strange things in the cultivation world. One must be strong enough before finding out about them.

This was the reason why there were so many frogs under the well.

The Divine King gave him the side-eye in response: "This supreme talent was born tens of thousand years ago. The Jin Dynasty didn't exist back then."

"What height did he reach in the end?" Badao became excited.

Even prodigies with twelve waves had incredible achievements in the future and became invincible. Now, his Junior Brother has brought about the next wave. It meant that his talents were even greater than the others. Thus, Badao's excitement became palpable.

The king shook his head: "The sea of lava down there isn't a place a grand achievement God Base could go. That supreme genius turned to ashes down there with a failed Earth Tribulation.

The smile on Badao's face disappeared instantly.

Incineration was the fate of a failed Earth Tribulation.

A power was pulling Feiyun in the center of the earth. His body had no choice but to approach closer. The soil and gravel actually made way for him.

The more downward he went, the hotter it became. Eventually, he fell into a sea of lava.

Feiyun was already prepared and summoned his spirit vessel. He stood on top with the Dragon-horse Diagram floating above to stop the liquid completely.

The lava here only had an ordinary temperature unlike the waves from the Earth Tribulation. They didn't have the same destructive power either.

"So this is the inner earth?" Feiyun was sweating profusely while exerting all of his spirit energy outward to the vessel.

Who knows how deep this place was below. A cultivator like him couldn't be here. Just the squeezing pressure of the earth alone could crush his body.

Luckily, the vessel barely protected him. This place was as deep as hell. The earth's core just needed to quake a bit and he would die without a grave even with the vessel in his possession.

Luck played a great factor in this place. Even without the next lava wave, he would die under the natural force of the earth.

This was not the time to linger around!

"Why isn't the thirteenth wave here yet?" The moment he had this thought, a monstrous flame swept through the sea of lava.

The thirteenth wave appeared and actually turned into a large humanoid form. It unleashed a palm towards Feiyun.

It was made from lava and the energy of the earth. This palm was very similar to the claw from the eleventh wave. However, this new one was a full humanoid.

While standing on the vessel, Feiyun had to withstand the force of the earth on top of fighting against this gigantic monster. This was more than ten times harder than dealing with the eleventh wave. He felt suffocated and unable to resist.

'Can't give up right now! Absolutely not! Giving up is death!'

Feiyun bit his teeth and his battle intent surged again.

'I shall fight!'

"Rumble!"

Feiyun unleashed all of his techniques in order to risk it all just once. The Infinite Spirit Ring, Thunderfire Jewel, stone saber, and the Heaven Punishing Hammer created from his divine intents.

All 9,876 beast souls rushed out from his body as well and turned into a brutish torrent that flooded the area.

His true body controlled the spirit vessel to fly towards the monstrous humanoid.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

More than one thousand beast souls were melted into smoke. Feiyun spat out blood with this grievous injury. Even his forty divine intents were beaten into submission, on the verge of dissipating. They had to fly back into his mind.

Nevertheless, he was still able to barely shatter the thirteenth wave as the reward.

"Damn. Almost got erased by that earthly energy. My luck is really something, to attract such a terrible Earth Tribulation. At least I got through it…"

His heart suddenly skipped a beat and felt that another power deeper into the earth was pulling him down. His body sank towards the sea of lava for the second time. [1]

1. Holy shit