Spirit Vessel

The black monument displayed a terrifying aura with clouds and humanoids chanting heavenly spells.

The fourteenth lava wave was being heavily suppressed but still continued to assault the dantian's wall and pried it open.

The dantian had three levels: Upper, middle, and lower.

Cultivators below Heaven's Mandate worked on their upper.

The ones above worked on their middle which is also known as the Violet Central Palace.

The middle dantian was countless times larger than the upper. It hid many mysteries and cultivators could dedicate their whole lives without learning everything.

The body was a great treasury that could gestate a power comparable to the universe. This dantian made up seventy percent of this treasury.

Its opening was the first step to Heaven's Mandate.

The God Base created by Feiyun jumped into the middle dantian and was dissolved by the energy within. It turned into divine rays before condensing together to form a domain with the shape of a basket. It occupied its own space in this area.

This space wasn't small at all but just the tip of the iceberg when compared to the vast middle dantian.

"Whoosh!" The monument turned into a black speck as well and rushed into this area. It spun around the domain created by the God Base and began to absorb the magical energy in this Violet Palace.

This was the prelude to creating a soulbound artifact. The monument was mysterious with an unfathomable power. There were eighteen heroes on the surface; each the strongest of their respective cultivation.

He could actually survive this if he could refine it into his soulbound artifact. He sat on his vessel and began the process. This was the most crucial moment. A powerful soulbound artifact was the final move for a cultivator and could reverse the tide.

The wound on his dantian automatically healed and spirit energy poured down towards the middle dantian. It was a bottomless hole, virtually impossible to fill.

Feiyun opened all 360 of his meridians. They spun like vortexes and absorbed the energy in the outside world. This energy made it to the upper first before reaching the middle dantian. It was an endless process.

After the spirit energy reached the middle dantian, it became assimilated with the magical energy inside the violet palace. The purity and power became several times higher than previous.

The black monument absorbed this violet energy. Its aura became more and more similar to Feiyun, seemingly wanting to fuse together with him and becoming a part of his body.

More and more energy from the outside came like a flood and was turned into the violet energy.

His current domain made from the God Base within the middle dantian was only as large as the upper dantian.

As he grew stronger, the God Base's domain would also become larger and able to contain more violet energy with greater purity.

This was the reason why the God Base was viewed with high importance by cultivators. This was the only thing that could create a boundless domain within the middle dantian.

If the God Base wasn't strong enough, it couldn't continue to grow for the second time. This meant it couldn't store even more energy and the user's cultivation would stop here.

Many cultivators would stop at first-level Heaven's Mandate due to their lacking God Base despite cultivating for several hundred years. Finally, the disaster at the end of the five hundred years came and they met their death.

Of course, some people had a weak constitution and not enough violet energy in their middle dantian. They would also stop at the first level because of this.

Nevertheless, this type of masters was already exceptional and considered big shots at the Jin Dynasty. After all, able to live for several hundred years was much better than mortals who couldn't cultivate.

Feiyun naturally wouldn't stop here. The heavenly dao was boundless in his eyes.

"Boom!"

The monument has finally been refined completely inside the violet palace and turned into part of his body. He could feel its existence. A strand of information poured out from the monument and entered his head.

"Ascension Platform!" He read the words. Could this be the meaning of the ancient words on the monument before?

The real name of this black tablet was "Ascension Platform"!

This information strand was both ancient and mighty in terms of aura. Due to the large gap in cultures, Feiyun could only understand some key things from the message. For example: "Teleportation Platforms… Ascension Heavenly Palace… Fate Stone… Incoming Calamity…"

These words were disorderly so he didn't know what it was implying. He only knew about the teleportation platforms which were the altar on Mount Banda and the large stone monolith on the sacred lake.

He didn't have the slightest clue about the other words.

Another strange thing was that the eighteen figures on the platform all fell off and turned into illusory figures. They floated in eighteen different directions on the platform.

"Their souls have been refined on this item. So leaving their name on that tablet was akin to offering their soul to this Ascension Platform." Feiyun could feel the faint power of their souls.

***

"Geezer, why is there no sign, can it be…" Badao swallowed with his eyes staring straight at the ground. It was still as innocent as when the Divine King tricked him into the cultivation path by saying: "If you want to eat steamed buns, cultivate! If you want good meat soup, cultivate!" [1]

He still hasn't seen the good stuff yet. He continued to look around and hoped for Feiyun to come out of the ground but was met with disappointment. There was not the slightest sound and his divine intents couldn't reach the molten core, no chance of knowing what was going on.

The Divine King could maintain his composure but after six hours, he couldn't help but scratch his head. After all, no one has ever made it through the thirteenth wave before. Even that incredible genius died to it in the past.

"Looks like Feiyun is dead to the thirteenth wave." A Giant spoke from the darkness. He seems to be speaking to someone.

A response came about: "Hmph, no signs at all. That's a failed tribulation then, completely annihilated down there."

"Nevertheless, he still shocks the world with this. That's a thirteen waves tribulation, only two of this level have ever appeared in the Jin Dynasty."

"That's a glorious death. His name will be written in the historical annals. People shall continue to see it for thousands of year to come."

***

Not far from there among some tower mountains were five old men wearing a blue dove gown.

The one in front had a gloomy expression on his white skin tone. Another old man with an aquiline nose stood in front with a golden scroll embroidered with a dragon on the cover.

Though this scroll has yet to be open, one could feel the terrible power emanating from it. Weaker cultivators would be forced down on their knees.

"Western Director, looks like Feng Feiyun has fallen so there's no need to open the imperial decree now. We can go back to the capital." The old man's pitch was high and soft like a woman but there was still a certain ruggedness to it.

They were eunuchs from the capital coming here with an imperial decree. The leader was one of the five great eunuchs in the royal palace, Western Director.

"Before leaving, Imperial Consort Hua told us to wait for Feiyun to surpass the tribulation before revealing the decree just in case of his failure." The Western Director's eyes were gloomy but it contained a powerful yin energy that marveled the four behind him.

"The consort truly predicted everything. Maybe she knew Feiyun wouldn't be able to surpass this trial." Imperial Consort Hua was one of the four great consorts and also Princess Luofu's birth mother.

Western Director said with a tinge of regrets: "Feiyun is indeed the number one genius since the start of our dynasty, able to actually bring about thirteen waves. It's a shame that he couldn't break through it. Sigh! Damn it! Let's go. We've left for two years now, it's time to return."

"Boom!"

A shimmering ray rushed out of the ground like a sun. It rose to the nine heavens and illuminated half of the sky.

Feiyun flew out of the ground earlier with several thousand beast souls behind him like a river. They eventually entered his body again.

"Finally made it through all the waves, I can see the sunlight again!" Feiyun roared with violet spirit energy spewing from his mouth. It directly scattered the tribulation clouds and the world became bright again.

All of the cultivators who were leaving with dejection immediately turned around and stared at the violet energy in disbelief. Their jaws were about to drop to the ground.

Feiyun has actually surpassed the Earth Tribulation. What…

Many couldn't bear this incredible shock. Their mind trembled after seeing the great amount of violet energy spewing from his body. This guy has just surpassed the Earth Tribulation recently so it can't be that strong. Did he actually make it through a fourteenth wave as well…

Bao's Note:

Here's an amusing note from the author. This word gave me so much trouble, no wonder why. That's why I kept it as Ju Qing from the start.

Author's Note:

Here to fix a spelling mistake. Ju Qing/巨擎is actually Ju Bo/巨擘. Basically a premier character. Giant still work for this title. Paragon and Supreme work as well, but these terms are too grand so we'll keep this as Giant for now.

1. More figurative, meaning success