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

With every integration that took place, the crimson glow covering Zhao Sheng's skin thickened further, while the disorienting force intensified twofold.

Time's flow escaped notice, yet Zhao Sheng's thoughts overflowed with fiendish notions, as countless chants hammered at his awareness without cease.

Boom!

Suddenly, flames burst forth from emptiness amid the heavens and earth, splitting into vibrant hues of five colors and blazing with intensity.

One by one, pillars of multicolored fire materialized abruptly, swiftly combining to form a raging inferno.

The flames soared upward, seeming ready to consume all existence, which caused the chanting voices to fade in strength!

Clarity rushed back to Zhao Sheng in that instant, like a pivotal shift in his awareness had occurred.

The following moment brought a gleam of spiritual light, and intricate "flame scripts" emerged unbidden within his mind.

"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 turned solemn as he chanted the spells nonstop, forming over a hundred hand seals, until a purple blaze ignited deep in his consciousness.

Whoosh~

As the final ancient demon-refining chant concluded, a fist-sized purple flame burst from his brow, and once it merged with the five-hued inferno, the fire exploded outward in all directions.

Guided by his willpower, the Demon Refining Heart Fire swiftly cycled through innumerable "frequencies," altering the "will wave frequency" in thousands of variations within moments, thereby "purifying" the Five Emotions Demon Fire.

Incredibly, the Five Emotions Demon Fire acted as nourishment for the Demon Refining Heart Fire, transforming the five-colored blaze into an immense purple ocean of flames.

This fiery expanse engulfed the whole realm, incinerating every illusion to cinders, as the echoing chants grew faint, and the very fabric of this world appeared exceedingly "brittle."

Every spot the inferno touched saw fissures of all sizes ignite open in a flash.

Zhao Sheng exhaled deeply in relief, striding confidently into the flames, where the crimson light around him dissolved rapidly under the heart fire's assault...

At the same moment, the foreign force that had locked away his spiritual sense and mana began to weaken at a rapid pace, eventually yielding just a bit.

Moments later, the chants cut off sharply, and this slice of heaven and earth exploded apart with a deafening roar.

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

As awareness returned to him, a broad purple blaze sprang up from the scattered corpses below, reducing them to swirling ash clouds in short order.

...

Right when Zhao Sheng thwarted the foe's plot, in a distant expanse of space-time, within a colossal Great Sun, a massive bird's head lifted abruptly.

The phoenix stirred... yet again!

It peered into the shadowy emptiness, locking onto a specific point, as a destructive intent swept through the Great Sun: "...Finally found you, Kui Niu!"

Instantly, endless torrents of flame rolled over the Great Sun's exterior, and the phoenix's incarnation submerged into the fiery depths, activating the Great Sun Divine Escape to shift to another Great Sun across a thousand Constant Years.

The star system hosting this Great Sun held just three worlds, one reduced to near-total ruin, while the other two displayed scarred surfaces like battlegrounds from a massive conflict.

Stretching between the first and third planets lay an asteroid field, littered with myriad bodies, remnants drifting even through the vacuum to cluster into corpse nebulae.

This debris ring had evidently formed gradually from the savage shattering of a planet long ago.

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

The phoenix paid no heed to the system's backstory, intent only on tracing a thread of five-colored flame in the void.

All at once, gigantic surges of fire erupted from the Great Sun's face!

...

In the grand stellar domain of the Taiyi Spirit Realm, the central Great Sun poured out boundless radiance and warmth without end.

Abruptly, the Great Sun's glow dulled for a split second, then flared back to full intensity.

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, crowned by a figure in a feathered gown.

The garment burned with scarlet hues, radiating an aura of unmatched authority.

A silver-white mask concealed the woman's features, etched with an image of a phoenix in mid-soar.

The phoenix inclined her head, directing her sight toward a massive orb, its form ringed by a stellar band.

This cosmic loop arose from vaporous worlds, gleaming with majestic splendor.

Her stare skimmed the ring, soon fixing on a particular landmass of the colossal sphere, her eyes igniting with fury.

In the blink that followed, she vanished without a trace.

...

At that same instant,

Zhao Sheng observed the bodies dissolve into dust, a weight settling in his chest.

But immediately after, his face twisted in alarm, and a profound, unexplained dread welled up inside, signaling an approaching threat.

As cultivation levels rise, a practitioner's senses and perceptions sharpen progressively, allowing one to "evade peril upon its whiff and heed instinctive urges," and even attain the enigmatic realm of "premonition."

Ever since entering the Unification Realm, Zhao Sheng had nurtured a subtle sense bordering on "premonition."

Barring a supreme power's effort to veil the cosmic mysteries, he typically detected hazards just before they struck.

Right then, for the first time, he sensed a colossal disaster looming.

Zhao Sheng scanned his surroundings, his spiritual sense extending across thousands of li in every direction, but uncovered no hint of the threat's source.

As seconds ticked by, the foreboding grew ever stronger. Zhao Sheng's pulse quickened, his spiritual sense narrowing to a slender thread that delved into the Jade Void Cave under Dragon Head Peak.

No one there?!

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

Delay no more!

The mounting threat pushed Zhao Sheng to act decisively, his form blurring as he teleported straight to the Five Thunders Cave Heaven.

Beneath the skies, nothing offered greater safety or secrecy than one's personal cave heaven. Thus, against an unidentified peril, he opted to shelter inside temporarily and dodge the crisis.

The very moment he withdrew into the cave heaven, over the Four Holy Continents, a masked figure in feathered robes materialized from nothing; she was the Great Venerable Phoenix herself.

The Phoenix's eyes glinted as she surveyed the terrain far below, whispering to herself: "...vanished?"

"Haha, you can't escape. Someday..."

Howling gales tore her words away, carrying off that scarlet silhouette.

...

Five Thunders Cave Heaven.

A shimmer of light and form brought Zhao Sheng into being atop a rugged hill.

Back in the cave heaven, the ominous dread vanished at once!

Sigh~

Zhao Sheng released a deep sigh, absently brushing the chill sweat from his brow, and gradually eased his inner tension.

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

Zhao Sheng reviewed the incidents over and over, then it hit him: "No, it's not the Red Eyebrow Demon Path, but the Five Emotions Demon Fire!"

The Five Emotions Demon Fire's revival had sparked his intense fear.

Reflecting on the fire's roots, Zhao Sheng pinpointed the threat's origin without delay.

Indeed, it had to be that ancient Phoenix hag hunting him down!

This situation... proved troublesome!

With that realization, Zhao Sheng's chest constricted, his features hardening into deep severity.

...

Half a day passed, and Zhao Sheng summoned a bank of clouds to perch upon cross-legged, his visage etched with concern.

For all his half-day of deliberation, no plan emerged to shake off the Phoenix's relentless chase for good.

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

Though he'd gauged the Tribulation Crossing Venerable's might as formidable as imaginable, the Phoenix stood apart from typical ones; a Lord Wanxing backed her.

He understood clearly that the fabled Divine Beast Treasure was in truth a Demigod Device, and the Divine Beast Emissary served as a meticulously forged vessel by Lord Wanxing.

No one could predict if Lord Wanxing might descend into the Mortal World via the Phoenix's authentic form at a critical juncture.

Should he rouse Lord Wanxing to intervene, death would surely follow.

After weighing options repeatedly, Zhao Sheng turned his attention to a certain restrained shattered brush.

A mere thought summoned the Hundred Generations Book from the Soul Sea's depths... At the book's base clung a headless broken pen, inert as a lifeless relic.

Zhao Sheng extended a strand of spiritual sense, approaching the broken pen with utmost care.

Bang!

Lightning seemed to strike him, inflicting agony on his spirit and plunging him into blackout.

Unsure how much time elapsed, Zhao Sheng stirred back to wakefulness, gripped by a throbbing skull and a vision stained red with blood.

His fingers brushed his eye, coming away slick with streams of fresh scarlet.

Meanwhile, in the Purple Mansion Soul Sea's core, the Primordial Spirit's arcane form paled, its exterior marred by countless fractures.

Even a single thread of spiritual sense had inflicted grievous harm on his primordial spirit.

The broken pen's might terrified beyond measure!