Chapter 505 Ancient Land of the Celestial Corpse

"Thank you, Gate Master!"

Taoist Qingxuan clasped his hands toward Lu Ye.

Lu Ye waved his hand dismissively, "This is your own effort; it has little to do with me."

"Had it not been for the Gate Master's guidance, I might not have survived this tribulation," Taoist Qingxuan said with lingering fear.

To outsiders, the earth, wind, water, and fire tribulation might not seem particularly terrifying—perhaps not as overwhelming as thunder tribulations. But only those who have experienced them firsthand know their true nature.

It felt like layers of despair relentlessly closing in.

If one's Daoist resolve was even slightly weak, it would be utterly shattered.

This was far worse than a thunder tribulation.

"Have you settled the Heavenly Gate’s affairs?" Lu Ye asked.

"Everything is settled. Ning Tianming will take over as Gate Master. Though his strength is still lacking, he is more than capable of managing the sect. Does the Gate Master have any objections?" Taoist Qingxuan inquired.

Lu Ye shook his head, "Ning Tianming is acceptable. I’ll be leaving soon, so as long as you’ve arranged it, that’s fine."

Indeed!

Lu Ye was preparing to leave for the outer domains.

Once he perfected his cultivation method and earned one last batch of spirit stones, he would depart.

"Very well, go ahead and ascend. We’ll meet again in the Seventh Heaven!"

"Farewell, Gate Master!"

"Until we meet again!"

Taoist Qingxuan ascended. With his talent and accumulation, achieving the Quasi-Emperor realm was no issue at all. As for whether he could attain true Emperorhood—that was uncertain, highly uncertain. After all, so few have ever reached Emperorhood.

In this world, the world could sustain multiple Emperors, but the position of Sage was limited to just one.

In fact, when someone sought to become a Sage, even the number of Celestial Lords allowed to exist was restricted. Thus, many would eliminate rival Celestial Lords before attempting their Sage tribulation.

Of course, this could just be a rumor—perhaps those aiming for Sagehood simply feared that Celestial Lords would interfere during their tribulation.

It wasn’t unheard of for an aspiring Sage to be dragged into a mutual demise by a hostile Celestial Lord.

If I’m doomed anyway, why not drag you down too?

Taoist Qingxuan ascended.

Right after he left, another figure rushed over in haste.

"Gate Master, I’m about to face my tribulation too!"

This was a veteran Void Realm cultivator of the Heavenly Gate, slightly weaker than Taoist Qingxuan.

Given his lesser strength, he only had a seventy percent chance of success.

"Be careful!"

"Got it!"

As expected, the tribulation transcendence of Taoist Qingxuan was like a fuse.

The strong members of the Celestial Gate directly held an ascension gathering.

Thirteen peak Void Realm cultivators underwent tribulation.

However, only six succeeded in transcending it.

The remaining seven were reduced to ashes by the heavenly tribulation.

This was inevitable. Lu Ye could have intervened, just as he had in his previous life when he helped Shangguan and others overcome their tribulations by shouldering the heavenly punishment himself to aid their ascension.

But Lu Ye did not do so.

Faced with the fate of others, Lu Ye no longer interfered.

In truth, six out of thirteen succeeding was already an exceptionally high success rate.

Had Lu Ye not delivered his Dao lectures, it would have been a remarkable achievement if even three of these tribulation-crossers had succeeded.

Lu Ye set off for the factions that had previously requested his assistance in improving their cultivation methods.

He had already perfected these factions' cultivation methods in his past life, so this time, the process was swift.

In just three days, everything was completed. With an average of ten million per faction, Lu Ye raked in a mind-boggling two billion source stones this time.

This amount of source stones alone would suffice for his subsequent cultivation.

His physique had now refreshed into the Chaos Heavenly Body, allowing him to continuously draw upon the power of chaos from the void for cultivation, making his natural cultivation pace absurdly fast.

But it still wasn’t enough.

Lu Ye was in no hurry to journey beyond this realm. The Dark Origin was already monitoring matters outside for him.

The Seventh Heaven was bound to be rife with brutal battles.

Because the Seventh Heaven was different from the Sixth. In the Sixth Heaven, everyone was most concerned with family factions and the hardships of tribulation transcendence.

But in the Seventh Heaven, all had only one goal.

That was to attain the Dao and achieve Emperorhood.

Everything else had to yield to this singular purpose!

Back then, Jiang Wuya of the Jiang Clan even sought to absorb the entire Void Grand Dao of his clan for the sake of his own path to becoming an Emperor—an act of utter madness. Yet, this was merely a glimpse of the Seventh Heaven.

When Lu Ye ascended to the Seventh Heaven, countless ancient freaks who had lost hope of attaining Emperorhood would quiver with anticipation.

They were already salivating at Lu Ye's progress, wishing he would ascend as soon as possible.

Things like the protection of the Celestial Gate or Emperor Daohen keeping watch were beneath the notice of Quasi-Emperors.

As long as they could glimpse the Emperor realm, even death—

Even the destruction of their clans—what of it?

They would gladly sacrifice everything!

Once again, Lu Ye went into closed-door cultivation.

He journeyed beyond the borders, unable to linger for too long, or he wouldn't be able to return.

Thus, any trip beyond the borders must have a clear purpose—get it done fast and get back.

Twenty years passed.

The Dark Origin just stayed put, setting up shop in the Celestial Gate.

Lu Ye kept up his steady cultivation, now at the third level of the Void Realm.

"Nine Lives, we have a target!"

Suddenly, the Dark Origin's eyes lit up with excitement.

She'd finally get to go on an adventure with Nine Lives.

The Dark Origin had been itching to go.

Lu Ye opened his eyes.

"Is this one of the marks I told you to watch?" Lu Ye inquired.

As someone who had been reborn, Lu Ye hadn't gotten many perks from his rebirth, especially in the Sixth Heaven—so many resources had been taken away by Yin Qingcheng.

Goddamn it, every time he thought of this, his urge to kill Yin Qingcheng flared up again.

He'd almost forgotten, but the Dark Origin later reminded him.

"Yes, it's the Celestial Rigor Ancient Grounds!"

Celestial Rigor!

The first poison that hit Lu Ye was the Celestial Rigor Venom.

Celestial Rigor was once a Celestial Lord who, unwilling to reincarnate for a second life, practiced a self-created Divine Ability and ended up transforming into Celestial Rigor.

Forget about a second life—just surviving this one was a miracle.

At least until Lu Ye's previous life, when he ascended to sagehood, Celestial Rigor still hadn't revived.

Though, technically, it wasn't completely dead either.

The faction Celestial Rigor was part of in life was called the Immortal Ancient Kingdom. Back then, the Nine Heavens didn't even exist. Due to Celestial Rigor's reckless cultivation, the entire Immortal Ancient Kingdom became a dead zone.

Everyone turned into zombies.

At that time, the Immortal Ancient Kingdom was a powerhouse with a Celestial Lord.

When Celestial Rigor failed in his cultivation, he knew he'd screwed up. In an attempt to remedy it, he devoured many of the kingdom's strongest, but it didn't help much.

Celestial Rigor had no choice but to use supreme Divine Ability to seal himself and the Immortal Ancient Kingdom, transforming it into the Celestial Rigor Ancient Grounds.

Not even an Emperor would dare enter this place.

For an Emperor had once vanished within.

But a Quasi-Emperor would dare.

Lu Ye immediately stood up.

"Let's go, let's crash the party!"