Chapter 1738: Chapter 931: Tribulation’s End, the Dao Achieved—Sweet Rain Falls from the Heavens (Part 2)

Finally, on a certain day a hundred years later, Zhao Sheng was suddenly seized by a whim, and in that instant realized that the Heavenly Timing he had waited so long for had arrived.

If he did not raise the stars and Ascend at this moment, then when?

In that instant within the Five Elements Cave Heaven, the skies and earth, mountains and rivers, seas and lands all roared and shook; a melodious, lingering chant suddenly echoed through the billions of miles of the Grotto Heaven: "...A million miles of mountains and seas quake as one, the Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation is but dust. The Grotto Heaven in my palm gathers the Firmament, sun, moon, and Star River hang at my waist as rings. I tread and shatter the Void of the Three Thousand Worlds, desiring to bring the Five Elements into the immortal ranks. All heavens and Xing Dou are my honored guests, I sit alone upon the Jade Terrace and forget the years... My Tao has reached Great Success, all beings hear the truth... today follow me together to raise the stars and Ascend!!!"

This sound was like a decree, and before its echoes had faded, one could see between heaven and earth suddenly emerge pillar after pillar of five-colored light piercing sky and ground.

Innumerable streaks of Flowing Light condensed up from the surface of the earth, the oceans, and even the depths of the Void, in an instant converging into vast seas of dazzling light, then rising and diffusing into the atmosphere.

In this moment, the atmosphere of the Five Elements Cave Heaven was actually completely covered by a layer of resplendent, blinding five-colored Light Sea, which from afar looked as if it were Burning fiercely.

In this moment, the piercing radiance emitted by the Grotto Heaven illuminated the boundless dark Void, and in an instant alarmed more than half of the Taiyi Spirit Realm.

"What, why so fast..."

"Haha, my Tao is not solitary! Shenglongzi, you’ve taken the lead today, this Venerable is not pleased... I may as well kill a few enemies for amusement! You then, Wuya the old 贼."

"Hmph, how terrifying is the Nine-layered Thunder Tribulation! This child is wildly arrogant, yet dares to rashly Cross Tribulation. Hehe, defeat is certain!"

"The Zhao Family first had Zhao Xianglong, then produced Tianyunzi. Now yet another junior would Ascend to the Star River—how deep and weighty is the Zhao Family’s Qi Fortune; there must be a mystery within! It seems some matters must be planned early."

"...This child is destined to fail. Recall in the past all those who proved the Tao as Great Venerables—which one was not an Absolute Peak Great Ability who suppressed an entire era? This child is unknown, and has walked the path of opportunistic shortcuts..."

"...However vast your Divine Skills, you cannot surpass what Heaven’s mandate ordains! As for Heavenly Timing, Earthly Advantage, and Human Harmony, who knows how many of the three this child can possess?"

"...This child has opened his Grotto Heaven for less than ten thousand years; his own foundations must be extremely shallow... Success or failure? Let us see Heaven’s will!"

Rumble!

In the dark and vast Divine Palace Heaven, an indescribable rumbling once again sounded out of thin air.

The Five Elements Cave Heaven, like an incomparably radiant "Great Sun," actually began to slowly rise into the sky "under the gaze of all."

Under the illumination of that blinding radiance, the originally formless, intangible Space-time Barriers began to concretely manifest.

With a loud boom!

The Five Elements Cave Heaven fiercely "crashed into" the Space-time Barriers; the surging, violent Power of Space-Time instantly swept out, and in a flash turned the billions of miles of surrounding Void into endless Space-Time Storms.

The incomparably violent Power of Space-Time even... penetrated to the First Dark Heaven; two layers of the Netherworld were directly pierced through.

Time seemed incomparably long, yet also fleeting as a moment.

Under the "gaze" of countless Great Abilities and Tribulation Crossing Venerables, the Five Elements Cave Heaven rammed into the Space-time Barriers with great ease, and very quickly vanished from the sensing of all Cultivators.

...

After the detailed explanations of the two Tribulation Crossing Realm Ancestors, Zhao Sheng already understood the Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation very well.

Contrary to what Low-level Cultivators imagined, the Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation does not descend one layer after another.

Instead, the Nine-layered Thunder Tribulation descends simultaneously; only, at the beginning the Grotto Heaven has not yet gone deep, the strength of the Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation is not high, and generally the Grotto Heaven can withstand the trial of the tribulation thunder.

In Zhao Sheng’s view, Crossing the Nine-layered Thunder Tribulation is like a person pushing a Giant Stone up a mountain.

The Grotto Heaven is this Giant Stone; as the mountain slopes become steeper and more perilous, wind, thunder, rain, and lightning all come together, and the person’s strength will be consumed faster and faster.

If his strength is exhausted, the Giant Stone he has pushed up will instead crush him; the person’s end needs no explanation.

Of course, this analogy is in fact not very precise, but it is the simplest explanation he could think of.

At the instant when the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder descended simultaneously, Zhao Sheng suddenly discovered that it was far more terrifying than he had imagined!

What is called Nine Heavens Divine Thunder?

Ancient lore says nine is the ultimate of number; the Netherworld has nine layers, thus tribulation thunder is also divided into Nine Heavens!

Dark Sky, Divine Sky, Cloud Sky, Emerald Heavens, Chixiao, Jade Sky, Langxiao, Purple Cloud, Taixiao... from low to high, the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder corresponds to the nine great Taos of Space-time, Five Elements, Cause and Effect, and Life and Death.

Among them Dark Sky is lowest, Taixiao is highest!

...

When the Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation descended, the five-colored Light Sea that filled the atmosphere dimmed all at once, and countless bolts of nine-colored interwoven lightning surged out of thin air, covering every inch of the Grotto Heaven.

In an instant, heaven and earth changed color, all things fell silent; only the endless nine-colored lightning filled the heavens and the earth...

Suddenly, a cold shout resounded throughout the Grotto Heaven: "Houtu, golden light, Kong Sang, Shen Yun, Haoyang... the Five Zhas, return each to your place!"

As the voice fell, it temporarily压下 the thunder filling the sky. Five-sided treasure mirrors abruptly jumped out of nowhere, carrying ten thousand zhang of radiance, and in a flash shifted to the five great directions of east, south, west, north, and center, each occupying its own swath of heaven and earth.

At the same time, the Five Elements of the Grotto Heaven all fell under the control of the Five Zhas.

"Yin Yang Kan Li... Qiankun Ten Thousand Spirits... activate the array!"

The Dao-voice rose again, and the thunder filling the sky suddenly dimmed!

In the next instant, countless dazzling "Stars" suddenly rose from the surface of the seven great continents, their starlight spreading for billions of li, inter-reflecting with one another, and very quickly covering every inch of earth.

At that same instant, seventeen Sea Eyes suddenly manifested gigantic vortices tens of thousands of li wide, from which one after another Spiritual Energy Giant Pillar connecting heaven and earth surged forth, and from deep within the crust, endless radiance broke through the ground and shot into the sky.

Rumble, rumble!

The Power of Laws accumulated over many years was being consumed madly, almost equivalent to consuming hundreds of Principle Crystals every single moment.

The Nine Heavens Divine Thunder that shrouded the Grotto Heaven was continuously erased by the Power of Laws.

And with the assistance of the Five Zhas and the two Great Arrays, the dome of the Grotto Heaven was as solid as an iron wall; no matter how many bolts of Nine Heavens Divine Thunder crashed down, they could not shake the dome in the slightest.

As time passed, the Five Elements Cave Heaven was struggling yet resolutely "going against the current, rising upstream."

The Nine Heavens Divine Thunder grew more and more terrifying, and the Cave Heaven Law’s power was being burned away with even greater ferocity, almost consuming thousands of Principle Crystals every single moment.

Yet at this time, Zhao Sheng instead felt increasingly at ease, for everything was within his expectations.

The Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation was indeed as terrifying as legend said, but the foundation he had accumulated over nine lifetimes of cultivation was too profound; even a tribulation this dreadful could not destroy his Dao Heart and his Will.

...

No one knew how long had passed!

Zhao Sheng only felt his Primordial Spirit lighten, as the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder that filled heaven and earth suddenly vanished into thin air, and the Five Elements Cave Heaven suddenly arrived at a misty, vast, and empty region.

Looking out, the surrounding star-river was brilliant; countless Stars converged into one Star River after another, radiating blazing starlight.

"The Star River shines, the ends of heaven are now within reach! This place is... Near Heaven!"

Zhao Sheng’s heart surged with wild joy, and he was just about to move the Five Elements Cave Heaven onto the star track.

At that very moment, his expression suddenly trembled; he jerked his head up to look beyond the heavens.

At this moment, it was not only him—above and below, across the seven continents and the Four Seas, all surviving Life faintly sensed a vast and resplendent Spirit Mechanism, indescribably magnificent, descending together with the starlight.

The next moment, an inexpressibly extraordinary and majestic celestial phenomenon appeared before the eyes of all beings in the Grotto Heaven: boundless starlight broke open the Tianqiong and slowly sprinkled down over heaven and earth.

In a flash, mountains, rivers, seas, lands, and even the Tianqiong’s Void all transformed into a single expanse of light.

As the light illuminated all under heaven, endless Spiritual Energy suddenly surged into existence out of thin air. Because this Spiritual Energy was too pure and dense, it actually condensed into Ganlin Jade Dew, which fell upon every inch of land in the Grotto Heaven.

The Spiritual Energy of the Five Elements Cave Heaven had already been extremely dense, yet in the span of a few short moments it was raised by an entire tier.

At this very moment, so long as one was within the Grotto Heaven, no matter their realm, they instantly felt their limbs and bones being washed by Spiritual Energy again and again; countless people’s minds became clearer than ever before, spirit light surging in their brains like the tide.

Before long, one Human Clan Cultivator after another who had been stuck and unable to advance actually broke through their bottlenecks with ease, and their own cultivation improved by a whole layer.

Some fortunate ones even advanced smoothly to the next realm. Among them, those achieving Foundation Establishment and Core Formation, and those Breaking the Core to Infant, were everywhere to be seen.

In just a few short moments, the Five Elements Cave Heaven newly birthed thirty-eight Divinity Transformation True Monarchs, and those below Nascent Soul were beyond counting.

The Human Clan Cultivators were merely a miniature reflection of the Grotto Heaven’s drastic transformation; those benefiting even more were the plants and animals spread throughout the Grotto Heaven. In that instant, no one knew how many wild beasts awakened spiritual wisdom and automatically advanced into demon beasts.

At the same time, countless grasses, trees, and vegetation rapidly evolved into stalks of Spiritual Medicine and Spirit Plants, some even awakening spiritual wisdom.

As for the many deeper changes, even Zhao Sheng could not grasp them for the moment and could only leave them to be discovered in days to come.