Cultivation: From Poor Peasant to Celestial Lord

The thick cloud layer, which had shrouded the skies of the Cyan Nether Realm for ten thousand years, was suddenly rent asunder by the shriek. An invisible blade of wind had carved a massive fissure stretching for hundreds of miles.

Chu Bai gazed at the fissure, his eyes turning exceptionally grim.

“It seems the ‘fun’ in this Cyan Nether Realm is only just beginning.”

Unlike the other Cultivators, he didn’t rush toward the strange phenomenon in the west. Instead, he crouched down and immersed his Divine Thought deep into the Earth Vein.

“Old timer, show me the way. We’re not joining the commotion. We’re going to the resting places of the other three Divine Spirits.”

“I need more ‘resources’ before the real madness begins.”

Chu Bai glanced at the first-place Merit Seal at his waist. With a flash, his form once again became like lightning in the shadows, plunging deeper into the Earth Vein.

‘A Divine Spirit that yearns for freedom…’

Chu Bai was momentarily speechless. He had certainly never heard of any Deities with such an obsession back in the Great Zhou.

In the far west, the altar crumbled.

As the final Cyan Nether Pearl transformed into a stream of light and flowed into a bronze statue resembling a hawk spreading its wings, a violent storm suddenly erupted from beneath the deathly silent earth, blasting straight into the heavens!

“SCREEE—!!!”

The cry, sharp enough to pierce gold and shatter stone, instantly echoed throughout the entire Cyan Nether Secret Realm.

Before the horrified eyes of several dozen Cultivators, the bronze statue suddenly exploded, transforming into a giant bird with a hundred-zhang wingspan, its body covered in dark purple, iron-like feathers.

It paid no heed to the expectant “benefactors” below the altar. Its eyes, scorching like twin suns, were fixed intently on the overcast sky above.

In the eyes of this Ancient God, the Sky-Suppressing Kite, this shard of a world was too small—so small that it felt suffocating down to every last feather.

BOOM!

The giant bird beat its wings, kicking up a gale forceful enough to level a city. It transformed into a streak of light that pierced the sky, soaring toward the highest heavens!

Below the altar, the faces of the leading Qi Cultivation Perfection Cultivators were deathly pale. One of them, enraged, crushed the Dharma Artifact in his hand and roared at the empty air.

“This is the True God you told us about?! We spent our entire fortunes gathering hundreds of Cyan Nether Pearls to awaken it! Why didn’t it bestow a blessing? Why did it cast us aside like worn-out sandals and flee?!”

He stared intently at the faint wisp of wind in his palm. It was a minor Divine Spirit he had gone to great lengths to subdue after entering the Secret Realm, hoping to use it to establish a connection with the Hongyuan.

But now, the wisp of wind trembled and let out a series of sighs.

“My heart desires freedom… What is a Divine Spirit in a cage but a beast? Go back, Traveler… If I cannot shatter these heavens, I would rather become a speck of dust in the void.”

The voice had barely faded when, before everyone’s eyes, the wisp of wind scattered its last trace of Spirituality, renounced its godhood, and fell utterly silent.

“What… What the hell was that?!”

The Cultivators stood there, stunned, their hearts aching as if to bleed.

Hundreds of Cyan Nether Pearls! They had braved incredible dangers, slaying beasts and robbing others to gather them. Now, not only had they failed to receive a single Blessing, but even the protection they previously enjoyed was gone!

However, before they could recover from their frustration, a tremendous sound that made every living creature shudder boomed from overhead.

CRACK—!!!

It was not the sound of thunder, but of space, of a dimension, of the world’s very barrier being ripped to shreds!

The crowd looked up in terror.

They saw the Sky-Suppressing Kite, still soaring upward, now acting like a frenzied Giant Axe, using its iron wings, sharp talons, and skull to madly batter the void barrier above the Secret Realm.

With every impact, countless fine cracks like black lightning would erupt across the dim sky.

“It’s insane… This Divine Spirit, it’s truly gone mad!”

An elderly Cultivator watched the clouds begin to collapse from the violent impacts, his legs growing so weak he could barely stand.

“This is just a fractured Secret Realm! Its laws are already unstable. With these insane impacts, it’s going to drag the entire realm down with it!”

“It wants to break into the chaotic void… It would rather die out there than stay in this cage at our command!”

RUMBLE—!

With one final, powered-up dive from the Hongyuan, a huge, black rift was violently torn open in the sky. After ten thousand years of silence, it now pulsed with the eerie light of the void.

Turbulent currents from the void poured through the opening like a bursting dam.

The Gravity of the entire Cyan Nether Realm was instantly thrown into chaos. The ground began to swell like ocean waves, and distant mountain ranges crumbled away into the void.

…

“Lunatic.”

Dozens of miles away, Chu Bai, who had been about to enter another Forbidden Land, came to a sudden halt. The Clay Soil behind him was so frightened it dove right into his collar.

Chu Bai stared at the “wound” torn in the western sky. He watched the giant bird circle the rift’s edge, refusing to turn back even with broken wings, and an indescribable shock filled his mind.

This was obsession.

Gods are born from will. As long as the will remains, the god cannot be extinguished.

“Old timer, you were right.”

Chu Bai pulled his gaze away. His eyes grew preternaturally calm, and his Spiritual Power circulated within him, heavy as lead and mercury.

“This kind of Divine Spirit… they truly can’t be explained by the Great Zhou’s methods of divine investiture. They’re wilder than demons and more genuine than men.”

“But now… we’re in big trouble. If this Secret Realm is shattered, we ‘Travelers’ probably won’t even live long enough to see the final rankings.”

He pressed a hand to the wildly vibrating Merit Seal at his waist and shot toward the last wisp of Purifying Qi within the Earth Vein. ℯ

The great edifice was collapsing, and he was not the one who could save it.

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