There is Always War XI

The dense ball of rich and untamed, disorderly spiritual power bombarded Han Xuanyuan's mind like a cannonball striking the back of a mortal's head at terminal velocity.

Gritting his teeth, he directed his spiritual power to resist this foreign invasion, which threatened to wipe out his cultivation.

But before he could even touch the heavenly spiritual power with his own, a massive transformation occurred within his Linghun Aperture.

The initially calm and bright white space suddenly became chaotic as the white rapidly faded to reveal a dark and depressing void.

From within this void opened a pair of eyes, eyes belonging to an abyss that threatened to devour everything and leave the world in a state of emptiness.

Something that defied the interests of all sentient beings, something that defined an extremity of the universe — the boundary of nothingness, The Abyss.

It vigorously expanded and extended out of his body, releasing itself from him and pouncing onto the heavenly tribulation sphere before devouring it within a moment.

In the blink of an eye, the disaster cited by the heavens themselves was eradicated so mercilessly that it seemed almost comical.

The first layer of the world was utterly vaporized and the deep-space was revealed. Incredibly, even the deep-space was showing signs of being slowly torn apart.

Unable to understand what happened, Xuanyuan did not pause to contemplate an answer, and instead intended to exploit the situation to the best of his abilities.

Circulating according to the scriptures, he incited heavenly tribulation once more, this time the second wave of spiritual bombardment.

There was a deafening rumble in the sky as the dark clouds surged once more, a murderous red lightning flashed across, weaving in and out of the clouds like a flood dragon in the torrent of a river.

Then with a blinding flash, a brilliant crimson sphere of crackling and arcing black sparks fell down like a meteor right onto Xuanyuan's head.

By this point, all the evil energies had flown back into place to surround Han Xuanyuan like a curtain of blackish-red mist, concealing the scenes going on above him from the outside world.

Only Nanyang had the chance to see it, but he was too busy maintaining the formation that suppressed the evil energies.

So as the monstrous sphere of majestic spiritual power descended upon Xuanyuan, the abyss sprang up like a cat jumping onto a counter and touching the sphere.

Almost immediately the sphere was enveloped by the darkness, and in the next moment, it was as though it never existed in the first place.

The deep-space extended further into the sky, as the rate of healing of the world was not comparable at all to the devouring of the abyss.

Wasting no time at all, Xuanyuan pressed further with his circulation and called down the third wave of spiritual bombardment, intending to perfect his First Spiritual Tribulation realm of cultivation.

The heavens rumbled once more as this time an awe-inducing hue of resplendent gold filled the heavens.

With some flashes of the golden light falling onto the earth, it appeared as though a deity was descending.

Staring at the sky, Xuanyuan could feel his heart palpitating further.

His intuition screamed at him to escape, to run as far as he could and just stay away from whatever was coming.

This was not a force he should be provoking with his realm of cultivation.

Just because he bypassed the tribulations did not mean he truly belonged to the level.

Cheating to pass the first wave of spiritual bombardment and then the second did not mean he had the spiritual power of a second rank First Spiritual Tribulation expert.

Now in the face of an overbearing and utterly dominative force that clearly belonged to a god, his instincts as a cultivator forced his body to move.

But before his body could disobey, a staggering thought flashed across his mind like a bolt of lightning striking a tree, seemingly lighting his consciousness on fire.

'So what if it's a god?'

'So what if it's all-powerful?'

'So what if I stand no chance?'

'When the countless strong-men of the myriad races besieged my ancestors, they could have left civilization behind and escaped by themselves.'

'But they didn't, they stood their ground and fought till the last of their breaths.'

'That is why I'm here today. Right now I'm not protecting mankind, but if I want to stand any chance of doing so in the future, I must break through and become an expert that can guard the clan in the endless heavens!'

So he sat still and moved not an inch.

The chaotic sphere of golden spiritual power shot down toward him like a bullet, and the darkness of the abyss jumped up to catch it en route.

But before they could make contact, Xuanyuan rapidly extended his divine senses.

From the Upanishad Formation, an invisible column of robust spiritual power streaked into the sky, momentarily dispersing the evil energies as the divine senses swept toward the incarnation of heavenly tribulation.

Overtaking the darkness of the abyss in an instant and piercing into the golden sphere, which immediately exploded upon contact.

Showering the sea of evil energies with a spectacularly potent rain of spiritual power, the golden sphere exploded in a brilliant uproar of light as the abyss only stood there in the sky, utterly dumbfounded.

Considering how the abyss was still present, Xuanyuan decided to circulate spiritual power once more to incite another wave of spiritual bombardment.

The sky rumbled again and an azure ball of malicious spiritual power flashed down toward Xuanyuan so fast that he could barely even move his eyes in reaction to this deadly speed.

This time, as though enraged by Han Xuanyuan's actions in the previous round, the abyss moved even faster than the chaotic spiritual power and devoured it in an instant.

Then, as though punishing Xuanyuan for showing off before, the abyss channeled some spiritual power directly into his consciousness, almost immediately rendering him unconscious.

The world blurred before his eyes as his mind was fatally rattled. Blood oozed out of his orifices as he vomited blood onto the evil energy in front of him.

Receiving this stimulus, the evil energies surged crazily and broke free from Nanyang's control, crazily pouring into Xuanyuan's body as he officially got knocked out.

But not even two incense stick's worth of time later, he woke up only to discover that the sea of evil energies was totally gone, not even a drop was to be found.

Looking to the side, he saw Nanyang out cold beside him and went over to push him awake after forcing a spiritual power recovery pill down his throat.

With Nanyang up and about once more, he was comfortable to focus on inspecting his cultivation.

As he directed all his divine senses inward and concentrated on entering his Linghun Aperture, he was completely stunned to discover the earth-shaking metamorphosis that it had undergone.

The initially small space that was only big enough to barely squeeze in a couple of elephants was now bigger than half a dozen football fields placed side-by-side.

Han Xuanyuan would have been absolutely elated if it weren't for the fact that everything was pitch black.

Unlike the bright white space that most spiritual cultivators have, his mind-space was utterly dark.

As far as the eye could see, in all ten directions, there was only a cold and uncommunicative blackness.

However, upon clenching his fist, he was simply blown away at the magnificence of his own spiritual power.

The potency had increased severalfold, and the volume was unfathomable. He decided that the only true way to realize his current power was to challenge the fifth and final wave of spiritual bombardment.

So with another circulation of spiritual power according to the weirdly precise instructions given in the Butcher Emperor's inheritance, he incited the last attack of the First Spiritual Tribulation.

The heavens screamed out in warning, a thunderous rumble that shook the lands and caused the vast dark clouds to surge in all directions.

Folding over each other, the clouds let little sunlight touch the world, yet from within, brilliant beams of purple light flooded out, illuminating the world in regal splendor.

Staring up at the eye of the storm, the center about which the clouds spun like a whirlpool, Xuanyuan encased himself in penetrative divine senses as he stood up in ardent anticipation.

Not disappointing his expectations, there was another explosive rumble, and purple lightning began to arc around the clouds, gathering together to merge into a noble flood dragon.

The dragon was gigantic and somewhat translucent, composed entirely of that purple spiritual power, it swam in and out of view as it traveled the spiraling clouds toward the center.

Extending its head out of the clouds, the dragon entered the world, its magnificent body casting a royal pressure over the mortals beneath.

Its body was several kilometers long yet took less than a few breaths to fully exit the clouds.

Coiling up like a spring with its head directly facing Xuanyuan, it intended to launch straight into him and rip him to shreds.

Seeing this, Xuanyuan could not help but smirk, that dragon really dared to underestimate him.

Deciding to take the initiative, he kicked off the Upanishad Formation and jumped towards the dragon.

Provoked at his boldness, the dragon waited no longer and shot out as well, becoming taut like a rope before swimming across the sky in extremely fluid wave-like motions.

Man and beast collided fist with face and sent shockwaves of spiritual power rippling across the heavens, easily tearing away at the first layer to reveal deep-space.

Amazingly, the dragon wasn't entirely blown away by the intense potency of Xuanyuan's spiritual power nor was it cut apart by the sharpness of the penetrative divine senses.

Instead, it seemed to have swelled up somewhat and, opening its mouth, revealed a set of thousands of serrated teeth on each jaw.

Stepping back, Xuanyuan aimed yet another punch at the dragon and flung it towards the beast, not believing that his attack was completely useless.

Similarly, the dragon was surprised at how Xuanyuan was totally unharmed despite its full-forced headbutt.

Rushing towards him, the dragon produced a dense purple sphere of energy within its gaping wide mouth and right before the two collided once more, shot the sphere out in a beam of dark purple chaotic spiritual power.

Attracted by the potency of the spiritual power in the attack, the abyss in Xuanyuan's Linghun Aperture exited his mind-space and appeared on his body as a film of darkness covering him from head to toe.

Colliding with his skin almost instantaneously due to the short distance between them, the beam completely enveloped him for an entire five breaths before dissipating as the energy in the sphere was used up.

Once the energy evaporated completely, expecting the boy to be utterly annihilated, the dragon was stunned on the spot as it could not believe that Xuanyuan was totally unharmed.

Each attack from the incarnations of heavenly tribulation are scaled to match the combat power of the cultivator inciting the tribulation.

At the fifth rank of the First Spiritual Tribulation realm, the spiritual cultivator has the power to approximately match the sixth rank of the Stellar Absorption realm of a mystic cultivator of the same caliber.

Yet the shockwaves from this battle attracted attention from Han Wutian and the Galaxy Realm elder of the East Sea Sect that he was fighting, bringing them both over to see Han Xuanyuan fighting with the incarnation of heavenly tribulation.

Receiving pressure from the tribulation of a Celestial Realm junior, the sect elder was momentarily shocked silly, giving Han Wutian the perfect opportunity to gain further advantage.

Similarly, Han Xuanyuan took advantage of the flood dragon's pause and pummelled it with countless punches, his penetrative divine senses pouring into it erratically as he gave the beast no leeway at all.

Stopping his attack, he pulled back to catch his breath. In the bout just now, he had given his all, concentrating all his divine senses into a razor-sharp dagger and plunging it repeatedly into the beast.

Yet there was no blood, no scraps of flesh strewn about, not even a single dent.

In fact, the beast had grown to over three times its original size, covering the sky like a lid, it towered over everything as it just stared imposingly at Xuanyuan.

Almost as if it was struggling to comprehend how a creature that could perfectly withstand its attack was utterly unable to damage it in return.

Although the dragon wasn't getting any stronger, Xuanyuan realized he had to try a different approach, as there was no point fattening the beast further.

Pulling out the sword Han Wutian forged for him, he slid his fingers over the flat of the blade as he set it in front of him, infusing his divine senses into it.

The dragon was infuriated upon seeing Xuanyuan wield the black sword and roared with malicious intent, its scales turned a domineering shade of tyrian purple as dark purple spheres of energy were produced at each of its five claws.

Instead of shooting them as black beams of spiritual power, the spiritual power covered the dragon like a dark purple cloak. The dragon then shattered the shell of spiritual power and turned into a bone-chilling black dragon with horns embedded on its head, making it seem like the dragon was wearing a crown.

Then, the dragon swam all across the sky in a flaunting parade as its body shaped into the infinity symbol before facing Xuanyuan murderously, its mouth gaping wide as a white sphere of chaotic spiritual power converged above its tongue.

'I knew the heavenly tribulation despises external items but this is too weak of a response.'

'If this is the only transformation induced by the arrival of external items, then my plan will not face much resistance.'

He thought solemnly as he brandished his sword at the dragon.

"Incarnation of heavenly tribulation, you are the crystallization of the laws of the universe, you represent the authority of heaven, to us mortals, you are the sky."

He shouted at the dragon which stopped to listen, closing its eyes and nodding in affirmation as Xuanyuan spoke, crossing the arms it just materialized with spiritual power.

"But what if I said I don't believe this. I do not think you are the sky. To me you are a False Sky."

At this point the dragon was stunned yet again, its eyes opened wide and the materialized arm dissipated.

"This is because I am the one and only True Sky, there can be nothing above!"

The dragon was angry, its brows were furrowed and a bloodthirsty roar escaped from its maw.

As he finished, he circulated his spiritual power rapidly in accordance with the instructions mentioned in the Skyless Sword Art, he was practicing the Fifth Forme - True Sky.

'If executed successfully, the dragon will have its head rolling across the ground.'

The sword flowed in a beautiful arc around him, cutting a circle in the first layer, he penetrated the deep-space, cutting open a section of the world and plunging his hand into it.

This was a necessary step for the upcoming performance, Xuanyuan had to acquire the essence of the world to fuel this move as his cultivation was not adequate.

Thankfully his sword was competent enough due to the countless hours of painful and gruelling dual cultivation the two had endured.

Imbueing his sword with the electric blue gel-like substance that he had luckily immediately unearthed, he swung the blade straight at the white beam of spiritual power the dragon just shot out.

Splitting the beam cleanly in two, he advanced as the dragon pushed forth at overdrive throttle, pumping out obscene amounts of spiritual power.

Where each drop of this energy could make or break a peak Firmament Unity realm cultivator, this beam represented the height of First Tribulation combat prowess.

The endless torrent finally subsided as the dragon decided to charge forth with its phsyical might instead only to realize that Xuanyuan had advanced much further towards it than anticipated and received a full-strength slash right on its face.

The blade created a gash that ran down from right under the dragon's right eye all the way to its lip, and from it oozed a viscous purple spiritual power.

The dragon was utterly enraged by this and swept its tail to smash into Xuanyuan from the side.

But it was too slow, the circulation of spiritual power was complete and the technique was consummated at the tip of Xuanyuan's blade.

He slashed his blade with both hands and expended all the spiritual power in his Linghun Aperture in one attack.

But it was not enough, his realm was too low and his power too little.

So he burned the essence of the world that he had acquired and exploded with boundless power.

Concentrated within the aura of his sword, all that power was released at once when Han Xuanyuan swept out and slashed straight into the dragon's stomach.

A gigantic black ray rushed towards the dragon with a fatal speed.

It could only widen its eyes in horror as the sword energy cut into it and exited from the other side.

The two halves of the dragon started falling to the ground as Xuanyuan sheathed his sword and coughed up a mouthful of blood, the strain of using the fifth form was excessive and could only be used as a life saving measure, he decided.

The bisected corpse of the beast disintegrated into ashes which floated back up and were absorbed into Xuanyuan's body, replenishing some of his spiritual power before being devoured by the abyss which surged once more.

But before he could relax, he felt a disturbing sensation well up within his heart.

Looking around to find the source of all these warning bells going on inside his mind, he noticed a small crack appear in the first layer, revealing a surprisingly stable deep-space.

Yet what he saw next sent his heart all the way up to his throat, threatening to jump out because he had seen this man before.

With his long, flowing, messy gray hair and tattered robes, he looked extremely miserable but Xuanyuan could not feel any sympathy for him, only hate and disgust.

He was one of the greatest traitors to humanity in this world, he was Han Wutian's son, Han Huang, the former Marshal Knight of the previous ruling faction, the White River Empire.