Chapter 221 - Heavenly Calamity

Yaan woke up in a familiar place…

He was in his temple, the temple that was hidden within a certain forest in the Bloody Totem Province. When he thought about it, Yaan realised that he had lived in this temple far longer than anywhere else.

Rui was the first to notice his recovery.

“You’re awake. And alive. Good for you.”

“I wonder about that…” Yaan sighed and sat up. He clutched his head with a grimace as he suddenly felt a torrential wave of slaughter aura rampaging throughout his sea of consciousness.

“Right…I absorbed the slaughter aura from 31 of the 33 Rank 6 bats directly into my sea of consciousness….” As Yaan’s mind regained some clarity, he recalled that last fight.

“I have been continually holding it back from destroying your mind whilst you slept for the past ten days.” Rui informed him.

“I only slept for ten days?” Yaan asked in surprise.

Rui raised an eyebrow.

“Based on that response, it seems that you had already formed a complete pseudo-domain previously. Why did you not mention this?”

“It didn’t seem relevant.” Yaan replied indifferently. He had kept a few things from Rui, intending to use them as trump cards, just in case. They were cooperating for now, but Yaan would not reveal his deepest secrets, nor did he plan on showing her his true strength.

“Relevant? It’s the most relevant power you have at your disposal! It’s a true immortal power, capable of fending off actual immortals!”

Yaan laughed wryly.

“But I can only use it when I’m at my absolute limit, I have almost zero conscious control whilst its active, and then I pass out for ages afterwards. It’s a last resort, not something to rely on.”

“But if you cultivate this power, it wouldn’t need to be a last resort!” She insisted. “If you…”

“If I became an immortal, right?” Yaan finished her sentence. “The only way to control an immortal power properly, is to become an immortal.

“Perhaps…anyway, didn’t you profit immensely this time?”

Yaan didn’t respond, but sunk his mind into his sea of consciousness. What he found was the usual sentience walls, the usual white bubbly sea of knowledge, the usual black fabric of wisdom…and a mass of slaughter aura that had gathered together, forming some sort of monstrosity within his sea of consciousness which had only one goal in life; to kill him!

Yaan smiled. This was exactly what he wanted!

Last time, the slaughter power was extract from his variant Qi and sent into his soul, then transferred from his soul and into his sea of consciousness. Battling against this slaughterous power in his sea of consciousness helped to temper his mind tremendously. This time, the slaughterous power originated from a large gathering of slaughter aura within his mind. It was a bit different, but he could still make use of it in the same way.

The slaughter aura from hundreds of 4-Star warriors, dozens of 5-Star warriors, and 31 Rank 6 beasts!

Anyone else would be terrified if they had such a terrifying entity recklessly assaulting their mind, but Yaan was actually very happy with this. He could use this new slaughterous power to cultivate his mind whilst studying slaughter further!

The waves of slaughter aura had transformed into a single entity, much like the slaughterous power from before. Compared to battling the slaughter aura, battling against this monstrous power was far more useful!

“Has anything else of importance happened?” Yaan asked Rui casually.

“Mm. Remember that tribe you attacked in the Yin Soil Province? The first one I mean, with that babbling 5-Star warrior.”

“Vaguely.” Yaan nodded. He had attacked too many tribes, but his memory was excellent, so of course he remembered it. However, he didn’t linger in that tribe for long, so he really didn’t know much about it.

“As it turns out, that 5-Star warrior was only visiting the tribe. He was not a tribesman.”

“…”

Yaan furrowed his brows, scratched his head, then sighed.

“I see. So I broke the war flower law accidentally?”

“Yes, but it’s currently under investigation. Since it was clearly an honest mistake, I believe that the punishment shouldn’t be something dire like execution.”

“Tch, I need to talk with someone who understands how this all works.” Yaan said this, then walked outside and called for Ga Shu.

“My Lord!” Ga Shu exclaimed. “I’m glad to see you awake and well. Your battle against the Lunar Song Tribe’s Third Immortal King has already become a legend throughout the kingdom.”

“Seriously?” Yaan asked wryly, but quickly shook his head, this wasn’t important. “Ga Shu, I want to understand the situation with the Yin Soil Province.”

Ga Shu’s expression became solemn. He nodded, then after the two sat down, he immediately began explaining this matter.

“The war flower law is strict and absolute, but there is indeed room for nuance. Due to the very well defined rules, there’s too much room for entrapments and other such things. As such, each case of the law being broken is investigated thoroughly, and the outcome is concluded fairly. My lord, you made an honest mistake, but I will be honest…you didn’t give them much time to explain themselves. Because of this, your punishment will likely be ‘moderate’.”

“What does a ‘moderate’ punishment entail?” Yaan asked apprehensively.

“Worst case, excommunication from your tribe, and from all potential future tribes.” Ga Shu replied.

Yaan paused.

“Oh…that’s all? They definitely won’t kill me, or cripple my cultivation?”

“Capital punishment is saved for deliberate breaking of the law only.” Ga Shu shook his head firmly. “Trust me, I have seen this play out many times before. Unless they found you guilty of other foul play of course….” He trailed off towards the end there, realising something and turning pale.

Yaan had been breaking the war flower law ever since Ga Shu underwent his heavenly blessing and stepped into Nirvana! They were still operating as if they were a Rank 5 tribe right now. If it got out that they were actually a Rank 6 tribe, the consequences would be dire!

“Ga Shu, immediately announce our status as a Rank 6 tribe starting from today.”

“Yes, my lord.” Ga Shu bowed and stood up, then left Yaan alone once again.

Rui’s voice entered his mind.

“This is still a risky situation. The Lunar Song Tribe will be searching for anything they can use against you. They are very likely to uncover the fact that Ga Shu has been a 6-Star warrior for some time now, but this will be difficult to prove.”

“Then I suppose I had best prepare myself.” Yaan sighed.

There were a few ways in which he could strengthen himself right now. Primarily, he still wanted to find a way to cultivate his soul, but cultivating his mind using the accumulated slaughter aura was still the best course of action given his current circumstances.

The slaughter within his sea of consciousness was chaotic and mindless, it attacked everything in its sight. However, if a psyche avatar with Yaan’s appearance was formed, it seemed to lock onto the psyche avatar, attacking the avatar with all its might.

Yaan taunted the slaughter, drawing it to attack the very fabric of his sea of consciousness. The slaughter smashed into the fabric of wisdom, damaging the wisdom with slaughter.

This was a painful injury, but embracing these attacks improved Yaan’s comprehension over slaughter itself.

Unlike with the previous slaughterous power, this slaughter could not be directly forced into his spirit soul to cultivate its strength. It was born from the gathering of slaughter aura in his sea of consciousness, and right now, Yaan had no way of making use of it.

For a slaughter soul to grow stronger, it needed to develop its slaughterous soul force.

Yaan could easily accumulate slaughter aura within his Vital Qi core. He had already attempted to slaughter some of his own Vital Qi within his core, producing slaughter aura within the inside of the core…but this could not become slaughterous soul force. It just remained as slaughter aura, before being converted into slaughter energy, then replenishing his lost Vital Qi.

And so, Yaan continued to wrestle with the slaughter within his sea of consciousness, trying to subdue it in every way possible whilst attempting to comprehend its mysteries.

He wasn’t sure if he was getting anywhere with the development of a method to cultivate slaughterous soul force, but at the very least, this constant conflict tempered his sea of consciousness tremendously.

The conflict within his sea of consciousness had now escalated into a vicious battle. This battle was so intense that it caused Yaan to break out in cold sweat a fair few times.

It was easy to push slaughter aura into the sea of consciousness, but Yaan had no way of getting it out…so, all he could do was fight, fight, and fight some more!

News of the Bloody Totem Tribe’s improvement to a Rank 6 tribe was leaked. Almost everyone assumed that Yaan was the 6-Star warrior, but he didn’t care to correct them.

Now and then, immortals from the Lunar Song Tribe visited Yaan under the guise of ‘investigating suspicious activity’. In reality, they were just being pests, getting in his way and distracting him.

The true investigator was sent from some other place in the empire. These investigators were impartial, they were sent out to investigate matters involving multiple parties with conflicting interests.

The investigator was an immortal. His face was expressionless like stone, his eyes lacked much of anything, but he listened to Yaan, nodding and taking notes when he spoke. He even thanked Yaan for his time when he left.

He was an immortal, yet he was so polite to a mere mortal. This was extremely rare.

Anyway, Yaan hid nothing from the investigator, aside from the truth behind Ga Shu’s ascension. He didn’t try to cover up the incident in the Yin Soil Province, instead admitted that he made a mistake. However, he denied all allegations of having a 6-Star individual in his tribe whilst still posing as a Rank 5 tribe.

There was zero evidence supporting this, it was just a rumour propagated by the Lunar Song Tribe…even if it was actually true.

Time flew by. The investigation seemed to drag on, or rather, the Lunar Song Tribe kept trying to pin new, highly incriminating crimes onto the Bloody Totem Tribe.

This was only natural, after all, during the past three years, Yaan repeatedly targeted their branch sects!

Every time he attacked a branch of the Lunar Song Tribe, he killed every single 5-Star and 4-Star warrior. If the lower realm warriors were being obstinate and not lowering their heads, he killed them too.

Almost every time he attacked a branch tribe, he encountered one trap or another.

A ridiculous self-destructing formation…

A waiting horde of beasts…

An entire army of 6-Star astral spirits…

Multiple 6-Star warriors, protected and supported by their immortals, allowing them to attack Yaan, whilst Yaan could not touch a hair on their heads…

There was always something, but after nearly three years of battles, Yaan finally took down their last Rank 5 branch tribe. The Bloody Totem Tribe was a Rank 6 tribe, so now, these branch tribes of an immortal tribe were the only tribes that Yaan was permitted to attack personally. If he wanted to attack any lower ranked tribes, his only option was to send his vassal forces.

The very next day after Yaan finished conquering the immortal branch tribes, crippling the Lunar Song Tribe’s reputation and prestige, the time had finally come.

It was time for Ga Shu’s Nirvana Death heavenly calamity.

There wasn’t much suspense in all honesty. If a pursuer of the dao of life could not survive this death calamity, then nobody could. It was just a question of how much life essence he would be able to retain.

When undergoing the final stage of Nirvana, Nirvana Rebirth, one of the most important aspects was the cultivator’s supply of mortal life essence.

Yaan stood at a distance.

The formations that he set up in the past to protect and hide this place, were now ten times more prominent. The concealment was multiple times more effective, but even so…if an immortal was watching, the formations would not be able to stop them.

The heavenly blessing was symbolised by a golden cloud, it was a blessing of the heavens…

But with blessing came calamity. Three years after the heavenly blessing, Nirvana Death descended. The heavenly calamity repaid what the heaven blessing gave in the past.

Sometimes the heavens took away more than they gave, sometimes it took less. The difference between success and failure depended on the person’s ability to prevent the heavens from taking too much.

Ga Shu looked up as the ominous black cloud formed in the sky. It blacked out the entire horizon, such that not a single trace of light could be seen for countless miles around. The cloud was hundreds of miles wide, it cast a gloomy aura downwards, this was the aura of death…

The heavenly calamity was like the arrival of death itself. This was the heavens' way of saying: I gave you life, now repay me with your death!

And what did cultivators say in response to this request?

Screw off!

We’ll take everything we can and give nothing back, that is the way of man! Screw your heavenly balance, we want to live!

A black light descended over Ga Shu.

The black pillar of translucent light was like a ray of death, it caused even Ga Shu to drop to his knees, losing all of his strength. His skin turned black, his bones, organs and blood turned black…every single part of him turned black! His body withered away, his vitality was completely drained, his cultivation was damaged, his soul was injured, his mind was hurt…

Heavenly calamity struck death upon every part of a person, but most importantly, it caused their life essence to quickly wither away.

If a living being ran out of life essence, they could not live; they would immediately die.

Ga Shu looked like he was in a terrible state. He was not breathing, his body was charred and slowly falling apart, his cultivation was almost broken…

But he was actually in much better shape than most.

The heavenly calamity lasted for nine seconds, the majority of cultivators died after around half a second. Of course, those were the individuals without an immortal stage dao.

Even so, even those with an immortal stage dao lasted on average 3-4 seconds before dying.

It had been five seconds, but Ga Shu was still alive! His body hadn’t even turned to dust!

Ah…

On the sixth second, Ga Shu’s skin entirely disintegrated. His blood dried up and vaporised, his organs melted into puddles. His bones lasted for slightly longer, but even they began to deteriorate on the seventh second. On the eighth second, only a pile of black dust remained.

Ga Shu had turned into a pile of black dust…

But within the centre of this dust, there was a glowing golden liquid.

“Life essence!” Yaan exclaimed, narrowing his eyes and staring intently.

So long as a Nirvana realm cultivator had just a few drops of life essence, they would be able to regenerate their body, their cultivation, their mind, their soul…

This was the power of life essence.

The eighth second saw the golden pile of fluid shrink by around 5%

And on the final ninth second, the golden fluid shrank by another 5%!

And then, everything stopped.

The black cloud dispersed and the dark ray vanished, as if it had never even been there to begin with.

As for the result of his heavenly calamity…

Ga Shu was alive and well!

Well, he was alive at least

Yaan was no expert when it came to life essence, but Rui was. She quickly deduced that Ga Shu had retained around 9,500 drops of life essence.

But Ga Shu was in absolute ruins, he would need to expend a portion of this life essence to restore himself. There was nothing anyone else could or should do in this situation, other than watching the bizarre scene which played out before their eyes.

The first drops of life essence were expended on restoring his mind. With his mind in tact, Ga Shu was able to feel the agony of being reduced to a pile of ash, but at least he could now consciously control his restoration.

He reformed a soul, for now tethering it to the pile of ash. Any spiritual entity not tethered to something physical would gradually vanish from existence on the Blood Plane.

Finally, he reformed his body. From the ash, the golden fluid seeped in, restoring his physical form. This time, Ga Shu restored himself with an appearance a few years younger, even though this expended a few extra drops of life essence.

This was the same appearance that he possessed when he spent those years with his wife. Ga Shu decided that he wanted to keep this appearance.

With every component of his being rebuilt, Ga Shu reassembled the components, connecting everything together. His mind returned to his brain, his soul returned to his body, and so on.

Next came the process of restarting his cultivation.

Normally, cultivation was a slow, arduous process…but Ga Shu was only restoring his past cultivation, not rebuilding a new one.

He built up his physical flesh and his vital energy, then fused the two to form his vital core. He formed his primal soul, fusing it into his vital core.

For 5-Star warriors, the primal soul simply resided within the vital core. After undergoing Nirvana, the primal soul fused to the core, becoming half-fused to the body as a whole. During Nirvana Rebirth, the body-soul fusion would be complete.

Finally, Ga Shu was finished.

Before the calamity, he had 18,000 drops of mortal life essence. The calamity reduced this number to 9,500. To restore himself to his peak condition, he expended another 3,000.

Ga Shu was left with 6,500 drops of life essence.

This was…a massive number.

Ga Shu lost a fairly typical number of life essence droplets during his heavenly calamity, slightly under 10,000.

However, it was more typical to gain around 5,000 during the heavenly blessing.

From this, it became obvious why so many cultivators died during their Nirvana Death calamity.

In order to overcome Nirvana, you had to achieve something extraordinary.

Ga Shu gained a huge amount of life essence during his heavenly blessing, so much so that he didn’t hesitate to restore his peak condition afterwards. Retaining enough life essence to reestablish your peak strength following the heavenly calamity was extraordinarily rare.

Most Nirvana Death realm cultivators would restore themselves by the bare minimum. They would then use countless valuable medicines to recover the remaining injuries.

“He has 6,500 drops to attempt Nirvana Rebirth. He won’t have any difficulty enduring the damaging effects of rebirth, but Nirvana is still no easy feat to overcome.” Rui commented.

Yaan said nothing, he was not overly knowledgeable on the subject.