When Tianming turned around, there was a person sitting on a throne. Or rather, it was more appropriate to call him a god. He wore an imperial black and gold robe and had a violet crown on his head. His face shone like an autumn moon, his brows were like painted ink, and the pressure coming from him was intense.
He had died over two hundred thousand years ago, but his corpse was immortal. Tianming guessed that it must have something to do with his divine body and the Heaven Cauldron.
The man sat at the center of the Heaven Cauldron, glowing with golden brilliance. He also had five dragons beside him. The dragons were all coiled up beside him, and their enormous size nearly filled the entire Heaven Cauldron. The heads of the five dragons were gathered beside the emperor with fangs bared.
The dragons had different colors—gold, azure, blue, red, and brown, representing the metal, wood, water, fire, and earth elements. It wasn’t hard to guess that the man was Great Emperor Xuanyuan, and those dragons were his lifebound beasts.
Great Emperor Xuanyuan had five lifebound beasts, and he was the only known quintuple beastmaster in the Flameyellow continent’s history. It was said that the maximum number of lifebound beasts a beastmaster could have was five.
Furthermore, if Great Emperor Xuanyuan wasn’t strong, how could he start a new era? It was intimidating seeing a figure from two hundred thousand years ago sitting before him surrounded by five dragons.
Tianming felt a boundless impact on his soul when he turned around. It gave him a misconception as though he was looking at the Primordial God-Emperor. The Primordial God-Emperor was a giant of a thousand meters tall.
Tianming saw the difference between them when he looked closely. But they shared something in common: they both possessed the Imperial Will. Great Emperor Xuanyuan was the only person with the closest temperament to the Primordial God-Emperor among everyone he had met.
Great Emperor Xuanyuan’s corpse was still emitting such divine might, even when he was dead. Tianming couldn’t imagine how powerful he was when he was still alive. He was someone who started a new era, someone who was known as the progenitor of mankind. So he was naturally an emperor.
There was folklore. The emperor had risen with his five dragons and exterminated the netherworld to begin a new era. That wasn’t just the Archaic House of Xuanyuan’s legend, but the entire Flameyellow continent’s. Even the name ‘flameyellow’ came from the Great Emperor Xuanyuan.
“Aside from the goddess, we only have our ancestor’s divine body preserved in the Heaven Cauldron. This is the sacred ground of the Archaic House of Xuanyuan and the Archaion Divine Realm,” said Xuanyuan Dao with pride.
“You could also say that this is the entire Flameyellow continent’s sacred ground, right?” Tianming asked.
“In the past, yes, but nobody acknowledges it now. The other eight divine realms also gave birth to their own gods, and too much time has passed. They chose to forget the contribution of our ancestors to the world and forgot the fact that it was the Archaic House of Xuanyuan who led the world to a new era,” sighed Xuanyuan Dao.
“Yeah.” Tianming respectfully nodded.
“Come, pay your respects with me.”
“Yes.” The two knelt and kowtowed to the progenitor of mankind to express their respect.
“Our ancestor is the strongest god. None of the other nine who came along could compete with him. He’s the strongest in the Flameyellow continent’s history,” Xuanyuan Dao explained with pride.
“Yeah, it’s impressive.” Tianming had respect for that.
“Tianming, are you prepared? If so, we’ll begin,” asked Xuanyuan Dao.
“Sect Master, how are we going to start?” Tianming asked.
“A ray of imperial tribulation will shoot out from the ancestor and shine on you. It will tear your saint springs in two, dividing them into life and deathsprings. If you can stabilize the energies without dying, you’ll be in the Samsara stage. During this process, it’s easy for the saint springs to shatter, which will result in death. And even if you make it through, it doesn’t mean your lifebound beasts will. Then again, you have a lot of saint springs, and the chance of you dying is much higher,” explained Xuanyuan Dao.
“Sounds scary,” replied Tianming.
“Yeah. The imperial tribulation is something left to us by the ancestor as his last gift to us. In the Archaic House of Xuanyuan, we have many disciples rely on it to enter the Samsara stage,” said Xuanyuan Dao.
“It’s already been two hundred thousand years. Great Emperor Xuanyuan’s body still has the energy?” Tianming asked.
“I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s related to the Heaven Cauldron. So, do you want to begin now?” Xuanyuan Dao asked.
“Yeah.” Tianming nodded.
“Okay, prepare yourself.”
“Do I need to summon my lifebound beasts?”
“Yes.”
Tianming then summoned his lifebound beasts, which instantly filled the Heaven Cauldron’s interior, especially Xian Xian. Even after the Heaven Cauldron was filled, she still had many branches and vines with nowhere to go.
“The place is cramped,” commented Xian Xian. The four lifebound beasts squeezed together and they looked around.
“Xian Xian, do you see that? That’s a living ghost!” Ying Huo winked.
“Xian Xian is scared!” Xian Xian’s branches started waving around like hands.
“Hehe!” Ying Huo laughed with its wings on its waist.
“Chicken Bro, there’s someone behind you…” Meow Meow suddenly appeared out of nowhere and said in a creepy voice.
This made Ying Huo shiver and hide beneath Lan Huang’s belly.
“Chicken Bro, you’re also scared?” Xian Xian asked.
“What nonsense are you saying? How can I, the big brother, be scared?” Ying Huo coughed to conceal its embarrassment.
“Heads up. Our lives are on the line here,” said Tianming.
“C-c-come, l-let this old corpse open his divine eyes. There’s nothing this chicken is a-a-afraid of!” Ying Huo patted on its belly.
“Chicken Bro, why is your voice trembling?” Lan Huang asked.
“S-s-s-shut up!”
The atmosphere eased up as the four beasts fooled around. But what gave Tianming a headache was the fact that there was a Purple Tower in his saint palace. With his saint palace protected by the tower, would the imperial tribulation be able to enter it?
“Can I keep the Purple Tower?” Just when Tianming thought about it, the Violet Tower outside his saint palace disappeared, returning to the Prime Tower.
Tianming gave it another try before he was certain that he could control the Purple Tower. Tianming nodded his head at Xuanyuan Dao, signifying that he was ready.
Xuanyuan Dao knelt before Great Emperor Xuanyuan’s corpse and started chanting a mantra. There was something unusual about the words; it sounded like an ancient language. Tianming couldn’t understand what he was saying. He could only feel a buzz in his head and he started feeling dizzy.
The mantra sounded like a curse. In the next moment, it felt as though the Great Emperor Xuanyuan had come back to life and slowly opened the third eye on his forehead. The eye actually had five colors that represented metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
He was the Trioptic True Dragon Branch’s ancestor. That meant his bloodline was the strongest. Having a five-colored eye was unprecedented throughout history.
Before Tianming recovered from his shock, the five-colored eye shot a five-colored beam into his saint palace. When the beam entered his saint palace, it separated into five. One remained in Tianming’s saint palace while four smaller beams separated and headed toward his four saint springs.
Tianming was tied together with his four lifebound beasts by the five-colored beam. Tianming didn’t have time to pay attention or take care of them. After all, he had four saint springs and would be taking the strongest hit from the imperial tribulation.
After reaching the ninth level of the Empyrean Saint stage, the four lifebound beasts’ beast springs were filled to the limit. The size of their springs was three times larger than Tianming’s.
But in terms of quantity, Tianming had the most. After all, he had four saint springs. And if all of them were to be torn apart, it meant he would have four lifesprings and four deathsprings
The five-colored beam was like a sharp sword traveling in his saint palace. The beam was dangerous as it looked alive and stared at Tianming’s infernal saint spring.
“Come!” Tianming and Ying Huo had already prepared the Aeternal Infernal Codex. The Samsara stage had a unique cultivation method. They had to stabilize their foundation after the saint spring was torn in two, otherwise it would dissipate.
When the imperial tribulation stabbed into the infernal saint spring, Tianming sucked in a cold breath. It felt like he had plunged his sword into his own saint palace and destroyed his saint spring.
There was no pain from the saint spring itself, but from the saint ki going violent. The saint ki roared and smashed around in his body. Just having the infernal saint spring torn apart was chaotic enough, but the imperial tribulation didn’t stop there. It turned to the regal chaos saint spring and tore it in two as well. The next second, Tianming’s body was covered in lightning. Shortly after, the primordial and radix saint springs were also torn in two.
The imperial tribulation made an even cut, and it could already be considered stable. But even so, it was a nightmare to Tianming, who was a quadruple beastmaster with four different kinds of energies. Using the imperial tribulation to enter the Samsara stage was easy for ordinary beastmasters, who only had one lifebound beast.
But Tianming’s saint palace was in chaos as the four energies turned chaotic. The imperial tribulation had already dissipated after it was done with its mission, but Tianming was in danger due to the chaos in his saint palace. He knew that he would blow apart if he was careless.
After all, Tianming’s saint ki was the strongest in history, and he could even use it to fight samsarans. But at such a dangerous moment, Tianming suddenly had an idea.
“Purple Tower, come!”
The Purple Tower that Tianming had just removed returned. As long as he was willing to seal his saint palace, not only could the Purple Tower block out external energy, but it could also stop the four saint springs’ energy from erupting.