“I choose to undergo the Taboo Tribulation!” Hearing the game notification, Ye Lin chose to undergo the tribulation without the slightest hesitation.
Putting aside the fact that he had the buff from his Perfect grade task evaluation, which guaranteed a 100% breakthrough and meant he would definitely survive the tribulation...
Even without this buff, he would still choose to undergo the tribulation to elevate his Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment into a Great Dao Foundation Establishment.
After all, while one's Spiritual Root determined their cultivation speed, their Dao foundation largely dictated the upper limit of their future growth.
On the Heavenly Desolation Continent, the quality of Foundation Establishment from lowest to highest was categorized into Ordinary Foundation Establishment, Top-Grade Foundation Establishment, Mortal Dao Foundation Establishment, Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment, and the legendary Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.
According to the common knowledge of the cultivation world, one's Spiritual Root and Dao foundation were generally proportional. The higher the quality of the Spiritual Root, the better the Dao foundation one could forge, and the greater their future achievements would be.
This was also why the cultivation world typically judged a person's future potential based on the quality of their Spiritual Root.
However, nothing was absolute. There was a tiny fraction of people who had average Spiritual Roots but ultimately rose against the current to become peerless powerhouses. Yet, that was a one-in-a-billion probability.
For the vast majority of cultivators, achieving a Top-Grade Foundation Establishment was already a sign of extreme ancestral luck. If they achieved a Mortal Dao Foundation Establishment, it would be as if their ancestral graves had practically exploded with fortune. As for achieving an Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment, their ancestral graves would have to explode three times over...
It was no exaggeration to say that anyone who achieved an Earthly Dao Foundation Establishment—provided they did not perish prematurely—stood a high probability of reaching the Great Ascension Stage, the ceiling of this world, and might even hope to ascend to immortality.
As for the legendary Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, it was an occurrence so rare that barely one appeared in tens of thousands of years. But once achieved, every single one of them was an incredible figure who dominated an entire era, and ascending to immortality was practically a breeze for them.
But with an even better Great Dao Foundation Establishment right before his eyes, Ye Lin naturally chose the most formidable path.
This was because his goal was not just to dominate the Heavenly Desolation Continent. In the future, when he traveled to other starry universes, he intended to sweep through them all the same.
However, his ancestral graves did not need to explode, because he was fully loaded with cheats.
【Ding! You have chosen to undergo the Taboo Tribulation. The tribulation will descend in ten breaths. Please be prepared.】
Just as Ye Lin made his choice, the game notification sounded in his ears.
Meanwhile, in the outside world, in the sky above the barren mountain where he was staying, the setting sun was suddenly swallowed by rolling dark clouds, accompanied by rumbles of thunder.
Massive sheets of reddish-black lightning continuously brewed within the clouds. Before the tribulation had even officially begun, the sky had already been blasted into a massive black void by the rampaging lightning.
“Rumble!”
Inside the void, spatial power was mixed with terrifying lightning energy. The sheer pressure alone flattened dozens of continuous, ten-thousand-meter-tall mountains below into ruins.
Fortunately, he had chosen to come to this barren mountain range, which was uninhabited for tens of thousands of miles around. Otherwise, if he had undergone his tribulation and breakthrough in Lingyun City, at least half of the city would have been destroyed.
Ten breaths of time flashed by in an instant, and the tribulation in the sky brewed to its absolute peak.
Once the time was up, all the reddish-black lightning in the thunderclouds condensed into just three bolts of lightning, striking down toward Ye Lin inside the Desolate Ancient Dao Pagoda.
The first bolt was named Body Severing.
The second bolt was named Soul Extinction.
The third bolt was named Spirit Obliteration.
An ordinary tribulation would, at most, cause a cultivator's body to perish and their Dao to dissolve, leaving a possibility of reincarnation. However, this Taboo Tribulation aimed directly to completely erase all traces of a living being's existence across three aspects: the physical body, the soul, and the true spirit.
“Boom!”
The three bolts of lightning descended with an indescribable will of destruction, yet Ye Lin did not activate the Desolate Ancient Dao Pagoda to suppress them.
After all, he still needed to use the power accumulated within these lightning bolts to transform his Dao foundation, and he also needed to use this tribulation to charge the Heritage Key to the Thunder Ancestor Hall.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The three terrifying bolts of lightning entered the Sovereign Heaven of the Desolate Ancient Dao Pagoda as if it were nothing. Upon spotting Ye Lin, they slammed down on him without hesitation.
Ye Lin had originally thought there would be some dramatic scene of him sweating profusely from the pain or falling unconscious from severe injuries.
Yet, the moment the three lightning bolts struck, he felt absolutely nothing. Only the Heritage Key to the Thunder Ancestor Hall in his hand seemed to be blasted slightly charred.
This was, of course, due to the buff that guaranteed a 100% breakthrough, allowing him to so easily withstand a Taboo Tribulation capable of obliterating any creature at the Foundation Establishment Stage.
After the tribulation entered his body, it was completely absorbed by the heaven-piercing stone pillar Dao foundation in his dantian.
“Boom!”
Upon absorbing the Taboo Tribulation, the heaven-piercing stone pillar instantly shot up by a thousand zhang. Furthermore, at the very top of the pillar, a human-shaped imprint that looked exactly like Ye Lin actually appeared.
In addition, the originally black-and-white heaven-piercing pillar seemed to undergo an even more profound and miraculous change, though Ye Lin could not quite describe what made it so profound.
【Ding! You have successfully survived the Taboo Tribulation. Your Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment has transformed into a Great Dao Foundation Establishment.】
【Ding! Congratulations on leading countless players and becoming the very first cultivator to establish their foundation in this game. You have received a Special Gift Pack. The gift pack has been placed in your inventory. Please check it yourself.】
【Ding! You have unprecedentedly become the first cultivator among billions of players to possess a Great Dao foundation. You have received a mysterious reward, which has been automatically placed in your inventory. Please check it yourself.】
The moment the tribulation was absorbed and the Yin-Yang heaven-piercing stone pillar transformed, three consecutive game notifications rang in Ye Lin's ears.
“I didn't expect to get two game rewards at once this time.” Ye Lin murmured softly. He then sat cross-legged, waiting for the feedback from the Dao seed seedling.
“Rumble!”
The Dao seed seedling did not keep him waiting. The moment he sat down, a terrifying feedback of divine thoughts, spiritual power, and blood qi began.
【Ding! It has been detected that you are receiving feedback from the Dao seed. The trait 'Diligence Compensates for Clumsiness' has been activated. The feedback speed is being multiplied 100-fold.】
With the activation of the trait, Ye Lin instantly entered a state of frantic upgrading.
The first to change was naturally his physical body. As waves of massive blood qi surged into his entire body one after another, every inch of his flesh, every meridian, and every bone underwent a complete metamorphosis.
In just a split second, his strength experienced an explosive growth.
1.8 million jin!
...
3.6 million jin!
...
8 million jin!
...
10 million jin!
While his physical strength soared, his soul power and the spiritual power within his dantian were also skyrocketing.
His soul power expanded directly from its original bead-like size into a massive golden cloud, its quantity and quality multiplying thousands of times over.
The change in his dantian was even more terrifying. The already extremely vast dantian instantly expanded its overall scale tens of thousands of times over. The spiritual power within, which was already incredibly dense, directly transformed into a true, vast ocean.
At a glance, it was deep, mysterious, and boundless.
Who could have imagined that a minor cultivator who had only just broken through to the Foundation Establishment Stage would actually harbor an entire ocean of deep spiritual power within their dantian?
A day flashed by in an instant, and the feedback finally came to an end.
Ye Lin's cultivation realm also soared all the way from the Ninth Layer Great Perfection of the Qi Condensation Stage to the Ninth Layer Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment Stage, then to the Tenth Layer Extreme Realm of Foundation Establishment, and finally to the Taboo Great Perfection above the Extreme Realm.
In truth, when other people broke through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, they still needed to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to fill their dantians before their cultivation could fully stabilize.
But with the feedback from the Sea of Spiritual Power within the Dao seed seedling's leaves, Ye Lin skipped this step entirely.
After breaking through to the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment Stage, Ye Lin's overall combat power also experienced an incredibly terrifying leap.
First, his lifespan reached a terrifying 10,000 years. This was several times longer than the lifespan of a Nascent Soul True Monarch; even a Soul Emergence Stage cultivator would not live this long.
(Note: Each True Dragon Bead can increase lifespan by one thousand years, physical strength by one hundred thousand jin, and provide a massive amount of blood qi. However, the effects of any natural treasure are always most significant during the first few times. The more one consumes, the more the effects will diminish, though they won't disappear entirely. Furthermore, True Dragon Beads yield the maximum benefit when used when one's blood qi is failing and their lifespan is near its end. Ye Lin, however, consumed them like jellybeans while in his peak state, so the effects were naturally not as optimal.)
Second was his combat power. His physical strength reached a staggering 12 million jin, his divine sense became a golden cloud, and his dantian was completely transformed into an ocean.
In short, any Foundation Establishment cultivator could be swept aside like air, and any Golden Core cultivator could be beaten to death like a stray dog by the side of the road.
The Nascent Soul Stage was a massive watershed among cultivators because they could mobilize the power of heaven and earth.
Yet with Ye Lin's current foundation, the rogue and smooth combo of the Sword of Original Sin and the Divine Eye Heaven-Seizing Hand could easily dispatch the vast majority of Nascent Soul cultivators.
Only those true genius Nascent Soul cultivators... well, once Heaven's Punishment Moment was activated, even genius Nascent Soul cultivators would still die effortlessly.
Finally, his body had undergone a qualitative transformation. From then on, he shed his mortal coil, could engage in Bigu for long periods of cultivation, could fly on a sword at will for extended periods, could control weapons with his divine thoughts, and the quality of his spiritual power was elevated by several grades.
【Ding! You have broken through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, attracting the descent of inner demons. Please be prepared...】
Just as Ye Lin was inspecting the changes after his breakthrough while waiting for the Blessing of Heaven and Earth, the game notification suddenly rang in his ears.
“Oh? I've only just broken through, and someone is already coming to deliver benefits?”
Hearing the game notification, Ye Lin was briefly taken aback before a sinister smile instantly crept onto his face.
After all, he possessed the trait 【Dao Heart of the True Self】. His Dao Heart grew stronger automatically every day, though this also drew the special attention of the Inner Demon Clan.
But it didn't matter. The trait 【The Strictest Father of Other Races】 would show the Inner Demon Clan what a ruthless hand truly was!
Rate on N.U.
