Cracking noises suddenly rang out from Long Chen’s body. He looked inside himself in shock to see that his 108,000 immortal platforms had cracked.

A vague divine light came from behind the cracks.

“So the one going through tribulation just now wasn’t really me, and my tribulation only starts now? What a scam!”

Long Chen’s face turned dark. Just now, the Divine Gate had infuriated the heavens and increased the power of the tribulation as much as possible, then it had left this tribulation to him.

Just thinking of how the Divine Gate had repeatedly smashed apart the tribulation clouds to raise its power was enough to cause despair.

Originally, Long Chen had thought that his luck had taken a turn for the better. But now, he realized it was all a scam.

“Since there’s no way out, let’s fight! Lei Long, don’t fill up on rations. Eat some fresh food!”

Seeing the horde of lightning beasts charging at him, Long Chen summoned a huge lightning blade and charged forward himself.

BOOM!

A flash of lightning went through the lightning beasts. The lightning beasts were cut down in droves.

Lei Long also appeared beside Long Chen after hearing his call. With a roar, it pounced on the lightning beasts.

Long Chen felt inexhaustible energy coming from every inch of him. Each strike of his blade destroyed multiple lightning beasts. It wasn’t that the lightning beasts weren’t powerful, but that Long Chen was even stronger.

His Divine Gate had been opened, and the embryonic form of the Divine Gate Star had been condensed, explosively growing his power. These lightning beasts that he had felt to be incredibly powerful just before were destroyed in waves.

“Lei Long, go back for now!”

Long Chen suddenly put away Lei Long. He realized that this was different from his past tribulations. The lightning runes from the slain lightning beasts were being absorbed by his body.

The thunderforce of these runes didn’t invade his body. Instead, they went to his 108,000 immortal platforms.

More and more cracks appeared on his embryonic platforms as he absorbed more thunderforce. It was like something was about to break out of a cocoon.

“I need to absorb this much thunderforce to break my platforms and condense them into cores?”

Seeing the change in his immortal platforms, Long Chen put away Lei Long to prevent it snatching the thunderforce he needed. Wielding his lightning blade, he slaughtered the lightning beasts, bathing himself in a sea of lightning.

There were far too many of them. Even after six hours, their numbers hadn’t dropped. The world was still filled with lightning, and it was impossible to see anything within.

Yet, Long Chen was comforted to see more and more cracks appearing in his immortal platforms. Divine light was coming from behind those cracks. As that light blossomed, his body absorbed the thunderforce as well. His blood, flesh, and bones were all bathed by the light. It was like he was being reborn.

BOOM!

The lightning beasts suddenly vanished. Instead, replacing them was a mass of human-shaped lightning figures. They all possessed terrifying auras and undefeatable wills.

“Ancient Heroic Spirits? They were unrivaled experts when they were alive? Let’s see who’s more unrivaled!”

Long Chen had encountered these human lightning figures back when he had undergone tribulation in the Immemorial Path. He knew that they were experts who had fallen to heavenly tribulation in the past. Their fighting styles had been imprinted in the Heavenly Daos, and now the Heavenly Daos summoned incarnations of them to fight Long Chen.

Long Chen charged toward the human lightning figures. A bloody battle was fought.

There were tens of thousands of the lightning figures. Blood quickly covered Long Chen’s body, as each one of these lightning figures was a powerful expert. They possessed their own unique powerful moves, and for him to be surrounded by this many, he was quickly injured.

Although blood dyed his robe, Long Chen was still fearless. As he fought, his aura only grew stronger. With each attack, he blew apart dozens of them.

Those lightning figures transformed into runes after being blown apart, and they were absorbed by his immortal platforms. The cracks on his immortal platforms grew larger, and there were signs of pieces being about to fall.

As the cracks grew larger, Long Chen managed to see what was behind them. Inside each of the platforms was a bead. Indistinct primal chaos was circulating within them, and they nourished his body.

As he killed, more and more pieces fell from the platforms, revealing what was inside.

For normal Foundation Forging experts, entering the Jade Core realm involved transforming the immortal platform into a core. The Jade Core realm was sometimes called the Golden Core realm, or the Divine Core realm. That was because the majority of people condensed cores that were golden. Only a small portion of people had different-colored divine cores. Some of those people were highly specialized elemental experts, while some were just oddities.

As for Long Chen, he found that what he had wasn’t even a core. As his immortal platforms shattered, he saw that inside each one was clearly a star flowing with primal chaos. This meant that 108,000 stars were in the midst of being born. Primal chaos space was circulating, strengthening his body.

BOOM!

The tribulation once more changed. The human lightning figures shifted, replaced by warriors wearing ancient robes. These warriors looked as if they possessed flesh and blood bodies.

They were just like other people. Some were old, some were young. Some were men, some were women. As soon as they appeared, Long Chen’s scalp turned numb. He recognized their aura.

Back when he had undergone his tribulation in the Xuantian Dao Sect’s Infernal Devil Abyss to annihilate the horde of devil beasts, this kind of terrifying existence had appeared at the very end.

Just a single one had almost killed him. It was thanks to Li Tianxuan’s advice that he managed to understand how to beat it and successfully pass his tribulation.

These lifeforms all charged at Long Chen, immediately launching killing blows. One of them was holding a sword and slashed it at Long Chen. It was a seemingly unstoppable blow that could cut apart heaven and earth.

“Divine ring!”

“Battle armor!”

Long Chen’s divine ring suddenly appeared, blowing apart an empty space within this sea of lightning.

A faint fifth color had appeared in the original four-colored divine ring. It was an extremely faint azure color. If it wasn’t in the center of the other four colors, it would have been impossible to sense.

At the same time, five stars appeared in Long Chen’s eyes. But one of those stars was not as bright as the other four.

Long Chen’s blade slashed through one of these lifeforms. His immense power instantly killed it.

At the same time, he was attacked from behind. All he was able to do was shift slightly to protect his vitals. But he felt a burst of pain as a sword stabbed through his back.

However, what surprised him was that the lifeform whose sword was stabbed into his body suddenly transformed into lightning runes and entered his body. Those lightning runes were absorbed by his 108,000 stars.

When he had first seen one hundred and eight of these terrifying lifeforms, Long Chen had thought it would be a dangerous battle to the death. He hadn’t expected such a thing.

Seeing this, Long Chen attacked another one of them, essentially giving up on defense. He simply did his best to avoid their attacks landing on his vitals, but otherwise, he allowed their attacks to land.

Very quickly, many injuries appeared on his body, but he still felt no fear. Each time he was injured, the lifeform attacking him would transform into powerful lightning runes and be absorbed by his 108,000 stars.

As he absorbed more and more, all his immortal platforms shed their outer layers, revealing stars. The power of these stars circulated throughout his body, strengthening him. Although the injuries covering him looked horrifying, he was still full of energy.

As the lifeforms’ numbers dropped, his stars began to shine brighter. When the final one was killed, all the lightning vanished. The tribulation had ended.

Long Chen sat on his butt and gasped for breath. He had lost a great deal of blood and was already getting dizzy. If it hadn’t ended soon, he wouldn’t have been able to hold on.

A wave of exhaustion suddenly struck him. He really wanted to fall asleep right here.

“Huo Long, bring me away.”

Long Chen called out Huo Long. Huo Long was the one with the best senses in the Heaven Dragon Flame Region.

He had caused such a disturbance here. Even though this was a secluded and empty land, it was very likely that he had drawn over other experts. He had to leave as soon as possible.

Huo Long brought Long Chen flying away. When he felt that it was far enough, he had Huo Long wrap around him and dive into the lava.

With Huo Long’s protection, he peacefully slept. When his vision darkened, Long Chen felt as if he had entered an unknown world.

“Long Chen, you’ve only condensed the fifth star now? It’s really too slow. If you continue like this, it will be too late. They already know the plan and are slaughtering divine sprouts in every direction. We won’t be able to last much longer. Hurry, Long Chen. While we still haven’t been annihilated, grow up as much as possible. Otherwise, the ten planar worlds’ millions of lifeforms will be completely exterminated.”

That familiar voice once more rang out in Long Chen’s mind. He heard it clearly, but he didn’t say anything. He knew that the owner of this voice couldn’t hear him.

“The ten planar worlds? Millions of lifeforms? Master of the Nine Stars? Pill Sovereign memories? Looks like I’ve been drawn into a huge maelstrom.”

Long Chen suddenly sat up. Lava surrounded him, but inside Huo Long, the outside world was unable to harm him.

“No matter how great the maelstrom, I still have to resolve the matters in front of me first. Food has to be eaten bite by bite, and I can only take things step by step. What’s the point of panicking?”

Long Chen bitterly smiled. On this trip to the Heaven Dragon Flame Region, he had seen that mysterious woman. It had felt like he had understood something, but it also felt like he didn’t understand anything at all.

That woman’s contradictory words had been especially worrying. “You are you, you are not you. You are one, you are not one.”

He had countless questions, but no one was able to answer him. It made him feel like his head would explode.

“Huo Long, I need to rest. I’ll give you a direction, and you can stealthily swim through the lava.”

Long Chen took a deep breath. Since he couldn’t figure it out, for now, he wouldn’t waste any more energy on it. Having advanced to the Jade Core realm, it should be time to get to proper matters.