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Vast tribulation, cold moon’s mark

Cultivation is fickle, years leave no trace

Rebirth through possession, entering the mortal world

Still unrivaled in the modern city

Volume One: Re-entering the World to Cultivate Anew

Chapter One: The Fall of the Grandmaster

As the sixteenth-generation successor—and the only successor—of the Treasure Refining Pavilion, the artifact-crafting sect of the Central Plains cultivation world, Eric Carter could be called the number one figure of his sect, having advanced from Foundation Establishment to the late stage of Tribulation Crossing in just two hundred and thirty years. Even looking across the entire cultivation world of the Central Plains, among the four great types of cultivators—demon, devil, Buddhist, and Daoist—there were few who could progress so quickly.

But now, Eric Carter was filled with regret—regret for rashly attempting to break through to the Grand Ascension stage, regret for spending all his time on crafting powerful magical artifacts instead of cultivating and strengthening his own foundation.

For any cultivator who reaches the late stage of Tribulation Crossing, this is the final barrier before ascending from the mortal world to the higher realms. Any cultivator at this stage, whether they have been here for a hundred years or have just arrived, as long as they believe they have the strength to pass the final test, can trigger the heavenly phenomenon and summon the tribulation. If they succeed, they enter the Grand Ascension stage and will soon ascend in a blaze of glory; if they fail, there is only one outcome—body and soul destroyed!

At this moment, there was a ninety-nine percent chance that Eric Carter's tribulation would end in the latter outcome. Even though he possessed six of the top ten magical artifacts in the Central Plains cultivation world, even though he had easily resisted all external attacks of the tribulation with the power of his artifacts without losing a bit of true essence, even though he had passed the inner demon tribulation with the unique Treasure Refining Pavilion technique, "Frost Dao Guidance," it was all in vain.

"Damn heavens, this is jealousy, naked jealousy! The Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation is over, the Great Demon Heart Tribulation of the Five Realms and Ten Directions is over, and it still isn't finished! Picking on me because my physical foundation is weak, huh? Actually sending down the Cataclysmic Five Elements Divine Thunder... Damn it, this isn't a tribulation for a cultivator—it's not even this hard for the most heinous demon lord! You want me dead? Well, your Master Carter refuses to give you the satisfaction..."

During a cultivator's tribulation, there are generally only two types of obstacles: external demons and internal demons. The external demon is the Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation, which comes in three waves of nine changes, meant to test the cultivator's overall strength—including magical artifacts, elixirs, and other aids. With six of the top ten magical artifacts, Eric Carter handled this with ease.

The internal demon, also known as the Great Demon Heart Tribulation of the Five Realms and Ten Directions, mainly tests the tribulation-taker's will to cultivate. With the superior mind-guarding technique "Frost Dao Guidance," Eric Carter passed this without much danger.

Normally, the tribulation would end here... Only in very rare cases would there be an additional calamity, one that is not too difficult for most cultivators to overcome—the Cataclysmic Five Elements Divine Thunder.

This Cataclysmic Five Elements Divine Thunder is neither an external nor an internal demon tribulation. Once it descends, it ignores all magical artifacts and formations, striking the tribulation-taker's body directly. If you survive, you have passed the tribulation perfectly.

If you pulled out any late-stage tribulation cultivator from the Central Plains, nine out of ten would confidently claim they could withstand the Cataclysmic Five Elements Divine Thunder. In the eyes of most cultivators, its threat is nothing compared to the previous two tribulations.

As long as your true essence is strong enough and your body has been tempered for over a decade, you just have to grit your teeth and take it. At worst, you'll cough up a few mouthfuls of blood and be done with it.

Unfortunately, Eric Carter was the one exception out of ten—the only one unable to withstand it. As the inheritor of the Treasure Refining Pavilion, specializing in artifact crafting, Eric Carter had never been interested in cultivating his own body since the day he entered the sect, let alone spending time to strengthen it.

All his energy and focus had gone into crafting magical artifacts and searching for rare materials. In over two centuries, Eric Carter had crafted more than a hundred magical artifacts, two of which were so successful that they replaced the previous ninth and tenth ranked artifacts among the top ten: the Sky-Supporting Ruler and the Divine Storage Ring. As for the other artifacts, some he gave away, some he kept, and some he traded with other cultivators for items needed in his own cultivation.