[Side Quest]
[Enforce Heaven's Law]
[Heaven and earth are ordered, the Dao follows constant law. Every action and every consequence is both the path ahead and the future yet to come.]
[Because there is a path ahead, there are consequences behind. Heaven's cycle is unchanging; the rise and fall of all things is predetermined.]
[Quest Objective: Enforce Heaven's Law. The Heavenly Dao keeps its count.]
[Quest Success Reward: Exclusive Lifebound Divine Ability.]
[Quest Failure Penalty: Cultivation collapse, inverted karmic inheritance.]
[Accept quest?]
Chu Xingchen's gaze swept over the panel, and a sardonic smile appeared on his face.
A quest with a failure penalty — that was a first.
A warning, then? And a way to make him cut his losses?
An exclusive Lifebound Divine Ability — just hearing that sounded absurdly overpowered.
It was a pity, though. He was no cultivation genius — just a lazy bum.
Chu Xingchen gently reached out — and accepted the quest.
The multicolored tribulation clouds in the sky churned, then surged toward Chu Xingchen, pouring entirely into his body.
Bai Xuanling's eyes went wide, her expression utterly astonished.
Chu Xingchen's figure slowly rose into the air as the dao essence of the tribulation clouds surged from his body.
His own cultivation was climbing steadily.
From the weakened Integration realm, he climbed step by step. His aura grew increasingly overwhelming, and his dao essence became pure and profound… approaching the heavens themselves.
The other cultivators noticed Chu Xingchen's abnormality and turned to look.
At this moment, multicolored tribulation light swirled around Chu Xingchen. His aura had already broken through Mahayana and reached Tribulation Transcendence — and was still climbing.
Bai Xuanling instinctively reached out to grab him. No matter how she looked at it, this situation was wrong.
But the moment her hand drew near, the radiance emanating from Chu Xingchen directly repelled her.
Bai Xuanling was already at Tribulation Transcendence Great Perfection. Even if the situation wasn't right, she shouldn't be unable to even touch him.
Her expression hardened. Spiritual energy surged and churned around her as the light of Qingming illuminated ten thousand rivers.
Chu Xingchen's cultivation was still climbing, and beams of radiance continued to stream intermittently into his body from all directions.
Bai Xuanling pointed her finger forward, disregarding the collapse within her own body, and tried to forcibly pull him back.
But the next moment—
Chu Xingchen slowly opened his eyes. Radiance swirled within his pupils, his expression utterly emotionless. His cultivation had climbed to the peak of Tribulation Transcendence. He raised his hand and lightly tapped forward.
It wasn't spiritual energy — it was an extremely pure dao essence that directly flattened all the spiritual energy Bai Xuanling had stirred up.
Bai Xuanling's eyes went wide. To call this a divine technique would be an understatement — it was as if the Dao itself had descended in person.
In her current state, she no longer had the power to forcibly muster that kind of strength again.
Huang Miao stood with sword in hand, watching Chu Xingchen soar into the sky. His cultivation had already climbed beyond what Huang Miao could detect.
Radiance swirled around Chu Xingchen. His eyes were as pitiless as the heavens themselves. Dao essence gathered around him like a curtain, and spiritual energy danced and cheered as it circled his form.
Seeing this, Huang Miao could only smile bitterly.
There was nothing he could do for Bai Xuanling.
And as for the current Chu Xingchen — he had no idea what was going on.
He didn't know what he could do right now — or rather, there was nothing he could do at all.
The only thing he could be certain of, however, was that Chu Xingchen's identity was truly that of the one they had speculated about.
Chu Xingchen stood suspended in midair, his eyes pitiless, his expression equally so. He lightly reached out toward Bai Xuanling, then moved his fingers slightly.
The next moment—
Bai Xuanling's body was frozen in place by the dao essence, and then a crimson light within her was gently drawn out.
Chu Xingchen raised his hand and grasped it. Radiance enveloped it, and dao essence covered it completely.
After just a brief moment, the radiance dispersed.
The crimson light in Chu Xingchen's hand had now transformed into motes of cyan light. He turned his hand, and the cyan light circled back into Bai Xuanling's body.
The cyan light returned to her body.
Bai Xuanling's aura finally underwent a complete qualitative transformation.
Points of Heavenly Dao radiance lit up around Bai Xuanling.
Bai Xuanling had never felt so light in her entire life. The shackles that had prevented her from climbing beyond Tribulation Transcendence Great Perfection were gone, and the inner demon and malevolence that had haunted her for nearly half her life had completely dissipated.
Before, she had been powerless to resist, forced to watch as the urge to destroy everything gradually consumed her from within.
But now…
Bai Xuanling raised her eyes.
Chu Xingchen's eyes were still obscured by radiance, his expression solemn and majestic as ever. But suddenly, Bai Xuanling faintly noticed the corner of his mouth twitch upward, ever so slightly.
Boom!
Something caught Bai Xuanling completely off guard.
Chu Xingchen's aura plummeted rapidly. The radiance around him abandoned his body entirely, and at the same time, his form fell from the sky.
Tribulation Transcendence peak.
Mahayana peak.
Mahayana early stage.
Integration middle stage.
Spirit Transformation peak.
Spirit Transformation early stage.
Nascent Soul peak.
Nascent Soul early stage.
Bai Xuanling reached out and gently caught Chu Xingchen as he fell. She lowered her gaze to look at him.
Chu Xingchen's face was deathly pale. His aura had dropped all the way to Nascent Soul early stage, and the dao essence around him had scattered so thoroughly it was nearly unrecognizable.
Bai Xuanling sent her divine sense into his body and discovered that Chu Xingchen's spiritual veins were also on the verge of shattering.
The only silver lining was that, at this level of damage, if Tianyan Sect was willing to spend the money and time, it could still be repaired.
But with his cultivation dropping so drastically, whether there would be lasting consequences — no one could say for certain.
Bai Xuanling confirmed Chu Xingchen's current condition — his life was not in danger.
But his internal condition was truly terrible. Bai Xuanling didn't dare inject her own origin or spiritual energy into Chu Xingchen's body.
Looking at Chu Xingchen's pale face, Bai Xuanling suddenly remembered something. She took out a pill from her spatial ring and held it directly to his lips, planning to use spiritual energy to dissolve the medicinal power and feed it to him.
"No…"
Chu Xingchen's lips moved slightly. He struggled to open his eyes and looked at Bai Xuanling: "Can't… take it…"
Bai Xuanling was taken aback. She couldn't tell if Chu Xingchen meant he didn't dare take his own refined pills, or if he couldn't take them at this moment.
But since Chu Xingchen had said so, Bai Xuanling didn't dare actually feed it to him.
The corner of Chu Xingchen's mouth lifted: "I… told… you…"
Bai Xuanling reached out and lightly touched Chu Xingchen's lips, her tone quite helpless:
"You're in this state and your mouth still can't stay quiet?"
"Rest now. I'll take you back."
Chu Xingchen didn't even have the strength to nod. His whole body ached unbearably, as if it had been crushed and rolled flat. Even keeping his eyes open was exhausting.
Hearing those words, he felt a weight lift from his heart — and then he couldn't move at all.
Bai Xuanling held Chu Xingchen with one arm, glared to ward off Huang Miao who was trying to come check on them, then swept her gaze over the demons that were also beginning to flee, and said in a cold voice:
"Qingming!"
That day—
Dao essence pressed down with overwhelming might, radiance surged and scattered.
Sword intent pierced through all, moving mountains and flattening seas.
Qingming flew like a shuttle — a banished immortal walking the mortal realm.
Daylight ascension — the one true immortal in the world.
Even Huang Miao couldn't hide the envy in his expression. A true immortal like this — and Bai Xuanling had actually achieved it.
Chu Xingchen's mind was a complete muddle. He could no longer tell what was going on, nor did he know what was happening outside.
He could only hear the system's notification.
[Quest Failed]
[
Dear Readers,
I post multiple high-quality, human-polished chapters every day. If you enjoy the story, consider supporting the release schedule to unlock massive advanced chapter buffers!
Support Options:
$6 — Read 20+ Chapters Ahead (High-speed daily updates!)
$8 — Read 40+ Chapters Ahead + Exclusive Character Images
$10 — Read 60+ Chapters Ahead + Character Images + Patreon Community Chat
(Note: These chapter counts are guaranteed minimums. Because of my rapid update schedule, you will often get even more!)
⚠️ Apple Users: Please subscribe via your web browser (Safari/Chrome) instead of the Patreon App to avoid a 30% fee and massive payment delays.
Thank you for reading and keeping these daily releases going!
Support Here: patreon.com/Alex_Cruise
]