The Zen World, where the Zen Sect Ancestral Court was located, was also known as the Land of Light. Ever since their founder, Shi, had established his legacy here, no matter how much the world outside had changed, the Zen Sect had always stood firmly amongst the Four Great Ancestral Courts.

Brahma Sun Secret Realm, the seclusion retreat of Present Age Buddha Jianan.

Huh?

Old Jianan, who had been in secluded meditation for years, quietly opened his eyes. A solemn look crossed his face while his heart quivered—he detected the aura belonging to an Eternal tribulation!

“How could the opportunity to attain eternity still appear when the epochal calamity is nigh?” Jianan was stunned with disbelief.

Right at this moment, a wisp of an aged voice suddenly rang out, “Jianan, hurry to my abode.”

Shaken, Jianan immediately stood up and disappeared into thin air.

In a cave haven full of blooming nine-colored lotuses, an old monk with a snow-white beard sat cross-legged on a praying mat. His figure was thin and hunched.

When Jianan arrived here, he bowed and greeted this old man, “Martial Uncle.”

The white-bearded old monk was none other than Fan'an, the one with the highest seniority and status in the Zen Sect today. Furthermore, he was the sole disciple of Founder Shi and had already practiced under the latter when the sect was established.

“The fleeting aura of an Eternal tribulation just now, I trust you have sensed it as well?” Fan'an asked, his voice low and old.

Jianan nodded. “Yes.”

Fan'an rose from the praying mat, his murky eyes fixed on Jianan. “Before his departure, the founder left us three items, which are the Mahayana Ruyi that controls our sect's Divine Rank law, one of his Will Dharma Forms, and a stone statue with the words ‘Alpha Origin’ engraved on it.”

After a brief pause, he resumed, “The stone statue sent out a decree, thus Jikong was dispatched with the founder's Will Dharma Form, leading a group of our experts to join forces with the Shaman Sect to capture Lin Xun, the successor of the Master of Fangchun Mountain. However, they...failed.”

A shadow eclipsed Jianan's expression.

That operation had to be classified as a complete failure. Not only had Ji Kong and a host of other peak Transcendence members been annihilated, but even their founder's Will Dharma Form, Past Age Buddha Jiaxiu, and Future Age Buddha Jiajing had gone missing in a bizarre manner!

Fan'an continued in a heavy voice, “Now, the stone statue has sent out a second decree.”

“What!?” Jianan exclaimed in shock. “It can't be...it can't be that we've been asked to deal with the Origin Sect again?”

Fan'an's murky eyes became unfathomable. “No, with Lin Xun.”

Lin Xun!

Jianan's eyes narrowed, and then something hit him. “That Eternal tribulation aura just now...it couldn't have been triggered by him?”

Fan'an sighed, “Who else if not him? Even I was frightened there. I can't imagine what he could have done to possibly invite that ray of opportunity to eternalize his dao.”

Jianan went silent for a while before he asked, “What did the will of the Alpha Origin stone statue say?”

“What I received was a supreme intent, not any specific words or text,” Fan'an said. “Lin Xun triggered the Eternal tribulation, that being noticed and immediately ordered us, the Zen Sect, to go kill him.”

He paused and added, “The Shaman Sect and the Eternal Divine Clans of the Ninth Heaven Domain will also join us.”

Jianan said, “There doesn't seem to be any difference between this and our last attack on the Origin Sect.”

Fan'an's eyes gleamed, unreadable and chilling. “No, it is different now because the Origin Sect no longer has any Eternal figures to guard it. If Lin Xun chooses to cross his tribulation inside the Origin Sect, its Divine Rank law will lose all effects.

“And during this operation, you won't have to worry about the Great Silence Unlife Calamity. In fact...if we succeed, we won't ever have to worry about it in the future.”

Jianan was shaken. “The stone statue said that itself?”

Fan'an said, “Of course not with its own mouth, but it's certain that this is the will from that being.”

Jianan sharply breathed in. “Martial Uncle, who exactly is that existence? Is he...actually a person or an inconceivable law power?”

Fan'an shook his head. “Regarding this, perhaps only the founder knows something.”

Jianan pondered for a moment and said, “Okay, leave it to me!”

Fan'an said, “Set out immediately. If you go at full speed, you should be able to arrive at the Origin Sect within twenty hours.”

Jianan nodded and left.

Watching his figure disappear, Fan'an sat back down and retrieved from his bosom a pitch black stone statue that looked like it was made of jade but not quite jade-like.

The stone statue was clearly human-shaped—a tall one from the looks of it. However, the face was so blurry that it was impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman.

At the bottom of the statue, the words ‘Alpha Origin’ were engraved. The will decree mentioned had been diffused from these two words.

“I also wonder, who on earth are you...?” Fan'an stared at the stone statue in a trance.

......

In the Shaman Sect.

A mountain range that was a hundred thousand feet long quaked as a thin figure walked out from it.

“As long as I can avoid the threat of the Great Silence Unlife Calamity, let alone killing Lin Xun, you can tell me to trample the Origin Sect's mountain gate and I won't even bat an eye,” declared the thin figure ruthlessly.

Looking closely, he was dressed in animal skin, revealing part of his skin that looked like solid bronze. His tanned face was chiseled, and in the depths of his eyes flickered a petrifying vision of something akin to a blood-red purgatory.

Heaven Shaman Tan Wu!

“Alright then, I'm on it,” Tan Wu said and took a step forward. The void in front of him suddenly cracked open into a spatial vortex tunnel, and as he entered it, they both disappeared.

......

The thick, inky clouds painted the world black. The oppressive aura of calamity was like invisible molten lava, boiling and screeching in every inch of space. As Xuan Feiling’s group observed from the Origin World, their hearts jumped in trepidation.

This was an Eternal tribulation! Even old monsters who had lived for hundreds of thousands paled at the mention of it. At this moment, Lin Xun stood in the void like he was the only person in the world, his clothes dancing behind him.

Two hours had passed since this tribulation made its entrance, but there was still no sign of an outbreak, as if it had been building up momentum. Even the deepest part of the sky dome had been flooded with black torrents of tribulation energy.

Lin Xun wasn't in a hurry, nor was he apprehensive. His mind was serene, clear, and free from emotions. He was calm and relaxed. He gazed into the depths of the firmament as if wanting to penetrate all the secrets within.

Time trickled by. Suddenly, something tossed and turned in the black depths. Following that, a blinding light appeared like a sharp sword, tearing through the heavy clouds and illuminating this whole blanketed world.

Boom!

This light started out as an inconspicuous flash, but when it shot out of the thick clouds, it became a sky full of lightning bolts. Like wildly dancing snakes, they dropped like a dense rain of ice.

“It’s come!” Xuan Feiling's group stopped breathing.

“It's finally here...” In contrast, Lin Xun smiled. He made no attempt to dodge and instead waited. When the ocean of lightning bolts came crashing down, billions of lights suddenly surged out from him, manifesting into a cauldron that glowed radiantly in the void.

Rumbleeee!

The sky crumbled and the earth split. Everything sank into oblivion. The eye-piercing lightning contained a power so dreadful that it threatened to strike this world to dust. However, as the cauldron transformed from Lin Xun's Immortal law popped and rotated, the sky-blotting bolts were stuffed into it one by one.

Using a dao cauldron to subdue tribulation lightning!

Immediately after that, the destructive lightning energy was worn away, refined until it became pure and abundant vitality. Lin Xun's flesh then drew on it and absorbed every last drop.

Meanwhile, he was completely unscathed! From afar, he looked like he was treating the Eternal tribulation as a delicacy and devouring it raw.

The shocking sight had Xuan Feiling and the others staring blankly. They'd break their heads and still fail to expect such a method of crossing one's tribulation.

Swallowing the lightning? Simply heaven-defying!

“Is this the vitality of the great dao contained in tribulation lightning...”

Lin Xun intimately experienced the lightning vitality permeating his fibers. A wonderful feeling filled him from head to toe, as if he was absorbing a nourishment that would let him achieve the ultimate metamorphosis.

CRACKLE!

Without waiting for him to further savor the experience, another dull thunder exploded somewhere deep in the clouds. It reverberated through the nine heavens and shook the ten directions. The heavenly might permeating that sound alone could scare Immortals to the point their livers ruptured.

Immediately following, dense tribulation light ripped the black clouds like berserk chains of law, but their appearance was crystalline and gorgeous.

These tribulation chains were indeed very beautiful, but they were also horrifying to an unimaginable extent. The second they appeared, they transformed into spears filled with judgment and extermination power as they stabbed toward Lin Xun.

Clang!

One struck the cauldron transformed from his Immortal law. In the deafening collision sound, the cauldron trembled. The next instant, a myriad more arrived. Their destructive powers bombarded the cauldron so hard that it rumbled nonstop.

Xuan Feiling’s group paled in terror. However, they saw the destroyed cauldron collapse into an abyss. Deep and obscure, it swiftly expanded countless times and flew up like it aimed to devour the sky.

Rumble!

The sea of judgment spears made of tribulation light were swallowed whole by the abyss. The only thing they left before disappearing into nothingness was a series of roars.

Lin Xun merely let out a muffled grunt before he took a deep breath and operated his cultivation to its limit. In turn, the massive abyss made of his Immortal law continuously exploded as it refined away the light spears trapped within one by one...

“Isn’t this kid a little too perverse?”

“When Pavilion Master You Beihai certified his Eternal dao, how sorry and tattered his state was, but look at Lin Xun now... There's absolutely nothing to compare...”

“His Immortal law is too powerful. Since it's capable of swaying the heavenly principles, no surprise it can forcefully crush the power of his Eternal tribulation!”

Xuan Feiling and the others were appalled as their eyes registered in this scene, their faces turning slightly dazed.

“It's only just begun and the tribulation already comes on so strong. I'm afraid it will only worsen exponentially.” Dugu Yong frowned. As he had observed You Beihai's Eternal tribulation firsthand, he could perceive how noticeably more powerful Lin Xun's one was!

The rest were also taken over by anxiety at how dire the situation looked.