Chapter 128: The Yin-Yang Robe

Qingxu was truly blessed with extraordinary luck. Through a stroke of sheer fortune, he had managed to master one of the three thousand Great Dao divine abilities from the primordial chaos—the Great Causality Technique. Such a destiny was beyond the reach of others, for one must understand that these three thousand Great Dao divine abilities are in perfect harmony with the laws of the Great Dao; they are profoundly mysterious, and most importantly, they are unique.

During the primordial age, Pangu cleaved the heavens and the earth, striving to manifest the Dao through his own being. Driven by the crisis of life and death and the hope of attaining the Dao, three thousand Chaos Demon Gods united to intercept and kill Pangu. Unexpectedly, Pangu’s cultivation was so profound that he slaughtered all three thousand Chaos Demon Gods single-handedly, synthesized the rules of the three thousand Great Daos, and forged the Primordial Great World.

Most Chaos Demon Gods did not survive Pangu’s axe. Only a few, such as Hongjun, Rahu, Yang Mei, and the Ancestor of Ice, managed to escape with their lives, lingering on in misery. Half of them suffered severe damage to their original spirits, making their path to the Dao even more arduous.

The one who mastered the Great Causality Technique was the Causality Demon God. Unlike the Ancestor of Ice and the others, the Causality Demon God was less fortunate and was obliterated in body and soul by Pangu. This proved to be a boon for Qingxu; otherwise, the moment he attempted to master the Great Causality Technique, the primordial chaos of the Great Dao would have immediately recoiled. After all, the three thousand Great Dao divine abilities cannot be replicated; once mastered by one, there is no possibility for others to cultivate them.

The first golden-black lightning dragon of good and evil descended with the supreme power of world-creation, striking directly at the crown of Qingxu’s head. Before it even touched him, the area for a thousand miles fell into dead silence, filled with an aura of destruction. On the jagged Rocks Mountain, boulders of various sizes began to hover in the air.

Beneath his feet, fissures tore open and spread in all directions. Initially only as wide as a finger, by the time the tremors reached a hundred miles away, they had become deep ravines, pitch-black and bottomless, from which sinister winds billowed, permeating the entire mountain range.

"I never imagined the first strike of the Nine-Nine Celestial Tribulation would cause such destruction," Qingxu thought, a hint of alarm crossing his mind. He recognized these as the "winds of the earth's lungs," insidious and vicious, capable of damaging the bodies and souls of living beings, though they posed little real threat to a cultivator who had already attained the Celestial Dao.

Rumble!

Facing the finger-thick lightning dragon, Qingxu dared not be careless. He quickly formed hand seals, commanding the Mysterious Yellow Alms Bowl hovering above his head.

It was truly a treasure of the Mysterious Yellow. Under Qingxu’s command, the bowl emitted a hazy, golden-yellow radiance, transparent and clear, enveloping him tightly.

Although the bowl was born of heaven and earth, it was not forged in the primordial chaos and lacked the divine charm of the Great Dao. In essence, it was inferior to an Innate Spiritual Treasure, yet its power was in no way lesser. The Mysterious Yellow Energy of Heaven and Earth was the greatest merit since the creation of the world; it belonged to the innate, stole the fortune of creation, and was particularly adept at defending against all sorts of techniques.

While the energy was infinitely profound, unlike the Mysterious Yellow Pagoda of the Grand Supreme Master, the primary function of Qingxu’s bowl was the creation of life; its defensive capabilities were merely adequate.

Bang!

With a deafening roar, the lightning dragon struck the golden-yellow radiance. The shockwaves leveled dozens of peaks on Rocks Mountain, and the nearby East Sea erupted in towering waves, claiming the lives of countless innocent creatures.

A sharp pain pierced his chest, and a mouthful of blood rose to his throat, which he forcibly swallowed. Looking up, he saw the golden radiance shielding him shaking violently, ripples distorting its surface.

"Too powerful, truly too powerful. This is only the first strike, and there are eighty more to go! Can I truly survive this Nine-Nine Celestial Tribulation?" Qingxu felt deeply uneasy. The first dragon alone had caused the bowl to tremble and strained his own spirit.

Yet, amidst his worry, he sensed a benefit. After successfully resisting the first dragon, his spirit felt lighter, as if a heavy burden had been lifted. His mind became clear and bright, and reflecting his nascent soul into the void became much easier than before.

His Daoist cultivation level had increased! Early stage of the Celestial Immortal realm!

He could hardly believe it. The benefits of just the first strike had pushed his cultivation from the peak of the Earth Immortal realm to the early stage of the Celestial Immortal realm. It could be said that as long as Qingxu took some time to store up his magical power and strengthen his origin, he would be a true Celestial Immortal.

Not only had his cultivation level risen, but his immortal essence had been purified. The same amount of power was now at least twice as potent as it had been at the peak of the Earth Immortal realm.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

Seeming angered by its failure, the tribulation clouds churned violently, unleashing three lightning dragons at once—one in the front, two behind.

Boom! Crackle!

Under the force of these three even more powerful dragons, at least half of the remaining peaks on Rocks Mountain were leveled. The fissures in the earth widened several times over, and the waves from the sea formed a tsunami dozens of fathoms high, surging toward the cliffs of Rocks Mountain.

Having endured the first strike, Qingxu discarded his earlier complacency, focusing his mind and exerting all his strength to command the alms bowl. A shield of golden-yellow radiance soared upward!

Bang, bang, bang-rumble!

The three dragons struck the shield, causing ripples to spread everywhere and cracks to form, bringing it to the verge of shattering.

"Four strikes down?" he pondered with difficulty. This was his full exertion, providing at least thirty percent of the bowl's peak defensive capability.

There was no time for respite. The fifth lightning dragon descended; its power was equal to the sum of the previous four combined.

Bang! Crackle! Rumble!

The shield, already on the brink of collapse, was no match for this terrifying force. It shattered instantly. The weakened dragon continued its descent, striking the body of the alms bowl itself. With a mournful cry, the bowl’s light dimmed significantly, having suffered heavy damage, though it did successfully withstand the fifth strike.

After resisting five dragons, Qingxu’s cultivation soared again. It was like riding a rocket; by the time the fifth dragon dissipated, his cultivation had advanced further, reaching the middle stage of the Celestial Immortal realm.

It was unbelievable. Even Qingxu found it hard to fathom. He had never expected the Nine-Nine Celestial Tribulation to be so generous. Out of eighty-one dragons, the first five alone had propelled him across a major boundary.

One must realize that under normal circumstances, such a breakthrough would take centuries of hard work. Qingxu had saved himself hundreds of years of toil, pulling ahead of his peers. And the key was that this was not the end, but merely the beginning.

The benefits were great, but the alms bowl was now severely damaged, its defensive power plummeted. This worried him—no matter how great the rewards, they were useless if he could not survive the tribulation.

The sixth dragon arrived on schedule, offering no time for preparation. As it struck the bowl, a massive cry of grief echoed in Qingxu’s ears, followed by the sound of constant fracturing. Looking up, he saw the bowl’s light vanish completely, its golden surface covered in thousands of cracks.

Whoosh!

Under the onslaught of the sixth dragon, the bowl could hold on no longer and turned into a streak of light, retreating into Qingxu’s Niwan Palace. Without the bowl, his defense was severely compromised, leaving him in a precarious position.

The seventh dragon was twice as powerful as the sixth.

Boom!

His secondary defensive techniques, the Heavenly Water Shield and the Golden Lotus Lamp, shattered under the seventh strike.

After seven consecutive, non-stop strikes, the tribulation clouds seemed to reach their limit and paused to gather strength, granting Qingxu a precious moment of respite. Looking at the tattered remains of his Heavenly Water Shield in his hands, Qingxu could have wept. This high-grade defensive treasure was effectively ruined; repairing it would be an immense task.

His heart sank. Only seven dragons had passed; seventy-four remained, each one stronger than the last. Feeling the damage to his internal organs, the exhaustion of his spirit, and the depletion of his magical power, a desperate, bitter smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Did he still have a chance?

His only remaining reliance was his Yin-Yang Daoist robe and his "Fengshen System" golden finger from his transmigration. Qingxu did not know the full extent of the system’s functions, nor the true nature of his mysterious red and blue lightning. He was uncertain if these trump cards could help him survive the Nine-Nine Celestial Tribulation.

The Yin-Yang Daoist robe had been bestowed upon him by the Primordial Heavenly Lord. It was an Innate Spiritual Treasure, and a top-tier one at that, possessing immense power, particularly in defense. The only trouble was that he had not yet refined enough of its internal innate prohibitions to unleash its full potential.

"I hope the Yin-Yang robe can hold out for a while!" As an Innate Spiritual Treasure, Qingxu still held a glimmer of hope. On par with the Yuxu Palace Lamp, this robe possessed unfathomable defensive properties.

Rumble!

The eighth lightning dragon struck with lightning speed, hitting him before he could react.

"An ambush? How despicable!" Qingxu sighed inwardly, his spirit almost failing him. He hadn't even had time to activate the robe’s full power. Now, struck squarely by a dragon even more terrifying than the seventh, it seemed certain that disaster was at hand.

Just as Qingxu braced himself for death or grievous injury, a sudden transformation occurred. As the lightning dragon slammed into the Yin-Yang robe, it seemed to trigger a latent ability. A massive, three-dimensional black-and-white Taiji diagram manifested, rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise around him. It caught the lightning dragon, unraveling its power and absorbing it into the diagram.

"Nani? What is happening?" Feeling no pain, Qingxu stared in astonishment at the black-and-white diagram, spanning several miles, completely baffled by the situation.

The eighth dragon, which had enough power to instantly kill a peak Earth Immortal, seemed to lose its direction within the Taiji diagram. It thrashed about, unable to escape the duality of Yin and Yang. In the end, it was ground down into nothingness, its energy absorbed into the diagram, further increasing its power.