Chapter 585: The Appointed Tribulation
"These are the old man's final words." After an initial explanation, Wei Ni Si, finding it difficult to persuade everyone, took out Gondor's dying message that he had given her.
She used her finger as a pen, drawing a large expanse of runes in the air at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye. The runes transformed into a mirror, projecting a lifelike image of Gondor, yet lacking a trace of his vital spirit.
"Everyone, I apologize that we must meet in this manner." It was still that familiar, kindly voice everyone knew, peaceful, without a hint of menace.
After hearing Gondor's voice, everyone fell silent. No one responded to the greeting from the voice in the mirror, because they all knew it was just a recording.
"Regarding the Luminous Holy Covenant, I ask for your understanding, everyone. I merely hoped to do my utmost to make this world just a little bit better than it was before.
..."
Gondor's apology seemed quite sincere, but this did not change the reality that they were extremely displeased. He used his own life to place shackles on the once unconstrained superhuman lives.
Unrestrained top-tier superhumans, while forming the apex of the pyramid, were themselves the most dangerous ticking time bombs for the entire civilization.
"...The last source of danger ultimately exiled himself in a sense, only forcibly tearing humanity as a whole into two halves, instead of directly causing extinction. But what about the next one? Will we still be so fortunate? I don't know.
"..."
Gondor's words plunged them into contemplation.
No one knew whether the next person to break through to the seventh stage and become an "Immortal" would be a completely anti-human madman who would immediately pursue racial annihilation.
Or perhaps an absolute dictator who would turn all living beings into eternal slaves. Unrestrained desires could very well give birth to devils.
They needed a covenant to maintain a relative balance within humanity.
Because if the next seven-stage superhuman to advance were to act solely to remain eternally supreme and sought to slaughter all six-stage individuals, for the vast majority of those present, it would be a nightmare.
"I made one last transaction with that person. He added something special to the Luminous Holy Covenant, making it so that the highest-level Luminous Holy Covenant could bind seven-stage existences."
"But as a price, from now on, every single one of you, during the breakthrough process of each stage, will need to undergo a tribulation."
As he spoke here, Gondor's voice paused slightly, as if to give everyone a moment to digest it.
After all, having a sudden pile of Heavenly Tribulations appear out of nowhere left everyone utterly dumbfounded.
...
"According to his original words, 'Heavenly Tribulation' is both a tempering and a gift. If one can successfully pass through it, the tribulation power will transform into motive force, making the successful individual stronger by a notch on their original foundation.
If one fails, they will not die; they only need to recuperate for a period to recover."
Gondor perfectly played the role of an explanatory NPC, explaining the "game's" new settings to the "players" around him.
...
"Adding Heavenly Tribulations for everyone... Then the success rate for advancement will further decrease."
"But conversely, individual combat power will significantly increase."
"..."
Gondor's words, like a stone cast into a placid lake, stirred up a thousand ripples. The council members present, who were qualified to be there, began to discuss animatedly.
In all fairness, they didn't really care about these tribulations. After all, they were already at the sixth stage, and currently only faced the Reincarnation Tribulation to "become an Immortal." Other tribulations wouldn't affect them.
Compared to the Reincarnation Tribulation, where one seeks life in death, the power of these man-made "knock-offs" was certainly much weaker.
What's more, no one would die! At worst, they could just try again. As long as life remained, there would always be a chance for everything.
Of course, this sort of thing was unpleasant to witness no matter how one looked at it; their very lives were completely in someone else's hands, and who rose or fell was entirely up to him.
"I discussed the issue of cultivation freedom with that person. He only left one sentence: 'What about the spirit qi then?'" Gondor's recording seemed to predict everyone's inner thoughts and coincidentally brought up the very question they were most concerned about.
"Spirit qi..." The six-stage individuals, from this brief rhetorical question, understood Bai Mo's meaning, and then quietly sighed.
Everything they had today was brought about by the mysterious appearance of spirit qi thirty years ago.
Without spirit qi, they were nothing.
But what exactly spirit qi was, no one knew.
Even thinking conspiratorially, was the path they had found today perhaps already laid out in advance by the so-called "spirit qi"?
All sorts of doubts remained unresolved, but those who had reached this point were all individuals with extremely strong self-control. They quickly emerged from their self-doubt and once again faced the current situation squarely.
No matter what the future held, focusing on the present was the only thing they could do. Even if they had to face the dark starry sky, people still had to live in the present.
...
"If I'm not mistaken, his mechanism is to siphon off a portion of the power of most who fail their tribulations, then leave some for those who successfully pass, while the remainder is stored, with the Luminous Holy Church's Divine Kingdom as the medium, awaiting the day when enforced compliance might be necessary!
As for his power, it was merely the initial catalyst."
The underlying operational mechanism of the Luminous Holy Covenant was not complex; for the Federation's upper echelons, it was practically an open secret, so they very easily deduced Bai Mo's actions.
"I think so too. To suppress a seven-stage existence, unless his true body personally presided over the Moon. But that's impossible. That person won't leave Earth for at least several decades; otherwise, he wouldn't have initiated the Earth-Moon separation in the first place."
"Therefore, what the Luminous Holy Covenant truly relies on is the power of each and every one of us!"
...
After clarifying this point, their mindset became much calmer. Regardless, having themselves be the ones contributing power behind the scenes was far more reassuring than having some other hidden mastermind.
No one knew who the next person to break through to the seventh stage would be, or if they would block the path for those who followed. If hope was entirely placed on the other party's illusory morality, it would undoubtedly be extremely dangerous. The previous bloody case had already provided everyone with sufficient lessons.
...
"Good luck." Bai Mo, who was at the center of the Star Core Grinding Disc array, thought, watching Lan Na and his group flee faster than rabbits.
The so-called "Sacred Body" was actually a physical body implanted with Spirit Picture seeds. Originally, Spirit Pictures like the Cavernous Sky Profound were organic combinations of multiple specific Spirit Hubs, and required immense investment to assemble.
Now, after a series of modifications by Bai Mo, the Spirit Pictures were compressed into Spirit Picture seeds. The seeds would grow synchronously with the owner's growth and eventually unfurl into a complete Spirit Hub combination.
The price, however, was that the resources required for each stage would be N times that of others, but the combat power gained would also far surpass that of peers at the same stage. It could be considered to have both advantages and disadvantages.
PS: Is there still hope for me, who misread "Spirit Picture seeds" as "erotic picture seeds"...? Also, a quick shout-out to two books: "The King of Special Effects" and "Boss Team of All Realms."
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