Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

The blood moon spanned the sky, as meteors descended upon the world.

Such a grand event naturally drew the attention of the world.

Dragon Tiger Mountain was the ancestral court of the Celestial Master Dao, reaching high into the clouds, towering above all.

At this moment, atop the golden summit of Dragon Tiger Mountain, a gaunt Daoist sat cross-legged, watching the blood moon with an expression of bitter sorrow. He raised his hand and cast out nine thunder dragons to meet the largest of the blood meteors streaking across the night sky.

In the end, both the thunder dragons and the meteors perished.

Yet the number of thunder dragons was limited, and how could they be compared to the thousand or more large and small blood meteors? Like a cup of water attempting to put out a cartload of burning hay, it was utterly futile.

The gaunt Daoist's face showed even more bitter sorrow, his figure flashed, leaving behind a golden decree of mana before disappearing into the depths of the back mountain.

Mount Daguangming, the ancestral court of Buddhism, saw an old monk with white eyebrows sitting motionless on the edge of a cliff for unknown years. Abruptly, he opened his eyes, looked at the sky filled with meteors, lightly tapped the wooden fish beside him, and nine golden lotus platforms rose up to meet the nine largest blood meteors before they too vanished into silence.

The old monk sighed and likewise vanished from the spot.

Mount Qingping, the Daoist center of the world's foremost female True Monarch Yue Qingping, faced the sky full of blood meteors. At the peak of Mount Qingping, a Dharma Aspect of a nun hundreds of feet tall suddenly appeared. With a furrow of her willow eyebrows and a light shout, a Flying Sword that seemed to be made of converging starlight shot out from her mouth.

The sword expanded rapidly upon meeting the wind, inflating countless times in a moment, an untold number of starlights sticking to it like magnets, enhancing its might. After piercing through twelve massive blood stars, the sword finally shattered with a thunderous crash.

After witnessing this, the nun swept her sleeves and the Dharma Aspect dissipated, vanishing under the starry sky.

At that moment, the countable powers of the world, the Three Mountains, Six Sects, a Dynasty, the Five Great Sword Cultivation Sects, Twelve Clans, and Nine Great Families that housed skilled practitioners, all reached out to intercept the blood meteors raining down upon the earth, their mana lighting up the heavens and earth.

Joined together, they managed to erase most of the blood meteors from the sky, blocking them outside the heavens.

However, many medium and small blood meteors could not be stopped in time, and they fell to the ground. One such small blood meteor just happened to fall near Yangjiawu Fort, not far from Ping'an County.

As the blood meteors fell and shattered, the blood moon in the sky also slowly began to fade, with the pure white moonlight once again illuminating the earth, and everything returned to normal.

Besides those fallen blood meteors, the world didn't seem any different from before.

But, was this world really the same as it had been, without the slightest difference?

Yi Chen stood with his hands behind his back, watching this scene, and decisively chose to add points.

It was too overwhelming.

He had just felt that life was meaningless and wanted to pursue a more exciting world when this supercharged event happened.

He somewhat doubted whether he had been afflicted by Lin Baihu's curse.

That abnormal celestial phenomenon that dyed the moon blood-red, that sudden overwhelming malice that filled the heavens and earth before disappearing, all proved to Yi Chen that the world would become incredibly thrilling henceforth.

"Sigh, why is it so difficult to take control of one's own destiny?" he lamented.

With a thought, four Origin Points instantly boosted his strength attribute.

Yi Chen's heart couldn't help but roar.

"Come on, Origin Point, let me see your limit!"

"Strength-Breaking Realm, now is the time!"

A tremendous warm current suddenly emerged within Yi Chen's limbs and bones, and unlike before, the current now contained an indescribable mysterious presence.

Unlike the warm sensation of adding points in the past, which felt like a relaxing bath, more comfortable than rewarding oneself, today's warm current became hotter as it rushed, growing more and more intense.

This was no longer a warm bath; it was like soaking in magma.

In no time, steam rose from Yi Chen's head, and his skin instantly reddened as if he were a boiled shrimp.

Hot, hot, hot.

The hot current raced wildly within him, slashing through his body like a sharp blade. The muscle fibers he once thought were incredibly tough were first severed by the heat, then rapidly reconnected and repaired under its nurturing.

This excruciating pain happened in every corner of Yi Chen's body.

Yi Chen struggled to control the surging current with his will, trying not to let it run wild like an untamed horse.

Enduring the intense pain, he thought countless times of closing his eyes and fainting away—why should he endure such inhuman torment?

Chapter Find:

Yet his reason told him that if he chose to escape, rather than guide and accept the transformation by this enormous heat, he might well end up charred to a crisp, leaving a mystery for Ping'an County.

Even in later times, bored storytellers would turn this into a tale to grandstand about in tea houses and taverns for petty cash.

For example:

"Unbelievable, Fengyun County's number one cultivator's inn burnt to a crisp—self-immolation or murder?"

This is the suspense version.

For example:

"A cultivator, lovesick over a brothel woman, resorts to self-immolation in despair, the affairs of Taoist Yi Chengzi and Huan'er."

This is the salacious gossip version.

For example:

"Shocking! Suspected childhood sweethearts reunite in a brothel only to find out they are siblings, Taoist Yi Chengzi burns with rage."

This is the melodramatic ethical bombshell version.

"No, never!"

"I've braved all sorts of dangers, lifting iron, fishing with dynamite, touching live wires, how could I fall here!"

Yi Chen's eyes instantly turned bloodshot, his teeth clenched tightly, withstanding wave after wave of agonizing pain.

He was like a small canopy boat on a stormy river, looking as if it would capsize at any moment, yet remained upright against all odds.

One second.

Two seconds.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Time trickled by bit by bit.

The stormy river from before gradually calmed, the clouds parted, and the sunshine began to cast its light upon the small canopy boat once more.

Yi Chen opened his eyes, a sharp glint flickering within.

He had won.

He endured the agony as if being slashed by a thousand knives, persisting to the very end.

At that moment, he finally understood the true reason why he had narrowly escaped death this time.

Stereotypes and dependency on familiar paths can be lethal.

His body wasn't strong enough, and the sudden strike at the Strength-Breaking Realm with an attribute score under 49 was the true culprit behind the peril he faced.

Strength is not like a rootless duckweed; it needs to be anchored in a powerful physique to provide the kinetic energy required to burst forth with astonishing power.

It was Yi Chen's careless oversight that had plunged him into danger.

After all, the boost received after breaking through the realm far exceeded that of a normal attribute increase.

Fortunately, relying on his experience from multiple attribute increases and superhuman will, he was barely able to control the warm current, gradually managing it, and fully assimilated the gains of this breakthrough.

"Fortunately, my physique has been tempered many times, and it is on the verge of the Strength-Breaking Realm; otherwise, this time I might have dug a hole and buried myself."

"However, the final outcome wasn't too bad."

"I, I made it through."

"Even turned a misfortune into a blessing, gaining a point in my physical attribute, which is an unexpected joy."

Recalling the experience he just had, Yi Chen still couldn't help but feel a lingering fear in his heart.

But the greater the risk, the more valuable the reward.

Due to this careless misadventure, Yi Chen had prematurely acquired the strength of the Strength-Breaking Realm.

A gleam of divine light flashed in his eyes, and a virtual screen suddenly appeared on his retina.