Compared to ordinary people, elite tycoons are even more desperate for longevity!
At their level, wealth has long since accumulated to an unimaginable degree. With endless riches, luxury, and constant pleasure, they have little left to pursue.
Their only hope is to live a little longer, to experience the mundane world.
But life spans a hundred years, and death is inevitable. Even with today's incredibly advanced technology, human lifespans cannot be extended. Living to around a hundred is already the limit.
However, those in positions of power and authority, the older they get, the more they yearn to live. Their appearances fade, their prime years slip away, and they cannot accept dying like this.
They secretly spend vast sums of money, hiring top talents to develop life-extension projects for them, but human limits are like shackles, impossible to break.
From Qin Shi Huang onwards, humanity has desperately explored the path to immortality, and even with today's advanced technology, it has not been achieved.
Initially, they had all but given up hope, believing immortality to be a beautiful dream, an impossible feat.
But the appearance of cultivators reignited the long-buried dream of immortality in their hearts!
Major institutions, conglomerates, and government organizations began to stir. They abandoned previous projects focused on telomere extension and instead turned their attention to studying cultivation.
As long as they could grasp the secrets of cultivation, humanity would not only gain powerful supernatural abilities but also realize the dream of immortality.
Suddenly, various Taoist and Buddhist scriptures, Feng Shui, and Xuanmen arts, long relegated to forgotten corners, saw their value skyrocket by nearly a hundredfold!
Some ancient original texts were even bid up to millions, making them incredibly difficult to obtain!
Not only ancient Chinese mythological texts but also those from ancient civilizations like India, Egypt, and Greece saw their prices soar.
Westerners, unable to understand Chinese ancient texts, had to find alternative paths, hoping that cultivation was a diverse discipline.
At this time, the people of Earth had forgotten about the passengers on the Nix, with only their relatives and friends still deeply worried.
They had also learned of the status of the missing passengers: they had become captives of the cultivators and were being held in the imperial capital of Da Qian.
Fortunately, the cultivators had not harmed them but demanded that Earthly nations pay a ransom for their release.
The high-ranking officials of various countries had contacted them. Upon hearing this news, they did not hesitate, readily agreeing to bear any cost as long as the people returned safely.
...
A thick bolt of heavenly lightning, as massive as a python, descended and exploded upon Xu Mo, emitting a thunderous roar!
"Hoo... this is already the sixth wave of heavenly lightning, when will it end!?"
Xu Mo's eyes widened. This scene far exceeded his expectations.
He had already weathered six waves of the Saint Ascension Tribulation, and by all rights, it should be the limit, with the tribulation beginning to dissipate.
But why had the dark clouds in the sky not dispersed? Instead, they grew darker and more ominous, and the heavenly might became even more terrifying!
Xu Mo's body was covered in cracks, all inflicted by the heavenly tribulation. The Saint Ascension Tribulation was extraordinary, and even he found it difficult to bear.
Of course, the main reason was that the tribulation had exceeded his expectations. He had initially thought that five waves would be the absolute maximum, but he hadn't anticipated a sixth wave, and judging by the clouds, there might even be a seventh?
"Damn it, isn't the Saint Ascension Tribulation supposed to have only five waves of heavenly lightning? Why are there a sixth and seventh wave?" Xu Mo gritted his teeth and cursed.
At this moment, the Chaos Furnace within him vibrated, and the surprised voice of the drifting bottle echoed, "Seven-wave heavenly lightning? If you can pass this, you'll have a flawless Dao foundation!"
"What is a flawless Dao foundation?" Xu Mo was taken aback. This drifting bottle seemed to know a lot about the Saint Ascension Tribulation?
However, he had never heard of a flawless Dao foundation. Let alone a flawless Dao foundation, he only had a vague understanding of the Saint Ascension realm itself.
The only information he had was from witnessing the tribulation of a demon saint in the Saint's ruins in the Southern Domain. It mentioned that there were five waves of heavenly lightning, with the power increasing with each subsequent wave. That demon saint had nearly perished in the fifth wave.
The drifting bottle only let out this surprised exclamation and then fell silent, seemingly unwilling to deal with Xu Mo, the 'man of his word.'
Or perhaps it believed Xu Mo wouldn't be able to survive the seven-wave heavenly lightning.
Xu Mo wanted to interrogate the drifting bottle further, but the heavenly tribulation descended, forcing him to temporarily let it go and focus on facing the tribulation.
Rumble!!!
The seven-wave heavenly lightning lived up to its name, its power incredibly terrifying. The heavenly lightning descended like a waterfall, pouring onto Xu Mo and emitting a series of explosions!
Xu Mo grunted, initially using his physical strength to resist, allowing the heavenly lightning to temper and strengthen his body. Only when his physical body could no longer withstand it and was on the verge of shattering did he unleash his power to forcefully disperse the tribulation!
"Seven-wave heavenly lightning, is that all?" Xu Mo looked up at the sky and sneered.
The drifting bottle was surprised that Xu Mo had so easily passed the seven-wave heavenly lightning. The bottle flickered, clearly agitated: "You brat actually became a saint, and with a flawless Dao foundation at that!"
"Is becoming a saint that difficult?" Xu Mo said dismissively, then felt the Dao foundation within him disintegrating and reshaping.
Xu Mo was surprised: "Is this the flawless Dao foundation? It feels ordinary, nothing special."
He briefly comprehended it. This flawless Dao foundation, in essence, meant a very high affinity with the Great Dao, allowing for the comprehension of Dao principles a hundred or even a thousand times faster than a normal Dao foundation.
Another thunderous explosion echoed from the sky, and another wave of heavenly tribulation began to brew.
This time, the drifting bottle was completely unsettled. Seven-wave heavenly lightning was one thing, but what was this now?
An eighth-tier heavenly tribulation, a supreme Dao foundation, that was already a legend. Across dozens of worlds, one might not appear in a hundred thousand years, and yet now it had encountered it.
"Again? Is there no end to this!?" Xu Mo's expression turned somewhat angry, feeling as though he was being targeted by the heavenly tribulation.
This time, the heavenly tribulation gave him no chance to prepare. After brewing, it directly descended, its might a hundred times more ferocious than the seventh wave!
Xu Mo unleashed his full power, his spiritual energy surging madly within him, constantly resisting the heavenly tribulation. Only when his spiritual energy was on the verge of depletion did the heavenly tribulation gradually dissipate.
Just as he thought the tribulation was finally over, the ninth wave of heavenly lightning was already brewing in the sky.
Seeing this, Xu Mo almost cursed out loud. Was this heavenly tribulation truly targeting him?
The demon saint in the Southern Domain only faced five waves of heavenly lightning during his tribulation, but now he was facing nine? Was he truly being bullied because he was an honest person?
"Hiss... how can there be nine waves of heavenly lightning? This is impossible!" The drifting bottle was truly shocked this time.
It was a manifestation of some of the rules of the "Ascension Competition" and had existed for over a million years. It had never heard of nine-wave heavenly lightning, let alone witnessed it.
An eighth-tier heavenly tribulation achieving a supreme Dao foundation was already the limit. What kind of Dao foundation could be achieved by nine-wave heavenly lightning, it had never heard of!