Tianyi's face instantly paled.

The more stars that appeared within his Sword Formation as World domain, the more pale Tianyi's face became.

The Heaven and Man Connection Pagoda was a special tool that the Immortal Court used to allow promising seeds to link themselves to the celestial stars and form a stellar avatar within themselves. Stellar avatars allow users to increase their cultivation speed and the strength of the true qi and can even be turned into an actual avatar with a paired technique.

The Heaven and Man Connection Pagoda originally didn't have any murals painted on it, but it was added on later. As for who did it, it was beyond Lei Jingye's knowledge. Lei Jingye had coincidently acquired information on an entrance that led to the fragment of the Immortal Court as well as knowledge concerning the usage of Heaven and Man Connection Pagoda.

The stellar avatar wasn't a true avatar. True avatars were copies of the user with their thoughts and actions linked. They often required the user to split their soul, which would damage the user's potential, so not many cultivators were willing to create an avatar.

Why? Because the soul was the foundation of all things, splitting your soul was equivalent to splitting a practitioner's overall potential. Splitting the soul was only the first step as the soul needed a suitable body to inhabit. Perhaps a practitioner would be able to reach the immortal realm, but after creating an avatar, they would no longer be able to reach the immortal realm.

Even after an avatar was formed, the avatar would also die if the original body died. The only way for an avatar to continue to live was if it wasn't an avatar but a clone. So the original body was still far more valuable than the avatar, but an avatar was still incredibly useful.

The myriad realms naturally also contained numerous treasures that could heal the loss of potential from splitting the soul. And Tianyi naturally had access to such resources. But due to his current condition, Tianyi was not able to form an avatar. If he split his soul, even if he could make up for the loss of potential, there was a high chance that he would lose control of his true qi and explode.

There was also the fact that he was still in the Core Formation Realm, although with his Nascent Soul Realm level soul, there were many techniques that he could use. But even though his soul strength reached the threshold of the Nascent Soul realm, he still did not have a true Nascent Soul level soul. Unless he was a soul cultivator, he could only wait.

But the stellar avatar that the Heaven and Man Connection Pagoda created was different.

Rather than splitting off the soul, it formed an empty soul husk that formed inside the cultivator's dantian. It did not have direct combat strength and instead was more of a supportive skill. By forming a stellar avatar, it would automatically refine and purify the starlight into qi for the cultivator's use. And that was only its most basic effect.

Stellar avatars had different ranks as well. Lei Jingye's Heavenly Wolf Stellar Avatar was considered top tier even among the available stellar avatar recorded in the history of the Immortal Court.

Only the Four Symbols Constellations were undeniably superior. And those who connected to the Azure Dragon of the East, Black Tortoise of the North, White Tiger of the West, or Vermillion Bird of the South could be counted on one hand.

But now, there was a completely unprecedented stellar avatar that was being formed. It did not correspond to any known constellation, but it surpassed even the Four Symbols Constellations.

It was like comparing a firefly to the moon.

However, Tianyi was not even one bit happy creating such a record. The reason was simple, his spiritual cultivation, which he had purposely stagnated, began to advance once more. It wasn't his normal advancement speed from cultivating. Not that Tianyi wouldn't know since he hadn't dared to cultivate in fear of triggering the first core formation tribulations, the Minor Wind Tribulation.

Tianyi began to speculate that Lei Jingye purposely cornered Tianyi into such a situation, turning fortune into misfortune.

'Lei Jingye shouldn't know the exact circumstances of my cultivation. The most important thing at the moment is to stop this as soon as possible.' Tianyi released his Sword Formation as World, but even though it disappeared, the stars didn't. Instead, they began to accumulate inside Tianyi's dantian like a bridge made of stars, but the speed was slower than before.

Seeing as that didn't work, Tianyi fled to distance himself from the Heaven and Man Connection Pagoda. The abnormality originated from the pagoda, so once he left, the accumulation of stars inside should cease if not disappear.

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Tianyi had seen how once Lei Jinye started to move, the formation of the Heavenly Wolf above his head began to blur as if unstable. Unfortunately for Tianyi, an invisible barrier had been erected at the exit, blocking him from leaving.

At this point, Tianyi could already feel the blood rising up his throat.

He glared at Lei Jingye. "Lei Jingye, how do you stop the pagoda!"

Lei Jingye saw all of Tianyi's actions as well as his paling face. A sneer appeared on his face. "I don't know, even if I did know. Do you think I would tell you, Xi Longyi?"

A cold light entered Tianyi's eyes. "I thought I told you not to call me by that incorrect name."

The sword in his hand began to be covered in a golden hue, and a majestic pressure began to emit from it.

Tianyi wanted nothing more to sit down and resolve the problem, but how could he peacefully inspect himself with a wolf eyeing him?

Since Lei Jingye didn't know how to stop the process, nor would he help, then Tianyi didn't mind getting rid of him so that he wouldn't be able to harm him in the future. Tianyi didn't use Sword Formation as World as that would speed up his issues and instead imbued his sword with tribulation essence and lightning.

Lei Jingye, who sensed the majestic pressure, immediately raised his wariness as Tianyi charged forward and slashed at him. Lei Jingye's sword skills were incredibly profound, having inherited the legacy of a sword cultivator who reached the Immortal Realm and with the added benefits of two life experiences. Even though he was not a sword cultivator in his past life, the path he embarked in this life was.

But Xi Tianyi's realm was higher than him, and he cultivated the Heartless Sword Arts. Sometimes, brute strength beat skill. Lei Jingye's heart was willing, but his body was not. Strike after strike, Lei Jingye found himself being pushed back.

Tianyi was also releasing his true qi of chaos without care, and a gray fog began to appear in the Heaven and Man Connection Pagoda. It wasn't a purposeful tactic of Tianyi's; he was helpless as the more advanced his spiritual cultivation became, the more true qi would accumulate in his body and the less control he had over his true qi.

So he could only lessen the amount of true qi in his body to mitigate the effect, the process couldn't prevent all his problems, but it alleviated some of the symptoms. The fact that it made Lei Jingye take damage over time like a poisonous fog was an added bonus.

No matter how unwilling Lei Jingye was, he had to admit the current he was not Xi Tianyi's match, and soon Tianyi's sword tip penetrated Lei Jingye's flesh.

At that instant, both Tianyi and Lei Jingye's faces immediately changed.

Tianyi immediately jumped back towards the wall and looked up, his lips twitching a bit.

Lei Jingye didn't have any more energy to look at Tianyi as his thoughts were all focused on the sky beyond the pagoda. He was at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm. He had already formed his spiritual crucible and planned to undergo the Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation after forming his stellar avatar, but after being struck by Tianyi's sword, his Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation suddenly arrived without his consent.

It seemed that Heavenly Tribulation had patience as it waited for Lei Jingye's Heavenly Wolf Stellar Avatar to form before the first bolt of lightning came down.

Lei Jingye's Heavenly Tribulation was abnormal as there were no tribulation clouds, and the tribulation lightning seemed to have materialized from thin air.

Tianyi, who had distanced himself as far as possible, held his chin. 'Why are there no tribulation clouds, is it because this is the ruins of the Immortal Court or because of me? Never mind that. It seems that I have the ability to induce heavenly tribulation for others who are at the peak of their realm. Hehehe... or it could just be a coincidence. I should test this later.'

Tianyi didn't have time to laugh anymore as he spurted out blood. 'Forget about him, I have to resolve my own problems first.'

Luckily, although Tianyi might have induced Lei Jingye's heavenly tribulation and was extremely close to Lei Jingye, maybe because of being trapped in the pagoda or the strange cloudless tribulation, the heavenly tribulation did not attack him.

Still, this did not mean that Tianyi did not devote some of his attention to Lei Jingye in case he wanted to try something. It was the same for Lei Jingye as he kept an eye on Tianyi as well.

Inside Tianyi's dantian, the number of stars had already accumulated to a frightening degree, and the inside of Tianyi's dantian in his Eight Extraordinary Meridians now also resembled the star-filled night sky. At the same time, his spiritual cores were advancing, and the amount of true qi of chaos being formed inside of him was accelerating. The gray clouds already present in his dantian grew denser with each passing second.

This scene struck Tianyi as extremely familiar. It was nearly the same as his inner world, where he cultivated the Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique.

Tianyi had to file that thought away as he felt his Minor Wind Tribulation become closer with each passing moment. Left with no other choice, he began to cultivate the Dragon Emperor's Fist using his true qi.

As the grey cloud qi circulated throughout his Dragon Emperor Martial Body, his nine spiritual cores shone brilliantly, illuminating the gray fog. Part of the reason was that Tianyi had absorbed the blood essence of the Dragon Emperor. The other large reason was that the true qi of chaos stimulated the blood essence to the extreme.

But there was a downside.

Blood continuously leaked from Tianyi's mouth as pain wracked his body. Tianyi wasn't hoping that he could use all his true qi of chaos. Instead, he wanted to increase his martial cultivation so that once he passed through his Minor Wind Tribulation, he would be able to withstand the increased amount of true qi.

That's right, Tianyi didn't have any worries of failing to pass the Minor Wind Tribulation. He had at least this much confidence. In addition, the Minor Wind Tribulation was the easiest of the Core Formation Realm's three minor tribulations.

It was what was after the Minor Wind Tribulation that worried Tianyi.