155] – [Nostalgic Memory, Elder Rong’s Enlightenment!]

Above the ground, the Lured Cloud Sect vibrated. People suspected a small earthquake while the stronger ones felt a chill almost freeze their souls.

A frost descending from the rainy clouds, Ivan and Elder Rong looked at each other in worry.

'The seal!'

'What the hell happened!?'

It was no secret for the higher ranking elders that a human lost in the ways of his Heart Demon was sealed deep below. And when the earthquake began to dissipate, even the lower ranking ones managed to sense the incoming dread.

A dark miasma seeped out of the dirt, coloring the air. The clouds high above began to crackle.

"What's going on? Sect master Ivan, is this perhaps a small joke?" Accusations kept being sent out. Something so obvious was not so easily missed.

A rumble causing some to fall, a loud explosion inside the Lured Cloud Sect detonated the surroundings. Dust and dirt flew high above, as if a volcanic eruption of pure earth had happened.

"Everyone! Please stay in this area! Our Lured Cloud Sect will not put the lives of guests in danger." Elder Rong's sudden voice was rational. With such a lineup present, even the Diamond Sect's sect master would not recklessly pick a fight with them.

Shutting the mouths of some rampant young masters and talents, still wanting to resume the tournament, a domineering pressure.

From the flung earth within the sect, a beam of silver and black light approached them.

One of the talents coming over to the crowd, the young man looked ahead. A duality was approaching them. And, barely as he thought about maybe running away, a palm grabbed hold of his face.

"!!" His eyes wide, the same way all others were, he felt his vitality leave him as a set of words were heard.

"[Talent Devouring Art]!" A powerful vortex of dark red siphoning his insides, the young man hurled air before falling in despair.

Mummified, his carcass limped on the ground. Ravishing in a strange power, Alexander still appeared indifferent.

'I never used it much… but I don't care anymore! I won't wait any longer! Screw my luck! If my foundation is damned, so be it!'

"Since when?!"

"How fast is he?"

It was already over. Another youth brutally killed before any of them could react.

Grimacing, Elder Rong immediately intervened.

'I won't let my mistake repeat itself! I won't allow it!!' Remembering his good disciple, he saw his cold rotting corpse deteriorate while his ashen heart crumbled.

His Heart Demon tried to kill him. His disciple's Heart Demon killed him. Alexander's Heart Demon was now doing the same.

Curse of supremacy. A challenge few could ever survive.

'I understand now…' A flash of inspiration blossoming within him, Elder Rong suddenly understood the reason behind his most cherished path and its difficulties. His vessel frozen on the spot.

Fond of lost history, morbidly curious about his own path, Elder Rong was seen as a crazy old man wasting his years researching the past. Throughout countless years, he managed to gather a handful of information.

His vision jolted, enlightenment striking him. His heart, full of grievances but also desires, churned. His vision warped, his mind focused on this realization.

In front of him, lost in the nostalgia of old, his younger self reading an ancient slate. The Dao intent was almost lost, but he could still understand it.

The Supreme Candidate shall follow the Path of Supremacy.

The Martial Dao be damned, the curse put on our kind never to be lifted. The end of a civilization, the doom of supremacy!

To suffer from the most dangerous of trials, to be slain before maturity.

May the Martial Dao suffer as much as our kind will!

Bless the Supreme Candidates!

Believe in the fate of our kind, in which a candidate may one day rise above all!

-Lost daughter of Arvan, Fallen King of the Silver Land.

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"I understand…" His faint voice was drowned under the chaos of rain meddling with blood.

He comprehended the reason behind his and his disciple's innate misfortune. The Silver Land, a place where a rumored civilization of Supreme Candidates existed, destroyed over time. Legends and myths regarded this matter as the sudden birth of a curse on each inhabitant.

'The Heart Demons we each have… the reason it always appears in candidates…'

His gaze lost, failing to see Alexander butchering countless people, glowed an eerie silver.

'May the Martial Dao be damned…'

Tears forming, his Dao Heart ignited. His teeth shown, his eyes wide. Just the way insanity was.

"May the Martial Dao be damned!"

His face full of anger mixed with his blasphemous voice forced the fights around him to pause.

"The Dao of Supremacy dictates all! The Supreme One will always be right! The Martial Dao will always be wrong!"

"Long live the Supreme One!" His maddened glare causing all to shiver, a black aura creeped up on him. His Dao of Supremacy exploded, freezing time, collapsing space.

His Heart Demon grew, his state of mind fell.

And at the very bottom of the abyss, his worldview unveiled a new horizon.

Chains of the heart deteriorating, his Heart Demon almost swallowed him whole. His eyes, just like Alexander's right one, began to turn darker. The void in his self reflected within the mirrors of the soul.

Calming himself, he regained control. He had lived long enough, he had experienced more than enough.

He had sealed his inner demon deep enough.

As he regained clarity, he saw Alexander look at him. It was like being observed by a demon, yet he felt like he was his own family.

More than a disciple. A fellow brother. Alexander was just the way he was. The way all candidates were.

As the curse would never be lifted.

All in the same boat, facing the same storm. A sense of comradery. A strange connection from the same hardships.

His disciple did not die because of him, he perished because of his talent.

A bright horizon now becoming his own field of vision.

A snap from the depths of his soul. A freedom from his very own mind.

Under the dark clouds, drenched from the powerful rain. A soaring might.

A wall of incredible hardness shattered with a thought. A formerly stagnant cultivation rising.

Before the eyes of many, Elder Rong broke through, his hand far up enough to finally reach it. The Heaven Surpassing Realm's mysteries unveiled before him.

"Elder… Rong…" Baffled, Ivan watched on as a blue energy revolved around his senior. He could see it. He could feel it. Elder Rong was now at the same step he was on. The elderly man whom he thought would never free himself from the past was now confronting it head on.

Just as he was about to ask him, his heart chilled, his spine bent, his knees collapsed and his vision warped.

He was not alone. Elder Rong's Dao was in full view. A titan of silver armed with flaming gloves of darkness. An existence far above its supposed level.

Even Ivan himself felt inferior in every way. Elder Rong was already beyond him.

'Didn't he just break through?!' Gnashing his teeth, trying to remain standing, he failed to do so. The pressure on top of all of them kept getting stronger and stronger. It would not stop rising.

A cultivation base chained down for countless eras. Trillions of years.

His foundation unwilling to be looked down upon. A cultivation forever rising. Forever domineering.

Heaven Surpassing Realm.

Early first stage!

Middle first stage!

Advanced first stage!

Peak first stage!

Early second stage!

In less than a minute, surrounded by the revolving blue light, beneath the enraged Heavens, drenched with the rain. Elder Rong stood taller than ever before, crossing the first stage.

Yet, even with all of it, his real prowess laid even higher. Much, much higher. In terms of strength, contending with masters near the third stage would not be impossible.

To answer his determination, his glaring past, the Heavens. The blue sparks flew, the thunderous roars resounded.

This tribulation felt so strong. Unpredictably so.

Ivan, along the rest of the crowd, including Alexander himself, were all feeling a pull. A strange sense of innate terror.

Elder Rong and Alexander could sense it even more. This tribulation was not just about cultivation. It was about their identities.

The Heavens decided to tear face with them. There was no hiding their work, their mission. No denying their ambition.

Looking up, Alexander saw a giant pillar of blue lightning fall down. And before he could witness his mentor contend with it, he froze. His gaze rising even more, just above his head, another pillar descended.

'?!'

It was indeed not just about cultivation.

The Heavens intended to eliminate competition. Using the strongest power allowed for a tribulation. Using the most concentrated remnant strength from it to strike another one at the same time.

Two candidates against the vast clouds. Beneath the trampling befalling sky. Two pillars of lightning, two pillars supporting the world.

As the two pillars struck them at the same time, a blinding blue light erupted. From it, a white glow from its center began to spread.

Before the eyes of many, the entire world was painted in purity. An electrifying sensation causing their hairs to stand on ends. Silencing the existence of sound. Soon beginning to annihilate the meaning of colors.

Blood spurted from all of them, Elder Rong and Alexander ending up even worse.

Pushing themselves, two roars broke the heavenly seal, now able to be heard by all others.

Their silver and black auras soared. A pillar against another.

Four pillars clashing with one another. Two infants on the verge of being crushed under the hands of god.

The wrath of blue forced two dualities to bend. The pillars of lightning seemed never ending. It felt like decades under this electric might had already passed.

His third eye opening wide, Alexander spent his entire self as he stopped resisting.

Elder Rong's hands turning darker, covered in the night of the endless abyss, he laid his defenses down.

As if bond by trials, bond by their anger, the two struck upward in unison.

A palm and a fist.

Both a mixture of silver and darkness.

A sudden and explosive counter attack. A palm capable of covering entire immortal cities, a fist causing heaven shattering shockwave to form.

The two pillars of blue receded.

Two dualities fighting back.

Two judgments being refused.

Two people daring to face the all mighty. A being even myths did not dare cross paths with.

The being who could even obliterate the Greater Primordial Deity. One that could crumble the Realms.

Even without its full strength, its status was the exact same.

The blue pillars sent back up with even more strength, the clouds shivered.

If the Heavens decided to tear face with the both of them, then they would oblige.

Clouds dispersing, the appalled sky wailed incessantly. Bells echoing across the sect world.

They would oblige and do the same!