Chapter 877 - The Source of the Dharma Ending

Chapter 877: The Source of the Dharma Ending
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To practitioners, the Dharma Ending Tribulation was the most horrible tribulation of an era, even more horrible than the World-ending Tribulation.
The reason was that the Dharma Ending Tribulation affected only practitioners who possessed the Dharma power. Although the World-ending Tribulation signaled the annihilation of an era, those practitioners who could detach themselves from the tribulation had already done so. For those who did not have the ability to detach themselves from the Dharma Ending Tribulation, they would have died already. There might have been a few practitioners who were not detached from the Dharma Ending Tribulation but somehow escaped the tribulation and were barely alive.
An era was equivalent to a life of the World Tree. Every living creature took nourishment from this tree. Ordinary creatures, like insects that lived on trees, were oblivious to the tree’s changes. Thus, even if the tree began to wither, they would not be affected by it. Of all creatures, the practitioners received the most nutrients. Unlike ordinary creatures, they had become inseparable from the tree through long cultivation and became part of it, like the leaves and branches of the tree. The tree provided them with most of its nutrients, so when the tree was dying, they would also die along with the tree. This was their destiny. Celestial Immortals were the best amongst practitioners. They were like the fruit of this tree. Especially those old Celestial Immortals who had already become seeds that were not part of the tree. They no longer needed to have anything to do with the tree and were able to blossom into a tree themselves. Therefore, the tree’s death was irrelevant to them.
In this case, the Earthly Immortal’s situation was somewhat different. Some of them had the chance to become seeds and some had turned into seeds already, but they still needed the tree’s support. Without the support, the immature fruit would die, but the mature fruit may survive.
The Dharma Ending Tribulation was somewhat like the decay of the whole tree. It was a long, brutal and desperate process. All practitioners except Celestial Immortals could only try to seek some glimmer of hope during these moments of despair.


Those who found a way out were the lucky ones; the other practitioners would die with the tree.
Therefore, for almost all practitioners, the Dharma Ending Tribulation was synonymous with doomsday.
What was happening to Red Tiger would happen to countless practitioners. And that was just the beginning.
In fact, the beginning had already set off a certain amount of some panic and unrest.
Zhou Bao could feel the panic and unrest, but it was not in the Immortal Realm but in Azure Big World. Azure Big World was already a complete macro world. Theoretically, it was a fruit on the World Tree. The problem was that it was not yet ripe. As a result, when the tree began to fall, the fruit would follow suit. Some of the most powerful practitioners in Azure Big World were already showing signs of the Deva’s Five Decrepit Phenomena.
Azure Big World was his. The most powerful and distinguished Earthly Immortals were of course the people closest to him. After sensing that the Deva’s Five Decrepit Phenomena had appeared on them, Zhou Bao promptly cast the sapling of the Tree of Seven Wonders in his Dantian into Azure Big World. Overnight, a great tree rose from the depths of Azure Spirit Sea, emitting a colorful light, which gradually integrated into the essence of the world and soon spread to every corner. The decline of Azure Big World halted and Zhou Bao heaved a sigh of relief.
After getting the Heaven and Earth Secret Technique and while trying to practice it, Zhou Bao finally had a clear understanding of the universe. He knew that the Tree of Seven Wonders was a projection of the World Tree, which explained why it had such a frightening function. The Five-colored Divine Light that evolved from the World Tree could only brush and destroy things belonging to the five elements, while the Seven Wonderful Techniques was better; it could break all the laws and stop the Deva’s Five Decrepit Phenomena.
But it didn’t bring Zhou Bao any joy. Instead, his doubts grew. No one, except him, had ever practiced all the Seven Wonderful Techniques in this era. He wondered if it meant that he was the true Tribulation Taker and the Omnipotent Sage who carried the ultimate fortune of the era.
It was the Omnipotent Sage!!!
In every era there were some Celestial Immortals. Some eras had hundreds of Celestial Immortals and some had only a few. In one era, there were two very special Celestial Immortals. One was the first Celestial Immortal of this era and was called the Primeval Sage presenting the end of the era, and the other was the last Celestial Immortal of this era and was called the Omnipotent Sage, representing the end of the era. Moreover, there was another kind of Celestial Immortal, who was so rare that they did not necessarily appear for countless eras. Such a Celestial Immortal was known as the Sage Pangu.


The Sage Pangu existed only in legends, while the Primeval Sage and the Omnipotent Sage actually existed in each era. The two special Celestial Immortals were the best among Celestial Immortals. As soon as they became Celestial Immortals, they could be compared to some old Celestial Immortals. Even Taoist Jin, Taoist Reincarnation and Taoist Zhen Yuan who were strong and matchless, would not dare to provoke them.
Zhou Bao really wanted to be a Celestial Immortal. Depending on how things worked out, he might well be the true Omnipotent Sage of this era.
After all, most of the practitioners would die out in this era after the Deva’s Five Decrepit Phenomena.
Only Celestial Immortals could survive the Deva’s Five Decrepit Phenomena unscathed. But they didn’t affect the common people. It didn’t mean anything to them. Those practitioners who were powerful or lucky enough to make it through the Dharma Ending Tribulation, would have a closed-door training and use the time to improve their cultivation. Thus, they did not care about common people.
Before the Dharma Ending Tribulation, some practitioners needed the help of the common people to find and collect resources, because extra resources could enhance their training speed in a way. But after the tribulation, the connection between practitioners and common people would cease. This tribulation was not only the tribulation of the practitioners, but also of all the treasures. After this tribulation, there would be no more treasures of heaven and earth. All the treasures, the spiritual qi and pneuma of spiritual beings would turn into ordinary items, which were useless to practitioners. Even the essence of the world would become ordinary air that could only sustain ordinary creatures, just like the air in Zhou Bao’s previous life. In this way, common people had no value to practitioners and no practitioners would bother about them.
Only the practitioners who had not yet become Celestial Immortals and could survive the Dharma Ending Tribulation by some means, could be the Omnipotent Sage. The most likely person, then, was one of those Tribulation Takers, because the so-called Tribulation Taker was a practitioner who would not be affected by the Dharma Ending Tribulation and had the potential to become a Celestial Immortal, such as Zhou Bao who had the Seven Wonderful Techniques, Kong Ti who owned the Five-colored Divine Light, and Man Yujun who could cut off the Dharma Ending Qi with his Immortal-killing Sword Qi.
Only such people had the potential to become the Omnipotent Sage.
In fact, there may also be Earthly Immortals who had been in hiding. They were usually survivors from the last era or even from the era before. They only lacked the chance to become Celestial Immortals. They had extremely profound accumulation and had crossed the Dharma Ending Tribulation and the World-ending Tribulation. Thus, the two tribulations of the new era would not be too big a problem for them. For example, Tai Sui who was under Jade Emperor Sage had passed four times, lived through fours eras and possessed unpredictable strength.
Such practitioners may also become Celestial Immortals.
To become the Omnipotent Sage required a large amount of good fortune. Individual efforts could only ensure that one became a Celestial Immortal, but one could not control others unless one killed all practitioners who had the potential to become Celestial Immortals, after becoming a Celestial Immortal.


Maybe the Jade Emperor Sage had planned it that way in the first place, but this plan had failed. The Underworld Sage suddenly became a Celestial Immortal as well after him.
Jade Emperor Sage had lost his chance. If no practitioner became a Celestial Immortal from now until the World-ending Tribulation, then the Underworld Sage would be the Omnipotent Sage of the era.
But after a few encounters with him, the Underworld Sage gave Zhou Bao the impression that he did not seem interested in becoming the Omnipotent Sage.
What were the benefits of becoming the Omnipotent Sage?
Zhou Bao did not know much about that. All he knew was that the Omnipotent Sage would gain the final good fortune of an era and had a great advantage in strength improvement, which was comparable with that of those old Celestial Immortals.
A thought flashed through Zhou Bao’s mind, 
Maybe the Underworld Sage isn’t trying to help me, but is cultivating my skills so that I can kill other people, who would become Celestial Immortals, for him and then he will kill me when I become a Celestial Immortal. In this way, he will naturally become the Omnipotent Sage!!
 
It was a big possibility for Zhou Bao. He didn’t believe that the Underworld Sage was helping him for no apparent reason.
Now, I must practice hard to become a Celestial Immortal as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter if I’m going to be the Omnipotent Sage. As long as I become a Celestial Immortal, I can truly be free between heaven and earth!