Ian Song guessed that Princess Myra Vance had taken Lynne Ward mostly to get back at him for refusing her offer, and probably wouldn't actually harm her. Even so, Ian had no intention of letting Lynne stay by her side any longer.
After all, they'd already developed feelings for each other.
As for Joy's disappearance, Ian figured she must have quietly followed along to protect Lynne in secret. Most likely, the distance was too great for them to communicate telepathically for now.
So, Ian decided to head for the Central Domain.
But before leaving, he planned to fully cultivate the Sovereign‑grade scripture that the System had just rewarded him with. The Ward Family's manual was only the lowest tier, while the System's 《Black Buddha Canon》 was a top‑tier Sovereign‑grade scripture.
With a thought, Ian entered the Divine Temple, set the time acceleration to a thousand‑fold, and then sank into his sea of consciousness to carefully comprehend the Black Buddha Canon.
Sovereign‑grade scriptures can't be described in words, because they don't have any fixed cultivation method. If a thousand people practiced the same scripture, the energy they produced would never be identical, and its strength would vary widely.
The moment Ian's mind entered his sea of consciousness, he saw a towering black Buddha.
This black Buddha was immense, reaching from the heavens to the earth, with one hand pointing to the sky and one to the ground—evil and compassion coexisting in perfect harmony.
Righteousness and evil combined?
Ian gazed up at the black Buddha, feeling a bit puzzled about how to begin. If the Ward Family's Sovereign‑grade scripture was like a moving picture, then the Black Buddha Canon was a still image—much harder to get started with.
But Ian wasn't slow-witted; he quickly thought of a way in.
The next moment, he sat down cross‑legged, imitating the black Buddha's posture—one hand to the sky, one to the earth—and began visualizing the black Buddha in his mind.
Time passed slowly.
After five hours, a brand new black Buddha took shape in Ian's mind. Looking closely, you'd notice that this Buddha's face actually resembled his own quite a bit.
As soon as the black Buddha formed, Ian sensed a mysterious change in his divine soul—it began slowly growing stronger, while thin wisps of black mist rose from his soul and dissipated.
As the black mist faded away, Ian felt as if his soul had broken some invisible shackles and grown much lighter.
"I've found the right direction!"
Ian was thrilled, then calmed himself and continued cultivating.
He cultivated like this for a full ten years—over 3,650 days.
Over these ten years, his divine soul shrank by at least a full ring, but its strength more than doubled. All the black mist had been purged, and as his cultivation deepened, he understood what that black mist really was.
The black mist was a composite of karmic sin, decay power, resentment, and other negative energies.
Normally, these negative energies wouldn't affect him much, but if they surfaced at a critical moment, they'd easily trigger qi deviation.
So now, Ian felt his mind was clearer than ever. Even his insight into Martial Dao and Immortal Dao had greatly improved—just a single thought could illuminate places that once seemed obscure.
No wonder it's a System product—pure quality. The Black Buddha Canon brought him benefits far beyond even the top Immortal Tomes.
And as long as he kept cultivating, his soul would keep getting stronger.
At this point, he could distinctly sense that, if he wanted, he could break through late Fusion and step into early Tribulation at any moment.
"Let's do this!"
With that, Ian didn't hesitate. Immortal stones appeared all around him, then shattered, releasing waves of dense immortal essence.
"Absorb!"
In the next instant, Ian turned into a vortex, wildly drawing all the immortal essence around him into his body.
In less than fifteen minutes, he had absorbed all the essence from over ten thousand immortal stones, converting it into pure immortal power.
But Ian still felt it wasn't enough.
"Ugh, I'm running low on immortal stones!"
Ian sighed, shattered the rest of his immortal stones and absorbed them all, then broke ten thousand top‑grade spirit crystals to finally satisfy his needs.
"Let's begin!"
With a light shout, Ian's body erupted. Something broke inside him with a pop, and his breakthrough happened as naturally as water flowing downhill—he reached early Tribulation Realm, and tribulation clouds began to gather inside the Divine Temple.
With a thought, he teleported to a barren planet, looked up at the rapidly forming tribulation cloud overhead, and let a faint smirk cross his lips.
Honestly, his current cultivation was already far beyond early Tribulation. And this was the Divine Temple—his territory. Here, so-called heavenly tribulation was just a joke.
Soon, a tribulation cloud at least a hundred times stronger than what his demon followers faced condensed overhead, slowly spinning like a giant millstone...
Boom!
Without warning, a crimson bolt of heavenly lightning crashed down.
Ian didn't dodge, letting the lightning strike him head‑on. His body crackled with sparks and arcs of electricity, but he just curled his lip in indifference.
This bolt was strong—enough to reduce any ordinary early Tribulation cultivator to ashes. But to Ian, it was just a tickle.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Lightning struck Ian again and again, but he remained utterly unharmed, looking lazily unconcerned.
The sixth bolt fell!
This lightning still couldn't shake Ian, but its power was already enough to kill a typical late Tribulation cultivator.
The seventh and eighth bolts followed in quick succession.
Boom!
The ninth bolt crashed down, finally making Ian's body sway a little. But its power was only equivalent to a strike from an ordinary Human Immortal.
With his Star God Physique at the fourth tier, Ian's body could withstand the full force of a peak Human Immortal. So this time, the lightning only made him waver—still not a scratch.
It's over!
Suddenly, Ian sensed the Divine Temple connecting to some unknown space, and streams of immortal essence began to flow into his body from that place.
"Immortal essence!"
Ian's eyes lit up. He immediately ordered the Divine Temple to seize all the immortal essence from that space.
The Divine Temple was a mighty artifact forged by the Star God King. Under Ian's command, it quickly expanded and locked down the channel, letting more and more immortal essence pour in for him to absorb.
"Ha! Talk about good timing—it's like someone handed me a pillow when I was about to nap!"
Ian burst out laughing.
About ten minutes later, a furious roar echoed from the other end of the channel: "How dare a lower world being steal immortal essence—unforgivable!"
A giant hand reached out from the channel, radiating an invincible aura as it tried to slap Ian down.
"Hmph!"
Ian didn't even lift a finger—just a thought, and the invincible hand above him was crushed by the Divine Temple's will, instantly dissolving into pure immortal essence, worth at least ten thousand immortal stones.
The being on the other side was stunned, then roared in fury and struck again—this time with ten times the power.