Ace was ready for the Heavenly Punishment, but he didn't know that the sky above the ancient remnant had become a writhing canvas of annihilation. The vortex—now a colossal, three-layered maelstrom—pulsed with primordial malice, each rotation grinding the fabric of reality into dissonant echoes.
At its core, the Primordial Law Destruction Trinity Thunder coalesced into three jagged beams: obsidian black, blood crimson, and a void-like silver. They twisted around one another, their crackling symphony resonating with the finality of a death rattle.
The next moment, the tri-color pillar of lightning descended right above the ancient remnant, and the ceiling instantly crumbled.
Despite his confidence, Ace didn't dare to underestimate this first strike, and when the old ceiling of the cavern burst open, he finally saw the pillar of lightning raging down on him!
However, just when he was ready to face it, something unexpected happened: the natural formation around the lake suddenly reacted, and a hazy white barrier suddenly appeared around the patch of land!
The tri-color lightning pillar smashed into the natural barrier, but instead of crumbling, the barrier unexpectedly held as the entire lake trembled. However, the shimmering lotuses started to lose their luster one after another and wilted away!
Ace, who witnessed this scene, was flabbergasted as he witnessed the weakening lightning pillar and the barrier.
'What the…' Ace looked at the lotus lake with disbelief before a sudden realization struck him, 'Could it be this formation is still working despite the Star Encompassing Tree's absence? Or would it take time to lose its effect since I devour the natural treasure?
'It's most likely the latter since this natural formation is formed by a forbidden treasure, and it even blocked a heavenly punishment strike without breaking!'
Ace's eyes shimmered with excitement as he didn't expect to encounter such a good fortune. Not only did he get a forbidden treasure like the Star Encompassing Fruit and bypass an entire realm, but this formation turned out to be extremely helpful!
However, Ace didn't dare to celebrate because he noticed that out of 27 white lotuses, 10 were gone, and he knew this barrier wouldn't be able to hold on for long.
Nonetheless, even if this barrier could block two or three strikes for him, this was more than enough help.
A terrifying sound of rumbling instantly drew Ace's attention as he looked up. He saw another pillar of lightning was already manifested in the center of the vortex, and the next moment, it descended with even more power!
It instantly clashed with the barrier, and the remaining white lotuses started to wilt at a terrifying rate as the barrier couldn't seem to hold any longer. Just when the lightning pillar lost its power, the barrier finally burst open like a bubble!
The initial towering lightning pillar, which was now only a meter in length and a few inches thick, landed on Ace!
Ace didn't block and let it strike his head while he instantly his life swords. But another unexpected thing happened: the moment the lightning came in contact with his body, Ace instantly felt his back burning!
His pale white skin gleamed with a faint metallic sheen, and an oppressive aura surged, exuding a tyrannical darkness that seemed to devour the light.
The dark pattern filled with mystical glyphs created an image of a swirling black hole surfacing on his back, and the moment it appeared, the tri-color lightning failed to penetrate his body and was drawn to the glyph pattern of a black hole on his back!
Ace was shocked as he felt his back burning even more before a stream of cold sensation released all over his body, and all his fatigue started to vanish.
'T-this is Darkness Force!' Ace was now even more shocked than the natural formation.
[Darkness Force Units Replenished: 8/9 → 9/9!]
At this moment, the system's voice suddenly rang in his head, confirming his conjecture!
Although he knew the Universal Ascension Black Physique was terrifying, he wasn't expecting it to be the bane of heavenly punishment. Furthermore, from what he could tell, it seemed his physique could refine the heavenly punishment and turn it into force!
The use of force was different from that of Qi because if he used Qi, he could easily gather it from his surroundings with the help of Dark Void and turn it into Primordial Qi. At the same time, it only exhausted him mentally, not physically.
However, when it comes to force, it was completely opposite; the nine units of force were like the entire strength of his body, which includes his stamina, endurance, vitality, dexterity, and such traits.
If he exhausted his entire Force, he probably wouldn't be able to move at all, and on top of that, to recover a single unit of force, the time needed was akin to recovering half of his entire Qi reserves!
Moreover, the more force units he loses, the more exhausted he'll become, so Ace decides to use it scarcely. Lastly, any physical work will also use his Force unit, but it would take quite a long time for him to exhaust just a single unit of Force by only physical activities as long as he didn't directly use the Force.
But this wasn't any disadvantage because Force gave him more endurance, and he could do tasks for longer than before he had the Force. Now, he discovered that the Heavenly Punishment can be refined into Force automatically by his physique, or maybe his forbidden fantastic physique also plays a role in it. Nonetheless, this was excellent news for Ace.
'Since I don't need to worry about exhausting my force, should I fight with just my body? Or should I try using laws with just force? Although I was never able to test it since I would be too exhausted, now, I can test these things without worrying about exhausting myself!'
Ace's eyes shimmered coldly as he looked at the shuddering vortex shuddered, as if enraged, and without hesitation, he summoned his life swords!
At this moment, with a deafening CRACK, the Trinity Thunder descended again, and this time, it wasn't a light pillar—it was a tsunami of destruction, distorting space itself into spiraling fractures!
Furthermore, in the shade of this lightning, a massive TRI-lightning claw suddenly crawled out of the vortex…!