The cultivators from the Dark Court looked at that old monster-level existence and saw that his resonance with the Heavenly Path was becoming stronger. The light of order was already descending from the sky, and then a terrifying aura manifested.

“The tribulation is coming!”

Everyone’s eyes sharpened as they looked up and stared at the sky above. At this moment, Ye Futian sensed that in the order of the Heavenly Path, there was a dark, destructive beginning to form. It echoed with the divine power to turn it into the Divine Tribulation.

“The times are indeed different!” Ye Futian was feeling pretty shocked inside. The era before the collapse of the Heavenly Path and the era after the collapse of the Heavenly Path were different. The tribulations that he had experienced and the divine tribulations as experienced by other cultivators intended on killing them.

But the tribulation of Heavenly Path was meant to be more like a baptism.

No wonder all the cultivators of today’s world said that the Path of the Emperors was cut off because it had been cut off. The creation of perfect paths required the aid of divine items, and surviving the tribulation was akin to coming under attack from the divine realm itself. Except for those who cultivated by cutting off the path, surviving the divine tribulation meant nothing because no Path of the Emperors was available to them.

But this firmament made everything possible. This was part of the Heavenly Path.

Whose will constructed this piece of heaven?! Ye Futian secretly exclaimed in his heart. He opened his eyes and saw the man soar into the sky until he was beyond it. The divine tribulation descended, and it was equally terrifying. The ninety-nine heavens in the Heavenly Imperial Palace were penetrated by the light of divine tribulation, which completely shrouded this corner of the sky.

“In that era, what will happen if one fails to survive the tribulation?” Ye Futian asked the West Emperor. The tribulation of this era could obliterate those who failed; the tribulation was here for the express purpose of destruction.

“Failure to survive the tribulation means to never cross that hurdle. One will always stay at that level, unable to progress any further. The Imperial Realm will only be a dream in this lifetime,” responded the West Emperor. “But for those who can successfully reach this step, the rate of success is undoubtedly high, and they will likely step forward and become Great Emperors-To-Be.”

“Nothing will happen even if they failed at the attempt; just the inability to get past it.” Ye Futian was greatly shocked by this revelation. The cultivation environment in ancient times was so different that no one would ever be killed by tribulations.

“So, there are people who failed to cross the tribulation but tried to cultivate by cutting down the Path?” Ye Futian asked.

“Smart guy,” the West Emperor responded. “Some will gamble that even if they failed, they are already unparalleled under the emperor and have reached the top of the cultivation world, but there is no hope to reach the Imperial Realm. Nevertheless, this still motivated plenty of cultivators to take the risk and use their cultivation as a wager to cultivate by cutting the Path. In case of failure, the best-case scenario is that they lose their cultivation forever, and the worst is that they will be obliterated by the tribulation from the Heavenly Path.”

“I heard some elders said that there are those who will cut the Path after becoming the Great Emperor-To-Be?” Ye Futian looked at the terrifying scene that unfolded above the sky as the divine light of destruction rained down. However, he was unmoved and continued his dialogue with the West Emperor.

“Yes, after stepping on the Path of the Emperors, they have a deeper understanding of their realms, and as Great Emperors-To-Be, their chances for success were greater after they cut down the Path. However, such characters were a bit too cold-blooded,” said the West Emperor.

“They are too ruthless.” Ye Futian couldn’t imagine someone who had already embarked on the Path of the Emperors and was a Great Emperor-To-Be to cut down the Path for any reason.

This kind of behavior was indeed insane and unimaginable.

After becoming the Great Emperor-To-Be, how could anyone be so reluctant to stay under the Heavenly Path as to choose to cut off the Path out of anger?

Who created such a crazy method of cultivation?

Boom… The terrifying divine tribulation resounded throughout heaven and earth, piercing the ninety-nine heavens. The divine power of order surged all around Ye Futian, protecting the cultivators within this area from being affected by the divine tribulation.

“Almost,” Ye Futian glanced at the sky above and said.

“As Great Emperors themselves once, how can they possibly fail? All they needed is just an opportunity,” the West Emperor continued. “Even as Great Emperors-To-Be, they are still not able to contend with you.”

He was highly confident in Ye Futian’s strength.

Because Ye Futian was also a Great Emperor-To-Be, he was also obviously a Great Emperor-To-Be who cut down the Path.

“Do you have this much confidence in my strength?” Ye Futian asked.

“You did it before by slaying the Great Emperor of the Vajra Region and crushing four ancient emperors by yourself. At that time, it was very likely that their realms had already been recovered by the Great Emperors-To-Be,” the West Emperor replied.

“Great Emperors-To-Be?” Ye Futian showed a look of surprise. Because those several existences from the Ancient God Clans were once Great Emperors, their cultivations were unique, different from everyone else’s. Because of that, he couldn’t really clarify their realms or what they were all about.

“Yes,” the West Emperor nodded, “look at them.”

Ye Futian turned his attention toward Haotian the Great and several others. He found that they were cultivating in different locations. At this time, they had achieved a particular resonance with the Heavenly Path, which Ye Futian was well aware of.

“They are absorbing the power of order within the Heavenly Path. This is what the Great Emperors-To-Be tried to do when they wanted to reach perfection. Like me, they were Great Emperors from the past, so the changes before becoming Great Emperors-To-Be are not that different; that is not the case with you. The few of them were already Great Emperors-To-Be when they first attacked Ye Imperial Palace. However, we have no idea how they did that. We do know that Ye Imperial Palace had no power to fight back at the time,” the West Emperor explained slowly. “However, there are some oddities. For example, the differences before and after they became Great Emperors-To-Be were not so great, yet they seem… not strong enough.”

The Human Realm! An idea surfaced in Ye Futian’s mind. Previously, the Human Ancestor of the Human Realm must have invited them to cultivate in the Human Realm.

In the Human Realm, the Path of the Emperors may have been revealed as well.

“Is it possible that it might be the Little Heavenly Path?” Ye Futian asked. “Those who have achieved Little Heavenly Path must have crossed the realms in the Little Heavenly Path, baptized by the Divine Tribulation, and become Great Emperors-To-Be, but it is different from the real Heavenly Path.”

“That is a possibility!” When the West Emperor heard what Ye Futian said, his eyes sharpened. Ye Futian’s guess was plausible.

Then, it stood to reason that they hadn’t expected the Path of the Emperors to appear. Otherwise, they might have waited until today instead of being baptized by the divine tribulation in advance.

If this was the case, they should be making up for the shortcomings by now and let the Heavenly Path baptize them.

Ye Futian nodded. He understood most of everything now.

If the others were Great Emperors-To-Be, his strength was more significant than the others. Could it be that the Great Emperor-To-Be who cultivated by cutting down the Path was just a little bit stronger?

More importantly, he was far from reaching perfection at that time, nor was he close to it even now. He was making progress every moment. It would be another significant transformation if he achieved perfection, from Great Emperor-to-be to become an actual emperor.

“He passed!”

Just as the West Emperor guessed, that old monster-level character from the Dark World had successfully survived the Divine Tribulation. Under the baptism of the Heavenly Path, his body was radiant all over, resonating with the Heavenly Path as one. However, this temperament would be changed to something different in the outside world.

In the direction of the Dark Court, many cultivators looked at the man with some envy, only to hear Lord Shaman say, “Congratulations to the elder for stepping on the Path of the Emperors!”

This was the first cultivator who had stepped over after the appearance of the Path of the Emperors and became a Great Emperor-To-Be. Someone who had already embarked on the true Path of the Emperors!

The Great Emperor-To-Be was a Great Emperor; it was just a matter of time!