Wang Mei forced Ren Chao out of the forges. Although he didn't want to leave, he wasn't actively resisting either. It was absolutely true that he needed rest. However, he had finally broken through. For months now, he had felt inadequate. At last, he could be useful to his brothers. Deep down, Ren Chao wanted to kill himself at work just to be useful. It wasn't even to prove his worth or anything, he just wanted to be there for his brothers. Ironically, it would be terrible as his work wouldn't be as good as it should be. Even with his breakthrough, he knew that he needed to rest and to let it settle.
Soon, Ren Chao found himself surrounded by his children, Ren Hua and her three brothers, Ren Tie, Ren Duan, and Ren Li. Not a single kid was over ten, and they hadn't even really begun to cultivate yet. Of course, they were playing around, practicing martial arts, and trying to imitate their father and mother. Besides, they were being raised in the Wubei Sect, so they were exposed to it all the time. However, young kids couldn't fully cultivate their muscles and tendons, as it was too dangerous and required great discipline. Still, they had already started to learn various occupations through their mother's arts, and were already very good fighters. Among mortals, they might even be able to beat many adults as long as they used weapons.
Anyway, Ren Chao saw the light in his children's faces when he came home. He knew that he had been away for a very long time. But the reality of it only hit him in that very moment for some reason. Maybe it was because he was exhausted or something. Ren Chao himself wasn't too sure, he wasn't good at introspection and knew that it would become a problem in his Spirit Warrior cultivation. All those thoughts disappeared from his mind, and he recovered most of his energy. Suddenly, he acted aloof and played with his kids for hours. Wang Mei obviously joined in. Of course, the kids got tired way before their parents, who were powerful cultivators. For mortal parents, this truly was unfair.
As Ren Chao and Wang Mei put the kids to bed, many emotions passed between them without them exchanging any words. Their hands touched, and Ren Chao just grabbed his wife as delicately as he could with his calloused hands and kissed her. He whispered in her ears and lost himself in her embrace.
In the end, the ten-hour rest lasted a few days. Despite the crisis, Ren Chao knew that it was important. While it would help him in his work by allowing his mind to rest, it was also essential for his family and for him. After all, Ren Chao and Wang Mei were fully aware that it might be the end. Although their kids would be evacuated before the actual battle, if it were lost, they would surely die like everyone else. Every moment together might actually be the last one, one way or another.
With renewed strength and motivation, as well as innovative ideas, Ren Chao came back to the forge. No one commented on his absence for a few days, and he immediately went back to work, working harder and faster than before.
At the same time, Sun Liao was working on array formations and Mei Hua on pills with Feng Yingyue and other alchemists.
The day came for Cao Yun to finally help his master, Sect Leader Xuan Mu, break through. Cao Yun had been preparing with his master for weeks while also making sure that everything was going well. Soon, he knew that he would have to really launch his plan, and there was no going back. The very moment he would unseal even a part of Demon God Da Mo's body, Empyrean Asura would immediately feel it. Then, it would only be a matter of time before he launched his decisive strike. In Cao Yun's mind, there was no doubt that he would attack himself, but not alone. The main problem was indeed time.
If Cao Yun waited too long, Empyrean Asura might have more forces at his disposal for the attack. Cao Yun and Dian Mo agreed that Empyrean Asura wouldn't wait long before attacking when he felt his actual body. As such, he wouldn't spend weeks, if not months, trying to gather more forces and would most assuredly attack with what he had. Unfortunately, it was difficult to judge the best moment to choose based on that. After all, with more time, more chaos was spreading, so Empyrean Asura might send more forces throughout his kingdoms, but he might also do the opposite and gather his forces around him to strengthen his position and prepare a powerful strike against the humans.
Time could be humanity's ally or enemy, and it was almost impossible to know for sure which one it was. Moreover, waiting also allowed them to prepare better for the fight to come. In the end, it was impossible to make the best decision because information was lacking. At some point, Cao Yun had to make a decision. That being said, he wasn't alone in making it. Everyone had agreed that they would wait for Sect Leader Xuan to break through. In other words, if they truly succeeded, their plan would be put in motion in a matter of days afterward.
Before his master's breakthrough, Cao Yun and Sect Leader Xuan stayed together a lot to get ready for everything. Matriarch Huang was with them as well. Indeed, she also had firsthand experience. Thankfully, Sect Leader Xuan's understanding of space would help him a lot in order to avoid the actual Withering Fusang Tree's branch. Cao Yun and Sect Leader Xuan dove deep into 'Daydreams on the Heidai Peak', the journals of all the previous sect leaders about their study of the Dao of Space.
In addition, Cao Yun had given instructions to Sun Liao to alter some array formations in order to make this breakthrough easier. They would use everything they had learned in the previous Greater Tribulation to make it smoother. In fact, they even got detailed reports of what everyone around Matriarch Huang's Greater Tribulation had felt or perceived. After all, even powerful cultivators like Cao Yun and Matriarch Huang might have missed something, especially while they were actively participating in the Greater Tribulation and were under a lot of stress. With every Greater Tribulation, the process would probably get better and better. They would refine it as much as they could. Hopefully, they might even find a way to break through without someone else's assistance, but it was dubious at best.
That being said, Cao Yun was there to help Sect Leader Xuan. After some debate, Matriarch Huang wouldn't help. For every cultivator helping in a Greater Tribulation, the tribulation would get more violent, which was the reason why no one ever did it. All those who had tried before had been either terribly injured or even killed in many cases. Death wasn't always the outcome, but it was frequent enough that no one wanted to try it out.
Finally, Sect Leader Xuan had chosen a date. Almost the entire Wubei Sect stopped working that day. Everyone wanted to see the actual Greater Tribulation. And it was good for the Wubei Sect as it would galvanize the troops, so they wanted everyone to see it. At the same time, everyone might catch a glimpse of something useful in the future, even low cultivators might stumble upon some detail that could be used later, especially if many cultivators watched at the same time. The fact that everyone was invited to see Sect Leader Xuan's Greater Tribulation was also a testament to their high confidence. Honestly, there had been debates because even Cao Yun and Sect Leader Xuan weren't absolutely confident. But they were confident enough after Matriarch Huang's success that they decided to go through with it.
To be fair, it was almost impossible to fully hide a Greater Tribulation attempt. So they didn't even try. Hopefully, everything would go well and even smoother than with Matriarch Huang. After all, Sect Leader Xuan was more powerful, and to be truthful, more talented and younger than Matriarch Huang. He wasn't two thousand years old yet, but very close to it nonetheless...
Sun Liao was there to assist the array formation masters. While another chief elder had taken Chief Elder Suxian's place in the array formation pavilion, everyone knew that Sun Liao would eventually take over. He truly was the most talented array formation master, but was just a bit too young at the moment. However, he was an elder and was recognized by everyone as the de facto chief elder since even the current chief elder took orders from him. After all, his orders were always better. In fact, if Sun Liao had not been as busy roaming the Hongchen Kingdom, he would have probably gotten the position of chief elder already, just based on his contribution alone.
Cao Yun could tell that there were some tensions surrounding Sun Liao and could imagine the reasons why. Nonetheless, Cao Yun didn't deal with it then. For the moment, he had to stay focused on the Greater Tribulation. Since Sun Liao had also witnessed Matriarch Huang's Greater Tribulation, he knew what to expect and what to do. As such, he had prepared several array formations in order to help Sect Leader Xuan's spiritual senses go past the branch of the Withering Fusang Tree.
In fact, Sun Liao had already thought about various array formations that could be very helpful. Right now, his main concerns were that he had little time, as most of them would require months to set up properly, and he wasn't absolutely sure how the Greater Tribulation would react to them. Indeed, using the help of another cultivator inevitably enraged the Greater Tribulation, but this wasn't the case for all array formations. Most likely, if the array formation wasn't actually interfering with the Greater Tribulation, it shouldn't be a problem.
During the Forsaken Dao Era, the problem was that the branch of the Withering Fusang Tree was interfering without making the tribulation worse. So it wasn't clear how interfering with this branch would affect the tribulation itself.
Anyway, Sun Liao and the other array formation masters were all waiting to observe the Greater Tribulation in action and to adapt their array formations. Hopefully, they would be able to find a way to make breaking through as smooth as possible. For now, the only way to actually break through into the Sage realm was for another powerful cultivator to help. Unfortunately, Cao Yun wouldn't be able to help everyone all the time. They had to find a better way.
In fact, the Wubei Sect was secretly hoping that they could find an array formation for that. In that case, they would completely control the one way for cultivators to become Sages. The political benefits were absolutely obvious.
Emperor Weide was also watching the breakthrough. This was the second Greater Tribulation that would succeed right in front of his eyes. Of course, he wasn't too pleased. To be fair, he was happy for the Hongchen Kingdom. But he couldn't shake this awful jealousy deep within. After all, it was almost certain that Cao Yun wouldn't help him break through after what he had done to his sister. Ironically, Emperor Weide's actions had made this possible, others could now become Sages, but he couldn't.
The Greater Tribulation lasted around ten hours, but the overall breakthrough lasted the entire day as everyone was getting ready. This time, Cao Yun tried to use less strength and energy than before, in order to let Sun Liao and the array formation masters take the lead. He was hoping that they could use this opportunity to improve upon the process. This was somewhat successful.
Although their array formations weren't able to completely replace Cao Yun's intervention, they were able to lessen the burden by a lot. With even better array formations, Cao Yun had no doubt that many early Sages would be able to help 9th-grade Spirit Warriors break through. Honestly, this was tremendously good news. With that, Cao Yun could even spread his mind cultivation everywhere. Indeed, only the humans would control the Greater Tribulation. Thus, in a matter of a few centuries, humans would have several Sages while the demons would barely have any 9th-grade Accomplished Demons left. Moreover, Cao Yun was confident in Sun Liao's ability to help restore the defensive array formations of the Hongchen Kingdom, especially if he became a Sage too.
If one or two powerful alchemists also became Sages, humanity's strength would soar through the skies, while demons would stagnate, no matter what kind of cultivation Cao Yun would spread among them.
In the end, the Greater Tribulation was a success. Sect Leader Xuan also became a 1st-grade Sage, just like Matriarch Huang Yufeng. Unlike her, though, he didn't stop there. Sect Leader Xuan was floating in the air as the ominous dark clouds were dissipating. Using all of his understanding of the Dao of Space, he tried to hold on to the Dao as much as possible. He was trying to grab a bigger part of the Dao, specifically, the Dao of Space.
Rifts in space began to form in the air as Sect Leader Xuan's strength was tearing apart space itself. Cao Yun recognized that he had last seen such a thing when Demon King Mo Wang had attacked the Imperial City. It struck Cao Yun that his master wasn't just trying to improve his own understanding of the Dao, he was also trying to show it to him. As such, Cao Yun joined him and studied how space was affected.
Sect Leader Xuan tried to keep it up as long as possible, but the Dao was slipping through his fingers like water. Even altering space wasn't truly affecting the Dao. Its presence was dwindling. Soon, nothing of the Dao's presence remained. That being said, both cultivators had caught a very tiny glimpse of the Dao of Space. This could keep them busy for a few months or years.