Thunder Tribulation Appears

Time flowed like sand between fingers, and a month passed in the blink of an eye.

During this month, Xuan Ya grew increasingly restless. She found it difficult to enter a meditative state even when sitting in her quiet chamber.

She sighed, looking up at the sky, a trace of sorrow in her heart. ‘Has it already come to this?’

‘It seems this heavenly tribulation is not far off.’

‘Fine, I’ll go for a walk to clear my mind.’

‘Perhaps, for the last time…’

With a heavy heart, Xuan Ya walked out of her grass hut.

But just then.

Rumble.

A profound pressure suddenly descended from the heavens.

Xuan Ya’s steps halted abruptly, her expression as grim as frost. She snapped her head up, her gaze piercing like a sharp sword towards the leaden, churning sky above.

“Sigh.”

Xuan Ya stood with her hands behind her back, her moon-white Daoist robe fluttering. Her voice carried a sigh of finality, “The heavenly tribulation… has come, after all.”

With a flicker, Xuan Ya turned her head, her gaze sweeping over the two simple grass huts that had stood side by side on the peak for decades.

A faint yet incredibly gentle smile bloomed in her serene eyes, as if piercing through the heavy fog of time.

“In a flash, so many years have passed.”

Closing her eyes, Xuan Ya couldn’t help but remember the little one she had picked up on the mountain, so destitute, yet with a clever glint always in his eyes.

So many years had passed. She had finally watched her two little ones grow up and become accomplished. In this life, she had no regrets.

Before her thoughts could finish, the rampaging spiritual energy of the world began to converge like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.

Within a breath, a massive tribulation cloud, as deep as ink and with lightning flickering within, had already taken a menacing form a hundred meters above her head. The rolling vortex of clouds resembled the pupil of a man-eating beast, firmly locked onto the tiny figure below.

At this time, the other peaks had also noticed this tribulation cloud. Several figures transformed into streaks of light and flew high into the sky, gazing from afar at the cloud over Tianquan Peak, which was saturated with an aura of destruction.

Xuan Ya looked up at the tribulation cloud, her slender fingers rapidly divining within her sleeves. Her heart suddenly sank!

“Nine… Lightning Heavenly Tribulation?!”

She gave a bitter, silent laugh. “Such a grand burial? The Heavenly Dao… certainly thinks highly of this broken body of mine…”

The world knew that the lightning tribulation for immortal ascension consisted of at least three strikes, and at most, nine.

The greater the number of tribulations, the more outstanding the aptitude and the deeper the heaven-sent potential it signified. It also represented… a near-certain death sentence.

Ascend to immortality against the heavens? One had to first ask the permission of this magnificent heavenly might.

Rumble—

The tribulation lightning gathered to its peak. The incandescent spot deep within the clouds suddenly brightened, like the wrathful eye of a creator god.

The instant the brightness reached its limit.

Crack—!

A terrifying pillar of light that tore through the field of vision, wrapped in the world-destroying might to pulverize all things, struck down with a roar. The entire world dimmed in that instant.

The worldly fluctuations that contained the ultimate principles of the Great Dao crashed down along with the tribulation lightning.

Xuan Ya’s thoughts were like lightning. The spiritual energy around her instantly boiled as she fully prepared to receive this heaven-and-earth-leveling first strike…

Huh?

‘Why did the lightning strike crooked?’

Xuan Ya stared, bewildered, at the direction the pillar of lightning fell. The point of impact was the back mountain of Tianquan Peak, in a small courtyard that had been built at some unknown time.

‘Is there someone else undergoing a tribulation on Tianquan Peak?!’

While Xuan Ya was still bewildered, in the small courtyard of Tianquan Peak, inside the newly built alchemy room.

A hand, as fair as jade but wreathed in surging immortal essence, steadily caught a pillar of incandescent lightning powerful enough to level mountains. The dissipating arcs of destructive electricity crackled wildly against the barrier of immortal power, emitting a piercing shriek.

Xuan Mo stood before the giant alchemy cauldron, the corner of her eye twitching violently.

Amidst the roar of the tribulation lightning, she couldn’t help but bellow at the figure beside her, who was fully engrossed in controlling the fire, “Little Qiancha—!! What in the world are you refining?!!”

She had thought it was just refining some medicine. At worst, the furnace would explode, and she’d have to protect her little martial niece’s life. Who would have thought it would actually summon this world-ending heavenly lightning?

A pill summoning heavenly lightning was an act against the heavens. Only the birth of a divine object whose effects were potent enough to shake the very rules of the Heavenly Dao could trigger such a great tribulation.

Rumble—

The second and third tribulation bolts followed in quick succession, both completely blocked by Xuan Mo’s formidable barrier of immortal power.

But Xuan Mo’s expression had already shifted from surprise to gravity. She stared intently at the mysterious, colorful light emanating from the cauldron, a monstrous wave crashing in her heart.

‘This little one… could actually refine a heaven-defying divine object capable of triggering a three-fold pill tribulation?!’

‘But she’s clearly just a Spirit Transformation cultivator!’

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three bolts of deep purple tribulation lightning, thicker than before and carrying a primal aura, struck down like three heaven-cleaving great axes, ignoring the distance of space.

The three bolts of lightning merged into one. The layers of immortal power shields that Xuan Mo had set up shattered inch by inch like glass.

The last remnant of the tribulation’s power pierced through the defense, heading straight for the core of the alchemy cauldron.

“Don’t even think about it!”

A sharp glint flashed in Xuan Mo’s eyes.

Weng—!

A vast and incomparably pure immortal might shot towards the heavens. A magnificent domain, wreathed in immortal energy, descended in an instant, firmly blocking the final bolt of tribulation lightning two meters away from the cauldron.

Xuan Mo looked up at the vortex of destruction still lingering deep within the tribulation cloud, her pretty face frosted over. “It seems I have to get serious now.”

She then formed a heavenly seal with her hands and chanted a true mantra, “Zi Kan Heavenly Origin, congeal! Xu Qian Earthly Origin, gather! Yi Zhen Human Origin, guide! Three powers in place, immortal domain, protect!”

Her voice was like rolling thunder.

The immortal domain behind her blazed with a myriad of lights. Nine dazzlingly bright suns broke through the clouds, rising slowly in the sky of the domain.

Nine suns hung in the sky, awaiting the heavenly punishment.

The tribulation cloud, as if sensing the threat of the nine suns, rumbled with a low, rolling thunder, holding back as if gathering its final, world-destroying power.

After several breaths of dead silence—

—Boom! Boom! Boom!!!

Three tribulation bolts, as thick as water buckets and as dark as ancient cold iron, struck down in unison, determined to wipe the pill that dared to steal heaven’s secrets, along with the entire region, from the face of the world.

“Insolence!”

Xuan Mo’s beautiful eyes were filled with killing intent as she roared fiercely.

The nine glorious suns behind her suddenly transformed into nine incomparably majestic three-legged golden crows. With long cries that split the sky, they fearlessly met the world-ending lightning.

The golden crows flapped their wings, setting the plains ablaze. The tribulation lightning roared, the laws of heaven pouring down.

The two supreme powers clashed violently.

At this moment.

Flames exploded, and the sound of thunder was annihilated.

The entire space seemed to be on the verge of disintegrating in the extreme light, heat, and impact.

The torrent of destruction swept through—

The light dissipated.

The tribulation cloud rolled unwillingly, and finally, like a popped bubble, it rapidly dissipated, revealing the clear sky once more.

The sunlight illuminated Xuan Mo’s pale but still proudly standing profile. A few stray strands of hair on her forehead were singed, and her chest rose and fell slightly.

“…These spirit stones…” She slumped to the ground ungracefully, gasping for breath. “They’re… really not easy to earn!”

And beside her, the small blue figure who had exhausted all her strength to support the alchemy furnace was in an even more miserable state.

The spiritual power for her disguise had long been depleted, and she had reverted to a little blue-haired girl who had collapsed limply on the ground, her eyes unfocused. Her entire body was drenched in sweat, her small chest heaving violently, as if she would faint at any second.

“Xuan… Mo… Martial… Aunt…” She moved her lips with difficulty, her weak, airy voice barely audible.

“Hmm?” Xuan Mo regulated her breathing for a moment, managing to suppress the roiling of her vital energy and blood, and moved to the little one’s side.

“Help me…”

Lu Qiancha used her last ounce of strength, her small paw trembling as she pointed at the alchemy cauldron, then towards a certain direction on the mountain peak. “…This bottle of medicine… and… one… pill… send them… to Master…”

She panted heavily, seeming as if she would pass out at any moment. “Tell… her… if she… can’t hold on… then use the medicine…”

“The pill… eat it… last…”

As the last syllable fell, the blue eyes that had been held open for who knows how long instantly lost their light. The small body went completely limp, falling into a deep coma.

Xuan Mo’s expression turned grim. She didn’t dare to delay.

She quickly retrieved the three longan-sized spiritual pills floating inside the cauldron and carefully sealed them in a jade bottle. At the same time, she picked up the bottle of pale purple medicinal liquid that Lu Qiancha had pointed to.

Her immortal sense swept over the entire mountain peak like a tide—found her.

In the next instant, her figure vanished from the spot.

When she reappeared, she was in front of Xuan Ya.

With almost no wasted words, Xuan Mo quickly thrust the medicine bottle and the pill bottle into Xuan Ya’s hands, rapidly relaying Lu Qiancha’s instructions.

Xuan Ya looked down at the heavy sentiment in her hands, her expression indescribably complex.

“So foolish… why… go to such lengths?”

This soft question, it was unclear if she was pitying her beloved disciple, or questioning herself…

“Xuan Ya-jie! Take it!”

Xuan Mo looked at Xuan Ya’s detached expression, which was tantamount to giving up, and said urgently, “Your disciple practically traded her life for this. Don’t let her efforts go to waste!”

“…” Xuan Ya was silent for a moment, but finally, she raised her hand and, slowly but with immense solemnity, accepted the two bottles that carried the weight of a life.

She lifted her eyes, looking at the boundless tribulation cloud that had just dispersed from the pill tribulation but was now re-gathering in the nine heavens above.

A desolate yet incredibly clear understanding touched Xuan Ya’s lips, “Heh… I’m foolish… he’s foolish too… to both still harbor the delusion of being able to pass this tribulation…”

She took a deep breath, a breath that contained a mix of open-mindedness and self-deprecation in the face of life and death.

“In the end… it’s all the work of fate.”

Before her words could fade!

BOOM————!!!

The voice of heaven descended once more.

The vast heavenly might suddenly locked onto the figure below.

Xuan Ya’s fated heavenly tribulation, after a brief interlude, had finally—

Finally arrived.

This time, in the very center of the vortex of destruction, Xuan Ya’s resolute, standing figure was clearly reflected.

The Heavenly Dao is ruthless, and the tribulation begins anew.

But this time, there would be no more lucky breaks.