No one dared approach the stellar void where the tribulation cloud loomed. Once the heavenly tribulation captured one’s aura, no matter how profound the cultivation, calamity would descend.
“How could this be? Another tribulation cloud coalesces.” A Yanluo clan god exclaimed in astonishment.
Xue Tu said, “It is senior brother refining Shen Yuan. He borrows the mental power divine tribulation’s force to evolve the ancient sword Shen Yuan into a supreme saint artefact. Even gods must wield a supreme saint artefact most attuned to their thoughts to unleash peak combat prowess.”
“Too perilous. He should not act so rashly. His mental power divine tribulation already far exceeds that of other mental power gods, brimming with hazard. Now refining Shen Yuan summons the supreme artefact heavenly tribulation. With two tribulations overlaying, the might grows all the more dread.” Yan Ting said.
…
The Absolute Marvel Zen Maiden stood amid a remote, shadowed stretch of starry void, her feet upon a suspended pool of nether spring. A faint smile curved her lips, harbouring not the slightest doubt that Zhang Ruochen could weather the heavenly tribulation.
Though yet to attain martial godhood, he astounded the mundane world, his battle power rival to true gods.
Kalpa-grade geniuses paled beside him.
Even with two tribulations compounded, so what?
It could never imperil his life.
…
Beneath the hundred thousand li tribulation cloud.
Chaos qi upon Zhang Ruochen’s form had become an ocean, roiling and surging under the lightning’s barrage, like ceaseless explosions upon water’s surface.
The ancient sword Shen Yuan hovered above his crown, bathing in the thunder tribulation.
Its blade scorched to crimson by the strikes, luminous as fire, veins upon it glaring like golden threads, densely patterning the steel.
While contending the heavenly tribulation, Zhang Ruochen spared effort to hurl king saint artefacts one after another toward Shen Yuan for its refinement. It absorbed the inscriptions, armament qi, and refined materials within, impurities scattering as dust.
Yet mere absorption of king saint artefacts left the ancient sword Shen Yuan shy of evolving to supreme saint artefact.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen cast forth the supreme saint artefact-grade Crimson Child Sword, alongside several top king saint artefacts birthing supreme inscriptions.
This sight drew gnashing teeth from the observing gods afar.
To forge one supreme saint artefact, squandering several treasures on the cusp of such evolution and a true supreme saint artefact, such profligacy would incense any god.
Under the thunder tribulation’s tempering, Zhang Ruochen’s heart throbbed like a divine drum, its beat carrying ten thousand li.
The saint heart gained divine charm, mental power thoughts solidifying as if corporeal.
The heavenly tribulation wrought profound metamorphosis upon his mental power.
Concurrently, baptised by the tribulation, the saint path rules within him swelled ceaselessly, birthing divine essence.
At length, in a certain instant, his inner saint path rules reached unison at the brink.
Zhang Ruochen’s frame tensed, awareness dawning: the martial divine tribulation impended.
The mental power divine tribulation had drawn forth the martial one in tandem.
The martial divine tribulation’s terror lay in striking the cultivator’s inner depths. The greater the inner fear, the precise form the tribulation took.
“What form shall my martial divine tribulation assume? Heart tribulation? Affection tribulation? Desire tribulation? Mortal dust tribulation?” Zhang Ruochen pondered inwardly.
Though the adage held that the tribulation mirrored inner dreads.
Yet the world’s most elusive riddle was one’s own heart.
In this instant, pressure upon Zhang Ruochen surged. The surrounding stellar domain’s space congealed, as if sealing a living soul in ice.
Heaven and earth’s forces rioted fiercer, all converging upon the tribulation cloud.
The cloud amassed, from hundred thousand li swelling to two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand…
Its hue shifted from violet to scarlet, scarlet to sable.
“A… heavenly tribulation.”
Numerous gods sensed astonishment.
In truth, the vast majority of martial divine gods yearned for their tribulation to be heavenly. Though dread, it followed patterns, permitting countermeasures.
Calamities like “illusory tribulation” or “mortal dust tribulation” struck unknowable, often slaying the crosser in baffling obscurity.
Their sole mercy: an intact corpse.
The Wu Qing Sect sighed, “This youth Zhang Ruochen proves extraordinary. To summon a heavenly tribulation signifies his sub-god cultivation flawless and consummate, heart realm immaculate, will indomitable. The divine tribulation finds no flaw to exploit, reduced to heavenly extinction.”
Wen Chu, joyous from the heart, said, “Does this not mean Zhang Ruochen shall assuredly succeed today?”
The Wu Qing Sect fell mute, gaze growing solemn. He said, “Tribulation cloud colourless, heaven and earth in deathly hush.”
“Stars lightless, space sealed.” The Fortune and Prosperity Divine Venerable recited two more lines, then sighed, laced with helplessness.
The Yanluo clan gods nearby duly noted: no stellar gleam pierced their sight. One god assayed to rend space, but failed.
“Tear it not. Space stands sealed, barring flight to the void realm, severing all retreats. Though void flight spells death too.” Xu Rulai said.
Xue Tu said, “Is the heavenly tribulation so dread?”
“This is no heavenly tribulation. It is the heavenly oblivion tribulation.” Xu Rulai said.
Xue Tu paused, then said, “A difference?”
Xu Rulai replied, “The heavenly oblivion tribulation, deemed the direst of divine tribulations, annihilates all under heaven. Ordinary gods face but nine layers of heavenly tribulation, yet the oblivion claims eighty-one, each mightier than the last.”
The gods of sundry powers, concealed in shadow, stirred to tumult.
“With heavenly oblivion descended, Zhang Ruochen is doomed. Evidently, the dao-severing curse proves potent, denying him godhood outright.”
“Only the dao-severing curse summons heavenly oblivion.”
“Zhang Ruochen proved too arrogant, underestimating the divine tribulation’s horror. Heavenly oblivion, mental power divine tribulation, supreme artefact heavenly tribulation: three fused, a rarity since antiquity, slaying all life.”
Many gods breathed relief. They desired not Zhang Ruochen’s breakthrough.
A paragon like him, eclipsing even the heavenly venerable in youth, upon godhood would reshape the divine realm’s order.
The tribulation cloud congealed, three tribulations as one.
Boom!
The first lightning fell, peak-thick as mountains, a pillar of heaven’s light, smiting Zhang Ruochen’s crown, piercing his frame entire, surging from his soles.
Zhang Ruochen’s flesh blazed luminous as a celestial lantern.
Boom!
Without respite, the second lightning descended.
Zhang Ruochen offered no deliberate resistance, yielding to the thunder forged by heaven and earth to scour his form.
Of the heavenly oblivion tribulation, he held knowledge, yet inner fear absented.
So many arduous paths traversed, so many death’s edges endured. No reason to falter at the final stride before godhood.
Nine lightnings plunged, each bulkier than the last, all in an instant.
Blood threaded Zhang Ruochen’s lips. With a long cry, the chaos qi ocean beneath him whirled. The vortex spanned ten thousand li, majestic swells forming a light pillar that charged the firmament’s tribulation cloud.
“So ferocious! Other true gods, smitten by nine heavenly bolts, if surviving, lie gasping. Yet senior brother remains vital as dragon and tiger, assailing the cloud proactively… Why… why was my own tribulation not heavenly?” Xue Tu thrilled to incoherence, deeming Zhang Ruochen far too ostentatious.
His own crossing had felt dire peril; now compared, it seemed mundane, lacking grandeur. He yearned to recross.
Zhang Ruochen channelled chaos qi to a qi-vigour light pillar, thrusting upward.
From the cloud, the tenth lightning fell, dragon-shaped, loosing a world-shaking draconic roar that reached Yun An Star a billion li distant.
The dragon lightning clashed the chaos pillar.
Boom!
The chaos pillar burst. The dragon lightning pierced the ancient sword Shen Yuan, six saint aspects, smiting Zhang Ruochen true.
His frame crackled with “pops” and “snaps”, flesh and bone as if aflame, agony excruciating. The lightning’s force breached the qi sea wall, invading the qi sea to clash the Tongtian River.
For gods, the qi sea transmutes to divine sea.
The qi sea wall vanishes.
The divine sea sustains on the god’s divine soul, mental will, and myriad esoteric forces, forming a domain-like expanse. As long as the divine sea endures unbroken, divine source unfractured, even flesh exploded to blood mist avails not death.
Once divine sea shatters, divine source splinters, a god, though life preserved, forfeits divine cultivation.
Thus, to slay a true god demands first eroding divine soul and mental will.
The eleventh lightning, twelfth…
Nine lightnings plunged in train, each draconic.
Zhang Ruochen’s skin charred to jet, even absolute dao-forged flesh hard-pressed to withstand. Yet his gaze remained sharp and defiant, golden wings unfurling upon his back as he charged the tribulation cloud.
Boom!
Boom!
…
The nineteenth lightning descended, skull-formed, each skull planetary in scale, a thousand li across.
Not mere lightning interwove; each skull blazed with searing divine fire.
Zhang Ruochen’s form plummeted under skull impacts, the chaos qi ocean rent asunder, thereafter kindling fiercely.
The heavenly oblivion tribulation: nine lightnings per wave, each wave distinct, waxing mightier.
By the fifty-fifth lightning’s fall, it shaped as divine mountain, force rival to a true god’s strike.
Such dread lightning would obliterate even a kalpa-grade genius pre-godhood in one blow, form and spirit alike.
Zhang Ruochen endured nine divine mountain lightnings in succession, spewing nine mouthfuls of blood, viscera pulped within, flesh blackened to char, frame carbonised across vast expanses.
The Yanluo clan gods tensed wholly, countenances ashen.
The Wu Qing Sect and Fortune and Prosperity Divine Venerable stood as twin statues, wordless, brows unyielding to ease.
Even the Absolute Marvel Zen Maiden, brimming confidence in Zhang Ruochen, could smile no more. The heavenly oblivion astounded her, foreboding ill. This tribulation admitted no passage.
Sixty-three layers had fallen; the final eighteen must surpass the divine mountain form.
…
Zhang Ruochen’s charred frame erupted in resplendent divine radiances. From prone, he rose erect, vital essence, qi, and spirit replete. With a great shout: “What slays me not renders me stronger yet! Heavenly oblivion, so what? Come! Battle!”
