Somewhere within the Yuanmu Star Forest, the ground shook violently as if struck by a powerful earthquake. Demon beasts, humans, and foreign races alike scattered in panic. Then, a pitch-black hole opened up like a hellish abyss, and thirteen figures leaped out from within.
"Let's go! I've been here for so long, yet I still don't know what kind of place this is," Wu Tianjun said, looking up at the starry sky.
"Master! It seems you will have to wait a moment! We are about to break through, and our Heavenly Tribulation is coming," Ma Lian said, looking up at the sky. "Quickly take Master and stay away. Do not get tainted by the aura of my lightning tribulation; if our tribulations overlap, you will surely die," he added, turning to look at the remaining powerhouses.
"Haha, Brother Ma, we should separate. My heavenly tribulation is also coming soon," a peak Deity Venerable said. He was also about to break through to the Saint God realm.
"Take turns facing your tribulations! I want to watch them one by one," Wu Tianjun said, looking at the sky which was rapidly filling with dense, dark clouds. "Ma Lian, since you have already summoned the lightning tribulation, you go first. Everyone else, disperse and make sure no one comes to disturb him," Wu Tianjun said softly.
"Then, Master, you..." the beautiful woman said. "Ah! My name is Jiang Yu," she finally introduced herself.
"Go on, don't worry about me. Right now, the thing I fear least is this lightning tribulation! Hehe!" Wu Tianjun said, licking his lips as he looked at the heavenly tribulation.
"Uh, Master! It's still better to stay away from this lightning tribulation," Ma Lian, who was preparing to face his tribulation, suddenly turned his head and said. If anything happened to this little ancestor, they wouldn't have it easy either—they might even perish!
"Sigh! Fine, go ahead. I just won't let the lightning touch me," Wu Tianjun said with a helpless smile as he withdrew his gaze. He then flew away, while the remaining powerhouses dispersed in all directions to guard the area and observe Ma Lian's tribulation. This was a rare experience to witness.
"Haha, lightning tribulation! Come at me!" Ma Lian leaped into the sky, wanting to meet the lightning tribulation mid-air. Since the Demon race possessed powerful physical bodies, even when they used magic treasures, they tended to be giant-sized. Sure enough, with a flash of light by his side, a giant hammer appeared. "Haha, old friend, I haven't used you in twenty thousand years. Face this tribulation with me!" Summoning the giant hammer, Ma Lian looked up at the sky and laughed confidently.
"RUMBLE..." As if provoked, the tribulation clouds thickened. Then, a bolt of lightning descended. It was as thick as a water bucket, striking straight down at Ma Lian with immense pressure. Yet, without the slightest fear, he swung his giant hammer against the lightning.
"BOOM..." Ma Lian was forced back, pressed close to the ground, but he immediately charged back up.
"Haha, come on! Let's see how terrifying you can be!" Ma Lian laughed loudly. For cultivators, regardless of race, the Heavenly Tribulation was unavoidable. If one feared the tribulation, how could they cross it? Since it had come, they had to face it with everything they had. If they failed, they would be reduced to ashes. If they succeeded, they would soar to the heavens, and a vast new ocean of possibilities would open up. The first tribulation of the God-reaching realm—from God Lord onwards, every level crossed meant facing a heavenly tribulation. Normally, that was how it went.
"BOOM... BOOM..." The second wave of the heavenly tribulation consisted of two bolts of lightning, each as thick as a water bucket, striking toward Ma Lian. Its power was significantly greater than the first wave.
"Oh? The pressure of that Dao Rhyme on him is so light? This heavenly tribulation isn't as strong as I thought. It seems it's because I'm different from them," Wu Tianjun muttered as he watched Ma Lian face the tribulation.
By the fourth tribulation, Mo Lian was attacked by four bolts of lightning simultaneously. A long, bloody gash was ripped open on his left arm, but it healed rapidly. The formidable physique of the Demon Race truly showed its advantage at this moment.
During the fifth tribulation, Mo Lian's chest was struck by the lightning, tearing open another wound. Although it eventually closed, the healing process was much slower than before. It was unclear whether the lightning tribulation had grown stronger or his regenerative capacity had declined. Fortunately, his foundation remained unharmed.
After the sixth tribulation passed, Mo Lian was a bloody mess, but a closer look revealed his flesh writhing continuously.
"Ancient Demon True Body." Mo Lian was finally deploying his true methods. Upon reaching the Saint Deity realm, one could condense a Small World True Body, which represented the will of their small world. It could take many forms—a river, a mountain, a killing array—highly diverse. This was typically the strongest technique of a Saint Deity powerhouse. Back then, Wu Tianjun's Demon Body had been destroyed precisely because four Saint Deities had summoned their True Bodies against him.
"True Body..." Wu Tianjun recalled the past and silently etched those people into his memory. He would uncover the truth and slaughter every last one of them. He refused to believe that a mere Heavenly Phoenix Physique could prompt four Saint Deity powerhouses to attack his Wu family; there had to be some other hidden truth.
Having summoned his True Body, Mo Lian quickly weathered the remaining three tribulations. Though battered to the brink of death, he fortunately managed to survive. Just as he finished enduring the ninth tribulation, Wu Tianjun suddenly soared into the sky and plunged straight into the heavenly tribulation.
This action of his startled Mo Lian, but it was already too late to stop him.
"Ah... Why didn't you watch the Master carefully? He... Ah!!!" Weak but furious, Mo Lian roared at the nearby powerhouses. But his jaw instantly dropped, as did Wu Zixuan's and the others'. They witnessed a sight they would never forget for the rest of their lives!
Wu Tianjun plunged into the lightning tribulation and focused on circulating his God-Demon Dual Meridians simultaneously. A strange Dao rhyme emanated from him. Beneath his soul, a purple-black Taiji diagram spun, its suction force rapidly absorbing the remaining lightning tribulation energy and that incomprehensible Dao rhyme to strengthen himself. In less than a minute, the little remaining aura of the lightning tribulation in the sky was completely devoured. Licking his lips, he stepped out of the tribulation's range, only to see several powerhouses staring at him with wide eyes, as if looking at a monster.
"What are you looking at? I already said that the thing I fear least right now is the lightning tribulation. Hurry up and undergo your tribulations. I'm about to undergo my Divine Tribulation too, and I'll show you what a real lightning tribulation is," Wu Tianjun said, looking at those fools.
"You... You actually absorbed the lightning tribulation..." Mo Lian said in horror.
"How... how is this possible?" Wu Zixuan also said.
"I absorbed it, so what? What's there to be afraid of? Go undergo your tribulations. Later, I'll show you what real absorption is." Wu Tianjun felt there was nothing to say. At most, these people had only opened sixty-three meridians—even Mo Lian and Wu Zixuan. They were still far, far behind him.
"Are you even going to leave others a way to live..." Mo Lian had even forgotten the joy of achieving the Saint Ancestor realm. He had rejuvenated significantly, looking like a middle-aged man in his forties. Looking at his master, who had already closed his eyes to cultivate, he was utterly speechless. "You should go undergo your tribulation too," Mo Lian said, looking at Wu Zixuan.
"Everyone, disperse. Once I'm done with my tribulation, it'll be your turn..." Wu Zixuan glanced at Wu Tianjun, who was sitting with his eyes closed, and then spoke to the crowd.
Nearly a day passed, and the people here broke through one after another. Naturally, only six of them—Mo Lian, Wu Zixuan, and the four peak Divine Venerables who broke through to the Sacred God Realm—triggered lightning tribulations. Nothing had changed; every time someone finished their tribulation, Yu Tianjun would jump into the lightning tribulation to absorb the remaining aura. The onlookers were completely dumbfounded. Where on earth was he storing all that absorbed lightning tribulation energy?
By this time, Yu Tianjun had under his command two one-step Sacred Ancestors and four half-step Sacred Ancestors—among whom Chi Danzi and Jiang Yu were infinitely close to the full Sacred Ancestor realm and could break through at any moment. The remaining six were all mighty experts of the Sacred God Realm. It was an incredibly formidable lineup!
"Haha, very good! Now that you have all finished your breakthroughs, it's my turn. I only broke through just over a month ago. I wonder if my big brother will be dumbfounded when he finds out... Hehe." The residual lightning tribulation energy Yu Tianjun had absorbed was already enough for him to touch the Divine Realm, and he channeled the rest into the Minor Demon Realm. "Run as far away as you can! I can't guarantee your safety," Yu Tianjun said, looking at the mighty experts. After all, they were his subordinates now; it would be too tragic if they died in his lightning tribulation.
"Run as far away as we can..." Mo Lian and the others repeated. Something felt off. It was just a Divine Realm lightning tribulation, so why did they need to run as far as possible? In truth, they had forgotten about the lightning tribulation liquid!
"Go! You don't want to get caught in the lightning rain!" Yu Tianjun said with a strange expression.
"What?... Lightning rain?!" Everyone present was a mighty expert with no shortage of knowledge. Lightning rain was something that only a handful of monstrous geniuses triggered when breaking through to the Sacred Ancestor Realm. Suddenly, a realization struck them. "Run, quick!!!" If this little ancestor of theirs wasn't one of those monsters, they couldn't think of anyone else in this starry sky who could be. Actually, there was still that "big brother" he had mentioned, but they just hadn't remembered him yet!
"Wait, that's not right! Isn't lightning rain exclusive to the Sacred Ancestor Realm?" After fleeing for over ten thousand miles, Mo Lian and the others finally stopped, wiping the sweat from their brows.
"Just watch! He has no reason to scare us," Jiang Yu said, looking up at the sky.
Very quickly, centering on the sky above Yu Tianjun, tribulation clouds with a radius of nearly a thousand miles began to expand continuously, spreading across the entire space. Some cultivators looked up, and a few recognized that these tribulation clouds looked very similar to those of the peerless monster from over a month ago.
"Look... those tribulation clouds..." said one cultivator who had witnessed the clouds that day.
"Is it lightning rain again? Which monster is it this time..." They absolutely dared not connect the two tribulations to the same person; it was impossible for anyone to cultivate that quickly.
"Run, quick! The tribulation clouds are spreading this way..." a powerhouse said in panic.
"Haha, lightning rain again. It's only been a little over a month since I last saw it," Yu Tianjun said, licking his lips as he stared up at the pitch-black clouds in the sky.
Sure enough, not long after, black rain slowly began to fall from the sky. With it, the entire area seemed to grow incredibly heavy, and a peculiar Dao charm manifested, binding Yu Tianjun and preventing him from moving.
"This Dao charm again. What exactly is it? Even that Demon Race member didn't have any memories regarding this," Yu Tianjun muttered as he sensed the Dao charm. Furthermore, the Taiji diagram inside his body also possessed an obscure and incomprehensible Dao charm, the nature of which he still did not know.
As the lightning rain fell and touched Yu Tianjun, it sent a shiver through him. A violent power surged within his body, accompanied by an incredibly oppressive Dao charm.
"Oh! It's not much stronger than the previous Saint tribulation. Could it be because the last one was a double tribulation, making it unusually powerful?" Wu Tianjun speculated. "Whatever, let's see what level it reaches this time." Wu Tianjun stopped overthinking. Watching the countless lightning bolts begin to rain down from the sky, he lunged forward and leapt into the tribulation clouds. His Divine and Demonic meridians circulated in unison, and the Taiji diagram spun rapidly. Around him, a massive vortex quickly formed, absorbing the surrounding tribulation lightning and spiritual energy.
"Look, he really did leap into the tribulation clouds..." a Saint God said.
"I really don't know how he does it. Ordinary cultivators can't run away fast enough when they see lightning rain, yet he actually absorbs it," Wu Zixuan, who had been defeated, said helplessly.
"His lightning rain is undeniable, but isn't it true that only Saint Ancestors can trigger lightning rain... How puzzling," Chidanzi said, bewildered.
"Perhaps there are limitations, or perhaps our predecessors could do it too, but it just wasn't recorded," Jiang Wu speculated. Her family had an ancient heritage, and she possessed vast knowledge.
"With his kind of method, if no one stops him and he does nothing but undergo tribulations, won't his cultivation speed be countless times faster than ours?" a Saint God said sourly. Comparing oneself to others really was infuriating.
"Everything in nature has its balance. Since it is so easy for him to undergo tribulations, there must be difficulties elsewhere that we simply don't know about," Wu Zixuan said.