Chapter 624: The Sea God's Blessing

After two rounds of lightning strikes, her body and spirit were overflowing with energy, and she could not take in any more of it.

But suddenly, the sky seemed to suddenly freeze, and everything around fell into a brief stillness.

Then she heard a voice, a familiar voice.

"Ten..."

It was Tang San's voice. She instinctively looked toward Tang San.

"Nine..." At that moment, Mei Gongzi saw a seven-colored orb glowing above Tang San's head, emitting a strange radiance. A ripple of energy surged upward, causing everything around to seem momentarily stagnant.

As a master of space, she felt that it wasn't the tribulation that had halted, but that she was enveloped in a special space, temporarily isolated from the tribulation.

"Eight..." Tang San's voice sounded again, and Mei Gongzi immediately understood what he was doing. The Celestial Dance resumed, and she was fully committed to rapidly dissipating the remaining lightning energy and Golden Fiend energy within her, quickly restoring herself to the best condition while also allowing her physique and divine consciousness to evolve.

What Tang San was doing was buying her time; he was not neutralizing the tribulation for her, but giving her a chance to catch her breath. This allowed her to process the energy she had absorbed and regain her bearings so that she could face the upcoming lightning.

"Seven..." Mei Gongzi was still absorbing energy at a fairly high rate. The energy accumulating within her was due to her not having enough time to digest it. Now that she had the leisure to do that, she could absorb and process at the same time without risking overload.

"Six..." The White Tiger shadow finally regained its vitality; the golden sheen of its fur quickly receded, but its black stripes turned a dark gold. The murderous energy condensed towards its eyes, and by this point, the White Tiger looked no longer illusory but extremely solid. It remained white, but a faint golden halo flickered around it, and its eyes were completely golden.

"Five..." The lightning in Mei Gongzi's body was gone, and the halos expanding around her returned to their silver color. Her beautiful eyes grew brighter, and her long hair flowed behind her. All traces of fatigue and pain vanished, and she looked more radiant than ever.

"Four..." Mei Gongzi took a deep breath, and her dance quickened. She suppressed the Celestial Plume, which was practically begging her to let it emerge; her hands moved in the air, rapidly gathering spatial energy.

"Three..." The silver halos on the ground began to boil, countless spatial fluctuations appearing. Within the silver halos, some dark spatial cracks could be seen, indicating the extreme concentration of spatial energy.

"Two..." Mei Gongzi's delicate body floated up slightly. The golden sheen of the White Tiger completely faded, while a layer of white light wrapped Mei Gongzi's body, accompanied by an intense murderous aura. This was not a result of the tribulation lightning, but her own murderous aura!

"One..."

Time flowed once more, and the roar of lightning in the sky erupted almost immediately.

There were no scattered bolts merging into one and no other special features, either. A thick, golden lightning bolt, like a spear aimed at the earth itself, descended from the sky. As it passed, space shattered around it, causing light to distort.

The third round, pure lightning energy! Nothing but pure lightning, without the murderous energy and explosions of the previous rounds; just a bombardment of pure lightning and the intense pressure it brought.

Mei Gongzi thrust her hands forward, and the spatial energy around her body instantly transformed into a tornado-like silver storm, sweeping upward.

Boom!

The silver light exploded, scattering into countless droplets of light, but the gold continued to fall, slamming Mei Gongzi into the ground. This was the seventeenth lightning bolt, the first of the third round.

Mei Gongzi's expression changed slightly; she knew this couldn't be resisted head-on. The second lightning bolt followed immediately, even more powerful than the first.

If it hadn’t been for the ten seconds of respite Tang San provided her, Mei Gongzi felt she might not have been able to hold on now.

As she went through the motions of the Celestial Dance, Mei Gongzi's delicate body shifted here and there; meanwhile, a giant White Tiger soared into the sky, biting into the lightning. In the next moment, the White Tiger burned with astonishing murderous energy, shooting into the sky and dissipating along with the lightning.

Mei Gongzi groaned in pain.

The White Tiger's figure reformed beside her, but it was noticeably more ethereal. This resulted from using the murderous energy she had condensed to withstand a lightning strike.

With this buffer, the spatial fluctuations around Mei Gongzi reappeared, and dots of starlight shone brilliantly. Behind her, peacock feathers spread open; each eye of the feathers burst with dazzling silver light, which transformed into tiny stars that ascended into the sky.

The nineteenth lightning bolt descended from the sky, carrying even greater destructive power. But this time, the silver light twisted, and with Star Shift, the golden lightning was instantly redirected, striking the distant void.

The best method to deal with pure power is to dodge, and if you can’t dodge, then deflect, using minimal force[1] to redirect the strike.

Mei Gongzi's pretty face was flushed red, but her eyes were filled with determination. Her character was resilient; the more difficulties she faced, the higher she rose to meet them.

Seeing this, a smile appeared on Tang San's face. He wiped the blood flowing from his nose.

He had already put away the Spacetime Beacon covered in Rainbow Skyfire Liquid. This was all the power he could use after refining it these past days, and in his current state, he could only use it once. But even this one use had provided Mei Gongzi with ten precious seconds of respite.

As Mei Gongzi's protector, his preparations were naturally extremely thorough, far more so than those of Mei Gongzi's own father.

It wasn't that the Peacock Great Demon King didn't want to prepare for his daughter; he simply didn't know how terrifying the tribulation she would face would be. Had it been an ordinary Peacock Demon Clan member instead, the tribulation would have been done long ago and wouldn't have reached this intensity.

Relatively speaking, among these six rounds of tribulations, the third round was actually the easiest for Mei Gongzi to withstand. The Peacock Demon Clan's divine technique, Star Shift, was best at neutralizing such pure power attacks, using minimal force to send even the strongest attacks away from the user. Seeing Mei Gongzi successfully guide the third lightning strike, Tang San understood that she shouldn't have any problems with the third round.

Tang San closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pulling himself back together while extending his divine consciousness into the ocean.

The creatures around the small island had long fled due to the arrival of the lightning tribulation. However, thanks to the seawater acting as a conduit, Tang San could still sense numerous spiritual waves belonging to the sea creatures in the distance. His divine consciousness drew in large amounts of this residual spiritual power, which helped nurture it.

The true difficulty of the Six Directions Eight Desolations Golden Fiend Tribulation lay in the last three rounds. These three rounds of lightning tribulation could turn Mei Gongzi into ashes at any moment. Relying solely on her own strength to resist them was simply impossible. And it was clear to Tang San that the tribulation descended in such a terrifying manner because the plane intended to destroy her.

The planar ruler was not necessarily a concrete entity, but even if it was invisible, that did not mean it didn’t exist. Its role was to ensure the safety of the plane, and anything that disrupted the balance of the plane would face its backlash.

It was impossible to directly fight against the entire power of the plane. But at the same time, the plane couldn't just randomly kill a living being. It could only influence them through special events, like now—using the opportunity of the lightning tribulation to completely destroy the unpredictable factor.

Naturally, Tang San's tribulation would be even tougher than Mei Gongzi's.

1. The original here translates as “four ounces move a thousand pounds.” It comes from a writing of Wang Zhongye, a legendary grandmaster of the martial art Taijiquan (aka Tai Chi), which emphasizes softness and flow rather than head-on clashes. ☜