Chapter 468: Why Cross Tribulation At All?

The first heavenly tribulation of the era unfolded in a way that no one could have predicted.

It started with nine ordinary strikes. Wang Sheng met each one with calm certainty. Though he barely used any of his enchanted power, he still passed through them as if they were nothing more than routine.

But then, a second heavenly tribulation descended. It was as though the divine spirit that governed heavenly punishment broke all natural laws to unleash it simply because it could not bear to see Wang Sheng's confidence.

The second heavenly tribulation's power was unreasonably terrifying. It was strong enough to shake even the Small Immortal Realm's defensive array, which a Grand Dao Golden Immortal had created. Even though the one who faced it was only at the Tribulation Realm, it seemed less like ordinary tribulations and more like the ones for immortals.

The first lightning strike wounded Wang Sheng, though not severely. It made his aura fluctuate, and his Dao Body tremble. He also spat a mouthful of blood.

The next two bolts struck him almost without interval. His Nascent Soul and Dao Body suffered heavily, yet worse trials still lay ahead.

The fourth strike onward was no longer limited to lightning alone. Heavenly fire burned him, mystical ice froze him, and heavenly wind attempted to shatter his soul. The tribulation unleashed every ability in its arsenal at full force. In the face of heaven's might, his painstakingly tempered Dao Body, once the pride of his cultivation, seemed as fragile as glass.

By the end of the sixth lightning strike, his injuries had become so grave that he could no longer recover from them on his own. Knowing he still had to face the final three—the most dangerous of the nine—despair seeped into his heart.

Whether he could withstand the seventh determined if he'd be able to survive the last two. Hence, instead of defending, he took the initiative. Before the next bolt fell, he drew out every ounce of his strength and unleashed Heavenly Ziwei Sword, hoping that it would at least diminish some of the tribulation's power.

He rushed toward the cloud, but not to attack it. As far as he knew, the vertical eye was just a projection of the Great Dao; it wasn't a tangible form that he could hit.

Even so, his technique had some effect. Had the tribulation he faced been tailored for someone at his realm, his attack could have completely shattered the seventh strike.

Unfortunately, the second heavenly tribulation was far beyond what his Dao Body could endure. It made his attack seem weak, almost powerless. Right after destroying it, the seventh strike drove him straight into the ground.

The lightning pillar that followed lasted for several seconds, its power threatening to tear him apart. The heart devils' whispers gnawed at his will, and for the first time, true despair filled his heart. However, he had already faced death once and had countless brushes with it since. He refused to give up on life now.

Yaoyun helped him just in time to get past the eighth. Together with Spiritless, she took on nearly the full brunt of the offensive, giving him a moment's reprieve and the briefest chance to think about how he could survive.

The Heavenly Court princess had reforged Spiritless long ago, and it had also been tempered for over a decade within the Earth Qi Seal. Nevertheless, the clash still cracked it. Had Wang Sheng not refined his Dao Body using his own heavenly tribulations, he likely wouldn't have survived the seventh and eighth even if he had reached the Ascended Immortal Realm.

Yaoyun was too wounded to protect him now. Having exhausted her spiritual power, she fell into a deep sleep within Spiritless.

Wang Sheng had nothing left to rely on. His collapsing Dao Body couldn't possibly withstand the final strike. To make matters worse, his battered and cracked Nascent Soul was on the verge of shattering. He swallowed a celestial pill but failed to absorb even a trace of its power.

Wang Sheng wasn't the only one losing hope. In the distance, Mu Wanxuan, Xi Lian, and Jingyun watched helplessly. The Daoist masters and elders could only stand in silence, their hearts sinking with him.

To Mu Wanxuan, he was someone more important than her own life. To others, he was a rare friend, a pillar of the cultivation world, and a companion bound by fate and respect. Yet no one could help him. Stepping into the tribulation's range would only make it transform and grow stronger. Its power would double, turning rescue into ruin.

Under the heavenly tribulation, Wang Sheng faced the ninth and final strike with nothing but a broken body and sheer will.

At that moment, the tide of the battle shifted. As though heeding the trumpet call of a desperate gamble, the insights that he had been suppressing for years erupted. Every understanding he had built from summoning heavenly tribulations, every moment of restraint that had held him back, burst forth.

The second tribulation, strange and unpredictable as it was, became his source of inspiration.

He pushed his mind to its limit, frantically calculating the tribulation's evolution. As he had expected, heavenly might descended once more, and from within the storm, a pair of cold, unfeeling eyes stared straight at him. It didn't even bother to hide its presence from the cultivators watching below.

Its overwhelming aura shook the hearts of all nineteen witnesses. Regardless of cultivation or realm, even the most steadfast Dao Hearts would tremble before its absolute might.

No one had ever heard of heavenly might manifesting like this. Even Huai Jing froze, his eyes wide with terror.

Wang Sheng's Nascent Soul left his body and unleashed his Heavenly Tribulation Sword Intent. He then made heavenly might descend and form a tribulation cloud, which struck his Nascent Soul with countless bolts of lightning.

Wang Sheng did it all in one seamless sequence. It happened so abruptly that before the ninth strike could descend, his Nascent Soul was already bathed in the lightning of the tribulation that he had summoned himself.

I'd rather destroy myself than bow to the heavenly tribulation!

Wang Sheng didn't have a death wish, though. In truth, even he didn't fully understand why he acted this way. The idea just popped into his mind, and a powerful instinct told him to push through with it. That impulse, that intuition, often meant his consciousness had already reached the answer, but his mind had yet to catch up.

In that instant, heaven and earth seemed to freeze.

Lightning lashed down like whips, hitting his Nascent Soul again and again. Since his Nascent Soul was already near its limit, it quickly shattered, yet a light inside it kept surging.

Yes, just like that.

Wang Sheng's mind raced wildly, coming up with one idea after another.

What exactly is heavenly tribulation?

Most cultivators believed it to be a punishment from the Great Dao. After all, to them, cultivation itself was defying the heavens. The Great Dao, they said, could not tolerate a path that broke life's boundaries and allowed beings to reach a higher form of existence. Hence, it unleashed tribulation.

But did the Great Dao truly forbid it? Did the Great Dao even possess the emotions and logic people ascribed to it?

Wang Sheng preferred to believe that the Dao was, at its core, simply the natural order of things. From the Golden Core tribulation to the heavenly tribulation before him now, from his ability to simulate tribulation with his own enchanted power to the strange second tribulation he had endured, all of it pointed toward one truth: heavenly tribulation was not punishment; it was a phenomenon that the cultivator themselves triggered.

Their realm served as the catalyst of its birth from their own breakthrough, its nature a mutation of their primal qi. That was the basic law expressed by the Great Dao behind heavenly tribulation.

What purpose did the Tribulation Realm serve? A cultivator's heavenly tribulation usually lasted only a few minutes, half an hour at most. Why then, after surviving it, did their Nascent Soul transform into a Primordial Spirit?

Heavenly tribulation was clearly triggered when a Nascent Soul reached a certain level of refinement. Since every cultivator's path and the strength of their Nascent Soul differed, the form and power of the tribulation also varied. That was why heavenly tribulation could range from three to nine strikes and why each bolt differed in strength.

There was no divine being governing it from above. The Great Dao did not care whether one lived forever or wandered free. On the contrary, it simply maintained the workings of the universe.

The fact that countless cultivators survived their tribulations proved that heavenly tribulation never truly exceeded what one could endure. Only those who failed to understand what they were facing and entered unprepared perished in it, destroyed by the lightning tribulation they had summoned themselves.

That was only a general explanation, though. Many mysteries remained unsolved, including the reason heavenly tribulation could manifest in regions devoid of primal qi and why such bizarre illusions appeared within the storm.

The descent of heavenly might perfectly affirmed Wang Sheng's reasoning. His deduction about heavenly tribulations was correct.

If I'm right, then why should I wait for the tribulation to strike? I can just summon one myself!

With his mind clear and rid of hesitation, he made his summoned tribulation cloud's lightning bolts engulf his Nascent Soul. They were far weaker than the heavenly tribulation's final strike, but they perfectly matched his limits. They brought his Nascent Soul to the edge of destruction without knocking him out.

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

A sharp crack soon echoed across the Small Immortal Realm. The spectators froze, hardly daring to breathe. Xi Lian instinctively clutched Mu Wanxuan's arm.

Within the lightning, Wang Sheng's Nascent Soul shattered.

The ninth heavenly lightning's gray figures paused in midair, as if they had suddenly lost their target. Right after, they lunged toward the area where his Nascent Soul had exploded.

Amid the flashing lightning, a pale-blue and white sphere of light burst forth. From it leaped a faint phantasm, rising to meet the descending "army" of heavenly tribulation. Clenching its left hand, it drew in the lightning surging from the tribulation cloud below, gathering it in its palm and forming a sword of pure electricity.

Heavenly Tribulation Sword Intent!

The phantasm, now illuminated with perfect clarity, looked exactly like Wang Sheng. Clad in Daoist robes, it charged straight into the ranks of the "tribulation soldiers."

It unleashed the Heavenly Ziwei Sword Art once more, scattering thousands of lightning-forged sword phantasms that blazed with blinding radiance. From the ground to the sky, the gray figures shattered instantly.

The lightning sword then cleaved through the air. The phantasms erupted into blinding lights across the Small Immortal Realm, crashing straight into the gray figure that had a vertical eye!