Chapter 276: Heavenly Tribulation
Chapter 276: Heavenly Tribulation
A cultivator cried out as crimson clouds rapidly approached ahead.
“Fire Cloud Bees! Watch out!”
It was a swarm of red bees, each several feet long, their pale wings beating with thunderous noise.
“Take cover! Now!”
The group scattered to hide, but too late.
Thousands of Fire Cloud Bees descended like locusts, scorching heat burning everything. Over ten Blood Martial Realm cultivators fell injured immediately.
These monster-class bees could pierce defensive barriers when gathered in thousands, directly harming flesh.
Many activated spirit artifacts, raising Defensive Light Barriers to withstand the onslaught.
The chaos lasted minutes. Two died and over a dozen got injured.
Solemn silence fell. Casualties already occurred mere miles into Blood Moon Wasteland, darkening the journey’s mood.
Divine Martial Sect experts kept watching Lou Ri City’s six followers, finding no opportunity to strike yet.
Traveling deeper into the wasteland, they encountered fiercer monsters and monster kings.
Suddenly a glowing cloud appeared ahead, shimmering ominously.
“Beware! Silver Crows!”
Shock rippled through the group. Legend told of these silver-plumed soul-eaters – mutated crows called reapers, Tianyang Empire’s most feared creatures.
Wan Fang’s face tightened. “Go!”
A formation flashed beneath him. The teleportation array swallowed Lou Ri City’s six members instantly.
Others copied this escape method, scattering the factions.
These Silver Crows dwarfed Fire Cloud Bees’ threat, containing monster kings spanning thirty feet that radiated pure terror.
Reappearing miles away, Wan Fang heard distant screams carried by wind.
Feixue murmured, “This is just the outskirts. After two attacks, few will reach the inner wasteland.”
Zhang Bin asked, “Should we regroup or proceed alone?”
Wan Fang glanced at silent Qiu Yu, then Fang Mu and Tian Yi.
“Your thoughts?”
Tian Yi said, “Advance separately. Distance gives flexibility.”
Fang Mu added, “Stay alert. Divine Martial Sect will strike given opportunity.”
Feixue snorted. “Who fears whom remains unclear.”
Qiu Yu kept staring wordlessly at the wasteland’s heart, eyes unreadable.
“Forward then,” Wan Fang decided. “We adapt as needed.”
The six moved swiftly through jagged terrain, senses sharpened.
Experts from various sects scattered across the area, all racing toward the heart of the Blood Moon Wasteland.
The Divine Martial Sect’s experts had been relentlessly hunting the six cultivators from Lou Ri City, intent on eliminating them mid-journey, though their targets remained elusive.
…
Within the blood lake’s three pathways, twenty-four cultivators pressed through successive trials.
Cheng Lingyu and Hu Yuer had cleared the Ninth Gate, now facing the Tenth.
Shui Yingyue maintained her lead at the Seventeenth Gate while Ye Anlan and Yunxiu reached the Sixteenth, inching closer to the island at the lake’s center.
Pursuers from five major forces – Jiu Yang Sacred Palace, Tianlei Sacred Church, Heavenly Fire Sect, Heavenly Palace, and Shanhua Alliance – progressed in temporary alliance, their advancement rates nearly matched.
On Shui Yingyue’s path: Cheng Lingyu and Hu Yuer at the Tenth Gate, one cultivator at the twelfth trial, another at the fourteenth trial, while Heavenly Palace’s two holy sons and Hua Yuehong occupied the Fifteenth Gate.
Ye Anlan’s route hosted three Jiu Yang Sacred Palace experts at the Fifteenth Gate, three Tianlei Sacred Church members at the fourteenth trial, and a lone straggler at the twelfth trial.
Yunxiu’s path mirrored this – three Heavenly Fire Sect cultivators at the Fifteenth Gate, three Shanhua Alliance members at the fourteenth trial, with one remaining at the twelfth trial.
Eight cultivators per pathway totaled twenty-four.
While Shui Yingyue spearheaded the front, Cheng Lingyu trailed at the rear, creating balanced competition across all three routes.
Reaching the Tenth Gate hardened Hu Yuer’s expression. Cheng Lingyu, at Soul Martial Sixth Realm, grimaced through repeated failures despite wielding a mid-grade spirit artifact fish spine and the Chaotic Soul Splitting Bell.
After an hour’s struggle, he barely managed to breach the Eleventh Gate using the Flying Flower Snow Moon Sword.
Watching others grapple with trials ahead, Cheng Lingyu muttered, “If none can pass, are we all trapped here?”
Hu Yuer sighed softly. “The final gates will test us severely.”
“I must advance my cultivation. This path grows harsher.”
Abandoning the trial, Cheng Lingyu meditated on a stone pillar. At the Eleventh Gate, the guarding blood shadows wouldn’t attack unless provoked.
His body harbored incompletely merged energies from rushed cultivation. Though he’d collected numerous pills, spiritual herbs, and monster cores during his journey, most remained stored in his Spirit Cloak Ring for controlled use.
Now unleashing his reserves, he consumed top-grade Xuan Yang Pills, Three Yang Transforming Dragon Pills, and Ruyi Pills alongside spiritual herbs, Mine Source materials, monster cores, and absorbed Blood Fetus energy. Weapon-crafting, alchemy, Origin Path principles, and spiritual diagrams converged in extravagant cultivation.
Hu Yuer stood guard, monitoring his condition.
Cheng Lingyu’s cultivation erupted violently. Resources churned like molten ore in a furnace, transforming into raw power. Ten cleared trials had drained his latent potential, pushing him to a breakthrough threshold.
This critical juncture demanded his accumulated resources and knowledge.
Beams of light erupted from Cheng Lingyu’s body, blossoming like radiant flowers that formed multicolored rings around him. Spiritual light traced pathways across his skin, weaving a diagram that siphoned energy from all things.
A thunder pool materialized in the void above, lightning crackling as heavenly tribulation gathered – divine wrath seeking to erase this anomaly.
Hu Yuer staggered back, staring skyward as blood mist dispersed under tribulation forces. “What monstrous talent birthed you?”
Unresponsive, Cheng Lingyu expanded his Soul Domain. His Golden Body Avatar erupted into a thousand-foot colossus above the blood lake, defying the gathering storm.
CRACK! A lightning serpent coiled around the golden giant. The avatar trembled, ten mystical patterns glowing across its form – manifestations of Ten Immortal Souls.
When the first strike failed, thunder roared again. The golden giant retaliated with light that dimmed the heavens, yet cracks spiderwebbed across its form.
The third assault came as a hundred-foot pillar of annihilation. The colossus shattered explosively, but the ten soul patterns fused under pressure, their combined radiance repelling destruction.
Through fourth, fifth, sixth strikes – each more devastating – the reforged avatar held. Ten Immortal Souls merged seamlessly under tribulation’s hammer, nearing perfection.
This fusion marked Cheng Lingyu’s goal: a perfected Golden Body Avatar to catapult him from Soul Martial Sixth Realm to Soul Martial Seventh Realm Spirit Communication stage.
Blood waves churned as tribution energy alerted all nearby. Twenty-two blood lake challengers and hundreds of riverside cultivators gaped skyward, ignorant of the spectacle’s source.
Hu Yuer kept retreating, tribulation forces blasting her from Cheng Lingyu’s pillar. Lightning cocooned the stone column, encasing him in blazing light.
Mid-air, countless thunderbolts converged – heaven’s purge against forbidden existence.
Cheng Lingyu’s Soul Domain Avatar fractured and regenerated endlessly. Each collapse risked total annihilation, each rebirth honed his essence toward transcendent sharpness.