Really Going All Out

True Person Baixi narrowed his eyes at the lightning pool that was still pouring down silver tribulation bolts and remained silent.

The lightning pool within the tribulation clouds had visibly shrunk by a large margin compared to before. At this rate, this Silver Sky Tribulation—nothing but flash and no substance—would likely not last even the time it took to burn an incense stick.

From the very beginning, he had intended to use this conveniently encountered Golden Core tribulation to give the Immortal Seedlings behind him a proper introductory lesson in cultivation.

But how was he supposed to teach this lesson now?

This tribulation had been utterly unreasonable from the very start.

"True Person!"

At that moment, a clear child's voice rang out behind him.

It was the calmest young boy who had spoken.

"What is it?"

He turned slightly, his expression having softened considerably.

He had indeed begun to view this boy in a different light.

Under such a tribulation, all the other Immortal Seedlings remained pale as earth and trembled from head to toe. Yet this boy was completely unaffected. Looking at True Person Baixi, he asked softly and solemnly, "True Person, I know that Golden Core cultivators must face seven layers of lightning tribulation to advance to the Nascent Soul Realm. It seems even the sixth layer cannot do anything to this Golden Core cultivator. If he cannot hold on against the seventh layer, may onlookers lend him a hand and forge a good karmic bond?"

"I did not expect you to think of that."

True Person Baixi smiled faintly and shook his head. "It is naturally a good thing for cultivators to forge more good karmic bonds. But when it comes to Heavenly Tribulations descended by the Heavenly Dao laws, onlookers like us cannot interfere lightly. First, if other cultivators intervene, the tribulation lightning under the control of the Heavenly Dao laws may change. If that cultivator could originally have withstood the tribulation, but our interference instead increases its power and leaves him unable to withstand it, then that would not be a good karmic bond, but a great enmity between sects. Furthermore, if we become enemies with the Heavenly Dao laws at such a time, we will suffer even harsher backlash when we undergo tribulation in the future."

The boy said in surprise, "So it can actually be like that?"

True Person Baixi's smile faded, and his voice turned faintly cold. "The Heavenly Dao laws are supreme laws that stand above all other laws. No matter how powerful a cultivator is, he cannot deceive the heavens. Any cultivator who wishes to stop the Heavenly Dao laws from delivering punishment must pay a price for it."

After falling silent for a moment, the boy could not help asking, "Not even the strongest cultivators can do it?"

"That is not something we need to consider."

True Person Baixi gave the boy a deep look. "If there is no hope of ever seeing the end of the sky, then there is no need to waste effort wondering what lies beyond it. For cultivators like us, we can only regard the Heavenly Tribulations descended by the Heavenly Dao laws as harsh trials after harsh trials. At the very least, the trial itself treats every cultivator equally. At the very least, after passing such a trial, it is as though one has gained the acknowledgment of the Heavenly Dao laws, and for a long time afterward, they will not come looking for trouble with you for no reason."

The boy nodded.

There was no denying that everything True Person Baixi had said before was straightforward and useful, but he always felt that his words now contained a deeper meaning that he could not yet understand.

"If I remember correctly, your name is Li Youque?" True Person Baixi asked.

The boy replied, "Yes."

While the two spoke, the terrifying silver lightning pool within the tribulation clouds had already shrunk by more than half. At the bottom of the golden tribulation clouds blanketing the sky, multicolored radiance had begun to emerge, giving the impression of countless brilliantly colored butterflies glowing in the air.

True Person Baixi's brows furrowed deeply again without his realizing it.

No matter what kind of tribulation awaited Old Ancestor Tong Hui in this final layer, it would certainly be another unusual Exotic Thunder Tribulation.

In his memory, no normal tribulation lightning came in such dazzling colors.

"Junior Brother."

At that moment, Wang Li heard the female cultivator beside him, who had been squatting there like a mushroom, call out to him.

Wang Li immediately perked up. "What is it?"

"When the seventh layer comes down, if he does not die, and I tell you to take the Yin Thunder Umbrella, you should take it too," the female cultivator said with exceptional seriousness.

"With so many people watching, and Huayang Sect people surely among them, isn't that a little excessive?" Wang Li glanced around at the skies and felt a headache coming on.

"It's fine," the female cultivator said decisively. "I'll handle it."

Wang Li was uncertain. "Self-detonate Golden Core again?"

The female cultivator nodded. "Mm."

Wang Li: "..."

Old Ancestor Tong Hui's sixth lightning tribulation swiftly approached its end. The silver lightning pool, once so terrifying, had shrunk to only a few feet across, while the multicolored radiance at the bottom of the golden tribulation clouds grew brighter and brighter.

These multicolored lights did not reveal any intense Vital Energy fluctuations, but for some reason, even the distant tribulation watchers sensed an inexplicable aura of danger rippling through the air.

Old Ancestor Tong Hui also sensed that something was very wrong. Although the eight black mountains formed by his eight Black Shields remained intact, he hesitated for only a breath before producing another magic treasure shaped like a green wooden fish, just to be safe.

Whoosh!

As a great deal of True Essence poured into it, the green wooden-fish-shaped magic treasure suddenly sprouted at astonishing speed like a plant tuber, producing countless jade-like shoots. Then it transformed into thickening vines that grew madly upward into the sky.

In the blink of an eye, countless vines filled the gaps between the eight black mountains before surging toward the heavens above.

Buzzz... Buzzz... Buzzz...

At that moment, a heart-quailing hum suddenly arose within the tribulation clouds. The lightning pool, not yet completely gone, was bizarrely torn into pieces by a dreadful pressure.

From within the multicolored Huaguang at the bottom of the tribulation clouds, a mass of black light emerged first.

The mass of black light was more than ten zhang in diameter, yet amid that strange humming, two black bolts of lightning no thicker than arms descended from it at terrifying speed.

The two black lightning bolts gleamed with a grim, icy light, like two iron chains hanging down from the void.

As they fell at a horrifying speed, the lightning bolts spiraled around each other, twisting together while always maintaining a certain distance between them, never truly touching or colliding.

Boom!

Before Old Ancestor Tong Hui could react, the two black bolts had pulverized the sky-covering jade-like vines. Their terrifying power surged through the void like a tsunami, and then all eight black mountains were shattered.

The green wooden fish and eight Black Shields split apart directly, shooting in every direction like meteors!

Pfft!

Old Ancestor Tong Hui's body shook violently, and he spat out a jet of blood. His heart was filled with utter horror!

Uncontrollable cries of alarm and gasps rang out in the surrounding sky.

Even now, the horrifying might of those two black bolts only churned within several hundred zhang around Old Ancestor Tong Hui. The tribulation watchers around him had not even felt any violent Vital Energy fluctuations strike their sides.

The more this was the case, the more terrifying the tribulation lightning seemed to the watchers.

Every hair on Old Ancestor Tong Hui's body stood on end.

After the two black bolts shattered his two magic treasures, their remaining power struck the Yin Thunder Umbrella, blasting it until it crackled violently.

At the same time, several strange black talismans appeared on the Nascent Soul that had already formed within his body. His Nascent Soul struggled fiercely, but after resisting those black talismans for only an instant, it was already gravely injured by the shock.

Yet the tribulation gave him no time to catch his breath. Filthy lightning still burst chaotically across the Yin Thunder Umbrella, while the colors in the tribulation clouds above constantly shifted. Scarlet-red, purple, and jade-green tribulation lightning appeared one after another. Dozens of bolts of all three colors appeared in an instant, each as thick as an arm, hurtling toward him at astonishing speed.

"Ah... Ah... Ah..."

Amid his terrified screams, Old Ancestor Tong Hui completely opened the Treasure Pouch hidden in his sleeve. Whenever his divine sense swept over a magic treasure, he activated it immediately. At that moment, he had no time to consider what any treasure was for, nor did he have time to think about how much True Essence using them would consume. He knew only that if he did not do this, the tribulation lightning would blast him into flying ash in an instant.

Boom! Boom! Boom!...

Streams of radiance continuously collided with the descending tribulation lightning, and the void beneath the golden tribulation clouds shook like a tattered piece of cloth.

Old Ancestor Tong Hui activated more than thirty magic treasures in one breath, draining the True Essence in his body completely dry. The Nascent Soul in his sea of qi lost the support of continuing True Essence and immediately became listless and motionless. The black talismans corroded into its body like rot.

"I'll risk it all!"

Watching the magic treasures he had painstakingly accumulated shatter one after another, Old Ancestor Tong Hui no longer even felt heartache. He ignored the clashing medicinal auras and cared nothing for the grades of the spiritual medicines. As the spirit-stone formation he had prepared beneath him activated, he grabbed fistful after fistful of spiritual pills capable of rapidly restoring True Essence and stuffed them into his mouth, crunching them like beans before swallowing them.

"This..."

Wang Li felt as though his throat had tightened just watching. He could not help swallowing several times before saying with a bitter smile, "He really is going all out."

The scarlet-red, purple, and jade-green tribulation lightning continued to fall without pause. At the same time, an eye-catching mass of deep blue appeared at the center of the golden tribulation clouds. Tribulation lightning of this color was exceedingly rare, and the rarer it was, the stranger it felt.

Whoosh...

A hurricane suddenly swept through the golden tribulation clouds.

Around that deep-blue mass, the golden tribulation clouds were driven by the hurricane and continuously piled up, actually forming a golden ring around it.

That deep-blue mass had initially appeared to be merely a clump of radiance, but after the golden tribulation clouds spread apart, everyone saw in astonishment that it was an exceptionally pure mass of tribulation lightning.

The tribulation lightning was an oval sphere of lightning, pure and transparent throughout like a ball of deep-blue glass. Yet on closer inspection, layers of crystalline lightning force flowed across its surface.

The lightning sphere seemed to have fully taken shape, yet it did not immediately descend. Instead, it hovered silently in the air like an utterly indifferent blue eye, waiting for the most suitable moment.

However, waves of terrifying Vital Energy fluctuations had already begun spreading continuously, even making all the tribulation watchers feel as if they were suffocating.

"Ah!"

Old Ancestor Tong Hui let out another violent roar. Only he truly knew how terrifying this deep-blue tribulation lightning was.

Before the deep-blue tribulation lightning had truly begun to fall, a deep-blue nail had already appeared above the head of the Nascent Soul within his sea of qi, which was already on the verge of collapse and wrapped in dreadful black talismans.

The deep-blue nail pressed against the Nascent Soul's crown, as though it intended to nail straight through it.

He was now truly besieged from within and without.

His Nascent Soul was already near the brink of complete collapse, while his physical body suffered grave wounds under the battering of Vital Energy and the tearing force of medicinal power. Not only did cracks appear across his skin, but even the bones within his body began to break.

Yet at this point, Old Ancestor Tong Hui, who had kept a low profile and endured patiently for centuries, was instead truly provoked into savagery.

I have been preparing to undergo this tribulation ever since I formed my Golden Core. Because I knew my talent was lacking and Huayang Sect's foundations were insufficient, I used every possible method to drag it out for two hundred years!

I finally obtained a magic treasure like the Yin Thunder Umbrella and more or less gathered enough magic treasures and artifacts to deal with seven layers of lightning tribulation, yet you gave me an Exotic Thunder Tribulation right from the start!

The moment I saw the Exotic Thunder Tribulation, I thought I was surely doomed, yet you gave me an exceptionally easy Foundation Establishment Realm tribulation and gave me a little hope. Then, in the final layer, you give me an Exotic Thunder Tribulation like this!

Are you toying with me?!

Is that any way to toy with someone?!

Boom!

Exceptionally vivid blood qi surged from every crack in Old Ancestor Tong Hui's body. The streams of blood qi shot straight into the heavens and gathered into an abnormally dazzling rainbow glow, like a blood-red rising sun, smashing directly toward that deep-blue lightning sphere.