Thunder Gathers

He stared.

Until Third Lady vanished from sight.

Tu Shan Jun, blue-faced and fanged within the hall, rose into the air.

He lifted his head toward the starry sky.

A roar came from the starless, moonless depths.

It was the war drums of the desolate heavens, the gaze of heaven and earth.

Purple qi came from the east for three thousand li, spreading into rolling thunderclouds that covered the clear sky for ten thousand miles.

Like churning seas twisting into a vortex, inverted overhead.

For a moment, muddy waves surged into the sky. Turbid qi swept outward from the heart of the vortex, while clear qi rapidly rose and merged into the purple thunderclouds. Colliding arcs of lightning became flashing bolts, and all those countless visible and invisible spiritual mechanisms and crushing pressures locked onto the towering figure walking through the air at the same instant.

The space around him seemed to become a vacuum in an instant.

As though a heavenly prison had descended.

The inverted purple sea of lightning rippled across the sky.

Its blooming radiance submerged the entire painted barge in an ocean of purple wisteria.

The figure standing atop the great hall untied the gourd from his waist, drank deeply, and wiped the corner of his mouth. "A Venerable's lightning tribulation, just as I thought. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared yet."

As he spoke, he inspected his own mana. Not only had he been unprepared, Third Lady's cultivation had also exceeded his expectations.

That was how the affairs of the world were. Where could one find a foolproof plan?

Judging by the appearance of the lightning tribulation on the horizon—

It would not strike down anytime soon.

The figure atop the great hall stood motionless.

Yet the living beings on this painted-barge island were hardly so calm