Heavenly Dao Nurturing, Fortune Blessing

My heart and my path were clear as a bright mirror.

This heart was like a sword, severing every calamity and obstruction!

This heart was like a mirror, capable of foretelling the sun and moon.

My path and my heart were both justice. I was loyal to my own justice; for my justice, I would bow low and exhaust myself, until death did me part.

I would advance toward my Dao. Unless I reached the summit, I would never rest.

"..."

Ling Xuanxiao shook out his robes and exhaled a breath of turbid air.

The wind around him swept toward him.

The sky seemed to have been shrouded by an immense black curtain, so heavy that it was almost suffocating.

Layer upon layer of dark clouds piled together like mountain peaks, pressing straight toward the heavens.

Dazzling flashes of lightning flickered within the thunderclouds from time to time, streaking across the dark firmament like silver serpents dancing wildly.

Every bolt seemed ready to rip this oppressive world apart. Amid deafening booms, rolling thunder churned and roared endlessly through the clouds.

The thunder grew louder and louder, like ten thousand horses charging, like mountains collapsing and earth splitting, echoing through the skies.

Who in this world did not struggle to cross the river? Even mortals could contend for immortality!

Ling Xuanxiao had prepared for everything and proceeded with utmost care, yet at the final juncture, he carried an air of open-minded resolve.

With one Golden Core swallowed into my belly, I finally knew my fate was not ruled by Heaven!!

"Boom—!!!"

At that instant, the first bolt of thunder plunged down first from the ink-black clouds.

Ling Xuanxiao's expression was grave. He did not dare let down his guard in the slightest as the vast magical power within him surged wildly like a raging river.

The first bolt had barely fallen when the second and third followed.

They descended almost simultaneously.

After the lightning tribulation, Ling Xuanxiao's eyes shone brilliantly.

He carefully sensed every strand of power within his body as it fiercely clashed and contended with the lightning tribulation that had just descended.

The sensation was both like surging waves crashing against reefs and blazing flames tempering steel.

After being baptized by this lightning tribulation, that feeling became even clearer.

He knew the three bolts of lightning were merely appetizers.

The true trial was coming.

Ling Xuanxiao formed hand seals with both hands and declared loudly:

"By my True Qi, I join with the creations of Heaven and Earth. Lord Thunder, aid me!!"

"..."

"Which fellow Daoist is undergoing tribulation here!!"

Someone called out loudly, but received no reply.

The cultivator who spoke had not expected an answer. He was merely curious.

Cultivators passing by stopped one after another, watching the scene in the distance.

Faced with such a lightning tribulation, naturally none dared approach.

Of course, there were occasionally some bold individuals harboring ulterior motives.

Such as Fanyue at this very moment.

Approaching the lightning tribulation did indeed shake Fanyue's soul.

But he soon realized that this was an opportunity.

The moment of tribulation was when a cultivator was at their weakest—it was the perfect opportunity for Soul Possession!!

Foundation Establishment breaking through to Golden Core.

This was... the lightning tribulation of a First-grade Golden Core?

Was this not a perfect vessel prepared specifically for him?

The fourth, fifth, and sixth lightning tribulations descended in succession.

Fanyue's eyes widened as he stared at the person undergoing tribulation in disbelief.

He was not astonished by this person's strength. To Fanyue,

there seemed to be no one in this world whom he could call powerful.

Much less a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

To Fanyue, Foundation Establishment and Golden Core were nothing more than the difference between smaller ants and larger ants.

It was merely that Fanyue had never seen anyone who, like this person, had tempered the foundation of his cultivation so flawlessly.

This body seemed not to have been cultivated by a mortal at all, but rather to be a peerless work of art born after countless masters had carefully carved and painstakingly trained it.

Fanyue smiled.

Heavenly Dao protection!!

This body was mine.

Heaven was helping me. At such a time of tribulation, he had not even called a protector to guard him.

If someone had been protecting him, Fanyue's current soul body truly would have had no way to act.

Overjoyed, Fanyue charged straight toward the person undergoing tribulation.

He silently recited an incantation, using the last of his strength.

He passed through layer upon layer of lightning tribulation, then plunged headfirst into a Soul-Exterminating Formation.

Fanyue sneered.

Not foolish, at least. He knew to set up a Soul-Exterminating Formation.

But unfortunately...

Mere grains of sand!

Fanyue destroyed the Soul-Exterminating Formation.

Then came the second layer, third layer, fourth layer, fifth layer...

Fanyue: (O_o)??

Was this right?

Even as formidable as Fanyue was, he could not withstand so many formations all at once.

Fanyue gritted his teeth. I refuse to believe you have more.

As it turned out, he really did.

Fanyue clenched his teeth, exhausted every means at his disposal, and finally broke through a full twelve layers of Soul-Exterminating Formations!

Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, raging True Fire greeted him.

The scorching flames instantly surrounded him. This was the True Fire from Shu Mountain's alchemy chamber.

Fanyue felt as though he had been cast into an enormous furnace.

He struggled desperately before finally breaking out of the furnace.

The surrounding temperature suddenly plummeted, and crystalline, exquisitely beautiful ice lotuses slowly bloomed one after another.

These ice lotuses radiated bone-piercing chill, shooting straight at Fanyue like countless icy arrows.

In an instant, he felt as though he had fallen into a bottomless ice cavern, chilled to the marrow.

Thus, Fanyue was one moment within a sea of fire, enduring the searing of True Fire.

The next, he was trapped in an ice cavern, suffering the bitter cold brought by the ice lotuses.

This torment of ice and fire was so unbearable that it made one wish for death over life.

Yet Fanyue still did not give up. There was only one conviction in his heart.

Love!!!

That was right, love.

Lin Wanqing's face appeared before his eyes.

The moments they had once shared surfaced, every little detail.

In this life, I still have not told you that I love you.

Fanyue let out a low roar.

At last, that figure appeared before him.

"Your body is mine."

Fanyue muttered an incantation and lunged straight at Ling Xuanxiao.

In the blink of an eye, the power of his soul surged into Ling Xuanxiao's body like a raging tide.

However, just as Fanyue successfully took possession and believed everything was within his grasp, a sudden change arose!

Almost at that same instant, he sensed something profoundly wrong.

"Not good!"

Fanyue cried out inwardly, but by then, it was already too late to escape.

Because that body tightly bound his soul within it.

No matter how Fanyue struggled or resisted, he could not break free from the confinement of this body.

At the same time, Fanyue discovered in horror that an enormous figure had appeared before him—an immortal golden manifestation of a Confucian Sage!

This manifestation radiated dazzling golden light from its entire body.

The brilliant golden rays were like countless sharp arrows, mercilessly shooting toward Fanyue's body.

Miserable screams rang out one after another. Under the assault of those golden rays, Fanyue's soul became riddled with holes, suffering unbearable agony.

He desperately tried to fend off the terrifying attack, but the disparity in their strength was too great. His efforts were pitifully powerless.

"..."

Ling Xuanxiao sensed that someone had invaded, but he did not know it was Fanyue.

He did not let it distract him. There had been no omissions in the measures he had arranged.

He only needed to face the lightning tribulation with all his focus.

Ling Xuanxiao shook out his robes.

A First-grade Golden Core, a Four-Nine Minor Heavenly Tribulation—each lightning tribulation possessed different power.

Yet it did not seem as strong as he had imagined.

Had he... succeeded?

Ling Xuanxiao sensed the power within his body.

Hm? Wait!

It seemed he had triggered a hidden variant.

What Ling Xuanxiao did not know was that, after he had thoroughly killed Fanyue just now,

karma had returned to him.

Heavenly Dao Nurturing, Fortune Blessing.

Thus, the generous Heavenly Dao decided to brew up something big for Ling Xuanxiao.