An Ominous Heavenly Tribulation

Xu Changqing knelt on one knee amid a pile of wrecked metal. Countless corpses lay beneath his feet, blood flowing like a river. The stench of blood filled the air, and chunks of flesh were scattered everywhere.

"Rumble!"

A terrifying Heavenly Tribulation descended. It was a crimson bolt of lightning, and with just one strike, it blasted him from the mountain of corpses. While airborne, half his body was torn apart.

But he quickly recovered. He even took out a bottle of blue liquid and drained it in one gulp.

This was Evolution Liquid he had found among the destroyed aristocratic families. There was plenty of it.

It was specifically meant to help Saints evolve by a level, but for him, it could only heal some injuries and restore part of his condition.

After wiping out countless families, he had obtained many good things: all kinds of crystals difficult to find in the universe, some Immortal Gold, and countless cultivation techniques.

"Demon, even the heavens despise you!"

"You slaughtered hundreds of millions in our Eternal Kingdom! You deserve to die!!!"

"From now on, whenever we see anyone from beyond this domain, seize them and torture them to death!"

In the distance, two voices filled with extreme rage shook the Eternal Kingdom. A gold Mecha and a blue Mecha stood billions of miles away, roaring helplessly.

They did not dare approach Xu Changqing, fearing that the terrifying Heavenly Tribulation would turn on them. The only thing they could do was interfere with Xu Changqing's state of mind.

Xu Changqing paid no attention to the impotent rage of those two monkeys. He simply continued enduring the tribulation and healing himself.

"My granddaughter was about to be born, yet you killed them all! Are you even human?..." An aged, choking cry came from within the blue Mecha, accompanied by boundless hatred.

"What was the point of this? What good did killing all those people do you?!" the golden Mecha roared in furious interrogation.

Yet their furious shouts received no answer, which only made them feel worse.

"If your family, your descendants, everyone around you, everything you had, suffered what our families suffered at your hands today, what would you do? How would you feel?!!"

Upon hearing this, Xu Changqing, who was enduring the tribulation, revealed a faint sneer. His cold eyes were like the depths of the underworld, freezing to the extreme. He did not answer and merely watched the Heavenly Tribulation indifferently.

How would he feel?

What could he feel? Perhaps nothing but endless calm.

Because there was no one by his side.

Even if there were, what did their lives or deaths have to do with him?

Even if someone killed his son and his wife right in front of him, his brow would not furrow, nor would his expression change. He would only watch quietly.

Did they think he was still his former self?

After that, no matter how the two Saint Kings tried to provoke Xu Changqing with words, it was useless. He could not even be bothered to acknowledge them.

The Saint's Lightning Tribulation became increasingly terrifying. The place where Xu Changqing had been standing vanished, and that continent had already left the Eternal Star Domain.

With no other choice, he rose to his feet and leaped into the Starry Sky. With all his strength unleashed, he withstood the Saint's Lightning Tribulation and fled into the Starry Sky.

Seeing this, the two Saint Kings thought Xu Changqing's tribulation was ending and that he was about to flee, so they naturally followed after him.

Within the dark, frigid universe, a figure tore through space at high speed, ripping open the void as he carried blazing lightning away from the Eternal Star Domain.

The Lightning Tribulation grew stronger and stronger. A black bolt as enormous as a pillar supporting the heavens descended and swallowed Xu Changqing whole. In an instant, his skin split and flesh tore as blood sprayed outward.

Xu Changqing was already weak and exhausted after the great battle. Fortunately, while slaughtering countless living beings, he had never forgotten to search for things useful to himself.

For instance, he had found three Primordial Fate Stones in the Fan Family. Once absorbed into the body, such stones could restore roughly seventy percent of his injuries.

Every great family possessed Primordial Fate Stones, because they were the primary materials for crafting Strongest Treasure Liquid and Strongest Evolution Liquid.

He also had all kinds of healing materials, enough to see him through this Heavenly Tribulation.

Xu Changqing traveled far from the Eternal Star Domain, charging fearlessly into the Starry Sky with a towering Lightning Tribulation in tow. In the end, he endured the tribulation in a silent region of the universe.

This Heavenly Tribulation did not produce humanoid tribulations. Instead, it seemed much like an ordinary one—merely several bolts of lightning.

Yet those few bolts nearly caused Xu Changqing to perish.

Even with all his strength resisting, he found it difficult to withstand a single black Heavenly Tribulation. The black tribulation shattered his physical body and broke apart his Nascent Soul, leaving his entire being hovering on the verge of annihilation.

There were also bolts like Immortal Light. Whenever they descended, Xu Changqing could not help but howl in agony. This was the first time he had experienced such excruciating pain.

Every heavenly bolt was far, far stronger than a Saint. Even Xu Changqing struggled to resist them.

The two Saint Kings who had pursued him swallowed hard upon seeing those three lightning bolts, then burst into delighted laughter. "Hahaha, good, wonderful! This great tribulation is even more terrifying than the one we faced when we became Saint Kings."

"How could a mere Saint possibly survive a tribulation that even Saint Kings find difficult to overcome?"

"Boom!"

A massive golden pillar descended from the heavens. It was Heavenly Tribulation that had nearly solidified into substance. Dense patterns coiled around the enormous pillar, along with carvings of soaring dragons and phoenixes.

The enormous golden pillar of lightning directly enveloped Xu Changqing.

This was only the fourth bolt of lightning, yet it had already left Xu Changqing in unbearable misery.

It was as though someone had seized his limbs and spread him out as he soaked in the golden Lightning Tribulation. His face twisted viciously, his back burst open, exposing charred muscle tissue.

His physical body kept swelling like a balloon as the golden pillar filled him through his pores. Tiny golden particles circled his body and occasionally burrowed into his seven orifices.

Boom!

Xu Changqing's physical body could no longer hold on and exploded outright. Countless chunks of flesh and stark white bones scattered in every direction.

One had to know that his physical body was incomparably terrifying. One punch could crack a Saint Knight, and he could catch a Saint Weapon barehanded without leaving a mark.

Yet the energy of the Heavenly Tribulation had swollen him until he burst.

Even so, relying on his formidable strength, he restored his body once more. He took out Divine Medicine, various Evolution Liquids, healing liquid, and Primordial Fate Stones from his Sea of Bitterness, then consumed them all in one go.

Golden lightning began pouring out through the pores of his physical body. Multicolored radiance steamed from his entire body, while a rich fragrance continuously spread through the void.

The two Saint Kings gnashed their teeth at this sight, consumed by jealousy and fury. "Those are things useful even to Saint Kings, and he drank them all in one gulp?!!"

After a while, Xu Changqing returned to his peak condition, only to face the fifth special bolt of lightning.

It was a dark crimson, blood-colored bolt, more terrifying and larger than the previous ones. Its mere presence made the Starry Sky tremble violently.

Boom!

When the blood-colored lightning descended, even Xu Changqing at his peak found it difficult to withstand that incomparably terrifying Lightning Tribulation.

Moreover, his physical body began displaying a strange condition. The pain was unbearable, as though something were about to burst out from within him.

"Pfft!"

Suddenly, Xu Changqing felt an intense pain in his chest, as though something had broken through the earth.

He lowered his head, his pupils contracting, and discovered dense red hair growing from his scar-covered chest.

An ominous phenomenon had appeared on him!

He abruptly raised his head and saw a pitch-black rift at the point where the Heavenly Tribulation descended. It was covered in dense red hair, and within it hung a drop of dazzling black blood.

But when Xu Changqing blinked, he discovered that everything he had just seen had been nothing more than an illusion!

It could not have been an illusion.

Xu Changqing was certain that what he had just seen was real.

This tribulation lasted a long time, continuing for two days. During that time, Xu Changqing's entire body became covered in red hair.

He resembled a bizarre creature. Though the hair looked beautiful, it gleamed with the luster unique to metal. Every strand was incredibly hard, like fine needles.

After the blood-colored tribulation passed, a gray Heavenly Tribulation appeared.

This time, its intensity was equal to that of the blood-colored tribulation.

His body began to rot. With every breath and every expansion and contraction of his pores, dense gray matter seeped out.

Even his divine sense began to blur. His consciousness was wracked with agonizing pain, and his Nascent Soul seemed as though it were about to leave his flesh.

"Hmm..." The intense pain and sensation of death made Xu Changqing let out a muffled groan.

The two Saint Kings watched Xu Changqing's condition from across an entire star domain and could not help but feel their scalps tingle. Yet they laughed even louder.

"Hahaha, serves you right! This is heaven's punishment!"

"This is the Demon Extermination Tribulation, a great tribulation specifically meant to kill Outer Domain Heavenly Demons!"

Still, they were also greatly puzzled. What kind of Heavenly Tribulation was this? Why had they never seen it before?

Over the following period, although the great tribulation remained at that level of intensity and Xu Changqing gradually adapted, all kinds of conditions continued appearing in his physical body.

When he had bathed the Eternal Star Domain in blood, his Saint's Lightning Tribulation had merely been an appetizer. Only now had the main tribulation truly begun.

For an entire month, Nine Layers of Heavenly Tribulation descended in succession.

Every kind of Heavenly Tribulation carried an extraordinarily dense aura of ominousness.

Simply becoming a Saint required him to endure tribulation for a month, leaving the two Saint Kings numb with disbelief. Yet he still had not died and continued resisting tenaciously.

At that moment, Xu Changqing felt as though he were chicken in a pot, slowly stewed over a low flame. His body went from tough, to cooked through, and finally to falling apart.