Heavenly Tribulation

Qian Qizhou was about to speak when, suddenly, the entire space shuddered violently and unnaturally.

It was as if an unimaginable force was pounding against this space from outside.

"Let's go take a look!" Qian Qizhou said decisively.

The three of them instantly transformed into streaks of light and flew without hesitation toward the spatial doorway.

Almost the moment they left the space, a boundless, terrifying pressure descended from the sky, making their breath catch.

They looked up and saw that the clear sky had been completely covered by endless, churning dark clouds.

What made their hearts tremble was that countless dazzling golden bolts of lightning, brimming with the aura of destruction, were gathering wildly within the roiling clouds.

Just then, several figures landed near the three of them. They were Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong, who had hurried over after sensing Qian Qizhou's return.

"Xiao Zhou, what's going on?" Ning Fengzhi asked urgently, too concerned to ask who the unfamiliar woman beside him was.

Chen Xin and Gu Rong also looked extremely solemn as they warily watched the terrifying sea of lightning gathering in the sky.

The pressure radiating from it was beyond anything human strength could withstand.

Qian Qizhou was just as bewildered. He stared at the sky and instinctively shook his head. "I don't know. I just came out and..."

Before he could finish, Snow Empress slowly lowered her gaze.

Her expression darkened as she said, "This is my Heavenly Tribulation."

Ning Fengzhi: "..."

Chen Xin: "..."

Gu Rong: "..."

Qian Qizhou: "!!!"

Guang Ling: "!!!"

Ning Fengzhi and the others froze in place, their pupils constricting as they stared at Snow Empress in disbelief, even wondering if they had heard her wrong.

Her... Heavenly Tribulation?

Did humans even have Heavenly Tribulations???

Snow Empress paid no heed to their shock.

She looked up at the tribulation clouds, which nearly covered the entire horizon and were growing ever more violent. It would have been a lie to say she wasn't afraid.

She had no confidence she could survive it. Trusting Qian Qizhou was a gamble, too...

If she won, she would await the next hundred thousand years. If she lost... she would vanish without a trace.

She moved, turning into a streak of light that shot toward a remote, uninhabited place.

She had to draw the center of the Heavenly Tribulation away. Its power far exceeded her expectations, and its reach was enormous.

If she underwent the tribulation here, the surrounding area would likely be flattened, and countless lives would be caught in the disaster.

"Sister Snow!" Seeing her take off, Qian Qizhou immediately understood what she intended.

He turned to Ning Fengzhi and the others, who were still stunned. "Sect Master Ning, get the sect disciples away from here immediately—the farther, the better! Don't come anywhere near!"

As soon as he finished speaking, lightning surged around Qian Qizhou, and he chased after Snow Empress.

"Xiao Zhou! It's dangerous! Come back!" Guang Ling shouted in alarm as he came to his senses.

The might of that Heavenly Tribulation terrified his very soul, even from a distance. How could a Soul Ancestor like him possibly get close?

Ning Fengzhi's face had gone deathly pale. He glanced at the terrifying golden sea of lightning in the sky, then gritted his teeth and made a decisive call. "Uncle Sword, Uncle Bone, hurry! Organize everyone's evacuation!"

The sect could be rebuilt if it was lost, but the dead could never come back to life.

At last, Qian Qizhou caught up with Snow Empress in a remote region of towering, overlapping mountains.

The moment they stopped, the churning golden sea of lightning above them seemed to have found its ultimate target. Its rumbling suddenly grew louder, and the terrifying pressure threatened to crush the entire mountain range.

For the first time, an unprecedentedly grave expression appeared on Snow Empress's exquisite face.

She gazed up at the golden lightning, poised to strike, then suddenly turned to Qian Qizhou, who had followed her there. "I'll be counting on you in a moment."

Before Qian Qizhou could answer, she added, "If... we don't succeed, don't push yourself."

After spending these past few days with him, she could tell that this child was unlike other humans. His gentle, kind heart was something no outward appearance could hide.

His talent was exceptional, but he was still only a child.

She had lived long enough. If Qian Qizhou couldn't do it, she still hoped he would live well and find his own future.

At her words, Qian Qizhou's heart sank.

He gripped Engulfing Lightning tightly, his gaze growing utterly resolute. "Sister Snow, you'll succeed. I won't fail!"

Looking at Snow Empress's solemn yet still composed profile, he felt an indescribable emotion well up inside him.

Hearing his answer, Snow Empress said nothing more. She only nodded slightly before focusing her entire mind on the sky again.

The chill around her began to bloom without restraint, as she prepared to face the baptism that held both destruction and rebirth.

An immense, ultimate cold erupted from within her.

Her aura surged at an unprecedented rate, and countless glittering ice crystals formed in the air.

The surging force drove Qian Qizhou back again and again, his eyes filled with shock.

If he wasn't mistaken, Snow Empress was breaking through. Was she about to cross the seven-hundred-thousand-year mark?

The process didn't last very long, but to those watching, it seemed to stretch on endlessly.

At last, the light around Snow Empress suddenly drew inward, but the pressure she exuded rose to an entirely new level.

She had officially crossed the threshold of seven hundred thousand years of cultivation.

Almost the moment she finished breaking through—

"Rumble!!!"

The clouds in the sky grew denser, and endless lightning gathered from every direction at an inconceivable speed.

If what had come before was a little appetizer, this was the main course.

The Heavenly Tribulation was about to begin.

With a deafening crash, an enormous bolt of golden lightning tore through the clouds and slammed down at Snow Empress.

A cold glint flashed in Snow Empress's eyes. She raised her jade-like hand, and her immense Soul Power formed a thick barrier of ice that surged up to meet it.

"Boom!"

The heavenly lightning struck the ice wall, erupting in a violent roar and a blinding flash.

The barrier trembled violently, cracks spreading across its surface, but it had successfully blocked the first strike.

But this was only the beginning. With Snow Empress's seven-hundred-thousand-year cultivation, she had to endure a full seventy bolts of tribulation lightning.

The tribulation clouds churned. The second, third, fourth... golden bolts of lightning crashed down one after another without pause.

At the same time, each strike grew more powerful than the last, growing stronger and stronger.

The chill around Snow Empress continued to rise as she carefully resisted the incoming Heavenly Tribulation.

The tenth... the twentieth... the thirtieth...

Qian Qizhou watched in suspense. Although the tribulation couldn't reach him, as it continued, Snow Empress remained powerful, but she was no longer fending it off as easily as she had at first.

He had already tried. He couldn't make the Heavenly Tribulation miss; otherwise, it would be deemed invalid and start over.

Snow Empress had to withstand as much of it as she could on her own first. He couldn't possibly take all seventy strikes himself, not with his Soul Power Level where it was.

The fortieth bolt! Its power far surpassed that of the first, its color so deep it was nearly dark gold, and it carried the terrifying force of shattering the void.

Snow Empress formed a hand seal, and a colossal Ice Lotus blossomed in an instant. Its petals spun and layered over one another, protecting her at the center.

"Boom—!!!"

Snow Empress still managed to withstand the strike, but her face had grown visibly pale, and her aura had weakened noticeably.

As time passed, she found it harder and harder to resist. Yet only forty strikes had fallen; thirty remained, each more terrifying than the last...

Snow Empress took a deep breath, suppressed the churning Soul Power within her, and a note of resolve flashed in her eyes.