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Soon, the forty-first Heavenly Tribulation bolt came crashing down!

This bolt was darker than the ones before it, tinged with a faint crimson glow. Its power had clearly climbed to a whole new level.

Snow Empress dared not take it lightly. She formed a seal with both hands and conjured several enormous ice shields.

"Boom! Crack—!"

The Heavenly Tribulation smashed through seven shields in succession, only exhausting its energy against the eighth.

Ice shards flew everywhere, and Snow Empress swayed slightly.

But then the forty-second, forty-third, forty-fourth bolts... The Heavenly Tribulation seemed endless.

By then, even Snow Empress's three greatest techniques had been unleashed without restraint.

Still, the vast, ocean-like aura surrounding her visibly weakened.

The cost of resisting the Heavenly Tribulation was immense, especially against such a terrifying tribulation whose power increased with every strike.

Her Soul Power was rapidly draining, and her mind was under tremendous strain.

The lightning faded, and a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of Snow Empress's mouth.

Her aura had grown faint, and her body trembled slightly. She had paid a heavy price to withstand that blow.

But the fifty-first bolt came without pause, following close on the heels of the fiftieth.

Snow Empress had only just managed to dispel the residual tribulation lightning inside her. Her aura had yet to settle, and her Soul Power was nearly spent.

She lifted her head and watched the lightning rapidly swell in her pupils. A profound sense of helplessness welled up inside her.

The world around her seemed to slow in an instant as countless fragments of memory flashed through her mind.

Was this where it all ended...

The light faded from her ice-blue eyes. She no longer had the strength to mount an effective defense.

But in that moment of despair—

"Sister Snow!"

A purple figure appeared above Snow Empress without the slightest fear, facing the world-shattering tribulation bolt head-on!

It was Qian Qizhou!

He was in Martial Soul Possession, his four Soul Rings flashing wildly around him. Engulfing Lightning in his hand erupted with dazzling purple lightning.

"Break!!!"

As the word left his lips, he slashed upward against the terrifying tribulation bolt!

"BOOM—!!!!!"

A deafening explosion rang out as the blade's light collided violently with the Heavenly Tribulation, taking the fatal blow meant for Snow Empress below.

Snow Empress stared blankly at the figure in the sky.

He had actually managed to block it...

But before she could recover from the shock, Qian Qizhou above her suddenly took a deep breath. The purple lightning that had merely coiled around him surged and boiled over!

Countless violent bolts of purple lightning spun and converged around him. In an instant, they formed an enormous vortex that seemed to link heaven and earth.

At that very moment, the Heavenly Tribulation seemed to be enraged by Qian Qizhou's actions, turning even more ferocious.

The fifty-second, fifty-third, and fifty-fourth bolts... Several astonishingly powerful streaks of lightning tore through the clouds one after another.

But this time, the destructive bolts failed to strike their target directly.

As if drawn by some force, they plunged headlong into the enormous purple vortex.

"Rumble—!"

Deafening thunder exploded within the vortex. The moment the terrifying power of the Heavenly Tribulation entered it, Qian Qizhou refined it into energy.

More astonishing still, the pure lightning power poured into Qian Qizhou's body without end, like countless rivers flowing into the sea.

His body shook violently, and his aura surged at an unbelievable rate.

But he had forgotten that he was only a Soul Ancestor. Each bolt contained an immense amount of energy—enough to leave even Snow Empress powerless.

In the end, through his command over lightning and the powerful vitality granted by the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone, Qian Qizhou endured seventy tribulation bolts through sheer force of will.

"Pfft—!"

Qian Qizhou suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, and his aura instantly crumpled to its weakest point.

Cracks appeared across his skin. Like a porcelain figure on the verge of shattering, he fell from the sky.

With an unimaginable show of will—and at an unimaginable cost—he had endured the final tribulation.

Though his body was on the verge of collapse, he had firmly seized that slender chance of survival for Sister Snow.

The promise he had made... would never go unfulfilled...

As the Heavenly Tribulation slowly faded, the dense clouds above rapidly dispersed and crumbled away before their eyes.

Moments later, the dark clouds were gone. A pillar of pure golden light, brimming with boundless vitality and the laws of heaven and earth, precisely enveloped Snow Empress below, who was battered and barely breathing.

This was heaven and earth's gift to one who had successfully passed through the tribulation.

As the golden light entered her body, the burn marks left by the Heavenly Tribulation began to heal at an astonishing pace, and her nearly depleted essence was replenished.

Her aura climbed steadily, finally stabilizing at seven hundred thousand years.

By human standards, she had reached level 99.

Snow Empress slowly opened her eyes and immediately looked toward Qian Qizhou, who lay bloodied on the ground nearby.

She froze for a moment, then appeared at his side and carefully lifted him up.

Looking at Qian Qizhou's wretched state, worry was written across her exquisite face. "Xiao Zhou! How are you?"

Snow Empress was just about to use her Soul Power to examine his injuries—

"BOOM!!!"

A violent force of lightning suddenly erupted from inside Qian Qizhou!

"Bang!"

Caught off guard, Snow Empress was blasted away by the terrifying force. She slammed into a charred mountainside in the distance, and cracks instantly spread across the hard rock.

She grunted. A look of shock crossed her face as she stared in disbelief at the youth wreathed in terrifying lightning.

The truth was, Qian Qizhou was nowhere near strong enough to absorb so much power.

He had only endured it through sheer force of will, sealing all the energy inside his body so he could survive the Heavenly Tribulation.

But now he was unconscious. With no one to suppress it, the power sealed within him naturally erupted.

Seeing Qian Qizhou twitching in agony as his aura grew weaker by the second, Snow Empress was frantic with worry. She forced down the Soul Power roiling inside her and tried to approach him again.

She gently raised her hand, carefully guiding her vast, pure Soul Power toward Qian Qizhou, hoping to suppress his rampaging Soul Power.

But the next moment, a powerful backlash surged along the connection between their Soul Power.

Snow Empress had no choice but to sever the flow of Soul Power and was driven back once more.

At the same time, a numb, burning pain came from her fingertips.

With her cultivation of seven hundred thousand years, she couldn't even get close?

"Xiao Zhou..."

Qian Qizhou had ended up like this to help her. Was she really going to be forced to watch his life fade away, powerless to do anything...?