The heavenly tribulation's lightning crashed down.
The figure within the lightning met each bolt head-on, coughing up mouthfuls of blood. His body was blasted apart and healed again; much of his flesh was charred and torn to pieces.
He survived one deadly peril after another, walking the line between life and death without a moment's ease.
The sight changed the expressions of many Immortal Sect powerhouses, including Myriad Mechanisms, Divine Mechanism, Bone Forest, and Sun Slayer, Canghai, Siyan, and Lingfeng, who had awakened from their slumber.
If even Yuan's heavenly tribulation was like this, did they stand the slightest chance?
"There's no need for everyone to worry too much."
"A standard heavenly tribulation isn't like this."
Jiang Ding smiled and explained, "If Yuan only wanted to advance to Celestial, he could do it with ease. Not even a strand of his hair would be harmed. He has that ability."
"But his ambitions are greater."
"So he has to face dangers like these."
"That is an immense blessing."
"Consider how many prodigies beneath the endless stars possess extraordinary talent and opportunity. Even peerless talents who appear only once in tens of millions of years across clusters of great worlds spent their youth stumbling along a path choked with thorns and shrouded in mist. They had nothing so fortunate as a clear direction for transcending mortality."
"To have been born in the Immortal Sect is a stroke of luck we citizens all share."
"A blessing?"
Sun Slayer, Canghai, Siyan, and Lingfeng stared blankly at the azure-clad youth before them and noticed something else.
Ancient.
Profound.
The aura of time around this sixteen-year-old was terrifying. He seemed like—no, he was—an old monster who had lived through countless years.
Compared with an old monster who had experienced so much time, they, Dao Integration cultivators