Heavenly Punishment!

Li Yuan looked down in astonishment. Beneath his feet was a muddy trench; overhead, stray bullets rained down without cease.

He looked at the tattered military uniform on his body and suddenly came to a realization.

This was the battlefield from his previous life.

The brutal battle that had carved itself into his bones and ultimately claimed his life.

"Squad Leader, watch out!"

A familiar figure threw himself over Li Yuan, and a scorching shard of shrapnel grazed past his scalp, spraying a trail of blood.

"Liu Qiang!"

Looking at the mangled, blood-soaked body in his arms, Li Yuan's eyes nearly split with rage. This was the youngest soldier in the squad—only nineteen.

"Luo!"

A shrill cry came from the other side. Machine gunner Luo Ping's chest had been torn open by shrapnel, blood gushing out as his gaze began to lose focus.

"Requesting support! Requesting support!"

The old company commander's hoarse roar was swallowed by even fiercer artillery fire.

One familiar face after another fell before him. Despair gnawed at his heart. He wanted to rush over, yet his body felt as though it had been filled with lead, utterly unable to move.

He wanted to roar, but not a sound came from his throat. He could only stand there like an outsider, watching helplessly as bloody tears streamed from his eyes.

Just then, the smoke at the edge of the battlefield suddenly churned violently. A ferocious flood-dragon demon, with a single horn growing from its head, black-red scales covering its entire body, and a length of several dozen zhang, smashed through the smoke screen and charged onto the battlefield.

Its sickly yellow vertical pupils were cold and merciless. Clamped in its enormous jaws was a man.

That man's clothes were in tatters, his face smeared with blood. It was Li Chongwen!

He had not yet drawn his last breath. Struggling futilely in the black flood-dragon's mouth, he let out miserable wails and continuously begged Li Yuan.

"Yuan'er, save me!"

The black flood-dragon's scarlet tongue curled around Li Chongwen. Its mocking gaze fell upon Li Yuan, carrying a cold, vicious delight.

"Li Yuan, choose. Will you save these ants, or your biological father?"

With its words, the scene before his eyes froze. On one side was the battlefield where men fought drenched in blood—the bond of comrades carved into his soul, the responsibility to family and nation.

On the other was the biological father of this life—the man who had brought him endless harm, yet had also given this body life, the bond of filial duty and human relations.

"Choose!"

The black flood-dragon's roar exploded in his mind like thunder.

Without the slightest hesitation.

Li Yuan's crimson eyes fixed fiercely on Li Chongwen in the black flood-dragon's jaws, then swept over his comrades struggling amid the artillery fire. A tide of fury erupted from within him.

"I'll save my soldiers!"

He threw back his head and roared at the black flood-dragon.

The moment his words fell, it was as though he had touched some taboo. The blood-red sky abruptly darkened like ink, boundless thunderclouds gathering in a frenzy. Bolts of purple lightning as thick as water barrels tore through the heavens, radiating an aura capable of destroying heaven and earth.

Bearing the majestic might of Heaven, they struck mercilessly down at Li Yuan!

"Defying human relations,"

"An unfilial wretch,"

"You shall suffer—Heavenly Punishment!"

The vast, indifferent voice held not a trace of emotion, shaking Li Yuan's soul to the point of rupture.

"Rumble—!"

The first bolt of lightning struck Li Yuan viciously. His flesh split open at once, charred black all over. The pain that burrowed into his marrow forced a muffled groan from him.

"I..."

"Have..."

"What wrong?!"

Li Yuan suddenly raised his head and gritted his teeth as he roared at the apocalyptic thunderclouds above, his eyes filled with defiance.

"What is filial piety?"

"To give birth yet not raise, to discard one like a worn-out shoe—that is cruelty!"

"When cruelty comes first, how can one speak of human relations?"

"And they—"

His finger pointed at the figures still charging forward in the illusion. "They shed blood alongside me as comrades, defend the rivers and mountains at my back, and protect the common people!"

"This is great righteousness! Great love!"

"Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all things as straw dogs!"

"But do the laws of Heaven truly distinguish neither right nor wrong, merit nor fault, blindly following only those pitiful ties of blood?"

He roared his challenge at the heavens. "If that is so, then this Heavenly Dao can go to hell!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

More lightning descended like whips wielded in fury, lashing down madly. Li Yuan's body trembled within the lightning, shattering piece by piece.

Yet driven by an unyielding will, it painfully reassembled itself.

Every lightning strike seemed determined to grind even his soul into nothingness, but he kept his head raised high. The fire of defiance burned in his eyes as he glared fiercely at the heavens!

Inside the small courtyard.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged in his room, its doors and windows tightly shut.

A chaotic, violent aura leaked uncontrollably through the cracks in the door, causing the bamboo leaves in the courtyard to rustle despite the absence of wind.

At some point, Mister Mo had appeared in the courtyard. The wine gourd in his hand had been put away, his gray robe stirring without wind as he stared gravely at Li Yuan's door.

Liu Hongyan and Dean Su sat on stone stools, concern evident in their eyes as well.

"He's breaking through the Heart Inquiry stage," Liu Hongyan said softly. "And... judging by this disturbance, his heart-demon tribulation is likely far from ordinary."

Mister Mo said nothing. He merely raised his right hand and traced through the air with his index finger. Pale silver runes appeared out of nowhere, rapidly weaving into a net that completely enveloped the entire courtyard.

It also cut off all prying from outside. To the outside world, the small courtyard remained as peaceful as ever, as though nothing had happened.

"The Heart Inquiry trial questions one's true heart and pierces through falsehood. Outside help is useless; he can only rely on himself."

Mister Mo spoke slowly, his voice low. "Whether he sinks into his heart demon and loses all cultivation, or cuts through falsehood and sees his true nature, lies entirely within a single thought."

He could sense that Li Yuan's aura in the room rose and fell unpredictably, as though he were enduring unimaginable torment.

At times violent, at times sorrowful, at times lost, and at times erupting with an almost desperate fury.

Liu Hongyan sighed. She had seen quite a few students attempt to break through to the Heart Inquiry stage, but someone as violently turbulent as Li Yuan was absolutely unprecedented.

Was it because of his unprecedented talent, or because...

What had this child experienced at such a young age?

Time passed bit by bit. The moon climbed to its zenith, then gradually slanted westward.

Not only did the fluctuations in the room show no signs of calming, they became even more chaotic.

It was as though two forces within were tearing madly at each other.

The first pale light of dawn appeared in the eastern sky. Morning was approaching, and the darkest hour seemed about to pass.

The chaotic, violent aura in the room suddenly stalled!

Immediately afterward, a faint yet pure aura rose slowly like a fresh shoot breaking through the earth, steadily growing stronger.

Within the illusion, lightning formed a prison, and heavenly might stretched like a sea.

Li Yuan's figure shattered again and again amid the purple lightning, then painfully gathered itself together again and again.

His flesh was charred black, his soul trembling. Every lightning strike was like roasting his soul in an inferno, attempting to crush his will and force him to admit his wrongdoing.

"I—am—not—wrong—!"

The shattered body let out a faint roar amid the lightning, its voice growing weaker and weaker.

At last, beneath the final world-destroying bolt of lightning, his already battered body could no longer hold on. It exploded with a crash, becoming countless tiny motes of light that drifted through the void like dying embers in the wind.

Yet Li Yuan's consciousness did not completely dissipate. Instead, it sank into chaos.

It was as though only a wisp of remnant soul remained, liable to extinguish at any moment, drifting aimlessly through boundless darkness.

Cold. Lonely. Unable to sense time, unable even to sense his own existence.

Just as this wisp of remnant soul was about to return completely to nothingness, that vast and ancient voice sounded once more, questioning his soul.

"Forsaking blood ties for outsiders, resisting heavenly might, your soul scattered and spirit destroyed."

"Do you regret it?"