The peaks towered high, and the mountain rocks shook.
The sky, seemingly cast from silver and iron, began to shatter, gradually giving way to dense lightning and tribulation clouds. Yet the Thunder City remained suspended high above, resonating with the manifestations of the tribulation pool and heavenly prison.
[Heaven-Commanding Tribulation] once again seized command of the heavens. Black and white thunder crossed and interlaced, like beams and pillars, like sharp rays and swords, enclosing the old Daoist at their center.
Xu Xuan had now put away his other spirit artifacts. With a sword in one hand and a seal raised in the other, he slowly sensed the changes in his divine ability. The qilin manifestation, long dormant within [Heaven-Commanding Tribulation], began to stir, as though something missing had been restored.
The [Universalizing Thunder Edict Seal] was a mid-grade spirit artifact of the altar thunder path, a spirit treasure of the Thunder Palace's Jade Origin mansion that had fallen from its former rank. Yet in his hands, its might suddenly surged.
Without prior agreement, both men struck again. Autumn-yellow metal qi seethed across the sky as Baoqiu deployed his golden brick. The three-legged golden toad upon it seemed to come alive, bearing ten thousand layers of hidden metal radiance as it pressed down.
Xu Xuan deployed the seal, drawing every strand of black and white thunder in the sky into it. The venerable Ink Qilin manifestation seemed to awaken, stirring billowing thunderfire. One foot stamped down to meet those ten thousand layers of hidden metal radiance.
Once again, he gripped his sword and slashed. A line of lightning shot skyward, cleaving through layer after layer of metal qi. The four characters, [Edict Thunder to Vanquish Evil], beneath the Thunder Seal suddenly shone, driving the power of his strike still higher.
Boom!