The moment Chen Ming steadied himself, before he could investigate the depths of the cavern, alarm suddenly erupted in his heart!
A vast, boundless pressure descended from the heavens, as though an invisible giant hand had seized the entire island in its palm. The pressure was so intense that even the nascent soul within Chen Ming trembled, instinctively feeling a trace of fear, as though confronted by its natural predator.
He jerked his head up, his gaze piercing the cavern ceiling to look toward the sky.
Outside the cavern, the sky had gone completely dark without him noticing. The once-clear night sky was covered by a thick blanket of black clouds, dense as ink, rolling and surging in layer upon layer, as though a vast army were galloping through them. Flashes of lightning flickered within the clouds, accompanied by low rumbles like the roars of ancient beasts, shaking the heart.
Nascent soul tribulation lightning!
Chen Ming understood instantly. The path of immortal cultivation was, by its very nature, an act of defiance against heaven. When a cultivator broke through from the golden core stage to the nascent soul stage, they transformed from a "mortal" into a "transcendent" being. Such a transformation violated the laws governing heaven and earth and inevitably invited their punishment-tribulation lightning.
Surviving the tribulation meant leaping through the Dragon Gate like a carp, with boundless seas and skies opening ahead; failing meant being reduced to ash and smoke, without even a chance at reincarnation.
He had assumed that after his breakthrough to the nascent soul stage, some time would pass before the tribulation lightning arrived, giving him a chance to prepare. But he had clearly underestimated how swiftly heaven and earth would react-he had barely transformed his core into a nascent soul before the tribulation lightning took