Cleaving the Lightning Tribulation

Qin Chen thrust out both fists, dark-gold true qi compressing furiously around his knuckles until it became two dazzling golden suns.

He used no flashy techniques. Relying solely on his physical strength and immensely powerful true qi, he met the two bolts of Crimson Blood Baleful Thunder head-on!

"BOOM!!!"

All sound seemed to vanish from the world, leaving only a blinding expanse of white light.

Then a visible, ring-shaped shock wave swept outward in every direction from the point of collision.

The peaks on either side of the canyon crumbled instantly before the shock wave as though made of paper. Countless boulders tumbled down, only to be ground to dust in midair by the violent aftershocks of lightning.

"He stopped them! Third Brother stopped them!" Qin Yu shouted excitedly, his entire body trembling with agitation.

There in midair, Qin Chen stood like an undefeated god of war, his fists braced firmly against the heads of the two blood-colored lightning dragons.

Violent scarlet lightning tore madly at his body, instantly reducing his moon-white robe to ashes and revealing his powerful, sharply defined physique, as though cast from bronze.

The destructive power of the Crimson Blood Baleful Thunder was terrifying. Fine bloody cuts began appearing across Qin Chen's skin, but the blood evaporated in the heat the moment it seeped out.

Yet the light in his eyes only grew more brilliant.

"Devour it!"

Qin Chen roared, circulating his cultivation technique furiously as he forcibly drew the astonishingly destructive Crimson Blood Baleful Thunder into his body.

The lightning entering his body felt like ten thousand blades piercing his heart. Yet Qin Chen gritted his teeth and endured it, guiding the savage energy to scour his bones, meridians, and internal organs over and over.

Under his inward gaze, his once white-jade-like bones gradually took on a dark-gold sheen as the Crimson Blood Baleful Thunder tempered them. From deep within his marrow erupted a terrifying power of blood and vitality, surging like mighty rivers.

Once again, Qin Chen withstood the second and third tribulation bolts with his flesh alone, turning them into nourishment to temper his body!

However, the will of heaven and earth seemed thoroughly enraged by Qin Chen's repeated provocations.

"Rumble..."

The tribulation clouds spanning fifty li in the sky suddenly stopped churning. All lightning and storms froze eerily at that moment.

A hair-raising deathly stillness enveloped the entire Black Wind Grand Canyon.

"What... what's happening? Is the lightning tribulation over?" Qin Zheng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and asked uncertainly.

"No..." Feng Yuzi's voice was hoarser than ever before. He stared fixedly at the sky, his eyes filled with despair. "This is the last calm before the storm. The heavenly tribulation... is merging!"

Under everyone's horrified gazes, the enormous tribulation clouds covering fifty li began contracting toward their center at a terrifying speed.

Fifty li... thirty li... ten li... one li!

In just a few breaths, those immense tribulation clouds compressed into a pitch-black thundercloud only a hundred zhang across.

Yet the aura of destruction within that hundred-zhang thundercloud was ten, a hundred times stronger than before!

Deep within the thundercloud, the lightning was no longer purple or red, but black-so profoundly dark that it seemed capable of swallowing all light.

"Nine Heavens Annihilation Black Thunder..." Mu Qing's legs buckled, and he nearly fell to the ground. His face filled with bitterness as he looked toward Qin Chen in the distance. "Chen... how could he possibly withstand that?"

Qin Feng and Qin Zheng felt as though they had plunged into an ice pit, their bodies cold all over.

Qin Yu bit his lip so hard that blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

He hated his own weakness, hated that he could only stand here and watch helplessly as his third brother faced such desperate straits alone.

Third Brother... you have to survive... Qin Yu prayed frantically in his heart.

In midair, Qin Chen's expression finally grew grave as well.

He could sense that the aura locking onto him from within that black thundercloud had completely surpassed the bounds of the Golden Core stage, reaching an utterly terrifying level.

"It looks like my body alone won't withstand this final blow."

Qin Chen drew a deep breath, a glint of resolve flashing through his eyes.

He turned his wrist, and amid a flicker of light, an unadorned, ancient-looking longsword, pitch-black from end to end, appeared in his hand.

This sword was one of the strongest trump cards he had obtained through system cashback over the past three years-the supreme-grade spirit artifact, the Abyssal Shadow Sword!

"Humm..."

As Qin Chen poured his dark-gold true qi, which had already transformed to its utmost limit, into the blade, the Abyssal Shadow Sword rang out clearly. Visible ripples actually appeared in the space around it.

"Come on! The final blow!"

Gripping the sword with both hands, Qin Chen raised it high above his head. The power of his blood and vitality fused perfectly with his true qi at that moment, and he seemed to become a peerless divine sword poised to pierce the heavens.

"BOOM!!!"

The heavens raged. The hundred-zhang black thundercloud abruptly burst apart, and a bolt of black lightning, only as thick as an arm yet pure to the utmost, struck down without a sound.

There was no deafening thunder, no violent hurricane.

Wherever the black lightning passed, space itself seemed silently annihilated, leaving behind a pitch-black fissure in the void.

"Cleave!"

Qin Chen's eyes opened wide as an earth-shaking roar erupted from his mouth.

Mustering every ounce of strength in his body, he unleashed the supreme sword strike he had practiced day and night for three years, long since honing it to perfection!

"Heaven-Breaking Sword Art-One Sword Shatters the Stars!"

A dark-gold sword radiance a hundred zhang long surged skyward, carrying a fierce, indomitable momentum that proclaimed itself invincible, and slammed into the black annihilation lightning.

"Hiss..."

There was no earth-shaking explosion, only a teeth-grating sound of cutting.

The dark-gold sword radiance and black lightning frantically eroded and annihilated each other in midair.

Qin Chen's body trembled violently in the air. The webs between his thumbs and forefingers had split completely, and blood stained the sword's hilt. Though the sword radiance held back the black lightning, the destructive aura within it still surged madly along the blade into his body, ravaging his vitality without restraint.

"Break... for me!!!"

Qin Chen threw back his head and roared. Without hesitation, he bit through the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the Abyssal Shadow Sword.

"Humm!"

The Abyssal Shadow Sword blazed with light. The dark-gold sword radiance instantly doubled in size, forcibly cleaving the black annihilation lightning down the middle!

The remaining black lightning struck Qin Chen, smashing him like a meteor deep into the ground below.

"BOOM!"

The earth shook violently. An enormous crater dozens of zhang deep appeared at the bottom of the canyon, and billowing dust shot into the sky, obscuring everything from view.

"Third Brother!!!"

Qin Yu let out a heart-rending cry. No longer caring about any danger, he rushed madly toward the enormous pit.

Qin Feng, Qin Zheng, Feng Yuzi, and Mu Qing hurried after him, their hearts all leaping into their throats.