Rumble!
As time passed, the lightning tribulation grew ever more terrifying, like the descent of doomsday. Lin Fan soon reached the sixth strike; he only had three more to endure.
At that moment, Lin Fan's entire body was bathed in the lightning tribulation.
The world-destroying tribulation clouds seemed to sense Lin Fan's provocation and surged all the more fiercely.
Through the previous strikes, he discovered that his Chaos Gods and Devils Body could actually refine some of the divine lightning's power on its own, tempering his soul and flesh and making him ever stronger.
Every time he struck, he left a wisp of divine lightning to draw into his body.
The Chaos Scripture circulated on its own, while his Chaos Gods and Devils Body continuously refined the divine lightning, growing ever stronger and shimmering with crystalline white light.
Amid deafening thunder, terrifying destructive power ravaged the heavens. Soon, the ninth strike arrived-the last and most terrifying strike of the lightning tribulation.
[Ding! The host has awakened the Chaos Gods and Devils Body's innate devouring divine ability. It can devour all things and refine them for personal use, including the origins of various divine bodies and bloodlines, strengthening the host's own origin!]
"This is..."
Lin Fan's eyes lit up. He remembered that when his father killed Quasi-Emperor Shenshang earlier, he had completed a mission whose reward was awakening one of the Chaos Gods and Devils Body's innate talents.
Now, after the lightning tribulation's tempering, it had finally awakened.
Lin Fan glanced at the lightning tribulation, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "It can devour all things? I wonder if it can devour the lightning tribulation. Shall I try devouring the divine lightning?"
He acted as soon as the thought arose.
Lin Fan dropped his defenses and headed fearlessly toward the lightning tribulation, letting the terrifying Annihilation Divine Lightning enter his body as he devoured its power like a whale swallowing the sea.
"What is Fan'er doing?"
At this sight, Ji Ningshuang and the others' pupils contracted. They could not understand what Lin Fan was doing.
At this critical moment, he only needed to survive the final strike to overcome the Nine-Nine Annihilation Divine Lightning, and his Chaos Gods and Devils Body could reach minor accomplishment.
Yet his actions could not help but worry everyone.
Seeing Lin Fan's actions and recalling how he had absorbed the divine lightning to temper himself, Lin Dong vaguely guessed something and reassured Ji Ningshuang and the others that they need not worry.
"Courting death?"
Wang Kun and the other experts of the Wang Clan thought Lin Fan was courting death. They sneered, "Heh, does he think he can't withstand the final strike of divine lightning, so he's given up struggling?!"
By all rights, the ninth strike was the most terrifying.
It consisted of a full nine times nine, eighty-one lightning bolts, a strike that concentrated the lightning tribulation's greatest power. Who knew how many times stronger it was than the first strike?
Throughout history, countless monstrous prodigies had died to this strike.
No matter how astonishingly talented or well-prepared they were, they had still fallen, reduced to tribulation ash.
And now Lin Fan had actually dropped his defenses. What was that if not courting death?
Eighty-one bolts of tribulation lightning descended, carrying divine might powerful enough to destroy everything, and an ocean of lightning came raging toward him.
Sure enough, it was just as they had expected.
The lightning tribulation engulfed Lin Fan without raising so much as a ripple.
That destructive power was enough to devour all things, let alone a mere Pill Condensation Realm cultivator.
Not a trace of Lin Fan's presence could be sensed between heaven and earth anymore.
In everyone's minds, Lin Fan's fate went without saying. Wang Kun and the other experts sneered, while a Sage King of the Wang Clan lamented with feigned compassion, "What a pity that such a monstrous prodigy has fallen!"
"No... Fan'er!"
Ji Ningshuang stared at the scene in disbelief.
No one grieved Lin Fan's annihilation more than Ji Ningshuang. What in this world could be more painful than watching one's own son fall before one's eyes?
"Ah..."
"Who dares say my son is dead! I'll kill you!"
At such a heartbreaking moment, someone actually dared speak ill of Lin Fan. Overwhelmed with grief, how could Ji Ningshuang bear such words?
Utterly freezing Qi surged from her body.
The Ice Immortal!
Cold swept in every direction. The temperature across the entire area instantly plunged by dozens of degrees, as though everything had fallen into an ice cavern stretching ten thousand miles. The assembled experts could not help shuddering.
Dignified Quasi-Emperors and Sage Kings had not felt cold for who knew how many years, yet now they felt as though they had plunged into an ice cavern.
They could not help looking pityingly at the Wang Clan's Sage King. Who did not know the Ice Immortal's temper? Hers was the most explosive in the Ancient Desolate, and only that fellow Lin Dong could subdue her. Yet this man actually dared provoke her...
"No..."
The Wang Clan's Sage King's pupils contracted, terror flashing through his eyes. A mighty Sage King Realm expert, he had no chance to react at all before he froze into an ice sculpture on the spot.
Crack!
He shattered into a skyful of ice fragments, his body and soul destroyed on the spot.
The ice fragments blasted into the faces of Wang Kun and Wang Jichang beside him, but neither dared utter a sound, afraid they would follow in his footsteps.
Who dared provoke Ji Ningshuang while she was furious?
The daughter of the patriarch of the supreme imperial Ji Clan, the female emperor known as the Ice Immortal, Ji Ningshuang!
The loss of a Sage King meant nothing at all to the vast, supreme imperial Wang Clan.
But if they enraged the Ice Immortal, it would be all over. Even if you were a mighty Great Emperor, no one would dare utter a sound if the Ice Immortal killed you.
At that moment, no one dared cross the Lin Clan.
The dignified, supreme imperial Wang Clan had lost a Sage King, yet they did not dare let out so much as a fart.
Ji Ningshuang was like a tigress whose cub had died, her emotions beyond control.
Heartbroken, she wanted to rush up and save Lin Fan. Lin Dong held her back, and she said coldly, "Let go of me. I'm going to save Fan'er!"
"Ningshuang, calm down. Fan'er isn't dead!" Lin Dong stared fixedly into the lightning tribulation. Ji Ningshuang froze at his words, and a faint glimmer involuntarily lit her once ash-gray eyes.
"What did you say? My Fan'er isn't dead?"
Hearing Lin Dong's words, not only was Ji Ningshuang shocked, but the experts of the various clans were astonished as well.
Wang Kun and the others dared not say more, but they could not help sneering inwardly. Is the Lin Clan's patriarch talking in his sleep? Everyone here saw Lin Fan get annihilated with their own eyes. How could he possibly still be alive!
"The lightning tribulation hasn't disappeared after all this time. Naturally, Fan'er is still alive!"
But Lin Dong's imperial eyes shone brilliantly, and he remained confident, as though he could see Lin Fan within the lightning tribulation. "My son is destined to shake all the heavens with his might. How could he die so easily!"
"Look, what's that? Could it be..."
Seeing Lin Dong so confident, one expert could not help looking doubtfully into the lightning tribulation.
The lightning tribulation still filled the sky, raging like a vast ocean. Sure enough, a figure appeared within the tribulation clouds. Who else could it be but Lin Fan?
"You little brat, you even fooled your mother. I'll have to teach you a proper lesson later."
Seeing Lin Fan alive, Ji Ningshuang could not help smiling through her tears. Lin Dong also let out a breath of relief. It was just as he had expected.
"Heavens!"
"He really isn't dead!"
"How on earth did he do it..."
Seeing Lin Fan still alive, those present cried out in disbelief as they stared at him in the sea of lightning. Wang Kun and the others looked as ugly as if they had eaten half of something.
Yet the next scene nearly made everyone's eyes pop out. Once the experts present saw clearly what Lin Fan was doing, they were utterly horrified, their eyes wide as they stood like clay statues and wooden carvings.
"What is he doing? Is he devouring the lightning..."
"Good heavens, what a freak! He's actually devouring the Nine Heavens Annihilation Divine Lightning to strengthen his own origin and temper his divine body!"
Lin Fan could no longer be called a monstrous prodigy. He was a freak beyond even monstrous prodigies.
Lin Fan lay in the sea of lightning with one leg crossed over the other, bathing beneath the lightning tribulation with a look of utter comfort. Anyone who did not know better would have thought he was soaking in a hot spring.
[Ding! Protective Parent Villain function unlocked!]
Just then, a system notification rang in Lin Fan's ears as he remained within the lightning tribulation.
He froze at first, then delight appeared on his face.
But he had no time to fiddle with this function, because he felt his Chaos Gods and Devils Body seemingly undergoing a transformation.
He wanted to use this momentum to open his spiritual sea!