On Thundercliff, all was silent. Even the howling mountain wind seemed to have been strangled by an unseen force.
Li Qingshan stood motionless on the summit. The Qi and blood throughout his body were the first to boil, and a beacon of crimson-gold Qi and blood roared into the sky, shaking the clouds.
He had long since chosen this open summit, facing east, so he could receive the meeting of the first sun's purple Qi and the first wisp of vitality between heaven and earth.
He sat cross-legged and formed the ancient hand seals of the Four Extremes Scroll of the Sun True Scripture, sinking his mind into the Dao Realm.
"The Four Extremes are pillars that hold up the heavens, connecting heaven and earth and drawing on the myriad Daos to temper the body."
The profound incantation echoed through the sea of his mind, and the Divine Seed deep within his sea of consciousness bloomed with boundless radiance in response.
In an instant, waves of tingling and trembling reached deep into the marrow of his limbs and bones.
His body, which had already undergone an initial tempering by lightning, was now like a parched riverbed as golden waves of divine power began surging madly through it.
The bones inside him rang out in a dense series of crisp sounds, as if resonating with the distant, inscrutable laws of heaven and earth.
"Boom!"
In the Dao Palace Secret Realm, the illusory figures of five deities shuddered at once. The Heart Fire God in particular shook, and the Heart Fire Divine Seed at his core erupted with blazing golden flames.
They poured into his limbs like a torrent, igniting the boundless potential hidden deep within his flesh.
Li Qingshan could sense a subtle connection forming between the ends of his arms and legs and some vast, mighty force in the void.
It was as though four invisible bridges were slowly being built. High above, heavy tribulation clouds completely blotted out the sunlight, and a fierce wind sprang up, whipping sand and stones through a scene of utter apocalypse.
"It's here."
A fierce smile curved Li Qingshan's lips. Far from afraid, he rose to his full height and lifted his head to face the heavens.
He could feel that this was no ordinary lightning tribulation brought on by a cultivator breaking through a realm.
The will to destroy and the pressure of the Great Dao within it were heaven and earth's trial and interrogation of a true heaven's chosen.
"Crack!!!"
The first bolt of tribulation lightning ripped through the darkened sky: a purple-gold lightning dragon as thick as a palace pillar.
With a terrifying might that could tear the void apart and destroy all things, it struck down with savage force!
Li Qingshan neither dodged nor evaded. He raised his left arm like a coiling dragon, and crimson-gold Qi and blood gathered in an instant.
It became a solid, dragon-shaped apparition that coiled around his arm as he met the pillar of lightning head-on!
"Temper my bones with heavenly lightning, forge my sinews with tribulation lightning!"
Lightning and Qi and blood collided with a crash, and blinding light swallowed the entire summit in an instant.
Destructive waves of energy blasted outward, reducing all the surrounding rocks to powder.
As the light dimmed slightly, Li Qingshan stood firm as a rock while purple-gold electric serpents surged madly into his body along his arm.
They ravaged his flesh at will.
His brow furrowed slightly as he circulated the Sun True Scripture at full power, the Heart Fire Divine Seed burning fiercely.
He forcibly refined and purified the incomparably violent power of lightning, transforming it into pure energy that nourished his body.
Baptized in lightning, the bones of his left arm shone with a lustrous, precious light, growing denser and tougher.
His muscle fibers tore and reformed, every inch containing explosive power.
One after another, the gates of potential hidden deep within his body were blasted open by the overbearing lightning!
"Is this the effect of tempering the body with heavenly tribulation?"
He gently moved his left arm and casually swung his fist. Ripples visible to the naked eye appeared in the air before him.
A muffled sonic boom rang out. His sheer physical strength had already far surpassed what it had been.
Before the lingering might of the first stage of lightning tribulation had faded, the dark clouds overhead grew thicker, and low thunder rolled like beating war drums.
The second bolt of tribulation lightning rapidly took shape. This time it was golden divine lightning of the utmost purity, its majestic heavenly might even greater than before!
"Its power has increased by nearly thirty percent."
Li Qingshan's gaze was sharp as a blade. Crimson-gold Qi and blood likewise wrapped around his right arm, and he clenched his five fingers and drove out a punch without the slightest flourish!
"Rumble!"
His fist struck the golden pillar of lightning with a deafening boom.
Li Qingshan's body swayed only slightly as he took in the full force of the lightning, enough to destroy a mountain.
Golden lightning danced and flowed across his palm, then he guided it onward.
He sent it in a steady stream through his limbs and bones, tempering them on a deeper level.
He even tried to control it, abruptly flinging a trace of the refined lightning's remaining force into the distance.
A streak of golden lightning flashed past, and a towering ancient tree instantly turned to charcoal before crumbling into ash that filled the sky.
Having passed the second stage of lightning tribulation, Li Qingshan felt as though his left arm had truly become an extension of heaven and earth.
With every movement, he could more clearly draw upon and command the surrounding essence Qi of heaven and earth, growing closer to the Dao.
"The four limbs are pillars that support the heavens, the manifestation of strength at its utmost," he thought, his understanding deepening.
The third bolt of tribulation lightning descended without a sound, black as ink and bearing a Nirvana presence that extinguished all vitality.
Even light seemed to be swallowed wherever it passed.
"Nirvana Divine Lightning, seeking to sever the very root of my vitality?"
Li Qingshan's gaze sharpened. He stomped forward with his left leg, which was instantly covered in crimson-gold Qi and blood.
As though cast from divine metal, it met the destructive black lightning head-on.
"Hiss!"
The instant the black lightning touched his skin, a searing pain and a sensation of corrosion swept over him, as if his flesh and soul were both about to be reduced to nothing.
Li Qingshan circulated his profound art with all his might, and seven-colored, glasslike precious light shimmered over his body, resisting the erosion of Nirvana's power.
"Refine!"
With a low shout, he not only refrained from blocking it but actively drew a thread of Nirvana Divine Lightning into his left leg.
The Divine Seed spun rapidly in his sea of consciousness, helping him precisely control this dangerous power of destruction, discard the dross and retain the essence, and temper his leg bones.
His left leg bones rang like pieces of jade striking one another in the lightning. Profound golden natural Dao patterns gradually appeared on the once-ordinary bones.
No sooner had the third stage of lightning tribulation passed than the destructive presence in the clouds increased rather than diminished, growing even more violent.
"Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!"
Three purple pillars of lightning, each as thick as a bucket and fiercer than the last, tore across the sky and struck down in succession, bearing an accumulated will to destroy!
Li Qingshan let out a long cry and soared into the sky, charging to meet the sea of lightning.
He no longer held his ground in one place. His figure flickered amid the lightning filling the sky as his crimson-gold beacon of Qi and blood and the purple lightning intertwined and collided madly, turning the heavens into a terrifying furnace.
His body rose and fell in the sea of lightning, his bones producing an unbroken series of crisp cracks.
There were signs of his level of life constantly leaping forward on the brink between destruction and rebirth, while the lines of his muscles approached perfection under the lightning's repeated forging.
They contained vast, mighty power capable of shaking mountains.
The fourth bolt of tribulation lightning followed close behind, a mixed pillar of purple, gold, and black.
Three utterly different yet complementary forces of destruction-soul erosion, bone forging, and Nirvana-merged into one, their power skyrocketing geometrically!
Li Qingshan's expression grew grave. As his figure shifted, he brought out the essence of the Light-Splitting Shadow-Manifesting Sword Control Technique.
Three solid afterimages remained where he had stood.
The three-colored lightning pillar instantly swallowed one of the afterimages and blasted it to pieces.
Li Qingshan himself had already appeared eerily at the side of the lightning pillar. His right leg swept across like a divine whip, forcibly cutting into the edge of the lightning-"Pfft!"
Blood flashed into view. The lightning tore his trouser leg and left a scorched black mark on his tough skin, sending piercing pain through him.
The skin on his right leg split in several places, and threads of blood seeped from his pores, only to be instantly dried by the lightning.
He grunted, but a wild smile spread across his lips.
"Only by breaking and then rebuilding can the true self be seen!"
He frantically circulated his divine power to heal his injured body while guiding the three-colored lightning's power even more fiercely.
He tempered every inch of flesh, bone, and even marrow in his right leg.
The muscles of his right leg writhed and reformed violently in the lightning, giving off an increasingly ancient and tyrannical presence.
The aftershocks of the fourth stage of lightning tribulation had yet to subside. Li Qingshan hovered in midair, all four limbs glowing with a faint golden precious light.
His connection to heaven and earth grew ever closer.
Streams of pure essence Qi of heaven and earth descended from the void, replenishing the vast amount he had expended.
"It's not over yet?"
Far from being afraid, his fighting spirit only burned hotter. He felt the power within him surging like a river that had burst its banks.
Yet the pressure coming from the sky abruptly rose by several levels!
A massive vortex formed at the center of the dark clouds.
Endless purple-gold lightning gathered and compressed within it, and indistinctly-
Nine enormous illusory lightning dragons wound through the clouds, roaring in a way that shook the soul!
"I haven't seen Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin, yet I've already encountered the Nine Dragons Lightning Tribulation? At this scale..."
Li Qingshan's expression was graver than ever. The intensity of this lightning tribulation had completely surpassed the ordinary limits recorded in the Sun True Scripture.
This was a true killing trap aimed at a heaven-defying monster!
"Roar!"
The nine illusory lightning dragons threw back their heads and roared at once, the sound shattering the clouds.
The fifth bolt of tribulation lightning, a purple-gold pillar of destructive light containing the power of nine dragons, was a full ten zhang across, like a spear of heavenly punishment.
Bearing the supreme majesty of judgment over all living beings, it came crashing down!
Before the lightning even arrived, its terrifying pressure had already made the entire Thundercliff below begin to crack and sink!
"Sun Emperor Fist: Burn the Heavens and Boil the Seas!"
Li Qingshan's long hair whipped wildly, and golden light solid as substance shot from his eyes. Holding nothing back, he thrust out both fists.
Crimson-gold fist radiance, like two miniature suns, charged head-on into the destructive nine-dragon lightning pillar!
His fist intent contained the supreme will to burn the eight wildernesses to ashes and bring the four seas to a boil!
"Boom!!!!!"
A terrifying explosion, unlike any before it, instantly spread across a thousand li of Kunlun, making every mountain and ravine tremble!