Facing the Heavenly Tribulation

At that moment, Ancestor Tianyan stepped forward to explain.

"Senior, do you remember the Ancestral Land? You awakened in the Ancestral Land and then came out."

The Ancestral Land!

In an instant, memories from long ago came flooding into his mind.

He remembered. He remembered it all.

"So that was it. To think the Ancestral Land had such power! It truly is the oldest treasure passed down in our Lu Clan!"

"Then it seems you are the lineage's ancestors who awakened before me."

As he spoke, the body-cultivator ancestor looked back at Ancestor Tianyan and the other two.

But after a single glance, his brow furrowed again.

"That's not right."

Not right?

Ancestor Tianyan and the other two exchanged glances. "What's not right?"

"Why are you so weak?!"

In his eyes, the Sage King Realm cultivation of Ancestor Tianyan and the other two was really no different from that of weaklings. They couldn't even withstand a single punch from him.

The three looked a little embarrassed at his words.

He was their senior and immensely powerful, far above them. They really couldn't refute him when he called the three of them weak.

"Senior, I'm sure you understand the mysteries of the Ancestral Land, but in truth, you didn't awaken normally."

Ancestor Tianyan then told him everything about the awakening of the other ancestor's will.

A moment later, the body-cultivator ancestor understood.

"So that's what happened. In that case, since that ancestor specifically awakened me early, the lineage must be in great need of me."

"Indeed."

Inside the ancestral hall, the three ancestors nodded repeatedly.

With the three ancestors present, the Lu Clan was safe for the time being. Even if six Saint Kings joined forces to attack, they could easily repel them, but that was only defense.

If they wanted to expand their influence, they would need to resort to some troublesome methods.

Since none of the three excelled at combat, their best course for now was to hold the lineage's ground and develop steadily.

But now that this body-cultivator ancestor above the Sage King Realm had awakened, the direction of the lineage's development would have to change.

Rumble!

Just then, a low rumbling came from the void.

A powerful pressure swept over them, and the entire ancestral hall began to tremble slightly.

"Hm? What's happening?"

Ancestor Xuanzhen was shocked. His sect-protecting grand formation had offered no defense at all.

"So it came after all."

The newly awakened body-cultivator ancestor remained calm, seemingly having expected this.

"It's a heavenly tribulation!"

At that moment, Ancestor Tianyan spoke in a grave voice.

"A heavenly tribulation?"

"That's right. A heavenly tribulation."

"After a Saint King breaks through, they reach the Quasi-Emperor Realm. Above a Quasi-Emperor is the legendary Great Emperor."

"To break through from Quasi-Emperor to Great Emperor, one must survive nine heavenly tribulations. With each tribulation survived, one's strength also rises tremendously. Back then, I survived three heavenly tribulations, but I knew I couldn't survive the fourth, so I chose to enter the Ancestral Land and fall into a long slumber."

"I never imagined that the lineage's Ancestral Land would give me a chance to survive a fourth heavenly tribulation."

The body-cultivator ancestor was smiling. His long slumber in the Ancestral Land over so many years had greatly increased his strength. Now, facing the fourth heavenly tribulation, he no longer shrank from it in fear as he once had.

Hum-

Suddenly, his body slowly rose into the air.

This was the work of the mighty power of heaven and earth.

Rumble!

Tribulation clouds churned in the void, and a terrifying lightning tribulation manifested, pressing down so hard that every living being on Qiyun Mountain struggled to breathe.

"What's that?"

"Could it be heavenly punishment? Who did something that offended heaven and harmed the innocent?"

"Fuck, no! I'll never show off again!"

Though the heavenly tribulation targeted the body-cultivator ancestor alone, everyone else still felt its indescribable pressure.

Somewhere in the Lu Clan, Ancestor Murong, who had yet to leave, stared at the terrifying tribulation clouds in the void, his face deathly pale.

"A heavenly tribulation!"

"Is someone in the Lu Clan about to break through to Quasi-Emperor?"

"No, that's not right. The power of these tribulation clouds has reached such a terrifying level. This is definitely not the heavenly tribulation for a Saint King breaking through to Quasi-Emperor. Could it be?!"

Having thought of something, Ancestor Murong hurriedly bowed toward the tribulation clouds.

The Lu Clan truly was unfathomable.

Meanwhile, news that someone in the Lu Clan was about to face a heavenly tribulation quickly spread throughout Central Province.

Only moments ago, a terrifying fluctuation had come from the Lu Clan and awakened countless old monsters. Now it had stirred up a heavenly tribulation as well. For a time, the Lu Clan became the focus of all Central Province, its every move watched by the world.

"Come on!"

By now, the Lu Clan's body-cultivator ancestor had floated into the air.

The terrifying tribulation clouds had long since locked firmly onto him.

Whoosh!

A bolt of tribulation lightning as thick as a bucket surged out of the clouds like a ferocious beast seeking someone to devour.

With a crackle, the terrifying bolt struck the body-cultivator ancestor in an instant.

Its speed was astonishing, and its power was even more fearsome to behold.

At that moment, any Saint King who dared approach would have been instantly melted by the fluctuations of that power.

"Wonderful! This is truly wonderful!"

Laughter rang from the body-cultivator ancestor's mouth.

Though the terrifying tribulation lightning pierced through him, splitting the skin all over his body and drawing blood from the corner of his mouth, he could feel his strength continuously rising.

More importantly, he was a body cultivator.

This heavenly tribulation could also help him temper his body.

Rumble!

The terrifying tribulation lightning continued for three days and three nights.

It was not until the fourth day that the heavenly tribulation finally ended.

"Ancestor!"

The clanspeople had already learned the identity of the one facing the tribulation from the lineage's three ancestors.

He was an ancestor of their Lu Clan.

But they still didn't know his name. Even Ancestor Tianyan, who had once divined heaven and earth, knew nothing of it. A being like this was beyond his ability to divine any information about.

Looking at the clanspeople welcoming him back after his tribulation, the body-cultivator ancestor nodded slightly, but he could not help feeling a trace of sorrow at the passage of ages.

Everything he had once known had passed into history.

Fortunately, however, the lineage remained.

As long as the lineage remained, so did his home.

He soon found a sense of belonging. After warmly exchanging greetings with the clanspeople, he followed Ancestor Tianyan and the others into the small world within the ancestral hall.

"Hm? It's the Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven!"

At the sight of the yellow light in the sky, he immediately recognized it as the renowned Yellow Pill Grotto-Heaven, one of the nine great grotto-heavens.

"What about the lineage's Purple Lightning Grotto-Heaven, Sharp Metal Blessed Land, Thick Earth Blessed Land, and Space Blessed Land?"

The body-cultivator ancestor looked around and asked another question.

At this, all three ancestors were taken aback.

Ancestor Danyang spoke first. "Senior, as far back as my time, the lineage had only the Purple Lightning Grotto-Heaven and the Space Blessed Land. The other two secret realms had long since vanished without a trace."

Ancestor Xuanzhen then scratched his head and said, "In my time, the lineage had only the Space Blessed Land. More than two hundred thousand years before my time, the Purple Lightning Blessed Land was seized by a superpower through a scheme."

"What?! How dare they!"

The body-cultivator ancestor flew into a rage and slammed his hand on the table. In an instant, the entire small world began to shake violently, and countless cracks appeared.

"Senior, please calm down, calm down."

"What about you?"

The body-cultivator ancestor forcibly suppressed his anger and looked at Ancestor Tianyan, the last ancestor of the lineage to enter the Ancestral Land.

"Alas."

Ancestor Tianyan sighed. "By the time the lineage came into my hands, it was riddled with holes. Never mind grotto-heavens and blessed lands, it didn't even have any resources worth showing."

Back then, he alone had turned the tide, using Dao derivation to scheme against the various powers and strategizing to forcibly restore some of the lineage's vitality.

Unfortunately, doing so had exhausted the last of the lineage's fortune.

Once he was gone, the lineage had gone into a complete decline, each generation falling short of the one before it.