Chapter 25

Shan Heyuan watched him stand motionless in the courtyard and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Hearing voices inside, the cultivator delivering the newspaper set the news talisman down at the entrance with a thud, called out to them again, and left.

Shen Duheng remained standing in the courtyard without making another move.

Shan Heyuan grew nervous and called out again, "Brother Shen?"

Shen Duheng seemed to finally come back to his senses. He pointed at the sky and said in an odd tone, "Your Tribulation Lightning."

Shan Heyuan didn't understand at first. "What?"

Shen Duheng repeated himself. "Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation."

Shan Heyuan looked at him, then at the sky, his face blank. "This is my Heavenly Tribulation? Why doesn't it hurt or itch at all?"

It was called a Heavenly Tribulation, so surely it ought to strike him on the head at least once. What was the point of it coming over and wandering around nearby?

If he never realized what was happening, wouldn't he miss the Heavenly Tribulation altogether?!

As the two watched, the lightning finally drew a little closer and struck inside the village.

The bolt was neither large nor thick, and even its light was the most ordinary white. It vanished in the blink of an eye.

It looked exactly like ordinary spring lightning.

Shan Heyuan didn't stop to wash his hands. He hurried out and looked up at the sky, hoping to wait for the second bolt of Tribulation Lightning. "What do I do now? Should I go out there and meet the Tribulation Lightning myself?"

Since becoming a cultivator, Shan Heyuan had read plenty of relevant material and had rehearsed his own Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation countless times.

But this pattern of Tribulation Lightning was completely outside his expectations. He didn't even know whether he should wait here or go and meet it head-on to get struck.

If he wasn't struck, could he still reach Foundation Establishment?

Just as the two were watching and waiting, the lightning flickered. When it flashed again, it was already outside the village.

The thunder, too, came from far away. It was clearly some distance from them now.

Shen Duheng put an arm around Shan Heyuan's waist. "Let's chase the Tribulation Lightning first!"

As Shan Heyuan was pulled onto the spirit sword, he had never felt so helpless. "Do we really have to chase it ourselves?"

What cultivator had to chase after their own Tribulation Lightning to undergo a tribulation?

Chapter 25

Shen Duheng scooped Shan Heyuan up and raced after the tribulation cloud at the speed of a Core Formation Cultivator.

Standing on the spirit sword, Shan Heyuan felt as if the wind would blow his head off.

He kept his eyes open, watching nervously ahead. The tribulation cloud had drifted far away, and the Tribulation Lightning flickering inside it was gradually weakening. It looked as though it would stop before long.

Shen Duheng held Shan Heyuan around the waist and brought the spirit sword to a halt. "The tribulation cloud is about to disperse. Attack it."

Shan Heyuan said, "Huh?"

Shan Heyuan turned to look at Shen Duheng's face in bewilderment. He groped about himself at random, unable to think of any way to attack.

He had learned planting and cultivation, but he had never learned how to attack a tribulation cloud high in the sky.

The tribulation cloud was about to disperse, and there wasn't a moment to lose.

In his haste, he suddenly reached into his Dantian and pulled out the broken sword he had long neglected. Imitating the sword cultivators, he poured Spiritual Power straight into it and slashed hard at the tribulation cloud.

"Boom-"

The Spiritual Power-wreathed sword struck the tribulation cloud and split it in two.

The tribulation cloud halted in the air, and its two halves came back together.

The next moment, a gigantic bolt of lightning came straight for Shan Heyuan.

Shen Duheng pulled Shan Heyuan into a steep dive, swept him up with a long arm, and gently set him on the ground before darting back.

Before Shan Heyuan could find his footing, he felt a burning heat from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. His vision filled with a dazzling white light, and only then did thunder explode with a rumble.

The searing pain of the lightning strike traveled all over his body.

Shan Heyuan carefully savored the pain and, strangely, found it bearable.

After the pain passed, it even felt a little refreshing.

It was the refreshing feeling of Spiritual Power being compressed, impurities being expelled, and a person cultivating to a higher level.

When the Tribulation Lightning struck Shan Heyuan, the Spiritual Power in his body automatically resisted. His oversaturated Spiritual Power reacted with the crackling Tribulation Lightning and slowly turned into-liquid?

Shan Heyuan swept his body with his Divine Sense. His Spiritual Power had indeed turned to liquid.

The process of Foundation Establishment had begun!

Once Shan Heyuan realized this, he had no time to savor the newly compressed Spiritual Power liquid. Without another word, he immediately swung his sword back at the cloud and waited for it to send down a second bolt of Tribulation Lightning.

Sure enough, the second bolt came down.

The Tribulation Lightning struck him, crackling all the way with flashes and sparks.

This bolt was fiercer than the last. It blasted his clothes to pieces, but didn't do him much harm.

On the contrary, as he circulated his cultivation method, the immense electrical charge compressed more Spiritual Power liquid, and his strength improved further.

This could work!

Shan Heyuan knew how to reach Foundation Establishment now.

He swung a third, tremendously forceful slash.

The tribulation cloud sent down heavenly lightning again, but this time it was weaker, and its electrical charge was smaller. It felt rather like a halfhearted, listless attempt to go through the motions.

This bolt of Tribulation Lightning didn't even manage to daze him. His eyes blazing, he slashed again.

After that slash, the tribulation cloud not only failed to send down another Heavenly Tribulation, but drifted off to the side instead.

What was going on?

Was the Heavenly Tribulation dodging him?

That was only the third bolt! Were other people's Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulations that quick too?

Shan Heyuan felt that something was wrong, but at that moment he couldn't calm down enough to work out exactly what it was.

He was anxious. Without the Heavenly Tribulation's help, how was he supposed to reach Foundation Establishment?

Watching the tribulation cloud drift away, Shen Duheng pulled him onto the sword again and said decisively, "Keep slashing. We'll attack it on the way to Spring Thunder Valley."

When it came to cultivation, Shan Heyuan was far less experienced than him.

Hearing his suggestion, Shan Heyuan immediately followed his instructions, slashing and blasting wildly at the tribulation cloud.

As he did so, Shen Duheng rode the sword swiftly southeast.

Spring Thunder Valley was the subject of an age-old legend in Jingzhishan Town.

It was said that in High Antiquity, this had been the cave abode of a great demon. When that mighty figure underwent a tribulation, he failed to get through it and had no choice but to rely on the mechanisms of the cave abode to protect himself.

Though the great demon survived, he had not finished undergoing the Heavenly Tribulation, and the tribulation cloud refused to disperse. Thus, it remained in the valley.

No one knew how much truth there was to the legend, but for hundreds and thousands of years, lightning bearing the presence of Tribulation Lightning had indeed rumbled without cease in Spring Thunder Valley.

Shen Duheng was extremely fast. A moment later, he brought Shan Heyuan racing to the entrance of Spring Thunder Valley.

Standing on the flying sword, Shan Heyuan stared openmouthed at the sight ahead.

Above the valley, a dark mass of thunderclouds hung low in the sky. Lightning like purple pythons slithered within them, as though choosing people to devour.

Even from this far away, the lightning made their hair stand on end and their robes flutter.

The Tribulation Lightning here was so much bigger than the Tribulation Lightning from his Heavenly Tribulation!

Shen Duheng's expression was grave. For once, he paused for a few seconds before saying to Shan Heyuan, "Go on."

Shan Heyuan's scalp tingled. "Prepare some healing pills for me."

With that, Shan Heyuan charged straight toward Spring Thunder Valley with the look of a man ready to face death.

The tribulation cloud overhead seemed to have been angered by him. It swelled to more than three times its size and drifted toward Spring Thunder Valley as well.

The instant Shan Heyuan charged beneath Spring Thunder Valley, the tribulation cloud likewise plunged into the clouds massed above it.

The thick clouds collided, setting off dazzling lightning and a tremendous roar.

Shan Heyuan couldn't keep his footing at all and could only sit cross-legged at the bottom of the valley.

Tribulation Lightning descended from the thick clouds and struck the top of his head.

At that moment, he seemed to hear a tremendous crash, yet also seemed to hear nothing at all.

His whole body shuddered as he felt a fierce burning pain rise. At the same time, the Spiritual Power liquid catalyzed by the Tribulation Lightning raced through his body, soothing his wounds and making his flesh grow rapidly.

Shan Heyuan felt as though he had become a piece of iron, hammered again and again by the Tribulation Lightning.

Ash-black impurities seeped from every pore in his body, only to be burned to charcoal by the Tribulation Lightning and vanish into ash and smoke.