Stranger Danger

A few breaths later, the fiery red cloud in the sky finished gathering its strength and fired a fiery red lightning bolt at the black lotus. It brimmed with seemingly enough power to burn anything and everything into ash.

“Ding Fire Divine Thunder”

There was a loud boom as the Ding Fire Divine Thunder engulfed the black lotus completely, the newborn plants within tens of meters of ground zero instantly bursting into flames and dissolving into piles of ash. When the lightning finally faded, all that was left of the land was a scorched wasteland, and the black lotus looked tattered and broken.

“If the second tribulation lightning is already this scary, what are the chances he could survive the remaining three?” A pale-faced Limp Celestial muttered to no one in particular.

The third lightning bolt fell before he even finished speaking. It wasn’t going to give the person it was testing any time to recover or react at all.

The tribulation lightning that descended this time was the Wu Earth Divine Thunder. It lacked the Yi Wood Divine Thunder’s ability to pierce evil and create life, nor did it possess the sheer destructive power and heat of the Ding Fire Divine Thunder. However, it did possess a gargantuan weight that neither lightning could hope to compare.

When the Wu Earth Divine Thunder descended from the sky, the entire Peach Blossom Mountain shook as if it couldn’t bear its weight. Then, the peak began crumbling earnestly until all that was left was a gigantic pit.

“Gulp… he’s not dead, is he?”

Tiger Sovereign’s face darkened a little. He did not want the mysterious man to die not because he was merciful, but because the martial art would most likely be lost.

“No. The Five Phases Tribulation is still present,” Xie Taohua replied while staring intently at the center of the gigantic pit. He could barely make out a silhouette through the thick dust clouds, and the man’s clothes were in complete tatters. He cut a sorry figure as far as he could tell, but was the man actually injured, or…?

Before Xie Taohua could confirm if the man was injured, the fourth lightning bolt—the Geng Metal Divine Thunder—descended from the sky.

“Hmph!”

A muffled groan escaped Xie Taohua’s lips, and his face abruptly turned ghastly white. He felt as if his mind had been severed by countless sharp sword qi, and it was painful to say the least. It was because the Geng Metal Divine Thunder had annihilated the wisp of spirit he extended in the man’s direction. Not only that, his spirit actually conducted a small portion of the tribulation lightning back to him and damaged his mind.

The Geng Metal Divine Thunder was, again, very different from the Yi Wood Divine Thunder, Ding Fire Divine Thunder and Wu Earth Divine Thunder. It was sharp, cold, and destructive. The lightning bolt felt like a wisps of million sword qi spread across the sky, and sounded like the clashes of war.

Forget Xie Taohua, everyone felt chilled to their core despite not being the tribulation’s target.

Chiang!

When the lightning bolt finally struck the man, the sound that pierced their ears was neither an epic explosion or the dull implosion of flesh. It was that of metal striking against metal. Before they knew it, a white light blinded their vision and pricked their eyes so much that they bled. Then, a terrific boom and metallic shriek deafened their eardrums.

When Xie Taohua’s vision returned, he stared at the scene before him and swallowed audibly. The gargantuan pit from before had been completely flattened, and its surface was marred by countless cracks that looked to be at least ten meters deep. He could still sense the sharp lightning’s power from those cracks.

The man himself was nowhere to be seen.

He isn’t dead, is he? What a shame!

A complicated emotion welled inside Xie Taohua’s heart. He could not tell if it was regret or something else.

No, wait, he’s still alive! The tribulation isn’t gone yet!

Suddenly, Xie Taohua looked up. If the man really was dead, then the tribulation clouds would have disappeared on their own. However, they were still present.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the ground suddenly trembled like the beginnings of an earthquake. Then, it exploded into smithereens as a silhouette flew straight toward the clouds.

As if on cue, the Kui Water Divine Thunder finished gathering its strength and fired a powerful lightning bolt at the man. A yin, frigid aura filled the air, and ice actually began encasing the ground below. For a moment, it was as if they had plunged into the deepest winter, and all life threatened to perish under its chilling might.

The man did not dodge, however. In fact, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and… waited for the lightning bolt to hit him?!

“Is he insane?!”

Xie Taohua couldn’t help but exclaim in shock. The Kui Water Divine Thunder was yin and cold, and it was said to be capable of freezing anything and everything. Not only was it the strongest lightning of the Five Phases Tribulation, it was several times stronger than any single tribulation lightning from before.

As if that wasn’t enough, the man had already endured four tribulation lightning earlier. Even if he wasn’t injured, he must be nearing exhaustion right now. In Xie Taohua’s opinion, attempting to tank the tribulation’s strongest attack head on in his state was no different from committing suicide.

Then, the unthinkable happened. The man slowly stretched his limbs until it looked like he was attempting to embrace the tribulation lightning. At the same time, heaven and earth trembled as if an invisible giant was slowly awakening from its slumber.

The silhouette could not be seen with the naked eye, but it could be perceived with the mind. To Xie Taohua’s senses, the invisible giant seemed immeasurably vast and terrible. As dark air of dao circulated throughout its body, the very world before his eyes seemed to warp into something that was both profound yet terrifying at the same time.

Xie Taohua began hallucinating before he knew it. He suddenly wondered what he was doing as all sorts of negative emotions and heart demons began sprouting like weeds.

Thankfully, he quickly regained the faculties of his mind and took measures to steady himself. As soon as he expelled the strange influence taking root in his mind, and his vision regained to normal, he saw that the lightning bolt was less than a meter away from the silhouette.

He wondered if he imagined it, but the corners of the silhouette's lips seemed to curl into a disdainful smirk. Then, it opened its mouth and swallowed the lightning.

That’s right. The silhouette—or rather, the man facing the heavens’ wrath—had swallowed a tribulation lightning!

The silhouette raised his head and exhaled a little, and the five-colored clouds in the sky soundlessly scattered into nothing. The sky cleared, and the world returned to normal. It was almost as if nothing had ever happened.

“Gulp…”

Xie Taohua swallowed in a futile attempt to rein in his shock. This wasn’t the first time he witnessed someone challenging a tribulation, but it was certainly the first time he saw someone’s Yin God consuming a tribulation lightning and scattering a tribulation cloud by blowing at it!

What stunned him even more was the fact that the man was only a perfect Spirit Purifier whose Yin God had just just finished manifesting. And yet, it was already strong enough to swallow a tribulation lightning without injury and blow away a tribulation cloud like it was dust. Just how was this possible?

That wasn’t all. He could tell that the Yin God the man manifested was of the yin, heretical type. The Five Phases Tribulation was a yang type tribulation, and generally speaking, it was the bane of all yin type existences. However, the man was so powerful that it looked like yin should be the bane of yang, not the other way around.

It was such a stunning sight that he could not say a word.

This wasn’t the end of the tribulation, however. Or more accurately, the challenger had overcome the tribulation, so it was time to reward him for his effort and power. A drizzle fell from the blue sky despite the fact that not a single speck of cloud could be seen anywhere, and it was overflowing with vitality and spirit energy. When it hit the scorched, shattered, dead wasteland that was mercilessly destroyed by the tribulation lightning earlier, new grass and trees began sprouting from the ground as if it was spring.

“The Sweet Rain of Blessing?! The heavens are granting their blessing to celebrate one’s rebirth,” Xie Taohua whispered to himself.

The Heavenly Way was both merciless and merciful. Although it sought to punish those who would disobey its laws with a tribulation, it also left a window open for them. “Perfection is fifty, but it is not possible to exceed forty-nine.” There was no such thing as an absolute fate in the world. A tribulation was without a doubt a disaster, but it was also a challenge from Heaven to Man. If the person successfully overcame their tribulation, then the Heavenly Way would acknowledge their existence and reward them with its blessing.

Right now, the spirit rain was the Heavenly Way’s reward for the challenger who overcame the Five Phases Tribulation. It was an incredibly rare healing boon that was named the “Sweet Rain of Blessing”.

The Sweet Rain of Blessing contained an immense amount of vitality. Not only could it regrow flesh and return the dead back to life, it could even restore one’s injured mind back to normal. Everyone knew that spiritual injuries were the most difficult injuries to heal of them all. Barring a handful of natural treasures and extraordinary medicine, the only realistic way to recover from a spiritual injury was to give it time.

This was why the Sweet Rain of Blessing was unbelievably valuable.

Xie Taohua shot a meaningful glance at the silhouette basking in the Sweet Rain of Blessing. Then, he uncorked a bottle and began collecting the precious raindrops.

Skin Painting Gentleman, Limp Celestial and Tiger Sovereign had different ideas, however. They secretly exchanged a glance with each other before pouncing toward the silhouette.