Rumble... RUMBLE...
Thunder cracked across the sky, not in isolated strikes, but in a relentless, rolling cascade that promised annihilation. Beneath its overwhelming roar, Su Min's expression, usually a mask of unflappable calm, grew increasingly grave. No matter how composed a cultivator might seem, faced with the raw, majestic power of heavenly punishment, even the so-called immortals of legend would tread with extreme caution, let alone a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator like herself, still bound to the mortal coil.
"This is not the time for foolish heroics," she muttered under her breath, her voice a stark contrast to the celestial fury above. "If some idiot interferes now, they will be marked by the tribulation as well. And the stronger the intruder... the stronger the lightning becomes. There is no upper limit to its wrath."
This was the ultimate barrier between mortal and immortal, a step that could only be crossed alone, in solitary defiance of the heavens. Any outside aid, unless it came from a being capable of trampling the laws of heaven and earth underfoot, would only magnify the tribulation's destructive fury.
RUMBLE—!
A brilliant, searing bolt of azure lightning, thick as an ancient tree, lanced down from the churning clouds, hurtling straight at Su Min's heart.
The Three Nine Heavenly Tribulation had formally begun.
Yet Su Min did not hesitate. Clad in her shimmering Azure Glazed Spirit Armor, the Thunder Attracting Talisman glowing fiercely at her waist, and the Thunderbreaker Sword held steady in her hand, she did the unthinkable, she charged forward to meet it.
BOOM—!
A deafening explosion shook the very island to its foundations. The bolt, carrying power enough to obliterate most peak Foundation Establishment cultivators, was met with a flash of silver and crimson. Su Min's sword cleaved through its core, and she emerged from the dissipating energy untouched, not even a flicker of her formidable aura disrupted.
"Ah... that was almost relaxing," she exhaled slowly, the words lost in the fading thunderclap.
Just as she had suspected, the first, foundational stage of the tribulation could not harm her.
CRACK—!
As though provoked by her nonchalance, the skies rumbled with renewed anger. Two more bolts followed in swift, merciless succession. Su Min met them head on, a whirlwind of precise sword strokes and controlled flame, emerging still unscathed. But the moment the third and final strike of the first wave landed, she felt a profound change within. A righteous, primal force, pure and potent, surged into her body, flowing through her refined meridians and converging in her dantian. There, it coalesced, compressing and solidifying into a perfect, brilliant golden orb that pulsed with immense power.
Golden Core formed. Su Min had officially stepped into the Golden Core Stage. But the skies above did not clear. The storm churned on, darker, deeper, and infinitely more menacing. Lightning of a more violent hue continued to gather, the spiritual pressure intensifying to a suffocating degree.
The Three Nine Heavenly Tribulation was over. Now, the far more terrifying Six Nine Tribulation was already brewing ominously overhead. Whether it would descend or not, the choice was now Su Min's. She could accept her new realm and let the clouds disperse, or she could challenge the heavens for a greater reward.
"Bring it on!!!"
She raised her sword, the Nanming Lihuo flaring along its blade, and roared her defiance at the sky, a single, mortal voice challenging the cosmos.
The moment her voice faded, swallowed by the gale,
The heavens shifted.
The brilliant blue lightning vanished, replaced by an oppressive, dark crimson that stained the thunderclouds the color of clotting blood.
"Dark Demon Lightning? So the Nine Nine Heavenly Tribulation summons the true Demon Slaying Thunder… Is this the heavens' ultimate method for suppressing demonic cultivators and heretical paths?"
Su Min suddenly understood. The Demon Slaying Thunder was not just raw power, it possessed a special, purgative quality that was supremely effective against evil beings and corrupted souls. The heavens were clearly wielding their ultimate punishment against those who walked unorthodox, heaven defying paths.
She couldn't help but feel a wave of cold relief. She had never dabbled in demonic cultivation, her soul was untainted by such arts. Otherwise, she would have had no hope of surviving this escalated tribulation. The Demon Slaying Thunder of the Nine Nine Heavenly Tribulation was terrifying enough on its own, if it had triggered its inherent purifying effect against a demonic soul, she would have been dead ten times over.
Boom!
Before she could think further, a thick tendril of dark red lightning, sizzling with destructive intent, descended.
"Ugh!"
This time, it was not so easy. The moment the lightning connected with her upraised sword, a violent shockwave of energy traveled down the blade. Her entire arm went numb, and her teeth rattled in her skull.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The tribulation intensified relentlessly. Su Min was no longer as relaxed as before. Each strike demanded more of her strength, more of her focus.
"Four Symbols Possession—ACTIVATE!!!"
With a furious roar that tore from her very core, fiery wings of condensed Nanming Lihuo burst from her back, and her raven black hair flashed, turning a stark, luminous silver white. Her aura exploded outwards, a visible corona of crimson and white.
"Mystic Firewood Sword—Blazing Strike!"
Several phantom swords, woven from solidified flame and ancient wood essence, materialized around her, shooting upward like vengeful phoenixes to slash against the descending crimson bolts.
BOOM!
The next moment, Su Min was violently slammed into the charred ground, a small crater forming around her. A trickle of blood escaped the corner of her lips. The Six Nine Heavenly Tribulation's lightning grew exponentially stronger with each strike. By the time the sixth and final bolt of this wave landed, Su Min was bleeding freely from her mouth, her spirit armor flickering.
"Hah… still manageable. Is that all you have?" she taunted, wiping the blood away with the back of her hand.
Despite the injuries, she was not truly worried. With her newly forged Golden Core physique and the relentless regeneration of her Changchun Gong, the wounds would close and her energy would replenish in mere seconds. She did not even need to consume a healing pill.
But then—
The crimson sky turned an absolute, light devouring pitch black. It was so profoundly dark that she could not even see her own hand in front of her face. The only illumination came from the Nanming Lihuo flames swirling protectively around her, making her look like a miniature, defiant sun in the void.
But this "sun" could not illuminate even a single meter around her. The Nanming Lihuo, though not as radiant as the legendary True Sun Flame, should have been far brighter, capable of lighting up the entire valley. The reason it was not?
Something was actively devouring the light. And that "something" was the final, concentrated essence of the tribulation lightning gathering directly above her, a singularity of heavenly wrath.
BOOM!
A jet black bolt of Demon Slaying Thunder, silent and utterly devoid of light, descended. This time, Su Min did not dare block it head on. Instead, she channeled every ounce of her remaining power into the Thunderbreaker Sword, which glowed so brightly it seemed on the verge of melting.
"Mystic Firewood Sword—Wooden Sanctuary!"
Vines of pure green wood energy, thick as pythons, erupted from the ground and the air itself, weaving into a massive, layered shield covered in glowing Sanskrit runes in front of her. But the moment the black lightning made contact,
The shield shattered into a million motes of fading light. Su Min was blasted off her feet, thrown backward like a ragdoll, and slammed into the cliff face behind her, coughing up a mouthful of vital blood.
"Ugh… ARGH!"
This time, she could not hold back. She vomited a spray of crimson, then frantically swallowed a third grade high healing pill. The Demon Slaying Thunder had pierced through all her active defenses, even her passive Buddhist Golden Bell Shield had flared and fractured under the strain. But the Nine Nine Heavenly Tribulation was not done. A second, even thicker and more menacing black bolt was already coiling in the void above.
"Full power—BURN!!!"
Instead of attempting another complex skill, Su Min made a desperate choice. She threw both the Thunderbreaker Sword and the Thunder Attracting Talisman high into the air. She was going to sacrifice both priceless artifacts, overloading their cores to unleash their absolute, final potential.
CRACKLE!
A deafening, soul screeching sound filled the air as the two treasures detonated in a storm of released thunder essence and spiritual shrapnel. They had been designed from their inception to counter tribulation lightning, and now, in their destruction, they fulfilled their ultimate purpose.
BOOM!
The second Demon Slaying Thunderbolt was met with the sacrificial blast and was forcibly dispersed, the black lightning scattering into harmless sparks. But the cost was absolute, the artifacts shattered into countless, irrecoverable pieces, their spiritual signatures extinguished forever.
"Hah… success."
Su Min collapsed to one knee, her body screaming in protest, her breath coming in ragged pants. Above her, the final and undoubtedly strongest lightning bolt of the entire tribulation was gathering, drawing the very darkness of the void into its form. She had no more tricks left, no more artifacts to sacrifice. But it did not matter. Her plan had always been a grim calculation, to survive two strikes of this final wave. Now, she had.
So when the third and ultimate bolt descended, a pillar of pure, silent black annihilation,
BOOM!
The void lightning engulfed her completely. Her Azure Glazed Armor shattered like glass, revealing her flawless, spiritually honed body beneath for a single, stark moment. But that transient beauty lasted only an instant before the devouring lightning consumed her, scouring her flesh and searing her soul. The entire island, unable to bear the concentrated force, split apart with a groan of sundered rock, great chunks of it collapsing into the raging sea.
But then, from within the epicenter of the destruction,
"Hah… hah… hah…"
A weak, gasping voice echoed across the water logged ruins. A charred, skeletal figure, covered in ash and glowing embers, stirred. From within a cocoon of blackened, log like husk, Su Min crawled out, her body already knitting itself back together with visible speed.
Her final, deepest trump card, the Rebirth Art, had worked. This secret technique was akin to a phoenix's rebirth, allowing her to revive once even if her body was reduced to ashes, so long as her Golden Core remained intact. Her plan had been to save this ultimate life saving measure for the final, unsurvivable strike, and it had worked. Even so, as she felt the phantom pain of total disintegration, she couldn't help but shudder in primal fear. She had survived the legendary Nine Nine Heavenly Tribulation.
Bzzzt…
But just as she was about to let the tension drain from her newly formed body,
Her naked form suddenly convulsed. Not from injury, but from a violent, overwhelming flood of information, concepts, and cosmic truths surging directly into her mind, bypassing her senses.
"What the,?! Is my Heavenly Dao Insight reacting again?!"
The influx was so intense, so vast, that her head felt like it was being split open by a divine axe. The pain was mental, spiritual, utterly debilitating. She didn't even have time to summon clothes from her storage ring.
"Is this the combined effect of my innate divine ability and the supreme reward for passing the Nine Nine Tribulation? Why the hell hasn't the thundercloud dispersed yet?!"
Then, as if in answer,
The dark clouds above did part. But what was revealed wasn't the clear, welcoming sky. Instead, a new phenomenon manifested, brilliant, divine golden lightning crackled within the clearing firmament, its nature completely different from the destructive force that had come before.
[To master the Five Thunders, one must endure the Five Thunders' Baptism.]
A statement, not a question. A final, unexpected trial.
"FUCK YOU—"
Before she could finish her curse at the heavens, the golden lightning struck. It did not blast or burn, it infused.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
A scream of a different kind, one of unbearable, soul deep transformation, ripped from her throat and echoed across the empty ocean. This lightning was not trying to destroy her. It was forging her, tempering her very being with the essence of thunder, a process that was excruciatingly, mind shatteringly painful but, paradoxically, not lethal. For what felt like an eternity, but was in truth ten long years, the golden lightning continued its relentless baptism, weaving threads of heavenly thunder into the fabric of her soul and dantian. When it finally faded, Su Min collapsed, unconscious, onto a lone, half melted reef, the only remaining remnant of the island that had been her trial ground.
"How long was I out? This divine ability is insane… What year is it now?"
Still disoriented, her mind swimming with new knowledge, she hurriedly dressed herself in a simple robe. After the initial, searing agony of the baptism, she had entered a death like trance, a state of deep integration, only awakening when the last vestiges of thunder energy had settled within her. Then, almost instinctively, she checked her status panel.
[Name: Su Min]
[Cultivation: Golden Core (Early Stage)]
[Talent: Immortality (having infinite lifespan and not aging)]
[Innate Divine Ability: Heavenly Dao Insight (Over time, comprehend techniques from the cosmos)]
[Physique: Five Element Holy Body — Blazing Sun Body (Taiyang Qi Unactivated)]
[Acquired Divine Abilities: Four Symbols Slaughter – Tiger; Four Symbols Heavenly Sun – Vermilion Bird; Mastery of the Five Thunders.]
[Cultivation Arts: Changchun Gong (First Layer); Fire-Wood Transformation Method (Second Layer)]
[Mental Arts: Great Sun Tathāgata Sutra]
[Skills: Sword Control Technique; Mystic Firewood Sword Art/ Xuanhuomu]
[Secret Technique: Rebirth Art]
[Possessed Heavenly Treasures: Nanming Lihuo; Heavenly Thunder]
[Possessed Innate Spiritual Treasure: Heaven and Earth Qiankun Gourd]
[Life-bound Spirit Treasure Vermilion Bird's Flameblade / Nanming Lihuo Sword (Yellow Grade, High Tier)]
A new acquired divine ability, Mastery of the Five Thunders, now resided within her. And she had paid a decade of torment and isolation for it.
"The thunder energy settled in my dantian… is this the 'Heavenly Thunder'? So to utilize the Mastery of the Five Thunders, I need to consume this thunder energy. But this thing is way weaker than the Nanming Lihuo in raw destructive power."
She frowned, probing the new energy. Thunder was not part of the core Five Elements, so it did not trigger any elemental synergy or special effects with her physique. And this Heavenly Thunder, as it was, could not even be released externally as an attack.
"Wait... I see. This is not for direct offense." A realization dawned on her, sparked by the flood of insight. "It is a key. A catalyst to activate a hidden potential within me."
After a moment of deep introspection, she grasped the true purpose of the Heavenly Thunder. It was not a direct combat tool. It was a trigger, a divine spark meant to ignite latent abilities tied to the profound Dao of Thunder.
"Mastery of the Five Thunders… I actually obtained a legendary top tier divine ability like this."
Divine abilities were fundamentally divided into innate, like her Heavenly Dao Insight, which one was born with and was nearly impossible to obtain otherwise, and acquired. The other three she possessed were acquired. While acquired divine abilities were less rare than innate ones, they were still incredibly valuable treasures of the cultivation world. For the vast majority of cultivators, the only chance to gain one was as a reward during the Golden Core Heavenly Tribulation. Even the weakest Three Nine Tribulation could potentially grant one, albeit of a lower grade.
But Su Min had endured the supreme Nine Nine Tribulation, so hers was of the highest tier. And because of the unique resonance with her innate divine ability, she had obtained the Mastery of the Five Thunders, a legendary technique spoken of in ancient Daoist texts. Now, feeling the new power slumbering within her, she felt completely different. The world itself seemed sharper, brighter, and the laws that governed it slightly more transparent.
"Hmm… and what is this 'Taiyang Qi, Unactivated' now listed in my physique?"
She frowned at the new designation but could not immediately sense any tangible changes or access this hidden power. It was a mystery for another time.
"Whatever. It is time to return to land. I have a promise to keep, and a debt to collect."
===
See~ Yingying your flag is really rise. I wonder her expression when she finally realize it???
Taiyang is also called "Solar Sovereign" in this novel, while Taiyin is called "Lunar Sovereign".