Was it exactly what they wanted, or an unexpected twist? Was it only natural, or had a new variable emerged?
Waiting.
The thunderclouds pressed down, turning into a heavenly abyss.
Explosions echoed, moving from far to near, sparse to dense.
Inside the mountain gate,
The disciples of the Wendao Sect waited with anticipation...
Outside the mountain gate,
The powerhouses of the Ten Thousand Races who had come to invade speculated...
Among the ruins of the green mountains, the old scholar narrowed his eyes into thin slits and said to the old cow beside him, “Look, this is the variable...”
On the Ancestral Peak,
The little ones stared, their eyes filled not with surprise, but with impatient expectation.
To this day,
To this battle,
That figure.
It was finally time for him to appear!
...
The next moment, before the lightning tribulation could even strike, and under the gaze of the myriad beings, a figure emerged from between the mountains, stepping into the sky amidst the flash of lightning.
He advanced against the sky-wide lightning.
Who was that?
What was he doing?
The figure pierced through the lightning, drowning within it. Vaguely, they saw the person draw his sword.
He struck with a single sword slash!
A sword whistle rang out, louder than the booming thunder.
A sword intent cleaved through the sky-wide thunderclouds.
Yes,
The figure was advancing against the lightning tribulation.
He drew his sword and struck.
Space was forcibly sliced open, and the sky shattered inch by inch. The grey sword intent was like a vast ocean wave, sweeping everything away.
Boom!
A deafening roar echoed across the eight directions. A blinding white light flared, so bright that the people of the world could not keep their eyes open.
The leaking energy turned into a gale, sweeping across a hundred miles, a thousand miles, ten thousand miles...
But,
That was not the roar of heaven.
It was heaven’s shrill scream.
The sound faded!
The light dimmed!
The wind blew far away!
The people looked up again, and the clouds and mist had dispersed.
The sky was clear.
The faint light of dawn fell upon the world without any obstruction.
The lightning tribulation was gone.
Only the man standing in the light remained.
He stood there, peerless and independent, as the aura of the tribulation transcendence stage spread out leisurely...
Everyone was stunned. Some stared with wide eyes, some frowned deeply, and many swallowed repeatedly, their throats bobbing.
Thoughts were chaotic,
Their minds were mostly blank,
As they looked at the figure in the light, different eyes reflected the same shock and disbelief.
They had crossed lightning tribulations themselves,
They had seen others cross lightning tribulations,
And they had even heard of people drawing their swords to cleave a lightning tribulation.
But...
Years ago,
Yun Zheng had used three swords to strike down three strikes of lightning.
Last night,
Li Qingshan had endured three strikes of lightning with his physical body for an hour.
But today,
Right now,
With just a single sword strike, before the lightning tribulation had even fallen, it had been completely swept away. That roar they heard was the lament of heaven.
This was no mere rumor; they had seen it with their own eyes. Yet even the saints of the world who witnessed it together still failed to see the entire process clearly.
They had merely seen him strike once.
The lightning tribulation was gone, just like that.
Of course, what they found most unbelievable and incomprehensible was not that he had swept away the lightning tribulation with one sword.
It was the man himself.
Among them, whether they were old monsters who knew the inside story or ordinary powerhouses who were still in the dark,
Most had seen this youth on the Black Sand Sea.
Most of them recognized him.
Who was he?
Xu Xian.
The Little Grand-Uncle of the Wendao Sect, the junior who had solved the sword stele and summoned the divine sword.
The last time they saw him,
Was only a little over two months ago.
He was at the seventh stage then,
But now, he was at the ninth stage.
How did he do it?
Was this reasonable?
It was utterly absurd!
Was he playing pig to eat the tiger, or was his talent truly transcendent, surpassing the Heavenly Dao itself?
In comparison, they were more willing to accept the former.
Otherwise,
What did that make them?
A bunch of useless trash?
“It really is him?”
“How... how could he be so fast?”
“He’s not even thirty yet, is he?”
“A saint at thirty... ha...”
“Is this the Wendao Sect’s trump card?”
“Just how many secrets is he hiding?”
Unlike the excitement, joy, and the feeling of the tide turning within the Wendao Sect, outside the mountain gate, a wave of hushed whispers and exclamations arose.
The saints were no longer calm.
The demons of the North Sea also lost some of their composure.
Although the Water Qilin had come for Xu Xian, he had never actually seen him before.
But at this moment, he guessed that the youth was Xu Xian.
He also understood at this moment.
Why the Sovereign,
Would go to such great lengths to deal with a mere mortal being.
If everything was truly as these people said,
Crossing two stages in two months and entering tribulation transcendence at thirty, then this boy was truly terrifying.
Killing him,
Would not be overkill.
He asked Bai Ze, “Is he Xu Xian?”
Bai Ze nodded.
“Yes.”
The Water Qilin became thoughtful. “This is truly interesting.”
...
The world remained in shock, struggling to recover.
Inside the mountain gate of the Wendao Sect, however, it was a different scene. There was no surprise, only pride and an irrepressible arrogance.
Lei Yunche, Yao Xiqiao, and Lin Fengmian glanced at each other and smiled, their tense expressions finally relaxing completely.
Qiaofu and Yuren—one clutching a severed arm and the other holding a broken sword—also breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.
They hadn't had much contact with Xu Xian, but they had heard many stories about the boy.
Now that he had entered the tribulation transcendence stage,
This battle,
Would surely be even more spectacular.
Ruan Hao, one of the three Guest Elders, approached the two at some point. His heavy hammer thudded onto the ground. The old man, with his beard like stiff halberds and eyes shining with spirit, bragged smugly for some reason:
“That’s my disciple.”
Qiaofu: “...”
Yuren: “...”
Ruan Hao raised an eyebrow. “Not bad, right?”
The two remained silent.
Not bad?
It was far beyond just “not bad.”
Ye Xianyu sat down on the ground with a thud and started slacking off, muttering, “Oh boy, I’m exhausted. This little rascal finally came out.”
Li Qingshan also squatted down and glared at her.
Ye Xianyu was displeased. “What’s with that look?”
Li Qingshan said resentfully, “The days ahead are long. I’ll settle the score with you slowly.”
Ye Xianyu rolled her eyes. “Hmph... petty.”
Zhang Yang’s eyes were filled with admiration.
Lin Qianqian’s eyes were filled with reverence.
Wen Qingxue had a rare smile on her face, her eyes half-closed...
Hao Ren,
Liu Qinghui...
They,
Had once walked with him, but that was in the past...
The broad-shouldered Zhou Tao grabbed a junior beside him and bragged, “The Little Grand-Uncle loves the porridge I cook the most. You know that, right?”
The junior rolled his eyes so far back they almost reached his forehead.
“Elder Zhou, you’ve nagged about that eighty thousand times already...”
On the Ancestral Peak,
Yao Zhijian chewed on a piece of foxtail grass and said, “So cool!”
Lu Yuan crossed his arms, his eyes covered, and scoffed, “Freak!”
The three girls turned into fangirls, their eyes full of shining little stars.
...
The youth in the light took a step forward, crossing a hundred miles of sky in a single breath.
When he reappeared, he was standing beside Jiang Wanyin, facing the area outside the mountain gate.
Shared through the Pupil of Insight,
Everything inside and outside the sect—the mountain ravines and river valleys, the vast sky and the earth—entered his sea of consciousness.
The shattered mountain gate,
The blood-stained land,
The barren, scorched earth,
His injured senior brothers, his bloodied senior sisters, the fallen disciples, the elderly with severed arms...
And,
The enemies of the world besieging his sect.
Xu Xian understood.
Reality was as he saw it. As for the process, it no longer mattered...
Time cannot be turned back; there are no do-overs.
Jiang Wanyin asked softly, “You’re here?”
Xu Xian replied quietly, “I’m late.”
Jiang Wanyin narrowed her eyes. “You’ve got this?”
Xu Xian nodded in response. “I’ve got this!”
Jiang Wanyin glanced back at the people outside the mountain with a look of pity.
This left the crowd outside completely bewildered.
She patted the youth’s shoulder and, without another word, returned to the mountains...
Rate on N.U.
