In a corner of the Cangming Realm, a streak of dazzling white flashed across the grey firmament like a meteor from beyond the heavens, vanishing in an instant...
On the desolate earth, an ancient array pattern surged forth.
With a low hum, the slumbering grey mist was startled awake. Like a pack of starving wolves, it swarmed toward a patch of void.
The wind howled, letting out a sharp, piercing, and mournful shriek.
Amidst the heavens and earth, a figure in vibrant red stood against the wind, taking everything in.
She remained motionless, her tear-filled eyes calmly watching the abnormal movement within the void.
Her hand gripped the hilt of her sword, her thumb lightly nudging the pommel.
She slowly turned her head toward the west, her gaze following the wind on a long journey...
A hundred miles,
A thousand miles,
Ten thousand miles...
That wind blew across parched wastelands, lonely hills, and deathly silent plains...
Inside a towering castle.
Blood-red curtains were ruffled by the wind, and eerie blue candle flames flickered.
They swayed with a whooshing sound.
On a black throne, the slumbering king suddenly snapped open a pair of blood-red eyes.
Through the window, he looked back toward the direction from which the wind had come...
The corners of his ashen lips curled upward, revealing a sinister and terrifying smile.
In his eyes were greed, excitement, and a long-awaited hunger for prey.
“Hahaha!”
“Hahaha!!”
“Hahaha!!!”
His arrogant laughter echoed through the city soaked in blood-red light.
In the deathly silent streets and alleys, grey beings stopped in their tracks and looked up, their dim eyes gradually turning a deep crimson...
...
The mortal realm.
Underground.
The Sky Gate of Fanzhou broke free from its seal. For the first time in ten thousand years, it was completely open.
Grey mist erupted frantically, swallowing the entire Sky Gate in the blink of an eye.
An intent of extreme cold rampaged.
The turbulent flame pool was frozen solid, and the backflowing red river congealed.
The crimson color vanished.
Darkness shrouded the underground.
At the same time, five pillars of light emerged from the Five-Direction Platforms. Energy converged, forming dense, azure array patterns.
The 【Netherworld Sealing Formation】 activated.
It sealed all the gushing grey mist within.
The grey mist crashed against the array walls like a madman. The five people closed their eyes, circulating their qi through their dantians with all their might.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Screech! Screech! Screech!
Shriek! Shriek! Shriek!
Aaargh! Aaargh! Aaargh!
Ear-piercing, mournful screams filled the entire underground world, so chaotic that they made the saints furrow their brows.
In the mortal realm, outside the Wendao Sword Sect.
The dark clouds swallowed thousands of miles of the firmament, like a massive abyss threatening to devour the mortal realm.
Purple lightning coiled and gathered within...
Growing denser, thicker, and more intense.
The sound was like the chaotic beating of war drums, causing chests to vibrate in resonance.
Lightning occasionally flashed out from the clouds, so bright that people dared not look directly at it.
The heavenly might was ferocious, crashing down with a roar.
The mountains and rivers changed color, and all spirits lost their wits.
Even within the Wendao Sword Sect and among the tide of cloud boats far away, the effects were felt.
The dantians of many low-cultivation beings became turbulent because of it.
The world roared, and all spirits fell silent, terrified like withered wood.
Their eyes were wide, their teeth clenched, and their Adam's apples bobbed as they swallowed.
“Is... is this the Immortal Tribulation?”
“How terrifying...”
“Can Xu Xian... withstand this?”
On the Ascension Platform, the saints and those in the tribulation transcendence stage could no longer sit still. Their earlier anticipation and composure were gone, replaced by panic in their eyes and fear in their hearts.
They were the closest.
They were directly beneath the Immortal Tribulation.
Even though the Immortal Tribulation had not yet fallen,
Even though most of the heavenly might was intercepted by the youth,
Even though they were protected by the Ascension Platform's formation,
They still could not restrain the panic growing in their hearts.
They knew very well that if this lightning fell on them, even the strongest saint among them would be crippled if not killed.
The saints lowered their heads,
The demon immortals narrowed their eyes,
And the demon gods were filled with unease.
They smelled death and saw the Reaper.
They wanted to do something, only to find they could do nothing at all.
If someone were to ask them now what was more terrifying than death,
They would undoubtedly answer:
“Waiting for death!”
Someone said despondently, “Heaven is angry!”
Another shouted almost frantically, “The Immortal Tribulation... is truly extraordinary!”
At this moment, even Tu Sisi suspected that Xu Xian wanted to use this heavenly tribulation to drag everyone down with him.
This wasn't reopening the Sky Gate or recreating the path to immortality; this was clearly pushing open the gates of hell and sacrificing all living beings.
Fanzhou had not seen an immortal for tens of thousands of years, nor had an Immortal Tribulation fallen in all that time. Today, they saw it, and it was far more insane than they had imagined.
Was it because Xu Xian was too strong?
Was the Immortal Tribulation naturally like this?
Could he survive it?
Whether they were part of the fray or spectators, acquaintances or strangers, everyone felt as if they were right there, facing the Heavens directly. It was as if they were Xu Xian, and this tribulation was not just his to bear.
Or rather, this tribulation was not Xu Xian's Immortal Tribulation, but a tribulation for all of Fanzhou.
The whole world was in a panic, dreading and fearing, yet one person remained unmoved from start to finish.
He hung there, his body shimmering with immortal essence. As the heavenly might crashed down, not a single strand of his black hair was out of place. He tilted his head back, calmly watching the mass of thunderclouds with intense focus, seemingly waiting for something.
Until a certain moment, when the opportunity arrived.
He gave a single-handed jolt.
He summoned a Sword Tower.
The tower rose thousands of feet into the sky, its misty light like a suspended moon.
Sword might leaked out, resonating through the mortal world.
The ultimate brilliance
entered people's eyes.
Unfortunately, though the tower was high, it could not rise above the tribulation of heavenly wrath.
Though the tower was bright, it could not outshine the lightning filling the sky.
Though the tower was strong, it was far from matching the thousands of miles of black clouds.
However,
Before the world could regain its senses, Xu Xian leaped up and hung before the fifth floor. He reached out into the sky, the tower door opened, and he pulled out a sword from within.
When the sword emerged,
A more violent thunderous roar was heard.
“Roar!”
“Boom!”
It shook the world's souls with terror.
On the Ascension Platform, the saints looked up and saw a sword, wreathed in tens of thousands of bolts of lightning, emerging from the tower.
The sword rose from the White Jade Capital,
with millions of lightning bolts.
“The fifth sword?”
“Is this that lightning sword?”
“What a powerful sword...”
“The same lightning, the same heavenly might; this sword is extraordinary...”
The world had never forgotten that on the second day of the universal crusade against the Wendao Sword Sect years ago, a sword intent had appeared on the Ancestral Peak.
A thunder sword intent.
At that time, a single sword intent had caused the heavens to change color.
The world also knew that the sword intent originated from the Sword Mound, and its master was Xu Xian.
It was just a pity that the saints of Fanzhou were too weak.
After Xu Xian challenged the world with his sword, no one had been able to force him to summon the Sword Tower again. Naturally, no one had seen this sword.
Today, they saw it.
Beneath the Immortal Tribulation, in front of the whole world, Xu Xian summoned his strongest sword, living up to what he had said before.
He was invincible in the mortal realm; if he did not contend with Heaven, with whom should he contend?
In the mortal realm, only this Heaven could make him draw this sword.
The sword emerged from the high tower, and the heavenly might within it seemed to infuriate the Immortal Tribulation.
The first layer of lightning transformed into a giant dragon without warning and crashed down.
Blinding white light illuminated the entire mortal world.
Xu Xian's hand moved.
“Go!”
The sword left his hand, ascending against the hundred-mile curtain of lightning.
As it moved forward,
it also transformed into a purple thunder dragon.
Opening its dragon head,
the lightning filling the sky poured into its mouth.
The roaring lightning tribulation had not even touched Xu Xian before it was entirely swallowed by the thunder dragon transformed from Thunder Punishment in less than a breath.
The thunder dragon expanded in turn,
growing as large as a mountain-sized behemoth.
The eyes of the world brightened, then grew brighter, then dimmed.
In the blink of an eye, the world changed through more than one color.
Belatedly, they saw the lightning tribulation flowing backward, vanishing into the thunderclouds. Then, within the thousands of miles of the lightning tribulation, the lightning decreased at a visible rate...
Faintly,
they even heard...
The sky was screaming!
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