by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
As her initial sea continued to grow, Long Chen closed his eyes, seeing if he could enter that mysterious state again.
As he circulated the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, his soul relaxed, and he gradually felt that feeling of being able to see the entire world. But what he ‘saw’ was extremely indistinct. It was more like a sense, a kind of spiritual perception.
As his spiritual perception grew, he saw experts surrounded by lightning nearby. They were receiving the baptism of heavenly tribulation.
It seemed they didn’t have any experience and hadn’t timed it properly. They had begun their breakthrough before the spiritual qi had reached its greatest density. Now, they had already finished expanding their sea and were undergoing tribulation.
From the strength of their tribulations, it was possible to tell that their expanded seas weren’t very large. Otherwise, the tribulations wouldn’t be so weak.
His spiritual perception spread further. Long Chen sensed more and more people absorbing spiritual qi and attacking Sea Expansion.
Some were deep in the mountains, some were in the ruins, while some were sitting in the clouds. To sum it up, all the disciples that had entered the Immemorial Path were now attacking Sea Expansion.
“Excellent, this fellow should be Gu Yang.” Long Chen sensed a familiar aura. He seemed to be able to see a dazzling bald head that could light up heaven and earth. Such a thing was probably something only Gu Yang possessed.
BOOM!
Suddenly, Long Chen was woken by a powerful pressure. He opened his eyes to see that Yue Xiaoqian’s initial sea had grown to a huge size of three thousand miles.
What he didn’t know was that in his empty state, he hadn’t felt the passing of time. Ten days had passed without him knowing.
Only now did he see that lord Heaveneye and the other aboriginals were thousands of miles away, still watching them. Seeing that huge qi sea, other than lord Heaveneye, everyone was astonished. This was a true sea.
“A qi sea of three thousand miles. Perhaps she has already reached the level of an immortal sprout from the immortal era,” gulped one elder.
The other experts were as astonished as him. They were under a curse here and were unable to rely on the sudden influx of spiritual qi to advance or cultivate. Such a huge initial sea was something they had only heard of in legends.
Lord Heaveneye shook his head. “The immortal sprout’s standard is to have a three-thousand-mile initial sea at the very beginning. She’s far from that requirement. But this huge qi sea of hers is truly startling. Although it can’t compare to those legendary immortal sprouts, her future prospects are unlimited. But this is just the start. The difficult part starts now.”
Lord Heaveneye’s expression was slightly grave. The larger the initial sea, the stronger the heavenly tribulation. Those were the laws of the Heavenly Daos. That was why the Immortal Condensing Platform was a double-sided blade.
Yue Xiaoqian’s veil had been destroyed. She suddenly found that she was starting to lose control of her qi sea. She had been worried that she wouldn’t be able to expand her qi sea large enough, so she had gone all-out. However, now her qi sea had reached an immense size, such an immense size that it was out of her control.
She also knew what the concept of a three-thousand-mile initial sea meant. She was the first one to reach this level since the original devil race had declined. If she didn’t fall, she would become the strongest expert of the declined original devil race.
She was pale with terror now. She didn’t dare to call her initial sea back into her Dantian. Once she did, she would immediately be sensed by the Heavenly Daos, and her heavenly tribulation would fall upon her. Its power would be beyond her imagination.
“Don’t be afraid! If the heavens collapse, I’ll be there to help you hold them up!” A voice suddenly rang out. It wasn’t loud, but it filled her with warmth.
Yue Xiaoqian looked at Long Chen. He was still sitting on his pillar, a faint smile on his face. He gave her a victorious gesture.
For some unknown reason, seeing his smile made her terror lessen a great deal. Long Chen’s smile was full of confidence, confidence that increased her own confidence. Taking a deep breath, she slowly formed hand seals.
The qi sea behind her slowly calmed and began to surge into her Dantian. She began to glow, and her Heavenly Dao runes automatically appeared around her.
“An innate rank three Celestial’s Heavenly Dao runes. It’s unknown how much of the heavenly tribulation’s power they can block,” said one elder. It would be too regretful for such a genius to fall to heavenly tribulation.
As she drew her qi sea into her Dantian, everything was calm and steady. That showed how steady her heart was.
It took a full two hours for her huge qi sea to completely return to her Dantian. Once the last bit of power entered her body, a majestic aura surged into the sky.
Thunder filled the air. Boundless tribulation clouds condensed in the sky, covering an area of ten thousand miles. Everyone’s expressions turned pale as paper.
Chapter 886 Lightning Tribulation Begins
“What a terrifying aura! This pressure is on the same level as when we advanced to Foundation Forging!” cried the tribe leaders. This pressure made them think of how they had narrowly managed to survive their own Foundation Forging tribulations.
The tribulation clouds turned the world dark. The center of the tribulation clouds was over Yue Xiaoqian, and it was constantly revolving.
As the tribulation clouds revolved, energy condensed within them. The pressure was growing stronger and stronger. Some of the Sea Expansion experts even found it hard to breathe.
They had also survived their Sea Expansion tribulations, and the majority of them had already reached the mid Sea Expansion realm. But such a terrifying heavenly tribulation still made them tremble.
“Heavens, what is Long Chen doing?! Why isn’t he activating the Immortal Condensing Pillar’s barrier to block the lightning? Does he not know how to?!” The Stone tribe’s experts saw that Long Chen was now standing on his pillar with his hands clasped behind his back. He was completely ignoring this terrifying tribulation.
“Long Chen, quickly activate the barrier! Otherwise, you’ll be struck by lightning and killed!” shouted one of the men from the Stone tribe that Long Chen had drunk with.
As soon as he shouted, Shi Cang slapped him on the back of his head. “What are you spouting at this time? To say that he’ll die during tribulation, are you cursing him?”
Tribulation was already a dangerous situation. To say that someone would die during it was a curse.
“Stop shouting. The place Long Chen is at is within the heavenly tribulation. He can’t hear your voice over the heavens’ pressure,” said the Stone tribe’s leader.
The rumbling suddenly reached a peak, shaking heaven and earth, before suddenly becoming silent. Then a torrent of lightning crashed down.
This torrent of lightning horrified all the aboriginals, as it was completely different from when they underwent tribulation. This was no ordinary thunderforce. Each drop of lightning was a lightning rune, and when they crashed to the ground, smoke would come out and the ground would be charred.
The heavenly tribulation was supposed to be the weakest at the beginning. But even now that they had advanced to Sea Expansion, they wouldn’t be able to last an incense stick’s worth of time against this tribulation before dying.
This terrifying torrent of lightning was just the first wave of Yue Xiaoqian’s tribulation. All their hearts sank in worry. A destructive aura filled the air.
Yue Xiaoqian stood in the air. A faint layer of light shone over her body. The lightning was blocked by that barrier, unable to harm her.
That caused everyone to sigh with relief. If she was panicked at the first wave of lightning, then she would definitely fail in the end. That was something none of them wanted to see.
Now that they saw Yue Xiaoqian was easily blocking this torrent of light
ning, they looked toward Long Chen.
“What?!” Everyone was startled to see Long Chen directly allow the tempest of lightning to land on his body. He seemed incredibly relaxed and indifferent.
“Monster!” Even the Foundation Forging experts were shocked. Perhaps this lightning wouldn’t be able to cause much damage to them, but they couldn’t just allow the lightning to land on them forever without being injured.
Long Chen bathed in the lightning. This little bit of thunderforce was no different from ordinary rain to him. In fact, it was Lei Long that was growing uneasy, wanting to charge out. It was like a hungry beast that had encountered a fat sheep.
But Long Chen didn’t allow it to run amok. That would affect Yue Xiaoqian’s tribulation, and he didn’t dare to cause any ripples in case the tribulation noticed him. So he simply allowed the lightning to fall on him as a taste for Lei Long.
This thunderforce wasn’t enough food to even get stuck between Lei Long’s teeth. It became more and more uneasy, but Long Chen refused to release it.
However, Long Chen said that he would allow it to eat its fill soon. Only then did it calm back down.
Bathed in the lightning, Long Chen suddenly sensed many other auras through the tribulation. The countless experts in the Immemorial Path were undergoing tribulation.
Because they were all undergoing tribulation at the same time, Long Chen sensed several familiar auras. But he couldn't determine their exact location. He could only vaguely sense the power of their tribulations.
He sensed Xue You, Yu Changhao, and Huang Junmo’s auras. They were also undergoing tribulation, and the intensity of it was not weaker than Yue Xiaoqian’s.
That startled Long Chen. It seemed they had also run into their own fortuitous encounters. The existence known as karmic luck was too difficult to describe.
The most startling thing was that he sensed other unfamiliar auras whose tribulations were just as strong as Xue You and the others. It seemed he had underestimated the other experts. Many of them were low-key and waiting patiently.
Their light had been drowned out by the light of others. But most importantly, they intentionally concealed their power. This way, they wouldn’t be noticed as easily as other experts, and they could grow easier. But now that they were undergoing tribulation, they had revealed their fangs.
He sensed quite a few extremely powerful tribulations. This meant that the Eastern Wasteland had actually been hiding several powerful experts. It was just unknown what kind of people they were.
The lightning rain continued for over two hours before buzzing filled the air. The rain grew more and more concentrated, more and more powerful, in the end becoming huge beads the size of fists that mercilessly smashed down.
The experts watching all felt a chill. These lightning beads were like cannonballs shooting from the sky. If they allowed just one to land on their bodies, then even Sea Expansion experts would be at least heavily injured upon being struck, if not killed outright.
The light barrier around Yue Xiaoqian’s body was becoming unsteady under the attack of the lightning beads. She clearly didn’t have it as easy as before. But that light barrier didn’t shatter, so she was still out of danger.
Looking at Long Chen, the others were speechless. He was still standing there like he didn’t even sense the lightning beads smashing into his body.
“Big brother Long Chen is amazing! He can ignore such terrifying lightning!” Xiao Fei’s eyes were full of worship as he stared at Long Chen.
In all the Xiao tribe’s experts’ eyes, Long Chen was a true king. Perhaps only they knew just how strong and domineering Long Chen was.
The tribulation clouds suddenly changed once more. They had originally been static, but now they began to revolve. As they revolved, the lightning beads disappeared. Spears of lightning began shooting down from the sky.
“The true heavenly tribulation starts now!”
Each of the lightning spears was thirty meters long and contained a fierce, destructive aura. They could kill any of the Sea Expansion experts watching.
Yue Xiaoqian’s expression finally turned grave. She formed hand seals, and her Heavenly Dao runes wrapped around her. She no longer passively defended, but began launching attacks.
Some of her three-colored Heavenly Dao runes formed a thirty-meter barrier around her, while the rest formed thousands of flying swords that attacked the lightning spears.
When the lightning spears and flying swords clashed, they instantly exploded. But each destroyed lightning spear was replaced with another.
As for Yue Xiaoqian, when her runic flying swords were destroyed, she drew out more of the Heavenly Dao runes’ energy to form new swords. An awe-inspiring clash of swords and spears took place in the sky.
The lightning spears were like rain crashing toward the earth. But Yue Xiaoqian was able to fight against them. Her initial sea had already formed, so the qi sea in her Dantian had grown by a thousand times. This was the most terrifying part of Sea Expansion.
Compared to before, she had a thousand times more spiritual qi. This immense consumption was nothing for her.
Seeing that Yue Xiaoqian was still able to hold on under such a terrifying tribulation, the others were full of praise. They hoped to personally see a supreme genius with a qi sea of three thousand miles pass her tribulation.
They no longer felt the slightest dissatisfaction at being summoned by lord Heaveneye. Just being able to see such a shocking tribulation was worth it. Feeling this terrifying pressure and will was a valuable experience for them. It would be helpful to their own future tribulations.
“Heavens!”
Suddenly, one of the Stone race’s women let out a startled cry. Previously, everyone had been focused on Yue Xiaoqian. But now that they looked toward Long Chen, they jumped in shock.
Long Chen was still completely at ease. That woman had just seen a lightning spear crash onto Long Chen’s body, so she hadn’t been able to hold back her startled cry.
Everyone’s gazes turned to Long Chen. Personally seeing a lightning spear explode upon striking Long Chen, their eyes almost popped out. That calm expression of his caused their hearts to pound.
“That’s way too monstrous!”
Quite a few people gulped. This was no ordinary thunderforce, but the nine heavens’ tribulation thunderforce!
Chapter 887 No Matter What Happens, I’m Here
This level of lightning tribulation wasn’t something Long Chen had to dodge. In fact, its power greatly dissatisfied Lei Long. It was like someone about to die from dehydration was only allowed to drink water drop by drop.
But there was no way around that. Long Chen didn’t dare to expose himself during Yue Xiaoqian’s lightning tribulation. The slightest fluctuation might be sensed by the Heavenly Daos.
Time passed bit by bit. They were shocked to see that this tribulation endured for a whole day and night, and the lightning spears only grew stronger. From their original thirty meters, they had grown to three hundred meters each. Each attack was powerful, and the scope had also increased. The aboriginals had no choice but to go further back.
Long Chen was like a mountain the entire time. No matter how strong the tribulation grew, he was still so indifferent. The experts watching were numb now. They felt like all their shock had already been used up.
No one bothered with the monster known as Long Chen. Instead, they just stared at Yue Xiaoqian, who was standing in the air, facing this heavenly tribulation. They wished for her to pass this tribulation. Then they would have borne witness to the birth of a legend.
Long Chen was also watching Yue Xiaoqian closely. The thunderforce was growing even stronger, and Long Chen was no longer able to sense other people’s tribulations. He was completely focused on Yue Xiaoqian.
Suddenly, the lightning spears disappeared. Those tribulation clouds shook, and lightning beasts charged down at Yue Xiaoqian. Each of those lightning beasts was like a small mountain.
“
Heavens, what’s going on?!” These aboriginals had never seen lightning tribulation transform like this.
Seeing these lightning beasts, Long Chen’s eyes narrowed. This was the true challenge. Whether Yue Xiaoqian could succeed depended on this moment.
The lightning beasts came in all kinds of forms. Some were birds, some were beasts, and some were even fish. It was a veritable sea of beasts.
Seeing these innumerable lightning beasts charging toward her, Yue Xiaoqian’s heart turned cold. She could feel just how powerful each one of them was. Without her core energy, it didn’t seem like she would be able to defeat them. There were so many of them as to cause despair.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m here. Just do your best and if you can’t hold on, I’ll take action!” Long Chen’s voice rang in her ears. Even at this time, his voice was so calm.
Even she didn’t understand why hearing his voice made her confidence increase by so much.
The runes around Yue Xiaoqian formed a huge figure that stood like a god behind her. Her sword slashed forward.
The illusory figure mimicked her movements. Its terrifying power destroyed the first few lightning beasts, transforming them into lightning runes.
“How powerful!” The aboriginals’ jaws dropped. This endless sea of lightning beasts had made them despair. The power of this tribulation had already surpassed their Foundation Forging tribulations. Who could survive this?
Seeing Yue Xiaoqian kill three of them in one move, they cheered. They saw hope.
But Long Chen didn’t cheer. Instead, he was worried. This magical art was Yue Xiaoqian’s strongest move. She had relied on this move to allow them to escape from the Flame Devil.
She had now condensed her qi sea, however, the power of this figure was weaker than when she had used it before. He estimated that it had around seventy percent of its original power.