This was an ocean of lightning. Waves of electric radiance surged downward in a flood. Thunder was like a tide, shattering everything, blazing with intense and overwhelming force — the heavens and earth were suffused entirely in purple.
Boom!
The thunderclaps nearly pierced through people’s eardrums, crushing their souls. Connected to heaven and earth, vast and boundless — like the silver Milky Way of the nine heavens pouring down, as though tens of millions of great stars had come crashing upon them.
The void was blasted apart, broken and battered — yet it was swiftly submerged, for the lightning radiance was too blazing. Dazzling bolts of electricity filled every inch of space.
Boom!
The great thunder shook the world. Purple electricity was like a tide — swelling, surging, crashing. This was a world of lightning — capable of obliterating all things. Dread gripped the hearts of the crowd and made their skin crawl.
Ye Fan’s breakthrough had called down the Heaven Tribulation to block his advance, and it had stunned everyone.
Even from a distance, it was this terrifying. People could hardly imagine what kind of catastrophe Ye Fan — submerged within that purple sea — was enduring, and one after another they opened their divine eyes to look.
The purple lightning sea had swallowed the Dragon Transformation Pool. It represented the will of heaven and earth, capable of obliterating every living creature in this world — enough to make one’s soul tremble involuntarily.
Within the purple sea, Ye Fan’s skin was split open, his body a scorched black. Pale gold blood flowed from him as he endured damage beyond all imagination.
Though gravely injured, his blood energy surged skyward without the slightest sign of collapse. Instead, he lifted his head to the sky and fought back with all his strength.
The crowd was appalled. The fleshly body of the Holy Body was too terrifying. If it were an ordinary person, a single bolt of lightning would most likely reduce them to ash and cinders — yet he was contending against an ocean of purple lightning.
Boom!
Another wave of lightning crashing down — blazing and scorching, burying Ye Fan beneath it. It was impossible to tell how many bolts had struck his body. Pale gold blood scattered in all directions, his bones cracking and snapping.
“This is too frightening. No living creature would survive.”
“Throughout all of history, there have been few whose breakthrough called down a Heaven Tribulation. The Holy Body is truly a heaven-defying prodigy.”
And what astonished the crowd most of all was this: Ye Fan had not been shattered apart. He endured it all at once and still stood within the lightning sea — unyielding and unbroken, contending with fierce tenacity.
The Heaven Tribulation had been rare throughout the ages, but people still understood it. They had all heard the legends. Those outside had no way to offer any help — doing so would only draw a greater tribulation down upon themselves as well.
At the Dragon Transformation Pool’s edge, powerful figures were many: Red Dragon Daoren, the Peacock King, the Cyan Flood Dragon King, the elders of the Wind Clan, and the peerless Divine King himself — yet none dared to extend a hand.
To do so would not save Ye Fan. They too would have to face the great Heaven Tribulation — and it would not stop until one side was destroyed.
Lightning flickered in blinding flashes. Even as powerful as Ye Fan’s flesh was, it was battered and broken — nearly pierced through in multiple places. Many wounds had exposed bone beneath, and a great deal of pale gold blood had drained away.
“Nine-character Heaven Tribulation…”
The crowd was aghast. Ye Fan’s first ordeal of heavenly tribulation was a great thunderclap formed from nine electric radiances, and he had endured it with his bare body alone.
The second heavenly tribulation was this purple sea — nine waves of lightning in total. He had now endured three or four, yet almost no one believed he could hold on through all of them.
The Black Emperor shouted from hiding: “Kid, hold on! To be washed by lightning tribulation is extraordinarily rare throughout the ages — there will be countless benefits to your future cultivation!”
Ye Fan said nothing. He had no energy to spare. He could not afford to let his mind stray. One moment of carelessness and he would turn to ash — all things vanished.
At this moment, his entire body was in severe pain. The electric radiance had pierced through his flesh in multiple places. If it had been any other cultivator, body and soul would long since have been obliterated together — not even ashes remaining.
Boom!
Yet another wave of lightning crashed in, shaking heaven and earth. A towering purple radiance coiled and wound around him, threading through the heavens above and the earth below — like countless world-shaking great dragons soaring aloft.
The Cauldron of All Things’ Mother Qi drifted and swelled, floating above Ye Fan’s head, enduring the Heaven Tribulation alongside him. The purple sea battered it relentlessly; electric marks without number covered it, leaving behind one trail of innate markings after another.
The crowd held their breath and watched in silence.
The fifth wave, the sixth wave…
The crowd was stunned to discover that Ye Fan was drawing ever closer to the ninth wave — it seemed he might actually push through. Each and every person was shaken to the core by this.
The ninth wave arrived as expected. Lightning blazed in ten thousand rays. Purple became the sole color of heaven and earth. Ye Fan was like a leaf of duckweed upon a great tide — and in an instant, he was submerged.
Boom!
Endless bolts of lightning, blazing and scorching divine radiance — making heaven and earth as bright as midday, dazzling beyond all measure — like a boundless fire burning and burning, burning down the void itself.
Hum!
At last, the void trembled. The towering purple sea vanished. In a single breath, heaven and earth were peaceful once more — as though nothing had ever happened.
Clang!
A trembling sound came forth. The Cauldron of All Things’ Mother Qi plummeted to the ground, shattering the silence.
The crowd stared in uneasy uncertainty, not knowing whether Ye Fan was alive or dead. By the Dragon Transformation Pool, a single figure — his entire body jet-black, no different from a lump of charcoal — stood motionless.
“Did he endure his way through the Heaven Tribulation?”
“No — not the slightest trace of life. His form has withered dry.”
“This is… the Holy Body has fallen.”
Many cultivators were murmuring. The place was filled with clamor. Every person sensed it — that charred, blackened body had lost all life force.
Thud!
Ye Fan fell straight and stiff to the ground. His scorched body — like charcoal after a fire — was nearly spent and withered.
“Dead — it failed after all!”
“The curse of the Holy Body truly cannot be broken. For over a hundred thousand years, not a single person has been the exception.”
“Nearly succeeded — and then extinguished just like this.”
…
All of heaven and earth was in an uproar. Those who felt sorrow for him, and those who gloated — the reactions of the crowd were varied and different. Every great power breathed a long sigh of relief.
Pop!
Suddenly, from before the Dragon Transformation Pool came a faint sound. The charred, charcoal-like body stirred.
Ye Fan slowly stood up. Though his entire body was jet-black, his pair of eyes was incomparably clear — divine light burning bright within them.
Then came the sound of cracking and peeling. The outer surface of his body split open and flaked away. A layer of charred, blackened old skin fell off in pieces — and beneath it, crystalline and gleaming, a newly reborn physique was revealed.
“He’s not dead!”
“The lightning washed and reforged the body. He was reborn within the purple sea — his body must be immeasurably more powerful now!”
The crowd was shaken to the core. Not one person had imagined that Ye Fan would endure his way through.
The charred old skin fluttered and fell. The physique Ye Fan had been reborn into through lightning tribulation glimmered with precious radiance — filled with tremendous power. His eyes were clear, his dark hair flying free. He put on a set of white robes — like a divine spirit reawakened.
Every person was stopped in their tracks. The Holy Body was unharmed — did this mean his breakthrough had succeeded?
While the crowd stood with gaping eyes and dropped jaws, only the tiny golden creature was still active. The Heaven Tribulation had sent it fleeing in terror just moments ago — but now that peace had returned, it came racing back and drew every last thread of source energy surging upward into its own mouth.
Ye Fan felt the changes within himself. His fleshly body had without question succeeded in its breakthrough. Yet he could not manifest the auspicious signs — something still felt as though it were missing.
“Why is this happening? Has the curse not been broken?”
He murmured softly to himself, clenching his fists. His life essence was like a vast ocean — he possessed boundless divine power — yet why did he not feel that natural and seamless sense of oneness?
To enter the Four Extremes Secret Realm was to comprehend the order of heaven and earth, to imprint oneself upon the void — bringing with it all manner of wondrous transformations. Yet he could detect none of it.
“Of course — my divine awareness…” Ye Fan understood in a flash.
He had not yet stirred the Great Dao into motion, had not gained any true comprehension of it. Everything that had just happened — all of it had been endured by his physical body alone. His spiritual consciousness had not been washed by the lightning tribulation, and the two had not yet become one seamless whole.
Hum!
Suddenly, everyone’s hearts lurched. They nearly suffocated — almost unable to draw breath.
The crowd was struck with awe, and looked involuntarily toward the high heavens. Thunder rang out — like ten thousand soldiers and horses charging down. The tiny golden creature vanished in a streak without a moment’s hesitation.
“Kid, watch yourself!” The Black Emperor shouted from hiding. “You have the worst luck of eight lifetimes — you’ve run into a Heaven Tribulation of absolutely terrifying magnitude. There will definitely be five ordeals, each ordeal with nine lesser tribulations.”
“There’s more…” Ye Fan’s eyes blazed with divine light as he gazed up at the starry sky. He had already endured two ordeals — eighteen lesser tribulations in total — and the Heaven Tribulation was far from over.
Boom!
Thunder descended from above. This time it was not a lightning sea — only nine phantom silhouettes, weaving with electric radiance — like nine divine beings!
“What is that? How can there be living creatures within the lightning?”
Everyone was frozen in place. Nine silhouettes, formed from lightning and electricity — some resembling human forms, some like true dragons, others like birds and beasts and fish and insects — each one different from the last.
“Could the great heavens and earth truly possess a will, and have given birth to immortal divine beings?!” Many cultivators were aghast.
“They are not divine beings. They are merely formed from the interweaving force of lightning — one terrible form of the Heaven Tribulation.” A Holy Master spoke, his words calm and measured.
The accounts of various ancient texts differed. The sages of antiquity believed that the lightning tribulation arose from the resonance between heaven and human, and was intimately tied to the one undergoing the trial.
Boom!
While the crowd debated, Ye Fan had long since been plunged into a greater ordeal — locked in close combat with one of the phantom silhouettes.
This time it was not only his fleshly body enduring the trial. His divine awareness had surged forth as well, receiving the washing of lightning radiance and enduring pain that nearly shattered it to pieces.
The first phantom figure was finally destroyed — yet a second great crash arrived. It was a divine phoenix, carrying red lightning as it dove downward.
The lightning given the form of a living creature possessed divine power that defied imagination — far more terrifying than the lightning sea!
Ye Fan was enveloped by the divine phoenix. His powerful divine awareness was ground and honed, transformed into a blazing beam of light that was nearly burning. The agony was overwhelming, yet he endured it.
The third, the fourth…
Phantom figures like divine beings struck one after another. Nine tribulations were coming. Ye Fan’s fleshly body and divine awareness endured the trial simultaneously. If he held on and did not die, he would emerge like a nirvana — reborn and renewed.
If he could not withstand it, then he would be reduced to ash and scattered to the wind, forever.
At the same time, his cauldron was also receiving the full brunt of every impact. The innate markings left upon it grew more and more numerous.
Boom!
The last great crash — the ninth phantom figure, like an Immortal King, came charging down. It struck Ye Fan and sent him flying sideways. Then it bore down on him rapidly, and endless lightning submerged him.
He was swallowed into the Immortal King’s mouth — making everyone cry out, watching in tense anxiety.
Spit!
The Immortal King was split open. The lightning vanished entirely. Heaven and earth were at peace once more. Ye Fan’s divine awareness was like a golden sun blazing with intense and scorching light.
After the washing and refining of the lightning tribulation, his divine awareness was visibly different — carrying a quality that approached the divine.
Ye Fan understood with clarity. And so it was: within the lightning, his spiritual consciousness had captured the trajectory of the Dao. Holding the Bodhi Seed in his hand, he had gained many insights, and he felt he was on the verge of breaking through completely into the Four Extremes Secret Realm.
“Kid, watch yourself — the Chaos Lightning Tribulation, which defies all sense and reason, is here!” The Black Emperor cried out in alarm.
Nine great bolts of thunder descended from above. Within each one, a thread of primal chaos energy circulated — filling people with the aura of the very moment heaven and earth first opened!
“It is truly the Chaos Lightning Tribulation — though each one carries only a single thread, the terror it brings is still boundless!”
The Holy Masters changed expression first, and then their eyes took on a certain unusual light. The unparalleled figures of the Central State’s immortal dynasties and the hundred schools were likewise moved.
“Before the Great Emperors of antiquity refined sacred weapons, they would always wash the sacred objects through with endless Chaos Lightning first!”
Many of the older generation burned with longing. To use nine threads of Chaos Lightning energy from within the great thunder to refine a weapon would absolutely yield limitless wondrous effects, elevating the quality of the divine weapon beyond measure.
Yet Ye Fan was going to use it to refine his own body. Even to imagine it made people draw sharp breaths — what manner of ordeal would this be?
Boom!
The first great thunder struck down. It nearly pummeled Ye Fan’s flesh apart. The single thread of Chaos Lightning energy within it was too utterly terrifying!
He was drenched in blood. His bones cried out. His divine awareness shattered. His cauldron was covered in marks. His entire body was wounds upon wounds — he swayed and nearly could not hold on.
But Ye Fan’s will was iron. His divine awareness swiftly gathered itself together and transformed into an ancient pagoda, drawing that thread of Chaos energy in and rapidly refining it.
The imprints of the Dao!
Innate markings of the Great Dao, suffused within the Chaos Lightning energy — making his body and mind clear and translucent. Then his injuries swiftly recovered, as though he were being reborn through fire.
Boom!
The second great thunder fell. It struck him nearly to pieces — yet he endured it through to the end.
Boom!
The third wave of Chaos Lightning descended. Ye Fan let out a long cry toward the sky. His flesh, his divine awareness, and his cauldron vibrated in unison as he faced the high heavens.
…
When the seventh bolt struck down, Ye Fan was nearly scattered apart — a spectacle too wretched to look upon. This was more terrifying than every lightning tribulation he had endured before. His white bones jutted out rawly, and his pale gold blood was almost entirely drained away.
Yet he still painstakingly reassembled his divine awareness — transforming it into a great bell that locked down that thread of Chaos energy, letting it flow and cycle between his divine consciousness, his flesh, and his cauldron.
Boom!
The eighth bolt of lightning struck. Ye Fan’s injuries grew yet more severe. He was nearly reduced to pulp — more than half his bones shattered — yet still he held on.
His shattered divine awareness gathered together and transformed into a cauldron, sealing that thread of Chaos energy within. He comprehended the imprints of the Dao, used it to restore his flesh and divine awareness, and simultaneously used it to wash and refine the Cauldron of All Things’ Mother Qi.
Boom!
At last, the final wave of Chaos Lightning fell. It pierced Ye Fan’s fleshly body in dozens of places, and he very nearly broke apart into several pieces.
Yet he clenched his teeth and kept himself lucid — did not slip into unconsciousness. His divine awareness reconstituted itself and transformed into a figure like an Immortal King, blazing with light. If one looked carefully, it was the very image of himself.
The divine awareness had taken the form of an Immortal King, seated cross-legged in the void, cradling that thread of Chaos energy in its arms and receiving its nourishment — constantly recovering and growing stronger.
Crack crack crack!
The sounds of Ye Fan’s bones rang out. His fleshly body began to recover. His divine awareness was like a golden sun blazing with light that pierced the sky, hovering before the center of his brow.
And the Cauldron of All Things’ Mother Qi hung above his head, drifting and swelling — sending down one thread of dark-yellow energy after another, hazy and indistinct, suffused with the resonance of the Dao.
Swish!
Nine threads of Chaos Lightning energy coiled and circled around Ye Fan’s flesh like nine small dragons endlessly dancing, then entered into his sea of consciousness and finally flowed into the cauldron.
At this moment, the primordial aura of the age of heaven and earth’s very beginning permeated the air, as though the cosmos were being opened anew — giving him a feeling that could not be expressed in words. His body and mind were serene, suffused with peace and translucence.
Nine threads of Chaos Lightning energy — each one suffused with the trajectory of the Dao. Ye Fan comprehended them without cease, and then began to refine and absorb the nine energies!
His divine consciousness transformed into an Immortal King seated cross-legged, hovering before the center of his brow. The cauldron was suspended above his head. And his physical body sat cross-legged in the void.
Hum!
The void trembled. Ye Fan imprinted himself upon the vast heavens and earth — merging with the void as one. The nine threads of Chaos energy were completely refined away, becoming one with him and the cauldron.
Swish!
Ye Fan opened his eyes. He knew he had entered the Four Extremes Secret Realm — his breakthrough had succeeded!
His white robes billowed. His dark hair drifted gently. His eyes were clear and bright as he stood quietly within this expanse of heaven and earth — feeling completely and utterly different from before.
“The fifth ordeal of the Heaven Tribulation…” Ye Fan gazed up at the night sky, and still did not see it descend.