Chapter 4348 Defying the Heavens
When Long Chen placed his hands on that whirlpool, the dragon claw suddenly shook.
In an instant, blood sprayed out as the dragon claw plunged through Long Chen, eliciting cries of shock from Bai Shishi and the others. A divine light flowed on top of the dragon claw, its unparalleled might casting a shadow over the world, draining it of color.
To everyone’s surprise, Long Chen started to glow, and golden marks appeared beneath his skin. Those were his tendons, dragon tendons made of dragon blood.
Long Chen’s dragon tendons bulged, crazily absorbing the dragon claw’s energy. However, the dragon claw possessed so much power that it cracked Long Chen’s meridians, pushing them to the brink of rupture.
Fortunately, the resilient meridians cushioned the blow, allowing Long Chen to absorb the majority of the claw’s explosive power. The rest of it was unable to pose a serious threat to him.
Nevertheless, the continuous flood of energy still left Long Chen with the sensation that he would explode at any moment.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a dragon image appeared in Long Chen’s divine ring, accompanied by a sacred dragon cry. With no alternative left, Long Chen chose to summon the Dragon King Battle Armor, as he realized that he could only resolve the dragon claw’s terrifying might by drawing it into his manifestation.
Within the manifestation that stood behind Long Chen, a draconic figure roared, and its runes lit up as it absorbed the surging thunderforce.
“Lei Linger, absorb it together with me! I’m at my limit!” shouted Long Chen.
This whirlpool contained a tremendous amount of energy, and Long Chen felt like he would explode if he tried to absorb it all. Even his manifestation struggled to withstand the sheer magnitude of this energy.
However, he had to absorb it now. If he pulled out the dragon claw and allowed it to power up even more, he knew he wouldn’t be able to endure it later.
Lei Linger blazed like the sun, banishing the darkness and allowing people to see further. However, being able to see further actually caused them to feel even greater fear.
Having transformed into lightning wings, Lei Linger’s light pierced the tribulation clouds, revealing the boundless tribulation clouds. However, even as her light pierced high into the sky, the onlookers were unable to see the end of the tribulation clouds.
This ocean of tribulation clouds concealed an endless tempest of lightning within its depths, and its power was constantly pouring into those whirlpools. The sight of those whirlpools alone made people feel immense terror.
Upon arrival, Lei Linger directly alleviated a lot of pressure off Long Chen’s shoulder. However, under the constant influx of thunderforce, he gradually found it difficult to endure once more.
Lei Linger now bore the weight of the thunderforce alongside Long Chen, leaving her unable to help him break down and refine the wild and berserk Heavenly Dao will within the thunderforce. Previously, Lei Linger had aided Long Chen in expelling that part so that he could absorb it directly, but now he needed to do it himself.
Over eighty percent of the thunderforce was absorbed by Lei Linger now, and her lightning wings grew, stabbing into the heavenly tribulation.
As Long Chen absorbed the lightning, the onslaught of lightning weapons toward him persisted. However, they were all blocked by Lei Linger.
Thanks to them though, Long Chen’s Spirit Blood, Spirit Root, and Spirit Bone underwent a profound awakening and harmonious fusion, evolving with each passing moment.
It could be said that Long Chen’s aura and strength were skyrocketing during this period. However, he couldn’t feel glad at all.
As time went on, more and more thunderforce poured into the other whirlpools Long Chen was indeed getting stronger, but he could clearly sense the auras of his father, the Earth Cauldron, the mysterious dagger, the nine star heir, and Wu Tian growing in tandem crazily.
A chilling realization dawned upon him—the heavenly tribulation was channeling its formidable power to empower them all, fueling them to slay him.
The Heavenly Daos and tribulation seemed to have changed, and Long Chen wasn't sure if it was because of the gates to other worlds or his newfound status as the Sage King. Nevertheless, he could sense that this world was both supportive and hostile toward him.
It was like the Heavenly Daos had two conflicting sides, and Long Chen couldn’t tell which side was real. However, during this tribulation, he was unable to feel any closeness to heaven and earth, unable to sense that support of karmic luck any longer. In this place, there was only the will of annihilation.
“Lei Linger, can you absorb the other whirlpools’ energy?” asked Long Chen.
“Big Brother Long Chen, this is my limit. I can’t absorb more energy. If I go to absorb the other whirlpools, the pressure on you here will increase. I’m afraid that you won’t be able to endure it,” said Lei Linger with a nervous tone. She could also see the problem.
“I just need time. However, the heavenly tribulation also sees my weakness and won’t give me time. Fine, let’s just absorb this one. We’ll get rid of the greatest threat first,” said Long Chen.
Amongst all these whirlpools, the dragon claw’s power was the most terrifying, so Long Chen had to deal with it first. As for the rest, he didn’t have the luxury of thinking about them.
In the distance, everyone had thought that Long Chen was dead from being pierced by that claw. However, seeing that it simply remained in him and his aura was rapidly climbing, they slowly sighed with relief.
With the influx of thunderforce, Long Chen's physical body began a remarkable process of integration. His Supreme Blood, violet blood, Spirit Bone, Spirit Root qi, dragon energy, astral energy, and Spiritual Strength—once entirely distinct—were gradually merging through the baptism of the heavenly tribulation.
Long Chen’s aura grew stronger and stronger as if it had no upper limit.
He was like a forge smelting all of his powers together. If all his energies could merge into one, Long Chen would reach an unprecedented level.
However, Long Chen was in no mood to celebrate. He had reached a limit when it came to his absorption of thunderforce, and the heavenly tribulation seemed to have calculated his speed in advance. It was not going to give him time to reach his strongest state.
“What do I do? What do I do?!”
For the first time in forever, Long Chen felt panic, his head a jumble of random thoughts. He could only go on like this. The power of the heavenly tribulation was being sent to the many whirlpools, and he was only absorbing a single one. After two hours, the world gradually brightened as the heavenly tribulation’s power dwindled.
Others would celebrate seeing the tribulation clouds growing sparse because that meant that the tribulation was nearing its end.
Only Long Chen was well aware that once the tribulation’s power was gone, an immense battle to the death would start. What was frustrating was that he still had a great deal of room for improvement in his state, but he couldn’t absorb the power of the tribulation clouds any longer.
As a result, Long Chen was incensed, seeing the Heavenly Daos cheating against him. How shameless. If even the Heavenly Daos were unfair, how could there be anything fair in this world?
BOOM!
Suddenly, the whirlpool Long Chen was absorbing exploded, and all of its remaining thunderforce poured into him. The sky, once dominated by dark tribulation clouds, now cleared up completely, leaving only a serene and bright expanse above.
It was at this time that a terrifying scene occurred. The other whirlpools split open, and one figure after another attacked Long Chen.
“If the Heavenly Daos are unfair, then I will defy the heavens!”
Long Chen’s killing intent exploded at this point. Wielding the Seven Peak Sword, he faced his first opponent.
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