Chapter 1316: Chapter 1314: Lightning Tribulation Beyond the Limits of Endurance
Just as the combination of the Vigorous Air star drill and the psychic force black dot completed its thirty-third combination, Shi Xiaole suddenly felt the tail vertebrae acupoint burst open.
The Martial Arts Nine Realms are divided into breaking through three pills, shattering three barriers, and connecting three elements.
The Sky Origin realm is the penultimate of the three elements and corresponds to the tail vertebrae acupoint. This point governs "emptiness"; once broken through, the ethereal and the tangible merge, every move and gesture exude divine might.
The most significant change was internal.
The halo formed by the combination of the Vigorous Air star drill and the psychic force black dot shrank countless times and suddenly entered Shi Xiaole’s sea of consciousness. Immediately after, a profound and mysterious force was drawn out from the depths.
It clearly existed yet had no physical form, and besides Shi Xiaole himself, no one else could perceive it.
This is the soul body!
Everyone has a soul body, the extension of which is psychic force. However, most people are unable to truly see or even touch their soul body throughout their lives, let alone stimulate its power.
The only way to stimulate it is to create energy of the same level, to resonate with the soul, which is the fundamental reason for the fusion of psychic force and Vigorous Air.
Most importantly, the higher the quality of the psychic force and Vigorous Air, the more thorough the fusion, the more of the soul body will be drawn out. Naturally, the strength will be greater.
Note that no one can draw out a complete soul body.
The mystery of the human body is no less than that of the cosmos. Supreme Lords are a group of people who have developed their potential the most, but even they are not clear about how much they have actually unlocked.
As the light merged with the soul body, Shi Xiaole was sublimated.
In his eyes, heaven and earth had utterly changed; mountains were still mountains, snow was still snow, but he could easily discern the most fundamental composition of these substances, far superior to granular-level psychic force.
With a single thought, all matter ceased to function. Shi Xiaole felt that if he wished, he could easily destroy everything before his eyes!
"Is this what the Sky Origin realm is like? No wonder it’s so powerful."
It wasn’t that the matter had actually ceased to function; the real reason was that Shi Xiaole’s soul body had deconstructed everything. Nothing could hide from his eyes.
Matching this deconstructive power was the absolute control of the soul body over the body!
Shi Xiaole was confident that he could now perform any unimaginably intricate action that ordinary people couldn’t even conceive, controlling the use of force down to granular precision!
In the eyes of ordinary people, Shi Xiaole was now no different from a god.
Having him now fight against his pre-breakthrough self, even if he suppressed his strength to the same level, he could resolve the battle within a few moves. Without suppressing his strength, a single finger could crush everything.
This was an incredibly terrifying power boost! It’s worth noting that even the pre-breakthrough Shi Xiaole might have been able to compete with the weakest of Supreme Lords.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
From the sky, rods of black lightning, each several zhang thick, furiously struck down toward the top of Shi Xiaole’s head.
"Devouring Heaven Lightning right from the start?"
The faces of the twelve Supreme Lords in the distance were ten times uglier than before.
Different people face different levels of lightning tribulation.
Peerless geniuses, if further categorized, also range in caliber. If the weakest of peerless geniuses were to face a tribulation, they would typically encounter blue lightning, which would be as thin as their thumb.
A step above are the first-rate peerless geniuses, who are met with black lightning, called "Devouring Heaven Lightning," a terrifying presence suggesting it could devour everything.
The highest level is met with red lightning, called "Hell-exterminating Thunder." It is said that this kind of lightning only appears in Infinite Hell, where even ghosts and spirits are struck to death.
When most people break through, they face blue lightning.
Those who encounter "Devouring Heaven Lightning" are considered once-in-a-hundred-million-years unparalleled geniuses. Within the past two hundred thousand years in the Celestial Realm, only the Limitless Sword Sovereign met the criteria.
But even for the Limitless Sword Sovereign, it was only in the final moments of the lightning tribulation that he faced a few "Devouring Heaven Lightning" strikes, not from the beginning like this, and not in such quick succession.
An even more astonishing scene unfolded.
Facing the sky filled with black lightning, Shi Xiaole did not dodge or evade but simply swung a sword finger upward.
With a sizzling sound!
The formidable blade of "Devouring Heaven Lightning" was split in half as if being sheared at the waist, with the Sword Qi scattering up and down from the center of the cut, extinguishing all the "Devouring Heaven Lightning."
"What?!"
The twelve Supreme Lords inhaled sharply, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
Shi Xiaole’s actions angered the will of the Celestial Realm, prompting even more "Devouring Heaven Lightning" to descend, quickly flooding the entire snowy region.
The explosions were more terrifying than a level 50 tsunami, causing countless people in the Martial World who were millions of li away to experience piercing ear pain, as if their heads were about to explode; they hastily ran their powers and strived to resist, but after just a short moment, they were still shaken to the point of bleeding from all orifices.
Thud!
The sea of black lightning was torn asunder, and Shi Xiaole streaked out, an open palm revealing a Cleansing Evil Sword condensed from Supreme Lord power. With sword in hand, he slashed out, causing large swathes of the thunder sea to split and crumble into disarray.
Sizzling...
Threads of blood-red color spread across the sky above the dark clouds and quickly stained the entire sky red. An intense, oppressive, and despairing boundless aura covered the whole land.
"God-slaying Thunder Tribulation has appeared so soon!"
Words couldn’t express the shock and regret of the Seven Evils Blades Supreme Lord.
To his knowledge, the three Celestial Masters had to face the "God-slaying Thunder Tribulation," but even they had only withstood it at the very end; it was impossible to confront it like Shi Xiaole. How long had this tribulation been going on?
Just a bit longer! If he had been just a little faster, he could have slain this mate!
Little did Poison Dragon Supreme Lord know that he was even more frustrated because, after all, he was the first to discover Shi Xiaole but had not pursued him with all his might.
As the red thunder descended, Shi Xiaole immediately felt the pressure, his power surged to its peak, and his long sword slashed horizontally.
Bang!
The sword light, going against the assault of the red thunder, cut it down by more than half, but ultimately could not withstand the strain and shattered inch by inch. The red thunder, however, remained as potent as ever, cutting through the air every moment, ferociously engulfing Shi Xiaole.
The ground where he had been standing had already sunk thousands of meters, and vast amounts of groundwater gushed out, only to be immediately evaporated.
Despite Shi Xiaole’s extraordinary strength, he couldn’t withstand the endless red thunder. After persisting for a quarter of an hour, the ’Cleansing Evil Sword’ was shattered, and Shi Xiaole himself was struck heavily, spitting blood, and was sent flying.
"Good!"
The twelve Supreme Lords secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
They had truly been terrified just now; even some had begun to entertain thoughts of retreat. If the thunder tribulation were to disappear at that moment, not a single one of them could defeat Shi Xiaole; to not flee would mean death.
"Hit him harder, best to strike this kid dead!"
A Supreme Lord said viciously.
As if answering his call, the ’Hell-exterminating Thunder’ grew increasingly stronger. Initially, the red thunder was only as thick as a house, but it soon grew to an exaggerated tens of meters in width, obliterating a vast expanse of void with each strike.
The twelve Supreme Lords kept retreating, their hearts woolly with fright. Had they been the ones undergoing the tribulation, they would have probably been overwhelmed by a single bolt, and after a full round, they would certainly be no more than dead bones.
The greater the crisis, the more intense their fear and killing intent toward Shi Xiaole became. His talent surpassed even the Demon Ruler, so who in the lands beyond the heavens could contend with him if he were to survive?
Within the sea of red thunder, Shi Xiaole was struck haphazardly, his flesh a blur of blood, but instead of collapsing as expected, he fought with even greater ferocity. His sweeping Sword Qi cut large swaths of red thunder into countless pieces.
When his injuries reached a critical point, a layer of life-giving aura covered his whole body, restoring him to his peak condition, causing the twelve Supreme Lords to gnash their teeth in frustration.
He held on like this for a 2-hour period.
Shi Xiaole’s arms were numb, his power reduced to just sixty percent of its peak. No matter how powerful his life-and-death martial arts were, he began to falter.
Just then, the red thunder ceased, and seven-colored thunderclouds suddenly appeared in the sky. Before anyone could react, the fine, hair-like seven-colored thunder struck down with incredible speed.
Spurt!
A blood mist burst forth, and Shi Xiaole was directly struck to a depth of a million meters beneath the earth’s surface.
"This, what is this..."
The pores of all twelve Supreme Lords constricted, sending chills up their spines.
They had never seen this kind of thunder tribulation before; it wasn’t even recorded in the history books. In other words, Shi Xiaole’s talent had surpassed every person from the lands beyond the heavens throughout history—no, surpassed every person from all sixteen worlds!
"Sometimes, having too much talent isn’t a good thing, as it can break the balance, and even the heavens and earth cannot tolerate you."
A Supreme Lord dressed in green took a deep breath and forcibly calmed himself. His words resonated with the others, and their expressions eased somewhat.
Indeed, too much can be as bad as too little. When one exceeds certain limits, even if others cannot kill you, heaven will take care of you. The twelve Supreme Lords widened their eyes while channeling their power to the fullest.
They hoped Shi Xiaole would be struck dead by the lightning, but if he survived, they were determined to use their full strength to obliterate him at the moment the tribulation ended!
The seven-colored thunder did not stop because of Shi Xiaole’s severe injuries. The land crumbled, and the distant sea poured in but with one strike of the seven-colored thunder, the vast ocean was directly evaporated.
One could scarcely imagine the power of such thunder.
The twelve Supreme Lords were even more unable to imagine how Shi Xiaole could still stand firm up to this point, covered in wounds and bleeding heavily, but still clinging to life by a thread.
Clang, clang, clang...
The sword light Shi Xiaole had just unleashed was immediately shattered.
Unable to block, and unable to dodge, he took one heavy hit after another. If not for his resilient martial path that always managed to recover some vitality, Shi Xiaole would have long been torn asunder.
"This must be the ’God-slaying Thunder Tribulation’, it seems my talent isn’t too shabby," he said.
In the books left by that space-shattering powerhouse, Shi Xiaole had read about the ’God-slaying Thunder Tribulation.’ Since that being could withstand it, there was no reason he couldn’t.
Shi Xiaole, fearless, reduced to just a hunk of bloodied flesh, finally after a quarter of an hour, made it through.
But the thunderclouds had not yet dispersed. Among the splendor of seven colors, three more hues appeared, and as an aura of utter annihilation spread, it frightened the twelve Supreme Lords to the point of pallor, prompting them to retreat a million miles in haste.
"More?"
Shi Xiaole could only smile bitterly.
He had never heard of this kind of thunder tribulation, and while it had not yet struck, it was imaginable that its lethality would be far more terrifying than the ’God-slaying Thunder Tribulation.’ With his current state, death was inevitable.
Boom!
As the ten-colored thunderclouds thickened, suddenly, the entire Ming Ancient World began to shake, and the rules of heaven showed signs of backlash. As wisps of ten-colored thunder were born, the twelve Supreme Lords distinctly felt the rules of heaven nearing collapse!
Just as the ten-colored thunder was about to strike, the lands beyond the heavens seemed like a ball stretched to its limits, teetering on the edge of explosion!
Bang!
Accompanied by a surge of fury, the ten-colored thunderclouds dispersed.
"Such thunder tribulation exceeds the limits of what the Ming Ancient World can endure, hence it cannot descend!"
The complexion of Seven Evils Blades Supreme Lord drastically changed. Without time to be astonished, he and the eleven other Supreme Lords almost simultaneously launched their ultimate moves, the strongest they had ever executed, targeting the distant, fatally injured Shi Xiaole.
