Chu Ling heard Lu Ye’s words.
Her eyes were completely flooded with despair.
“M-My lord... if—if back then... you had told me the truth about Chu Sword Manor... would we... would we have ended up like this?”
A trace of sorrow flickered in Lu Ye’s eyes.
“If I had told you... would you have believed me?”
Chu Ling froze.
Would she have?
In this life, she had learned the truth about Chu Sword Manor—but what had she done?
Backstabbed. Again and again.
Even just now, she had been willing to kill Bai Qiulan, to kill Yue Hongling.
Willing to betray Anli.
The word betrayal had clung to her in both past life and present.
And at this moment, a rare calm surfaced in her eyes.
“Can I ask you one last favor?” she said.
“Speak.”
Lu Ye didn’t say whether he would grant it or not.
“Could you... spare Huanling?”
Lu Ye let out a faint sigh.
Chu Ling had finally come to understand. But it was far, far too late.
“If she doesn’t provoke me, I won’t kill her.”
Chu Ling dropped to the ground in full prostration.
“I was wrong...”
Those three words were the most sincere she had ever spoken in this life.
She no longer begged for life—only for death.
Lu Ye swung his sword.
Chu Ling... fell!!!
...
...
...
The Human Emperor Banner stirred gently, and Chu Ling’s soul was drawn into it.
The many near-overloaded souls it had consumed recently were instantly converted into an immense tide of soul essence, surging into Chu Ling’s soul.
Her soul body began to grow rapidly stronger.
Lu Ye looked up. All around him was infinite darkness, trying to imprison him within.
But he was already familiar with this kind of situation.
Tribulation.
Tribulation could resolve almost every crisis he faced.
And if it ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ couldn’t?
Then the tribulation thunder simply wasn’t powerful enough!
Boom!
Outside the Dark Abyss, thunder rumbled across the heavens.
Massive clouds of tribulation began to gather. Though they didn’t seem vast from the outside, if they appeared over land, the coverage would easily stretch over a hundred thousand miles.
Winds howled with apocalyptic force.
The Heavenly Tribulation revealed its true nature in full.
The tribulation didn’t care where you were.
Once you began the breakthrough, the thunderclouds would descend upon your head without fail. That was one of the core laws of the Heavenly Dao.
Lu Ye couldn’t see the tribulation lightning within the darkness.
But he had a feeling it would be... potent.
Boom!
A bolt of purple-gold lightning fell from the sky, blazing with divine wrath, crashing directly into the Dark Abyss.
In an instant, countless tendrils of dark power were annihilated.
The tribulation winds howled in fury.
It was as if they were deeply dissatisfied with Lu Ye hiding in this abyssal dark. The next bolt of lightning—again purple-gold—transformed into a beam of pure power, piercing straight through the Dark Abyss of the Third Heaven.
Purple-gold light illuminated the void.
Every demon, ghost, and monster that merely gazed upon the color of the lightning felt a deep, primal terror well up inside them.
Purple-gold tribulation lightning.
Absurd. Unheard of.
This kind of thing shouldn’t appear in the Third Heaven!
Who in the Third Heaven undergoing tribulation could possibly summon purple-gold lightning?!
Taking advantage of the massive amount of darkness being shattered by thunder, Lu Ye rushed out of the Dark Abyss.
Now, it was time for him to face the lightning himself.
With a long roar, his sword burst upward, forming a blade hundreds of miles long. Though Lu Ye’s figure was like an ant in comparison, he rode the terrifying sword light straight toward the tribulation.
Boom!
Lightning and sword collided—both were obliterated.
A tremendous suction erupted in Lu Ye’s body, drawing in the shattered tribulation lightning. Thunder boomed within him.
He spat out a mouthful of blood.
The fourth bolt followed right behind.
Lu Ye swung his sword once more. Countless sword rays transformed into flying dragons, rushing to meet the thunder.
But this fourth bolt had grown viciously strong—every ray of sword light was shattered, and the bolt slammed directly into Lu Ye’s body.
His whole body was scorched black, and the fragrance of the path he cultivated suddenly exploded into the air.
“That was a little intense,” he muttered.
To be honest, it was very intense.
The power of this tribulation lightning far exceeded what one would expect at the Unity Realm level.
But Lu Ye was thrilled.
Boom!
The fifth bolt descended!
“Supreme Sword!”
He swung once more. Towering sword intent erupted skyward.
But this fifth bolt was even stronger than the fourth.
This time, Lu Ye’s body was blasted apart by the lightning.
The fragrance of the path burst out, spreading for a thousand miles.
But this was in the void—on the very fringe of the Nine Heavens. No living beings. Barely any spiritual energy.
Normally, no one would choose such a place to undergo tribulation, because both spell power and recovery speed would be drastically weakened.
Lu Ye had simply been out of options.
His shattered body quickly reassembled.
A blood-red pill was swallowed—his broken flesh began to regenerate rapidly.
The sixth bolt came roaring down.
Lu Ye raised his Qilin Arm—and punched!
Heaven’s Might Fist!
Boom!
Where the fist passed, space itself split open, black cracks tearing through the void.
The punch slammed into the thunderbolt.
This time, the lightning was shattered completely.
Lu Ye used the opportunity to restore his body to peak condition.
The tribulation clouds churned.
As though it hadn’t had enough fun, the massive cloud began to condense again.
Lu Ye remained unshaken.
In both his past life and this one, the thing he feared least was tribulation.
Heavenly Tribulation could never destroy him—in the end, it would only make him stronger!
Boom!
The seventh bolt.
Lu Ye howled again. He activated the Heavenly Silkworm Nine Transformations, his aura skyrocketing.
Another punch flew toward the lightning.
Boom!
Though the lightning had grown even stronger, it was still shattered by his strike.
The tribulation cloud condensed again.
The purple-gold lightning danced within it, forming into the shape of a lightning sphere that plummeted toward Lu Ye.
Again, the Heaven’s Might Fist.
Lu Ye’s entire arm lit up in blood-red radiance. This punch carried the force to shatter the heavens.
Boom!
The eighth bolt was obliterated.
All tribulation clouds vanished—or rather, all black tribulation clouds.
The final tribulation cloud was entirely purple-gold—so bright the gold nearly faded from view.
Lu Ye’s face turned grim.
Come.
His body suddenly shriveled, emaciated.
But his aura grew even more terrifying. His cultivation surged straight to the Seventh Layer of the Sky-Piercing Realm.
Boom!
Boom!
Thunder and man rushed at each other through the void.
In the blink of an eye, they collided with earth-shaking force.
The thunderclap echoed endlessly through the void, carried by the sparse strands of spiritual energy.
Lu Ye exploded once more!
The fragrance of the path he walked surged outward for ten thousand miles.
Massive waves of that sacred scent flooded the skies.
His shattered flesh reformed again, rapidly absorbing the remaining power of the lightning.
Ascend!
Hurry and ascend!
See if there was still time—still a chance to find Anli, and let the Heavenly Dao blast the Source of Darkness a few more times through her.
Ascend!
