Chapter 303: Thunder Tribulation

With a sharp crack, a corner of several mountains concealing the Formation Bases crumbled away, revealing the Formation Patterns beneath.

The Tribulation Lightning raged violently.

Thunder serpents slammed into the Formation, sending numbing currents coursing through the entire valley. Every blade of grass and tree bowed under the oppressive force. The ground cracked and collapsed, while distant trees spontaneously burst into flames, arcs of electricity dancing across their branches.

The Yin-Yang Xuanwu Formation operated at its limit, yet the cracks on its illusory surface grew increasingly numerous and dense.

Beneath the Formation, Chen Luo frantically absorbed the Heavenly Tribulation’s power. Within his body, the Pseudo Core began to transform, solidifying as golden patterns emerged on its surface. The Core Formation Seed within his Golden Core, as if watered, greedily devoured the Heavenly Tribulation’s energy and began to morph into something new.

Crack!

With a final crack, the world cleared. The first wave of the Thunder Tribulation had finally passed.

Chen Luo swiftly absorbed the overflowing Tribulation Lightning back into his body. Twenty percent of the Pseudo Core’s hazy areas vanished instantly. The Core Formation Seed at the center of his Golden Core had also broken free from its shell, sprouting a wisp of gray shadow.

“Hah!”

Chen Luo exhaled a long breath of stale air.

He had finally weathered the storm. As his Golden Core transformed, he discovered his Divine Sense could perceive things previously beyond his reach, most notably the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi. By channeling this Qi through his divine abilities, their power would increase tenfold. This fundamental difference defined the gap between the Foundation Establishment and Core Formation Realms.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator’s divine abilities stemmed from personal accumulation, while a Core Formation cultivator’s abilities drew upon the power of Heaven and Earth.

The tribulation clouds churned. Before Chen Luo could fully assess his transformation, another bolt of Tribulation Lightning tore through the sky. The white-purple lightning illuminated the entire valley, becoming its sole source of light.

The Thunder Tribulation struck like a spear, hurtling downward.

The Formation is about to shatter.

Hanging Brother’s mind instantly made the correct assessment. Having personally constructed the Formation, he knew its limits precisely.

“It’s breaking after just one strike?” Chen Luo’s eyelid twitched. He hadn’t expected the First Nine Heavenly Tribulation to be so terrifying. If the Thunder Tribulation had been this intense when Elder FusionSpirit underwent Tribulation Transcendence, Blackstone City’s Third-Tier Formation would have been obliterated on the first strike.

A crisp crack echoed through the air.

The Yin-Yang Compass behind the Yin-Yang Xuanwu reached its breaking point. The illusory Xuanwu shattered like glass.

Chen Luo, standing below, swiftly drew the treasured blade gifted to him by the Grand Void Ancestor—a top-grade second-rank Magic Artifact.

With the long blade in hand, one of the External Brains specializing in swordsmanship rapidly activated. Facing the thunderous assault that shattered the Formation, it made a precise judgment:

Grip the blade. Demon Bone Array Sigil Art. Reverse Slash! Confronting strength with strength will break this tribulation.

Almost simultaneously, the Demon Bone Array Sigil Art on Chen Luo’s chest lit up. The long blade in his hand emitted a wisp of bloody light, its murderous aura soaring skyward. This was clearly a top-tier Magic Artifact that had claimed countless lives—where Patriarch Gu He had acquired such a thing remained a mystery.

The blade flashed.

A blood-red blade aura slashed upward in a reverse arc, its razor-sharp edge striking the tip of the descending thunderbolt with pinpoint accuracy.

A deafening explosion erupted.

The blade aura shattered. The top-grade second-rank treasured blade in Chen Luo’s hand was struck by the lightning, cracking down its length and splitting in two. The radiant glow on its surface faded to darkness.

Slaying a Heavenly Tribulation with a blade—such a daring feat required flawless execution. A single misstep would have left Chen Luo gravely injured by the heavenly thunder. Yet he had swung instinctively, relying on the reflexes of his sword-cultivating brain to precisely intercept the descending Thunder Tribulation.

The blade aura had disrupted the thunderbolt’s structure.

The descending lightning arc was obstructed, twisting into a spherical Thunder Cage that paused momentarily before exploding violently.

Chen Luo, suspended in mid-air, discarded the hilt of his blade as the lightning arc forced him back to the ground. His body continued to absorb the overflowing Thunder Tribulation power. The vegetation surrounding the valley had been completely ignited by the Tribulation Qi, the flames mingling with the thunder to create a scene resembling the end of the world.

Standing at the center like a black hole, Chen Luo frantically devoured the Tribulation power. The stray lightning arcs were drawn back into his body, and the Demon Bone Array Sigil Art began to emit a pure white light. Within him, the Golden Core materialized further, reaching forty percent completion. Another fragment of the Core Formation Seed’s shell cracked, releasing an even denser aura.

The oppressive weight of heaven and earth grew heavier.

The tribulation clouds expanded further, lightning flashing through their depths. Cracks appeared on the peaks of the mountains where the Formation Base had shattered, and massive chunks of earth tumbled from the summits. Burning trees collapsed amidst the cascading debris, only to be reduced to ash by stray lightning snakes during their descent.

Below, Chen Luo’s hair whipped wildly, and his robes snapped in the wind pressure. His body seemed to bear a pressure far beyond his cultivation realm, his bones grinding audibly. A mere Magic Cultivator would likely struggle to even stand upright under such strain.

Chen Luo’s cultivation was comprehensive.

His External Brains went into overdrive, all one hundred and more of them surging with unprecedented activity. They paused their ongoing study of cultivation techniques and joined Chen Luo in confronting the Heavenly Tribulation looming above.

Crackle!

The mountain concealing the Formation Base crumbled completely. A Lightning Arc snaked down from the tribulation clouds, striking the summit in an instant. Stone fragments exploded, scattering like shrapnel and slamming into the surrounding burning trees, snapping their trunks in half.

Rumble!

The third Thunder Tribulation materialized, this time a pure white bolt enveloped in a cyan glow.

The third tribulation of the First Nine Heavenly Tribulation!

The tribulation clouds were now entirely wreathed in lightning. A colossal thunderbolt, as thick as a water bucket, descended from the heavens. Chen Luo stood directly beneath it, unyielding as a boulder in a thunderstorm. He raised his right palm, now completely enveloped in the power of his bone patterns, and a Magic Sword materialized in his hand.

If the blade breaks, there’s still the sword!

Control lightning with the sword, borrowing its momentum.

Sword Cultivator Wang Mingyi’s mind swiftly formulated a countermeasure.

Swimming Dragon Body Technique, Wind-Riding Force Dissipation.

The Immortal Sect Leader’s mind conjured a third-rank body technique he had recently mastered.

Chen Luo soared upward, his body flowing through the thunder like a swimming dragon. Dozens of afterimages flickered as he moved, and at each critical moment, he raised his hand, wielding his Magic Sword to command the lightning. With each slash, he redirected the thunderous force outward, the residual energy surging into his arm and further enhancing his Golden Core.

From afar, it appeared as if someone were manipulating lightning with a Magic Sword in mid-air. Each slash echoed through the mountains with a thunderous boom. Finally, after Chen Luo unleashed dozens of lightning-infused sword strikes, his Magic Sword trembled violently and shattered.

The third Thunder Tribulation had been overcome.

A profound aura arose as Chen Luo’s magical energy underwent a complete transformation. The presence of a Core Formation cultivator radiated from him. His Golden Core instantly solidified from its ethereal state, the Core Formation Seed bursting through its shell to reveal a dense, blood-red surface.

The first step of Core Formation was complete.

For a Blood Pill cultivator, this stage would mark the successful condensation of their core, allowing them to forge a blood-red Pill Dao within their body. This single step would open the gates to the Immortal Path, granting them the longevity of a Core Formation cultivator destined to live for a thousand years.

But Chen Luo was condensing a Perfect Golden Core. Before his transformation could fully stabilize, the tribulation clouds shifted once more, their intervals growing shorter. The clouds roared, half of their mass dissolving into thunder. As lightning and cloud intertwined, countless thunderbolts rained down like torrential raindrops.

The fourth Thunder Tribulation turned out to be a ‘Thunder Rain’.

Chen Luo retrieved the third Magic Artifact Patriarch Gu He had given him. This was the advantage of having a powerful backer; otherwise, preparing for this Tribulation Transcendence would have taken him at least a century of accumulation. Rogue cultivators might need even longer, and there was no guarantee they could gather so many high-grade Magic Artifacts.

A pitch-black umbrella floated from his palm. This top-grade second-rank Magic Artifact was of even higher quality than his previous swords and blades, making it perfectly suited to face the approaching tribulation clouds.

As the umbrella unfurled, it expanded rapidly in the wind.

In moments, it transformed into a massive magical umbrella with a canopy nearly twenty meters wide, colliding violently with the descending thunderbolts. Within his External Brain, the Immortal Sect Leader’s brain, the most complete of the three, reached out and forcibly grasped a wisp of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi from beneath the tribulation clouds.

This primordial qi flowed into the umbrella, while his other hand frantically drew in the dissipating Tribulation Qi from the surroundings. This task was being handled by the Demonic Heart Ancestor’s brain.

The Mummified Brain meticulously adjusted his physical state, ensuring that every strand of thunderous energy absorbed into his body was perfectly utilized, leaving no waste and preventing any misdirection in his cultivation.

As Chen Luo faced his fourth Thunder Tribulation, deep beneath the three most treacherous areas of Ten Thousand Demon Mountain, a massive, slumbering centipede’s antenna twitched. A wisp of Tribulation Qi drifted toward it. Sensing the familiar aura, several eyes on the Thousand-Eyed Centipede’s abdomen suddenly snapped open.

“Come here,” a deep voice echoed from the void.

After a rustling sound, seven spiders crawled into the chamber. With a flash of light, they transformed into seven beautiful women.

“Eldest Brother, you’re awake?” The lead Spider Woman exclaimed with delight, her companions mirroring her joy.

“There’s the scent of a Heavenly Tribulation,” the Thousand-Eyed Centipede said, ignoring the Spider Woman’s greeting. Its antenna swayed as it sensed the direction of the tribulation.

“A Heavenly Tribulation?” The Spider Woman looked puzzled. The Southern Heaven Domain had a decent number of Core Formation cultivators, though not an overwhelming amount. Over the past century, dozens had undergone Tribulation Transcendence, and they had even witnessed a Nascent Soul Tribulation six hundred years ago. None of those tribulations had stirred their Eldest Brother. Why this one? Could someone be undergoing a Spirit Transformation Tribulation?!

“Didn’t Senior Brother say the Southern Heaven Domain couldn’t sustain a Divine Transformation cultivator?”

The Spider Woman beside him clearly had the same thought. She immediately spoke up, knowing that the emergence of a Divine Transformation cultivator in this place would be disastrous for them.

“This is not a Spirit Transformation Tribulation,” the Thousand-Eyed Centipede declared.

Its dozens of eyes swiveled in unison to focus on them.

The seven Spider Women instinctively took a half-step back. Despite their years of familiarity, the sight of their Eldest Brother’s “Thousand Eyes” still filled them with dread.

“This is an opportunity. Go to the demonic cultivation realm and find the Life-in-This-World Inn and the Earth Dragon Essence. Tell them their chance has come.”

“Yes!”

Though puzzled, the seven Spider Women instinctively obeyed.

“I will send you out.”

A wisp of Demonic Qi separated from the Thousand-Eyed Centipede’s slumbering form. The Qi coalesced into a cloud, enveloping the seven Spider Women and carrying them toward the demonic cultivation realm.

At the edge of the demonic cultivation realm, near the Seven Kingdoms, the Ghost Temple activated by Lady Bai Gu and Gu Demon Khan Jiu had reappeared. With the Blackstone Ancestor gone, no one in the demonic cultivation realm bothered to manage this place. The Core Formation Elder from Sword Pool Peak, who had recently taken control of the realm, was still focused on suppressing the Blood Pool within his peak.

Left unchecked, the Ghost Temple rapidly spread, with tendrils crossing the border into the Seven Kingdoms. The Yin Corpse Sect bore the brunt of this encroachment.