High in the sky, thunderclouds rolled in, and with a deafening roar, thunder shook the heavens and the earth. Accompanied by a bolt of purplish-black lightning that struck straight down, an ancient and boundless pressure descended from the heavens.

"Roar!" The black dragon suddenly spread its wings and roared to the sky. However, it was suppressed by the heavenly might in the blink of an eye and plummeted to the ground with a furious roar of resentment.

Gu Changqing gazed up at the sky, his robes fluttering in the fierce wind. Just as the black dragon was about to fall to the ground, he suddenly tapped his toes, his figure transforming into a ball of mysterious light, soaring straight into the sky.

With a loud crash, the black dragon slammed heavily onto the earth, creating ripples that swept in all directions. When people looked again, it was already severely injured, critically wounded, and on the verge of death.

Meanwhile, everyone had already fled far away, escaping the range of the thunderclouds. Looking at the vast, apocalyptic might of the heavens, they all stared wide-eyed, their faces filled with disbelief.

"How...how is this possible?"

Dragonfire was filled with horror.

The three slaves belonging to Gu Changqing, however, looked terrified.

"No, no, no, this is impossible."

One of the slaves collapsed to the ground, screaming in despair.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible! How could such divine might, such a tribulation of lightning, be triggered by a cultivator at the Divine Void Realm?"

The slaves' lives were already bound to Gu Changqing the moment they became his slaves; when their master died, the slaves would be buried.

The three slaves were initially quite grateful to have met a powerful master, thinking that one of them might rise to power and bring prosperity to his entire family. However, they never expected to encounter such a sudden change.

At this moment, the power of the lightning tribulation had already surpassed that of ordinary Divine Void Realm cultivators, and was even inferior to their own Dao Integration Tribulation.

The three slaves, their faces filled with dejection, had lost all hope and were utterly heartbroken.

However, at this moment, in the thunderclouds invisible to everyone, Gu Changqing was surrounded by endless thunder, yet strangely, not a single bolt of lightning came within half a meter of him. It was as if an invisible barrier separated the thunder from him, preventing it from harming him in the slightest.

Gu Changqing looked at the lightning flickering outside the invisible barrier, but made no move. After observing for a moment, he closed his eyes, as if he was quietly sensing something.

After a long while, he suddenly opened his eyes, slowly stretched out a hand, and reached towards the dense lightning all around. To his surprise, the lightning seemed to be alive, swarming and converging towards his arm.

The terrifying power of thunder did not harm him in the slightest; instead, it seemed to be swallowed up and entered into Gu Changqing's arm that was extended outside the barrier.

Seeing this, Gu Changqing showed no emotion, as if he already knew everything, and slowly withdrew his arm, which had absorbed a lot of lightning, back into the barrier.

Looking at the arm that flashed with purple-black light like lightning from time to time, and then at the sea of ​​lightning above, he saw...

His gaze, like thunder, pierced through all obstacles, landing directly in the mysterious space above the nine heavens.

"The Tao is dead."

Gu Changqing withdrew his gaze and then took out the Dao Heaven Mirror from inside the ring.

Looking at the Dao Heaven Mirror floating in front of him, radiating a black dazzling light, Gu Changqing revealed a strange expression.

"The Holy Emperor of Illusion was wrong, the Heavenly Emperor was wrong, and you, Shepherd, were wrong too. Every Holy Emperor on the Heavenly Path Continent has been wrong."

"The Way of Heaven is nothing more than a rule, a shackle binding the souls of living beings."

"The Holy Emperor is the Way of Heaven, the Emperor is the Way of Heaven, and all living beings in this world are the Way of Heaven."

"What I want to do is break the rules of this world, slaughter all living beings in this world, and make the laws of heaven and all living beings in this world perish together."

Just then, Gu Changqing stepped directly beyond the half-meter barrier, and countless purplish-black lightning bolts converged on him like swallows returning to their nests.

Countless bolts of lightning imbued with destructive power struck Gu Changqing's body. One bolt, two bolts, and in an instant, half of the lightning merged into his body.

The terrifying aura emanating from the thunder within the thunderclouds, as the lightning was devoured, was irresistible to everyone even those far from the thunderclouds.

The terrifying aura caused everyone's spiritual energy to be consumed rapidly and inexplicably.

Everyone hurriedly retreated, flying even further away.

After a period of fear and trepidation, I looked at the endless, churning thunderclouds that blotted out the sky.

Everyone could only hope that Gu Changqing could overcome this calamity as soon as possible and that the thunderclouds would dissipate.

At this moment, Gu Changqing, who was in the center of the thundercloud, did not want to be in such a sorry state as the people below. He simply closed his eyes and stood quietly suspended in the thunder.

He allowed the terrifying lightning to enter his body. As the lightning gradually subsided, Gu Changqing's divine robe, which was comparable to a post-natal magic weapon, was tattered and the array inscribed on it had completely dissipated in the lightning.

Gu Changqing only glanced at the tattered Taoist robe before ignoring it.

The seemingly endless thunder in the thunderclouds had vanished, leaving only a figure shimmering with blue light.

The figure was none other than Gu Changqing, who was currently surrounded by thunderclouds, and the aura emanating from his body was constantly rising.

Late stage of Divine Void, Early stage of Dao Void, Middle stage of Dao Ruins, Late stage of Dao Ruins...

Zeng Jin's explosive cultivation only stopped when he reached the half-step into the Dao Integration Realm.

The dense thunderclouds surrounding Gu Changqing slowly dissipated after he devoured all the lightning.

Gu Changqing paid no attention to the dissipation of the thunderclouds, but simply clenched his fist and felt the surge of power within his body.

Then, he leisurely took out a white Taoist robe from the black ring and put it on.

The long black hair that had been flowing behind her due to the constantly erupting aura also fell back down as Gu Changqing withdrew her aura.

After a slight adjustment, the thunderclouds almost completely dissipated.

High in the sky, Gu Changqing, dressed in white, was now in the sight of the people in the distance.

Meanwhile, the Dragonfire group in the distance looked utterly disheveled.

If the group hadn't reacted quickly and moved away, they would all have been suppressed under the might of the thunder, their fates unknown.

However, as noble Celestial Dragons, the three of them all had precious life-saving pills in their rings.

The three of them took out a life-saving pill and swallowed it. Their spiritual energy and spirit, which had been suppressed by the heavenly power, were quickly restored, and their expressions gradually returned to normal.

The other six slaves were not treated so well. As slaves, they didn't even have storage rings and could only sit cross-legged high in the sky, slowly recovering their spiritual energy and spirit.

Gu Changqing didn't care about the recovering crowd, but glanced at the Dao Void Realm black dragon that he had ordered to stay under the thunderclouds during the tribulation.

At this moment, the black dragon lay prostrate on the ground, its aura having dissipated as soon as the tribulation began.

Looking at the bloodied and mangled black dragon, Gu Changqing didn't care. He was only thinking about where to find the next beast to ride.

...