Chapter 36: Tribulation Revitalizes the Cultivation World (36% Progress)
The two on the stage were completely unaware of the astonishment and commotion below. Even the defeated Qi Tian didn't have time to doubt himself for losing to an unknown cultivator. He stared blankly at the stage in astonishment.
The audience members all stood up. Even though their eyesight had become sharper as their cultivation had increased, they still craned their necks and kept their eyes glued to the arena, wishing they could get closer to see it.
The fact that a talisman cultivator could use talismans like this and even create a killing array is simply unheard of!
This was already surprising enough, but who would have thought that another sword cultivator would suddenly comprehend sword intent on the spot!
Is this really just a preliminary round?
Shen Suqi and Xu Lingyou's brilliance even overshadowed the Xuan Tian Sword Sect's sect leader's grandson and Helian Yi, who had just ousted the pre-selected champion.
Helian Yi stepped down from the stage and walked straight to Shui Fan's side, standing in the position of accompanying a relative or friend.
He exchanged a glance with Shui Fan and saw the deeper meaning in the other's eyes.
These past few days, after they reunited, they ran several dungeons in the game to practice. Shen Suqi was always the one hiding at the back, unleashing ranged attacks, and she sincerely confided in them:
"We Fu Xiu specialize in support roles. Whether it's the Lingzhou Grand Gathering or the future entrance exams, please take good care of us. If you need my help during the entrance exams, just let me know. We'll always be the most reliable teammates."
Good heavens, so he was hiding something, waiting to rip out his brother's lungs.
Helian Yifeng narrowed his eyes slightly. The infighting among the mission takers never stopped; each of these guys wanted to shine in the entrance examination.
Compared to the excitement of the other audience members, Lin Ming, who sat motionless in his seat and even had the leisure to enjoy the fruits, seemed quite special.
While the duel between Helian Yi and Qi Tian was certainly exciting, he knew that even Qi Tian, whom the Xuan Tian Sword Sect Master had painstakingly cultivated, was far inferior to Helian Yi, who consistently ranked among the top mission takers. This was not only because Qi Tian was adept at utilizing system resources, but also because of his extraordinary background.
The Helian family, the foremost family in Yingzhou, is a truly ancient and prestigious family with a history of ten thousand years. In his time, they had already dominated the region, and Helian Yi was the most esteemed young master of the Helian family.
The competition, with its known outcome, was rather dull, so he didn't bet on Arena Number Three. Instead, he chose two unassuming individuals among the task participants.
He often observes the mission participants through the illusionary mirror and knows their strength better than anyone else.
A slight smile appeared on Lin Ming's face. He glanced at the Dao Lord's seat, which was built high up so that ordinary people could not see the inside story, and pulled his hat brim down a little. He was very interested in what was going to happen next.
Shen Suxi, do you know which move to use?
*
Xu Lingyou's eyes were completely black; he could see nothing but endless sword swings! Sword swings! Sword swings!
The ear-piercing sound of swords rubbing against each other rang in my ears, followed by a series of shattering sounds.
The little man, covered in runes and supposedly indestructible, was completely shattered after a few rounds.
Shen Suqi threw out a large number of spirit talismans, but they all turned to ashes under the impact of the fierce sword intent.
In the span of three breaths, he had already reached her.
The talismans were thrown down like they were free, barely slowing him down.
A lump formed in her throat, and Shen Suqi instinctively placed her hand on her waist.
There are sacred-grade talismans that were bought at great expense from the system store. However, for a talisman cultivator, carefully observing the spiritual energy flow of a sacred-grade talisman is far more valuable than simply using it.
Her hesitation allowed Xu Lingyou to move even closer, his long sword barely grazing her neck, taking a few strands of her hair with it.
"No! I give up!" Shen Suqi took a step back and finally decided to give up.
She should save her trump card for the entrance exam; it's not worth it for a grand event like Lingzhou.
"I...I can't take back the sword." A gust of wind rushed into his throat, and Xu Lingyou spat out a few words from his clenched gums.
Shen Suqi's pupils trembled wildly.
"Are you serious?! Are all those experts in the audience just sitting around doing nothing? Can't they see something's wrong with the contestant? This is terrible!"
She was naturally unaware that the powerful figures she spoke of were in a state of panic because their chosen leader had lost, and they paid no attention to the situation on the other stages.
The situation was like a wild horse that had broken free of its reins, galloping away in an unexpected manner and in an unpredictable direction.
Unable to bear parting with the sacred talisman, she gritted her teeth and slashed her left palm hard with her right fingernail.
Blood gushed out, staining her clean skirt red, with a few drops splashing onto Xu Lingyou's face in front of her.
The warm liquid startled Xu Lingyou for a moment.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it! I'm already about to have to use the blood sacrifice technique from the last page of the Dao Ancestor's talismanic arts when I'm still so far. This is my life-saving skill, and I've only learned three strokes of it!"
"You've really surprised me by pushing me to this point, Xu Lingyou!"
"I'm sorry..." Xu Lingyou felt guilty, but the spiritual energy in his body was completely out of control. The long sword in his hand absorbed spiritual energy without restraint, squeezing out all of his strength.
At this moment, he seemed to be on one side of a scale. The fiercer the sword intent, the higher he was lifted. The higher he was, the faster the spiritual energy flowed to the other side.
Although the ferocious sword intent originated from him, it was completely uncontrollable, determined to cut off the enemy's head before it would stop.
Xu Lingyou tried his best to suppress his impulse, biting his tongue to force himself to stay awake, not daring to let his mind be affected.
He would rather suffer the consequences than harm innocent people.
He was completely focused on fighting his instinct to swing his sword, and didn't notice the strange expression on Shen Suqi's face.
Even though she was the one in the most dangerous situation and at the center of the storm, she didn't show fear or panic on her face; instead, she seemed resigned to her fate.
"They've revealed all their cards."
Her heartbroken lament, along with the pervasive bloodlust, dissipated into the air.
Blood gushed from the cut on her palm, flowing down like beads from a broken string.
The blood droplets did not fall to the ground, but instead gathered in one place after falling, enveloped and held by transparent spiritual energy.
A fierce wind howled, and blood splattered everywhere. Shen Suqi gathered all her spiritual power and used her own blood to draw the first blood sacrifice rune!
The overwhelming sword intent collided with the ferocious sacrificial talisman, and in an instant, the wind and clouds changed color. The dark clouds gathered and overlapped in a short time, condensing into streaks of purple lightning as thick as mountains, which pierced the sky and fell down.
The sect leaders and elders watching the battle were all startled, and had no choice but to take action to withstand the endless lightning, otherwise Kunpeng Mountain might be razed to the ground!
No one could have imagined that a mere preliminary round of a competition would cause such a huge commotion.
The audience was amazed but not flustered, knowing that with the heads of the major sects of Lingzhou in charge, the lightning tribulation could not harm Kunpeng Mountain.
The leaders and elders of various sects, as well as the heads of aristocratic families who sat at the head of the table, were in a terrible predicament.
The Lingzhou Grand Gathering brings together almost all the outstanding young talents of Lingzhou, so even if something happens to them, they cannot be harmed within the area they are guarding.
But how can you deal with something as indiscriminate as lightning tribulation? Not to mention interfering in someone else's lightning tribulation; such a violation of the rules will surely be punished by heaven.
On the one hand, they didn't want others to see their predicament, but on the other hand, they had no choice but to fight back. Having been in high positions and pampered, they had never suffered such a loss in secret, and their faces turned red with suppressed anger.
"This tribulation is even more ferocious than when I underwent my tribulation during the Nascent Soul stage!"
"Could it be that because the fortunes have gradually turned around in the past two years, even the tribulation lightning has regained its former power?"
What they didn't know was that this tribulation was supposed to be all bark and no bite, but rather a deliberate act by the Heavenly Dao, which had long disliked them and was deliberately intensifying the punishment.
Before Jun Huilian left the mountain, although it was angry that these people had made the cultivation world so chaotic, under the influence of the scattered fortune, every high-level cultivator was a flower bud that had to be carefully protected. It could only hold its nose and let the cultivators of all kinds of quality pass through the tribulation.
Things are different now; it has become more assertive.
As the symbol of justice, the Heavenly Dao cannot break the rules, but it can return all the lightning tribulations that were previously levied on them.
In order to avoid arousing suspicion, it deliberately condensed the purple-gold lightning even further, so that the appearance of the lightning tribulation would not be too exaggerated.
The will of Heaven rejoiced, while the sufferers suffered.
The high-level cultivators who were bearing the brunt of everything had nowhere to complain. They threw out their valuable possessions one by one in an attempt to share the wrath of the thunder.
The Heavenly Dao consciousness was having a great time until Lin Ming in the audience estimated their limit and signaled them to stop, at which point they reluctantly withdrew the tribulation clouds.
Before leaving, the tribulation clouds, which had not been able to unleash their full power for a long time, lingered for a brief reunion, and their little prank terrified the fearful cultivators.
"What kind of evil magic did that girl use? It actually attracted a tribulation lightning!" The elder of the Flowing Cloud Sect, heartbroken over the ruined treasures, said with jealousy, "Could she be a demonic cultivator?!"
The fact that a mere rogue cultivator possessed such a powerful technique shook the monopolistic interests of the top-tier cultivators. Therefore, even though he knew that Shen Suqi's spiritual power was pure, he still directly accused her of something serious.
He thought he would get support from others.
Unexpectedly, the Palace Master of the Holy Prayer Palace immediately cursed, "Are you blind? What you're using is evil magic!"
The elder of the Liuyun Sect was stunned. He didn't even bother to change his clothes, which had been scorched by lightning. He lifted his drooping eyelids and looked over in shock.
"You! You!"
What happened to the promised community of shared interests? They've even stopped pretending to be at peace?
Then he saw the greed overflowing in the eyes of the Palace Master of the Holy Prayer Palace.
The Palace Master of the Holy Prayer Palace wiped the sweat from his brow, his eyes gleaming: "I observed carefully just now and discovered that the girl was actually using a secret technique of our palace. To protect the reputation of our Holy Prayer Palace, I must personally kill this shameless scoundrel who stole our techniques!"
Upon hearing this, the others disregarded the losses suffered during the lightning tribulation and turned their inquiring gazes towards him.
They don't believe such nonsense.
If the Holy Prayer Palace had such magic, it would have shown it off long ago. How could it have tolerated being at the bottom for so many years?
Not to mention the possibility of outsiders stealing the techniques; that's absolutely impossible. If the secret techniques of the vast Holy Prayer Palace could be stolen by outsiders, they might as well not stay in the upper echelons.
The Palace Master of the Holy Prayer Palace acted rashly and only realized the many flaws in his words after they left his mouth.
Once he calmed down, he realized that with so many eyes present, everyone could see the value of the rune in the girl's hand, and even if he wanted to keep it to himself, he couldn't.
The bloodshot veins in his eyes faded, he cleared his throat and tried to appear less out of sorts as he told the truth: "I've seen that sacrificial text in the ancestral fragments. It was created by the Dao Ancestor. Ha, you dare to say that the Dao Ancestor's blood sacrifice technique is an evil art? When the punitive lightning strikes down later, I won't help you block it."
The elder of the Flowing Cloud Sect exclaimed in shock: "The Dao Ancestor you're talking about is...?"
"What do you think?" the Palace Master of the Holy Prayer Palace sneered.
"Is that really true!"
After he finished speaking, the eyes of the other cultivators gleamed, unable to conceal their greed.
"Are you telling the truth?" Even the Xuan Tian Sword Sect Master, who was used to pretending, couldn't help but look at him with a sidelong glance.
“Our first ancestor of the Holy Prayer Palace was a close friend of the Heavenly Evolution Dao Ancestor. The fragmentary manuscript left behind by our ancestor in the secret pavilion contains a trace of runic fluctuation. How could it be fake?”
The Xuan Tian Sword Sect Master pondered, "No wonder the lightning tribulation was so immense. If it were the Dao Ancestor's cultivation technique manifesting in the world, it would make sense."
The cultivation technique of the first savior of the world was lost for ten thousand years. It is normal for something that should not exist to reappear when the cultivation world is on its last legs, thus attracting a heavenly tribulation.
Those that survive the tribulation of lightning become physical entities recognized and permitted by the Heavenly Dao.
"As the saying goes, things will turn around when they reach their extreme. The cultivation world has been in decline for so long, it's probably because the Heavenly Dao wants to restart the path of ascension and step in to uphold the righteous path," someone pondered.
The other person said matter-of-factly, "It should have been done a long time ago. I don't know why it's been delayed for so long this time."
This is precisely what they rely on to do whatever they want.
Long ago, some people discovered the pattern: once the cultivation world falls to its lowest point, the Heavenly Dao will automatically select a savior or relinquish the opportunity; it will never allow the world to perish.
The clouds of calamity dispersed, and suddenly a thunderclap resounded under the clear blue sky.
Those present didn't care, assuming it was just a remnant of the lightning tribulation.
It's impossible that the Heavenly Dao developed consciousness and overheard all their secret schemes, right?
The Palace Master of the Holy Prayer Palace was more jealous than pleased, and emphasized again: "This little girl has stolen our palace's techniques from somewhere and taken away our Holy Prayer Palace's opportunities. She should be punished by me. Does anyone have any objections?"
The others sneered inwardly.
You just said that your Holy Prayer Palace only has incomplete copies!
However, no one exposed him; instead, they happily agreed, since only the Holy Prayer Palace members present were talisman cultivators with the deepest understanding of runes.
"Stealing martial arts techniques is a grave taboo, and this is the proper course of action."
“But the fact that they could even learn the secret techniques of the Holy Prayer Palace is a serious matter with far-reaching implications. We should all interrogate them together.”
The damage from the lightning tribulation was irreparable; they wouldn't be satisfied until they tore off a piece of flesh.
The Palace Master of the Holy Prayer Palace knew what these old foxes were thinking, and no matter how angry he was, he couldn't afford to offend everyone.
He transferred his hatred to Shen Suxi, who had used the secret technique, and looked down at the arena with a cold gaze, saying hatefully, "That is nature."
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