Jiang Ye stared solemnly up at the sky while madly chugging down pills.
In his previous playthroughs, he had only faced heavenly lightning of this caliber during the Foundation Establishment stage or even the Golden Core stage.
However, the foundation he had laid in this playthrough was simply far too thick, causing the heavenly tribulation to arrive in a “Pro Max” edition as well.
The hardware specs of this body, after all, were still only at the Qi Condensation stage.
Still, after the crazy tempering by the forty-five bolts of origin power from the heavenly lightning earlier...
Jiang Ye took a deep breath and abruptly took a step forward!
Crack.
As if breaking through some kind of shackle, his body's physical cultivation realm instantly leaped from the late stage of the 【Copper Skin Realm】 straight into the 【Iron Bone Realm】!
The subtle protective sword gang around his body grew considerably denser along with it, forming a faint, greenish film of light.
Exclamations of shock burst out from the crowd.
High above in the sky, however, Nangong Yue's brows knitted together tightly.
The disciples below might not understand the subtle changes in this lightning tribulation, but she knew all too well.
The most terrifying part of Nine Heavens Divine Lightning was not its dense initial bombardment, but the final sixteen bolts that underwent mutated transformations!
Yet what astounded her was that “Bai Zhirou” seemed intimately familiar with this tribulation.
Even before she could call out a warning, “Bai Zhirou” had already lowered her weapon and begun racing against time to recover her state.
On the mountain peak.
Jiang Ye swallowed the last pill and let out a burp.
Immediately after, his hands flew into action as he pulled a thick stack of talismans out from his spatial ring and began slapping them onto himself like crazy!
“Tier Two 【Vajra Talisman】, slap!”
“Tier Three 【Blood-Qi Talisman】, slap!”
“Tier Two 【Black Turtle Protective Armor Talisman】, slap!”
...
Jiang Ye had really spared no expense this time. To prepare for this breakthrough, he had long since liquidated all his random loot into the most practical pills and talismans available.
He was no “packrat” player; spirit stones were meant to be spent, and he never hesitated to spend them.
Otherwise, if he actually croaked, there would be nothing worse than dying with unspent currency.
Just as Jiang Ye slapped on the final talisman, the heavenly lightning that had been brewing for so long crashed down without warning!
The reason the final sixteen bolts were considered a guaranteed death sentence...
...was precisely because the speed of this heavenly lightning had reached the attack speed of a Golden Core expert!
Forget the fact that Jiang Ye was currently just a Qi Condensation cultivator—even if a Foundation Establishment cultivator were standing here, the naked eye would be utterly incapable of tracking the lightning's trajectory!
He could only rely on a veteran player's insane muscle memory to execute blind parries!
BOOM!
The expected CLANG of the first bolt did not ring out.
Jiang Ye's judgment was a fraction of a second slow! He barely parried sixty percent of the damage.
The remaining forty percent of violent lightning crashed straight onto his body!
“Guh!” Jiang Ye let out a muffled grunt of pain.
“Dammit... This damn pain-synching feature is no joke. Getting struck by heavenly lightning actually hurts like hell!”
Before he could even catch his breath—
The second bolt!
CLANG! Perfect Parry!
The third bolt!
CLANG! Perfect Parry!
The fourth bolt!
BOOM!
Mis-timed again, tanking twenty percent of the damage!
...
The eighth bolt!
CLANG!
Perfect Parry!
By now, Jiang Ye had lost all his usual composure.
A trace of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, and wild, rampant lightning energy surged wildly inside his body.
The thick layer of talismans plastered over his body had all shattered into useless scraps.
The hand gripping his Meteorite Greatsword trembled uncontrollably.
Jiang Ye glared fixedly at the increasingly suffocating tribulation clouds in the sky and cursed through gritted teeth:
“Fuck, this bullshit heavenly tribulation actually changes rhythm?!”
“Underhanded as fuck!”
Nangong Yue's cool voice echoed in Jiang Ye's ears.
“Heal your injuries immediately. Prepare for the upcoming lightning.”
The moment her words fell, three bottles of pills shot down from high above.
Jiang Ye caught them in one hand, slammed the Meteorite Greatsword into the ground with the other, and flashed an “OJBK” hand gesture toward the sky.
He popped the stoppers, took a quick glance, and his eyes lit up.
“Damn, these are all good stuff.”
“Tier Three Eight-Patterned 【Bone-Nurturing Blood-Fusing Pill】, Tier Three Eight-Patterned 【Meridian-Stabilizing Qi-Nurturing Pill】, and Tier Three Eight-Patterned 【Mind-Clearing Soul-Settling Pill】.”
Like popping jellybeans, Jiang Ye tilted his head back and dumped all three bottles directly into his mouth.
Immediately after, he fished out an exquisite white jade flask from his spatial ring.
This was the Tier Three Spirit Wine, 【Drunken Immortal Brew】, that Eldest Senior Brother Ye Jinghong had gifted him earlier.
Spirit wine of this grade had an extremely complicated brewing process. It required purifying and fusing countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures; all together, the process was several times more tedious than refining pills of the same tier.
Yet back then, Ye Jinghong had insisted on spending a fortune to hire an alchemist for a custom batch. The reason was simple: when injured and needing treatment, while others popped pills, he could tilt his head back and chug wine to look far cooler!
Gulp! Gulp!
Jiang Ye tilted his head back and downed the entire flask of spirit wine in one go.
The crowd was already somewhat numb to his eating and drinking shenanigans.
Having swallowed all the pills, Jiang Ye's “clowning” wasn't over yet. He pulled out that large stack of Tier Three Talismans gifted by his senior brothers and sisters.
Slap! Slap! Slap!
He plastered them onto himself like medical patches.
The alcohol began to rush to his head.
Far from clouding his mind, it completely ignited the arrogant defiance rooted deep within him as a veteran player.
He yanked the greatsword from the ground, held it high with one hand, pointed the blade toward the heavens, and bellowed at the top of his lungs:
“Come at me!”
BOOM—!
The golden-red tribulation clouds churned in the sky. As if understanding his provocation, they obliged instantly.
Deep within the tribulation cloud, two bucket-thick, golden-red bolts of heavenly lightning eerie fused into one in midair, crashing down with a world-destroying pressure!
Jiang Ye gripped the hilt with both hands, his gaze sharpening as he prepared to go all out.
It wasn't that he was getting cocky and didn't want to “parry” anymore, but as a veteran player, he knew all too well that these final four two-in-one lightning bolts possessed a special mechanic: unparryable, undodgeable, and forcing you to tank them head-on. Underhanded to the extreme.
The first golden-red heavenly lightning bolt crashed down!
Jiang Ye struck first. His wrists flicked, instantly unleashing nine sword swings.
The nine sword flashes swiftly merged into one, forming a massive beam of sword qi that slammed toward the heavenly lightning.
【Nine Connected Clouds Sword】.
In his hands, this Yellow-grade sword art forcibly burst forth with the power of a Profound-grade technique.
However, the moment the sword qi touched the golden-red lightning, it shattered instantly, collapsing into nothingness.
Jiang Ye curled his lip. Just a quick test run, and trash Yellow-grade techniques really proved useless.
Holding nothing back, the true qi within his dantian surged frantically into the greatsword in his hands.
High-Grade Earth-Grade Technique.
【Sword Cleaving Mountains and Rivers】!
A dazzling, golden energy greatsword coalesced into shape and shot straight up against the flow, meeting the falling heavenly lightning head-on!
A earth-shattering BOOM echoed out!
Although 【Sword Cleaving Mountains and Rivers】 consumed a massive amount of mana and had a long wind-up animation that made it easy to miss, there was no denying its top-tier power.
Under this ferocious strike, the golden-red heavenly lightning's momentum was forcibly shaved down by a full third.
Jiang Ye muttered to himself: As expected of an Earth-grade technique. What a mana hog—one move drained my entire mana bar dry.
But what are players best at? Popping potions, of course!
He skillfully stuffed a handful of mana-restoring pills into his mouth, instantly refilling his dried-up true qi.
Immediately following up with another move!
【Sword Cleaving Mountains and Rivers】!
A second golden greatsword soared into the sky, colliding fiercely with the heavenly lightning once more.
Yet even after being weakened twice, the golden-red heavenly lightning still hadn't completely dissipated.
Before Jiang Ye could unleash a third sword strike, the residual lightning struck him hard!
Crackling explosions erupted over his body.
Everyone below was utterly shocked, someone's voice trembling:
“Th-That's the Earth-grade sword art 【Sword Cleaving Mountains and Rivers】?! How did a Qi Condensation cultivator learn that?”
“More importantly, how could her spiritual energy sustain two consecutive slashes?!”
The seven contestants pinned firmly to the ground by the heavenly pressure were turning their heads with extreme difficulty.
Their necks were practically twisted a full hundred and eighty degrees, their eyes bloodshot as they watched the scene in the sky in disbelief, their hearts consumed by despair as they roared out:
“Impossible! That's absolutely impossible!”
“How could she possibly be this strong?!”
Rate on N.U.
