The Sky-Traveling Array settled onto the array platform outside Tianque City. In the distance, a massive city sprawled across the landscape, its walls soaring so high they nearly touched the cloud layer, with array runes flowing like threads of gold along the stone. Outside the city gates, cultivators moved like a surging tide, accompanied by an endless stream of spirit beast carriages, flying ships, and merchant caravans.
With a single glance, Yun Heng knew that Linxiao City was not even in the same league.
Golden Core cultivators were by no means rare here; she could even occasionally see Nascent Soul cultivators streak through the air, while the city guards merely glanced up without much surprise.
Yun Heng did not enter the city immediately. Standing at the edge of the array platform, she pressed her fingertips to her dantian. The spiritual breath from reaching Great Perfection of Golden Core was becoming increasingly difficult to suppress.
She turned around and walked toward a less crowded area. After traveling a few miles away from the array platform, she stopped by the edge of a forest and raised her hand to summon her sound-transmitting pendant.
“Xuan Yi.”
Before long, a silhouette dropped down from the shadows, with Xuan Yi kneeling on one knee.
“Young Lord.”
Yun Heng looked toward the dense forest in the distance.
“Take me away from here, as far as possible.”
Xuan Yi raised his eyes, sensing her unstable aura.
“Is Young Lord about to break through?”
“Yes. There are too many people here; it is unsuitable for undergoing tribulation.”
He stood up, his figure darting to Yun Heng's side like a shadow.
“Young Lord, pardon my offense.”
In the next instant, the scenery before Yun Heng stretched out abruptly. Xuan Yi's speed was far faster than hers. Trees, rocks, and streams swept backward at blinding speed. The hustle and bustle of Tianque City was left far behind, fading until only the rushing wind remained.
No one knew how much time had passed before Xuan Yi finally came to a stop.
This place was already far from Tianque City. Surrounded by deep mountain forests, ancient trees reached into the sky, and a thick carpet of fallen leaves covered the ground. The spiritual energy here was chillier and darker than outside the city. Low growls of demon beasts echoed faintly in the distance, but there was no sound of human presence.
Xuan Er and Xuan San soon landed nearby as well.
“There is no one within ten miles,” Xuan Yi reported.
Yun Heng nodded and fetched her Meridian Compass. Its silver needle trembled slightly before pointing toward the southeast, where the spiritual energy was steadier and the terrain more open.
The group quickly arrived at a valley. Yun Heng stood in the middle of it and glanced up. The sky had been clear moments before, but as soon as she released her suppression, clouds began to gather slowly at the edge of the horizon.
Yun Heng lowered her eyes, pressing her palm against the broken jade at her waist. When forming her Golden Core, the thunderous rumbles had not descended, but at this hurdle of Nascent Soul, the lightning tribulation was finally arriving.
“Guard from further away.”
“Understood.”
The five Shadow Guards scattered into the mountain forest to guard all four directions, leaving Yun Heng standing alone in the center of the valley.
The Golden Core in her dantian vibrated more and more violently, as though something was about to break free from within.
The clouds overhead hung low, and the first rumble of thunder rolled through the depths of the cloud layer.
She raised her hand, and the Tianheng Broken Sword appeared in her grip. Yun Heng tightened her hold on the hilt as thunder crashed down. She closed her eyes, letting the spiritual energy inside her body completely shatter that barrier.
In the next moment, tribulation clouds formed above the valley.
She raised her head and looked up at the cloud layer.
A cultivator's path was inherently an act of defying heaven. The higher one climbed, the less likely heaven and earth would let them off easily. When forming a core, the thunderous rumbles had faded without striking, but reaching Nascent Soul was a true tribulation.
It could not be avoided, nor was she permitted to dodge.
The first bolt of lightning struck down. A flash of silvery-violet lightning burst from the cloud layer, crashing straight toward the crown of Yun Heng's head.
Yun Heng raised her sword horizontally to meet it.
The lightning collided with the Tianheng Broken Sword and poured along the blade into her arm. Her bones and meridians felt as though scorched by fire, an intense pain exploding in an instant.
She let out a muffled groan, the bluestone beneath her feet fracturing with several fine cracks.
The Profound Bone Body-Forging Art operated on its own.
The lightning intent entered her body, first tearing through her before being guided by the technique, pressing down inch by inch along her bones and meridians. The pain was excruciatingly intense, yet after the pain passed, a trace of steady heat instead surged from her muscles and bones.
Yun Heng tightened her grip on the sword hilt; it was still bearable.
The second lightning bolt struck soon after, far heavier than the first.
The lightning crashed onto the blade, causing the Tianheng Broken Sword to emit a clear ring. Yun Heng's wrist trembled as the skin between her thumb and forefinger split open; blood slid down the hilt, only to be vaporized instantly by the lightning.
The third bolt.
The fourth bolt.
The fifth bolt.
Each rumble grew heavier than the last, shattering rocks in the valley into flying debris. The surrounding ancient trees were swept by the shockwaves, their leaves blackened and branches snapping continuously.
Inside the valley, the seventh lightning bolt struck down.
Yun Heng dropped to one knee, the Tianheng Broken Sword thrust into the rock. The lightning grazed her shoulder, instantly tearing her sleeve and leaving scorch marks across her flesh.
She grit her teeth, forcibly stabilizing the surging spiritual energy within her body.
Deep within her dantian, cracks had already spread across the Golden Core, and inside it, a tiny, faint speck of spiritual light was taking shape.
When the eighth bolt fell, Yun Heng raised her hand, drawing the lightning into her body.
The silvery-violet lightning roared down, pouring through her palm into her meridians. Operating the Profound Bone Body-Forging Art to its limit, a faint dark-gold light gleamed between her bones.
It was excruciatingly painful.
Yet she could feel her body being tempered piece by piece by the lightning intent.
Previously, her Profound Bone Body-Forging Art was merely at Minor Mastery; though her skin, flesh, and bones were stronger than those of cultivators of the same realm, there were still limits. But now, with the lightning tribulation entering her body, it acted like the sharpest hammer, pounding again and again deep into her bones and meridians.
Endure it, and she would be tempered; fail, and she would be reduced to ash.
Yun Heng looked up.
“Again.”
The ninth bolt struck down, leaving not a single patch of intact ground in the valley.
By the time the fifteenth bolt landed, the stone beneath her feet was pulverized into dust, and the cracks in her Golden Core ran deeper, with the speck of light within gradually taking on the outline of a human form.
The Nascent Soul was about to form.
The thunder grew abruptly heavier.
The sixteenth bolt crashed down, far fiercer than the previous fifteen.
Yun Heng raised her sword horizontally to block, but the strike sent her staggering backward several yards until her back slammed against the mountain wall. Loose rocks tumbled from above as she spat out a mouthful of blood, her vision momentarily turning dark.
The Profound Bone Body-Forging Art continued to operate.
Pressing against her sword, she slowly stood up.
She could not fall.
The seventeenth bolt.
The eighteenth bolt.
Lightning rained down continuously.
Yun Heng could no longer count how many wounds covered her body. She only knew that with every strike of lightning, the Nascent Soul within her Golden Core became a fraction clearer. That tiny spirit silhouette sat cross-legged deep within her dantian, sharing features similar to hers, yet surrounded by faint frost and lightning light.
When the twentieth bolt landed, the Tianheng Broken Sword finally let out a long cry. A frost-colored sword light soared from the blade, forcibly slicing open the lightning by half an inch, but the remaining strike still crashed onto Yun Heng.
She dropped to one knee, her fingertips digging into the stone as blood trickled down the corner of her lips.
The twenty-first bolt was already taking shape within the cloud layer.
Outside the mountain forest, Xuan San's expression changed.
“There are more?”
Xuan Yi said in a solemn voice, “For a Nascent Soul Tribulation, nine bolts are ordinary, and eighteen are high-grade. Beyond twenty...”
Deep within the clouds, the twenty-first bolt struck down.
Yun Heng raised her sword.
The twenty-second bolt.
Using her sword to prop herself up, she bore it by sheer force.
The twenty-third bolt.
The Tianheng Broken Sword slipped half an inch from her hand before she gripped it tightly once more.
The twenty-fourth bolt.
Every loose stone in the valley was swept up by the lightning light, turning the entire open ground into scorched earth. Standing in the center of the lightning, Yun Heng's figure was already somewhat unsteady.
She could feel that she was approaching her limit.
Yet the Nascent Soul in her dantian was only short of the final step.
Yun Heng raised her head and looked into the depths of the cloud layer.
The twenty-fifth bolt was condensing.
Xuan Yi snapped his head up.
The cloud layer split open.
The twenty-fifth bolt crashed down.
It was no longer silvery-violet, but an almost blinding white. The strike tore down from the sky, as if aiming to pierce straight through the entire valley.
Yun Heng tightened her grip on the sword in her hand; she did not retreat further, nor did she block again.
The Profound Bone Body-Forging Art, Tianheng Guiyuan Art, and Tianheng Sword Art operated simultaneously.
The Golden Core in her dantian completely cracked open at this moment.
The Nascent Soul opened its eyes.
Yun Heng raised her sword and slashed out to meet the white lightning bolt.
“A Line of Frost.”
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