The Empyrean Tribulation: A Baptism of Lightning and Grief

“What astonishing power.”

Jidian flicked his fan, his eyes narrowed to slits. Reddust Celestial stood solemnly beside him. Their knowledge was vast, and they knew well that normal ‘Tribulation-Clouds’ were usually formed by two patches of dark clouds that gradually converged. Even the common ‘Nine-Nine Tribulation’ was the same. It was only when the nature of the Tribulation itself underwent a fundamental transformation that one would see a scene like this.

A vast, endless sea of Tribulation-Clouds.

“BOOM~~~” In the center of the boundless black clouds that covered the entire sky, points of violet light were faintly visible. These points began to swirl. There were so many violet lights… they filled almost the entire cloud layer. As far as the eye could see, there were only vague traces of purple light.

Slowly.

A vortex began to form in the sky directly above Ji Ning. It seemed to strain as it started to spin. As it turned, it devoured the countless violet lights from the horizon. The endless Tribulation-Clouds were all drawn into the vortex.

“WHOOSH~~~” The boundless black clouds began to reveal an edge. They shrank rapidly, pouring into the vortex. The countless violet lights also surged into the swirl.

Within the vortex, there was only chaos.

After a moment.

Only the chaotic swirl remained in the sky. The vast Tribulation-Clouds had vanished completely. Even the pressure was gone.

“My heart feels tight,” Woodpass murmured.

“I’ve never read about a lightning tribulation like this in any of the books at Mount Innerheart,” Xiaoqing said, worried.

……

Within the chaotic swirl, a single bolt of lightning began to condense. It was violet in color, with faint traces of white mixed in.

“CRACKLE.”

This violet-white bolt of lightning descended directly from the chaotic swirl high in the sky. It lacked any fierce or domineering momentum. Instead, it bore a kind of majestic aura, like an emperor whose presence forced all heads to bow in submission.

“Hmph.” Ji Ning frowned slightly. “When my Primaltwin underwent the tribulation, the seventy-third Celestial Tribulation-Thunder was this same beautiful violet-white tribulation-thunder. I didn’t expect that for my true body, the first tribulation-thunder would be at this level.”

Ji Ning had a premonition…

This tribulation would not be easy.

“BOOM.”

Ji Ning stood in the void. He let the lightning strike his body. Electric serpents danced over his skin. His divine body, at the Pure Yang treasure level, was not so easily shaken.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

One tribulation-thunder after another crashed down!

The power grew with each strike. By the ninth tribulation-thunder, it had become completely white. A dazzling white. A sacred white. It descended with an air of grace and nobility, pressing down on Ji Ning from above. Dressed in his white robes, Ji Ning stood in the void, looking up as the white tribulation-thunder struck him.

“That’s all the tribulation-thunder has to offer?” Brightmoon, watching from afar, looked at her father, bathed in the white lightning, her eyes filled with admiration. She said excitedly, “Father can easily withstand it without even fighting back!”

“Little Brightmoon, your father’s easy resistance doesn’t mean this tribulation isn’t terrifying,” Uncle White explained from the side. “Before you were born, your father’s Primaltwin underwent a tribulation. It was also a Nine-Nine Tribulation, and the final bolt of that tribulation was this same kind of completely dazzling white lightning. Your father is able to endure it only because he cultivates the Eight-Nine Arcane Art and has a peerless divine body.”

“The Eight-Nine Arcane Art is that powerful?” Brightmoon’s eyes sparkled. “I want to cultivate it too.”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!…

Bolt after bolt of tribulation-thunder descended.

The color shifted from the graceful, dazzling white, gradually becoming tinged with gold. This imbued the lightning with a supreme, boundless aura… as if one were directly facing the Heavenly Dao itself.

Lightning bolt after lightning bolt crashed down. Ji Ning, bathed in the radiance, felt as if he were being washed by a current. His entire body felt comfortable. Subtle, almost imperceptible changes were taking place within his divine body.

The thirty-sixth… the forty-ninth… the fifty-fourth…

The power of the tribulation-thunder continued to rise.

“The sixth level of the Eight-Nine Arcane Art is indeed formidable,” Reddust Celestial said softly, sighing in admiration. “When I underwent my Empyrean Tribulation back then, the most powerful bolt was equivalent to the fifty-fourth tribulation-thunder here. I barely survived it through desperate effort. But Ji Ning doesn’t even need to fight back; his divine body can completely withstand it.”

“Junior apprentice-brother Reddust, you were born at the creation of the world. The Eight-Nine Arcane Art didn’t exist back then,” Jidian said with a laugh. “Look at Junior Apprentice-Brother Ning’s lightning tribulation. There’s a good chance it will produce the Pure Yang Golden Light Tribulation-Thunder.”

“Pure Yang Golden Light Tribulation-Thunder?” Reddust Celestial’s face showed a trace of worry. “If that happens… I’m afraid even the sixth level of the Eight-Nine Arcane Art won’t be enough to block it.”

Jidian gently fanned himself, still smiling cheerfully. “Let’s just watch.”

……

Bathed in the lightning, Ji Ning carefully felt the power of the tribulation-thunder. The seventy-second, the seventy-third… by now, the lightning was almost entirely gold, with only a little white mixed in. The power was so immense that Ji Ning’s body began to tremble. Tiny wounds appeared, but with a surge of divine power, they healed instantly.

“So, my divine body is starting to struggle,” Ji Ning thought, still looking up as the lightning struck. He observed it closely.

The seventy-eighth, seventy-ninth, eightieth.

The final bolt.

“Come forth.”

The white-robed Ji Ning suddenly transformed, manifesting three heads and six arms. In his hands appeared the six Ananda Universal Salvation Swords.

“Break!” Ji Ning, wielding the six swords, shot upward like a rocket, charging straight at the chaotic swirl high in the sky. From within the swirl, a bolt of lightning was born. It was completely golden, with no trace of any other color. This pure golden tribulation-thunder carried an aura of supreme yang, supreme hardness, and incomparable sharpness. The mere sight of it was terrifying.

“So frightening,” Brightmoon’s heart trembled.

“Pure Yang Golden Light Tribulation-Thunder!” Reddust Celestial was shocked.

“A Pure Yang Divine Tribulation-Thunder,” Jidian said, his fan pausing mid-swing.

Patriarch Subhuti and the Woodcutter, watching from afar, also observed the scene. Pure Yang Golden Light Tribulation-Thunder… only appeared in Heavenly Tribulations. Immortals and demons could never cultivate this type of thunder through normal training. It was a divine tribulation-thunder of astonishing power, yet it was also filled with infinite profundity.

They saw Ji Ning, with three heads and six arms, holding the six Ananda Universal Salvation Swords, charging into the sky.

The Supreme Yang, Supreme Hard Pure Yang Golden Light Tribulation-Thunder also descended from above.

“Shatter!”

Six blinding rays of sword-light flashed.

Each beam of sword-light was imbued with Ji Ning’s powerful Heartforce, having reached the fourth level. He poured all of it into the attack.

“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!” The six mighty sword-beams met the Pure Yang Golden Light Tribulation-Thunder head-on. With a deafening rumble, the bolt of golden lightning trembled and completely shattered. However, the fragmented golden electric serpents still fell upon Ji Ning’s body, causing his divine body to tremble but without leaving a single wound.

“WHOOSH~~~”

The chaotic swirl in the high sky instantly contracted, transforming into a single beam of lightning.

SWISH!

In a flash, it reached Ji Ning’s body. The lightning was too fast to defend against.

“CRACKLE… BOOM~~~” Ji Ning felt as if, under this mysterious electric light, his bones and tendons were crackling and popping, rapidly transforming, becoming tougher and more resilient. At the same time, his organs and muscles rumbled as they, too, underwent a transformation.

“Legend says… that after enduring the Pure Yang Golden Light Tribulation-Thunder and becoming an Empyrean God, one attains a Perfect Divine Body,” Ji Ning understood.

For an Empyrean God to break through and become a True God, their body must first reach the Perfect Divine Body level.

A Perfect Divine Body represents the pinnacle of an Empyrean God’s abilities in strength, speed, and even divine power itself. Without the baptism of the Pure Yang Golden Light Tribulation-Thunder, reaching this state through slow training would be an endless, gradual process.

……

Ji Ning sat cross-legged in the wilderness.

The Heartforge Tribulation descended.

“The Heartforge Tribulation poses no threat to Ji Ning,” Patriarch Subhuti said, smiling as he watched his disciple from afar. He nodded. “The Empyrean Tribulation is over.” Then he vanished into thin air.

The Woodcutter also nodded slightly, murmuring softly, “I wonder if Junior Apprentice-Brother Ning can break through to become a True God Daofather before the final great calamity.”

The Woodcutter vanished as well.

They disappeared one after the other. Among the remaining onlookers, only Jidian vaguely sensed something. He turned his head to look behind him into the distance, frowning. “Did I sense wrong? Master and the Senior Apprentice-Brother?” Only the unfathomable Master and his Senior Apprentice-Brother, the foremost among Master’s disciples, could be so mysterious and elusive.

Ji Ning’s Heartforce was simply too powerful.

The descending Heartforge Tribulation, though already incredibly formidable, was suppressed by his Heartforce. He spent nearly a month within the demonic illusion world before waking up completely.

“I know, even I know that Senior Apprentice-Sister is my inner demon.”

“I tried my best to believe that she was real.”

“Unfortunately… I could still sense it. That it was just a fake, an illusion.”

Ji Ning sat cross-legged, his eyes open. Tears glistened faintly in them, but they evaporated instantly.

His Heartforce, at the fourth level, was too strong.

He had wanted to reunite with his Senior Apprentice-Sister once more within the illusory world of the Heartforge Tribulation. But he painfully discovered that his powerful Heartforce could perceive the flaws. The Yu Wei in that demonic illusion was fake, an illusion.

Ji Ning understood.

If his Heartforce had only been at the third level, he might not have detected that Yu Wei was an illusion. But then… he might have been completely lost, unable to break free.

“Just wishful thinking…” Ji Ning closed his eyes.

BOOM~~~

The world changed.

Beautiful auspicious clouds filled the sky. Golden lotuses burst forth from the earth.

“HUM~~~” A vast Sunstar and a vast Taiyin Star appeared in the sky above Ji Ning. The surging power of the Sun and the Taiyin poured into his body like a storm. At the same time, an immense amount of Heaven-Earth energy converged, also flowing into him.

Ji Ning, seated upon a golden lotus, became the center of a storm of boundless energy.

Light flowed across his entire body.

A golden core began to form within him.

At the same time, his divine body began its transformation, frantically absorbing the power of the Sun and Taiyin. When everything finally cleared and silence was restored, Ji Ning’s divine body radiated a natural, intrinsic pressure. It was the pressure of an Empyrean God. And among Empyrean Gods, he was at the pinnacle, for his body had reached the Perfect level.

“Father.” Brightmoon ran over.

Ji Ning, still seated cross-legged, smiled and hugged his daughter.

“Father, you were so mighty!” Brightmoon said, looking up at her father from within his embrace, her eyes shining. She would never forget the scene of her father bathed in lightning, nor the sight of the massive Sun and Moon appearing above his head as he sat cross-legged upon a golden lotus.

At this moment.

Reddust Celestial, Yuanguang Celestial, Snowscorpion Celestial, Jiuvine Celestial, Ninefang Celestial, Blazing Sun Celestial, and Darkmoon Celestial all moved. In a flash, they arrived before Ji Ning. Their eyes were filled with excitement. Even a yellow-furred bear appeared out of nowhere. The eight of them looked at Ji Ning, their faces filled with a passionate, eager hope.

Then, they dropped to one knee, saluting respectfully: “Greetings, Prefectural Lord!”

Sevenslaughter Manor… was finally about to reappear in the Three Realms!