Yinxian Gate is one of the top sects in Dongsheng Divine Continent.
"Dong! Dong! Dong!"
The bell tolls echoed through the clouds. The three rings of the Heavenly Dao Divine Bell at Yinxian Gate signified that the Immortal Seeking Assembly was about to begin.
Yinxian Gate was established upon the immortal mountains of Dongsheng Divine Continent, its peaks shrouded in mist and clouds.
Morning mist hung heavy over the ocean of clouds, while a gentle spring breeze stirred the faint haze, blending the fragrance of flowers into the murky mist.
At the foot of the mountain lay a bustling city street, where mortals born in this place lived and worked in peace and contentment. Under the protection of Yinxian Gate, they had thrived here for generations.
It was also a place for a brief rest for the immortal seekers who had traveled tens of thousands of miles to get here.
In recent days, the lively aura of the mortal world appeared exceptionally strong, all because the Immortal Seeking Assembly of Yinxian Gate was approaching.
"Is this Yinxian Gate, home of the Innately Sacred Being? My journey from Xiniu Heizhou was well worth it! I heard the master of the Innately Sacred Being is also from Xiniu Heizhou?"
「Oh, Junior Sister, are you from Xiniu Heizhou as well? Senior Brother here is too! The path of cultivation is long and cold; why don't we embrace for warmth and walk the great path of cultivation together?」
"At the peak of immortality, standing proud above the world, my child possesses the talent of a prodigy! This trip will surely allow us to seek immortality and ask the Dao, becoming immortals of the heavens!"
"What nonsense talent of a prodigy—he is just deformed! His head is as pointy as an awl; you might as well shave it off and use it as a hidden weapon."
"You little—"
"Hey, you little—"
The sounds of the city at the foot of the mountain were chaotic. Just as the crowd was arguing and making a lively racket, the sky in the distance suddenly turned gloomy.
Dark clouds billowed upward like spilled ink, yet at the edge of the horizon, a mountain range emerged with dark purple lightning surging within it.
"Boom—"
A thunderclap exploded like the wrath of the heavens, ringing in everyone's ears. In the dark clouds, purple lightning wreathed downward like a hunting serpent, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
"What is this?"
"Golden Core Tribulation! Someone is undergoing the Golden Core Tribulation!"
Not everyone at the foot of the mountain was ignorant of the secrets of the immortal path. There were also cultivation families who had come by reputation, yet they never expected to witness a Golden Core Tribulation on the very first day.
During the Golden Core Tribulation, the Heavenly Thunder appears purple. The baseline is three bolts; a tribulation-passer with decent natural talent and sufficient foundation may face six bolts. However, a favored child of heaven with profound immortal affinity who receives the favor of heaven and earth will face nine bolts.
It was only a question of how many bolts of heavenly thunder the immortal undergoing the tribulation would face this time. Another startling bolt of thunder struck down from the distant horizon—this was already the second. Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth...
Explosions continued to echo from afar. Amidst looks of astonishment, the ninth bolt of heavenly thunder struck down with a crash. As the most powerful of the nine bolts, it seemed to tear the very sky apart.
Whose peerless prodigy of Yinxian Gate could this nine-bolt heavenly thunder possibly belong to?
Just as doubt filled everyone's minds, the tribulation clouds did not disperse. Instead, their oppressive might grew even stronger; despite being separated by such a distance, the terrifying pressure could still be felt.
At the same time, defensive arrays appeared at the foot of the mountain.
The tenth bolt of heavenly thunder?
Whether they were people at the foot of the mountain or disciples within Yinxian Gate, their hearts trembled. This had never happened before! At that moment, someone noticed the direction where the tribulation clouds were gathered.
"It's Huanxian Peak! First Senior Sister's peak!"
"As expected of the Innately Sacred Being! To break through to the Golden Core realm at eighteen and still draw down a tenth-tier tribulation—truly terrifying."
"There are only First Senior Sister and the Old Ancestor on Huanxian Peak, and the Old Ancestor's cultivation has already reached the Tribulation Passing stage. It must be First Senior Sister!"
"An eighteen-year-old Golden Core cultivator..."
"I am forty-five and only at the third layer of Foundation Establishment!"
Within the tribulation clouds, gold tinged the purple, already possessing a fraction of the might belonging to a Nascent Soul heavenly thunder.
Beneath the heavenly thunder, Shui Lianyue raised her eyes to look at the tribulation clouds, her gaze as calm as still water. She remained completely at ease under the terrifying might of heaven. As the nine bolts of heavenly thunder fell, only the hem of her robe was slightly soiled.
"Come on."
Following her soft words, heavenly punishment descended from the sky. The sound of thunder shook a radius of a thousand miles. A heavenly dragon broke through the clouds, plunging straight down and whipping up rolling might.
As the dazzling light dissipated, the once verdant Huanxian Peak was now charred black, with countless spiritual plants and herbs utterly destroyed.
Shui Lianyue stood at the center of the heavenly thunder, slowly putting away the umbrella in her hand without a single injury on her body. Feeling the Golden Core within her dantian, a faint curve slowly rose at the corner of her mouth.
"Aigoo, my Huanxian Peak! I told you to go somewhere else to undergo your tribulation, but you just wouldn't listen. Aigoo, just look at what a mess you've made of it."
At that moment, an elderly voice reached Shui Lianyue's ears, filled with extreme heartache and reluctance. Knowing the old man well, Shui Lianyue's beautiful eyes flashed slightly, and her rosy lips parted slightly.
"With Master's ability, a mere wave of your hand will restore all this. There is no need to put on a show for your disciple."
Hearing this, the old man's figure paused, and in an instant, he appeared right in front of Shui Lianyue. His aged face was now full of accusation, and he stretched out a finger, looking at Shui Lianyue with a distorted expression.
Before the old man could speak, Shui Lianyue turned her head away. "Ugly to death."
As her words fell, the once furious old man turned to stone. He felt as though his life had plunged into gloom, utterly despised and disliked by his own disciple.
Ignoring the drama-queen old man, Shui Lianyue looked at the landscape ravaged by the tribulation and felt the power within her body, a sense of satisfaction welling up in her heart.
She, Shui Lianyue, was an Innately Sacred Being—like the Creator's most perfect masterpiece, capable of making people fall for her with just a single glance. So thought a certain Innately Sacred Being in her own narcissistic mind.
At her birth, purple qi came from the east for thirty thousand miles, golden lotuses sprang from the ground, and ten thousand miles of auspicious qi showered down upon the mortal world like the Milky Way tumbling from the high heavens, causing continuous anomalies.
When her Spirit Root was tested at the age of six, she recovered her memories of her past life: the world she inhabited was an old-fashioned xianxia novel, and she was one of the supporting female characters—the female protagonist's Senior Sister.
To call her a vicious supporting character would not quite be accurate; she simply enjoyed bullying the female protagonist and liked watching her with tears welling in the corners of her eyes, gazing at her as weakly as a withering flower.
Upon recovering her memories of her past life, Shui Lianyue had inwardly despised the original owner. How could someone so strange even exist? If it were her, she would never have done such a thing.
Perhaps due to being an Innately Sacred Being, Shui Lianyue's emotions were relatively detached. Even now, her emotional fluctuations remained rare, and her only emotion was probably the urge to bully the female protagonist.
The original owner's ultimate end seemed to be dying in the siege of Demonic Entities, simply because Shui Lianyue was entirely too defying of the heavens.
In the original story, she suppressed the female protagonist so thoroughly that she could not even raise her head, dimming the protagonist's radiance to such an extent that the author ultimately had no choice but to write her out of the plot.
The female protagonist's feelings toward Shui Lianyue were extremely complicated: she could neither beat her nor run away from her, and could only endure the bullying. The crux of it was that the original owner's bullying completely failed to arouse any hatred in the female protagonist, leaving her with only helplessness.
"Disciple."
At that moment, the old man's voice sounded from behind her.