A thunderclap exploded from a clear sky.
This was precisely what Ling Chen had been waiting for.
He frantically circulated the Nine Tribulations Profound Chapter. The spiritual liquid within his body threatened to overflow, and his aura surged skyward step by step.
Qin Chengfeng stood frozen in place, a look of sheer terror in his eyes.
"How, how is this possible!"
A heavenly tribulation.
This was a heavenly tribulation!
Directly overhead, the previously cloudless blue sky suddenly filled with dark thunderclouds, lightning flashing like coiling dragons.
"This is impossible!"
Qin Chengfeng cried out, looking as though he had been possessed by a demon.
Weren't heavenly tribulations only encountered by mighty cultivators in the Tribulation Passing Realm? Why would one appear out of nowhere?
Could there be a Tribulation Passing expert hiding here?
No.
How could there be such a coincidence in this world?
At that moment, the image of Ling Chen’s bloodthirsty smile flashed vividly across his mind.
It was him!
"Damn it, get away!"
Qin Chengfeng was terrified. As far as he knew, under a heavenly tribulation, any living creature was like an ant; a single bolt of lightning could reduce him to ashes.
Though he had no idea how Ling Chen had managed it, the reality was right before his eyes.
This fellow was simply a monster!
Under a heavenly tribulation, the higher one's cultivation level, the heavier the tribulation force one had to bear. Qin Chengfeng had zero chance of lucking out—once the lightning tribulation struck, death was certain.
"Get lost!"
Right now, his only desperate urge was to get as far away from Ling Chen as possible.
Yet Ling Chen seized him tightly by the shoulders, his brute strength firmly pinning Qin Chengfeng in place.
"If we're going to die, we die together."
"You lunatic, you're fucking crazy!"
Qin Chengfeng roared hysterically. In a panic, he slammed a fist directly toward Ling Chen's chest.
With a loud *thud*, Ling Chen coughed up a mouthful of blood, but his hands remained clamped like iron tongs, refusing to loosen by a fraction.
"Come on, let's dance! Let's see who dies first!"
*Boom*—
The world darkened as lightning flashed.
In an instant, a cyan bolt of thunder crashed down fiercely.
Just at that moment, the wild, maniacal-looking Ling Chen suddenly released his grip and kicked out toward Qin Chengfeng's chest.
"Go to hell."
Trembling all over, Qin Chengfeng tried to flee, but a wisp of lightning landed squarely on him.
In a mere fraction of a second, before he even had time to scream, his entire body suddenly turned to ash.
Under the heavenly tribulation, all are ants!
Ling Chen clenched his teeth tightly, arms thrown wide, pushing the Nine Tribulations Profound Chapter to its absolute limit.
A layer of precious light surfaced across his skin, enveloping his entire body.
Foundation Establishment.
The foundation of the Great Dao!
Practitioners divided the Dao Foundation into four grades.
The first grade was the White Spirit Dao Foundation, the most common and ordinary of foundations. It could be said that eight or nine out of every ten cultivators in the world possessed only a White Spirit Dao Foundation.
The second grade was the Treasured Spirit Dao Foundation, which only true geniuses could forge. It required not only innate talent, but also exceptionally high standards for the cultivation method used during Foundation Establishment, giving one a chance at its formation.
The third grade was the Purple Gold Dao Foundation, a sight rarely seen in a century. Beyond strict requirements for innate talent and cultivation methods, it demanded astonishing karmic luck. Leaving aside the Silver Moon Ancient Dynasty, even throughout the entire Eastern Region, such individuals could be counted on one's fingers.
The fourth grade was the Divine Splendor Dao Foundation, which existed almost exclusively in ancient legends, encountered perhaps once every thousand years; even the method for forging it had long been lost.
Among the four grades of the Dao Foundation, each grade was a world unto itself—a chasm as vast as heaven that could not be crossed!
The Nine Tribulations Profound Chapter was an immortal-grade cultivation method, so the foundation it forged was naturally the Divine Splendor Dao Foundation.
Ling Chen even guessed that the Nine Tribulations True Immortal—who could sweep across the universe and suppress the heavens—had condensed a Dao Foundation that surpassed even the Divine Splendor Dao Foundation.
And the difficulty of achieving it was equally shocking and monstrous.
Luring down the heavenly tribulation and using the power of heavenly thunder to temper the physical body was only the first step; the truly difficult part was capturing a wisp of heavenly thunder power and fusing it into the Dao Foundation within the dantian.
Just thinking about it made one's hair stand on end.
The entire process was unimaginably perilous; the slightest misstep would result in destroyed foundations, a shattered body, and the annihilation of soul and spirit.
Yet an arrow drawn from a bow could not be called back. Since Ling Chen had stepped onto this path, he had absolutely no room for retreat.
"So what if it's a heavenly tribulation?"
"We who walk the path of cultivation are defying the heavens to change our fate!"
"Break for me!"
Meeting the challenge head-on, every bone and joint in Ling Chen's body, every meridian in his dantian, and even his very pores expanded and breathed, eager to swallow and digest every last wisp of heavenly thunder power.
*Bang!*
The heavenly thunder struck.
Ling Chen crashed heavily to the ground, blasting a massive crater into the earth.
Yet his aura did not dissipate.
When he raised his eyes, a crazed look flashed across his face.
Opening his left hand, a streak of cyan lightning was clutched firmly within his palm.
"Caught it!"
Without hesitation, Ling Chen swallowed the cyan lightning whole into his stomach.
In an instant, he felt as though he were about to pass out, his internal organs erupting with a crackling sound like rolling thunder.
Pain.
Excruciating pain.
Cold sweat had already drenched his entire body.
Ling Chen gritted his teeth, not daring to relax for even a fraction of a second. He silently circulated his cultivation method, guiding the cyan lightning to merge into the Dao Foundation within his dantian.
"Almost there, still a bit more."
His voice was already hoarse, his mental energy exhausted to the extreme, on the verge of blacking out at any moment.
"Will it not work?"
"Still not enough?"
"Why the hell not!"
Roar after roar echoed.
The grade-seven sword bone suddenly flashed with a brilliant cyan light, and the very last remnant of lightning lingering in his dantian was swallowed up entirely by the grade-seven sword bone.
Suddenly, Ling Chen felt the heaven and earth clear as fortune followed misfortune.
"Foundation of the Great Dao, condense for me!"
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth grew wildly turbulent, converging frantically into his body.
One breath.
Ten breaths.
A hundred breaths.
When Ling Chen opened his eyes once more, his aura finally broke through.
Foundation Establishment Level 1.
Foundation Establishment Level 2.
Foundation Establishment Level 3!
Breaking through three levels consecutively, it finally stopped.
Springing to his feet, Ling Chen flicked his fingers, a faint trace of lightning sparking between them.
"This is..."
Joy surged wildly in his heart. Swallowing the power of the heavenly thunder had actually allowed him to acquire a wisp of true lightning power.
Among the myriad DAOs, when it came to slaughter and destruction, the Dao of Thunder was bound to rank in the top ten.
Even more wondrously, his grade-seven sword bone had also developed a hint of cyan lightning, making it appear increasingly extraordinary.
"Awesome!"
He raised his arms and shouted in triumph.
Though he was currently only at Foundation Establishment Level 3, he was far stronger than he had been at his peak in Foundation Establishment Level 6—not just a little stronger, but by a margin of ninety to ten.
With a single punch now, he could practically cleave nine of his former selves alive.
"I've finally survived the first tribulation without mishap. In future cultivation, the power of the heavenly tribulations will only grow stronger, and I must approach them with utmost care. But the harvest is equally astonishing!"
Ling Chen silently calculated in his mind, then suddenly slapped his thigh.
"Oh no, I forgot about Third Uncle!"
Without hesitation, Ling Chen bolted forward at a dead sprint, finally catching sight of Ling Zhongheng and Liu Zhou locked in fierce combat.
"Your saber technique is astonishing, and you've managed to comprehend saber intent even in the Golden Core Realm—your future achievements are boundless. Why don't you and I call it a draw here? Must we fight to the death?"
Liu Zhou's voice echoed across the clearing.
Throughout the entire skirmish, he had remained strictly on the defensive.
It wasn't out of mercy, but rather because Ling Zhongheng's previous slash had left him somewhat wary.
He was merely a retainer for the Qin family, and he had no mortal feud with Ling Zhongheng. Even if he killed Ling Zhongheng, he would have to pay a heavy price himself—clearly an unwise course of action.
On the other hand, Ling Zhongheng's aura was already growing somewhat unstable; having failed to break through after prolonged attacks, his true yuan was on the verge of exhaustion.
He just wondered if Chen'er had managed to escape.
Ling Chen was his greatest worry.
The more he worried, the more fiercely and ruthlessly he swung his broadsword.
Even if he died today, he had to buy a little more time for Chen'er.
"Spineless coward, come and die!"
With an angry roar, Ling Zhongheng's saber blows grew even heavier.
Liu Zhou frowned with displeasure. Running into such an unreasonable brute was indeed a headache.
Since he was courting death, he would grant his wish.
"Since you're hell-bent on dying, do you really think Liu here is afraid of you?"
"Frozen Prison!"
With a deafening boom, rolling waves of bone-chilling cold swept out to cover the heavens and earth.
Ling Zhongheng involuntarily shivered, his movements slowing by a fraction as the true yuan inside his body threatened to freeze solid.
Was he going to die?
The moment this thought arose, a voice suddenly rang out.
"Hang in there, Third Uncle! I've come to help you!"