Chapter 84: All reduced to ashes

Liu Changfeng still hadn’t fully grasped what Bai Qiulan meant.

Then—crack!

With a thunderous roar, heaven and earth were torn open in a flash of silver-white light.

The tribulation thunder descended!

Not one bolt.

But a dense barrage—wave after wave of lightning merged into a vast curtain, crashing down over all of Nine Dragon Valley.

A formation?

A sealed trap?

The formation was sturdy, yes.

But now all the powerful cultivators inside were like turtles in a jar—completely trapped, no escape.

To be fair, the grand formation they had set up was truly powerful.

Even the first wave of densely packed silver-white tribulation bolts didn’t fully destroy it.

“We must unite our strength and resist the tribulation together! If we fight separately, all of us will die!” A Tribulation Crossing expert from the Myriad Ancients Sect was nearly apoplectic, roaring at the others.

They had victory within reach.

Lu Ye had only defended, defended, and defended again.

They were moments away from killing him—until he activated that one move.

No, from the very beginning, Lu Ye had been setting this up. All those seals he’d been forming—none of them were for defense. Every single one was meant to construct this formation.

BOOM!

The second tribulation bolt fell.

All the formations shattered instantly.

Tribulation aura filled the air. The concentration of lightning-based spiritual energy reached its peak. Sparks of lightning danced everywhere.

A massive shield was hoisted into place.

A treasured innate spiritual artifact of the Myriad Ancients Sect—the Indestructible Shield.

“All of you, combine your strength!”

Now, no one was even paying attention to Lu Ye anymore.

Above his head, the Black Tortoise still hovered—dim, but still intact. Breaking through it would still require everyone working together.

The remaining Tribulation cultivators gathered behind the Indestructible Shield. Massive flows of spiritual power surged into it.

One after another, phantom shields appeared—until a total of ninety-nine were manifested.

Lu Ye shut his eyes, his hands slowly revolving in front of his lower dantian.

Faint silver-white light sparked from his body, and the lightning energy drifting through the air began to converge toward him.

He’d been cultivating his true essence for long enough—it was time to temper the body.

BOOM!

The third tribulation bolt descended.

Layer after layer of shield light on the Indestructible Shield were obliterated like dry leaves.

The entire shield dropped lower under the pressure. One of the weaker Tribulation cultivators vomited blood on the spot—the force of impact had seriously wounded his body.

“It’s too strong! Quick, bring out all your defensive treasures!”

A Tribulation cultivator from Youming bellowed in panic.

He was the first to act, summoning his own spiritual treasure—a pitch-black talisman that burned fiercely, creating a dark defensive barrier.

The others hurried to do the same.

The fourth bolt of tribulation thunder fell.

BOOM!

Every single defensive treasure shattered. Turned to scrap.

The strongest of them all—the Indestructible Shield—was pierced on the spot.

All the Tribulation Crossing cultivators were left scorched and blackened, each one suffering varying degrees of serious injury.

And this was only the fourth tribulation bolt.

There would be nine in total.

Despair filled every heart.

One Tribulation cultivator suddenly looked at Lu Ye, eyes full of seething hatred.

“It’s you!”

“All of this is because of you!”

“You deserve to die!”

Lu Ye calmly nodded. “Then come kill me.”

He once again formed hand seals.

In that moment—the Vermilion Bird, the Black Tortoise, the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger—

The Four Sacred Beasts emerged as four interlocking barriers of light, fully encasing Lu Ye’s body.

Just one Black Tortoise had withstood the combined attacks of Tribulation Crossing cultivators for several rounds without breaking. Now that he had summoned all four at once—interlinked and merged—their power multiplied exponentially.

“I’ll kill you myself!”

That Tribulation cultivator finally snapped, charging at Lu Ye in a frenzy.

His energy surged chaotically.

His body began to swell—like a balloon rapidly filling with air.

Lu Ye’s expression shifted. Damn. Was this guy going to self-detonate?!

That was no joke. Even the fully merged Four Sacred Beasts barrier couldn’t survive a self-detonation from a Tribulation cultivator.

“Go!”

The merged Four Beasts barrier expanded instantly, slamming toward the enemy.

At the same time, Lu Ye’s figure turned into a stream of light.

He activated his secret art—Nine Steps of Samsara.

With just one step—

His figure had already blurred beyond visibility.

A joke.

With the formation intact, he couldn’t escape. But now that it was destroyed—who the hell could stop him?

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion echoed through Nine Dragon Valley.

The earth shook violently.

The Four Sacred Beasts barrier shattered into dust on the spot.

Lu Ye had moved fast—damn fast—but he was still caught by the shockwave. Blood sprayed from his mouth in a thick arc.

His body flew through the air like a torn burlap sack.

At that very moment—the fifth tribulation bolt descended.

Above, the heavenly tribulation.

Below, a Tribulation cultivator's self-detonation.

In the middle, a cluster of Tribulation cultivators frozen in place.

“Shit!”

“Boundless Heavenly Venerable, save us!”

“We're fucking doomed—!”

BOOOOOM!

Silver lightning danced like serpents, divine might surging.

The weak were instantly turned to charcoal beneath the divine thunder.

That one strike—anything below Tribulation level was completely annihilated, reduced to ash.

Even Lu Xuntian, who was only spectating, died on the spot.

One-third of the Tribulation cultivators perished—miserably, unbearably so.

Lu Ye didn’t escape the wrath of the heavens either. He too had been locked onto by the heavenly tribulation. The core bolt split into countless thinner arcs, each one hammering straight into him.

His entire body was scorched black.

He quickly rotated his hands before his lower dantian.

Ninefold Tribulation Immortal Body.

Refine it!

Lightning tore through him. The pain was unimaginable—pure agony.

But Lu Ye’s expression never twisted, not even once.

Pain... is simply proof of growth!

Dense, surging lightning poured into his body. Silver light burst from within him.

And then—

The dormant Flesh-Rebirth Pill hidden deep in his blood and marrow finally activated.

Endless vitality exploded outward, rapidly mending his torn flesh.

His muscles ripped open.

Then [N O V E L I G H T] healed.

Ripped again.

Healed again.

The sixth bolt descended—

Right in front of dozens of already-devastated Tribulation cultivators.

And once again, a bolt as thick as a forearm slammed down onto Lu Ye’s body.

PFFT!

Another mouthful of blood spewed forth.

His skin flipped inside out. Muscles torn and exposed.

Pain!

Unbearable pain!

Yet Lu Ye’s expression remained frighteningly calm.

When had the road of cultivation ever been free of suffering?

Countless arcs of lightning surged through his body, wreaking havoc in every direction.

“Hahaha...”

“They’re dead. All of them... dead...”

A Tribulation cultivator from the Myriad Ancients Sect—no longer even recognizable as human—let out a hoarse, broken laugh. His voice was filled with desolate despair.

Three hundred years of cultivation—

Reduced to ash in a single day.

So be it. So be it...

His final gaze landed on Lu Ye.

His voice was icy, like it came crawling out of an abyss.

“Well, well. Number one on the Eternal Heaven’s Chosen Ranking. Today, the Myriad Ancients Sect’s strongest have been wiped out. That’s a karmic debt on your soul. I’ll be waiting for you... on the road of reincarnation!”

Lu Ye looked up, answering seriously.

“If you fail your tribulation, you don’t enter reincarnation.”

“That’s not my rule. That was set by the Reincarnation Heavenly Venerable.”

The Myriad Ancients cultivator—

“AAAARGH I’M GONNA DIE OF RAGE!!!”

BOOM!

The seventh tribulation bolt fell.

The final Tribulation Crossing cultivator was reduced to ash in the light of the divine lightning.

Lu Ye watched the thundering sky. He could no longer withstand it head-on.

The stone sword appeared in his hand.

Three Thousand Dao Blades!

In an instant, countless sword lights shot upward, striking at the tribulation bolt.

The lightning roared, annihilating all the blades—

And crashed down upon Lu Ye again.