Chapter 267: The Return of the Ninefold Tribulation
"Hm?"
Not far away, the Patriarch of the Spirit Clan let out a soft sound of surprise. His eyes lingered on Li Xun with faint confusion.
"Was that… my imagination?" he wondered inwardly.
For the briefest instant just now, he had felt that Li Xun's strength had suddenly surged—becoming far more terrifying than before. Yet, when he looked carefully again, Li Xun seemed entirely the same as ever. His aura remained vast and ethereal, deep and immeasurable, without the slightest sign of change.
It was precisely because of this that the Patriarch grew even more unsettled. After all, the intuition of cultivators was extraordinarily keen. Many experts trusted their instincts more than their eyes.
What one saw could deceive, but what one felt rarely lied.
"What's wrong?" asked Xiao Ming from beside him.
"Nothing," the Spirit Clan Patriarch replied softly, shaking his head. "Perhaps I was mistaken."
Li Xun hadn't cultivated, hadn't swallowed any miraculous elixirs, and hadn't gained any new opportunities—so how could his strength have suddenly skyrocketed in just that blink of time?
Perhaps… he was simply overthinking it.
. . .
'The Supreme Bone truly is extraordinary,' Li Xun mused inwardly. 'Even in the so-called Immortal Realm, it must rank among the rarest divine gifts—likely on par with Xiao Chen's Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Eyes.'
His gaze swept briefly toward the members of the Xiao Clan, thoughtful light flickering in his eyes.
But a quiet question rose in his heart:
'If the existence of my Supreme Bone is exposed, will it draw the attention of forces connected to the Immortal Realm?'
Though the current world had long since declined, there still existed faint ties to that higher plane. In the ancient past, more than a few Great Emperors had managed to ascend into the Immortal Realm—though, of course, some had been turned away at its gates.
The truth was simple: the Immortal Realm was not a place one could enter just because one wished to.
Even among the Great Emperors, only the very topmost few—those who stood at the absolute summit of the Dao—were qualified to pass through its threshold.
And precisely because of those lingering connections, there were still a few factions in the mortal world who maintained secret links with the Immortal Realm.
The Taiyin Divine Mansion was one such force.
Beyond them, there were others too—but all of them were shrouded in mystery, rarely showing themselves before the world.
"Next…"
Li Xun's eyes turned toward the distance, his voice lowering to a murmur.
"…It's up to her now. I hope she doesn't disappoint me."
He had invested too much into Lu Qingxian—resources, effort, and even expectation. He didn't want to see her fall here. If she failed her tribulation, all his earlier effort would go to waste.
Even though Lu Qingxian seemed to possess a "main-character template," this world had far too many people with such a fate.
Li Xun couldn't be sure which of them Heaven itself truly favored.
If Lu Qingxian wasn't one of those chosen few, her death halfway through the path wasn't impossible.
. . .
Above them, the sky began to darken.
Heavy clouds rolled in from every direction, pressing down on the land like a collapsing firmament. Within that churning sea of darkness, an aura of utter annihilation brewed—an energy that made all hearts tremble.
Heavenly Tribulation.
And not just any—the Ninefold Tribulation!
There could be no doubt about it.
Rumble—!!!
Thunder roared through the heavens, loud enough to split the soul. In that instant, the sky itself seemed to collapse.
Blood-colored lightning coiled like dragons across the clouds, spanning the horizon and casting a crimson glow over everything within hundreds of li. From afar, the writhing serpents of lightning looked like the fury of ancient gods, each strike accompanied by a sound so deafening that even the eardrums of mortal men would shatter.
The air was filled with the deafening chaos of storm and destruction—
RUMBLE… RUMBLE… RUMBLE…
The Ninefold Heavenly Tribulation had once again descended upon the mortal world.
The blood-red lightning completely engulfed the land for hundreds of li around.
The slender figure that had once stood tall between heaven and earth was now nowhere to be seen—only endless scarlet flashes filled the sky, cascading like rivers of blood that converged into a roaring sea of lightning. The sight was terrifying beyond words.
The Ninefold Heavenly Tribulation had only just begun—yet already, the entire region was boiling with shock and awe.
"Sure enough, it really is the Ninefold Tribulation! I'd heard rumors that a new golden age was coming, but I didn't believe it—now it seems even disbelief can't stop it from being true!"
"Exactly! Besides this Ancient Immortal Sacred Physique, there were already two others—Li Xun and Xiao Chen—who both faced Ninefold Tribulations before her!"
"You're wrong," someone interrupted. "They're not the only ones. I heard that back in the Great Chu Dynasty, there was another divine body who also endured the Ninefold Tribulation—but Li Xun personally killed him afterward!"
A sharp hiss rippled through the crowd.
"Wha—? That really happened?"
"Of course! And there's more—rumor has it Li Xun's own tribulation wasn't merely ninefold, but tenfold! You lot just didn't hear about it because you were too far from the Great Chu territory!"
"Tenfold Heavenly Tribulation…? Does anyone really exist who can survive something like that?"
The crowd erupted into feverish debate.
Today's heavenly calamity was Lu Qingxian's Ninefold Tribulation—but naturally, it made everyone recall the other prodigies who had faced the same ordeal before.
Comparisons were inevitable—Li Xun, Xiao Chen, and now her.
"Lu Qingxian's tribulation isn't quite the same as theirs," someone observed. "When Li Xun and Xiao Chen overcame their trials, the heavens rained down divine radiance afterward—cleansing their bodies, reshaping their bones, rebirthing them in glory."
"But for her…"
"Because the Ancient Immortal Sacred Physique was abandoned by the Heavenly Dao itself, even if she survives the Ninefold Tribulation, the heavenly light that descends will be faint—or might not appear at all."
"In other words," said an elderly cultivator with a sigh, "while most prodigies grow stronger and more gifted the further they go, the Ancient Immortal Sacred Physique can only rely entirely on itself. Heaven will never lend it a hand."
He shook his head in quiet pity.
It was no empty phrase that the Ancient Immortal Sacred Physique was "rejected by Heaven." If their only hardship was a stronger tribulation, then through the ages, at least one or two might have risen to dominance.
But the truth was cruel—their rewards were never proportional to their suffering.
And so, as time went on, that bloodline vanished from history.
After all, the world's other physiques continued to evolve and grow more divine, while the Ancient Immortal Sacred Physique remained stagnant. For them to reach the level of Great Emperor was as difficult as a mere mortal ascending to that same realm—perhaps even harder.
. . .
"At this level of tribulation," the Spirit Clan Patriarch said coldly, a mocking smile playing across his lips as he cast a glance toward Li Xun, "he'll likely lose everything. Not only will Lu Qingxian perish, but all those spirit stones he just threw away will vanish into dust."
He sneered inwardly.
"Does he really think the Ninefold Tribulation is something any random person can overcome?"
If Lu Qingxian had been the heir of some great holy land, he might have shown her a hint of respect. But she was nothing more than a wandering cultivator—a rootless rogue with no sect, no resources, no powerful backers.
Even the techniques she practiced were an uneven patchwork, barely forming a complete system.
For someone like that to overcome the Ninefold Heavenly Tribulation was nothing short of a fool's dream.
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