Finally, Yun Kai Tao had entered the decisive moment — the beginning of his breakthrough, the time to face the Heavenly Tribulation that would determine his life and death. It was the process to completely cleanse the black essence and the final hidden danger lurking deep within his body.
The sky above the Hidden Land seemed to darken slowly, layer by layer. The wind grew still, and even the birds fled into the distance. The air trembled faintly, as if the heavens themselves were aware that a mortal below was about to challenge their judgment.
Around the Luo residence, the elders, the Luo parents, and all the villagers and youngsters had already taken their positions at a safe distance. No one dared to come close to the range where Yun Kai Tao was seated. The tribulation cloud that was forming above him was not large, yet the pressure it carried was enough to make even trained elders uneasy.
The elders stood far apart, their expressions grave and focused. The faint light of spiritual power shimmered around their bodies, each of them maintaining readiness to intervene at any moment. The air and space near them rippled faintly, bending under their suppressed energy. Even the ground beneath their feet gave off a deep, humming vibration — a warning that if anything went out of control, they would move instantly to suppress the tribulation's rampage.
Luo Father's eyes were firm, yet worry glimmered behind them. Luo Mother held her breath, both palms clasped tightly, whispering silent prayers. Around them, the younger generation stood behind protective barriers, watching with wide eyes filled with awe and fear.
In the very center of the backyard, a little away from the house so that nothing would be harmed, Yun Kai Tao sat cross-legged, his back straight, his breath deep and calm. His palms rested on his knees, and faint streams of golden light flickered beneath his skin. His consciousness had already sunk deep into his blood energy — the core of his being.
Inside him, two forces struggled for supremacy: the golden essence that he had nurtured through years of cultivation, pure and luminous like sacred fire — and the black essence, dark, devouring, and restless like a beast that had long been chained within him.
Slowly, Yun Kai Tao began to focus, drawing his blood energy toward the center of his chest where the two forces met. His breath slowed until even his heartbeat sounded like distant thunder. Bit by bit, he reached the point where the golden and black essences were clashing endlessly.
The golden light pulsed, forming halos that burned with sacred brilliance, while the black essence coiled tightly like a serpent of darkness. When he tried to touch it with his spiritual will, the black energy reacted violently — it hissed, twisted, and tried to devour his consciousness.
Yun Kai Tao did not panic. He steadied his mind, guiding his will through his blood channels with utmost care. He began to slowly absorb the turbulent energy, merging his spirit and blood flow into one rhythm.
At first, every attempt ended in failure. The golden essence ignored his guidance, refusing to obey when it came into contact with the black. Each time he tried to merge them, the darkness devoured the light, pushing it away from the heart's left side, where the corruption was most concentrated.
Still, he persisted.
Time passed — perhaps moments, perhaps hours — and his body trembled faintly, a faint sheen of sweat covering his skin. His breathing deepened, and his will grew sharper. He once again guided the golden essence toward the corrupted heart.
This time, instead of forcing it, he followed the natural flow of energy, allowing the golden light to touch the edges of the black mist with calm and patience. Slowly, under his steady control, the golden essence began to react — its brilliance no longer resisting, but bending slightly to his command.
After several failures and countless refinements, a faint narrow path finally appeared inside his body — a single glowing channel through which the golden and black energies could connect without clashing. From that minute opening, the black essence finally began to flow outward.
It surged like a flood breaking through a dam.
From the left side of Yun Kai Tao's heart, dark mist erupted — wild, violent, and full of devouring intent. It was not ordinary corruption; it carried the aura of extreme darkness, the kind that could erode light, swallow will, and corrode life itself. As it poured out of the suppressing area, the black essence writhed through his meridians, seeking escape from his body.
Outside, the change was immediate.
A violent gust tore across the courtyard. The air temperature dropped sharply. From above, the first faint rumble of thunder rolled across the sky. Golden clouds began to gather in a spiral, faint lightning glimmering inside them like living veins of divine judgment.
The elders exchanged quick glances. "The Heavenly Tribulation is forming…" Tong Chen muttered under his breath. "He's done it. He's forcing the corruption out."
Inside, Yun Kai Tao's body was already half-covered in thick mist. The black essence, now expelled, surged like a being that had been kicked out from its own house — desperate and furious, yet unable to return. It clawed at the boundary of his body, trying to find a path back in, but Tao's blood energy and will sealed every opening like gates of iron. It could only drift and twist outside him, unable to reclaim its original place.
As moments passed, that darkness began to take on a dreadful shape — no longer simple mist but an eternal shadow, heavy and cold like the breath of a forgotten void. Even sunlight could not pierce it. The entire area around Tao turned into a black cocoon, swallowing light, air, and sound. To the eyes of others, it was as if he had vanished into an endless night.
Yet deep within that darkness, the struggle still raged. The expelled essence, though cast out, still contained a fragment of its original power — wild, chaotic, and ancient. But it was no longer the true might it once held. After being trapped for years and continuously suppressed by Tao's inner forces, especially the five-colored protective essences that had always existed inside him, its true strength had been reduced to a mere shell.
Even weakened, that shell carried the nature of destruction. It clashed against the five colors swirling faintly around Tao's inner core — gold, crimson, azure, white, and green — each color releasing its own radiance, forming a barrier between Tao's body and the devouring mist. These five essences pulsed rhythmically, protecting him, but the strain was immense.
Outside, the village itself became the center of an unnatural darkness. The sunlight dimmed as if swallowed by a void. The very air thickened, and a suffocating stillness spread in every direction. The trees bent under invisible weight, the river slowed, and even the spiritual sense of the elders was crushed beneath the pressure.
Tong Chen frowned deeply, trying to pierce the darkness with his divine sense — but it was useless. "I can't see him," he said grimly. "Even my perception is being devoured."
Yan Zhi Lan's eyes narrowed, her aura surging faintly around her. "This is not ordinary tribulation darkness… it's the reflection of his own inner abyss. The heavens are responding to his bloodline."
The air crackled faintly. The space above the Luo courtyard began to tremble, as if reality itself was being stretched.
Then, from within that endless shadow, a low hum echoed — deep, ancient, and boundless. The sound made the elders' hearts quiver. The heavens themselves began to stir.
The once-black sky flickered — a single streak of gold burst through the clouds. Then another — crimson, followed by deep blue, white, and green. One after another, colors ignited across the sky, blending and colliding, until the heavens above the Hidden Land burned in twelve divine hues.
Each color glowed with terrifying vitality — not illusion, but living light. The twelve colors pulsed like twelve hearts of the world, each representing an element and a law. Their radiance was so intense that the villagers could barely open their eyes.
The first wave rolled across the valley — gold, red, blue, green, white, violet, silver, amber, black-gold, indigo, scarlet-gray, and azure flame — twelve in total, each one alive, each one radiating an aura that could erase mountains and oceans.
The heavens rumbled violently. The clouds boiled and swirled, their color changing every heartbeat. The will of the world itself grew restless, its anger and purity mixing into a single overwhelming presence. The twelve heavenly forces gathered above the village like a colossal crown, pressing down with a power that could shatter even the earth's soul.
Elder Tong Chen gritted his teeth. "Twelve-colored Tribulation… even legends speak of only nine. This is beyond mortal judgment. The world itself has recognized him as a threat!"
Yan Zhi Lan's expression turned solemn, her voice trembling slightly despite her composure. "No — not a threat… a test. The heavens want to see what kind of being Yun Kai Tao truly is."
As the twelve colors continued to merge and clash, the light grew brighter, deeper, and more violent. Each pulse sent shockwaves rippling through the air. The entire Hidden Land quaked as the pressure intensified, and even the elders' protective barriers began to strain.
Within that storm of light and shadow, Yun Kai Tao remained unseen — yet the faint golden rhythm of his heartbeat echoed through the darkness like a bell tolling against the will of heaven.
As the thunders struck Yun Kai Tao's body, the darkness outside him felt as if it was facing two enemies. The heavenly tribulation thunder wanted to erase it completely, while Yun Kai Tao's golden blood force wanted to refine it and make it lose its true nature forever. Just like the previous corrupted essence Tao had once possessed, this black essence also felt its identity breaking apart.
Now, it could not do anything to Tao — neither from outside nor from inside. But its violent nature did not weaken. Instead, it grew more terrifying. Like a beast cornered and maddened, its hate and anger rose to an extreme level.
The tribulation thunder continued to hammer down. With every strike, the darkness outside was pushed back, compressed, and forced to shrink. After a few minutes, it was no longer covering the whole village; it was only forced to remain in the sky above the Hidden Land. The twelve colors above became more violent, surging like tides of destruction.
For ten to twelve continuous minutes, thunder after thunder fell nonstop. The sound and pressure shook heaven and earth, but for now everything remained in control. The elders' expressions were tight, sweat forming on their foreheads from the strain, but the disaster did not break loose.
As time passed, Yun Kai Tao could clearly feel the core of the black essence — the place where it was emitting from. It was on the left side of his heart, like a second heartbeat hidden under his real one.
It pulsed quietly, matching every beat of his own heart. Sometimes slow, sometimes sharp, sometimes faint, like it was trying to mask its presence.
Around this core, the golden layers of power surrounded it like a shining ocean protecting a small island. They were not attacking, but slowly tightening, pushing, and suffocating the dark essence.
Earlier, due to Tao's action, a new narrow path was opened — a gap for the black essence to escape out of his body. Now, under the pressure of the heavenly tribulation, the black essence felt its death approaching. It knew that if it stayed, the thunder would completely erase it. But the golden energy surrounding it also made it impossible to hide.
It realized a terrifying truth:
If it left Tao's heart through the path he created, its connection to Tao would be broken forever.
Its nature, its power, its existence — everything would be erased from this body.
It would never again be able to influence Tao or harm him.
This truth shook the black essence to its core. For the first time in its long life, it hesitated.
It did not want to be eliminated.
It did not want to surrender.
It did not want to become nothing.
But the golden light pressed closer, the heart beat stronger, and the thunder's force seeped into Tao's blood, making the core tremble like it would collapse at any moment.
Finally, with no choice left, the black essence used all its remaining power. In one desperate move, it shot toward the path Tao had opened — wild, unstable, violent, burning its own essence just to escape.
Yun Kai Tao felt it immediately.
His entire chest tightened, as if a mountain crashed onto him. His meridians shook, his bones groaned, and his heart felt like it would explode. The force of the black essence rushing outward was so overwhelming that his body seemed ready to collapse at any moment.
Inside his mind, Yun Kai Tao felt a terrifying impulse:
The darkness wants to die together with me…
It was the essence's final act of hatred.
It wanted to take him down with it.
His spiritual sea trembled.
His heart hammered painfully.
His vision blurred in gold and black flashes.
His inner state became chaotic — like he was standing at the edge of life and death:
His body shaking violently from the pressure
His blood boiling like lava
His meridians screaming as if they were tearing
His bones cracking under the force
His heart beating so loudly it drowned out everything else
He could feel both powers inside him — the golden and the dark — smashing against each other, trying to claim his heart.
For a breath, for a moment, Yun Kai Tao felt like he would lose control… like everything inside him would break apart.
But he gritted his teeth, forcing his will to hold.
His consciousness wrapped tightly around the golden heartbeat.
His spirit anchored itself with all its strength.
Even as the darkness attempted to destroy him in its final madness, Yun Kai Tao refused to break.