Two months passed quietly, and deep within the inner regions of the forest, far from the bustling prefectural city and the territories where ordinary martial artists dared to tread, Lin Sheng sat alone upon the summit of a mountain, his legs crossed beneath him as he quietly enjoyed the scenery below. The ancient forest stretched endlessly in every direction, towering trees forming a vast green sea beneath the morning light, while distant mountains rose and fell like waves frozen in place, and for a rare moment there was nothing demanding his attention, nothing requiring him to calculate, scheme, or cultivate.
Then the sky began to rumble.
At first it was merely a distant thunderclap, but within moments the sound became increasingly heavy, rolling across the heavens like the growl of an enraged beast, and the clear sky above him gradually darkened beneath gathering clouds. Anyone looking at the scene from afar might have mistaken it for an ordinary thunderstorm, but Lin Sheng could see the truth hidden within those clouds, countless streaks of deep-red lightning twisting through the darkness, each bolt carrying an oppressive aura that caused the surrounding spiritual energy to tremble.
Lin Sheng opened his eyes.
"So it's finally here."
His gaze slowly swept across the heavens, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
His Rank 4 Golden Body Tribulation had arrived.
More importantly, he could clearly sense something that had been lingering around him for years beginning to fade, that faint and almost imperceptible sensation of being watched by something far beyond his current understanding had suddenly become much weaker, as though an invisible gaze had finally been forced to retreat.
The Heavenly Mechanism.
It had been watching him for far too long.
Lin Sheng had long suspected that his existence had been noticed because of how abnormal his cultivation was, and after understanding the relationship between the Heavenly Mechanism, the Children of Luck, and the turning points surrounding Su Yang, he had already realized that the world itself had been preparing something for him.
Now, he could finally break free.
The corners of his mouth curled upward.
"So you've been waiting for me to fail?"
He stood up slowly, his clothes fluttering beneath the increasingly violent winds as the thunder above continued to roar.
"Too bad."
With a single step, his body shot upward.
BOOM!
The ground beneath his feet cracked apart as Lin Sheng rose like a dragon ascending into the heavens, his figure crossing hundreds of meters in an instant before entering the dark clouds themselves. Lightning flashed around him, illuminating his calm expression as he stood directly within the brewing tribulation.
He had studied tribulations before, and although every cultivator experienced them differently, the underlying principle remained the same, a tribulation was not merely an attempt by the heavens to kill someone but a trial meant to prove that the cultivator possessed the qualifications to advance.
Ordinary tribulations could be considered a test.
Deep-red lightning, however, represented something considerably more troublesome.
Punishment.
Lin Sheng looked upward at the swirling clouds.
"Of course."
He had expected this.
The Heavenly Mechanism wasn't going to simply allow him to pass.
RUMBLE!
The clouds suddenly split apart.
A crimson bolt descended from the darkness, enormous enough that its width covered an entire cluster of trees below, and its terrible pressure caused the air to distort as it fell toward Lin Sheng with enough force to shatter an ordinary mountain.
Lin Sheng's expression remained calm.
He raised both hands above his head and received it directly.
BOOOOOOM!
The instant the lightning struck his palms, an immense force slammed into his body, the impact resembling a gigantic battering ram smashing into him from above. His arms trembled violently, his feet were forced downward, and the space around him cracked beneath the overwhelming pressure before his body was hurled toward the ground like a meteor.
Lin Sheng gritted his teeth.
"Fuck!"
His body rapidly twisted in midair, his feet finally touching the surface of the mountain below, but the force was so immense that his legs sank several feet into the stone before he managed to stabilize himself.
Dust exploded outward.
He slowly straightened his back, his fingers twitching slightly from the impact as crimson lightning continued crawling across his arms.
Looking upward, his expression gradually became more serious.
The second bolt had begun forming.
But this time, the lightning was different.
Purple-black radiance gathered within the clouds, and the moment Lin Sheng sensed its aura, his expression became strange.
"Purple-black?"
His eyes narrowed.
He had studied tribulations enough to recognize the meaning behind that color.
It was commonly associated with tribulations used against demonic cultivators.
Lin Sheng stared at the heavens for several breaths.
"Fuck my life."
He rubbed his forehead.
"I haven't done anything wrong except exist."
RUMBLE!
The second bolt descended.
Lin Sheng didn't intend to stand there and receive it.
His body exploded forward.
He shot upward toward the descending lightning, meeting it halfway through the sky, and the instant his body collided with the purple-black bolt, an enormous shockwave erupted outward.
BOOOOOOM!
The surrounding clouds were blown apart, while the forest below suffered the consequences of the collision, countless ancient trees being snapped apart as flames and lightning swept across the ground.
For nearly a mile around the mountain, every living creature fled long before the tribulation began, the beasts possessing instincts far sharper than ordinary humans could comprehend, and those that hadn't escaped quickly enough were already long gone.
Lin Sheng slowly descended through the dissipating lightning, his clothes slightly torn, his hair scattered around his face, but his skin remained intact.
He examined his arms.
No injuries.
Only a faint numbness.
"Still fine."
He flexed his fingers, and the surrounding air trembled slightly from the force.
The Heavenly Mechanism was becoming increasingly unreasonable.
Lin Sheng raised his head again.
The clouds had begun changing.
The violent crimson and purple-black lightning gradually disappeared, replaced by a much calmer radiance.
Lin Sheng stared for a moment.
"Finally behaving?"
The next lightning strike descended.
This time, it was ordinary.
At least, compared to the previous two.
The bolt carried a pale golden-white brilliance, without the overwhelming killing intent of the previous tribulations, and Lin Sheng could almost feel the heavens returning to the normal pattern of a tribulation.
"That's more like it."
He rolled his shoulders.
"But I'm not waiting."
His right hand slowly clenched.
The moment his fist tightened, an enormous force gathered within his body.
His Qi-Blood surged like an ocean, the five dragons within his body roaring simultaneously as their immense power flowed through his limbs, while Astral Gang erupted around his fist with terrifying density.
Lin Sheng stepped forward.
His fist shot out.
"Break!"
BOOM!
His fist collided directly with the descending lightning.
For an instant, the world became silent.
Then the lightning shattered.
There was no enormous explosion this time because Lin Sheng had completely neutralized the attack at the point of contact, dispersing its power before it could explode outward, but when he looked carefully, he could see tiny distortions appearing within the space around his fist.
The space itself had warped.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed.
"This is already approaching the dangerous level."
He withdrew his fist.
"Still, that should be the end."
Three out of nine.
A standard Three-Nine Tribulation.
He had expected this much.
Lin Sheng had just begun relaxing when the heavens suddenly became silent.
The silence was wrong.
The clouds stopped moving.
Then golden light appeared.
Lin Sheng's expression froze.
"Don't tell me..."
The golden radiance rapidly condensed above him, but it wasn't gathering into another ordinary bolt of lightning. Countless streaks intertwined, forming a gigantic structure within the clouds.
Scales appeared.
Claws appeared.
A head emerged from the golden lightning.
A gigantic eastern dragon slowly descended from the heavens, its body formed entirely from tribulation lightning, each scale carrying enough power to make the surrounding space tremble.
Lin Sheng stared at it.
His expression slowly became blank.
"A fourth?"
His voice became quieter.
"Isn't a Rank 4 tribulation supposed to be a Three-Nine Tribulation?"
The dragon opened its eyes.
Golden lightning illuminated the entire forest.
Lin Sheng felt the Heavenly Mechanism's presence weakening even further, but unlike before, the tribulation dragon wasn't simply falling upon him blindly.
It was looking directly at him.
It had locked onto him.
Lin Sheng's eyelid twitched.
"You bastard."
The dragon roared.
"FUCK YOU!"
Lin Sheng raised his middle finger toward the heavens.
The tribulation dragon descended.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Lin Sheng's expression changed instantly.
"Fine!"
He planted his feet into the mountain, his body bending slightly as he pulled his right fist backward, and for the first time since the tribulation began, his martial will erupted without restraint.
His understanding of martial concepts had already progressed considerably during his years of cultivation, and after studying the classification of martial concepts, he had come to understand that the phenomena of the world could be interpreted through different conceptual frameworks.
His own comprehension had gradually moved toward Qian Heaven.
The Qian Heaven concept was deeply connected to the martial traditions of the Qian Dynasty, combining the mysteries of Zhen Lightning, Xun Wind, and Li Fire into a greater whole.
Lin Sheng had already comprehended Lightning and Wind during his earlier development of Martial Intent, while his understanding of Fire had been continuously deepened through his observations of the Grand Elder's martial concept.
Now, those three forces began moving together.
The spiritual energy surrounding the mountain violently surged toward him.
His Astral Gang erupted.
His Qi-Blood roared.
The five dragons within his body released deafening roars as their power poured into his arm, and the enormous force caused the surrounding air to distort violently.
Lin Sheng's fist trembled.
Not from fear.
From the sheer force packed inside it.
His martial will condensed around his body like an invisible storm.
The tribulation dragon descended.
Lin Sheng stepped forward.
His right fist moved.
The heavens shook.
"Qian Heaven!"
His fist collided with the dragon's head.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
There was no ordinary explosion.
For a brief instant, everything disappeared beneath an overwhelming flash of golden light.
Then the mountain beneath Lin Sheng's feet collapsed.
A gigantic mushroom cloud rose into the sky as the entire mountaintop was obliterated, enormous fragments of stone being hurled into the surrounding forest while the shockwave flattened vegetation for hundreds of meters.
The remaining thunderclouds were scattered violently.