The sky over the Great Northern Capital did not just darken it bled. The clouds had curdled into a visceral, bruised crimson, churning like an open wound in the fabric of the Finite World. This was the Crimson Tribulation, a celestial judgment usually reserved for those who had committed Logic Crimes against the Sovereigns in the world above.
At the center of the Xuan Clan Estate, Xuan Feng stood atop the Ancestral Altar. He was no longer the arrogant teenager from three years ago. His aura was a blinding cage of Lightning and Sword Intent, and his eyes flickered with a strange, mechanical light.
"System! Status!" Xuan Feng roared in his mind.
[Ding! Warning!]
[Crimson Tribulation detected.]
[Threat Level:#########.]
[Ding! Host is advised to use the Heaven Shielding Umbrella and the Nine Cycle Immortal Pill.]
Xuan Feng gritted his teeth,"why is the threat level unknown?"he didn't think more about it as his hand flashing he retrieved a crystalline umbrella from his spatial storage a gift from his Sign-In System obtained during a secret visit to a Forbidden Graveyard. He wasn't worried. He had a warehouse of divine weapons and techniques that the Northern Empire hadn't seen in ten thousand years. He was the Main Character of this era, the genius who had signed in for all his years to reach the pinnacle.
"I don't care what kind of lightning this is," Feng sneered, the umbrella expanding into a golden dome. "In my world, I am the only God!"
Outside the estate, a carriage bearing the Royal Crest of the Third Princess screeched to a halt. Xuan Ye stepped out, his scholar's robes fluttering in the pressurized wind. Beside him, Zhao Ling held her sword, her Jade Void Vision struggling to parse the red energy.
"Xuan Ye, don't go any closer!" she shouted over the thunder. "That lightning isn't targeting his body it's searching for his Soul Essence! Even my father wouldn't dare enter that field!"
Xuan Ye didn't stop. He looked at the red bolts striking the golden dome of Xuan Feng's umbrella. To Zhao Ling, it was a terrifying display of celestial power. To Xuan Ye's Ink-Wash Vision, it was a desperate immune response.
The Heavens were not trying to kill Xuan Feng. They were using Xuan Feng as a biological Antenna to find the virus that had absorbed the Holy Sanctuary. The Red Lightning was Tribulation Energy refined with Law Energy it was a scanner designed to find the Unwritten.
So, the Script is finally trying to find me, Xuan Ye thought, a cold smile touching his lips. But it made a mistake. It brought me exactly what I needed to finish the foundation.
Within his Purple Ink Core, the power of the Void Refinement masters and the Ascension experts killed by him was still
a chaotic, undigested mass. It was like a sea of raw iron that hadn't been forged. He needed a hammer.
"Your Highness, stay here," Xuan Ye said, his voice dropping and taking on a tone of absolute command that made Zhao Ling freeze in place. "I have to save my cousin."
Before she could protest, Xuan Ye vanished. He didn't use the Void Step. He used Qi Essence to simply not be where he was and be where he wanted to be.