BOOM!!!
Black clouds gathered and pressed down, and arcs of lightning flashed within the dark mist, stretching for 500 miles, even 5000 miles, across Eternal Sun Prefecture.
Across the lands of Eternal Sun Prefecture, both cultivators and common folk alike raised their heads to gaze at the roiling sky.
It was as if 'Heaven' were about to send down a sudden deluge, yet the atmosphere was so oppressive it was difficult to breathe.
It seemed a divine dragon was tumbling and swimming amidst the thunderclouds.
"A tribulation... How could any tribulation possibly have such a vast range?!!"
"How can this be? What has happened? Where is this oppressive might coming from?"
"Activate the clan's grand defensive array, quickly!"
Only cultivators at the Golden Core realm and above could discern that this great phenomenon of heaven and earth was caused by someone undergoing a tribulation.
It was just that they had never before witnessed a tribulation with such a vast range, a phenomenon that affected the entirety of Eternal Sun Prefecture!
The cultivators rode their swords, hovering in the air as they gazed towards the source of the oppressive might, the place where the thunderclouds were converging.
They did not know that a family was there, enjoying the spoils of their war, partaking in a gluttonous feast nearly two hundred years after a bloody struggle.
Yet, this did not prevent them from faintly sensing that some momentous event was unfolding on Qilin Mountain, an event that might even impact the entire Eternal Sun Prefecture.
Still, if the sky were to fall, the tall would be there to hold it up. After all, Eternal Sun Prefecture had so many great powers.
Little did they know that all of Eternal Sun Prefecture's most powerful factions were gathered below Qilin Mountain, gazing up at the family above the red mist.
In this great calamity, these great powers had proven to be cowards.
They could only wait with complex expressions as the Li family, wreathed in thunder, absorbed everything that belonged to Tian Xing.
This was a special honor that the Li family, and they alone, deserved to enjoy!
The people of Eternal Sun Prefecture couldn't help but realize a grave problem: Tian Xing had become a thing of the past, yet another "Tian Xing" had now appeared in Eternal Sun Prefecture.
When the true Tian Xing had existed, perhaps it hadn't been a disaster for them. But the rise of the Li family...
"Old Ancestor," a voice reported, "inside that Tian Xing Cultivator Abode, the Li family used me. I was no match for those lunatics! It turns out they had placed a curse upon me from the very start; my every move was under their watch. For decades, I gathered cultivators, and in the end, it was all for nothing. That Li Tianming... he's insane, he..."
The Nangong family's Old Ancestor listened to the wretched Nangong Yazhi's tearful account.
He exchanged a look with the many fellow Daoists from Eternal Sun Prefecture, and each saw the ruthlessness reflected in the other's eyes.
Immediately, he used a technique to help Nangong Yazhi to her feet. With a cold snort, he said.
"My Nangong family has endured in Eternal Sun Prefecture for many years. Even if the Li family has obtained Tian Xing's inheritance, there is nothing to worry about.
As a scion of my Nangong family, why must you weep and wail so? When the time comes, I will teach those Li family members a lesson they won't forget."
"Thank you, Ancestor!"
....
BOOM!
"They're breaking through! They're about to have a breakthrough! Quick, we have to get out of here!"
At the same time, the Li family members were cheering; the cultivators of Eternal Sun Prefecture were cheering as well!
Within the crowd, the geniuses who had emerged from the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode, still bound in chains by the Seven Ironclads, were now, after nearly two hundred years of imprisonment, beginning their own breakthroughs, a culmination of two centuries of accumulated potential!
Clatter!
The cultivator from Azure Cloud, who had been helping the Seven Ironclads hold the geniuses, had no choice but to release the chains, allowing these talents from Eternal Sun Prefecture to float into the air and begin their breakthroughs.
A long wooden stake was driven into the center of the ground. To everyone's surprise, beam after beam of light shot out from it, connecting to the chains.
With a single glance, it was clear: the wooden stake and chains were a set of supreme-grade spirit artifacts.
Even as the geniuses floated into the air to face their lightning tribulations, they remained tethered by the chains.
Originally, with the Azure Cloud cultivators holding them captive, the various factions of the Eternal Sun Prefecture had not dared to act rashly. But now, with these geniuses floating up to begin their breakthroughs, they finally saw their opportunity.
They resolved that no matter the cost, they had to rescue these talents from the Eternal Sun Prefecture!
When the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode first opened, ten thousand people had entered.
Now, fewer than four hundred had emerged.
These survivors... they were all the future cornerstones of Eternal Sun Prefecture!
"That's... Xu Dingsheng of the Xu family! He was once ranked eighteenth on the Nascent Divinity List! Now, after a fortuitous encounter in the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode, he's undergoing his Divinity Transformation tribulation—and it's a Fourth-Grade one!"
"The Mang Monk of Great Ming King Temple! What a formidable Arhat Golden Body Nascent Soul! He intends to use pure physical might to break through to the Divinity Transformation realm!"
"And Bai Heng of Red Star Fort—once the number one genius of our Eternal Sun Prefecture."
"A junior from the Dongfang family—facing the Nine-Nine Nascent Soul Tribulation!"
"..."
Tribulation cloud after tribulation cloud, each a culmination of long-accumulated potential, now floated in the sky.
The geniuses of Eternal Sun Prefecture had entered the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode, and in those years, while the Li family was merely hiding away underground, it wasn't as if they had made no gains of their own.
These fortuitous encounters allowed them to, at the very first opportunity after leaving the Abode, begin their breakthroughs to Divinity Transformation.
The appearance of these geniuses made the many families of Eternal Sun Prefecture turn their gazes towards the red mist.
Their original fear of the Li family was beginning to lessen. It wasn't as if they lacked geniuses of their own, nor had they failed to gain benefits from Tian Xing.
But suddenly, a Divinity Transformation cultivator from Eternal Sun Prefecture, his expression turning sharp, walked towards the wooden stake to which the chains were fastened.
He intended to use his power to help the numerous geniuses escape their predicament, but he never imagined that a terrified shout would ring out from the sky.
"Don't!" one of the geniuses cried. "Don't break the chains, or we'll die! We'll all die!"
"What?!!"
Startled, the Divinity Transformation cultivator hurriedly used his spiritual power to investigate.
His brow immediately furrowed in concentration. This supreme-grade spirit artifact chain set was indeed marvelous; it could extend for a full hundred thousand meters, though the longer it became, the more it lost its indestructible quality.
Beyond that, however, there seemed to be no other special properties. It didn't even possess a restriction capable of confining one's divine soul.
Everyone frowned, raising their heads to look.
The stake held fast to nearly four hundred chains, which rattled and clanged against one another in the sky. The geniuses remained tethered by them, undergoing their lightning tribulations amidst the clouds.
"Why?" someone demanded. "Why don't they break the chains?"
"Bai Heng!" another shouted. "You are the number one genius of our Eternal Sun Prefecture! Now that you're breaking through to Divinity Transformation, what is there to fear? We of Red Star Fort will bear any consequences!"
"Basterds!"
The cultivators of Eternal Sun Prefecture had grim expressions. They were realizing that if these geniuses truly wanted to break free, the chains would be as nothing to them!
Only the tattered-robed Wuwen Scholar, standing off to one side and suppressing his own lightning tribulation, watched the chains rattling in the sky.
He gazed at the geniuses, scattered like flowers across the heavens, and let out a long sigh.
"Where are the geniuses of Eternal Sun Prefecture now?" he murmured. "They're all... finished."
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