Jian Dan had reached the realm of unity between soul and body. Every move she made grew more powerful, creating a vacuum zone centered on her.
Without hesitation, she activated the clouds-walking boots beneath her feet. She soared skyward and hovered in midair. Her right fist, projected as a phantom impact, struck a massive black-armored beetle on the ground. In her left hand, the Mò Xī Sword merged with her spiritual power to form a huge silver‑gray blade. One strike obliterated an entire group of ochre-colored blade mantises.
Inside her body, the spirits of her two Yuányīng blurred as they spun together, slowly unifying. The Taiji symbol in her dantian spun in perfect rhythm—yin within yang, yang within yin—melding with the merging Yuányīng.
She stood suspended in midair, using the power of her breakthrough to swing her sword in a rhythmic pattern. Every phantom strike landed precisely on the beetles. Mó Yuè Zhǎn sensed Jian Dan's breakthrough. It withdrew from the swarm and shrank into a one-meter crescent, now guarding her side.
Mo Su Zhēnjūn circled nearby, clearing stray beetles from the perimeter and ready to defend her the moment she completed her ascension.
At the moment both Yuányīng fully merged and the Taiji formation aligned within her dantian, Jian Dan's eyes opened wide, shining with brilliant light. Her unified Yuányīng glowed with a purple‑gold radiance.
She had completed the Refinement of Essence into Soul. Entirely absorbing the energies around her—the demonic and spiritual qi—she converted them in her dantian's Taiji rotation, drawing all of the space's power into herself.
Knowing she still needed more qi to complete Divine Transformation, she leaped back to the red mountain peak. There she placed a spirit‑gathering formation disk and loaded nine slots with small piles of high‑grade spirit stones—her stash and her reward from Jian Jun Zhēnzūn.
Leaving Mo Su Zhēnjūn to guard the outside, she sat cross‑legged inside the formation to absorb its qi. It might still be insufficient, but she had to press on.
As she progressed, the space began to warp, cracks appearing around her. But she did not falter. In the moment before the space collapsed, both she and Mo Su Zhēnjūn were sent back to the eighth stair.
Jian Dan remained in breakthrough mode. Swirling streams of demonic qi rushed around her like butterflies drawn to nectar. Mo Su Zhēnjūn exhaled in relief. He, too, dove into the tsunami of qi, repairing his injuries and pushing himself to the peak of the late Nascent Soul stage.
"I didn't expect it to happen this quickly," Jian Dan said softly. "Seems a push was exactly what I needed. Seems this location served its purpose."
Neither of them noticed as someone approached and then left. Their platform and stairway dissolved completely, as though they had never existed. The surrounding environment solidified once more as they swallowed the remaining qi.
Far overhead, the storm cloud above Devil Abyss showed signs of change for the first time in twenty years.
When Ma Rong received the report, he hurried over. The obsidian sky was trembling, the cloud mass expanding into two distinct storms. Thunder roared. Cultivators rushed to witness it.
Ma Rong believed this related to the disappearance of the team in the Abyss. He immediately summoned the Heavenly Demon Palace's Black Robe Squad to reinforce him. He claimed to have located Mo Su Zhēnjūn's position.
Mo Su Zhēnjūn was the sect's star disciple under the care of the master. His precise and decisive actions against the black beetle infestation had already made major contributions. Even after his disappearance, his master continued to search. Now this was Ma Rong chance to shine.
As multiple scouts closed in on Devil Abyss, Jian Dan and Mo Su Zhēnjūn both completed absorbing the final shred of qi. In a flash, the space shattered beneath them, and they reappeared above Devil Abyss.
Jian Dan hadn't even opened her eyes before a purple‑black bolt of tribulation lightning struck her.
Mo Su Zhēnjūn immediately moved out of her tribulation zone. He discovered a storm cloud hovering over him, signaling his own ascension. Seizing the moment, he stepped on his Frost Moon Blade and escaped Jian Dan's zone.
Both were undergoing divine tribulation simultaneously, an immensely destructive event.
Thankfully, Mo Su reacted in time to avoid overlapping tribulation bolts.
Jian Dan was hit by nine bolts in the first wave and flayed by their power. She hesitated: the power felt weaker than expected for a Divine Transformation tribulation. Before she could consider further, another wave struck.
She absorbed all the lightning into her body, circulating it as before. It transformed into a purified bolt, which she guided into her Yuányīng through her Taiji disk. Unfazed, she guided the lightning into her dantian.
A light shower of spiritual rain fell—barely noticeable and over in less than fifteen minutes. A smaller storm cloud drifted away.
But another, larger storm slowly approached overhead.
Jian Dan realized this was the true tribulation cloud — the one meant for her divine ascension. The earlier lightning had been residual strikes from her Yuányīng merging.
She felt immense pressure. She began channeling demonic qi throughout her body to brace for the upcoming tribulation.
Nine silent galactic lightning bolts struck her in the second wave. They numbed her whole body, but she took them head‑on, hoping the tribulation would strengthen her.
Mó Yuè Zhǎn and Mò Xī Sword had returned to her dantian, cradled by her newly-ascended Yuányīng, stable within her spiritual root.
Then a third wave of even darker galactic bolts struck. They slammed her into the air and then into the ground.
She hadn't expected an endurance test. Jian Dan immediately activated the Heavenly Demon Art, absorbing errant lightning from her meridians, spinning it through her dantian, and finally into her Yuányīng.
Two bolts struck her Yuányīng again, releasing a black mist. But the mist cleared, leaving her Yuányīng more solid and larger in form.
She too exhaled a faint black haze. A chill ran through her, prompting extreme caution.
When that lightning was fully refined, a fourth wave of nine thick, black‑purple galactic bolts descended, each as thick as a water bucket. They struck simultaneously, engulfing her in a pit below.