It was as if the heavens themselves sensed Ganyu's defiance.
The Tribulation no longer descended in orderly rhythm—
the moment the second bolt formed, it slashed through space, striking at her without warning.
Objectively, this second bolt could have instantly killed any Essence-Refining peak cultivator.
But the Ganyu of now was already half a step into Spirit-Refining.
To her, this thunder held no threat at all.
Another golden arrow—another blazing Golden Crow—
swallowed the lightning in one breath, its flames growing fiercer.
This time, the Golden Crow didn't merely shatter the thunder.
It dove into the storm clouds and detonated, flaunting itself like a sun-born sovereign bird.
The cheers rose to a frenzy.
Even the joy of the world itself seemed to shimmer visibly in the eyes of the crowd.
But quickly—
the third bolt descended.
And unsurprisingly—
Ganyu crushed it just as easily.
She even looked… relaxed.
And then—
Nothing.
No fourth bolt appeared for a long while.
On the Jade Chamber
The floating palace could no longer hold its altitude.
If not for Zhongli anchoring it with geo might, the whole structure would have already fallen from the sky.
Everyone stared wordlessly at Ganyu's effortless obliteration of the first three tribulation strikes.
After a while, the Cryo Archon exhaled softly.
"Those first three bolts… they are the simplest.
If your cultivation is solid enough, you can withstand them even without preparation.
But the following bolts—
that is where the trouble begins."
She recalled her own breakthrough.
"When I crossed my tribulation days ago, the first three lulled me into complacency.
But the fourth bolt nearly crippled me.
After that, each bolt was more vicious than the last.
The final strike nearly surpassed the full force of a Spirit-Refining early-stage cultivator."
Hearing this, Yae Miko grew visibly anxious.
"So that means Ganyu-nee is in danger?"
"No," Furina said calmly, shaking her head.
"With the spiritual artifacts gifted by the Sect Master, she already has the means to suppress the tribulation.
Even without them, Ganyu's talent alone is more than enough.
A Spirit-Refining tribulation is nothing troublesome to her."
Jiang Yan nodded in agreement.
"Senior Furina is correct.
In the grand path of cultivation, the Spirit-Refining tribulation is the weakest of all Heavenly Tribulations.
If a cultivator cannot pass this level, they have no right to be a Mount Shu inner disciple.
You should not be worrying about this tribulation.
You should think about the tribulations of Void-Merging and Ascending to Immortality."
He paused, then smiled faintly.
"But there is no need to ponder those too deeply yet.
A Void-Merging tribulation cannot even be borne by ordinary worlds.
As for the immortal ascension tribulation…
If it were to descend here, it would annihilate half of Teyvat—
and even the 'Tree and Sea' worlds would suffer devastation."
Hu Tao tilted her head.
"…So basically, only the Sect Master ever needs to worry about those."
She blinked.
"But if Sect Master crosses Void-Merging in the Xuanming World… won't that world… um…"
Jiang Yan smiled but said nothing.
And everyone understood.
If the Xuanming World could endure—good.
If it shattered—
A devil-cultivator world breaking apart was hardly a loss.
Jiang Yan had always planned it that way.
Jiang Yan suddenly lifted his gaze toward a faint ripple in the air.
Following his line of sight, Zhongli and Venti also turned.
A blurred shimmer of will—barely perceivable—floated there.
The Will of Teyvat.
They quickly looked away.
It was no threat, not right now.
Especially since even it was waiting nervously for Ganyu's breakthrough.
Below, the crowd erupted with joy, already treating Ganyu's victory as inevitable.
But Ganyu herself felt nothing of the sort.
Her eyes never left the storm above—
And her expression grew solemn.
The next strike would be unlike the previous three.
And she was right.
A spear of violet-black lightning crashed downward—
So fast she barely had time to react.
She shot immediately—
but this time, the Golden Crow struggled.
It wrestled with the thunder for long seconds before finally tearing it apart.
The remnants scattered like a storm of razor-sharp serpents.
One stray bolt fell on a nearby hill—
BOOM!!!
Hill, earth, stone, and the hundreds of beasts on it—
all vaporized instantly.
Silence fell.
Even the most ignorant onlookers understood—
The real tribulation had begun.
The crowd instinctively retreated dozens of meters further.
"Fangchen's cave… is gone."
Liuyun swallowed hard.
"That was only the fourth strike.
If this continues, will all of Jueyun Karst's immortal caves be destroyed?"
Jiang Yan glanced once more toward the hidden world-will and chuckled.
"It's fine. Ganyu knows what she's doing.
And even if everything is destroyed—
someone will rebuild it later."
The Will of the World shuddered lightly, as if sensing Jiang Yan's gaze.
But it had no emotions, only instinct—
and all its focus remained fixed on Ganyu.
The Tribulation Turns Brutal
The fifth bolt descended without warning.
It was impossibly fast.
Ganyu managed to intercept only part of it.
The remaining force blasted downward—
BOOM—!
Several towering peaks in Jueyun Karst were reduced to rubble.
Forests vanished.
The landscape sank several meters.
The onlookers gulped and backed away even farther.
The barrier Ningguang and the others erected groaned under waves of panicked demonic beasts.
Many beasts broke through.
The Qianyan Army instantly became the front-line shield.
Fortunately, none of the escaped beasts were Foundation-peak level.
Even so, after a bloody struggle, hundreds of Qianyan soldiers lay gravely wounded—
barely pulled back by frantic civilians.
Keqing stepped forward.
"I'm going to help!"
"No."
The spear-bearing Kaeya Star stopped her firmly.
"They must face this.
In the harsher eras to come, you and I cannot always shield them.
They must learn to stand on their own feet."
Keqing hesitated but ultimately stood down.
She knew he was right.
The age of ordinary humans had passed.
Liyue needed warriors who could survive without leaning on cultivators.
"The sixth strike!"
Ningguang's voice rang out.
A bizarre bolt manifested directly before Ganyu—
as if it teleported.
Her arrow clashed with it—
and she was blasted backward thousands of meters for the first time.
The escaping thunder drove many beasts into total madness.
More broke free of the formation.
What emerged was no tide—it was something worse:
Every single beast was strong enough to slaughter hordes of ordinary monsters.
This was the truest battlefield for martial artists.
On a distant hill, Aether exhaled.
"What a terrifying tribulation…"
A deep-robe figure approached him nervously.
"Prince—many beasts are breaking out toward the Qianyan Army.
Should we intervene?"
Aether paused.
Then nodded.
"Go.
Kill as many beasts as you can.
Avoid conflict with Liyue.
Right now, they won't reject additional help."
"Yes, Prince!"
Over a thousand abyssal warriors—those trained in the new "Beast-Body Martial Path"—
charged into battle.
The Qianyan troops nearly attacked them on sight.
But seeing them slay beasts and not humans,
both sides silently chose to ignore one another.
No one cared for politics at this moment.
Only survival mattered.
On the Jade Chamber, Ningguang narrowed her eyes.
"How strange…
Their martial aura carries traces of our Liyue martial arts, but more… feral.
More blood-driven."
"Beast-Body Martial Arts," Jiang Yan explained.
"In raw destructive power, it surpasses Liyue's martial path significantly.
And their prince—
is Ying's older brother."
The crowd fell silent.
So did Ningguang.
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