Chapter 267 - 266: Divine Retribution
Above the Grand Court, abyssal storm clouds churned violently. Massive arcs of pure heavenly lightning gathered within the darkness, illuminating the terrified faces of the hundred thousand cultivators below.
The air became saturated with static electricity. Even the star-iron plates beneath their feet began to hum with a lethal, vibrating frequency.
The true Lightning Tribulation was preparing to descend.
But then, it paused.
An invisible consciousness of the Heavenly Mandate descended upon the crater where Lin Yuan stood.
The Heavens possessed a will. Cold, impartial, and governed by the principle of universal balance, it silently examined the cultivator standing defiantly amid the dust. Its vast consciousness swept over Lin Yuan, analyzing the conceptual signature radiating from his newly forged Primordial Spirit.
The Heavens recognized the Merged Dao.
It recognized the Divine Thunder circulating through his meridians.
And it recognized something even more profound.
This mortal had not merely comprehended the destructive essence of thunder. He had grasped its creative essence as well, understanding the cycle of destruction and rebirth hidden within heavenly lightning.
For a moment, the gathered thunder seemed to hesitate.
To strike a master of heavenly thunder with lightning would be a contradiction.
It would not destroy him.
It would only nourish his foundation.
The Heavens shifted its judgment.
The deafening crackle of the gathering lightning abruptly ceased. The violet arcs illuminating the abyssal clouds sputtered and died, plunging the Grand Court into a suffocating, terrifying darkness.
"The lightning... it is receding," Lord Zhao Shenming whispered from the eastern pavilion, his voice trembling with a mixture of confusion and profound dread. "Has the Heavens accepted his ascension? Has the tribulation already passed?"
"No," a cultivator beside him replied, his expression growing increasingly solemn. "If what this fellow Daoist from your province has done brought Heavenโs Wrath, yet he has already survived it, then the Heavens canโt simply paused."
He looked toward the distant figure of Lin Yuan, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"I believe the Heavens have simply deemed the Lightning Tribulation insufficient to kill him."
The pitch-black clouds violently ruptured, completely changing color in a fraction of a second. The sky turned a sickly crimson, the hue of drying blood and molten iron. The temperature within Sky Jade City skyrocketed instantly, evaporating the ambient moisture in the air and causing the jade balustrades of the spectator pavilions to blister and crack.
A Hellstorm descended.
It was Fire Retribution!
A torrential downpour of heavenly fire rained down from the firmament, concentrating entirely upon the hundred-yard crater where Lin Yuan stood.
The flames carried the conceptual weight of karmic eradication. When the Hellstorm struck the floor, it simply ceased to exist, turning into absolute nothingness under the purifying wrath of the Heavens.
"Fire Retribution!" Emperor Nanheng shrieked, her Vermilion Bird aura violently recoiling. Even as a sovereign who commanded the supreme flames of the South, she staggered backward from the sheer heat radiating from the descending pillar. "The Heavens are using the primordial furnace to burn away his physical body!"
"This is far more severe than the Lightning Retribution!" Emperor Beiming roared, summoning layers of Black Tortoise ice barriers over the central dais, only to watch them instantly vaporize into steam. "Lightning strikes in bursts, testing the resilience of the soul! But Heavenly Fire is a continuous, suffocating eradication! It is designed to methodically melt away the physical vessel, stripping the flesh to leave the Primordial Spirit completely bare and open for absolute annihilation! No newly ascended spirit can survive direct exposure to the Heavenly Furnace!"
Down in the crater, Lin Yuan was engulfed in the golden-crimson inferno.
His Rank 10 Ancient Beast Body, an archaic physique tempered by the Body Essence of the Nine Essence Genesis Pill, was pushed to its absolute limit. The flesh that had casually shattered Earth-Dragon bone cleavers and caught High Stage strikes began to blister and char. The pain was beyond any mortal comprehension. It was a cellular dissolution, the fire bypassing his True Essence barriers entirely to burn the very marrow inside his bones.
Lin Yuan ground his teeth together, his jaw locking as he refused to give the Heavens the satisfaction of a scream. He channeled the totality of his Dao Intent, attempting to summon a localized deluge to quench the flames, but the Heavenly Fire instantly evaporated it the moment it manifested.
๐ฏ๐ง๐๐๐ฌ๐๐๐ฃ๐ค๐๐ฎ๐ต.๐๐ค๐ข
Above the burning cultivator, the collateral damage of the Fire Retribution was tearing the universe apart.
The extreme, and concentrated heat of the Heavenly Dao was expanding the jagged, black fissures in the sky. The Nine Heavens Wardโthe ancient seal binding the demonic Hollow Beyondโwas cracking further under the stress.
The putrid, rotting miasma of the demonic realm poured through the widening gaps in a sickening, purple waterfall. The foul aura, akin to the Blood Asura Dao, began to seep into the Grand Court, causing the weaker cultivators in the stands to violently vomit blood as their spiritual seas were infected.
"The seal is failing!" Emperor Xiyan bellowed, drawing his warlord blade and pointing it down at the burning anomaly. His eyes were wide with terror. "The demonic aura is flooding the area! If that fire burns any longer, the entire Nine Heavens Ward will shatter! Millions of Hollow Beyond demons will descend upon us!"
"He must die!" Emperor Dongyu shouted, his Azure Dragon aura flaring with desperate panic. "He is sure to be killed by the Fire Retribution anyway! Why does his physical vessel resist so stubbornly?! He should just die already! Let his soul burn so the Heavens can recede and the seal can stabilize! His stubbornness will doom the Nine Provinces!"
Behind Lin Yuan, Bai Qingyue stood at the edge of the stone railing, her hands gripping it so tightly that her knuckles bled. She watched the golden-crimson flames enveloping her husband.
Through their karmic tether, she felt the echo of his agony. She felt his indestructible bones slowly fracturing under the immense pressure. She felt the light of his Primordial Spirit flickering wildly, desperately trying to anchor itself within a physical vessel that was rapidly turning to ash.
He was dying.
"No," Bai Qingyue whispered, her voice trembling with absolute defiance. "I will not let you burn."