Golden Core Lightning Tribulation

The ground beneath their feet trembled faintly.

The pale sky darkened with startling speed as layers of black clouds began gathering from every direction. At first, they were no more than thin streaks along the horizon, but within a few breaths, they had piled over one another until they covered the entire stretch of sky above the mountain.

White arcs of lightning flickered continuously within the clouds.

Low thunder rolled through the air.

Hao Nhien's expression changed.

“A lightning tribulation?”

Lanh Tuyet also looked up, and the calmness on her face vanished almost instantly.

She stared at the converging clouds, then lowered her gaze and sensed the aura surrounding her body. It took only a moment for her to understand.

“Move back. Get away from me.”

Hao Nhien looked at her.

“Sister Lanh?”

“The tribulation has already locked onto my aura. If you stay too close, it may regard you as someone interfering with it.”

Hao Nhien asked no further questions.

His Spirit Wings immediately opened behind him. Airflow compressed sharply as his body shot backward. After three consecutive bursts, he had already widened the distance to more than a hundred zhang before landing behind a massive boulder.

His eyes remained fixed on Lanh Tuyet.

Even from outside the central area, the pressure radiating from the tribulation clouds caused a faint tingling sensation across his skin. If he already felt this much from here, then with his current cultivation at the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment, entering the center would be extremely dangerous. Even a portion of the scattered lightning force could inflict severe injuries on him.

Lanh Tuyet stood alone in the clearing.

The pale-purple robes she had only recently changed into were pulled violently backward by the wind, while her long hair gradually came loose from its bindings.

She raised her head toward the tribulation clouds.

“An ordinary Golden Core tribulation usually consists of three bolts, with each one stronger than the last. With sufficient preparation, it should still be possible to withstand them.”

Hao Nhien remained silent.

This was the first time he had ever personally witnessed a cultivator facing a heavenly tribulation. Nearly everything he knew came from descriptions given by others, so he intended to observe as carefully as possible.

The cloud layer above began to contract.

The scattered arcs of electricity simultaneously bent toward the center, gradually gathering into a single brilliant white point.

Lanh Tuyet waved her hand.

A jade-green umbrella immediately flew into the air and opened to more than a zhang across. Layers of runes upon its surface lit up at once, linking together to form a circular barrier around her.

The fluctuations coming from the artifact made Hao Nhien narrow his eyes slightly.

Its quality was at least comparable to the Profound-grade artifacts he had seen before.

At that moment, the first bolt of tribulation lightning descended.

White light tore through the clouds, illuminating the entire mountainside as brightly as midday.

The lightning slammed directly into the umbrella, forcing the barrier beneath it to cave inward.

Countless runes across its surface flared brilliantly, dispersing the lightning force toward every direction. Smaller arcs raced along the edge of the barrier before striking the ground, shattering stones, scorching earth, and reducing dry leaves to ash.

Lanh Tuyet slid half a step backward.

The umbrella shook violently, but it held.

When the light finally faded, several small cracks had appeared across its surface.

Lanh Tuyet raised her head. Her expression remained relatively calm, clearly indicating that the first bolt had still fallen within her expectations.

She immediately circulated her spiritual power to stabilize her aura.

Hao Nhien looked at the remaining arcs of electricity crawling across the ground, and the Lightning Sacrifice Mountain Cave involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

The lightning there had once left even his spiritual sense numb with pain, but what he felt now was completely different.

The Lightning Sacrifice Mountain Cave was like a land where the power of lightning had accumulated over countless years.

The heavenly tribulation before him felt as though an entire region of the sky had focused its will upon a single person.

Thunder rolled again.

The second bolt was taking shape.

Lanh Tuyet looked upward and quickly frowned.

The lightning gathering at the center of the tribulation clouds was thickening far faster than before, while the clouds continued pulling spiritual energy from the surrounding area.

“This is already stronger than it should be.”

Hao Nhien's hand tightened slightly.

The first thing that came to mind was the Cosmic Ark.

Lanh Tuyet had formed her Golden Core inside an independent space. Only after returning to the Linh Van Continent had the heavenly tribulation appeared. That delay might have contributed to the change, but the power awakened within her by the jade orb could also be involved.

Hao Nhien merely remembered both possibilities without drawing any conclusion yet.

Lanh Tuyet threw the umbrella higher.

Three golden talismans appeared in her hand and flew out simultaneously, attaching themselves to three different points on the umbrella. The runes immediately connected, causing the already-damaged barrier to shine once more.

The second bolt descended.

Its power was nearly twice that of the first.

The moment they collided, the entire umbrella was forced downward by more than a zhang. A violent shockwave swept outward from the center, bending a line of nearby trees almost flat.

The three talismans blazed brightly but lasted for only a single breath before turning to ash together.

A large crack tore across the umbrella.

Lanh Tuyet immediately raised both hands and poured milky-white spiritual power into the artifact, but the fractures continued spreading.

Two crisp cracking sounds rang out in succession.

The jade-green umbrella exploded.

Dozens of fragments shot in every direction.

The remaining lightning continued downward.

A layer of milky-white protective spiritual power instantly appeared around Lanh Tuyet, only to be shattered moments later.

Her body was hurled back nearly twenty zhang, her feet carving two deep trenches through the earth.

By the time she stopped, parts of the robes over her shoulders and arms had been burned away by lightning. Her previously bound hair had come completely loose, and a thin line of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.

“Sister Lanh!”

Hao Nhien instinctively stepped forward.

The instant his foot moved, a small arc of lightning split from the tribulation clouds and struck the boulder in front of him.

The rock exploded.

Fragments shot past his cheek.

Hao Nhien stopped immediately.

Lanh Tuyet looked toward him as well.

“Don't come closer. I can still endure it.”

Her voice was slightly hoarse, but still clear.

She planted one hand against the ground and slowly stood.

Hao Nhien clenched his fist, but ultimately forced himself to remain where he was.

Lanh Tuyet had already warned him. If he entered the tribulation's range now, the heavenly tribulation might react in a way neither of them could control.

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Lanh Tuyet wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and looked upward again.

The tribulation clouds had not dispersed.

All of the lightning that had previously been scattered throughout the clouds was now converging at an alarming speed. The white light at the center grew increasingly brilliant.

Even from more than a hundred zhang away, Hao Nhien could feel the hairs on his arms rising.

Lanh Tuyet stared upward for a long moment.

“This is far beyond an ordinary Golden Core tribulation.”

She waved her hand.

A white jade shield appeared before her, followed by a round silver mirror.

The shield floated higher while the silver mirror remained beneath it, forming two overlapping layers of defense.

Lanh Tuyet sat cross-legged and formed a hand seal.

Milky-white spiritual power flowed from her body, creating the final defensive layer.

Hao Nhien watched the entire process carefully.

Her preparations had clearly been planned long ago.

Given her position within the merchant association system, Lanh Tuyet had never lacked resources, yet the heavenly tribulation before her was still overwhelming each layer of protection she had prepared.

The true cause remained uncertain.

But one thing was already clear.

This tribulation was far from being a simple sequence of three ordinary lightning strikes.

Thunder rolled without pause.

The final bolt was coming.

Hao Nhien looked toward the clouds.

Lightning possessed extraordinary speed and explosive force. Once it descended, it left almost no opportunity for the person facing it to correct a mistake.

That characteristic instinctively reminded him of the path of combat he had been pursuing, though for now he suppressed the thought.

The sky suddenly turned white.

The third bolt descended.

A pillar of white lightning poured directly from the center of the tribulation clouds, carrying pressure vastly greater than the previous two.

The jade shield instantly blazed with light.

The moment the two forces met, a crisp cracking sound rang out.

Within a single beat, the shield shattered into hundreds of fragments.

The lightning pillar continued downward.

The silver mirror flared brightly, its surface reflecting the lightning and forcibly redirecting part of the power back upward.

The effect lasted less than a breath.

Countless fractures rapidly spread across the mirror.

The second artifact exploded.

The remaining lightning crashed directly into the spiritual barrier surrounding Lanh Tuyet.

The ground collapsed.

A violent shockwave swept outward, lifting earth and stone across an area dozens of zhang wide.

Hao Nhien raised an arm before his face as his robes were pulled tight by the wind, but his eyes never left the center of the lightning.

Lanh Tuyet's figure completely disappeared within the white pillar connecting heaven and earth.

One breath passed.

Then two.

Then three.

The lightning pillar still had not vanished.

Hao Nhien clenched his teeth.

What made the moment unbearable was that he understood perfectly well that he could not help her. Any attempt to intervene might make the heavenly tribulation even more unpredictable.

At last, the pillar began to narrow.

The thunder weakened.

The blinding light faded layer by layer.

Hao Nhien immediately looked toward the center.

A massive crater had appeared on the mountainside.

The surrounding earth and stone were completely blackened, while several areas had become smooth and glassy, as though they had been melted by extreme heat.

At the center of the crater, Lanh Tuyet was still sitting.

Hao Nhien finally released the breath he had been holding.

She leaned forward slightly, both hands resting on her knees. Her long hair was disheveled, thin smoke rose from her shoulders and arms, and faint arcs of electricity still crawled across the burns on her skin before slowly fading away.

Yet the aura surrounding her had become stable and complete.

The unstable feeling of someone who had only just broken through was gone.

Her early-stage Golden Core cultivation had truly stabilized.

Lanh Tuyet slowly raised her head and opened her eyes.

A flash of white light passed through her pupils before disappearing.

When she exhaled, a stream of white mist more than a foot long appeared before her lips and dissolved into the air.

At the same time, the dark clouds overhead began to separate.

Sunlight broke through.

The mountain wind returned.

Birdsong gradually rose again from the distance.

The mountainside slowly returned to normal.

Hao Nhien did not approach immediately.

He took an outer robe from his storage ring, wrapped it in spiritual power, and sent it directly toward the crater.

“Sister Lanh. A robe.”

A moment later, the robe was pulled free from his spiritual power.

The sound of fabric shifting came soon after.

“All right.”

Only then did Hao Nhien walk over.

By the time he reached the edge of the crater, Lanh Tuyet had already wrapped his robe around herself.

It was considerably larger than she was. The sleeves nearly covered her hands, while the hem fell well past her knees.

Her hair was still messy and a streak of soot remained on one cheek, but the familiar sharpness had already returned to her eyes.

Lanh Tuyet looked at him.

“How much did you see just now?”

Hao Nhien answered with complete seriousness.

“I was mainly watching the lightning tribulation. This was the first time I've personally seen a Golden Core heavenly tribulation, so most of my attention was on the sky.”

Lanh Tuyet narrowed her eyes.

“Then why did the robe arrive so quickly?”

Hao Nhien fell silent for a moment.

Finally, he coughed lightly.

“I saw both artifacts get shattered. I assumed your clothes probably hadn't survived either.”

Lanh Tuyet stared at him for a while.

The corner of her mouth had only just begun to curve when she suddenly frowned, one hand instinctively moving to her shoulder.

Hao Nhien immediately became serious.

“How badly are you hurt?”

“A few sections of my meridians were injured by the lightning, and my internal organs were affected as well, but nothing dangerous.”

She lowered her gaze toward her hand.

Milky-white spiritual power slowly appeared around her fingertips. Its density and solidity were clearly far greater than before the tribulation.

“Only after enduring those three bolts has my Golden Core completely stabilized within the outside world.”

Hao Nhien looked at her.

“The second and third bolts both exceeded what you prepared for?”

Lanh Tuyet raised her eyes toward the now-clear sky.

“I've been preparing for my Golden Core tribulation for a very long time. The three bolts were always expected to increase in power, but the artifacts I prepared should have been enough for an ordinary breakthrough.”

Her gaze shifted toward the shattered remnants scattered across the crater.

“The first bolt was still within my expectations. The second exceeded them by quite a lot, while the third was far stronger than anything I had prepared for. If my Golden Core hadn't already formed, and if the power within the jade orb hadn't already transformed my meridians and body, the outcome might have been different.”

Hao Nhien asked:

“Do you think it was related to the Cosmic Ark?”

“I don't know.”

Lanh Tuyet answered directly.

“It may have been because I formed my Golden Core inside an independent space. It may also have been because the power awakened by the jade orb altered the tribulation. We still don't understand how heaven and earth react when someone crosses a major realm without immediately undergoing the corresponding tribulation.”

Hao Nhien nodded slightly.

He committed the matter to memory.

One day, if he himself had to stand beneath a heavenly tribulation, everything he had witnessed today would be valuable.

Lanh Tuyet suddenly pulled the robe more tightly around herself.

“Little Brother, I'm afraid I won't be returning this robe immediately.”

Hao Nhien looked at her.

“I only have one spare set left.”

“Then figure something out yourself.”

Lanh Tuyet took out a silver talisman, the corner of her lips curving upward.

“Consider it the price of keeping a secret.”

Hao Nhien could only nod helplessly.

But when his gaze swept across the traces of lightning still faintly burning across the ground, his expression quickly became serious again.

What remained most vivid in his mind was the way the final bolt had erupted.

Its speed, destructive force, and ability to concentrate overwhelming power into a single instant were remarkably close to the direction he had been pursuing in combat.

Spirit Wings gave him explosive speed.

One Sword emphasized concentration and precision.

Sword Slash shortened the process needed to unleash destructive force.

If he could understand the nature of Lightning more deeply, he might not need to become a Lightning-element cultivator at all. It could still help him refine the way he released power.

The Lightning Sacrifice Mountain Cave surfaced in his mind once more.

This time, the thought became completely clear.

He wanted to go there.

The two returned to the Cosmic Ark.

Lanh Tuyet changed clothes and began regulating her condition, while Hao Nhien left her undisturbed.

By the time she emerged again, quite some time had passed.

She wore a clean pale-purple outfit of simple design, and her long hair had been neatly tied back. The burns on her skin had already been treated, though her complexion remained slightly pale.

She had also deliberately restrained her Golden Core aura, but even then, each step caused the surrounding spiritual energy to fluctuate faintly.

Lanh Tuyet sat opposite Hao Nhien.

“I need to return to the Hoang Linh Merchant Association.”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

She nodded.

“My Golden Core has formed, but my meridians have just endured the lightning tribulation. I need to enter seclusion for a while to stabilize everything completely. Now that my cultivation has changed, there are also matters within the merchant association that I need to handle personally.”

Hao Nhien looked at her.

The matter of Heavenly Spirit was simply too significant.

They still did not know what relationship the current Hoang Linh, Huyen Linh, and Dia Linh merchant associations had with the ancient Heavenly Spirit organization, nor how much influence Hoang Sam might have left within those systems over the past thousand years.

Lanh Tuyet continued:

“I'll secretly investigate the second key fragment. If the descendants of the clanspeople sent away by the Saintess still exist, there's a good chance they eventually became integrated into the merchant systems that came later.”

She paused briefly.

“Hoang Linh, Huyen Linh, and perhaps even Dia Linh may still contain traces of them. I'll investigate from within.”

Hao Nhien looked at her.

“Don't rush. If you've only just broken through and immediately start digging through ancient records that no one has touched in years, someone may notice.”

The corner of Lanh Tuyet's mouth curved upward.

“Are you teaching a merchant how to investigate?”

“I'm only reminding you.”

Lanh Tuyet watched him for several breaths before nodding.

“I know.”

She leaned forward slightly.

“And don't assume that having a few hidden cards means you can throw yourself into every danger you encounter.”

Her gaze swept around the interior of the Cosmic Ark before she smiled.

“Now we're truly in the same boat, both literally and figuratively.”

Hao Nhien laughed.

“I'll remember.”

“Contact me if you learn anything.”

“All right.”

Lanh Tuyet took a white talisman from her storage ring. The runes covering its surface were far more intricate than those of an ordinary communication talisman.

Hao Nhien glanced at it.

“A teleportation talisman?”

“Yes.”

Lanh Tuyet nodded.

“A fixed-point talisman belonging to Hoang Linh. Its range is limited, but it's enough to take me to one of the merchant association's transfer points.”

She poured spiritual power into it.

The runes lit up one after another, quickly forming a layer of silver-white light around her body.

Before her figure completely faded, Lanh Tuyet looked at Hao Nhien.

“Little Brother, we've already made it this far. Don't die before I return.”

Hao Nhien shook his head slightly.

“You too, Sister Lanh.”

Light erupted.

Space trembled faintly.

Lanh Tuyet disappeared, while the lingering radiance on the ground slowly faded.

Only Hao Nhien remained on the mountainside.

He stood there quietly for a while before exhaling.

The Firmament had once been nothing more than a name.

Now, at the very least, the path leading there was beginning to take shape through the three key fragments, Heavenly Spirit, and the secrets surrounding Hoang Sam.

Even so, all of that remained far beyond his current cultivation.

What he needed to do now was much simpler.

Become stronger.

The image of the white lightning bolt that had just torn through the sky appeared once more in Hao Nhien's mind.

The journey to the ruins had ended far earlier than expected. He had originally prepared to spend many days deep within the Western Wastes and had even considered the possibility of becoming trapped underground.

Instead, the Saintess's token had sent both of them directly outside, saving a considerable amount of time.

Quan Nha and Tieu Lan were still in Hoa Van.

Within the settlement, Quan Khai, Quan Lam, Quan Can, Luu Thanh, Phong Van Tu, and those responsible for the various districts already had clearly defined roles. Hoa Van could now continue functioning even if Hao Nhien remained away for several days.

There was no need for him to rush back merely to inspect every minor matter himself.

Hao Nhien took out a communication talisman and poured spiritual power into it.

“Tieu Lan, I'm safe. The journey is over, but I still have something to do in Cat Loi City, so I may return a few days late. There's no need to worry.”

After thinking for a moment, he added:

“Tell Quan Nha for me.”

The communication talisman lit up and transformed into a streak of light that flew into the distance.

Hao Nhien remained where he was for another moment before his spiritual sense stirred.

The Tieu Dao Sword appeared before him.

He stepped onto it.

Sword light immediately shot away from the mountainside, pierced through the mist, and flew toward the Western Wastes.

His first destination was Cat Loi City.

But the true purpose of this journey was waiting for him inside the Lightning Sacrifice Mountain Cave.