Chapter 1194 - 822: Celestial Punishment Descends

"Colorful lightning? What an unusual flash!"

Gazing at the colors descending from the sky, Zhang Chen’s eyes revealed a hint of curiosity; he had never seen colorful lightning before.

The lightning connected heaven and earth, striking the protective formation on the altar. The lightning chains did not disappear but remained in the void, channeling the endless power of thunder from the sky to break through the Innate Grand Array.

The Innate Grand Array gently rippled with layers of waves, but those were just mere ripples, unable to affect the array in the slightest.

As Zhang Chen watched the spectacle, suddenly the lightning rope split in two, and a thin strand sliced through the void, heading straight for Zhang Chen.

"Damn!" Zhang Chen was shockingly startled by the scene, unable to dodge in time as the lightning struck with incredible speed.

In an instant, all living beings within a few hundred meters of Zhang Chen, whether Demon Beasts or Golden Armor Divine Generals, were reduced to ash, completely powerless to resist.

The colorful lightning was too powerful, directly piercing through Zhang Chen’s body; his hard-earned Golden Body was like a piece of paper, easily penetrated by the colorful lightning.

Zhang Chen, like a fragile shell, was instantly killed by the lightning.

"Such powerful thunder... its level has reached an unknown tier... at least beyond the Twelfth Tier..." This was Zhang Chen’s last thought before death, then the Ice Domain unfolded, and Zhang Chen turned to ash.

With Zhang Chen’s death, the lightning also vanished, and the pervasive lightning surged towards the Innate Grand Array, attempting to break it.

As for Zhang Chen’s standing location, accompanied by the dispersing lightning, countless snowflakes reassembled within his domain, achieving resurrection in an instant.

"It’s a pity no skill dropped. Perhaps because I’ve now mastered the Authority of the Five Elements, I can endlessly receive the Five Elements’ blessing, with combat power surpassing the Twelfth Tier, so the lightning is deemed ineffective and cannot drop skills." Zhang Chen looked at the empty ground, his heart slightly disappointed with no experience points dropping.

Looking at the lightning in the sky, Zhang Chen felt helpless. Ideally, he should wait for all the lightning to disappear before resurrecting, smoothly overcoming all crises. However, he didn’t dare! He had to be reborn amid the crowd, otherwise, if the Queen Mother resolved the crisis and began monitoring the entire Kunlun Mountain, wouldn’t he be dissected if he resurrected casually?

Now the Queen Mother is busy fighting the Demon God and has no time to care for the entire battlefield, making it a perfect opportunity for Zhang Chen to be reborn.

As for the other Powerful Warriors seeing Zhang Chen resurrect? The others are busy fighting; they have no time for Zhang Chen. The entire Kunlun Mountain range is in chaos, with everyone occupied in battle, having no time to care for Zhang Chen.

Moreover, under the lightning, all living beings within several hundred meters of Zhang Chen’s area turned to ash, leaving no time to focus on Zhang Chen’s actions.

"Crack~"

Just after Zhang Chen resurrected, the colorful lightning again split off a rope, accurately descending towards Zhang Chen. This time Zhang Chen was prepared, breaking through the sonic boom and heading towards the distant Demon Beast tide.

Though the lightning’s speed was swift, Zhang Chen’s winding escape made it impossible for the lightning to predict his landing spot, following him like a missile equipped with GPS.

In theory, Zhang Chen’s flight speed, just breaking the sonic boom, shouldn’t outrun the lightning’s speed, but Zhang Chen was no pushover. He continuously manipulated water elements in the air, forming streams that created invisible-to-the-naked-eye water threads, forming nets to intercept the colorful lightning.

Even though the colorful lightning possessed the extraordinary power of Celestial Thunder, it had to follow the inherent properties of lightning and was guided by the streams to some degree.

During the dispersion and guidance by the water streams, the lightning was hindered. While it couldn’t completely nullify the Celestial Punishment, it slowed its pursuit speed.

That colorful divine lightning was a form of Celestial Punishment, imbued with its characteristics. While it retained some lightning properties, it also had many unique traits due to the celestial enhancement. Although it was spread out by Zhang Chen’s covert ’water nets,’ merely slowing the lightning’s speed and distributing its power, the lightning was continuously replenished by the clouds. Even if its power was scattered, it would quickly recharge, looping back to chase Zhang Chen.

This led to a comical scene in the field, with Zhang Chen running at the front and the divine lightning chasing behind. Just as the lightning was about to catch up and strike Zhang Chen, it inexplicably veered off behind him, smashing into the ground, creating a large crater. The colorful rope then swiftly grazed the ground and quickly pursued Zhang Chen again, determined to strike him down.

Where the lightning rope passed, countless bolts of liquid lightning splashed, electrocuting an unknown number of Demon Beasts and Powerful Warriors, causing the surrounding creatures to forget about their battles and flee in all directions.

Have you ever seen liquid lightning?

Zhang Chen had! In fact, liquid lightning isn’t mysterious; it’s merely the combination of Thunder and water flow. Whether it was the lightning rope striking the ritual platform or the one chasing Zhang Chen, it was essentially a rope formed by water flow, with a constant influx of Thunder.

However, that water flow was imbued with strong characteristics by Celestial Punishment, so even Zhang Chen couldn’t command it; he could only guide it using the Authority of Water. That’s all.

"How strange, my Authority of Water Element can command all water flows in Heaven and Earth, but the water flow in that ’lightning rope’ seems to have been granted a unique characteristic, as if infused with some kind of will, preventing me from affecting the water’s authority. I can only use the properties of water to guide it," Zhang Chen muttered to himself.

Wherever he passed, countless Demon Beasts fled, be they Tenth Tier, Eleventh Tier, Twelfth Tier, or even the legendary Fruit Position beings, all of them retreated, avoiding the risk of being caught up in Celestial Punishment.

Celestial Punishment is indiscriminate! No matter your race or status, once a bolt of Celestial Thunder strikes, it’ll ensure your demise.

Those at the Fruit Position level, facing the Power of Celestial Punishment, reacted like mice encountering a cat, fleeing far away without any inclination to get involved, for if they interfered with the operation of Celestial Punishment, it would mark them for future retribution alongside Zhang Chen.

Amidst the crowd, Zhang Chen fled frantically, causing chaos wherever he went, reducing countless Demon Beasts to dust.

"This Celestial Punishment is fixated on me! But running like this can’t continue indefinitely," Zhang Chen muttered to himself. Who knew how long this Celestial Punishment would last?

Would he have to keep running until he exhausted himself?

Moreover, the crucial issue was if Celestial Punishment failed to strike him for an extended period, those old beings might notice something, and wouldn’t that spell trouble for him?

Of course, this probability was small, as Celestial Punishment’s power covered several hundred meters, and those old beings wouldn’t dare extend their Qi Mechanism to probe Zhang Chen’s real situation.

Zhang Chen’s gaze shifted towards the altar, where the sixty-four Innate Grand Arrays were fully activated, and the Power of Celestial Punishment couldn’t do a thing to the altar.

"Should I hide in the altar to avoid the onslaught of the Power of Celestial Punishment?" As soon as Zhang Chen entertained the thought, he quickly suppressed it. The altar suppressed the Dragon Vein of Kunlun Mountain and was the main target of Celestial Punishment, bearing most of its power. Who knew what unforeseen events could occur?

Moreover, Zhang Chen could sense a more terrifying force brewing in the clouds; he knew that the seven-colored Celestial Thunder now was just an appetizer and that a truly more dreadful lightning punishment was still in preparation.

"So the altar is out of the question! Even with Innate Grand Arrays, can they really withstand the Power of Celestial Punishment? What if they can’t, and I’m trapped on the altar with no escape?" Zhang Chen dismissed the idea and began to ponder another path for survival. His eyes turned to the Fruit Position level beings in the distance: "If I approach them, they will surely fear the Power of Celestial Punishment and help deflect it for me, being drawn into it themselves and sharing its pressure."

With this thought, Zhang Chen ran directly towards the battlefield of the Innate Spirits at the Fruit Position level, with the lightning rope closely pursuing him.

"Don’t come over here!!!" A surprised Innate Spirit from the Kunlun Mountain camp shouted at Zhang Chen as he ran over with a tail of Celestial Punishment in tow. But how could Zhang Chen heed such words? He was looking for someone to share the burden of Celestial Punishment and wouldn’t consider such things.

The Innate Spirit from the Kunlun Mountain camp was initially engaged in battle with a powerful entity from the Demon Beast camp. Seeing Zhang Chen bringing the Power of Celestial Punishment over, the two supreme beings stopped fighting and fled separately without a second word.

"You bastard! You ant, being targeted by the Power of Celestial Punishment and not staying away, dare to involve the innocent in the battlefield!" A Great Demon God at the Fruit Position level cursed Zhang Chen.

"I order you to head towards the Demon Beast camp, guiding the Power of Celestial Punishment to strike them down!" commanded a supreme Innate Spirit from Kunlun Mountain, overlooking Zhang Chen and giving him orders to direct all trouble towards the Demon Beasts.

Zhang Chen glanced at the haughty Innate Spirit, immediately heading in that direction without a word: Zhang Chen had never suffered such grievances growing up! And you dare to command me?

"As powerful as that old being is, he should be able to withstand the Power of Celestial Punishment and help share my burden, right?" Zhang Chen pondered silently.