At this moment, Long Zhizheng was at his wits’ end.
The effects of the forbidden secret art had vanished, and the resulting backlash caused his blood to churn and his spiritual energy to run dry.
The injuries he had previously sustained from the array and the talisman attacks also flared up completely.
Blood soaked through his robes, making him look exceptionally pathetic.
Facing the wave of countless law-imbued blades, Long Zhizheng could not help but shout out in despair, “No! Mercy! I was wrong! I was truly wrong! I beg you, Sect Master Tai, spare my life! I’m willing to surrender and serve you like an ox or a horse, to be your slave forever!”
However, Tai Lingxuan’s eyes still held no trace of mercy.
She controlled the array, pushing the destructive power of the law-imbued blades to their limit.
Puchi!
Long Zhizheng’s body was instantly pierced by countless blades.
Blood gushed out, and a shrill scream erupted from his throat.
Long Zhizheng tried to struggle, but he no longer had the strength even to lift a hand.
He could only watch as Tai Lingxuan approached him step by step, holding a frost longsword transformed from the Xinglan Brocade Ribbon.
Standing before Long Zhizheng, Tai Lingxuan looked down at this man, the culprit who had caused the deaths of her master and countless fellow disciples.
Without any unnecessary words, her slender wrist flicked, and the Xinglan sword trailed a brilliant string of starlight.
The blade slid silently across his neck.
A red line slowly appeared on Long Zhizheng’s throat, followed by the seeping of a fine, deep red fountain of blood.
Long Zhizheng’s eyes were wide open, and a look of intense grievance remained frozen on his face as his head rolled away.
Scalding blood sprayed from the stump of his neck, splashing in front of Tai Lingxuan.
She did not dodge or block it.
Tai Lingxuan felt the heat of her enemy’s blood.
She looked coldly at the head rolling on the ground and the headless corpse that was still twitching and spraying blood.
At this moment, her tense body finally relaxed, and her upright chest heaved violently.
Operating the array had consumed a vast amount of her spiritual energy, leaving her face somewhat pale.
…
But right now, the woman’s bright, eerie purple eyes held a trace of satisfaction.
Tai Lingxuan raised her hand, and a burst of spiritual energy exploded.
In the next instant, Long Zhizheng’s corpse and head were both blasted into fine dust.
They dissipated between heaven and earth.
Rumble —
Just then, a low roar from above caused Tai Lingxuan, who had just begun to relax, to suddenly tense her nerves again.
Right, there was still the lightning tribulation!
In the sky, heavy thunderclouds covered the horizon.
Purple-gold electrical flashes flickered, tumbled, and condensed frantically within the cloud layer.
A destructive pressure descended from above like something physical.
This was her Mahayana Stage lightning tribulation.
By now, it had finished brewing!
Tai Lingxuan’s heart sank.
…
To deal with Long Zhizheng, the spiritual energy in Tai Lingxuan’s body was nearly depleted.
Because she had broken through too quickly, she even felt her meridians beginning to throb with sharp pain.
In her current state, she wouldn’t even have full confidence in surviving this heavenly tribulation at her peak strength, let alone now.
Within the tribulation clouds, a terrifying power that caused one’s heart to tremble was currently radiating outward.
Feeling all of this, a slightly bitter smile involuntarily tugged at the corner of Tai Lingxuan’s mouth.
“Yuyang…” the woman murmured the name.
Her expression held a hint of tenderness, which was soon replaced by a deep sense of helplessness.
‘Sorry, Yuyang, your master… might have to break her word this time…’
Boom —
Thunder rolled, and the purple-gold lightning became increasingly violent.
As it churned, it seemed as if it could no longer be restrained.
Faintly, the low sound of a dragon’s roar could be heard coming from within.
Several blurry golden dragon shadows appeared and disappeared within the tribulation clouds, letting out roars that carried dragonic pressure.
This lightning tribulation was far more terrifying than Tai Lingxuan had imagined!
If Chen Yuyang were here, he would have recognized it at a glance as the Nine Heavens Dragon Roar Tribulation.
If one could successfully cross this tribulation, they could shed their mortal body within the lightning, obtain a trace of True Dragon blood, and gain the qualification to truly transform into a dragon.
But the power of this Nine Heavens Dragon Roar Tribulation…
It was ten times, or even a hundred times, more terrifying than an ordinary lightning tribulation!
Moreover, this was a Mahayana Stage tribulation.
A dragon’s roar echoed through heaven and earth.
The first golden lightning bolt finally took shape, transforming into a 100-foot-long True Dragon phantom.
It crushed the space along its path and vibrated the spiritual energy within a 100-mile radius, roaring as it dived down toward Tai Lingxuan.
‘No, I can’t give up!’
A fierce light flickered in Tai Lingxuan’s eyes.
‘If I’m going to die anyway, I might as well go down fighting!’
Thinking this, the woman gritted her teeth and mobilized the little spiritual energy left in her body.
The Xinglan Brocade Ribbon also circled around her, forming a protective barrier.
Boom —
The explosion at the moment of collision was earth-shaking.
The True Dragon phantom shattered, turning into ten thousand golden electrical sparks that radiated in all directions.
It overturned the ground like a wave and directly leveled several nearby mountain peaks.
A moment later, the lightning dispersed, and the spatial cracks that had appeared all around quickly healed.
Tai Lingxuan, standing at the very center of the impact, was disheveled and her body trembled violently.
She barely managed to stay standing, and she suddenly coughed up a large amount of blood, staining the front of her robes.
However, the lightning tribulation would not give Tai Lingxuan any chance to breathe.
Just as the residual power of the first strike vanished, the second strike had already finished condensing.
This time, two majestic dragon heads emerged from the clouds simultaneously, transforming into two True Dragon phantoms.
They roared and entangled with one another as they pounced toward Tai Lingxuan.
Seeing this, Tai Lingxuan bit her lip hard, and a trace of despair flashed in her eyes.
The spiritual energy in her body was completely exhausted.
What could she do to withstand this even stronger second strike?
Before Tai Lingxuan could think or react, a golden talisman appeared automatically.
The golden talisman turned into a beam of light and shot straight toward the True Dragon phantoms in the sky, colliding with them head-on.
Although it failed to destroy them, the collision caused several cracks to appear on the surfaces of the True Dragon phantoms, and their power was significantly reduced.
At the same time, the Desolate Extinction Array that Tai Lingxuan had previously set up actually began to change its form on its own.
Countless law runes on the flags flowed and reorganized, transforming into a massive, turtle-shell-shaped defensive array.
It firmly shielded Tai Lingxuan inside!
Tai Lingxuan looked at this turn of events with quite a bit of shock, her heart full of confusion.
Since a moment ago, the talismans had been automatically protecting their master.
Now, even this array seemed to possess a spirit of its own.
The things Yuyang had given her were truly extraordinary.
However, now was not the time to think about such things.
Feeling that the turtle-shell defensive array seemed quite stable, Tai Lingxuan immediately sat cross-legged.
At this moment, she couldn’t care about her injuries or any potential side effects.
She directly took out a few high-grade pills from her Sumeru Sea of Consciousness, swallowed them, and began to refine and absorb them at the fastest possible speed.
At the same time, she threw out almost all the spirit stones in her Sumeru Sea of Consciousness to provide spiritual energy for the defensive array.
Boom!
Boom!
One after another, talismans shot out automatically, colliding with the True Dragon phantoms.
Brilliant golden light exploded in the sky.
The weakened True Dragon phantoms then slammed heavily against the turtle-shell defensive array.
The dragon shadows shattered.
While the law runes on the turtle-shell defensive array flickered, it remained stable.
But immediately following that was the third strike… Boom boom boom boom boom!
In the sky, golden dragon shadows appeared one after another, striking the defensive array continuously as if there were no end to them.
The talismans in Tai Lingxuan’s hands were also being consumed at an alarming rate.
The power of the lightning tribulation continued to increase!
The number of True Dragon phantoms also continued to grow.
While the array was still relatively stable, Tai Lingxuan desperately recovered her spiritual energy and repaired her injuries.
Even though she didn’t look, Tai Lingxuan could clearly feel the terrifying lightning and dragonic pressure raging outside the array.
As the tribulation continued, the array began to tremble.
And that trembling gradually became more violent.
Each bolt of the lightning tribulation was stronger than the last.
The dragon shadows became more solid, and the dragonic pressure grew even more intense.
Fine cracks began to appear on the turtle-shell defensive array.
The law runes on the array flickered with increasing frequency, and their light was growing dimmer.
Tai Lingxuan’s heart was in her throat.
She knew the array had almost reached its limit.
When the eighth strike came, a total of eight True Dragon phantoms roared and slammed into the array simultaneously.
The turtle-shell defensive array finally made a crisp sound as it reached its breaking point.
The cracks covering it suddenly expanded, and countless law runes shattered completely, flying in all directions.
The flags forming the array were also smashed by the True Dragon phantoms.
However, this eighth strike was just barely blocked.
By now, Tai Lingxuan’s talismans were completely used up, and the array had failed.
Looking up, the last and most terrifying strike of the lightning tribulation was reflected in Tai Lingxuan’s eyes.
There were nine True Dragon phantoms, each with a massive body and an even more horrifying aura.
The nine dragons wound around each other, letting out a roar that shook the universe.
Carrying a terrifying, world-destroying pressure, they descended toward Tai Lingxuan, who appeared incredibly small and fragile below.
Tai Lingxuan’s pupils contracted.
She had only recovered 40% of her spiritual energy.
Facing the arrival of all nine dragons, Tai Lingxuan knew in her heart that she would likely die with no chance of survival.
Golden lightning filled the heaven and earth, and violent energy raged, turning the surrounding 100 miles into a purgatory.
Large patches of space collapsed, revealing void-like cracks that took a long, long time to slowly heal.
After a while, the golden lightning extinguished, and the tribulation clouds in the sky slowly dissipated.
Heaven and earth regained their clarity, becoming silent and peaceful.
But where she had stood, an enormous deep pit remained.
And in the center of that pit, there was nothing and no one.
Only a few wisps of green smoke curled up, drifting away with the cool breeze.
At the same time.
Inside the room.
Chen Yuyang’s brow furrowed slightly.
For some reason, he had an ill omen.
Such a premonition had not appeared for a long, long time.
Could it be…
That Long Zhizheng had made a move against his master?
However…
Even if he did, with the things he had given her, she should be able to protect herself without worry.
Even if his master was ambushed, the talismans were of the ninth-grade, and the Desolate Extinction Array was also a ninth-grade array.
Furthermore, he had infused it with his own blood essence, allowing it to develop a partial intelligence that would follow his will and automatically protect its master.
Then, what was this premonition exactly…?
Chen Yuyang suddenly felt a bit worried.
He also felt some regret.
‘I should have given Master more of my savings…’