Chapter 682: Chu Miao’s Tribulation

The two lightning bolts descended together.

Chu Miao had no time to arrange the new array flags.

She raised both hands and created several layers of spatial barriers above her head.

The first bolt struck the barriers.

CRACK!

The space around her trembled.

One barrier broke, then the second. By the time the lightning reached the last layer, most of its power had weakened.

Chu Miao allowed the remaining energy to enter her body.

The second bolt followed almost immediately.

It hit the roof beside her.

A large section of the concrete collapsed, and the entire hotel shook.

Chu Miao frowned.

"That one missed."

The heavenly dao naturally did not miss.

The lightning traveled through the damaged building before emerging beneath her.

It entered her body through the ground and caught her by surprise.

Her body stiffened and several strands of hair stood up, and smoke rose from the sleeves of her combat uniform.

Chu Miao slowly breathed out.

That bolt had hurt more than the earlier ones.

At least no one was outside to see her current appearance.

Inside the Soul Ring, Ye Xuan’s expression changed.

He realized that as they grew stronger and practiced dual cultivation more, an almost telepathic connection had developed between them and at that moment, he felt the sudden pain Chu Miao experienced through their connection.

"What happened?" the White tiger asked.

"One of the bolts came from below."

The Black Tortoise blinked.

"The heavenly dao has become creative."

Ye Xuan looked at it coldly.

The Black Tortoise lowered its head and pretended to study the water in the spiritual spring.

It was not making fun of its master.

It was simply making an observation.

Outside, Chu Miao circulated her spiritual energy through her meridians.

The numbness gradually disappeared.

She checked her body and found that the two bolts had removed more impurities from her bones.

The process was painful, but the results were good.

Her physical body was becoming stronger much faster than it would through ordinary cultivation.

She took out a healing pill and swallowed it. The spiritual energy from the pill spread through her body and repaired the small wounds in her meridians.

Above her, more lightning was already forming.

Chu Miao sent the new array flags into position.

They settled around the remaining section of the roof and created another protective layer.

She had prepared several sets.

If one broke, she would replace it with another.

There was no reason to face every bolt with her body when she had enough resources.

Cultivators who insisted on enduring everything directly were either extremely confident or too poor to prepare protection.

Chu Miao had never believed suffering unnecessarily made someone stronger.

She would absorb enough lightning to temper her body, but she would not allow it to destroy her foundation.

The next bolt struck.

The new array lit up and absorbed most of it, but three more followed.

Chu Miao guided a controlled amount of lightning into her body each time.

Her skin cracked in several places, but the injuries closed quickly under the effect of the healing pill.

While she endured the tribulation, City K was in chaos.

Lightning fell everywhere.

The millions of zombies gathered near the hotel had originally been ordered there to divide the tribulation’s attention.

That part of the plan worked.

Most of the lightning bolts struck the zombie horde instead of Chu Miao.

Unfortunately, the intelligent zombies had overlooked something important.

The heavenly dao did not care whether the low-level zombies were being used as shields.

Every marked zombie received its own punishment.

A large bolt landed in the middle of the square.

Thousands of zombies disappeared instantly.

Their bodies turned to ash, leaving only crystal cores scattered across the ground.

The zombies behind them continued forward under the commands of the stronger ones.

Another bolt descended.

Then another.

The crowded horde made it impossible for them to avoid the strikes.

Even when lightning targeted one zombie, hundreds around it were destroyed as well.

The intelligent commanders hiding farther away watched their army disappear.

The speaking zombie had survived the earlier strike in the tunnel, but its clean appearance was gone.

Half its face was burned, and one arm hung uselessly by its side.

It stood inside a damaged building and stared at Chu Miao.

The human woman was still sitting on the hotel roof.

Every bolt that struck her made her aura stronger.

The zombie could not understand it.

Lightning was supposed to destroy. With the limited knowledge and memories it had recovered, it knew this.

So, why was the human using it to become more powerful?

It released a mental command and the high-level zombies hidden underground moved toward the hotel.

The lower-level zombies might reduce the lightning around the human, but they were not strong enough to break her protective array.

The intelligent zombie needed the stronger ones to interrupt her advancement.

More than fifty high-level zombies emerged from the underground tunnels.

They moved carefully at first.

However, as soon as they approached the hotel, the clouds above them changed.

Thin bolts of lightning separated from the main tribulation and locked onto each of them.

The high-level zombies stopped.

They wanted to retreat.

The mental command forced them forward.

One level-eight zombie leaped onto the hotel wall.

Before it could climb two floors, lightning struck its back.

It fell into the crowd below.

Its body was still moving when another bolt followed.

This time, its head exploded and the crystal core rolled into a crack in the road.

Several high-level zombies met the same fate.

The rest resisted the mental command and tried to flee.

For the first time, their desire to survive became stronger than the control placed on them.

The speaking zombie roared in anger.

Its mental energy spread through the area, forcing the retreating zombies to turn around.

Chu Miao sensed the fluctuation.

She opened her eyes and looked toward the damaged building where the intelligent zombie was hiding.

"So it is controlling them." This had confirmed their speculations.

The control was not as powerful as the consciousness they encountered in City S.

This intelligent zombie could command lower-level zombies within a limited range, but it could not control every movement perfectly.

The high-level ones could even resist when their lives were threatened.

Chu Miao raised one hand.

A spatial blade appeared beside the speaking zombie.

It noticed the danger and jumped away.

The blade cut through the wall instead.

The zombie landed on another floor and looked toward the hotel in shock.

It had not expected Chu Miao to attack while facing the tribulation.

"Don’t disturb me," she said.