Chapter 439 - 434: A Thunder Light to Open Heaven and Earth

Chapter 439: Chapter 434: A Thunder Light to Open Heaven and Earth

’This can’t go on. Even if the Acquired Thunder God Pearl can block one wave of Celestial Thunder, the remaining Tier Three Flying Swords can only block one more round at most... The Celestial Tribulation’s power increases with each wave. I’m afraid I’ll have to use my Tier Four Flying Swords to hold on!’

Bai Zichen quickly ran through the calculations. At this rate, he was afraid it would be difficult to survive the final wave of Celestial Thunder.

’The worst-case scenario is to use the Tier Four Flying Swords to block it head-on, or even deploy the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword. Since the Ancient Divine People could overcome the Future Star Constellation Tribulation, it proves this tribulation isn’t entirely hopeless. There’s still a chance to survive.’

The thought of the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword’s true rank gave him a bit more confidence.

But if it really came to that, he would end up like many newly-ascended Nascent Soul True Monarchs who survive their Celestial Tribulation—utterly broke, even worse off than during his Core Formation Era.

His entire fortune would be turned to ash by the Celestial Tribulation.

The fourth wave of Celestial Thunder consisted of seven beams of starlight. As this power borrowed from the future crashed down, his internal True Essence felt agitated, as if it would fly out of his body.

Bai Zichen changed his strategy and took the initiative to attack.

In ancient times, the so-called Innate Divine People were either birthed by heaven and earth or were direct descendants within three generations of true deities. Every one of them possessed the physical strength to move mountains and fill seas.

But the Five Crystal Glaze Body was no slouch either. According to legend, its physical toughness was not inferior to that of the Innate Divine People.

’If even I can’t withstand the starlight’s Celestial Thunder head-on, it means that any other Nascent Soul True Monarch in my place would also perish.’

The moment he lunged forward, Bai Zichen had a flash of inspiration. His palms formed into finger strikes, and he tapped the beams of starlight.

CRACKLE!

The rule-based Secret Technique, Cosmic Light Treasure Sun Finger, designed to neutralize all Magical Treasures, unexpectedly dispersed the starlight with ease.

This finger strike not only struck the present moment but also traced back to the source, striking the instant before the tribulation clouds had gathered and before the starlight had even formed.

The Future Star Power collided with the force of the finger strike, and the two annihilated each other.

Without the enhancement of the Future Star Power, the starlight became nothing more than the weakest form of star-thunder to him, easily shattered with a wave of his hand.

He spun around and sent out two more finger strikes, neutralizing two more beams of starlight.

This Secret Technique, passed down from the Red Bright Lineage, had unexpectedly played a crucial role at this moment.

But before joy could even surface in his heart, his fingers faltered, and he failed to intercept the remaining three beams of starlight, forcing him to endure them with his physical body.

POP! POP! POP!

His Magical Robe was torn with three large holes, but the impacts only left three white marks on his epidermis, not even breaking the skin.

Only Bai Zichen himself knew the true condition of his body’s interior.

His Five Crystal Glaze Body, capable of withstanding a Spiritual Treasure, had its inner glazed musculature shatter into a spiderweb of cracks where the starlight had struck, with no signs of healing.

’The Cosmic Light Treasure Sun Finger can’t be used consecutively. This has nothing to do with True Essence consumption; rule-based Secret Techniques simply have a hard limit on their usage... A normal Cultivator can only manage three strikes per day. I can manage a fourth strike only because I’ve comprehended the rules behind the Secret Technique, but even then, not in rapid succession.’

By testing it on himself, Bai Zichen had found the upper limit of his body’s tolerance for the starlight’s Celestial Thunder.

’Purely in terms of the Celestial Thunder’s damage, even a thousand strikes at once would be nothing. But the Future Star Power it contains is something even the Five Crystal Glaze Body can barely withstand... If too much of it accumulates, it could even cause my perfected Five Crystal Glaze Body to regress in its Realm, making it impossible to maintain its current state.’

The fifth wave of Celestial Thunder. Nine beams of starlight created the illusion of countless twinkling stars, a meteor shower filling the void with their glow.

Bai Zichen deployed the Acquired Thunder God Pearl. In a normal Celestial Tribulation, this Treasure Bead would serve as a trump card, typically saved for the final two waves.

But facing the Future Star Constellation Tribulation, he was afraid that if he held it back any longer, the Acquired Thunder God Pearl wouldn’t even be able to withstand a single wave.

As it turned out, although the Future Star Constellation Tribulation looked vastly different from a normal Celestial Thunder Tribulation, it was ultimately still a type of one. The Acquired Thunder God Pearl worked as intended.

The Treasure Bead shot into the sky, and the nine beams of starlight, as if powerfully drawn to it, all drilled into it.

BOOM!

The Acquired Thunder God Pearl was obliterated into dust without any suspense, but the nine beams of starlight also dissipated. He had survived another wave of Celestial Thunder.

The sixth wave of Celestial Thunder. Eleven beams of starlight joined into a single ribbon of light, like the Milky Way pouring down from the heavens, threatening to engulf the entire Flame Mountain.

Bai Zichen decisively drew out a long, black awl and thrust it against the ribbon of starlight, where it pulsed lightly.

SNAP!

Several Demon Crystal Stones shattered, and under the starlight, the Spirit Treasure Level replica, the Demon Dragon Awl, reverted to its constituent parts, revealing the Spiritual Materials from the Demon Realm.

’What a pity. If not for the fact that this Demon Treasure can only be wielded freely by someone with a True Demon Holy Body, and that activating a Spiritual Treasure is still too much for me, I was relying more on the replica Demon Dragon Awl’s inherent properties to tangle with the starlight. Otherwise, it should have held out against several more beams...’

A Spiritual Treasure was thus sacrificed to resist the Celestial Tribulation. For many Sects, this would be bad news on par with a cultivator from their ranks failing their Tribulation Crossing.

After all, a Spiritual Treasure can be passed down through generations and can often produce an effect comparable to that of a Nascent Soul True Monarch.

However, Bai Zichen didn’t feel much heartache, mainly because he couldn’t use the replica Demon Dragon Awl anyway.

Even if he tried to trade it, no Cultivator would take it; its range of application was simply too narrow.

Even a Demon Path True Monarch who got their hands on it wouldn’t be able to unleash the Spiritual Treasure’s full power, so there was no need to spend too much on it.

Having struggled through the first six waves of Celestial Thunder, the remaining three would be the true test.

The tribulation cloud shrank by a circle, and the stars in the sky seemed to draw closer to Flame Mountain, creating the illusion that one could reach out and pluck them from the sky.

The seventh wave of Celestial Thunder: eighteen beams of starlight at once.

Bai Zichen didn’t dare hesitate. The Moon Xuan Sword emerged from its box, transforming into Moonlight Sword Threads that shredded the beams of starlight.

It went from being smooth and effortless at the beginning to struggling with every move. The Moonlight faded to a pale white, its color clearly changed.

One Sword Breaks Ten Thousand Laws; it successively shattered all eighteen beams of starlight.

The Moon Xuan Sword let out a mournful cry. Its Sword Light dimmed, and it conveyed a feeling of being aggrieved.

Under the bombardment of the Future Star Power, the Sword Spirit of the Tier Four Flying Sword had nearly been scattered and destroyed.

If not for his masterful Sword Control, which allowed him to shatter the starlight at the minimum cost, any other Cultivator in his place would have likely lost a Tier Four Flying Sword here.

Bai Zichen had no time to soothe it. He could only return the Moon Xuan Sword to the Supreme Qingwei Sword Box and switch to the Splendid Youth Sword.

The eighth wave of Celestial Thunder: thirty-six beams of starlight blotted out the sky, their glare blinding.

He didn’t even feel shock or panic. His Heart Like a Bright Mirror, un-rippled, he simply pushed his control of the Sword Light to its absolute limit.

The Sword Light pulsed, and the exquisiteness of his moves was beyond imagination.

In the crucible of life and death, his Swordsmanship improved once more.

The Sword Light danced and shifted, now possessing a trace of agile vitality.

The beams of starlight were extinguished one by one. When he couldn’t bring his Sword Light around in time, he took the hit with his body.

Bai Zichen propped himself up with his sword. His Magical Robe was in tatters, and a trickle of blood was at the corner of his mouth.

He staggered and slumped down in the void. Several of his Five Crystal Bones had been shattered, and crucially, they were not healing.

The Five Crystal Divine Iron and Glazed Fire Jade supporting his Sea of Consciousness trembled violently. A large hole appeared in its dome, cracks spiderwebbed across its floor, and Earth Fire erupted from them.

’You’ve suffered. I’ll arrange a few streams of Clear Spirit Qi to help you recover later...’

The Splendid Youth Sword had not been with him for long, and it had likely just sustained the most severe damage in its existence.

There were no fewer than ten cracks on its body, making it look no different from a common Mortal Sword.

Most importantly, its Sword Spirit was no longer responding.

Fortunately, it hadn’t dispersed, but was so heavily damaged that it had fallen into a self-protective slumber, similar to what had happened to the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword.

Under normal circumstances, this would mean a slumber of several thousand years.

Unless a Nascent Soul True Monarch was willing to continuously nourish and repair it, wasting their True Essence on a Flying Sword that would likely never reawaken in their lifetime.

Otherwise, the Splendid Youth Sword’s fate would very likely be an eternal slumber.

Luckily, he had the Supreme Qingwei Sword Box. Even in the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword’s case, its slumber had only lasted a century.

At most, it would take a few decades for the Splendid Youth Sword’s Sword Spirit to recover and mend all its injuries.

Bai Zichen looked up at the sky, no joy in his eyes.

The tribulation cloud had faded until it was nearly invisible. Only the endless stars in the sky pulsed in response, giving the feeling that the true great calamity was about to descend.

The ninth wave of Celestial Thunder: seventy-two beams of starlight, like a torrential ocean tide.

If he weren’t at the center of the Celestial Tribulation, he would have seen that all the palaces and buildings on Flame Mountain had been completely leveled, merely from the peripheral effects of the Future Star Constellation Tribulation.

All the spectating Cultivators had already retreated over a hundred li away.

Wei Dao had even issued another order for them to retreat another thirty li.

He had a premonition that if Bai Zichen couldn’t withstand this Celestial Thunder Tribulation, Flame Mountain, this Tier Four Spirit Land, would be turned into ruins and cease to exist.

"The power of a Celestial Tribulation... to think it could reach this level..."

Lu Song was dumbstruck, muttering the words over and over.

’Beneath such a Celestial Tribulation, all thoughts of his Nascent Soul dream and the path of the Great Dao were thrown to the back of his mind, and he dared not think of them again.’

’He was certain he couldn’t even have endured the first wave of Celestial Thunder.’

"Don’t lose your composure," Wei Dao said. "I have never seen a Celestial Tribulation like this, but I am certain that a normal Perfect Core Formation Cultivator would never encounter such a thing. Otherwise, the number of Nascent Soul True Monarchs in the Cultivation Realm would be less than a tenth of what it is."

What Wei Dao didn’t know was that his judgment was far too optimistic. It wouldn’t just be a tenfold reduction.

...

’The final wave. It all comes down to this!’

The Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword slowly flew out from the Supreme Qingwei Sword Box and hovered before Bai Zichen.

’At a time like this, I can’t afford to hold back. That would just be throwing away all my previous efforts.’

’If I die under the Future Star Constellation Tribulation, not even my bones will remain, and everything else will be pointless.’

’If I can even survive a mythical Celestial Tribulation like this, what difficulties could possibly stand in my way before the Divinity Transformation realm?’

’I’d even have the confidence to challenge much higher Realms.’

’I’m leaving it all to you. Let’s see what you can do on your own...’

Bai Zichen’s Sea of Consciousness was in utter turmoil. The fact that he could even maintain a coherent thought was a testament to his strong will.

Fortunately, the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword was his Lifebound Flying Sword and possessed exceptionally high Spirituality; it could act on its own without its master’s direct control.

The Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword gave a slight nod, conveying an eager, impatient feeling before instantly vanishing from his sight.

A moment later, lightning filled the entire world, forcibly carving out a space for itself within the sea of stars.

’Wait, have you been this strong ever since you advanced to Tier Four...?’

Bai Zichen’s eyes widened as he watched the Ziwei Dazzling Thunder Sword sweep through the starlight with peerless might. It even carried the lingering Power of Time from his incomplete "Hidden Sword" state, directly blasting away half of the tribulation cloud.