Chapter 265: All Nations Watch Ye Qin Cross the Tribulation

A purple sword swirled above the firmament, carrying the power to cleave heaven and earth; the dark sky revealed an unfathomable crack, from which an immensely powerful aura spread, making the whole world tremble.

The towering Oriental Pearl Tower looked frail and tiny amidst the gathering thunder, let alone Ye Qin, whose whole body was almost submerged by the lightning.

As that thunder sword drew nearer, he could clearly feel the stabbing pain transmitted from his soul, and all his meridians were crushed by the lightning.

Lightning rolled on, like a scene of world destruction, attacking from all directions.

Ye Qin's azure pupils turned completely red, even covered in bloodshot lines; his emerald scales also oozed red blood, showing he had reached the limit of his body.

The Golden Core atop his head buzzed incessantly, even the Nascent Soul showed a pained, human-like expression, revealing how powerful this strike was.

But the third flower showed no sign of blooming!

With his current strength alone, he could hardly withstand the might of this world-ending Heavenly Tribulation!

"I refuse to accept this!"

Ye Qin roared to the heavens, shouting incessantly; after all he had endured to reach this point, how could he lightly give up!

If this tribulation fails, lightly his foundation would be damaged; heavily he could be turned to ashes, never able to cultivate again.

Ye Qin's eyes flashed with light as he circulated his Spiritual Power throughout his body; his qi and blood surged, and he actually withdrew all his defenses, pouring everything into the unopened flower bud.

Under such terrifying thunder, Ye Qin not using Spiritual Power to resist is no different from suicide; if the monsters of Longyuan Mountain saw his behavior, they would surely gasp in shock.

As the saying goes, "No destruction, no establishment."

The thunder seemed stunned by Ye Qin's actions; in a moment, its offensive actually weakened.

"Open!"

As Ye Qin roared, splendid divine radiance surged around him, pouring into the flower bud; the lightning kept striking his body, and without Spiritual Power to block it, an unprecedented pain swept through him.

Beneath the sky-filling lightning, Ye Qin could still remain conscious despite such pain, showing his will was steadfast.

His Dao heart was firm, eternal and unchanging!

An ineffable aura slowly rose from Ye Qin's whole body, and the invisible barrier in the dark finally vanished.

At this moment, Ye Qin felt enlightened, and the long-unopened flower bud finally blossomed.

What appeared was indeed a small Green Snake, identical to Ye Qin's original form, yet extraordinarily lively; this was his True Spirit, the source of his being.

The Great Dao is simplicity; returning to the origin transforms the source.

One-flower Golden Core!

Two-flower Nascent Soul!

Three-flower True Spirit!

Three flowers gather at the peak!

As the three flowers bloomed together atop Ye Qin's head, his previously exhausted Spiritual Power surged; the sound of the Great Dao reappeared, countless divine radiance gathered, even covering the original purple lightning.

Ye Qin could feel a warm power flowing into his injured meridians and organs; his scales were mixed with supreme divine power, offsetting the surrounding lightning.

With a thought, all the spiritual energy between heaven and earth gathered; in a daze he felt he was the master of this world, controlling everything.

"Come fight!"

Ye Qin let out a long cry, charging into the sky-full of dark clouds; as the lightning was about to strike, a wave of his Spiritual Power directly dispersed it!

Such power was truly terrifying; Ye Qin, relying solely on himself, confronted the vast Heavenly Tribulation head-on.

However, these scenes were all blocked by the thick clouds; those below could only see pouring rain and the shimmering vast light within the clouds.

If the scene of the three flowers gathering at the peak were seen by the people of Demon City below, their eyeballs would probably pop out; even without having witnessed it before, they would be utterly shocked by the current scene.

"Good heavens, am I really not mistaken? In the dark clouds, it seems countless golden lights are surging forth?!"

"I seem to hear a creature roaring? It's really too strange."

"I heard it too; it seems something is calling, with occasional thunder?"

"You guys look quickly! That golden light spreads everywhere, even covering the original lightning—what exactly is this golden light?"

Inside Demon City, countless citizens watched the thunderclouds in the sky and the suddenly appearing miraculous golden light, all feeling strange and bewildered.

The Capital's high-ranking leaders also received a report from Demon City; they had thought it was merely an ordinary rainstorm, but discovered the facts differed from their imagination.

This made them involuntarily recall the "Capital Suburb Incident" from years ago.

It was also a similar weather downpour, with unknown creatures appearing above and strange cries heard.

After hearing Gao Zhanpeng's detailed report, the Huaxia Southeast Region Chief could not believe it and asked: "You say this cloud originally drifted from the Longyuan Mountain Range?!"

If before it was merely speculation, now the Capital High Officials can be certain that this matter is absolutely related to Longyuan Mountain.

Could it really be those monsters undergoing tribulation!

Watching the images sent back from Demon City, countless officials widened their eyes, many of whom had also experienced the "Capital Suburb Incident" before.

The footage was really too familiar, practically a copy; however, in terms of power and scale, it was magnified countless times.

Purple thunderclouds illuminated heaven and earth; that terrifying lightning power was no less than before, and even through the screen one could feel its terror.

Moreover, they saw an unknown shadow on the Oriental Pearl Tower, standing firm in the lightning like a deity descending; the Capital Suburb also had a similar shadow back then!

Everyone stared wide-eyed, their expressions full of bewilderment.

"Perhaps this creature is the same one that appeared in the Capital Suburb back then."

"It must be from Longyuan Mountain, no doubt; but what kind of monster is it?"

It seems that anything unreasonable becomes reasonable once linked to Longyuan Mountain.

According to what the high officials currently know, among the Longyuan Mountain Great Demons, the more prominent ones are the Monkey King, Great Turtle, and Golden Eagle, after all they have had many dealings with humans.

Because of incidents such as the Mount Hua mutation, clashes with the Divine Illumination State, the Battle of Changbai, the eruption of Mount Fuji, etc., they have appeared in their view.

Due to distance plus the heavy rain and lightning, the image is not clear; environmental factors prevent Demon City from capturing a clearer picture, and relying on a single shadow alone cannot determine what kind of monster it is.

Could this be another newly emerged Great Demon?

The Greater Xia High Officials seemed to think of something, and asked a staff member aloud: "How did the peace delegation we sent earlier respond?"

"The peace delegation said those monsters claimed their master was busy with a major affair, had gone out, with no definite return date, and seemed to have headed for Demon City!"

"Could it be that the unidentified creature undergoing tribulation in Magic City right now is the master of this group of monsters?"

A thought arose in the minds of the Greater Xia High Officials' leaders, and before they could confirm it, a figure hurried over.

"Report! We have detected the signal from the western satellite!"

"Not long ago, two satellites were moving toward us at high speed in outer space, and now they have arrived above Magic City!"

The person in charge stared wide-eyed, "What?! Such audacity, quickly send someone to warn!"

At this moment, the Star Lock satellite had already arrived above Magic City.

In the Space Defense Command, Snag stared at the heavy cloud image transmitted from the big screen ahead, his expression smug.

"What so-called Eastern space defense? In the face of Star Lock, it's utterly useless, having no effect at all!"

"Speed up the exploration! I want to see what exactly lies beneath this thunder."

Upon hearing Snag's order, countless staff members sprang into action, fingers flying on the console, and soon a stream of commands was written and input into the system.

In the distant dark void of space, two Star Lock satellites positioned diagonally, the ultra-high-definition cameras slowly began to operate, and the view quickly zoomed in.

Faced with the immensely thick black cloud mass, even the Star Lock satellite could not temporarily penetrate to see below.

However, compared to the cumbersome observation methods of other satellites, Star Lock's special camera, according to the computer's scan, began to frantically adjust its position.

After long computer-calculated scans, the lines of sight finally found a gap in the thundercloud as a breakthrough point, entering the thundercloud!

Greater Xia Aerospace Administration.

A middle-aged man with a heroic bearing looked at the satellite's feed, his face so grim it seemed water could drip from it.

The two satellites actually arrived near eastern airspace, completely ignoring their warnings, and recklessly filmed above Magic City!

"These bastards! It's utterly outrageous, they don't even regard us!"

The middle-aged man clenched his fists, his eyes turning icy cold; not only him, but everyone in the Space Ground Command had grim faces to the extreme.

"What should we do now? Shoot down those two satellites?"

The middle-aged man shook his head with a grim expression, "I'm afraid it can't be done."

These two satellites travel at extremely high speed; they cannot be shot down in a short time. According to orbital data, they arrived above Magic City in just a few minutes.

If we wanted to shoot them down, it would be a massive undertaking requiring enormous computational power, not to mention needing a multi-front encirclement.

Evidently they act so arrogantly because they know we can't do anything about these two satellites.

"Isn't this disgusting?"

Many people showed expressions as if they had swallowed a fly; this move is spiteful to the extreme.

The middle-aged man took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed his anger, and said in a low voice, "Now we can only activate satellite jamming to block their detection."

Upon hearing the middle-aged man's order, the other staff members all felt a stifled resentment in their hearts.

The satellites of other countries are already above their heads, yet they cannot retaliate; they can only choose shielding—one can imagine how frustrated they are.

"Shenzhou-3 and Shenzhou-6 have reached their designated orbits and begun emitting shielding signals!"

The middle-aged man nodded, "Contact the Western Space Administration and give them a warning!"

Evidently, facing the warning, the other side paid no attention at all, even claiming that these were not officially launched satellites but entirely those of a private company.

Perhaps they merely drifted by chance into Greater Xia's airspace, and now they have been ordered to withdraw.

The person on the other end of the communicator spoke formally, uttering apologetic words, yet there was no actual apology in their tone.

"I'm very sorry, sir; our side has already issued the order, but getting them to withdraw still takes some time."

Upon hearing the other side's words, the middle-aged man's face flushed red with anger, he hung up the communicator directly, "Despicable, what need for time? It's just an excuse! Here I am, not wasting time with you!"

The middle-aged man exploded in curses, wishing to open fire immediately on the other side's Aviation Administration; the other side obviously tried to shift blame, but there was nothing we could do, so we could only continue with jamming measures.

On the other side, after putting down the communicator, the official of the Western Aviation Command snorted coldly and immediately went to Snag's side.

"We need to speed up; the Eastern side is probably fuming."

Snag laughed loudly, his expression exaggerated to the extreme.

"Mr. Gaber, do you really believe their foolish talk about destroying Star Lock? Good heavens, that's the funniest joke I've heard this century."

"Don't worry, no matter how angry Greater Xia gets, it's useless; Star Lock is flawless, and with Greater Xia's technological strength, it will still take at least a decade or more to master this technology."

The officer shrugged and smiled, saying, "I'm merely giving a formal prompt."

He came before the screen, somewhat curious, and asked, "How is it? Can we see what's happening beneath Magic City?"

Snag said somewhat excitedly, "Almost there; we should be able to see it right away."

As Snag's words fell, the screen displayed a large image,

These images were all taken from the various gaps and corners of the thundercloud, then processed by the satellite's own supercomputer system.

Thunder boiled, floodwaters surged!

Snag shook his head, "Heavens, this fact is truly heartbreaking; Magic City is one of the prosperous cities of the East, and facing such a disaster, it will likely suffer heavy losses."

Although he said that, his expression was entirely one of schadenfreude.

"What terrifying lightning, it can actually strike down from the clouds!"

"Are those lightning bolts connected together? Good heavens, I've never seen such thunder in my life; they really look like a world tree made of lightning."

"As expected of the world's top satellite system, this is its formidable aspect, truly amazing."

In the Space Ground Combat Center, other staff members gazed at the images coming from the screen in astonishment, most of them feeling schadenfreude, taking pleasure in Greater Xia's misfortune this time.

Or they marveled at the might of the Star Lock satellite.

But soon they were drawn away by the scene within Magic City, because the sight was truly shocking!

Countless lightning bolts intertwined densely, the downpour like the sky had a huge hole, the endless dark clouds pressing down so hard one could barely breathe.

Everyone couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.

Inside Magic City it was truly terrifying, completely like a scene from the apocalypse!

"So much lightning, it's truly unprecedented!"

Oh God, it seems Great Xia is steeped in grave sins, so it has sent down thunder and lightning to judge them.

This time there's a good show to watch; I seem to have already seen the grim, worried expressions of Great Xia's leaders.

After the shock, everyone soon began to mock again, only Si Na Ge's expression was odd; he sensed something off, "Huh? Doesn't there seem to be something inside the lightning?"

He leaned close to the screen, pointing into the thick clouds, and saw that in the area where the lightning was densest there was a black speck the size of a fingernail, appearing to float in mid‑air, a very indistinct presence.

After he pointed it out, the others also noticed and shot curious glances his way, "What is that?"

After a brief observation, Si Na Ge and the others' pupils suddenly contracted.

Amid the endless lightning, the black shadow, illuminated by the thunder, briefly revealed its form, allowing them to glimpse a corner of the mystery.

Though it was only a flash, it let them see clearly that it was a slender, elongated shadow, seemingly some kind of creature.

"What's going on?! Could there be some living thing able to stand firm beneath the sky‑filling thunder!"

Si Na Ge's eyes widened to the extreme, his expression shocked to the utmost; the other staff showed much the same look, unable to believe their own eyes.

With the help of the lightning's power, they also barely made out that shadow, and their hearts suddenly raced wildly, as if about to burst out of their chests uncontrollably.

"Impossible— that's the very heart of the dark clouds, within the scope of a powerful thunderstorm; how could any creature be there?"

"Yeah, this is utterly absurd; if there really were a creature, it would probably have been split into charcoal by now."

"Could it be that we're seeing things, or the equipment malfunctioned, or perhaps nearby structures are interfering?"

Nobody could believe it, because the scene before them was simply too incredible.

Si Na Ge couldn't help swallowing, "Let's freeze the playback and take a look."

The video was replayed, demonstrated frame by frame, and moreover slowed down.

When another bolt of lightning flashed, everyone in the Western Space Aviation Department held their breath, eyes locked on the screen.

Azure lightning split the sky, piercing great swaths of dark clouds; in that instant of light they finally saw clearly— there truly was a mass of living beings beneath the thunder! (End of chapter)