Chapter 281: Self-Inflicted Consequences

Xu Chen was also very excited.

He hadn't expected that they would actually successfully find the Teleportation Array, and that it was protected so completely, with not a single sign of damage visible.

It was just that the majority of the Space Stones embedded in the stone pillars were damaged, with only a few pillars still maintaining the operation of the Array, but judging by the situation, it seemed they could not hold on for much longer.

Through this Teleportation Array, it must be possible to reach the Minghuang Boundary.

But it certainly did not lead to only one place; according to the patterns summarized from testing that large Teleportation Array earlier, activating one passage required at most forty-nine stone pillars, so the Teleportation Arrays connected to the remaining pillars would inevitably lead elsewhere.

If his guess was correct, it might just lead outside this enclosed space, which was to say, the true Mortal World.

Once he thought it through, Xu Chen hurriedly took out the Space Stones and began installing them onto the stone pillars.

As the new Space Stones were embedded, the Ancient Runes on the stone pillars suddenly lit up, light and shadow flowed along the crisscrossing lines, and soon the entire great Array grew brighter and brighter; before long, an illusory spatial passage appeared from the center of the Altar.

"Hahaha, the Teleportation Array is open!" Wang Daolin roared in excitement.

Xu Chen also let out a sigh of relief, turned to look at the teleportation passage, and just as he was preparing to release his Divine Sense to go in and investigate, he suddenly felt an inexplicable terror and hair-raising dread; a cold and terrifying gray aura appeared like a sharp sword directly within his Sea of Consciousness.

Soul attack!

This was the only thought that welled up in Xu Chen's heart.

"Boom~"

No sooner said than done, the gray light slammed heavily into the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele.

A ripple spread out from the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele, blocking the exploding gray light, while at the same time, the blue light vortex that had been spinning continuously in the center of the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele pattern suddenly accelerated its rotation, swallowing all of this aura that filled his Sea of Consciousness.

Xu Chen's Soul shook, and he fell to his knees on the ground with a thud.

Although the sudden attack did not cause him too much damage, the intense impact on his Soul still made him feel somewhat dizzy, and he was unable to condense and release his Divine Sense.

A familiar figure wrapped in crude animal skins flashed and appeared beside Xu Chen, grabbing at his arm.

The vital energy shattered Xu Chen's sleeve, revealing the mysterious gold bracelet worn on his arm.

"Haha, these treasures are all mine now!"

A large hand grabbed the Storage Bracelet and tried to slide it off.

Xu Chen, however, suddenly raised his head, grabbed the large hand, and looking at the laughing Wang Daolin, said with a completely serious face: "Are you sure?"

"You... you... you're actually fine?" Wang Daolin was instantly filled with terror.

Xu Chen gave a cold snort, raised his hand and pointed at the center of Wang Daolin's brow, and a grain of Blue Starlight merged into it.

Wang Daolin suddenly became dull-faced, stiffening in place as if struck by an immobilization spell; soon, a faint blue light flickered in his eyes, slowly converging into a distorted cross-shaped Ancient Rune, which finally disappeared, and at the same time, a blue rune mark emerged at the center of his brow.

Xu Chen let go and stood up, looking at his tattered sleeve and the exposed mysterious gold bracelet, and sighed:

"Actually, I have always been giving you chances, truly wanting to save your life, but I didn't expect your greed to be so heavy. My Master and the sect Elders once repeatedly warned me that greed is the greatest taboo in cultivating the Dao; if one cannot restrain one's own desires, the path of the Dao will surely not be long. That you have fallen to this state today is entirely of your own doing; you cannot blame others!"

Although Wang Daolin had been planted with a Slave Seal, in reality, his cultivation and thinking were not affected in the slightest; it was just that he had a strong sense of guilt regarding the matter of snatching Xu Chen's treasures, so he shook his head vigorously in terror and retreated: "Daoist Friend Xu, I, I also don't know why I was like that just now, you, please spare me this once..."

As he spoke, Wang Daolin knelt on the ground with a thud, kowtowing like a pestle pounding garlic, and wept: "Daoist Friend Xu, spare my life, I will never dare to do it again!"

"Boom~"

Just as Wang Daolin was kowtowing and begging for mercy, suddenly, a hundred miles away, within a rolling Tribulation Cloud, a bolt of Tribulation Lightning fell.

The Heavenly Tribulation had begun.

The entire world began to shake violently; within the range visible to the naked eye, one could clearly see three cyan Golden Core Tribulation Clouds, each no more than a few dozen zhang in size, but they were only a hundred miles apart from each other, forming a huge triangle. Under the linkage of their auras, crackling electric light intertwined like dragons and snakes, pulling a golden lightning net across the entire sky.

And above this lightning net, there was an even larger Void Black Hole over a hundred zhang in size, still pouring out cyan thunderclouds like a bursting river, forming a Tribulation Cloud with a diameter of over ten thousand zhang in the high sky, releasing an aura that could destroy the world and cover the entire land.

Bolts of purple-gold electric light rolled across the sky like roaring giant dragons.

Gradually, they merged with the three Small Heavenly Tribulations below, forming an unprecedented super Tribulation Cloud, the pressure slowly descending like an inverted mountain and sea, as if it wanted to completely annihilate the entire world.

"Boom~ Boom~ Boom~"

Successive bolts of lightning began to fall like a rainstorm.

The golden electric light illuminated the entire world.

Even separated by a hundred miles, the two of them still felt the deathly aura of the end of the world.

At the same time, above the heads of the two, two more cyan Tribulation Clouds began to gather.

Although neither of them had reached the level of undergoing the Tribulation, within the sensing range of the Heavenly Tribulation, their auras were also locked, and they were to be dragged into the Heavenly Tribulation to be punished together.

"Daoist Friend Xu, if we don't leave now, it will be too late." Wang Daolin knelt on the ground, terrified to the point that his Soul felt like it was splitting.

He wanted to run, but he found that in his heart, there was always a thought that he dared not disobey Xu Chen.

"It is indeed time to go, but not through this passage!"

Xu Chen also felt that if he didn't leave now, it would be too late, so he took out the Space Stones, preparing to activate all the remaining stone pillars to open the passage to the Mortal World.

Although he did not fully understand the structure of this ancient Teleportation Array, it did not prevent him from now clearly understanding the operating mechanism of the Teleportation Array.

However, just as he was rapidly embedding Space Stones onto the remaining stone pillars, suddenly a terrifying aura erupted from the teleportation passage in the center of the Altar; just as he took flight in terror, a huge black shadow roared and lunged out from the passage.

"Boom!"

A Demon Beast shaped like a giant bear appeared on the Altar, and the violent aura it stirred up directly sent Wang Daolin, who was still kneeling on the ground, flying away.

"Ah~"

Wang Daolin screamed as he tumbled in the air, flying several miles away like a rag doll without any resistance, and slammed heavily into the mud, rocks, and wild grass, becoming motionless.

"Oh no!"

Xu Chen had no other thoughts at this moment; the Shell Light behind him exploded and flapped wildly, and his body turned into an afterimage, flashing as he fled the Altar.

The giant bear Demon Beast, however, did not pursue Xu Chen, but instead looked up at the Tribulation Cloud and lightning that had already filled the entire sky, stood on its hind legs in the center of the Altar, and beat its chest, letting out an earth-shattering roar at the sky-filling Tribulation Cloud, as if it were making a show of force.

Perhaps it was because it felt this sudden provocation.

The rolling Tribulation Clouds in the sky actually rolled toward the Altar.

The colors of the flashing golden lightning began to turn even more eerie, actually flickering with a blinding purple, and the terrifying pressure of the aura was like the sky collapsing, forming layers of terrifying waves that pressed down one after another.

"It's over!"

Xu Chen desperately flapped the Shell Light, fleeing into the distance like lightning under the terrifying pressure.

But as the Tribulation Cloud pressed lower and lower, the entire world seemed to begin to be imprisoned.

With every flap of the Shell, he could initially flash several miles away, but slowly it was reduced to only a few hundred feet, until finally, it felt like being stuck deep in a quagmire; no matter how hard he tried, the Shell Light could no longer flap, and his entire body was imprisoned in the air, unable to move.

"Roar~~"

"Ang~~"

From the extreme distance came two terrifying roars of Demon Beasts.

The sounds pierced through the imprisoned world and echoed within Xu Chen's Sea of Consciousness.

The figures of two enormous Demon Beasts soared into the sky from two different directions, releasing blinding light as they actually lunged toward the Tribulation Cloud high above.

"Roar~~"

The giant bear Demon Beast atop the Altar seemed to be stimulated, likewise letting out a roar; the terrifying sound transformed directly into visible waves, wrapping around its body of several dozen feet in size, and it turned into an afterimage, also lunging toward the high sky.

"Hahaha, with the help of you three beasts, it seems this Daoist has hope of passing the tribulation!"

Just as the three Demon Beasts charged toward the Tribulation Cloud, from another direction several hundred miles away, a thin and tall figure also soared into the sky, releasing a Primordial Spirit dharma image over a hundred feet tall.

"Boom boom boom boom~~"

The churning Tribulation Cloud surged with lightning, and four purple-gold rays of light, like pillars of thunder, fell from the sky, striking the three Demon Beasts and the Primordial Spirit dharma image respectively.

Xu Chen was completely unable to move at this moment, but he could clearly see and feel the world-destroying power of these four bolts of Tribulation Lightning.

Not to mention being hit, even if he were just grazed by the Tribulation Lightning, he reckoned his life would end here today.

Fortunately, however, the target of the Tribulation Lightning was clearly these three Demon Beasts and True Monarch Guiling.

At this time, the three Golden Core Realm lightning tribulations in the sky had already been completely merged and vanished into the Tribulation Cloud spewed out by the Void Black Hole.

It seemed the Heavenly Tribulation also somewhat disdained the three small cultivators of the Danyuan Realm, as it did not spare them even a sliver of lightning.

Chen Yang, Lu An, and Zhong Hui had each just undergone a round of Tribulation Lightning and were now completely powerless, preparing to wait to be struck to death by lightning, but they had not expected that the Tribulation Lightning would no longer fall upon them.

It was just that, like Xu Chen, they were completely imprisoned in the air by this unprecedented pressure of the lightning tribulation, unable to move even half an inch.

Although they were not visited by the Tribulation Lightning at this moment, they were nonetheless in a state worse than death; while their bones, muscles, and flesh were constantly shattering under the pressure of the terrifying aura, their Soul was also being crushed bit by bit, and their consciousness began to scatter.

(End of this chapter)