Chapter 282: Extreme Comfort

Four bolts of Tribulation Lightning exploded simultaneously, the terrifying tremors causing the entire world to rumble and roar.

The three Demon Beasts and True Monarch Guiling each withstood the impact of one bolt of Tribulation Lightning, appearing for an instant like four golden-purple suns suspended in the air, with churning lightning plasma splashing out for dozens of miles in every direction.

Under the intense agitation, the confinement in the air unexpectedly vanished by more than half in an instant.

Seizing the opportunity, Xu Chen flapped the Shell Light violently and flickered, appearing near Chen Yang.

At this moment, Chen Yang's skin and flesh were shattered all over, and with blood flowing from his seven orifices, he looked just like a blood-soaked gourd.

Although his Soul aura was weak and chaotic and his consciousness was unconscious, his aura was still relatively stable.

Xu Chen breathed a sigh of relief, picked up Chen Yang, and bolted toward the distance.

Although True Monarch Guiling said this was a closed space with a diameter of no more than a thousand miles and no one could remain unaffected under such terrifying Heavenly Tribulation, staying further away from the four disasters—the three Demon Beasts and True Monarch Guiling—would at least provide a modicum of psychological security.

As for Lu An and Zhong Hui, he was truly powerless to save them; after all, he could barely protect himself at the moment.

As for Wang Daolin, he had even less inclination to save him.

This fellow had long since revealed his greed for the treasures on Xu Chen's person; although he hid it well, Xu Chen was no longer the naive little cultivator who had never seen the world while picking up dung at the Taiyuan Sect.

In fact, from the first time Wang Daolin returned to the residence of True Monarch Guiling and the others, he had been full of suspicion and wariness toward this fellow.

And later, after he took out a jar of Divine Blood Paste and secretly gave two stalks of Blood God Grass to True Monarch Guiling, he discovered during his meditation that Wang Daolin was using his Divine Sense to sneakily probe him, clearly harboring ill intentions.

When a person harbors bad intentions, no matter how they hide it, they will always reveal a flaw.

And once suspicion is cast upon someone, one will naturally be vigilant and pay attention to their every move at all times.

After finding the hidden Teleportation Array, Wang Daolin likely felt the joy of impending escape, and thus his interest in the treasures on Xu Chen's person seemed even greater.

Although Xu Chen did not know when Wang Daolin would make his move, he himself was also preparing at all times.

After entering the teleportation passage, he felt this moment drawing closer, so he drew a grain of Blue Starlight from the Zhentian Stele in advance and placed it in his Sea of Consciousness to guard against the unexpected.

Sure enough, as the group began to undergo the tribulation and Xu Chen successfully opened the teleportation passage, Wang Daolin could no longer hold back.

Unfortunately, Xu Chen had the Zhentian Stele and the Blue Light Treasure Bottle to protect his Soul, so Wang Daolin's powerful Soul-attacking Magic Spell failed, and the best opportunity he had been looking for went down the drain.

Xu Chen actually did not want a divine slave, because even now he had not figured out what changes and consequences would occur after the Slave Seal was planted.

In reality, the Slave Seal was completely different from the so-called slave seals of the Immortal World; it was impossible to control the other party at all. However, through the incident with Feng Feiyi back then, Xu Chen still grasped a clue: although the Slave Seal seemed useless, it could make the other party develop a sense of psychological awe and dependence toward him. While they could not be made to be as submissive and obedient as a marionette, at least they would no longer harbor hostility.

And his verification and conjecture were completely correct.

After being planted with the Slave Seal, Wang Daolin completely lost his temper.

But toward such a petty person, Xu Chen could not muster any good feelings, and at such a critical juncture, he naturally could only abandon him.

Within the Tribulation Cloud in the firmament, it was no longer the Heavenly Tribulation as Xu Chen understood it, but rather an unknown number of tribulation clouds gathered and mixed together, aiming all their power at the three Demon Beasts and True Monarch Guiling.

The terrifying lightning could not be counted; it was as if four blinding pillars of lightning connecting heaven and earth were shining down from the sky, instantly submerging the three Demon Beasts and True Monarch Guiling. All that could be seen was a constantly expanding sea of lightning, making it impossible to distinguish between heaven and earth.

Xu Chen carried Chen Yang and kept fleeing toward the periphery, occasionally having to dodge the lightning bolts flying across the sky. After running for an unknown distance in one breath, a thick white fog appeared in front of him. Under the pressure of the Heavenly Tribulation, the fog was violently churned like ripples, and a barrier shimmering with five-colored brilliance appeared behind the fog.

Although his Divine Sense could not penetrate the barrier, he knew he had reached the boundary area.

True Monarch Guiling could not pass through this barrier, so he was even more powerless.

Therefore, he placed Chen Yang on the ground, took out a few Spirit Pills and stuffed them into his mouth, and after using Qi to flush them into his stomach, he sat cross-legged and began to circulate the Grand Void Demon-Refining Art, guiding the white energy to stabilize Chen Yang's Soul and strengthen his body.

The white energy refined by the current Grand Void Demon-Refining Art was very thin, but to Chen Yang, it was like timely rain.

As the white energy was continuously transferred into his body, Chen Yang's Soul and body, which had been severely damaged by the Tribulation Lightning and the pressure, slowly began to recover.

A full hour passed before Chen Yang finally woke up. After Xu Chen briefly explained the situation, he felt as if he were dreaming; he had the joy of surviving a disaster, but more than that, he was scared out of his wits by the terrifying, world-shattering Heavenly Tribulation before his eyes.

And after this hour passed, the power of the Heavenly Tribulation not only did not weaken in the slightest, but instead continued to increase. Most of the entire space was submerged in lightning, and it was long impossible to tell where heaven and earth were.

Although Xu Chen was also very afraid, he actually felt a trace of excitement in his heart, always feeling as if there were a voice in the Zhentian Stele constantly summoning him.

Thinking that there was nowhere to escape and no power to resist anyway, he simply sank his mind into his Sea of Consciousness, sent his Divine Sense into the Zhentian Stele, and began to search for the voice calling to him.

As his Divine Sense began to spread through the vast Void, illusory blue halos began to flow out from his Apertures, circulating around his body.

Slowly, a desolate and obscure aura emanated from him.

A phantom of a stone stele over a hundred feet tall emerged from his body, enveloping him within it.

"Boom—"

In the churning Tribulation Cloud in the sky, an extra bolt of blinding Tribulation Lightning suddenly appeared, resembling ten thousand dragons and snakes entangled together, transforming into a giant dragon of lightning. It released an earth-shattering roar and slammed into the phantom of the stone stele.

The lightning poured down from the top of the stele like a flood of plasma, instantly swallowing the entire phantom of the stone stele.

Chen Yang let out a terrified cry, but discovered that he had not been touched by even a bit of the Tribulation Lightning.

In the center of the stone stele, a huge vortex of Blue Starlight suddenly emerged, like a black hole, swallowing all the rolling lightning.

At this moment, in the Void where Xu Chen's Divine Sense resided, blinding lightning began to churn and flash everywhere, like a giant net of lightning, illuminating the Void brightly.

In the large swaths of pitch-black Void, complex patterns began to emerge amidst the lightning. Blue Starlight, like stars in the night, released a brilliant glow amidst the lightning, connecting with these lightning bolts to form a magnificent and strange scene.

Xu Chen felt his Soul growing at an unprecedented speed. The range of his Divine Sense, which had previously expanded slowly, was now flying in all directions at a terrifying speed along with these lightning bolts, with patches of Blue Starlight emerging densely along the way in the Void torn open by the lightning.

What a wonderful feeling!

This was an unprecedented, extremely comfortable feeling; Xu Chen was so excited he almost wanted to moan.

After stepping onto the path of immortality, his cultivation had progressed slowly. It wasn't until he obtained the Blue Jade Bead that his cultivation speed changed, improving at a pace of a thousand miles a day. But he had never felt such soul-deep comfort as he did now; every strand of his Divine Sense felt like it was riding a giant lightning dragon, traveling through the endless Void, as if it were about to break through all constraints.

Although he did not know how large the Void within this Zhentian Stele was, he always felt that his soul was undergoing a rebirth, as if heaven and earth were within his control.

Every piece of blue starry sky, every grain of Blue Starlight, appeared one after another like the treasures he was most familiar with and loved the most.

At this moment, because of Xu Chen's intrusion, the Heavenly Tribulation outside also underwent a great change.

Ever since a bolt of Tribulation Lightning was swallowed by the Zhentian Stele, it seemed to have ignited the fury of the Heavenly Tribulation.

The lightning that had been crazily facing the three Demon Beasts and True Monarch Guiling now saw its power constantly shrinking and diminishing. Instead, the lightning bolts rushing toward Xu Chen became thicker and thicker, until finally, the lightning filling the sky turned into giant dragons of churning lightning, gathering from all directions and landing on the phantom of the Zhentian Stele.

Under the impact of the Tribulation Lightning, the Zhentian Stele also became taller and taller, soon reaching over a thousand feet in height. The blue vortex in the center was like a bottomless pit, emitting a sound like a mountain collapse or a tsunami, continuously swallowing the tidal waves of lightning plasma.

Xu Chen was now completely immersed in the Zhentian Stele and unable to extricate himself, completely unaware of the changes outside. He felt incredibly wonderful, as if he were opening up a brand-new world, filled with unparalleled excitement and comfort.

As the Zhentian Stele swallowed more and more Tribulation Lightning, slowly, lightning began to spray from Xu Chen's Apertures and thousands of pores. Eventually, he and the phantom of the stone stele actually merged together; his figure slowly disappeared into the center of the divine stele, finally turning into a golden-purple ball of light.

A vast aura emanated from the phantom of the stone stele.

The Tribulation Lightning in the sky targeting the three Demon Beasts and True Monarch Ghost Spirit was already less than one-third the scale of the beginning, and it was still continuously weakening, slowly changing from four pillars of light connecting heaven and earth into normal Tribulation Lightning striking down one by one.

Very quickly, the aura of these Tribulation Lightning strikes continued to weaken, and finally disappeared and stopped completely.

At this moment, the enormous black hole in the sky that had been spewing out the Tribulation Cloud had already vanished, and the Tribulation Cloud filling the sky also began to dissipate.

Streaks of purple light mist continuously fell from the dissipating Tribulation Cloud, merging respectively into the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele and the bodies of True Monarch Ghost Spirit, the three Demon Beasts, Chen Yang, Zhong Hui, Lu An, and even Wang Daolin.

(End of this chapter)