Chapter 126: Tribulation Thunder Tempering the Body, Star Raft Coming from the East

Three thousand miles east of Star Fall Lake, the uninhabited "Extinction Thunder Marsh."

This place was shrouded in gray-black thunderclouds all year round; the earth was scorched black, gullies crisscrossed, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of ozone and sulfur. Thick, purple-black thunderbolts, like giant pythons dancing wildly, tore through the clouds from time to time, striking the earth and blasting out bottomless giant craters. Violent thunder spiritual energy raged; an ordinary Golden Core cultivator coming here would suffer from chaotic spiritual power and physical damage within half a day. Even a Soul Formation cultivator had to be careful at all times and dared not venture deep into the core area.

This place was one of the famous forbidden lands of the Tianyuan Continent, rarely visited by humans.

Yet today, a blue-gray stream of light ignored the chaotic thunderbolts on the periphery and shot straight into the core area of the marsh, where the thunder was most dense and violent.

The stream of light dissipated, revealing Lin Xuan's figure. Feng Xi shrunk its size and stood quietly on his shoulder, curiously examining the destructive thunder light around it. There was no fear in its blue-gold eyes; instead, it seemed eager to try.

Lin Xuan chose this place naturally for a reason. He had initially stabilized the Chaos Tribulation Dao and his cultivation had stepped into the Late-Stage Soul Formation, but the power within his body was too special and overbearing, especially the chaotic tribulation power that fused destruction and vitality. It needed a sufficiently strong external pressure to further temper and grind it, making it round and unified, and laying the most solid foundation for charging toward the Spirit Transformation Realm. And what place could be more suitable as a whetstone than this Extinction Thunder, filled with the most yang and rigid energy between heaven and earth, and likewise containing the artistic conception of destruction and new life?

He looked up at the rolling thunderclouds and the dancing electric snakes, feeling the heart-palpitating heavenly might, but his eyes were calm, even carrying a hint of expectation.

"Feng Xi, you stay on the periphery to absorb the thunder spiritual energy and temper yourself. I need to go deep into the Thunder Eye." Lin Xuan instructed.

Feng Xi chirped lightly to indicate it understood, flapped its wings, and flew away. It found a relatively stable thunderbolt in the edge area, opened its mouth to spit out a blue-gold true flame, and actually began to actively guide the thunder to temper its feathers and body. Its bloodline was extraordinary, and it had been nourished by the chaotic aura; this Extinction Thunder was likewise a rare tempering opportunity for it.

Lin Xuan took a step, his figure like a ghost, piercing through layers of thunder curtains, and arrived straight at the core of the Thunder Marsh.

Here, the sky hung so low it felt within reach, the clouds were thick as lead, presenting a dark purple-black color. Countless dark purple thunderbolts, as thick as water buckets, poured down continuously from the clouds like a waterfall, striking a lone peak below made entirely of a strange conductive metal. The lone peak was scorched black all over but still stood tall. The peak top had been struck by thunder for years, forming a platform as smooth as a mirror. In the center of the platform was a "Thunder Eye" that constantly spat out blinding thunder light, as if it led directly to the thunder veins of the earth's core!

Just standing at the edge of the platform, the terrifying thunder pressure was enough to make an Early-Stage Spirit Transformation cultivator change color, and the violent thunder spiritual energy crazily eroded everything that came from outside.

Lin Xuan's expression remained unchanged, and a thin layer of gray-blue halo naturally appeared around his body. The halo seemed thin, but it blocked all the violent thunder spiritual energy, and even the tiny electric snakes that occasionally splashed over were silently annihilated upon touching the halo, turning into a wisp of pure thunder origin energy, which was absorbed by the halo.

He walked step by step toward the Thunder Eye in the center of the platform.

The closer he got, the denser and more violent the thunder became. By the last ten zhang, it was no longer individual thunderbolts, but a continuous, substantial torrent of thunder! The destructive power was enough to vaporize refined gold and mysterious iron in an instant!

Lin Xuan took a deep breath, a hint of ferocity flashing in his eyes. He no longer used the chaotic tribulation power for passive defense, but instead actively withdrew the protective halo around his body!

"Boom—!!!"

Without the barrier, the endless dark purple thunderbolts, like sharks that had smelled blood, swallowed him in an instant!

The blinding thunder light completely wrapped him, and the terrifying high temperature and destructive energy crazily impacted his body, meridians, and even his soul!

Lin Xuan groaned, and countless tiny electric sparks instantly appeared on the surface of his body; his skin scorched and cracked, and his hair stood on end. But not only did he not retreat, he sat down cross-legged at the edge of the Thunder Eye, his hands forming a profound seal.

"Chaos as the furnace, tribulation power as the firewood, heavenly thunder as the hammer... temper my Dao body, forge my soul!"

Inside his body, the Chaos Tribulation Crystal suddenly erupted with brilliant blue-gray light! The crystal rotated rapidly, actively receiving and swallowing the violent thunder power pouring in from the outside!

This was not resistance, but... refining!

With the characteristic of chaotic tribulation power to encompass all things and also derive all things, he forcibly incorporated the Extinction Thunder, which represented heavenly punishment and the most yang and rigid energy, into his own circulatory system, transforming the destructive will and violent energy within it into "tribulation fire" to temper himself and polish the tribulation crystal!

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—!!"

Inside Lin Xuan's body, it was as if countless thunderbolts were exploding and rushing. The newly born Chaos Tribulation Meridians were stretched to the point of breaking by the violent thunder power, only to be forcibly mended under the repair of the vitality surging from the tribulation crystal, becoming even tougher and wider. His internal organs, bones, and bone marrow were all destroyed and reshaped over and over again under the baptism of the heavenly tribulation; impurities were tempered and expelled, leaving behind the most essential parts, and gradually branded with wisps of faint thunder Dao patterns.

The most painful part was the soul. Thunder itself had great lethality to the soul. Lin Xuan's Chaos Tribulation Sea churned violently under the impact of the thunder, as if it could be shattered at any moment. But he held fast to the clarity of his spiritual platform, using the blue light spot representing "life" in the Tribulation Sea as an anchor, guiding the thunder power to merge into the Tribulation Sea—not to assimilate the thunder, but to let his own soul adapt to and even carry the destruction and violence of the thunder, making it a part of his own tribulation Dao!

This was a kind of extreme pain, and also a kind of extreme tempering.

His body constantly cracked, scorched, and then quickly healed and was reborn in the thunder, repeating the cycle. His aura was sometimes as weak as a candle in the wind, sometimes surging like a volcanic eruption, extremely unstable.

Days passed.

Outside the Thunder Marsh, Feng Xi had completed its initial tempering, its feathers brighter, and tiny electric arcs faintly jumping between them. It looked with some worry at the center of the Thunder Marsh, where the thunder storm never ceased and seemed even more violent, but it could sense through the contract that although its master's aura fluctuated violently, it never truly declined; instead, it was becoming more solid and profound at a slow and firm speed.

One month later.

At the core of the Thunder Marsh, the terrifying thunder waterfall that had been striking continuously for a month suddenly, without warning... weakened!

No, it was not weakened, but as if it had been forcibly "absorbed" by something. More than seventy percent of the thunder torrent pouring out of the Thunder Eye deviated from its original trajectory, gathering toward the scorched-black figure sitting cross-legged at the edge of the Thunder Eye, finally sinking into the top of his head!

Lin Xuan's body had undergone a massive change at this moment.

The scorched skin on the surface peeled off layer by layer, revealing brand-new skin underneath that was as crystal clear as glazed jade yet contained explosive power. Under the skin, blue-gray air currents and purple electric light flowed simultaneously. His original hair had long since turned to ash in the thunder; the new hair that grew out was a strange gray-purple, moving without wind, and occasionally sparks of tiny electric fire burst from the tips.

He slowly opened his eyes.

The moment his eyes opened, purple electric light and blue-gray air currents flashed and vanished! Deep within his pupils, in addition to the original scenes of birth and extinction cycles, a few more points of the overbearing and swift nature of thunder were added.

Peak of Late-Stage Soul Formation!

In just one month, with the help of the Extinction Thunder Marsh, a place of heavenly creation, and the overbearing cultivation method of the Chaos Tribulation Dao, he had not only completely stabilized his realm but also pushed his cultivation to the limit of the Soul Formation Stage! He was only one step away from the Spirit Transformation Realm, where mortals become gods and condense the primordial spirit! Moreover, his physical strength, tempered by a thousand hammerings of thunder, had reached an unimaginable level, comparable to a Spirit Transformation body refiner specializing in body refining! His soul was even more condensed like diamond, unafraid of ordinary thunder, fire, and wind tribulations.

More importantly, he had successfully integrated part of the origin characteristics of the Extinction Thunder into his own chaotic tribulation power. Now, the chaotic tribulation power not only possessed the characteristics of returning to ruins and birth and extinction, but also added a touch of the swiftness and violence of heavenly punishment thunder, and its power had risen to a higher level!

With a movement of his mind, a wisp of gray-purple air jumped out from his fingertip, silent and soundless, yet it made the surrounding space slightly distort, emitting a heart-palpitating destructive fluctuation.

"The power of Extinction Lei Jie... not bad." Lin Xuan nodded with satisfaction. This tempering had yielded results far exceeding expectations.

He stood up, changed into a spare blue robe (the subtle changes in hair color and eye color could not be hidden for the time being), and with a flash of his figure, he appeared beside Feng Xi, who was guarding on the periphery.

Feng Xi felt the deeper, more terrifying pressure on its master, which also carried a familiar aura, and chirped happily, rubbing against him affectionately.

"Thank you for your hard work." Lin Xuan stroked Feng Xi, his gaze cast toward the northeast, where the imperial capital was located. "I have been in seclusion for a long time; it is time to go back and take a look. I wonder how things are over at Huangfu... Your Majesty's side."

He was about to set off when he suddenly felt something, and he looked up sharply toward the depths of the high, distant firmament.

Almost at the same time, far away in the deep palace of the imperial capital, Emperor Chengping Huangfu Hao, who was reviewing memorials, and the Pavilion Master of Heavenly Secrets, who was sitting in the Star Observatory, also seemed to sense something, stopping their actions at the same time and looking at the sky.

They saw that deep in the clear night sky, in the southeast direction, a point of silver light was moving from far to near, rapidly magnifying. The light was not a star, but a gentle yet tough silver radiance, as if carrying some ancient and vast will.

A moment later, the silver radiance was clearly visible; it was a silver flying boat as large as a small mountain, with a smooth and ancient shape, its entire body shining with star runes! The flying boat crossed the firmament silently, as if drifting outside the laws of this realm, its speed astonishingly fast, and its target seemed to be... the territory of the Tianyuan Imperial Dynasty!

On the side of the flying boat, a profound emblem made of stars shone brightly in the moonlight.

"That is..." Huangfu Hao put down his vermilion brush, walked to the window, and frowned slightly. He could feel that the pressure emitted by the flying boat was not overbearing, but as deep as the sea, far beyond any flying magic treasure known in the Tianyuan Continent.

On the Star Observatory, the Pavilion Master of Heavenly Secrets' blurred face lifted slightly, looking at the silver flying boat, and whispered to himself: "Star Raft... Old Man Xinghe, he finally sent someone. Faster than expected."

His fingers in his sleeves pinched slightly, and a moment later, he let out an almost inaudible sigh: "Tribulation fate is entangled, and guests from afar are coming from the east. This Tianyuan Continent, which had just calmed down a little, is afraid it will stir up waves again. That little friend Lin Xuan came out of seclusion at just the right time; I don't know if his newly born Chaos Tribulation Dao can handle these uninvited guests from overseas..."

The silver Star Raft, like a silent traveler of the starry sky, slowly lowered its altitude and finally hovered outside the eastern border of the Tianyuan Imperial Dynasty, above an uninhabited sea area. It did not directly break into the imperial dynasty's airspace, appearing quite restrained, yet also signaling a transcendent posture.

Powerful spiritual senses, like mercury pouring onto the ground, swept gently but irresistibly from the Star Raft toward the continent, carrying a sense of inquiry and assessment.

The peace of the Tianyuan Continent was completely broken by these uninvited guests from the Endless Hanhai.

Lin Xuan looked at the silver giant boat hovering in the distant horizon, his gray-purple hair fluttering gently in the night wind, and a trace of gravity and eagerness flashed deep in his eyes.

"Overseas guests... they seem very strong." He said in a low voice, then took a step, his figure merging into the night, and he sped toward the imperial capital.

New challenges and opportunities had already descended upon this realm along with this Star Raft. ===== CHAPTER 127 =====