"Oh wow! What a natural disaster!" Wu Qi cried wickedly as he sensed the thunderbolt that came smashing down from above, which could not be detected with divine will. It was indeed a natural disaster, because the thunderbolt had picked Yu Que as its primary target, thrusting straight towards him.
Amongst all the people present here, Yu Que had the highest level of cultivation base, and his aura was the strongest. So, if the tribulation thunderbolt did not pick him as the primary target, who else would that be?
He was like a brightly lit beacon erected loftily on a mountain during the darkest night, and all the morphs, flies, ants, bugs, and many other insects would just fly straight to him!
Yu Que, who was choked with resentment, roared furiously. Without hesitation, he squatted down with both hands clenched into fists, before thrusting them towards the sky with all his power. The white tiger soul hovering above threw his head back and roared, then transformed into a dazzling beam of white light and attached to Yu Que's body. Immediately, a full set of white heavy armor appeared on him, and both his fists were wrapped in two thick gauntlets.
In a flash, Yu Que's aura took a great leap, becoming about ten times stronger than before, and his cultivation base, which was very close to the Gold Immortal realm, rose straight to a level of being extremely close to the Gold Immortal realm.
A loud boom rang out as the invisible thunderbolt smote Yu Que's fists. He gave a muffled snort, and his body was immediately blanketed by a layer of grayish light. Countless dazzling and twisting electric arcs slithered across his skin, while numerous Pure Yang flames, which very effective against fiends and Fiend Immortals, such as Divine Flame of Order, Divine Flame of Tri-Yang, Divine Ray of Exorcism, were ragingly burning his armor and fleshly body.
With just one strike, the armor on both Yu Que's arms was turned into nothingness, and his skin was burned into ashes by the few divine flames. Countless blisters of various sizes filled his entire body, and the thunderbolt even created a few holes on him, which caused his internal organs to be exposed. Dark smoke rose from every part of his, and piping hot flames were bursting out from his seven apertures. The thunderbolt had nearly cooked him from inside out.
And, that was only the first thunderbolt. Before Yu Que could respond, the second thunderbolt had already smashed whistling down from within the tribulation cloud.
The second thunderbolt had finally shown a slight tinge of red in Wu Qi's Mystic Eyes of Universe. However, the faintly discernible red tinge made Wu Qi's skin creep instantly. Without the slightest hesitation, he pulled out earth element dragon scale shield and placed it on top of his head. Instead of using the scale-shaped golden beams split from it as the shield, he had the true form of the shield placed above him.
Fearing that the earth element dragon scale shield alone was not enough to stop the residual power of the thunderbolt, Wu Qi clenched his jaws and drew all the pure and vast earth element energy stored in the acquired earth element spirit pearl residing in his dantian, then crazily injected all of it into the shield.
There was a vast and nearly endless amount of earth element energy stored in the acquired earth spirit pearl, with the total amount almost equal to the combined energies from several dozens of Heaven Immortals. By drawing all of them out in such a hasty manner, the surging energy nearly burst Wu Qi's body like a rocking great river rushing into a small stream. Luckily, after having his body modified by the innate Yin energy, all his meridians were extremely tender and pliable. Therefore, though the meridians were expanding to their maximum, they behaved like elastic tubes and barely maintained their integrity.
Like a yellow tide, the earth element energy sprayed whooshing out from Wu Qi's palm and poured straight into the shield.
The shield issued a deep dragon cry. Its radiating glows retracted abruptly and transformed into an energy barrier shaped like a copper bell, about three feet in thickness and earthy-yellow in color. The energy barrier had a very clean and smooth surface, as if it were forged from gold or iron. Right at the center of it, a divine rune was seen emitting a stately and heavy gleam, which when referred to Primordial Divine Script, represented the meaning of 'the earth that gives birth to everything'.
Right when the energy barrier was formed, the pale-red thunderbolt smote right onto Yu Que, who felt like weeping but having no tears.
*Crackle!* *Boom!*
An invisible shockwave swept across the scene as a loud crackle and boom echoed out simultaneously. All cultivators present on the scene with a cultivation base below the realm of Heaven Immortal, as well as those bold warriors from the Formidable Tiger Army, all of them vanished in that very moment. Their bodies did not move even a little bit, but just simply exploded on the spot, turning into countless fine glowing specks that shot in all directions. These glowing specks were emitting colorful gleams that looked extraordinarily magnificent as they streaked across the void, creating a scene as if several thousand fireworks had just bloomed and filled the sky with a myriad colors, flashing and blinking in the most glorious manner. It was indeed a fascinating scene to look at.
But at the same time, it was a cruel and horrendous scene to look at.
Wu Qi did not have the mood to enjoy the splendid yet horrendous display of fireworks, because the invisible shockwave had already hit the earth element dragon scale shield, flooding it with as many as hundreds of millions of vibrations per second, causing the shield to produce a very dreadful noise of cracking, and nearly creating a few cracks on its physical body. Fiercely, Wu Qi bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed a full mouthful of blood essence onto the shield. With that, the nearly breaking energy barrier shone with an even brighter gleam, and even expanded a few inches wider, as if it were fed with some stimulant.
Although the deadly shockwave only lasted three short seconds, ninety percent of Wu Qi's energy was consumed.
Apart from the two Heaven Immortals sent by the Heaven to guard the place, as well as several dozens of Generals of Formidable Tiger Army whose overall strength was comparable to Heaven Immortals, the second thunderbolt annihilated every single living being within an area of one hundred miles circumference. No matter if they were cultivators, wild beasts, flowers or trees, or even the microorganisms living in the soil, everything was wiped out by the thunderbolt.
All the mountains and rivers were leveled. With Yu Que, the primary target of the thunder tribulation, as the center point, the ground sunk thirty feet deep for one hundred miles around, looking as clean and smooth as the surface of a mirror. The teleportation formations, together with all the defensive and restrictive formations within the area, vanished without leaving behind any traces.
Yu Que squatted at the center of the large hole, his body turning stiff while dark smoke rose incessantly, and his white armor disappeared. Meanwhile, the white tiger soul was seen lying prone amidst the white fog behind him, panting heavily with all its hair gone.
"Ah... ah... ahhh...!!" Yu Que stared blankly at the heavenly eye of thunder tribulation in the sky, and was murmuring meaningless words that made him sound like an idiot. The two thunderbolts that came in a row and targeted Fiend Immortals of Gold Immortal realm had thrown him into an utter confusion. They charred seventy percent of his muscles, broke fifty percent of his meridians, and cooked nearly half of his internal organs. This was Yu Que's current situation.
If not because his beast soul possessed the bloodline of the White Tiger, which gave him an extremely powerful ability, both Yu Que and his beast soul would have long turned into wisps of smoke by the thunder tribulation.
Yu Que was afraid, really afraid, and he even began to feel regret! Tears rolled off his face as he bellowed with a hoarse voice, "I don't want to die yet! You nasty little Daoist! You are cheating! Sob! You are only at the peak-stage Nascent Soul realm, so what is the thing on you that cultivated into a Fiend Immortal?"
Yu Que was a seasoned expert. With just one glance, he could easily tell that Wu Qi was at peak-stage Nascent Soul realm. Although Wu Qi's overall strength did not match his own realm, it was not something rare. As some disciples of the legendary experts were practicing extremely powerful cultivation techniques, it was a common thing for them to kill people with overall strength a few times stronger. However, the dark smoke that rose from Wu Qi's body was the unique sign of Fiend Immortals. How did that even make sense?
Wu Qi did not answer Yu Que. In a great bustle, he fished out an eighth-grade immortal pill from Black Dragon Spirit Ring, crushed it with a stream of energy, before turning it into a gust of strong green wind that smashed into Yu Que's body. "Hang in there, old man!" he roared, "You are the only hope for us to survive! Since the surrounding void is completely locked down by the tribulation, we can't escape with teleportation divine ability! You have to save us all, old man!"
The eighth-grade immortal pill was named 'Five Spirit Resurrection Pill', which was specially concocted by Patriarch Jiang Yun for Wu Qi, serving as a protection as he was traveling in the outside world. Although its medicinal strength was not as strong as the seventh-grade immortal pill given to Patriarch Yuan Hua, it was still an incredible immortal pill. Nourished by it, Yu Que's injury almost fully healed in just a twinkle.
After giving Wu Qi a furious glare, Yu Que, who had nearly coughed blood because of Wu Qi's sarcastic comments, threw his head back and roared furiously. After that, the white tiger beast soul behind him turned into a stream of white light and rushed into his body through the top of his head.
Unlike previously, no armor appeared on Yu Que's body this time. Instead, his body began to expand, from seven feet tall a moment ago to thirty feet tall now. His muscles were bulking up, and white tiger strips emerged from underneath the glowing, dark skin of his one after another. As he issued a loud tiger roar, a huge amount of white tiger hair grew out from all over his body.
With one hand pointing at the sky, Yu Que bellowed, "If I manage to transcend this tribulation and receive the cleansing from the immortal transformation spirit light of that Gold Immortal grade, I'll be able to break through my current bottleneck and step into Gold Immortal realm! With that, I can live for a few more Periods! Hahaha! Is this a calamity, or a fortune? I am not willing to die like this!"
Yu Que roared as he flew one thousand feet up in the sky, staring at the heavenly eye of thunder tribulation with unbearable insolence.
Wu Qi peered into the heavenly eye of thunder tribulation with Mystic Eyes of Universe. He saw a great number of thunderbolts brewing within. However, it seemed because of the number of people around had reduced by several thousand, the brewing thunderbolts had only the power for one last strike. Although its power was the combination of the two previous thunderbolts, as Yu Que had activated another extremely strong divine ability by using the source soul power of his beast soul, he should be able to transcend the last thunder tribulation.
All of a sudden, the thunderbolt smashed down. This time, it was a black thunderbolt that everyone could see with their eyes. An ear-splitting screech of ghost echoed throughout the void. The last thunder tribulation contained countless fiends and Yin flames, and they were smashing towards Yu Que in a very messy order.
For the other people here, fiends and Yin flames were lethal, but as Wu Qi was protected by Divine Flame of Order, he did not fear any of them.
Even as the thunderbolt smashed down, Yu Que smiled hideously and thrust both fists forward. Two tiger-shaped airflows left his hands and collided with the thunderbolt.
The tiger-shaped airflows shattered in an instant, but more than half of the thunderbolt was dispersed as well. Numerous tiny electric arcs shot into all directions. The Generals of Formidable Tiger Army, as well as the two immortal officials from Heaven, were howling miserably as they were enveloped by the countless fiends and Yin flames that came with the electric arcs. Before long, they turned into nothingness, devoured by the fiends. The Yin flame even melted their weapons and magical treasures into a puddle of molten metal, making Wu Qi's eyelids twitching because of anger.
The remaining thunderbolt smote straight onto Yu Que's head, who was shivering violently as he bellowed, "If you can't kill me, I'll be able to break through the bottleneck and become as strong as a Gold Immortal..."
At this moment, the freshly reborn Sword of Greedy Wolf gently pierced out of Yu Que's forehead.
Taking the opportunity that Yu Que had no time for other things, Wu Qi thrust the Sword of Greedy Wolf from behind his back and gave him a deadly strike.
After that, with all his ability, Wu Qi controlled the devouring formation inside the Sword of Greedy Wolf, swallowing Yu Que's soul and the white tiger beast soul into the sword.
A tragic howl rang out. Yu Que's fleshly body suddenly disintegrated into countless black ashes, while the remaining black thunderbolt, just a very tiny part of it, smote heavily onto Wu Qi's body.