I'll make you the furnace and the cauldron, so you can refine Yin and Yang and prove the Great

In the Hehuan Sect's plaza, everyone looked up at the rapidly expanding dark purple tribulation cloud. The Ninth Elder's words, "Only those who break through to the Void Refinement stage will face the Heavenly Tribulation," were like a boulder thrown into stagnant water, stirring up waves of shock among the crowd.

"Refining to Void? Who's about to break through to Void Refinement?"

"Could it be that one of our Hehuan Sect's peak Nascent Soul stage experts is about to break through to the next realm?"

"No! Several peak Nascent Soul cultivators from our sect are here—Senior Brother Chu, Elder Yin, and several others who are in seclusion year-round—but they're clearly still in the plaza!"

The discussions surged like boiling water. The disciples who had been watching all looked up, their gazes sweeping over the peak Nascent Soul cultivators in the square, trying to find the one about to undergo tribulation. But every peak Nascent Soul cultivator whose gaze swept over looked up, their faces filled with bewilderment and surprise.

Chu Zian stood not far behind the Ninth Elder, his iron-gray outfit appearing particularly heavy against the dark purple light cast by the tribulation clouds. His brows were furrowed, and his divine sense, like invisible tentacles, probed into the depths of the tribulation clouds, but he could not perceive anything—the person targeted by the tribulation was clearly in this plaza, but he could not immediately confirm which one it was.

"Could it be..." His gaze suddenly shifted to Li Hanshan. The purplish-gold figure was still immobilized by the Ninth Elder's oppressive aura, his pure Yang energy struggling to circulate under the power of the Void Refining stage. He clearly appeared to be only a recently awakened early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. Chu Zian shook his head, banishing the absurd thought from his mind. How could an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator possibly trigger a Heavenly Tribulation? Not even a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator could attract one.

Yan Qingsong stood in the crowd, his empty right sleeve fluttering in the fierce winds of the tribulation clouds. His gaze was fixed on Li Hanshan, a sneer of schadenfreude playing on his lips: "The tribulation has come at just the right time. Even if it's meant to strike someone else, it'll at least interrupt that old man's opportunity. Once the tribulation is over, the Dao artifact will ultimately be ours."

Supported by his family, Huo Yuan squeezed to the edge of the crowd. Blood-stained bandages wrapped around the severed ends of his legs, his pale face appearing ghostly in the dark purple light of the tribulation clouds. He gritted his teeth, forcing out the words, "No matter who's going to undergo tribulation, that old man won't escape today. With the elders personally taking action, he has no chance of getting away."

The enormous vortex at the center of the tribulation clouds was spinning rapidly, and increasingly dense thunder rumbled from the depths of the dark purple clouds. The thunder no longer came from high above, but exploded directly in the depths of the void. Each tremor caused the consciousness of the disciples below the Nascent Soul stage in the plaza to tremble slightly, as if gently grasped and released by an invisible giant hand. Several thin, hair-like golden bolts of lightning were already wandering and weaving along the edge of the clouds, snaking and crawling like living creatures, illuminating the entire sky in an eerie dark gold.

Standing amidst the oppressive aura of the three Void Refinement Elders, Li Hanshan's pure Yang energy was almost frozen, yet his gaze bypassed the Ninth Elder, the Fifth Elder, and the murmuring crowd, fixing directly on the gathering tribulation clouds. His heart jolted—he was all too familiar with the locking sensation of that tribulation power, just like the Heavenly Dao's gaze he felt when breaking through to the Golden Core stage in the Northern Wilderness Beast Mountain Range, only now the oppressive feeling was hundreds or even thousands of times stronger.

"This is my tribulation," he murmured to himself, his voice suppressed like an undercurrent beneath the ice.

He broke through to the Nascent Soul stage in the Myriad Spirits Secret Realm, a self-contained world where the laws of Heaven were weakened to the extreme, even the commotion of the breakthrough was suppressed to silence. He thought he had skipped the tribulation of the Nascent Soul stage, but unexpectedly—the power of Heaven, like a spring compressed to its limit, was suddenly released the moment he returned to the Joyful Union Sect, descending upon him on a scale far exceeding that of a normal Nascent Soul tribulation. At this moment, the pure Yang primordial spirit deep within his sea of ​​consciousness was trembling wildly, as if responding to the gaze of Heaven. The pure Yang energy in his meridians flowed uncontrollably at an accelerated pace, like a reservoir full of water finally waiting for the moment to be released.

"Ninth Elder." Li Hanshan raised his head, his gaze meeting the Ninth Elder's piercing eyes. His voice was neither loud nor soft, yet carried a suppressed certainty, "Are you still going to stop me? The Heavenly Tribulation has already locked onto me. If you continue to stand here, the Heavenly Tribulation will include you as a target."

Upon hearing this, the disciples who had been discussing the matter fell silent for a moment. As if an invisible hand had gripped their throats, all sound was cut off. Then, an even more intense uproar erupted, like a beehive that had been overturned.

"What?! The heavenly tribulation is coming for him?!"

"Isn't he only at the first level of the Nascent Soul stage? What kind of heavenly tribulation would occur at the Nascent Soul stage!"

"This is impossible! I've cultivated for over three hundred years and have never heard of a Nascent Soul cultivator attracting a heavenly tribulation!"

"My God... what kind of monster is he...?"

The Ninth Elder's pupils suddenly contracted. His gaze swept back and forth between Li Hanshan and the rapidly gathering tribulation clouds, and the confident composure he had just displayed was shattering inch by inch on his majestic face. He could feel that the power of the heavenly tribulation had indeed locked onto this disciple in the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm. The gaze emanating from the Heavenly Dao was like a tangible pressure, and even he, with his cultivation at the third level of the Void Refinement realm, felt a trace of instinctive apprehension.

"Impossible." The Ninth Elder refused to believe it. "How could a Nascent Soul cultivator possibly trigger a Heavenly Tribulation... Don't try to fool me."

But before he could finish speaking, a golden bolt of lightning peeked out from the tribulation clouds, like a dormant thunder dragon finally opening its first eye, locking onto the purplish-gold figure below. The direction of that heavenly Dao power was extremely clear—it bypassed the Ninth Elder, bypassed the Fifth Elder, bypassed all that blocked its path, and pointed directly at the top of Li Hanshan's head.

The Ninth Elder's expression finally changed. He could feel the Heavenly Dao power advancing towards him along the locked direction. If he continued to block Li Hanshan's path, the Heavenly Tribulation would consider him an interferer and include him in its attack range. However, although the Heavenly Tribulation was strong, it was not a problem for his cultivation level.

Of course, there are still some troubles. Once the heavenly tribulation deems him to be interfering, a more powerful tribulation lightning will come to strike him, and then the heavenly tribulation will target him.

But he did not back down. He glanced at the location of Li Hanshan's dantian, a resolute greed flashing in his eyes—the value of the Dao artifact was too great, enough to make a Void Refinement cultivator gamble with it.

He needed to subdue Li Hanshan within a few breaths, seize the Dao artifact from him, and then retreat before he was devoured by the Heavenly Tribulation. The gray spiritual power around him surged again, and the gray hand that had been knocked off course by the Fifth Elder reformed, reaching towards Li Hanshan's dantian with even greater speed.

"I'll say it one last time—hand over that sword!" The Ninth Elder's voice carried an extreme urgency, tearing through the wind in the square just before the tribulation lightning was about to strike.

Li Hanshan didn't move. He could sense the heavenly tribulation gathering momentum; the impending lightning bolt had reached its peak. He spoke, his voice calm yet carrying a resolute composure: "Ninth Elder, it's too late."

Before the words were even finished, the tribulation clouds in the sky unleashed a deafening explosion. A bolt of purplish-gold lightning, as thick as a bucket, crashed down from the center of the vortex, carrying a world-destroying force as it precisely struck towards Li Hanshan's head. The color of this lightning was completely different from ordinary heavenly tribulations, displaying a purplish-gold hue unique to pure Yang fire, with fine silver arcs surging at its edges, like a sword of judgment formed from the pure Yang power of the Heavenly Dao descending from the sky.

The Ninth Elder's gray hand was just an inch in front of Li Hanshan's dantian. At the very moment it was about to touch him, the purple-gold lightning bolt struck within three zhang of Li Hanshan's head. The range of the Heavenly Dao's power suddenly expanded, including the Ninth Elder, who was standing three feet in front of Li Hanshan, within the attack's range. The Ninth Elder felt a terrifying force he had never experienced before surge in from all directions like a tidal wave, engulfing his entire body, as if an invisible iron mountain had crashed down on him.