Warning! A hidden dragon has emerged!

Su Qingyan looked at the dark clouds pressing down on Jiguan Peak, her brows furrowed into a deep frown, her heart filled with worry. She turned to look at Xia Ruoxi and the other two, and spoke in a low voice.

"Hopefully, the lightning protection array that Wanrou built will work; otherwise, we'll have to resort to that symbiotic method."

The power of the lightning tribulation was beyond imagination; no one could predict what would happen next.

She looked up, her face grave, and asked:

"Are the three of you ready?"

"Um."

The three women nodded in unison, their fair ears blushing.

The pitch-black night could conceal their expressions, but it couldn't suppress the nervous tension in their hearts. That secret technique of attracting calamity and coexisting was extremely private and would never be used unless in dire straits.

Seeing this, Lin Wanrou became anxious. Since her master had assigned tasks to her three senior sisters, while she had nothing to do, she quickly stepped forward to ask:

"Master, what do I need to do?"

Su Qingyan gave her a deep look and said:

"Your cultivation level is too low. Staying here will only increase Qin Quan's burden. Come back to Yuquan Temple with me later."

"Wanrou, this place is too dangerous. You should go back with your master and wait for news."

Xia Ruoxi quickly tried to persuade her in a soft voice.

Ling Yuyan and Gao Yuan echoed her sentiments. The three of them had their own thoughts and just wanted to persuade Lin Wanrou to leave as soon as possible to avoid her seeing the secret technique later, which would be even more awkward.

Lin Wanrou didn't think much of it and nodded frankly. Then she and Su Qingyan retreated from the area of ​​the Heavenly Tribulation and returned to Yuquan Temple.

At the center of the lightning-avoiding array, Qin Quan looked up and faced the sky full of tribulation clouds, his fighting spirit soaring, arrogant and fearless.

"We cultivators find endless joy in defying fate and competing with others; bring on this mere heavenly tribulation!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a fierce wind swept across the ground, lightning flashed, and purple lightning crisscrossed.

Lightning flashed for dozens of miles, as if the sky had split open.

Layers of dark, oppressive clouds piled up overhead, pressing down on the entire mountain range and making its atmosphere stagnant.

Boom!

A purple lightning dragon, as thick as a water bucket, swooped down from the clouds, accompanied by fierce winds from the heavens, and struck directly at Qin Quan's head with extreme ferocity.

The instant the lightning struck the ground, all 8,100 lightning rods simultaneously hummed and vibrated, like thousands of upright metal spears, intercepting the entire force of the lightning and dividing it into 8,100 parts, which were then channeled into the body of Jiguan Peak through the underground grounding stakes.

The raging lightning tribulation dispersed, and the center of the lightning-avoiding array was calm and peaceful.

"It's blocked!"

Xia Ruoxi's eyes lit up, unable to hide her joy.

"Junior Brother is unharmed; the lightning-avoiding formation worked!"

"It really worked."

"Yay! That's awesome!"

Ling Yuyan and Gao Yuan were both overjoyed.

Qin Quan's heart trembled slightly inside the formation, his eyes filled with excitement. He personally experienced the feeling of having ninety-nine percent of the power of the lightning tribulation stripped away, leaving only a trace of force falling on him. It was incredibly exhilarating.

"We really withstood the first Heavenly Tribulation."

He raised his eyes to glare at the sky, his aura growing increasingly arrogant.

"There are still two more tribulations of lightning. As long as I can get through them, I will reach the Golden Core stage! I have condensed nine cores, and my battle power is overwhelming. Come on, let the tribulations of lightning come even more fiercely!"

Rumble!

The clouds overhead grew thicker and thicker, constantly sinking and pressing down, almost brushing against the treetops on the mountaintop.

The people of Longcheng at the foot of the mountain were awakened by continuous thunder. The windows of every household trembled and the roof tiles shook slightly. Even the blackout curtains could not block out the purple lightning that was moving across the sky.

Thunderclaps crashed one after another, the earth roared and the livestock trembled on the ground, and the whole city was filled with fear.

Some martial arts practitioners and reclusive experts in the city who knew the secrets of Ziyun Mountain all focused their attention and looked up, their eyes locked on the direction of Ziyun Mountain.

They knew that only those few fairy maidens undergoing tribulation could trigger such an extraordinary phenomenon.

Half an hour passed quietly.

After the residual power of the first lightning tribulation dissipated, the second lightning tribulation was slow to fall.

Qin Quan frowned, feeling extremely irritated, and cursed under his breath.

"The first lightning bolt ended half an hour ago, why hasn't the second one arrived yet? What the hell is the heavens doing?"

Not only him, but also the Third Senior Sister in the distance looked anxious and uneasy, and Su Qingyan, far away at Yuquan Temple, paced back and forth, her mind in turmoil.

Back then, when she was undergoing the Golden Core Tribulation, the three lightning tribulations connected extremely quickly, and the entire process was completed in less than an hour. Qin Quan's lightning tribulation, however, was full of strangeness.

What went wrong?

Just then, a muffled thunderclap suddenly exploded from the heavens!

The dark clouds churned wildly, and a purple thunder dragon, ten times larger than the one before, coiled and took shape. The aura of calamity was pitch black and bone-chilling, and the punitive pressure of the Heavenly Dao pressed down like an overwhelming force. The vegetation in the mountains withered and fell instantly, and birds and beasts fled for their lives.

Su Qingyan froze, her face turning deathly pale, and she exclaimed:

"This is divine punishment!"

Forming nine cores is already defying the heavens, and adding a lightning-avoiding formation to divert the power of the heavenly tribulation is tantamount to deceiving the heavens and taking shortcuts. The heavens are now thoroughly enraged.

Faced with this divine punishment, she was helpless.

"I hope Ruoxi and the others won't let my good intentions go to waste."

As the thunderous power swept over him from the mountaintop, Qin Quan felt every hair on his body stand on end, his skin and flesh tingling from the pressure of the heavens. For the first time, a fatal sense of crisis arose in his heart.

"Damn it, this divine punishment is trying to kill me!"

He dared not slacken in the slightest, and immediately summoned the Pure Yang Sword. Golden light filled the sword's body, and with a flick of his fingers, he spread out a high-level spirit-gathering array. The nine golden pills in his dantian rotated and roared in sync.

A surge of pure Yang energy filled his meridians.

Qin Quan raised his sword and tilted his head back, facing the heavenly tribulation with all his might.

Click!

The world-destroying purple lightning crashed down, its light engulfing the sky and the earth, instantly swallowing the entire summit of Rooster Crest Peak.

Eight thousand one hundred lightning rods snapped and exploded, sending metal fragments and lightning sparks flying everywhere.

"Junior Brother!"

Xia Ruoxi and Ling Yuyan were so frightened that their faces turned pale, and tears unconsciously streamed down their faces.

Gao Yuan's mind completely tensed up. Ignoring the danger of the heavenly tribulation, he raised his foot to rush into the sea of ​​lightning, but Xia Ruoxi reached out and stopped him.

"Third junior sister, don't be impulsive."

"Senior Sister, if you don't intervene soon, Junior Brother will die inside!"

Gao Yuan's eyes were wide open, and his breathing was trembling.

From childhood to adulthood, she had the deepest bond with Qin Quan.

For three years, she ventured alone to dangerous places around the world, fought against strange beasts in the African rainforest, and risked her life to collect five Golden Elixir Fruits. If Qin Quan were to perish, all her efforts would be in vain.

Xia Ruoxi's voice was hoarse as she struggled to steady herself.

"Third Junior Sister, don't forget Master's orders: we must not set foot in the Thunder Domain unless it's a matter of life and death!"

"That's right. Junior Brother is undergoing this tribulation to test the waters for us. If we panic, we will only harm him."

Ling Yuyan quickly agreed.

Gao Yuan was in excruciating pain in her chest, filled with anxiety, but she had no way to refute it. She could only stare intently at the lightning flashing across the sky and grit her teeth to endure it.

After a few breaths.

The thunder and fire slowly subsided, and the aura of calamity dissipated.

A loud, unrestrained laugh echoed through the mountains and fields.

"That was exhilarating! Ten times the Heavenly Punishment for body tempering, so satisfying!"

Xia Ruoxi's tense face instantly relaxed.

"Junior Brother managed to pull it off!"

Upon hearing this, Ling Yuyan and Gao Yuan both looked up at the summit.

Qin Quan's clothes were completely burned away by the heavenly lightning, leaving him naked. His skin was covered with a layer of light golden pure yang aura, and the scorch marks on his skin and flesh were shallow, without damaging his foundation.

Most of the lightning rods around were damaged, with broken poles lying on the ground, and the remaining rods were still shrouded in fine purple lightning.

Gao Yuan wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and spoke in a deep voice.

"Only one final cataclysmic lightning strike remains. Can we now step into the lightning domain?"

"Walk!"

Without further hesitation, Xia Ruoxi used her sleeves to control the wind, and together with Ling Yuyan and Gao Yuan, they flew straight towards the center of the great formation.