RUMBLE!

As soon as the two lightning pythons emerged from the tribulation clouds, heaven and earth began to rumble. Most terrifying of all, the two lightning pythons suddenly intertwined together, and an even stronger pressure descended, causing Long Chen’s hair to stand on end.

As those huge pythons twisted around each other, a destructive aura attacked Long Chen.

His expression completely changed. This attack was practically world-shaking, capable of exterminating all life. With a furious roar, two stars appeared in his eyes, his divine ring shining behind him. A three-hundred-meter lightning blade appeared in his hands.

At this time, he had condensed all his thunderforce and energy into this blade. He no longer had the luxury to hold back. This lightning tribulation was trying to annihilate him.

“Split the Heavens!”

Brilliant light exploded from his lightning blade. It ferociously hacked into the two intertwining lightning pythons.

BOOM!

Heaven and earth shook. Light lit up the entire sky. Every mountain within thousands of miles was turned to dust.

The tribulation clouds in the sky faded. The ground was a complete mess, and a remnant destructive aura was still present.

The soil bulged, and a charred-black hand broke out of the ground.

Long Chen vomited a mouthful of blood as well as some broken bits of his organs. That final attack had almost killed him.

Now, he was a few breaths off from death. His entire body was charred black, as that final attack had been too terrifying. It had instantly broken through his defenses, almost destroying his body.

His insides had already been destroyed, and his body was like a cracked porcelain jar. Pieces of his skin were constantly falling to the ground, revealing his flesh.

“My injuries are too heavy.” Long Chen looked inside himself. That final attack had been too vicious. Even his bones were all covered with cracks. He might completely collapse at any moment. “But the first thing I need to do is get away from here.”

Clenching his teeth, all the medicinal ingredients in his primal chaos space withered, and a dense life energy poured into his body.

Although that wasn’t as much life energy as had been in the trees, it was enough to make sure he wouldn’t immediately die.

Clenching his teeth, he began to run into the distance with his broken body. He had to leave as soon as possible so others wouldn’t notice him.

Not an hour after he had left, a large number of people appeared where the Wind Spirit Pavilion had been. Those were experts from the neighboring sects.

What they saw was a charred land that had replaced the Wind Spirit Pavilion. They were all stunned.

“Did the heavens bring down divine punishment on them?”

They never would have imagined that this was just the result from a cultivator’s tribulation, and just the tribulation of a Tendon Transformation rookie.

As for Long Chen, he was pushing his Spiritual Strength to its max to avoid others. If it wasn’t for the life energy from the medicinal ingredients supporting him, he would really have died this time.

With his insides completely destroyed, even medicinal pills had no effect on him. At best, they could keep him alive. However, there was no way they could heal his heavy injuries.

Only after rushing far enough away did he summon Little Snow. Jumping onto his back, they fled into the distance.

Because of the battle in the secret realm, too many people would recognize Little Snow. If he had summoned Little Snow at the beginning and someone had noticed him, it would be all too easy to suspect it was him.

By pushing his Spiritual Strength and spreading his divine sense to a constant hundred miles, he was fortunate enough to not run into any experts.

It was three days later when Long Chen took advantage of the darkness to slip into the first monastery. When Guo Ran and the others saw his current state, they almost died from fright. They almost didn’t recognize him.

Once he saw Guo Ran, Long Chen couldn’t hold on any longer and fainted. These three days, Long Chen had continuously pushed himself to keep going.

The life energy from the primal chaos space had only been able to keep him just barely alive. It hadn’t been enough to heal him.

So he needed a place to rest and heal, and the best option was to stealthily slip into the first monastery. Guo Ran and the others still didn’t know what had happened.

But Long Chen had told them to keep everything secret, so they hastily brought him to his room, severely warning any disciples they encountered to keep their mouths shut.

Even Ling Yunzi jumped in fright upon seeing Long Chen’s current state. His injuries were absolutely appalling. His entire body was charred black, and his flesh was almost falling from his bones.

Tang Wan-er was so frightened she cried. Guo Ran and the others didn’t know what to say. This was their first time seeing Long Chen in such a miserable state.

“Who did this?!” asked Gu Yang, clenching his teeth.

“Don’t get any crazy thoughts. That destructive aura on his body is not something a human is able to cause.” Ling Yunzi immediately saw through some clues from Long Chen’s state.

After all, only he and Tu Fang were aware that Long Chen was a Divergent. However, he had never imagined Long Chen would have to go through lightning tribulation so soon.

He was unaware that this wasn’t the first tribulation for Long Chen, but the third. Ordinary people would only have to go through the baptism of heavenly tribulation once they reached the Xiantian realm. That baptism would transform their Houtian qi into Xiantian qi.

The legends said Divergents would all suffer lightning tribulation when entering the Meridian Opening realm. The heavens wanted them dead before they could reach the Xiantian realm.

For Long Chen to undergo lightning tribulation just for the Bone Forging realm toppled Ling Yunzi’s understanding.

“Sect leader, will boss be alright?” asked Guo Ran worriedly.

“Don’t worry, there’s still a trace of vitality in his body. However, his external injuries are too severe. The lightn-... cough, his injuries aren’t light, and so he’s unable to activate his own body’s healing abilities. I’ll use Xiantian power to help him activate the life energy within his physical body. He should recover quickly,” said Ling Yunzi.

Hearing that, everyone sighed a breath of relief. In order to allow Ling Yunzi to heal Long Chen, they all withdrew.

Once they left, Ling Yunzi’s expression became incomparably grave. In truth, the destructive aura in Long Chen’s body was something that even made him tremble. That was a reverence that came from the depths of his soul.

“Is this an opportunity the heavens have bestowed upon me?” Ling Yunzi muttered to himself, looking at Long Chen lying on the bed.

His injuries were incredibly severe, and although he was still alive, the destructive aura was continuously breaking down his body, making it so he couldn’t recover.

Back then, Long Chen had underestimated the lightning tribulation, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he had underestimated the lightning tribulation’s destructive aura. If this continued, then it wouldn’t be long before he died from it. Such an energy had surpassed Long Chen’s limits.

That was why Long Chen had rushed to the first monastery when he had realized this problem. He knew Ling Yunzi had the ability to save him.

With Ling Yunzi’s Xiantian power and his Sword Dao will, he should be able to expel the remnant destructive aura within his body.

However, Ling Yunzi was now hesitating. He didn’t act according to how Long Chen had anticipated. Instead, he extended a hand, touching the destructive aura with his Xiantian power and will.

That destructive aura only had a desire to destroy. Ling Yunzi’s Sword Dao will was essentially provoking it. It suddenly ferociously attacked him.

Almost instinctively, his Sword Dao will raised a powerful defense to block the encroachment of the destructive aura.

Ling Yunzi had a complicated expression as he pondered a difficult problem. In the end, he clenched his teeth and released his defenses, allowing that destructive will to attack his mind.

He collapsed on the ground, unconscious. Now that Ling Yunzi had absorbed the destructive aura attacking Long Chen, Long Chen’s body’s instinctive healing abilities activated.

After some unknown time, Ling Yunzi opened his eyes. “I’m still alive… Looks like I won the gamble.”

He smiled slightly and stood up. He looked over Long Chen and saw a portion of his black skin had already fallen off to reveal new skin beneath.

Shockingly, Long Chen’s body possessed a vast vitality, one that was even more terrifying than a Magical Beast’s.

“What a terrifying physical body. This physical body is already on the level of a Xiantian expert.” Ling Yunzi couldn’t help being shocked as he appraised one of Long Chen’s arms.

According to the legends, Divergents would encounter annihilation lightning tribulations and would always eventually die to one.

But once they passed the lightning tribulation, their benefits were also dozens of times greater than other people. Long Chen’s current terrifying physical body was the best proof of that.

By the time Ling Yunzi left the room, Tang Wan-er, Meng Qi, and the others were all anxiously waiting.

He smiled slightly, reassuring them and saying they could enter. They delightedly charged in to take a look, seeing Long Chen sleeping peacefully. He was snoring, his heart beating powerfully, a stark contrast from his previous self that seemed like he would breathe his last breath at any moment.

However, Ling Yunzi told them not to disturb him right now. Long Chen had suffered a spiritual blow, and his soul was slightly damaged. They should let him sleep until he naturally awoke on his own.

They carefully left his room, all feeling greatly relieved.

Tang Wan-er still had Meng Qi to take care of. As for Guo Ran, Gu Yang, and the others, they took turns guarding Long Chen’s door, not letting anyone disturb him.

They had asked how Long Chen had ended up injured, but Ling Yunzi harshly warned them not to ask again. That was for their own benefit.

That reason was odd, but if Ling Yunzi refused to say, they could only drop it. They would never have imagined that Long Chen’s injuries weren’t from a person, but from the heavens.

What would they do even if Ling Yunzi told them? Would they go demand justice from the heavens? Furthermore, for them to learn Long Chen was a Divergent was not a good thing. It was best to conceal this matter.

The day after Long Chen returned to the monastery, a piece of news spread that shook all of Su Prefecture: the Wind Spirit Pavilion had disappeared.