Gu Yang’s aura rose to a new level. The runes around him began to charge against the heavenly tribulation.

This was a provocation, a defiant action. It was a kind of contempt for the Heavenly Daos. In the view of outsiders, such action was pure suicide.

But Long Chen had to make sure each warrior of the Dragonblood Legion had the courage to fight against the heavens. Otherwise, there was no way for them to cultivate a heart that would never waver.

The Dragonblood warriors had long since grown accustomed to this, treating heavenly tribulation like it was nothing. Compared to the heavens, they revered Long Chen far more. In their eyes, Long Chen was even stronger than the heavens.

The heavens only gave them an ordinary body, ordinary talent, and an ordinary fate. But Long Chen had changed everything about them. They were full of reverence and gratitude toward Long Chen.

Furthermore, after fighting for so many years, they had long since grown accustomed to this kind of style of being unafraid of heaven and earth. Under the Dragonblood warriors’ guidance, the Dragonmark warriors also began to toss aside their understanding of cultivation and fight against the Heavenly Daos alongside them.

The Dragonmark warriors had trod the line between life and death several times now. Their wills were firm enough, but they still possessed an innate reverence for the Heavenly Daos and didn’t dare to fight back. What Long Chen wanted was to temper their wills.

Rumbling filled the world as the lightning tribulation continued. Everyone could sense a kind of anger. The heavens were angry and wanted to destroy them.

All the Dragonmark warriors were pale, their hearts almost leaping out of their bodies. That wasn’t because they lacked courage, but because of the terror that formed in the depths of their souls.

As for the wood cultivators, they were even more terrified. The pressure coming from the heavens made it so they didn’t even dare to move. They were relying entirely on the others to block the lightning tribulation.

The lightning was still growing stronger. The lightning swords transformed to become lightning spears and then lightning hammers that grew bigger and bigger. After two hours, the lightning hammers were several meters long. When they smashed into the Dragonmark warriors, they coughed up blood.

On the other hand, the Dragonblood warriors were still fine. That was the difference. Although they were both rank four Celestials, the Dragonblood warriors’ physical bodies were several times stronger than the Dragonmark warriors’. That was the difference created by experiencing bitter tribulations several times.

“Not bad, but do you think this is enough? Are you going to collapse just because of this?” Long Chen frowned at the pale Dragonmark warriors.

“Boss, we can keep going!” cried a Dragonmark warrior with an ashamed expression.

They all saw that while it felt like their combat power was rapidly catching up to the Dragonblood warriors, making it so they felt like they weren’t much weaker, this tribulation revealed that there was still a large gap between them and the Dragonblood warriors.

“I don’t want you to keep going, I want you to attack! What are you afraid of? Didn’t I already say that if the heavens collapse, I will hold them up? Go all-out attacking! No defending at all!” shouted Long Chen.

The Dragonmark warriors were still in defensive postures despite now daring to fight back. Nevertheless, they didn’t dare to take the initiative to attack.

But hearing this, they clenched their teeth. If they died, then they died. It was time to go all-out.

The Dragonmark warriors took on an attitude as though they had accepted that they would die today. They unleashed all their power, attacking the lightning. But after just the first attack, they found that the weather seemed to have improved. Enduring the lightning also became easier.

“Gu Yang, continue,” said Long Chen.

Gu Yang walked the path of a body cultivator. His aura was the strongest, and heavenly tribulation loved that aura the most. So Gu Yang’s provocation was the most effective.

The lightning tribulation was unleashing lightning based on Gu Yang’s cultivation base. As a result, those rank four Celestials were unlucky. They were enduring the tribulation of a rank five Celestial.

But as everyone went all-out attacking, any lightning that appeared would be instantly blown apart, and the resulting lightning runes filled the air. A sea of lightning runes had piled up. Bathed within those lightning runes, everyone felt their bodies being purified and strengthened.

The wood cultivators were also bathed in the lightning runes. Although they didn’t need to bear any attacks, they found that they were starting to become unable to bear it. They felt like they were about to die.

Suddenly, a lightning chain flew out, pulling them out. Those wood cultivators flew to Long Chen’s side.

Once they were beside Long Chen, they suddenly found that the terrifying thunderforce surrounding them was isolated. They relaxed, and as a result, they collapsed on the ground.

A huge lightning dragon swam around Long Chen. The lightning attacks falling toward Long Chen were all devoured by it. It was like a giant umbrella, protecting all of them.

“Many thanks, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen.”

Those wood cultivators felt so emotional that they were about to cry. Just now, they really had felt like they were about to die.

“You still have some remaining thunderforce in your bodies. Don’t blindly dispel it. All objects have things that restrain them and things that boost them. Thunderforce restrains you because of your wood attribute, but it can also be beneficial. Use it to provoke your wood attribute original runes. When they sense the danger, they will instinctively draw out your spiritual yuan to strengthen themselves, allowing them to grow an extra time. This is an opportunity the heavens have bestowed only to you, so don’t waste it,” said Long Chen.

Those wood cultivators couldn’t help being both grateful and ashamed. Long Chen had only forced them to go through such a terrifying lightning tribulation for their own good.

Long Chen viewed these wood cultivators as very important, and he was preparing to keep them permanently. Of course, he would gather some related information about wood cultivators and their needs as well. Everything was within his control.

The only thing was that wood cultivators possessed weak constitutions. This was their current limit. Any more and it would actually be dangerous.

“Boss, my constitution is weak! I also need protection!” cried Guo Ran upon seeing that Long Chen had saved the wood cultivators. He began moving over.

“Scram! Gu Yang, what are you doing? If even the weakest fellow has time to chat, you’re clearly not going hard enough!” shouted Long Chen.

“Boss, just wait and see!” replied Gu Yang. A rune lit up on his forehead, and a pillar of light soared through the clouds. The tribulation clouds shook intensely.

The sky split open as huge lightning beasts appeared, charging down on them. The Dragonmark warriors turned green with terror. They had never seen or heard of this kind of lightning beast appearing in a tribulation.

“Hehe, Guo Ran, don’t blame your brothers for not being loyal. Next time, remember that drawing attention to yourself should depend on the situation.”

Gu Yang laughed wickedly. All his runes formed a resonance with the world and shot toward the sky. Wielding his spear, he crashed into the first lightning beast. The huge lightning beast blew apart, unleashing endless runes.

Gu Yang was able to destroy one of those five-hundred-meter lightning beasts with one blow, all while smiling. That shocked the Dragonmark warriors, and it fully ignited their hot blood.

They found that the difference between them and the Dragonblood warriors was truly immense. They refused to accept this. If this continued, they would appear too useless.

“Kill them!” All of them charged toward the lightning beasts. They once more found the feeling they had had when killing ninth rank devil beasts in the Infernal Devil Abyss. They no longer had the slightest fear.

All their fear did was make them lose face. Even they felt too ashamed to show their faces. In fact, they felt like were bringing shame to the Dragonblood Legion. They had to retrieve their face.

“Meng Qi, Wan-er, come over.” Long Chen called over Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er. “The two of you just needed to allow your rune to obtain the recognition of the lightning tribulation. Your bodies were originally in a flawless state, so you don’t need to use this thunderforce to temper yourselves. You can come watch the fun as well.”

“Hehe, I forgot.” Meng Qi was a bit red. On the other hand, Tang Wan-er had a teasing smile.

Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er both had special constitutions. The lightning tribulation was nothing more than an approval process for them and didn’t really bring many benefits to them either way.

“Oh, Guo Ran seems to be injured,” said Meng Qi.

“Ignore him. He’s once more up to his little tricks. Don’t get fooled by his appearance. Otherwise, that fellow will definitely begin to wail and cry, saying he’s going to die and such. His shamelessness knows no bounds.” Long Chen didn’t even look at Guo Ran’s pathetic appearance. Holding Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er’s hands, he pretended to talk and laugh.

Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er also laughed. It was true that Long Chen was the one who understood Guo Ran the best. This fellow was crafty and slippery, and he didn’t like suffering the slightest bit.

“He doesn’t walk an ordinary cultivation path, so he doesn’t need to do this either, right?” asked Meng Qi.

“That’s different. The power of his physical body is extremely important. Although his power is the lowest amongst the entire faction, once he puts on his armor, even I would have a headache dealing with him. Once he is clad in his armor, his power will multiply by tens or even hundreds of times. It’s extremely monstrous. But his armor only multiplies his original power, and so the stronger his physical body, the more powerful he’ll be once he puts on his armor. Of course, he also understands this principle. But he doesn’t like to suffer this kind of pain, so he’ll try to escape. He’ll try to get by simply by using his armor to cover up his weaknesses,” said Long Chen.

In truth, Guo Ran’s character was not what a cultivator should possess. If he had Gu Yang’s power and made a specialized armor, adding on his concealed weapons, Long Chen would flee whenever he saw Guo Ran.

But he refused to make something out of himself. Other than when it came to forging, he was too lazy, lazy to the point that there was no saving him. His power was built entirely through Long Chen’s medicinal pills. He didn’t even cultivate. That was why his normal combat power was the weakest amongst them all.

“Boss…” As expected, not much time had passed before Guo Ran intentionally drew Long Chen’s attention to his plight.

“What is it?”

“Boss, I’ve broken my limits seven times already, and I brushed against death’s shoulder nine times. I can’t hold on any longer. I’m going to die… Boss, save me…” As he spoke, Guo Ran coughed up blood, appearing extremely wretched.

“What did you say? The thunder is too loud and I can’t hear you,” said Long Chen.

Guo Ran once more shouted it. Long Chen’s expression changed slightly. Just as Guo Ran thought Long Chen was shocked and going to save him, Long Chen said, “Sorry, my ears are ringing from the thunder, and I can’t hear anything. Meng Qi, quick, can you tell what he’s saying?”

Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er were both curled up in laughter from Long Chen’s display. He was absolutely evil.

Pfft!

This time, Guo Ran truly coughed up a mouthful of blood. He could see that acting pitiable had no chance of success now. If he ran over, he’d just be kicked back, so he could only continue.