“Protect me Lord Whiskers! This is gonna be rough!”

“Meow!”

****

Not wasting any more time, he assumed the lotus position and cut off all outside disturbances.

Whiskers saw this and‌ immediately picked up the slack defending Long Di from the hundreds of heavenly levyance tribulation lightning weapons that flew at them from all directions.

Soon. the lightning sea around them vanished and the scene within became visible to all those around them.

The experts gasped in astonishment. They saw a torrent of heavenly levyance tribulation lightning weapons raining down from the tribulation clouds in increasing intensity.

“Grand Preceptor, have you ever seen anything like this!?” Putting aside her pride, Copper Seat Tong asked the old demon if he had any explanation for what they were seeing.

The Grand Preceptor nodded. “This is turning into a heavenly execution.”

“Heavenly execution?” One of the imperial protectors asked,

Not just the imperial protectors, even for many of the powerhouses present, this was not a term that many, if not any of them knew.

They were all either leaders or high-ranking officials of their respective powers, meaning they had access to knowledge not necessarily available to the public. Yet, this specific term eluded them still.

They all experienced heavenly tribulations, but not once had they heard of heavenly executions.

The Grand Preceptor was a witness to ages long gone and therefore chose to shed some light on the darker more shadowy aspects of the cultivation world. “It is an extreme form of tribulation which… well, it’s not right to refer to it as a tribulation in the traditional sense. As you know, heavenly tribulations exist to form a barrier for cultivators to ensure that those who are reaching certain levels of strength are worthy to reach there. To do this, it will ensure that all who undergo it will be strengthened in spite of anything else. Mental strength, spiritual force, spiritual qi, and somatic essence will all substantially increase from the tribulation itself, depending on what is being cultivated. Of course, one must be sure that they are strong enough to survive the tribulation, lest they be destroyed by its destructive energy. This is different from the surge in strength the realm increase alone would give you.”

“We know!” an impatient family leader blurted out before he collected himself and bowed in apology for his outburst.

The Grand Preceptor waved his hand to indicate the family leader needn’t worry about it. He himself felt as if he was rattling on. Maybe his old age had loosened his mouth a bit.

He then continued. “Heavenly tribulations are not safe, but for those of sufficient talent, they are not unduly dangerous either. Heavenly executions are another matter entirely…”

His voice underwent a grave shift. “Heavenly executions are not meant to strengthen its target. It is meant to kill, pure and simple. If we say that for the average cultivator, a heavenly tribulation contains seven paths to life and three paths to death, then a heavenly execution contains 9.5 paths to death and half a path to life.”

“Then this child-”

“Is something the Heavens have deemed unacceptable to exist just like the shidashi mao,” the Grand Preceptor said, answering the question of the demon that spoke.

Despite all this, the Grand Preceptor was the only one that realised the oddity of all this.

Heavenly tribulations were something that only came into play for cultivators at the star creation stage and above. And even then, any subsequent tribulations only came at the advancement of a major realm. So then, what was this!?

Long Di was a mere four-star-core martial master. Why in the world was he able to call down a tribulation, and on the heavenly execution level no less?

“What existence is this child? Is it even more than we thought? Perhaps.” he whispered to himself.

He then looked towards a dome of light that sat strong within the tribulation. Every now and again, bolts of lightning would burrow inside of it.

“!”

Shu!

Suddenly, the Grand Preceptor took Yaomu Shou and the rest of the disciples and moved far away.

Everyone else reacted a step later, leaving a lone demon startled at their actions.

Krrsssh!

A powerful bolt of lightning brimming with heavenly suppression and a torrential killing intent struck a demon through his forehead with a terrifying piercing blow!

The demon slowly fell from the sky where he stood with the other demons not long after.

Smoke drifted from the hole that was made from the lightning strike, sending a chill up the spines of everyone here.

Copper Seat Tong snorted at the scene. “Foolish! Trying to utilise heavenly gaze into the domain of a tribulation? If that isn’t courting death I don’t know what is.”

The Grand Preceptor came back and shook his head at this demon’s foolishness. Using their heavenly gaze would no doubt draw the attention of the Heavens. During a tribulation, no outside power could interfere lest they be caught up in it.

That demon most likely saw the dome of light that everyone else saw and wished to see what was inside. In truth, many other demons were about to do the same, but the earlier example immediately banished these thoughts.

It was the Destiny Scale that erected the dome to shield itself from prying eyes. It was counting on Long Di to turn this denial into a heavenly execution. That way, anyone that tried to look past its shield with their heavenly gazes would be met with a swift end.

Boom!

The dark clouds overhead lightened in hue to a dark grey as a powerful killing intent suffused the land.

“Heavens!”

A family leader shuddered when he felt the killing intent that the Heavens levied.

“It’s not the Heavens,” the Grand Preceptor advised. “The Heavens are emotionless and don’t have killing intent. It carries out the law that gives it meaning and power. While its hostility can be felt due to the carrying out of said law, that is different from killing intent.”

“Then what-”

“That creature,” the Grand Preceptor nodded in the direction of Lord Whiskers.

“A shidashi mao, so it’s true!” They were all shocked to learn that this was a true shidashi mao.

They knew these were creatures of calamities. Existences denied by the Heavens itself. It was said that the Heavens closed its ‘eye’ and in a moment of carelessness, the shidashi mao came into being. Since then, it had been trying to wipe out this creature in its entirety.

They were even more shocked than Shen Ling and the others. Their knowledge allowed them to know just how dangerous this thing is. The lack of any killing intent earlier baffled them when they saw it and had them doubt the authenticity of its identity.

While the family leaders were all shocked by the presence of a shidashi mao, both the Grand Preceptor and Long Zhe were shocked that Long Di was actually cultivating during a calamity of such a scale!

The clouds above lightened into a dark grey, transforming into what Long Di knew as the heavenly levyance lightning clouds.

‘I guess the right name for these would be heavenly levyance execution clouds. I can feel its desire to wipe me out!’ Long Di was actively drawing in copious amounts of heavenly levyance tribulation lightning energy.

He was now driving it towards the fifth core to light it up!

The problem was that right now, the heavenly execution above had yet to affect the ambient lightning energy all around. Meaning that it was still rationing this poisonous lightning energy.

Long Di’s cauldrons had slowed down to a crawl, meaning that his cultivation was still being stagnated!

He was only able to last so long due to the overwhelmingly powerful nature of his cauldrons.

Bam! Bang!

Lord Whiskers dashed all over at high speeds to destroy the weapons that were heading towards Long Di’s vital areas.

Don’t ask me how Lord Whiskers was familiar enough with the human anatomy to know what was vital from what wasn’t. It just did, and it executed its purpose of keeping him alive as best as it could.

Its killing intent surged like a roaring flood when it felt the familiar rejection of the Heavens. As its killing intent spiked, so did its strength and it was actually managing to heal despite the weapons that plunged themselves into its body dying its fur red!

Hong!

Long Di activated his profound myriad heavenseize physique and there was a great deal of true divine heavenly levyance tribulation lightning within. However, it wasn’t this that Long Di summoned it for.

D-D-D-Dum!

Instead, he called forth the heavenly pressure that his physique naturally possessed and spurred it outwards on his cauldrons. He then activated his cauldronic pressure and used the compounded pressure to force the cauldrons to revolve!

Creak!

The cauldrons groaned rustic screech as Long Di’s pressure forced them to rotate!

Because the energy was being forced through Long Di’s meridians, they inflicted great pain within.

It felt like wet cement filled with gravel was being dragged through his body but still, he persevered.

Of course, this was not enough to daunt Long Di. He continued to the rotation despite the odds.

S-Shing!

The fifth core was flashing a bright grey light to signify the purity of the energy that filled it even now.

DUM!

Suddenly eight cauldrons stalled, cutting the amount of energy he could absorb by eight times!

‘Mu cultivation technique!’ The cultivation technique was actually being removed from his mind by some unknown force.!

His core had now gone dark. This was how it was. If the energy wasn’t enough to light the core, then it would go dark once more.

‘Come on! Breakthrough already!’ Sweat beaded down his brow as he willed his dual pressure to keep the last cauldron running. It was the one that housed the fifth core.

Krrrsh!

Out of options, Long Di summoned the heavenly levyance tribulation lightning out of his physique and into his cauldron on the off chance it would light the damn thing!

This energy had not been stagnated and Long Di could only hope that it would work in allowing the cauldron to keep on spinning. He had never done this before, so the idea never occurred to him until now.

Desperation had summoned the most out-of-pocket ideas to help him in this time of need.

Yet, to his disappointment, the cauldron only slowed, and the core remained dark.

Long Di was even beginning to forget the name the Destiny Scale had given it not long ago.

He held his head down as disappointment had found him again. He wasn’t a stranger to this, but he truly hoped that this thing he created was something that would accompany him for a long time.

Did he need to start all over again?

Use some different type of energy, perhaps?

Vrrrm…

The cauldron trembled as it spun slower and slower. Long Di knew this as the omen to a cauldron, pausing entirely.

Vrrrm!

Suddenly, the cauldron shook again, drawing his attention.

‘Could it be?’

Vrrrm!

The cauldron shook as its rotation speed picked up and the core lit up and bathed the surrounding in a bright grey light!

Seeing that there was hope, Long Di didn’t hesitate to empty his physique’s energy into his cauldron to light the core!

‘Go!’

Krrrsh!

Thunder crashed as the lightning surged from his body in an explosive outburst before it was all directed towards the cauldron!

It drank it up in a frenzy, like a downpour of rain on a scorching desert until finally…

Shing!

Crack!