“Today, this Seat has achieved the Nascent Soul.”

Song Wanxiong stood imperious atop a churning tide of blood, his gaze sweeping over Daoist Lingxiu and Daoist Lingyin of the Mystic One Sect, and Qin Ting and Xiao Wen of the Little Sky Net Sect.

“Do you still dare to resist?” His voice boomed like thunder. “Kneel and beg for mercy, and I may grant you a swift death!”

The two Mystic One Sect Elders exchanged panicked glances, their faces pale. They turned to Ye Guxing.

“Sect Leader Ye… what do we do?” Daoist Lingxiu stammered.

“He has reached the Nascent Soul realm. How can we possibly fight him?”

Ye Guxing’s expression remained as cold as glacial ice. “A Demonic Cultivator is a Demonic Cultivator. Whether at Golden Core or Nascent Soul, filth is filth. What difference does the realm make?”

Qi Wanfa stepped forward, his voice cutting through the fear. “If you submit to a demon, you have two futures: either he drains your Essence Blood dry, or you are forced to cultivate Demonic Arts. Tell me, if you walk that path, can you still call yourselves Cultivators?”

Daoist Lingxiu and Daoist Lingyin fell silent.

In the Southern Domain, the path of Cultivation usually ended at the Golden Core; hope for further advancement was nonexistent. But defecting to a Demonic Cultivator? that was walking on a knife’s edge. No one knew when a lunatic like Song Wanxiong might decide he was thirsty.

The selfishness and volatility of Demonic Cultivators were ingrained in their very marrow. The higher their cultivation, the more their sanity frayed, and the less they valued human life.

If Song Wanxiong possessed even a fraction of Ye Guxing’s honor, they might have surrendered immediately. But he did not.

Suddenly, Song Wanxiong frowned, his gaze shifting to the side.

“You two from the Little Sky Net Sect. Where do you think you are going?”

Qin Ting and Xiao Wen, faces obscured by veils, did not dignify him with an answer. They simply accelerated, leading their disciples away from the battlefield.

They dare ignore me?

“Presumptuous!”

Song Wanxiong roared in fury. He waved a hand, and crimson Spiritual Power condensed into a massive spear of blood, hurling it toward the retreating backs of the two Elders.

Qin Ting and Xiao Wen reacted instantly. They unleashed a dense cloud of silver threads, weaving them into a complex, shimmering net to intercept the attack—the Heavenly Mechanism Net.

Pfft!

With a soft sound, the blood spear tore through the net as if it were made of wet paper.

The eyes of the Little Sky Net Elders went wide with shock. Our combined defense… pierced in a single strike?

The power of a Nascent Soul was truly terrifying!

They dared not hesitate. Two silvery-white spindles flew from their sleeves, growing rapidly in size to shield them from the incoming spear.

BOOM!

The impact shook the air. The blood spear was finally halted.

Qin Ting and Xiao Wen breathed a sigh of relief, but Song Wanxiong merely let out a sinister chuckle. He slapped the empty air in front of him, channeling a surge of Spiritual Power directly into the distant spear.

Crack!

The two silver spindles were blasted away. One crashed near the Wanchun Valley forces, the other flew miles off toward the Ten Thousand Beasts Market.

Seeing the blood spear continuing its trajectory with undiminished momentum, Qin Ting and Xiao Wen made a split-second decision. They dodged laterally, abandoning their formation.

They could no longer protect their disciples.

“Run!”

The Little Sky Net Sect disciples screamed in terror, scattering in all directions. One unlucky disciple was skewered by the spear, exploding into a mist of gore, but the diversion allowed the Elders to escape.

In that moment of chaos, a black sword materialized from the void, stabbing viciously at Song Wanxiong’s brow.

Song Wanxiong sneered. “Ye Guxing. Let’s see how many more tricks you have.”

He raised a hand, commanding the waves of blood to rise up and deflect the blade before rolling forward to swallow the swordsman.

Ye Guxing’s figure blurred, sidestepping the blood tide. His eyes remained locked on his enemy, his black sword gathering momentum for the next lethal strike.

By now, Qin Ting and Xiao Wen had vanished into the distance. The surviving Little Sky Net disciples had also fled.

Daoist Lingxiu and Daoist Lingyin stood frozen, looking at each other in confusion.

Since when were the Little Sky Net Sect members so decisive? They just… left?

Should we run too?

But fear held them in place. To turn their backs on a Nascent Soul cultivator was to invite death.

As they hesitated, and as Song Wanxiong prepared to crush Ye Guxing, the world suddenly grew bright.

Everyone looked up instinctively.

High above, within the roiling black clouds, a blinding core of lightning began to glow, illuminating the heavens.

Song Wanxiong’s face lit up with joy. “Ye Guxing, do you see?”

He spread his arms wide, embracing the sky.

“I have achieved Nascent Soul! The Heavens and Earth celebrate my ascension! I am the true chosen one of the Southern Domain! The will of Heaven is with m—”

KRA-KOOM!

He never finished his sentence.

A pillar of blinding white lightning descended from the zenith. It was instant, absolute, and unavoidable.

It struck Song Wanxiong squarely on the head.

“ARGHHH!”

Song Wanxiong let out a blood-curdling scream. His body turned charred black in an instant, and he plummeted from the sky like a stone.

The majestic waves of blood that surrounded him were vaporized instantly, turning into foul-smelling ash that drifted down like gray snow.

“What… what just happened?”

“Could it be… Heaven has opened its eyes?” Daoist Lingxiu sent a frantic mental message to Lingyin. “Song Wanxiong slaughtered so many innocents, committed such heinous acts… is Heaven punishing him?”

Ye Guxing wasted no time on philosophy.

Seeing his enemy struck down, he channeled his remaining Spiritual Power into his black sword and slashed a massive wave of sword energy at the falling, charred figure.

Song Wanxiong didn’t dare block. He transformed into a bloody rainbow mid-fall, shooting toward the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range in a desperate attempt to flee.

Something is wrong!

Why did the lightning strike me?

Am I truly so evil that even the Heavens cannot tolerate me?

But the faster he flew, the more violently the clouds churned above him. He had barely covered three miles when a second bolt of lightning crashed down.

BOOM!

Song Wanxiong’s defenses shattered. The newly formed “Blood Infant” sitting in his dantian screamed in agony, its red skin cracking like porcelain.

“No more… surely there’s no more?”

He pushed his speed to the limit, trying to outrun the storm.

But the storm was not weather. It was judgment.

The third bolt fell. Then the fourth.

Song Wanxiong was smashed into the dirt. His body was a ruined, blackened husk. His Spiritual Power was a flickering candle in the wind.

Inside him, the Blood Infant was missing an arm and a leg, trembling in terror. He was on the verge of death.

“WHY!” Song Wanxiong screamed at the sky, his voice raw with despair. “Why do you want to kill me?!”

“Because you deserve to die!”

Ye Guxing caught up, his sword raised for the execution.

CRACK-DOOM!

The fifth bolt descended, enveloping both Song Wanxiong and Ye Guxing in a blinding cage of electricity.

“Urgh!”

Ye Guxing, caught off guard, was blasted backward. He vomited a mouthful of blood, his clothes shredded, his black sword nearly flying from his grip.

“Sect Leader Ye!” Daoist Lingxiu shouted. “It is Heaven’s punishment! Do not stand near him, or you will share his calamity!”

Ye Guxing realized the danger instantly and retreated rapidly.

Even though Ye Guxing had inadvertently absorbed some of the fifth bolt’s power, Song Wanxiong was finished. He lay in the crater, smoke rising from his flesh.

He looked up. The clouds were still churning. The lightning was still charging.

It wasn’t over.

In that moment of absolute despair, clarity pierced through Song Wanxiong’s madness.

“No…” he rasped. “This isn’t because of my sins.”

“This… this is the trial of the Nascent Soul!”

He laughed, a dry, horrific sound.

“The Upper Sects of the Central Heaven Domain… they promised us the Nascent Soul Pill… but they never mentioned the Heavenly Tribulation!”

“They never intended for the Southern Domain to have a Nascent Soul cultivator! It was a conspiracy from the start!”

“The Nascent Soul is a trap! The Wanchun Valley earth vein is likely a lie! They gave us thirty years just to watch us slaughter each other like dogs!”

As Song Wanxiong roared his final realization, the sixth bolt of lightning descended.

BOOM!

And then, silence.

The dark clouds slowly dispersed. The thunder faded. The sun broke through, bathing the ruined landscape in gentle, mocking light.

Daoist Lingxiu, Daoist Lingyin, Ye Guxing, Qi Wanfa, and Yin Hong—the five Golden Core survivors—hovered in the air, staring at the smoking crater.

“Is he… dead?”

“He must be.”

“Those final words…” Daoist Lingxiu swallowed hard. “Were they true?”

“I fear they were,” Qi Wanfa said heavily. “I once traveled to the Central Heaven Domain. I heard rumors of a ‘Heavenly Tribulation’ that cultivators face when breaking through, but I never saw it.”

He gestured to Ye Guxing. “Sect Leader Ye was struck simply for being close to him. This proves it is not about good or evil. Anyone who attempts to reach Nascent Soul triggers this calamity.”

Daoist Lingyin gnashed his teeth. “So… the Upper Sects set us up to die.”

“What do we do now?”

Ye Guxing stepped forward. His robes were tattered, his body scorched, but his eyes were still sharp.

“First,” he said coldly, “we kill every remaining Demonic Cultivator in these mountains.”

The other four exchanged glances and nodded grimly. They turned and led their disciples into the ruins of the Spirit Beast Sect. The purge began.

Ten thousand miles away, beneath the walls of Haojing City, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

A Daoist with a long, horse-like face rode slowly on a donkey. He wore a heavy cloak, his expression relaxed as the donkey trotted along the dusty road.

“The four sects have united,” he muttered to himself. “The Spirit Beast Sect cannot hold against Ye Guxing.”

He patted the donkey’s neck.

“This Daoist does not stand beneath crumbling walls. It is best to make plans early.”

He looked ahead at the vast world.

“But where to go next? Ah, well. Let us walk and see.”