“Master!”

“Sect Master!”

Several streaks of rainbow light descended swiftly. Seeing her disciples arriving, Guan Xuelan forced her expression back to a mask of calm. Fortunately, in the chaos, no one noticed the terror lurking in her eyes.

The disciples were captivated by the terrifying thunderclouds swirling above, their faces twisted with horror.

“What is happening? Could it be that Third Senior Sister has concocted some pill that heaven and earth cannot tolerate?”

“What grade would a pill need to be to reach this level? It’s terrifying!”

“Oh no, Third Senior Sister is still inside!”

“She… she won’t be in danger, will she?”

Their voices trembled. Even standing at the edge of the formation, the sheer pressure of the lightning made their hearts quake. They could only imagine the hellscape within the storm.

“This lightning resembles Heavenly Punishment; it is extraordinary,” Guan Xuelan ordered, her voice frosty. “Activate the Sect-Protecting Grand Formation immediately! Gather the strength of the entire sect to resist it!”

She didn’t understand why this was happening, but the primal fear in her gut screamed at her to act. She needed to muster the full power of the sect to test the might of this tribulation.

While Guan Xuelan rallied the sect to confront the heavens, inside the thunderclouds, the reality was far grimmer.

Beside the grave mound, Xu Wanqing’s face was as pale as paper.

Thousands of thunder dragons coiled around her. Each shift of their bodies released waves of power that threatened to crush her existence. One particularly massive, five-clawed Thunder Dragon loomed closest; its mere proximity made Xu Wanqing feel as if her flesh was being torn apart.

This was the King of the Thunder Dragons.

They circled her like predators, not attacking yet, but waiting.

The oppressive force alone was torture. Xu Wanqing felt her spirit fracturing under the weight.

Seeing the dragons staring at her with judgment in their eyes, Xu Wanqing hardened her heart. She gritted her teeth and shouted into the storm.

“Gu Xiu deserved to die anyway!”

“To die for the sect is his honor!”

ROAR—!

A thunder dragon let out a furious bellow.

Xu Wanqing felt as if she had been struck by a mountain. She collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood profusely.

A single roar had severely injured her.

The other thunder dragons no longer hesitated. They charged.

Xu Wanqing, driven by a death wish, summoned a burst of flame in her hand. As she hurled her attacks at the divine beasts, she screamed her defiance.

“Whether what Elder Senior Sister said about Providence is true or not… Gu Xiu must die!”

“If it is true, then he died contributing to the sect! This is supreme glory, his best destination!”

“If it is false, he was just a cripple clinging to life, plagued by a Dao Injury! Death would be his liberation!”

“With him dead, everyone will be better off!”

“I built him a grave mound; that already counts as remembering past sentiments and showing mercy!”

As she raved, Xu Wanqing blasted her strange fires frantically at the dragons.

But the flames she had painstakingly subdued over decades dissipated instantly upon contact with the divine lightning. They couldn’t even singe a scale.

Instead, the thunder dragons began their work.

They didn’t execute her instantly. They tortured her.

Xu Wanqing felt as if she had been thrown into a cosmic millstone. The lightning ground against her bones, her blood, her soul, and her spirit.

Bit by bit, she was flayed and crushed.

The agony was boundless. Xu Wanqing could no longer speak; she could only emit shrill, inhuman wails of misery.

This was the Great Dao Millstone. No mortal could resist it.

But just when Xu Wanqing thought her soul was about to be scattered into nothingness, the torment ended without warning.

She opened her eyes in confusion.

The Thunder Dragon King was staring at her. Its profound gaze held a peculiar expression.

Xu Wanqing recognized it.

It was disdain.

Contempt.

It looked at her as if killing her would be letting her off too easily. As if staining its claws with her blood would be an insult to its dignity.

The next moment, the Thunder Dragon King let out a soft cry, turned, and soared straight into the highest heavens. The other dragons howled once more at the broken woman before following their king, vanishing into the void.

Witnessing this, Xu Wanqing felt no joy.

Quite the opposite. She felt an unprecedented humiliation.

These thunder dragons could have annihilated her with a thought, yet they couldn’t even be bothered to finish the job.

Compared to dying in battle, being looked down upon by the heavens themselves was the ultimate disgrace.

Pfft!

A mouthful of blood sprayed from her lips. Her body, now like tattered cloth, gave out. As the pressure of the thunderclouds lifted, she collapsed, her eyes rolling back as she fainted into the mud.

Outside Jade Pill Peak, the disciples manning the Sect-Protecting Grand Formation noticed the change immediately.

“The heavenly lightning has dispersed! It’s gone!”

“We are saved!”

“Heaven and earth have shown mercy! Our Azure Mystic Sacred Land is righteous; we could not suffer divine retribution!”

Disciples slumped to the ground, weeping with relief. For a moment, they had truly believed the sect was doomed to destruction. But in the end, they were still alive.

Even Guan Xuelan sighed in relief, though her heart remained heavy with suspicion. The punishment had arrived too inexplicably and left too abruptly.

“Why are you all crying about heaven’s pity?” Lu Qingyao’s voice cut through the celebration.

Everyone looked up, bewildered.

Lu Qingyao stood tall, her chin raised. “This is our Master demonstrating her power! It is our Azure Mystic Sacred Land united in heart! Our Grand Formation is peerlessly strong! It made even heavenly might feel fear! It made the lightning retreat three paces!”

What?

The crowd was stunned. But then, voices began to chime in.

“Right! Junior Sister speaks correctly! Man can conquer nature! We don’t need to fear any lightning tribulation!”

“Junior Martial Aunt is right! Our Azure Mystic Sacred Land does not fear Heavenly Punishment!”

“Even Heaven itself must retreat before us!”

The cheers grew louder, fueled by arrogance and relief.

Even Guan Xuelan began to wonder if she had overthought things. Perhaps… man really could conquer nature?

“Third Senior Sister!”

A cry of alarm snapped Guan Xuelan back to reality. She ascended Jade Pill Peak immediately, followed by several disciples.

When they reached the summit, everyone gasped.

Xu Wanqing lay unconscious, her body a ruin of wounds.

The once lush and fragrant Jade Pill Peak had been reduced to scorched earth. Every spiritual herb, every tree, every blade of grass had been shattered into dust.

Only one thing remained unscathed.

The small mound of earth before Xu Wanqing.

However, the tombstone had changed.

Originally, it read: Sect-Abandoner Gu Xiu’s Tomb.

Now, six of the characters were charred black, illegible. Only two characters remained, stark and untouched:

Tomb • Sect

Seeing this, Guan Xuelan’s face turned cold. She raised her hand and shattered the tombstone with a single palm strike.

“Spread the word,” she commanded.

“Jade Pill Peak’s Xu Wanqing concocted a Heaven-grade divine pill for the sect, triggering heavenly tribulation! Our Azure Mystic Sacred Land, united in heart, has repelled the heavens!”

“Xu Wanqing has succeeded in her alchemy and gained sudden enlightenment. She requires immediate seclusion to recover!”

As the Sect Master, she knew how to spin a narrative. The Heavenly Punishment was bad news, but with the right words, it could become a legend of their strength.

While the Azure Mystic Sacred Land whitewashed the disaster, in a valley far away, Gu Xiu suddenly looked up at the sky.

He felt a faint sensation, as if something were watching him. The gaze carried a hint of encouragement.

But it lasted only an instant before vanishing without a trace.

Gu Xiu frowned slightly but dismissed the thought. He glanced down at the talisman seal from the Azure Mystic disciples.

He had finally worn it down completely. The seal was gone.

This meant that no matter how hard the sect tried, they would never be able to trace the deaths of their disciples back to him.

“Three months to return to the Ninth Layer of Qi Condensation…” Gu Xiu murmured. “Miraculous for others, but still… not enough.”

He needed to become stronger.

Silently, he took out the Green Bamboo Rod. He hesitated no longer.

He cast his line into the void, eager to see what he would hook this time.