132: Chapter 132 Thunder Tribulation Undercurrent

That wisp of black was not a dark cloud, but rather a viscous, ink-like substance that seemed alive, slowly seeping from the cracks in the tribulation clouds, carrying a cold and deathly stillness that was completely different from the majesty of the Heavenly Dao.

Wherever it passed, the originally violent lightning seemed to be contaminated, stained with an ominous, grayish hue.

Lin Chen sat cross-legged on the mountaintop, his eyes tightly shut, as the spiritual power from neutralizing the seventh Lightning Tribulation still surged through his Meridians, not yet fully calmed.

Yet, the moment that wisp of black appeared, his heart skipped a beat, and a chill originating from the depths of his Divine Soul made his hair stand on end.

This aura... it was of the same root and Origin as the trace of Devilish Qi he had perceived at the entrance of the Moyuan Secret Realm!

It should not have appeared here! It should not have mingled with the Heavenly Tribulation, which symbolized both rebirth and destruction!

Before Lin Chen could react, that wisp of black seemed to find an outlet, suddenly accelerating like a black venomous python, twisting and roaring as it merged into the eighth Lightning Tribulation that was currently brewing.

"Boom!"

The eighth Lightning Tribulation, which should have been purely destructive Yin lightning, had now transformed into a chaotic pillar of black and white lightning, its power increasing by far more than twofold!

The Death Qi contained within it was no longer merely destroying the Physical Body, but was aimed directly at the Cultivator's Divine Soul and Dao foundation, intending to completely eradicate and corrupt them from the root!

Outside the Lin family's grand Formation, the Loose Cultivator at the Golden Core stage, Master Gu Hong, who had been hiding in the clouds, saw his pupils suddenly constrict.

He stared fixedly at that mutated lightning pillar, his face showing initial shock and suspicion, which then transformed into an uncontrollable surge of wild joy and greed.

"Heaven helps me! It is actually the legendary 'God-Corroding Tribulation Lightning'! Under this lightning, the Divine Soul will surely suffer heavy damage; even if he doesn't die, irremovable Dao wounds will be left on his Golden Core... Lin Chen, your luck has run out!"

He was almost unable to restrain himself, preparing to strike the moment Lin Chen was heavily wounded to seize that Golden Core of superior quality.

However, at the very instant that the black and white lightning pillar was about to strike.

"Hum—"

A low hum resonated from Lin Chen's chest.

That rough stone ring, which had followed him his entire life, flew out uncontrollably, hovering three inches above his head and beginning to spin rapidly.

On the ring's surface, those ancient patterns lit up one by one, emitting a vast and archaic aura.

"Crack-boom!"

The God-Corroding Tribulation Lightning crashed down, aimed directly at Lin Chen's crown.

The stone ring's rotation reached its peak at this moment, and a gray curtain of light, almost invisible to the naked eye, expanded from the ring, like an invisible giant mouth, actively rushing to meet that terrifying lightning pillar.

A bizarre scene unfolded.

That black and white lightning pillar, which could have instantly reduced an ordinary Golden Core Cultivator to ashes, seemed to be thrown into a high-speed grinding mill the moment it touched the gray light curtain.

The cold and deathly black energy within it was forcibly stripped away, decomposed, and ground down, turning into the purest ownerless Yin evil Qi; meanwhile, the pure white lightning that belonged to the Heavenly Tribulation itself was refined into the gentlest Origin Spiritual Qi.

Separated into two, distinct and clear.

The pure white Origin Spiritual Qi, like gentle nectar, was guided by the stone ring and slowly poured onto Lin Chen, repairing the Meridians and Physical Body that had been damaged by the previous Lightning Tribulations.

As for the stripped-away Yin evil Qi, it was unceremoniously devoured by the stone ring, disappearing without a trace.

"Crack... crack-crack..."

The moment the stone ring finished devouring that Yin evil Qi, it emitted a series of faint, crisp sounds.

Lin Chen's heart tightened, and he immediately perceived that three new hair-thin cracks had appeared on the smooth surface of the ring.

This mysterious stone ring had actually paid a price to neutralize this mutated Lightning Tribulation!

In the distance, the wild joy on Master Gu Hong's face froze, replaced by intense disbelief.

"What kind of Magic Treasure is that?! It can actually... actually decompose the tribulation lightning?!"

He stared fixedly at that hovering stone ring, the greed in his eyes ten times greater than before.

Meanwhile, at the core of the Lin family's mountain-protecting Formation, Su Qingyao sat cross-legged with a pale face.

Inside the Pill Furnace in front of her, seven Medicinal Pills the size of dragon eyes, pink throughout but with a trace of eerie black Qi swirling on their surfaces, were trembling violently.

This was the "seven-heart begonia pill" she had painstakingly improved based on an ancient Pill Formula.

The original Pill Formula was extremely poisonous, causing death upon contact, but she had done the opposite, using poison to counteract poison, refining it into a unique Medicinal Pill capable of temporarily "solidifying" the flow of spiritual power.

When she saw that wisp of black appear in the sky, she did not hesitate to activate the Pill Furnace.

"Go!"

Su Qingyao pressed her fingertips firmly against her lips, leaving a striking white mark; with her clear shout, the seven Medicinal Pills turned into seven streaks of pink light, soaring into the sky and precisely embedding themselves into the seven key nodes of the mountain-protecting Formation.

The Formation roared to life, and streams of pink mist rose from the ground, dreamlike and illusory, rapidly gathering at the base of the tribulation clouds.

These pink mists did not oppose the tribulation clouds but, like mercury pouring onto the ground, silently permeated them, precisely attaching themselves to those newly formed, unshaped tributaries of black lightning.

"Sizzle—"

A bizarre solidification occurred.

Those black lightning bolts, which should have been raging and surging, seemed to be instantly frozen, their flow trajectory becoming sluggish and slow.

In this brief stagnation, the scene inside the lightning was clearly exposed—at the core of every wisp of black lightning, there was hidden a grain-sized, faintly glowing black crystal fragment!

It was precisely these fragments that were continuously releasing the Death Qi that polluted the Heavenly Tribulation!

"It is the method of the True Blood Temple!" Su Qingyao's eyes turned cold instantly; she would never mistake that familiar energy fluctuation.

Almost at the same time, Master Gu Hong, hiding on another mountaintop, also saw those crystal fragments clearly.

He turned his head abruptly, his sharp gaze sweeping toward a certain spot in the Void Realm to the southeast, and shouted sternly: "What kind of coward, daring to interfere in another's Heavenly Tribulation! Come out!"

Before his words had faded, the long sword in his hand had already been unsheathed; a brilliant sword light tore through the sky, not striking at Lin Chen, nor at the tribulation clouds, but slashing fiercely toward that empty space!

"Clang!"

Where the sword light reached, the Void Realm rippled like water, and a blood-colored Formation constructed from countless blood runes flashed and vanished.

The sword light collided with the Formation, emitting a harsh sound of clashing metal.

"Hmph!"

A muffled grunt, suppressing pain and shock, came from the other side of the Void Realm from afar, carrying a familiar aura.

Venerable Xueli!

Under Master Gu Hong's strike, the blood-colored Formation trembled violently, its surface blood-light dimming instantly by three parts, clearly having suffered heavy damage.

Su Qingyao, who had taken in all of this through the mountain-protecting Formation, felt a chill in her heart.

She understood that Master Gu Hong was not helping out of kindness, but rather because he would not allow a third party to ruin his "prey."

No matter who it was, they could not lay a hand on Lin Chen's Golden Core before he did!

At this moment, on the mountaintop, Lin Chen's focus was not at all on the clash outside.

The moment the stone ring decomposed the tribulation lightning and poured pure Spiritual Qi into his body, the thunder bead in his palm, condensed from the residual lightning when his son Lin Haoyu underwent tribulation, suddenly resonated strongly with the Five Elements spiritual patterns that had just formed on his arm!

Hum—

A Bloodline connection that spanned space was suddenly established!

Lin Chen's consciousness seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, piercing through endless spatial barriers, and following that ethereal connection, he saw a scene that shook his Divine Soul—

It was an incomparably huge bronze gate, covered in ancient runes that were of the same Origin as the stone ring.

At this moment, the gate was open, with a gap more than half a foot wide, from which endless deathly stillness and Chaos surged out.

And in the center of that void of Chaos behind the gate, a huge and complex embryonic Formation was slowly rotating.

What constituted the Formation were hundreds of fist-sized black crystal fragments, identical to those in the Lightning Tribulation just now!

They were connected to each other by black energy threads, outlining a complete and incomparably clear... cross-planar teleportation Formation!

So that was it!

So this was the true scheme of the True Blood Temple!

They did not want to kill Haoyu, but rather to use the True Earth Origin within Haoyu, along with the power of the stone ring, to locate and even activate this gate!

And polluting his own Heavenly Tribulation was merely a diversion to stall him and buy time for the setup behind the gate!

At this moment, all the clues connected.

"Rumble—!"

The tribulation clouds in the sky had condensed to the extreme.

Su Qingyao's Medicinal Pills and Master Gu Hong's interception could only delay it for a moment.

The final, and most terrifying, ninth Lightning Tribulation, mixed with an even denser ink-black color, transformed into a ferocious black lightning dragon, roaring as it tore through the firmament and crashed down!

This strike was unavoidable!

Lin Chen did not activate the stone ring; instead, with a thought, he recalled the hovering stone ring back into his body.

He straightened his back abruptly, and instead of defending with all his might, he actively withdrew the protective spiritual light on his right shoulder, exposing his left shoulder, completely undefended, to the path of the lightning dragon!

He wanted to use his own Physical Body to personally verify a hypothesis!

"Clan Chief!"

"Husband!"

Exclamations rang out simultaneously from inside and outside the Formation.

"Boom—!!!"

The black lightning dragon's huge dragon claw slammed fiercely onto Lin Chen's left shoulder.

"Puff!"

Lin Chen felt as if he had been dealt a heavy blow, his entire body forcefully smashed down more than ten zhang from the mountaintop, his left shoulder a mass of mangled flesh, deep to the bone, and from the charred wound, wisps of black Death Qi, like maggots clinging to bones, crazily burrowed into his body, attempting to corrode his vitality and Golden Core.

However, at the very instant those Death Qi were about to invade his Meridians, a miraculous scene occurred.

Within the flesh of Lin Chen's charred wound, ancient, earthy-yellow patterns, resembling tortoise shells, stubbornly emerged from the depths of the flesh!

They intertwined, rapidly forming a profound protective rune, sharing the same root and Origin as the tortoise shell patterns that had previously appeared on Lin Haoyu, identical in every way!

The rune flashed with light, forming an invisible barrier that held those terrifying black Death Qi firmly outside the Meridians, unable to advance even an inch!

The father-son Bloodline had produced a dual evolution that transcended time and space at this moment!

"It worked..." Lin Chen coughed up a mouthful of blood-stained black foam, but a trace of a smile appeared on his face.

The pressure of the Lightning Tribulation began to dissipate, and the tribulation clouds in the sky slowly receded, while the newly born Golden Core spun rapidly within his Dantian, emitting an unprecedented, brilliant light.

It worked!

Just at this moment, the stone ring inside his body grew hot again, and a powerful suction force erupted.

Those ownerless black energies that had dissipated into the world with the Lightning Tribulation, as well as the remnants of the blood-colored Formation shattered by Master Gu Hong's sword, seemed to be lethally attracted, turning into two streams of black-red Qi that crazily surged into Lin Chen's body, all devoured by the stone ring.

As the energy poured in, the three new cracks on the stone ring slowly healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

When the last trace of black-red energy was completely devoured, in Lin Chen's Sea of Consciousness, the gray, hazy space inside the stone ring suddenly "boomed" and split open, revealing an ancient cyan Jade Slip.

Lin Chen immersed his consciousness into it and saw, on the flyleaf of the Jade Slip, five vigorous and powerful characters written in a flamboyant style—

Five Elements Unification Record》!

This was the remnant of the supreme Cultivation Technique that the Lin family's brilliant first Ancestral Master had painstakingly researched before disappearing, but ultimately failed to complete!

Lin Chen suppressed the wild joy in his heart, struggled to stand up, and looked toward the direction where Lin Haoyu had escaped, his gaze piercing through layers of obstacles.

The crisis was far from over.

On the other side, in the mountain forest behind the Qingmu Sect.

Lin Haoyu was supporting Tie Xin, and together with Yun Shang, they were quickly retreating toward the direction of the Lin family's encampment, walking unsteadily.

The thrilling Lightning Tribulation just now had exhausted all their mental and physical energy.

"Huff... huff... Brother Lin, your old man... is really not human; that Lightning Tribulation was terrifying just to watch." Tie Xin panted heavily, his face pale, but his tone was full of the relief of having survived a disaster and genuine admiration.

Lin Haoyu did not speak, only looking back at the sky that had returned to calm, his tightly strung heartstrings relaxing slightly.

Just as the three of them were preparing to quicken their pace and completely leave this place of trouble, Yun Shang, who was walking at the back, suddenly paused.

Her cold, clear gaze fell on the leaf of an ordinary shrub by the roadside, and her pupils constricted slightly.

On the back of that emerald green leaf, the morning dew had not yet fully evaporated.

However, next to that crystal-clear dewdrop, there was another highly incongruous, ink-like black water droplet, quietly attached, emitting a faint, almost imperceptible aura of deathly stillness that was exactly the same as in the Secret Realm.

Her gaze extended forward along the path, and soon, she discovered the same black dewdrop on another leaf further away.

They were like silent road signs, pointing toward an unknown direction.