190: Chapter 189 The Sky is Overcast, A Tragedy Begins!

As his last word left his mouth, the originally clear sky suddenly changed color!

Heavy, lead-gray clouds gathered frantically from nowhere, instantly shrouding the sky for dozens of miles around!

The clouds hung low as if within reach, with electric snakes dancing wildly inside and lightning flashing periodically, emitting a dull yet terrifying rumble like ten thousand heavenly drums beating at once!

A destructive, majestic heavenly aura that could cleanse all evil poured down from the nine heavens, firmly locking onto Tian Yin below!

This scene was more than ten times grander than the thunder summoned on Duanlong Cliff!

The dark clouds were no longer just a simple gathering but formed a massive, slowly rotating vortex of thunder!

In the center of the vortex, lightning condensed as if a giant eye of thunder was slowly opening, looking down coldly at the ants below.

Heaven and earth changed color; the winds and clouds surged!

This was a classic technique in cultivation novels to highlight the tension of the battle and the power of the characters through dramatic environmental changes.

Below, those Golden Core Cultivators of the Wang Family had long been scared out of their wits by the sudden celestial phenomenon and terrifying pressure, collapsing one by one with no strength left even to flee.

Wang Lin's face was also deathly pale. As he struggled to withstand the Vajra Puppet's violent attacks, he looked up in horror at the world-ending thunder vortex, his heart filled with despair.

He knew that today, he might truly fall here!

Tian Yin, bearing the brunt of it, felt as if he had been isolated and abandoned by the entire world!

The heavenly aura locking onto him made his soul tremble, and the Xuan Yin spiritual power within his body became sluggish as if it had met its natural nemesis!

He wanted to flee, wanted to use a life-saving secret technique.

But under the lock of that majestic heavenly aura, he found it incredibly difficult even to move a finger!

"No... impossible! How could you summon such heavenly aura?! This isn't a Nascent Soul technique! This is... the power of Heavenly Tribulation?!"

Tian Yin let out a desperate and unwilling roar.

Chen Zilong did not answer.

His hands, forming seals, slowly pushed forward as if pushing an entire world of thunder!

"Fall."

A single word, whispered softly, yet it sounded like the final judgment.

"RUMBLE—!!!!!!!"

An indescribable roar, like the creation of the world!

From the center of the vortex, a terrifying pillar of thunder, as thick as a water vat and condensed to the extreme in a destructive azure blue...

Like a spear of judgment cast by a god, it tore through the sky, carrying a supreme power that purified all evil and destroyed all obstacles, crashing down toward the immobilized Tian Yin!

Wherever the pillar of thunder passed, space warped and light was annihilated, leaving only the purest, most extreme destructive lightning!

Its speed surpassed the limits of thought!

Tian Yin only had time to let out a short, agonizing scream before being completely swallowed by the azure pillar of thunder!

There was no explosion, no fireworks. Only the purest, most extreme power of thunderous purification.

The lightning lasted for a full three breaths before slowly dissipating.

The dark clouds in the sky quickly receded, and sunlight spilled down once more.

In its place, only a bottomless, charred crater remained, its edges smooth as a mirror and wisps of blue smoke rising. At the bottom of the pit, not even a speck of ash was left.

Tian Yin, along with the body he had undergone Possession with, his magical treasures, his storage bag, and even his soul...

Under that "Nine Heavens Thunder Movement," he was completely vaporized, his body and soul destroyed, erased from this world so cleanly that not a single trace remained.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Only the whimpering of the wind over the scorched earth and the occasional dull thuds from the exchange between the Vajra Puppet and Wang Lin could be heard.

Everyone still alive, including Wang Lin, stared blankly at the charred crater, their minds completely empty.

One move!

Just one move!

The aggressive and arrogant Elder Tian Yin, a Nascent Soul Cultivator of the Xuan Yin Sect, just like that...

Was gone?

Without even a struggle?

What terrifying power was this? What overbearing thunder technique was this?

Chen Zilong slowly withdrew his hand, and the suffocating pressure around him receded slightly.

His face was slightly pale; that "Nine Heavens Thunder Movement" just now had drained more than half of the spiritual power he had recovered and placed a significant burden on his soul.

But the effect was clearly surprisingly good.

He turned his gaze to the other side, toward Wang Lin, who was locked in a fierce battle with the Vajra Puppet but was now scared out of his wits.

When Wang Lin met Chen Zilong's calm yet chilling gaze, he shuddered as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe!

With Tian Yin's fate right before his eyes, how could he have any fighting spirit left?

"Flee! I must flee!"

This thought instantly occupied his entire mind.

Revenge, face—in the face of absolute power and death, they were all bullshit!

He suddenly made a feint with his blade, forcing the Vajra Puppet back half a step, and then without hesitation, he burned his essence blood to perform his trump card escape technique—the Blood Shadow Evasion!

His entire being transformed into a tiny, almost invisible blood-red thread, fleeing for his life at an incredible speed in the opposite direction of Chen Zilong!

He didn't even care about the Golden Core disciples of the Wang Family slumped on the ground.

Chen Zilong watched the blood-red light of Wang Lin's escape disappear into the horizon and did not pursue.

Firstly, the opponent's escape technique was extremely fast, and after burning essence blood, it would be difficult to catch up in a short time.

Secondly, his previous strike had consumed a huge amount of energy, and he needed time to recover.

Thirdly... Wang Lin's escape might not necessarily be a bad thing.

His gaze was profound.

If Wang Lin fled back to Qingyan City, he would surely report today's events to the Xuan Yin Sect with added embellishments.

With a branch sect elder killed, the Xuan Yin Sect would never let the matter drop.

Greater trouble was likely still to come.

But this was exactly one of the effects Chen Zilong wanted.

He needed pressure, he needed combat, and he needed the tempering of the edge of life and death to accelerate the consolidation of his cultivation and even seek a breakthrough.

The Xuan Yin Sect might become a decent whetstone on his way to the Pill Mansion.

Of course, the prerequisite was that he had to leave this place first and find a safer location to digest the gains from this breakthrough and prepare for the Xuan Yin Sect's retaliation.

He glanced at the deathly pale and trembling Golden Core Cultivators of the Wang Family on the ground, then at the silently standing Vajra Puppet beside him.

"Vajra, clean this up."

He instructed calmly.

The light in the Vajra's crimson eye sockets flashed as it took heavy steps toward the collapsed cultivators...

A moment later, Chen Zilong put away the Vajra Puppet and turned into an inconspicuous streak of light, quietly departing toward the east, a direction completely different from where Wang Lin had fled.

The desolate mountains remained, and the charred pit endured, witnessing a brief yet incredibly shocking battle and the true return of a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

And the storm was only just beginning to brew.