Chapter 998 - Eighth and Ninth Great Heavens
On the eighth layer of heaven, s.h.i.+ Hao saw a faint stream of light that split apart the mountain range. Then, he saw a city up ahead that was incomparably ma.s.sive. The city gates were tightly closed, and it didn’t open up to him.
All around him, mountains rose and fell, ancient trees towering. Everything was, without a doubt, formed from lightning. This wasn’t a true scene, but it was precisely because of this that it was frightening.
The mountain region was extremely quiet, the enormous mountain forest not making any sounds despite being formed from lightning, as if they had remained lonely and desolate throughout time, lacking the slightest sound.
s.h.i.+ Hao entered the mountain forest, walking towards the enormous and mysterious city. He frowned. This city suppressed the eighth heaven, and only by making it through this place could he see the skies of a higher layer of heaven.
Divine King Tribulation was precisely this sinister, displaying all types of abnormalities.
s.h.i.+ Hao got closer, arriving in front of a ma.s.sive city gate. When he saw this, he sensed an extremely ancient feeling from it. The city walls were mottled with dull colors, full of blade traces and sword holes.
He silently pondered for a bit. Had this type of city existed before in reality?
He always felt like the things he saw in the lightning tribulation corresponded to things of the outside world. This was probably why an imprint was left, displaying all types of things.
Suddenly, a m.u.f.fled sound could be heard. The city released a snow-white radiance that was sparkling and resplendent. Then, an enormous object appeared.
This was a skull, one that was comparable to a city in size. It was white like fine jade, translucent like crystal. It rolled out, crus.h.i.+ng towards s.h.i.+ Hao.
He really never expected that an enormous snow-white skull would appear from this kind of enormous city, rolling out just like that.
Peng!
Sh Hao"s palm struck down on that skull. It was just like striking Immortal Gold, causing kengqiang sounds to ring through the air, sparks flying in all directions. Its toughness was a bit frightening.
With his current strength, he unexpectedly couldn’t shatter it.
A light immediately shone from within the skull, the eye sockets especially releasing sharp radiance. In addition, the lower jaw was opened, snow-white teeth releasing light as it bit down towards s.h.i.+ Hao.
What kind of thing was this?
s.h.i.+ Hao resisted the skull’s blinding radiance, his seven apertures all releasing auspicious multicolored light, surrounding s.h.i.+ Hao, making this place hazy, increasingly difficult to observe his surroundings.
At this time, s.h.i.+ Hao felt an incredibly uncomfortable feeling, as if he was stuck in a swamp, landing in a spiderweb, more trapped the greater he struggled.
The seven apertures released multicolored light, skull s.h.i.+ning, crus.h.i.+ng down on s.h.i.+ Hao!
Kacha!
Finally, it devoured s.h.i.+ Hao, its lower jaw closing, holding him in its mouth.
Then, it quickly became like a pill furnace, raging flames surging, absorbing lightning force through its openings to refine the s.h.i.+ Hao within.
Skull Furnace, this was a sinister precious artifact that displayed immeasurable might. It alone suppressed s.h.i.+ Hao.
Hong!
Immediately afterwards, heaven and earth erupted, the sky full of lightning radiance disappearing, all of the lightning rus.h.i.+ng towards that skull furnace, dazzling as it all flowed along the seven apertures.
“Eighth layer of heaven, all of the heavenly tribulation force condensed together, all of the force concentrated to kill Huang!”
Everyone became stupefied, feeling utterly shocked.
At the same time, everyone saw that ancient city became like a stove, supporting the skull, raging viciously. It absorbed the force of heaven, becoming more and more strange and frightening.
The enormous skull was supported above the ancient city. Kengqiang sounds rang out; this was s.h.i.+ Hao’s struggle as he struck the skull.
“What kind of power is this?”
Forget about normal people, even heavenly deities were terrified. When they pictured themselves in this situation, they knew that they would undoubtedly die, difficult to preserve their life.
This wasn’t a streak or two of lightning, but the concentration of all the divine light filling the heavens. All of the electrical radiance suppressed towards a single place together.
This was the joint force of the eighth layer of heaven, the fusion of all heavenly tribulation, attacking that place with boundless power.
When others faced tribulation, it would always be streak after streak of lightning, where would they see such an astonis.h.i.+ng sight, the lightning that engulfed the heavens above and earth below concentrated together, bombarding that place?!
This was a life and death trial. Even s.h.i.+ Hao himself never expected to be on the defensive like this, that it would be this dangerous, exceeding everything in the past.
Inside the Skull Furnace, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. The dense lightning radiance turning into liquid, submerging s.h.i.+ Hao within, the enormous heavenly judgment force crus.h.i.+ng all tangible matter.
Right now, s.h.i.+ Hao was in danger. All of the lightning radiance condensed over, focusing on his body. In that instant, his flesh was in tatters, bones broken, entire body scorched black, as if he was completely cooked.
The s.p.a.ce between s.h.i.+ Hao’s brows split apart, blood blossoming, primordial spirit almost blasted out.
This primordial spirit didn’t enter the lightning, enduring the ravaging, the thousands of tempering, tens of thousands instances of refining, simply about to explode.
Divine King Tribulation, this was a h.e.l.l-life torment that made one wish they were dead rather than alive.
The force to overturn the heavens, the boundless lightning, it surged in this bone furnace.
s.h.i.+ Hao’s flesh was in tatters, his primordial spirit also cracked. He was like a candle flame in the wind, his life possibly extinguished at any moment.
“Heal!”
s.h.i.+ Hao shouted loudly. The True Primordial Record operated, and together with the Willow Deity’s technique, he did everything he could to mend his injured body and primordial spirit.
One had to admit his strength was powerful, achievements in bone texts profound. His completely broken up flesh and primordial spirit recombined, fusing together.
However, soon after, a hong sounded. Lightning bombarded his body again, blasting his flesh scorched black and into several pieces. This was the case for his primordial spirit as well, becoming dim and lightless.
s.h.i.+ Hao released a low shout, not willing to admit defeat. He resisted here, condensing his body again, recombining his self.
However, soon after, his flesh carapace split again, primordial spirit breaking into pieces. This type of scene was a bit frightening, an endless torment and h.e.l.l.
Again and again, s.h.i.+ Hao encountered disaster here. His body, his primordial spirit, both seemed to be on the verge of destruction.
However, one could see that from the attacks again and again, even though his flesh was dim, there was an indescribable type of aura filing it.
This was true for his primordial spirit as well. This was a tempering. Even though he might be killed, dying here, if he could make it through, then he might rise up to a new level, becoming even stronger.
s.h.i.+ Hao clenched his teeth, unyielding as he resisted the heavenly tribulation. He didn’t pa.s.sively endure the attacks, always attacking the furnace walls whenever he recombined his body again.
He used all of his precious techniques, condensing all of his strength to blast the bone furnace’s walls.
Being on the defensive wasn’t his style. He took the initiative to attack. Breaking through this point and rus.h.i.+ng out was more to his liking.
s.h.i.+ Hao had never been in such a sorry state. It was unknown just how many times his flesh carapace was broken. However, he continued to attack the same point.
Nine deaths one life, in the end, it was almost ten deaths no life. His life was about to reach its end, all of his strength exhausted.
Hong!
In the end, the Eight Ninth Heavens Art operated. This was already the tenth time, all precious techniques merging, finally opening up a crack.
Then, with a kacha sound, the bone furnace split open, and then this place exploded, lightning appearing endlessly, violently surging.
s.h.i.+ Hao was blasted flying!
Many people leapt up in fear, standing at the highest point, gazing forward. All of them widening their eyes with shock.
“Huang, is he dead?”
“Flesh blasted into nine pieces, primordial spirit scattered, becoming an expanse of fiery light, Huang is going to fall?!”
Everyone was shocked!
Worthy of being the most powerful heavenly tribulation, making even Huang who had three strands of immortal energy suffer this type of disaster, about to die before everyone’s eyes.
“Hah!”
There was a heavenly deity who sneered inwardly, decisively taking action, producing secret treasures to attack the lightning tribulation.
Hong!
s.h.i.+ Hao’s nine pieces of flesh and primordial spirit rushed together, quickly evading this strike. That secret treasure flickered in the lightning, brus.h.i.+ng past his body.
Kacha!
In the end, this secret treasure exploded, and a streak of lightning smashed into the distance to kill that heavenly deity. It was because he interfered with the lightning radiance.
However, this person was formidable, his methods heaven reaching, actually having a mysterious Life Subst.i.tute Symbol, suffering disaster in his place.
One had to understand that this was something rarely seen in even great sects, extremely hard to stumble upon.
There was an expert outside trying to interfere, just now wis.h.i.+ng to kill s.h.i.+ Hao.
Hong!
Blood energy roiled. s.h.i.+ Hao"s flesh rushed together, forcibly piecing itself back together. His primordial spirit also returned to its position. His entire body was scorched black, his condition extremely frail.
s.h.i.+ Hao opened his eyes, coldly staring into the direction that heavenly deity attacked from, but didn’t chase after him. Now wasn’t a good time to display power, he needed to recover.
This place became quiet, no one taking action. Eight Armed Soul Race broke out in cold sweat, having the entire race move out, searching around here and protecting this place.
After who knew how much time had pa.s.sed, s.h.i.+ Hao shed a layer of scorched black skin, revealing a jade-like sparkling body. The s.p.a.ce between his brows shone. He recovered again.
He still didn"t act recklessly, not seeking out that mysterious attacker, instead ascending to the ninth heaven. As long as he pa.s.sed this trial, then everything would be complete.
It was because even though there was a tenth layer of heaven above the ninth heaven, it shouldn’t suppress and kill him. It was because after he experienced a simple trial last time, he obtained the Lightning Tribulation Liquid.
This time, the crucial part was the ninth great layer of heaven.
What left s.h.i.+ Hao shocked was that above the ninth heaven, everything was incomparably quiet. There was danger, viciousness, the creatures rus.h.i.+ng over plant species, surrounding and attacking him.
However, compared to the eighth heaven, they were extremely weak.
He dealt with them quite easily, not troublesome at all. It was more like a self-forging, no danger.
This left others shocked as well. What was going on?
This was too easy, right? Could it be that even the heavens was running out of juice? Huang’s luck was just too good.
However, immediately afterwards, s.h.i.+ Hao was horrified, his face becoming a bit pale. He knew where the problem laid. This was an absolute disaster!
It was because he suddenly discovered that his strength was declining, falling from the heavenly deity level down to the True Deity Realm, and then tumbling into the Divine Flame Realm. It was too terrible.
In this place, in this type of trial, this was simply a path of death.
The only fortunate thing was that aside from those creatures, the other lightning was relatively calm, not attacking him.
Run!
s.h.i.+ Hao only had this choice. He couldn’t approach those creatures, or else it would definitely be a road leading straight to death.
He finally experienced the strangeness of the Divine King Tribulation, making a Divine Flame Realm cultivator face those powerful creatures’ attacks, it really was difficult to make it out of this alive.
“Yi, what is going on?” Someone cried out in shock, revealing a strange expression.
“Holy Sacrifice is a strange cultivation realm that is difficult to predict. One’s cultivation would fluctuate erratically from high to low. Right now, he fell to the bottom, about to be finished!” Someone was taking delight in his disaster, incredibly excited.
This place immediately erupted with noise. Everyone knew that Huang was likely truly going to die here.
Only s.h.i.+ Hao himself knew that this was brought about by the heavenly tribulation. He originally still had one to three days left, still far from running out of time.
This terrifying lightning tribulation could actually be like this, making his dao and cultivation decline. This was the true danger.
“Haha, this heavenly tribulation’s power isn’t that great, we can even cross. Go, let’s lend Huang a helping hand!” There were people transmitting sound secretly, sneers sounding continuously.
Chi!
Right at this time, five figures immediately flew out at the same time, rus.h.i.+ng into the lightning to kill Huang.
The heavenly deities of the outside world, after s.h.i.+ Hao unleashed a great slaughter, all became shocked. When they saw him ma.s.sacre so many people, these people went into hiding, only now did some appear, seizing this opportunity to kill him.
“You all dare?!” The Eight Armed Soul Race’s people shouted in anger, also taking action.
“Everyone, please cease the disorder.” The powerful figure from the natives took action, stopping the Eight Armed Soul race, and even more so looking towards Soul Race’s ancient ancestor.
The danger had arrived. s.h.i.+ Hao was now suffering the most terrifying trouble!
At this moment, Yun Xi’s expression changed and Yue Chan’s eyes widened, the ma.s.ses all shocked. They all stared forward.