018 : The Wrath of the Heavens.
CRACK—BOOOOOOM!
The first bolt of lightning tore through the heavens, a streak of pure white destruction descending upon him like an unrelenting spear.
It was stronger than before.
More refined, more devastating, more absolute.
This was not just a test.
This was execution.
BOOOOM!
The impact shattered the mountain peak, sending massive boulders tumbling into the abyss below. The entire region shook violently, cracks spreading across the land like veins of a dying world.
Dust and debris clouded the battlefield.
For a long moment, there was nothing but silence.
Then—
A shadow moved within the storm.
Lin Tian stepped forward, completely unharmed.
The lightning crackled around his body, its once-destructive force now merging into his being. The arcs of divine energy ran through his veins, his Devourer Nascent Soul absorbing the very essence of the tribulation.
He clenched his fist, feeling the limitless power surging within him.
"Your judgment is mine to take."
His golden-black eyes lifted toward the sky.
"Again."
The heavens roared in defiance.
As if enraged by his defiance, the storm above intensified. The clouds, once dark, now glowed with an ominous violet hue, their very presence exuding the will of the celestial realm.
This was no ordinary tribulation.
This was True Heavenly Punishment.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
A second bolt descended—twice as large, twice as destructive. The force behind it was beyond comprehension, enough to turn an entire sect into ashes in an instant.
Lin Tian did not move.
Instead, he did something no cultivator had ever done before.
He opened his arms.
He welcomed the lightning.
The moment it struck—Lin Tian absorbed it completely.
His Devourer Nascent Soul trembled, its very core reshaping itself as it drank from the celestial power. Golden, black, and violet energies fused, forming something beyond the understanding of the world.
A new power was awakening within him.
Not just Nascent Soul.
Not just devouring.
Something greater.
But the heavens refused to acknowledge him.
And so, they prepared one final strike.
The clouds stirred violently. The very fabric of space trembled, and reality itself bent as the final tribulation took form.
It was no longer just lightning.
It was celestial destruction itself.
The ultimate punishment of heaven.
A pillar of violet-golden lightning, larger than any mountain, burned within the storm, its presence radiating absolute annihilation.
This was not meant to be survived.
This was the end.
Lin Tian stood firm.
He had come too far. He had defied too much. He had climbed higher than anyone before him.
And he would not stop now.
The lightning descended.
And Lin Tian roared.
"COME!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The moment it struck, the entire world collapsed.
For what felt like eternity, Lin Tian was engulfed in nothingness.
His body no longer existed.
His soul was scattered.
His qi was undone.
The heavens had erased him.
And yet—
Deep within the void, a single light flickered.
Not golden.
Not black.
Not violet.
Something new.
Something never before seen.
And from that light—
Lin Tian returned.
The storm that had once consumed him shattered into nothingness. The very heavens, which had roared with divine fury, fell silent.
He opened his eyes.
No longer just golden.
But something beyond mortal color.
His aura surged—**not with power borrowed, not with qi stolen—**but with something he had created himself.
A power that belonged to him alone.
The True Devourer Nascent Soul.
The first of its kind.
Lin Tian took a slow breath, his voice calm and absolute.
"The heavens have failed."
And as he stepped forward—
The sky cleared.
Because for the first time in history—
Heaven had lost.
The sky was clear.
The black storm clouds, once filled with divine fury, had vanished. The heavens, which had raged against Lin Tian with unrelenting judgment, were now silent.
The world had changed.
And at the center of it all stood Lin Tian.
His robes were torn, his long black hair wild in the wind. His skin glowed with traces of violet-gold lightning, the remnants of the celestial destruction that had failed to erase him.
But the greatest change was within him.
His dantian, once a Golden Core, had become something beyond Nascent Soul.
The True Devourer Nascent Soul.
Unlike ordinary Nascent Souls, which took the form of miniature versions of their cultivators, Lin Tian's was… different.
It was a shifting void, swirling with golden, black, and violet light—constantly consuming, constantly growing.
His very existence had broken free from the limits of mortal cultivation.
For the first time, Lin Tian did not feel like he was reaching for power.
Power now flowed toward him naturally.
He clenched his fist, and the air itself shuddered.
"So this is what it means to truly defy the heavens."
He had not just survived the tribulation.
He had devoured it.
And now?
The world would learn what that meant.
Far away, in the great sects of the cultivation world, an unnatural stillness settled over the strongest cultivators.
The grand elders of the Celestial Dao Palace awoke from their meditations, their expressions dark.
The patriarchs of the great clans, who had long believed themselves untouchable, suddenly felt a strange pressure in the air.
Even those who had never heard Lin Tian's name before… felt it.
A shift.
A fundamental change in the balance of the world.
Something had happened.
And the strongest forces of the cultivation world were beginning to understand.
Lin Tian was no longer just a rising threat.
He had become something else entirely.
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