Yan Jianlan gently steadied Sheng Jiao’s shoulders. “Sheng Jiao?”
Sheng Jiao’s spiritual power barely closed the wound at Yan Jianlan’s waist. He raised his head dazedly, dark eyes clouded white, overwhelmed by chaotic emotions.
The entire world felt utterly alien.
Gazing at the blood trace on Yan Jianlan’s cheek, Sheng Jiao murmured, “I…”
His expression was even more wooden than when he had been emotionless.
“I’m really fine.” Seeing his confusion, Yan Jianlan gently embraced him, stroking his back and coaxing softly. “It doesn’t hurt at all. It’ll heal soon.”
The wound on his cheek faded slowly. Yan Jianlan casually wiped away the grime, squinting as he smiled at him.
Sheng Jiao’s fingers trembled faintly, his lips parting without words.
Seeing Sheng Jiao regain his senses, Yu Tuishan’s face chilled further as he returned grimly to the earth veins.
Rang Chen followed, frowning. “The array is activated. What are you still worried about?”
“The Tian Dao won’t let this pass easily,” Yu Tuishan said coldly. “It may abandon controlling people to kill me, but it will desperately try to halt the activated array.”
How it would do so remained to be seen.
Half a quarter-hour remained.
Rang Chen’s Glimpsing Heaven’s Secret sensed the turmoil across the Thirteen States. His brow furrowed, yet he did not move.
There were far more Abandoned Immortal Bone cultivators than imagined. The destruction of Tianyan would kill countless people through backlash.
Not to mention the explosion’s aftermath flattening the Thirteen States.
Rang Chen watched Yu Tuishan’s back, prayer beads turning idly in his hand, his thoughts unreadable.
Yu Tuishan closed his eyes slightly. His divided soul flashed with golden light, merging into the floating true body within the spiritual river.
Rang Chen looked up. That familiar yet unfamiliar face slept, Tianyan scattering within it, while more crimson energy fled through him.
Suddenly—a boom at the gate.
Rang Chen’s pupils shrank. Looking up toward the half-collapsed mouth of the earth veins, he saw thunderclouds rapidly gathering across miles. Within ten breaths, they condensed into a thunder tribulation, crashing loudly.
Yan Jianlan, holding Sheng Jiao, froze.
That was—
Sheng Jiao’s belated Great Ascension thunder tribulation!
Even breakthroughs of spirit-level xiangwen were nine deaths for one life. Fresh from Tian Dao control and utterly unprepared, how could he withstand eighty-one bolts?
Even fearless Yan Jianlan felt a chill under the oppressive thunderclouds.
Sound of Leisure heard it.
The Tian Dao brewed an unprecedented tribulation spanning hundreds of li—meant to raze Central State through Sheng Jiao’s breakthrough.
Such a massive breach would shatter the Abandoned Immortal Bone array.
The Tian Dao cared nothing for how many souls it claimed.
—The Heavenly Dao on high never minded the lives of mere ants.
Yan Jianlan urgently clutched Sheng Jiao’s collar. “The Great Ascension thunder tribulation is coming.”
The Tian Dao would not let Sheng Jiao perish in it—nor before the Abandoned Immortal Bone fully failed.
Now calm, Sheng Jiao rose expressionlessly toward the thunderous sky, then softly touched Yan Jianlan’s scabbed cheek. “Protect yourself.”
Understanding his intent, Yan Jianlan instinctively seized his hand, like a child helpless before danger. “I… I’m scared.”
Sheng Jiao seemed to smile, though his expression did not change.
He did not reply to “I’m scared.” He only touched Yan Jianlan’s brow—then rode the wind upward without hesitation, his black figure vanishing into the thunderclouds like light.
With the Abandoned Immortal Bone activation only half a quarter-hour away, unlike lingering tribulations, the thunder struck instantly the moment Sheng Jiao entered.
Yan Jianlan gazed skyward.
The ear-shattering thunder held no fear of death—only revulsion at the Tian Dao’s voice.
A Tian Dao that ignored mortal suffering—was that truly the Heavenly Dao?
Still holding fleeting Great Ascension power, Yan Jianlan did not wait idly. He channeled all his spiritual power into a massive barrier enveloping Central State.
A drop in the ocean—but better than death.
Hovering high and looking down, he saw the golden Tianyan array spread vine-like, a chasm nearly spanning three realms, collapsing countless mountains.
Except Yan Family Mountain.
Yan Jianlan was startled.
Perhaps Yu Tuishan felt guilt toward him—laying such an array, yet sparing Yan Jianlan’s final haven.
Yan Jianlan’s blood-soaked black robes whipped in the snowstorm’s icy gale. He stared blankly for a moment, then lowered his head with a sudden, inexplicable laugh.
—
In the Xi clan’s abandoned Tianyan shrine, a dilapidated incense burner remained, an incense stick inserted by some unknown hand.
Thin smoke curled upward, its warm glow advancing slowly—like the Abandoned Immortal Bone array.
Half a stick of incense time remained.
Yu Tuishan floated serenely in the Tianyan spiritual river, brows peaceful as never before, long hair drifting gently like river weeds in the Tianyan flow.
Rang Chen had supplied the Rang clan’s earth-vein Tianyan to Yu Tuishan for array activation, but as he lightly brushed the spiritual river, he keenly sensed something amiss.
The Rang clan’s Tianyan… seemed unused.
Yu Tuishan held Tianyan from the Xi, Qu, and Heng clans. Excluding non-participants like the Medicine Sect and Sword Sect, as well as minor worlds unworthy of note, only the Feng clan remained untouched.
Rang Chen had once puzzled over why Feng Chongyang alone was spared—until seeing Yan Yuhu fixed within the water mirror by soul-binding arts, at which point he dimly understood.
Yu Tuishan held grudges fiercely, yet distinguished debts clearly.
But for some reason, Rang Chen suddenly felt an ominous premonition.
Yu Tuishan had once said that activating the Abandoned Immortal Bone array required only a single Tianyan vein.
Yet within the Tianyan spiritual river, multiple clans’ Tianyan showed no reduction from before—none had been expended to power the array.
Rang Chen froze, realization dawning. He snapped his gaze toward Yu Tuishan in the river.
Countless fine, spider-silk threads spread outward from Yu Tuishan’s true body—that was Tianyan.
Powering the Abandoned Immortal Bone array was Yu Tuishan’s xiangwen, Kan Tianyan itself!
Rang Chen lunged forward, reaching to drag Yu Tuishan’s body out as he roared, “Are you seeking death?!”
Yu Tuishan slumbered peacefully, oblivious to his surroundings. As Rang Chen neared, an invisible Tianyan force repelled him sharply.
No one could extract Kan Tianyan from the Tianyan spiritual river.
Without activating the Abandoned Immortal Bone, Yu Tuishan might remain immobile within Tianyan for centuries—like the puppet-controlled Sheng Jiao.
Yu Tuishan refused that fate.
Rang Chen’s heart plummeted.
He finally understood Yu Tuishan’s joy upon foreseeing his own death tribulation.
A death tribulation meant Yu Tuishan would vanish from heaven and earth—that is…
No matter the Tian Dao’s obstructions, the Abandoned Immortal Bone array would fully activate.
Yu Tuishan never intended to survive from the start.
—
The Tian Dao scorned Yu Tuishan’s longed-for freedom, thundering down strikes that cracked the foundations of the world.
Sheng Jiao had never felt the heaven-spanning might of the Great Ascension stage so insignificant—all things were mere ants before the Tian Dao.
The Tian Dao sought to destroy the Abandoned Immortal Bone array but could not intervene directly, only through Sheng Jiao’s Great Ascension tribulation.
After Sheng Jiao rode the wind into the thunderclouds, countless brewing bolts could no longer strike the ground freely and were instead forced onto his body.
If Sheng Jiao survived the Great Ascension tribulation, no excess thunder would fall upon Central State.
The Tian Dao grasped his plan and roared with cloud-shattering fury.
Sheng Jiao remained unmoved. The Tianyan Pearls at his wrist swayed gently as his gaze fixed coldly upon the vast thunderclouds, fear unknown to him.
Suddenly, the jade pendant at Sheng Jiao’s waist transmitted Yan Jianlan’s voice.
“…The Tian Dao wants to strike you into Central State.”
The thunderclouds could then follow naturally, smoothly shattering Central State’s Abandoned Immortal Bone array.
The thunder quieted for an instant.
Yan Jianlan said, “It’s choking. Sheng Jiao, don’t yield to it.”
Sheng Jiao: “…”
Tian Dao: “…”
In that instant, single bolts became ten, striking from all directions as they crashed toward Sheng Jiao.
Yan Jianlan seemed to hear something, clutching his ears as he spoke coldly. “…‘Blessings’ that bring suffering—are they worthy of the name?!”
A bolt lanced straight toward his brow.
Yan Jianlan sneered. The Spring Rain Sword surged with vast intent, cleaving the bolt asunder.
Within the ruins of the Tianyan shrine, the incense burned down inch by inch.
A breeze scattered ash, leaving only a short stub still glowing.
The Abandoned Immortal Bone rose high, sunlight casting enormous black vine shadows that mirrored the Thirteen States below.
Countless heads tilted skyward, eyes filled with confusion at the unknown and instinctive dread.
After ten bolts, Sheng Jiao’s Great Ascension barrier shattered. A thunder mark burrowed into his meridians, drawing blood from the corner of his lips.
The Tian Dao remained unyielding. Yan Jianlan faltered first, urging, “Sheng Jiao! If you can’t hold—then…”
Before he could finish dissuading him, Sheng Jiao frowned slightly and said coldly, “Don’t speak.”
Hold firm. No retreat.
Yan Jianlan blinked in surprise.
Sheng Jiao was…
impatient?
Sheng Jiao refused to retreat before his dao companion. A Great Ascension tribulation was perilous by nature; yielding now would mean dozens of bolts later scattering his soul.
As more thunderbolts gathered, Sheng Jiao’s fingers twitched lightly.
The one hundred and eight Tianyan Pearls, long stalled at “Slay,” responded—rocketing skyward to form a vast circle that enclosed him.
Boom—!
Another ten bolts crashed down. The uppermost thirty Pearls detonated.
A single Pearl’s explosion rivaled the self-detonation of a Void Return core—thirty exploding together unleashed spiritual power that instantly annihilated the ten thunders midair.
Yan Jianlan was stunned: “You…”
Are Tianyan Pearls meant to be exploded like toys?
**
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152