Chapter 413: Heavenly-Grade Golden Core – Four!
The Heavenly Tribulation had been triggered. There was no stopping it now—only success or death.
The five thunder snakes, in particular, refused to grant Xiao Mei’er a single breath of respite. After all, she stood directly in the path of the prey they truly sought to obliterate.
Having finished their gestation within the churning heavens, they plunged from the tribulation clouds.
Their descent instantly crushed the atmosphere, suffocating the realm. The apocalyptic pressure radiating from their scales threatened to grind heaven and earth into dust.
Uncertain if she could survive the onslaught, Xiao Mei’er pushed herself to the absolute limit. “Four Earth Talismans, transform!”
She slammed four yellow talismans into the dirt. The paper ignited upon impact, manifesting four towering, ethereal projections.
The Empress of the Earth, wielding the Earth Mother Seal, locked the trembling spatial fabric in place.
The Earth God leaned heavily on his staff, wrangling the chaotic subterranean currents.
The Mountain God expanded into a colossal giant, his body an unyielding peak shielding her front.
The City God lashed out with heavy chains, binding the turbulent feng shui energies into a unified front.As the five serpents struck, the four deities chanted in unison. The surrounding earth qi surged, erupting skyward like a volcanic plume before blooming into a massive, earthen-yellow mushroom cloud.
Even the overwhelming might of the thunder snakes faltered. Their descent slowed, their frenzied strikes bogging down in the dense energy. They had actually been stalled.
It wasn’t a complete halt, merely a reduction in their velocity and attack frequency, but it was enough. The violent friction between the two opposing forces bought Xiao Mei’er a precious sliver of time. She frantically siphoned the essence from her Tai Xuan Pendant, her body knitting itself back together.
The necrotic gray veins marring her skin receded at a visible rate.
But the heavens despised defiance. The harder she fought, the more terrifying the tribulation’s wrath became.
Enraged by the earthen barricade, the five snakes coiled together, forming a massive, five-colored ring of destruction. They spun like a buzzsaw, relentlessly grinding against the barrier.
The earth qi mushroom cloud sheared away layer by layer until barely a third remained.
Desperation flashing in her eyes, Xiao Mei’er violently spun her feng shui compass. “Azure Dragon pulls, White Tiger severs!”
To the east, the Azure Dragon flag dissolved into a barrage of cyan chains, shooting upward to bind the serpents.
To the west, the White Tiger flag unleashed a blinding arc of Geng Metal sword aura, aiming to decapitate them.
The provocation only fueled the snakes’ fury. Their eyes flared with murderous intent as they unleashed ear-piercing hisses. The five-colored lightning erupted with blinding intensity, violently convulsing the entire space.
The Azure Dragon’s chains met the apocalyptic thunder and instantly shattered into countless fragments. The White Tiger’s Geng Metal sword aura was swallowed by the sea of lightning before it could even land a scratch.
Under their frenzied bombardment, the remnants of the earth qi mushroom cloud finally collapsed. Drained of their power, the four earth deities faded into the wind.
With the five serpents bearing down on her, their apocalyptic momentum threatening to swallow her whole, Xiao Mei’er played her final hand. A Spirit Light Talisman, glowing with pure, incandescent white, detonated in her palm. It instantly projected a cylindrical barrier, shielding her and the Four Symbols flags within.
Boom!
Boom! Boom!
Thunder roared. Lightning detonated. Arcs of thunderfire sprayed like molten shrapnel.
The barrier shuddered violently under the onslaught, but it held.
Watching from afar, Wu Lao exhaled a shaky breath. “Thank the heavens. The Spirit Light Talisman, forged to mimic the Golden Light Talisman, is holding. As long as she endures this, Mei’er will absolutely forge an Earth-Grade Golden Core!”
Unfortunately, his relief was premature.
She wasn’t facing two thunder snakes. She was facing five.
The golden snake shed its scales, transforming them into a storm of microscopic Geng Metal blades that shredded against the shield.
The pustules on the wood snake ruptured, spewing a deluge of highly corrosive, toxic miasma.
The water snake detonated its electric plasma, unleashing shockwaves of terrifying, concussive force.
The fire snake unhinged its jaws, vomiting a torrential flood of crimson Li Fire.
The earth snake merely shifted its massive bulk, yet it brought down a crushing atmospheric pressure akin to a collapsing mountain range.
Against a coordinated strike of this magnitude, the Spirit Light Shield stood no chance. With a sickening crack, it shattered into a million pieces.
Xiao Mei’er’s pupils shrank to pinpricks, absolute horror flooding her eyes.
In a final act of sheer desperation, she triggered every remaining trump card simultaneously.
Every Spirit Weapon she could wield was thrown into the fray.
Every Spirit Talisman she possessed was detonated.
Every Spirit Pill she had was swallowed.
Beyond this, she had nothing left.
In the next instant, the combined wrath of the five snakes slammed into her frail body.
The agony of death should have been instantaneous. Instead, the potent healing properties of the pills she had just consumed forcibly prolonged her suffering. Her soul, her consciousness, and her physical vessel were caught in a horrific tug-of-war—simultaneously obliterated by the tribulation and violently stitched back together by the medicinal efficacy.
“Ahhh!”
Agony, torment, and utter despair culminated in one final, bloodcurdling shriek. Then, she was vaporized, reduced to drifting ash on the spot.
Wu Lao stared in blank horror. A hoarse, broken wail tore from his throat. “Mei’er!”
By all logic, his granddaughter had possessed every advantage—favorable timing, geographical superiority, and human harmony. Yet, he could never have predicted this. The turbid thunder had mutated. The thunder snakes had mutated. And now, his granddaughter was gone.
Already teetering on the brink of death from his previous injuries, the sheer psychological trauma of witnessing her death was the final blow. Wu Lao instantly blacked out.
Because he was unconscious, he failed to notice that the Heavenly Tribulation had not dissipated. Instead, it was escalating.
The five snakes pivoted, locking their sights on the ground directly beneath where Xiao Mei’er had just perished, and launched an even more frenzied assault.
Listening to the muffled explosions deep underground, Jiang Chen analyzed the situation coldly. It seems Xiao Mei’er couldn’t withstand the second wave of thunder snakes. Still, to push them this far… she did quite well.
Suddenly, the subterranean rock above him exploded, blasting open a massive crater.
Jiang Chen looked up, locking eyes with the five descending thunder snakes.
For a fraction of a second, the very air seemed to freeze.
Yet, Jiang Chen remained the picture of absolute tranquility. He even spread his arms wide in a welcoming embrace. “Come on!”
The next second, the five serpents tore through the bedrock, plunging directly into the chasm. The earth violently churned and the surface fractured, as if a catastrophic earthquake was ripping the realm apart.
Had the five snakes been at their peak, they might have actually caused Jiang Chen some trouble. But after Xiao Mei’er’s desperate resistance, barely a third of their original power remained.
Thus, when they finally reached Jiang Chen, their frenzied bombardment amounted to absolutely nothing.
Jiang Chen didn’t even bother activating a Golden Light Talisman. Relying solely on the Xuan Huang Thick Earth Armor enveloping his body, he tanked the barrage head-on without suffering a single scratch.
As the dust settled, the snakes’ assault abruptly ceased. Writhing in silent unwillingness, their forms dissolved bit by bit until they were completely annihilated.
Seeing no further reason to hide in the dirt, Jiang Chen kicked off the ground, soaring upward before touching down lightly on the devastated surface.
He first cast a dismissive glance at the unconscious Wu Lao. Then, his eyes swept over the expressionless fake ancestor standing nearby. Only then did he tilt his head back, his gaze piercing the increasingly oppressive tribulation clouds churning in the sky.
The first tribulation had been the turbid thunder.
The second had been the thunder snakes.
The third… would be the thunder beasts.
Right on cue, as the leaden clouds boiled with apocalyptic fury, something massive began to gestate within the five-colored lightning.
Moments later, it tore through the clouds—a terrifying, colossal thunder beast sporting five distinct heads.
The golden head mirrored a White Tiger, its fangs gleaming with the razor-sharp edge of Geng Metal.
The wooden head took the form of an Azure Dragon, exhaling plumes of pale cyan thunderfire from its maw.
The water head resembled a Black Tortoise, its entire form coursing with volatile Gui Water lightning.
The fire head was shaped like a Vermilion Bird, wreathed entirely in blinding crimson flames.
The earth head mimicked a Qilin, emitting a low growl that threatened to rupture the soul itself.
Without warning, the five heads reared back and unleashed an earth-shattering roar in perfect unison.
The tribulation clouds, the secret realm, the very fabric of heaven and earth—everything convulsed in violent, terrifying resonance.
Five voices. Five distinct frequencies of sonic destruction.
The piercing shriek of Metal shredded the eardrums.
The resonant chant of Wood bypassed flesh, drilling directly into the soul.
The abyssal roar of Water ground down the mind’s willpower.
The shrill cry of Fire threatened to incinerate the five elements within.
The furious bellow of Earth ravaged the physical body.
This was no mere shockwave. It was a multi-dimensional execution—a fatal, simultaneous assault on the flesh, the Spirit Root, and the soul, designed to make simply existing a fate worse than death!