The arrays engraved on his flesh reacted, glowing faintly. His cultivation surged like a flood breaking a dam, unrestrained and unorthodox.
Above, a massive explosion rocked the field. A Red Pole cultivator was impaled mid-air. A blaze of fire swallowed an Obsidian Court cultivator whole.
Spiritual qi surged wildly around Feng Fan, roaring like a storm as it coursed through every inch of his body. His veins expanded, stretched to their limits, reinforced by the raw power flooding them. The fragmented pieces of his soul shuddered, then began to knit together until wholeness returned.
His body had been reforged. His soul, fully restored. A new power pulsed through his body.
Feng Fan had broken through.
Hou Zemin observed the battlefield with a cold, unreadable gaze. The clash of weapons, the screams of the dying—none of it stirred emotion in him. He wasn't concerned about Feng Fan. The Array Master, troublesome as he had been, would fall sooner or later.
'Perhaps he's already dead,' he thought. 'A shame, really. Such a gifted Array Master..'
As a peak Transcending Tribulation expert, Hou Zemin was highly attuned to the fluctuations of Heaven and Earth. That's why, the moment Feng Fan began to break through, he felt it: a subtle distortion in the flow of spiritual qi, a prickling pressure against his skin.
Then, it happened. He wasn't the only one who noticed.
All the Transcending Tribulation experts on the battlefield—friend and foe alike—suddenly froze. Their gazes were drawn skyward, their hearts gripped by an instinctive dread.
Above them, the sky of the pocket dimension darkened as ominous clouds churned into existence, blanketing the heavens in roiling black. Lightning snaked through the sky in violent arcs, illuminating the battlefield in pulses of ghostly white.
'This…' Hou Zemin's eyes narrowed. 'A Heavenly Tribulation?'
The pressure was unmistakable; someone was attempting to ascend beyond the Transcending Tribulation realm. But that made no sense. He had kept his attention on every major player from Red Pole. None had shown the signs of a breakthrough. If they had, he would have ended them before they dared to reach the next realm.
"Who?" he muttered aloud, scanning the battlefield again.
'Don't tell me... someone from Obsidian Court?' But even that thought didn't sit right with him.
The question of who was breaking through didn't linger long.
At the heart of Red Pole's camp, the ground erupted in a pillar of sand and spiritual energy. A blinding flash tore through the battlefield, and from the eye of the storm, a figure shot into the air—his robes fluttering, his aura surging.
The moment Feng Fan emerged, the heavens responded.
Thunder roared. Bolts of lightning, thick as tree trunks, crackled through the dark clouds, heralding the wrath of the Heavenly Dao. The tribulation flared to life, and every gaze turned toward him.
It became clear in an instant who the lightning had come for.
"Feng Fan?!" Long Liu, now fully transformed into her draconic form, stared in disbelief as the young cultivator welcomed the heavenly punishment.
'He's... undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation while breaking through to the Dao Seeking realm?! What kind of lunacy is this?'
Hou Zemin's expression darkened, his eyes narrowing. He could see it clearly—Feng Fan was indeed only stepping into the Dao Seeking realm. And yet… he was facing a Heavenly Tribulation even stronger than what a Transcending Tribulation expert would endure to reach the next realm.
'What kind of heaven-defying cultivation technique is he using?' Hou Zemin clenched his fists. He had never heard of anyone undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation before breaking through to the Transcending Tribulation realm.
He wanted to act and end this anomaly before it could become a true threat. But even he, a peak Transcending Tribulation cultivator, wouldn't survive stepping into the heart of that storm.
Lightning of that caliber would obliterate him.
"Obsidian Court, fall back!" Hou Zemin commanded.
There was no point risking their forces for someone merely entering the Dao Seeking realm. Heaven-defying or not, Feng Fan was still far too weak to contend with dozens of cultivators two major realms above him.
At least, that's what Hou Zemin believed.
Meanwhile, high above, Feng Fan stood within the tempest, his body glowing with ethereal light as he activated the Suppression Relic. The artifact greedily devoured the heavenly lightning, making sure he wouldn't turn him into cinders.
A grin broke across his face as Hou Zemin's voice echoed across the battlefield.
'They're retreating…'
He could already see the path to victory unfolding before him.
The technique Feng Fan had acquired during his breakthroughs to the Spirit Severing and Vein Awakening realms would finally show its true worth.
"Who said any of you could leave?" His voice, infused with spiritual qi, echoed like thunder across the desert. It seized everyone's attention.
"Hmph. What an arrogant ant," a cultivator from Obsidian Court sneered. "You think stepping into the Dao Seeking realm makes you invincible?"
"I say we kill him right here and now!" another barked.
Murmurs of disdain and ridicule rippled through the Obsidian Court forces, but none dared defy Hou Zemin's orders.
Hou Zemin frowned. Feng Fan's arrogance felt… wrong. Something about his confidence gnawed at the edge of his instincts. He couldn't shake the unease creeping up his spine.
"Fall back! Now!" he commanded again, his voice tense.
A grin tugged at Feng Fan's lips. 'I didn't get to train this skill as much as I wanted… Hopefully, it'll only affect the Obsidian Court.'
He took a deep breath, spiritual qi coiling around his throat, and then he shouted:
"Did Your Grandma Teach You That?!"
His voice sliced through the air like a blade laced with madness. The words burrowed into the minds of Obsidian Court cultivators. Like a siren's song turned cruel and chaotic, it shattered their reason.
One by one, their eyes turned bloodshot. Snarling, feral, they fixated on Feng Fan with hostility. Even Hou Zemin wasn't spared. A trace of horror twisted his face before anger overtook it.
Then, as if caught in a trance, the entire Obsidian Court force surged toward Feng Fan.