Chapter 230: Passing All Three Calamities, A Major Divine Ability Cultivator!

Wang Ping sat cross-legged beside the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron.

As the light of his divine power shone around him, layered mystical visions emerged one after another. Thousands of gods stood tall among pavilions and palaces, converging into a single city.

The Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart!

Compared to before, this Human Yang Earth Major Divine Ability had solidified to its absolute peak. Just by manifesting, it gave off a sensation as heavy as a mountain.

It had also birthed even more miraculous phenomena.

"Governing Myriad Spells, pacifying all qi, Subduing Immortals and Demons, possessing the merit of a Heavenly Being... This is no mere boast, but the true profundity of this divine power upon reaching perfection!"

Wang Ping could not help but toy with the divine power.

A second later, the deities within the chart moved in response. Each manifested a spell, which then combined with one another to condense into a light the size of a grain of rice.

"Whoosh!"

In an instant, that grain of light swelled against the wind—a mustard seed turning into Mount Sumeru. Then it rapidly collapsed back down—Sumeru returning to a mustard seed. The entire transformation followed his every whim.

If other cultivators were here to see this, they would pale in shock.

Because what Wang Ping was displaying right now was exactly Kunyun's A Single Dust Enclosing a Sea of Realms—a Major Divine Ability with the profound power to freely shift between a mustard seed and Mount Sumeru!

"Hmm... the power is a bit weak."

"It can't compare to the true A Single Dust Enclosing a Sea of Realms. That makes sense; it's merely a combination of spells, forcibly elevated in profundity by wearing the shell of the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart."

"Perhaps I can call it the Minor Mustard Seed Sumeru Wondrous Technique."

A smile touched the corners of Wang Ping's mouth.

This was the first profound function of the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart, Governing Myriad Spells. Just as the name implied, every single one of the ten thousand gods in the chart could govern a spell.

One chart held over ten thousand spells!

The spells could be paired and combined, shifting entirely at his whim. He could even use them to simulate the effects of other divine powers, reaching up to seventy percent of the original's might!

"Next is pacifying all qi. Of the world's five elements and Twenty-Four Qi, only water qi cannot be countered by this divine power. When facing me, the qi of the other four elements will naturally lose thirty percent of their might. Subduing Immortals and Demons follows the same logic. Unless they are a water qi cultivator, anyone who falls into the chart will find it almost impossible to escape."

"As for the merit of a Heavenly Being, that represents the resonance between heaven and man."

"Every City God Temple in the mortal realm will resonate with my divine power, allowing it to rapidly recover even if shattered by an external force."

How should he put it?

"This Human Yang Earth is just so damn noble."

Wang Ping sighed with heartfelt emotion. Not to mention, he was currently carrying the karma of the Great Rebellion, which pushed the might of this divine power to its absolute peak.

"At this point, what can the lightning tribulation do to me?"

With a thought from Wang Ping, his perfected divine power instantly triggered a certain esoteric aura. Soon, layered phenomena converged above his head.

"Rumble!"

Suddenly, thunder birthed from the void. A bolt of lightning crackled out of nothingness, swallowing Wang Ping's figure in the blink of an eye as a purely destructive aura spread outward.

A moment later, the lightning faded. Wang Ping still sat in place, his clothes completely free of dust. Inside the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart, however, an extra lightning scar had appeared. This was the symbol of him surviving this Heavenly Thunder. Reflected into the chart, the Heavenly Thunder had now become a tool at his beck and call.

Yet, this action seemed to enrage the Heavenly Thunder.

The next second, even fiercer lightning began converging above Wang Ping's head. It danced wildly like silver snakes, eventually turning into a vast ocean of thunder hanging upside down in the sky.

Seeing this, Wang Ping raised his eyes.

Out of curiosity, he even reached out and plucked a bolt of lightning, examining it in his palm.

"It isn't heavenly yang wood."

After all, he had personally fought Kunyun before. He still had a fair understanding of heavenly yang wood and the Thunder Sound Universal Transformation Azure Thunder Qi.

Therefore, he could tell at a glance that the final calamity of the three disasters—the so-called Heavenly Thunder—wasn't actually thunder. The thunder was merely an outward appearance. It could be a saber, it could be a sword, and swapping it into anything else wouldn't be a problem either. At its core, it was simply the manifested product of pure destructive power.

In other words—

'Simply surviving the Heavenly Thunder tribulation doesn't yield any benefits. Since it symbolizes pure destruction, it is completely different from the previous two tribulations.'

Wang Ping pondered.

Bi Wind, Yin Fire, Heavenly Thunder.

Among the three calamities of the heavenly tribulation, the Bi Wind blew apart divine powers, but it also scraped away their impurities. The Yin Fire burned the sea of consciousness, but it also refined spiritual sense.

While those two calamities naturally inflicted real harm upon cultivators, as long as one survived, they would receive substantial benefits. Strictly speaking, they were a type of trial.

The Heavenly Thunder, however, was different.

Passing this calamity granted no benefits, but failing it meant certain death. Its very existence wasn't a trial; it was simply there to kill cultivators.

"Rumble!"

In a split second, the inverted ocean of thunder crashed down from the sky, lighting up Wang Ping's dharma body once more. Terrifying electric light coiled around him like slithering snakes.

If the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron hadn't been here to suppress all the phenomena and compress this Heavenly Thunder into the small hall, it would have immediately blanketed the entire Great Shun Capital outside. Afterward, everything within tens of thousands of miles would have been reduced to scorched earth, leaving not a shred of life behind.

Yet Wang Ping showed no trace of fear.

Letting the thunder surge and crash like waves against a shore, he remained as steady as Mount Tai. He showed no signs of being shaken, and under its bombardment, his divine power functioned as usual.

"Having the divine power locked in isn't entirely without benefits."

Wang Ping clicked his tongue in wonder. If nothing else, after being forged by water and fire, the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart had become as sturdy as a vajra.

Even he, the master of this divine power, had no way to shatter it, let alone the Heavenly Thunder.

Taken to the extreme, if the Heavenly Thunder could shatter his divine power for him, he would even have to say thank you. After all, that would allow him to commit suicide and reincarnate.

"The first layer of the lightning tribulation has nine bolts in total."

Wang Ping lowered his eyelids, recalling his knowledge of the Heavenly Thunder. There were nine layers of Heavenly Thunder. From one to nine, the highest reached a total of eighty-one bolts in the Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation.

"Only by passing all eighty-one bolts of the lightning tribulation can one reach Tribulation Transcending Second Layer Perfection, allowing them to begin drawing their destiny form and break through to the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer."

"Of course, the vast majority of cultivators lack the strength to survive eighty-one bolts of lightning in one breath. Therefore, the lightning tribulation leaves a thread of life in this regard: it divides the tribulation into nine layers, with every nine bolts serving as a boundary. For a cultivator undergoing the tribulation, surviving at least nine bolts of Heavenly Thunder counts as a success."

"After passing nine bolts, they can temporarily halt the lightning tribulation."

"Then, they can wait until next time—when they are better prepared, their strength has advanced further, and they have the ability to endure more lightning bolts—to challenge it again."

"However, there is one catch."

"That is, after every pause, the next tribulation attempt must start from the very beginning. There are no 'checkpoints.' Furthermore, the number of Heavenly Thunder bolts faced must be a multiple of nine."

One-Nine, Two-Nine... all the way to Nine-Nine.

For example, if you survived the One-Nine Heavenly Tribulation—nine bolts of Heavenly Thunder—on your first attempt and then paused, but on your second attempt you only managed to survive twelve bolts of Heavenly Thunder...

At that point, the lightning tribulation wouldn't let you pause anymore. Instead, it would strike for the full amount of the Two-Nine Heavenly Tribulation—eighteen bolts of Heavenly Thunder. If you could hold on, you could apply for a pause again and keep your life. But if you couldn't hold on, you would be reduced to nothing but tribulation ash beneath the Heavenly Thunder.

"So this Heavenly Thunder hurdle is actually quite dangerous."

Wang Ping pondered:

"If one overestimates their own strength, or underestimates the power of the Heavenly Thunder, a single wrong step means immediate death and the erasure of their dao."

How truly terrifying~

As Wang Ping was thinking, he suddenly noticed that the bright lightning surrounding him was no longer glowing. He looked up, only to realize that the lightning tribulation had stopped at some unknown point.

The one-nine lightning tribulation—nine bolts of Heavenly Thunder—had finished striking.

"It's over?"

Wang Ping blinked. If he withdrew his divine power right now, the lightning tribulation would retreat on its own, waiting until the next time he triggered it to reappear.

However, Wang Ping naturally didn't care about that at all. He immediately signaled for the lightning tribulation to continue.

"Rumble!"

The lightning tribulation seemed angry!

Wang Ping's nonchalant attitude sent the lightning tribulation into a frenzy. Bolts of Heavenly Thunder crashed down one after another, determined to thoroughly blast him into ash.

Yet no matter how many bolts of Heavenly Thunder fell, Wang Ping remained completely unmoved, accepting them all without exception. The lightning scars on the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart grew increasingly distinct.

'As expected, the Heavenly Thunder poses practically zero difficulty for me.'

For a moment, Wang Ping felt both joy and worry.

He rejoiced because reaching Tribulation Transcending Second Layer Perfection was already well within his grasp. He worried because, given how sturdy his divine power was, the difficulty of the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer would be unimaginable.

"Wait..."

Right after passing the Eight-Nine Heavenly Tribulation, a thought suddenly flashed through Wang Ping's mind. He didn't continue to trigger the final Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation; instead, he actively called the lightning tribulation to a halt.

Immediately after, he looked at the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart. An impressive total of seventy-two bolts of Heavenly Thunder from the Eight-Nine Heavenly Tribulation had already been engraved inside. However, unlike the Bi Wind and Yin Fire, the Heavenly Thunder's power was simply too massive; it could be released but not recovered. It was a consumable. Once these seventy-two bolts of Heavenly Thunder were used up, they would be gone from the chart.

"This is good stuff."

Wang Ping stroked his chin. The three calamities of the heavenly tribulation dealt true damage. He had even used them against Kunyun before, and they were effective even against the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer!

The Heavenly Thunder was even more so.

Of course, eighty-one bolts of Heavenly Thunder in the Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation wouldn't even dent his health bar, let alone threaten the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer... But what if there were eight hundred and ten bolts of Heavenly Thunder?

"With the Ten Thousand Gods Terrestrial Chart here, I can stockpile these things!"

"As long as I don't undergo the Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation, I can just trigger the Eight-Nine Heavenly Tribulation every once in a while to collect Heavenly Thunder. Stockpiling up to eight hundred and ten bolts shouldn't be hard at all."

Even though the lightning tribulation had a cooldown period and piling up the quantity would take time, as long as he had perseverance, saving up eight hundred and ten, eight thousand one hundred, or even eighty-one thousand bolts of Heavenly Thunder wasn't impossible. When the time came, if he unleashed all those bolts of Heavenly Thunder in a single breath, could he smite a Tribulation Transcending Third Layer cultivator to death?

It wasn't impossible!

Thinking of this, Wang Ping grew a bit excited. After all, if things truly worked out as he calculated, this might become an unexpected trump card in the future.

However—

Looking up at the sky, the joy on Wang Ping's face gradually faded. This was because, after the lightning tribulation passed, his vision faintly ascended upwards, catching sight of an ocean.

The torrent of destiny!

After surviving the lightning tribulation, a Major Divine Ability cultivator could already faintly discern their own physical manifestation within the torrent of destiny—that is, their Destiny Pattern.

And right now, he was looking at his own Destiny Pattern.

To be precise, it was the Destiny Pattern that Kunlun had swapped with him. At this moment, it was shining brilliantly within the torrent of destiny, but its outward appearance was that of a talisman.

Reflected on it were two ancient seal script characters.

Condemned prisoner.