Chapter 98: Summoning Lightning, Enter the Heaven Burial Coffin!

Lu Jin sensed an opportunity.

This was surely a stroke of providence left for him by Empress Qinglian. Since it was a grand fortune, there had to be a way to claim it, and at this moment, he seemed to have discerned the key.

Slaughter!

*Shua!*

His figure suddenly lunged forward. Even bare-handed, he would forge a path with his most savage strikes!

*Bang!*

With a single punch, the armored warrior before him dissolved into golden light once more, surging into the trident.

“Is that all?”

Lu Jin frowned. Although he couldn’t discern his opponent’s cultivation level, the fact that they couldn’t withstand a single blow was unexpected. It didn’t match the menacing aura of the enemy legion at all.

However, despite the surprise, a faint smile played on his lips. If they were easy to kill, it was all the better for him. He tested the weight of the trident again; sure enough, its crushing heaviness had vanished by another tiny fraction.

Without a moment’s delay, he charged directly into the enemy ranks. Clenching his fists, he began a localized massacre.

The din of battle erupted. Everywhere his fists—suffused with pure Spiritual Qi—passed, bursts of golden light exploded. The massive army’s formation was instantly thrown into chaos.

To have their soldiers mown down like wheat was an insult the legion could not endure.

“Go! Capture him immediately! Seize him!”

An unknown voice commanded the entire force. They surged forward like a relentless tide.

Lu Jin met them head-on, refusing to yield an inch. His body pulsed with Spiritual Qi; a single punch could blast three to five of them into oblivion. The battle reached a fever pitch in an instant.

Every armored soldier struck down transformed into golden light and rushed into the trident. For a time, the weapon was wreathed in a continuous, shimmering golden radiance.

…

As the slaughter continued, Lu Jin lost track of time. He eventually realized that the combat strength of the armored warriors was steadily increasing.

At first, he could kill several with one punch. Later, it took multiple blows to fell just one. It became increasingly taxing, yet the dark mass of the enemy ranks showed no sign of thinning despite his frenzied killing.

Eventually…

When an armored warrior threw a punch that met Lu Jin on equal terms, a jolt of alarm shot through him. If this continued, he might be the one wiped out.

The strength of the warriors was scaling upward, seemingly growing stronger the further he progressed, while the enemy camp remained a black sea of shifting heads. It felt like a hopeless duel.

Fortunately, when he gripped the trident once more, he found he could finally brandish the weapon.

*Buzz!*

The moment the trident left the ground, a terrifying ripple whistled outward. Lu Jin felt the staggering power emanating from the shaft, and his expression shifted to one of profound shock.

But in the next second, the pressure transmitted to his arm forced him to sink. It seemed that with his current strength, even if he could swing the trident, he could only maintain the effort for a fleeting breath.

However, that was enough.

“Die!”

Lu Jin gripped the trident and lunged, thrusting it toward an armored warrior charging from the front.

*Puchi… Bang!*

The warrior, who possessed combat strength equal to Lu Jin’s own, was killed instantly by the single strike.

“What terrifying, destructive power!”

Lu Jin was stunned, his shock quickly replaced by sheer joy. At the same time, the slain warrior transformed into a mass of golden light and rushed into the trident. The heavy shaft became a fraction lighter once more.

“Keep killing!”

By now, Lu Jin’s eyes had turned blood-red with the thrill of the slaughter. He didn’t know when it would end, or when this tidal army would be completely annihilated, but now that he possessed the horrific lethality of the trident, he finally saw a glimmer of hope.

While Lu Jin was engaged in his mad slaughter within the sub-space of the Heaven Burial Coffin, the people outside remained in a state of suspense. Not much time had actually passed in the physical world.

The grand formation laid down by Elder Chi Yu emitted heart-palpitating ripples. The members of the various sects waited with complex expressions, though only the group from the Ten Thousand Swords Sect had fury smoldering in their eyes. Yet they remained silent, preparing to act as the situation developed.

As dusk began to settle, several other figures appeared in the space around the Eight Desolations Blood Dragon Altar.

When Chu Tianxiong scanned the surroundings, he discovered that besides the Sanctuary apostles he had summoned, there were other unfamiliar figures present. The auras of these experts were subtle and veiled, yet they could not conceal the dignified bearing of those in high positions.

*Who are they?*

With a bewildered gaze, he slowly turned his head to look at a young female figure within the Ten Thousand Swords Sect camp.

Yan Mo…

There was no communication between the two parties, but with Chu Tianxiong’s sharp perception, he sensed a connection. Had those people come because of her?

Chu Tianxiong, as the Sect Master, had naturally paid close attention to Yan Mo’s sudden rise to prominence. For an outer disciple to advance her cultivation to the 2nd Layer of the Jindan Realm in such a short time—and earn the qualification to participate in this selection—was the mark of an absolute monster.

Thinking of this, Chu Tianxiong’s gaze became meaningful. Such a monstrous talent surely hid secrets unknown to others. As for what those secrets were, he could only wait and see.

*Kacha!*

Suddenly, a thunderclap resounded through the world. A bolt of lightning from the blue caused everyone’s expressions to change drastically.

When they lifted their eyes to the sky, they saw clouds churning above the nine heavens. Thunderclouds began to converge frantically over the Eight Desolations Blood Dragon Altar.

“What’s going on? This is a lightning tribulation!”

“Who is crossing a tribulation? A lightning tribulation of this scale likely exceeds the scope of the Jindan Realm!”

“Is there a hidden master among the crowd? Why can’t I see them?”

As the thunderclouds gathered, the violent momentum of the wind and clouds left everyone stunned. But when they tried to investigate which powerhouse had triggered the tribulation, their confusion only grew. They couldn’t find anyone showing signs of an impending breakthrough.

Meanwhile, inside the sub-space of the Heaven Burial Coffin, Lu Jin—who was hacking and slashing madly with the trident—seemed to have hit a bottleneck.

At a certain point, he discovered that no matter how many armored warriors he destroyed, the weight of the trident would not lighten by even another fraction. It seemed his own cultivation bottleneck was restricting his control over the weapon. The opponents he faced were becoming increasingly powerful, and since he couldn’t draw out the full power of the trident, he fell into a passive state once more.

Under these circumstances, he chose to take a desperate risk.

“Lady Empress, since you aren’t speaking, then I’m going to do it!”

As for whether he could actually pull lightning into the coffin, Lu Jin had no certainty. He had asked Empress Qinglian, but received no reply. However, to break through the bottleneck, there was no other way.

*Whiz!*

He exerted all his strength to hurl the heavy trident away. It landed heavily, causing the earth to tremble and the void to shake. After crushing one armored warrior, it was immediately surrounded by a crowd of them. They actually intended to seize the weapon.

“Lightning, come!”

Looking at the densely packed armored warriors surrounding the trident, Lu Jin roared toward the heavens.

In the next second, a flash of lightning from the nine heavens tore through the sky. A golden lightning dragon descended, piercing through the void and stabbing through the grand formation laid by Elder Chi Yu. It flashed into existence above the dream-like ancient battlefield within the Heaven Burial Coffin.

Golden arcs of lightning, containing terrifying, destructive power, crashed down upon the trident in an instant.