Chapter 4888 — A Tenfold Lightning Tribulation

But Wei Zhao had no way to control the tribulation; he could only watch helplessly as it weakened by the moment. Once this last remnant of lightning energy was spent, everything would be fixed—beyond any hope of change.

Yet just then, the lightning field overhead suddenly swelled for some inexplicable reason, and in but a brief moment it had gathered another fierce thunderbolt of roughly the same intensity as before, sending a thrill of joy through Wei Zhao!

It seemed the Thunder Lord truly favored him. Not only was this tribulation ten times stronger than anyone else's, but it came in a second round right after the first—as if determined to see him blasted to nothing. Thank goodness he had inherited the lightning legacy of the giant electric eel; his resistance to lightning far surpassed that of ordinary folk, a thousand times over at least. Otherwise he would never have survived this one!

What Wei Zhao did not know was that the one he ought to thank was not the Thunder Lord, who clearly had it in for him, but Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng—they, after all, were the true authors of this tribulation duet.

The two of them had been driven to desperation. Never in their wildest dreams could they have imagined that, faced with such a terrifying tribulation, Wei Zhao had not been blasted straight into a smear of offal but could still struggle on the brink of death. What in the world kind of constitution was this?

If even this failed to finish Wei Zhao and he walked out of the tribulation node alive, they knew they would never have another chance to deal with him—for no better opportunity than this would ever come again.

So Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng threw aside the plan they had laid out beforehand and hurriedly gathered in the tribulations of another ten people. Whether the targets were Morning Star disciples or not no longer entered their considerations; compared with blasting Wei Zhao to death, such trifles were nothing.

Another wave of incomparable agony—yet Wei Zhao was thoroughly in pain and thoroughly in bliss. Having already endured that first fierce thunderbolt, he no longer found the agony so hard to bear. Better still, it poured powerful momentum into his rapidly exhausting spirit roots, which devoured the remaining three attribute roots with mad abandon, utterly unstoppable.

"Damn it all, is this thing even human? Still not dead after all that?" Watching Wei Zhao struggle on the brink of death beneath the tribulation yet never fall, Bao Zuoliang and Su Kesheng were nearly driven mad.

By any reckoning, even a titan of the Mountain-Splitting Stage might not withstand a tribulation so powerful, and yet Wei Zhao—a mere master at the consummation of the Nascent Soul—had taken two rounds and lived. The two felt their plan had been meticulous, so who could have foreseen running into such an unkillable freak?

"To hell with it—this time he must die! Flaws be damned, we'll worry about them later. So long as there's no solid evidence, if someone investigates afterward we can wash our hands of it cleanly enough!" Bao Zuoliang said viciously.

"Aye, if we can't kill that fellow surnamed Lin this time, the consequences will be endless. Never mind whether we can deal with him later—once he emerges from his breakthrough and comes to his senses, he may well suspect us. We must kill him at any cost!" Su Kesheng nodded heavily.

The two exchanged a glance, gritted their teeth, and began to stake everything. Nearly every tribulation visible in the surrounding area was diverted onto Wei Zhao's head—only those of Wang Xinyan and a few others close to Wei Zhao made them hesitate, and they dared not tamper lightly with those, lest the flaw be too glaring.

But that was enough. There were fully fifty-some tribulation nodes all around; once the two began staking their all, it was no longer merely a tenfold tribulation duet, but a trio—a quartet!

The two drew down lightning like madmen, and Wei Zhao remained wholly unaware of it. Aided by this ferocious tribulation, he forcibly fused all eight attribute roots into one, transforming them into an entirely new composite eightfold spirit root!

Even masters of the Mystic Ascension Stage possessed only composite spirit roots, and a composite threefold spirit root was already a rare creature. Wei Zhao's composite eightfold spirit root was utterly unprecedented; it was doubtful such a singular freak as he would ever appear again.

Thanks to the two of them, Wei Zhao not only fused all eight attribute roots but still had a raging tribulation overhead. He simply struck while the iron was hot and began a further round of consolidation and tempering.

Because the lightning attribute root had moved first, his new composite eightfold spirit root was now lightning-dominant. This did not hinder the other attributes from coming into play, but the mightiest force within his body had become the power of lightning.

This would have been unimaginable before. After all, the power of lightning had never been a mainstay of Wei Zhao's offensive and defensive system—at best, relying on its unmatched speed, it served as an opening technique to harass foes; against a strong enemy it could inflict no real harm.

But now all was different. In mere moments the power of lightning had grown a hundredfold, a thousandfold; loosed from his hand, it would no longer be that thin little arc, but a genuine, devastating thunderbolt!

And the crucial thing was that it did not stop there. Even as the ceaseless tribulation overhead tempered his new composite eightfold spirit root, it further swelled the lightning power within him.

By now the tribulation was no longer torment to him, but a genuine enjoyment—like swallowing a great tonic pill. Let the tribulations come as they would; the swelling, filling sensation of that power within him could be described in a single word: bliss.

Boom! Boom! The tenfold tribulation pounded Wei Zhao's head without cease, an apocalyptic scene as though the Thunder Burial were descending.

By this time few dared remain nearby to watch. After all, if such a horrifying tribulation node were simply given to them, they would not dare take it. Even standing far outside, they were struck from time to time by stray lightning, and the merest graze left them half dead with exquisite agony. To sit inside this tribulation node—that sensation was beyond imagining!

They were no immortal cockroaches like Wei Zhao, who did not so much as flinch even after his very bones were struck out of him. Were they in his place, a hundred lives would have been snuffed out long ago.

It was not only those watching on the spot—in truth, the whole Road of Titans had fallen into a state of panic. Word of the tenfold tribulation spread, and people took it as a sign that the Thunder Burial had come early. Though no past trial had ever overlapped with a Thunder Burial, what if this time it did?

In any case, the sudden appearance of a tenfold tribulation was surely abnormal. To be safe, disciples of every academy who caught wind of it were already thinking of fleeing early.

Whether their assault on the Mystic Ascension succeeded or failed, none intended to linger here long. Some of the especially timid, believing the rumors simply because everyone repeated them, did not even wait for their own breakthrough attempt—they abandoned the chance altogether. Better safe than sorry, after all.