We don’t have to mention the Grand Preceptor and the rest of the peanut gallery, even Long Zhe and Pebbles widened their eyes when they saw this.

“It couldn’t be…”

****

No sooner than he said this did the tone of the clouds lighten and the destructive energy in the air increase over a hundredfold!

Krrrsh!

Lightning erupted from Long Di’s body in all directions. However, it was much different from his normal heavenly levyance lightning.

This lightning was pure white and possessed even more destructive potential within it than his heavenly levyance lightning ever did!

“Ivoric Calamity tribulation lightning.” Long Di was surprised as he didn’t expect the grade of his lightning to change!

The white lightning had a different level of divinity to it that made Long Di appear sacred and untouchable.

It was like he was an immortal of lightning and thunder. The arcs danced all over his body, even streaks of lightning escaped from his eyes, which were brimming with lightning energy.

He was truly awe-inspiring at the moment to the point where Yaomu Shou, Yaomu Baiyin, Zi Yu and Xiannu Liang all blushed when they saw him.

“Tch! W-Why are you looking all cool even when I took away that blessing from you? Hmph!” Mina remarked whilst also sporting a slight blush on her cheeks as well.

“No wonder the Heavens wanted to destroy it!” The Grand Preceptor commented. “This cultivation technique goes against the Heavens in every way!”

“Hahahaha! He stole the Heavens’ hammer of judgement! Hahaha!” Long Zhe roared with laughter when he saw the true nature of Long Di’s cultivation technique.

“That’s Long Di for you!” Pebbles smiled. However, that smile dimmed when he saw the Heavens and he cursed out loud.

“Stinking Heavens, why are you following what Long Di is doing!?”

Krrrsh!

A bolt of lightning shot from the heavenly execution, causing Pebbles to jump in fright!

It hid behind the Long Zhe in a hurry, causing the bolt to smash into Long Zhe’s red scales!

“Long Tian Yan you scoundrel, will you shut up!?” Long Zhe was enraged, especially when he saw the small scuff on his scales.

The demon race experts were terrified when they saw this. How powerful was a dragon’s body!?

A powerful expert died in one blow from the tribulation’s attack. Yet this dragon suffered something that can be fixed by simply wiping it off with a damp cloth.

“But the stinkin-”

Rumble!

To everyone’s fright, the heavenly execution clouds above Long Di and the other others trembled at Pebbles’s words, forcing him to watch what he was about to say.

“The glorified weather phenomenon over yonder…?” Pebbles and everyone else looked at the heavenly execution and saw no discernible change, allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Right, the glorified weather phenomenon over yonder is following Long Di! How could I not be angry!? And if I have to strip you of your scales, leaving you naked, which is the equivalent of inflicting blunt force trauma to the minds of these young ones, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay!”

“Stop using me to pay for your mistake!” Long Zhe roared.

“Don’t worry,” Pebbles patted his head. “You will sorely be missed!”

“Miss your mother! Get off of me!” Long Zhe shook his massive head, throwing Pebbles off.

The cat then landed deftly on his feet beside Xiannu Liang.

“Hello.” Pebbles greeted Xiannu Liang before he made himself comfortable and lay down, keeping his gaze fixed on Long Di.

“Oh, uhm h-hello again.” This was where the Destiny Scale had sent her before the heavenly tribulation had reached such a terrifying level.

She watched as the heavenly execution was doing just as Pebbles had said. It was creating another final bolt of lightning.

However, this bolt was different from the ones before it. This one was composed of Ivoric Calamity tribulation lightning.

It seemed to have sensed that Long Di’s cultivation technique had caused his lightning to evolve and upgraded its own lightning execution to match the threat level.

She tightened her grip when she saw how fearlessly he and Lord Whiskers faced this thing!

Shing!

Suddenly, Jia Yan appeared beside Xiannu Liang in a ghastly state when at the same time a streak of light shot towards Long Di before disappearing into his mind sea.

The entire scene took place in the space of a fraction of a breath. No one was able to see what happened. The only difference was that the dome of light was gone, and Jia Yan appeared out of nowhere.

However, when everyone saw Jia Yan, they couldn’t help but take to suck in a breath of cold air!

He was bleeding nonstop as wounds that refused to heal could be seen all over his body. Arcs of lightning appeared every now and again, which caused his body to spasm.

Despite all this, he was in a state of deep meditation, as if the state his body was in had nothing to do with him.

Xiannu Liang nearly screamed when she saw the injuries and immediately got to work on healing him.

“Leave him be child,” the voice of the Grand Preceptor echoed in her mind.

“B-But Lord Grand Preceptor sir, h-he’s-”

“Pushing his body to new heights using the tribulation’s destruction energy. This will make him far stronger than those at the same level. Allow him to resolve this himself.”

Though the Grand Preceptor didn’t know how or what just happened to have Jia Yan appear where he was, he did at least know that this was a good opportunity for the young demon.

When Xiannu Liang heard this, she finally calmed down a little. She still kept half an eye on Jia Yan just in case his condition suddenly worsened.

The other demon race experts didn’t pay much more attention to Jia Yan than a passing glance. He was a mixed-blood demon in the cauldron-forging realm no less. His mongrel blood and meagre cultivation didn’t yield their attention.

As such, they then focused their attention back on the two people undergoing the heavenly execution.

Boom!

The void collapsed and exploded as the ivoric calamity bolt of lightning descended!

Long Di was sure this was the last of the heavenly execution’s attack. As long as he made it out of this, he would be home free!

He wielded his sabre like it was going out of style as he let fly a galaxy of sabre slashes brimming with crimson horizon earth flame!

They landed on the bolt in quick succession, creating a series of deafening explosions followed by Lord Whiskers’ claw strikes that were dizzying to keep track of due to their speed!

Yet, the ivoric calamity lightning strike blasted through all of this with little change!

Long Di’s gaze grew grave as this world-ending strike neared him and his partner!

[Allow it to land on you! This is enough payment for the boon of strength I gave you.]

“You’re gonna take it all in?” Long Di was surprised when he heard the Destiny Scale.

[I did say I would absorb some, if not most of the energy of your next tribulation. This strike is more powerful than your last four bolts combined.] The Destiny Scale advised.

“Great! So that means you’ll handle ever-”

[Ah… I’ll leave the destructive energy to you since it will take me too long to refine it on my own if I took it as is.]

“Come again?” Long Di just wanted to make sure he heard right. Did this thing just say it would eat all the meat and not just give him the bone but bludgeon him in the head with it!?

Did this thing not see his body!?

There were parts of his body where the bone was visible! The bone! He was seventy-five percent sure that wasn’t healthy.

Plus, he lost so much blood that he was sure all blood banks would go through an economic recession for the next five years!

[I’m sure you can handle it.]

“If you strike my pettiness down, it shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”

The Destiny Scale didn’t know why, but it had some reservations about facing the full brunt of Long Di’s revenge.

The boy’s vindictiveness knew no bounds!

[Alright fine! I shall share the destructive nature within with you, but all the energy is mine.]

“Deal.” Long Di didn’t mind this, as he and Lord Whiskers reaped a lot from this tribulation.

Boom!

As the deal was finalised they were engulfed by the massive bolt of ivoric calamity tribulation lightning energy.

Blood sprayed once more as the destructiveness of the ivoric calamity tribulation lightning tore through his and Lord Whiskers’ body.

It seared his body and wreaked untold havoc within. It was far worse than anything he was expecting.

He had on his qi armour the entire time, but damn it all if it didn’t feel like it was doing crap.

“Sweet honey molasses in October. This smarts.”

Long Di’s power didn’t go through an upgrade this time around. The Destiny Scale took all the energy from the ivoric calamity tribulation lightning strike for itself and a major portion of its destructive energy as well.

Lord Whiskers dealt with a far less brutal remnant of the destructive energy. Because Lord Whiskers was helping to keep Long Di safe before when he was trying to break through earlier, Long Di had absorbed most of the destructive energy between him and the Destiny Scale to give the shidashi mao a break.

As of now, Lord Whiskers collapsed to the ground tired as could be and sapped of all strength.

Long Di was the same as well. He was beyond weak at the moment and his injuries (he’d been getting so much of these lately) were nothing to sneeze at, either.

Shu!

Suddenly, and without warning, a demon from the group that ambushed Long Di before appeared right in front of him and unleashed a palm brimming with somatic essence.

It was actually Zhen Yong, the Zhen family leader!

“Shameless!” Yaomu Shou and the others were furious that such a powerful expert chose to attack someone more than a major realm below himself, and after he had just finished a tribulation at that!

Surprisingly, however, neither Long Zhe nor Pebbles made a move. Instead, they sneered at this expert from the demon race.

The palm came much too fast and much too suddenly. Long Di couldn’t dodge it.

He could only watch as the palm became bigger and bigger before his eyes.

Boom!

A cloud of dust kicked up from the point of impact and it took a while for the scene to clear itself.

When all the experts saw what happened, their eyes nearly popped out of their skulls. Standing in front of Zhen Yong was… the Grand Preceptor.

They then looked to the spot where he was and saw only a faint afterimage fading away.

So fast!

Even more amazing was that Zhen Yong’s palm landed on the Grand Preceptor’s finger. Meaning, that to stop Zhen Yong’s full power blow, all the Grand Preceptor needed was a single finger and nothing else.

He didn’t even have his cauldrons out while Zhen Yong’s cauldrons were spinning behind him at full force.

“You have truly lost the face of the entire demon race,” the Grand Preceptor’s voice was cold and lacking any of the warmth it had before.

Zhen Yong was terrified at the moment “G-Grand Preceptor I-”

“Die for me.”

Before anyone could react, a single wrinkly finger landed on Zhen Yong’s forehead and the light in his eyes dimmed and he fell to the ground with a thud.