It had to be admitted that the strength Chen Xianzhi displayed now was utterly terrifying.
It even far surpassed that of many people present!!
Li Guanqi sensed a subtle fluctuation in space.
His brow furrowed slightly; the newcomers were none other than the Seven Generals.
It seemed the commotion caused this time was truly significant...
The old man's strength was formidable. Facing the relentless heavenly tribulation, he showed not the slightest hesitation, charging upward with his sword with absolute resolve!!
His movement technique was astonishingly fast, swift as the wind, yet he still could not outpace the lightning's ferocity.
Overwhelming thunder and lightning crashed down like toppling mountains.
High in the heavens, the old man dodged and leaped, striking repeatedly with his sword!!
Even so, fresh wounds rapidly multiplied across his body.
Wounds of all sizes left him looking battered and disheveled, their charred edges revealing upturned, bloody flesh. He was bathed in blood.
His grizzled hair tumbled loose, whipped by the gale, yet the eyes revealed beneath were extraordinarily fierce.
Gradually, the azure sword radiance swirling around him surged with even greater intensity, and waves of profound aura emerged.
The moment this mysterious aura manifested, numerous cultivators sat cross-legged in the void and entered deep meditation!
Li Guanqi also sent a low, solemn voice transmission: "Comprehend the momentum of heaven and earth! This is an invaluable opportunity for you all!"
As the words fell, Ye Feng was the first to enter a cultivation state, his divine sense rippling gently around him.
The others quickly followed suit, immersing themselves in cultivation.
For a time, the many spectators hovering in midair entered cultivation, beginning to perceive and comprehend this momentum of heaven and earth.
Yet only those like Li Guanqi and Long Hou knew just how perilous the old man's situation truly was!!
Under his white robes, Li Guanqi's fists clenched tight, his eyes fixed intently on the old man not far away.
At this moment, Chen Xianzhi felt an unprecedented crushing weight!!
The threat from the heavenly tribulation could claim his life at any second.
A single misstep would mean the end of his body and Dao.
Thus, he had to give everything he had, confronting the tribulation lightning with absolute vigilance.
He had managed to weather the first wave of tribulation, but he knew this was no time to relax!
For each subsequent strike of tribulation power would grow fiercer, several times more terrifying than before!
The old man's eyes flashed. Without the slightest hesitation, he raised his hand, and a suit of azure armor appeared!!
Donned over his body, light gleamed across the armor, its surface flowing with mysterious runes—plainly no ordinary item.
Yet Li Guanqi frowned.
The armor was no ordinary object, being an immortal artifact armor.
However...
Chen Xianzhi was, after all, merely at the peak Mahayana realm. Even having broken through to the half-step Tribulation Transcendence realm, inside his body... there was still only primal energy!!
Without immortal primal energy to drive it, an immortal artifact was like a lifeless object; all one could rely on was its inherent defensive resilience.
Rumble!!!!
Two more incomparably formidable bolts of lightning pierced through heaven and earth, crashing down.
This time, the old man's figure was knocked plummeting hundreds of zhang from the towering heights of ten thousand zhang!!
Fine cracks actually appeared across the azure immortal artifact armor!
The old man's pupils shrank to needles; it seemed he had realized it as well.
Li Guanqi saw him take a deep breath and crush a storage ring, retrieving dozens of radiant array plates from within!!
In an instant, array barriers rose with a roar, forcefully enduring the power of several bolts of lightning!!
Yet the power of these array plates had its limits after all. Facing a mere two strikes of tribulation lightning, the plates were already nearly ruined.
The old man sat cross-legged in the void, raising a hand to swallow several medicinal pills.
He actually entered a meditative trance.
At this moment, the old man had cast aside all defense...
He had actually pinned his hopes of breaking through to the Tribulation Transcendence realm and tearing through the barrier of laws upon the armor he wore and the crumbling, precarious array barriers around him!
Seeing this, Li Guanqi did not know what to say...
The old man's choice was correct; right now was when the laws were at their densest.
If he could not seize this window to fully comprehend the power of laws, then later... there would be virtually no chance left.
Yet the old man had been in his trance for barely a single breath before the next round of tribulation struck!
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
Three successive tribulation bolts annihilated nearly every array plate around him!!
The barriers of the only two remaining array plates wavered precariously, on the verge of shattering at any moment.
Seeing this, Li Guanqi could not help closing his eyes.
At this rate, the old man would hardly last until the midway point of the tribulation...
The heavenly tribulation thunderclouds churned violently, clearly gathering an even mightier tribulation lightning.
Suddenly!!
A bolt of purple lightning, a full zhang thick, tore through the dark heavens and plummeted down!!!
The armor on the old man erupted with dazzling azure light.
Yet Li Guanqi noticed that the old man's eyeballs were darting rapidly beneath his closed eyelids.
Li Guanqi thought to himself that things were looking grim; this was clearly a sign that under such crushing pressure, the old man was still unable to tear through the barrier of laws...
Li Guanqi closed his eyes, putting himself in his shoes.
If it were himself, standing beneath a tribulation that could kill him at any moment while being forced to calm down and search for the barrier of laws, he would probably have succumbed to agitation and terror long ago.
Yet the old man was still striving to breach the barrier of laws, seeking that single glimmer of life within.
Judging from the wood-element primal energy erupting around him, the old man's mastery over the wood element was by no means low.
Suddenly!!!
A mysterious ripple abruptly surged between heaven and earth!!
Every cultivator seated in the void shuddered!!
Li Guanqi's eyes narrowed slightly. Clenching his fists, he muttered inwardly,
"He tore through the barrier!"
"Now it all comes down to whether he can find a sliver of life within that terrifying sea of laws!!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!! Crack!!
The thunder roared and howled. The armor on the old man began to crumble and shatter!!!
It clearly could not hold out much longer, yet the lightning kept descending relentlessly, caring nothing for the tribulation crosser's condition.
Two breaths later, the armor on the old man abruptly shattered to pieces!!!
At the sight, Li Guanqi could not help holding his breath!!
Just then, a palm-sized inscribed talisman on the old man's back suddenly flared into intense flames!!
Boom!!!
A hundred-zhang array suddenly rose from the talisman, its earthy yellow primal energy surging with immense force.
A trickle of blood spilled from the corner of the old man's mouth. Just now, he too had felt the world-annihilating thunder crash down; fortunately, the talisman's activation had allowed him to forcibly steady his mind.
Boom-crack!!!
The thick array barrier withstood several strikes in succession, but the tribulation seemed enraged, pouring lightning down in a relentless torrent.
Violent ripples ran across the barrier; it clearly would not last long either.
Buzz!!
A second inscribed talisman began to burn, and in an instant, the old man's injuries began healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
Under the relentless battering of the thunderbolts, the array barrier could hold no longer and shattered with a roar.
Everyone's heart leaped into their throats.
The third inscribed talisman began to burn.
Gleaming with spiritual light, the talisman transformed into shields of flowing golden radiance, enveloping the old man within!!
Li Guanqi watched the scene in shock.
"Talismans turning into arrays? Talismans turning into artifacts?"
Yet the roaring thunder was like a ravenous beast, hellbent on tearing this realm-breaker to shreds!!
And amidst the vast, boundless sea of laws, the old man struggled desperately, yet he still could not find that single glimmer of life.
Three breaths later.
Boom!!!!
A bolt of lightning shattered the shields formed by the talisman and struck straight down upon the old man!
In a mere instant, his body turned to flying ash, obliterated within the lightning.
Chen Xianzhi was dead.
His death was... eerily understated.
An archaic longsword stripped of all spirituality plummeted from the sky.
All the cultivators seated cross-legged in the void opened their eyes at the same moment.
Watching the sword fall toward the earth, everyone fell silent.
Silently rising, every cultivator bowed deeply toward the falling sword at the center!!
The dark clouds dispersed, yet the old man's death lingered inextricably in everyone's hearts.
Chapter 1279