Soul Formation Heavenly Tribulation!

Li Guanqi stood suspended in the void, gasping heavily for breath. His eyes remained locked onto the distant pillar of blazing flames. After that consecutive barrage of lethal methods, even a mid Soul Formation cultivator would be stripped of a layer of skin if they did not die! Clutching Red Lotus, Li Guanqi stood proud and aloft. Violent surges of primal energy rolled around his body, as if he were preparing for something further. Boom! Suddenly, the roaring pillar of fire that shot straight into the clouds ruptured violently. A surging slash of blade light burst from within, slicing the towering inferno cleanly in two! As the terrifying blade light exploded outward, a chill seized Li Guanqi's heart. Without a second thought, he teleported several hundred zhang away. Boom! The horrifying blade light carved a chasm a hundred zhang across straight into the earth, obliterating every building in its path. Flames scorched the heavens, yet amidst the roaring firelight, a dark silhouette slowly emerged! His black robes burnt to cinders, Xuan Luo was scorched black from head to toe, his hair and eyebrows entirely incinerated. His frigid eyes were filled with murderous intent, and his blood-streaked face was grim to the extreme. He had never imagined that the moment Li Guanqi seized a single flaw in his guard, it would invite such a terrifying, unrelenting sequence of assaults! Had he not possessed life-preserving measures, he would have been buried in that sea of fire long ago. *Shing...* The short blade at Xuan Luo's waist slowly cleared its scabbard. Leveling its tip at Li Guanqi, he rasped coldly, "You are indeed strong. But... it ends here!" Boom! A dreadful pressure erupted in an instant. A domain brimming with chilling blade qi snapped open, forcefully shutting out the power of the heavenly flames! Li Guanqi swayed slightly; the pressure bore down upon him like a great mountain. The dreadful weight forced his knees to buckle again and again. He understood now that the chasm between their cultivation realms could not be bridged so easily. Even if he unleashed every trump card at his disposal, killing Xuan Luo would still be an uphill battle. Xuan Luo was truly bent on killing him now. In his heart, he still looked down upon these so-called favored sons of heaven on the Tianji Rankings. After all, whether within Dark Crow or other covert factions, there were far too many who surpassed the names listed there. True monsters disdained being ranked by the Tianji Pavilion. Yet he had to admit he had underestimated Li Guanqi. He could even sense that despite unleashing such an absurd volume of terrifying spirit incantations, the young man still had strength to spare! *He must die!* Boom! Yet the moment Xuan Luo took a step forward, Li Guanqi's calm voice drifted out softly. "Have you... ever killed someone beneath a heavenly tribulation?" The moment the words fell, an immense, boundless heavenly majesty descended! Xuan Luo snapped his head up toward the vault of the sky! Without him realizing when it had started, the thick, dark clouds originally summoned for the spirit incantations had not dispersed. What was more, the clouds above were now stretching across thousands of zhang! Lightning flashed, thunder cracked, winds howled, and torrential rain poured down. Rumble! Thunder boomed ceaselessly like war drums beating for battle. Li Guanqi licked his lips and murmured softly, "You are the strongest opponent I have encountered to date. I am willing to show you my respect, so..." Boom! A horrifyingly potent aura erupted. The blast wave flung Xuan Luo hundreds of zhang backward! Yet Li Guanqi vanished from his spot, streaking toward Xuan Luo amidst flashes of lightning. Xuan Luo's pupils contracted sharply. He realized that the nascent heavenly tribulation lightning gathered in the sky was already locking its aura onto him! The heavenly tribulation was treating him as another person crossing the tribulation within its range! Xuan Luo was gripped by sheer horror. He was already badly injured; if he were targeted by the heavenly tribulation on top of that, he would be crippled completely! Li Guanqi snarled, freely releasing his aura without restraint! His cultivation technique circulated wildly within him as purple primal energy surged and roared. His blood boiled, and the Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art ran at full tilt. A gleam flashed in Jiuxiao's eyes. Veiled by the chaotic aura of the heavenly tribulation, a drop of pure true dragon essence blood merged into Li Guanqi's body. Boom! The moment the essence blood entered him, something seemed to detonate inside Li Guanqi. "Pfft!" Li Guanqi froze in place, unable to stop himself from spitting out a mouthful of blood. Yet that brief hesitation gave Xuan Luo the chance to flee over a thousand zhang away, finally escaping the tribulation's perimeter! Boom! Rumble! The churning heavenly tribulation thunderclouds did not brew for long. Impossibly thick bolts of tribulation lightning crashed down one after another! Li Guanqi looked up at the descending lightning, his eyes flickering with resolve. Tapping his foot lightly in the void, a boundless surge of spatial power began locking down the surrounding space. A curtain of terrifying flame rose around the perimeter, and the power of his Sword Prison expanded outward without pause. His intent was clear: come what may, Xuan Luo had to die today! A cold sneer curled Xuan Luo's lips. Watching Li Guanqi's actions, he understood precisely what his opponent was trying to do. He shared the exact same thought; under no circumstances could he allow his mission to fail. The price of failure... was simply too steep! Rather than stopping Li Guanqi, Xuan Luo unleashed his own spatial power and domain, thoroughly reinforcing the sealed world around them! Several bolts of thunder crashed down in succession, but Li Guanqi shattered them with pure, unyielding force! Rumble! Stray arcs of lightning struck the earth, blasting deep craters one after another. Then, under Xuan Luo's utterly astounded gaze, Li Guanqi snatched up the remnants of heavenly lightning and shoved them directly into his mouth! Even as the blasts tore him bloody, he swallowed the heavenly lightning with complete abandon! As the lightning entered his body, bolstered by the Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art, Li Guanqi's blood essence roared and suppressed the thunderbolts. At the same time, his progress in the technique advanced by leaps and bounds. Though a fifth phantom of a dragon-elephant had not yet manifested, his physical power had already increased by at least thirty percent! His internal cultivation method whirred frantically. The Nascent Soul within his dantian blazed with brilliant light, and the mysterious patterns upon his body shimmered softly. His primal energy boiled, swelling at an inconceivable speed. With a flick of his hand, Li Guanqi shattered over a hundred high-grade spirit stones. The dense heaven-and-earth spiritual energy grew so concentrated that it showed signs of condensing into mist and dew. He became like a massive funnel, ravenously devouring everything around him. His tattered white robes snapped in the wind, his nerves wound tight as a bowstring! He had never expected to attempt a breakthrough so completely unprepared. Yet plans could not keep pace with reality. If he did not break through today, he would certainly die by Xuan Luo's blade; only by advancing would he secure a sliver of hope. Right then, a bizarre smile crept onto Xuan Luo's lips. A flash of light gleamed from his hand, and a bone bow of pure, ghastly white materialized in his grip!