Even as she shared her views, the tribulation of lightning didn't reside.
Unlike previous times, this time the bolts of lightning were no longer silver but of the colour of blood.
A bolt of it had the power to instantly destroy a mid-Nascent Soul Cultivator!
But even when she was targeted by it, she didn't stop her slaughter.
As her sword sense flashed out, all the Ju Clan members started to drop to the ground.
Ju Xun who saw his clansmen dying one by one started to laugh. It was a laughter of grief.
His greed all those years ago had caused his clan to fall to this state and live in a secluded area in fear.
He had regretted his actions many times in the past, but the past couldn't be changed.
With tears streaming through his eyes, he grabbed the blood sword again and rushed towards her while laughing like a madman. "Hehe, Burning Heaven Sword Saintess, the heavens aren't blind. One day you'll also feel my pain…"
Seeing his family members dying with a simple will of hers, he understood that she wasn't using all of her full strength.
All of her display of weakness was just an act. She was using them from the very beginning.
"Die with me!"
Soon his tears turned the colour of blood as he started to bleed from his eyes like all other clansmen. His sea of consciousness was invaded by the brutal Sword Sense and started to get ripped apart. The only thing in his mind was now to kill her with his self-detonation!
"You overestimate yourself!" She coldly harrumphed and directly reached him.
As her hands clasped his neck, streams of fire mixed with sword intent entered eyes, nose and mouth and immediately stopped her detonation.
In the next instant, she opened her palm and stabbed his dantian with her sharp nails. Ju Xun convulsed in pain but couldn't do anything. As her bloodied palm came out of his body, there was a tiny Nascent Soul in her grasp. It looked like a weakened small version of Ju Xun. Its illusory body gave out silent screams and struggled to get out of her grasp.
As of this moment, the entire battlefield had no other Ju Clansmen alive.
Once the illusory shadow of the woman returned, more than thirty Jade Cores were floating behind her. In her hands, there were two more Nascent Souls.
"All the ingredients are here…" She softly spoke and destroyed the sea of consciousness of all the Nascent Souls with her Sword Sense.
Next, she started to make a series of hand signs. All the different Jade Cores floated in front of her and started to rotate in a circular path around the three dissipating Nascent Souls. After eighteen rotations, all of them fused and turned into a huge spherical Jade.
From her wounds, she squeezed out a few drops of blood and threw it on the jade. It instantly turned golden.
"These people think that they were able to escape me all those years. But in truth, I only let them leave because they were the most talented among the Ju Clansmen. Their bones and blood essence have the ability to turn into many different kinds of weapons. They were like livestock." As she spoke, the Fire Dragon behind her opened its mouth and started to devour the corpses. Their flesh and blood became a tonic for it.
After refining all their corpses seemed to have become a real dragon. It opened its mouth and spat a white jade with red lines. It was refined by fusing all of their bones with their magical weapons. The image of a blood sword could be seen flashing in it.
"Ju, what a fitting surname for your bunch, you are nothing but tools."
White jade was created with their bones and a golden jade was created with their cores. The entire Ju Clan had become refinement materials for her.
"Son, it is good to be cautious, but remember that you must never let that caution turn into fear!"
"If you bend your backbone once, you can also do it twice. Even if it is the heaven that you are facing, what is there to fear?"
"If the heavens wanted to kill us, it could do so with ease, so what's the use of fearing it?"
With a mocking smile, she jumped on the fire dragon and flew towards the vault of the sky.
As she charged into the rumbling clouds, her figure was quickly drowned amidst the sea of lightning.
The tribulation lightning struck them with the desire of annihilation. Space itself seemed to tremble in its presence.
While the lightning was trying to exterminate them, the fire dragon and the overflowing sword intent were retaliating by destroying the tribulation clouds.
The two spheres behind her had were rapidly disintegrating under the lightning's effect.
Among the two, the first to get destroyed was the bone jade.
In just a few breathes, its outer crust was shattered. The searing heat from the lightning melted it until only a blood-red mercury-like substance was left. Just as it was about to be destroyed, she collected it.
Little more than nine breaths after that, the Golden Core shattered and released a Nascent Soul. It was just like when a Jade Core cultivator tried to shatter their core and reach the Nascent Soul stage.
However, in this case, the Nascent Souls were already present from the beginning and the Jade was formed by many Cores from different cultivators.
As it shattered, countless pieces of the core directly exploded but the one which remained all had red bolts of lightning flashing through them. She carefully sealed all these shards in a bag of holding.
As for the Nascent Soul that emerged, it was a fusion of three different souls caused by the tribulation lightning.
With three heads and six arms, its entire body was made of blood-red lightning and was extremely unstable. Even her eyes glittered while looking at it.
Taking out a blue jade, she carefully sealed the soul inside of it.
"Now that this is finished, I just need to need to quickly this tribulation. All this noise is becoming annoying…"
With the tribulation lightning wreaking havoc in her body, the vines inside her become frenzied. All of them joined into one large vine and tried to suck away her cultivation base and suppress her.
She made no attempt to stop its actions. With a will of her, the palace dressed woman's shadow went behind her. The two of them simultaneously raised their swords and slashed at the heavens.
"Render!"
As her voice echoed out, her sword intent condensed into a thousand metres fiery long sword. Upon its movement, the heaven shook and the space itself seemed to be torn apart.
Even the tribulation clouds which seemed to be endless couldn't withstand the might and were split into half which then started to burn.
This sudden development caused all the accumulated lightning to suddenly burst forth at the same time and turn into a crimson bolt of lightning as wide as a river.
"This is it!"
A glint shone in her eyes looking at the large amount of lightning. This was exactly what she needed now.
As she willed, the fire dragon beside her opened its jaw and swallowed her. In an instant, its body turned corporeal and became a real fire dragon. This was her method of taking a draconic form.
With a roar, she released a jet of flame and rushed upwards. The fire dragon's mouth opened up as it chose to devour the lightning river.
As soon as the lightning was swallowed, the pressure that was surrounding hundreds of kilometres surrounding the place suddenly vanished.
Having swallowed the river of lightning, the dragon coiled its body. Its body glowing with a crimson silver radiance of flame and lightning.
As thunderous rumbles echoed out, its scales started to explode one after another. But with every scale that exploded, the lightning bolts would lose some of their brilliance.
This battle between thunder and fire went for about ten minutes until the entire dragon exploded with a loud rumble.
Amidst the exploding lightning and fire, a red-haired woman with transcendental looks walked out step by step. But anyone who looked at her would be able to sense her cruel nature.
On her right hand, she carried a blood-red sword that emitted a thick killing intent and on her left hand was a black vine that looked like a snake twisting in agony.
"Completely rid of the vines?" He asked with an excited tone.
"Un." She lightly nodded.
From now onwards, she was truly healed.
Upon reaching the Nascent Soul realm, she attained a massive amount of life force from heaven and earth.
Even though she looked to be on the brink of death before, she had instantly recovered with all the spiritual energy that she absorbed.
Now that she smiled, it was like the blooming of a flower.
Even if the flower was covered in blood and thorns.
Just as Tianlong was about to congratulate her, she flicked the twisting vine towards him. Like a flying snake, it reached him and drilled into his body.
All the other black vines inside of him manifested on their own and went ahead to fuse with this new vine on their own. But the moment they touched, the streaks of lightning still present in it drilled into his body.
"Aargh!" The sudden electrocution caused him to release a pained howl. Subsequently, due to the suddenness of the situation, the aura of Storm Dragons that he so carefully hid was also released again.
Crackle!
The moment his aura was revealed, the remnant lightning energy in the sky condensed and struck him while he was still writhing in pain.
Thankfully, all of the tribulation clouds had already scattered by now and the lightning present there had been refined by Long Qianmei.
Thankfully, the meagre amount that was still there couldn't even kill a Late Yin Yang Cleanser.
Thankfully, Tianlong could turn himself into a smoke cloud to avoid serious injuries.
As such, this sudden strike of tribulation lightning wasn't that life-threatening to him.
But there was one dangerous thing that gave him trouble – Heaven's will. Hence, the moment he was struck by the lightning bolt, he vomited blood and almost lost consciousness.
As someone who split his consciousness into hundreds for research, tried to possess others in Qi Condensation realm, willingly burnt his soul to increase his spirit sense, his mental fortitude and will was far above others of his age.
The trace of heaven's will could make others kneel in its presence, but towards him, it could only give him mental pressure. After all, the real tribulation had subsided, this lightning only had a trace of the original's power.
How could just a trace of it make him kneel down?
His instinct finally overtook him as he looked at the sky and let out a roar. However, if one noticed carefully, they would see that it somewhat resembled a bird's cry too.
While his entire body was being wrecked by the thunder force, the Dragon blood inside of him started to release its brilliance. Under the brilliance, his heart which had slowed down significantly started to pump at an even faster rate.
As the blood drops were consuming the lightning force, they seemed to undergo some kind of transformation.