At the peak of Ink Peak, Su Luowei stood in the array specifically drawn for her by the sect leader, gazing at Xie Hanzhu, who stood sobbing just a few feet away. A helpless smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Alright, Hanzhu, stop crying. I'm facing the celestial tribulation, not going to die."
Xie Hanzhu wiped her tears, sniffling, "Isn't it the same thing? It's been so many years since anyone survived the celestial tribulation."
Su Luowei's gaze landed on Wen Miaomiao, standing beside Xie Hanzhu, and she thought to herself, "How ironic. The person next to you recently passed the tribulation successfully."
Wen Miaomiao met Su Luowei's eyes and, understanding the meaning behind her look, gave a faint, bitter smile.
The fact that Wen Miaomiao could no longer ascend to immortality was something Su Luowei felt a slight pity for but not much more. In her previous life, Wen Miaomiao had sacrificed herself for humanity, allowing them to barely survive, but at the cost of dedicating her entire life to their salvation.
Su Luowei's gaze lingered on Wen Miaomiao's hand, which gently tugged Xie Hanzhu toward the edge of the array. Su Luowei thought to herself that perhaps this was for the best — Wen Miaomiao could now lay down her burdens and live a peaceful life.
As the sound of crying faded, Su Luowei finally found some peace and quiet. She raised her head to the sky. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and not a cloud in sight.
The vast sky above and the boundless earth below, with the rolling green hills and clear rivers stretching as far as the eye could see, filled her with a sense of calm and serenity.
She took one last greedy look at Ink Peak, the place she had called home for many years. Taking a deep breath, Su Luowei nodded toward Zhan Xuehan, who stood outside the array.
Zhan Xuehan gave her a reluctant glance before forcing a smile and taking out a talisman, infusing it with spiritual energy.
The talisman ignited in midair, floating slowly to the array's core. Then, it transformed into a flame that ignited the entire array.
The ground lit up with blue symbols that resembled tadpoles, glowing as they connected into lines and formed intricate patterns. In just a few breaths, Su Luowei felt as if a vortex had formed around her, drawing in the spiritual energy from miles around, which quickly began flooding into her body.
This was the purpose of the array — it could temporarily gather half of the spiritual energy from the Qingxu Mountains. It was something Zhan Xuehan had painstakingly designed for Su Luowei, fearing that her spiritual energy might be insufficient during the tribulation.
As Su Luowei's body absorbed more spiritual energy, the excess energy in the air became visibly denser. The energy condensed into droplets, hovering in the air, before forming into a cluster of white ethereal butterflies and a few transparent deer.
The butterflies fluttered around her, and the deer lay peacefully at her feet. Su Luowei, already strikingly beautiful and graceful, now looked even more otherworldly amidst the butterflies and deer.
The scene was so dreamlike that Xie Hanzhu momentarily stopped crying, her eyes wide with awe as she gazed at Su Luowei in stunned silence.
In her daze, Xie Hanzhu thought she heard someone sigh softly, muttering, "The sect leader really is biased."
In such a beautiful and peaceful setting, Su Luowei's heart grew calm. She glanced at Nie Wentian, who quickly understood her meaning and nodded. He then adjusted the compass in his hand, aligning its needle with the sun.
The compass was a treasure used to control Qingxu Sect's protective array. By activating it now, Nie Wentian intended to open the protective array.
With a loud rumble, the ground shook, and the sky darkened. Above them, the once-clear sky began to split, the crack widening to reveal a mass of dark clouds.
Upon seeing the full scale of the tribulation clouds, Zhan Xuehan couldn't help but gasp. She had never seen tribulation clouds of this size before, vast and endless, darker than the night.
Frowning deeply, she turned to Nie Wentian and asked, "Have the predecessors who faced tribulation ever seen clouds this massive?"
Nie Wentian's expression was serious. "According to ancient texts, every Grandmaster's tribulation is unique. It's not necessarily true that larger clouds mean a stronger tribulation. Look, despite its size, there are no signs of purple lightning within the clouds. If I'm correct, the tribulation Su Luowei faces is a Heart Tribulation."
Though the Heavenly Dao was unpredictable and every celestial tribulation was different, tribulations could generally be categorized into two types: Physical Tribulation and Heart Tribulation.
The Physical Tribulation tested a cultivator's body and could be measured. The more evil deeds a cultivator had committed, the more lightning they would face, and the stronger the tribulation would be.
The Heart Tribulation, however, tested the cultivator's mental state. According to ancient records, fewer than ten people had ever faced such a tribulation, and of those, only a handful had survived.
From the moment she saw the tribulation clouds, Su Luowei steeled herself, summoning her defensive artifacts to prepare for the oncoming thunder.
Even Xie Hanzhu, watching from afar, was so frightened by the vast clouds that she clutched her clothes, her heart pounding in fear for her senior sister.
Seeing her go pale, Wen Miaomiao patted her back gently in reassurance. "Don't worry, it's a Heart Tribulation." If it had been a Physical Tribulation, she would have been concerned about Su Luowei's chances of survival. But a Heart Tribulation...
Wen Miaomiao looked at the white-robed woman standing ahead, silently thinking: "With you, I'm certain you will pass the tribulation and ascend to immortality."
Though Su Luowei had known beforehand that the celestial tribulation could take one of two forms, she never imagined she would be unlucky enough to face a Heart Tribulation.
So, when no thunder or lightning fell from the sky, and a purple vine suddenly sprouted from the ground, she was momentarily stunned.
The purple vine grew rapidly, soon reaching her height. It wobbled slightly before blossoming into a transparent lily of the valley right before her eyes.
Something strange was happening. The fact that this flower had effortlessly bypassed her protective array and defense artifacts to bloom in front of her indicated its immense power.
Yet, for some reason, Su Luowei felt no sense of danger from the flower. It felt as natural and normal as seeing her own reflection in a mirror.
Almost as if guided by some unseen force, Su Luowei extended a finger to touch the flower's delicate petals.
And then, she heard a sigh.
It was quiet, very quiet. The house had never been this quiet before.
There was no ticking from the clock, no sound of water from the shower, and no familiar clacking of high heels from the neighbor upstairs.
Su Luowei opened her eyes, blinking in confusion for a few seconds, before squinting to reach for her phone on the coffee table. The screen lit up, displaying the picture of a white kitten she had taken a few days ago. Above the cat's head, the digital clock glowed brightly, showing the time as 2:20 a.m.
Still early. She could sleep for another five hours.
She turned off her phone and tossed it back on the couch. But after lying there for a few more minutes, she opened her eyes again.
No, she hadn't removed her makeup yet.
With a deep sigh, Su Luowei pushed herself off the couch. The neon light from the building across the street spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting shadows on the floor and table, and even lighting up a part of her slender legs.
Looking for her slippers near the couch but not finding them, she resigned herself to getting up and walking barefoot to the entrance, flipping the light switch with a soft "click."
The scene was familiar. She remembered turning on the light when she came home.
Frowning, Su Luowei immediately checked the door lock. As someone who had lived alone for many years, she always maintained a certain level of vigilance.
The door was locked from the inside, the deadbolt turned two and a half times, just as she always did. Feeling somewhat reassured, Su Luowei relaxed a little. It seemed she had just been too tired lately, her mind playing tricks on her.
After removing her makeup, showering, and drying her hair, it was already 3:00 a.m. when Su Luowei crawled into bed, pulling the blanket up to her chin. Wrapped in the warmth and security of her blanket, she let out a long sigh.
The house was quiet, the outside was quiet too. There was no honking from the usual traffic, no noise from the nearby supermarket unloading its goods at night.
Just before falling asleep, Su Luowei's groggy thoughts drifted to the unusual silence. It seemed almost too quiet.
That night, Su Luowei didn't sleep well. Whether it was the rising temperatures, the pressure from work, or perhaps because of that strange dream she had…
The poor night's sleep almost made her late for work in the morning and left her feeling sluggish and out of sorts throughout the entire morning.
Her face must have looked so bad that during lunch, Zhu Hanhan, the girl sitting at the desk opposite hers and her regular lunch companion, quietly asked if she wanted to take half the day off to catch up on sleep.
While picking out the green peppers from her meal, Su Luowei shook her head. "No, I already promised Sister Xia I'd have the budget for the second half of the year ready by the end of today. I still need to follow up with a few departments after lunch."
"Ugh, just hearing the word 'budget' makes my head hurt," Zhu Hanhan waved her hand dismissively. "Once the budget is done, we'll have to prepare the quarterly reports, then internal audits, and in September, there's the leadership change. After that, we'll be preparing for the year-end closing. Us finance people really don't get a single day of rest, do we?"
She poked at her lunch a few times before glancing at Su Luowei, noticing the faint dark circles under her eyes. Frowning, she added, "Seriously though, you look awful. Why not ask Sister Xia if you can submit the budget tomorrow? You really don't look well."
"No, I'll be fine," Su Luowei replied, pausing briefly before adding, "I'll just grab a coffee later. Besides, I wouldn't be able to sleep even if I went home."
"Alright then, I'll get the coffee," Zhu Hanhan said, already pulling out her phone to order coffee. As she browsed, she joked, "Sometimes I think we really are just corporate slaves. Paying for our own coffee to boost our work efficiency — it's absurd! Even the donkeys in production teams don't whip themselves like this."
Su Luowei smiled as she listened to Zhu Hanhan's complaints. After her coworker had finished placing the order, Su Luowei put down her chopsticks and rubbed the dark circles under her eyes, hesitating for a moment before finally admitting, "Actually… I had a strange dream last night, which is why I didn't sleep well."
"Oh? A nightmare?" Zhu Hanhan asked with concern, trying to reassure her. "Don't worry, dreams are usually the opposite of reality. There was a time when I kept having nightmares about coming last in the performance rankings and getting called in by the boss to be fired."
That anxiety had left her unable to eat or sleep, terrified that her performance would actually tank and she'd have to pack up and leave.
"Well, it wasn't exactly a nightmare," Su Luowei said, her expression uncertain. She seemed to struggle with how to describe it for a while before finally saying hesitantly, "I dreamed that… I got married."
Zhu Hanhan raised an eyebrow, about to say something, when Su Luowei continued slowly:
"To a woman."
(Note: Zhu Hanhan is actually Hanzhu in this scene~)