Sufferance-tier was divided to nine tiers of retribution. The next thunderbolt would strike even if one was not confident in surviving it, or even if one did not draw it to themselves on their own. Indeed, even if one were to maintain their current Sufferance-tier for a hundred years, the heavens would unleash their retribution regardless.
Of course, rarely would there be those who draw heavenly retribution on their own will.
Almost all elites suffering through retributions would keep cultivating and improving themselves, dragging things out up to a hundred years before suffering another retribution, which improved their chances of survival by a major extent.
As for the Hermit of Forgotten Love, the last time he had suffered retribution was twenty-three years ago.
At the time, he was weathering his retribution in the depths of the ocean, causing a major tsunami that affected a certain foreign nation’s coastal cities, devastating it with cyclones and tsunamis.
But at the moment, his hundred year-limit was not reached yet.
And being caught in an array, could he survive the heavenly thunderbolt?
One bolt descended then and directly knocked the Hermit of Forgotten Love out of the mirage. His figure shook up in the air as he almost fell from the sky, and he coughed out a mouthful of blood in bewilderment. He thought he was still inside the illusion and was still mouthing ‘Xiu’er’, but in the very next second and he came to his senses, his whole body shuddered.
“Heavenly retribution?”
“Did my eighth heavenly retribution just arrive?
“But…”
“I’m not prepared at all!”
There was a look of despair in the eyes of the Hermit of Forgotten Love after he was maimed by the first thunderstrike. He promptly took out a handful of spirit pellets and stuffed it inside his move, as he could only braced himself through the retribution now that things had come to this. Even if he had only a twenty percent chance of survival, he would keep struggling.
Even so, he could not help being left bewildered when he looked up at the cloud of retribution that spanned five hundred kilometers, as well as Jiang He who continued hovering up in the air.
Was this… a heavenly retribution that Jiang He had invoked?
Jiang He wanted to suffer through it, but the hermit himself was also Sufferance tier, meaning he was within range of the thunderbolts of retribution as well as without arrays to conceal his auras. Therefore, it was logical that the hermit would invoke heavenly retribution, but why the hell could Jiang He invoke heavenly retribution as well?
Was he not merely a full-fledged Yuan Spirit?
How could he invoke it if he is not even Convergence-tier?
He was still a full-fledged Yuan Spirit when I charged towards him just now. Could the thirty years I lived shamelessly with Xiu’er inside the mirage be not imaginary, but thirty years had really passed?
Nonetheless, the Hermit of Forgotten Love quickly suppressed his confused thoughts and invoked his mystic treasure, then promptly sat cross-legged up in the air to quickly heal and condition himself.
Each thunderbolt of retribution struck by the hour so that the Sufferance-tier individual would get a buffering period. Otherwise, who would bother living through the pain when all nine thunderbolts struck at once? Suicide was better!
Down below, the Penglai Sect crowd could not help breathing a long sigh when they saw what happened. Right now, none of them was brave enough to offer help.
After all, those beneath Sufferance-tier would not be strong enough. Jiang He would not even have to attack them—his array would kill them already. As for Sufferance-tier elites, any of them who left the Penglai Sect array would have their auras immediately locked in by the thundercloud of retribution, drawing the thunderbolts to himself.
“Now, we can only rely on the Hermit of Forgotten Love.”
Gritting his teeth, the Penglai Sect chieftain said somberly, “The Hermit of Forgotten Love is powerful, he would have up to thirty percent chance of success even if he suffers the retributions right now. The White Brows Founding Master has also sent word that the Clear Sky Mirror could be lent to him during a vital moment, improving his chances of success…”
Even before he could finish, the Penglai Sect chieftain came to his senses and his face dropped in astoundment. “What… is Jiang He doing?”
He was looking skyward.
Beneath the thundercloud of retribution, Jiang He was holding the Mosquito Cutter and walking toward the Hermit of Forgotten Love.
He was rather annoyed.
I’m suffering my own retribution. What are you doing, joining the fun?
Most importantly…
The first thunderbolt was done, and it would be another hour before the next.
In other words, having just finished breakfast, he had to find something to do—how grilling would it be to wait idly like this otherwise?
While he continued striding forward, Jiang He carefully sensed his cultivation.
He was a little surprised.
Cultivating the sixth fold of the Three Thousand Calamites had cost him a hundred million Farm Points, not the fifty million Farm Points hehad expected. Still, the rewards were tremendous, and the feeling of jumping past one cultivation tier and the next in an instant could not be more delightful.
“Mastery of the Three Thousand Calamites corresponds to…”
Full-fledged Sufferance?
“Hmmm, I’m not sure since I’ve not weathered through heavenly retributions before. Still… I feel that it would be very easy to kill an injured seventh-retribution inside the array I set up.”
Jiang He was now less than thirty meters in front of the Hermit of Forgotten Love.
“Jiang He!”
The Hermit of Forgotten Love, who had been sitting cross-legged, promptly opened his eyes with a look of utter disbelief and he cried out hoarsely, “You’re… Sufferance now? No, that’s impossible… but isn’t your cultivation full-fledged Sufferance?”
“Oh?”
Jiang He answered in surprise. “I’ve not even weathered through the thunderbolts, but I count as a full-fledged Sufferance already?”
Fear filled the Hermit of Forgotten Love’s face. He rose to his feet and quickly fled, attempting to return to the Penglai Sect. Even so, Jiang He’s array activated just as he moved.
The Great Nine Heavens Array of Dragon Sealing!
Pow!
The Hermit of Forgotten Love slammed onto the array and was knocked back.
“No!”
He screamed in panic as overwhelming killing intent flowed out of Jiang He’s body and he quickly said, “Jiang He, you can’t kill me, you can’t kill me! There are two Mahayana elites in my Penglai Sect, as well as immortals who have headed beyond the stars…”
Nonetheless, Jiang He’s Mosquito Cutter shone with dazzling immortal light then.
At that very moment, Jiang He’s own array was quaking violently by the immortal light.
Every flying sword over a thousand miles resonated and started to vibrate slightly, while Jiang He pointed a finger and exhaled, casting the first style of Three Thousand Calamities, White Foal Crosses the Rift.
The immortal light disappeared in a flash.
The Hermit of Forgotten Love could not even charge his mystic treasures and defensive measures in time when a sword flash tore into his head between his brows. His Yuan Spirit hence darted out from within and tried to escape again, only to find shadows of swords arising everywhere.
In the very next second, a sword would landed on his Yuan Spirit.
Snikt.
Yuan Spirit vaporized.
The Hermit of Forgotten Love had fallen.
With a wave of his hand, Jiang He retrieved the hermit’s Spatial Ring and mystic treasures, and then looked in surprise at the Mosquito Cutter, muttering, “Is seventh-retribution that weak?”
“No, no. It’s not that seventh-retribution is weak… I’m just too powerful!”
“Mastery over the sixth fold of Three Thousand Calamities has pushed my cultivation to full-fledged Sufferance. Added to the fact that I’m a sword cultivator and my self-developed sword cultivator technique Three Thousand Calamities isn’t that weak, I could fight even Mahayana-tier elites…”
“Oh, and I have an immortal weapon too.”
He then looked up at the 500 km thundercloud then, inside of which horrific lightning flashes were brewing.
Even so, Jiang He felt in this very moment…
That the thundercloud was nothing much.
Abruptly taking to the air, Jiang He then turned into a sword flash and flew inside the thundercloud.
Instantly, the thundercloud brewing with lightning bolts sparkled with horrific bolts that converged on Jiang He. Laughing, he swung his sword…
Whoosh!
A colossal sword flash descended directly, its Sword Qi blazing over a thousand miles and tearing the thundercloud apart.
In the next instant, the thundercloud rolled feebly a few times before fading!
The world was left silent then.
In the distance, those elites who had been watching the show and were starting to lust after Jiang He’s Mosquito Cutter could feel their eyes widening. In fact, they did not even bother to hide their auras and figures now.
Likewise, the Penglai Sect crowd looked like they had seen a ghost.
The Hermit of Forgotten Love’s fall left them in indignant grief, but that only lasted seconds—the sight of Jiang He’s single swing that tore through the thundercloud of retribution left them dumbstruck.
Meanwhile, within their ancient great temple of the Penglai Sect, two long-dormant presences rapidly awakened.
The Clear Sky Mirror that the Penglai Sect chieftain was holding shook and turned into a moving flash, darting into the hands of an old Daoist with long white brows, white hair, and youthful looks.
“Ancestral Masters!”
The Penglai Sect chieftain was delighted.
He promptly knelt on the ground, and exclaimed loudly in the direction of the great temple, “Welcome, Ancestral Masters, on leaving your seclusion!”
***
Up in the air, after cutting through the thunderclouds, Jiang he sensed the profound auras surging into his body—it was the backlash after weathering through heavenly retribution.
Jiang He did not pay it any attention, and instead thought to himself, “Back then, I had cut the thundercloud when I was weathering the Four Retributions of the Nine Lesser Heavens, and now I’ve done it again with the Ninefold Heavenly Retribution…”
How does one safely and instantly complete Sufferance?
Just cut down the card with a single swing of one’s sword. Not only would that save a whole lot of time, it also avoids being left worn out after getting thunderstruck.
Jiang He had learned that from experience.
He must remember that.
In the end, he was the first Sufferance cultivator of the new age… as a pioneer, he should speak about his cultivation experience along this path if he was going to have a talk at the Martial Arts Academy again, and share it with everyone.
Whoosh!
Beneath him, the Penglai Sect’s mountain-guarding array was opening.
Jiang He’s eyes shifted toward it, but just as he was about to seize that moment and throw in every Doom Shroom and Five Thunder Talisman he had, he found a moving flash streaking toward him.
It turned out to be an old person wearing Daoist robes, and every strand of hair he had, from brow to beard, was white.
The old man had a kindly face and saluted Jiang He with fist to palm, neither hate nor anger registering on his face as he smiled. “Jiang He, fellow sage, I have learned about everything that happened before, and it is all a misunderstanding. The True Habitant of Nine Dragons had deliberately spiced up his story because of his grudge towards you, confounding the chieftain of my Penglai Sect and the others.”
“Now that Nine Dragons is dead, with the Scarlet Sun Child and the Hermit of Forgotten Love paying the price for their transgressions, I believe your rage would have certainly eased. Why don’t we let bygones be bygones and forget this grudge? Our Penglai Sect would offer you a gift in apology too.”
“Ancestral Master!”
Down below on Penglai Island, one of the Penglai Supreme Venerable Elders was shrieking in rage, fiery light shooting out of his eyes as he seethed through clenched teeth, “Ancestral Master, our Penglai Sect has stood for thousands of years. How could we bow our heads at a commoner cultivator who gained dog poo luck?”
“Fight! Fight! At worst, it is merely death!”
The other Penglai Sect cultivators roared as well.
“Silence!” the other Mahayana-tier bellowed furiously at that.
On the other hand, the White Brows Ancestral Master was still up in the air and smiling. “Jiang He, I have reached Mahayana for over sixteen hundred years and this mirror I’m holding is a demi-immortal item called the Clear Sky Mirror. It is not as if the Penglai Sect is unable to fight back if you wish for conflict.”
“Heh.”
Jiang He laughed coldly before drawing his sword. Sword Qi and immortal light shone up in the skies as he charged toward the White Brows Ancestral Master whilst chuckling fearsomely, “You who are too old to die. How dare you ask for peace but still threaten me?”
Oom!
Clearly having expected that, the White Brows Daoist invoked his Clear Sky Mirror, releasing veins of green radiance as he engaged Jiang He in a melee and burst out with various godly Daoist techniques. Even with his immortal sword, Jiang He could not do anything against the old Daoist just then.
“Brother White Brows, I’m here to help!”
Below them, the Mahayana cultivator roared then.
He was about to fly out of the Penglai Island when his danger sense suddenly pricked up.
He could see that Jiang He had suddenly waved his hand even as he fought off White Brows Daoist, throwing out a compact wave of a certain object.
At the moment, the Penglai Sect’s array had remained open, while almost 900 Doom Shrooms were raining down.
“Are those mushrooms? Why are they black?”
As his instincts kicked in, a thought occurred to the old Mahayana-tier Daoist. “Could they be poisonous?”
Directing his mystic energies to shield his body, he extended his hand and grasped, conjuring a massive hand out of thin air that reached toward the hundreds of Doom Shrooms…
And then…
Kaboom!
There was tremendous crack that left the whole world shaking.
Almost 900 Doom Shrooms had detonated simultaneously.
One Doom Shroom would erupt with a 300,000-ton yield, and 900 meant it would blow up with a 270-million-ton yield…
The Mahayana-tier’s conjured hand instantly crumbled. Being closest to the explosion, he was instantly engulfed in the extreme heat that reached several hundred million degrees…
