Li He and Ye Shuang looked at him at the same time. Ye Shuang asked urgently, “Senior Brother Meng, what do you mean? If it isn’t a Pill Tribulation, then what is it?”

Meng Qiuran’s lips trembled. It took a long time for him to finally squeeze out a sentence: “A Pill Tribulation is logically supposed to be a test set by the Heavenly Dao for the birth of a Spiritual Item. Although the lightning is fierce, it contains vitality. But this thundercloud… there is not a shred of vitality in it, only pure destructive intent. This isn’t a test; this is Heavenly Punishment!”

His voice suddenly rose sharply, “That Senior in the cave isn’t refining pills, he is fighting against the Heavenly Dao!”

These words were like a basin of ice water poured over everyone’s heads. Fighting against the Heavenly Dao, everyone present understood the heavy weight of those words.

Cultivation was inherently an act of going against the heavens, but that was a “defiance” that still complied with the rules of the Heavenly Dao. Drawing Qi into the Body, Foundation Establishment, forming a core, crossing tribulations, and ascending, although each step was arduous, they all remained within the framework permitted by the Heavenly Dao.

But fighting against the Heavenly Dao meant completely stepping outside of that framework to do something the Heavenly Dao expressly forbade. That was true defiance of the heavens.

Li He’s voice cracked, “Senior Brother Meng, then… then we…”

Meng Qiuran abruptly turned around and bowed deeply to Su Wan’er: “Fellow Daoist, please leave this place with us immediately! Under the Heavenly Punishment, a radius of several miles will be reduced to scorched earth. If we don’t leave now, it will be too late!”

Su Wan’er stood where she was, her gaze fixed on the thunderclouds. The terrifying black lightning at the center of the cloud layer had already condensed to a chilling degree, ready to strike down at any moment.

She bit her lip. Senior had told her to go hunting and gave her an hour, and now, before that hour was even up, the Lightning Tribulation had already descended.

Was this a coincidence? Or had Senior calculated all of this from the very beginning?

Every time she thought she had seen Senior’s limits, Senior would use a new way to tell her that her imagination was still far from enough.

This time was no different.

So what if it was a Heavenly Punishment? Since Senior dared to commit an act that defied the heavens, he surely had a foolproof plan. And the fact that Senior had her leave the cave to hunt at that specific time, only to return at this specific time, was an arrangement in itself.

This was a trial, a test to see if she was qualified to stand by Senior’s side.

Su Wan’er took a deep breath, bent down, and hoisted the wild boar back onto her shoulder.

“Fellow Daoist!” Meng Qiuran’s anxious voice came from behind. “What are you doing!”

Su Wan’er did not look back. Carrying the wild boar on her shoulder, she took her first step toward the mountain peak shrouded in thunderclouds.

As she took her second step, the thunderclouds above surged even more violently. Lightning snakes slithered wildly through the clouds. With every flash of lightning, the world lit up for a fleeting moment, stretching her shadow long across the ground.

The pressure of heaven and earth pressed against her chest like an invisible mountain. The thunderclouds were warning all living beings to leave, that this was not a place they should approach.

Su Wan’er’s legs were trembling. Every bone and every drop of blood in her body was screaming at her to turn around and run.

Taking her third step, she remembered what her mother had once said: “Wan’er, if you ever meet an expert Senior surnamed Lai, kowtow to him three times on my behalf, and then beg him to take you as his disciple.”

Taking her fourth step, she thought of the hypocritical gazes of many people in the Sect. Those eyes were filled with nothing but calculation and disgust. She didn’t want to be abandoned again.

The Sect had abandoned her, her Master had abandoned her, and her fellow disciples had abandoned her.

It was Senior who had picked her up.

If she backed down from this trial, would Senior also think she wasn’t worth taking away? Would he also turn his back like those people, leaving her with nothing but a retreating figure fading into the distance?

Su Wan’er’s eyes reddened. She clenched her teeth, hefted the wild boar onto her shoulder, and continued forward.

Fifth step, sixth step, seventh step.

Every step felt like treading on the edge of a blade. The oppressive might of heaven and earth grew heavier and heavier; she could even feel her own bones making faint grinding sounds.

Behind her, Ye Shuang’s voice already carried a sob: “She’s crazy! She’s really gone mad!”

Meng Qiuran opened his mouth, wanting to persuade her again, but he could not utter a single word. Looking at Su Wan’er’s figure, he only felt it was utterly absurd.

“Go!” the man in black spoke up, a rare occurrence. “The Heavenly Punishment is about to fall. If we don’t leave now, we won’t be able to escape either.”

Meng Qiuran and the others gritted their teeth, took one last look at Su Wan’er’s back, then turned and flew away.

Before leaving, the man in black paused slightly. He glanced back at the slender figure carrying the wild boar, his gaze flickering beneath his cloak, before he turned into a dark shadow and disappeared into the mountain forest.

Su Wan’er didn’t look back; she could no longer hear any sounds behind her. In the entire world, only the sound of thunder, the howling wind, and her own heartbeat remained.

She felt like an ant crawling toward a volcano about to erupt.

Fifty steps left, then thirty, then ten.

Carrying the wild boar on her shoulder, Su Wan’er stepped into the cave entrance. The moment she set foot inside, the overwhelming pressure of heaven and earth vanished.

It was like stepping out of stormy, raging waves directly into a calm and peaceful harbor. All the oppressive force was completely shut out the instant she crossed the threshold.

Su Wan’er stood frozen in place, panting heavily. Her legs were still trembling, but she no longer cared about her previous fear. Her gaze was firmly drawn to the scene inside the cave.

The cave looked exactly the same as when she had left. The stone pot rested on the pile of extinguished firewood, and nothing around it had changed.

The only difference was Lai Li’an. The Senior sat cross-legged deep within the cave, his eyes slightly closed, completely enveloped in a faint silvery-white halo of light.

Not daring to make a sound, Su Wan’er quietly placed the wild boar down near the entrance, then cautiously walked over to Lai Li’an’s side and respectfully knelt down to sit beside him.

Outside the cave, the thunder drew closer and closer.

Su Wan’er’s heart grew tense again. She could feel that the heavenly lightning was locking onto this mountain peak, accumulating its final strength.

The fear of being viewed as an anomaly by heaven and earth welled up in her heart once more. Subconsciously, she moved a bit closer to Lai Li’an.

As she drew near, she felt a crisp yet gentle aura emanating from the layer of silver-white halo surrounding the Senior. It was exactly like the Moonlight Spiritual Elixir refined in the stone pot earlier, only purer and much denser.

Su Wan’er tried to absorb a sliver of it. The moment that trace of moonlight aura entered her body, she shuddered. The Moonlight Power flowed through her meridians, and wherever it passed, the circulation speed of her Spiritual Power surged significantly.

Su Wan’er’s eyes widened. Was the Senior cultivating, or… was he bestowing a fortuitous opportunity upon her?

She stole a glance at Lai Li’an’s face. The Senior kept his eyes closed, his expression as calm as still water. He showed no reaction at all, neither saying “yes” nor “no.”

Since Senior didn’t stop her, it was tacit consent.

She took a deep breath, sat cross-legged in imitation of Lai Li’an, closed her eyes, and carefully guided the moonlight aura dissipating from Senior into her meridians.

The Heaven-Grade Water Spiritual Root greedily absorbed every wisp of Moonlight Power, as if being tempered anew, becoming increasingly translucent and lustrous.

Although her Cultivation Base had no obvious growth, the quality of her Spiritual Root was improving at a speed she could perceive. To think that a Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root actually still had room for improvement, this was truly a tremendous opportunity.

An indescribable surge of emotion welled up in Su Wan’er’s heart. Senior was clearly resisting the Heavenly Punishment, yet he hadn’t forgotten to spare a wisp of Moonlight Power to nourish her Spiritual Root.

And to think she had actually secretly complained earlier about Senior sending her away.

Outside the cave, several miles away.

Meng Qiuran’s group of four stopped on a high slope, looking back at the mountain peak shrouded in thunderclouds.

Ye Shuang was clearly frightened, her voice trembling, “That fellow Daoist… really went in.”

Li He remained silent, not saying a word. He didn’t know what to say.

A female cultivator at the Late Foundation Establishment stage carrying a wild boar into the Place of Heavenly Punishment, no one would believe such a thing even if they were told.

Meng Qiuran stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the churning thunderclouds, his expression extremely complex. Hailing from the Alchemy Sect Main Branch and sent down to the Branch Sect to gain experience, he had seen countless geniuses, eccentrics, and prodigies.

But something like what happened today, he had never seen or even heard of.

“Just who on earth is that Senior?” he muttered to himself.

No one answered him.

The man in black stood behind the three of them, his gaze beneath the cloak equally locked onto those thunderclouds. His cultivation base was the highest among those present, and precisely because of this, he knew better than anyone just how terrifying the power contained within those thunderclouds was.

That was Heavenly Punishment, not a Pill Tribulation.

A Pill Tribulation was a test, while Heavenly Punishment was obliteration. A test still left a glimmer of hope for survival, but obliteration left absolutely no chance of escape.

He had struggled in the cultivation world for hundreds of years and had seen many experts undergo Lightning Tribulations, but something like today was unprecedented and unheard of. This was Heavenly Punishment!

What exactly did the person in the cave do to make the Heavenly Dao send down a Heavenly Punishment at all costs just to erase him? And what he was even more curious about was, if that person really survived the Heavenly Punishment, then just what would he…

The man in black did not dare to think any further.

“It’s a pity for that female cultivator,” Li He said in a low voice. “A Cultivation Base at Late Foundation Establishment, a Heaven-Grade Spiritual Root… thrown away just like that.”

Ye Shuang nodded vigorously. “She clearly could have left with us. What kind of bewitching potion did that Senior feed her to make her not even care about her own life?”

Right at that moment, the world between heaven and earth suddenly lit up.

That light swallowed all colors. The sky, the mountains, the woods, absolutely everything lost its color in that radiance, turning into black and white.

Then, the heavenly lightning fell.

There was no deafening explosion, no earth-shattering roar. That pillar of lightning struck down vertically from the center of the clouds, completely silent, yet carrying an oppressive presence more terrifying than any sound.

It was destruction itself.