Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
For the cultivators of the Xuan Ying Continent, however, these ten years were as long as a century, filled with blood, struggle, and endless oppression.
No one had anticipated that the bizarre "tribulation power" seeping down from the upper realm through the cracks of Mount Bu Zhou would spread and deteriorate at such a terrifying pace!
It was no longer merely a seed lurking deep within people's hearts, provoking distortion and madness—it had evolved into a nightmarish entity that nearly possessed its own will, like a plague of divine proportions!
At first, it only erupted sporadically in the regions of Central Province near Mount Bu Zhou, producing one scene of human tragedy after another.
But as time passed, the tribulation power seemed to have learned to "breathe" and "reproduce," spreading and expanding through incomprehensible means—through the flow of spiritual energy, and even through emotional resonance between cultivators and mortals!
The entirety of Central Province, once the most prosperous region of the Xuan Ying Continent, teeming with sects and home to hundreds of millions—had now nearly fallen completely.
A gray haze, invisible to the naked eye yet causing pain and oppression to a cultivator's spiritual sense, hung over the land.
Countless towns and sects lay deathly still, their former celestial grottoes and mortal splendor now reduced to breeding grounds for tribulation power and lairs for the "tribulation slaves."
Even more terrifying, the tribulation power had begun to show signs of spreading to the surrounding provinces! Every region bordering Central Province was now on edge, jumping at shadows!
By now, not a single sect or power dared to treat the "tribulation power" as a trivial joke or someone else's problem.
The provinces adjacent to Central Province, in particular, were organizing massive evacuations at any cost, relocating their populations and sects away from Central Province.
At the same time, they poured nearly all their resources into constructing enormous, multicolored spiritual-light isolation arrays along the extensive border with Central Province, trying to keep that horrifying "plague" outside their homelands!
This continuous defensive line, jointly built by countless sects, consuming astronomical resources, and coordinated under the unified command of the Heavenly Alliance, was known as—the "Spirit Severing Barrier."
However, the terror of the tribulation power far exceeded imagination.
It would lie dormant, making it difficult to detect any large-scale movements. But once it accumulated to a certain threshold, it would erupt violently, forming an overwhelming torrent of pure tribulation power and countless fully corrupted "tribulation slaves," launching frenzied, reckless assaults on the defensive lines!
These assaults were what the survivors terrifiedly called—"the Tide."
Those cultivators and mortals who had been fully corrupted by tribulation power and reduced to "tribulation slaves" appeared no different from ordinary people on the surface.
They could even use the techniques and martial skills they had mastered in life, but they had long lost all self-awareness, reduced to walking corpses driven only by the instinct of the tribulation power.
They would instinctively converge, following the direction of the "Tide," destroying all obstacles and dragging even more living souls into the abyss of despair.
At this moment, at a crucial node along the Spirit Severing Barrier, the atmosphere was tense beyond measure.
Hundreds of elite cultivators from various sects, uniformly clad in Heavenly Alliance standard spiritual armor, were frantically pouring their spiritual power into a massive composite defensive array formed from countless runic crystal pillars.
They were operating under the command of a black-robed youth with a cold demeanor and eyes sharp as a hawk's.
The array's light screen flickered violently, waxing and waning unsteadily, clearly bearing tremendous pressure.
Scattered across the ground were the broken remnants of magical artifacts and blood that had yet to dry—clear evidence that a fierce battle had just taken place.
The commander was none other than the Enforcement Elder of the Spirit Immortal Holy Land, one of the highest executive officers of the Heavenly Alliance's "Tribulation Purge Order"—Han Yu!
He hovered within the array's light screen, his face as cold as ice, continuously issuing concise and precise commands:
"Sector Bing-Three, increase spiritual output at the Dui-position crystal pillar by thirty percent!"
"Sector Wu-Seven, the Zhen-position rune is damaged, array masters repair it immediately!"
"All cultivators, consume Rejuvenation Pills and prepare for the next wave!"
His voice was so calm it carried not a single ripple, as though this were not a life-and-death battlefield but an ordinary drill.
Yet this calmness greatly stabilized the spirits of the cultivators present, who were on the verge of collapse.
Over these ten years, Han Yu, with his ruthless efficiency, flawless judgment, and that Nether Sword which had slain countless tribulation slaves and tribulation power sources, had become one of the most awe-inspiring banners on the Spirit Severing Barrier.
The defensive lines he commanded always had the highest survival rates.
"Elder Han!" A blood-soaked Longevity Realm cultivator who had just returned from forward reconnaissance stumbled toward him, his face filled with terror and despair, his voice hoarse as he shouted:
"It's coming! A bigger Tide is coming!"
"Just a hundred miles away!"
"Pink!"
"It's all... all that damned Heart Thread tribulation power!"
"Too many of them! We can't hold them back!"
"Retreat! If we don't retreat now, we're all dead!"
At these words, the cultivators below who were straining to maintain the array fell into commotion, panic spreading rapidly!
A pink Heart Thread tribulation power Tide! That was the most bizarre and impossible to defend against of all the tribulation power Tides, capable of directly stirring one's inner demons and shattering fighting spirit!
"Silence!" Han Yu barked coldly, his voice like shattering ice, instantly suppressing all the commotion.
"Anyone who flees in the face of battle will be dealt with according to Alliance regulations!"
His icy gaze swept across the assembled crowd, and every cultivator who met his eyes couldn't help but shudder, forcibly suppressing the fear in their hearts.
Han Yu paid them no further attention. He narrowed his eyes, his sword-sharp gaze piercing through the layers of light screen toward distant Central Province.
At the far end of the horizon, the color of the sky was changing in an extremely unnatural manner!
The originally gray firmament was being rapidly dyed by a thick, cloying, bewitching and beautiful pink!
That pink was not static—it was surging and churning like a tsunami!
Looking closely, it was not simple mist or light at all, but a sky-blanketing terrifying tide composed of countless densely packed, writhing, intertwined pink threads!
Wherever they passed, space itself seemed to warp slightly, exuding a bizarre aura that was both intoxicating and bone-chilling!
Within the tide, faint silhouettes could be seen bobbing along—those were tribulation slaves completely enslaved by the Heart Thread tribulation power.
Their eyes flickered with pink light, their faces wearing eerie smiles of either obsession or fanaticism, as if racing toward an eternal carnival feast!
The speed of the tide was astonishing! A hundred miles was but an instant for this torrent of pure tribulation power!
A terrifying pressure, as solid as a mountain, crashed down upon the Spirit Severing Barrier!
The sturdy array light screen groaned under the unbearable strain, twisting and shaking violently!
"Form up! Hold the line!" Han Yu's voice remained calm but carried a note of unshakeable resolve.
"We cannot let the tribulation power breach the array!"
He took a deep breath, sword qi erupting from his entire body as a pitch-dark longsword appeared in his grip, its tip pointing directly at the pink torrent that was sweeping across heaven and earth, devouring everything!
Behind him, hundreds of cultivators gritted their teeth, suppressing their fear, pouring the last of their spiritual power into the array without reservation, preparing to receive that devastating impact!
The pink Heart Thread tribulation power Tide, like a primordial beast swallowing everything, opened its bewitching and terrifying maw and crashed down upon them!
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