Still Striking, Why Doesn't He Die Yet

Qin Hao looked at Ao Yu in front of him. The guy had his head down, face flushed, and was fidgeting shyly. Alarm bells blared in Qin Hao's mind. This kid gave him an extremely unsettling feeling. I definitely do not want to take a romantic stroll on the streets of Chengdu with you.

"Stop right there!" Qin Hao held a hand out in front of him, his expression as serious as if he were warding off some terrifying beast.

"If you have something to say, say it from there. Do not come any closer. We are not that close."

Ao Yu stopped in his tracks, looked up at Qin Hao, and scratched his head in embarrassment.

"Alright, I just wanted to discuss something with you."

Qin Hao crossed his arms over his chest, his face full of caution. "What is it?"

Ao Yu fell silent for a few breaths, as if organizing his words, before slowly speaking. "When... when are you leaving the Northern Wasteland?"

Qin Hao's heart tightened. Holy crap, why is he asking me this? Looking at his bashful demeanor, it did not seem like he wanted to chase him away; rather, he looked somewhat reluctant to see him go.

What the hell, is this kid really into that?

"That is none of your business! I will leave whenever I want to leave."

Qin Hao's icy attitude left Ao Yu slightly stunned. He took a deep breath, as if making a firm decision, and took a step forward, closing the distance between him and Qin Hao.

Qin Hao's reaction was lightning fast. The moment the guy took a step forward, he immediately backed up repeatedly to maintain the distance between them.

"Hey, do not come over here! Just stand there and say whatever you need to say. I can hear you."

Ao Yu raised his head, looking straight into Qin Hao's eyes, and said with an incredibly firm gaze,

"Please take me with you when you leave! I want to go with you!"

Qin Hao was genuinely frightened by Ao Yu's words. "Get lost! Who wants to take you!"

Ao Yu also did not expect Qin Hao to react so strongly. "I am serious! I want to leave with you."

Qin Hao was speechless. "I am serious too, there is no way I am taking you with me! A guy like you should just stay put in the Northern Wasteland. Do not run around outside and become a menace to society."

"A menace? What do you mean? I just want to go out and take a look at the outside world. I have been thinking about some things these past two days. I was too arrogant in the past."

"After meeting you, I finally realized that there is always someone better out there. I think there are many things in the outside world that I have never seen before. I want to go out and see how vast the true world really is, and see exactly what I am capable of."

Hearing this, Qin Hao could not help but sigh in relief. You scared me to death. So he just took a blow to his ego from me and wants to go out and explore. I thought...

This kid, could he not just say it directly? Acting all bashful, I really thought...

"Ahem, so that is how it is. Alright then, I will bring you along when I leave. But are you sure you want to follow me?" Qin Hao looked at Ao Yu with a somewhat playful expression. Was this guy really sure about following him?

Only when you leave me will you realize that it is not actually raining outside at all.

Ao Yu nodded seriously. "I will follow you. I do not know anyone outside, so following you means I will at least have a companion."

Qin Hao curled his lips. "I do not have time to keep you company, I am very busy. However, there is a guy in my Qin family who, just like you, got heavily stimulated. The two of you could actually keep each other company."

The person Qin Hao mentioned was naturally the son of the First Ancestor of the Qin family, Qin Zhantian. The current Qin Zhantian was practically Qin Hao's little fanboy. After that duel ended, Qin Zhantian had sought Qin Hao out for a few sparring sessions, and he had become more and more convinced of Qin Hao's superiority the more he got beaten up.

Ao Yu nodded gently, then he became bashful once again.

Seeing this, Qin Hao could not help but urge him, "If you have something to say, spit it out. You are a grown man, who are you putting on this shy act for?"

Hearing this, Ao Yu smiled helplessly, then said to Qin Hao, "I am here to formally apologize to you for my previous actions. My skills were inferior, and I should not have been petty and tried to take revenge on you, even though my revenge failed in the end anyway."

"I can pull your carriage for you. Let my cousin go. A one-for-one trade, you will not lose out."

Hearing this, Qin Hao rejected him outright. "No can do. That cousin of yours is still not convinced. If you want me to let him go, fine, but I have to completely subdue him first!"

"Alright, if there is nothing else, go do your own thing. I will notify you when I am about to leave. I need to start cultivating now, too."

After Ao Yu left, Qin Hao directly sat down cross-legged and began to cultivate. Currently, his cultivation base was already at the peak of the Body Integration Realm, just one step away from stepping into the Mahayana Realm.

Cultivators at the Body Integration Realm could only preliminarily borrow the laws of heaven and earth, using borrowed strength to strike. However, cultivators at the Mahayana Realm could deeply master and independently utilize the laws. At this realm, they could almost achieve the state of having their words become reality.

"I basically advance one realm every month. With this speed, it would be hard to find a second person across the entire Three Realms and Nine Heavens. Those who cultivate to the Mahayana Realm, even the disciples of the Ancient Aristocratic Families, have to cultivate bitterly for a thousand years."

Qin Hao no longer suppressed the spiritual energy within his body. The moment he released the restraints, the spiritual energy surged and roared through his meridians like a breached dam. Qin Hao guided this power to strike against the barrier that lay between the Body Integration Realm and the Mahayana Realm.

Boom!

Without any warning, a sudden clap of thunder struck directly onto Qin Hao's body from the clear sky. Only after this first bolt of lightning struck did the sky slowly become densely covered with dark clouds. The entire sky instantly turned pitch black, as if someone had splashed a basin of thick ink across the heavens.

Rumble!

Muffled claps of thunder echoed one after another. Dense streaks of lightning fell endlessly, sounding like ten thousand drums being beaten simultaneously. The noise shook the very earth, causing it to tremble.

At first, everyone just thought that Qin Hao had great talent, hence the massive commotion of his heavenly tribulation. However, when this lightning tribulation lasted for a full month, everyone in the Northern Wasteland Dragon Clan lost their composure.

"Holy crap! Is this kid being condemned by the heavens? This damn lightning has been striking for a month now! It is blasting down over a dozen bolts a second! Is he undergoing tribulation or is it trying to kill him?" Ao Bing looked up at the sky. Even with his broad horizons as an Immortal Emperor, he could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth at this moment, feeling the sheer absurdity of it all.

Qin Wuya similarly looked up at the sky with deep concern. "Fortunately, the intensity of this lightning tribulation is not too high. A single bolt is only enough to strike dead a cultivator at the Tribulation Crossing Realm. If a single bolt could kill an Immortal, even Little Hao would not be able to withstand it."

"A single bolt can obliterate the Tribulation Crossing Realm! He is only breaking through from the Body Integration Realm to the Mahayana Realm right now! What a monster!"

The members of the Northern Wasteland Dragon Clan had grown numb. They watched the densely packed pillars of lightning in the sky crashing down without a moment's pause. The purple light illuminated the entire snowfield, and the deafening roars made everyone's ears ring.

"It is still striking... and he is still not dead."

"It has been a month. If he was going to die, he would be dead already. It looks to me like he is slowly adapting to the lightning tribulation."

Right at this moment, a sudden change occurred. Qin Hao stood in the very center of a hundred-zhang wide crater. There was not a single patch of intact skin left on his body, and lightning patterns densely covered him from head to toe.

Having sat cross-legged for a month, Qin Hao stood up without warning and opened his eyes—revealing double pupils.

The two pupils, one positioned above the other, one upright and the other inverted, nested together in a slow, continuous rotation. Deep within their depths, stars revolved, the sun and moon alternated, and primordial chaos surged. It was as if these eyes contained not mere eyeballs, but two entirely complete worlds.

Qin Hao raised his head to look at the sky. A beam of destructive dark light shot forth from his eyes, piercing unstoppably into the layers of clouds above.