In the skies above the Green Hill Foxes’ Holy Ground, a dark cloud was churning while lightning flashed.

  The cloud, however, was very small—less than fifteen kilometers, it was insignificant when compared to the calamity clouds that targeted Sufferance cultivators, which spanned up to hundreds of miles.

  Likewise, the flashing bolts within the dark clouds appeared very weak and did not appear to be special in any way. And yet, only Fabulous Fox—who was locked on by the thundercloud—could feel the pressure that the many flashing bolts were exerting upon him.

  “No!”


  The fox felt as if he was falling apart when he realized that the thundercloud had locked on upon him, and cried out involuntarily, “No, this is impossible! I’ve already reached Mahayana nine hundred years ago, why would heavenly retribution come for me again?”


  Turning towards the other Mahayana Foxes of Green Hill even as he sensed the thunderbolts of retribution which could wipe out all things, he cried out in panic, “Hurry, save me! Invoke the immortal item to help me weather this retribution…… No!”


  “The ancestral immortal’s body! Senior Elder, use the ancestral immortal’s body or I’ll be killed!’


  Beside him, the Mahayana Foxes appeared baffled.

  One vixen with youthful, luscious looks even covered her mouth as she giggled, “What are you doing, Elder Fabulous Fox? That thundercloud’s is not all that powerful, and you could easily destroy it with your ability.”


  “That’s right! Are our immortal items and the immortal body to be used so freely?”


  Another Daemon Fox echoed then.

  But at that very moment……

  Crack!

  Up in the skies above, one thunderbolt of retribution roughly as thick as an arm struck.

  It did not erupt with a shockwave or thundered resoundingly. Indeed, that violet thunderbolt was simply floating downward, cutting an elegant arc through the skies…… and……

  Crack.

  As if a mirror was broken, the mountain-guarding array of the Green Hill Foxes’ Holy Ground was instantly destroyed.

  All of Green Hill shuddered at that.

  At that very moment, many Eminent Foxes felt their faces falling.

  Fabulous Fox himself had promptly invoked his Daemonic Weapon and casted everything he had ever learned, even going so far to burn his Yuan Spirit and Dao.

  Though he knew death was inevitable, that knowledge drove him to mount a struggle against it—taking to the skies, he stopped the first violet thunderbolt with his spear.

  Even so, there was another bolt……

  And then a third!

  By the time the third thunderbolt struck, Fabulous Fox, who was already bleeding freely throughout his body, had his spear sent flying by the thunderbolt. At the same time, his massive fox form was pierced entirely by the bolt, and his body dropped out of the skies, slamming heavily down onto the ground.

  Up in the air, the bolts in the thundercloud brewed for two breaths, but quickly faded without a target.

  Though it appeared to have taken a long time, it actually took around ten seconds for the thundercloud to appear and its bolts to strike through the mountain-guarding array of the Green Hill Foxes’ Holy Ground, as well as Fabulous Fox.

  All of Green Hill was left in an eerie silence just then.

  Beside the corpse of Fabulous Fox, the many Mahayana Foxes of Green Hill appeared astonished even as they stared tightly at it. The youthful vixen, who was also Mahayana, could feel her mouth hanging open as she muttered, “How could this be? That thundercloud should not be this powerful!”


  Even when the heavenly thunderbolts struck, they, the foxes who were not targeted, could not even feel any force from the thunderbolts.

  “No, this is no heavenly retribution!”


  An elderly white-furred fox stepped out from within one of the temples then. Though he had assumed human form, there was nothing foxy about his appearance, and he actually looked like a simple old man.

  He stared at the corpse on the ground, and then at the thundercloud which was fading away up in the skies, before growling, “If this really was heavenly retribution, the thunderbolts of retribution waiting for our other Sufferance foxes would certainly have descended as well. But there was none, which means that the thundercloud is no heavenly retribution but a godly technique!”


  “Impossible!”


  The color on the faces of the Eminent Foxes was drained then and they could not help crying out, “Not even the immortals could cast such a godly move! Unleashing a thundercloud that easily slayed Fabulous Fox, who was protected by a demi-immortal item…… who could be capable of such a move?”


  ***

  Meanwhile, outside, there was a considerable number of elites hidden near Green Hill.

  They had come to enjoy the show after learning that the Green Hill Foxes had ‘invited’ Jiang He to their Holy Grounds. Even so, they did not expect to be astonished and baffled by the scene they saw.

  What was going on?

  All of them knew who Fabulous Fox was.

  Though it was the youngest Mahayana cultivator, it was incredibly powerful. Even so, it had been killed so easily by heavenly thunderbolts despite the protection of his demi-immortal armor?

  Most importantly……

  Where the hell did those heavenly thunderbolts come from?

  And how did a Mahayana manage to evoke those heavenly thunderbolts?

  Indeed, it was not just the hidden elites and the Green Hill Foxes—far away, Jiang He was shocked too!

  Though he could neither see nor feel the triggering of the Violet Sky Thunder Talisman from five hundred kilometers away, he could clearly feel that the aura of the Eminent Fox who assumed a young man’s form, which he recognized from the written invitation…… had faded.

  “Is…… is he dead?”


  Jiang He blanked out a little then.

  Dead, just like that?

  Killed by his Violet Sky Thunder Talisman?

  Still, he became thrilled in the very next instant!

  Wow!

  Wasn’t the Violet Sky Thunder Talisman a little too outrageous?

  He was at least five hundred kilometers away from Green Hill, wasn’t he?

  With that much distance, he did not need to see that person or even know their name, and all it takes is a trace of their aura to kill them from the distance?

  At the same time, he felt happy for Jin Sidao.

  The man had such good luck.

  Though Jiang He had intended to wipe out the Ten Thousand Swords Sect, he was moved by Jin Sidao’s ‘sincerity’ and had therefore spared his life.

  He was even thinking about testing the power of the Violet Sky Thunder Talisman on Jin Sidao just a moment ago. If he had really done so……

  Jin Sidao would probably be dead.

  “Anyway, the Violet Sky Thunder Talisman that I had used just now was rank-four, so there would be four thunderbolts…… I wonder how many bolts that unlucky Eminent Fox managed to stop? With his demi-immortal armor, he should have blocked a few, right?”


  Jiang He thought then, before continuing ahead to Green Hill.

  He was a man of his word. Since he had promised that unlucky fox that he would go to his tribe’s Holy Grounds, he would certainly be there. Why should he give up halfway even though that fox had been killed by his Violet Sky Thunder Talisman?

  “Oh, yes……”


  “When I reach Green Hill, I have to ask the name of the thunderstruck fox. After all, a Mahayana Daemon Fox is no weakling, and having it die so unceremoniously is disrespectful.”


  The five-hundred-kilometer journey was soon completed with Jiang He being as he was right now.

  He could see the mountains of Green Hill that stretched over hundreds of miles from afar then, which made him stop mid-air and left him taken aback.

  “The Green Hill Foxes actually dispelled their mountain-guarding array?”


  Therefore, he decided to improve his cultivation right then…… it did not cross his mind that the Green Hill Foxes did not dispel their array, but that the array had been destroyed by the Violet Sky Thunder Talisman instead.

  “System!”


  “Up my cultivation!”


  “And the Nine Heavenly Stars Body Formula too!”


  [Ding!]

  A System Notification jingled in his mind then—


  [Ding!]

  [-1 billion Farm Points.]

  [Congratulations, Host. You have successfully cultivated the Three Thousand Calamities up to seventh fold.]

  [Ding!]

  [-800 million Farm Points.]

  [Congratulations, Host. You have successfully cultivated the Nine Heavenly Stars Body Formula up to seventh fold.]

  At that very moment, Jiang He’s aura was bursting wildly.

  His full-fledged Sufferance cultivation had instantly reached Mahayana, but it did not stop there—in the blink of an eye and as if riding a rocket, he was full-fledged Mahayana.

  On the other hand, his physique did not improve that rapidly despite the leveling of the Nine Heavenly Stars Body Formula. Physical strengthening was a process in the end, and even if the System shortened it endlessly, it still took around eight seconds to complete it.

  Hence, starlight began to descend from over the horizon and completely shroud Jiang He, which was an even more extraordinary and stunning sight since it occurred in broad daylight.

  The elites who were hiding themselves noticed him then, with some stunned and others surprised. One even noticed the rapid improvement of Jiang He’s aura, and cried out involuntarily, “How is that possible!?”


  “How is he cultivating so quickly?”


  “Full-fledged Sufferance?”


  “Reaching full-fledged Mahayana in an instant?”


  “No, his physical body is strengthening rapidly as well…… What could that starlight be? It’s actually helping Jiang He refine his body!”


  Since the elites in hiding had noticed Jiang He, it was only natural that the Green Hill Foxes noticed him too. Waves of barking echoed, with the white-haired elder yelling, “Restart the array immediately! Sixth Elder, Seventh Elder, go out to receive Jiang He. Tenth Elder, you’ll be invoking the ninth layer of the immortal item in Fabulous Fox’s place!”


  “I myself shall enter the ancestral immortal’s body and attack once Jiang He enters our array. All of you, charge immortal items simultaneously and kill him.”


  Veins of aura arose right then!

  There were nine Mahayana eminences among the Green Hill Foxes…… ten, if the recently deceased Fabolous was included!

  At first, they had been prepared to lure Jiang He in, slowly subjugating him and even coming up with a method to unravel his secret. However, none of them had such intent with Fabulous Fox dead!

  They would have to wait until Jiang He was subjugated!

  As for Jiang He’s secret……

  The Green Hill Foxes had a history spanning endless years, and they had every mind-reading and torture technique at their disposal.

  Kaboom!

  The mountain-guarding array of the Green Hill Foxes, which had been struck down by the Violet Sky Thunder Talisman, rose once again.

  A hundred kilometers away, Jiang He was left perplexed just as he ascended.

  Damn it.

  What were the Green Hill Foxes playing at? Why was their array up again?

  Still, that was when a corner of the array suddenly parted, while a man and woman with powerful auras darted outside. The man was handsome and the woman alluring, not to mention that she had a wooly fox tail poking out of her back too.

  Jiang He was dumbstruck.

  He had even more questions now. What the heck were the Green Hill Foxes trying to do?

  Nullifying their array and then putting it up again, and now opening a slit from a corner to send out two Mahayana Foxes…… why on earth were they playing at?

  “Whatever……”


  “In the end, the Green Hill Foxes have a powerful background. They might have other measures prepared against me aside from the immortal daemon’s corpse and their immortal item. Just in case……”


  Jiang He discreetly took out two more Violet Sky Thunder Talismans, which he had kept hidden in his palm.

  All he could do was strike first, and kill those two Green Hill Daemon Foxes to weaken their forces!