Chapter 209: The Tribulation

Observing Zhou Qing’s actions, Ling Ji cast him a puzzled glance before submerging herself into the sea. Moments later, she surfaced not far from him. She did not fully understand his caution, but she knew there must be a reason for him to maintain such a distance from the black flood dragon as it underwent its tribulation.

"Have you encountered a dragon crossing before?" she asked.

"Yes, I was fortunate enough to witness one several years ago," Zhou Qing replied, his gaze fixed on the black dragon, which held its massive body suspended amidst the clouds.

The dragon in the distance appeared exceptionally robust, its body stretching no less than three hundred feet—much like the one Zhou Qing had encountered years prior. However, that previous dragon had been undergoing its tribulation in the depths of a remote mountain forest, suggesting it was a Fire Dragon, whereas this one, rising from the sea, was a Water Dragon. He recalled watching from a mountain crevice as the Fire Dragon faced its trial. When the tribulation begins, a patch of red clouds gathers above the dragon, raining down countless bolts of lightning. If the creature can endure the barrage until the clouds dissipate, the trial is a success; if it falls midway, it is failure.

Zhou Qing and Ling Ji watched in silence. Before long, the ordinary thunder and lightning in the sky faded, and a faint red glow appeared within the clouds directly above the dragon. As these red clouds thickened and expanded, the air filled once more with thunderous rumbling. Zhou Qing and Ling Ji recognized immediately that these were no ordinary strikes; any cultivator of sufficient standing knows that beyond common lightning lie far more formidable forces.

Having witnessed a dragon tribulation before, Zhou Qing knew exactly what to expect. Ling Ji, however, was seeing this for the first time. As the red clouds grew more dense, the black dragon let out a heaven-shaking roar, and a bolt of golden lightning descended. It struck the dragon’s massive frame, eliciting only a low moan, as if the pain were negligible. Then, a series of rumbling thunders erupted, and four more golden bolts struck in succession. The dragon barely reacted.

Soon, the golden lightning intensified, transforming into a sea of golden light beneath the clouds, striking both the dragon and the churning sea. Only then did Ling Ji understand why Zhou Qing had insisted on coming here. As the golden bolts rained down, the dragon continued to moan, its massive body weaving gracefully beneath the tribulation clouds.

Suddenly, a deafening, earth-shattering peal of thunder rolled across the sky—a sound far more profound than the previous strikes. Ling Ji’s expression flickered; she suspected this was the Dao Lightning. Her intuition was confirmed when several golden bolts fell simultaneously, accompanied by a single, distinct bolt of purple lightning. Though she had never seen it before, she knew this was the legendary Dao Lightning, a tool of divine retribution used by the Heavenly Dao to maintain the balance of rules, possessing power many times greater than ordinary heavenly lightning.

The purple bolt struck the black dragon dead center. The creature let out a piercing cry, its massive body trembling violently from the impact. Ling Ji noticed that where the purple lightning had struck, the dragon’s dark scales began to shimmer with an otherworldly luster, standing out like stars against the dull, lusterless scales covering the rest of its body.

As a second purple bolt struck the dragon’s head, it groaned in agony, its body sinking slightly in the air. Yet, Ling Ji observed a miraculous transformation: the two small, dull horns on the dragon's head began to grow rapidly, curving and branching until they resembled the magnificent antlers of a stag.

Ling Ji finally grasped the essence of the tribulation. Each strike of purple lightning inflicted excruciating pain, evidenced by the dragon’s pained cries and tremors, yet each endured strike brought the creature one step closer to becoming a true dragon. It was a cruel trial, but such is the law of the world: to gain greatness, one must pay a price.

Amidst the deafening thunder and the dragon’s resonant roars, its massive body gradually descended toward the surface of the sea. By now, almost its entire form shimmered with the brilliance of the lightning strikes, save for a small patch on its underbelly that remained dull and black. As the dragon plunged into the waves, a final bolt of purple lightning descended from the red clouds, striking that last dark spot and imbuing it with the same radiant light, completing the transformation.