Zhi Xuan ignored the warning. Instead, he spread both arms wide, letting his Heavenly Sword dissolve into grains of light. In its place, he allowed the blue cloth on his left hand to unravel completely.

  Instantly, the left arm that had been hidden for so long revealed its form. The skin was no longer the color of a human's, but was covered in black runes that pulsed like demonic veins, emitting a cold chill capable of freezing the spiritual essence of anyone who looked upon it.

  This was the Devil’s Hand that carried a curse—yet at the tips of his fingers, there was still a shimmer of heavenly light attempting purification. The weight of Xuan-Huang and the blue oceanic patterns of the Kun Peng residing there rippled with a downward-pressing burden.

  "Heavenly Dao, so grand and yet so cruel," Zhi Xuan hissed. He stomped his foot, and the Heavenly-Blood Body Law reacted immediately with a pressure that seemed to crack the courtyard beneath him. "Then, let me understand what the Heavenly Dao truly is!"

  Zhi Xuan blurred. His body was no longer seen as human, but a streak of gray light cleaving through dimensions. The speed he generated created an explosion that toppled the remaining marble pillars surrounding the arena.

  The Heavenly Night Rain Bell responded by emitting a blinding golden light—an automatic defense manifestation of the Heavenly Dao fragments dwelling within it. The space in front of the bell warped, creating a wall of pressure capable of crushing steel into dust.

  "Break!" Zhi Xuan roared.

  DANG!

  The eighth strike. The left hand covered in devil runes slammed into the wall of pressure, shattering it like glass hit by a sledgehammer. The backlash was so immense it caused Zhi Xuan’s right eye to rupture, sending fresh blood streaming down his cheek, but he did not stop.

  DANG! DANG!

  The ninth and tenth strikes. Each blow from his left hand carried the essence of rebellion against fate. The bell retaliated by radiating the Light of Heavenly Judgment, a pillar of pure energy trying to erase Zhi Xuan’s existence from the records of reincarnation. Zhi Xuan’s upper robes were incinerated, revealing a frame covered in old and new scars that now glowed under the pressure of the Xuan-Huang energy.

  "You wish to judge me?!" Zhi Xuan laughed—a laugh that tore through the sky. "I am a storm without a direction; how can you judge something that has no place under your canopy?!"

  DANG! DANG! DANG!

  Three consecutive strikes. Eleven, twelve, thirteen. Each time his fist made contact with the ancient bronze, Zhi Xuan allowed his soul to open wide, letting the bell’s backlash—filled with shards of the Heavenly Dao—enter and shred his meridians. He did not reject the pain; he used it as a key to unlock the gates of enlightenment that had long been shuttered by the mists of misery.

  Inside his consciousness, he began to see complex golden lines—the paths of the cold and unfeeling will of the universe. He saw how Mu Chen tried to imitate these lines, and how Yan Fenghuang tried to dissect them. But Zhi Xuan did something far more insane: he tried to swallow them.

  "Madness! He is truly insane!" Sage Qing Xuan shouted, standing with a trembling body. "He is using the bell's backlash as a medium for enlightenment! What mortal frame can endure a burden that heavy?!"

  DANG!

  The fourteenth strike. The bell was now shaking so violently that its hum sounded like the terrified scream of a falling god. The entire Square of Holy Light vibrated as if an earthquake were struck. The sky above Yao Gu, previously split, began to form a giant vortex pressing downward, as if the Heaven itself felt threatened by Zhi Xuan’s existence.

  "The Heavenly Dao! His strikes are resonating with the Heavenly Dao!" an elder roared, his face filled with pure terror.

  "The limit... he has touched the forbidden limit!" shouted Elder Qing He, her voice, usually as calm as a lake, now breaking with immense panic. She saw the vortex in the horizon begin to vomit reddish-purple lightning containing the aura of absolute annihilation. "All practitioners below the Soul Transformation realm, retreat a thousand paces immediately! Heaven is going to punish this place!"

  "Impossible! How can a Half-Step Soul Transformation trigger Heavenly Wrath just by striking a bell?!" a great sect elder exclaimed, deathly pale as he dragged his disciples back. "This is no longer a soul trial; this is a Heavenly Tribulation!"

  Sage Qing Xuan looked at the courtyard pillars, which were beginning to crack and turn into fine dust. "Yao Gu Elders! Do not let this energy overflow, or the entire Square of Holy Light will be buried!"

  "Xing Luo Empire Elders! What are you doing?!" Han Shanshan roared amidst the deafening roar of the wind. "Stop that devil now, or you will drag us all into destruction!"

  The Xing Luo Empire Elder, who had been silent as a stone statue, finally moved. His eyes flashed sharply, but he did not look at Zhi Xuan with hatred, but with the firmness of a guardian of fate. "Law is law, and fate is fate. If he can bear this burden, then let the world see the end! Seven-Star Protection Formation!"

  "Yao Gu Elders, help me!" Sage Qing Xuan growled, his hands forming complex seals emitting jade light. "Divine Light Suppression Formation! Protect the guests and this courtyard from the shocks of the Heavenly Dao!"

  Instantly, dozens of elders from various plains shot into the air, forming a massive circle surrounding the floating arena. They released their respective spiritual essences, creating a giant dome of light that attempted to contain the waves of pressure exploding from the collision between Zhi Xuan and the Heavenly Bell.

  "Look at his hand! Look at that Devil’s Hand!" shouted one of the elders holding the formation, his eyes bulging in horror. "Every time he strikes, he isn't just hitting the bell; he’s tearing the fabric of natural law!"

  "He is stealing!" the Holy Woman of Yao Gu cried out from behind the protection dome, her voice trembling with a mixture of dread and awe. "Look at the Xuan-Huang light on his back! He isn't being destroyed by the bell's backlash... he is filtering the essence of the Heavenly Dao into his bone marrow! He is using this suffering to forge a new Dao Heart!"

  "Impossible! That cannot be!" a Yao Gu elder argued, his face red from the strain of holding the formation. "The Heavenly Dao cannot be stolen! Anyone who tries is instantly incinerated into ash!"

  In the middle of the clashing formations, Zhi Xuan’s tattered frame looked like the center of all chaos. The blood flowing from his eye now evaporated, turning into a red mist that merged with the black-gold lightning aura.

  "Nine... ten... fourteen strikes!" Mu Chen, who was being treated in the distance, forced himself to sit up. His dim eyes watched the scene with a mental devastation more painful than his physical wounds. "I... I gave everything for fifteen... and he does it as if he were challenging Heaven itself to descend to earth..."

  The vortex in the sky grew darker, reddish-purple lightning flashing between the roiling clouds. However, in the middle of this small apocalypse, Zhi Xuan stood with his trembling remnants, his skin cracked like porcelain forced to contain hot lava.

  "Fourteen strikes..." Elder Qing He murmured with a voice that was nearly gone. "One more strike, and he will match those considered the peak of this generation. But look at him... he isn't competing. He is plundering the secrets of Heaven!"

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Zhi Xuan felt his soul being roasted over the furnace of the universe. The Heavenly Dao fragments he absorbed through the bell's backlash began to clash with the Devil Seed within his Dao Heart, creating an internal storm that ravaged every inch of his meridians. Yet, behind the agony, his remaining eye flashed with pure understanding.

  "Fifteen!" Zhi Xuan slammed his left hand with the full weight of his existence.

  DANG!!!

  The sound surpassed every toll created that night. A shockwave carrying the Xuan-Huang essence exploded, sweeping away the remains of the floating stage until Zhi Xuan was left hovering over the energy crater without physical footing. The Heavenly Night Rain Bell emitted an incredibly high-pitched hum—a lament from a sacred object forced to submit to the will of a defier.

  The backlash from this fifteenth strike was the manifestation of Divine Wrath. A giant axe projection made of blinding white light appeared in the air, cleaving directly toward Zhi Xuan’s soul.

  "AAARRGGHH!" Zhi Xuan roared as the light axe split his shoulder, piercing through to his Divine Wheel. Blood sprayed out, but instead of shattering, Zhi Xuan actually grabbed the light axe with his heavenly-glowing right hand.

  "You give this to me?" Zhi Xuan hissed, his face now resembling a devil crawling out of hell. "Then I will use it to shatter the limits you created!"

  Zhi Xuan squeezed every drop of potential within his Ancient Sky bloodline. Behind his back, a giant silhouette of his divine soul appeared with twin wings, faint enough to be seen before vanishing again. Zhi Xuan’s teeth gnashed with a horrific sound, as if every joint in his jaw were being forced to hold the weight of an entire sacred mountain.

  The light axe of Heavenly Wrath tried not only to cleave his frame but to erase the traces of his soul from the fabric of space and time. Yet, amidst the siege of death, the giant twin-winged silhouette left an indelible tremor.

  "If Heaven is tyranny, then I am eternal rebellion!" Zhi Xuan roared, his voice breaking but containing a lethal vibrational power. With one wild mental surge, he let his rune-covered devil hand grip the other side of the light axe.

  The Xuan-Huang power exploded, spinning in a hungry Kun Peng vortex, swallowing the judgment energy and turning it into fuel for his nearly destroyed muscles.

  The Heavenly Night Rain Bell vibrated violently, producing a chaotic clinking sound, as if it were screaming in unspeakable terror. The red mist and gray light from the bell were now forcibly sucked into the vortex in Zhi Xuan’s left hand.

  "Sixteen!"

  DANG!!!

  The world seemed to stop for a moment. The number considered the sacred limit of the ancestors, a legend belonging only to the most sublime geniuses of Yao Gu, had just been reached by a youth whom the entire square wanted dead. This sixteenth toll created a ripple so sharp that the protective dome formed by dozens of elders began to crack.

  Several elders from minor clans holding the formation spat blood, their internal organs shaken by the deathly resonance Zhi Xuan brought. They saw with their own eyes how the ancient bronze of the bell began to show fine cracks on its surface.

  HUARGH...

  Instantly, Zhi Xuan was thrown back in a sharp surge. The Heavenly-Blood Body Law suppressed every form of shock from his body, maintaining the final protection for his soul. In the middle of the chaos, Ruo Xianxue, who had reappeared after isolating herself since the Sacred Heaven Secret Realm, now appeared on a branch of the Devil Tree of Life, which seemed to dim.

  "Zhi Xuan, you truly know no bounds of Heaven and Earth," Ruo Xianxue’s voice contained praise and acknowledgment from an Ancient Sacred Devil. "Well, once again this old fox must protect this little Sea of Consciousness so it doesn't collapse."

  Ruo Xianxue flicked her dark robes, creating nets of dark purple energy that enveloped Zhi Xuan’s now thousand-fractured Sea of Consciousness. Every inch of the youth’s inner dimension vibrated violently, as if a destruction were taking place at the center of his life.

  "Be still," Ruo Xianxue whispered, her slender fingers pressing the center point of Zhi Xuan’s soul marble, forcing the chaotic essence circulation back onto its path.

  Inside that shattered mind, Ruo Xianxue’s protection became the only fortress separating Zhi Xuan from eternal darkness. But in the outside world, reality was not so tame. Zhi Xuan’s success in touching the number sixteen had ripped the veil that had long hidden the will of Heaven from mortal eyes.

  The Heavenly Night Rain Bell was no longer just tolling; it roared in a soul-wrenching vibration, emitting a metallic cry so mournful. The cracks on its surface began to radiate a dense reddish-purple light—the color of unspeakable divine wrath.

  "A Tribulation... a Heavenly Tribulation!" Sage Qing Xuan’s voice was raspy. He looked up, seeing the black cloud vortex above the Square of Holy Light condensing into a giant eye of the storm.

  CRACKLE! BOOM! BOOM!

  Flashes of purple lightning carrying the scent of sulfur and void began to strike the tips of the courtyard pillars. The resulting pressure was so heavy that Five Element practitioners closest to the crater instantly collapsed, vomiting blood, feeling their souls being squeezed by a giant, invisible hand.

  Heaven could not accept that a youth carrying the stain of the Devil Path had plundered its Dao fragments. Heaven wanted to erase this place, erase that bell, and erase Zhi Xuan from the fabric of existence.

  Zhi Xuan, hovering in the middle of the energy vortex, looked like a cracked headstone. Blood flowed, creating a tragic red cloak. His remaining eye slowly dimmed, losing its sapphire glow. As Ruo Xianxue stabilized his Sea of Consciousness, Zhi Xuan’s frame finally reached its limit.

  His will, as hard as meteorite steel, finally surrendered to the demands of his broken body. His rune-filled left hand went limp, and the Xuan-Huang light on his back flickered out like a candle in a storm. Instantly, Zhi Xuan fell.

  His body plummeted freely toward the depths of the energy crater beneath the destroyed stage. However, a miracle occurred the moment his consciousness vanished completely. As soon as Zhi Xuan fell unconscious, the deathly resonance triggering the Heavenly Wrath was severed.

  The tremor hitting the Yao Gu horizon instantly froze. The black cloud vortex that had been roiling fiercely, ready to spit out the final retribution for the law-plunderer, suddenly lost its target. The wrathful Heaven seemed to lose track of Zhi Xuan’s existence as the youth’s consciousness sank into the eternal darkness of his faint.

  The purple lightning that had been dancing a death-dance at the tips of the marble pillars hissed softly, then faded into sparks that vanished in the mountain wind. The pressure crushing the practitioners' spirits lifted suddenly, leaving a silence so quiet that even a heartbeat sounded like a thud.

  "With a cold hand striking the Heavenly Bell," whispered one cultivator staring blankly at the courtyard. "Breaking sixteen strikes, showing the Devil and Heavenly Paths, even the Heavenly Dao resonated with his strike."

  "The sadness of the dragons he released felt so real," said one female practitioner, her face pale. "As if he were too burdened with deep karma, yet still forced himself to keep walking."

  The Square of Holy Light now resembled nothing more than a graveyard of the gods that had been pulverized. Thin smoke rose from the ruins of the floating stage, now level with the energy crater below.

  The silence that followed was no longer the silence of a trial, but the post-disaster silence that left a deep trauma on the Dao Heart of every pair of eyes that witnessed it.

  Zhi Xuan, the frame that had just shaken the foundation of the world, was now just a small dot falling toward the roiling energy depths. However, before his broken body could be swallowed by the crater, a shadow blurred past at a speed surpassing a blink.

  Zhu Yanghai landed at the edge of the abyss, but he was too slow. It was the Empire Elder who had caught Zhi Xuan’s body first. The Elder stood in the air, cradling the youth’s cold and blood-soaked frame.

  The Elder’s robes billowed softly, his eyes staring at Zhi Xuan’s face, sleeping in the darkness of his faint—a face that appeared so calm as if he had not just ripped the veil of Heaven.

  "Sixteen..." Sage Qing Xuan’s voice broke the silence, raspy and filled with a painful disbelief. He stepped down from his cloud throne, his feet feeling heavy as they touched the marble floor that had cracked a thousand times. "Sixteen tolls. The record of the geniuses has been surpassed by a bearer of the devil's stain."

  "The Xing Luo Plains truly hide such terrifying geniuses," said Elder Qing He, her calm face emitting a slight flash of acknowledgment. "Sixteen strikes, matching the grand geniuses who have dominated the Three Plains Competition for hundreds of years."

  Elder Qing He took a long breath, the scent of the ancient forest that was usually calming now mixed with the metallic smell of blood and burnt metal. She looked at the Heavenly Night Rain Bell still hanging there; the bronze no longer radiated divine majesty, but appeared dull and covered in cracks that continued to emit a low hum, as if moaning in pain from the plunder Zhi Xuan had committed.

  "Not merely matching," the Holy Woman of Yao Gu whispered, her voice trembling as she stepped forward to the edge of the platform. Her sharp eyes stared at the limp left palm of Zhi Xuan in the Empire Elder’s arms. "He did not match them. The predecessors knocked on Heaven's door to ask for a blessing, but this youth... he broke down that door and snatched what was inside."

  Sage Qing Xuan clenched his fist, letting his essence spread to the marble floor to stabilize the nearly collapsing structure of the Square of Holy Light. His heart was filled with complex emotions. However, as a cultivator who had chased the Dao for centuries, he could not deny the horror mixed with awe.

  "This time, Xing Luo has shown its fangs," Sage Qing Xuan said. With a wave of his hand, his Divine Transformation essence restored the damage in the courtyard. "Sixteen strikes... even any accumulation is meaningless compared to sixteen strikes from a single envoy. The Heavenly Dao sent a Heavenly Tribulation to destroy him. This is something also experienced by those who touched sixteen strikes."