Chapter 83: Resounding Across Heaven and Earth

"Could it be that this is truly breaking before building, dying before being reborn? Is this the real meaning behind transcending tribulation?" Lei Dong hardly had time to ponder this question, nor to curse his old, muddled master whose words were never clear and who never properly explained such matters of life and death. Before he could react, James Sam launched a shameless sneak attack from behind. Frustrated and unable to vent, Lei Dong struck back with a punch.

To his surprise, when his fist landed on James Sam, Lei Dong felt a significant portion of that deadly power dissipate with the blow. Now he had finally found an outlet. He began to rain furious blows down upon James Sam, venting his pent-up emotions.

Amidst this cathartic beating, thunderbolts crashed one after another onto Lei Dong.

"Crack—"

"Bang bang bang"

"Crack—"

"Bang bang bang"

"Crack—"

"Bang bang bang"

…

The heavenly thunder grew more urgent, and Lei Dong's fists and feet moved ever faster. Each time lightning struck, he felt the terror of death; each time he landed a punch, he tasted the joy of life.

Between life and death, Lei Dong seemed to experience countless cycles of reincarnation. His understanding of existence and heaven deepened imperceptibly with each passing moment.

The second wave of nine heavenly thunders soon passed. This time, the tribulation offered Lei Dong no respite; its momentum intensified, its power grew. The third wave followed immediately.

Wu Yun, Shuiyao Immortal, and the others had already retreated far away, eyes wide as dense bolts of lightning, seemingly with eyes of their own, relentlessly hammered Lei Dong. Their faces paled; they wished desperately to help, yet feared interfering with Lei Dong’s trial, anxiety burning in their hearts.

At this moment, Lei Dong was wholly immersed in the revelation between life and death. His face showed neither anger nor joy, but his hands never ceased, pouring all his strength into beating James Sam. James Sam roared repeatedly, but his head was now dazed from the blows, unable to concentrate the light column in his hands, utterly powerless to resist. Lei Dong pinned him to the ground, pummeling without mercy, each punch driving his huge head deeper into the earth. The solid, white wings formed of holy light shed feathers one after another; with each feather lost, James Sam felt his strength ebbing away.

Before long, James Sam’s radiant wings were ragged, like a plucked chicken.

Thunderbolts fell faster and closer together; in the eighth wave, nine bolts struck nearly simultaneously, indistinguishable in sequence. Yet Lei Dong found himself resisting with increasing ease. He realized his internal true energy was now extraordinarily robust, and the power his muscles could unleash was unimaginable. He even felt that his physical strength alone could withstand the descending thunderbolts, and a single punch could shatter a massive boulder into dust.

"Look out!" Lei Dong, absorbed and oblivious, suddenly heard Shuiyao Immortal and Wu Yun cry out in alarm. He looked up, and his expression shifted.

Above his head, the tribulation clouds had pressed down to just a few hundred meters, swirling thick as ink and forming a gigantic vortex. Beneath the vortex, nine spherical bolts of lightning, each over a hundred meters in diameter, glowed with sinister light. Their apocalyptic aura heralded destruction as if the end of days had arrived.

The ninth wave of heavenly thunder had finally come!

A series of deep thunderclaps rolled across the sky, each reverberating in the heart. The enormous thunder fireballs did not descend in the rapid strikes of the previous eight waves, but instead slowly lowered inch by inch, accompanied by the rumbling. Yet the power and momentum contained in them rendered everyone present utterly immobile, unable to even move a finger.

Lei Dong straightened his back with effort, facing the descending thunder and shouted, "Come!"

The thunder aligned above his head, and as it barely touched his scalp, it suddenly smashed down with a deafening roar. Lei Dong staggered back a dozen meters, swaying violently before finally regaining his footing, loosening his grip on James Sam once more.

James Sam, dazed and dizzy, suddenly felt light. Instinctively, he flapped his wings, striking toward Lei Dong.

Lei Dong was furious—now he dared to fight back? Without hesitation, he punched, colliding fiercely with the long, radiant wings. With a crackling sound, a shower of feathers shot skyward.

Before James Sam could react, Lei Dong grabbed his flailing arm, yanked him forward, and landed a heavy punch on his face.

At that moment, another spherical thunderbolt smashed into Lei Dong, its power more than double the previous one. Lei Dong convulsed in pain, cursing aloud.

"You dare to hit me?" With a fist imbued with the essence of death, he slammed it into James Sam’s chest. "You damned bird-man!"

"Bang!"

"You damned bird-man, always stirring trouble!"

"Bang! Bang!"

"You damned bird-man, acting high and mighty!"

"Bang! Bang bang!"

"You damned bird-man, swinging your bird-sword wildly!"

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Lei Dong’s punches grew faster, heavier, and increasingly wild, landing wherever he could. In the heat of the moment, he reached out and seized the root of James Sam’s radiant right wing, twisted fiercely, and with a screeching sound, tore it clean off. The white light composing the wing quickly dissipated, and what had been scattered feathers now turned to nothingness.

"Ah—" A soul-rending howl burst from James Sam’s throat, filled with shame, terror, and despair, echoing endlessly through the storm-racked, thunderous heavens.

"Howl all you want!" Lei Dong swung his arm, tearing off the left wing as well. The eerie wails thundered again, and the white light of James Sam’s body rapidly faded, dimming to darkness in moments.

"That’s for making me look for Rob!" Lei Dong raised his leg and kicked James Sam in the groin. Wu Yun, watching from afar, trembled, his lower body aching as he closed his eyes in sympathy. James Sam let out a desperate scream, his now darkened form shooting out like a cannonball, crashing into the base of the Bright Holy Emperor statue with a resounding boom.

Before the sound faded, Lei Dong darted forward, grabbed James Sam by the ankle, swung him like a windmill, and slammed him repeatedly against the statue.

Once, twice, three times…

It was unclear what James Sam’s body had been transformed into, but it proved far tougher than the stone of the Bright Holy Emperor statue. For some reason, the enormous statue now seemed less solid, starting to crumble. Each time Lei Dong smashed James Sam against it, a burst of white light sprayed out, and the faint glow of his body dimmed further, while the statue itself cracked and pitted.

Lei Dong reveled in his assault. Meanwhile, the tribulation clouds above grew ever stronger, the thunderbolts more ferocious, raining down one after another. With each strike, Lei Dong felt his body grow tougher, his smashing force ever greater.

Finally, after ages of brewing, all the tribulation clouds in the sky, all the lightning within them, and all the spiritual energy in the world condensed into a single sphere of thunder over a hundred meters in diameter, carrying apocalyptic force, and struck down viciously toward Lei Dong!

Before the thunder even touched him, boundless electricity, fire, sound, and pressure descended, nearly exceeding the limits of Lei Dong’s physical endurance. Immense spiritual power surged into his body; his vision went black, his mind thundered, his body trembled violently, and a crackling sound like firecrackers erupted from within.

"Ah—" Lei Dong let out a thunderous roar, grabbing James Sam’s body and hurtling toward the Bright Holy Emperor statue like a cannonball.

A series of earth-shattering booms rang out. The massive spherical lightning crashed onto Lei Dong, onto James Sam, and onto the towering statue. James Sam howled in despair, "Almighty Holy Emperor—" The cry was cut short as his body, now faded to its utmost limit, quickly disintegrated and vanished into nothingness.

Vast white light sprayed from the statue’s cracks, as if struggling to resist the thunder’s power. But at the slightest touch, the light broke apart, dissipating into thin air.

The eighty-first and final thunderbolt of the tribulation was not only unrivaled in power, but endured for an astonishing length of time. The statue's white light kept surging out, yet with each thunderstrike, it disintegrated further. The cracks at the statue’s base grew wider, more numerous, and appeared ever quicker, until within minutes, they formed a web, covering the entire statue.

At last, the limitless spiritual energy condensed into thunder reached its end, compressing into a tiny point of light. When this point compressed to the utmost, it exploded, unleashing a blinding radiance that swept across the heavens.

"Ka—" The massive blast seemed to come from the sky, or perhaps from the very crown of the head. The sound enveloped the entire realm, so mighty that every living thing on the island felt the doom of destruction, unable to move or utter a sound.

Only Lei Dong, within this explosion, sensed boundless, inexhaustible vitality—the energy of “life”—as if the universe was newly born, as if all living things were being conceived, as if, at last, the first touch of green appeared in the vast world.

The light finally faded. The dense clouds vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed, leaving only the clear blue sky, the deep azure sea, and a crimson sun rising above the horizon, flooding sky and water with endless golden rays—a scene of indescribable grandeur and beauty.

"Aw—" A long howl rose from Lei Dong’s core, filled with joy and profound insight, echoing across heaven and earth and lingering for a long, long time.