A deafening CRACK ripped the sky apart.
The Ant Queen's silver barrier, her last line of defense, didn't just break—it vaporized. The raw power of the tribulation bolt slammed into her, sending her plummeting from the sky. She hit the ground with a sickening thud.
A spray of crimson mist erupted from her lips. The world swam as her strength abandoned her, her face turning a ghastly white. Above, the storm clouds roiled, gathering their strength for the second strike. To reach the next stage, the second level of the Demon Emperor realm, she had to endure two. She had failed at the first hurdle.
It's over. I'm dead. A bitter smile touched her lips. She had been a fool, overestimating her own power and drastically underestimating the fury of the heavens.
She tried to move, to crawl away, but her body was a ruin. The demonic energy inside her was a chaotic storm she couldn't control. She couldn't even get to her feet.
Heh, I got greedy, she thought, her breath ragged. Becoming a Demon Emperor wasn't enough. I just had to have more.
Thunder rattled her bones. The second bolt, a vibrant, terrifying cobalt blue, tore through the clouds and plunged toward her. It was magnitudes stronger than the first.
She lay broken on the ground and closed her eyes, waiting for the end.
But it never came.
Instead, a blur of motion shot past her, rocketing into the sky to meet the lightning head-on. Her eyes snapped open. It was Luo Zhen.
Flapping a pair of magnificent azure wings, his body cloaked in a shimmering green aura, he met the descending bolt with a look of pure, unyielding determination.
"Is he insane!?" the Ant Queen cried out, her voice a hoarse whisper.
BOOM!!
The explosion was apocalyptic. The colossal blue lightning bolt engulfed Luo Zhen, and the sheer force of it was enough to make the ground tremble. The impact was brutal. The lightning seared through him, charring flesh and exposing the bone beneath.
"He's mad," the Ant Queen mumbled, utterly stunned. "That demon snake is completely out of his mind. He's trying to tank a tribulation bolt that even I couldn't handle."
But then, the impossible happened.
An emerald light, vibrant and pulsing with an overwhelming life force, erupted from within Luo Zhen. It was dazzling. As the green glow washed over his ravaged body, his horrifying wounds began to knit themselves back together at a visible rate. Skin regrew, bones mended. The healing was so rapid that it actually outpaced the tribulation's destructive power.
With his body regenerating in real-time, Luo Zhen began to do something even crazier: he started absorbing the lightning.
The terrifying energy flooded his system. While the green light repaired the damage, he used his own innate electrical power to tame and assimilate the wild, celestial energy. He had gained control over lightning when he'd devoured the Shadow-less Snake, and this tribulation, while infinitely more powerful, was still just lightning. And any energy that shared his attribute was fuel for his own evolution.
A familiar, disembodied voice echoed in his mind. Let me give you a boost, Host.
With the System's aid, his absorption rate went into overdrive.
An hour later, the last vestiges of the fearsome tribulation lightning vanished, pulled into Luo Zhen's body. His demon core was no longer what it was; it now shone as a perfect, crystalline blue orb of pure lightning.
The moment the transformation was completed, he felt a change. Deep blue, intricate patterns like lightning forks etched themselves across his scales. The fiery lotus mark on his forehead dissolved, replaced by a crackling blue sigil of a lightning bolt. He was no longer just a snake. He had been reborn as a creature of the storm.
Host, your gambit paid off, the System announced. You have successfully devoured the tribulation. Your bloodline has evolved.
Luo Zhen felt a surge of elation. "Into what?"
You have become a Tribulation Lightning Snake!
Furthermore, your beast fire has evolved alongside you. It is now the Tribulation Lightning Flame, a seventh-tier beast fire!
"A seventh-tier beast fire?" Luo Zhen grinned. He opened his mouth, and a torrent of cobalt flame roared out, forming a swirling inferno the size of a house, crackling with raw, untamed lightning.
"It was all worth it," he said, exhilarated, as he inhaled the flames back into his body.
There's more, the System added. Your electric abilities, 'Blue Light Flash Lightning Drill' and the 'Power of Tribulation Lightning,' are compatible. Do you wish to synthesize them?
"Don't even have to ask. Do it!"
Synthesizing... Synthesis complete!
Congratulations, Host. You have acquired a new skill: Raging Lightning Strike!
Luo Zhen eagerly pulled up the skill's details.
Raging Lightning Strike: A devastating lightning-based attack.
Power: On par with a full-powered strike from a half-step Demon King.
Description: A unique synthesized skill, exclusive to Luo Zhen.
Only half-step Demon King? He paused for a second, then it clicked. Of course. Most of the tribulation's power went into reforging my bloodline and upgrading my beast fire. There was barely any energy left over for the synthesis.
Still, he was satisfied. "Let's see what this can do."
He focused his will, and the sky, which had just cleared, instantly darkened again. A new storm cloud materialized out of thin air. A bolt of lightning as thick as a water tank slammed into the earth.
When the light faded, a crater over ten meters wide had been blasted into the solid ground.
Luo Zhen looked at the destruction and nodded, thoroughly pleased. He took a moment to focus inward, taking stock of his new reality. His very essence had been rewritten.
His race was now Tribulation Lightning Snake. His core abilities were amplified, and his new beast fire and Raging Lightning Strike gave him a whole new level of offensive power. He was still in the early stages of the Demon Core realm, but his actual combat strength had leaped forward by an incredible margin.
This was a massive win.
Just then, a flicker of movement caught his eye. The Ant Queen, leaning heavily on a few of her Demon Generals, was slowly making her way toward him.
Looks like she wants to talk, the System noted.
"Let her," Luo Zhen snorted. "I'm not afraid of her now. She's half-dead, and her lackeys are a joke. If she tries anything, I'll tear this whole nest apart."
Luo Zhen watched her approach, his newfound power coiling within him, ready to be unleashed at the slightest provocation.
But the attack never came. Instead, the Ant Queen stopped before him, her beautiful eyes filled with a complex mix of awe, gratitude, and exhaustion.
"Thank you," she said, her voice soft.
Luo Zhen blinked. "What?"
This wasn't what he expected. He was braced for a fight, not a thank-you note.
"If you hadn't intervened," she continued, "that lightning would have killed me. You saved my life. I am in your debt."
With that, she knelt, a profound gesture of respect. Her Demon Generals, stunned for a moment, quickly followed suit, kneeling before Luo Zhen.
This display completely threw him off. "Hey, get up," he said, stepping forward and helping her to her feet. It felt incredibly awkward. "Look, it's not what you think. I wasn't trying to save you. I just needed to absorb that lightning for my own cultivation."
"I could see that. The change in you is... significant," she said, studying him. "But it doesn't matter what your reasons were. The fact remains that you saved me." She offered a small, tired smile. "I don't even know your name. I am Bai Susu."
"Luo Zhen."
"Luo Zhen..." she repeated, as if committing the name to memory.
Suddenly, a violent cough wracked her body. She staggered, blood flecking her lips, this time mixed with fragments of her internal organs. The first tribulation bolt had done more damage than he realized.
"Your Majesty!" her generals cried, rushing to support her.
Luo Zhen hesitated for only a second. He accessed the System's store, spending a huge chunk of his hard-earned points on a single item: a golden pill that pulsed with a gentle warmth.
"Here," he said, holding it out to her. "This is an eighth-grade spirit elixir. It's incredibly potent for healing. Take it."
Bai Susu and her guards stared at him, their eyes wide with disbelief.
"Eighth-grade?" she whispered in shock. "How do you have something so rare? There are Demon Venerables who would kill for a pill like this!"
"Just take it before you collapse," he insisted.
She finally accepted it, her fingers brushing his, and swallowed the pill.
Almost instantly, a brilliant golden light enveloped her, and her grievous injuries began to seal and fade. The light intensified, weaving itself into a massive golden cocoon that completely enclosed her.
Her generals looked on in alarm.
"Don't worry," Luo Zhen explained. "The cocoon is formed from the elixir's excess energy. It's stabilizing her realm. When she emerges, she'll be a true second-level Demon Emperor."
The relief on the faces of the ant demons was palpable. One of them, a burly general, clasped his fists together and bowed deeply. "Thank you, our King!"
Luo Zhen froze. "Excuse me? What did you just call me?"
"Our King," the general said with deadpan seriousness. "You're our Queen's man, aren't you? That makes you the King of our colony." He then leaned in conspiratorially. "Our Queen... well, she's never been with anyone before. That's just a title. You're the first."
Luo Zhen's expression was a perfect mask of bewildered paralysis. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"King? I am not a king of anything," he said, waving his hands dismissively. "Look, she's stable now. I should be going."
Before they could protest, he unfurled his massive azure wings. With a single powerful downstroke, he launched himself into the sky, becoming a speck on the horizon in seconds.
The ant demons could only watch him go.
High above the clouds, Luo Zhen pushed toward Flying Sand City.
You're all heart, you know that? The system's voice chimed in his head. That was a high-grade elixir. Cost you pretty much everything you had, didn't it? I didn't know you cared so much about her.
Luo Zhen felt a flush of heat rise in his cheeks. "It was... complicated," he mumbled. "It was my first time, you know." He paused. "And from what her soldiers said, it was her first time, too."
Well, you'd better get training, the System replied. She's about to be a second-level Demon Emperor, and you're still just at the start of the Demon Core realm. The System's tone shifted slightly. Speaking of which, I discovered something interesting about her.
"What is it?"
She's no ordinary demon. As I was leaving, I scanned her bloodline. Between your... contribution... and the tribulation's energy, something has been triggered. A process of atavism.
"Atavism?" Luo Zhen frowned. "What does that mean?"
Her bloodline is waking up. Reverting to something ancient... something powerful. It's too early to tell what she'll become, but I detected a faint trace of something else in her genes. The power was minuscule, but it was unmistakable. It belongs to the Heavenly Crystal Ant.
"The Heavenly Crystal Ant? What's that?"
The words had barely left his lips when the world went dark.
The clear, sunny sky vanished, instantly replaced by a swirling vortex of black storm clouds that boiled with a menacing, unspoken power. It felt as if some ancient, terrible god had just woken up.
"What the hell? Where did this storm come from?" Luo Zhen hovered in the air, shocked and confused.
A dry chuckle echoed in his mind. Now you see. That's the power I was talking about. The Heavenly Crystal Ant has abilities beyond comprehension. One of them is that you only have to speak its name, and it will know.
Say it, think it, write it down—it doesn't matter. The moment the concept enters reality, it's on the creature's radar.
Luo Zhen was speechless. "You're kidding me. So... it heard me? It's watching me right now?"
The storm is your warning, the System confirmed. And whatever you do, do not think a bad thought about it. Speak ill of the Heavenly Crystal Ant, and a bolt of lightning will strike you down to teach you some manners.
"That's insane!" Luo Zhen stammered, frantically shaking his head to clear it of any thoughts related to crystal ants.
Slowly, as if satisfied that the point had been made, the ominous clouds began to dissipate, revealing the clear blue sky once more.
Luo Zhen let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. He gave the sky one last wary look before flapping his wings and continuing his journey, his world suddenly feeling much, much larger—and infinitely more dangerous—than it had just a moment ago.