The fifth tribulation descended as rain.

Golden-white drops fell from the clouds and scattered across the entire main peak training ground.

Huo Yan’s load-balancing array lit up at once.

Dozens of formation plates hummed together, spreading the falling golden rain across the training ground in thin layers instead of allowing it to gather in one place.

Under Huo Yan’s control, the golden rain became gentler by the time it reached the outer disciples.

A thin strand of golden-white light landed on one Qi Refining disciple’s shoulder.

His body trembled by the sudden jolt. Then, an old injury in his arm vanished.

The disciple’s eyes widened.

Another drop landed on a Foundation Establishment disciple’s head. His stagnant bottleneck loosened.

He almost cried.

Soon, gasps rose from all directions.

"My meridians..."

"My old injury is gone!"

"My cultivation is moving!"

"This is heavenly blessing!"

Countless eyes turned toward the center of the training ground.

Toward Su Bai.

The disciples’ expressions changed. Reverence appeared in their eyes.

A Golden Core tribulation had turned into heavenly blessing for the entire sect.

What kind of favored existence could make the heavens shower the Radiant Sky Sect with life and fortune?

Many disciples had the same thought at the same time.

Senior Brother Su Bai was loved by the heavens!

No.

Perhaps he was the Heavenly Dao’s own son!

At the center of the formation, the Heavenly Dao’s supposed son was fighting for his life.

A golden-white drop landed on Su Bai’s shoulder.

The moment it touched him, the Reversal Body twisted its meaning. The drop sank through his skin like molten acid.

Su Bai almost laughed from despair.

Shen Youran’s curtain of Qi moved.

A layer of calm protection spread above Su Bai, catching most of the falling droplets before they reached him.

The golden rain struck the curtain, broke apart, and became mist.

Only a reduced amount passed through.

Even so, Su Bai’s body shuddered.

Inside him, the Black-Ice Core surged violently.

The golden Yang sun inside it flared again and again.

The crystal root network carried Yin and Yang through his body, trying to correct the damage.

But the rain was everywhere.

There was no single bolt to reflect.

Every spark that slipped through the defenses became corrosion inside him.

Su Bai opened his system inventory.

The Corpse-Chill Yin Pills appeared in his hand.

Their normal effect extinguished life force. After reversal, they violently restored his life force.

He swallowed one.

Life force surged through his body like a dark river turning into spring water.

The places corroded by the golden rain began recovering faster.

Su Bai swallowed another.

His damaged meridians stabilized.

His organs stopped twisting so violently.

The Taiji loop regained speed.

Su Bai finally exhaled.

He was glad he had kept these pills.

...

Across the training ground, the golden rain continued falling.

The entire sect began glowing.

Disciples sat cross-legged with flushed faces. Elders breathed slowly as hidden injuries vanished. Peak Masters absorbed the stronger strands with solemn expressions. The ancestor coffins remained still, but the twilight aura around them slowly faded.

Lu Canghai stood near Su Bai, black beginning to return to his white hair.

At first, only a few strands changed.

Then more.

His old face grew firmer. His back straightened further. The damage in his foundation continued repairing under the golden rain.

Lu Canghai’s aura rose steadily.

...

At the center, Su Bai was no longer sitting still.

He could not.

The rain was too dense.

He stood up, staggered once, then forced his body to move.

Frictionless Phantom Step activated.

His figure slid through the falling golden rain, avoiding the densest clusters.

The Tribulation Lightning Bead chain crackled around his wrist, sharpening his reactions.

His hands moved. Yin needles formed around him.

The dark needles shot upward and struck falling golden droplets, shattering some of them into mist before they could touch him.

He kicked one strand aside with Qi.

Punched through another.

Raised the Heavenly Aegis Mirror to reflect a cluster.

Twisted his body to let Shen Youran’s curtain catch another wave.

Golden corrosion still entered his body.

Again.

And again.

Su Bai’s eyes reddened slightly.

He wanted to curse the heavens.

But he held it in.

Cursing the heavens during tribulation was the kind of thing only people with short lives and long regrets did.

He preferred to live.

Inside his Dantian, the Black-Ice Core accepted the pressure.

A new pale-gold mark formed.

The fifth tribulation mark.

Su Bai trembled.

The mark locked into place.

The golden Yang sun inside the Black-Ice Core flared.

The crystal root network tightened and stabilized.

The fifth mark was complete.

But the rain did not stop.

The sixth tribulation followed.

The golden rain grew denser.

The drops became smaller, brighter, and more compact.

Huo Yan shouted, "Reinforce the outer rings!"

Formation plates shifted.

Elders poured Qi into the nodes.

Yao Ding threw more pills into the air, creating wider medicinal mist.

Lu Canghai’s clouds swept around Su Bai, softening part of the falling rain.

Jian Wushuang’s sword divided the denser streams.

Shen Youran remained closest, her curtain of Qi catching the worst of what slipped through.

Su Bai swallowed another Corpse-Chill Yin Pill.

His body repaired.

Then the rain corroded it again.

He gritted his teeth and endured.

The sixth mark appeared on the Black-Ice Core.

The seventh tribulation came even faster.

The golden rain fell like threads.

For the disciples, every thread was nourishment.

Several outer disciples broke through on the spot.

Qi surged.

Their elders immediately suppressed the excess and guided them to stabilize.

An inner disciple entered late-stage Foundation Establishment.

Several elders laughed silently as their old wounds disappeared.

The ancestor coffins absorbed the rain quietly.

The twilight Qi around them faded more and more.

At the center, Su Bai almost collapsed.

He used the Taiji loop to guide everything that entered him into the Black-Ice Core.

The seventh mark appeared.

Then the eighth tribulation descended.

The rain became so dense that it no longer looked like rain.

It looked like a curtain of golden-white silk falling from the heavens.

The entire training ground glowed.

The disciples looked peaceful.

The elders looked refreshed.

The Peak Masters looked like they had each discovered ten years of hidden fortune.

Even Lu Canghai now looked decades younger.

His white hair had mostly turned black.

His face had regained youthful vitality, though his eyes still carried the weight of age.

If not for his expression of deep worry, he might have looked like a dignified middle-aged immortal master.

Su Bai glanced at him once through the rain.

He froze for half a breath.

’Master? Who was this?’

Then he immediately understood.

The golden rain.

Su Bai almost felt happy for him.

Then three drops landed on his chest and began melting his flesh from the inside.

The happiness vanished.

The eighth mark formed after great difficulty.

The Black-Ice Core now carried eight tribulation marks. Two purple-white. Six pale-gold.

The golden Yang sun inside it burned brighter than before.

The solid Qi needle asteroid belt spun with frightening speed.

The ninth tribulation gathered.

This time, the entire main peak fell silent.

Everyone understood.

Nine was completion.

For a Golden Core tribulation, nine marks meant the Heavenly Dao’s seal was complete.

Once the ninth mark formed, the core would be recognized, tempered, and locked into its final structure.

Su Bai raised his head.

The golden rain gathered one final time.

It became heavy.

Then it fell.

The ninth Golden Rain descended.

Su Bai no longer tried to look graceful.

He fought.

He punched golden drops apart. Kicked through strands of light. Sent Yin needles upward in waves. Raised the Heavenly Aegis Mirror until his arm trembled. Swallowed another Corpse-Chill Yin Pill in reach.

His body screamed. His Dantian shook.

Yin stabilized. Yang refilled.

Finally, a ninth mark appeared.

It settled onto the Black-Ice Core.

The nine marks connected.

For one instant, Su Bai felt his entire existence lock into place.

Everything resonated now.

The Golden Core Engine was sealed.

Su Bai’s knees gave out. He fell to the ground.

The golden rain stopped.

Silence spread across the main peak.

Everyone exhaled at the same time.

It was over.

Su Bai lay on the ground, breathing roughly.

His whole body hurt.

His insides felt like they had been washed with knives and glued back together with stubbornness.

But the nine marks were there.

His core had survived.

His body had survived.

He had survived.

Then he noticed something.

The clouds had not dispersed.

Su Bai slowly opened one eye.

Above the main peak, the warm holy clouds remained.

They hung there... motionless.

The Peak Masters also noticed.

The peaceful expressions vanished.

Li Xuanzong was the first to react.

His eyes sharpened.

"Leave now!"

His voice exploded across the training ground.

"All disciples, scatter! Elders, escort them out!"

The disciples did not hesitate.

They had seen enough impossible things today to understand one truth.

When the Sect Master shouted, one moved first and asked questions later.

The elders acted instantly.

Formation lines shifted.

Spirit beasts carried weaker disciples away.

The training ground emptied rapidly.

Li Xuanzong and the Peak Masters remained.

Su Bai struggled to push himself up.

His body still trembled.

"What now?"

No one answered immediately.

Just then...

The warm clouds above shattered... like glass breaking without sound.

The golden-white radiance cracked apart, revealing a darkness behind it that did not belong to clouds.

The elders who were still retreating felt it and paled.

The spirit beasts whimpered.

Even the Peak Masters’ expressions changed.

The air became still.

There was no thunder, no wind, and no pressure. Only absence.

Mo Shanyue’s voice became low.

"This is... Heaven’s tantrum."

No one laughed.

Su Bai turned his head slightly.

"Master?"

Lu Canghai’s face was complicated.

His hair had turned black.

His face had become younger.

But at that moment, none of that mattered.

His eyes were fixed on the sky.

"That is not ordinary tribulation."

Su Bai swallowed.

"What is it?"

Lu Canghai lowered his voice.

"The Heavenly Erasure Bolt."

Su Bai’s heart tightened.

Lu Canghai continued, "Nine tribulations temper. Nine marks approve. But when the heavens decide that something should not exist... there is a forbidden tenth."

His voice became heavier.

"It does not destroy... It erases."

Su Bai fell silent.

Lu Canghai looked at him.

"Your body can reverse destruction. It can reverse poison, pain, decay, and even blessing. But erasure is different."

He spoke very softly, only enough for Su Bai to hear.

"Erasure is not a force. It is the removal of existence. There may be nothing for your constitution to reverse."

Su Bai’s fingers tightened against the ground.

His heartbeat sounded loud in his ears.

How did one reverse nothing?

There was no heat to turn cold.

There was no destruction to turn nourishment.

If the Heavenly Erasure Bolt bypassed his Reversal Body and directly removed his flesh, roots, Black-Ice Core, and Taiji loop from existence...

Then he might truly die.

For the first time since the breakthrough began, Su Bai felt cold for a reason that had nothing to do with his Dantian.

The sky split.

The tenth bolt appeared.

It was not purple. It was not golden. It had no color at all.

It looked like a jagged crack torn through the fabric of the world.

The edges of the crack were pitch-black, but the center was worse.

The center was blank.

Where it passed, sound vanished.

The Heavenly Dao was not trying to kill Su Bai anymore.

It was trying to remove him.

Every face changed.

Even Li Xuanzong’s expression became grave.

Lu Canghai stepped in front of Su Bai.

His aura rose.

Cloud Qi gathered.

But his expression remained ugly.

Even he knew.

This was not something one could simply block.

Then, from the surrounding coffins, dozens of ancient auras flared.

Boom!

One coffin lid flew into the air.

Then another.

Then another.

The ancient coffins opened one after another.

Old figures slowly sat up from within.

Their hair was white.

Their skin was dry.

Their eyes were ancient.

But their bodies no longer gave off Twilight Qi.

Golden-white vitality still lingered around them, repairing what time had almost taken.

One ancestor cracked his neck.

Another looked at his hands.

A third breathed in and smiled faintly.

The Peak Masters stared.

Li Xuanzong bowed slightly.

"Ancestors."

The old figures did not answer immediately.

They looked at the colorless crack descending from the sky.

Then they looked at Su Bai lying half-collapsed at the center of the formation.

For a brief moment, silence held the entire main peak.

Then the ancestor at the front slowly smiled.

"Stand tall, disciple. We old bones have not thanked you for the bath yet."

Above them, the colorless Erasure Bolt descended in absolute silence.

Below it, the ancestors raised their hands.