From the roiling tribulation clouds descended all kinds of terrifying beasts—dragons, giant tortoises, fierce tigers, divine birds, and many unrecognizable monstrosities.

Each of them exuded primal chaos qi, as if they had leaped through time from the primal chaos era with a singular purpose: to annihilate all of them.

“Divine Emperor lightning beasts!”

Startled cries echoed through the battlefield. The previously confident heavenly geniuses were now visibly shaken.

These lightning beasts were far too powerful. Not only were they brimming with Sovereign qi, but their Divine Emperor cultivation base made their auras comparable to Sovereign Lords.

If it were just a few of them, these geniuses would have been able to handle them. However, the skies were flooded with them. It was an endless tide. Even powerhouses on their level would be crushed if surrounded by so many lightning beasts.

The lightning beasts charged like an unstoppable flood, their blood-colored lightning eyes brimming with murderous intent. Wherever they passed, the void trembled and shattered.

The first to act was a demon race expert. With a roar, he flew forward, leaving behind countless afterimages as he summoned his manifestation. Yet, in the blink of an eye, a lightning tiger clamped down on his wings and ripped them off. If not for a fellow kinsman saving him at the last moment, he would have been torn apart.

“What?!”

“That divine ability was bizarre!”

Even though the demon expert had clearly dodged, he was still bitten. It was as if that lightning tiger’s bite had ignored space and time.

Millions of lightning beasts descended. Surrounded by them, even the mighty Dragonblood Legion seemed like a tiny boat tossed about in a raging tsunami.

The experts of other races quickly split into isolated groups by the overwhelming onslaught. Their situation turned dire in an instant.

However, these experts were individually powerful. After putting aside their contempt and fighting seriously, they managed to steadily keep the lightning beasts at bay.

The main issue was the number of lightning beasts. Killing them was extremely difficult for these experts.

On the other hand, the Dragonblood Legion seemed rather relaxed as they killed the lightning beasts coming at them. After all, they had immense experience in such heavenly tribulations.

These lightning beasts were powerful, but the Dragonblood warriors were fighting in a formation that was essentially a giant meat grinder. As long as the lightning beasts entered, they were annihilated.

While they had initially fought separately, the Dragonblood warriors shared an almost instinctual bond. Whenever needed, they could shift from individual combat to perfectly synchronized group formations in an instant. When the enemy was strong, they joined forces. When the enemy was weak, they split to conserve energy.

As they slaughtered the lightning beasts, lightning runes flowed into their bodies. They could feel their strength growing rapidly. Within each of them, their dragon souls howled in excitement. As they absorbed the tribulation’s power, their bloodline evolved.

“This five-color divine lightning is even more potent than I imagined. The Heavenly Daos’ laws are so clear within it… I hope this tribulation lasts longer,” said Xue Sha from the Scorching Flame Taotie race, her eyes glowing with anticipation.

After all, she needed an immense amount of divine lightning to temper her body and complete her advancement into the Human Emperor realm. A stronger body required a stronger trial to match it.

BOOM!

Suddenly, the tribulation clouds shuddered, contracting.

“The tribulation is shrinking already?!”

A ripple of panic spread through the battlefield. If the tribulation ended now, it would spell disaster. While there were still many lightning beasts around, once split among all the experts, the energy wouldn’t be enough for them to advance.

However, their worries were short-lived.

After contracting, the clouds pulsed violently, and the tribulation’s pressure surged!

Roars erupted from the sky as a new wave of lightning beasts descended. Those who had just been worried about the tribulation ending cheered. However, when those lightning beasts neared them, the cheers turned into startled cries.

“Mid-stage Divine Emperors!”

The first wave of beasts had only been early-stage Divine Emperors, but this new wave had clearly stepped into the mid-stage. Their strength had multiplied several times over.

With a howl, the lightning beasts unleashed devastating divine abilities. The battlefield’s fragile balance was shattered in an instant.

An expert clad in rock armor was obliterated in front of a lightning beast. The defenses he had always prided himself on crumbled like paper beneath the beast’s divine ability.

“Careful!” someone shouted.

A demon expert was struck by a lightning sphere—only the size of a fist, yet it punched clean through his chest.

Before his comrades could react, a lightning tiger pounced. Its claws flashed, and with a single swipe, the demon expert was reduced to a mist of blood.

“Tighten the line! Switch to defense!”

“Get your backs against each other!”

“Maybe we should work together to fight them…”

The battlefield plunged into chaos. The arrival of the second wave shattered any semblance of order. It was now painfully clear where the gaps between the different races lay.

The likes of the Scorching Flame Taotie, Kunpeng, Golden Scale Mammoth, rock devil, and Nine Eye Divine Lizard races still held their ground. The new wave of lightning beasts couldn’t breach their defenses.

However, the ones with weaker physical bodies and insufficient combat experience were torn apart within moments.

After all, these lightning beasts had no sense of pain and didn’t fear death. Normal means would not work against them.

Groups started to fall apart as more and more experts were injured or killed. The survivors then scrambled to form new alliances in desperation.

One such group from the devil race attempted to approach the rock devil race for protection. But before they could draw close, one of the rock devil experts stepped forward and coldly swung his sword. A devil race expert was cut down where he stood.

“Scram!”

Though both belonged to the devil race, the rock devil experts had no interest in unity. They would not permit other devils to approach them or extend a helping hand.

As the weaker groups huddled together, they hoped that numbers could ease the pressure and buy them time to survive.

High above, the senior experts who had come to oversee the tribulation could only watch helplessly. Their hearts bled as they witnessed their disciples fall like wheat before a scythe.

These weren’t ordinary disciples. They were the chosen—the peak of their generation—who were selected specifically to kill Long Chen. But now, that goal seemed like a distant fantasy.

There was nothing these seniors could do. All of them didn’t know each other and couldn’t work together. They had only come with one goal: to let the heavenly geniuses of their race cut off Long Chen’s head.

When Long Chen slaughtered the experts of the ten thousand races, his brilliance lit the world like wildfire. Even though many powerful human heavenly geniuses emerged afterward, none could eclipse his ferocious glow.

Now, Long Chen stood as the undisputed beacon of the human race’s younger generation. If someone managed to slay him here, all that light, all that fame, would transfer to them. One battle would crown them with eternal glory.

However, they hadn’t expected things to develop this way. How was this even heavenly tribulation? It was clearly heavenly punishment.

Its purpose wasn’t to temper. It was to annihilate.

BOOM!

The tribulation clouds suddenly contracted again. An even more suffocating pressure exploded across the battlefield, making it hard for all experts to breathe.

The second wave was still wreaking havoc, yet the third wave had already started to descend.

“Late-stage Divine Emperors!”

The various experts cried out in terror.