When the Sun Moon Empire's Royal Spirit Engineer Legions surrounded them, everyone was dumbfounded.
Panic followed.
But upon hearing their call to "surrender with hands raised and you won't be killed," a strange sense of relief washed over them.
At that moment, combined with the gathering Heavenly Tribulation, they couldn't help but look up again, seeing Su Ming once more starting to stir things up.
"Why is there a Heavenly Tribulation?"
"Yeah, why is there a Heavenly Tribulation?"
Even the members of the Spirit Engineer Legions responsible for the encirclement looked up, wanting to see what was happening this time.
High in the sky.
Su Ming once again stood poised in the air, facing the Heavenly Tribulation.
He took out the God Sealing Platform.
A powerful surge of Spirit Power, tinged with extreme cold, leaked from the platform, instantly permeating the entire sky. Simultaneously, Su Ming injected a thread of his own Spirit Power into it, simulating that icy aura.
Instantly, the Snow Empress, giving up on transforming her form and choosing to self-destruct, had her cultivation surge past seven hundred thousand years just before the moment of detonation, attracting the Heavenly Tribulation.
Since you chose to self-destruct, you can't blame me.
Su Ming felt not an ounce of guilt. He simply faded into the fabric of space and reappeared the next moment outside the tribulation's range.
"Activate the formation!"
Du Busi roared.
It really was the Snow Empress. He was shocked.
Although he had long known about Su Ming's conjecture, truly confirming the identity of the being inside left him incredulous.
Because this Snow Empress resided deep in the Extreme North's core and never came out. So just what kind of god-like figure managed to catch her during the brief window of her transformation and capture her?
Nearly seven hundred thousand years, transforming into a human form.
These two terms combined were enough to illustrate the Snow Empress's immense power, capable of defying many natural rules. Yet, someone had still found and exploited that precise gap, capturing her with pinpoint accuracy.
That absolutely had to be cheating with some kind of透视 (perspective hack), right?
Even now, Du Busi and Su Ming hadn't yet identified the nine-ring Spirit Engineer who had crafted this God Sealing Platform.
"Xue'er!"
In Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, the Ice Empress also cried out in alarm, simultaneously panicking.
Her uncontrollable rage began leaking through Huo Yuhao, affecting the external world.
In the sky, the Snow Empress's aura spread.
On the ground, the Ice Empress's aura diffused.
The two Emperors of Ice and Snow were reunited in this manner.
Unfortunately, Tianmeng quickly masked the Ice Empress's aura. Everyone merely thought Huo Yuhao's Spirit Power had gone out of control due to the Snow Empress's presence, releasing too much Ultimate Ice.
"That thing in Su Ming's hands is the God Sealing Platform. Wasn't what's inside a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast Embryo? How could it be the Snow Empress?" Tianmeng was also bewildered.
Huo Yuhao was even more at a loss.
In the distance, within the Sun Moon Royal Academy team's area, Xiao Hongchen shivered.
"No way, was the Star Luo Empire trying to frame me back then?"
What the heck kind of hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast Embryo is this?
Absorb it to gain a second Martial Soul?
Pah!
Even with Su Ming's physique, absorbing a Fierce Beast of this level would be a nine-deaths-one-life gamble.
And they wanted me to absorb it?
Thank goodness the Body Sect outbid us, otherwise I'd have been blown to bits on the spot.
Since the Snow Empress chose self-destruction, the Heavenly Tribulation she attracted ended abruptly.
But Su Ming wouldn't just let this tribulation dissipate.
The previous tribulation before the Heaven Refinement succeeded was because the metal's quality was so high it touched upon divine concepts when triggering the tribulation mechanism, resulting in a million-year Heavenly Tribulation that couldn't be confronted.
But now was different.
This tribulation was only around seven hundred thousand years, lacking the "tribulation doesn't end until the target dies" mechanism.
Originally, Su Ming had planned to use the Snow Empress embryo during the Elemental Lightning Tribulation of the Heaven Refinement, leveraging the laws behind the Elemental Tribulation to help convert the Snow Empress's cultivation for complete absorption.
However, after his counterpart in Douluo 1 had waded through those waters first, experiencing the million-year Heavenly Tribulation and even holding his own against it for a long time without losing ground, he changed his mind.
If he wasn't afraid of a million-year Heavenly Tribulation, why should he fear a paltry seven-hundred-thousand-year one?
Heavenly Tribulations had higher priority than Elemental Lightning Tribulations and were more thorough in converting power.
The only drawback was that a Heavenly Tribulation offered no benefit to the one undergoing it.
A Heavenly Tribulation was solely responsible for life and death.
Pass, and you keep living. Fail, and you die.
Generally speaking, any power converted by the Heavenly Tribulation would be wasted.
But Su Ming's situation was far from general.
Having experienced a Heavenly Tribulation early on, even shattering it and kneading it together with the Lightning Tribulation to fuse with his own Heaven Refinement metal, he benefited from a core ability of his.
Domain of Chaos!
Su Ming expanded this domain of his, simultaneously reasserting his control over Heaven and Earth, using his authority as Lord of the Plane to bolster this domain.
Chaos, chaos, what is chaos?
If what everyone believes is chaos counts as chaos, then what Su Ming alone believes is chaos...
Could also be chaos.
As long as it disrupts the original rhythm.
"I don't want much, just help me with the conversion," Su Ming mused, shaking his head slightly. He activated the Domain of Chaos, assisting the Heavenly Tribulation in capturing the essence the Snow Empress had scattered across the world upon her self-destruction.
This world was only so big. By encompassing it in advance, even the power from the self-destruction couldn't escape.
Of course, the prerequisite was having a sufficiently powerful conversion mechanism to utilize all that power.
Like a Heavenly Tribulation.
As for the point that the tribulation should dissipate after the Snow Empress's death, Su Ming had a perfect solution for that too.
Chaos had perfectly devoured his own hundred-thousand-year Lightning Tribulation. His cultivation didn't instantly jump to two hundred thousand years, but it at least reached a hundred thousand and one years.
At that point, a Heavenly Tribulation should descend.
Although it was a case of a small horse pulling a big cart, it was still a directive issued by the rules.
The Heavenly Tribulation, which had already formed and was about to disperse, could only helplessly return to continue its work.
A Heavenly Tribulation does not consider the circumstances of the one undergoing it.
Who cares when the tribulation power gathered?
When the directive was issued, I already had this much tribulation power.
What are you grumbling about?
Take this thunderbolt!
Boom!
It was like the separation of Heaven and Earth at creation. Space fractured, the world trembled.
At that moment, everyone's vision was filled solely by that single, earth-shattering bolt of lightning.
Su Ming hissed through his teeth.
A seven hundred thousand-year Heavenly Tribulation, having additionally converted all of the Snow Empress's cultivation, made this tribulation no less potent than the million-year one he had endured back in Douluo 1.
Of course, the intensity was comparable, but the mechanism was lacking.
"Hah, without the proper mechanism, you're nothing!"
And besides, your power has my mole inside it!
"Snow Empress, give me your strength!"
Su Ming forcibly withstood this bolt of tribulation lightning, his body showing faint cracks.
Chaos revealed a look of trepidation. Glancing down at Su Ming, who was drawing at least ninety percent of the damage, he showed concern.
"Don't worry, keep going, just do as I said. This Heavenly Tribulation has a flaw now; you can fuse with the portion converted from the Snow Empress."
One Spirit Master, one Martial Soul, thus began digesting the Snow Empress's cultivation.
Direct absorption wouldn't yield a solid foundation.
Su Ming borrowed the Heavenly Tribulation to convert the Snow Empress's power, and then borrowed the tribulation's force to temper himself.
He was refining his body!
Using the Snow Empress's cultivation on Chaos would be good, but Chaos was his third Martial Soul, with a fixed direction for its growth. His second Martial Soul was different.
Because it was formed prematurely without considering a method for subsequent improvement, Su Ming's current Body Sect Martial Soul could only be enhanced by improving his physical constitution.
"What kind of ruthless person is this? He can even devour a Heavenly Tribulation?"
Tianmeng watched, his gaze dumbstruck.
The Ice Empress, meanwhile, trembled with rage.
"No, no, Xue'er..."
***
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