End of a Era

A large dark cloud suddenly covered the sky. Along with it, a large thunder boom and numerous lightning bolts struck the ground. The lightning constantly changed colors, going from red to black, black to purple, purple to blue, and multiple other color changes.

This was caused by a heavenly tribulation.

A heavenly tribulation happens when a mortal tries to break into the immortal realm, something that has only been recorded to happen twice in the last ten thousand years.

The lightning caused by the tribulation all started to head towards a single spot, the top of a mountain.

If one were to look very closely at the top of that mountain, one would be able to spot a small figure sitting in a lotus position.

The sitting figure was a woman with long silver hair, looking to be in her twenties. Just by sitting still, she had a graceful and refined aura surrounding her.

Seemingly just now noticing the dark cloud above her, she opened her eyes. Her pupils were a color reminiscent of dark red wine, along with a look in her eyes that seemed like a whirlpool, trying to swallow anyone who looked her in the eyes whole.

She looked at the dark cloud in the sky calmly for a moment before opening her eyes wide in surprise.

"What is wrong with this tribulation? It shouldn't be this strong." The woman asked.

After asking this question, she then stood up.

Still looking at the cloud above her, she rose into the air. Her white and purple robe swayed even with there being no wind.

Almost immediately after the woman had risen into the air, the lightning that had been heading in her direction arrived.

The destructive power contained by the lightning was enough to wipe out the entire mountain she had been sitting on easily.

Unfortunately for the lightning, when it hit the woman's body it disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.

It didn't end there, however, as with heavenly tribulations, instead of the normal nine bolts of lightning, there were eighty-one bolts of lightning, with each bolt doubling in power.

The lightning was relentless with the speed at which it struck the woman, in just ten seconds thirty bolts had struck the woman.

But even then the lightning still couldn't even damage the woman's clothes, something that would soon change.

The fortieth bolt of lightning was able to injure the woman slightly, it charred a bit of the skin on her arm.

By the fiftieth bolt, the woman was barely able to stand, her pure untainted white skin now charred beyond recognition.

Knowing that she could no longer deal with the lightning without any protection against it, the woman summoned her defensive spirit artifact.

The artifact managed to lessen the burden that the lightning was putting on her, enough that the sixtieth bolt of lightning only had the power of the fortieth bolt.

Unfortunately, the woman's spirit artifact broke to the seventieth bolt of lightning. The lightning continued on its path toward the woman and soon struck her.

"Arghhhhhhh!!" The woman screamed in pain.

The bolt of lightning no longer just struck her body, instead, it now focused on damaging her soul.

In fact, none of the previous bolts of lightning had managed to make her scream out in pain. This was because once you reach a certain realm of power the damage to your body would no longer be able to hurt you, only damage dealt to the soul would be able to damage you.

In fact, as long as your soul wasn't wiped out of existence, you could reform your body. Albeit with a much lower power level than you would have originally had.

The woman now had to deal with the power carried by the seventieth strike onwards.

She was able to survive till the eightieth bolt through her determination only. At this point the woman wasn't even conscious, the only thing keeping her alive was the tiny sliver of her soul that she had left.

The reason why the woman hadn't tried to escape with her soul intact in the first place is because of a special characteristic of the heavenly tribulation. Once you try to break into the immortal realm the heavens deem you as a sinner, therefore wanting to erase you from existence, so even if she had tried to escape, the lightning bolts would have chased after her soul.

This will only stop if you either ascend to the immortal realm or die.

"Boom!!"

The eightieth bolt of lightning struck the woman.

She was jolted awake for less than a moment before finally being destroyed. Her soul no longer existed, meaning that she could no longer reincarnate as another being. Her body was completely wiped from existence.

Even then, however, the 81st bolt of lightning still struck the ground. This was caused by the heavens feeling her existence flicker for an extremely short amount of time.

All across the mortal realm, people were injured by this strike of lightning, even the most powerful beings couldn't escape this fate.

The ones in closer proximity were killed. no matter who they were, or how strong they were, nobody could resist this strike of lightning.

This day marked the end of an era.

40% of the population was wiped out.

Many of which were very talented people and strong people.

One of which was the strongest cultivator in the mortal realm, who was also the person who caused this disaster to occur in the first place.

She, who was called the divine goddess.

She, who was largely considered to be the most likely to break through the barrier the heavens themselves put upon cultivators.

And finally, she, who was named after the second-ever cultivator to have ever been recorded to transcend to immortality, Wan Zongying.

She failed to break through the barrier put on mortals and fell like many before her.

The difference between Wan Zongying and those before her, however, is that this was not the end of her journey.

Instead, she, for whatever reason, was chosen to live a second life, even with her soul destroyed.

Unknown to her at the time, this would be the start of an even greater legend than she had previously made, one that would belong to her, along with hundreds of others.

It was the legend of the Blossoming Lake Sect.