Soul Land 5: The Rebirth of Tang San

Chapter 305: Teacher, I'm Sorry!

Bolt after bolt of lightning fell, striking Zhang Haoxuan down as he soared through the air again and again. Behind him, the fiery red lion's silhouette gradually solidified and began transforming into gold—a certain sign of progress.

However, Zhang Haoxuan's own exhaustion was considerable. He now understood why Tang San had insisted he absorb life energy for three additional days as best as he could. During this tribulation, the life energy from the Golden Tree allowed him to recover rapidly, healing his injuries. But as thunderbolts struck, this pure life energy was rapidly depleting, causing Zhang Haoxuan's gut to tighten. It was his first time facing such an ordeal, and he had no idea how long the lightning tribulation would last. The sky remained dark, with no sign of the tribulation abating.

Boom!

Another massive bolt of lightning crashed down, smashing Zhang Haoxuan down. He barely managed to stop before he hit the surface, yet a feeling of emptiness began to emerge inside him. Was his accumulation still insufficient?

Zhang Haoxuan furrowed his brow. Just then, to his surprise, he noticed the sky brightening slightly, suggesting the lightning tribulation might weaken.

Tang San's voice came through then, "Teacher, when you get struck again, let yourself fall into the sea, and I'll help replenish your energy."

Zhang Haoxuan couldn't speak at that moment, but hearing this, he felt greatly reassured.

Indeed, when the next bolt of lightning struck, it was noticeably smaller than before.

With a loud boom Zhang Haoxuan was struck from the sky and fell into the sea. The storm clouds in the sky also dispersed a bit more.

As Zhang Haoxuan fell into the sea, his high body temperature instantly caused a large swath of mist to rise. However, the next instant, he felt a massive surge of energy from the sea rushing into his body, swiftly replenishing his. Although he naturally resisted the water element due to his fire attributed bloodline, the influx of energy filled him and refreshed him

Oh, this must be working, right?

Zhang Haoxuan naturally felt in high spirits, greatly relieved.

But in the next instant, he tensed up. A foreboding feeling suddenly emerged in his mind. Although he hadn't fully become a god yet, he could be considered a demi-god, and his spiritual power had developed some features of divine consciousness, making his premonitions of danger much more accurate.

What's going on? Is there a problem?

The mist before his eyes rose at that moment, so he couldn't see what was happening outside.

Meanwhile, Tang San was staring in shock.

When Zhang Haoxuan fell into the sea, Tang San had triggered the life energy within it to replenish his teacher.

But in the moment he did that, it seemed his presence was sensed, and invisibly, a certain will seemed to sweep through the area.

Tang San almost instantly closed off his divine consciousness, letting his body sink into the deep sea. However, in the sky, the tribulation clouds that had been dispersing became dense again and seemed to double in size.

Feeling the crisis, Zhang Haoxuan burst out of the sea and left the thick mist just in time to see three massive blood-red lightning bolts, as thick as water barrels, coming straight at him.

Before, the tribulation lightning bolts had come one by one, but this time, there were three of them at once and they were even more powerful than before!

The culprit, who was sinking deep into the sea, was muttering in his heart, Master, I'm sorry!

Tang San indeed had good intentions when he used his divine consciousness to guide the energy in the sea to replenish Zhang Haoxuan. However, the problem was that he did this during Zhang Haoxuan's tribulation. The plane's power was focused on this area, and his otherworldly presence was immediately detected. Although Tang San immediately closed off his divine consciousness, the plane's power still struck down.

Facing the three massive bolts of lightning, Zhang Haoxuan didn't hesitate for a moment before plunging back into the sea. Surging flames rose, attempting to block the descent of the lightning.

A streak of white light burst from beneath the water at that moment, illuminating him and causing the three massive bolts to deviate slightly. They didn't hit him directly, but the energy fluctuations around them still blasted Zhang Haoxuan away. The sea around him was instantly vaporized, and the lightning left a crater over a thousand square meters in size on the bottom of the sea.

Zhang Haoxuan felt his mind go blank at that moment, as if his entire spirit and emotions had completely vanished in an instant.

Unknown to him, a vine had silently wrapped around his ankle and just as the lightning rampaged wildly, it had pulled him sideways into the water.

Zhang Haoxuan's tribulation was in fact already over. The three massive bolts that followed were not aimed at him but at the "alien" that the plane had detected. The alien completely vanished under the lightning's assault, and the clouds in the sky lingered for a while before quietly starting to disperse.

Tang San's mouth twitched as he looked at the unconscious Zhang Haoxuan before him, speechless.

While he was using his divine consciousness to mobilize the life energy in the sea to aid Zhang Haoxuan's recovery, he also intended to test the plane's reaction by revealing a minute amount of his divine consciousness. Clearly, the plane had a stronger repulsion against him than he had anticipated.

And this was the result of merely revealing a sliver of his consciousness. What if he were to undergo his own tribulation? Wouldn't the entire plane's power be directed against him? That would be a major problem!

If he couldn't resolve this issue, reaching the ninth order would be his limit. More importantly, once his strength reached a certain level, he would automatically begin absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to replenish himself, and his cultivation would silently and slowly increase. Unless he crippled his own powers, he would inevitably have to face a heavenly tribulation one day. That was the most troubling issue.

This probe made Tang San fully aware of how intensely the plane repelled foreign elements. Under these circumstances, undergoing a tribulation was utterly impossible. He needed to think carefully about what to do next.

However, having once been a God-King and understanding the mysteries of the universe, Tang San could somewhat comprehend why the ruler of the Falan Planet would reject him so strongly.

Setting aside whether the planar ruler acted on instinct or had actual intelligence, at the most superficial level, the resources of Falan Planet were extremely abundant and vast, far more so than on any other planet Tang San knew. Otherwise, it could not give rise to beings like the Demon Emperors or Nymph Emperors, entities that rivaled First Class Gods back in Tang San’s world.

Upon reaching such a level of energy, the future development of Falan Planet would inevitably evolve into a divine realm, and this was one reason it naturally repelled Tang San. Outsiders would immediately covet a planet with such rich resources. Once controlled by a powerful external force, the plane's energy would be exploited, and the divine realm established would be led not by the planar ruler here but by another entity.

In other words, the plane instinctively tried to avoid becoming a juicy piece of meat consumed by an outsider. Tang San believed that the plane allowed for so many powerful beings to exist precisely in order to defend against such an invasion.