Divine Emperor of Death

*Bzzz!~*

Lightning crackled, and thunder resounded throughout the region. There were indeed people who had felt the incredible aura of the heavenly tribulation purely because they were nearby and not because of their own perception. They swarmed in closer in droves to witness the incredible phenomenon, the sole manifestation of the heavens known to the cultivation world.

With all of heaven and earth energy gathering, the heavens were blocking any form of mental probing that they first mistook it for the weather acting strange, but the aura it gave off differentiated it as plainly as the clear skies.

They could not be mistaken about this phenomenon being the fabled heavenly tribulation!

Just before they got all excited and were about to inform people back at the home of their finding while others thought it was the formation of a treasure as they neared in greed suddenly had incredible pressure descending on them all at once!

*Bzzz!~*

The huge pressure simultaneously caused them to collapse as they crashed towards the ground, seeming to faint as drool flowed out of their mouth.

Ancestor Dian Alstreim looked at his people he caused to faint. He felt nothing to have them just faint because no one needed to know anything about the heavenly tribulation. Instead, he even felt like killing them without pain so that the entire Alstreim Family could stay safe from troubles.

But he couldn't and sighed.

In the end, he moved them all into one place with his over-encompassing essence energy and bound them with ropes made from his essence energy. They were like flaming ropes that twisted around their bodies, slithery yet harmless while making them restricted in terms of movement.

Ancestor Dian Alstreim knew that these commoners would start worshiping him and swear that they did not see anything once they woke up. At least, that was the deep fear and respect that they possessed towards him, the sole guardian of the Alstreim Family.

That is, at least until now before he turned to look at Davis, who rose to the heavens.

He wanted to save him, the future of the Alstreim Family.

However, if he interfered, he understood that he would just make things worse, and all of them might end up dead, and he would undoubtedly be the cause of their deaths. His expression was a bit ugly as he tried to maintain his ground under the incredible pressure.

He couldn't understand how Davis could face this overwhelming aura without cowering in front of it, and to his disbelief, he couldn't even understand why he was mad at it. Then, he suddenly noticed.

A teenager with blonde hair seemed to be struggling a bit on the ground while looking a bit pained. She was undoubtedly an Alstreim from the looks of it, but then he instantly recalled who she was, Edgar Alstreim's second daughter!

His eyes twitched as he instantly realized that she was the one responsible for the heavenly tribulation. Her cultivation was at Revolving Core Stage, matching with the initial weak aura of the heavenly tribulation he sensed. However, he didn't know what kind of special physique she possessed to attract the heavens to deem if she was worthy!

'Edgar... Are your two daughters the bane or the boon of our family...?'

Thinking back, the Alstreim Family's situation stopped being monotonous and broke out of internal struggles after Davis, or precisely Claire, entered the stage! And now, the second daughter was displaying manifestations of being a unique character who might change the fate of the Alstreim Family!

At the same time, he felt small in front of these three characters, especially under the influence of the overbearing aura of the heavenly tribulation!

'No matter what, I hope that they survive this ordeal...'

Ancestor Dian Alstreim gulped as he retracted his gaze from the struggling Tia Alstreim to watch Davis, who seemed to have stopped a hundred meters above the surface, seemingly waiting for the heavenly tribulation to strike him to death!

Indeed, Davis had stopped rising because if he gained more distance from Tia Alstreim, then he would find it difficult to protect her. The brewing lightning above seemed to be waiting as far as he could tell, waiting for the Heart Demon Tribulation to end even though it seemed ready to be able to launch a deathblow.

He felt that the air around him was heavy. He didn't know if it was his imagination or he was really cowering under pressure with his will becoming chipped as time passing by, but the rage helped him hold on to his battle intent.

*Whoosh!~*

A golden-colored rod appeared out of nowhere in his grasp. It was a golden-black spear where the pitch-black blade seemed to bend or diverge the light around it.

*Brrr!~*

The Golden Sheen Obsidian Spear trembled in his grasp, seemingly trying to struggle out of his grasp, but Davis's soul force kept it restricted.

"Human! Your strength has increased in a short amount of time to be capable of handling me without that ominous power, but you still haven't paid any respects to me! How can I let you use me when-"

"..."

There was a momentary silence before the Golden Sheen Obsidian Spear's reluctant trembling turned into one of a coward's trembling.

"This... This is a heavenly tribulation...?" Its voice seethed with confusion and fear.

"That's right..." Davis's voice was cold as ice, "I'm going to use you to defend myself from the heavenly tribulation."

"..."

The Golden Sheen Obsidian Spear remained silent for a moment before its trembling stopped.

"Can I go back into your spatial ring...?"

"You can't..."

Davis replied, causing it to tremble again!

"No! Please...! If I get hit by that tribulation lightning, I'm dead! My spirit will be exterminated! This is not fair!"

Davis couldn't help but smile at its whining. It was an incredibly arrogant and proud spirit as far as he knew, but it cowered under the aura of the heavenly tribulation. He waved the golden-black spear, causing its trembling to stop as he brought it under its control.

"This ain't fair for me either, but I only have you who could battle against this heavenly tribulation. Use every last bit of energy you can muster to defend your spirit while I use mine to battle against it."

He was worried that bringing out a treasure that's more than Low-Level Emperor Grade in strength might provoke the heavens. He didn't know how it worked, so he chose Golden Sheen Obsidian Spear to be on the safer side.

The Golden Sheen Obsidian Spear went silent on hearing his words. It then didn't say anything and began gathering its golden energy around it to protect its core, its spirit. Earth-attribute aura began to revolve while Davis's grip tightened. The aura was not from him but the Golden Sheen Obsidian Spear itself.

*Rumble!~*

Judging from the energy gathered around, that alone was enough to one-shot a Low-Level Law Sea Stage Cultivator. It was that terrifying, and yet against this heavenly tribulation that rumbled with thunder and crackling lightning, it seemed inadequate.

*Bzzz!~*

The entire skies above Davis looked like a massive gaping maw. The crackling lightning that struck fear into the hearts of the few onlookers visibly moved around the tribulation clouds, beginning to gather at the very center before it struck in an instant!

*Boom!~*

An arc of terrifying blue-colored tribulation lightning descended, its prowess somewhere around the mid-levels of the eighth stage!

"Shit...!"

Davis's eyes went wide with full of rage as he struck the spear towards the heavens, wanting to pierce it as the tribulation lightning arrived and crashed right on top of the black blade of the spear, causing it to tremble as the golden-rod wobbled severely!

*Bang!~*

'What speed...!'

Davis was utterly taken aback by the speed of the tribulation lightning. The tribulation clouds were hundreds of kilometers away from him in the sky, and yet it struck him in an instant! With his spear shrouded in his destructive death-like energy, he instantly deflected the lightning as he pierced.

*Rumble!~*

The tribulation clouds seemed to rumble in anger, gathering more of its blue-colored tribulation lightning towards its center as if it was a black hole that attracted and a white hole that spewed out what it gathered.

Davis's expression was ugly even though he defended against the first strike of the heavenly tribulation with ease. He slightly lowered his head and cast a glance at the suffering Tia Alstreim and saw that she had still not awoken. That meant it was not waiting for them to finish the first trial but was planning to finish them off with both trials.

Was a heavenly tribulation supposed to be like that!? It was different from what he read in the myths, that heavenly tribulations were both a rain for disaster and growth!

In this case, it seemed to give him some time before trying to kill them because only ten seconds had passed from the moment he cleared the Heart Demon Trial, while the trajectory of the lightning also seemed to have been targeted at the little Tia, who was slightly away from him!

It had tried to go after Tia right after striving to pierce through him, but fortunately, he had blocked it!

He couldn't understand its intent other than feeling that it was hostile.

'Could it be this is because I specifically interfered, or it doesn't want Tia, no, the person with the Karmic Guardian Physique to survive?'

Fallen Heaven had erased all traces of itself within his soul that even he could not sense it in him other than the mysterious soul connection they shared. However, that was mutual and personal between them, so the heavens shouldn't be likely to be able to find the peculiarity, or so he reflected.

He felt that it was most likely the latter. Otherwise, this kind of hostility from the heavens didn't make sense.

*Boom!~*

Another blue-colored tribulation lightning arc plunged from the heavens! It was a meter wide from the last tribulation lightning.

Davis saw it coming this time as he gritted his teeth while his muscles tightened up. His soul force covering the spear turned into greyish black on top of the earth-attributed armament energy as he slashed in an arc, severing the tribulation lightning that struck with more might than before!

*Bang!~*

The tribulation lightning became severed into two. However, the strand of tribulation lightning got stuck to the black spearhead, but the death-like energy soon devoured it in a second.

In the distance, Mival Silverwind was awestruck as he saw Davis battle it out with the heavenly tribulation. His expression was one of wonder and awe as he didn't think that the person he chose to gamble on would be capable of defending himself against a heavenly tribulation with such ease.

What kind of prowess did he have to achieve this feat? Especially that strange greyish energy at the spearhead. It was utterly ominous as well as equally destructive, obliterating even the tribulation lightning.

'Is it some kind of Greater Law that has unfolded from the sea of Primary Laws of Darkness Laws...?'

He thought but wasn't able to differentiate as he had a feeling that it might be the legendary Death Laws. However, it didn't make sense to him as he was aware that Davis had comprehended the fabled Life Laws.

How under the heavens was it possible for him to comprehend both!?

It was supposed to be like ice and fire as they were two opposites!

He was struck with immense uncertainty and confusion instead of lightning when he suddenly noticed the little girl on the surface had woken up as her eyes went wide.

Davis didn't avert his gaze from the heavenly tribulation as he knew that the interval of the next strike was three seconds that he as pierced the spear again in an arc towards the heavens!

*Bang!~*

The tribulation lightning crashed as the illumination overwhelmed Tia Alstreim as she saw the spectacle. Her thoughts had just become clear from clearing the Heart Demon Tribulation when she suddenly noticed Davis being struck by lightning!

"Big brother!!!"

She screamed as she sat up, her moist eyes still shedding tears as her heart clenched at the sight of him disappearing from her view.