"Fine. It’s here. What do I do now?"

[Relocate immediately. Get away from all human settlements. A Perfection Tribulation is indiscriminate; it will perceive any nearby lifeforms as ’helpers’ and multiply its destructive power ten-fold to ensure total annihilation.]

Shen Yu didn’t give a damn about the lives of the people in the city, but his eyes landed on Yilan, still sleeping deeply, her face soft and vulnerable for the first time in years. If she stayed, she would be vaporized. If he left her behind, she would be defenseless.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed the thick silk blanket, pulled it over her naked body. He threw on his own robes with a blur of motion, his muscles tensing as he prepared for a sprint that would push his Qi-saturated body to its breaking point.

Shen Yu looked down at Yilan one last time. Her face was serene, the color returning to her cheeks as the mended fragments of her Golden Core began to pulse with new life.

He couldn’t take her. If he moved her now, the fragile process of her Core’s restoration might shatter under the strain. And more importantly, if he stayed near her, the Heavens would view her presence as an "interference," drawing a bolt that would incinerate the entire mountain just to ensure he was erased.

"Rest, Yilan," he whispered, his voice lost in the sudden, deafening crack of thunder.

’I’ve already died twice. I’m not about to let a few sparks take me away until I fuck more beauties like you,’ he thought.

With a sudden, violent burst of speed, Shen Yu surged out of the pavilion. He didn’t use the stairs; he vaulted over the balcony, his feet barely touching the jagged rocks as he descended the cliffside like a falling star.

He headed toward the Forest behind this city, a desolate, uninhabited stretch of ancient pines and spiritual dead-zones a few miles from the Peach Blossom City’s borders.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

[The Perfection Stage Tribulation is locking in.]

As he reached a clearing deep within the forest, the trees ignited spontaneously, the air so thick with static that the very grass turned to ash before he could step on it.

Shen Yu skidded to a halt in the center of a natural stone amphitheater, the earth trembling beneath his heels. He tore off his outer robe, baring his chest to the bruised, necrotic sky. His skin shimmered with a silver, translucent luster, the unmistakable mark of a body that had reached the absolute, terrifying peak of mortal perfection.

The clouds above tore open like a jagged, festering wound. A massive vortex of violet energy formed directly overhead, focusing the "Eye of Heaven" upon him. It wasn’t a look of judgment; it was a gaze of pure, celestial hatred.

"Now what?" Shen Yu hissed, his voice strained under the atmospheric pressure.

"I have no artifacts, no protective pills, no spirit-shields. I’m standing here naked against the wrath of the world."

[Do not despair, Host. You are the inheritor of the Primal Desire Immortal, you will not fall so easily. Imparting the hidden extension of the Primordial Yin-Yang Technique: ’The Celestial Devouring Seal’.]

A flood of ancient, forbidden knowledge seared into his mind.

[Recite the mantra and circulate your Qi without interruption. This technique will allow you to force the tribulation’s destructive energy into your meridians, refining the raw lightning into Pure Yang Essence to consolidate your 10th-Stage Foundation.]

Shen Yu understood instantly. He was to turn his own body into a lightning rod, and a furnace. He dropped into a cross-legged position, his fingers forming the complex seals of the technique. Above him, the first bolt of Chaos Lightning groaned, a serpentine roar that shook the very foundations of the mountain.

He remained as still as a mountain, his internal focus absolute as he guided the turbulent Qi through his meridians.

The technique was a razor’s edge, one slip and his meridians would incinerate. Above him, the atmosphere turned into a pressure cooker, the air screaming as the lightning gathered enough overbearing power to crack the world open.

Just as the first bolt began its lethal descent, the final rotation of his first cycle clicked into place.

The result was a spiritual explosion. The Primordial Yin-Yang energy didn’t just settle, it slammed into his Heaven-Seducing Celestial Bloodline. The reaction was chemical, violent, and utterly unprecedented. His passive Heaven’s Charm didn’t just activate; it went into a state of hyper-drive.

Every pore on Shen Yu’s body began to secrete a dense, intoxicating pheromone, a shimmering, rose-gold vapor that didn’t just hang in the air, but began to rewrite the local laws of attraction.

The ambient Qi of the forest went feral. It didn’t just flow; it formed a localized tornado, a howling vortex of spiritual energy with Shen Yu at its eye. He took that chaotic power and funneled it through his meridians with a speed that would have burst a normal cultivator’s heart.

As the pheromone cloud thickened, turning the clearing into a hazy, sensual dreamscape, the very air began to thrum with a needy, desperate resonance, awaiting the touch of the divine thunder.

Then, the heavens struck.

A massive pillar of violet destruction plummeted from the firmament, a spear of divine law intent on erasing the anomaly that was Shen Yu. But as the lightning pierced the dense, shimmering cloud of his pheromones, the impossible happened.

The bolt, a sentient, primal force of universal order, stuttered. Its jagged, lethal edges softened in mid-air, trembling as if struck by a sudden, overwhelming bashfulness.

In a move that defied every sacred law of cultivation, the violet bolt flushed a deep, shimmering pink. It looked less like an executioner’s blade and more like a maiden’s blush.

The lightning, which should have pulverized his bones into ash, draped itself across his broad shoulders with the gentleness of a lover’s embrace.

It began to purr, a low, rhythmic hum of electricity that didn’t sear his flesh, but instead massaged his meridians. It slid into his pores with an obscene tenderness, feeding his 10th-stage foundation as if it were a devoted concubine offering up her life force.

Shen Yu’s eyes snapped open, his jaw dropping as he felt the "Wrath of God" acting as a personal masseuse. The heavenly energy was being fed into his core with such efficiency that his progress bar was practically teleporting toward completion. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"You have got to be kidding me..." he breathed, a mix of sheer disbelief and dark, maniac amusement dancing in his golden eyes.

The vortex above seemed to throb with a celestial, schizophrenic rage. Frustrated by its own betrayal, the "Eye of Heaven" let out a deafening, thunderous roar and unleashed three bolts simultaneously, sharper, faster, and charged with enough voltage to level a continent.

Yet, the moment they breached the pink-tinted haze surrounding Shen Yu, their killing intent evaporated. They transformed into ribbons of warm, rosy light that coiled possessively around his waist and chest, glowing with an enthusiastic devotion as they hammered the final anchors of his Perfection Stage into place.

The system, which had maintained a cold, robotic neutrality since the moment of his rebirth, flickered in a stunned silence. The screen shook, the red warnings fading into a bewildered, static-filled white before a single line of text scrolled across the display in a shaky, uncharacteristic font.

[...Damn!]

[Not even Primal Desire was this much of a badass.]