Dark clouds gathered as the sky dimmed oppressively, casting a looming shadow of darkness and narrowing everyone's vision.
Sensing the abrupt shift in the atmosphere, laden with the suffocating weight of divine power, left little room for doubt—something significant had happened.
All eyes turned toward the so-called sinner—the Human Great Emperor—who was still chuckling lightly, while the distant horizon grew ever more solemn and threatening. The oppressive pressure thickened with each passing second, and it became clear to nearly everyone: something must have transpired between the Divine Punishment Immortal and the Human Great Emperor—and that exchange had clearly enraged the Immortal.
Thinking of taking advantage of this moment as well as hoping to gain the favor of the Divine Punishment Immortal—one of the Immortals seated upon his lofty throne bellowed harshly at the young emperor:
"Human Great Emperor! How dare you insult the revered Divine Punishment Immortal? Do you believe that standing at death's door gives you the right to act without any consequences? The Heaven's Great Will can shackle you and cast you into eternal torment so excruciating that you'll find yourself begging for a swift death. Do not overstep your bounds, mortal!"
As his heavy voice resonated through the windy and dark atmosphere, the young Emperor merely took a glance towards the direction from which the voice came and coldly snorted.
"Why concern yourself with the Heaven's Great Will," he said, his tone laced with scorn, "When you are nothing but a mere Dog?"
The Human Great Emperor's voice carried immense hatred and contempt—directed squarely at the Immortals, those self-proclaimed emissaries of the Heavens, always acting high and mighty, demanding reverence from all beneath them.
Such insolence would never go unpunished as the Immortal, who had just been insulted by the Human Great Emperor abruptly rose from his divine throne, his eyes burning with immense fury.
Without a word, he summoned his Immortal Weapon—a Semi-Divine Rank Artifact pulsing with boundless might, to strike down the defiant ant who dared to offend him in front of everyone.
The void trembled as the Immortal Weapon appeared in his grasp, radiating overwhelming might, drawing the attention of all present in the Council.
As the Immortal raised his hand high to hurl his weapon in the direction of the platform where the Human Great Emperor knelt and bounded in the unbreakable chains, a sudden flash of lightning split the heavens.
As the lightning flashed, the lofty and arrogant countenance of the poised Immortal changed abruptly. The tremendously powerful lightning bolt was descending—not toward the insolent ant who had dared to offend an Immortal in the very Council of Immortals—but toward the Immortal himself. Bewilderment rippled through the onlookers, including the Immortal at the heart of it all.
The Immortal who was targeted, wanted to protest—wanted to question the Divine Punishment Immortal for such a shocking act—but there was no time. He couldn't even cast a glance at the distant horizon as the descending lightning bolt was nearly upon him within moments, let alone raise a word of protest.
In a last-ditch effort, all could he do was to mobilize his Immortal Weapon, pouring all his might into it in hopes of stopping or at least deflecting the bolt from striking him down.
With a mighty cry, as the Immortal hurled his weapon skyward, the descending Heavenly Thunder met it head-on—obliterating it in an instant without even faltering in its path. The bolt continued unhindered and struck the Immortal with divine fury.
Everything happened so fast, almost no one could make out what had truly occurred.
BOOM!
A massive shock-wave tore through the council arena, shattering several illusory buildings and platforms around. The Immortal was blasted from his perch and crashed unceremoniously to the distant floor, landing upside down in a thoroughly comical fashion.
The Human Great Emperor, who had witnessed the entire spectacle, could barely contain his laughter—even though he knew he himself was in a rather precarious situation.
The Immortal struggled to get up on his feet, blood spurting from his mouth and several other wounds as he desperately tried to stabilize his condition using his cultivation technique.
Though wronged and publicly humiliated without just cause, the Immortal remained silent. He merely glared toward the distant horizon, swallowing his fury. Despite the terrifying appearance of the lightning strike, he had recognized that its power was actually weak and unstable. The Divine Punishment Immortal clearly intended only to teach him a minor lesson, not to cause any lasting harm.
And so, he held his tongue and continued to circulate his cultivation technique in an effort to heal his injuries. Yet, from time to time, his gaze flickered towards the platform where the Human Great Emperor was—burning with barely restrained fury, his grudge etched clearly in his eyes.
Bound by chains on his own platform, the Human Great Emperor also took note of the murderous intent rising from the battered Immortal and pointing towards him. Yet, he remained calm. Under the wrathful gaze of the Divine Punishment Immortal, even if all of the present Immortals here turned on him—intent on tearing him apart—they wouldn't dare to do so.
Ignoring the self-proclaimed emissaries and saviors of the world, his gaze drifted toward the distant horizon. There, a lightning storm churned, vast and terrible, enough to make even Higher Order Divine beings tremble in trepidation.
The Human Great Emperor understood—the matter was far from over. That Immortal from before had been punished only mildly, a warning for meddling in a matter where he didn't belong. Knowing the Divine Punishment Immortal's temperament, the Human Great Emperor grasped the deeper meaning: she wished to settle the score personally. Thus, she restrained others from interfering, following the philosophy of beating a dog to warn the pack.
He glanced again at the sky, which was gradually shifting from a brooding grey to a brilliant, dark-yellow hue. The intensity of the storm deepened, and even the Emperor swallowed hard.
He wasn't an ignorant fool who didn't know what was happening in the background and as he understood what the Divine Punishment Immortal was trying to do, even he was taken aback for a moment.
"The Chaos Heavenly Tribulations... shit."
Tremendous pressure bore down on him. This was no longer the Myriad Heavenly Tribulations.
Enraged by his provocation, that mad woman had sacrificed her own cultivation to elevate the storm and under her ministrations, from the depths of the tempest, the Chaos Heavenly Tribulation Lightning had been born.
"This mad woman's too wild for my liking," he muttered under his trembling breath. "And that bastard Dragon...he's screwed me over."
Even though the Human Great Emperor joked in that moment, his mind was in turmoil. Unrest and chaos churned within as his gaze remained fixed on the distant horizon, eyes solemn and clouded with unease.
"How the hell does she even possess a strand of the Chaos Heavenly Lightning? And how has she hidden it all these years—from the world and most importantly from those mighty Divine beings themselves?"
The Human Great Emperor cursed inwardly as the grim situation unfolded before his eyes. Over the years, in their long war against the Heavens and the aloof Immortals, he and his comrades had painstakingly gathered nearly all known—and even many unknown—pieces of intelligence. With that knowledge, they had managed to bring down several Immortals successfully, without much loss in their side. Among their deepest concerns was the Divine Punishment Immortal, the terrifying enforcer of the High Heavens' will.
This was not the first time a rebel from the Human race or any other races had been struck down by the divine lightning from the High Heavens above—and each time, it was under the Decree of the Divine Punishment Immortal, who descended from the Heavens above, only to enforce the rules of the Heavens.
With all their hard-won intelligence, they had finally come to understand one horrifying truth: defeating the Divine Punishment Immortal was nearly impossible. Her true body had never once descended into the Lower Heavens, and what appeared every time here was merely a projection, containing only a single strand of her divine soul. And yet, even this wisp of her essence radiated such overwhelming might that it could obliterate all these gathered Immortal Emissaries with ease.
Such was the terrifying might of a Higher Order Divine Being!
Worse still, even if they somehow managed to destroy that projection of the Divine Punishment Immortal to save their comrades—at a great and terrible cost—it would only spell greater doom for them. That divine soul fragment inside her projection that descended in the Lower Heavens acted as a conduit, capable of transmitting everything that occurred in the Lower Heavens directly to the High Heavens, where she actually resided.
Thus, destroying her projection in this Lower Heavens, where the Higher Order Divine beings had never descended before in their True-Forms—would be nothing short of declaring war between the Lower Heavens and the High Heavens. A war neither they could afford, nor they could win. The Human Great Emperor, one of the most powerful beings among the Human Race and the the Current Leader of the Crusade against the Immortals, knew all too well: not even he could survive a single blow from those lofty, Higher Order Divine beings from the Heavens above.