Chapter 290: Jiang Li Strikes

The surrounding people quickly scattered, afraid of getting caught up in the chaos.
Only Senior Sister Wu Lian held tightly onto Yu Feng’s hand, determined to live or die with him.
Yu Feng calmly patted her hand, signaling her not to panic.
“Heavenly Lord, if you kill me, I’ll tell all the mortals the reason why the Nation’s Fortune disappeared.”
“My puppets are spread across the entire continent. The moment I die, they’ll reveal the truth about the Nation’s Fortune and let everyone know its secret.”
Yu Feng was openly threatening the Heavenly Lord. Once mortals learned the secret of the Nation’s Fortune, they would imagine themselves as citizens of the Celestial Dynasty, and by then, the entire population would be forced to cultivate.
What the Heavenly Lord feared most was an increase in the number of cultivators.
The more cultivators there were, the higher the chance another Tribulation Stage would emerge and threaten his rule.
“Then go ahead and spread it. For every one you spread, I’ll kill one. I’d rather never establish the Celestial Dynasty again than let you live to vent my rage!” The Heavenly Lord had gone mad. Ever since reaching the Tribulation Stage, he had never been threatened.
This was the first time—and the last.
He would make an example out of him.
Yu Feng froze. The Heavenly Lord’s reaction was completely different from what he expected. He thought the threat would make him spare his life.
Senior Jiang didn’t give him a follow-up script.
“Senior Jiang, what do I do now?”
“I will kill you today. No one can stop me!”
The Heavenly Lord had never been so furious. The entire Celestial Dynasty could feel his wrath.
The fury of a Tribulation Stage could only be quelled by death.
“Is that so? I’d like to give it a try.”
A calm voice sounded behind Yu Feng. A blurry figure became increasingly clear, its aura rising from weak to incomprehensibly strong—beyond what the Heavenly Lord could measure.
This man’s presence stood in stark contrast to the Heavenly Lord’s rage—upright, calm, warm, vast and boundless. The entire continent trembled, as if celebrating his appearance across the river of time, arriving in this world to save all living beings.
“Who are you?!” the Heavenly Lord roared, but his hand trembled uncontrollably. How could such a terrifying cultivator exist? He had never heard of anyone like this on the Tongu Continent—he couldn’t believe it!
As a Tribulation Stage cultivator, even he was afraid… Immortal, definitely an Immortal!
The man smiled and placed a hand on Yu Feng’s shoulder, speaking lightly, as if it were nothing of importance: “I’m Jiang Li. I’m here to protect him.”
“Senior Jiang? Aren’t you forbidden from interfering directly in our world?” It was Yu Feng’s first time experiencing Senior Jiang’s physical form.
Jiang Li smiled and said, “Just now, the River of Time cleared.”
Yu Feng’s eyes lit up: “Then can you defeat him? What’s your cultivation realm, Tribulation Stage?”
Only now did Yu Feng realize—he had never known Senior Jiang’s realm. He just knew that even Fusion Stage cultivators were respectful to him, and that Tribulation Stage cultivators were his friends. Based on that, Senior Jiang must be a Tribulation Stage too.
Yu Feng boldly guessed that Senior Jiang was a bit stronger than the Heavenly Lord.
“Mahayana Stage.”
Jiang Li named a realm no one had ever heard of, and the Heavenly Lord was no exception.
The Heavenly Lord decided this man was bluffing. River of Time? Mahayana Stage? Strange, unheard-of terms.
The Stairway to Immortality had disappeared, and he’d lived for five thousand years—never had he seen an Immortal. How could one just happen to appear at such a critical moment?
“Putting on airs. Die!” The Heavenly Lord struck decisively, aiming to catch Jiang Li off guard.
He summoned a pitch-black mountain. The moment it appeared, all spiritual energy vanished without a trace. The nearby cultivators were horrified to find they couldn’t summon a shred of spiritual power—their entire reserves were locked inside their bodies, inaccessible.
“That’s the Primordial Magnet Divine Mountain!” The Arhat of Great Freedom recognized the artifact.
“Legend has it, when this appears, no one but its master can use spiritual power.”
“Senior Jiang, be careful…”
Jiang Li remained indifferent. Hands behind his back, he strolled forward leisurely, then casually kicked out—the Primordial Magnet Divine Mountain, along with the Heavenly Lord, went flying. The Heavenly Lord coughed up blood, his internal organs all displaced.
Jiang Li sneered, “That’s all you’ve got?”
“Right, what were you about to say?” he turned to ask Yu Feng.
“Nothing.” Yu Feng shut his mouth.
“Who is this Senior Jiang?” Wu Lian whispered, twisting Yu Feng’s waist. Judging from their conversation, they’d known each other a long time—and he’d never told her!
“Ow ow ow,” Yu Feng acted like he was in pain, “This senior is a secret existence. He’s helped me a lot. He was cut off by the River of Time before and couldn’t act, but now that it’s cleared, he can finally make a move.”
Only now did Yu Feng realize—when Senior Jiang had asked him how long he’d lived in his longest life, he’d been calculating when he could return to the world.
He understood now—Senior Jiang never expected him to succeed in saving a million mortals. He just needed to buy time, to stall until time resumed its normal flow.
“You deserve to die!” The Heavenly Lord, disheveled and covered in dust, had never been so humiliated.
The man before him was too terrifying. He needed to grow stronger—to become as powerful as an Immortal!
The Heavenly Lord stretched out his arms and reversed the Nation-Protecting Grand Formation, turning it into a Devouring Formation. Instantly, the Celestial Dynasty became a deathtrap. Cries echoed across the land. The cultivators acted just like the mortals they mocked for being afraid of death.
They had once killed without hesitation—now, they were the ones being killed.
The Arhat of Great Freedom wrote his final line, then turned into nourishment for the Heavenly Lord.
“First year, first day of the Celestial Dynasty—Celestial Dynasty falls.”
The five million cultivators were completely devoured by the Heavenly Lord. Only Yu Feng and his wife, protected by Jiang Li, and the one million mortals survived.
Jiang Li didn’t intervene with those five million cultivators. He had observed them with divine sense for seven years—not one of them was innocent.
Every cultivator’s hands were stained with mortal blood, including those who claimed to protect mortal kingdoms.
Dark clouds gathered. Thunder rolled. Lightning exploded, roaring like dragons. The Immortal Ascension Tribulation suddenly descended, striking the Heavenly Lord and lighting up the entire continent.
Yu Feng had never seen such an enormous tribulation. He swallowed hard. Was this the moment to become a legendary Immortal? Could Senior Jiang win?
The one million mortals trembled, not daring to lift their heads.
“Having survived the Immortal Ascension Tribulation, I am now like you—an Immortal!” The Heavenly Lord’s eyes blazed, full of vitality. He felt a power far more immense than the Nation’s Fortune surging within him.
So this was what the Immortal Ascension Tribulation felt like—it was so easy.
He felt omnipotent, capable of defeating any foe.
He no longer cared about ruling anyone. Now, he had only one goal—to defeat Jiang Li.
Before the Heavenly Lord’s appearance, other Tribulation Stage cultivators had destroyed records, so he didn’t even know how to transform his body post-tribulation or how to absorb Immortal energy.
He thought he’d already become an Immortal.
Jiang Li gently shook his head: “That was the weakest Immortal Ascension Tribulation I’ve ever seen.”
He turned to Yu Feng: “Remember this—you can’t undergo such a weak tribulation in the future. It’d be too embarrassing.”
Yu Feng nodded, dazed and confused.
“Arrogant fool!” The Heavenly Lord sneered and summoned the Primordial Magnet Divine Mountain again, hurling it at Jiang Li.
This time, its power was vastly different. The mountain tore through space, unleashing void turbulence into the Tongu World. Gales howled, ripping everything apart.
The mountain, refined by the void, turned even darker—like a massive, poisoned weapon. A single touch would be fatal.
Jiang Li no longer held back. Same move as before—another kick. Not only did he touch it, he shattered the mountain completely.
The Heavenly Lord turned pale in terror, his spiritual energy freezing for a moment.
“How is this possible?!”
He unleashed great divine powers, each capable of destroying a chunk of the Tongu Continent.
But before Jiang Li, those divine powers were worthless. Jiang Li didn’t even take his hands out from behind his back—just one kick after another, crushing all the techniques.
Seeing Jiang Li’s kick coming, the Heavenly Lord hastily transformed the Devouring Formation back into the Nation-Protecting Grand Formation, this time shielding only himself.
Layer after layer of energy barriers rose, seemingly indestructible, shielding him.
Just as he began to catch his breath, his prized barriers crumpled like paper before Jiang Li—shattered with a single kick.
“This is impossible!” the Heavenly Lord shouted in disbelief. He had been sure the grand formation could withstand even an Immortal’s attack.
How could someone so absurdly powerful exist!?
Jiang Li kicked his head into pieces, as casually as stepping on a bug.
The Heavenly Lord grew a new head. Jiang Li kicked again.
His Tribulation Stage rebirth trait had become the very source of his torment.
Each time he opened his eyes, a foot came down and crushed him again. He’d lost count of how many times this repeated.
If he weren’t a Tribulation Stage, he would’ve died a hundred times already.
He screamed, begged, threatened—it was all useless. Jiang Li was unmoved.
“Your temperament is far inferior to Yu Feng’s.”
In the end, Jiang Li extracted the Heavenly Lord’s soul, refining it alive, grinding it into dust, dissipating it into the heavens and earth.
The Heavenly Lord’s spiritual energy was also returned to the Tongu World.