Just One Heavenly Tribulation Away!

Jiao Yao is the 99,999th Heavenly Thunder to start work, and she's nervous on her first day. She just transmigrated here, she's not familiar with the job, and word is that if she fails the assessment, she'll be sent back for reprocessing.

Using her spiritual-energy-density compass, she prepares herself and arrives at the scene early.

Down below, two people are fighting to the death, shaking the heavens and earth. Two of them are locked together, one dressed in black and one in white.

Jiao Yao opens her beginner's manual again. It lists three points:

1. The target of the tribulation is the leader of the righteous path.

2. A sword sovereign of peerless elegance and beauty.

3. Tempers his path through battle and pays no heed to worldly affairs.

Jiao Yao opens her eyes wide, trying to pick out the unlucky soul who should be struck and helped to ascend amid the flying sand.

Both are wielding swords, but the one in white looks better, has a more overbearing hero-like air, a firmer gaze, a straighter stance, and even more tattered clothes. He's clearly poor, just as a sword cultivator should be. It must be him.

Jiao Yao gathers all her strength and sends down a thunderbolt.

In that instant, heaven and earth change. A colossal bolt of lightning tears through the sky and ground, frightening everyone into retreating far away.

She picked the wrong person, and she used too much force, killing him outright.

The other man is a difficult one, too: obsessive, vindictive, and consumed by resentment. His remnant soul throws the cultivation world into chaos, and the Heavenly Dao is on the verge of destruction.

In summary: it's not just a matter of failing the assessment. She's caused a huge disaster.

Jiao Yao is forced to descend to the mortal world. She must return to when Xie Hanzhi was young, guide him to cultivate normally until his tribulation, make up for that thunderbolt so he can ascend successfully, and dispel his resentment!

*

Xie Hanzhi was born with a sword bone and tempers his path through battle. He fights every day, only to be struck dead by lightning in the middle of a fight, dying horribly and full of resentment.

When he opens his eyes again, he is greeted by a smiling face. “Senior Brother, you're awake! Time to practice your sword. You're still 30,345 swings short of your quota for today.”

Xie Hanzhi: “...”

Every day after that:

“Oh, and Senior Brother, I hear Second Senior Brother is about to catch up with your cultivation. Aren't you worried?”

“Senior Brother, Senior Brother, time to cultivate! Just a little more effort and you'll break through! Don't let anyone overtake you!”

Xie Hanzhi sneers inwardly. “Who could possibly out-grind me?!”

#Bonus Scene#

Xie Hanzhi finally reaches the tribulation realm, but then he starts slacking off.

Jiao Yao stays up all night studying three hundred manuals from the Hehuan Sect and decides to send him soaring to immortality in a single night.

Late at night, she gets down to business.

Xie Hanzhi: “...”

That night, he was struck by eighty-one colossal bolts of lightning.

Cover art provided with permission by Shuimo Danqing Yixu.

The premise originated on 2022.4.7. Blurb revised for the second time on 4.21, and for the third time on 2024.7.27.

Theme: Never give up, never abandon anyone