Divine Convenience Store

Meanwhile, as Lin Mo prepared to face his tribulation, the sky above the northeastern Abyssal Forest remained akin to a battlefield of gods.

Liu Tianfeng, Patriarch of the Liu Clan, moved like a living storm. Every swing of his fist tore through the air with the force of a thunderclap. His lightning-infused spiritual energy gave birth to spells and techniques to clash against the absolute, unyielding violet cold of his opponent.

Opposite him, Elder Bing Xin of the Violethaven Temple looked as though an immaculate monument of violet ice. Her movements were serene, yet each gesture commanded a terrifying power that the space around her couldn't help but crack and form void spots, generating more of her violet qi.

Violet glacial walls erupted from the earth to block Liu Tianfeng's thunderous blows, and lances of soul-freezing ice, each one as sharp as an earth-grade sword, rained down upon him.

The air around her was so cold it seemed to freeze the spiritual and demonic energy in the atmosphere.

As they both expected, their clash ended in a stalemate. A battle between two peak Void Refinement experts was just about outsmarting each other. Unless there was a huge disparity between their foundation or the artifacts they brought with them, they could only injure each other at best.

"You are strong, Liu Tianfeng." Elder Bing Xin's voice was as cold as the ice she wielded. "Stronger than the rumors suggested. But to think you stagnated in this backwater Eastern Abyssal Domain… it's a pity. And it's also a pity you chose to align yourself with a doomed merchant."

Liu Tianfeng let out a booming laugh that scattered the mist created by her ice. "Doomed? Bing Xin, you were still just a little girl when my clan moved out of the Western Sacred Lands. Did you mistake that as us getting exiled? No. It was the supreme divine being advising us to do so. And make no mistake. The storm you brought is merely a spring shower. The Shopkeeper and the Divine Convenience Store's convenience is a force you cannot comprehend. You came here for revenge, but all you will find is your own irrelevance."

He lunged again, his fist becoming a bolt of pure, concentrated lightning. "Tell me, has your 'Violet Deity' taught you how to deal with this?"

Bing Xin's eyes narrowed. She raised a hand, and a massive, multi-layered shield of ethereal, violet-tinged ice materialized before her. Liu Tianfeng's attack slammed into it, the impact sending a shockwave that flattened trees for miles around. The ice shield cracked and fractured, but it held.

"Do not speak of 'His' name so lightly!" Elder Bing Xin angrily retorted, her icy composure finally cracking. Her violet qi surged, the cracks in her shield freezing over as she prepared a devastating counterattack. She was about to unleash a technique that could freeze an entire mountain range, a move that would force even Liu Tianfeng to retreat and reconsider his aggressive approach.

But then, both of them froze.

It was not a product of her technique. It was an instinctual, primal reaction. The kind of absolute stillness that a mortal feels when a god turns its gaze upon them.

Every cultivator at the Void Refinement Stage already had a profound connection to the spiritual firmament. They were one step away from being allowed to understand the laws of nature, and they could now subtly sense the will of Heaven. And right now, the heavens were not just focused. They were furious.

"What... what is this pressure?" Bing Xin whispered, her counterattack dissipating as she involuntarily looked up, her gaze drawn towards the distant southeast, towards Fanling City.

Liu Tianfeng also looked in the same direction, his boisterous confidence replaced by a look of unadulterated disbelief. He knew this pressure. He had felt it before, in ancient texts, in the whispered legends of his ancestors.

Dark clouds, far darker and more oppressive than any natural storm, were gathering over Fanling City. But those weren't just clouds. They were a manifestation of pure, concentrated Heavenly Will. A maelstrom of judgment and a cosmic vortex that seemed intent on erasing something from existence.

"A tribulation?" Bing Xin muttered, her mind struggling to comprehend the scale. "No... this is not a tribulation for a Law Integration expert. This feels... different. It's too focused. Too personal. Too… angry."

She had witnessed the ascension tribulations of her own sect's ancestors, grand and terrifying events that could reshape landscapes. However, this was on an entirely different level. The pressure was so absolute, so suffocating, that it made a Void Refinement expert like her feel like an ant.

Liu Tianfeng's eyes were wide, and for the first time in their battle, he looked genuinely unnerved. "That's… that's the direction of the store."

His mind raced. He knew the Shopkeeper was powerful in his own, strange way. He knew he was backed by divine beings. But he was still just a Spirit Condensation brat. How could he possibly be the target of such an apocalyptic display of heavenly wrath? Could it be Xiaoyu? No, she had already passed her tribulation.

"Impossible..." He breathed. "A Minor Tribulation? For the Foundation Establishment Stage?"

The words, now spoken aloud, sounded absurd even to his own ears. A Minor Tribulation for a junior was a localized, personal affair. It shouldn't be a realm-shaking event that could command the attention of peak experts hundreds of miles away. It shouldn't feel like the heavens themselves were preparing for an execution.

A single name flashed in Liu Tianfeng's mind. Lin Mo. The Divine Convenience Store's Shopkeeper.

It had to be him. No one else could possibly provoke such a furious response from the heavens for a mere Foundation Establishment breakthrough. His granddaughter, Xiaoyu, with her Nine Heavens Exquisite Body, had caused a stir. But this? This was the heavens declaring war.

Elder Bing Xin was reaching the same conclusion as her face twisted with disbelief and dawning horror. "Impossible… No Spirit Condensation cultivator in history could trigger such a phenomenon. Who… what is that Shopkeeper?"

Her question hung in the air, unanswered, as the sky above Fanling City began to change.

Even from a distance, they could see it. The clouds became a swirling vortex of absolute black, fringed with a silver light that seemed to eat the very color from the sky.

Then, the first bolt fell.

It was silent. From their vantage point, it looked like a needle of pure darkness lancing down from the heavens. Liu Tianfeng's experienced eyes saw its true nature immediately. That wasn't a physical attack. It was a bolt of soul-slaying tribulation lightning, a punishment normally reserved for those who cultivated forbidden, soul-devouring arts.

"He's facing a Soul-Annihilation Bolt? For a Minor Tribulation?" Liu Tianfeng's blood ran cold. He had seen that type of lightning once before, when a demonic cultivator had attempted to ascend to the Spirit Severing stage. The bolt had erased the man from existence, leaving not even a wisp of his soul behind.

How could the Shopkeeper possibly survive that?

He watched as his heart pounded in his chest, wrought with a feeling of helplessness he hadn't experienced in centuries.

The bolt struck. There was a faint flicker of pink light, then… nothing. The pressure from the bolt simply… vanished.

Did he survive? How?

Before he could process it, the second bolt formed. A crystalline sphere of pure silver. A Body-Crushing Sphere. Another form of tribulation lightning only seen in major realm breakthroughs, designed to shatter the physical vessel of the cultivator.

"Soul and body… The heavens are trying to erase him from both the physical and spiritual planes," Bing Xin murmured, her voice laced with a fear she couldn't conceal. The Violethaven Temple had sent her here to deal with a troublesome merchant. They had not prepared her to witness a battle against the heavens themselves.

Again, the bolt descended. Again, it struck. And again, inexplicably, its power was neutralized.

Although he couldn't see the interior of the store where Lin Mo was currently receiving his tribulation, Liu Tianfeng could sense the massive wave of pure spiritual energy that erupted from the impact point. It's like the aftershock of a controlled detonation.

Not only had the Shopkeeper survived, but he had somehow absorbed the attack.

"He's using the tribulation as a source of nourishment… Zhenren Taihao… What kind of person did 'He' put to man his store…" Liu Tianfeng's mind reeled.

The audacity and impossibility of the act were beyond comprehension. Does it come from his talent? Or is he operating on a set of rules entirely different from their own? He had no idea.

His initial worry began to transform into a wild, exhilarating excitement.

"Bing Xin," He grinned as his battle spirit surged back with renewed vigor. "Did you see that? That is the man my Liu Clan has chosen to follow! That is the power of true convenience! Granted by the Supreme God of Origin himself!"

Elder Bing Xin flinched and then scowled. Her mission was to deal with the Liu Patriarch and support the Soul Lure Array to annihilate the store.

But the events unfolding in Fanling City had just rendered her entire mission… trivial. What was the point of unleashing a horde of foreign monsters on a man who could eat that kind heavenly tribulation lightning?

Her resolve wavered. For the first time, she truly understood the Grand Elder's humiliation. Not just the loss of a heaven-grade artifact but also the soul-crushing realization that they might be on the wrong side of history…