Divine Convenience Store

"Don't be so full of yourselves!" Xiu Jian roared as his shadowy form began to unravel.

The assault began.

However, contrary to his expectation. It was the trifling [Petal-Storm Sovereign] of Jiang Jianxin who moved first.

She took a single, graceful step forward. In that instant, the entire collapsing domain was filled with a blizzard of razor-sharp cherry blossoms. They were manifestations of pure sword intent, each petal a peerless strike.

Xiu Jian scoffed as he erected a wall of shifting shadows before his hand, cutting through the spiritual projection effortlessly.

Jiang Jianxin had to quickly unsummon it to prevent herself from suffering the backlash.

However, using that slight distraction, other spiritual projections surged forward.

The [Azurefrost Dragon] roared, unleashing a torrent of absolute-zero frost that flash-froze the air around Xiu Jian, locking his fluid, shadowy movements in place.

He became a statue of brittle, dark ice. It started cracking right away but it was not enough for him to evade the next one.

The [Crimson-Crowned Emperor] pointed a single, imperious finger.

"Kneel." The command was not a suggestion but more like a law. The divine authority radiating from him targeted Xiu Jian's will, forcing his frozen form to buckle, his knees cracking as they bent against his intent. The ice covering instantly shattered as it showed a desperate red in his pupils. The frozen statue began struggling even further.

Alas, his efforts were once again thwarted.

The [Heavenly Conductress] waved her baton, and the spiritual energy that Xiu Jian was desperately trying to recall to himself was hijacked, twisted into a spiraling cage of light that further bound him.

The [Tidal-Sword Swordmaster] stepped through the storm of petals and frost, his watery blade held ready. He made no sound, his presence as inexorable as a rising tide.

Finally, the empowered Yu Qingmei raised her hands. "Life binds. Life ends."

Vines of pure, vibrant life-wood, glowing with a power she had never before wielded, erupted from the ground. They were not the slow, creeping vines of her usual arts. They were like emerald pythons, lashing out with terrifying speed, wrapping around the frozen, kneeling, and caged form of Sect Master Xiu Jian.

The vines did not crush him. They began to sprout, digging into his shadowy essence to force life into a being of pure shadow. It was a violation of natural law, an agonizing process of forced creation within a being of un-creation.

Xiu Jian let out a final, soul-tearing scream that was half-physical, half-psychic. It was the sound of a being whose very concept was being erased. Slowly, he reformed into his physical manifestation.

And then, the Tidal-Sword Swordmaster's watery blade descended, with a gentle, final push. It passed through Xiu Jian's body, and in its wake, the screaming stopped.

The shadowy specter of the Phantom Mirage Sect Master began to crack like drying clay. Fissures of brilliant green light spread across his body from the sprouting vines.

Then, with a soft, final sigh, his form crumbled into a shower of inert, black dust and vibrant, blooming flowers, which then swiftly withered into nothing.

Silence descended upon the now-stable battlefield.

Xiu Jian's domain was gone, replaced by the mundane reality of the demonic beast caves. All that remained was the faint, lingering scent of cherry blossoms and ozone.

The four divine summons stood for a moment, their purpose served, before they began to fade, dissolving back into motes of light and returning to their masters' Celestial Fields. The four Sect Masters staggered, the immense spiritual drain finally hitting them. They immediately popped [Energy Replenishing Candies] into their mouths.

Yu Qingmei's borrowed power also receded, leaving her breathless but unharmed. She looked at the spot where a Void Refinement expert had just been... deleted.

At this point, two powerful auras emerged from the direction of the other battle. Elder Bing Xin and Liu Tianfeng had arrived. Their own epic clash momentarily paused as they came to investigate the shocking death of a peerless expert.

They arrived at a scene of quiet, exhausted victors standing over the dust of their fallen foe. Elder Bing Xin's icy composure finally cracked as he confirmed it. A bunch of Spirit Severing and Nascent Soul Stage cultivators successfully killed a mid Void Refinement Stage cultivator!

"What is this… How did this happen?"

Liu Tianfeng looked from the exhausted but triumphant faces of his allies to the remnants of a power he couldn't comprehend. He waved his hand, quickly collecting the spatial ring and other artifacts that Xiu Jian left behind before Elder Bing Xin could sweep in to snatch it away.

Then, a slow, awestruck grin spread across his face as he turned to his opponent.

"Now, you see. This is all possible because of the store and the Shopkeeper. Go back to the Western Sacred Lands, Bing Xin and tell your Temple to rethink if they're truly going to make an enemy out of–"

Liu Tianfeng's words were cut off when they all suddenly looked outside, specifically at the sky where the tribulation clouds had finished charging their last bolt.

"What is that…?" Jiang Jianxin muttered. She was so focused on their plan that she didn't notice what was happening outside. But as soon as she recognized that it was coming from Fanling City, she gasped, "The Shopkeeper… is that his tribulation?!"

Her words hung in the air like it was a statement of impossible reality.

A Minor Tribulation to the Foundation Establishment Stage was causing a phenomenon that dwarfed a clash between Void Refinement experts.

Elder Bing Xin stared, her own battle forgotten, her personal animosity replaced by a fundamental, instinctual terror. The heavens themselves were trying to erase this "Shopkeeper" from existence. Why? For what reason? What kind of monster had their Temple provoked?

A sense of dawning horror washed over her. Her senior brother Mu Wuyan's loss… the destroyed heaven-grade artifact… the defeat of a Void Refinement master by a group of juniors… and now this. They were not isolated incidents. They were symptoms. Symptoms of a new, incomprehensible power rising in this backwater domain.

Her gaze snapped back to Liu Tianfeng. His earlier words echoed in her mind.

"Your Temple picked a fight with a god in the making..."

She had dismissed it as arrogant boasting. Now, looking at that celestial lotus of annihilation blooming in the sky, she was no longer so sure.

"Is this the right path, oh great Violet Deity…?" She whispered to the wind, the cold finally seeping not just into her bones, but into her soul.

—

Back in the Divine Arena, Lin Mo looked up at the celestial lotus.

He had just consumed the second and third Soulmend Pills, for his meridians and spiritual sea, repairing the internal damage from the previous assault. He felt better, stronger, his reserves replenished by the Null-Stone's converted energy.

But this... this was different.

He felt like he was staring at the manifestation of the Heavenly Dao itself. The tribulation clouds transformed. Now, each petal of the lotus radiated different sets of laws. The searing law of fire, the crushing law of earth, the cutting law of metal, the drowning law of water, the decaying law of wood. And at its center, a vortex of pure, soul-annihilating lightning.

The five elements, plus the core of judgment. It was a perfect, inescapable attack designed to unmake a being on a fundamental level. Is he still facing his Minor Tribulation?

"Okay," Lin Mo breathed out, his provocative grin finally fading as he clicked his tongue. "Now you're just showing off. Am I the enemy to you? Why not smite those allowing the foreign elements to invade this realm?"