Rejected By The Sect, Claimed By The Immortal Jade

Chapter 5: Foundation Tribulation

The clouds above Su Qingxue's courtyard turned black.

Not rain clouds. Tribulation clouds.

Every disciple in the Profound Sword Sect looked up. Foundation Establishment Tribulation — it only happened when an outer disciple broke through to become an inner disciple. But this tribulation... was wrong.

It was scarlet and black-gold, swirling like a vortex, with a tiger's roar inside the thunder.

"He is breaking through! Now! Stop him! If he reaches Foundation, his devouring art will be ten times harder to control!" Elder Mo roared.

He didn't wait. He threw a palm from his flying sword.

Golden Core Peak. One palm was enough to turn a whole outer courtyard to dust.

Su Qingxue screamed and threw her broken sword up, trying to block it for Ye Fan and Ye Ling, even though she knew she would die.

The palm never hit her.

Ye Fan stepped in front of them.

He didn't block. He opened his arms to the sky and to the palm at the same time.

"Heaven-Swallowing Art ... Second Form ... Heaven Devours!"

The Devouring Root behind him expanded from nine swirls to eighteen. The tribulation clouds above, the Golden Core palm, and even the spiritual Qi from the entire mountain — all of it was sucked into him.

BOOM!

Elder Mo's palm, which could kill a Foundation Peak cultivator, was swallowed. But not without price.

Puff!

Ye Fan spat out a mouthful of golden blood. His newly reformed meridians shattered again. His left arm hung limp, bones broken. The jade around his neck burned, another year of life eaten. Eight years total now.

He was bleeding from every pore, but he was laughing.

"Hahaha! Is that all a Golden Core Peak has?! You killed my whole family with this?!"

Elder Mo's face twisted. His attack had been devoured. This was a demonic art he had only read about in ancient forbidden scrolls — the art that even the Heavenly Dao feared.

"You demon! You are a demon! All disciples, listen! Ye Fan is possessed by a demon! Kill him and his demon sister!"

He was shouting to cover his fear. He had to kill Ye Fan before the Sect Master arrived. Because if the Sect Master knew the jade had awakened, the jade would not be his.

The two remaining Foundation enforcers charged, their swords glowing.

Ye Fan didn't look at them. He looked up at the tribulation clouds that were now directly above his head.

The first heavenly lightning — scarlet, thick as an arm , struck down.

Everyone thought he would dodge.

He jumped INTO it.

"WHAT IS HE DOING?!" Su Qingxue screamed.

Lightning tribulation was meant to be endured, not devoured. No one in 1000 years of the Profound Sword Sect had ever dared to devour heavenly lightning.

Ye Fan opened his mouth and swallowed the lightning bolt whole.

Inside his dantian, chaos exploded. The Tiger King's beast core, the enforcer's cultivation, Elder Mo's Golden Core palm, and now heavenly lightning — four violent powers rampaged inside his tiny Qi Condensation body.

His Devouring Root spun crazily, trying to refine them all. His body cracked like porcelain, golden-black lines spreading from his neck to his face.

"Boy, you will explode! Refine the tiger first! The tiger!" Lingxiao roared, but for the first time, his voice had a hint of admiration. "You are crazier than I was!"

Ye Fan knelt, his teeth shattered from clenching. Ye Ling was crying silently, hugging his leg, trying to give him her pure Ye bloodline power to help him.

That pure silver bloodline flowed into him.

It was the key.

The four violent powers suddenly calmed, as if meeting their emperor. The pure Ye Clan Divine Blood was the bloodline of an ancient Immortal Clan that once controlled the Devouring Root.

BOOM!

A pillar of black-gold light shot up from Ye Fan into the tribulation clouds, shattering them.

The clouds scattered.

In the center of the courtyard, where Ye Fan knelt, there was now a young man standing.

His ragged outer disciple robe had been burned away, replaced by a black-gold robe formed from devoured spiritual Qi. His white-streaked hair fluttered. His mismatched gold and black eyes glowed. Behind him, faintly, a scarlet tiger phantom and a lightning dragon coiled around each other.

Foundation Establishment ... Early Stage!

He had broken through in the middle of battle, devouring a Golden Core attack and a heavenly tribulation.

The two Foundation enforcers who had charged stopped mid-air, their faces white as paper. They felt their own Foundation cultivation trembling, wanting to be sucked out of their bodies.

Elder Mo finally landed, his face no longer kind. It was twisted, greedy, and afraid.

"Foundation... you actually reached Foundation... good... good! Your root is now stable! I can transplant it back!"

He revealed his true form. His purple Grand Elder robe ripped, revealing arms covered in blood runes — demonic runes he had used to massacre the Ye Clan.

"I killed your father with these hands, Ye Fan! I dug out your root with these hands! And tonight I will dig out your new one and your sister's blood!"

He attacked. Golden Core Peak  no longer holding back. The entire courtyard's tiles lifted, the air turned to liquid gold.

Ye Fan pushed Ye Ling and Su Qingxue behind him and met him head-on.

Foundation Early vs Golden Core Peak. A whole major realm and a half difference. In any normal world, Foundation would be killed with one finger.

But this was not a normal Foundation.

Ye Fan's fist, wrapped in devoured heavenly lightning and tiger flame, collided with Elder Mo's blood-rune palm.

BOOM!!!

The shockwave flattened three courtyards. Su Qingxue and Ye Ling were thrown back, protected by Su Qingxue's last defensive talisman.

Ye Fan flew back 20 meters, smashing through a wall, his new Foundation aura dimming. Blood poured from his mouth. His right arm was broken now too. He had paid another year — nine years of life gone.

But Elder Mo ... the Golden Core Peak Grand Elder ..

He also took three steps back. His blood runes cracked.

He looked at his own hand, shocked. A Foundation Early had pushed him back.

"You... what kind of monster are you?!"

Ye Fan wiped the blood and stood up from the rubble, holding his broken arms with sheer will. His Devouring Root was screaming with hunger. It wanted Golden Core cultivation. It wanted Elder Mo.

"I'm not a monster," Ye Fan said, his voice hoarse, looking at Elder Mo and then past him, towards the highest peak of the sect where a pair of cold eyes had been watching the whole fight from the darkness. "I'm the debt collector my family sent back."

He knew Elder Mo was not the final boss. The real mastermind was watching.

Elder Mo laughed crazily and charged again, his blood runes burning.

And from the highest peak, a cold, indifferent voice finally spoke, echoing across the entire sect:

"Mo Qianji. Enough. Bring the boy to the Heavenly Punishment Hall. The Sect Master wants to see his new... root."

Elder Mo froze mid-charge.

Ye Fan froze too.

The Sect Master. The man who ordered his family's massacre. He was finally making his move.

Behind him, Ye Ling silently tugged his robe, her small hand writing on his back with her finger, over and over:

Don't go. Don't go. Don't go.