The water in the river suddenly stopped and reversed its flow, sweeping Chen Jing away. He found himself in mid-air, with the river water still beneath his feet, but it was no longer flowing on the ground. Instead, it was swirling in the air. In front of him, a green serpent emerged from the waves, half-hidden in the water and half-exposed above the surface. Its head had short horns, and its eyes shone with a golden light. Its body was covered in scales that shimmered like jade, with golden edges where they overlapped. The serpent seemed to be on the verge of transforming into a dragon.

  Looking back, the river waves rose from below, and the whole wave was like a water dragon that had been practicing on the ground for many years, riding the wind and rain to reach the sky. Its head was already raised, but its body still coiled on the boundless earth.

  This loud dragon's roar awakened countless cultivators in seclusion, who rushed out of their closed quarters and looked up at the sky. They saw a green dragon rising from the waves, rushing against the tide, and above it, dark clouds filled the sky with lightning flashing and thunder booming.

  This is how it looks in the eyes of a cultivator, and in the mortal world, only one sentence was left: "On June 6th, the dragon absorbs water from the northwest, the sky is about to collapse, and the water flows backwards."

  The waters of the Jie River flow backwards, and then rise up again at the foot of Mount Kunlun, like a dragon made of water rising to meet the thunder and lightning, climbing up amidst the wind and clouds.

  The gods cannot fly away in the nine heavens, this is a ban left by the Jade Emperor of Heaven back then. Although the heavenly court does not show the ban today, it has not been eliminated. Chen Jing had tried to fly into the sky twice, but was forced down by the heavenly punishment. What the Dragon King did now was what Chen Jing could not do.

  Soaring through the nine heavens.

  The waves surged, Chen Jing was in the midst of the river waves, together with the many river gods, riding the momentum upwards, none could escape. In Chen Jing's heart, the majesty of the Jiaolong King grew even heavier. Amidst this surging wave that shot up to the sky, Chen Jing suddenly felt his vital energy merging with the river wave, merging with the Jiaolong King. Dazed for a moment, he felt himself transformed into the Jiaolong King, flashes of scenes flickering in his mind.

  "A small water snake, on a dark and windy night, broke out of its shell, and compared to other snakes, it was not special in any way. It struggled to survive, carefully hunting for food, competing with its own kind, fighting with prey, and escaping from the mouths of predators. Chen Jing could feel the anxiety and difficulty of this small snake, that kind of numb and confused struggle to survive in the world, directly imprinted on his heart. Until one day, the water snake swallowed a tempting inner elixir, and after nearly dying, Chen Jing could still feel the pain in the snake's body after swallowing the elixir, that kind of muscle-cramping, bone-piercing pain, Chen Jing felt it as if it were his own."

  It's not just Chen Jing who suddenly had these thoughts in his heart, but every river god wrapped in the waves has this feeling, as if he himself became the Dragon King, experiencing all that.

  "The water snake awakened from then on, slowly embarking on the path of cultivation, experiencing hardships and narrowly escaping death multiple times, diligently cultivating with an extremely slow yet firm speed, growing up to become a renowned spirit in the Jing River. After undergoing many more arduous battles, its mental state transformed, evolving into a Jiaolong, becoming the Dragon King."

  The experience of the Dragon King was etched in Chen Jing's mind, and every time he grew up, his mental state improved and changed clearly. This made Chen Jing feel the journey of the Dragon King's heart. His eyes gazed at the Kunlun Mountains, which rose higher and higher, with increasingly steep terrain. The originally green mountains gradually turned grayish-white, and then snow-white. The mountain was too high, the air was too cold, and there was accumulated snow.

  Looking up, the thunderbolts from the nine heavens came down like sharp swords, striking the Qing Jiao's body. The Qing Jiao didn't care, and instead charged upwards against the thunderbolts. In the midst of the thunderstorm, Chen Jing also felt that destructive aura, as the lightning conducted through the Qing Jiao and split into countless small sparks. Chen Jing once again experienced the power of the thunderbolts. The thunderbolts weren't just striking the Qing Jiao's body; Chen Jing and the other river gods were also suffering from the heavenly punishment, sharing its power.

  Chen Jing once again felt the power of heaven, compared to his first tribulation at Guiyuan, he was more mentally prepared this time, and it could be said that he had more experience in facing it head-on. However, when the thunderbolt struck, he realized that there was no experience that could be spoken of under this heavenly tribulation. The boundless destructive aura could make one's will collapse, and the power of the thunderbolt would crush you into powder at the moment your will collapsed.

  Chen Jing suddenly had an epiphany, the root of this heavenly tribulation was not in the obvious power of thunder, but in that intangible thunder that struck the soul. This is what a true heavenly tribulation is, and why those who pass through it can be like two different people before and after, because their souls have been sublimated. As for the apparent thunder striking the flesh, it has great benefits for the physical body, able to purify and calm it, making the flesh even more pure and tranquil.

  The sky is filled with clouds gathering from all directions, and they are flying rapidly towards the Kunlun Mountains. People on earth do not know that something big is happening between heaven and earth, perhaps a true dragon will appear from now on. They did not know, it was only later when people talked about it, that they suddenly realized, that day had so many things happen.

  Between heaven and earth, there are countless mountains and rivers. On each of the great mountain peaks stood either a demon or a cultivator, quietly gazing at the sky in the direction of Western Kunlun. For them, the Dragon King's move was both expected and unexpected.

  Because many people look up at the seemingly cloudless sky, there is a kind of heavy feeling, whether it's a god or a cultivator. Often, a urge to fly up to the sky and take a look outside the nine heavens will arise in their hearts.

  One hundred years ago, Jiaolong had attempted it once and failed, but survived. One hundred years later, he rose again, determined to ascend to dragonhood.

  On one side, dark clouds were like the sea, but on the other side of the space under the dark clouds was illuminated by lightning, and the head of the green jiao (a mythical creature) charged forward, meeting the densest part of the thunder and lightning. The dense lightning struck his body, conducting through the river gods in the waves.

  Each river god activated all the divine power on their body, extracting the spiritual energy of Jinghe River to protect themselves from being struck into powder by thunder. At this moment, the entire Jinghe River's power merged together under the joint efforts of Jiaolong Wang and the river gods. Jiaolong Wang let out a long roar, his voice echoing for thousands of miles, with the cyan scales on his body exceptionally radiant.

  However, in the eyes of some cultivators with higher attainments, those river gods in the waves appeared in their original form under the lightning for a moment, and were then struck into powder and disappeared in the waves.

  Dozens of river gods followed the green jiao, like fish swimming against the current, rising higher and higher with each wave. The thunder and lightning grew denser, illuminating the transparent waves. One by one, the river gods vanished beneath the thunderbolts. In an instant, dozens of river gods had dwindled to just over ten.

  In Chen Jing's mind, there was only a flash of lightning, and in his ears, the thunderous sound was deafening. Apart from this, there was no other sound. The only thing he could do was to hold on to that one thread of clarity.

  A green dragon roared with thunder, its voice shaking heaven and earth. The wind gathered energy, and the spiritual energy of the Qujiang River surged up from the ground, even causing the seawater at the mouth of the river thousands of miles away to flow backwards into the river. Behind the green dragon, a butterfly followed closely, its pale blue wings fluttering weakly in the waves and flying about in the lightning. This butterfly was originally unremarkable, but when everyone around it transformed back into their true forms and then disappeared in the thunder and lightning, this lone butterfly became noticeable.

  After Chen Jing came out of the underworld, he caused a stir in the Black Night, killing many people. Among them were three famous Taoist and Buddhist disciples from the Black Night State, but very few people knew about Chen Jing. Most of the time, when mentioning Chen Jing, they would say that he was the junior brother of Ye Qingxue, and his reputation was completely overshadowed by Ye Qingxue's later battle at Duanlong Slope. Only a handful of people truly knew about Chen Jing.

  Lightning flashed across the river waves, striking a butterfly that seemed to be on the verge of being blown apart by the strong wind. Yet, after a flash, it remained calm and continued to follow the green snake. Behind the butterfly, a river god transformed into an unknown giant fish, and another bolt of lightning struck, causing the fish's flesh to scatter like dust.

  Everything was so clear and quiet, just a moment's thing, but like a print in the mind.

  "Who is that butterfly?"

  Many people wonder in their hearts, and if there are friends nearby, they will ask aloud, but the other party shakes their head in the same way.

  On a mountain peak near Kunlun, Lidi drank wine alone, looking up at the sky with her head raised. What she saw in her eyes was also the butterfly following Qingxiao's body. She knew who it was, of course. Her eyes were still arrogant, but the momentum emanating from her body seemed to want to rush into the sky and shatter everything amidst the dark clouds.

  There was a place with a denser yin energy, where the virtual spirit stood. Through the flashing lightning in the sky, her body could be seen to have solidified a lot more. Her eyes would never show the kind of arrogance and murderous aura that comes from being detached from the world, but instead had a gaze like that of a young girl, looking at everyone with a mixture of shyness and fear. However, only by carefully observing her would one discover the agility and vigilance in her eyes. No matter who stood beside her, she would always keep a distance of several meters away. Yet, Chen Jing knew that beneath her weak appearance lay an extremely clear and strong heart, one that could distinguish between gratitude and resentment, and advance or retreat with wisdom.

  Under the thunder and lightning, she stood there, looking up at the butterfly in the wind, rain and thunder with an unwavering gaze, murmuring: "If River God died before repaying his debt of gratitude, then Yu Ling would build a monument for River God and worship him every year."