Ever since the lightning of the Heavenly Tribulation began to fall, it had not ceased for a single moment. Bolts of lightning crashed down one after another, striking ruthlessly upon the spinning Inner Core.
Each bolt was a display of heaven and earth's might, its destructive power terrifying beyond measure.
Every time lightning struck, it carved cracks across the Inner Core. The Shadow Leopard would then channel its demonic power to repair them. If its repair speed could keep pace with the destruction, this ascension would pass smoothly.
Moreover, this cycle of destruction and repair could make the Inner Core stronger, purer, and even allow it to absorb the power of the thunder itself.
Under normal circumstances, a Demon King's breakthrough carried little real risk. Just as an Emperor Sovereign breaking through to the Opening Heaven stage, so long as one's accumulated foundation was sufficient and solid, success was all but guaranteed.
Ever since that Star Realm Lord had passed down the ancient methods of the demon race in the Myriad Demon Realm all those years ago, the Demon Kings of the Myriad Demon Realm had broken through their limits one after another, and not a single one had failed—the only difference was the strength they attained afterward.
But the Shadow Leopard was different. Compared to the demon race's long cultivation lifespans, the time it had spent cultivating was far too short.
In only a few hundred years, it had already reached the pinnacle of the Demon King stage. This was partly due to the enormous number of other demon beasts it had devoured, and it was precisely because of this that it had made enemies of so many Demon Kings.
Setting everything else aside, the Bedrock Snake King's descendants had been eaten by the Shadow Leopard to the tune of nearly half their number—how could the Bedrock Snake King not hate it to the bone?
Growing from a tiny demon beast to the pinnacle of the Demon Kings in just a few hundred years also meant that its power was extremely impure and chaotic.
The Heavenly Tribulation was both a crisis and an opportunity. The fury of those thunderbolts served to purge impurities from the Inner Core and refine its power.
For any other Demon King, such a long tribulation should have ended in success by now. But the Shadow Leopard was still using heaven's might to purify its power. It had long since awakened its spiritual intelligence and knew this opportunity was rare—if it did not take this chance to thoroughly temper its Inner Core, even if it ascended to Demon King, its future prospects would be severely limited.
Bolt after bolt of lightning fell. The cracks on the Inner Core multiplied, pushing it to its absolute limit.
But limits existed only to be surpassed!
The Shadow Leopard had always harbored grand ambitions. It would never be content to merely reign as a king over its small corner of the Myriad Demon Realm. Perhaps this was partly due to its years of contact with Qin Xue—from her, it had learned of the terrifying strength of the human race, those seventh-grade, eighth-grade, and even ninth-grade Opening Heaven cultivators whom even the Demon Emperors could only gaze upon from behind.
The instant Qin Xue turned her head to look, she caught sight of the Inner Core covered in a web of cracks, with arcs of lightning flickering through every fissure.
The way it looked, the Inner Core could shatter at any moment—how could her heart not clench with dread? What worried her even more was that the Shadow Leopard's demonic power was already nearly spent.
Since the tribulation had begun, the towering figure it had maintained was now collapsing downward. Beneath such overwhelming heavenly authority, even the sturdiest spine could be broken.
"Leopard King, that's enough!" Qin Xue cried out in alarm.
If the Shadow Leopard forced the breakthrough right now, it still had a good chance of success. But if it continued to drag things out, the situation would only deteriorate.
"You should worry about yourself first," came the cold voice of the Bedrock Snake King. Its massive jaws opened wide, fangs gleaming with a frigid light.
The storm seemed to intensify even further.
Another bolt of lightning struck, and the Shadow Leopard finally seemed to reach its limit. Its lean, powerful body dropped to one knee on the ground. Its skin split open and blood streamed down, while the Inner Core suspended above its head looked utterly devastated—rays of lightning spurted from every crack.
"Now!"
A low shout erupted. From below the mountain summit, a massive figure suddenly burst forth from the shadows. Its enormous palm, broad as a fan, slammed savagely downward toward the Shadow Leopard's head.
In the flickering afterglow of the lightning, the massive figure was revealed to be an ape covered in white fur, its frame immensely powerful. Most critically, before it had launched its ambush, no one had detected its aura in the slightest—it clearly possessed methods of concealing its presence.
Demonic energy surged through that descending palm. Never mind that the Shadow Leopard was nearly exhausted—even at the peak of its power, a direct hit from such a blow would have left nothing but a corpse.
"White-Haired Ape King!" Qin Xue gasped, her heart sinking like a stone.
Like the Bedrock Snake King, this White-Haired Ape King's territory bordered the Shadow Leopard's. As neighbors, friction between them was inevitable. The Bedrock Snake King's descendants had been devoured in droves by the Shadow Leopard, and the Ape King's offspring had suffered much the same fate.
If the Snake King had revealed itself, how could the Ape King stay hidden?
It had simply been lurking in the shadows all along, more cunning and venomous than the Bedrock Snake King, waiting for the perfect moment. That last bolt of lightning had caused the Shadow Leopard's aura to plunge sharply, and the Ape King had judged the time to strike had come at last.
That enormous palm descended, but the expected scene of a skull shattering and blood spraying never materialized. The great palm passed straight through the Shadow Leopard's head.
In that instant, the Shadow Leopard seemed to exist somewhere between reality and illusion…
"What?!" The White-Haired Ape King's vaguely humanoid face twisted in utter bewilderment. Before it could even begin to understand what had happened, it found itself staring into the Shadow Leopard's deep, amber eyes.
Those eyes were filled with mockery.
Disaster—I've been tricked!
Terror surged through the White-Haired Ape King's heart. Though it didn't understand what technique the Shadow Leopard had just used, the fact that the creature had been concealing it all this time clearly meant it had been saving it for this very moment.
The two Demon Kings stood mere inches apart.