When Grand Preceptor Jiang Qi arrived at Mount Jiuyi, he saw Xu Ying and Foolish Ah Fu perched upon the parasol divine tree. He was slightly taken aback. "He isn't dead yet?"
Foolish Ah Fu's eyes met his. Where Grand Preceptor Jiang had once seen a wise master holding all knowledge firmly within his grasp, he now saw Ah Fu looking as simple and honest as an ordinary fool.
*That failed ascension was a severe blow to him,* Grand Preceptor Jiang thought silently.
Xu Ying came to his side and smiled. "Grand Preceptor, please return first and tell Ji Man that I am prepared. I am sixty percent confident. Ask him if he is ready."
Grand Preceptor Jiang's mind shook violently. He bowed slightly and turned to leave.
Xu Ying called for Chu Xiangxiang, and the two leisurely took in the sights as they made their slow way toward Haojing. Sitting at the bow of the boat, Chu Xiangxiang sighed, "What a pity that wretched girl Hua Cuoying didn't show up."
She had never forgotten her previous defeat at Hua Cuoying's hands, always brooding over getting even; she held quite a grudge.
Xu Ying's heart stirred slightly. Hua Cuoying hailed from Weixu. Back when Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang cultivated the Yuan Dao Heavens Induction, they had sensed Weixu once before.
At that time, they suspected that Weixu was connected to why Qi Refiners and Nuo masters so easily met their deaths upon entering the Dao. They had thus joined forces to sense the myriad heavens, using them as an anchor to steady their divine consciousness and enter Weixu.
Yet when they descended into the abyss of Weixu, they discovered countless cultivators whose lower halves were turned to flesh and blood, plastered across the cliffs of the abyss!
They had witnessed an even more horrifying sight: the monstrous eye at the end of the abyss, and the immortal corpses floating within it like drowned bodies!
That spectacle was almost identical to the scene where the six Nuo ancestors of Kunlun deceived people into ascension with fake immortal elixirs!
The six Nuo ancestors duped people into ascending, and those ascenders floated in the sky like drowned corpses as well—and the place where they ascended was precisely Weixu, where a monstrous eye filled heaven and earth within the abyss!
Later, when Xu Ying regained his memories of three thousand years ago with the help of Great Emperor Beiyin, he discovered that there had been a catastrophe back then, and its root cause was also Weixu!
The people of Weixu had used the pretext of the Son of Heaven of Zhou stealing immortal medicine to purge the Qi Refiners of the Yuanshou world, causing the decline of the Qi Refiner lineage!
*The Twelve Storied Pavilion magic treasure on Hua Cuoying must have originated from my Twelve Storied Pavilion realm. After Master Ying was defeated, that realm was severed and refined into a magic treasure. In other words, the people of Weixu are definitely connected to Master Ying's defeat on the Heavenly Road back then.*
Xu Ying's eyes flickered. Weixu was utterly bizarre; every major purge was connected to it.
The grand purge three thousand years ago had caused Qi Refiners to vanish and Nuo masters to rise. Though Xu Ying had never seen the full picture, judging by the warped state of heaven and earth, it had clearly been Weixu's doing as well!
*Does Weixu purge the Qi Refiners of heaven and earth time and time again under orders from the Immortal Realm, or do they harbor another ulterior motive? Are those Qi Refiners swallowed by Weixu dead or alive? And what is the truth behind those people plastered against the cliffs of Weixu?*
Xu Ying sighed and thought, *These secrets can only be uncovered through Hua Cuoying. As long as that woman appears again, I must capture her!*
***
In the city of Haojing, the Son of Heaven of Zhou sat upright within a meditation chamber, resting in still contemplation.
He had already been sitting in solitude there for two whole days.
After Grand Preceptor Jiang returned and told him that Xu Ying was fully prepared, he had first rushed to the banks of the Xiang River, craning his neck in eager anticipation, desperate for Xu Ying to return immediately. But soon after, he realized his state of mind was compromised, so he retired to the meditation chamber to steady his composure.
This tribulation transcendence was what he had dreamed of day and night, but the more he yearned for it, the less he could afford a single mistake.
After two days of quiet meditation, he had firmly stabilized his state of mind.
Just then, Grand Preceptor Jiang finally caught sight of a sail appearing upon the waters of the Xiang River. Soon, he saw Xu Ying and Chu Xiangxiang approaching by boat along the riverway between two mountains.
He hurried back to Haojing and knocked on the door of the meditation chamber. "Your Majesty, Fellow Daoist Xu has returned."
Inside the chamber, the Son of Heaven of Zhou slowly stood up. "Wait a moment. I must bathe and burn incense."
Grand Preceptor Jiang waited quietly.
The Son of Heaven of Zhou lit sandalwood incense, shed his garments to free himself of all encumbrances, and slowly submerged into a bath, meticulously washing away every trace of grime from his body.
Once finished, he rose, dressed, and properly straightened his attire before holding three sticks of incense before the offering altar.
Enshrined upon the altar was the Five-Colored Immortal King Banner, radiating beams of brilliant light.
Holding up the incense, the Son of Heaven of Zhou intoned in a clear voice, "Unworthy descendant Ji Man burns incense in prayer: today, Man shall transcend tribulation, following the example of our ancestors, crossing the heavenly tribulation to achieve the Immortal Dao, returning to the Immortal Realm to reign as Immortal King once more, and restoring the glory of our forebears! Ancestors in heaven, grant Man victory from the very start!"
He inserted the incense into the burner, took up the Immortal King Banner, stored it into his Realm of Xiyi, and turned to leave.
Grand Preceptor Jiang Qi bowed hurriedly as he emerged. "Your Majesty, this subject has completed all preparations. Our Great Zhou soldiers stand guard around Haojing, maintaining an ironclad defense against any encroaching fishermen!"
The Son of Heaven of Zhou nodded solemnly and strode outside the city. Great Zhou Qi Refiners had already dismantled many of Haojing's key components.
A long bridge that once spanned the ripples was now consecrated midair; the qilin and flood dragons carved upon it seemed to come alive, the qilin crouching proudly and the flood dragons coiling while soldiers stood stationed on the bridge.
Upturned eaves and pavilions drifted in the sky, Qi Refiners seated along their tiered terraces, their Primordial Spirits presiding within and shedding blinding radiance that illuminated the dark void.
An armory of weapon racks laden with all manner of magic treasures soared into the sky, their fiery glows surging to the heavens.
Square platforms floated high above, casting luminous gleams like hanging seals.
Palaces, multistoried ships, pagodas, rainbows, pavilions, and terraces—all components of Haojing—floated up one after another. Their resplendent gems and treasures beamed straight toward the Dipper and Ox constellations, painting the sky in a riot of color and illuminating even the outer firmament as bright as day!
Such was Haojing. Taken individually, each part was an extraordinary treasure comparable to a sect's grand guardian artifact, each possessing immense power. Yet assembled together, they formed a Haojing that would crumble apart the moment it was fully activated!
The soldiers under the Son of Heaven of Zhou wielded these myriad treasures not to assist his tribulation transcendence, but as a deterrent—
To deter those fishermen and leek reapers!
The people of Haojing had spent three millennia gathering immortal medicine across the three other shores, accumulating the richest stores of immortal herbs; each was a walking humanoid grand medicine. Even having cultivated to the Ascension stage, they could not fully refine the medicine within them and still harbored immense reserves.
How were the likes of the Son of Heaven of Zhou to be harvested? Without question, harvesting them while they underwent tribulation was the most convenient and risk-free method.
By this time, Xu Ying had stepped onto the riverbank. He called to Zhu Chanchan, who was dismantling Feilai Peak, "Chanchan, your junior brother might come here this time to harvest the Son of Heaven of Zhou."
Zhu Chanchan was shaken. "My junior brother is still alive?"
"Alive. Over the past three thousand years, he has evaded many great tribulations, harvesting others with practiced ease. His strength ranks among the very best of the fishermen. He truly lives up to being your junior brother."
Unclear whether he was praising or mocking, Xu Ying smiled and continued, "He wears a bamboo hat, travels in a small boat, and carries a fishing rod. He harbors deep hatred for you and the Son of Heaven of Zhou. Others seeing such an array might not dare come, but he definitely will—to take your head."
Zhu Chanchan nodded silently.
Xu Ying arrived at the center of Haojing, where the Ascending Immortal Platform stood. The Son of Heaven of Zhou was already waiting quietly atop it.
Grand Preceptor Jiang Qi stood by, holding the Tianzhu Sword in both hands.
Xu Ying stepped onto the Ascending Immortal Platform and said, "Brother Ji, if you are ready, I shall trigger your tribulation."
The Son of Heaven of Zhou said in a deep voice, "Qi Refiner Ji Man is prepared!"
No sooner had his words landed than a premonition surged in his heart. Looking up, he saw the heavenly thunder tribulation already gathering in the sky.
Thunderclouds rolled in, the power of the Heavenly Dao surging from another spacetime, growing heavier and more oppressive by the moment.
The tribulation cloud rotated slowly, its expanse spreading wider until it stretched over a thousand li away.
The rising wind presaged a brewing storm; dark clouds weighed down as if to crush the city!
Confronted by such a tribulation cloud, every soldier grew tense. They looked up to see black clouds blotting out the sun, fierce gales howling and swirling beneath them, turning the thunderclouds into a gigantic vortex!
The tribulation of the Son of Heaven of Zhou had been triggered by Xu Ying!
Faced with this tribulation, even Great Zhou's Qi Refiners—the pinnacle powerhouses of the world—could not help feeling utterly powerless to resist.
Anyone facing a super heavenly tribulation spanning a thousand li would feel the same.
The rotating tribulation cloud gradually reached Mount Jiuyi. Foolish Ah Fu sat up and gazed at the dense black clouds, watching lightning dart through the cloud bank, exploding from one node to another like a towering giant splashing ink at will.
"It has begun," Foolish Ah Fu muttered softly. "Can he truly control sixty percent of the heavenly tribulation?"
Farther away, a towering figure suddenly descended from the sky, landing atop a mountain peak to gaze toward the roiling tribulation clouds over the Xiang River.
The giant was none other than the Master of Mud Pill Palace. Looking at the tribulation clouds, he was puzzled. "Right near Mount Jiuyi. Last time, Zhou Qiyun also underwent tribulation here..."
Suddenly, sensing something, he turned his head to look. A small boat like a willow leaf was drifting through the sky, sailing steadily beneath the tribulation clouds.
"Why is he in such a hurry this time?"
The Master of Mud Pill Palace was slightly startled, finding it baffling. "He has always been even more cautious than I am, yet this time he doesn't hesitate to step into the range of the tribulation clouds. Could there be a crop he planted here?"
Just then, a sudden realization struck him, and he looked up toward the cloud layer, his face flickering between shock and doubt.
Within those thousand-li tribulation clouds, thick and heavy as a millstone, lightning darted and crackled like the veins of a leaf, branching out in every direction through the clouds!
Thunderbolts typically struck toward the ground, with a rare few arcing from ground to sky; yet these bolts detonated and spread solely within the clouds, expanding like living brushstrokes.
Shock broke across the face of the Master of Mud Pill Palace, and he murmured, "This... this is impossible!"
At that moment, above Haojing, Great Zhou Qi Refiners presiding over each great treasure looked up into the sky in confusion.
The outer god Chongxiao also gazed upward, staring blankly at the sky as he whispered, "His attainment in the Heavenly Dao already surpasses mine. These are the methods of a God King!"
Chu Xiangxiang was looking up at the sky too, her eyes misty, watching the patterns traced by lightning within the clouds in a daze. She thought, *Should I let him write runes on my body? His attainment is so high, nothing will go wrong... but putting his hands all over a girl...*
Within the tribulation clouds, thunder and lightning clashed. Lightning exploded in the air and crackled wildly, forming a Heavenly Dao rune hundreds of acres across!
The rune was forged from the energy of heavenly lightning, blindingly bright, radiating immense heavenly majesty.
*Boom!*
Another heavenly thunderclap echoed in the tribulation clouds. Amidst the roaring thunder and sizzling arcs of electricity, vast reserves of heavenly lightning energy were linked together, giving rise to more Heavenly Dao runes nearby!
*Boom! Boom!*
Thunder repeatedly exploded across the clouds, sparks shooting in all directions, gradually forming one thousand four hundred Heavenly Dao runes across the sky!
These runes, the smallest spanning hundreds of acres and the largest over a hundred qing, hung brilliant and dazzling within the tribulation clouds, drawing upon their energy.
Earlier, when the tribulation cloud had formed with a radius of a thousand li, it had blotted out the sun and plunged the world into darkness. But now, with brilliant Heavenly Dao runes covering the thousand-li cloud bank, the realm beneath became incandescently bright, bathed in celestial radiance.
Just at that moment, a diminutive figure slowly rose. Amidst the lightning and thunder, his form appeared minuscule, yet he climbed higher and higher.
That figure was Xu Ying.
Reaching roughly the same height as the tribulation clouds, Xu Ying raised his right hand and reached back to grasp. The tribulation clouds moved with his pull; the clouds filled with Heavenly Dao runes formed an enormous cloak draped over his shoulders.
The Heavenly Dao cloak was narrow in front and broadened outward behind, obscuring everyone's view, billowing violently like the vault of heaven!
Xu Ying descended slowly from the sky, the Heavenly Dao cloak snapping loudly behind him, shrinking continuously as it fluttered.
Simultaneously, the tribulation clouds of the Son of Heaven of Zhou in the sky were rapidly shrinking!
As Xu Ying drifted downward, the energy of the heavenly tribulation poured at breakneck speed into the Heavenly Dao cloak draped across his shoulders. The thousand-li tribulation cloud swirled furiously, funneling rolling waves of energy into the cloak!
At the center of the vortex, that energy actually coalesced into a torrent of light several li thick, pouring downward with roaring thunder and dazzling arcs!
In mere moments, the radius of the heavenly tribulation cloud shrank from over a thousand li to nine hundred li!
As Xu Ying continued to descend, the radius kept shrinking, soon reaching eight hundred li.
By the time Xu Ying landed upon the Ascending Immortal Platform in Haojing, the roiling tribulation cloud in the sky had a radius of only around seven hundred and fifty li!
The tribulation cloud remained a terrifying thousand-li-class tribulation, but it could no longer be spoken of in the same breath as a super heavenly tribulation!
The power of the tribulation had shrunk by more than half!
***
In the Netherworld, at the realm of reincarnation.
The Four God Kings—Xuanhao, Xuanyu, Xuanchen, and Xuanxing—suddenly felt a simultaneous tug of premonition. Xuanxing said in surprise, "Someone is undergoing tribulation!"
The other God Kings also sensed someone facing heavenly tribulation. Xuanyu said, "Anyone who dares undergo tribulation at a time like this is just a Qi Refiner with little lifespan remaining making a final gamble before death. There is no need to pay mind... Wait! Did you feel that?"
Xuanchen and Xuanxing's expressions also shifted drastically. Nodding together, they said gravely, "We felt it!"
"What did you feel?" God King Xuanhao quickly asked. Having been severely wounded by Great Emperor Cangwu and Xu Ying in succession, his injuries had yet to heal, leaving his cultivation far diminished and his senses duller than before.
Xuanyu's face was painted with shock and dread as he blurted, "The tribulation of the one undergoing it has suddenly lost more than half its power!"
Xuanchen hurriedly waved his hand, arranging the stars in the sky to calculate at swift speed. "Seventy percent of this person's tribulation power has vanished! The divine artifacts of the Heavenly Dao world govern the heavenly tribulations. There are three thousand Heavenly Dao runes upon the artifacts in total, and the power of one thousand four hundred Heavenly Dao runes has disappeared!"
His expression darkened. "This means someone's comprehension of the Heavenly Dao surpasses the Heavenly Dao divine artifacts, allowing them to strip away the artifact's power to deliver tribulation!"
God King Xuanhao asked in confusion, "Even so, that should only be sixty percent; why did the tribulation's power drop by seventy percent?"
Xuanyu sighed. "That only proves the person stripping the tribulation's power has mastered the Heavenly Dao to such an exquisite and profound degree that their power invaded the tribulation's excess energy, siphoning away the extra ten percent as well."
The other three God Kings took a sharp breath. Xuanhao muttered, "Could some immortal have pulled strings through the back door to arrange for their scion's ascension?"
When the scions of powerful and influential immortals in the Immortal Realm faced ascension, they often went to the Thunder and Fire Ministry of Works to offer bribes. The immortal officials of the ministry would then instruct the Four God Kings to secretly go easy, reducing the tribulation's ferocity so the immortal's offspring could smoothly survive and ascend.
Such occurrences were hardly uncommon.
God King Xuanyu shook his head. "No. There is no one left in the Heavenly Realm, and the high immortals of the Thunder and Fire Ministry of Works have vanished without a trace. With them gone, who could arrange for anyone to go easy?"
The God Kings exchanged glances.
God King Xuanxing asked, "Should we intervene? If we rush over now, there is still time."
Xuanhao hesitated, then shook his head. "Reincarnation takes priority. The remaining thirty percent of tribulation might is already enough to slay the vast majority of Ascension-stage Qi Refiners, and even if that person successfully survives the tribulation, he still will not be able to ascend. But the wild god in reincarnation cannot suffer the slightest loss!"
He paused, then added, "If He is revived, heaven will truly change for the upper realm!"
***
Xu Ying strode forward, the cloak fluttering behind him to the rumble of thunder. Coming before the Son of Heaven of Zhou, he smiled. "Brother Ji, Ying has fortunately fulfilled the mission."
The Son of Heaven of Zhou bowed in salute. "My gratitude, Brother Xu. Brother Xu, please step down to rest. Leave the rest to Ji Man."
He looked up toward the heavenly tribulation. At this moment, the tribulation clouds were still grand and magnificent, the Heavenly Dao majesty still shaking heaven and earth. Such a tribulation was still capable of stripping the flesh and breaking the soul of an Ascension-stage Qi Refiner, blasting a thousand years of cultivation into dust!
Yet to the Son of Heaven of Zhou, this heavenly tribulation was no longer insurmountable!
Chapter 300