Fairy Qingbi stood dazed for a moment before following Xu Ying down the mountain. Xu Ying wore a cold expression, though a fierce struggle still waged in his heart.
He had not wanted to let the Master of Mud Pill Palace go. Had the man fought him to the death, Xu Ying could have struck him down without hesitation. Yet the Master of Mud Pill Palace had offered no resistance whatsoever, making it impossible for him to deliver the fatal blow.
"The Master of Mud Pill Palace truly is an unparalleled genius," Xu Ying suddenly remarked.
Qingbi nodded, walking beside him, and said softly, "He is indeed a prodigy. Many lost techniques and divine abilities could be restored by him after hearing someone describe them just once. Some lost cultivation arts he could reconstruct from mere scattered fragments. Even jade slips and Dao scriptures that no one else could decipher were within his grasp to comprehend. In our era, he was the most dazzling star."
Xu Ying fell silent for a moment before saying, "He is very clever and extraordinarily resourceful."
Qingbi replied, "If he weren't clever and resourceful, he wouldn't have survived until now."
Xu Ying continued, "He eliminated all the anglers and the leek harvesters, which benefits the Yuanshou world. Even though he is an angler himself, doing this turned out to be a good thing."
Qingbi did not quite understand his point and said, "He also brought about the deaths of many people like Zhou Qiyun."
Xu Ying said, "His strength is immense. Having harvested so many experts, his physical body, magic power, divine sense, primordial qi, yin and yang qi, and Primordial Spirit far surpass mine. He also possesses the Jade Pool secret depository's Nuo ancestor cave-heaven. If it truly came down to a fight, I would be no match for him."
He explained to Qingbi, "My greatest reliance is the divine abilities of my first life, my four Nuo ancestor cave-heavens, and my grasp of the Heavenly Dao. But even if I summoned a heavenly tribulation, it would be useless against him. His cultivation and strength far exceed mine; should he resist, even without using a cave-heaven, his cultivation would still surpass mine. As for my first life's divine abilities, the memories of my first life have not awakened; I can only activate those few techniques. Therefore, even if I fought him, I might not be able to defeat him."
Fairy Qingbi said, "He is a genius rarely seen in this world, and having gathered so many Nuo Immortals' immortal herbs into himself, the power of his six secret depositories has indeed reached an unfathomable height."
Xu Ying let out a breath and said, "So, it isn't really that I didn't want to avenge Zhou Qiyun. I was simply powerless to do so."
Fairy Qingbi pondered this and said, "Are you saying this just to give your conscience some comfort?"
Xu Ying was left speechless.
This young woman's mind was far too sharp. Her words often struck right at the heart of the matter, directly piercing through his rationalizations.
Xu Ying stammered, "I just..."
Qingbi smiled. "You were simply moved by him and decided to let him try to see if he could ascend. You also want him to see whether he can change this unjust Heavenly Dao and alter the Immortal Realm. Isn't that right?"
Xu Ying glanced at her and smiled. "Lady Qingbi, have you always understood me so well?"
Qingbi smiled back. It was as if she had set down a heavy burden; no longer agonizing over the Master of Mud Pill Palace's virtue or malice, she became much more cheerful and said, "Naturally. I met you long ago, and I understand you very well."
Xu Ying recalled the various events of the past, thinking of their time together when he was herding sheep at the foot of Mount Jiuyi. He stopped walking and said, "Then back then on this mountain, why did you leave without saying goodbye?"
Qingbi trembled, freezing in place.
Xu Ying said, "My memories have unsealed, and I remember many things. I recall that in several lifetimes, we were almost together. But why did you always leave without a word?"
Qingbi remained silent.
Thunder rumbled across the sky. Those were the tribulation clouds drawn by the Master of Mud Pill Palace; his heavenly tribulation was brewing.
Fairy Qingbi looked back. Lightning flashed through the heavens with a rolling roar. She smiled and said, "You remember it all? You are an ageless immortal—ageless, deathless, imperishable. For any girl to fall in love with you is a sin, bringing suffering upon herself."
She turned her head away and said wistfully, "Youthful beauty fades so easily. While you remain a youth, I will have already become a white-haired old crone. What is more, you will inevitably leave. You will not remember the one who shared your pillow, nor will you remember your shared past."
Xu Ying stepped forward to stand beside her and asked softly, "So staying away is necessarily the right choice?"
Qingbi shook her head. "You are throwing my Dao heart into disarray."
In the sky, the thunderclouds spread wider and wider. The expanse encompassed by this super heavenly tribulation gradually reached into the Hundred Thousand Mountains, expanding outward at breakneck speed.
Qingbi continued walking down the mountain. "Staying away may not be right, but it keeps my Dao heart at peace. Every dozen or so years, you forget everything. I don't want to live that kind of life."
Xu Ying understood her misgivings. Although he had dealt with watchers like Beichenzi, they were merely Qi Refiners tasked with monitoring him. The one governing and dictating his fate was the Immortal Realm. Across forty-eight thousand years of history, had there not been several lifetimes where a powerful Xu Ying still ended up drinking bitterness in defeat?
Who knew if one day Xu Ying would fall again, returning to that cycle of a single decade?
Xu Ying walked down the mountain side by side with her. Toward Qingbi, he always harbored a faint, lingering affection.
"Do you not want the Jade Pool cave-heaven anymore?" Qingbi asked.
"No," Xu Ying said. "I will just cultivate it back in the future."
Xu Ying looked back toward the viewing platform, then decisively resumed his descent. "I really want to see whether he can enter the Immortal Realm. Even more, I want to see if he can stir up a storm there and overturn the injustice dealt to the mortal world."
To accomplish such a monumental feat, how could one lack strength?
That was why he would rather forfeit the Nuo ancestor cave-heaven carried by the Master of Mud Pill Palace.
As they stepped out of this sealed space, Xu Ying offered a jade slip to Qingbi with a smile. "I almost forgot, I should give you a copy as well."
Qingbi accepted the jade slip, gazing deeply into his eyes.
Xu Ying quickly laughed. "Don't misunderstand. I refined many of these jade slips, and I give one out to everyone I meet."
Qingbi chuckled. "I heard about that too. I also heard that you have a big snake by your side who, relying on having cultivated a Nuo ancestor cave-heaven, went around fighting wildly and defeated the leaders of many sects."
As they spoke, the two arrived beneath the parasol divine tree.
Chu Xiangxiang, Bai Qiuzi, and Yuan Qi were waiting there. Seeing the two walk out together, they looked on with mixed shock and suspicion. Chu Xiangxiang and Bai Qiuzi hurriedly slipped behind Xu Ying, stealing glances at the back of his head. Yuan Qi asked anxiously, "Grandmothers, is there a crack?"
Gathering her courage, Chu Xiangxiang stealthily brushed a hand against the nape of Xu Ying's neck and shook her head. "No."
Everyone let out a sigh of relief. The big bell said, "Didn't I say Ah Ying wouldn't be harvested by old devil Qingbi?"
Xu Ying glared at them in exasperation. Looking at Zhou Qiyun's burial mound, he sighed inwardly, had Yuan Qi fetch a few sticks of incense, and personally offered them up.
Yuan Qi whispered hurriedly, "Take a look when he bows his head! If he was harvested, light will shine through the crack!"
Chu Xiangxiang and Bai Qiuzi quietly stood on tiptoe. When Xu Ying bowed his head to offer the incense, they secretly peered over, then shook their heads in turn. Yuan Qi also relaxed.
Fairy Qingbi said, "You didn't avenge Zhou Qiyun, but he wouldn't blame you. It is merely that your conscience cannot forgive yourself, so you need to offer incense to ease the unease in your heart."
Xu Ying nodded gently. "Zhou Qiyun's soul was eaten as well. When he entrusted the task of vengeance to me, his lingering obsession dispersed. Yet I could not fulfill his wish and kill the Master of Mud Pill Palace to avenge him."
Fairy Qingbi could understand the turmoil in his heart and said, "Back then, Zhou Qiyun's death shook you deeply, even shaping your perspective today. But how can everything in life go as one desires?"
Xu Ying turned his gaze toward her, their eyes meeting. Fairy Qingbi hastily looked away.
Chu Xiangxiang watched this, growing suspicious. She thought to herself, *Could this Lady Qingbi be the vixen Zhu Chanchan was talking about?!*
Xu Ying sighed inwardly. Qingbi could always read his thoughts, yet she always kept her distance from him.
The tribulation clouds in the sky had reached a radius of over a thousand li, and the heavenly tribulation finally erupted. Seeing this spectacle, Foolish Ah Fu was deeply agitated, his face sour as he mumbled curses under his breath.
Yuan Qi heard him clearly from nearby. The fool muttered, "These days, one only sees people crossing tribulations, never ascending! Heh, what's the use of crossing a tribulation? Won't someone just replace you from above in the end anyway?"
Right at that moment, an indescribably terrifying power erupted from high above, warping the firmament. Someone was undergoing the tribulation.
Foolish Ah Fu looked up in astonishment. He sensed a cultivation that far surpassed his own. When he had crossed his tribulation in the past, his cultivation had not been the greatest in the world, but it was still extraordinary; he had relied primarily on his Dao methods, divine abilities, and magic treasures to endure the tribulation by sheer force.
That was already a first in tens of thousands of years!
As for Zhou Qiyun, he had essentially abducted a heavenly god to help him endure it; Zhou Qiyun had never truly stood against the heavenly tribulation on his own. As for the Son of Heaven of Zhou, Xu Ying had reduced the tribulation's power by seventy percent beforehand, so that hardly counted as a true crossing either.
Now, at last, someone was confronting a genuine heavenly tribulation with sheer magic power and physical body alone!
"Who is this person?" Ah Fu murmured.
"The Master of Mud Pill Palace," Xu Ying replied.
Foolish Ah Fu froze in shock, then felt a measure of understanding. He nodded gently. "Back when I sought to break the six Nuo ancestors, I approached several anglers to join forces. None dared to accept, except him. In that case, did he harvest the other anglers?"
Though he had lost his mind, he remained brilliant and quickly deduced the truth.
A single angler, even a Nuo ancestor, could never survive the heavenly tribulation. Only by harvesting the other anglers could the Master of Mud Pill Palace amass such boundless magic power, unleashing combat strength that exceeded the heavenly tribulation itself!
"Forty thousand years of accumulated immortal herbs in the Yuanshou world, gathered into a single body—it would be hard not to trigger a tribulation!" Foolish Ah Fu laughed wryly. "What a pity, what a pity. He still won't be able to ascend!" He staggered away.
Xu Ying called out to him with a smile, "Ah Fu, do you want the ancestral method? I prepared a jade slip for you!"
Foolish Ah Fu turned around and caught the jade slip Xu Ying tossed to him. "Even if I have it, I won't cultivate it! If I teach my disciples, I need to study it first..."
Xu Ying smiled. "Indeed. The Nuo methods were destroyed by you, so of course you wouldn't cultivate them."
Foolish Ah Fu huffed, shuffling his shoes as he wandered off.
***
Xianyang.
Zulong had changed into ordinary attire, shedding his former domineering aura in favor of a state of returning to simplicity. In his hand was a jade slip; having already activated its text, he was studying it intently.
This jade slip had been delivered by the sect master of the Qinghe Sect near Xianyang on Xu Ying's behalf. After the Qinghe Sect was challenged and defeated by Yuan Qi, Xu Ying gave the sect master two jade slips, asking him to deliver one to Zulong in Xianyang.
"Had Xu Ying come in person to deliver it, I certainly would not have accepted, nor would I have even spared it a glance. But having someone else send it piqued my curiosity," Zulong sighed. As he examined the ancestral method recorded within the jade slip, he found himself utterly captivated, even feeling the urge to cripple his cultivation and start over with the ancestral method. Now he felt a twinge of regret for having read it.
He had always believed that a pure Qi Refiner, upon cultivating every realm to the absolute pinnacle of perfection, could cross the heavenly tribulation without ever touching Nuo methods. Yet upon reviewing the ancestral method Xu Ying sent, he realized that it could provide an astonishing elevation on top of qi refining, leaving him sorely tempted.
Right then, he felt a sudden stir of perception. Stepping out of his study, he looked toward Mount Jiuyi, his face betraying his shock.
"A complete super heavenly tribulation! Not the diluted tribulation like the one for the Son of Heaven of Zhou!"
Zulong was filled with shock and doubt. "This level of combat power... without borrowing the power of heaven and earth, without taking all living beings hostage, he can actually withstand the heavenly tribulation? What kind of power is this?"
The Master of Mud Pill Palace's tribulation brought him immense shock.
He had seized the Great Zhou's Nine Cauldrons to survey heaven and earth, and when Kunlun emerged, he had forgone fighting over immortal herbs to survey Kunlun instead—all so that every inch of Yuanshou's rivers and mountains could be incorporated into his Dao phenomenon!
When the time came for him to cross his tribulation, he could activate the Nine Cauldrons, merge his Dao phenomenon with Yuanshou, awaken the power of the world, and hold all living beings hostage to face the heavenly tribulation!
He had never imagined that someone could forgo this path of holding all living beings hostage and face the heavenly tribulation head-on solely through his own cultivation and magic power!
"How could I allow myself to be inferior to another? But... but..."
Zulong's face turned somewhat pale. No matter how formidable a Qi Refiner might be, even if they cultivated every single realm to the limit, it would be impossible to possess such monstrous magic power and physical strength, let alone such a Primordial Spirit and divine sense.
"The ancestral method..." He looked back toward the jade slip.
***
The Netherworld, the domain of reincarnation.
The three God Kings—Xuanyu, Xuanchen, and Xuanxing—sensed the aura of the Yuanshou world's heavenly tribulation almost at the exact same moment. Their expressions darkened in unison.
God King Xuanhao cried out in startled delight, "I sensed the aura of the heavenly tribulation! I sensed it!" At that point, seeing that the other three God Kings were remaining silent, he hastily darkened his expression as well and gave a cold snort.
Xuanyu exhaled a turbid breath and said, "The Yuanshou world again! That place is truly lawless. Ever since someone slashed the power of the heavenly tribulation last time, these tribulations keep cropping up one after another!"
Xuanxing, hating evil like a personal enemy, shouted, "That person reduced the tribulation's power the first time and magnified it the second time—he clearly holds our Heavenly Dao world in utter contempt! This time, it must be his doing again!"
Xuanchen quickly said, "Wait a moment, no one is meddling with this heavenly tribulation!"
Xuanyu and Xuanxing both froze and hurriedly focused their senses. God King Xuanhao, whose old injuries had not yet healed, could only sense the tribulation's general presence without discerning the details, leaving him scratching his ears and cheeks in frustration.
The shock on Xuanyu's face deepened by the second. Suddenly, he cried out, "This is bad! This person's strength is unprecedented throughout the ages—he will definitely cross this heavenly tribulation!"
The other God Kings were profoundly shaken and stood up one after another. Xuanxing shouted, "A terrifying entity has emerged in the mortal realm! Fellow kings, once this person survives the heavenly tribulation, he will surely ascend! If he ascends to the upper realm, punishment will definitely come down upon us from above! Are we still going to stay on guard here?"
All four God Kings shuddered.
Xuanyu's expression shifted erratically. Suddenly, he said, "Xuanhao, return to the Heavenly Dao world first to oversee the overall situation. Mobilize the Heavenly Dao divine artifacts—under no circumstances can we let this person survive the tribulation! The rest of you, stay here with me! Wait!"
He added, "Before activating the Heavenly Dao divine artifacts, investigate the background of the person crossing the tribulation. If he happens to be someone connected to an Immortal King or Sovereign, we still need to show leniency where leniency is due."
God King Xuanhao acknowledged the order and immediately took to the air. The sky split open, a pillar of light descended, and God King Xuanhao ascended along the light.
Chapter 312