Losing Face

"Senior Brother, the power of those moves of yours was truly formidable." Li Haoran slowly re-inflated from his flame form, returning to his original appearance. He knew that Senior Brother Lu Yang had pulled his strikes at the final moment; otherwise, he would have ended up either dead or severely wounded. Li Haoran remembered that during their journey to the East Sea, the gap between him and Senior Brother Lu Yang had not been this vast. How had it widened so dramatically when they clashed in earnest this time? During the battle, he had unleashed several techniques, thinking that even if he could not defeat Senior Brother Lu Yang, he could at least force him into a bitter struggle. Yet the reality was the exact opposite: all of those moves had been violently shattered by Senior Brother Lu Yang. Lu Yang exhaled slowly, as if reminiscing over everything he had been through along the way, and remarked with deep feeling, "My Nascent Soul is finally obedient." All the torment he had suffered at the hands of the Invincible Nascent Soul had not been in vain. Now he was finally reaping the rewards. Doubling the power of every technique felt utterly exhilarating. Li Haoran: "..." So your Nascent Soul has been out of control this whole time, Senior Brother? "Junior Brother Li, you did very well too. If it were any other Nascent Soul cultivator, they wouldn't have lasted two moves against you." Lu Yang was not merely flattering him; he spoke the truth. Li Haoran shook his head with a wry smile. "Compared to you, Senior Brother, I'm still far behind." Once the battle ended, the two cast the Tree Planting Art, shifted boulders, and rerouted streams, restoring the devastated mountain forest to its original state before leaving the scene. *** Returning to Tianmen Peak, Lu Yang found Eldest Senior Sister seated upon the imperial chair, with a sheet of paper spread across the table before her. Curious, Lu Yang walked over and saw that it was a celestial chart filled with stars. From time to time, Eldest Senior Sister would draw a circle around one of them. "Eldest Senior Sister, are you studying astrology?" "No, I am marking my Golden Cores." Yun Zhi looked up, scrutinized Lu Yang, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly upward before quickly flattening out. "You have finally conquered your Nascent Soul?" Lu Yang nodded in relief. "Not bad. A bit faster than Senior Fairy." "Huh?" Lu Yang was completely baffled by Eldest Senior Sister's remark. "Do you mean Fairy hadn't even conquered the Invincible Nascent Soul at my stage?" "Senior Fairy, why don't you come out and explain?" Pouting angrily, the Immortal Fairy emerged from Lu Yang's body, glaring fiercely at Yun Zhi. "Girl Yun, see through things without speaking them aloud!" Acting as if she had not noticed the Immortal Fairy's anger, Yun Zhi said unhurriedly, "The Invincible Nascent Soul is oneself at peak perfection, possessing exquisite techniques, precise power, and flawless transitions between moves. "Even for you, Senior Fairy, defeating the Invincible Nascent Soul could hardly have been easy, could it?" From the moment Yun Zhi first laid eyes on the Invincible Nascent Soul, she knew it represented oneself in a perfect state. No one could possibly defeat it right upon entering the Nascent Soul stage. Senior Fairy was no exception. "In other words, you were beaten by the Invincible Nascent Soul too, Fairy?" Lu Yang gloated. All this time, the Immortal Fairy had maintained an aloof, superior posture while instructing him, claiming he couldn't even defeat a mere Invincible Nascent Soul and that his cultivation was lacking. Who would have guessed? Not only had he been beaten by the Invincible Nascent Soul, but even its creator had failed to escape a beating. "With Senior Fairy's guidance, Little Junior Brother has grown faster," Yun Zhi continued. "Back then, Senior Fairy had no one to guide her, so defeating the Invincible Nascent Soul took longer than it did for Little Junior Brother, did it not? "For instance, did you only defeat the Invincible Nascent Soul when you were on the verge of breaking through to the Soul Formation stage?" With her little secret laid bare, the Immortal Fairy stomped her feet in fury. "Girl Yun, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you!" This was the very reason the Immortal Fairy felt guilty whenever the Invincible Nascent Soul came up: to defeat it, she had spent her entire time in the Nascent Soul stage getting beaten. That clashed terribly with the lofty image she had established before Xiao Yangzi. In order to conquer the Invincible Nascent Soul, the Immortal Fairy had continually suppressed her cultivation, holding back from breaking through. The moment she finally defeated it, she could no longer suppress her cultivation, advancing to the Soul Formation stage in one go. Consequently, she had no idea what one could actually achieve after conquering the Invincible Nascent Soul; everything she had taught him had been purely theoretical. Yun Zhi said seriously, "I am not trying to expose your shortcomings, Senior Fairy. It is merely that you created the Invincible Nascent Soul, and letting Little Junior Brother know of your experience will help him better understand its nature. All of this is for Little Junior Brother's sake." "For Xiao Yangzi's sake?" The Immortal Fairy felt Girl Yun's words made some sense. After agonizing over it for a moment, she decided not to pursue the matter of Girl Yun exposing her embarrassing past. "Little Junior Brother, since you have defeated the Invincible Nascent Soul, focus your mind on cultivation and prepare to break through to the Soul Formation stage," Yun Zhi instructed, telling him what to do next so he would stop running around aimlessly. "Right, Eldest Senior Sister, since you've left Prison Peak, does that mean Guan Shanhai has confessed everything?" Yun Zhi shook her head. "He is an immortal, after all, with an unyielding Dao heart. Even with only three souls remaining, he will not submit so easily. I merely stepped out for a brief rest. I'll head back to continue beating him shortly." *** All Lu Yang lacked before reaching the peak of the Nascent Soul stage was the accumulation of spiritual energy, a step that required time and patience to grind through. A year and a half passed. Lu Yang remained on Tianmen Peak in meditation, occasionally borrowing notes written by seniors on their breakthrough experiences from the Scripture Pavilion, paying no heed to the winds of change in the outside world. Then again, there was little to concern himself with. Over the past year and a half, the outside world had been peaceful, without even a clash between cultivators of the Tribulation Transcendence stage. At last, Lu Yang felt abundant spiritual energy flowing through his body—the hallmark of reaching the pinnacle of the Nascent Soul stage. If it were some ancient Nascent Soul fossil, reaching this step would still require strenuous effort to break through the bottleneck. Lu Yang, however, was different. He was now merely a single thought away from the Soul Formation stage. The leap from the Nascent Soul stage to the Soul Formation stage was a massive hurdle for cultivators. In previous stages of cultivation, as long as one broke through the bottleneck, the next realm followed naturally as water formed a channel, posing little danger. Advancing to the Soul Formation stage was entirely different. It was the first time a cultivator had to face a heavenly tribulation head-on. From then on, every breakthrough across a major realm required enduring the test of heavenly tribulation—an ordeal perilous in the extreme. For Lu Yang, it was even more perilous. He did not know whether Immortal Ying Tian was still alive, whether he was watching this place, or whether the heavenly tribulation could sense the ancient secrets he harbored. "Xiao Yangzi, have no fear! Which heavenly tribulation wouldn't give this immortal face? Nothing can go wrong!" The Immortal Fairy gave him a thumbs-up with utter confidence, flashing a brilliant smile. Anyone who did not know the truth would surely have felt tremendously encouraged by her gesture, surging forward into their breakthrough. Unfortunately, Lu Yang was someone who knew the truth. "I've already come this far. There's no turning back now." Lu Yang sighed, released his self-restraint, and resonated with the spiritual mechanisms of heaven and earth, preparing to undergo the heavenly tribulation. *Rumble—* Dark clouds gathered thick over the summit of Tianmen Peak, lightning flickering and dancing within them. "Hey, look! Someone on Tianmen Peak is about to undergo tribulation!" "The tribulation's power doesn't look overwhelming—it's at the Soul Formation level. Is that Junior Brother Lu Yang?" "Senior Brother Lu Yang is breaking through from the Nascent Soul stage already? What terrifying cultivation speed!" The moment the disciples of the Dao Seeking Sect heard that Lu Yang was undergoing tribulation, they gathered curiously at the foot of Tianmen Peak to watch the process, their numbers swelling rapidly. "What kind of lightning tribulation is this?" a junior sister unfamiliar with tribulations asked, worried for Senior Brother Lu Yang's safety. "White lightning... it should be the Xuanji Divine Lightning. Among the tribulations faced at the Soul Formation stage, it ranks ninth," a senior brother of the Void Refining stage explained. "Ranked ninth among tribulations? Impressive!" Feeling the pressure overhead, Lu Yang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was only the Xuanji Divine Lightning, ranked ninth. He could manage this. "Strange, isn't the direction of this lightning tribulation a bit off?" The Void Refining senior brother furrowed his brows, sensing something amiss. Suddenly, an arc of white lightning ripped through the air—not aimed at Lu Yang, but straight at the disciples gathered at the foot of the mountain! "Run! The Xuanji Divine Lightning is targeting us!" Someone shouted at the top of their lungs, and without stopping to think, the crowd spun around and ran for their lives. Only when they had fled to neighboring peaks did the Xuanji Divine Lightning cease its assault. Watching this unfold, Lu Yang's eye twitched uncontrollably. Why did that Xuanji Divine Lightning look so much like it was clearing the field? By rights, the foot of Tianmen Peak was already well beyond the attack radius of a tribulation faced when advancing from the Nascent Soul stage. And the Xuanji Divine Lightning, ranked ninth, was merely used to clear the field? At that thought, Lu Yang swallowed hard. What kind of heavenly tribulation was he about to face?