Shen Gurong had no idea what was happening. He was trapped in the lightning tribulation, with nowhere to escape.
The lightning tribulation gave him no time to think, not even a moment's respite, striking down relentlessly. Soon, more than a dozen lightning bolts had struck.
Thinking about it carefully, Mu Zhe's opportunity to reach the Great Ascension stage seemed far too easy, as if it had been directly delivered to him by the Heavenly Dao.
Perhaps, from the moment Shen Gurong stepped into the Gu Hong Secret Realm, the Heavenly Dao had already begun plotting to use Mu Zhe's Great Ascension stage lightning tribulation to kill Shen Gurong.
Jing Zhuchen's brows furrowed more and more as he watched. Even Shen Feng Xue's Great Ascension stage lightning tribulation back then hadn't been so reckless. It seemed to be intent on killing both of them. Before he could even catch his breath, more lightning struck.
"Nine Heavens."
Chao Jiuxiao, his eyes fixed on the tribulation lightning, responded, "Hmm?"
"If they can't withstand the eighty-one tribulations, don't interfere."
Upon hearing this, Chao Jiuxiao retorted angrily, "I won't court death! Interfering in someone else's tribulation will only bring karmic consequences upon myself. I don't want to shed several layers of skin when I transform into a dragon."
Jing Zhuchen nodded, then added, "But if they survive the tribulation, the Heavenly Dao will inevitably unleash its punishment, just like Mu Zhe's Nascent Soul tribulation back then. At that time..."
Chao Jiuxiao burst into fury, "I won't go! I don't want to go! Even if you go, I won't go!"
Jing Zhuchen glanced at him calmly.
Chao Jiuxiao snorted, crossed his arms, and angrily turned his head away, ignoring him.
The initial lightning tribulations were all endured by Mu Zhe using his cultivation and spiritual artifacts. Over the years, Shen Gurong had mastered control of Shen Feng Xue's body, unlike when he faced a Nascent Soul stage lightning tribulation and only focused on brute force.
Another lightning tribulation struck, but Shen Gurong, before Mu Zhe could react, swung his hand horizontally, using all her Mahayana stage cultivation to deflect the lightning.
Not far away, Jing Zhuchen moved his hand, suddenly opening his fan and deflecting the incoming lightning tribulation with a loud boom.
After deflecting the deflected lightning, Jing Zhuchen sighed and said, "Do you think Eleven did it on purpose?"
Chao Jiuxiao, standing to the side, tapped his toes impatiently and said, "Hurry up and strike, just kill him."
The Heavenly Dao quickly struck.
One lightning bolt after another struck, and soon Mu Zhe's spiritual energy was almost depleted. Holding Shen Gurong, listening to the deafening thunder, he suddenly laughed for some reason.
Shen Gurong angrily said, "What are you laughing at?"
'You're about to die and you're still laughing?! Are you preparing to die with a smile on your face?!'
Mu Zhe hugged his neck, whispered in his ear, "Master, does this mean we're sharing life and death?"
Shen Gurong was stunned.
“I want to live with you, not die with you,” Mu Zhe said softly. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die here without your answer. Master, if we can get out of here alive, you…”
Shen Gurong felt his face burning again, his heart pounding wildly. He hurriedly interrupted Mu Zhe, “Don’t even think about it, we… have no chance.”
Mu Zhe had imagined countless times over the years the scenario of being resolutely rejected by his master, so he wasn’t discouraged by these words. He smiled and said, “Then if Master ever wants to find a Daoist partner, could you consider me first?”
Shen Gurong was furious: “What kind of time is this? You’re still thinking about this?!”
Mu Zhe’s voice was soft and gentle: “Over the years, I’ve thought about this every single moment.”
Shen Gurong: “…”
Shen Gurong was stunned, and it took him a long time to realize that in this life-or-death situation, Mu Zhe actually had the leisure to flirt with his master?
He gritted his teeth slightly, no time to blush, grabbed Mu Zhe's collar, and brought his face close, coldly saying, "You'd better have a trump card to save your life... um."
Shen Gurong was too close; he had intended to put some pressure on Mu Zhe, but unexpectedly, Mu Zhe lunged forward and sealed Shen Gurong's lips with his.
Shen Gurong: "..."
'Traitorous disciple!!!' The scream in Shen Gurong's mind almost drowned out the thunder.
Mu Zhe chuckled inwardly, gripping Shen Gurong's shoulders and pulling him tightly into his arms.
Shen Gurong struggled, his cheeks flushed, completely abandoning Shen Feng Xue's cold demeanor, and angrily shouted, "Let go of me! Mu Zhizhi! Do you want me to hit you?!"
Mu Zhe paused for a moment before realizing that he was calling him Mu Zhizhi. He smiled and hugged Shen Gurong even tighter.
"Don't move." Mu Zhe leaned down and gently brushed Shen Gurong's brow. "The final tribulation is about to begin. Don't move, leave everything to me."
Shen Gurong froze, realizing that the eighty-one tribulations had almost all struck.
Both of them had exhausted all their spiritual energy, and even their last spiritual artifact had been shattered by the tribulation, which was still gradually increasing in power.
It seemed Mu Zhe intended to withstand the final tribulation alone.
Shen Gurong's breath hitched, and he gripped Mu Zhe's clothes tightly, his hands turning white from the force. He stammered, "You...you really can withstand it?"
Mu Zhe replied, "I never do anything I'm not confident about."
Besides, this concerned his master.
When Mu Zhe was young, he had borrowed a book from the library on Liren Peak called "Asking the Heart," but because he was not skilled enough in martial arts at a young age, he only read it quickly, memorized the words, and returned it.
Only later, when he grew up and recalled the words he had memorized, did he realize that there was a passage in "Asking the Heart" about how splitting one's yuandan in two allowed one to understand the words in the other's sea of consciousness.
And on that last page, there was a small annotation:
"Those who share a yuandan are bound by fate."
In other words, if Mu Zhe died in the tribulation lightning, Shen Gurong would not survive alone.
Unless he could break through to the Nascent Soul stage and advance to the Mahayana stage, only then could he separate himself from Shen Gurong in cause and effect and destiny.
In his memories of his past life, Shen Feng Xue, alone on that boundless ice plain, endured excruciating pain while stubbornly refusing to perish, holding on for ten years. Was this also related to this?
Mu Zhe tightly closed his eyes, daring not to think any further.
The tribulation lightning continued to fall wildly in a torrential downpour, quickly reaching its seventy-ninth strike.
Mu Zhe's back was covered in bloody gashes from the lightning strikes, some wounds so deep they exposed bone, but he gritted his teeth and remained silent.
Shen Gurong leaned against his chest, inhaling the stench of blood, struggling to break free but Mu Zhe held him tightly.
"Don't move," Mu Zhe murmured through gritted teeth, swallowing the blood rising in his throat, "This was my tribulation."
Shen Gurong cried out anxiously, "But..."
Mu Zhe forced a smile and said, "I won't die so easily."
Seeing Shen Gurong's still terrified expression, he chuckled softly, raised a hand to cover Shen Gurong's eyes, and gently coaxed him, "Don't look, okay?"
Mu Zhe had intended to comfort Shen Gurong and ease his worry, but when his hand touched Shen Gurong's eyes, the previously quiet Shen Gurong suddenly seemed to go mad, letting out a piercing scream.
"No—" Shen Gurong clung desperately to Mu Zhe's hand, trembling violently in resistance, begging him not to cover his eyes.
Mu Zhe was startled and quickly lowered his hand: "Master?"
Shen Gurong's pupils, hidden beneath his ice silk, trembled violently, alternating between crimson and gray, as if possessed.
"Don't cover my eyes..." Shen Gurong murmured almost pleadingly, his voice filled with blood-stained sorrow, "I don't want to be blind, you...you mustn't do this, I'm scared."
Mu Zhe stared at him in astonishment.
At the same time, a lightning bolt, seemingly carrying the force of a thousand thunderbolts, crashed down, striking directly at Mu Zhe's back. Shen Gurong, his expression blank, perhaps trapped in a nightmare, suddenly lunged forward, shielding Mu Zhe from the attack.
Caught off guard, Mu Zhe watched helplessly as the lightning struck Shen Gurong, leaving a blinding flash of blood.
"Master!"
Shen Gurong seemed still dazed, a corner of his ice silk drooping slightly, revealing a scarlet eye.
He held Mu Zhe tightly, his face a mixture of joy and childlike boasting, murmuring as if in a dream, "Look, I saved you, you...you don't cover my eyes."
Mu Zhe looked at him blankly.
After uttering this incomprehensible sentence, Shen Gurong quietly lay on Mu Zhe's body, as if after hundreds of years of torment in a nightmare, he had finally found his home.
Mu Zhe felt extremely strange, but there was no time to think too much, because the eightieth lightning tribulation struck simultaneously with the last one.
This wasn't a tribulation at all; it felt more like torture.
Jing Zhuchen gripped his fan tightly, almost uncontrollably rushing forward, only to be grabbed by Chao Jiuxiao.
He roared, "What are you doing?! You just told me not to go, but now you can't sit still?"
Jing Zhuchen's face had lost its usual allure and charm; his peach blossom eyes narrowed into a cold arc: "They will die."
Chao Jiuxiao said, "Cultivation is inherently defying the heavens."
Just as Jing Zhuchen was about to shake him off, they suddenly heard a roar of a spirit beast from not far away. Looking in that direction, they saw that their figures had vanished from the center of the lightning tribulation, replaced by a gigantic nine-tailed fox.
The nine-tailed fox was a spirit beast born in the Tao Zhou Great Swamp, naturally possessing sentience. Its spirit beast form was perfectly suited to confront the heavenly lightning tribulation.
Jing Zhuchen was taken aback: "Where...where did Mu Zhe get the nine-tailed fox's spiritual power?"
Chao Jiuxiao glanced at Shen Gurong, who was protected under the nine-tailed fox's claws, and subtly breathed a sigh of relief before saying, "There's a demon named Qingyu, one of the few nine-tailed foxes. It seems he awakened his inherited spiritual veins. Mu Zhe and he have always been on good terms."
Jing Zhuchen nodded, finally unfolding his fan to fan himself, completely relieved.
Mu Zhe absorbed the abundant demonic spiritual power Qingyu had given him into his body. The power was so great that it almost instantly transformed Mu Zhe into his enormous nine-tailed fox form to withstand the final two lightning tribulations.
Mu Zhe used his claws to protect Shen Gurong beneath him, standing firm with his head held high, taking the final lightning strike head-on.
Two bolts of lightning crashed down, their force nearly knocking the nine-tailed fox's massive body to the ground. But Mu Zhe, enduring immense pain, glanced at Shen Gurong, who was sleeping peacefully on his paw, gritted his teeth, and endured the lightning strike.
The lightning's power remained undiminished after it struck, creating rings of black scorch marks around them.
However, the nine-tailed fox's demonic form was simply too domineering. Despite enduring two bolts of lightning, Mu Zhe managed to barely stand.
The eighty-one bolts of lightning finally subsided. Shen Gurong and Mu Zhe, the two lovebirds, were still alive and kicking. Heaven, though unwilling, reluctantly dispelled the lightning.
The thunderclouds slowly dispersed, but Mu Zhe still stubbornly refused to revert to human form.
As far as he knew, the heavenly tribulation was imminent.
And he didn't know if he could survive that final strike.
Although he was currently covered in wounds, his spiritual energy was rapidly healing his lightning-struck body, and his meridians were constantly reorganizing and healing. He was still considered a half-baked Mahayana cultivator. Even if he died under the heavenly lightning, Shen Gurong should be fine.
Mu Zhe suddenly felt a pang of fear.
He hadn't even received Shen Gurong's answer yet, and he was already going to die under the heavenly lightning?
Mu Zhe leaned down slightly, staring blankly at Shen Gurong's face.
Soon, just as he had expected, the heavenly tribulation lightning once again unexpectedly gathered above their heads, giving no time for anyone to react, and struck down.
Mu Zhe took a deep breath and immediately closed his eyes.
The next instant, a dragon's roar echoed in his ears. Mu Zhe abruptly opened his eyes and looked up, only to see a dark blue dragon swishing its tail in the air, fiercely meeting the purple-silver heavenly lightning head-on.
A deafening roar echoed through the air, as if two colors had collided, instantly unleashing a blinding flash of light that stung the eyes of those nearby.
Chao Jiuxiao transformed into his enormous form and lunged at the purplish-silver lightning. His powerful spirit beast body, however, was scorched black by the lightning's force, his scales instantly falling away.
Simultaneously, new scales grew back, only to be struck down again by the lingering power of the lightning.
The roars and howls of the dragon resounded throughout the Gu Hong Secret Realm. Jing Zhuchen remained expressionless, but his hand nearly crushed the bone fan in his grip.
This cycle repeated countless times until the lightning tribulation finally retreated completely, unwilling to give up.
Chao Jiuxiao plummeted from the sky, barely caught with a burst of spiritual energy from Jing Zhuchen, preventing him from suffering serious injury.
Not far away, Mu Zhe had already transformed into human form, two fox ears faintly twitching amidst his black hair. He scooped Shen Gurong into his arms and rushed forward, calling out urgently, "Fourth Martial Uncle!"
Jing Zhuchen raised a hand, looking at Chao Jiuxiao, who appeared charred, and stopped him from approaching.
"Take Eleven away first," Jing Zhuchen said, a slight smile playing on his lips, his tightly furrowed brows finally relaxing.
"Jiuxiao is about to transform into a dragon."
Comments
Post a Comment