CH 236

Chapter 236 – Heart Demon Heavenly Tribulation 

He Ziming and the others accompanying him stared on with bewildered looks on their faces. They clearly didn’t know who this girl was, nor did they dare to wildly believe whatever she said.

Chai Wenxuan spoke up once again. “Senior Martial Sister, you came at an inopportune time. At the orders of Mountain Master Yangze, Soul Suppressor Sacred Son went to the Quicksand Earth Territory, and still hasn’t returned.”

“Well, isn’t that him?” the girl in the red dress said with a giggle, turning to look off into the mist and clouds on the horizon.

As she lifted her head to look into the sky, the long, black hair flowing down past her ears like a waterfall fluttered lightly in the wind, imparting an even better view of her gorgeous facial features. Her picturesque beauty was gifted with the tenderness of delicate, falling flower petals.

A few breaths of time later, sure enough, a stream of watery blue profound light broke through the mist and clouds on the horizon. It swept over the peaks of the Mingxin Mountain Range, ripping through the void as it sped rapidly towards them.

Although the body of the suanni spiritual beast was massive, it was extremely nimble as it dominated the surrounding wind currents and tread upon the clouds. Its body was surrounded in a dazzling, dark blue halo as it descended, landing by the Profound Resonance Pond in front of the great hall.

“Soul Suppressor Sacred Son!”

“Greetings, Soul Suppressor Sacred Son!”

Because of the matter between He Ziming and the girl in the red dress, there were already quite a few Cloud Abyss Peak disciples gathered by Profound Resonance Pond. They all lowered their heads in respect and called out their greetings.

“As you were.”

Xu Disheng alighted from his perch between the suanni spiritual beast’s towering horns, flicking his sleeves.

“You’re Soul Suppressor?” the girl in the red dress asked. She hadn’t bowed like the others, and was carefully sizing up the handsome youth in the White Moon Garment before her. There was a hint of curiosity in her gaze as she examined him.

Although this girl in the red dress was extremely beautiful, when Xu Disheng swept his profound qi sense over her, he could tell that her profound qi aura was completely restrained, and she wasn’t letting the least bit leak out.

But when he tried to probe her with his Soul Force, he found that the girl had an astounding level of spiritual power!

Her true age couldn’t be more than 100 years or so, but she was a bona fide Divine Core stage Spirit Master!

“Greetings, Spirit Master.”

After Xu Disheng got an idea of her cultivation base, he didn’t choose to act irreverently. He clasped his hands, not showing the least amount of disrespect.

At this moment, the expressions of He Ziming, Chai Xuanwen, and the other disciples present changed slightly as they realized her identity. They immediately followed suit and bowed respectfully, not daring to neglect decorum.

The lot of them never expected that this girl in the red dress was actually a lofty Divine Core stage Spirit Master!

After all, there were only a dozen or so Divine Core stage Spirit Masters in the entire Mingxin Mountain Range. Aside from He Ziming, who had once served in the Falling Moon Domain, these ordinary disciples normally didn’t have the opportunity to see even a single Divine Core stage Spirit Master.

The girl in the red dress looked shocked. “That’s no fun! I was hiding my cultivation base so well. How did you find out?”

Xu Disheng didn’t respond to her question. When he spoke, although his voice had the hint of cordiality befitting someone talking to another person of higher cultivation base, his tone sounded neither servile nor overbearing. “Spirit Master, for what business have you come to Cloud Abyss Peak?”

“Realm Master Kunxu was aware of your arrival, so he ordered me to come here and call you over to the Yuluo Realm for an audience with him.”

With the way she said ‘call you over’ instead of ‘summon’, there was an apparent hint of casualness to her words, which also subtly detracted from the sense of rigidity connotated with the rules of the sect.

“Thank you for personally coming all the way here, Spirit Master,” Xu Disheng said, waving his sleeve to store away the suanni spiritual beast. “Shall we go now?”

“I’ll bring you there. Your method of travel is too slow,” the girl said, a foxy look in her eyes. Before Xu Disheng could even respond, she reached out a hand as delicate as petals of a white rose, latching onto his arm. A scarlet profound light enveloped the two of them, and an instant later they were tearing through the void on the horizon in a torrent of light, smashing through the layers of mist and clouds.

Chai Wenxuan and the others exchanged glances. One of the Cloud Abyss Peak disciples stuttered, “The Sacred Son…t-the Sacred Son and that Spirit Master…”

He Ziming collected himself, returning to his normal solemnity. He shot that disciple a cold glance and said, “Watch your tongue!”

“Yes, sir…”

… …

As they flew along, Xu Disheng could feel the warmth of the girl’s hand on his wrist even through the White Moon Garment.

His brows furrowed lightly as he rotated his Shangqing profound qi, but he was completely unable to resist.

Considering the girl’s Divine Core stage cultivation base and her connection to Realm Master Kunxu, Xu Disheng forced down any ideas of using the Black Sky Yellow Earth Pagoda to free himself. “With how unfathomable your scarlet profound light is, Spirit Master, there should be no need to pull Disciple along like this,” said Xu Disheng finally.

The moment the words left his mouth, Xu Disheng felt the grip on his wrist disappear. For some reason, the girl immediately complied, releasing him from her grasp.

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Just as Xu Disheng was about to speak, he was suddenly hit with a wave of exquisite fragrance. The girl turned towards him and unexpectedly put her hand in his!

A soft, gentle feeling of warmth was transmitted to him from his hand, and his nose was inundated with the smell of the girl’s long black hair.

He inadvertently turned to look at her, meeting her gaze. Her eyes seemed to be holding back a hint of laughter and mischief, and his heart suddenly throbbed as a sound like rumbling echoed in his mind.

The Black Sky Yellow Earth Pagoda suddenly burst forth with light, blasting the girl away from him. Xu Disheng broke free of the scarlet profound light, and he stood there in the middle of the air, a cold glint in his eyes.

Stopping their rapid soaring of the scarlet profound light through the clouds, the girl twirled a lock of her hair around her porcelain finger, a mischievous pout on her face. “Hm? I’m just having a bit of fun with my future husband, what’s wrong with that?”

The coldness in Xu Disheng’s eyes intensified. “What do you mean by that, Spirit Master?”

“Greater Lord Mingxin has already issued the command to the Yuluo Realm, granting you the title of Shangqing Sacred Son. And…” she paused, her Divine Core stage cultivation base still suppressed. The tips of her ears turned red as she continued, “A-And ordering the two of us to be joined as cultivation partners.”

The three great suns were on the verge of descending out of view. Before they dipped over the horizon, they shone through the mist and clouds, dying the lands in beautiful, ethereal shades of gold and crimson.

… …

Pure Spirit Ocean, the Shangqing Spiritual World.

“Zhuri, the thread of karma you possess is extremely important. Are you sure about this?” Greater Lord Qingxuan said, his cold voice reverberating throughout the vast heaven and earth.

“Yes, Sect Master.”

At this moment, Greater Lord Zhuri, who had appeared once in the Luminous Cloud Abyss, was standing alone in front of Greater Lord Qingxuan’s domain. His eyes were shuttered, but what could be seen of his gaze seemed to contain the life and death of all living things within them. The aura that surrounded his body was shocking and boundless.

“If you’re sure, then you can make the decision. I am soon to start transcending the Heart Demon Heavenly Tribulation. If I cannot attain the Divine Sea stage, the only path left for me is to return to the cycle of reincarnation. You will need to oversee all matters regarding the sect,” Greater Lord Qingxuan said.

A rare hint of grief and sorrow flickered through Greater Lord Zhuri’s eyes, but he remained silent. After a long while, his figure transformed into light and disappeared.

In a quiet, desolate palace hall within a domain of unknown whereabouts…

Greater Lord Qingxuan was standing there alone, his lonely figure cutting a contrast to the enormous hall. He heaved what sounded like a self-derisive sigh, which echoed emptily throughout the hall. In the past tens of thousands of years, this man, who was known to all as the Sect Master of the Shangqing Sacred Sect, had already practically given up on himself. As the only Nine-Avatar Greater Lord in the Shangqing Spiritual World, it felt like the burden of the entire Shangqing Sacred Sect was weighing down solely upon his shoulders.

The Heart Demon Heavenly Tribulation was merciless. Out of 10,000, maybe only one person would survive it.

If he met his end while trying to transcend the tribulation, his mind and consciousness would be annihilated, leaving behind only a bit of his true spirit, which would enter the cycle of reincarnation.

If Greater Lord Qingxuan had another 100,000 years to solidify his cultivation base, then he might have had around a 50% chance of transcending the tribulation.

But time flew by mercilessly as nights fell and days rose without end. And yet, the humiliation the sect faced a few tens of thousands of years ago still remained vivid in his mind. With the threat of such a humiliation looming imminent once more, how could he dare to wait? How could he even bring himself to wait any longer?

The scenery that composed the hall suddenly shattered into a million pieces, and the handsome, striking visage of Greater Lord Qingxuan cracked and splintered like the broken surface of a mirror. The entire domain was plunged into a deafening silence. At that moment, Greater Lord Qingxuan’s aura vanished, becoming undetectable by any of the other Clone Avatar stage Greater Lords in the Shangqing Spiritual World.

The Heart Demon Heavenly Tribulation had begun.

… …

The Dao of Karma was extremely mysterious and profound.

The nine-petaled lotus seat, which was known as the Mirror Bodhi, was slowly revolving in Xu Disheng’s sea of consciousness. Even the Black Sky Yellow Earth Pagoda, which had been truly awakened just a sliver, felt a slight hint of suppression from it.

Xu Disheng’s gaze was lowered, but resplendent black light spun in his eyes, forming rotating vortices within.

He looked at the girl in the red dress, against the backdrop of the sunset-tinted sky. “Spirit Master, are you just pulling my leg?”

The girl gazed at him, but didn’t reply to his question. Instead, she said, “My name is… Yao Tan.”

The moment her voice reached his ears, she transformed into a scarlet-colored profound light and shot off towards the Yuluo Realm in a streak of brilliance.