The sudden turn of events caught Tai Lingxuan completely off guard, and she never expected the tribulation thunder would finish gathering right behind her.
This final streak of purple-gold flood dragon’s shadow was so solid, so thick and powerful.
Even a single strike was enough to reduce Lingxi to ashes.
Yet, at this moment, Tai Lingxuan wanted to turn around and shatter that flood dragon lightning shadow, but it was already too late.
In a flash, the flood dragon thunder shadow closed in on Lingxi.
Sensing the terrifying force, Lingxi’s pupils widened, her face drained of color, and within her eyes was reflected the image of that dragon shadow.
The feeling of death surfaced distinctly in her mind.
However.
At this very instant.
This split second.
A streak of golden light shot across.
Almost brushing Lingxi’s scalp, that golden light struck fiercely at the center of the flood dragon thunder shadow.
The dragon shadow instantly dimmed, cracks spreading everywhere, yet it still carried a remnant might as it struck Lingxi.
“Ahhhhhhh——”
The girl screamed in agony, her skin and flesh instantly torn and charred by the lightning.
But soon, the spiritual power within Lingxi’s body began to surge wildly, resisting the lingering might of the flood dragon thunder shadow.
Tai Lingxuan also rushed down immediately, circulating her own spiritual power to shield Lingxi’s vital points.
A few breaths later.
Lingxi, her clothes torn to shreds and her body faintly scorched, slumped weakly into Tai Lingxuan’s arms, gasping for breath.
“Master… Master…”
Though battered and gravely injured, Lingxi managed to endure.
With a probe of her divine sense, Tai Lingxuan found the girl’s wounds were all superficial, and she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But quickly, Tai Lingxuan’s brows furrowed as she glanced toward the neighboring mountain peak.
The next instant, she crossed hundreds of zhang in a flash, arriving at the spot.
Yet, the place was now empty—no one was there.
Still, Tai Lingxuan was sure of what she had felt.
The moment that golden light appeared…
She sensed a terrifying pressure.
A pressure from… the Ancestral Dragon!
Suddenly.
Tai Lingxuan realized something.
The powerful figure who had once intervened during her own tribulation, had now helped Lingxi as well.
Tai Lingxuan’s heart stirred, but she immediately set aside her intention to go searching.
Since the other party did not wish to show themselves, seeking them out would be rude.
“Many thanks for your assistance, Senior,”
Tai Lingxuan cupped her fists, facing the heavens and earth, and called out in a loud voice.
Her resonant voice echoed far and wide.
Even Chen Yuyang, who had just returned to his room, heard it clearly.
He shook his head and smiled wryly.
Well, it seems he had become a “Senior” again.
But, whatever.
Just now, Tai Lingxuan hadn’t foreseen such a sudden accident.
But Chen Yuyang had.
That’s why he intervened at the crucial moment.
He crushed a fifth-grade talisman, and imbued this strike with the might of the Ancestral Dragon.
Of course, Chen Yuyang controlled his strength, not completely shattering that tribulation thunder, but weakening it just enough that Lingxi could barely withstand it.
The reason was simple.
He wanted little junior sister to feel the true might of tribulation thunder.
Not out of revenge or malice, but because if she never personally experienced the power of heavenly tribulation, it would actually be a disadvantage for her future growth.
“Master is really something—protecting her disciple is fine, but who shields someone completely from the experience?”
Grumbling, Chen Yuyang pulled over his lounge chair, opened a small window, basked in the bright sunlight after the tribulation clouds had scattered, and casually flipped open a book.
…
Lingxi’s success in overcoming the tribulation was indeed a joyful event.
Yet, Yun Lian could not bring herself to truly celebrate.
It wasn’t exactly jealousy, but more a feeling of frustration.
Since when did the Golden Core stage become so easy to attain?
That junior senior sister, who was younger than her, just broke through as easily as that.
Ah, whatever.
No point dwelling on it.
She should just focus on her own cultivation for now.
Though her junior senior sister had reached Golden Core, Yun Lian felt she was already on the verge of breaking through to the second stage of the Golden Core realm.
As long as she trained in seclusion for a bit longer, a breakthrough was within reach.
After Golden Core comes preparation for Nascent Soul.
Each stage is a hurdle, and that makes growth in the Golden Core realm the hardest and slowest of all realms.
For some prodigies, going from early Golden Core to perfection could be even more difficult than from early Nascent Soul to perfection.
Being stuck at this stage for several years, or even over a decade, was a common occurrence.
Only after transforming the Golden Core into a Nascent Soul could one be considered to have truly stepped into the path of cultivation.
Before that, at best, one was merely a cultivator.
After the Nascent Soul realm, came Tribulation Transcendence, Void Refinement, Spirit Transformation, Unity, Great Ascension, all the way to Half-Step True Immortal.
Take one step further from Half-Step True Immortal, and you transcend the cycle of heaven and earth, escaping the limits of the laws to become a True Immortal.
As for what lies beyond Immortals—
No one knows.
But everyone is filled with longing and imagination for it.
Especially now, when no one has ascended for hundreds of thousands of years.
Circulating her spiritual power.
Suddenly, Yun Lian felt the flow of spiritual power inside her become sluggish.
A feeling of tightness in her chest made her frown.
There seemed to be something wrong with the Dual Harmony Art she had switched to…
The pure yin force in her body, condensed by the art, was powerful, but it also started to place more burden on her body.
On the verge of a breakthrough, this could not be allowed to go wrong.
Thinking thus, Yun Lian immediately stopped her cultivation, got up, and walked outside.
She would go ask her cheap senior sister, Gu Qiushui, if there was a solution.
Yun Lian flew through the air, quickly arriving at another mountaintop.
This was the private courtyard of Gu Qiushui.
At that moment, Gu Qiushui was sitting quietly inside, meditating on the mental technique bestowed by her “Second Master.”
Besides her regular cultivation, Gu Qiushui had spent a great deal of time on this mental technique.
To be honest, although she had memorized the contents by heart, she did not understand its deeper meaning.
But the wonder of the technique lay in the fact that, even if she didn’t comprehend it, reciting it silently in her heart gave her a mysterious feeling.
It was a feeling she couldn’t describe.
She only knew—it felt good.
Just like…
Just like back when she held junior brother Yuyang as a child, sleeping together.
This thought made Gu Qiushui blush a little.
But if she had to describe it, that was really how it felt.
What Gu Qiushui didn’t know was.,The mystery she sensed was, in fact, the profundity of the laws of heaven and earth.
The reason it felt like Chen Yuyang was because she had sensed the laws leaking from him as a boy.
Normally, only those who reached the Spirit Transformation stage could sense such things.
So for now, Gu Qiushui had no way of understanding what it truly was.
Still, regularly circulating this technique brought tremendous benefits to her cultivation.
“Senior Sister Qiushui, Senior Sister Qiushui!”
Suddenly, a crisp call came from outside the courtyard.
Expanding her divine sense, Gu Qiushui sensed a familiar figure entering the courtyard.
It was the new junior sister, Yun Lian.
Gu Qiushui immediately stopped her meditation and hurried to the door.
“Junior sister Yun Lian.”
Greeting her, Gu Qiushui looked at the pure and lovely girl, a gentle smile on her face.
“What brings you here, junior sister?”
With a cupped fist in greeting, Yun Lian stated her purpose directly.
“Senior sister, I feel there’s a problem with my cultivation method, so I came to consult you.”
Hearing this, Gu Qiushui nodded repeatedly and led her inside.
“No need to worry, just ask whatever you like.”
Inside, the two sat across the table.
“Senior sister, when I cultivate now, I feel a sluggishness, as if my meridians are blocked.”
“But my meridians are definitely fine.”
Yun Lian explained her problem.
Gu Qiushui was taken aback, but quickly realized something and asked,
“Junior sister, are you about to break through to the next stage?”
Yun Lian was surprised, “How did you know, senior sister?”
Gu Qiushui smiled wryly.
It wasn’t that she figured it out, but because she had experienced the same thing before.
At that moment, Gu Qiushui understood that Yun Lian’s issue wasn’t with herself or her understanding of the art.
It was the inherent flaw of the Dual Harmony Art.
Actually, the perfected Dual Harmony Art was a genuine eighth-grade technique.
However, aside from condensing pure yin, the true art also included methods of balancing yin and yang through absorbing yang energy.
Now that the sect had become orthodox, Tai Lingxuan, based on her insights, had cut out those parts—mainly those that involved extracting male essence—to prevent disciples from going astray.
But this left everyone cultivating an incomplete version.
Later, Tai Lingxuan had supplemented it with pure yang treasures to harmonize yin and yang, plugging the gap, so to speak.
Now, with Yun Lian about to break through, the sluggishness in her spiritual power was due to yin-yang imbalance.
However, the solution was simple.
“Go to Master and ask for some pure yang spiritual treasures. Absorb them into your qi sea as you circulate your art.”
“When yin and yang are harmonized in your qi sea, the problem will resolve itself.”
Gu Qiushui said softly.
“I see.” Yun Lian nodded, then hesitantly asked, “Does this happen with every minor breakthrough?”
Gu Qiushui seemed a little embarrassed, but still nodded.
“In our sect, with the Dual Harmony Art, that’s just how it is.”
“It’s a flaw in the technique.”
“But as Master’s strength grows, I’m sure we’ll find a way to complete it in the future.”
Gu Qiushui said this with great confidence.
Yun Lian, on the other hand, felt like she’d boarded a pirate ship, not at all happy.
After all, her previous art was only fifth-grade, but didn’t have such issues.
Watching her junior sister walk away, Gu Qiushui sighed in her heart.
Fortunately, the sect had some savings now.
If it were in the past…
Junior sister would just be stuck at this bottleneck, waiting for Master to find some pure yang treasure from somewhere.
Of course, actually, there was another possible solution…
Gu Qiushui couldn’t help but remember how she herself had almost broken through the Golden Core realm without outside help.
That was—sleeping while holding Chen Yuyang.
“But back then, junior brother Yuyang was just a child.”
“Now that he’s grown up, there’s a difference between men and women. I can’t just hold him while I sleep anymore.”
Thinking of this, Gu Qiushui’s face grew a little warm.
“This kind of secret absolutely can’t be shared with little junior sister. What if she can’t help herself and tries something with junior brother?”
“If anyone’s going to do the holding, it should be me next time I hit a bottleneck…”