“Did he really dive into the storm clouds to eat?”
“But what’s edible inside the storm clouds?”
Feng Ziyi, Zhang Yu, and the others looked at one another with utterly horrified expressions.
That was a lightning tribulation, something that even the most powerful of cultivator would have a headache facing! Yet, that fellow actually rushed right in to have a meal, even releasing a resounding burp right afterward.
Do you need to be so arrogant?
More importantly, you even scared the lightning tribulation away! It fled away so quickly that it almost felt as if a vicious dog was chasing after it.
Unable to hold it back anymore, Fei shi asked in agitation, “Elder Liao, that’s your Dimension Sundering Ordeal, right? What’s going on?”
“How am I supposed to know what’s going on?” Elder Liao was on the verge of insanity as well.
True, that was indeed his lightning tribulation… but from the start to the end, it was as if it had nothing to do with him at all!
While others had to struggle desperately to survive their lightning ordeal, he simply took a look at his lightning ordeal, and a few moments later, it fled.
To be honest, he was completely dumbfounded by the matter as well, and he did not know what to make of the situation.
“Try your cultivation. If you are able to tap into the power of Dimension Sundering, that means that you have successfully cleared the lightning tribulation,” Feng Ziyi suddenly suggested.
“Un.” Elder Liao nodded as he took a look into his current condition with his Spiritual Perception. A moment later, his eyes widened, and his mouth opened. “I made a breakthrough…”
Without even lifting a finger, he had already gone through his lightning tribulation. This had to have been the easiest breakthrough anyone had made in the entire history of the Master Teacher Continent!
“As expected!” Hearing Elder Liao’s acknowledgement, Feng Ziyi’s mouth twitched. He lifted his head once more to take a look and saw the young man who had dived into the storm clouds a moment earlier slowly descending with a look of pity and bitter regret on his face.
Seeing the young man’s state, Elder Liao hurried forward and asked worriedly, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing much…” Zhang Xuan waved his hand.
He had thought that with how much the Netherworld Azure Dragon Beast and Divine Healer Bai Yu had expanded the storm clouds, he would be able to make a full recovery. Yet, who could have known that the lightning tribulation had grown cunning after being absorbed twice, fleeing exceptionally decisively this time around.
As soon as he dived into the storm cloud, he immediately began absorbing the lightning energy around him frenziedly, but barely after he recovered the zhenqi in the looped space of his dantian by 70%, the lightning tribulation had already noticed that something was amiss, and it unhesitatingly turned around and escaped.
From the looks of it, I really should frequent the Hall of Integrity… Since that’s the place where students and elders of the Sanctum of Sages visit in order to aid them in achieving breakthroughs, there should be plenty of lightning tribulations there. Zhang Xuan stroked his chin as he made up his mind.
Attainment, Solidarity, Propriety, Erudition, and Integrity; each of the five halls served their own purpose. Of them, the Hall of Integrity served to reinforce one’s mental resilience, thus reducing one’s vulnerability to inner demons when pushing for a breakthrough. For this reason, countless students would visit it each day.
If there was really no way around it, he could consider camping at the Hall of Integrity to absorb the lightning tribulations that arrived there. He should be able to make substantial progress in his cultivation that way.
“Liao Xin, you managed to achieve a breakthrough?”
While Zhang Xuan was in the midst of contemplating over his future plans, Divine Healer Bai Yu descended from the sky, and upon seeing the Dominion Sundering realm Dominion extending from his old friend, a deep hint of astonishment surfaced on his face.
He had thought that this breakthrough would surely be fraught with danger, but who would have thought that it would pass by so calmly, as if all of the build-up before was nothing but empty threats?
In the midst of his shock, he directed a look of admiration toward the young man before him as well.
“Just… what’s going on?” Divine Healer Bai Yu could not help but ask once more.
“The matter concerning the lightning tribulation is a secret art imparted to me by my teacher, so I’m afraid that it’ll be inconvenient for me to speak too much of it before others,” Zhang Xuan said with a wave of his hand.
In any case, he already had a ‘junior’, Feng Ziyi, to validate his identity, so he could still push everything that was inconceivable about him to his teacher.
In any case, the current ‘Yang shi’ was uncontactable anyway, so no one would be any the wiser.
“Then… what about the fire poison that Liao Xin was suffering from before?” Seeing that the young man was unwilling to speak about the lightning tribulation, Divine Healer Bai Yu turned the topic to the fire poison, which he had been deeply intrigued about all this while.
“It’s true that the Boreal Fire Poison that Elder Liao was afflicted with could be suppressed using the Hiemal Yin Formula, but as time went by, it started to develop its own consciousness,” Zhang Xuan explained.
“Consciousness? You mean that a spirit developed within the Boreal Fire Poison?” Divine Healer Bai Yu pondered for a moment before nodding.
There were indeed poisons in this world that possessed consciousness, granting them the ability to avoid danger. These were the poisons that usually left both patients and physicians helpless.
“Since it had developed its own consciousness, the Boreal Fire Poison began to consciously avert the suppression of the Hiemal Yin Formula. As a result, the cultivation of the technique would not only be ineffective in suppressing the poison, it would cause his physical condition to further deteriorate as well. It’s for that reason that I persuaded him to stop cultivating the Hiemal Yin Formula,” Zhang Xuan continued.
He had gathered this through the Library of Heaven’s Path earlier, which was also the reason he had offered Elder Liao the advice to stop practicing the Hiemal Yin Formula.
“Under normal circumstances, as long as Elder Liao stopped cultivating the technique, considering that the fire poison was under the control of a conscious spirit, it shouldn’t have acted up in the short-term. With ample preparation, it should have been possible to get rid of it once and for all in a single go. But you just had to bring in the Nymphaea Tetragona at this moment!”
Recalling what he had just seen after knocking Elder Liao out a moment ago, he couldn’t help but shake his head.
“The Nymphaea Tetragona is indeed one of the nemeses of the Boreal Fire Poison, and it would have worked had the fire poison not awoken its consciousness yet. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. When Elder Liao ingested the Nymphaea Tetragona, it swiftly induced a violent response from the Boreal Fire Poison. Under the conscious control of the Boreal Fire Poison’s spirit, it managed to assimilate the power of the Nymphaea Tetragona and further its prowess.
“In the first place, Elder Liao’s vitality was already waning, and the strengthening of the fire poison further worsened his physical state. As a result, he rapidly succumbed to the onslaught of the poison, thus resulting in his frail state a while ago.”
Upon coming to realize what had happened, Divine Healer Bai Yu’s face reddened in embarrassment.
It was just a moment ago that he had felt indignant at the other party saying that he was an incompetent physician, but after hearing everything that Zhang Xuan had said, what was he if not an incompetent physician?
It was because of his careless prescription of the Nymphaea Tetragona that his old friend had nearly lost his life!
There was a slight moment of silence from Divine Healer Bai Yu before he asked once more, “Then… how did you manage to resolve the fire poison?”
Even though the other party had resolved the poison right before his eyes, he was still unable to make sense of how it had been done.
“It’s actually rather simple. The birth of a spirit in the Boreal Fire Poison does make it a far more fearsome adversary, but at the same time, its possession of consciousness meant that the Boreal Fire Poison would have a goal and thus could be manipulated. The goal of the fire poison was actually rather simple—it simply wanted to absorb more energy and grow as fast as possible.
“In a sense, the Boreal Fire Poison could be viewed as a parasite, and it had a somewhat symbiotic relationship with its host. Or to put it in simpler terms, it was against its interests to allow its host to die quickly or else it would lose its source of nutrients. That’s also why I intentionally provoked you and had you clash with the Netherworld Azure Dragon Beast.
“By having the both of you execute your strongest moves and placing Elder Liao in the midst of your clash, the Boreal Fire Poison would feel deeply threatened. In order to sustain Elder Liao’s life, it would have to morph into a lotus and protect him from your attacks.
“While it did succeed in protecting Elder Liao, your attacks were so powerful that it suffered tremendous damage, placing it on the verge of dissipation. In this timely moment, I used my sword to strike down on its opening, causing it to be unable to hold its form anymore and dissipate. However, this didn’t mean that the threat of the fire poison was over.
“In its severely injured state, the remnants of the Boreal Fire Poison sought to delve back into Elder Liao’s body, where it would slowly bide its time and recover, but it ended up being halted by my silver needles, thus eventually resulting in its complete dissipation.
“And without the fire poison suppressing his cultivation, the energy that Elder Liao had accumulated over many years swiftly burst forth, allowing him to achieve successive breakthroughs. And as for the happenings afterward, it’s exactly as you have seen, so I’ll just stop here,” Zhang Xuan said with a smile.
Actually, the entire matter was not that complex at all. The main issue only lay in the Boreal Fire Poison within Elder Liao’s body developing a spirit.
“To think that the consciousness of a poison could actually be used against it in such a manner,” Divine Healer Bai Yu remarked in awe as he nodded in realization.
It was a well-known fact among high-rank physicians that lethal poisons that had developed their own spirits were the most difficult to deal with, but who knew that it was possible to resolve the complicated issue with such a simple solution?
“Indeed,” Zhang Xuan said with a nod. He was just about to continue on when his eyes suddenly lit up in excitement.
The Innate Fetal Poison within me is also a poison that possesses a spirit. Is it possible for me to use the same method to deal with it?
