The purple heavenly thunder smashed down in the most violent and savage manner. Catfish-flood-dragon, who had been sleeping soundly, opened her eyes in an instant, crying out loud as she spun and fled without the slightest hesitation. Although she was a demon dragon that could control wind, rain, and thunder, her greatest fear was actually the thunders coming from a heavenly tribulation. After all, such thunders were produced by the Dao of Heaven and Earth, and could cause one hundred times more damage to any demons that did not have an orthodox lineage.
In the meanwhile, Lord Xiansheng raised his head up in terror. A stream of glowing water rushed out from his hand, the dragon king seal given by the Heaven floating in the water. A magnanimous aura came soaring out from it, which caused the heavenly thunder to stop locking him as one of the targets, allowing him to escape from its influence.
This was the special privilege of the Heaven"s Immortal Official. As long as he produced the seal given to him, he would not be hurt by the heavenly thunder even if he was watching someone else transcending their heavenly tribulation at a very close range. Unless of course, the heavenly tribulation was specially sent to him.
At that moment, Princess Zhang Le and Wu Qi were the only two enshrouded by the heavenly thunder. Wu Qi was meditating with his eyes closed. A five-colored strange light was emitting from his body, while an exotic fragrance lingered around him. Some white fluid with the texture similar to oil was exuding through the pores on his skin. This white fluid flowed down his skin onto the white jade block, then touched the ground. The tiny weeds nearby absorbed them, and shockingly, they began to grow rapidly. From ordinary weeds, they transformed into big, fat Ganoderma that looked well-fertilized!
They merely transformed into the lowest grade Ganoderma that were shaped like mushrooms, which were normally used by mortals as medicines. Yet, being able to transform from weeds into Ganoderma showed that the white fluid had an incredible magical power. Also, Wu Qi seemed to be sinking in a state that he could not escape from, as he totally did not sense the approaching heavenly thunder in the sky above.
Still, Princess Zhang Le opened her eyes suddenly, a five-colored divine gleam flickering rapidly in her eyes. With a casual wave of her hand at the heavenly thunder, the purple thunderbolt turned into a stream of light and came falling into her grip obediently. Then, under the shocked glances of Lord Xiansheng and Catfish-flood-dragon, the purple thunder was quickly and completely absorbed by her. After that, the profound and unfathomable aura emanating from her became stronger.
A pleasant smile emerged on her face as she said, "Well, it is just a thunder tribulation! Ugh, why is this thunder tribulation so strong?"
Deafening thunderclaps continued to echo out as several tens of heavenly thunder struck down in a row. Pursing her lips, Princess Zhang Le flew up into the air unconcernedly and protected Wu Qi from above his head. She was. .h.i.t by every single thunderbolt, and all of them were completely absorbed by her. The five-colored divine rays behind her back transformed into a misty cloud that swirled around her, while her Nascent Soul sprung out from her body, glaring at the heavenly thunder that kept falling down from the sky.
Suddenly, the Nascent Soul waved its hand at the heavenly thunder, attracting a thunderbolt to come smiting on it.
Lord Xiansheng and Catfish-flood-dragon cried out in alarm at the same time - using a Nascent Soul to fight against a heavenly thunder? If one asked a Heaven Immortal to bring out his immortal soul, which he laboriously cultivated, to face a heavenly thunder, that Heaven Immortal would definitely crush one"s soul to shreds with an immortal item! In fact, whether it was Nascent Soul, Nascent Divinity, or even immortal soul, they were all the same - the physical representation of a cultivator"s soul. The only difference between them was that of the level.
As long as it was a soul, it would be afraid of the thunder. Unless one had become a Gold Immortal, having his immortal soul completely fused with the fleshly body, only then one could face the attack of thunder, wind, ice, and heavenly fire without fear. That was because one would achieve an immortal body that existed between the state of corporeal and incorporeal, and the immortal soul would become extremely compact, with the characteristic of Pure Yang
With her cultivation base of peak-stage Nascent Soul realm, Princess Zhang Le went so far as to provoke a heavenly thunder with her own Nascent Soul? When she used her body to absorb a heavenly thunder a moment ago, it could be said that her innate talent was out of ordinary, and it could also be because she once learned some unique techniques of resisting thunder. But now, she was using her own Nascent Soul to fight against a heavenly thunder? Had she become crazy or a fool?
Under the horrified glance of Lord Xiansheng, a strong five-colored beam burst out from Princess Zhang Le"s Nascent Soul. Not only did the heavenly thunder not smite her Nascent Soul into a wisp of smoke, instead, it grew larger and looked denser. Its complexion became even better, and was flying and wheeling joyfully around Princess Zhang Le. Soon afterward, it waved at the dark cloud in the sky once again, causing another thunderbolt to come smiting at it.
Lord Xiansheng and Catfish-flood-dragon were totally struck dumb. They exchanged a glance, then shook their heads at the same time.
"Brother Wu Qi is a monster, and Princess Zhang Le is a monster as well!" said Catfish-flood-dragon in a low voice, "How is she managing to fight against a heavenly thunder with her Nascent Soul? Xiansheng, give it a try, will ya?"
Gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth in anger, Lord Xiansheng gave Catfish-flood-dragon a fierce glare and snapped, "Why don"t you give it a try?"
She shook her big catfish head and murmured, "But, I"m afraid of death! Why don"t you give it a try?"
Lord Xiansheng did not answer her. He frustratingly decided to just ignore this one-track-minded catfish and turned to look at Wu Qi. "Do you think that you are the only one who is afraid of death?" thought Lord Xiansheng.
The white fluid oozing out from Wu Qi"s skin was drying up gradually. His body began to shrivel up slowly, as if all his blood essence was being absorbed by some strange things. Before long, he became all skin and bones, looking like a mere skeleton. Despite that, he was shrouded in a five-colored auspicious gleam, while there were streaks of strong golden light emitting from within his body vaguely.
Nourished by a vast amount of Heaven Immortal blood and soul crystals, the ten innate Spirit Embryos inside Wu Qi"s Seven Stealing Heaven Meridians began to grow bigger and stronger, just like the embryo inside a chicken egg which had received sufficient nutrients. At the same time, he was actually in a state of enlightenment. Although he had just meditated for thirty-six days, the result he obtained was equal to an ordinary cultivator who had mediated for several tens of thousands of years. He had fused all the enlightenment for the Heavenly Dao which he obtained from Immortal Chang Wu and the rest of the Immortals into his innate Spirit Embryos.
If Wu Qi were to study the Heavenly Dao himself, even if he managed to enter the enlightenment state, what he could potentially obtain would be very limited. He would have to start from the scratch, capturing the Heavenly Dao all by himself. But, he did not have to do that now.
With Lady Dark Gold Water"s memory, along with the Heavenly Dao Epigraph found inside Immortal Chang Wu and the others" immortal souls, Wu Qi was actually standing on the shoulders of these Immortals. What he needed to do was to understand the Heavenly Dao and principles which they had learned before.
The thirty-six days of enlightenment state had given Wu Qi"s innate Spirit Embryos everything they needed to advance into the next realm.
*Crack!* *Crack!*
Suddenly, countless cracks opened up on Wu Qi"s innate Spirit Embryos, from which, strong five-colored rays shot out. Before long, all Spirit Embryos shattered completely, while some useless spirit fluid flowed out from them and oozed out through Wu Qi"s skin. This was the white fluid that was sending forth a strong fragrance just now. When it left his body, it also took away some impurities and cleansed his body.
Ten Nascent Souls hovered quietly inside Wu Qi"s Seven Stealing Heaven Meridians, each only as large as a sesame seed. Some of them were weeping, some laughing, some jumping up and down and dancing, and some sitting cross-legged. In short, they were showing all kinds of expressions and behaviors that changed rapidly and endlessly. As Wu Qi"s ten Gold Cores were fused with his three spiritual and seven physical souls, which then gave birth to ten Spirit Embryos, so naturally, ten Nascent Souls were the result of their next evolution.
When these Nascent Souls were formed, the Heaven and Earth immediately sensed them and sent down the heavenly tribulation. However, as they were blocked by Princess Zhang Le, they did not cause any damage to Wu Qi.
Nevertheless, Wu Qi was immediately greeted with another crisis. With the formation of ten Nascent Souls, a violent suction force that could scare any ordinary Immortal cultivator to death burst out immediately. Everything inside his body was sucked into the ten innate Nascent Souls. In just a blink of an eye, the entirety of his power depleted completely. The energies inside of two fake Nascent Souls were sucked dry as well, causing them to nearly disintegrate. After his energies were sucked dry, these innate Nascent Souls began to absorb his blood and energy essence, and even his life force. At the same time, they also sucked away the Nascent Divinity hiding inside his spiritual ocean, which he had formed using a mystic technique.
The sudden shriveling of his body was the phenomenon caused by his Nascent Souls when they were sucking his life force, blood and energy essence.
Seeing that his bones and even marrow were about to be sucked away by the ten innate Nascent Souls, Wu Qi"s finger twitched a little. Immediately, all the Heaven Immortal"s blood and soul crystals stored in the Black Dragon Spirit Ring rushed into his body. The blood crystals which he obtained after refining Immortal Chang Wu, Vagabond Qing Yi, Immortal Xuan Yang, and three Heaven Immortals who died in the icy tunnel of the Heavenly Water Dark Palace all entered his body at once.
A loud rumble was heard coming out from Wu Qi"s body. It sounded like the collapse of many mountains and the splitting of great oceans. Several thousand blood and soul crystals shattered at the same time, producing a vast amount of energy and being absorbed into his ten innate Nascent Souls at the same time. They grew larger abruptly, from the size of a sesame seed to about one-foot tall. They laughed, then opened their mouths together and sprayed out ten streams of extremely pure innate five elements energy.
Red fire, green wood, white gold, dark water, yellow earth... Five colored energies filled Wu Qi"s entire body in just a twinkle. At the same time, an enormous life force, blood, and energy essence, that was one hundred times stronger than what was sucked away previously, were being sent back to Wu Qi.
His shriveled body was instantly refilled. Cracking sounds could be heard coming from his skin, as they began to crack inch by inch. A total of nine layers of dead skin shed off from his body, each layer thicker than the skin of an old cow, revealing new skin that was several times finer and smoother than the finest jade.
The innate energies were rus.h.i.+ng and slamming crazily inside Wu Qi"s body. They tempered his body from inside out like countless hammers, destroying all the impurities hiding in his fleshly body, and returning him the purest body he had when he was newly born, a fleshly body without any impurities. At that moment, Wu Qi"s Dao heart was clear. Every thought and idea that came from his three spiritual and seven physical souls, which had been split and fused with the ten Nascent Souls, could always resonate with the principles of the Heaven and Earth. Also, he was shocked to find out that he seemed to possess the same magical ability as Princess Zhang Le, which allowed him to enter the state of enlightenment with ease.
His innate Nascent Souls continued to grow. Wu Qi extended his hand and performed a grabbing gesture towards the Black Dragon Spirit Ring. Countless energy stones rushed out like a tidal wave, with the energies contained in them transformed into a blinding white light and rus.h.i.+ng into Wu Qi"s palm. Very quickly, ten innate Nascent Souls absorbed and digested these energies, transforming them into misty, purple colored innate energies stored inside them. Finally, they sprayed out a great amount of energies, injecting them into all the meridians inside Wu Qi"s body.
Endless mysteries of the Heavenly Dao flashed across Wu Qi"s mind. Those were the secrets found in the Heavenly Dao Epigraph, which he obtained from the Heaven Immortals killed by him. HIs cultivation base and power increased rapidly, and in just a blink of an eye, all ten innate Nascent Souls had advanced to peak-stage Nascent Soul realm.
After that, the rapid progression of his cultivation base came to a sudden stop, because his fleshly body could no longer endure the energy that came from the violent advancement. If he continued, his fleshly body would definitely disintegrate on the spot. The energies contained in each of his innate Nascent Soul was ten times that of an ordinary peak-stage Nascent Divinity cultivator. So, by adding all the energies inside ten innate Nascent Souls, it was a shocking one hundred times more than an ordinary peak-stage Nascent Divinity cultivator! Regardless of the quality of his energy, the total amount could compare to the combination of three to five Heaven Immortals!
In terms of purity, the innate energies of peak-stage Nascent Soul realm were just slightly weaker than a Heaven Immortal!
Wu Qi finally possessed the overall strength to fight against a Heaven Immortal.
All of a sudden, he heard some wind breaking noises coming from the distance. He jumped to his feet immediately, reached out his hand, and sprayed out a stream of flame, burning everything around him into ashes, including the Ganoderma which transformed from weeds after absorbing the fluid from his Spirit Embryos.
The cultivators of Yuan Hua Sect had noticed the loud commotion here, and they had finally arrived.