Chapter 262: Few Words, Major Matters The Myriad Spirits Calamity

Dao Men disciple Li Changshou respectfully addresses the heavens!

Beneath the boundless black clouds and amidst the surging spiritual energy, Li Changshou's long hair remained still, his long robe unmoving, as he stood atop a large rock, gazing up at the black clouds in the sky.

He shouted loudly, his voice drowning out the rushing wind and muffled thunder.

A hundred li away, four Dao Men experts couldn't help but listen intently, each feeling a bit puzzled. They wondered why Li Changshou was speaking out before his tribulation and what he intended to declare to the heavens.

But as Li Changshou's words echoed through the clouds, Xuan Du Shi and Yunxiao faintly sensed a wisp of vast, mysterious Dao rhythm lingering in the air.

The Tian Dao, or perhaps the ancestor of the Dao Men, was truly listening!

This...

Just as Xuan Du Shi was about to send a message warning Li Changshou not to speak recklessly, Li Changshou had already bowed in a Dao salute and declared loudly:

"Disciple, having cultivated in the Dao Men until now, is grateful for the grace of my masters, remembers the sacred teachings, has endured countless dangers, and finally attained the Dao realm!

Today, I present my Dao here and beseech the heavens for a test!

If the Tian Jie descends and my Dao crumbles, it is merely because I was too hasty in seeking progress and my cultivation was insufficient—I hold no resentment in my heart!

Heaven is vast, earth is profound, my Dao endures eternally!

I thank the Tian Dao for its care and for granting the realm of eternal immortality!"

After speaking, Li Changshou bowed deeply once more, then slowly floated upward, hovering about thirty zhang above the mountain peak.

At that moment, the observing Xuan Du Shi's expression was somewhat... complex.

Xuan Du Shi wanted to laugh but also felt that this was quite ingenious. After thinking it over, he could only say to himself that Li Changshou truly lived up to expectations.

This young disciple always managed to surprise him in various ways.

Beside him, Yunxiao also smiled faintly. She had been a bit worried earlier, but now she felt much more at ease.

Qiongxiao and Bixiao burst out laughing...

Bixiao said, "If all those undergoing tribulation shouted like this, the power of the Tian Jie could be weakened somewhat, then from ancient times to now, who knows how many more Jin Xian practitioners there would be."

However, as soon as Bixiao finished speaking, thunder rumbled fiercely above Li Changshou's head!

In the midst of the tribulation, Li Changshou heard only the thunder, but the four holy disciples nearby heard it transform into a heavenly might that pronounced...

"Excellent!"

Bixiao instinctively covered her mouth, her eyes showing a hint of shock.

It really worked?!

Beside her, Yunxiao glanced at her younger sister and said, "Speak no more; the Tian Dao has taken notice."

The expressions of the four became even more varied.

The Dao ancestor revealed his presence, heavenly might locked in; a bold cry before the tribulation, and a response in return.

Yunxiao secretly glanced at Xuan Du Shi, her beautiful eyes revealing a touch of remorse.

Earlier, she had thought this was another scheme by Xuan Du Shi to deepen the bond between her and the Sea God.

Now, it seemed that protecting the Sea God friend and stepping in to save him at a critical moment might require more than just her alone...

Crack—

Lightning serpents danced wildly in the sky, the tribulation clouds surged and began to contract rapidly, drawing in boundless spiritual energy from thousands of li around and combining it with vast heavenly might to reveal the true form of the Tian Jie!

The tribulation clouds shrank directly to three hundred li and thickened rapidly, spinning continuously above Li Changshou's head!

Li Changshou's immortal sense was suppressed by the heavenly might, allowing him only to barely detect the changes in the clouds, unaware of how they would evolve.

Suddenly, streaks of golden light appeared in the dark and gloomy world.

The overhead tribulation clouds took on a shape like a wardrobe, slowly rotating and dyeing the layers of clouds above and below with gold.

The golden light blazed, illuminating the surrounding ten thousand li as bright as day!

As the golden light faded, the tribulation clouds contracted once more, this time transforming into their final form—

A towering tower wrapped in clouds, ten thousand zhang high!

The tower had thirty-three levels, with flying eaves and sharp peaks. Each window displayed various divine spirits, fierce beasts, divine birds, and spiritual creatures, with all beings of heaven and earth finding their counterparts within.

In an instant, Qiongxiao and a certain black leopard a thousand li away exclaimed in unison.

"His Jin Xian tribulation is actually the second-ranked Wan Ling tribulation!"

"Roar!"

—In leopard tongue:

'It's truly the legendary top three Jin Xian tribulations, specifically the second-ranked Wan Ling Tian Jie!'

The black leopard finally breathed a sigh of relief and smirked smugly.

There's no way it'll have to eat tree bark now!

This Wan Ling tribulation had rarely appeared throughout history, and no one had ever heard of any being surviving it!

"Meow!"

—In leopard tongue:

'This is divine punishment, true divine punishment. Such a heaven-envied cultivator is truly rare since ancient times.'

The black leopard lay down comfortably, quietly awaiting the dissipation of the great tribulation, and began planning its next hunt.

Now, back to the site of Li Changshou's tribulation.

Yunxiao looked at her third sister and asked, "How does this Tian Jie have rankings?"

Qiongxiao laughed and said, "Sister, you're always in seclusion, so you wouldn't know about these things.

This ranking of Tian Jie was something our Jie Jiao immortals came up with when we had nothing else to do.

Back then, hundreds of us gathered to deduce it, tracing different Tian Jie information through the secrets of heaven, to provide some reference for our Jie Jiao disciples who need to undergo tribulation.

There's no way around it; our sect has too many members."

Xuan Du Shi smiled and asked, "So, what is the top-ranked Jin Xian tribulation?"

"Xuan Du Shi brother, for both the ascension tribulation and the Jin Xian tribulation, the top one is the Zi Xiao tribulation."

Bixiao replied softly, "The tribulation arises from spirits and is endured by spirits; the Wan Ling tribulation is already the strongest Tian Jie the heavens impose on living beings.

That's how it was revealed in our deductions back then."

Xuan Du Shi nodded slowly, sighing gently, "Changshou has truly reached his limit from when he was in the Tian Xian realm."

Qiongxiao asked, "Xuan Du Shi brother, you are also of human origin—what was your Jin Xian tribulation like?"

Yunxiao sternly admonished her, "Do not ask Xuan Du Shi brother about such private matters!"

Qiongxiao quickly lowered her head and pouted, looking aggrieved.

Xuan Du laughed and said, "This isn't really a secret.

Back then, Teacher took me into the Xuan Huang Tower and taught me the great Dao. I don't know how much time passed, but I fully comprehended all that Teacher imparted, reaching beyond the Jin Xian realm.

When I left the tower, I didn't undergo a Tian Jie; it must have been that the Xuan Huang Tower endured it for me...

The three of you sisters probably didn't go through a Tian Jie either."

"You're right, Xuan Du Shi brother," Bixiao giggled, "We transformed at the end of antiquity and were already beings of immortality."

Hearing this, Xuan Du Shi chuckled lightly, as if sensing something, and said softly,

"It's starting."

The three sisters of Xiao also turned their attention to where Li Changshou was.

The tower in the sky began to spin faster, and the Tian Jie was about to descend!

Li Changshou looked up and saw only a vortex collapsing inward, with lightning spots flashing continuously within, as if it were about to swallow him whole.

It was coming.

Li Changshou slowly flew up another hundred zhang, gripping a Ling Bao iron pen in his hand. Immortal power surged through his body, and he quickly affixed several black paper talismans to his wrist and chest.

For the first Tian Jie strike, he intended to withstand it with his own strength, to test its intensity and decide which plan to use.

Bring it on!

Sizzle—

Within the tower, in the vortex, the thirty-six lightning spots suddenly extinguished, but no lightning pillars or rain fell...

The world fell silent, and Li Changshou held his breath, fully focused.

Why had the lightning spots vanished?

He felt the tribulation clouds above were brewing something, gathering some force, but it was invisible to the eye and undetectable by immortal sense.

Suddenly, a thin strand of black lightning appeared at the center of the vortex. It was no thicker than a thumb, crossing through layers of space, and slowly struck down toward the top of Li Changshou's head!

Three flowers manifested on Li Changshou's head, chest, and abdomen; they trembled together, his body shook violently, his face flushed red, and he spat out a mouthful of blood foam. His aura fluctuated wildly!

He was lightly injured!

What kind of Tian Jie was this?

Li Changshou was alarmed in his heart, elevating his most intense tribulation plan. He wiped the blood from his mouth and stared at the forty-nine lightning spots beginning to flicker in the sky.

Swallowing a spiritual pill, Li Changshou focused fully.

Glancing down, he saw that the barren mountain below had half its body vanish into thin air!

His Tian Jie was truly not easy to endure!

Li Changshou took a slow breath, raised his hand to write a "Dao" character, and spiritual lights flashed around him as layers of talismans activated.

Based on Weng Nian Qian Shangren's Tian Jie, he should have some time to prepa...re...

Li Changshou looked down again and saw that the vanished half of the barren mountain had sprouted clusters of flame lotuses. Orange flames flickered and surged, enveloping him.

Tian fire?

Was the second Tian Jie coming already?!

A howling wind emerged from the vortex above, and at that moment, the forty-nine glowing lightning spots flashed and extinguished again!

Another black tribulation lightning struck down!

This time, it was as thick as a baby's arm, twisting crookedly through the layers of space and heading straight for Li Changshou's forehead...

Li Changshou: ...

Fortunately, he had anticipated this possibility.

"Rise!"

With a light shout, the "Dao" character floating in front of Li Changshou's chest shot upward, barely blocking the lightning.

Then, Li Changshou's iron pen flew swiftly, writing the characters for "Heaven," "Earth," "Law," "Origin," "Self," and "Nature" in succession!

These large characters formed at the tip of his Judge's Pen and flew up one after another, joining the "Dao" character to form eight barriers against the black lightning!

Not only that, immortal power surged around Li Changshou, and the Immortal-Gathering Talisman on his chest ignited. Twelve petals made of immortal power appeared at his feet, closing together to envelop him layer by layer.

All these preparations were completed in an instant!

The lightning struck down; the eight characters shone brightly, each holding for a moment before shattering in sequence!

Meanwhile, the flame lotuses surged up, their flames licking at Li Changshou's body.

The lightning fell, and Li Changshou clenched his left fist, slamming it upward. The blood patterns engraved on his fist glowed, clashing directly with the lightning!

The second black Tian lightning flickered a few times before turning into a wisp of black smoke dissipating from the sky.

Li Changshou's left fist was mangled with blood and flesh, and he spat out another mouthful of blood...

However, this time, his aura only trembled. Thanks to his preparations, the previous injuries didn't worsen, and his Yuan Shen had stabilized on its own.

Although the lightning had dispersed, the surrounding Tian fire continued to scorch his immortal power. In the air, one green sword shadow after another slashed down!

Li Changshou wielded his pen to counter, his figure darting through the Tian fire in the sky, writing character after character with his Judge's Pen!

With his long hair flying, he looked like a fire god descending, with just a hint of elegance...

The assault of the second Tian Jie lasted for about a third of an incense stick's time.

Comparing it to Weng Nian Qian Shangren's Tian Jie, it was roughly equivalent to the power of Weng Nian Qian Shangren's sixth strike...

After blocking the second Tian Jie, Li Changshou gained some confidence and made a full assessment of his third Tian Jie's power, bringing out new trump cards.

As the Tian fire receded, Li Changshou swallowed another pill, holding the Judge's Pen in his right hand and a carving knife in his left. Seizing the brief lull in the Tian Jie, he wrote out a hundred characters of the Shen Nong Jing in the air.

In ancient times, Shen Nong obtained heavenly grains and cultivated the five grains, tasted a hundred herbs to compile medical texts, and saved countless mortals, thus becoming a sage of the human race and one of the Three Sovereigns.

This passage of the Shen Nong Jing praised Shen Nong's virtues;

The glittering hundred characters, once written, rushed toward Li Changshou and transformed into intricate talismans, like a robe of talismans draped over him.

The third Tian Jie gave him no more time to prepare and activated swiftly.

This time, Li Changshou's heart was filled with numerous illusions, as heart demons began to stir...

This was only the third one, yet the conventional forms of the Jin Xian tribulation were fully displayed!

But these heart demons...

Were a bit...

Underwhelming.

Li Changshou looked at the scenes emerging in his heart: first, his master appeared before his younger self, suddenly drawing a sword to kill him.

Then, his charming junior sister, the poisonous junior sister in battle robes undressing before him, and the smiling, bouncing little uncle...

Uh, why was You Qin junior sister in it every time?

Did his subconscious really crave... cough, impossible. Even if it was a heart demon, his junior sister still looked the cutest, and his little uncle the most impactful.

Shaking his head slightly, Li Changshou began recalling the new edition of the Robust Hundred Beauties Aging Diagram in his heart!

With a "ding," his Dao heart cleared completely, and he even couldn't help dry-heaving toward the Tian Jie.

The lightning strikes became even more ferocious as a result.

When the first black tribulation lightning appeared, even Xuan Du Shi couldn't help but feel anxious for Li Changshou and prepared to intervene.

This was no ordinary Jin Xian tribulation.

Fortunately, Li Changshou held on; not only the first, but the second, third, and fourth lightning strikes, he handled adeptly, repelling and dispersing the Tian Jie each time, bearing it all himself!

The might of Li Changshou's Wuji Perfect Dao Foundation was on full display—neither Tian fire could burn it away nor Tian wind cut it down!

As the Tian Jie grew stronger in leaps and bounds, Li Changshou revealed more and more divine abilities and techniques. Even Xuan Du Shi, with his vast experience, found it hard to keep up...

This guy had hidden so much during his battle against the Jin Xian in the East Sea!

By the fifth Tian Jie, Xuan Du Shi had already spotted twelve kinds of combat divine abilities on Li Changshou.

Aside from the scripture-writing technique, the Three Flavors True Flame, and those black paper talismans, the rest were ones Li Changshou had never shown before.

What caught Xuan Du Shi's eye most was the lightning technique Li Changshou had just displayed.

Condensing the Five Thunders in his palm, drawing on pure Yang to invoke the wood god!

Li Changshou was actually using lightning to counter lightning, borrowing the Tian Jie's own lightning power to weaken it—this was quite innovative.

But...

"Xuan Du Shi brother," Yunxiao asked, "Did you give him enough spiritual pills? His immortal power is depleting too quickly; I'm worried he won't hold up later."

"Well," Xuan Du Shi pondered, "I only gave him two Nine-Turn Golden Pills; I didn't provide any other spiritual pills.

He is skilled in the Dao of Pills and previously received pill methods from Laojun, so that shouldn't be a concern."

Hearing this, Bixiao and Qiongxiao exchanged glances, their eyes sparkling with excitement.

Yunxiao breathed a slight sigh of relief and continued to focus intently on Li Changshou, her delicate hand clutching a small golden pail...

Amid the rampaging Tian wind and scorching Tian fire, Li Changshou had now returned to his true appearance. All disguises had been stripped away by the Tian Jie, and his robes barely covered him, relying on immortal power to conceal the exposed parts.

Li Changshou withstood the fifth Tian Jie with all his might, his injuries worsening slightly and his immortal power depleted by more than half.

The medicinal power of the pills in his body continued to spread, and the pills enhancing his lightning resistance were used up again.

Li Changshou swallowed two more pills and looked up at the changes in the tribulation cloud vortex...

At that very moment, three figures flew out from the distant forest, each quickly writing a "Teleport" character and colliding with it, vanishing with a whoosh!

When the three figures reappeared, they were a hundred zhang away from Li Changshou, rushing toward him.

Qiongxiao almost instinctively moved to block them, her hand already grasping the Golden Jiao Scissors, but Yunxiao extended her hand to stop her.

"It's his incarnations."

The three incarnations swiftly reached Li Changshou's side, each extending a palm to touch him.

Immortal power flowed back, and Li Changshou took a deep breath as the three paper Daoists deflated rapidly, turning into three paper figures that he held and stowed in the treasure pouch at his waist.

Immortal power, fully restored!

Li Changshou's eyes gleamed with divine light, and the tribulation clouds above trembled slightly. Eighty-one lightning spots flashed, and a divine lightning as thick as a water bucket, black with hints of purple, struck down fiercely from the sky.

Tian lightning hooked the earth fire, astral wind aided the profound ice!

Flames surged from below again, wind swords slashed from the sides of the lightning, and spears of profound ice thrust from all directions, piercing toward every part of Li Changshou's body!

Li Changshou shouted lightly, immortal light surging around him as he unleashed all his techniques once more, his figure moving as fast as an illusion to counter the incoming Tian Jie.

But the sixth one seemed to have something new...

Li Changshou couldn't see the anomalies above, but Xuan Du Shi and the others could clearly see:

Within that ten-thousand-zhang tower, hundreds of figures jumped from the windows of the lower three levels, plummeting downward.

"Kill—"

The battle cries suddenly mixed with the thunder!

Li Changshou, already dealing with the five tribulations of wind, fire, lightning, ice, and heart, quickly looked up to see hundreds of humanoid figures in the air, like heavenly soldiers, charging down with overwhelming killing intent.

Damn, has the Tian Jie gained sentience?

Cough, this should just be a manifestation of Tian Jie power, essentially the same as the lightning and such.

Li Changshou dared not be careless. To be safe, while these figures were still descending, he quickly threw out ten paper Daoists. These paper Daoists dodged the rampaging Tian Jie, soared into the high sky, and expended all their immortal power, each flinging out dozens of...

Jade Immortal Beans!

With a series of pops, hundreds of Immortal Bean warriors appeared in the air, charging toward the descending figures.

The advantage of the paper Daoist-Bean Soldier system was evident here.

It didn't require Li Changshou to expend extra immortal power; the paper Daoists' energy had been prepared in advance.

Of course, these Immortal Bean soldiers were just testing the waters. If they could delay things a bit, that would be ideal, preventing Li Changshou from being overwhelmed.

Tsk, this Tian Jie today truly didn't disappoint; it was full of "new" moves that even Weng Nian Qian Shangren hadn't experienced...