103: start

Time flew by.

Nine days passed in a flash.

During these nine days, Li Xiangyun tried several times to offer his long-overdue apology.

But he returned empty-handed every time.

This made Li Xiangyun a bit troubled, yet helpless.

At the same time, Fire Old also sent news.

During these nine days, there were indeed people coveting the Li Clan around Purple Cloud Lake, but they were all scared away by Fire Old's powerful Divine Sense.

This made Li Xiangyun breathe a sigh of relief; he was right to trust Fire Old.

Early this morning, before the mist had dispersed, a knock sounded at Li Xiangyun's door.

Opening the door, he saw that the visitor was Long Hua.

Perhaps it was because the Long Clan knew he had a good relationship with Long Hua.

Now, all matters concerning the Long Clan were handled by Long Hua.

Looking at Long Hua, who appeared before him, Li Xiangyun asked, "What is it?"

Long Hua respectfully bowed and said, "Immortal Master, the Clan Chief has invited you over. The promotion ceremony is about to begin."

In fact, it's naturally not that simple for a Cultivator to advance from Golden Core to Nascent Soul; they can't just sit down and immediately begin their Breakthrough.

Instead, they need to adjust their state, making their Breakthrough in a Peak condition.

After all, a Cultivator's Breakthrough can be said to be a matter of life and death; success means vast skies, failure means an abyss.

Therefore, Real Person Leilong had already begun preparations several days ago. He only finished preparing today.

In fact, even if Long Hua hadn't said anything, Li Xiangyun would have known the time was close by observing the accumulating thunderclouds in the sky.

Thus, without hesitation, Li Xiangyun followed Long Hua to a pavilion.

The pavilion towered into the clouds, offering a clear view of Real Person Leilong on the nearby cliff.

His Aura was profound, his eyes were tightly shut, and a violent Qi emanated from his body, with flashes of lightning appearing intermittently.

It was clear that Real Person Leilong had already begun his Breakthrough.

But things were naturally not that simple; merely adjusting one's state was certainly not enough. A Cultivator also needed to fuse his own Divine Sense with his Golden Core.

Only then could he attract the Heavenly Tribulation, use the power of heavenly lightning to shatter the Core, and thus establish himself anew to achieve Nascent Soul.

Every step in this process was extremely dangerous, requiring utmost caution.

Take the step of fusing Divine Sense with the Golden Core.

The Golden Core, though seemingly smooth and gentle, is actually extremely violent, as it contains all of a Cultivator's spiritual power.

And Divine Sense, as an extension of a Cultivator's soul, seems powerful but is incredibly fragile.

Therefore, fusing the Golden Core with Divine Sense is a challenge no less difficult than Mars colliding with Earth.

To complete this step, one shouldn't expect it to take less than ten days to half a month.

Therefore, Li Xiangyun only glanced at it before retracting his gaze.

In fact, this current step was what the Long Clan worried about the most, and it was also when Li Xiangyun was needed as a Protector.

Because even a slight disturbance during this process could lead to all efforts being in vain.

When Real Person Leilong draws the Heavenly Tribulation, that will actually be the safest time.

At that point, everyone would probably be too busy running to even think about getting close.

After all, anyone who enters the Heavenly Tribulation's range will prematurely trigger their own Heavenly Tribulation.

At that time, attempting to overcome a Nascent Soul tribulation with a Golden Core body would truly be courting death.

As for why Real Person Leilong didn't quietly make his Breakthrough but instead spread the news.

That's because when a Golden Core Cultivator begins to attempt the Fusion of his Golden Core and Divine Sense, he will attract the power of the Heavenly Tribulation.

At this point, the power of the Heavenly Tribulation will remain hidden, only descending when the Cultivator has completely finished.

In other words, once it begins, there's no hiding it from others.

Since it couldn't be hidden, the Long Clan might as well make a big show of it and even invite some helpers.

Subsequently, Li Xiangyun looked around and noticed four other pavilions surrounding the cliff, each with a Golden Core True Person.

The five pavilions were constructed around the cliff in a very special orientation, forming a Formation – the Five Elements Heavenly Gang Array.

Using five Heavenly Gang Stones to draw in the earth's yin-sha Qi, transforming it into Five Elements Heavenly Gang power, it could both attack and defend, making it a Fourth Grade Low Grade Formation.

The Golden Core Cultivators in the pavilions were all familiar to Li Xiangyun, including people from the Three Great Sects.

However, except for Lin Ye, the other two only gave Li Xiangyun a cold glance before retracting their gazes.

Li Xiangyun didn't mind this and instead looked straight ahead.

Long Ruoxuan's figure was right there.

Today, she wore a white dress, appearing crystal clear and flawlessly white under the sunlight.

As if sensing Li Xiangyun's gaze, Long Ruoxuan's eyes met his.

But there was no ripple of emotion, and her gaze quickly shifted away indifferently.

Li Xiangyun hesitated to speak, but ultimately chose silence.

It wasn't that he chickened out, but rather that now was truly not the right time.

After all, Real Person Leilong was still making his Breakthrough; if he were to fail because of this, it would truly be over.

Time slowly passed like this, and in a blink of an eye, thirteen days had gone by.

The dark clouds grew deeper, like ink-dyed cotton, twisting into a vortex above the cliff, with silver-snake-like lightning flashing through the gaps in the clouds.

Real Person Leilong sat cross-legged on the cliff, his Dao robe flapping loudly in the strong wind. His Aura was now somewhat unfathomable.

Even Li Xiangyun found it hard to discern Real Person Leilong's true depth.

If it had been a dozen days ago, Li Xiangyun felt he could still contend with him.

But now, Li Xiangyun had a faint feeling of facing Immortal Master Xuanwu.

At this point, Li Xiangyun guessed that the Heavenly Tribulation would descend in just a day or two.

It's just... why was it still so calm?

A hint of doubt arose in Li Xiangyun's heart, along with some unease.

"Boom~"

Just then, a roar came from the sky.

The next moment, the sky completely darkened.

"They're here!" Li Xiangyun suddenly stood up!

A soul banner suddenly appeared high in the sky; each time it swayed, countless gray, dusty soul shadows seeped from its surface, gathering in the Void Realm to form a gigantic skeletal hand that blotted out the sky.

Then, a withered hand appeared in the Void Realm and grabbed the soul banner. It was a gray-robed old man, his body shrouded in black mist.

"Hehehe, want to Breakthrough to Nascent Soul?"

"Just in time to use you all as sacrifices for the banner."

At the same time, three-zhang-high blood waves suddenly erupted from the ground. From within the three-zhang-high crimson waves, a giant whale phantom with backward-facing barbs on its back broke through the waves, its fins embedded with hundreds of blood-stained broken swords.

A middle-aged man wearing a blood-colored mask stood atop the whale beast. The towering giant waves instantly transformed into tens of millions of blood swords, pointing directly at Li Xiangyun and the others.

"This Venerable has already smelled the fragrance of fresh blood!"

Blood Blade Elder licked the blood drop on the tip of his sword, his expression frenzied.

Immediately after, a chilling, eerie light suddenly appeared in the sky.

The next second, seven bronze soul lamps appeared beneath the tribulation clouds, their wicks flickering with eerie blue flames. A dark black coffin emerged and then slammed open.

Subsequently, a tall figure, dark green all over, stepped out of the coffin and stood before everyone.