Hui froze, staring up at the mass of approaching cultivators. Subconsciously, he touched his robes, the place where hed kept the jade bird his master had given him before sending him off to Twin Elental City. Nothing remained. In all his changes and outfit swaps, the jade had vanished along the way.
He took a deep breath. Master might have noticed my pulse of qi earlier. He is Master, after all. Still, I cant count on it.
The three representatives charged into the sky, firing off powerful magics as they charged. Three Mysterious Heavenly Forest cultivators peeled off from the mass of cultivators to et the representatives, and the three pairs instantly locked in combat.
Hui drew the lotus seed out from his storage ring. He clenched it in his hand, biting his lip. Last ti, the lotus beast was too powerful for Bai Xue to handle alone. If thats the case, it should be at least at the peak of the fourth realm, if not at the fifth realm. Shes from an immature lotus blossom, and Bai Jingwen was weaker than Bai Fenfeng, but but its better than having no hope!
Jin Xian landed beside him, carrying Gu Tian under one arm. She set him down and stepped aside.
Hui didnt acknowledge her arrival. He hadnt noticed when, but at so point, Jin Xian had beco an extension of his will, to the point he didnt need to consciously think to control her. She still possessed her own will, but allowed him to suppress it, quietly rging her subconscious with his.
Gu Tian! Hui barked.
Y-yes! Gu Tian replied, standing up straight.
Im about to release the lotus beast. Can you incite her to attack the other cultivators here?
Gu Tian hesitated. After a second, he nodded his head once, shortly. Ill do my best.
Hui drew a deep breath. He tossed the lotus seed into the air and made a hand sign, dispelling the seal on its shell.
The seed trembled. It split, and a green sprout burst from the gap. In the next instant, green flesh burst forth, forming Bai Jingwens shape once more. The lotus beast landed softly on the balls of its feet and took a step forward. Lotus petals sprouted over her body, forming robes. A lotus grew just over her ear, sprouting into a hair decoration. She turned and looked at Hui with seed-black eyes.
Hui reached out, then frowned. Shes equivalent to the mid fourth tier not unimpressive, but not earthshaking, either. I need to power her up, sohow. It should be possible, right? Bai Fenfeng, after all
Bai Jingwen stepped toward him, baring her teeth.
Gu Tian! Hui shouted, jolted back to reality.
Gu Tian lifted his flute. A mysterious lody sounded out, and the lotus beast froze. She shifted, then turned to the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect cultivators. Veins burst out over her limbs. Her dark green hair flowed like vines through the air. She grit her teeth and charged into the battle.
As she ran, Hui pointed a finger at her back. He drew a songbird from within his dantian and passed it into her back. Bai Jingwen trembled, and in the sa instant, her bodily might surged. Her cultivation base, too, soared.
Huis eyes widened. Compared to Bai Fenfengs lotus beasts diet of death qi, it seems like using life qi is twice the results for half the effort! Imdiately, he sent another two songbirds into her back, then another one. Bai Jingwens cultivation base surged to the peak of the fourth realm.
She charged into battle, swinging left and right. With no tact, she smashed directly through one cultivator after another, careless of friend or foe, simply attacking whoever she reached. Gu Tians flute trilled, and she froze and gripped her ears, growling. She glared back at Hui and Gu Tian.
Huis scalp went numb. No, Elder Sister! Not us!
Her eyes narrowed. A second before she stepped toward them, a Mysterious Heavenly Forest disciple charged forward and slashed into her gut. Green ichor splashed over the ground. Bai Jingwen spun around and slapped the disciple. His head spun off, a startled expression frozen on his face even as it bounced over the ground.
Hui gestured, and Jin Xian leaped into battle as well. Jin Xian and Bai Jingwen cut a wave through the disciples on the ground.
Just as the tides were about to change, the wave of new disciples arrived. Magical attacks blasted at Jin Xian and Bai Jingwen, and the two staggered backward. Despite their resistance, wounds opened up on their flesh, and black and green blood splattered over the ground.
Hui grit his teeth. He sent death qi to Jin Xian, bolstering her own, and another songbird raced toward Bai Jingwen. Jin Xian shivered and leaped into battle, while Bai Jingwen threw back her head and loosed a roar. The air itself trembled under the roar, and the nearest cultivators fell back, bleeding from their eyes and ears.
Theyre mostly fourth tier or below. Mysterious Heavenly Forest is holding back its experts. Likewise, Sect Master Mu He glanced above, where the man floated, his arms crossed, expression stony. Hes letting his sect experience battle, isnt he? Using this as a chance to propel them to greater battle prowess, so they can scythe through the rest of the sects when he takes them on the attack!
Im not anyones battle experience! Im just a small cultivator, okay! Let live in peace!
But if you wont let live in peace ah, dammit! I dont want to kill, I dont like killing, but if you leave no choice, then!
Bolsttered by his injection of qi, Bai Jingwen and Jin Xian once again cut a bloody path through the cultivators. Bai JIngwens form twisted, constantly in flux. She got injured, then healed, injured and healed, on infinite loop. Hui watched her, half in a trance. The image of her body seared into his eyes, becoming a form of enlightennt for his body cultivation!
Lightning cracked, breaking Hui from his trance. He looked up, startled. Overhead, tribulation clouds gathered, weighty and dark. Hui glanced upward, then looked at Bai Jingwen. Another breath of qi, and shell burst directly into the fifth stage! But the tribulation
The tribulation! Heavenly Tribulation is incredibly dangerous, isnt it? Why dont I give these Mysterious Heavenly Forest disciples a taste of Heavens wrath? Huis eyes shone. Decisively, he fired his finger-gun and sent another songbird into Bai Jingwens back.
Bai Jingwens chest flew out, arms back, head tipped back. She howled again, fierce and powerful. The clouds churned, darkening to pure black. Filtered through the clouds, the light turned yellow-green, twisted by the power of the Heavenly Tribulation.
Sect Master Mu looked up, brows faintly furrowed. Whos drawing the Heavenly Tribulation?
Lightning gathered over Bai Jingwen. She stared up at it, her eyes narrowed savagely. Hui narrowed his eyes. Thats not going to strike enough people! I need to spread her aura over the field, but how?
His eyes lit up. He drew a dozen wood talismans and threw them at Bai Jingwen. They slapped gently into her back. She peered over her shoulder, reaching for them. Before she could remove the talismans, Hui made a handsign. The wood talismans activated. Under Huis will, they ford into a thin, rootlike network that spread out from Bai Jingwens feet over the floor of the battlefield. Bai Jingwen furrowed her brows, confused, and lifted her feet, but didnt attack the thin filants. She shook her feet and took a step forward. The roots dragged along after her.
The wood qi resonated with Bai Jingwens aura. The roots began to emanate her aura as well, and the Heavenly Tribulation spread out overhead, drawn to the thin network of roots as well as Bai Jingwen herself.
The first bolt of lightning descended onto Bai Jingwen. She scread and trembled, her skin blackened, pale lotus-root-like bones revealed under her green flesh. In the next breath, flesh reford over her bones, only to evaporate again as the lightning struck. Bai Jingwen scread and ran, attempting to evade the lightning.
Hui furrowed his brows. The tribulation spread out. Why is it only striking Bai Jingwen?
Her aura! Its strongest on Jingwen. Hui closed his eyes, reaching out to the root network. Jin Xian stood in front of him, blocking everyone from reaching him.
His qi t the network, and instantly, a shimring world of green spread out before him. Stars burst out here and there, connected by thin, spiderweb filants. In the center of the web, a huge ball of green stood out as the sun compared to the distant stars, almost too brilliant to look at.
Theres the problem! Hui snorted to himself, shaking his head. He reached out to the huge mass of aura and drew about sixty percent of it away into the network.
Bai Jingwen shuddered and staggered, suddenly weakened. Distantly, a segnt of roots suddenly glowed with extre green light, and a bud ford, struggling upward into soft flesh.
A disciple next to the bud stared, confused. He lashed out at the bud with his sword.
Lightning blasted from the sky and slamd into the disciple on its way toward the bud. The disciple stiffened, then fell limply to the ground, destroyed by the fifth stages Heavenly Tribulation.
Hui grinned. He opened his eyes, using his souls third eye to watch the network and his ball of aura beneath the fierce battle above. Gesturing, he steered the aural mass through the network, pausing it under one disciple after another. Wherever he saw a close fight, he guided the aura near the Mysterious Heavenly Forest disciple. Again and again, lightning struck, smashing down one Mysterious Heavenly Forest disciple after another.
The Heavenly Tribulation trembled, clouds blackening. The lightning flashed back and forth in its clouds, growing stronger with each pass. More and more lightning built up, until the cloud could hold no more. Lightning rained down on the battlefield. This lightning ignored the mass of aura, and instead indiscriminately struck at anything that had a scrap of Bai Jingwens aura in it. Mysterious Heavenly Forest and the righteous cultivators fled together, neither willing to fight in the sea of lightning that materialized between the heavens and the earth.
Bai Jingwen howled at the sky, clawing upward at it. Lightning dug holes in her body and singed her flesh, but she continued to scream defiantly at the heavens. Her body healed, but slower, no longer able to keep up with the damage. The aura in the roots and in her body flagged, weakening.
Huis eyes flashed. I understand, now. These passages, these roots, are like qi passages. The aura takes the place of qi. Burn qi, regenerate the body!
Blow after blow hamred Bai Jingwen. Her flesh peeled away, her roots collapsed, and she shriveled down into a seed. Overhead, the Heavenly Tribulation slowed. The lightning quieted, and the Heavenly Tribulation began to disperse. Bai Jingwen had failed to withstand the tribulation.
Waving his sleeve, Hui collected the seed. A quiet pulse of life qi remained within the seed, and he breathed out a sigh and put it away in his storage ring. Seems like the lotus beast has a truly powerful life force! Even the Heavenly Tribulation cant destroy it.
Eyes still glimring with the light of enlightennt, Hui gestured, reshaping the roots. They ford into an enormous talisman formula, glowing with wood qi. As the lightning sizzled to a halt and the battle fell into a lull, Hui slamd his hand down on the edge of the root network. The talisman activated, glowing a brilliant green. Wood qi spiraled toward Hui, sinking into his body and reforming it. He shivered. Green light burned from his body. It flew toward his forehead, where it ford a third petal mark opposite the second. This one was green and glowed with fierce life force as the wood qi continued to soak into Hui.
The trees around them began to tremble and shrivel up as their wood qi coursed into Hui. Hui took a deep breath and glanced around, suddenly aware that everyones eyes were on him. The sudden descent of the Heavenly Tribulation had halted the battle, and the roots which beca a talisman formula drew everyones attention. He swallowed and bit his lip. Too slow, too slow! I need to go faster. Im in the middle of a battle, after all!
Hui killed his qi, suppressing it down. Montarily, the talisman went dim.
Sect Master Mu stopped in midair. A second ago, hed taken a step forward, shocked by the sudden withering of his forest after the Heavenly Tribulation. Now, he stopped. He snorted dismissively and shook his head. Overreaching. Naturally, whatever technique he was attempting failed. Hes a thousand years too early to develop a new technique in the middle of battle!
In the next second, Huis eyes flew open. Green qi burned in his eyes and bead from his forehead. A black hole appeared in his hands as he drew in all the wood qi from the forest around him. Shockingly, so of the Mysterious Heavenly Forest disciples staggered as green wood qi erged from their pores and flew toward Hui. Standing in the middle of a maelstrom of wood qi, he seed to be devouring the whole forest!
His body began to transform. A greenish sheen colored his skin, and the maelstrom began to lash away so of his flesh, as though the body transformation art made him weaker, rather than stronger. However, where the flesh stripped away almost instantly, he regenerated the wound!
Sect Master Mus eyes widened. He bared his teeth. This lowly worm dares to try and drain my forest of qi right in front of ? Who gave him the right! He stepped forward, and in a flash, appeared in front of Hui, the prismatic wooden sword already slashing toward Huis abdon.
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