Fu Xi Yan had run so hard his shoes were almost worn paper-thin before he finally saw lightning flashing ahead. The rolling black clouds, flying sand, and tumbling stones reminded him of the day Zhu Bajie went to Gao Village to take his bride.
What the hell? Had someone organized an anniversary celebration for Wuneng?
Elio’s Notes: Zhu Bajie is also called Zhu Wuneng, his Buddhist name, in Journey to the West. Gao Village is where he sought a bride. Fu Xi Yan is making a modern wedding-anniversary joke about Pigsy.
He ran with the wind whistling under his arms, desperately cracking jokes to himself to find amusement in his misery. But when he finally caught up to Pei Yuan Jin and saw his dreadful condition, he could not find anything funny at all.
Jing Luo stood not far away, protecting him through the tribulation. Judging by the lightning striking in all directions, though, nobody within a hundred li would be foolish enough to come looking for trouble.
Fu Xi Yan rushed over and whispered, “What’s happening?”
Jing Luo smiled bitterly. “Martial artists have spent centuries following the wrong road. Naturally no one knows what the true scenery looks like or how to reach it.”
Seeing bloody wounds even across Pei Yuan Jin’s Extreme Yang Sacred Body, Fu Xi Yan was beside himself with distress. He immediately sent the Earth Mirror over.
Compared with the Heaven Mirror, which had entered his body and promptly settled down like a stone dropped into the sea or an old monk in deep meditation, the Earth Mirror was much livelier and didn’t mind being lent out occasionally. This time, however, it merely revolved around Pei Yuan Jin without touching him. Whenever lightning struck, it dodged with uncanny quickness, behaving like a complete coward.
At first all Fu Xi Yan’s attention was fixed on Pei Yuan Jin. Only after watching for a while did he notice something else wrong. The Crimson Dragon King lay right beside Pei Yuan Jin, but Pei Yuan Jin wasn’t picking it up.
Anyone who’d read cultivation novels knew that spiritual artifacts and treasures were used as temporary shields during tribulations, each absorbing a bolt on their owner’s behalf. Did that not work here?
He was so anxious that he couldn’t help saying the thought aloud.
“Look carefully at the sword,” Jing Luo said.
Fu Xi Yan stared and saw a crack running from the Crimson Dragon King’s hilt to its tip, twisting like a bolt of lightning. So Pei Yuan Jin wasn’t refusing to use it. He couldn’t use it anymore.
Wasn’t this Golden Core lightning tribulation rather excessively powerful?!
Fu Xi Yan’s heart tightened. He immediately sent Fireworks in an Instant flying from the sheath on his back toward Pei Yuan Jin.
Though Pei Yuan Jin was surrounded by layer upon layer of lightning, his five senses were intact. He had known when Jing Luo arrived and when Fu Xi Yan arrived. He simply had no attention to spare them.
As Fireworks in an Instant reached the edge of the tribulation, it began humming, almost dropping under the overwhelming heavenly pressure. The Earth Mirror, which had been wandering timidly around the perimeter, suddenly spun back, nudged the sword’s hilt, and sent it into the heart of the lightning.
Fu Xi Yan thought that if Fireworks in an Instant had a spirit, it would probably curse the Earth Mirror, that coward who feared death but sent his teammate off to die, until the air turned blue.
The moment Pei Yuan Jin gripped the sword, his expression sharpened. He had been passively enduring the bolts, but now he rose to meet them again. This time, rather than blindly resisting, he treated each bolt as an opponent’s sword technique and deflected it sideways.
Watching a bolt of lightning that had been traveling vertically veer off course, Fu Xi Yan wanted to shout, “Great shot!”
Unfortunately, this tribulation did not respond to weakness by easing up. It responded to strength by growing stronger! A thicker, more powerful bolt descended moments later.
Pei Yuan Jin turned his wrist, thrust Fireworks in an Instant into the earth beside the Crimson Dragon King, and charged upward using his body as a sword. Fu Xi Yan’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest. He instinctively patted his clothes, wondering if he had anything else useful to send.
Beside him, Jing Luo pressed his lips together slightly and suddenly flung up his right hand. The Myriad Buddha Seal spun out of his sleeve.
Jing Luo’s renown in the martial world had little to do with his fighting skills. Peak Martial King was not especially impressive in the expert-filled Immortal Treasury Palace, particularly compared with the gifted father-and-son pair Pei Xiong Ji and Pei Yuan Jin. People’s admiration for Jing Luo was largely based on his former position as Chief Steward of the Lightning Division and his control of the palace’s laws and disciplinary authority.
Jing Luo also rarely fought in public, so the martial world knew little about his Myriad Buddha Seal. Fu Xi Yan had never paid it much attention either, until it blocked three lightning bolts and returned to Jing Luo’s hand looking unharmed.
“That was its limit,” Jing Luo sighed.
Fu Xi Yan looked closely and saw that the Myriad Buddha Seal’s color had indeed faded considerably, leaving it dull and gray. He didn’t know how many bolts the Crimson Dragon King had blocked before cracking, and assumed their endurance was roughly comparable.
Even with all the spiritual artifacts they could muster, however, they had not helped very much. The tribulation remained ferocious, with no end in sight.
Seeing Pei Yuan Jin’s injuries worsen, Fu Xi Yan finally lost patience and rushed forward. He pulled the Earth Mirror back into his body and turned himself into a spiritual artifact, intending to meet the lightning with his own flesh.
Pei Yuan Jin saw through his plan first, shifting several zhang away and leaving him lunging at empty air.
Jing Luo hurriedly grabbed him. “Don’t act rashly.”
“I’m far calmer than this lightning,” Fu Xi Yan protested.
But the situation had changed again. After several attempts, Pei Yuan Jin had finally discovered a way to deal with the lightning. Instead of meeting it head-on, he used skillful redirection to discharge its power.
Of course, he could not succeed every time or deflect the full force of every bolt. Nevertheless, his injuries were becoming less severe. The Extreme Yang Sacred Body was an extraordinarily powerful cultivation method. Though the bolts he was enduring were still trials of hardship rather than blessings, they were tempering his body. Even before reaching Golden Core, he had become stronger than he was before the tribulation.
After watching for a while, Jing Luo abruptly said, “What a pity.”
Fu Xi Yan knew his experience and judgment fell far short of a senior like Jing Luo. He hurried to ask, “What’s a pity?”
“You haven’t dual-cultivated together for long enough,” Jing Luo replied. “Otherwise, your true qi would be much more abundant, and he could withstand the tribulation far more easily.”
Fu Xi Yan opened his mouth and found himself speechless. There was no appropriate way to respond.
After a moment, he said, “If only we had Golden Origin Pills.”
So many cultivators in ancient times took Golden Origin Pills when advancing that there had to be a reason. Perhaps they helped increase one’s reserves of true qi. Fu Xi Yan was suddenly overcome with longing for Jiang Xiu and wished he would appear right in front of him in the next instant.
* * *
A carriage approaching from north to south had already reached the outskirts of Haojing. Two great clusters of thunderclouds swirled overhead, one above the city and the other to the southwest.
The carriage halted at the sight of these strange phenomena.
The martial artist respectfully asked Jiang Xiu, inside the carriage, where they should go.
“Thundercloud phenomena mean someone is about to break through,” Jiang Xiu said. Since he was working on Golden Origin Pills, he naturally knew about the Golden Core stage.
“But there are two of them,” the martial artist pointed out.
Jiang Xiu shot him a look that clearly meant I’m not blind. “Then there are two people.”
“Which way shall we go?”
“The emperor has evacuated the people, meaning Haojing is out of control and some demonic scoundrel has probably succeeded. That one’s most likely in the city. Southwest… Isn’t that where your foolish Chief Steward Qi went to intercept the tower? They probably botched it and called for help, luring the Young Master and the others away, didn’t they?” Jiang Xiu pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and said, “Let’s look southwest first.” From a few fragments of information, he had pieced together most of the truth.
“The road ahead is dangerous,” the martial artist said. “Why don’t I scout it out first, while you wait somewhere quiet, Elder Jiang?”
“If you leave, who will protect me? Won’t that be even more dangerous?” Jiang Xiu said impatiently.
The martial artist wanted to point out that there were other escorts, but Jiang Xiu had already ducked back inside the carriage, leaving no room for argument. He had no choice but to drive toward the phenomenon in the southwest.
* * *
The lightning had abandoned the idea of one bolt at a time. Sometimes two struck together, leaving no route of retreat. Standing beneath the tribulation, Pei Yuan Jin felt for the first time what it meant to have his skin split open everywhere, with not an inch left unharmed.
Another bolt struck his back and tore open an already bloody wound. His true qi was almost exhausted. He sank to one knee, breathing lightly.
But neither his sword intent nor his martial path wavered.
No one had traveled this road for centuries. Wild grass and thorns overgrowing the path were only to be expected. All he knew was that he had already begun the journey. If he kept going forward, hope must eventually come into sight.
With each repeated tempering, the true essence within him became smoother and rounder, gradually taking on a golden sheen. Though he had not formally reached Golden Core, hope was already before him.
Clatter, clatter…
Hoofbeats mixed with the rattle of carriage wheels.
He raised his eyes slightly toward the road, still having the presence of mind to wonder who was approaching at a moment like this.
It was not entirely curiosity. He was wary too.
After all, no ordinary person could approach while ignoring such a tribulation.
Fu Xi Yan’s hearing was not as keen as Pei Yuan Jin’s, but Jing Luo was beside him. At Jing Luo’s warning, he rushed forward to intercept the newcomers. He had never met the deputy chief steward of the Shaanxi branch, but he recognized the man poking his head out of the carriage window: Jiang Xiu.
Jiang Xiu appearing in Haojing now… Had something happened to Auntie Yu and the Prince of Longnan?
Fu Xi Yan’s heart lurched. Recently, there had been so much bad news and so little good that he couldn’t help mentally preparing for the worst.
Before the carriage had fully stopped, Jiang Xiu sprang down with surprising agility for a man of his age. Startled, Fu Xi Yan rushed over to support him. “Never mind me,” Jiang Xiu said. “How is the Young Master?”
Fu Xi Yan pointed at Pei Yuan Jin, who flickered amid the lightning. “Not good.”
This tribulation seemed endless.
Unfortunately, Fu Xi Yan had already searched the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror’s library several times for information on advancing to Golden Core. He had read everything useful, and none of it could help. All he could do now was worry from the sidelines.
As he was thinking this, he heard Jiang Xiu say, “I’ve finished refining the Golden Origin Pills.”
“Where?” Fu Xi Yan exclaimed in delight.
Jiang Xiu took out a medicine bottle and passed it to him. “But I don’t know whether the effects are what you described.”
Fu Xi Yan looked at Pei Yuan Jin’s stubborn, determined face with an aching heart. Grabbing the pills, he ran toward the center of the tribulation. “It can’t be worse than this!”
Seeing Fu Xi Yan approach again, Pei Yuan Jin was about to retreat when Fu Xi Yan pulled a Golden Origin Pill out and tossed it toward him. “Golden Origin Pill! Eat it!”
Pei Yuan Jin caught it instinctively.
The pill matched its name: golden and gleaming, and rather large, about the size of a thumbnail. At a time like this he had no inclination to examine it. He swallowed it immediately.
Normally, medicine took time to work. He had already prepared to endure for a while longer. Unexpectedly, the instant the Golden Origin Pill entered his stomach, its effects spread through his limbs and every part of his body. His pores seemed to open completely. Spiritual energy rushed in, and his exhausted true qi began circulating like rivers converging.
When the next bolt descended, Pei Yuan Jin used his fingers as a sword and sent the lightning straight back along its own path.
The tribulation clouds overhead actually seemed about to disperse!
Fu Xi Yan clasped his own hands in excitement. “Holy shit! It works!”
Works? It worked spectacularly.
Several more bolts descended. Their shapes and the number striking simultaneously seemed to have reached some upper limit, and none of the subsequent bolts was any stronger.
By the seventy-third bolt, as counted by Jing Luo, Pei Yuan Jin felt the lightning touch him like warm spring water. It no longer hurt at all. Instead, it was gentle and pleasant, and his skin rapidly healed. Its effects were second only to the Earth Mirror.
At the seventy-fourth, the Golden Core inside him began emitting a faint golden light, growing richer and deeper.
…
By the seventy-seventh, black sweat seeped from his body as his bones, muscles, and skin evolved into something tougher, stronger, and more compact.
…
At the seventy-ninth, his senses grew sharper. He could faintly smell a horse more than ten zhang away.
…
At the eighty-first, Pei Yuan Jin opened his eyes. The world was no longer the same.
The lightning withdrew, the clouds dispersed, and the sky cleared.