A Blind Swordsman's Sword Coffin

Li Guanqi was on his way to find Gu Changsheng when he ran into Gu Li and Xiang Huaizhi, who had just returned.

Seeing him in such a hurry, Gu Li asked in confusion, “Brother Li, where are you rushing off to?”

Meng Wanshu smiled. “To save lives.”

Xiang Huaizhi turned to her in surprise and murmured, “A spirit creature breaking through to tier seven? That truly is rare.”

He raised a hand, and a gentle spatial force enveloped the three of them, transporting them to a domain rich in spirit qi within the Gu clan estate.

Gu Changsheng was maintaining both a Spirit-Gathering Array and a Calming Array. There were array trays and rare treasures meant to help withstand Heavenly Tribulations scattered around him. Seeing the group arrive, he said solemnly, “We need to move farther away. Those two little fellows are about to break through.”

The corner of Li Guanqi’s mouth twitched. Peng Luo and the purple-skinned ginseng spirit must have eaten an absurd amount to be breaking through at the same time. He examined the contents of his storage ring. What he had inside seemed... nowhere near enough to repay the Gu clan.

But Gu Changsheng never brought it up. Instead, he struck up a conversation with Xiang Huaizhi. “Haha! Huaizhi, this is my first time seeing supernatural beings break through to tier seven!”

Xiang Huaizhi nodded with interest. “Mine too. It truly is rare. But... the energy inside them is such a chaotic mess. Aren’t you afraid they’ll burst?”

Gu Changsheng shrugged helplessly. “Those two little fellows broke into my clan’s pill treasury and devoured everything they could find. The fact that they haven’t burst yet is already a miracle.”

Just then, two tremendous surges of energy shot into the sky, and two separate thunderclouds formed one after the other. They differed drastically in scale, with one vast and the other small.

If the purple-skinned ginseng spirit survived its breakthrough, it would become a tier-five spirit, an extraordinary feat. Even now, it had already exceeded its natural limits.

Even Li Guanqi sighed. When he first encountered the purple-skinned ginseng spirit, it had already cultivated in solitude for nearly five hundred years, yet it had only reached late tier three and never even touched the threshold of tier four. Consuming Peng Luo’s essence had allowed it to advance to tier four, and after such a short time, it was already on the verge of reaching tier five.

A Heavenly Tribulation spanning just over two hundred zhang soon descended. The purple-skinned ginseng spirit sat cross-legged on the ground, enveloped in purple light as it silently endured the tribulation’s tempering and cleansing.

This was the difference between supernatural beings and ordinary cultivators. Supernatural beings had almost no means of resisting a Heavenly Tribulation. Regardless of their strength, they could only endure it in silence, as though the heavens were punishing them for daring to embark upon the path of cultivation.

The lightning bolts fell in rapid succession. To the onlookers, the strikes seemed no worse than mosquito bites, but to the purple-skinned ginseng spirit, every strike was deadly.

Boom! Boom!

Only two waves of lightning had fallen, yet its body was already mangled. Fortunately, the pills it had swallowed began to take effect. Their potent medicinal power sustained it, allowing its body to heal rapidly.

Gu Changsheng stared at the faint spiritual glow shimmering over its body and froze. “That thing swallowed a tier-six Transformation Pill?”

Li Guanqi frowned. “Then... if it survives the tribulation, will it be able to take human form?”

Xiang Huaizhi gave him a surprised look. “That radish of yours can’t transform? Spirit-type beings blessed by heaven and earth can normally assume human form on their own at tier five. Only those with inferior foundations, such as flower and plant spirits, need a tier-six Transformation Pill.”

Li Guanqi’s brow furrowed. Peng Luo’s talent was rare, far surpassing that of ordinary ginseng spirits. Yet it had never managed to take human form, even after reaching the peak tier six...

Boom boom boom!

The tribulation clouds above Peng Luo rapidly took shape. Blood-red lightning flickered deep within them, and everyone’s expressions changed.

Meng Wanshu said gravely, “A slaughter tribulation! What exactly is Peng Luo? Even a pure-blooded pengluo could never provoke a Heavenly Tribulation of this magnitude! The heavens cannot tolerate his existence... They want him dead!”

Xiang Huaizhi and Gu Changsheng exchanged a glance, both sensing that something was wrong. Pengluo were rare but not unheard of, yet neither of them had ever seen one summon a slaughter tribulation.

Li Guanqi’s gaze flickered. He didn’t care what Peng Luo was. If the heavens wanted him dead... Li Guanqi would defy them.

Whoosh!

A streak of red light landed in Li Guanqi’s hand. He gripped the Red Lotus Sword and stared up at the tribulation clouds. If this tribulation proved too much for Peng Luo to withstand, he would shatter it himself, even if doing so left Peng Luo trapped at tier six forever.

Peng Luo seemed to sense his thoughts. He floated in midair with his hands on his hips and laughed. “Master, don’t worry! It’s only a Heavenly Tribulation!”

Boom!

A lightning bolt as thick as a water barrel came crashing down. Peng Luo plummeted like a meteor, leaving a crater a hundred zhang deep.

“Uh...”

Everyone fell silent. Peng Luo hadn’t even activated its protective vital force...

A pitch-black, charred radish jumped up and cursed, “You bastard! Where’s your martial honor? I wasn’t ready, and neither were you! Why strike already?!”

He wasn’t entirely wrong. The tribulation clouds were still expanding, and the blood-red hue had yet to permeate them completely.

Still, that single strike put him on guard. It seemed... this Heavenly Tribulation was far stronger than he had imagined.

Peng Luo drew a deep breath, and a mysterious current of energy circulated through its body. Faint purple runes lit up across his skin as his aura erupted.

Boom!

Peng Luo shot into the sky to face the fully formed Heavenly Tribulation head-on. The tribulation clouds churned as fierce gales swept through the domain, sending sand and dust swirling into the air.

As a thick bolt of lightning descended, Peng Luo raised his fist and glanced back with a laugh. “Son! Watch closely!”

The purple-skinned ginseng spirit, still enduring its own tribulation, looked up with shining eyes at its father, who was raising his fists to the heavens.

Boom!

A blood-red lightning bolt as thick as a bowl engulfed Peng Luo. The force of the strike sent him crashing back to the ground.

Rumble!

Blood-red lightning spread in all directions, scaring the ginseng spirit so much that it turned and ran. Its confused expression seemed to ask, “Dad, are you alright...?”

Even the onlookers could only facepalm...

Peng Luo crawled out of the crater, clutching his backside, fear written all over his face. “Are you trying to kill me? What kind of tribulation is this? It wasn’t like this last time!”

Complaints aside, Peng Luo’s aura had grown noticeably stronger after those two strikes. As the lightning tempered his body, the chaotic energies within him gradually stabilized, and the pills finally released their full medicinal power.