Chapter 216: Immortal King; The Eve of Parting
"This — has someone broken through to Immortal King?"
Li Daoyi rose to his feet, suddenly rather unsettled.
As the foremost on the Prodigy Rankings, Li Daoyi was naturally well-traveled and well-informed, and he'd witnessed many a mighty being break through to Immortal King.
So the commotion of an Immortal King breakthrough was nothing unfamiliar to him.
What shocked him was that even he, with all the heaped-up opportunities of the Azure Heaven Secret Realm, had only barely broken through to the Mid True Immortal Realm.
And yet someone had managed to break through to Immortal King?
Just who could be so terrifying?
But his form blurred, and he hurried off toward where Lu Xiaoyao had emerged from seclusion.
At almost the same moment, the other eight great prodigies all hurried over as well.
And in their hearts, only one candidate could break through to Immortal King in so short a time — and that was Li Daoyi.
Little did they know, at this very moment Li Daoyi was also guessing wildly in his heart — just who was more of a badass than him, breaking through to Immortal King before he had?
Yet none of them imagined it would be Lu Xiaoyao, the one who'd claimed the Tianyang Immortal Venerable's inheritance, breaking through to Immortal King.
Beside Lu Xiaoyao, Lu Qingyun had awakened, her expression grave.
Because her talent was a touch inferior, she'd only broken through to the Peak True Immortal Realm.
The awakened Lu Qingyun's form blurred, and she withdrew beyond the range of the Lightning Tribulation.
Lu Xiaoyao floated up into midair, his Divine Soul shedding his body and enveloping his physical form within it.
And his Divine Soul kept swelling, gradually reaching a million feet in height, every lift of a hand or foot brimming with terrifying coercive pressure.
"So this is the process of the Divine Soul transforming into a True Spirit?"
Lu Qingyun mused to herself as she watched.
The reason an Immortal King steps out of the River of Time, with a lifespan boundless as the heavens — such that, barring being slain by an enemy, they could never fall on account of lifespan — was precisely because the Immortal King's Divine Soul transformed, forming a True Spirit.
The Divine Soul would be worn away by time, causing a cultivator to fall, but the True Spirit feared no scouring of time and was unaffected by it.
And so, Immortal Kings could live forever, undying.
Just then, a Lightning Tribulation abruptly formed in the sky above the Azure Heaven Secret Realm and came crashing down toward Lu Xiaoyao.
But it was all blocked by the True Spirit — though the True Spirit took some measure of impact in turn.
After all, the process of the Divine Soul transforming into a True Spirit was exceedingly fragile, so some immortals who hadn't cultivated soul-related arts would, at this very step, be struck by the heavenly lightning and have their souls scattered to oblivion.
Of course, this did not include Lu Xiaoyao.
Just then, Lu Qingyun sensed something and looked around.
One after another, cultivators had arrived around the Lightning Tribulation, gazing solemnly at Lu Xiaoyao amid his tribulation.
Watching this scene, a thoughtful expression came over Lu Qingyun's face.
A Peak True Immortal amid tribulation was exceedingly fragile; if disturbed, it was all too easy to fall in the midst of an Immortal King Lightning Tribulation.
This was also why Immortal Kings were so few in number in the Immortal Realm.
So whenever a Peak True Immortal meant to break through to Immortal King, they had to have a powerhouse stand guard, or find an exceedingly well-hidden place; otherwise they'd never attempt it lightly.
Gazing at the cultivators gathering around, Lu Qingyun was fully focused.
If any of them had a mind to disturb her brother's breakthrough, she would cut them down without the slightest hesitation.
Soon, Ye Wushuang and Gu Feng were drawn over by the Lightning Tribulation as well.
When he saw that the one undergoing tribulation was none other than his own Holy Son, Ye Wushuang first stood frozen on the spot, and it was a good while before he finally came to his senses and couldn't help but burst into wild laughter.
Only he knew the Holy Son's age.
A hundred — a hundred-year-old Immortal King?
If word of this got out, it would surely shake the entire Immortal Realm.
For one had to understand that even Senior Gu Daoshi, hailed as the foremost being in the Immortal Realm, had been around fifty thousand years old when he broke through to Immortal King.
By that span of time, at a hundred years old Senior Gu Daoshi hadn't even reached the Saint Monarch Realm.
Off to the side, Chen Wangu and Xu Ruoshan cast over envious looks.
Even with the boost of an Immortal Venerable Inheritance, Chen Wangu had only barely broken through to True Immortal.
As for Xu Ruoshan, he was even more pitiful — only at the Late Immortal Stage.
That left Luo Qianxue, who'd likewise made considerable progress: the Mid True Immortal Realm.
But at this moment, without exception, they all gazed at Lu Xiaoyao with boundless envy.
Soon, the top ten prodigies on the Prodigy Rankings arrived one after another.
When they saw it was Lu Xiaoyao, without exception their faces filled with shock.
Clearly they hadn't imagined that Lu Xiaoyao — someone who hadn't even made the Prodigy Rankings — would break through to Immortal King ahead of them.
Even Li Daoyi, who arrived later, was likewise astonished beyond measure.
But he quickly came to accept it.
After all, Lu Xunxian had been able to fight him to a standstill — granted, with his cultivation suppressed, but it counted as an even match all the same.
On top of that, he'd obtained the Tianyang Immortal Venerable's inheritance, so breaking through to Immortal King was nothing so strange.
And fortunately, among the onlooking cultivators there was as yet no being so devoid of sense as to step forward and disturb Lu Xiaoyao's breakthrough.
And so, before long, the Lightning Tribulation dispersed.
The enormous True Spirit enveloping Lu Xiaoyao slowly shrank, then returned into his body.
Wave after wave of golden light radiated out from within Lu Xiaoyao, enveloping the entire Azure Heaven Secret Realm.
"Congratulations on your breakthrough to Immortal King, Fellow Daoist."
The very instant Lu Xiaoyao completed his breakthrough, Li Daoyi smiled and stepped forward to offer his congratulations.
This left Ye Wushuang and the others, who'd arrived after Li Daoyi, looking astonished — clearly they hadn't expected Li Daoyi to congratulate Lu Xiaoyao.
And the surrounding cultivators were likewise shaken by this scene.
After Li Daoyi stepped forward to congratulate him, the top ten prodigies on the Prodigy Rankings all came forward to offer their congratulations as well.
After all, as a matter of fact, Lu Xiaoyao had broken through to the Immortal King Realm ahead of them, so naturally he was worth befriending.
And in the face of their congratulations, Lu Xiaoyao accepted them all with a perfectly clear conscience.
"Fellow Daoist Lu, if you're willing, my Heaven Wind Sect would welcome you as a guest."
"Fellow Daoist Lu, my Wild Heaven Sect would as well."
"Heehee — Brother Lu, my Demon Sound Sect has quite a few fairies, and we'd warmly welcome Brother Lu to come keep them company and ease their loneliness."
In the face of all these cultivators' requests, Lu Xiaoyao truly found it a bit hard to handle.
"Ahem — let's talk about it another time, another time."
With that, Lu Xiaoyao simply vanished and left.
He truly couldn't quite cope with this sort of occasion.
Seeing Lu Xiaoyao leave, they couldn't help but look disappointed, but they didn't press the matter.
With a prodigy of Lu Xiaoyao's caliber, one could only befriend him tactfully; pressing would only provoke his distaste, and then it would backfire.
And at this point, there were still twenty years until the Azure Heaven Secret Realm closed.
Outside the Azure Heaven Secret Realm, as the appointed time arrived, Lu Xunxian looked toward the direction of Heavenly Dao Mountain and the Vermilion Bird Race's territory.
He could sense that Gu Daoshi was on his way over, while Zhu Qingyan was still wavering, undecided — in the end, she probably wouldn't come after all.