Chapter 177: Preparing for the Tribulation: Escaping Penglai and Encountering the Peng Demon [4k]

As soon as this drop of Wu Clan Essence Blood entered his body.

Fang Longye understood, at the very first moment, the strength inherent in the Wu Clan bloodline.

Not to mention other aspects, the stubbornness displayed by this single drop of Wu Clan Essence Blood alone was enough to see a glimpse of it.

No matter how he operated his secret Dharma to calcine and grind it, even though it had clearly turned into mist and clouds, it would always gather back together again very quickly.

Not a single bit would dissipate or leak out its inner qualities.

It was simply like the stone in a latrine—both stinking and hard!

One must know, even the previous Canghai Map was not as difficult to refine as this drop of Essence Blood—and this was not even the Essence Blood of a Great Witch; this drop was similar to the Zhurong lineage from just before, merely coming from a member of the Wu Clan comparable to the Taiyi level.

Of course, Fang Longye believed that as time passed, by grinding it bit by bit, he would still be able to refine the Wu Clan Essence Blood into his body.

However, given the current situation, he was unwilling to wait. Fortunately, a beat of his heart reminded him that there was another way.

Clang—

With a single thought, he shifted this drop of Wu Clan Essence Blood into his heart.

His heart, having undergone transformation, now possessed hundreds upon thousands of heart apertures.

These heart aperture spaces, under the feedback brought by the growth of the Grotto-Heaven within his body, became increasingly miraculous.

The channels connecting them were winding and twisting, and the different heart aperture spaces were isolated from one another, unable to merge.

Once the Wu Clan Essence Blood fell into Fang Longye's heart, it was broken apart by a single beat and fell into different heart aperture spaces.

It could not gather together.

One divided into two, two became four, four became eight, and in the end, there were tens of thousands, millions upon millions.

After being broken down, wearing it away bit by bit in a targeted manner was easy.

With this operation, Fang Longye's refining of this drop of Wu Clan Essence Blood entered the right track.

Crack, crack—

Within Fang Longye's true form, countless mysterious apertures were opened, spaces were born and destroyed one after another, and his immense vitality underwent a qualitative change.

Of course, during this process, Fang Longye did not feel good.

The sensation of his entire body being torn apart came like a tide, continuous and unending, making Fang Longye feel muddled and chaotic; his eyelids were heavy, and his thoughts seemed difficult to move.

As a race that contended with all the myriad clans of Honghuang in the ancient era, fighting them to a standstill, the Wu Clan's inner bloodline was too overbearing.

It was not so easy to refine! Even though the owner of this drop of Essence Blood did not even touch the fur of the Ancestral Witch Dijiang, the spatial power contained within it erupted, causing Fang Longye's sturdy physical body to tear repeatedly.

The overbearing power ran rampant, and before he knew it, Fang Longye had transformed into his dragon form, ten thousand zhang in size.

The skin and scales on the surface fell off, his entire body was torn to pieces, and sharp spatial power leaked from within.

However, without him needing to do anything, tyrannical vitality immediately emerged, deriving endlessly and merging into his physical body.

In the blink of an eye, he was restored to a brand-new state, with halos of patterns of varying sizes appearing inside and out, looking very mysterious.

Circles and halos, gorgeous and peerless, illuminated the surroundings with indescribable colors, flickering between light and dark.

At this moment, an inexplicable rhythm sounded within Fang Longye's body, suddenly forming a ring, startling Fang Longye's consciousness out of the void.

Threads of fierce, baleful black Qi emerged and merged into his true form, making his physical body even heavier and filled with Great Strength.

Turbid Qi!

"As expected."

Fang Longye said to himself.

As beings that existed since the opening of heaven and earth, the Wu Clan obtained the essence of the Turbid Qi between heaven and earth; as long as they were of the Wu Clan, no matter how weak, as long as their feet touched the earth, they would possess earth-shaking power.

As he refined the Wu Clan Essence Blood, he inevitably became tainted with Turbid Qi, and even faintly became an object favored by the Turbid Qi.

However, this Turbid Qi was not necessarily a good thing for him.

Although the Turbid Qi did not grind away the primordial spirit as rumored in his past life, it indeed had a strong restrictive effect on the primordial spirit, making one increasingly dull in the path of the primordial spirit.

Even innate divinities as strong as the Twelve Ancestral Witches, with such powerful primordial spirit essences, still could not escape the influence of the Turbid Qi.

This led to the rumor in Honghuang that the Wu Clan had no primordial spirit and relied entirely on their physical bodies.

He did not want to end up in such a state.

Fortunately, as the Turbid Qi surged upward, Fang Longye's celebration cloud shook, and layers of Clear Qi spontaneously rose within his body, rushing downward toward the Turbid Qi.

The two intersected and immediately began to fight incessantly.

Regarding this, Fang Longye, who had long anticipated it, immediately turned his thoughts and summoned the Dragon Pearl from the treasure gourd, letting it land at the intersection of the Clear and Turbid Qis within his body.

With a whale-like gulp, it absorbed all the Clear and Turbid Qis, and then continued to breathe them out, using his own Dragon Pearl as a starting point to form a continuously rotating balance.

Having solved this problem, Fang Longye's refining of this drop of Wu Clan Essence Blood also neared its end.

Soon, it was a complete success.

Fang Longye shook his dragon body, causing the spiritual aura of the void to churn.

His crystal-clear cyan-blue dragon scales shone brilliantly, his horns were towering, his claws and teeth were sharp, and his eyes displayed the two colors of Yin and Yang.

Under his chin, there was a Dragon Pearl, inside which Clear Qi rose and Turbid Qi sank, constantly rotating with a stream of Yin and Yang Two Qis, which was incomparably mysterious.

As he breathed clouds and mist, the dragon body Fang Longye had transformed into bared its fangs and brandished its claws, occasionally revealing a scale or half a claw, appearing as if it were a mountain.

Because of the integration of the Turbid Qi, his true form had grown by more than half, and his fifteen-thousand-zhang dragon body was incomparably heavy.

With every move, he could change the color of heaven and earth, and his might was astonishing.

In this rented Grotto-Heaven, Fang Longye found it inconvenient to test himself further, fearing that a careless move might destroy the Grotto-Heaven and bring unnecessary trouble.

Carefully, he shook his body and returned to his human form, overjoyed.

He had truly done the right thing.

Aside from the qualitative change in his true form, looking at the Grotto-Heaven within his body, its range had actually expanded by several times over.

Within it, mysterious and indescribable Aura flowed constantly, and the rules of heaven and earth were displayed as never before, echoing with it; every breath was perfectly in tune.

From this, one could see the mystery of this Wu Clan Essence Blood.

It is a pity that such Great Medicine is hard to come by.

Fang Longye felt a sense of regret in his heart; the Witch Clan is not without backers, for Houtu Niangniang is still residing peacefully in the Youming cycle!

In this era, if one wants Wu Clan Essence Blood, one can only search for it in certain ancient battlefields.

Yet, few people dare to keep the Witch Clan in captivity, treating them as blood bags.

On this point alone, whether it be the Dragon, Phoenix, or Qilin, or the Human Clan and Demon Clan, none compare to the Witch Clan.

"Perhaps I should find time to visit the Lishan of this world?" Thinking of the origin and strength of the First Emperor in this world, Fang Longye could not help but think of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum.

"I wonder if the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum still exists in this world?"

He shook his head, burying this thought deep in his heart, and began to refine the remaining four treasures on the Dao platform before him.

First, he immersed his consciousness into the Duntian Shuttle and the Soul Extinguishing Arrow, these two one-time-use exotic treasures, and easily left his primordial spirit imprint on them.

Immediately after, he put them away.

Afterwards, he removed the defensive Spirit Treasures he was wearing one by one, placed them together, and through his Golden Finger, exchanged them for a piece of soft armor at the level of a Superior Spiritual Treasure—the Wind Thunder Armor.

He let out a breath and cast a divine ability purchased from Wanbao Tower—'Instant Radiance'—burning his lifespan to refine the three Superior defensive Spirit Treasures.

'Instant Radiance' is an auxiliary divine ability that can convert one's own lifespan into a strange power, allowing one to accomplish things one otherwise could not. Whether it be attacking, defending, refining treasures, or concocting pills... it can exert unimaginable effects.

It is somewhat similar to the Small Destiny Technique of the Immortal World, though not as versatile as that one.

Lifespan, lifespan.

In Fang Longye's view, this should be a variation of a space-time divine ability, combined with a touch of the laws of fate. It is very likely that it was passed down by that Shouxing Lao.

As one epoch of lifespan burned away, Fang Longye's refinement of the three Superior Spirit Treasures—the Golden Glow Crown (replica), the Five Spirits Nourishing God Robe, and the Wind Thunder Armor—proceeded like bamboo being split.

The Post-Heaven Divine Prohibitions that were difficult to overcome in the past were like they didn't exist, and he permeated them without any resistance.

Before long, the refinement was completely successful.

Putting them on, he sensed the layers of powerful protection, and a sense of security surged into his heart.

He let out a breath and sighed, "It was worth the price I paid."

Next, it is time to face the Tribulation!

Fang Longye raised his eyes to look at the void above.

After leaving Penglai, Fang Longye carried Qingli and Ao Ying and flew for hundreds of thousands of miles.

They arrived at a desolate, uninhabited small island and landed.

With a flip of his palm, he took out a bronze token.

It was precisely the Yaofang Master token issued by the Demon Master Mansion.

He sensed it for a moment and breathed a sigh of relief; without the obstruction of Penglai Xiandao, this Fangzhu Token could finally connect with the spatial marker he had left at his Daoist temple.

However, it was barely enough.

Clearly, this was the limit.

Fang Longye calculated that if he had not undergone a transformation and achieved a relatively deep attainment in the path of space, he would never have been able to connect the two places over such a distance.

Without hesitation, he directly activated the token. Accompanied by a melodious sound of the Dao, layers of halos spread out in all directions, circle after circle.

Then, vast clouds and mist were generated, and a mottled bronze portal appeared before him with difficulty, flickering in and out of existence.

"It really is a bit of a stretch," Fang Longye wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead and thought to himself.

If he hadn't infused a massive amount of spatial power at the critical moment, this portal would have collapsed long ago.

Maintaining the operation of the portal, Fang Longye moved his mind, and the portal opened, revealing a five-colored halo with layers of scenes that could not be seen clearly.

"Young Master, why don't you let us stay?" Qingli said, reluctant to part, in front of the portal.

"Yes! Master, if we stay, we can at least be a help to you," Ao Ying also said urgently.

Fang Longye shook his head and said, "Be obedient, go back to Cangmang Mountain and help me look after the Daoist temple well; that is the greatest help to me~"

It turned out that Fang Longye had used the Yaofang Token in his hand to open the spatial passage to send Qingli and Ao Ying back to his Daoist temple located in Beiju Luzhou.

Frankly speaking, Qingli and Ao Ying were already very strong; both were top-tier True Immortals capable of battling Golden Immortals.

Unfortunately, Fang Longye himself did not have full confidence in the Tribulation he was facing this time.

Naturally, he would not be like the protagonist in a storybook, deliberately bringing along two burdens.

If a real fight were to break out, given the scale of the Tribulation he sensed, what use would two True Immortals capable of battling Golden Immortals be?

Even if he had to flee, they would be a burden.

To use them as shields? Seeing the two women still hesitating, Fang Longye glared at them and directly flicked his sleeve, sending Qingli and Ao Ying to the other side of the portal.

Afterwards, he decisively closed the portal.

If this Tribulation had not been a heaven-sent disaster triggered by an Outer Tribulation, Fang Longye would have left with them long ago.

After all, those who know the times are heroes.

Unfortunately, while an Outer Tribulation can be avoided, the Tribulation formed by an Outer Tribulation is different.

Even if he were to return to Cangmang Mountain in Beiju Luzhou through spatial displacement, the Outer Tribulation might change, but the Tribulation itself would not dissipate; it might even expand further.

Otherwise, would he be so bored and stubborn as to insist on crashing into it?

However, fortunately, eliminating the Tribulation does not depend on killing the object that gave rise to the Outer Tribulation, but only on the dissipation of the Tribulation itself.

It requires meeting the challenge head-on, but that does not mean one is forced to go to the underworld.

As long as one does not avoid the Tribulation and faces the disaster directly, that is enough. There are no restrictions on the specific circumstances.

At worst, if he can't beat them, he can just run!

He would grind it out slowly until the Tribulation passed.

After sending the two women away, Fang Longye used Heavenly Secrets calculations to determine the direction and headed northwest.

Under the 'Submerged Abyss, Shrinking Earth' divine ability, he traveled extremely fast, and before long, he was already millions of miles away from Penglai Xiandao.

"Brother Fang!"

Fang Longye was flying along, head down, sensing the key to breaking through the midst of the Tribulation. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice from above.

He immediately looked up and saw that, at some unknown moment, a five-colored halo had appeared in the extreme sky, reaching from heaven to earth. In the center, a magnificent Peng soared, its feathers blooming with rays of light, shining brilliantly.

Then, the Peng shook its body and transformed into a figure familiar to Fang Longye—Peng Mowang.

He wore a Golden Crown of auspicious colors and was draped in a brilliant gold Dharma robe; in his left hand, he held a fishing rod, and in his right, he carried a shrunken giant turtle, looking every bit the image of an angler.

He looked leisurely and carefree.

Amusing himself, natural and unrestrained.

Seeing that Fang Longye had noticed him, Peng Mowang chuckled, jumped down in a few strides, and arrived on the surface of the sea.

Stepping on the waves, he instantly smoothed out all ripples; the surroundings immediately became clear as a mirror, empty and vast. At a glance, it looked as if the firmament were reflected and poured into a Jade Pot.

He came before Fang Longye and said with a laugh, "Brother Fang, what a coincidence. Why have you come here?"

"I was wandering the Four Seas and unknowingly arrived at the nearby Diauao Ji, and even caught a giant turtle. I was just about to go back and prepare it!"

Having said this, he reached out and shook the giant turtle in his right hand. The giant turtle had been shrunk to the size of a palm, its four limbs sticking out, struggling and flailing incessantly.

Then, he added, "On the way, I saw you, Brother Fang."

"What are you looking at, Brother Fang?"

Seeing that Fang Longye did not respond at all after noticing him, but only looked up at the sky, Peng Mowang looked up as well in surprise, but found nothing, so he asked curiously.

"Brother Fang, why are you looking at me with that expression?"

"Brother Fang, why are you raising your fist?"

"I didn't provoke you this time!"

"Stop hitting me!"

"I'm telling you, if you keep this up, I'm going to fight back!"

"Fine~ it's my fault! But at least tell me what I did wrong?"

(End of this chapter)