Chapter 181: Striving and Fighting, Both Fleeing; The Tribulation Responds, Not This Time【5k】

Fang Longye's gaze was bright and piercing, his thoughts turning a thousand times.

If that little wench Long Xuan had fully refined this Supreme Spiritual Treasure, he would truly be at a loss.

Yet, it was quite obvious.

This was a Supreme Spiritual Treasure!

The gap between her cultivation and the treasure was too vast; it was a qualitative disparity, not something that could be fully refined just by burning one's lifespan through secret arts as he had done.

Let alone burning lifespan.

Even if she were to sacrifice her entire being, it would not be enough for her to fully refine a Supreme Spiritual Treasure at the Golden Immortal level.

Under normal circumstances, a Golden Immortal can refine a mid-grade Spirit Treasure; a Taiyi can refine a superior spiritual treasure; and a Supreme Spiritual Treasure, under normal circumstances, can only be refined by those in the Great Luo realm.

It might seem that both Long Xuan and Fang Longye were refining spirit treasures two levels above their own, making them no different.

But are Taiyi and Great Luo the same thing? That is a chasm of difference.

To say nothing else, if Long Xuan had refined this scroll spirit treasure even a little bit deeper, she wouldn't have to rely on its internal world and the heavenly derivation of killing intent to deal with him.

A Supreme Spiritual Treasure! If the scroll were to wrap around him, he would be reduced to powder; why go through all this trouble?

Though it seemed Fang Longye's mind was filled with myriad thoughts, they were actually moving extremely fast; in the blink of an eye, he summoned the Tengkong Sword fragments and the Tiger Soul Fragment, which were contending with each other.

These two divine objects were of exceptionally high essence. If activated individually, they would not react to Fang Longye at all, but as they fought each other, it was naturally a different matter.

However, before Fang Longye could activate his Barrier-Piercing Insight divine ability to find the weak point of this not-yet-fully-refined Treasure Map.

A call from Peng Mowang reached his ears: "Brother Fang!"

He saw Peng Mowang, his body glowing with light, appearing from afar; with a flap of his wings, he arrived at his side.

"You've given me quite a search!" He shook his body, transformed into human form, and let out a breath.

Fang Longye's eyes flickered; it seemed he wouldn't need to do much more himself.

Peng Mowang looked at the Tengkong Sword fragments and the Tiger Soul Fragment hovering in Fang Longye's hand, both fighting incessantly, their power surging and releasing continuously.

This caused the surrounding space-time to become distorted.

He immediately understood what Fang Longye was trying to do, and a sense of heroism welled up in his heart; he revealed an object from above his head and held it in his hand.

Staring at the scene around the Treasure Map, he waved his hand and said, "Isn't it just breaking through space? Leave it to your little brother!"

Peng Mowang thought to himself, *Heh, you usually act so high and mighty, but in the end, when faced with such a predicament, you still have to watch me show off my divine power. *

Fang Longye didn't care at all about his desire to show off, only staring at the object in his hand, clicking his tongue in secret.

He saw that the object had a dark base, shimmering with black and white light; it looked like a feather, intertwined with mysterious patterns, and at a single glance, one felt as if the Great Dao were right before their eyes.

Good heavens, could this be a feather from that person in Beiming?

"But, given Peng Mowang's background and resources, with him as a helper, why has the Tribulation I face increased after meeting him?"

Fang Longye's expression was unreadable as he pondered this question again.

Peng Mowang didn't notice Fang Longye's expression; he just flicked his hand, and the feather, which seemed to be a manifestation of the Great Dao, immediately transformed into a divine sword.

A flash of light erupted, blooming with incomparable sword radiance.

Once the sword light rose, it was truly a sight to behold.

Long or short, up or down, circling or leaping, it took on a thousand postures.

In the end, they shot out and clashed.

Sharpness, an incomparable sharpness.

Destruction, an incomparable destruction.

It struck straight ahead.

Stars fell, mountains and rivers were stained with blood, space collapsed; everywhere it covered, it presented a scene of great ruin, great destruction, and a great apocalypse.

"Damn it!"

"Huntian, are you actually capable or not!"

Fang Longye cursed angrily.

With that one strike, the world was destroyed, but they had not escaped the Mountain and River Map.

Before their eyes, large swathes of vortices appeared, like nebulae, circling all around.

Moreover, they were spinning outward at a speed visible to the naked eye, and an overwhelming, irresistible substance was brewing, forming a power that made one's heart tremble.

This was not the result of Long Xuan driving it from the outside, nor was it an autonomous attack by the Mountain and River Map spirit treasure, but the result of the collision between Peng Mowang's feather and the Mountain and River Map.

If Peng Mowang's power had been a bit stronger, he could have directly broken the Mountain and River Map and escaped.

Yet, with his power driving the feather, a single strike only barely managed to destroy the world evolved by the Mountain and River Map.

It did not truly break the Mountain and River Map.

Fang Longye carefully dodged these nebula-like vortices.

These vortices were not like mere air or water eddies; they contained the most profound space-time power in the world, as well as strange substances and energies.

Time, space, and matter are the three elements that form a world.

These vortices formed after the world's destruction contained the twisted, mutated power of these three things after their ruin.

"Aren't you going to activate the treasure again?"

Bending, curling, twisting—indescribable lines already filled one's vision, very clearly.

Fang Longye's spiritual sense blared, telling him that these twists and turns contained great terror! Peng Mowang was on the verge of tears: "That, I'm out of power!"

Although the Father God's feather was unfathomably mysterious and possessed incredible power, activating it required consuming immense essence, energy, and Dharma.

Fang Longye tried the Tengkong Sword fragments and the Tiger Soul Fragment, only to find that in this situation, they were no longer useful.

This was because his previous plan had been to find the weak point of the Treasure Map to attack.

Now that the Aura was in chaos, where was there any weak point left for him to detect?

Thinking of this, Fang Longye looked at Peng Mowang, his eyes filled with such frustration that he wished he could turn them into nails and pierce him through.

Immediately, regardless of whether he had treasures to quickly restore his strength, he tossed some Creation Spirit Springs and the divine pills just refined from those Golden Immortal of Longgong toward him.

"How much time do you need to recover?"

"One stick of incense!"

Fang Longye breathed a sigh of relief; one stick of incense worth of time was something he should still be able to endure.

"Recover while we move!"

Feeling the increasingly intense erupting Aura coming from a vortex behind him, Fang Longye pulled Peng Mowang and quickly fled in another direction.

However, everywhere he looked, there were only nebula-shaped vortexes. They could only keep wandering between them.

Very soon, in less than half a stick of incense, there was already nowhere left to hide.

The vortexes in all directions began to erupt.

These nebula-shaped vortexes seemed to have turned into incomparably huge cannon muzzles, shooting out matter and energy from within.

This matter and energy inherently contained the mysteries of space and time, only they presented a twisted and mutated quality.

At extraordinary speeds, they kept rubbing against each other, becoming hot, expanding, and containing power capable of destroying the heavens and extinguishing the earth.

Damn it! Seeing this, Fang Longye could only activate various Spirit Treasures, layering defenses to resist head-on.

Peng Mowang also manifested various defensive means above his head, resisting head-on while doing his utmost to restore his essence, energy, and spirit.

Boom—

In any case, no matter what profound means the two of them used, what was meant to come would still come.

Almost as soon as they finished their defenses, the surging matter and energy had already reached them, striking their bodies.

Like a burst dam, it surged over, drowning them both completely.

"Damn it!"

"It hurts like hell!"

These vortexes formed after the destruction of worlds were inherently extraordinary.

The matter and energy erupting from within were even more products of distortion and mutation, containing inconceivable power.

Striking Fang Longye and his companion entirely, even though one was born extraordinary and the other had a body that had become transcendent after tempering, and both had various Spirit Treasures for protection, it still made the two of them howl in agony.

Although it had not yet endangered their lives, this continuous pain was also unbearable.

"Huntian, are you not ready yet?"

"Ready! Ready right away!"

All around the sea area.

A silence, a chill.

There were only a few ripples, with wisps of misty water permeating and floating on the sea surface, giving one a feeling of drizzling rain and a sense of having washed away all worldly vanity.

Long Xuan sat cross-legged in mid-air above the sea, and in the auspicious clouds above her head, bright rays of light shot out like a waterfall, entering the Mountain and River Map suspended before her.

Ignoring the hatred Ao Chun cast toward her from not far away, she just single-mindedly poured power into the Mountain and River Map.

Clearly, she was exerting her full strength to activate the Mountain and River Map, wishing to refine and kill Fang Longye within it.

However, the moment Peng Mowang took out that feather, her heart skipped a beat, and her expression changed drastically.

"Not good!"

Immediately, she could not care about anything else and directly burned her own essence, energy, and spirit, turning them into vast power that quickly surged into the Mountain and River Map.

Yet, it was all in vain. Before long.

Only a sound like tearing silk was heard, earth-shattering; the Mountain and River Map, which had been as stable as Mount Tai, was broken and torn from the center.

Five-colored bright flames burned, haloing into colors—all strange phenomena born from spatial friction—and then a Peng and a dragon soared out.

As the daylight shone down, one could see that the flesh and blood on the two's true forms were mangled, even revealing ghastly white bones; they looked very miserable.

Peng Mowang had underestimated the Mountain and River Map after all. No matter what, it was a Supreme Spiritual Treasure with forty-two Post-Heaven Divine Prohibitions; its restraints were not so easy to break.

Or rather, he had overestimated his own cultivation.

Whether it was the Mountain and River Map or that feather, neither had exerted its full power because the cultivation of the person activating it was shallow.

Naturally, it was a draw.

"Fortunately we got out; that is enough!"

Fang Longye recalled the commotion caused by the collision when Peng Mowang activated the feather to break the spatial seal of the Mountain and River Map, and he felt a lingering fear.

As for the injuries on his body.

With a thought, the shocking wounds on his true form healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, disappearing in an instant as if they had never appeared at all.

With a shake of his body, he transformed back into a human form.

He looked at Peng Mowang beside him and realized that he was only somewhat listless from activating that feather; everything else was fine.

Looking at Long Xuan again, he saw that her complexion had an unnatural flush, and blood was even overflowing from the corners of her mouth; he knew that she had suffered a backlash because the Spirit Treasure she had refined was damaged.

Without hesitation, strike while she is down!

With a leap, he headed toward Long Xuan, who was racing against time to recover.

Even though Long Xuan had been warned in advance, she was somewhat unable to dodge in time; helpless, she had to shake her body and reveal her original form.

With a flap of her wings, she dodged Fang Longye's attack.

The reason she could not dodge Fang Longye's attack in human form but could do so after revealing her original form was...

Because, generally speaking, even for a divine beast, the power that can be exerted in human form is not as great as the power that can be exerted in the original form.

Seeing Long Xuan reveal her original form, Fang Longye immediately looked closely and saw that she was different from other Longnu he had seen.

The one before him had a scaled body with spines on the back, a large and long head, and a thin and pointed tail; the entire dragon body looked slender and beautiful, as exquisite as a work of art.

On the dragon body, there were still unfolded wings, long, narrow, and magnificent, swaying and shining.

Just one look, and it was brilliant and dazzling, eye-catching.

Even a peacock spreading its tail feathers here, I fear, could not conceal its delicate beauty.

"Not to mention anything else, just this appearance is extraordinary!" Fang Longye sighed in his heart.

Because Long Xuan could not dodge Fang Longye's attack, she was forced to reveal her original form to exert greater power for evasion; she was truly anxious, angry, and ashamed all at once.

Whether it be the Demon Clan, the Dragon Clan, the Phoenix Clan, the Qilin, or other living beings, as long as the race possesses a second form, they are all very concerned about this.

Voluntarily revealing one's original form is one thing, but being beaten into one's original form by someone else is quite another.

For instance, during the Conferring of the Gods Tribulation, when Guang Chengzi visited Biyou Palace three times and beat the Turtle Spirit Holy Mother into her original form, it incited the collective wrath of the disciples of the Calamity Sect.

Long Xuan could not be considered beaten into her original form, but she was indeed forced to reveal it.

In her view, there was no difference between the two.

Involuntarily, anger erupted in her dragon eyes, and her entire dragon body seemed to be burning.

Seeing her become angry, Fang Longye was not alarmed but delighted.

He himself belonged to the Dragon Clan, so he naturally understood the characteristics of the Dragon Clan Bloodline.

The impression the Dragon Clan gives the world, besides sowing seeds across the world, being unpicky about food, and having a great appetite, is that there is a fighting instinct in their bones; once anger takes hold, they suppress everything and become reckless.

It is what is called being easily angered and explosive.

Of course, many in the Demon Clan are actually like this too; after all, they are all races that have ruled the heavens and fought over the earth, having contended to be the protagonists of the Human Dao, and in their bones, they naturally possess a pride originating from the distant past.

It is good that she is angry!

Anger makes one lose their reason, and that makes them easier to deal with.

Fang Longye thought this in his heart.

Just then, under her anger, Long Xuan raised her sharp, thin, and long tail, which, like a great spear, thrust toward his pupils.

Seeing this, Fang Longye was overjoyed; one hand reached out like lightning, acting after but arriving first, and before the tail of Long Xuan's Yinglongzhishhen could pierce him, he grabbed it with his hand.

As a result, unexpectedly, she broke free easily.

In an instant, he turned his palm into a claw, and Yin and Yang, Five Elements,... various powers surged, yet they still missed.

Clearly, most of these powers covered the area around Long Xuan and even landed on her dragon body, but with a simple shake, she shook them off.

It did not even injure her in the slightest.

It looked like the "Sticky Clothes Eighteen Falls" from the martial arts novels of his past life, but in reality, from Fang Longye's current perspective, this should be a form of extreme control Long Xuan had over her own dragon body.

It seemed there was also the power of space and time at work within it.

Caught off guard, Long Xuan swung her tail and slapped it onto Fang Longye's face.

It did not cause any injury, but it was clearly a total humiliation.

"Heh~ today I count my strength as inferior to yours; next time we meet, I will show you!"

The ashamed and angry girl's voice reached Fang Longye's ears.

Before Fang Longye could even feel anger, he saw that Long Xuan had already reached a thousand miles away, maintaining her dragon body, shaking her wings, and amidst the flowing light and brilliant colors, circles of dizzying light were born.

Immediately after, she dissipated like a dream-like bubble, merging into the void, and disappeared without a trace.

Damn! I was played by someone!

I actually thought she had lost her reason because of anger! Fang Longye did not even know how many times he had cursed today.

However, even though he had been slapped in the face out of thin air and anger was rising, he did not get up to pursue Long Xuan.

Only because the Tribulation above his head, after Long Xuan escaped, not only did not diminish but actually increased by a few points.

Good fellow! Heavens, are you playing with me!

Fang Longye felt speechless.

"Speaking of which, since the Tribulation is not being fulfilled on Long Xuan, could it be that after she escapes, she will encounter helpers and kill her way back?"

"This Tribulation is linked ring by ring, constantly growing; could it be a chain trap?"

In his anxiety, a thousand thoughts crossed his mind.

He caught a glimpse of Ao Chun, who was still stunned on the side, and immediately revealed a ferocious smile.

He approached Ao Chun.

Isn't there still a punching bag here! Who would have expected that in the vast water waves, there was a faint sound of a turtle crying, and accompanying the sound was a cloud of light born from the surface of the sea.

Like a peacock spreading its tail, it scattered in all directions.

Layer upon layer, it caused ripples in the water, undulating incessantly.

Within the cloud of light, a giant palm reached out, its lines distinct and every detail visible, scooping up Ao Chun and vanishing into the void.

"Your Highness, my East Sea Dragon Palace apologizes for today's events. Another day, when Your Highness visits, there will surely be an explanation."

An aged voice came, speaking the apology in a slow and measured manner.

Afterwards, the cloud of light dissipated, and the entire sea surface returned to calm.

Damn! Fang Longye cursed under his breath.

However, since the target for his venting had also been rescued by someone, he was now helpless.

Moreover, now was not the time to pursue this.

He cast a divine ability, sensed the Heavenly Secrets, and transmitted his voice to Peng Mowang, who was still recovering his consumption: "Don't dawdle, recover while we are on the road."

To be honest, Fang Longye had the intention to separate from Peng Mowang; after all, with Peng Mowang's rash personality, he always felt uneasy.

But in the dark, there was a feeling in his heart that it seemed better to be together than to be apart.

He shook his head secretly, cast aside this thought, and took Peng Mowang to fly away in the direction he had sensed.

In the East Sea, on an Immortal Island.

The drizzle was misty, and the smoky water washed the green.

Amidst the lush greenery, there was a refreshing clarity.

Sunlight shone down, landing on the water vapor and refracting into clear, bright colors, looking magnificent.

The Immortal Island was not large, with a thousand-foot mountain peak in its center.

At the summit lay a tranquil lake, with a floating bridge and long corridor leading to the heart of the lake, where a three-story Treasure Pavilion was situated.

The East Sea Dragon Queen pushed open the window and looked at the scenery outside; her beautiful eyes shifted, and between her dark brows, there was a flash of anger.

A short while later.

A wisp of ethereal cloud vapor, like water, descended from above.

Revealing his form, it was an old man with a gray beard, kind brows, and auspicious eyes; it was none other than the Turtle Prime Minister of the East Sea Dragon Palace.

One could see his figure glowing with a brilliant, radiant light, feeling somewhat illusory and unstable, not like a normal person; it was clearly a Nascent Soul projection.

"My Lady, I have brought the Eighth Prince back for you!"

(End of this chapter)