Chapter 316: Snake Swallowing an Elephant

"The tree spirit has been implicated in the Tribulation Cloud?" The Sect Leader of the Shengji Sect felt the world go black before his eyes and nearly tumbled from his chair. After struggling to steady his mind, his complexion turned as ghastly as pig liver. He looked toward the Holy Son beside him, utterly lost, "Holy Son, is there any countermeasure?"

The Holy Son shook his head slowly.

All the cultivators of the Shengji Sect looked as if their parents had just died, each of them standing stunned in place, unable to utter a word.

The Green Wood was the foundation of the Shengji Sect.

Originally, they had used the method of borrowing the lightning tribulation to eliminate Lin Bai in order to preserve the Green Wood.

But now, the Green Wood's tree spirit had been dragged into the lightning tribulation, and it had frankly admitted that it could not survive the tribulation. This was equivalent to a direct declaration that the Shengji Sect's Green Wood was gone...

Had they known it would come to this, they would have been better off abandoning the sect back then; at least they could have left the Green Wood behind, waited for the Holy Son to grow, and plotted slowly!

Why was there really a tree spirit?

With a casual strike, it could disperse a ten-thousand-person Tribulation Cloud. With such strength, if you, old one, had appeared sooner, how could you have let Lin Bai jump around for so long?

Perhaps the Shengji Sect could have unified the world...

Infinite resentment accumulated in the hearts of the Shengji Sect members; some blamed Lin Bai, some blamed the Green Wood tree spirit, and some resented those who had come up with the rotten idea of summoning the lightning tribulation to strike Lin Bai...

"Holy Leader, since things have reached this point, it is better to look on the bright side. A lightning tribulation of this scale is something even the Green Wood tree spirit, who has lived for who knows how many ages, cannot withstand. Lin Bai is dead for sure." Ye Luo, the Sect Leader of the Poison Sect, consoled the Holy Leader.

The foundation of the Shengji Sect was severed; what use was it if Lin Bai died?

The Holy Leader glared at Ye Luo, regretting more and more that he had lured the lightning tribulation outside his own sect to trap Lin Bai. Once the Green Wood died, the Shengji Sect would likely fall into total decline.

His eyes scanned between the Holy Son and the Heavenly Descended. After Lin Bai died, he would need to find a new path for the Shengji Sect...

The other sect leaders expressed regret and sympathy for the Shengji Sect's plight, but the smiles in the depths of their eyes could not be hidden.

It was fortunate that the lightning tribulation had drawn out the Green Wood's tree spirit. Otherwise, with such a big shot hiding in the Shengji Sect, if it had erupted one day, which sect could have survived?

A tree spirit that had lived for who knows how many tens of thousands of years simply should not exist in this world.

The tree spirit Qingyun glared at Lin Bai; who told Lin Bai to speak so persuasively!

Ye Song and the others gasped; their own Alliance Leader's death-seeking behavior truly made their hearts tremble.

Waving a hand to disperse the Tribulation Cloud, possessing cultivation that reached the heavens and spanned the earth, far more powerful than the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, and now undergoing the tribulation together—shouldn't such a big shot be flattered properly?

"Mingyan, Zhuoting, and Longyi of the Shengji Sect... pay our respects to the Tree Spirit Ancestor." Several female cultivators of the Shengji Sect at the Great Vehicle Realm bowed respectfully to Qingyun.

"Who are you? Why did you plot against me?" Qingyun ignored the female cultivators entirely and asked Lin Bai with a gloomy face.

"Senior Qingyun, that's not fair. I didn't summon the lightning tribulation. Saying I plotted against you is truly wronging me." Lin Bai looked at Qingyun, then glanced at the sky, "To speak carefully, I am a victim just like you. If you want to blame someone, blame these idiots from the Shengji Sect..."

"Nonsense! If you hadn't invaded the Shengji Sect, how would we have resorted to such a desperate measure?" Mingyan interrupted Lin Bai, retorting angrily. She could not help but be furious; to be dragged into the lightning tribulation for no reason meant certain death—who wouldn't be angry?

"Senior Qingyun, you understand now, right! You have experienced the changing of the world; what haven't you seen? Fighting between sects is normal, but who just goes around summoning lightning tribulations to strike people? Moreover, I brought so many people with me; if that isn't stupidity, what is? The Shengji Sect built houses on you, ate your fruit, and absorbed the Spirit Qi you emitted, which is how they attained their current status. Yet, before these idiots did anything, they never once thought of you!"

Lin Bai offloaded his own responsibility, splashing bucket after bucket of dirty water onto the Shengji Sect. He had to rely on this tree spirit who had lived for who knows how many years to survive the tribulation; he had to steer her emotions toward the positive to make other things easier to handle.

"We didn't know the Tree Spirit Ancestor existed."

"We only wanted to use the lightning tribulation to strike you; it was clearly you who led the lightning tribulation toward the tree spirit..."

Several female cultivators of the Shengji Sect scrambled to retort.

"Noisy." Qingyun scolded coldly. A flash of green energy swept past, and the Spiritual Power within the female cultivators was instantly sealed. They trembled in fear, unable to utter a single word.

Ye Song shook his head slightly. At such a critical juncture, they were still arguing with Lin Bai about who had summoned the lightning tribulation. When they were back at the sect, why hadn't he noticed there were so many idiots in the sect?

"You aren't a good thing either. If you had just undergone your tribulation honestly over there, how would you have implicated me?" Qingyun looked at Lin Bai again, her gaze sweeping past Cen Qing and the strange Fengqiuhuang Group behind her. She was stunned for a moment and asked, "What is this for?"

"Senior Qingyun, this is a formation for surviving the tribulation that I have comprehended, named Fengqiuhuang," Lin Bai said. "In the Fengqiuhuang formation, only one person bears the Heavenly Tribulation. This person acts as the eye of the formation; as long as the eye is not destroyed, the people within the formation remain unscathed."

Cen Qing remained silent.

Having endured one round of the Heavenly Tribulation, Ancestor Tuohai and the others no longer clamored to leave the Fengqiuhuang to fight the tribulation together; they were desperate to stay in the Fengqiuhuang formation!

Fengqiuhuang could even withstand the Heavenly Tribulation; the Fazhe Zhidao was truly terrifying to this extent!

Everyone in the Fengqiuhuang Group had by now become a loyal follower of the Fazhe Zhidao. Each of them had made up their minds: as long as they could survive the lightning tribulation, they would study this Fazhe Zhidao by any means necessary...

"Can it resist the Heavenly Tribulation?" Qingyun's eyes lit up instantly.

"It doesn't just resist the Heavenly Tribulation; no attack can harm them." Lin Bai gestured with his hand, "Senior Qingyun can verify it."

What Great Vehicle Realm or Spirit Transformation Realm—in Qingyun's eyes, they were all ants. She flicked her hand, sending a ball of green energy crashing toward Ancestor Tuohai and the others. She didn't care at all whether they could withstand it.

The green energy dissipated.

Ancestor Tuohai and the others were completely unscathed.

Qingyun's eyes grew even brighter, and her breathing became somewhat rapid: "Can this formation be used on me?"

"Senior Qingyun, the Fengqiuhuang formation can only protect male cultivators." Lin Bai shook his head.

Xu Longyun gently squeezed his hand.

Qingyun was stunned, then flew into a rage: "You damned little thief, don't tell me you want me to act as the eye of the formation to protect you lot?"

"Ancestor Qingyun, Lin Bai is cunning; you must not fall for his trick." Mingyan regained her senses and hurriedly warned.

Lin Bai looked at Qingyun and smiled slightly: "Senior Qingyun, now that everyone is in the lightning tribulation, we should support each other and overcome these difficult times together. I showed Senior Qingyun the Fengqiuhuang not to have you protect us, but to demonstrate the strength of my Righteous Gate. Both sides have strength; only through a strong alliance can we work together to resist the lightning tribulation."

Qingyun laughed: "Your Fengqiuhuang formation is of no benefit to me, so what talk is there of a strong alliance?"

"Where there is Fengqiuhuang, there are other things. Senior Qingyun, don't you find your own smile very strange?" Lin Bai maintained his smile.

Qingyun froze, suddenly realizing that she was also smiling. Looking around, everyone had a strange smile on their faces, even the cultivators who had been turned into zombies were grinning. It was completely out of place with the tense atmosphere under the lightning tribulation. She tried to withdraw the smile, but no matter what, she could not stop it. When she looked at Lin Bai again, she became much more cautious: "Your divine ability truly has some tricks to it."

"Ancestor Qingyun, you must not..." Mingyan saw signs that Qingyun was being swayed and intervened again.

"Idiot." Lin Bai glared at her and frowned, "You've already been treated as cannon fodder; instead of thinking about working together to resist the lightning tribulation, you keep provoking people. Do you want to die that much? Or do you want Senior Qingyun to be buried with you?"

Mingyan and the others, who were opposing Lin Bai out of habit, were suddenly stunned. They suddenly remembered their own situation, exchanged glances, and were left speechless in embarrassment.

Cen Qing was shaken, suddenly realizing what Lin Bai meant by teaching her to practice her eloquence. Good eloquence was sometimes truly more useful than cultivation. In such an unfavorable situation, Lin Bai had managed to unite everyone onto the same front in just a few words.

Qingyun did not care about the struggle between Lin Bai and the Shengji Sect at all. In her view, both groups were ants; it was just that Lin Bai had a bit more utility value.

"If these are just petty tricks like forcing people to smile, they won't play much of a role in the Heavenly Tribulation." Qingyun looked up at the sky. In this short time, the Tribulation Cloud had gathered again, and it could unleash the second wave of the Heavenly Tribulation at any moment.

"Senior Qingyun, aren't you curious why I know your name?" Lin Bai asked again.

Qingyun was stunned, then realized: "That's right, how did you know my name?"

"This is the Fortune Telling of my Righteous Sect," Lin Bai said. "Just now, when I saw you, I spent a hundred years of my life to cast a fortune for your fate. Although you are suffering an unprovoked disaster, it is a danger without harm; on the contrary, you will be able to gain immense benefits from this calamity."

Xu Longyun was stunned and grabbed Lin Bai's hand again, her eyes full of heartache for the hundred years of life he had spent.

"Is this true?" Qingyun became excited at once.

"The Fortune Telling of the Righteous Sect has never been wrong." Lin Bai puffed out his chest to boost Qingyun's confidence.

When encountering a crisis, one's mindset plays a huge role; he had to make Qingyun firmly believe she could survive the lightning tribulation so that she would give her all in the confrontation with it.

"I have never heard of the Righteous Sect?" Qingyun frowned.

"Senior Qingyun doesn't need to have heard of it; you only need to understand the strength of the Righteous Sect," Lin Bai smiled.

"The Righteous Sect having strength doesn't mean you have strength." Qingyun narrowed her eyes and looked at Lin Bai. "I see your cultivation is merely the Great Vehicle Realm."

"Senior Qingyun, if I were merely in the Great Vehicle Realm, would that guy need to trigger a lightning tribulation to destroy me? That guy is in the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, a whole realm higher than me." Lin Bai laughed and pointed a hundred miles away at the Ancestor of Peaches, who was still hanging in the air by the Red Rope. That guy's strength was quite formidable; even after being struck by heavenly lightning, he had actually managed to hold on.

"That makes sense." Qingyun pondered for a moment, looked Lin Bai up and down, and asked, "The lightning tribulation is imminent; what means do you have to assist me during it? Don't tell me you'll use me as the array eye for that ridiculous Phoenix Seeking Phoenix Array of yours."

"The simplest method: Senior, take me as your master." Lin Bai also looked at the Tribulation Cloud in the sky and said earnestly, "I practice the Teacher Dao. If you take me as your master, your cultivation speed can increase by fifty percent. With your current cultivation, even in the gaps of the lightning tribulation, a moment of cultivation would allow you to recover a lot of strength, right?"

"Take you as my master?" Qingyun frowned again. "Ridiculous. You, a mere Great Vehicle Realm, how are you fit to be my master? I have never heard that a simple apprenticeship could increase cultivation speed by fifty percent. If there were such a sharp divine ability, wouldn't the world be full of cultivators?"

"Just because you haven't heard of it, Senior, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Why not give it a try? It's just an apprenticeship; what do you have to lose?" Lin Bai said. "Are there few things about me that cannot be explained?"

Ye Song and the others had strange expressions. You call her Senior, yet you ask her to take you as her master; this seniority is getting more and more chaotic.

However.

The Teacher Dao is indeed miraculous. Regardless of how profound one's cultivation is, increasing cultivation speed by fifty percent out of thin air is simply too unreasonable.

But regarding Qingyun taking him as her master, everyone still had expectations. The closer the relationship between Qingyun and Lin Bai, the greater their chances of survival.

"How does one apprentice?" Qingyun asked.

"No need for a ceremony. You just need to agree to be my disciple and call me Master," Lin Bai said.

"Fine, I agree to be your disciple." Qingyun looked at Lin Bai and said coldly, "But if I find out you are playing me, I will strike you dead under my palm. I, Qingyun, am not someone who can be bullied..."

"Good disciple, that is enough." Lin Bai interrupted her and took out a ruler, holding it in his hand. "You can try cultivating now, and you will know that what I said is not false."

Seeing the ruler, Ye Song's brow twitched violently, and a bad premonition arose in his heart.

"It's that simple?" Qingyun was somewhat incredulous, but she still tried to mobilize her Spirit Qi.

Whoosh!

A wild wind swirled around everyone.

A vortex appeared on Qingyun's body, like a whale swallowing water; the Spirit Qi within a hundred-mile radius all surged into her dantian.

Ye Song and the others could not help but change their expressions.

What kind of old monster is this? No wonder she never dared to show her face; absorbing Spirit Qi at such a terrifying speed had long exceeded the limits of what the world could bear.

Once she appeared, the Heavenly Tribulation would likely find her immediately. So, the Shengji Sect had been stepping on a bomb that could detonate at any time...

The Teacher Dao is a cheating tool; the higher the cultivation, the greater the advantage gained.

But because Qingyun's Virtue Value was insufficient, Lin Bai's Teacher Dao feedback was a pitiful one percent.

But it was worth it for the sheer volume.

A single intake was almost equivalent to the Spirit Qi required for a Great Vehicle Realm cultivator to practice for several months.

Even with only one percent, Lin Bai's stagnant cultivation shot upward like a rocket, breaking through obstacles. When Qingyun stopped, he had already broken through to the Golden Core realm. A spinning Golden Core rotated in his dantian; even without the card, he had become a bona fide Golden Core expert.

Lin Bai quietly swallowed his saliva, his gaze toward Qingyun becoming increasingly satisfied. As expected, when taking disciples, one must choose high-quality ones!

Looking at these gains, even a thousand Deng Li Buduo couldn't compare!

Kicking 【Deng Li Buduo】 out of the sect was the right choice...

After one intake, Qingyun stopped absorbing Spirit Qi. She felt the changes in her dantian and nodded at Lin Bai: "It is indeed effective, but it is still a drop in the bucket for dealing with the lightning tribulation. My strength has long broken through the limits of the world, and there is no room for growth. Increasing cultivation speed only means faster recovery; it is of no help during the lightning tribulation..."

"Disciple Qingyun, don't worry, there is another way." Lin Bai changed his address very naturally. Since she was now his disciple, he couldn't call her Senior anymore; it would mess up the seniority, and he wouldn't even get the one percent Spirit Power feedback.

"What way?" Qingyun asked.

"Once you are resisting the Heavenly Tribulation and cannot hold on, I can seal you into a card. No matter how heavy your injuries or how severe your Spirit Power consumption, once sealed into the card and released, everything can be restored to its peak state." Lin Bai looked at Qingyun and said earnestly, "And at that time, I will also be able to possess strength equivalent to yours. With double the strength, resisting the Tribulation Cloud should be much simpler."

Pushing his luck.

How could the simple feedback of the Teacher Dao satisfy Lin Bai's appetite? Of course, he wanted to take her as a Puppet and be a big shot together!

The moment he saw Qingyun, Lin Bai had already tailored a series of packages for her!

Hiss!

Everyone gasped, unable to maintain their expressions any longer. Is this really their Alliance Leader?

That is a super big shot who has lived for who knows how many years!

How could he dare to take her as a Puppet?

Audacious is the only word for this guy!

However, if Lin Bai really used this to survive the lightning tribulation and then possessed Qingyun's cultivation, there would likely be no one in this world who would dare to provoke him!

(End of chapter)