Chapter 538

Previously, when fighting Li Ming, the Ten Thousand Blood Bead had already leveled up once.

Li Fei had originally expected it to level up one more time, but halfway through the fight, Ning Qingman appeared, causing the Ten Thousand Blood Bead to still be a bit short of reaching level 48.

Now, having endured two heavenly tribulations and taken one technique targeting and one Dao Rule attack from the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe, the energy value required for the Ten Thousand Blood Bead to upgrade was finally full.

Upgrading from level 47 to level 48!

The Ten Thousand Blood Bead was replenished, and the number of blood souls increased by 94, becoming 6864.

Just now, because he had no memory and no control, the battle armor on Li Fei's body had been shattered.

He immediately redeployed the 【Hunyuan Sword Realm】, but did not consume blood souls to perform 【Sword Sacrifice】.

The Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe's Dao Rule left him with lingering fears, and he worried that if he experienced that again, he would waste his blood souls by letting someone break his sword realm for nothing.

Seeing Li Fei deploy the 【Hunyuan Sword Realm】, the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe, hiding in the shadows, was completely shocked.

Under the combined attack of the heavenly tribulation and himself, even peak experts were very likely to be injured, yet Li Fei was actually unscathed?!

"Could it be the legendary Dao Body, born with Dao Rules?"

Thinking of this, the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe's heart immediately became heated.

A person who had not reached the peak realm but possessed Dao Rules was simply the most perfect 'material' for him!

Flesh, soul, and that potentially existing Dao Rule were all great tonics.

"Even if I can't get Ning Qingman, getting this Marquis of Jing'an is also a great opportunity!"

The Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe had already made a decision in his heart.

If it were before, he definitely would not have dared to make a move against a high-ranking official of the imperial court.

He would have worried about being locked onto by Xiang Yunshu and then chased and killed by Wen Ren Zheng!

But now, the imperial court's deterrent power against him had dropped to the lowest point.

Xiang Yunshu was gone, Wen Ren Zheng did not dare to move lightly, and the Buddhist sect was watching covetously from the sidelines.

Even if he killed Li Fei, would that new emperor really disregard everything to avenge a dead Marquis?

The weaker the forces of the Buddhist sect, the Daoist sect, and the imperial court, and the more chaotic the world, the more unscrupulous the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe, as a demon, would be!

"Old ghost, why aren't you coming to help!!"

Li Ming's angry roar interrupted the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe's thoughts.

In just a few breaths, this demon, whose strength had weakened after resurrection, was forced into a precarious situation by Ning Qingman!

If it weren't for the 【Flesh Myriad Transformation】 and 【Regeneration】 divine abilities, Li Ming would have already been seriously injured.

After weighing the pros and cons, the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe decisively put Li Fei aside and made a move to help Li Ming.

Letting Li Fei help him endure the heavenly tribulation while also using the heavenly tribulation to weaken Li Fei was a win-win situation for the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe.

The Nether Jianghe whistled and swept toward Ning Qingman; the ear-piercing sound of ghosts wailing filled the heavens and earth, and the cold evil energy almost froze space!

Ning Qingman's sword momentum immediately stalled.

She possessed the 【Sword Solution】 Dao Rule, so she would not be strongly controlled by the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe's 【Forget Jianghe】, but she would inevitably be affected to some extent.

Seizing this opportunity, the Nether Jianghe coiled around Ning Qingman like a giant python, and the wails of hundreds of thousands of vengeful spirits exploded in her mind!

These vengeful spirits carried the bone-chilling cold from the depths of the Yellow Springs, forming ice-crystal-like frost flowers on Ning Qingman's protective sword energy.

At the moment of being swallowed by the Nether Jianghe, a clear and resonant sword cry exploded from the depths of the netherworld—

The green sword light was like a dragon at dawn, piercing through the Nether Jianghe!

Countless vengeful spirits were instantly reduced to ashes, and Ning Qingman stepped on the recoiling sword energy and soared into the sky, her three thousand strands of green hair flying wildly in the gale.

Under the tribulation clouds, Li Fei, seeing this scene, breathed a sigh of relief.

The best tactic now was for him to help Ning Qingman endure the heavenly tribulation, allowing Ning Qingman to focus on dealing with Li Ming and the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe.

On the way here, Ning Qingman had told him that although Li Ming had been resurrected, his strength had not fully recovered, being only about 70% of what it was at Mount Tiansha.

So this time, even without a sneak attack to seriously injure him, and without Wen Xuexian making a move at the critical moment to cut off the cause and effect, Ning Qingman was confident that she could prevent the opponent from escaping, forcing him to obediently go and be reborn again!

But now there was an additional Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe.

Winning one-on-one was stable, but the situation of one-on-two was completely different.

Experts in the world almost all recognized one point: compared to dealing with two martial artists at the same time, dealing with a combination of one martial artist and one warlock was more difficult.

Because warlocks had more methods and were better suited for support.

If today it were Li Ming and another demon setting a trap together, two Martial Saints joining forces...

The two had never cooperated, had never practiced combination techniques, and with their hearts not being united, it was hard to truly display the combat power of two peak experts.

But changing to a combination of one Martial Saint and one True One Realm expert, it was very easy to achieve an effect of one plus one being greater than two!

This was the reason Li Ming chose to join forces with the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe, and it was also where their confidence lay.

Even without the help of the heavenly tribulation, both were confident that they could defeat Ning Qingman!

Now, Li Fei could only choose to trust Ning Qingman and do his own part well.

Boom—

The fourth lightning tribulation fell.

This lightning tribulation had already reached the peak level starting from the second strike, and each strike was stronger than the last!

This time, Li Fei was finally fully prepared; before the lightning tribulation fell, he consumed 1000 blood souls to perform 【Sword Sacrifice】 to strengthen the 【Hunyuan Sword Realm】.

The golden sword realm rapidly contracted, condensed, and turned into brilliant battle armor.

Li Fei had an extra Ghost Slaying Blade in his hand, and he slashed upward against the falling thunder.

Spring mountains turning into snow, summer thunder destroying cities... the changing of the four seasons, ten thousand waters and thousand mountains, hundreds of millions of living beings, all kinds of phenomena collapsed and condensed!

A brilliant line appeared in the dim heaven and earth, tearing the darkness apart—

【Not Knowing the Height of Heaven】, slashing against the heavenly tribulation!

That line of brilliance collided with the dark golden thunder, like two armies at war, with heavy cavalry thunder charging into the ranks of heavy infantry.

The heavy cavalry tore through the formation and trampled the mortal world!

After breaking the national power bonus brought by the 【Jing'an】 divine ability, the thunder still landed on Li Fei.

On the golden battle armor, electric light spread, and lightning intertwined.

Li Fei transferred the damage that the battle armor could not withstand to the Ten Thousand Blood Bead, ultimately reducing more than 600 blood souls.

In terms of the damage brought by the heavenly tribulation, it was actually weaker than Li Ming's at the peak of Mount Tiansha.

But the energy value increased by the Ten Thousand Blood Bead was more than back then!

"The energy quality of the heavenly tribulation is just different."

Li Fei praised in his heart, very composed.

After all, he was not facing a peak expert, so he did not need to counterattack.

So he did not consume blood souls to use 【Blood Rage】, nor did he activate the 【Dragon Elephant】 divine ability to add a burden to the sword realm.

He only needed to focus on defense.

After the fourth lightning tribulation, the thunder within the tribulation clouds became increasingly surging, having already formed a golden pool of thunder!

The majestic heavenly might was soul-stirring.

The fifth lightning tribulation fell, as thick as a mountain peak!

The lightning tribulation was one layer stronger than the next; if the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe released all the vengeful spirits to guide the heavenly tribulation, this lightning tribulation could reach up to seven layers.

However, the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe was worried that Ning Qingman would not block the heavenly tribulation, so he intentionally held back, resulting in only five layers of lightning tribulation.

Li Fei slashed out 【Not Knowing the Height of Heaven】 again; the line of heavenly light was instantly blasted apart, and he was also knocked down by more than three hundred meters by the terrifying thunder!

He continuously transferred the overflowing damage to the Ten Thousand Blood Bead, only then forcibly stopping his downward momentum in the air.

The fifth lightning tribulation was not a one-time event; the golden thunder was like a waterfall, flying straight down from the firmament, continuously impacting Li Fei!

In fact, the hardest part of enduring the heavenly tribulation was not blocking it, but not letting it fall into Tancheng.

Otherwise, tens of thousands of commoners in Tancheng would immediately suffer!

So if it were Ning Qingman blocking it, she could only strike with her sword time and time again to continuously break the heavenly tribulation.

But for Li Fei, facing this kind of power that was purely 'high in numerical value' and had no specific Dao Rules, it was actually very easy to deal with.

He only needed to transfer all the overflowing damage to the Ten Thousand Blood Bead to perfectly block the heavenly tribulation, not letting a single bit of power fall into Tancheng.

The lightning tribulation poured down, the blood souls within the Ten Thousand Blood Bead decreased at a very fast speed, and the energy value soared continuously!

The fifth layer of lightning tribulation lasted for a full thirty seconds; as it neared its end, the Ten Thousand Blood Bead upgraded to level 49!

Blood souls increased by 96, and the number of blood souls within the Ten Thousand Blood Bead became 6960.

On the other side, the three peak experts who were fighting were all distracted, paying attention to Li Fei's situation.

Ning Qingman was worried that Li Fei would not be able to hold on, while the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe was thinking about when it would be appropriate to capture Li Fei.

But seeing Li Fei completely endure the fifth layer of lightning tribulation while still being unscathed and with undiminished aura, they could not help but marvel.

The greed in the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe's heart grew even stronger.

After the lightning tribulation, the tribulation clouds in the sky did not dissipate, turning from ink-colored to crimson red.

The originally pitch-black firmament turned red, as if covered by a sea of fire.

After the lightning tribulation came the fire tribulation!

The scorching sea of fire churned in the air and then fell, covering the sky and earth.

It was as if an immortal above the nine heavens had overturned a huge alchemy furnace, and molten lava was continuously pouring out of the furnace, falling into the human world!

Li Fei's expression changed slightly; he did not wait in place, but took the initiative to fly into the high sky, while deploying the 【Hunyuan Sword Realm】 that had turned into battle armor.

This fire tribulation was not as highly condensed as the lightning tribulation; it was an area-of-effect attack, so Li Fei could only deploy the sword realm to wrap all the pouring sea of fire within it.

He consumed another 1000 blood souls to activate 【Sword Sacrifice】 to strengthen the sword realm.

The original maximum range of the sword realm was 1600 meters, but now it reached an astonishing 3000 meters in radius!

A golden ball of light as large as a mountain stood above Tancheng, blocking the fire tribulation.

The sea of fire surged over, rapidly igniting the entire sword realm, turning the golden ball of light into a huge fireball.

It was as if an extra sun had appeared above Tancheng!

The lightning tribulation was an explosion, while the fire tribulation was persistent.

The lightning tribulation tested the upper limit of defense, while the fire tribulation tested endurance.

Li Ming had long used the 【Swallowing Heaven】 Dao Rule to gather all the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of several thousand meters, making it impossible for Li Fei to replenish his energy from the outside world.

Therefore, the difficulty of facing the fire tribulation was greater than that of the previous lightning tribulation.

Li Fei stood on the altar of the sword realm, watching the heavenly fire continuously burning the sword realm.

Mountains were burned and cracked, rivers were burned dry.

Frost and snow melted, bamboo forests turned to ash...

All kinds of phenomena within the sword realm were continuously destroyed, and the fire began to spread toward the sun and moon in the sky.

There were also raging flames around the altar where Li Fei stood; he suddenly sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

The fire within the sword realm suddenly paused, and a huge vortex appeared above the firmament, continuously absorbing the heavenly fire.

【Refining Gold with Fire】!

The seventh-grade Ghost Slaying Blade that Li Fei and Chen Tiexin had forged together only possessed this one ability, and it was not used for fighting, but for tempering the body.

【Refining Gold with Fire】 required absorbing fire-attribute spiritual energy, and there was no fire-attribute spiritual energy more refined and powerful than the current heavenly fire tribulation!

For others, this fire tribulation was a dangerous test.

But Li Fei could transfer all the overflowing damage to the Ten Thousand Blood Bead, so for him, this fire tribulation was actually an opportunity!

While absorbing the fire tribulation with 【Refining Gold with Fire】, he activated the 【Refining Objects】 divine ability.

Li Fei was forging his own flying sword body in the fire tribulation!

He had previously used the 【Refining Objects】 divine ability to specifically strengthen himself once with the help of Xiang Yunshu's Hun Tian Luo Pan.

Now, without the 【Analysis】 divine ability to help, Li Fei's strengthening was relatively simple and crude—

A hundred refinements to become steel, washing away the lead, continuously polishing, making the flying sword body increasingly pure!

Within the sword realm, wisps of black smoke continuously emerged from Li Fei's body.

These black smokes were all kinds of impurities left over from strengthening the flying sword body in the past, and also included impurities from Li Fei's own flesh, meridians, bones, and internal organs.

As these impurities continuously turned into black smoke and dissipated, Li Fei's body gradually presented a texture as exquisite as jade.

Blood flowed within it, like rivers, finally gathering toward the heart.

Every acupuncture point radiated light, as if stars were residing within them!

Qi and blood were like a dragon and elephant, flesh and blood were like diamond.

It possessed both the hardness and sharpness of a flying sword and the vitality of a flesh-and-blood body.

The vast vitality and the peerless sword intent were perfectly fused together!

Ning Qingman, who was fighting Li Ming and the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe, suddenly felt something and subconsciously looked toward the golden ball of light.

As the sword immortal of the current age, she was the most sensitive to swords, so only she noticed the changes within the 【Hunyuan Sword Realm】.

She felt as if a peerless sword was slowly taking shape within it!

"This is..."

Unaccountably, she had some extra anticipation in her heart.

The fire tribulation lasted for nearly ten minutes.

During these ten minutes, Ning Qingman withstood the attacks of Li Ming and the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe, slashing Li Ming's body more than a dozen times!

But she also paid a considerable price, suffering multiple injuries on her body, with the wounds continuously corroded by the cold evil energy, leaving her no time to clean them.

Not only that, her mind was also repeatedly eroded by 【Forget Jianghe】, and a clear sword heart was already difficult to maintain.

Facing a combination of a Martial Saint and a True One Realm expert, even if Li Ming only had 70% of his combat power in his prime, Ning Qingman was still at a disadvantage.

The situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable for her.

"Old ghost, stop what you're doing and kill Li Fei first!"

Li Ming suddenly transmitted his voice to the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe.

Seeing that the fire tribulation was about to end, he was worried that without the restraint of the heavenly tribulation, Li Fei would come to stir up trouble, so he asked the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe to kill one person first.

Having endured the heavenly tribulation for so long, even if that number one in history was heaven-defying, he was not a peak expert after all, so he must be at the end of his rope!

In fact, he did not need to speak; the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe had the same intention.

However, the Ancestor of the Nether Jianghe did not intend to kill Li Fei, but to capture him alive.

Within the sword realm, Li Fei, sitting cross-legged on the altar, was radiating a jade-like luster.

He was indeed at the 'end of his rope'.

The blood souls within the Ten Thousand Blood Bead were all exhausted, and there were only 500-plus blood souls left in the blood spring.

But—the Ten Thousand Blood Bead had upgraded again!

If it were a confrontation with a peak expert, with the current level of the Ten Thousand Blood Bead, it would not be able to achieve continuous upgrades.

However, the energy quality of the heavenly tribulation was higher.

The Ten Thousand Blood Bead upgraded from level 49 to level 50, blood souls increased by 98, and the number of blood souls within the Ten Thousand Blood Bead increased to 7058!

If the blood souls in the blood spring were full, Li Fei would truly reach the realm of 'Ten Thousand Blood'.

And as the Ten Thousand Blood Bead upgraded to level 50, what was unlocked this time was no longer a blood soul skill, but had new changes!

On the altar, Li Fei opened his eyes and retracted the 【Hunyuan Sword Realm】.

Between heaven and earth, the fireball as large as a mountain disappeared.

This fireball was like a sword scabbard; when the scabbard was gone, the divine sword was born—

A peerless sword intent rushed straight into the sky, piercing a huge hole in the tribulation clouds in the air!

The firmament seemed to be completely pierced through, and the third layer of heavenly tribulation that had just taken shape, which was also the last layer of heavenly tribulation—the Mind Tribulation.

The Soul-Absorbing Demon Pupil had just opened, only to have a crack appear; the Soul-Absorbing Demon Sound that had not yet sounded was directly silenced.

The Mind Tribulation had not yet erupted when it was already half-dispersed by this sword intent!

For the first time, Ning Qingman took the initiative to stop her offensive, turned around, and looked at the figure in the distance, her eyes bright.

All along, she had no requirements for the swords she carried; she could use any iron sword she picked up.

It was not that she did not love swords, but that she could not find a sword worthy of herself.

Just as sword practitioners all had a soft spot for peerless precious swords.

For the first time in her life, Ning Qingman felt a heartbeat for someone!

She looked blankly at Li Fei, who was like a divine sword, and the craving she had suppressed for many years completely erupted.

Back then, under the bright moon, she had discussed the peak of the world in front of Li Fei.

She ranked the top three in the world, and her own name was not among them.

Li Fei asked her where she ranked herself, and she said it was not worth mentioning.

But in fact, if she could have a peerless divine sword suitable for herself, Ning Qingman's name should be among the top three in the world!

"Li Fei—"

Between heaven and earth, green hair flew, and the green robes were like a painting.

"Lend me your sword!!!"

The next instant, a flash of brilliance cut through the heavens and earth.

Sword, come!

(End of chapter)