The black clouds pressed against the city as the wind and thunder roared away.
The Cloud Shadow Crane King spread his arms, almost enough to envelope the entire city. He produced great gales.
Avians were not known for their physical strength, but through his bones and tendons that had been forged over millennia, he forcefully stopped Clouded city.
Bai Jie looked back, only to see a sea of lightning. The Featherfolk King was nowhere to be seen.
Without the ruler of Clouded city, no one had permission to activate and control its formation. Their various methods of attack were all unusable, or they would definitely defeather this old crane.
Meanwhile, their auras made the tribulation clouds spread further, reaching several hundred kilometers away. The sea of lightning became even more violent, without any gaps remaining between the rumbles and flashes. It seemed like the wrath of the heavens, wanting to destroy everything.
She was wrapped in lightning, which only made the pressure on her multiply.
The lightning that struck Clouded city multiplied and became thicker and thicker. No matter how tough the formation was, it could not contend against heaven. The might of the heavenly tribulation was limitless. It would adjust its strength accordingly when it encountered a powerful opponent.
If this continued, both they and Clouded city would give way.
“Bai Ri, Bai Ling, come with me!” Bai Jie called out and went straight for the Cloud Shadow Crane King.
At the same time, she rapidly racked her head, not daring to use any more threats. “Cloud Shadow Crane King, we have no grudges with you, so why must you oppose us over a phoenix you’re not even acquainted with?”
The Cloud Shadow Crane King snorted coldly. “I’m afraid yielding now is already too late!”
“The featherfolk will never forget about the grievance of today!”
Bai Jie gritted her teeth and launched a single arrow. It turned into a rain of arrows half way, trailing with thousands of streaks of light.
“Eat my sword, wretched daemon!”
Bai Ri swung a light sword several hundred meters long furiously. It whistled through the air.
Bai Ling tossed out a hoop of white light. It rapidly expanded and enveloped the Cloud Shadow Crane King.
“The Crane’s Cry Rings Through the Heavens!”
The Cloud Shadow Crane King raised his head and let out a great cry. It was sharp and resounding, like the sound of ripping cloth. For a moment, it even overwhelmed the thunder.
The rain of arrows, the sword of light, and the hoop of light all twisted and disintegrated.
Bai Jie frowned. Sure enough, this old daemon was not an easy opponent.
She called out loudly, “Continue the attacks, everyone. The safety of the entire race lies in our hands!”
As she said that, she fired away with her arrows.
The featherfolk erupted with resplendent light. In order to guard their homeland, to protect their clansmen, they used all of their strength, without any regard for injuries.
A single person could hold off an entire group if they put their life on the line, let alone over a dozen featherfolk cultivators that had all undergone the third heavenly tribulation. The white light wove together like a huge hand, pushing Clouded city along slowly, moving it away from the region enveloped by the tribulation clouds.
The Cloud Shadow Crane King had to divert his focus to deal with Bai Jie, Bai Ri, and Bai Ling’s harassment, so he struggled to keep the city at bay a little. Instead, he had shed quite a few feathers, but he still refused to simply give up like this.
Countless cultivators on the ground gazed at this startling sight. They discussed among themselves.
“Just who is undergoing the tribulation for it to be so powerful?”
“It seems to be the Featherfolk King, but what has he done to provoke the crane king?”
“The crane king is aloof to any wealth or fame, so it must have been these bird people that made the old man so furious.”
“But he seems to have lost the upper hand.”
“Sigh. These featherfolk do have an advantage in numbers after all. Even Great Xia is powerless against them. The Cloud Shadow Crane King is struggling because he’s alone in this situation.”
“Hmm? What’s that?”
“It’s the lord of the kingdom!”
On the eastern horizon, a rainbow cloud glided over silently with a long tail.
On the rainbow cloud stood a ruddy old man. He had a long beard, a wooden crown, and was dressed in cloud-patterned robes. He asked in surprise, “Oldster He, what are you doing?”
“The King of Eastern Lu!”
Bai Jie leapt in fright inside. It was rumored that the Cloud Shadow Crane King and the King of Eastern Lu had a close relationship, that they regularly had tea and discussed the matters of cultivation together. If he opposed the featherfolk too, then that would be one disaster after another!
The Cloud Shadow Crane King’s words verified the rumor. He was overjoyed. “Youngster Yun, you’ve come at the perfect time. The featherfolk showed me no respect at all, even harassing me. Come lend me a hand!”
Bai Jie said in a hurry, “King of Eastern Lu, this has nothing to do with you, so you better not…”
“How dare they!”
The King of Eastern Lu had already flown into a rage with what the Cloud Shadow Crane King had said. He took out a three-legged cauldron and hurled it at Clouded city.
The rumor was not accurate. They were not simply close with one another, but the best of friends as well. During his youth, the King of Eastern Lu had once travelled the east sea on the back of a crane. This was a friendship that had already lasted an entire millennium.
The tiny cauldron swelled through the air, turning into the size of a mountain. It was engraved with clouds and stars, as well as the landscape of the Cloud province. It was one of the nine cauldrons, the Cloud Province cauldron.
Boom!
Clouded city’s advance came to a sudden halt.
The King of Eastern Lu formed seals with both hands and chanted away. The rainbow cloud beneath his feet rose and spread, pressing towards Clouded city in layers.
Only now did he ask the Cloud Shadow Crane King through his soul sense, “Fortunately, I heard the disturbance and made my way over. What exactly happened here? Why are you angry with these featherfolk, and who exactly is undergoing the heavenly tribulation? It doesn’t seem like a heavenly tribulation of ascension, but the disturbance…”
The Cloud Shadow Crane King told him about everything, as well as his own thoughts.
“I see, so something like that actually happened! This doesn’t seem to be related to you in any shape or form?” the King of Eastern Lu remarked in surprise.
The oldster He he knew was not someone who would go to war over a single word, much less someone who would drag his friends into war with him.
“It’s got nothing to do with me. It’s got something to do with you!” the Cloud Shadow Crane King replied.
The King of Eastern Lu glanced at the distance again and nodded in understanding. “This is indeed an opportunity.”
How could others be allowed to snore and make a ruckus right by his bedside? That was why the ancient King of Southern Yue went to war with the merfolk, leaving behind the Lost Stalks of the King of Yue. In his case, the featherfolk were literally strutting around over his head.
However, the featherfolk posed a much greater threat than the merfolk. Even if they did not compete against him for resources, they were basically a sword hanging over his head with all the forces they had gathered over several thousand years. Once the time was ripe, the King of Eastern Lu’s estate would probably face a disaster. The past Kings of Eastern Lu had all tried to find a way to deal with this lurking source of trouble, but they were incapable of doing so unfortunately.
“Bai Chen has just lost the feather. We definitely can’t let him devour the phoenix. He began coveting the Cloud Plane a long time ago. Now that the world is in chaos and Great Xia no longer possesses its former might, he’ll definitely take action. Before you and I ascend, we have to deal with this problem for our juniors at the very least, just in case they become enslaved again,” said the Cloud Shadow Crane King.
“That’s what I’m thinking too. Let me summon the White Dragon King, and we’ll blast Clouded city to pieces!”
With a swing of his hand, the King of Eastern Lu tossed out a tablet of edict, gathering all the honoured guests.
The Daemon King and human king of the Cloud province worked together to keep Clouded city stationary, preventing it from advancing even another inch forwards.
By now, the tribulation clouds had already enveloped everything, dragging it all into its range. It also became even more intense as a result.
In terms of scale alone, even the Golden Cicada Spirit King’s heavenly tribulation of ascension came nowhere close.
The featherfolk cultivators gradually weakened and gave way. Not only were they unable to push Clouded city away, but it had instead been pushed back by several kilometers. The protective formation faced the furious barrage of lightning, and the barrier of white light became much dimmer. Even the structures in the city began to tremble gently.
The King of Eastern Lu clicked his tongue secretly. The capabilities of people were still limited at the end of the day. If it were not for the might of the heavenly tribulation, even unleashing the strength of all the great cultivators in the Cloud province would not be enough to breach Clouded city.
“No, if this continues, we’ll all die!” a featherfolk called out.
“We can slip away, but what about the people in the city? Once the formation falls, it’ll devastate the entire race!”
“What do we do? What do we do?”
Bai Jie became filled with despair too. Was the divine bird really blessed by the heavens, where killing it led to bad luck?
Suddenly, she dove resolutely into the depths of the lightning. This could not continue any further. She had to end this heavenly tribulation, no matter what she had to do!
