An azure path was reflected in the kunpeng’s deep, intelligent eyes. It spread its wings with a width of who knew how many kilometres and flapped them forcefully!
There was no wind in outer space, but the wings produced ripples, twisting the dark space and immediately producing an existence akin to wind. It followed the azure path and vanished into the endless space.
The galaxies spun and receded. In the vast cosmos, even the kunpeng seemed as insignificant as the seed of a mustard plant, but it possessed the grace and ease of a fish returning to the ocean. If it were trapped in the small world, even spreading its wings would become difficult. Even in the World of the Nine Provinces, it could not fly to its heart’s content.
Gu Yanying had become completely submerged in this joy of flight.
Yes, this was what she had been searching for the entire time, limitless freedom!
Only the azure path served as a constraint, which regularly gave her the urge to leave the path. It took her all of her effort to resist this temptation.
The path continued to extend at an extremely gradual pace, nowhere close to keeping up with the kunpeng’s pace.
Li Qingshan stood on the kunpeng’s back with his eyes wide open, gathering his focus. He used the receding stars around him to constantly verify his calculations before taking another step forward.
However, as he did this, he was unable to use the Ape Demon Locks the Space to prevent his spiritual qi from leaking away, so he obviously was not efficient with the calculations.
Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with the path he had calculated so far. All of it matched up with the stars, which made him sigh in relief.
In the end, after weighing some considerations, he stopped calculating and only handled the verification. It would better conserve his spiritual qi, preparing for the next series of calculations.
Rāhu Xiaoming was completely submerged in cultivation. With each passing second, he seemed to be growing.
Li Qingshan was rather envious of their ease and grace, but he still preferred standing firmly on the ground. Perhaps it was because he had become too accustomed to the nurturing of the strength of the earth that he felt empty as soon as he left the earth.
“Hold on!”
Rāhu Xiaoming’s voice suddenly rang out in Li Qingshan’s mind, and the kunpeng furled its wings, stopping in space.
“What’s wrong?” Li Qingshan asked.
“I’m going to undergo the tribulation!”
With that, a clap of thunder rang out in outer space, and a bolt of lightning ripped through the darkness, reflecting in Li Qingshan’s eyes. It made him sigh inside, The heavenly tribulations really are present everywhere!
The tribulation that was originally absolutely terrifying now seemed so nostalgic, but it also made him wonder. Rāhu Xiaoming must have undergone numerous heavenly tribulations already in the past, so how could it happen again? Even with the phoenix’s Nirvā?a Rebirth and starting over as an egg, the heavenly tribulations he had already faced would not happen again.
Rāhu Xiaoming leapt up to receive the heavenly tribulation.
Before long, he landed back on the peng’s back. He had become much thinner, and he had grown taller, now like a child that was five or six years old. The entire process of facing the tribulation had been extremely smooth, basically as easy as breathing. The bolts of tribulation lightning were like docile puppies in his hands, only able to bite him softly and leave behind a few teeth prints at most.
“Let’s go!”
Li Qingshan was filled with doubts. Rāhu Xiaoming smiled. “If I can’t even fool the heavenly tribulations, I would have been incinerated by my karma already.”
Asura had always been undying, able to be constantly reborn, let alone this child of an asura god. However, let alone Nirvā?a Rebirth, even entering sa?sāra would not be enough to avoid the backlash of karma.
“Qingshan, you’re close to the tribulation too, right?” Gu Yanying asked suddenly.
“Yeah.”
Li Qingshan nodded sternly. Undergoing the tribulations was originally something that every cultivator dreamed of. There was rebirth with each tribulation they underwent. It was not just an increase in strength. Even their intrinsic nature would change, allowing them to go from a mortal all the way to the realm of immortals and buddhas.
However, he definitely could not undergo the fourth heavenly tribulation right now, as that would exceed the limit that the nine provinces could contain.
The nine provinces were not a small world. It would not be as gentle as restrained power and a string of bad luck. He had once personally witnessed what had happened when Qiongqi descended. Now that was truly a rain of lightning. The atmospheric winds and the magma assaulted him together, never to stop until the intruder had been destroyed.
After balancing the four transformations, he was only a step away from the fourth tribulation, and now, he had begun with the Ape Demon Transformation. Fortunately, he had only reached the first layer with the Ape Demon Transformation, so its power was extremely limited. At the same time, it broke the original balance, which was the only reason why it did not immediately incur the heavenly tribulation.
However, with how compatible he was with the Ape Demon Transformation, the future cultivation definitely would not be too difficult once he broke free from the small world.
He had truly benefited quite a lot from the trials he had faced in the small world too.
First of all, he had comprehended the strength of the earth through the restraints of the world. Only the ox demon possessed that kind of ability, so it obviously laid a foundation for when he broke through to the sixth layer of the Ox Demon Transformation. He could even attempt the breakthrough right now. Among the many transformations, the Ox Demon Transformation was his foundation, as well as the transformation that matched his personality the best. Even the Ape Demon Transformation was slightly worse in this respect.
During the several decades he spent contending against the heavens, the battle spirit of the tiger demon had awakened a long time ago, constantly being tempered and tested. However, the Tiger Demon Transformation had always been about explosive breakthroughs. If he wanted to reach the sixth layer, he would still require a great battle to provide him with that opportunity.
And after he became the god of the world, observing everything in the world and comprehending the laws of the world brought benefit to the Spirit Turtle Transformation no less than the benefit to the Ox Demon Transformation. As a matter of fact, it was even more lasting with the Spirit Turtle Transformation. These two transformations both happened to emphasise accumulation over time, so breaking through to the sixth layer of the Spirit Turtle Transformation was only a matter of time too. Doing his best to calculate the path was a form of cultivation as well.
Even with the Phoenix Transformation that could be regarded as a “shortcoming”, he gained a comprehension akin to rebirth in flames after the process of entering the world before eventually leaving it.
It was possible to say that all the transformations were budging, wanting to push Li Qingshan to a higher cultivation. If he could find a world that was equivalent or even larger than the nine provinces at a time like this, he could undergo the fourth heavenly tribulation immediately and become a Daemon Emperor.
“Don’t worry, I will suppress my power. If I really run out of options, I’ll just undergo Nirvā?a Rebirth again.”
Once he returned to the nine provinces, he would undergo the tribulation immediately and ascend to the Daemonic Beast realm with Xiao An.
Even if it were not for the sake of returning to the nine provinces, outer space definitely was not a good place to face tribulations. Just the issue of dispersing spiritual qi would drastically affect the success rate. He was confident, but he was not arrogant enough to believe he could face the fourth heavenly tribulation as easily as Rāhu Xiaoming had faced his first heavenly tribulation.
The kunpeng began to fly again. Afterwards, they stopped another two times so that Li Qingshan could settle down and calculate the upcoming route. His connection with the mirror clone had indeed become weaker, but he could still control it with ease as if he was completely unworried the connection would break. Everything progressed much more smoothly than he had ever anticipated.
Li Qingshan even had the spare effort to plan out everything after he had reunited with Xiao An. He would help the Great Banyan Tree King become the god of the world and would conveniently pop by the Dragon province to butcher prince Si Qing. Han Qiongzhi was probably well, but he wondered how Ru Xin was doing…
Right as he was lost in his thoughts, he suddenly sensed the strength of the earth that he had not experienced in a very long time. However, when he gazed out, even the nearest star was a million kilometres away.
Apart from the many worlds, did boundless outer space have earth too?”
The kunpeng suddenly accelerated. A group of mountains blocked their path.
That had not existed when they travelled to the small world. Their luck finally seemed to run out.
