Chapter 1794 (Raw 1806): Search for Tribulation Grounds
“Elder Tang, how is your cultivation of the Beast Taming Art?” Xiao Chen asked straightforwardly when he arrived at Elder Tang’s room.
Elder Tang smiled and replied, “Although one month is short, my accomplishments in beast taming are not low in the first place. There is a total of nine layers to the Beast Taming Art. I’ve already succeeded in cultivating the first layer. I can be considered to be initiated already.”
Xiao Chen felt gratified. This was the reason why he handed the Beast Taming Art to Elder Tang to cultivate instead of doing so himself.
Every specialty had something it was good at. The Beast Taming Dao was no weaker than Dao like the Sword Dao or Saber Dao.
However, Xiao Chen did not have a foundation in beast taming. He did not know how long it would take him to cultivate this Beast Taming Art.
“Are you confident in placing a soul imprint in the Demon Blood Vulture?”
This so-called soul imprint was the beast taming formation from the Beast Taming Art. The formation had more than a thousand variations of differing complexity. Collectively, these were known as soul imprints.
One could completely suppress and subdue the ferocious beast that the soul imprint was placed on.
With a thought from the master, the ferocious beast could die.
What was more terrifying was that the soul imprint would be placed on the bones, blood, marrow, and soul of the ferocious beasts. Even the descendants of the ferocious beast would have the soul imprint when they were born.
Elder Tang pondered before saying, “I can give it a try, but I am not very confident. If I were a Star Venerate, there would not be any worries.”
Xiao Chen consoled him, “It’s fine. You should test it on the Cold Steel Eagles and the other ferocious beasts first. I am not in a rush.”
“Right, if I gain some experience, I would be more confident when trying to tame that Demon Blood Vulture.”
Elder Tang paused for a moment here. Then, he suddenly recalled something. “Oh, right. Young Master Xiao, I took a look at the sea charts the other day. In another seven days, we will formally enter the Ash Gray Sea. After that, not only will the environment be harsher, but there will also be more pirate ships. We have to make some preparations beforehand.”
Curious, Xiao Chen said, “We are not considered to be in the Ash Gray Sea yet?”
Elder Tang smiled and sighed at the same time. “How vast is the Ash Gray Sea? Even a Divine Vein powerhouse would not dare to say that he could travel all over it. Right now, we are just at the very edge of the Ash Gray Sea’s periphery. We will formally be in the Ash Gray Sea only when the seawater turns white and we feel the ancient and bleak aura of the Ash Gray Sea.”
“Got it.”
Seven days, there are only seven more days.
After formally entering the Ash Gray Sea, there will definitely be plenty of danger and competition. Pirates have never been reasonable.
Those that dare to come to the Ash Gray Sea are not weaklings.
Xiao Chen entered deep thought. It looks like I have to bring my tribulation forward.
After scouting around for one month, Xiao Chen had found a few potential spots for undergoing his tribulation.
Unfortunately, these spots were far from ideal.
Now that they were about to formally enter the Ash Gray Sea, Xiao Chen could not afford to be picky.
After taking his leave of Elder Tang, Xiao Chen climbed to the crow’s-nest and looked around before finally fixing his gaze on the Demon Blood Vulture, which was on the Spirit Beast Platform behind.
The Demon Blood Vulture felt Xiao Chen’s gaze and looked back lazily. However, it did not show any intention of getting up.
Xiao Chen knew what the Demon Blood Vulture wanted. So, he smiled faintly and waved his hand. The blood mist that he had collected at the bottom level turned into a beam of scarlet light and flew to the Demon Blood Vulture.
This was Demonic Qi, which regular people would do their best to avoid. However, the Demon Blood Vulture screeched excitedly and absorbed all of it.
Then, the Demon Blood Vulture looked at Xiao Chen, wanting more.
Unfortunately, before Elder Tang tamed the Demon Blood Vulture, Xiao Chen would not let it wantonly consume the blood mist.
At most, Xiao Chen would just give some as a reward for it to snack on.
The Demon Blood Vulture flew out of the Spirit Beast Platform reluctantly. When it spread its wings, it immediately kicked up a strong wind that momentarily shook the Black Cutlass a little.
“Whoosh!”
Xiao Chen somersaulted and landed on the Demon Blood Vulture. Then, he rode it to the location he had chosen for his tribulation.
Even for Xiao Chen, flying over this vast Ash Gray Sea drained a lot of energy.
Having a Demon Blood Vulture was much more convenient. Not to mention speed, this could help him to conserve energy.
The only problem was that this Demon Blood Vulture was troublesome.
Once Xiao Chen could no longer suppress it, the Demon Blood Vulture would turn around, tear him to shreds, and ruthlessly consume him.
After flying for about five hundred kilometers, Xiao Chen spotted an island.
Huge waves surged up around it. Occasionally, the splashes soared all the way to the sky.
This place was remote, with strong winds and towering waves. Few ships would travel through this area. This was one of the places on Xiao Chen’s shortlist for taking his tribulation.
Since the environment here was harsher, the lightning tribulation would definitely be more violent.
This was already the best out of the many poor options. However, Xiao Chen did not have much of a choice.
“Go back, then.”
Xiao Chen patted the Demon Blood Vulture’s head, telling it to return. He was not afraid of the Demon Blood Vulture fleeing.
The Demon Blood Vulture clearly liked that blood mist a lot, nearly to the point of addiction. It kept thinking of how to finish off Xiao Chen and consume even more blood mist.
The Demon Blood Vulture would not run away.
Xiao Chen stared at this Demon Blood Vulture from a distance. He discovered that it flew halfway and then turned around, not listening to his order to return to the Black Cutlass.
“This fellow…” Xiao Chen sighed and withdrew his gaze, too lazy to bother with it. In any case, he had left a mental mark on it. No matter where it flew, he could find it.
“Whoosh!”
Xiao Chen’s figure flashed, and he landed on the island.
This island was rather large, spanning about two or three hundred kilometers, about the size of a small city.
There were mountains, rivers, greenery, and even a vast forest.
Xiao Chen gently pushed off with his feet and landed on the tallest mountain of this island.
Then, he took out the Medial Grade Spirit Jades in his storage ring and laid a Spirit Gathering Formation.
After he was done, he sat down cross-legged at the center of this formation and closed his eyes.
The Purple Thunder Divine Incantation slowly circulated.
The pure Spiritual Energy of the Ash Gray Sea immediately poured into the Spirit Gathering Formation without pause.
Then, the Spirit Gathering Formation sent the Spiritual Energy to Xiao Chen’s body, letting the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation turn the Spiritual Energy into the even purer lightning-attributed Veritable Essence Energy.
The lightning-attributed Veritable Essence Energy flowed through Xiao Chen’s meridians. Boundless thunderclouds started to gather within fifty kilometers of him.
After a while, the surrounding thunderclouds massed like a huge army, churning and kicking up dust, stirring up winds and clouds.
The thunderclouds turned increasingly ferocious, and thunder started roaring. Bolts of terrifying lightning tore through the thundercloud-shrouded sky.
Break! Break! Break!
Xiao Chen, who had suppressed his Purple Thunder Divine Incantation to the tenth layer for a long time already, roared in his heart. Now, he circulated his Purple Thunder Divine Incantation without reserve or any worries.
The purple whirlpool, which represented the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation, in his dantian spun wildly.
The berserk purple whirlpool spread throughout his dantian, completely covering up the weaker ice-attributed Qi whirlpool.
Flickering sparks appeared on his skin.
His black and white hair fluttered. At this moment, even though his eyes were closed, he appeared domineering with his sharpness exposed.
If his eyes were open, his gaze would be like a powerful saber light shooting to the sky, illuminating this vast Ash Gray Sea.
As the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation circulated in an increasingly berserk fashion, Xiao Chen smashed into the bottleneck to the eleventh layer over and over again.
The mysterious phenomenon created by the churning thunderclouds in the sky grew more horrifying.
“Roar!”
A pillar of electric light suddenly plummeted from the sky, not far away from the Spirit Gathering Formation, directly shattering a mountain range.
That was the fury of heaven, warning Xiao Chen not to continue, to stop circulating the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation.
If he persisted, heaven would rage, and a lightning tribulation would descend.
That could burn him to ashes, never to reincarnate.
As Xiao Chen slowly broke the bottleneck, all sorts of terrifying lightning descended in his surroundings.
After one hour, the mountain that he was on was already denuded. There was only the lone peak that he sat on.
Break! Break! Break! Break!
Xiao Chen pushed on, and the Veritable Essence Energy in his meridians broke through seven acupoints in rapid succession, opening up all the meridians that the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation’s eleventh layer required.
“Whoosh!”
The thunderclouds covering the sky suddenly gathered and compressed together. Then, they turned into a gigantic and scary, black whirlpool above Xiao Chen’s head. Thunderclouds churned continuously in the center of the whirlpool.
Layers of terrifying mysterious phenomena appeared. No one knew what formidable existences were behind this whirlpool.
Xiao Chen opened his eyes and looked disdainfully at the world, watching the vast sea from the mountaintop.
Two beams of light shot out of his eyes, stretching for five thousand kilometers over the boundless sea. The Ash Gray Sea looked like it was on fire.
The originally noisy sea region with huge waves suddenly fell silent at this moment.
The many creatures nearby, the sea birds and ferocious beasts, all felt danger approaching. Then, they started stampeding in all directions as if they went crazy.
Right then, the thundercloud whirlpool spinning overhead slowed to a crawl.
Shortly after, a lightning bolt streaked down toward Xiao Chen, lighting up the surroundings.
Heaven raged. A lightning tribulation would definitely appear.
Those who dared to provoke the Heavenly Might had to be ready to suffer a lightning tribulation.
“Come, then,” Xiao Chen said softly. At this moment, he was extremely calm.
However, he did not know that two dim jade-green lights had suddenly appeared in an underwater cave on the island.
