“Five times… is enough!” murmured Qiu Luoyu as he looked away.
“You don’t regret it?” Qing Yu blinked.
“Is there anyone who truly lives forever? If it wasn’t for Lu Yun and the little fox, I would’ve died a hundred times over in the Tomb of Heaven and Earth.” Qiu Luoyu absentmindedly looked at the teeming human tribulation before him. Violetgrave had withdrawn her boundary of frozen time with her departure, so they were beginning to stir into motion again.
“You’re part of the Inception Palace now, you don’t have to die.” Qing Yu frowned.
Qiu Luoyu remained silent; two tiny azure flames rose in his eyes a while later. “And so what if I’m part of the sacred palace? Palace sovereigns have perished by the batches after countless chaos tribulations, and even the sacred monarch, princes, and princesses have experienced death as well.”
Whoosh!
Azure fire blossomed around him, sweeping through the air and reducing all of the human tribulations to ash without giving them a chance to resist.
“True.” Qing Yu nodded. “You’re right, but there are still exceptions in all things. The first person to transact with Violetgrave has yet to die after all this time, the same is possible for you.”
She hadn’t paid any attention to the human tribulation from beginning to end. It hadn’t seemed to register at all.
Qiu Luoyu nodded silently and returned to the void, continuing to stand guard over Qing Yu.
“The first to transact with Violetgrave was a fox?” Qing Yu cocked her head curiously, then continued refining the immortal dao with the power of creation.
The immortal dao in the chaos was gaining weight with its existence and beginning to show signs of connecting with the immortal dao in the world of immortals. Of course, to send the immortal dao throughout the chaos wouldn’t happen overnight. It was to be a long and arduous process as the chaos was too vast. In comparison, the worlds were a speck of dust.
……
The little fox’s earthly tribulation had arrived. As the saying went, thunder and lightning arrive from heaven, while fire springs eternal from the earth. The heavenly tribulation was one of thunder and lightning, and the earthly one comprised of fire.
What made the two similar was that the earthly tribulation also shifted through endless permutations. Additionally, an earthly tribulation summoned by the Dragonquake Scripture was manifold times more terrifying than an ordinary one.
The little fox was currently running for dear life as the chaos beneath her feet split open with fissures that followed her movements. They chased her like mouths yawning open to bite her in half. She didn’t know what else she could do other than run. What could she use to block this creepy tribulation? What would happen if one of the mouths swallowed her?
She had absolutely no idea and didn’t desire to find out, so the only thing to do was run as if her life depended on it. Well, it truly did.
On duty to guard her mistress, Qing Han gaped with incredulity. She couldn’t offer any help in this situation, other than follow the little fox in running circles around the chaos.
“EEEK!” The little fox jumped up and took fox form, making an about-face and heading in the opposite direction. “Lu Yun, why are you here for me too?!”
Black fire was starting to spew out of the fissures—hellfire! She knew full well how dreadful hellfire was!
Fur bristling to the point where she resembled a porcupine, the little fox stretched her short limbs to their limits on each bound and kept up a litany of sobbing curses as she ran.
Qing Han’s jaw dropped and threatened to sink through the chaos. Her regal, magnificent image of the master’s second wife collapsed with explosive glory into tiny bits of rubble.
Whoosh!
A snow-white skeletal arm probed out of the gushing hellfire and grabbed at the little fox. It was huge—on par with a chaos star, and slapped down with surging flames at the little fox.
“How dare you!” Qing Han shouted and flared cuttingly sharp light out of her longsword, cutting down on the arm.
She froze with shock the next second. Her sword couldn’t touch the arm! It went right through it!
Everything the little fox was experiencing was just a mirage for Qing Han that she couldn’t interact with.
“We have to use power from the third realm to battle this tribulation,” she realized. “Mistress, the creation seed!”
The little fox shook and subconsciously released the energy of the creation seed within her body.
Hummmm.
Emerald green brilliance blossomed from her tiny form, disintegrating the large hand as soon as it touched the light.
Just as the little fox breathed out a little more easily, the void beneath her foot trembled and an absolutely massive fissure crackled into existence. Leaping hellfire and infinite bony arms stretched out of that opening, all flailing for her.
Shrieking, the little fox shone brightly with the strength of the creation seed, shattering all of the skeletal arms. While her creation seed could handle those, it couldn’t dispel hellfire. Thus, though she handled one threat, she was quickly surrounded by flames.
“The Hadal Hell!” Qing Han gasped with shock and recognition. The flames of the netherworld chasing her mistress came from that hell!
“Lu Yun you’re an absolute bastard!” wailed the little fox. “You don’t have to kill me if you don’t want to take responsibility for your actions! I’m still a decent, young fox! I don’t want to die yet!!”
Qing Han: ……
Boom!
A pillar of purple light descended from above and destroyed the fires surrounding the little fox. The fissure beneath her feet disappeared as well.
“Who goes there?!” Qing Han looked around with alarm, not seeing anyone in the vicinity.
Meanwhile, the little fox took advantage of the respite and shot off into the distance.
“Take human form to pass the tribulation!” a hoarse voice rasped in the air.
The little fox blinked.
“Take human form to pass the tribulation!” it urged again.
“Why should I believe you?!” she retorted automatically and bounded forward again. Miao was a fox at the heart of things, and she firmly believed that four legs ran much faster than two. Since there wasn’t any way to meet this tribulation head-on, being able to run faster meant living longer.
However, a dense cluster of new fissures surrounded her before she could get too far. Geysers of hellfire, bony arm upon bony arm, and even skulls probed out of the cracks. Howling and snarling, they all grabbed for her.
“Take human—” This time, the voice was interrupted as soon as it sounded.
Rays of purple light descended from the void and pulverized the arms and heads.
“Away with you!” roared another voice that seemed to scare the blazing hellfire. They immediately retreated out of sight.
Tianqi arrived in front of the little fox, looking rather out of place with Quietus in hand. Purple light drifted around him—the purple qi that he’d once safeguarded.
“Auntie, master told me to come help you with the tribulation.” His eyes bright, Tianqi looked into the depths of the chaos, where there seemed to be a smear of purple. “Who are you?” he called out.
