Tianyi didn't let Daoyi undergo her Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation within the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Instead, he brought her to an uninhabited island in the Endless Seas. Of course, Tianyi made sure to inform Sect Master Xia.
It was only good manners.
Once there, Daoyi didn't waste any time and immediately summoned her Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation. Tianyi held his chin as he observed Daoyi's tribulation cloud. 'It's a lot smaller than I'd thought it'd be.'
Comparatively, it was around the same size as Lovespot's, Xia Yushan's. Ba Shifang's had been twice as large as the others, but Tianyi chalked it up to the Heavenly Dao being petty.
Unknown to Tianyi's thoughts, Daoyi sat atop a lotus seat as she awaited the first bolt of tribulation lightning. The lotus seat exuded a silvery-blue light, much like a soul. The phoenix pattern on her dress and the vine pattern on her guqin started to exude a similar glow. Her third lifebound artifact, the Cloudless Crest Link, exuded immortal qi of yin.
Tianyi had wanted to store essence qi inside the artifact, but the artifact's rank had been too low.
Daoyi showed no anxiety even as the lightning arced through the clouds accompanied by thunder. She continued to close her eyes and maintained her state, ready to combat the tribulation lightning.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes and formed a hand seal. The lotus seat's petals began to sway as they released tiny motes of light into the air. Simultaneously, the first bolt of lightning descended.
Daoyi's formed several other hand seals in quick succession and gathered the motes of light over twenty meters above her. The gathered lights quickly shifted and transformed into a giant formation.
The formation didn't block the bolt of tribulation lightning at all and allowed it to pass without hindrance. But once it passed, the golden glow of the tribulation lightning transformed into a silvery-blue color.
Daoyi's body trembled slightly as the lightning landed on her. However, no injuries appeared, and a hint of a smile appeared on Daoyi's lips.
She continued to allow the transformed transformation lightning to strike her, but the formation shattered on the seventy-third bolt of lightning. Without a moment of delay, Daoyi placed her guqin on her lap and plucked the strings.
"Eighteen Songs of Hell - First Song Ripping Dissemination."
A low-frequency song spread over a hundred meters. The song didn't resemble a regular sound, but like over ten thousand people were murmuring and speaking at the same time. Yet, there was a clear tune and tempo to this madness.
When the seventy-fourth lightning bolt neared a hundred meters of Daoyi, it shattered into countless little electric sparks. No matter what it did, it could not regroup and swiftly dissipated. What little sparks touched Daoyi caused no reaction from her.
Finally, on the one hundredth and ninety-eighth strike, the tribulation lightning barely managed to prevent itself from entirely disintegrating and land a strike on Daoyi's body, however slight it was.
Daoyi's body trembled, and her fingers froze for a second, but she continued to play her guqin. Her song increased in volume. Instead of sounding like ten thousand people murmuring, it transformed into ten thousand people shouting, and the next bolt of lightning entirely disintegrated without touching her.
Finally, on the two hundredth and thirty-third bolt of lightning, Daoyi changed her song. First Song Ripping Dissemination could no longer block the tribulation lightning.
"Eighteen Songs of Hell - Third Song Mirror Severance."
The tune changed from the shouting of ten thousand people to endless echoes. Not just echoes, but Tianyi could even see his reflection if he stared at the area around Daoyi. Not just him, but the water, the plants, the land, everything within a hundred meters was mirrored.
The latest bolt of lightning that descended was met with a rising bolt, canceling it out. As time passed, Tianyi noticed that it wasn't just the lightning bolt being mirrored. Sometimes, the tribulation lightning would split in half. Then, the two halves would crash into each other, destroying themselves.
Tianyi raised an eyebrow. From Daoyi's third song, he could sense concepts from the Law of Space. 'When did she master concepts of space?'
As time passed, Tianyi slowly let go of his worries. At first, he worried that the heavenly tribulation would be too powerful for Daoyi. If needed, he would forcibly end it. Not like the heavenly tribulation could harm him any longer.
Even though Daoyi got occasionally injured, they were merely light injuries at worst. He continued to watch as Daoyi switched from song to song to combat the increasingly powerful tribulation lightning.
Finally, on the nine hundred and ninety-ninth bolt, Daoyi spat out a large mouthful of blood as it struck her. Her face paled dramatically, but a smile graced her lips. She had transcended her Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation.
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Daoyi didn't get up to heal her injuries but continued to pluck her guqin instead. A haunting but beautiful melody spread throughout the air. Despite the alluring song, a ghastly aura drowned the area.
Despite it being daytime, the sky darkened without notice, and a chilling air rose from below. Tianyi rubbed his eyes and continued to stare at the ground. He even opened his third eye and saw nothing, but he couldn't help but get the sensation that something was staring at him.
It was akin to the sensation he had experienced as a kid. He had just watched a horror movie and turned off the light to sleep, but he couldn't help but feel like something had locked onto him. Whether it was from below his bed or behind the slightly ajar doorway. Needless to say, he hadn't gotten much sleep.
As Daoyi continued to play her guqin, the songs began to change and evolve. Tianyi didn't disturb her and listened to her songs. He had thought that he had comprehended quite a bit of the Law of Death, but compared to Daoyi, he was still far off. Now, listening to her Eighteen Songs of Hell, he could brush and fill in any inadequacies in his understanding.
Just as Daoyi finished the seventeenth song, the melody came to an abrupt stop. Tianyi opened his eyes. "Still a little bit."
He turned and glanced at Daoyi, and his eyes widened in surprise. Daoyi's skin had turned ethereal, a golden chrysanthemum marking appeared between her brows, and an ephemeral robe cloaked her. Nine jeweled hairpins stylized her hair, and an image of death appeared behind them.
The changes lasted for only a brief moment, and they soon disappeared, returning Daoyi to her former appearance. She sighed and said, "I'm still a bit short."
Tianyi flew towards Daoyi and smiled at her. "Congratulations Immortal Thrallsong for transcending your Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation and sharing longevity with heaven and earth."
Daoyi also smiled as she swallowed a pill. She had exhausted herself crossing the heavenly tribulation, but she hadn't been deeply injured like most people. "Many thanks, but I can't compare to the esteemed Monarch of Nine Heavens who directly entered the Seamless Immortal Realm after attaining immortality."
Tianyi and Daoyi shared a look before both started to chuckle. Tianyi's abruptly stopped. 'I guess this means that we can get married, but I still feel that it's too soon. Although we've been dating for decades, more than enough by Earth's standard to get married, we've spent most of the time cultivating. I guess I should take this chance to deepen our relationship.'
However, Daoyi had other plans. "Tianyi, send me to Sixth Heaven. I want to see if I can fully comprehend the Law of Death."
"Alright," Tianyi finally said after a moment of silence and waved his hand. Daoyi soon disappeared, causing Tianyi to sigh. He crossed his arms and held his chin. "I guess I'll go check up to see if I can get anything worthwhile before returning to the sect."
With that, Tianyi started to float off towards Tianwei Island, the place he met Bai Tiezi when he had gotten lost after being almost trapped in the Vast Void. He still felt some lingering regrets about not getting Immortal Riverrat's treasures. 'Although, I wonder what happened to him. Did he ever make it to one of the three continents?'
It took some time to find Tianwei Island since Grand Elder Zhang had directly teleported him back to the sect after saving him from the then Monarch Soulfish. 'Speaking of which, where is that bastard? If he's still in the Seamless Immortal Realm and I encounter him, hehe...'
Tianyi didn't waste anytime and directly teleported inside Immortal Riverrat's inheritance site. There, he discovered that no one had touched the treasures left behind. "Strange. Why did it disappear in my timeline?"
Suppressing his questions, Tianyi stored all the treasures, which were not worth it, in his opinion. Still, there was something worth it in the inheritance site. He directly absorbed the artificial river of time and the whole inheritance site into his Nine Heavens Universe. Once inside, the inheritance disintegrated into pure energy.
'Just in case, I'll visit the Earthsea Land to see if the divine artifact Longevity Oracle Mirror is still there.' Tianyi thought. Unlike searching for Tianwei Island, it took a far shorter amount of time to make it to the Southern Region where the Earthsea Land was located in.
First, Tianyi explored the location where the Longevity Oracle Mirror had originally been found, but when he got there, he noticed a fortress had been built there. Still, he easily slipped passed the walls and guards. Under the fortress, the cave where the divine artifact had been founded had transformed into an immortal grotto with dense spiritual qi, one that rivaled the Buzhou Immortal Sect's qi density.
At the very center of the immortal grotto stood a tree. The leaves were pink, resembling cherry blossoms, but the tree exuded a dense peach fragrance. Growing from the branches were ninety-nine peaches around the size of a fist.
Walking under the giant peach tree, Tianyi held his chin. 'Logically speaking, if I took them, that would be stealing. I don't really need them either, so there's not really any point since Mother can also grow them and better ones at that. Still, If I steal them, I'd be mighty petty. Besides, it belongs to Xiwangmu's lineage, my Mother's lineage. '
Yeah, he was petty.
With a shit-eating grin, Tianyi waved his hand, and all the peaches disappeared without anyone noticing. His figure also disappeared, and he reappeared above Paradise Sand City, the location of the Lei Clan.
Tianyi's immortal sense shrouded the entire city, and he noticed, to his (not) shock, that the other four great clans aside from the Lei Clan had disappeared. Not only that, but the Lei Clan had several grandmasters holding the fort, and there was even a venerable hidden inside the clan.
After taking a look, Tianyi tsked. Sure enough, the idiom that when one person ascends, his chickens and dogs also ascend to heaven wasn't wrong.
Tianyi turned his head away and disappeared again. This time, his destination was the Fleeting Mist Sect of the Northern Region. Since the turmoil hadn't started yet, the Fleeting Mist Sect hadn't relocated yet.
His goal? The Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus.
Along the way, Tianyi manipulated the longevity peaches that he had stored inside his inner universe. Under his control, the peach pits were extracted and embedded into soil with rich spiritual qi on Sixth Heaven. As for the peach flesh, he decided to keep them. Maybe Daoyi would like to turn it into alcohol.
As Tianyi expected, without his interference, the lightning sea still remained in the Fleeting Mist Sect. He didn't care for the lightning sea too much now since the tribulation essence was useless to him at this point.
With his spatial technique, Tianyi avoided the endless bolts of lightning and traveled towards the center of the lightning sea, where he saw two unexpected people: Lei Jingye and Xi Longyi.