As the two sides fought fiercely, the lightning continued streaking across the night sky, accompanied by bursts of muffled thunder. The birds perched on the treetops nearby dispersed in a panicked matter.
The sound of thunder became louder and louder, and the lightning bolts twisted back and forth like poisonous cobras, as if to strike straight through the earth.
The wind danced and the clouds billowed wildly. With every sudden clap of thunder, the land below shuddered.
The cultivators were all too familiar with this scene.
This was no ordinary thunderstorm.
A frenzy of delight appeared on Huo Liu’s face. “A heavenly tribulation! This is Gu Lingxiao’s obit day!”
The strength of heavenly calamities corresponded with the recipient. Usually, those with low cultivation would encounter weaker ones, while the stronger they got, the harder it would be to pass.
A heavenly tribulation as strong as this one appearing at the Ascension Palace, must be here in pursuit of Gu Lingxiao.
Gu Lingxiao was already in the later stages of the Apotheosis Stage. If he ascended again, he would enter the Transcendent Stage. But in the Sinking Star Continent, no one had broken through the last bottleneck for three hundred years. Many brilliant righteous cultivators had lost their lives trying.
Let alone a sinful demon with his hands drenched in blood.
Rather than an attempt at a heavenly tribulation, this could be said to be the skies demanding his life.
Chi Ning turned towards Gu Lingxiao, his eyelashes trembling. He had never felt so much fear before. “You haven’t used your cultivation at all recently, and the Auric Lion hasn’t been awakened. Why would the heavens cast their punishment…?”
The heavenly law was an eye that inspected the mortals for the heavens, helping eradicate abnormalities in this world, to maintain the three worlds’ orderly operation. It seemed that Gu Lingxiao, who carried black magic, had already angered the heavens.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Gu Lingxiao’s fingers itched to raise and touch Chi Ning’s face, but upon seeing the dark and ominous demonic energy winding around his hand, he could only drop it.
“Gu Lingxiao,” The arch of Chi Ning’s lip had shed its red color. “Give me your demonic energy. I’ll bear this tribulation with you.”
The last few words were soft yet firm. Chi Ning was also in the Apotheosis Stage, but never had two powerful cultivators fought together against the heavenly law before. Chi Ning was thinking of putting his life on the line to protect Gu Lingxiao.
He wouldn’t allow Gu Lingxiao to die.
“Dummy.” Gu Lingxiao raised his head to laugh, as if still without a care in the world. “They’re right. I’m not a human or a demon, so don’t harm yourself for me.”
Gu Lingxiao beckoned for the Auric Lion with a flick of his wrist cuffs, instructing it, “Protect Chi Ning.” He tapped the ground with his feet and soared into the air, straight towards the thunder.
The Auric Lion shifted into an iron cage, trapping Chi Ning firmly.
Chi Ning hastily activated his magic horn to break the array. His spiritual energy spread out like rippling waves, wanting to tear apart the cage. “Auric Lion,” Chi Ning’s core was already dried up, but he resisted it as he continued. “Gu Lingxiao will die. Let me… go…” The last couple words carried a sobbing tone.
Gu Lingxiao’s form rose into the sky. The brutal thunder and lightning flocked towards him from all sides.
Three blows of the thunder tribulation. If he lives, he will become a true immortal. If he dies, even his soul will be wiped out.
Gu Lingxiao should be afraid, but instead, he showed a strange calmness. His mind was clear and calm, every nerve becoming unresponsive, only able to think of the snow-white clothes beneath the trumpet vines.
That year, the trumpet flowers bloomed grand and fiery red. A hand like that of an immortal held his, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll bring you home.”
Scorchingly bright thunderbolts fell. Gu Lingxiao summoned his spiritual energy to block it, struggling.
His internal organs felt as if they were being squashed and shoved. With a muffled cough, blood filled his throat, spilling from the corners of his mouth.
Not giving Gu Lingxiao time to react, the tribulation hit again, a hundred times stronger and more dangerous than the first time. Gu Lingxiao was forced to a few dozen steps, and only when he called his Heaven-Reaping Sword to brace himself against the clouds was he able to stand firm again.
His spiritual force almost stopped flowing, and all five senses weakened.
Gu Lingxiao’s sight spun, and he gritted his teeth to swallow back a mouthful of blood.
The third strike was upon him.
A giant vortex emerged in the sky, the winds and clouds sweeping along sand and stone.
Sharp fragments of stones slashed at Gu Lingxiao’s face and ripped welts across his neck.
It seemed the gods thought him to be a tough person. The last part of this tribulation would definitely scatter his soul.
The wind was so strong that it ripped the air around him like pieces of cotton, with a sound like the anguished wails of evil spirits.
Gu Lingxiao looked towards the ground with regret, wanting to look for a trace of white clothing. But with the thunderclouds cutting off his sight, how could he see Chi Ning?
It’d be better if he didn’t see. Chi Ning, this person like jade, didn’t need to be dragged into the abyss by such a monster anymore.
The man touched the corner of his mouth, and laughed out a challenge to the heavy, black vault of heaven. “Isn’t it just a death sentence? Go ahead!”
He sprang up from the clouds, directly taking on the heavenly tribulation.
The last strike of lightning finally finished brewing, and took the shape of a white dragon as it pressed down from the sky with a roar.
Gu Lingxiao raised his Heaven-Reaping Sword.
But a white shape flashed by before him, and a cool and soft feeling graced Gu Lingxiao’s arms.
Fine black hair tangled against his fingers, and the fragrance of sandalwood and plum blossoms wafted out.
Gu Lingxiao’s eyes grew wide.
“No! Master!”
At this time, it was too late to push Chi Ning away!
With a “Thump—-“, the heaven and earth quaked.
…
It hurts. It really hurts.
All his limbs and bones were smothered to pieces, trickling blood.
His spiritual energy was completely dried up as well. In the moment that the lightning fell, Chi Ning used his entire lifetime of cultivation to withstand the heavenly tribulation.
Chi Ning opened his eyes with great effort and met Gu Lingxiao’s scarlet ones. He saw a tear fall from the corner of his eye.
Gu Liingxiao’s tear was like a drop of blood, dripping from the point of a blade, crashing down on the back of Chi Ning’s hand and scalding him.
This was the first time Chi Ning saw his disciple cry, but he was unable to comfort him. He couldn’t even lift his hand. As soon as he opened his mouth, a heavy amount of blood gushed out, dyeing his plain white lapel red.
“D-don’t cry.”
The wintery night breeze sent his long sleeves dancing. The lofty Demon Lord, holding a white-clothed man, slowly drifted down from the air. His feet tapped against the ground.
Huo Liu and the others were shocked to the core. They didn’t expect Chi Ning would be dumb enough to rush up and take the heavenly tribulation for Gu Lingxiao.
Really, how dumb.
Rumor has it that, hundreds of years ago, there was a girl who tried to draw her lover’s heavenly tribulation to herself. She died and her soul was destroyed. The man put on a show of crying, and then immediately turned around to find another sweetheart.
“Don’t worry, Master. I’ll transfer my spiritual energy to you… I’ll save you.” Gu Lingxiao’s expression revealed the childish helplessness. He rushed all over the place, shouting, “Shen Qiuting! Shen Qiuting, hurry up and bring me medicine!”
Chi Ning shook his head with a small smile. With his current state, even if there were medicine gods, they wouldn’t be able to cure him.
“Gu Lingxiao, I’m cold…”
“I see Clustering Jade Peak. Zong Dai is bringing back mutton. And Senior Brother Jie, and Senior Brother Qi…”
Fog sprang up in the distance, and Chi Ning could faintly see his old friends within it, all wearing the same style of robes, exchanging pointers with each other. Loser takes a shot of wine.
Gu Lingxiao gripped his master’s hand, drawing out a damaging amount of internal force to heal him. “Don’t think about going to find them! If you dare to die, I’ll burn down Clustering Jade Peak a second time! I won’t even let their ghosts rest!”
Chi Ning was in a trance.
It had been three years. After Jade Foliage was completely destroyed, he dragged on his degrading existence for three years.
He abandoned his way of cultivation, and every moment of his life was like being stabbed.
So the insects immediately began nibbling at his flesh, as the Black and White Impermanence dug out his soul.
“Ah Xiao,” Chi Ning called out this term of endearment. “After I die… Don’t kill innocent people anymore…”
“I wrote a sutra; it’s in my sleeves. Follow it, and maybe you’ll be able to control your inner demons.”
“I won’t be able to accompany you anymore.”
Even his breaths were very weak, and his voice was faraway and indistinct. “Please bury me at the top of Clustering Jade Peak.”
More than ten years had flown by in the blink of an eye.
That child who pulled at his sleeves grew into a young man and tied a crown in his hair. Now, he was the Gu Lingxiao who went against the righteous path, the powerful and undefeated Demon Lord.
He accompanied Gu Lingxiao for a long time. His youthful spirit passed. His reign of terror passed. The demonic methods that thousands of people spurned also passed.
But, he could only walk with him to this point.
Chi Ning was really tired. Leaning against the man’s chest, he closed his eyes.
Like a withering and dying tree, a deer with its throat bitten off.
It was only one life that the world lost, but that life was all of Gu Lingxiao’s light.
The person in his arms was as frigid as ice and as silent as the dead…
Gu Lingxiao lost it. “Why did you block it for me?! The wicked one was I! Chi Yunqing, do you want me to owe you? Now that you’ve died, I’ll kill every living being and they can go down with you!”
“Chi Yunqing, if you don’t want everyone to die, then live for me!”
“As long as you wake up, I’ll give you anything you want.”
“Look at me, alright?”
The luxurious hair crown was torn out. Gu Lingxiao’s hair fell loose, his eyes clouded with scarlet veins.
Before, if he said something like this, Chi Ning would stare into his eyes. But now, he didn’t respond at all, as his warmth slowly permeated out of his body.
Why? He was obviously the person Gu Lingxiao had let down the most, yet he blocked it all the same.
“Chi Yunqing. When will you learn to be a little more selfish?”
The thick and heavy storm clouds burst with torrential rain. The entire mortal world froze.
“I’ll join you soon.”
Gu Lingxiao murmured.
