"Hahaha~ I'm about to ascend!"
Just as Yang Hong was doubting the merit, a surprised voice woke him.
"Song Yu? My cheap master?"
"This shameless old man still hasn't left?"
Seeing the person ascending, Yang Hong was stunned.
Song Yu was the cheap master Yang Hong had taken before entering the Hongtong Secret Realm. Having lost his physical body due to an anomaly, he had turned to cultivating as a loose immortal.
He was also an elder of the Carefree Pavilion. Nine years ago, upon learning of Xi Miaohua's ascension and her suppression of the Immovable Temple, he was ordered to seek a method from Yang Hong.
Yang Hong had naturally not kept too much to himself, telling him the method Xi Miaohua had employed, but he had downplayed his own role considerably.
However, Song Yu, being as cunning as he was old, had only half-believed him, and was convinced Yang Hong had played a significant part.
Therefore, after relaying the news back, he had come to live with Yang Hong.
He had also provided Yang Hong with ample experience and "knowledge" during Yang Hong's endeavor to create life, causing Yang Hong's women to willingly call him master.
Despite this, Yang Hong internally considered Song Yu a pervert and often hinted and suggested that he leave quickly.
But this fellow was truly shameless; even when Yang Hong went into seclusion, he hadn't left.
Now, he was truly reaping the benefits.
In the cultivation world, the most difficult to ascend for were not evil cultivators, demonic cultivators, or ghost cultivators, but loose immortals.
Loose immortals had to endure a lightning tribulation every hundred years. The first was a tribulation of the eighth stage, the Tribulation Crossing realm, against the intensity of the ninth stage, Great Perfection.
Afterward, the intensity of each subsequent tribulation doubled, and kept doubling.
The first four tribulations were manageable, but the fifth tribulation surpassed the ascension stage of a ninth stage, Mahayana cultivator, let alone the ones after.
Legend had it that in the history of the Taiyuan Continent, loose immortals who had endured three or four tribulations were common, those who had endured five were rare, six were few and far between, and seven were rulers of a realm.
Eight and nine tribulation loose immortals were mere legends.
Never did Yang Hong expect to witness a living nine-tribulation loose immortal.
And now, he was about to ascend.
Suddenly, the world changed. The golden sky turned into a pitch-black night within moments.
"Old man, hurry up and go!
What are you doing here, on my turf!"
Yang Hong suddenly discovered a problem.
"Good disciple, I know you have experience with tribulations, and you're not afraid of tribulation lightning. Help me, won't you?"
As he spoke, Song Yu had already moved closer to Yang Hong.
He had been in Qingfeng Mountain Villa for seven or eight years, and he had naturally discovered Yang Hong's secret of helping transformed plants ascend, and that it often happened with multiple lightning tribulations occurring simultaneously.
Therefore, when he saw his ascension tribulation descending, he was not worried.
"Old man, just say you want me dead. This is a loose immortal's ascension tribulation, said to be comparable to a Golden Immortal tribulation of a true immortal."
Yang Hong rolled his eyes but did not refuse, as he noticed the golden light of merit above had not yet dissipated and seemed usable.
"Hehe~ Human Immortal, Earth Immortal, Heavenly Immortal, True Immortal, these are only four stages of celestial tribulations, right? And they only manifest as Divine Firmament Lightning."
Song Yu, truly thick-skinned, chuckled and refused to leave.
Yang Hong felt helpless but began actively preparing for the tribulation.
First, he found a secluded place with few living beings and quickly set up nine different lightning-attracting formations, also placing some conductive metal artifacts around them.
Song Yu did not idle either, taking out his own formation props and setting up a few formations outside Yang Hong's.
Yang Hong took down the zither, which was still absorbing the golden light of merit, and inserted it into the core of the formation in front of him.
"Rise!"
A formation of nine nines returning to one, a lightning-attracting array, was completed. The zither, along with nine artifacts, floated up and hovered three feet above Yang Hong's head.
Only then did Yang Hong sit cross-legged, awaiting the descent of the tribulation lightning.
Rumble~
"Huh~ It's golden, not green."
As the first tribulation lightning descended, Song Yu exclaimed in surprise.
Yang Hong also frowned. The power of the tribulation lightning was much weaker than he had imagined.
It didn't even require his guidance; as soon as the tribulation lightning approached, it was absorbed by the zither.
This zither was no ordinary item. It was made by his maid, Gao Xin, who had tricked a transformed Golden Lightning Bamboo into growing a section of its body directly for him, and then meticulously polished it herself.
The zither was naturally unafraid of lightning, and now it could absorb heavenly lightning.
However, the power of this golden tribulation lightning seemed a bit weak.
Unsatisfied, Yang Hong took out twenty Grade 6 spiritual plants from the scale space on the back of his hand and directly infused them.
Soon, twenty transformed lightning tribulations formed and merged into Song Yu's loose immortal tribulation.
"The power only doubled? That's still acceptable."
After saying this, he used [Spiritual Light Transmission Method] to impart some common knowledge and cultivation techniques to the twenty newly transformed minor demons, and then he closed his eyes to recover.
He had almost completely exhausted his spiritual consciousness and magic power while saving people earlier. Although his magic power had recovered by more than half while infusing the spiritual plants, his spiritual consciousness had not yet.
Now, taking advantage of the tribulation, he would recover.
Rumble~~
Rumble~~
Not only was there tribulation lightning on Yang Hong's side, but the Five Directions Region was filled with tribulation lightning. Many people had also begun to undergo tribulations after absorbing the golden light of merit from heaven and earth.
Moreover, many of the cultivators undergoing tribulation were originally at the seventh or eighth stage, and even a very small number were at the sixth stage, the Nascent Soul realm.
With the assistance of the golden light of merit, their cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds.
And the tribulation lightning when they broke through was extremely gentle, not even as powerful as the tribulation lightning they had faced before breaking through.
Under such magical favoritism, some cultivators had already begun to ascend.
A pillar of golden light enveloped the cultivator who had completed his ascension tribulation, piercing through the sky amidst the envious gazes of those who had not ascended, and flew away.
"This is ascension, so enviable."
"I never thought I'd live to see an ascension."
"Keep going, we now have merit protecting us, and our cultivation has greatly increased. We'll be able to ascend soon too."
"Right, right~ We received feedback from the Heavenly Dao for saving people this time, and our cultivation has greatly increased. We're so lucky."
"I need to find a good place to establish a sect."
"I need to return to the sect and tell them to expand quickly."
The cultivators did not realize that the changes in the Heavenly Dao had caused changes in the tribulation lightning.
Even the changes in spiritual energy.
They only felt that the world had changed greatly, and they had more opportunities.
Yang Hong, who had entered cultivation, felt as if he was being gradually abandoned by the Heavenly Dao.
Unable to recover properly, he opened his eyes and carefully observed everything around him.
But everything seemed normal.
The only abnormality was perhaps Song Yu, who was ascending. The ascension pillar enveloping him was golden, not white like Xi Miaohua's ascension pillar.
"Good disciple, if we're fated, we'll meet again in the immortal realm. I'll still be your master. Hahaha~~"
Amidst a burst of laughter, Song Yu ascended to the upper realm, and the golden ascension pillar slowly disappeared.
However, Yang Hong still felt that something was not quite right.
Looking again at the zither, which was still absorbing the golden light of merit, Yang Hong felt even more uneasy.
A loose immortal tribulation had at least 108 bolts of tribulation lightning, requiring at least three days. Yet, the zither had not finished absorbing the golden light of merit. This was too much!
After patiently waiting for another seven hours, the golden light of merit that belonged to Yang Hong in heaven and earth was completely absorbed.
A flash of purple light flickered on the zither, and it slowly descended into Yang Hong's palm.
[Fan • Liao Xin]
Three large golden characters and a purple-gold accent appeared at one end of the zither, which had originally been nameless.
Seeing these three characters and looking at the enlarged world, Yang Hong suddenly had a glimmer of understanding.