Zhu Yao was about to cry. If this zapping kept up, she might actually die, and enter the palace a third time!¹
Yu Yan stood at the side, and worriedly looked at his disciple. Unfortunately, he could nothing to help. The path to forming a Nascent Soul was beyond difficult, many people had fallen here during their path to being a deity, and the success rate was not even one in ten thousand. Yet, the current situation his disciple was in, she had no choice but to form her Nascent Soul, and the bolts of Tribulation Lightning were her best chance.
However, these bolts of Tribulation Lightning were simply too straightforward with their zappings. Earlier, he was even worried that those Tribulation Lightnings could not be guided over, and had planned on forcefully guiding the bolts of lightning. From the current looks of it, there was basically no need for him to take action. As those bolts of Tribulation Lightning struck one after another, it felt like they were having a festival. He suddenly had a little doubt in his mind, was his disciple's bizarre affinity to lightning spiritual energy good or bad?
Zhu Yao had begun to feel a little numb from the pain. Her consciousness was beginning to blur as well, but she could only mechanically take in the spiritual energy.
"Chick~" A clear and crisp voice suddenly rang from deep in her heart.
It's the Wood Spirit, crap. I have forgotten to take it out. It won't be oppressed to death by the lightning spiritual energy, right? Zhu Yao worriedly looked into her inner world, and what she saw was, at the corner of her divine sense, a small little bonsai was currently at a loss as it watched a large amount of lightning spiritual energy suddenly pouring in.
Zhu Yao thought of taking it out, however, currently, she no longer had any strength to spare. Zhu Yao suddenly felt a little guilty. Sorry, little Wood Spirit.
"Chick... Chick..." The Wood Spirit seemed to have her heard her inner thoughts. Waving its little tree branches, it suddenly flew out of that small corner, stretched out two little vines, pulled a small mass of lightning spiritual energy, and then, fly back into her divine sense.
Like a small little porter, it began to busily go in and out.
Zhu Yao: "......"
It was actually not afraid of lightning spiritual energy. Could it be that, after staying in her own divine sense for so long, it had gotten used to it?
With the Wood Spirit's participation, the rate of her taking in spiritual energy had improved. However, the Heavenly Lightnings that were becoming even more saturated, continued to charge her up.
"Chick chick chick chick chick..." The Wood Spirit was a little anxious. Two vines were no longer enough to satisfy the requirement, hence, it stretched out four vines.
"......"
Such a moving porter, Zhu Yao silently gave it a thumbs up.
She finally had the spare strength to refine her divine sense as well, in other words, to train her Nascent Soul. She could only use the lightning spiritual energy to constantly train her divine sense. Time ticked by, and her divine sense began to become even more condensed, it slowly gained the rough shape of an embryo, like a little infant, and it began to look clearer as the time passed. The pain on her body had slowly subsided as well.
The lightning spiritual energy no longer needed her guidance and could now freely enter her body.
Only then did she have the spare strength, and she looked at the Wood Spirit.
Wah. When did it become a tree? What happened to the promised little bonsai?
Could it be that because it was in contact with a large amount of lightning spiritual energy, it grew up?
"Chick..." The Wood Spirit which was waving its countless vines seemed to be extremely tired. After weakly calling out, it retracted its own vines, and flew deep into her divine sense. And then, it reached the side of her Nascent Soul, and as though it was sleeping, it no longer moved.
Thanks for the hard work!
Zhu Yao silently said.
Her Nascent Soul had been completely formed, and coincidentally, the Tribulation Lightning had stopped as well. After restoring her damaged meridians, she opened her eyes.
Looking at her surroundings, it was not too much of an exaggeration to call it the place unrecognizable, as everywhere was filled with the charred traces. If her master had not placed down the formations beforehand, this entire island might have been sunk by the lightning strikes.
And Yu Yan was standing at a position five steps away from her.
"Master, I formed my Nascent Soul." Zhu Yao complacently waved her hands, and she felt absolutely brilliant!
"Mn." He sized her up for a moment, satisfyingly nodded, and then, he relaxed his furrowed brows.
Raising her head to look in the direction of the Ancient Hill Sect, the Tribulation Clouds had already begun to disperse. Earlier, with such a big commotion, and those curving bolts of Tribulation Lightning, it could be believed that everyone in the Sect had sensed it. After the Tribulation Clouds were dispersed, they would definitely come forward to investigate. They had to think of a good counter-measure.
"Mistress, I'm back. Did you think of your cute beastie?" Sesame suddenly popped out of nowhere, and with a single swoop, it pounced towards Zhu Yao, and was slapped away by Yu Yan along the way.
With a crash, its entire body was stained with soot. Sesame crawled up with a hurt expression, bared its fangs at Yu Yan and roared, and then, it once again changed into a pitiful expression as it looked at Zhu Yao. "Mistress, he bullied me. You have to help beastie."
Zhu Yao rolled her eyes at it, recalling that the Wood Spirit had struggled to help her form her Nascent Soul earlier, when comparing the former and the latter, this savage beast was completely firing at the horse after it had bolted.
"Eh, mistress, you formed your Nascent Soul." Sesame seemed to have just realized the difference in Zhu Yao, and like a little puppy, it ran and jumped around her a few rounds. "That's great. I knew my mistress was incredible."
Zhu Yao pinched its face, and pulled it to the two sides. "Why are you back?"
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!" Sesame shook its head and struggled out of her hands, as it used its own paws to rub the sides of its face. "I just miss you, my mistress. Hence, the moment I recovered my spiritual energy, I immediately rushed back. Mistress, how can you be so heartless!"
"I can even be vexatious too!" Zhu Yao pressed onto its head, and used even more force as she rubbed its little head.
"Wuuuu, it hurts, it hurts..." Sesame did not have anywhere to hide, and could only allow her to rub it. Tilting its head, it looked towards Yu Yan at the side, and roared. "Hey, hey, hey! Manage your disciple!"
A certain master instantly ignored it, seeing that his disciple was a little lively, he absolutely did not have any opinions on it.
"I wonder which Daoist friend is practicing his arts here? I'm Zi Mo from Ancient Hill Sect. I wonder if esteemed one is willing to see me?"
Zi Mo, the great family head of Ancient Hill Sect was a little saddened recently. A strange movement happened at the Secret Realm "Tasyoluk" which only opened once every five hundred years, and nearly half of the fifty odd disciples the Ancient Hill Sect sent over were lost. This was the biggest lost they had since the beginning of the Sect. This was not the thing that he was most worried about. During the accounting of numbers of the disciples who returned, a female practitioner with unknown background, and was called "Bun" by his personal succeeding disciple, was missing.
If he had investigated, he would not have known, but after investigating it, even his soul shook from fright. This Bun was actually that little infant his ancestral-grand uncle had brought back ten years ago, the second disciple of Jade Forest Mountain. He really wondered why a ten year old little girl would actually like to play with her life, and not anything else. With just the thought of his ancestral-grand uncle's wrath, he could every part of his body aching.
Haah. When thinking of this ancestral-grand uncle of his, Zi Mo thought he was rather unfortunate. For more than ten thousand years, his only wish was to take in a disciple, and just when he finally managed to find one, he took a disciple in, and she died. Then, he took another in, and she died again. There was basically no room for him to breathe! Zi Mo even began to suspect if his ancestral-grand master was really the bane of his... Ah pui!
He thought long and hard for an entire day, yet, he will still unable to think of how to explain to his ancestral-grand master.
And then, another problem just had to appear again.
When Sovereign Feng Yi's disciple came back, he was suddenly forming his Nascent Soul. This was originally a very happy event. Yet, just when he was supposed to experience a Tribulation, an abnormality occurred. The bolts of Tribulation Lightning crackled and struck for a long time, yet, none of them zapped onto the person who was forming his Nascent Soul. Rather, every single one of the bolts very merrily struck towards the east of Ancient Hill Sect.
He had lived for so many years, yet, he had never seen Tribulation Lightnings that could zap mistakenly, and, in the east, an abnormal spiritual power wave was even being spread. Zi Mo instantly could not idle any longer, calling up a few disciples, he decided to personally take a look.
Mn, it was definitely not to avoid his ancestral-grand uncle.
In the end, when he reached the point of the Tribulation Lightning's descent, he found many exquisite formations being set there. He had originally thought of using the principle of being polite before resorting to force, and roared out. He did not expect that the people inside would actually open the formation for him.
Zi Mo looked towards the place, and when he clearly saw who it was that was standing there, his legs gave way, and he had almost fell off his flying sword.
"An... An-An-An... Ancestral-grand uncle!" Why was this Sovereign here? He did not even have a single precaution prepared at all.
Wait a minute!
Who was that especially good-looking youth with delicate features standing beside his ancestral-grand uncle? His ancestral-grand master seemed to be, consciously or unconsciously, protecting him as well. He could not have suffered too big of a blow regarding the incident of his disciple, and then... accidentally, went astray, right?
Zi Mo was instantly overwhelmed by his thoughts, and a moving tear fell, yet, he could not allow this dog-blood story to be revealed to the world.
No, no, no. There must definitely be a mistake in his thinking process. How could his ancestral-grand uncle have this sort of hobbies? Hohoho~
Zi Mo silently looked towards that "person who cannot be revealed to the world", and was shocked to discover that he was actually an Nascent Soul Reverend. Ancestral-grand uncle's eyes were really high!
Only after he asked, did he discover that he was actually a wandering practitioner, and had planned on admitting into the Ancient Hill Sect, yet, when he coincidentally passed this island by, he discovered this demonic beast. When he was unable to beat it, ancestral-grand master had fortunately rushed over, guided the Tribulation Lightning on the fly, and aided him in subduing in this demonic beast.
Ancestral-grand uncle who rarely stepped out of his house, actually moved to save someone on his own accord? Who was this youth, who was given such a honor? As expected, the relationship between these two was definitely not so simple, right?
Zi Mo looked towards the demonic beast which was as tall as a small mountain behind them, and only after careful inspection did he realize that it was actually a ninth-grade demonic beast. It was no wonder there was a need to guide the Tribulation Lightning over to subdue it. However, why did he have to help an outsider subdue it? And he even simply gave it to him just like that. This was a ninth-grade demonic beast, that was comparable to an elementary-stage Demigod! Ninth-grade! What happened to not letting one's fertile water flow into other's field?
Even if he was "someone you could not reveal to the world", this was too much, right!?
Zi Mo took a deep breath, and was just about to tactfully express a few words of discontent to his ancestral-grand uncle.
Yet, he actually simply turned to look at the youth behind him, without even leaving a single explanation, with a whoosh, he flew off by himself.
Zi Mo: "......"
Haah, as someone who was experienced in cleaning up others' mess, what could he do about it? But when he thought that this person was here to admit into the Ancient Hill, and was one of them in the future, the ninth-grade demonic beast would naturally be in their own field as well. Zi Mo suddenly felt relieved once again, and with a courteous face, he invited this youth who was even younger than him back.
The age of practitioners who were above the Foundation level could not be discerned by looking at their faces. Although he looked like a youth, Zi Mo who had seen and experienced many things, did not dare to address him as an elder. And this person might even be that person whom his ancestral-grand uncle "could not reveal to the world".
"I wonder what's Reverend's Daoist name?"
Zhu Yao was startled for a moment. Back then when Zi Mo called out to them, she had already guessed why her master wanted Sesame to revert to its original form. Hence, she muddled her way through explanations, other than her identity as a wandering practitioner which she had thought up at the spur of the moment.
Evidently, her master was a little discontented with the last bit, hence, he angrily went off. That's right. He was angry. Though, she was the only one who was able to discern that.
"Uh... I do not have a Daoist name." Zhu Yao chuckled. "My surname is Soi... and my given name is a single word Sauz."
"So it's Daoist friend 'Soi'." Zi Mo smiled courteously, and then, only after hearing a bit more regarding his identity, was he able to disperse his worries.
Zhu Yao had already gave herself the name 'Soy Sauce', so obviously, she would sauce her way through regarding the rest of her information.
¹Entering the palace a third time: The third time is just additional, the real phrase is 'Entering the palace a second time'. It came from a drama that has the same name. The first time, the protagonist? was sent to prison for being a traitor. After he was released, he did something unlawful again, and was sent to prison again. So, it just means that Zhu Yao might die 'a third time'.