The sky suddenly became dark and gloomy.

Su Zhuyi suspected that her Nascent Soul stage thunder tribulation was approaching. She had been immersed in this passionate encounter, but now hearing the rumbling thunder, she immediately felt panicked and confused, swaying unsteadily like a small boat on the sea, only able to tightly grasp that burning piece of driftwood for salvation. Her hands gripped very tightly, yet her heart knew this was wrong.

She forced herself to gather her spirits and pushed against Qin Jianglan with her hands.

Qin Jianglan still pressed against her, neither releasing her nor leaving that winding, warm, secluded path.

“Thunder tribulation, Qin Jianglan, thunder tribulation!” The spiritual energy in her body began to destabilize, surging turbulently, gradually spreading over her body bit by bit. Yet the tide of passion hadn’t receded either, leaving her body soft and powerless while her spirit was highly excited. Her hands were clearly pushing against Qin Jianglan, but as she pushed, she would dig in her claws and grip tightly, her fingernails scratching bloody marks on his body, and she desperately wanted to scream aloud.

“Ah!” She was very nervous, her body and soul both trembling. Under the dual stimulation of climax and the approaching thunder tribulation, Su Zhuyi’s body could no longer hold on and completely went limp. It seemed like white light flashed before her eyes, her mind instantly went blank, and her body felt like it was soaking in hot spring water, like flower petals soaking in a hot spring, completely dampened by the heat, soaked until even softer, with all the colors of the petals completely saturated and bleeding through.

Her cheeks were flushed red, her jade-white skin was also rosy red as if her entire body had been painted with rouge and draped in red clouds. A thin layer of sweat appeared on her skin, with beads of sweat rolling down from her forehead, which Qin Jianglan directly kissed away.

Su Zhuyi had gone completely limp. Her legs wrapped around Qin Jianglan’s waist had no strength left, and she couldn’t stand steadily at all.

Outside, the thunder grew more urgent. She gathered her spirits, wanting to push Qin Jianglan away.

She exerted a little force below, trying to expel him, but unexpectedly, he drew in a sharp breath, then thrust with even more force, like a sword using her body as a battlefield, splitting her completely in half.

“You old dog Qin!” Her voice had become hoarse.

Qin Jianglan’s body pressed down heavily. He didn’t continue moving, but buried his head in the hollow of her neck, gently nuzzling twice, then pressed against her lips, saying, “Don’t be afraid.”

“I’ll block it for you.”

Bastard!

If thunder tribulations were so easy to block, how could so many people fail when overcoming tribulation?

If someone helped, the thunder tribulation’s power would be even greater.

Moreover, Su Zhuyi’s current thunder tribulation was not an ordinary one to begin with. If it were an ordinary Nascent Soul stage thunder tribulation, she would have great confidence in herself—after all, she had already overcome it once in her previous life. However, now she was a reborn person, an anomaly that the Heavenly Dao couldn’t tolerate. Her thunder tribulation came suddenly, and its power was naturally beyond ordinary.

“You fucking get away from me, don’t drag me down!” Su Zhuyi fumbled around in her storage magic treasure, immediately pulling out the straw man substitute. Qin Jianglan had stopped moving, so her consciousness gradually returned. Now she shouted at Qin Jianglan, not even knowing herself whether it was because she feared his presence would increase the thunder tribulation’s power, or because he wanted to block the thunder tribulation.

Just as Su Zhuyi’s words fell, she saw a lightning bolt crash down with a thunderous sound. She immediately circulated her spiritual energy to support a spiritual barrier, while simultaneously summoning Sword Ancestor, raising her hand, planning to resist with her sword.

The late-arriving Sword Ancestor glanced at the two people still entangled together, and the blue light on the sword’s body flickered strangely.

Sword Ancestor: “…”

At this moment, Qin Jianglan’s Songfeng sword had already flown out to collide with that lightning.

With a thunderous crash, Su Zhuyi felt a massive shock explode at the point where the Songfeng sword and lightning collided, seeming to form a vortex spreading outward. She didn’t feel much pressure, but noticed that Qin Jianglan’s body on top of her trembled slightly.

Perhaps because Qin Jianglan was blocking the thunder tribulation for her, angering the heavens above, without any chance to catch their breath, the second and third lightning bolts fell in an instant. The Songfeng sword swung to slash at them, the sword body emitting a deafening thunderous roar, like a mad dragon’s howl.

The fourth heavenly thunder fell.

Qin Jianglan withdrew the Songfeng sword.

He knew that if he continued using the sword to block, the Songfeng sword would break.

He circulated his spiritual energy to the extreme, forming a defensive barrier around his body, once again blocking the thunder tribulation.

With a thunderous crash, the fifth, sixth, and seventh lightning bolts struck down simultaneously. Three consecutive divine thunders hit Qin Jianglan’s defensive barrier, which suffered increasingly strong impacts, becoming covered with cracks before finally disappearing completely. At the instant the barrier was broken, the eighth divine thunder arrived in a flash, penetrating the waterfall’s curtain and striking Qin Jianglan’s back.

Water droplets splashed, once again drenching both of them thoroughly.

The mountain rocks that even swords couldn’t cleave were shattered by the lightning, with large amounts of stone falling from above and hitting Qin Jianglan’s body.

Qin Jianglan protected her beneath his body.

Whether it was the lightning striking from the sky or the rocks rolling down from above, none of it touched Su Zhuyi.

At that moment, he seemed to have supported an entire sky for her.

Shielding her from wind and rain.

Sparing her from wandering and displacement, giving her a branch to depend on.

Su Zhuyi’s arms wrapped around Qin Jianglan’s back. Her hands were trembling somewhat, and her heart felt stuffy. Trembling, she touched his back.

Her hands came away covered in blood.

Qin Jianglan was now very powerful. More powerful than in his previous life, having experienced the Rebirth Pond, his flesh refined, his strength frighteningly powerful. It was precisely because his strength was so great that it made the Nascent Soul stage thunder tribulation reach such a terrifying degree.

Outside was pitch black.

The waterfall seemed to have been severed at the waist by lightning, no longer splashing with water. In that ink-thick, viscous, and oppressive darkness, only the eyes of the person on top of her were bright, like two dazzling stars, making Su Zhuyi feel at peace even under this enormous crisis.

The next moment, the final divine thunder appeared.

No thunder, no rain, only purple-gold sparks tearing through the darkness, illuminating the surroundings bright as day.

Like a ball of fire falling from the sky, enveloping the space above her head.

And she, as usual, was pressed tightly beneath him.

A hand covered her eyes. The warmth of his palm gave her peace of mind.

Su Zhuyi seemed unable to see anything, her divine sense also restricted. She could see nothing, hear nothing, existing in complete darkness, her heart gradually growing quiet.

Her consciousness gradually blurred, as if sinking into a pitch-black dream prison.

Not knowing how much time had passed, Su Zhuyi opened her eyes.

She found herself lying in a wasteland. Above her head was a scorching sun, baking her body until it was dehydrated, making her dizzy and lightheaded.

Where was this?

Who was she?

Why was she here?

Where was her spiritual energy? It seemed to have been baked dry? Only a trace of spiritual energy remained in her body. Su Zhuyi licked her cracked lips, not daring to easily use her spiritual energy. She gathered her spirits and stumbled forward. After walking about ten li, Su Zhuyi saw a cultivator ahead fighting with a spirit beast from the desert.

The man had dark skin, was thin as a rail, with wounds all over his body.

The spirit beast was a sand scorpion, its tail also broken, with sword marks all over its shell.

Su Zhuyi weighed her options and didn’t go to help. She waited until the final moment, when both the sand scorpion and cultivator were exhausted, then Su Zhuyi stepped forward and finished them both off with her sword. She then searched the human cultivator’s body and found two pills, drank the sand scorpion’s blood, used the cultivator’s storage magic treasure as a water container to store the remaining blood, and used Sword Ancestor to cut off the sand scorpion’s meat for storage. She even made the shell into armor-like clothing—the desert sun was too vicious, and since the sand scorpion could live in the desert, its shell could effectively block those scorching rays.

Su Zhuyi did all this to survive.

After finishing her preparations, she continued on her journey. But from then on, Su Zhuyi never encountered another person or spirit beast.

In that wasteland, there wasn’t a blade of grass or a single living thing.

She walked alone through it until her spiritual energy was completely exhausted and all the meat and blood on her body was consumed. She stubbornly continued in one direction, always feeling that no matter how large this desert was, if she kept going in one direction, she would be able to get out. However, in the end, she collapsed in the desert, her body buried by wind and sand, becoming one with the yellow sand.

When she woke up again, Su Zhuyi found herself back at the starting point.

As soon as she woke up, she noted her surroundings and her condition. Therefore, even though the surrounding desert all looked the same, Su Zhuyi could still detect that she had returned to the starting point. What was this? Could it be that she had entered a formation?

This time, Su Zhuyi changed direction and went forward. But after walking the same distance, she once again saw the sand scorpion and human cultivator in their life-and-death struggle. Su Zhuyi frowned. She still made no changes, didn’t help either side, and when both sides were exhausted, Su Zhuyi killed the sand scorpion and stood before the barely breathing human cultivator, asking, “What exactly is strange about this desert? I don’t see any formation. Do you know something?”

“Save me, and I’ll tell you,” the human cultivator replied.

She only had weak spiritual energy left. She could die at any moment.

Injecting that trace of spiritual energy into the human cultivator’s body, he could barely hold on a bit longer. However, Su Zhuyi wouldn’t do that. She had originally planned to threaten him, but then thought that he was going to die anyway, and from his expression, she knew such threats wouldn’t work. So she said nothing. This time, she didn’t finish him off with a sword stroke like before, but quietly waited for him to die.

She similarly searched out two pills and continued forward in the same manner. Making marks along the way and conserving her strength, this time she walked farther than before, but still ended up buried in the yellow sand.

The third time…

The fourth time…

The fifth time…

By the fifth time, that human cultivator finally couldn’t help but speak up voluntarily.

“Save me, then we’ll have two people. I’ve lived in this place for a very long time, I have more experience than you.”

“We can keep each other company. That’s better than you dying alone here.”

When he didn’t speak, Su Zhuyi could wait for him to die quietly.

Since he spoke nonsense, Su Zhuyi raised her sword and finished him off.

Afterwards, she continued forward, trapped in a strange cycle of reincarnation. But no matter how many times she cycled through, her thoughts never changed.

To live and leave.

She didn’t know how many times she had experienced this, she had lost count.

Finally, she saw the edge of the desert, saw an oasis.

Just as she collapsed in the oasis, Su Zhuyi felt water drops fall on her lips. Her entire body felt incredibly cool, and a burning warm aura rushed toward her.

Su Zhuyi opened her eyes and saw Qin Jianglan’s face gradually approaching.

His expression stiffened, but he showed no embarrassment at being caught. Instead, he continued to lower his head and kiss her lips, “Awake?”

“How long was I unconscious?”

“One breath.”

Only one breath? That meant she had just closed her eyes and entered the dream realm.

Yet in that dream realm, she had gone through at least dozens of cycles.

Su Zhuyi now understood that the dream realm was a test of her mental state during tribulation. Probably because the thunder tribulation had been blocked by Qin Jianglan, when she broke through her cultivation realm, she received a test of her mental state. Fortunately, her goal was clear and her will could be considered firm, so she wasn’t trapped in the dream realm for long.

If she had chosen to save that man and live with him, or saved the sand scorpion and roamed the desert with it forever, different outcomes might have appeared.

But she was just that determined, so determined to ignore the lives of strangers, so determined to rely on herself to live. She would think that a cultivator who was on the brink of death himself wasn’t worth her trust.

She might not kill him again, waiting for him to die, but she also wouldn’t waste her spiritual energy to save him. If he could walk out of the desert, he wouldn’t have fallen to such a state. In any case, in that situation, Su Zhuyi preferred to trust herself.

Living a second life, Su Zhuyi might have developed emotions in her heart, but she was still very narrow-minded, only caring about a few people worth caring about. In front of others, she was still that cold-blooded demoness.

However, she liked herself this way.

She was narcissistic.

She was also confident.

No matter which lifetime, Su Zhuyi always thought she was quite remarkable.

Her thoughts returned, and seeing that Qin Jianglan was about to speak, she watched as Qin Jianglan’s eyelids closed and his body heavily pressed down on her.

She had only been unconscious for one breath, which meant that Qin Jianglan had just endured the final blow of her thunder tribulation. That purple-gold lightning that tore through the sky, that meteor of fire descending from heaven, had struck him!

“Qin Jianglan!”

He had fainted.

Just in the instant before losing consciousness, he was still lowering his head to kiss her.

For a moment, Su Zhuyi’s expression froze, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.