An opportunity ah…

‘But that’s not quite right either…’

Li Changshou, kneeling on the ground, slowly stood up, hands behind his back watching the shallow grass, continuously calculating in his heart.

Even though his heart was ashen, his spirits cold, and his heart aching, his divine consciousness still didn’t forget to monitor the surroundings.

Missing this opportunity perhaps wasn’t purely a bad thing.

Everything has its good side and bad side. Entering Doulu Palace now, from a certain perspective, wasn’t completely a good thing.

If he had earlier followed the Grand Master’s wishes, he would have violated Human Dao teachings, and might instead have lost ‘the Sage Lord’s familiarity’…

In that case, his future development path might have been becoming the Grand Master’s disciple, or the disciple of the Sage’s avatar Supreme Elder Lord.

Then in the future Investiture of the Gods calamity, wouldn’t he possibly become the person from Human Dao to face the tribulation?

Before the Investiture calamity, Supreme Sage’s one sentence ‘I only have one disciple’ could let Grand Master Xuandu’s name avoid the Investiture List.

If he entered Doulu Palace now, perhaps the Three Schools’ great calamity would fall upon himself!

“Sigh…”

Now he could only comfort himself this way.

Li Changshou naturally knew that if he entered Doulu Palace now, he could also seek a position as a proper deity in the Heavenly Court by pledging loyalty to the Jade Emperor early; and after entering Doulu Palace, his life safety coefficient could get an enormous increase…

It was just that changing perspective like this would relieve most of the disappointment in his heart.

Just like in his previous life, when he was still in school and had his eye on a sports car, by not buying it he saved several million… the same principle.

Although this opportunity couldn’t be grasped, he could carefully summarize; in his cultivation until now, he had gained relatively precious experience of failure.

As a certain Golden Immortal said well, failure is success’s mother.

Although success always seemed to be raised by a stepmother and often got squeezed and watered down…

Everything has its limits, single-mindedly seeking stability naturally also has drawbacks.

In stories Li Changshou read in his previous life if Sima Yi hadn’t been overly suspicious and stability-seeking that year, deeply and affectionately looking at Zhuge playing the zither on the city wall before retreating, perhaps the story ending of *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* could have been different.

Then…

Should he, while keeping his stable foundation unchanged, in certain aspects, be just a tiny bit more unrestrained?

Li Changshou considered carefully but still dismissed this thought.

Currently, he held the ropes of Supreme Clarity and the Jade Emperor, and these two ropes’ directions temporarily overlapped. He could rapidly climb up using them, and no longer needed to take too many risks.

Handle the Dragon Tribe’s ascension to heaven well;

Pass through his Golden Immortal tribulation;

Have his paper person ascend to the Heavenly Court to take a divine position, seek a proper deity position for him, and properly deal with the future Investiture calamity.

These were the three major matters he needed to put all his effort into!

This opportunity, gaining it would be fortune losing it would be fate, if it’s gone then it’s gone.

[Although it can’t become better, at least it won’t become worse because of this event.]

Thinking of this, Li Changshou laughed lightly, his whole person regaining spirit again.

Before and after, it was just a moment.

His heart’s thoughts suddenly cleared, and strands of Dao charm flowed in his heart, feeling his self had one more connection with heaven and earth…

‘Wait!’

What was going on with these recent insights?

Why did they always pop up in these kinds of places, these kinds of situations?

Li Changshou hurriedly pressed down his unruly Dao heart, absorbing the heavy insights, planning to break through after returning to the mountain.

Suppressing insights wasn’t completely throwing away insights, it was just postponing enlightenment, and would only lose one or two-tenths of the benefits.

Now the Grand Master was no longer here, his enlightenment breakthrough exposing cultivation level already had no positive meaning, would only bring trouble to himself.

However, just as Li Changshou suppressed his insights, he suddenly perceived that beside him was a slightly thinner, yet still worthy of being called wondrous Dao charm, slowly flowing to the surroundings…

Breaking through?

Just earlier he thought You Qin Xuan Ya only had occasional insights, seeing her appearance now, she seemed about to break through a realm!

You Qin Xuan Ya who was originally sitting cross-legged on the ground, was now slowly floating, with a strand of immortal spirit qi circling her body, lotus flowers with six petals slowly floating out from within her body.

Six petals…

Li Changshou immediately felt… it was somewhat low.

Not reaching nine petals, should at least be seven or eight petals, that would count as having a solid foundation.

No, not just a breakthrough!

Seemed to be a continuous breakthrough, directly crossing tribulation!

Li Changshou pondered briefly, already had decided, transmitted sound to Bear Lingli saying:

“Lingli, go a hundred zhang away, shout to the surroundings that someone here is going to cross the immortal-making heavenly tribulation, and tell them to stay far away.”

“Oh!”

Bear Lingli carried her big hammer running to the distance, every two steps, turned her head asking quietly, “Cousin, should I shout in one direction?”

“Later I will set up a great formation here, you run a few circles at the formation’s edge, continuously shouting is fine.”

“Ah, understood!”

Bear Lingli quickly ran away carrying her big hammer.

She was now a cultivator, had entered the gate of cultivation, and naturally knew the importance of heavenly tribulation to cultivators;

Bear Lingli although felt she might not be that clever, wasn’t too stupid either, she also vaguely knew that Sea God should also be an immortal.

And Sea God’s manifestation was just some technique.

At this point, her father had said countless times before she left home.

But her mother said that Sea God was different from all other cultivators, Sea God would protect their village’s good weather and harvests, preventing invasion from outside enemies.

Mother also said before, gods were all immortals, but immortals weren’t necessarily gods…

The most obvious point was that after believing in the Sea God, everyone’s lives all became better, having endless meat to eat and clothes to wear without needing to go hunting.

Now, which woman in their village… didn’t have sable fur?

Just for this point alone, Bear Lingli also had to use her strength to protect the world’s best Sea God!

Bear Lingli had just run fifty zhang away when she suddenly heard a breaking sound from behind and hurriedly turned her head to look.

Spirit stones flew out from Li Changshou’s sleeve one after another, landing simultaneously in forty-nine positions arranged in groups of seven in this forest area.

Spirit qi flowed between the spirit stones, strands of light beams bloomed, and a great formation’s light wall was instantly stretched open.

Wow, Sea God Cousin was amazing…

Bear Lingli blinked, reached inside her armor to take out an iron sheet, rolled it into a horn shape, took a deep breath, and shouted forcefully toward the sky:

“Don’t come over here!”

Within a hundred li, many passing cultivators immediately became interested, riding clouds and cranes, slowly approaching this direction.

However, they heard another shout:

“Someone is crossing heavenly tribulation here!”

This group of cultivators instantly stopped advancing, turned around flying to farther places, and cast their spirit sense and divine consciousness to this location.

…

The heavenly tribulation came somewhat frivolously like this.

Even though You Qin Xuan Ya had a firm Dao heart, facing the life-or-death unknown immortal-making heavenly tribulation that had been repeatedly mentioned for decades, she was now somewhat at a loss.

“Senior Brother Changshou…”

“Junior Sister You Qin, I’m here.”

Fifty zhang away, Li Changshou who was preparing to slip out of the great formation, heard this and transmitted the sound back.

Li Changshou smiled saying: “Congratulations Junior Sister, today happily receiving heavenly tribulation, estimating it’s seven or eight levels of heavenly tribulation.”

You Qin Xuan Ya immediately couldn’t help but smile bitterly, but hearing Li Changshou’s teasing, her heart inexplicably became much more stable.

“Senior Brother Changshou, rest assured, Xuan Ya will give it her all!”

Li Changshou transmitted sound saying:

“The items I gave you earlier for crossing tribulation, do you have them with you?

If you have them, just use them, don’t worry about other things.

Remember, life takes precedence over everything.

The heavenly tribulation is formed according to your aptitude and current strength, your foundation… is relatively solid.

You just need to distribute your magical power reasonably, don’t use too much force at the start, surviving the tribulation shouldn’t be a big problem.”

You Qin Xuan Ya nodded lightly, looked up at the gathering clouds and mist in the sky, and quickly took out two sets of Law Master’s bird cages, arranging them on two sides, twenty zhang apart.

Afterward, she took out several bottles of spirit pills Li Changshou had given her earlier, but put the Immortal Fusion Pill back.

Given her personality, she would never use that Immortal Fusion Pill…

The other three types of pills were part of the ‘tribulation crossing set’ Li Changshou had prepared for Ling E.

The first type increased one’s resistance to thunder, the second type continuously released medicinal power to restore magical power, and the third type continuously healed and restored blood essence…

The most difficult to refine was naturally the first type – compared to it, the latter two seemed rather ordinary.

In the sky, tribulation clouds had begun rapidly gathering, a huge gray cloud slowly rotating…

Li Changshou dispersed the surrounding formation, his form immediately retreating.

You Qin Xuan Ya’s Fire Scale Sword Box trembled lightly on her back, the next instant, that great sword shot skyward, splitting in the air, transforming into a total of thirty-six flying swords burning with azure-mysterious true fire.

Above, thunder patterns flashed under the tribulation clouds, the first tribulation was about to fall!

You Qin Xuan Ya brought her sword fingers together, lightly shouting: “Scatter!”

The thirty-six flying swords scattered in unison, You Qin Xuan Ya’s form slowly rose into the air, head slightly raised, that cold and stunningly beautiful face showed not a trace of fear, only determination and resolution.

Crack—

A bolt of lightning struck straight down, even in this small world, the might of heavenly tribulation was still so domineering!

Li Changshou, already ten li away, slowly nodded, his previous instructions to You Qin Xuan Ya had shown some effect…

Outside the treasure map;

Two immortal islands, various places by the lake, and immortals of the three schools were all attracted by that small gray cloud appearing above the treasure map.

Unexpectedly, there was such a small program…

Their divine consciousness was not affected, most gathering toward You Qin Xuan Ya’s location…

Following the Scattered Teaching’s internal tradition, seeing such a formation, immediately an elderly True Immortal realm cultivator stood out, first taking a sharp breath, then exclaiming in surprise:

“It’s the Eight Wilderness Eight Hardships Thirty-Two Immortal Birds Tribulation, ranked sixth among immortal-making tribulations!”

On clouds and ground, there were also more laughing discussions:

“Good fortune, actually able to draw heavenly tribulation within the treasure map.”

“This poor Daoist just calculated, this is a disciple of Human Dao’s Crossing Immortality Gate, seems to be called Xuan Ya, truly excellent aptitude.”

“Human Dao is blessed, blessed indeed.”

At this time, naturally the most nervous were the Crossing Immortality Gate’s immortals and disciples.

Jiu Jiu’s small hands gripped her wine gourd, so nervous she would occasionally raise her head to take a drink, her divine consciousness watching the scene in the treasure map where tribulation after tribulation struck down at You Qin Xuan Ya, the little martial aunt truly made her sweat.

Sect Leader Ji Wuyou’s mouth held a smile though, by now he could see that You Qin Xuan Ya could at least endure the eighth tribulation.

And after the eighth tribulation fell, life or death was fifty-fifty.

This was already a relatively high success rate.

Immortal-making tribulations were all very quick, taking only a moment from start to finish.

After all, the Heavenly Dao Lord was also very busy, with too many cultivators in the primordial world.

Becoming immortal was an incredible event for an individual, but for heaven and earth, it was just an ant growing wings, a tadpole transforming – nothing major.

However, Ji Wuyou soon frowned, the smile at his mouth gradually retracting.

The sixth tribulation, You Qin Xuan Ya had handled appropriately, but her treasure Fire Scale Sword Box had been scattered by the tribulation, her primordial spirit injured by the tribulation…

By now, You Qin Xuan Ya’s methods for handling tribulation had all been used;

Her whole body also had many scorched black marks, looking quite in a sorry state.

The seventh tribulation was already brewing, the tribulation clouds above formed gray birds flying in a strange phenomenon, You Qin Xuan Ya’s aura… was somewhat uneven…

“This is bad,” Ji Wuyou slowly uttered these words, the over sixty Crossing Immortality Gate immortals and disciples behind him immediately became more worried.

Li Changshou was also frowning at this moment, watching that graceful figure standing in midair.

She should be able to endure the seventh tribulation, but the eighth tribulation…

Indeed, breaking through too quickly, foundation unstable, hurriedly crossing tribulation was somewhat forced.

But let alone Li Changshou had not yet cultivated into a Golden Immortal, even if he became a Daoism Paramount Immortal, facing such a situation, he still couldn’t reach out to protect You Qin Xuan Ya.

Rashly interfering would not only be useless but would invite heavenly punishment.

Immortal-making tribulation could only be endured alone.

Outstanding aptitude meant bearing higher difficulty challenges – this was the Heavenly Dao’s equality.

Li Changshou slowly closed his eyes, after all, he had some friendship with You Qin Xuan Ya and had done many things with her help, so his heart inevitably felt some reluctance…

Just then, suddenly heard You Qin Xuan Ya emit a light shout!

Her form suddenly dove downward, directly entering one of the Law Master’s bird cages, and then magical power surged around her, preparing to forcefully endure the seventh tribulation!

The crowd of immortals immediately felt confused, this was… what treasure?

Could it resist heavenly tribulation?

But Li Changshou instantly understood You Qin Xuan Ya’s plan!

Almost as soon as she had hidden herself, a beam of azure lightning struck down from the sky, within it seemed to be countless flying birds shrieking, instantly hitting that large bird cage!

In an instant, lightning exploded, and that bird cage became a ball of lightning, countless thunderbolts flying chaotically in all directions, and the surrounding hundred zhang of the forest was leveled in the blink of an eye!

A wave of tribulation force burst forth, the Law Master’s birdcage was instantly torn apart, and twenty zhang away, the other unused Law Master’s birdcage was also directly destroyed by the tribulation force!

Li Changshou nodded inwardly… indeed, this thing could only be used once per person during tribulation crossing.

But the Heavenly Dao tacitly approved of such a crafty method!

After a while the lightning dispersed, You Qin Xuan Ya again shot skyward, and flying swords came from various places, surrounding her.

At this moment her aura and injuries were almost identical to before the seventh tribulation fell!

Only her magical power was somewhat depleted!

Question marks appeared one after another above the heads of the three schools’ immortals…

Li Changshou smiled slightly, giving You Qin Xuan Ya a mental thumbs up.

Actively giving up the seventh tribulation, using her strongest state to welcome the eighth ultimate lightning tribulation, both giving herself more assurance and maximizing the benefits received from the tribulation.

The poisonous junior sister wasn’t stubborn, just lacking some emotional intelligence usually.

‘Didn’t waste these two bird cages, after all, keep going poisonous junior sister, hope your toxicity gradually dissipates after becoming immortal.’

However…

Li Changshou’s thoughts had just stopped when a lightning phoenix spread its wings and dove down from the sky, pouncing toward You Qin Xuan Ya!

“Swords rise!”

You Qin Xuan Ya lightly shouted, right hand forming sword fingers pointing skyward, flying swords revolving around her, tattered skirts and long hair dancing, her delicate form directly facing that lightning phoenix!

At this moment, visual effects are maxed out, and posture is perfect!

If not for what You Qin Xuan Ya shouted, it would have left Li Changshou with an excellent tribulation-viewing experience.

“Senior Brother Changshou, on the long path of immortality, Xuan Ya waits for you ahead—”

With these words, lightning and person had already collided, bolts of lightning striking chaotically, this small universe filled with azure lightning…