The situation became rather awkward.

Li Changshou and Lan Ling’e, perfectly in sync, both raised their heads to look at the sky…

The azure dragon circled outside the mountain-protecting formation, while that patch of grey clouds continued to churn.

The pressure of a Celestial Immortal might permeate throughout Degree Immortal Gate through the mountain-protecting formation. Figures appeared in the sky above various peaks—all immortals of Degree Immortal Gate who had been startled by this disturbance.

Suddenly, several streaks of light shot up from Breaking Heaven Peak, flying directly through the mountain-protecting formation and transforming into four figures gazing at the clouds.

At the front was a male immortal wearing a cyan-white robe, standing with his hands behind his back, tall and straight as a pine. Two strands of white hair adorned his temples, and his expression was extremely cold.

As soon as he appeared, the pressure falling from the sky instantly vanished. The azure dragon immediately flew back into the clouds, not daring to approach the mountain-protecting formation…

This was Li Changshou’s first time seeing Master Wangqing.

Indeed, this handsome uncle with white temples was the master of the Nine Wine Immortals, the Celestial Immortal of Degree Immortal Gate, titled Wangqing.

Behind Master Wangqing stood an old Daoist holding a horsetail whisk, smiling gently, and an elderly woman leaning on a wooden staff, also with a smile on her lips.

Additionally, there was a beautiful immortal maiden wearing rainbow robes, though no one could see her form shrouded in thin mist.

The red-scaled azure dragon roared from within the clouds: “Are you the ones in charge of Degree Immortal Gate?”

Master Wangqing didn’t even raise his head, his calm voice instantly spreading inside and outside the formation:

“This poor Daoist is merely a free spirit within the gate, it’s not my turn to be in charge of Degree Immortal Gate.

I just felt that you, little dragon, were too discourteous, so I came out especially to teach you a lesson.”

“How dare you!”

The red dragon roared angrily in the clouds. The grey clouds suddenly contracted, and a dragon claw charged with angry thunder and heavenly fire smashed down toward Master Wangqing!

The dragon claw grew with the wind, instantly expanding to several hundred zhang in diameter, suddenly blocking out heaven and earth, appearing ready to crush both Degree Immortal Gate’s mountain-protecting formation and Breaking Heaven Peak!

Seeing this, many disciples held their breath, and even the sect members with higher cultivation showed worried expressions.

Beside Li Changshou, Lan Ling’e unconsciously grabbed her Senior Brother’s arm. Her cultivation was too low, and being affected by the dragon’s might, her heart was full of unease.

Li Changshou quickly released a thread of energy to envelop his Junior Sister, helping her bear this pressure to prevent her from being affected by heart demons.

Suddenly!

That heaven-covering, mountain-like dragon claw, above the mountain-protecting formation, stopped without warning…

The fierce winds brought by the dragon claw made the smooth, glossy formation wall flicker with light;

But this massive dragon claw just eerily halted in mid-air, unable to descend even an inch!

Li Changshou channeled spiritual power to his eyes and looked carefully. He saw Master Wangqing with his left arm raised high, left hand forming a sword finger, fingertip touching an inch of hard scales on the massive dragon claw!

With just one finger, he supported the mountain-like dragon claw!

Master Wangqing’s long hair danced in the wind, his robes fluttering loudly.

“Hmph!”

A cold snort echoed for a thousand li!

Master Wangqing’s left arm trembled slightly, and the mountain-like dragon claw instantly shattered, exploding into clouds of mist!

The azure dragon appeared again in the churning mist but was wrapped in an invisible force. Its massive dragon body twisted and struggled as it was thrown into the ninth level of clouds…

Moments later, the azure dragon returned from high above, furiously letting out an angry dragon’s roar.

Master Wangqing slightly raised his head to look, killing intent flickering in his eyes;

The azure dragon immediately stopped roaring. Light flashed intensely around its dragon body as it directly transformed into a mighty man with a dragon head wearing battle armor, his expression both shocked and angry.

Master Wangqing said coldly: “Just achieved Celestial Immortal status and dare to come make trouble at my Degree Immortal Gate? Tired of living?”

The dragon-headed warrior roared but didn’t dare to attack rashly. Instead, he shouted from mid-air: “Fine, Degree Immortal Gate, don’t say we didn’t warn you!

I am the Special Envoy of the East Sea Dragon Palace, Grand Vanguard of the Dragon Palace Navy!

You dare be so discourteous, I will report to the Dragon King, and soon we will gather our armies to flatten your little mountain gate!”

The old Daoist behind Master Wangqing immediately laughed: “The Dragon Palace is quite tough, impressive, impressive.

However, trying to establish authority through our Degree Immortal Gate, isn’t that a bit excessive?

After all, our Degree Immortal Gate is of the Human Dao lineage, protected by Human Dao’s destiny. The East Sea Dragon Palace should focus on guarding the East Sea and completing their destiny and merit, yet they allow evil dragons to cause trouble everywhere. Your Excellency even attacked our mountain-protecting formation without a word.

Could it be that you, Grand Vanguard, intentionally wish to provoke a war between us human cultivators and your dragon race?”

“You!”

The dragon-headed warrior’s eyes bulged, but he dared not respond carelessly.

Times had changed—during the Ancient War of Gods and Demons, humans were still weak, but now humans were the protagonists of heaven and earth, their prosperity far surpassing that of ancient times.

Let alone all human cultivators attacking the dragon race together, even just the immortal gates of East Victory Divine Continent taking action, plus requesting help from one or two powerful figures of the Three Schools, would be enough to give all four seas’ Dragon Palaces trouble.

This red dragon was now in an awkward position.

The elderly woman who had come out from Degree Immortal Gate stepped forward timely, smoothing things over with a few pleasant words, giving the red dragon a way to step down.

The red dragon took the opportunity, and with a stern face explained his purpose…

“Some days ago, your Degree Immortal Gate came to my East Sea to eliminate demons, but your disciples accidentally injured the warriors my dragon race was cultivating!

However, my Dragon King doesn’t wish to make an issue of it. Three years from now, we will hold a Demon-Sweeping Assembly at the East Sea shore, inviting all immortal gates of East Victory Divine Continent to gather and arrange future demon-sweeping matters.

My East Sea Dragon Palace has treasures everywhere, and at that time, we will richly reward human disciples who perform excellently at the assembly.

Here is the invitation, don’t be absent!

Hmph!”

After speaking, the dragon-headed warrior threw down a glittering golden invitation, transformed back into an azure dragon, and howled away through the clouds.

The elderly woman collected the invitation and called out: “Safe journey, Grand Vanguard, we won’t see you off.”

Immediately, laughter mocking the dragon race and Dragon Palace spread throughout Degree Immortal Gate.

The four sect elders who had come out must have planned this—Master Wangqing played the tough role, the old Daoist made threats, and the elderly woman played the accommodating role.

Three Celestial Immortals putting on a show, handling the Dragon Palace’s arrogant general perfectly.

The red dragon had wanted to show Degree Immortal Gate who was boss, but ended up in a pathetic state, not even daring to make threats, sneaking away on clouds…

Dragons follow clouds, tigers follow wind—watching the azure dragon soaring through the sky was still a rare sight to behold.

“Senior Brother,” Lan Ling’e asked softly, “is this the world of the strong?”

Li Changshou shook his head slightly and transmitted: “This can only be called skilled, not truly strong…”

Then, the pair of siblings remembered earlier events and looked down together.

By the Faraday Bird Cage, Old Daoist Qi Yuan was quietly closing the wooden door, preparing to slip away from the side…

Lan Ling’e continued looking up at the sky, pretending not to notice Master;

Li Changshou closed his eyes in contemplation, appearing as if he had gained some insight from watching the experts’ confrontation.

How could Qi Yuan not know his two disciples were protecting his dignity?

Black lines hung on the old Daoist’s wrinkled forehead, his old face drooping. His lips moved for a while but couldn’t make a sound.

“Ahem, hmm!

No one is allowed to laugh!

This was Master’s first time facing tribulation, I had no experience!

The master will… will go back to continue secluded cultivation!”

After speaking, Qi Yuan turned and covered his face as he left, flying away on a cloud with remarkable speed.

The pair of siblings stood there holding back their laughter until Old Daoist Qi Yuan returned to his thatched cottage and activated several small formations, only then did they each burst out laughing.

This farce could be considered tribulation practice.

Fortunately, it hadn’t alarmed immortals and disciples from other peaks to come to watch, and because that red dragon had attracted everyone’s attention, otherwise Qi Yuan…

Would probably have wanted to die from embarrassment.

…

Not having sudden tribulation was a good thing.

Afterward, Li Changshou was a bit worried that his Master would take out the ‘precious medicine’ to examine it;

But thinking about it, even if Master looked at it, he probably wouldn’t recognize it as a Fusion Immortal Pill.

Qi Yuan wasn’t versed in pills, specializing in formations instead.

In the thousand years since entering the sect until now, Qi Yuan had spent most of his time improving his cultivation, but due to his damaged foundation, this path had been quite difficult.

The root cause of Qi Yuan’s dim hopes of facing tribulation lay in his damaged foundation;

Helping Master repair his foundation was Li Changshou’s third plan for helping Master pass tribulation.

However, the third plan, while seeming to address the root cause, was actually the most dangerous and difficult path…

Master’s damaged foundation stemmed from an injury in his early years;

Li Changshou had asked Master several times about the specific cause of the injury, but Master had never directly answered, only saying it was a cultivation mishap.

After that injury, sect elders used many pills to save Qi Yuan’s life;

Little Jade Peak only had Qi Yuan at that time—Li Changshou’s Grand Master had gone traveling nine hundred years ago and never returned.

During the foundation repair process, the sect gave Qi Yuan many healing pills, but lacked some precious natural treasures;

After the foundation was barely stabilized, Qi Yuan went through hundreds of years of cultivation, seemingly ‘recovering’ from his dao injury, but his foundation was already greatly damaged, and the fundamental injury could no longer be repaired.

It was like a tree growing crooked, continuing to grow in the crooked direction, finally becoming…

An old crooked-necked tree.

Old Daoist Qi Yuan’s dao injury was roughly this situation.

To help Master fill in his foundation would require destroying Master’s cultivation accumulated over hundreds of years of hard work, and using skillful force to tear open Master’s healed dao injury again, using natural treasures to fill the dao injury.

This process was not only extremely dangerous but would also cause Old Daoist Qi Yuan great suffering. Moreover, natural treasures were hard to find, and in the end, the dao injury might not even be properly repaired…

Therefore, Li Changshou prioritized the first and second plans, sealing away the third plan and six backup plans, to be used depending on the situation.

After the farce, Old Daoist Qi Yuan went into seclusion for two months.

Two months later, Qi Yuan wanted to come out to restore Master’s dignity by answering several questions Li Changshou had asked before in detail;

But unexpectedly, Li Changshou was prepared—after hearing Master’s explanations, he raised new questions. Qi Yuan was stumped by Li Changshou’s new questions and returned to his thatched cottage for seclusion, continuing to perfect his own dao…

During this time, Li Changshou pondered several more tools that might be useful for passing tribulation.

When Master came out this time, Li Changshou could already sense obscure energy fluctuations appearing around Master.

This was a sign of being locked onto by the Heavenly Dao, about to face tribulation.

At most within two years, Master would definitely begin facing tribulation; and himself, at this time, could not help much at all.

After all, passing tribulation was a personal matter, others could hardly do anything.

…

Thus, one year and nine months later.

Old Daoist Qi Yuan’s tribulation, like a newly-wed old maiden, was first shy and hesitant, twisting and turning, yet fierce in its attack at the crucial moment…