Chapter 20

Lin Du swallowed the Ningbi Pill, and by now, she was accustomed to taking pills whole.

As soon as she took it, she could immediately tell the difference between the system-produced pill and the ones made by Jiang Liang. Jiang Liang’s pills were used to suppress the unbearable pain in her heart, but they could only alleviate the symptoms temporarily. However, as soon as she took this Ningbi Pill, the constant, nagging pain in her heart vanished completely. The persistent feeling of weakness from her heart condition, which she had always been aware of, felt as if it had been encased in thick wax, completely sealed off.

She sighed softly. The system truly lived up to its reputation.

Originally, she had thought she could rely on Jiang Liang and then discard him once she was better, but it seemed she would have to wait until she was fully recovered before making any such plans.

She took a deep breath. The stubborn illness in her lungs had already been half-dissolved by a single Yiqi Shuyu Pill. Two months of enduring the frigid streams and nearly half a month of bitter medicine had cleared about eighty percent of the blockage in her lungs.

This second pill might just be the perfect choice to help her break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Lin Du swallowed the pill she had been saving all this time.

“Comfortable,” she sighed as she settled into a proper meditative posture.

A cool medicinal power began to spread from her stomach, and soon, her meridians started to circulate the energy rapidly. Lin Du took a deep breath and began to practice the breathing technique that Yan Ye had always taught her.

The young man sat cross-legged on the icy bed, his usually cold and intense eyes, which sometimes carried a hint of hostility, now relaxed and closed, giving his entire face a serene, almost transcendent look.

Within just a few breaths, the surrounding spiritual energy surged toward him like a giant dragon suddenly awakened in the depths of the ocean, forming a massive vortex around him.

At the same time, a white-haired young man who had been sitting quietly on Luo Ze suddenly stood up and instantly moved to the entrance of a stone cave.

He stood outside the cave’s entrance, his spiritual sense sweeping over the sign hanging by a hemp rope at the door, on which large characters were written in a bold, flowing script: “Do Not Disturb.”

Yan Ye let out a slight chuckle, a smile appearing on his face. “Little rascal, not much skill, but plenty of tricks.”

The young man raised his hand, and a few items emitting a faint silver light flew from his sleeve, falling around the cave’s perimeter. They quickly connected to form a barrier, the silver light flashing once before it vanished into the air.

Yan Ye turned and left, the scenery behind him remaining unchanged, as if he had never been there.

Lin Du was completely unaware of everything happening outside.

She could feel herself absorbing more and more spiritual energy, which was surging through her body without end, causing her dantian to swell to the point of near explosion.

Lin Du tried to stop absorbing the energy, but she had no control over it. Her body seemed like an insatiable glutton, devouring all the energy it could find.

She could only endure the swelling and collisions within her dantian, as her meridians were constantly being flushed by the overwhelming influx of spiritual energy. It felt as if she were trying to stuff an elephant into a refrigerator named Lin Du.

She was forced to endure this pain, much like when she would exhaust herself in the icy streams until she was swept away into a still lake. Her mind was willing, but her strength was insufficient, leaving her to passively endure the flood of energy.

Finally, the spiritual energy in her dantian reached a critical point, but the dantian itself could not expand.

As is well known, gas under high pressure turns into liquid.

The moment spiritual liquid began to form in her dantian, Lin Du breathed a sigh of relief.

But just as she was about to relax, even more spiritual energy flooded into her body.

Unable to stop it, Lin Du simply gave up, lying down and letting the spiritual liquid in her dantian gradually accumulate, watching as countless glowing droplets slowly merged together.

The spiritual vortex, once a raging tornado, gradually shrank into a regular spiral.

By the time the moon had set and the sun had risen, Lin Du’s body had finally reached a state of fullness.

She opened her eyes, got up, and walked out of the cave.

The sky above should have been bright and clear, but instead, dark clouds loomed heavily, obscuring the sunlight.

Lin Du looked into the distance and saw that the rest of the sky was still clear and sunny.

She stood quietly, noticing her master standing far away, watching her in silence.

“Master, do you believe that even the heavens obey my will? For example, if I command the lightning to strike me, it wouldn’t dare strike anyone else,” Lin Du said as she raised her hand. “Lightning, come.”

Yan Ye’s eyelid twitched, and he cursed under his breath, “You little rascal.”

The tribulation clouds, already thickening, sensed their target, and a flash of purple light flickered within the black clouds. Lin Du immediately felt a jolt run through her body.

She didn’t notice that the lightning seemed to be momentarily intercepted by an invisible barrier just before it struck her, reducing its intensity and brightness significantly.

Nearly a second later, just as she was about to curse from the pain, a deafening thunderclap drowned out her words.

“Good,” Lin Du thought to herself, “Even in the cultivation world, the laws of physics hold true: light travels faster than sound.”

This thought crossed her mind as she felt the electric currents coursing through her body. She began to cautiously channel her spiritual energy to manage the currents.

Just as she was about to finish, a second bolt of tribulation lightning struck without warning.

The third, the fourth… Lin Du could smell the scent of roasting meat.

She cursed, “I won’t want to eat roasted meat for at least half a month.”

Barely able to sit up, she closed her eyes and stopped counting the bolts of lightning. Every pore on her body felt like it was crackling with static electricity, each painful shock spreading a numbing sensation across her skin.

Yet Lin Du was too focused on what was happening inside her body to care about the external pain. She observed as the lightning refined her meridians, organs, and bones.

Perhaps it was the spiritual energy, but her mind remained unusually clear.

Yan Ye, who was blind and could not use his spiritual sense to perceive the situation (as it would interfere with the judgment of the heavenly tribulation), could only listen closely for any sounds.

Lin Du had never once cried out in pain in front of him, and now was no exception. He could hear nothing from her.

This was a high-stakes gamble. Even though the formation he had set up could mitigate some of the tribulation’s force, it was like a drop in the ocean for the frail Lin Du.

Because he usually relied on his spiritual sense, Yan Ye had long since become indifferent to his blindness, but today, for the first time, he wished he could see.

It had been many years—probably since the day he began cultivating—that he had last had such a thought.

Yan Ye blinked lightly, his long white lashes trembling like snow falling from a branch.

“Lin Du is still alive,” a voice suddenly said near his ear.

Yan Ye raised his eyebrows in surprise and extended his spiritual sense just slightly, focusing on the figure behind him. “Jiang Liang?”

“This lightning tribulation is stronger than the usual Nine-in-One Tribulation. Your formation blocked half of it, so it’s about as strong as a regular Nine-in-One tribulation,” Jiang Liang said, stroking his beard, his gaze fixed on the lightning tribulation.

“It doesn’t make sense. Even my tribulation was only thirty percent stronger than the average Foundation Establishment tribulation. Could it be that my disciple has even greater potential than I do?”

Yan Ye furrowed his brow. “Is the Tian Dao getting senile, or does it simply not want Lin Du to survive?”

“Watch your words,” Jiang Liang cut him off.

Yan Ye turned his head, his face showing a hint of concern. “This is the final strike.”

“Lin Du can handle it. She’s even stronger than we imagined,” Jiang Liang paused before adding, “As long as she has even a breath left, I can bring her back.”

Yan Ye clicked his tongue in annoyance.

In the Supreme Sect, everyone has an unwavering confidence in their own area of expertise.