Chapter 31
The power of tens of thousands of lightning bolts striking down simultaneously was truly too great. In an instant, the mountain crumbled and the earth split. It felt like that tall mountain was cut in half at once.
Although they were already some distance away from Mount Tuyun, the flying stone and soil fragments still hit them with a strong force.
Wei Jie quickly pulled the chain connecting the two of them, raised a qi shield, and protected Xiao Xiao in his arms.
The qi shield covered the three of them over their heads, temporarily isolating the dust and stone fragments.
Tang Youshu was stunned by the heavenly tribulation not far away. He held his head and muttered, “This… What happened?”
Wei Jie looked at the half-cut mountain with a solemn expression and said, “This is heavenly tribulation… No, it’s not heavenly tribulation! This is the wrath of ten thousand pounds, used by the heavens to punish those who have committed heinous crimes. What exactly did the fox tribe do to bring about the wrath of ten thousand pounds?”
He was right. This was not a heavenly tribulation to test cultivators at all, but a heavenly punishment with the nature of retribution!
Under this wrath of ten thousand pounds, there was no chance of survival! The fox tribe on Mount Tuyun… they couldn’t be saved at all! What exactly did they do to incur this heavenly wrath?
But Xiao Xiao knew the reason – it seemed that the tragedy of the fox tribe in the previous life was about to repeat itself. Their trick of deceiving the heavens with fox skin had been exposed…
But at this moment, Tang Youshu pointed at the dense lightning in the sky in horror and said, “Not good! I… I feel like these lightning bolts are also gradually approaching us?”
Xiao Xiao raised her head to look upon hearing this – indeed!
It could be seen that a part of the lightning originally swirling around Mount Tuyun seemed to be blown by the wind and gradually approached their direction, and the speed was getting faster and faster.
This… Could it be coming for them?
When a thunderbolt blasted at their feet, Tang Youshu screamed in horror, then shouted for his master and grand-master and ran away.
Wei Jie also wanted to run forward while pulling Xiao Xiao’s hand, but Xiao Xiao gritted her teeth and pulled his hand, saying, “It’s useless. We can’t outrun heavenly punishment…”
Xiao Xiao knew in her heart that what the Demon Bead said might be true.
Because of her interference, Wei Jie didn’t appear in the place where he was supposed to suffer calamity, so the heavenly punishment would immediately descend and strike her, the one who interfered with the heavenly secrets, into a bowl of shredded chicken noodles…
But if they returned to Mount Tuyun, as long as they could find that ancient treasure sword that could absorb the energy of lightning, they might still have a chance of survival!
Thinking of this, Xiao Xiao no longer hesitated. She decisively said, “Go! We must return to Mount Tuyun immediately!”
Then she said to Tang Youshu, “You don’t go. Stay here and wait for us!”
Hearing this, Wei Jie’s sword eyebrows furrowed, seeming to doubt Xiao Xiao’s words. But before he could ask, Xiao Xiao had already pulled him and started running towards the direction of Mount Tuyun.
Strangely, the dense thunderbolts that originally fell like iron balls no longer struck after they reversed direction.
When Xiao Xiao looked up, she could see that the dense lightning slowly moved back towards the direction of Mount Tuyun.
At this time, Wei Jie also found that running back was effective. He simply picked up Xiao Xiao and once again leaped forward with light steps.
When they ran to the mountainside in one breath, they happened to see the fox tribe fleeing in panic.
The shocking lightning that had cut off the entire mountain top had already struck and killed many foxes. Fortunately, the Fox King timely raised a spirit shield to protect her daughter and some tribesmen.
The Fox King knew that their trick had been exposed and the heavenly punishment was hard to resist, so she let her daughter lead the tribesmen to escape quickly. She transformed back into human form and supported it alone, trying to withstand the heavenly punishment to give her daughter and tribesmen time to escape.
At this moment, those two intruders who had left long ago actually returned again!
Why did they come back? Could it be to kick them while they were down? The Fox King couldn’t help but widen her eyes.
Xiao Xiao saw that the one single-handedly resisting the heavenly punishment was a beautiful woman, who should be the human form of the Fox King.
She had no time to talk to the Fox King. She quickly surveyed the surrounding terrain, then pulled Wei Jie to run around the mountain aimlessly.
Her master’s secret manual was brief in language and didn’t describe in detail where the withered tree hiding the treasure sword was located, so she could only search everywhere, looking for the life-saving treasure sword.
When they went up the mountain earlier, Yu Ling’er was leading the fox tribe down the mountain, brushing past them. When Yu Ling’er saw them turn back, she was afraid they would harm her mother, so she also turned back.
As a result, it would have been better if she didn’t come back. The moment she returned, the lightning strikes became even denser, striking straight towards the little fox. It seemed that the heavenly punishment would not let go of any fox tribesmen this time!
The Fox King immediately put the spirit shield on her daughter, but her thousand years of cultivation was ultimately difficult to withstand the thunderous fury. Fine fox fur began to emerge on her originally smooth face.
This indicated that the Fox King’s cultivation was gradually being exhausted. Once it was exhausted and the spirit shield disappeared, she and her daughter would both be doomed…
Xiao Xiao was clear that the key to escaping the heavenly punishment was to find that ancient treasure sword. She tried hard to recall, then quickly ran towards the north mountain foot according to the rough description in her master’s secret manual.
When she ran to the back of the mountain, Xiao Xiao caught sight of the fox skin blown onto a tree by the fierce wind.
That fox skin was shiny, like snow satin hanging in the fierce wind, with layers of white fur waving like snow. Xiao Xiao guessed that this must be the skin the Fox King used to deceive the heavens.
Thinking of Wei Jie’s experience of blocking the calamity for the fox tribe, Xiao Xiao steeled her heart and decided to imitate it.
She used a tree branch to pick down the fox skin, then put it on together with Wei Jie, and started heading towards the north foot of the mountain again to see if they could find that withered tree.
Wei Jie was also a ruthless person. Even seeing Xiao Xiao always doing some inexplicable things, he didn’t ask and even helped her hold up the fox skin.
The heavenly punishment was punishing the fox tribe, and no foxes could be spared. And the fox skin was attached with the dense demonic energy of the nine-tailed thousand-year-old fox, instantly becoming the focus of the heavenly lightning.
Wei Jie was tied together with her and could only run around with her while holding the fox skin.
There were a few times when if he hadn’t been quick-witted and pulled her to dodge, the two of them would have been blasted to ashes.
But he did find a moment to say, “You actually kept your word so well… I thought you were just being polite when you told the Fox King that you would go through fire and water for her in times of crisis…”
It turned out that he actually thought Xiao Xiao ran all the way back in the wind and dust because she had promised the Fox King to repay the fox tribe for the favor of the spiritual spring by blocking the calamity for them.
Xiao Xiao smiled bitterly in her heart. How could she be so selfless and noble? It was just for self-preservation…
Thinking of this, she said urgently, “Hurry and find a withered locust tree, otherwise no matter where we go, we can’t escape the heavenly punishment…”
Wei Jie knew that this master had some mysterious ways, although he didn’t know why she would say that. But hearing her say that, he quickly surveyed the terrain and started searching for the withered tree Xiao Xiao mentioned.
But at this time, half of the mountain top had been blown off by the heavenly punishment, and there was no grass or trees. Where could they find a withered tree?
So the two people connected by the chain could only hold the fox skin, jumping and kicking around in the lightning and thunder like playing with a lion.
But at this moment, Xiao Xiao tripped and fell to the ground on a slope.
When she looked down at her feet, she found that what had tripped her was a stump of a withered tree root…
At this moment, another bolt of lightning struck straight down at them. When Wei Jie pulled Xiao Xiao to dodge, the lightning happened to strike the tree root.
Amidst the flying stones and dust, a withered locust tree was exposed from the ground.
When another bolt of lightning struck, a golden light burst out from the split tree trunk, and a sword covered in rust and dust soared into the air, instantly attracting the lightning from the sky to wrap around the sword body.
When the lightning struck the treasure sword, the dust on the sword body shook off, revealing the black obsidian-like gems inlaid on the sword body.
Xiao Xiao had seen this sword before, in the silkworm farm in Fei County. Qin Lingxiao used this sword to slay the silkworm demon. It used to be Wei Jie’s weapon…
Xiao Xiao had read in her master’s secret manual that Wei Jie had even given the sword a name, called “Defying the Heavens”.
After all, it was a divine object that could safely accept tens of thousands of thunderbolts in the heavenly punishment. It dared to defy the heavens, worthy of its name!
Such a domineering name indeed had a bit of the Demon Lord’s arrogance in it.
Her master had once written that this sword had a great origin. It was a weapon that Goddess Nüwa had secretly hidden in the sacred land of the fox tribe. The black obsidian-like gems inlaid on the sword body were said to be forged from the remaining colored stones she used to mend the heavens.
Only these stones that could mend the heavens could withstand the lightning of the heavenly tribulation and slay all the demons in the world.
This sword was originally enshrined in the Nüwa Temple. It was said that when King Zhou entered the temple, he not only wrote a poem to flirt with the goddess, but also took a fancy to this treasure sword enshrined in the shrine and ordered his attendants to bring it back to the palace.
King Zhou was the reincarnation of an evil god. If this sword fell into his hands, it would definitely stir up a storm of blood and gore in the world.
Fortunately, the fox tribe’s Daji, who was sent by Goddess Nüwa to seduce King Zhou, stole back this sword and returned it to Goddess Nüwa.
Nüwa didn’t want any more accidents, so she hid this sword in the mountain belly of Mount Tuyun. But she never thought that when encountering the heavenly tribulation, half of the mountain would be cut off, so this sword was once again exposed to the world.
In the original trajectory of events, Wei Jie obtained this sword, and the sword absorbed most of the energy of the heavenly punishment, finally saving the remnants of the fox tribe.
As the benefactor of the entire fox tribe, from then on, all the people of Mount Tuyun followed Wei Jie’s orders, serving him and making countless efforts for him.
Of course, these were all past events, and now the course of events had been disrupted, but the trajectory of the divine sword’s appearance remained unchanged!
The divine sword buried for a thousand years was now wildly drinking the rolling thunderbolt energy around it. Because of the protection of the heavenly mending divine stones, it allowed this ancient sword to steadily absorb the entangled lightning.
The heavens perhaps sensed the existence of this heaven-defying divine sword and was unwilling to provide it with energy in vain. After angrily striking down a few more thunderbolts, the thunder gradually subsided, while the sword still hovered in midair, its blade flashing with sparks.
Xiao Xiao took a deep breath, knowing that it wasn’t over yet.
According to the Demon Bead’s words, she had disrupted Wei Jie’s original trajectory, but she couldn’t miss the tribulations that Wei Jie was supposed to go through.
Whether it was falling off a cliff, being bitten by a snake, or being struck by lightning now, if he didn’t bear what he was supposed to, someone had to bear it for him!
Now the sword had come out, but it needed someone to leap up and grasp it in their hand.
However, the person who grasped it would also have to suffer the pain of a severed arm…
Xiao Xiao decided to let Wei Jie take it. After all, this was originally his responsibility, and he had the bloodline of a female demon, so he could heal himself, right?
Although she thought so, she still asked with concern, “If you suffer a serious injury, can you heal yourself?”
Wei Jie didn’t know why she suddenly asked this, but he still answered honestly, “Minor injuries are generally not a problem, but injuries like broken legs and fractured bones are no different from ordinary people.”
This… Xiao Xiao was a bit troubled.
If he was bitten by the snake back then and improved his cultivation, initially forming his demonic arts, it would be fine. After all, his demonized body could withstand the pain of a severed arm, and in the end, with the care of his disciple Tang Youshu, he could find a famous doctor to reattach the severed arm.
But the current Wei Jie… didn’t have the original demonic arts to protect his body!
Although he had also drunk a mouthful of spiritual spring water, which could condense qi in his dantian, he had not yet reached the stage of forming a Golden Core.
If the current Wei Jie was struck by lightning, he probably wouldn’t be able to hold on until the time of reattaching his arm like in the previous trajectory…
After thinking about it, Xiao Xiao felt that it was better for a friend to die than for her to die. No matter what, it was better than severing her own arm.
Thinking of this, she hardened her heart and deceived Wei Jie, “Do you see that sword? That is an ancient divine sword left behind by Goddess Nüwa. Once you possess it, you can slay heaven and earth and subdue ghosts and gods… You will definitely be able to dominate the world. Hurry up and take it down!”
Wei Jie frowned as he looked at the sword surrounded by lightning, seeming to hesitate for a moment, then asked, “You want it?”
Xiao Xiao gritted her teeth and nodded. Wei Jie nodded, “Alright, I’ll get it for you.”
After saying that, he no longer hesitated. He picked up Xiao Xiao and went towards the sword suspended in midair.
Xiao Xiao found that this Wei Jie looked shrewd, but he always got muddled at critical moments.
For example, in the valley, he misunderstood that she wanted the snake venom, so he risked taking the venom before the snake’s head stiffened.
Now it was the same. He didn’t seem to want to take that sword. After hearing that she wanted it, he went to take it without hesitation.
In comparison, she, who tricked him into taking the sword, was so despicable.
Just as Wei Jie was holding her and leaping into the air, with his big hand about to pass through the crisscrossing lightning, Xiao Xiao’s hand suddenly reached past him, taking the lead in reaching for that sword…
Xiao Xiao regretted it. She felt that with the Demon Bead protecting her body, she must be much stronger than Wei Jie!
Thinking like this, her chivalrous spirit rose: since that was the case, let her bear this tribulation for him instead…
The moment she touched that sword, the lightning suddenly became enraged again and began to flow from the sword body towards Xiao Xiao’s hand.
This thunderous pain… was even more terrible than imagined!
Xiao Xiao couldn’t bear the pain and couldn’t help but scream miserably. Suddenly, her arm was pulled back by someone again. It turned out that Wei Jie saw the lightning attacking her arm and quickly pulled the iron chain to fling her away, then dodged the lightning and rushed to seize that sword.
The two of them pushed and pulled each other’s hands back and forth. Then there was a snap… The lightning happened to strike the chain connecting their two hands.
The wrath of the thunder was
irresistible. The shackles connecting them that were impervious to swords and spears were shattered into two pieces with a sound.
The lightning surged, and Xiao Xiao’s arm was grazed by a thunderbolt, causing her to scream in pain again.
And the shackles tightly clasped on their wrists were also struck into ashes. Both of their wrists were burned, and they fell back to the ground together.
At this moment, the dark clouds dispersed, the lightning disappeared, and that sword also fell beside the two of them.
Xiao Xiao was in so much pain that she was rolling on the ground holding her arm. Wei Jie was also injured, but his injuries were not severe. He didn’t even care about himself and first picked up Xiao Xiao to check her arm.
Although the energy of the lightning had already been absorbed by the ancient sword, the remaining power was still there. If it had directly hit the arm, the arm would probably have been severed.
Fortunately, when they were fighting over it, that thunderbolt struck the chain connecting the two of them. Although that chain was impervious to swords and spears, it obviously couldn’t withstand a strike from the heavenly punishment and broke apart. But the rolling residual shock still burned a big gash on Xiao Xiao’s arm.
The two of them were both injured by the heavenly punishment at the same time, but Xiao Xiao’s injuries were much more severe than Wei Jie’s!
The wound was very deep, almost exposing the white bones. No wonder she was in so much pain that her face was pale as paper and she was gritting her teeth and rolling on the ground.
Tang Youshu also rushed over at this time, hurriedly taking out white cloth and hemostatic medicinal powder, wanting to stop the bleeding for Xiao Xiao.
But Wei Jie said with a grim face, “This is a strike from the heavenly punishment. Human medicine is useless…”
Saying that, he suddenly drew out a dagger, cut open his own arm’s wound a bit more, letting the blood flow out, and then dripped it onto Xiao Xiao’s wound.
The blood of a female demon was yin in nature and not something ordinary people could withstand. But Xiao Xiao had a special constitution. When Wei Jie’s blood dripped on the wound, it was quickly absorbed by her. In a short while, the exposed white bones were finally wrapped in flesh and blood, and could hardly be seen anymore.
But after some flesh grew, the wound no longer changed and was still a decaying and blurry appearance.
Although the injury was too severe to fully recover in a short time, Xiao Xiao’s pain was greatly reduced, and she could at least sit up.
At this moment, Wei Jie picked up that sword and unhesitatingly handed it to Xiao Xiao. Xiao Xiao looked at this sword with mixed feelings and shook her head, “I don’t want it. You take it!”
Wei Jie had a cold face and stuffed the sword into Xiao Xiao’s other hand, saying with a hint of mockery, “You went to grab it without regard for your life just now. How come you don’t want it anymore? Take it! What do I need it for?”
Xiao Xiao’s eyes still held tears of pain. Hearing these words, she wanted to cry silently even more: This was the weapon that the future Demon Lord used to dominate the world. What would she do with it in her hands?
At this moment, she found that Yu Ling’er was holding a dying hairless fox in her arms, and together with a group of tribesmen, they were kneeling in unison in front of her and Wei Jie.
The Fox King had already exhausted her thousand years of cultivation in the catastrophe of the heavenly punishment just now. Now she couldn’t even speak human language and could only lie in her daughter’s arms, whimpering and making weak fox cries.
Yu Ling’er understood her mother’s words and explained to Xiao Xiao and Wei Jie with tears in her eyes, “My mother said that you two returned, wearing the fox skin to divert the heavenly punishment, allowing her to keep her life. You are the benefactors of our Mount Tu tribe. Please accept our bow!”
After saying that, she hugged her mother and led the remaining tribesmen to bow to Xiao Xiao and the others together.
Xiao Xiao had just caught her breath and was rejoicing that she had escaped a disaster and kept her arm. She didn’t expect the fox tribe, who had been extremely unfriendly to her before, to perform the grand ceremony of kneeling and bowing in unison.
As the saying goes, it’s better to resolve grudges than to hold them. Since the fox tribe was grateful, they probably wouldn’t hold a grudge against the previous incident of holding the Fox King hostage.
So Xiao Xiao went with the flow and said, “It was just a small favor… How could we just watch someone die and not save them?”
The Fox King whimpered a few more sentences, but Yu Ling’er seemed very reluctant. She said in a low voice, “Mother said that you two saved the lives of our fox tribe. Now that our fox tribe’s tactic of deceiving the heavens to escape the heavenly tribulation has been exposed by the heavens, I’m afraid there will be even greater punishments waiting for our Mount Tu tribe in the future. If you two don’t mind… we are willing to follow you two. Please, benefactors, continue to protect our fox tribe!”
Xiao Xiao knew that these were exactly the same as the previous events.
The fox tribe followed Wei Jie down the mountain and also accumulated strength for him to establish the demonic path in the future. Later, Wei Jie recruited soldiers and horses, and had countless demons under his command. The fox tribe was just the beginning.
But Cui Xiao Xiao was not Wei Jie. She didn’t want to be any Demon Lord at all, let alone recruit these demon tribes. As long as it had nothing to do with the tribulations that Wei Jie was supposed to go through, she would save trouble whenever possible!
So she kept waving her hand and said, “No, no! Our Talisman Sect’s mountain gate is too small to support so many of you. Moreover, this heavenly punishment has passed. There should be no more incidents in the future. You should cultivate well on the mountain. Next time, you will definitely be able to pass the tribulation successfully!”
But the Fox King seemed to have made up her mind. She whimpered and cried for a while more. Yu Ling’er became even more grief-stricken, with tears filling her big eyes. She said with resentful sobs, “Mother said… if the benefactors find it troublesome to have too many people, then the tribesmen won’t follow too many. But I… must go with the benefactors, attending to them, warming their quilt and fanning their pillow…”
Towards the end, Yu Ling’er seemed to feel that her mother making her serve others like this was too humiliating. She suddenly burst into tears.
Now, Xiao Xiao didn’t know how to respond.
How was this situation like a human trafficker picking up people at the village entrance? It was actually such a scene of flesh and blood parting, so painful that they didn’t want to live!
Actually, the Fox King being so diligent was not because she was confused and didn’t know how to repay them.
The Fox King knew well the consequences of deceiving the heavens. The heavenly punishment that almost blew up the entire Mount Tuyun this time was clear evidence!
But the heavenly punishment that should have slaughtered the entire tribe ended inexplicably, seeming to have something to do with these Talisman Sect master and disciple who suddenly returned.
The Fox King suspected that they were people with great blessings, so the fox tribe was lucky enough to escape.
Now that her thousand years of cultivation had been destroyed in an instant, and she couldn’t even speak human language, how could she protect her daughter?
She overheard her daughter making an appointment with that good-for-nothing young pavilion master of Soaring Cloud Pavilion, saying that after she passed the tribulation, Yu Ling’er would secretly go down the mountain to find him.
In the Fox King’s view, that Qin Lingxiao was not a good person.
In the previous incident, it was obvious that Qin Lingxiao was using the fox tribe as a stepping stone to suppress this Talisman Sect master and disciple pair.
He could borrow a knife to kill someone. What kind of man was he?
So she used the name of repaying kindness to let her daughter follow these two people with great blessings and a strong sense of righteousness. It could not only avoid the heavenly punishment coming again and implicating her daughter but also prevent Ling’er from secretly getting involved with Qin Lingxiao and ruining her cultivation prospects.
But in Yu Ling’er’s view, although this master and disciple of the Talisman Sect indeed saved the fox tribe and were their great benefactors, these two had an unclear relationship and were promiscuous. Especially that Wei Jie, he could even take advantage of his benefactor in broad daylight.
Mother told her to serve these two people. Wouldn’t that be throwing her into a den of debauchery? At that time, when Young Pavilion Master Qin saw her standing behind these promiscuous men and women, how would he despise her?
In short, Xiao Xiao didn’t want to accept, and Yu Ling’er didn’t want to go.
Unfortunately, the Fox King, who had accumulated a thousand years of wisdom, used all of it now. She actually forced her daughter to take an oath. If she didn’t follow Cui Xiao Xiao, Yu Ling’er would immediately dissipate her cultivation and never be able to transform into human form again!
With her mother on the verge of death, her wishes could not be disobeyed. As a result, Yu Ling’er took the oath while crying and sobbing, then took her small luggage and was about to go down the mountain with Cui Xiao Xiao and the others.
Cui Xiao Xiao was a bit dumbfounded – there was actually such a thing as forcing a daughter to follow someone by making a poisonous oath?
