Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 377 Immortal Zhao's Tribulation

After Li Wuxiang finished speaking, he opened his huge mouth and spat out a large eyeball.

Previously, this eyeball only occupied half of Zhao Qi's face, but now the remaining part of Zhao Qi's face is like the nerve on this eyeball, with only a tiny bit left.

As soon as the eyeball emerged, the blood nerves still clinging to Li Wuxiang immediately surged towards his mouth, as if trying to snatch the eyeball back. Li Wuxiang snapped his mouth shut, half-holding the eyeball inside: "Zhao Qi, what are you doing? Don't you understand? You're Zhao Qi who became the Blood God, not a part of the Blood God! Come with me to deal with Xu Zhen!"

His eyes buzzed in his mouth: "Me? But I wasn't! It was Lord Si Ming who came to Mount Ling and found me and my master, that's why—"

"Shut up!" Li Wuxiang said viciously. "We are in the Myriad Transformations Realm now. I have Xu Zhen's supernatural powers. What I say is true is true! If you make a vow in your heart—you are the Blood God! You bullshit Lord of Fate!"

"I... but I'm still in the Crimson Heaven, I'm a true spirit now..."

He was right! The real Blood God, the Blood God that Li Wuxiang saw, wrapped in a blood-red cocoon like an infant, was still in the Crimson Heaven. This Blood God here, just like the Descending God of Fate and the Great Emperor of the Capital of Fate, was just a true spirit.

However, Li Wuxiang also learned from Li Ye that this kind of true spirit is not the possession of the original body—just like Donghuang Taiyi is Donghuang Taiyi, and Li Ye is Li Ye!

Li Wuxiang suddenly flipped his dragon body, spinning several times within a cloud of blood, freeing some of the blood nerves covering his head. The two were now fighting at the very top of the Myriad Transformations Realm, surrounded by vast expanses of clouds and mist.

After being expanded by Xu Zhen's supernatural powers, the Myriad Transformations Array seemed to have truly become a small world. The temperature at this extremely high altitude had become very low, and even ice crystals, one by one and one by one, had begun to appear in the blood clouds. After he charged forward several times, the ice crystals cut his blood nerves to pieces like sharp blades, and then he flung them onto his body.

"I said you are you, and you are you! This is your only chance to wake up. Do you want to be the Zhao Qi you used to be, or do you want to be the Blood God's puppet? Ask yourself!"

Zhao Qi, trapped in his mouth, seemed to hesitate, remaining silent. The next moment, Li Wuxiang felt the eye inside his mouth explode with a loud pop. Startled, he wondered if he'd been bitten to death, but then he felt something crawling on his tongue, followed by Zhao Qi's voice—

"Yes, I am Zhao Qi! I, I, I am also the Blood God! I don't want to be the Zhao Qi of the past, I want to be the Zhao Qi who has become the Blood God!!!"

His voice came from Li Wuxiang's mouth, and Li Wuxiang felt his big head buzzing from the sound. It was as if something else was being rapidly pulled out of his body with the sound—like strength, energy, or mental strength and hope. It was as if his whole body was being pulled out, and every muscle was trembling incessantly, trying to inject something intangible into Zhao Qi's words...

It must be Xu Zhen's supernatural power, or rather, Zhao Qi is drawing power from him!
He felt like he was being drained dry, his entire body was shrinking rapidly, transforming from a dragon form into the beast form of a Xie Zhi, and then from the beast form of a Xie Zhi back into a human form. Then the Xie Zhi skeletons inside his body were also becoming brittle, as if they were about to weather and dry up.

Zhao Qi had already emerged from his mouth and was now suspended in mid-air before him, completely naked—Li Wuxiang had never seen such a fierce expression on Zhao Qi's face before. His eyes were wide open in fury, veins bulged on his forehead, and his fingers and toes were curled as if even his nails were exerting force: "I am Zhao Qi!! I am the Blood God!! Ahhhhhh!! I am Zhao Qi!! I want to become an immortal!! I want to become a god!!!"

The Blood Nerve, carrying the remains of the Ninth Prince, lunged forward. Li Wuxiang scanned it with his divine sense and knew that this thing was up to no good—it had stripped Zhao Qi of his skin, and the True Lord of Fate seemed to have woken up... no, not the True Lord of Fate!

Li Wuxiang suddenly looked up at the sky—the entire sky seemed to have become a giant eyeball, a whole expanse of white! Because now, dense red veins were appearing on the sky, as if something outside was in a hurry to forcibly invade this Myriad Transformations Formation and take away Zhao Qi, or the True Lord of Fate, or the dragon's skeleton.

Li Wuxiang immediately recalled the scene he witnessed when he first arrived at Crimson Heaven. Back then, the entire Blood God was being pulled by threads from some unknown source, like a puppet on strings… Was that Tai Zhuo? Was it the Tai Zhuo Grand Lord that Tang Qilang spoke of before his death? Is this thing trying to cause trouble now?!

"Get out! I'm in charge here!" Li Wuxiang roared, raising his hand and waving—

The next moment he cursed, "Where the hell is my sword?!"

The sword is still with Xu Zhen!
Then he forgot about his sword and lunged at the mass of blood, nerves, and bones, blocking it in front of Zhao Qi. The meridians immediately pierced into his body like steel needles, but Li Wuxiang ignored them and only grabbed at the dragon skeleton wrapped inside.

It seemed that because Zhao Qi had regained consciousness, the thing had become extremely weak. Li Wuxiang grabbed a piece and stuffed it into his own body to fill the gaps left by the weathering and dissipation of the Xie Zhi's remains.

Although this thing can only be considered a true spirit, it is far superior to the bones of the Xie Zhi! The willpower that had disappeared due to Zhao Qi's frantic extraction became abundant again as the skeleton filled it, and Li Wuxiang also felt his blood and qi revitalized, almost returning to the peak state he had when he transformed into Xu Zhen—the dragon body skeleton he had been longing for was about to be obtained!
The blood and nerve network seemed to realize it couldn't bypass him, and immediately began to change within his body. Just like the divine power of the True Lord of Fate in the Great Calamity Mountain, Li Wuxiang felt countless flesh and blood surging within his skin, trying to burst him open!
However, he is no longer the same person he used to be!
There's another Xu Chen inside him!
Xu Zhen made him think he was Xu Chen, and that method worked, but it only fooled him for a short time—he had already created Li Guichen before that, so how could he fall for this trick?

After realizing something was wrong, they exposed Xu Chen again, just like Li Guichen, not only to ask him about the situation in Donglu, but also to wait—just to wait for this moment!
Using the immense power generated by the rapidly growing flesh and blood within his body, Li Wuxiang instantly refined it. As a result, his head shone brightly, and two small golden rays appeared—his nascent soul had become two!

He poured all his vital energy into his skin and the golden entanglement, no longer resisting the blood nerves that were drilling into his body. Instead, like Zhao Qi, he let go and stretched his body. In an instant, the remaining part of the blood spirit, along with the dragon's skeleton, burrowed into it.

In that instant, a thought suddenly popped into Li Wuxiang's mind—

I've become the Blood God... No, no...

No… I've become the Blood God… Screw you…

I am already the Blood God... Screw you... I'm the Blood God... No... I'm the Blood God—

I am the Blood God!

I am the Blood God—

This thought was about to solidify within his body. He felt his divine sense rapidly shrinking, as if his surroundings were darkening and everything was receding, causing his consciousness to become confused again. He couldn't even recall why, just a moment ago, he had clearly condensed the two peaks of his divine sense, so why he had allowed the blood and nerve energy to rush into his body—it was because—

The dragon's skeleton gathered inside his body, and he vaguely felt that it should have reassembled into the shape of the cocoon in the crimson sky. He also felt that his eyes were emerging—he was turning into a big eyeball, just like Zhao Qi had done before, as if he had simply swapped Zhao Qi out with himself.

But just as these skeletons were put back in place, a third point of golden light appeared above his head—the Three Elements Condensation!
Then came a deafening roar!
The sound seemed to startle Li Wuxiang awake, and he suddenly remembered—

Mei Qiulu once said that the Nascent Soul he achieved on the night of the Great Calamity Mountain Fire was a fake one, and that he, like her, had avoided the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation!

But the heavenly tribulation cannot be avoided; it will always come back!

The heavenly tribulation is coming!

The heavenly tribulation has arrived!

Li Wuxiang opened his eyes and immediately saw the extremely high sky above him—

The area was originally filled with countless tentacles, most likely from the Blood God who was controlling it, called "Great Lord Tai Zhuo". He could even vaguely see a few strands that had broken through the barrier of the Myriad Transformations and hung down onto him... He must have been "caught" by it just now!
But now, purplish-blue lightning and fire are rolling in the sky!

One after another, bolts of tribulation lightning slammed into the outside of Wanhuafang, striking those tentacles! The things in the sky twisted like giant snakes, and the sky above Wanhuafang seemed to turn colorful, with gold, red, blue, and purple changing in turn. Plasma and blood snakes rolled violently overhead, and there seemed to be something else on the outermost layer... like layers of clouds, like an endless starry sky, reflecting those colors!

Li Wuxiang was stunned for a moment—when he achieved the Golden Core, he used Zhao Kui's immortal remains to shield himself from calamity. Now, he has properly achieved the Nascent Soul of the Great Calamity Sword Scripture, but he may have used this part of the "Great Lord of Turbidity" who descended to earth to shield himself from calamity!

But what truly stunned him wasn't these things, but rather...

He understood the feeling Tong Xu had described!
Beyond the Myriad Transformations Square, the area illuminated by the lightning and fire of the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation seemed to have nothing, yet everything seemed to exist; it seemed boundless and infinitely vast, yet it seemed airtight without a single gap; it seemed to be the beginning, yet it seemed to be the end. Even with his knowledge from another world, he couldn't describe that feeling at all... endless hope, yet endless despair!
That's not the Great Lord Taizhuo, but rather the place where the Great Lord Taizhuo came from!
At this moment, the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation seemed to be nearing its end. The thunderclaps grew more and more rapid, almost piercing through the Myriad Transformations Square and turning it transparent!

In that instant, Li Wuxiang saw a shadow in the lightning. He couldn't tell what it was, or if it was just a part of something—it quickly shrank back to the far distance.

Then all the tentacles in the sky vanished instantly, leaving only the rolling embers of tribulation lightning. The lightning and fire then disappeared, and the crimson of the sky gradually faded. Li Wuxiang felt the flesh and blood within his body, which had been growing wildly, suddenly freeze, as if the true spirit of the True Lord of Destiny, who had descended to earth once more, had "died."

But he knew this was not "death," but rather the loss of contact with the True Lord of Fate in the right eye socket of the Crimson Heaven—during the Great Calamity Mountain, Li Guichen had taken away a portion of its power, and now, he had swallowed another portion of its power!

He turned to look at Zhao Qi—whose eyes were practically popping out of their sockets as he stared up at the sky. Only then did Zhao Qi, as if waking from a dream, slowly lower his head to look at Li Wuxiang.

Staring wide-eyed and silent for a moment, his voice trembled as he spoke: "Li Wuxiang, did you see that? Did you see that?! Hahahaha! Heavenly Tribulation!! That was just a Heavenly Tribulation!! I survived it!! I've truly become an immortal!! Hahahahahaha!!"

"No, Zhao Qi, that just now—"

"Huh? I don't feel anything?" Zhao Qi suddenly frowned, looking at his body and then around. "Why do I feel... wait? That's not right! Is this what it's like to become an immortal, Li Wuxiang? I don't feel any changes at all. I still feel like a—"

"Don't say it! Don't think about it!" Li Wuxiang shouted, but it was too late—

"—He still looks like a living person?"

The moment those words left his mouth, Zhao Qi plummeted from the blood-red cloud. He screamed in terror, his voice muffled by the wind: "...Wait...I was just undergoing my tribulation...What happened...Aaaaaah...Li Wuxiang, save me! I'm going to die from this fall..."

Li Wuxiang sighed and immediately flew after him. He had now fully achieved the Nascent Soul stage of the Great Calamity Sword Scripture, and his body contained both the true spirit bones of the Ninth Prince and the flesh and blood of the Destiny True Lord who had descended to earth. He felt that he was no weaker than when he was in a daze and thought he was Xu Zhen.

He chased after Zhao Qi until they were level, then accompanied him as they swooped down through the blood-red clouds. He said, "You're alive. I pulled you out of the Crimson Heaven. Now you are Zhao Qi's true form. The one in the Crimson Heaven is your true spirit—Zhao Qi. Can a living person, a mortal, have a true spirit?"

Zhao Qi paused for a moment, then mumbled incoherently in the strong wind, "Yeah...yes!"

As he said this, his body felt lighter; before, he had been falling like a stone, but now he was floating.

"Look at this blood mist all around you. It's coming from the Blood God and the magical beast Xie Zhi. Is this mortal blood? This is all your blood! You are the Blood God!"

"Yes, yes, yes! I was just fighting with you in the sky. I really did become... even if I don't say I became an immortal, I'm at least a Nascent Soul cultivator, right? I can fly now!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the blood-red clouds in the sky rushed into his mouth, and Zhao Qi was instantly lifted into the air, rising high into the sky with a bang. Li Wuxiang immediately caught up with him: "You're already a Nascent Soul cultivator here, a Blood God with Nascent Soul cultivation! I sealed you! You already knew the Mountain-Burning Talisman Technique, and now here you can use talismans to transform the fake into the real, just like Xu Zhen! Do you believe me or not!"

"I believe!!" Zhao Qi shouted, inhaling all the blood-red clouds in the sky into his mouth. Crimson mist rose from beneath his feet and condensed into a crimson robe on his body. "I feel it! Hahahaha! I feel it! I've really succeeded! I am the Blood God!"

(End of this chapter)