I am a mortal who has achieved enlightenment through burning my secrets

Chapter 177 Heavenly Tribulation
"I went a little too far, but it should still work, right?"

Ancestor Ao Xiao was very cautious, like a child who had done something wrong. Because it concerned his own life and fortune, he showed Xiao Wuji a lot of respect and placed him on an equal footing with himself.

"emmm..."

Xiao Wuji stared at the enormous, dark gray wolf carcass before him; the word "horrible" was insufficient to describe its appearance. Three of its limbs were completely mangled into a bloody pulp, and half of its ferocious wolf head was gone, with its remaining half of its eyeballs blown out.

"It's possible, but the required medicinal herbs would need to be changed, and the success rate of refining this kind of pill isn't very high..."

Xiao Wuji had originally only planned to refine a Yin-Yang Life Soul Pill for him, but judging from the current situation, it would be necessary to use a Bone-Regenerating Blood-Melting Pill instead. To be honest, he wasn't even sure he could refine a pill of that grade right now.

Fortunately, with the help of Ancestor Ao Xiao, it shouldn't be difficult for him to collect some materials to aid in alchemy.

Upon hearing this, Ancestor Ao Xiao breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good!"

"To be honest, I've wanted to kill this guy for a long time. How dare he harm Linglong? If I wasn't afraid that my wolf clan would have no successor, I would never have let him live until now!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Wuji was taken aback. He suddenly looked up at Ancestor Ao Xiao and said with some surprise, "Is this the Heavenly Kui Wolf King?"

A hint of coldness appeared on Ancestor Ao Xiao's gentle face as he said meaningfully, "Of course, this is the price for bullying Linglong!"

"Alright, as long as the corpse is usable, that's fine. If it's not usable, I'll have to go outside and get some savage beasts."

"Tell me the medicinal herbs you need right away, I still need to find some Spirit Eye Jade for Linglong to eat!"

"Honestly, this little girl is almost bankrupting me!"

Xiao Wuji, however, seemed not to understand the meaning behind Ao Xiao's words. He took out a jade slip and placed it on the plate, then used his magic to hold it. He then said, "These medicinal herbs are quite rare; it will probably take a long time to find them."

"Haha, you're underestimating me way too much! Do you really think I've wasted these tens of thousands of years of my life!"

Ao Xiao, the old ancestor, accepted the jade slip from Xiao Wuji with great enthusiasm, but then his arrogant expression froze.

Because while the items on it may not be very valuable, they are all extremely rare, the kind that are seldom seen in the Three Realms and Seven Lands.

Seeing the smile on Ao Xiao's face gradually disappear, Xiao Wuji's lips curled into a strange smile, and then he pretended to remind him:

"Oh, by the way, because this pill is too difficult to refine, please prepare several more, at least three..."

Snapped!
After saying that, Xiao Wuji was about to turn and leave when an arm suddenly landed on his shoulder.

"I heard from Linglong that you have extraordinary abilities. Why don't we have a friendly spar?"

Xiao Wuji's expression froze instantly, and he quickly begged for mercy, "Senior, you misunderstand! I'm just a weak alchemist, I don't have any supernatural powers!"

"Stop being so indecisive, come here right now, don't make me look down on you..."

"Senior, please don't hit my face, ah—"

"If you slap me again, I'll fight you to the death, ah—"

"If you dare hit me again, I'll go bully Linglong instead, ahhhhhh!!!!"

After an incense stick had burned, Ancestor Ao Xiao walked out of the main hall with a smile on his face, rubbing his wrist. In his hand was a jade slip containing the formulas for the Yin-Yang Life Soul Pill and the Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill.

……

Heavenly Origin Realm!
Qingluo Desert!

After going through countless hardships, Xiao Wuji finally found this place. Of course, he didn't come here just to check in at Han Li's "birthplace" because he had nothing better to do.

Rather, it's because there are so many spatial rifts here that if you're not careful, you'll fall into one and either be instantly shattered to pieces or be transported to an extremely distant place.

Naturally, people who have been teleported from countless miles away often appear here, and it is precisely for this reason that Han Lifang has not been suspected.

Because Xiao Wuji chose a different spatial node than Han Li, the landing point was quite a distance away from this place. He had to inquire for a long time in Tianyuan City before he finally found out where he was.

He needed an enormous amount of spatial power to cultivate the Great Severing Technique, and he had practically destroyed all the spatial nodes in the lower realm before finally mastering the technique. However, he was still quite far from perfection, and compared to the spatial power within those nodes, the spatial rifts he could tear were practically insignificant. If he continued to stay in the lower realm, he probably wouldn't be able to perfect the technique even in several thousand more years.

Furthermore, he also needed to gather resources for cultivating other supernatural abilities, which is why he was so eager to ascend to the Upper Realm ahead of schedule. According to his and his original body's plan, one of them would go to Tianyuan City to obtain Extinction Pills for emergencies, while the other would remain hidden in the Three Realms and Seven Lands, both to survive and as a backup plan. He chose the latter.

He preferred taking what was readily available to him rather than doing business in Tianyuan City.

Having completely devoured the last spatial rift, Xiao Wuji's Great Severing Technique finally reached its perfect state.

Originally, to perfect the Great Severing Technique, one must first comprehend its essence. However, since Xiao Wuji had already grasped a trace of the Dao of Space, he perfected this divine ability the instant the spatial power arrived.

With a perfected Great Dao Divine Power as his trump card, he truly had the means to roam freely within the Three Realms and Seven Lands. As long as he didn't encounter any Nascent Soul cultivators, he could easily annihilate them.

Not to mention that he had already mastered the Nine Palaces Divine Movement Technique, a great divine power, when he first arrived in the Spirit Realm. The strangeness of his escape technique made it impossible for even a Nascent Soul cultivator to easily stop him.

"It's time to go take a look around. I remember the Spirit Clan is coming over in a while, and there's also a sleeping giant. They might be useful for crafting the Heavenly Demon Puppet!"

"Forget it, let's wait until we have it before we talk about it. It's a bit too early to bring it up now."

……

The Tomb of the Setting Sun!

Inside a rugged mountain cave.

Holding a dark, massive hammer, Xiao Wuji smashed it again and again onto a red-hot iron ingot. After eighty-one blows, the iron ingot, originally the size of an adult's forearm, transformed into a gleaming sword.

Xiao Wuji picked up the iron sword on the forging table and examined it for a moment, then said with a self-deprecating smile, "Hehe, I never thought I'd actually have to use the Chaotic Cloak Hammer Technique one day!"

"But at least I've finally mastered the method of forging this spiritual tool!"

"Moreover, the body-refining techniques of the spirit realm can be used as protective supernatural powers! It's just a pity that the Vajra Mantra only has seven levels, but that's enough!"

"This Vajra Mantra can serve as a prerequisite for the Divine Demon Body Refinement Technique, allowing me to quickly acquire a certain level of combat power!"

Xiao Wuji twirled the iron sword twice in his hand, then gripped it tightly, and the half-finished spiritual weapon shattered into pieces on the ground.

At his current level, he naturally doesn't need spiritual tools. The reason he crafted such a thing is simply to practice. It's to facilitate quickly building up a certain level of combat power in the early stages of the simulation and getting through the initial "weak period".

He had prepared many similar methods, and this magical artifact was just one of them.

After finishing all this, Xiao Wuji's expression gradually became solemn, because he had a premonition that his tribulation was about to begin.

The timing of the first tribulation is not fixed, but it is generally within three hundred years. Now, more than a hundred years have passed since he smuggled himself into this world, and the tribulation has finally arrived long overdue.

Although he was confident that he could survive the tribulation unscathed, the series of unorthodox actions he was preparing still made him somewhat worried about his life. However, he was willing to go all out to cultivate his supernatural powers.

On this day, a deafening roar, as if the heavens and earth were about to collapse, suddenly came from the distant sky. Then, a continuous rumbling sound followed, and dark clouds suddenly covered the nearby sky, with a howling sound rolling in. The entire sky suddenly became unusually gloomy.

Within the dark clouds, streaks of gold and silver lightning flickered and leaped, accompanied by muffled rumbling sounds. Further below the dark clouds, gusts of white, misty hurricanes raged and howled, relentlessly battering the mountaintops, causing rocks to crumble and trees to fly.

At the summit, Xiao Wuji sat cross-legged in a golden palace as if he were unaware of anything.

This golden palace is indeed the Thunderfire Golden Palace. Unlike his previous practice piece, this golden palace is entirely made of refined gold and has undergone several improvements. Such a large golden palace can truly be considered a priceless treasure.

This time, he not only had to overcome the tribulation, but also intercept the tribulation lightning as resources for his cultivation of supernatural powers.

Thunder rumbled across the sky, followed by a sudden burst of golden and silver lightning. Amidst churning dark clouds, arcs of electricity fell one after another from the sky, starting as one by one, but quickly becoming dense and numerous, pouring down like a torrential downpour.

Before the electric arc could even reach the mountaintop, Xiao Wuji immediately activated the magic array within the Thunderfire Golden Palace.

Then, a strange scene unfolded: the lightning bolts, which should have fallen vertically, seemed to be drawn together by something and converged on a golden needle at the top of the golden hall.

As lightning struck, the golden palace suddenly emitted an extremely dazzling light, and the sky beneath the thunderclouds also brightened accordingly.

A massive, crimson fireball drifted through the golden palace, and unrefined lightning began to converge into the lightning pool in front of Xiao Wuji.

……

(End of this chapter)