Cultivating Immortality in Two Realms: Sunflower Lord

Golden lightning still crackled in the night sky as a second and third bolt of lightning followed, each striking precisely the three raised heads of the three-headed serpent.

Scales flew everywhere, flesh and blood were charred black, and the giant python's roars grew more and more mournful.

However, what angered it even more than the thunder was something else.

"Hiss... hiss... the blood sacrifice... why hasn't it started?!"

The severely damaged central snake head drooped, its scarlet eyes scanning the dozen or so sacrificial nodes that had been set up along the edge of the giant pit.

There, the crimson blood spring, which should have been gushing forth with billowing blood mist and transforming into nourishing demonic power, was now as still as dead water.

No response.

Those Yinhe water ghosts—the ghost slaves it had carefully driven and infiltrated the county town days in advance—did not begin the sacrifice at the appointed time!

They were supposed to channel the blood of the cultivators and mortals they had hunted into the nodes as the giant python awakened from the depths of the earth, turning it into the most precious "blood essence fuel" for its tribulation, in order to offset the devastating blow of the heavenly lightning to its body.

But now, not a single ghost servant has appeared!

Where have all those useless bastards gone?!

It was naturally unaware that in just half an hour, its twelve most elite Yin River Water Ghosts had been slaughtered one by one like wheat by a Qi Refining stage cultivator it had never even given a second glance.

The point of sacrifice, naturally, lost its initiator with the death of those ghost slaves.

The three-headed serpent never imagined such an accident would happen.

In this county town, which it sees as an anthill, what power could possibly interfere with its long-planned tribulation?

But an unexpected event occurred.

Without blood essence to replenish it, it could only rely on its demonic power accumulated over hundreds of years to withstand the nine demon-slaying lightning tribulations!

"roar--!!!"

The three snake heads simultaneously unleashed a furious roar, the sound waves acting like tangible shockwaves that completely overturned the already crumbling houses within a radius of dozens of feet!

Since the blood sacrifice cannot be initiated, then...

Swallow it directly!

Enraged, the three-headed serpent was no longer kept.

The severely damaged, charred scales of the middle snake head suddenly plunged downwards with the speed of a black lightning bolt!

Shen Lian and Han Ling were already suppressed to the ground by the terrifying demonic power, and even with all their might, they could only barely maintain their protective true essence.

When the enormous, sun-obscuring snake head swooped down, they didn't even have time to think of dodging!

"Click—"

It wasn't the sound of bones cracking, but the crisp sound of the protective true essence being crushed by immense force.

The snake's mouth closed, and Shen Lian and Han Ling were like a pair of baby mice that had not yet opened their eyes, being held between the giant python's menacingly interlocking fangs, each one thicker and longer than an adult's arm.

They struggled frantically, their inner energy gushing out like a flood, crashing against the scales on the inner wall of the snake's mouth.

However, it had no effect.

Those dark green snake scales were not only as hard as thousand-year-old cold iron, but also had a faint dark light flowing across their surface, absorbing and neutralizing all attacks.

The gap in strength is so vast that it's despair-inducing.

The next instant, the relatively intact head on the left side of the three-headed python also moved.

Instead of swooping down to bite, it opened its blood-red maw, aimed at the backs of several cultivators desperately fleeing the central area, and inhaled sharply!

"call--!!!"

An incredibly terrifying suction force suddenly appeared out of nowhere! It wasn't wind pressure from airflow, but some kind of pulling law that directly affects the very source of life!

Like a whirlpool suddenly appearing in the deep sea, everything within a radius of tens of feet was flowing back into that giant mouth!

The three Qi Refining stage cultivators, who had already run nearly twenty zhang, suddenly stopped!

"ah--!!!"

They screamed in terror, their feet carving deep furrows in the ground, their hands frantically clawing at anything they could grab—the ground, rubble, broken wooden pillars—but it was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot; their bodies were still uncontrollably pulled back by that irresistible suction force!

In the blink of an eye, three figures, like three fledgling swallows returning to the forest, disappeared into that giant mouth that could swallow a cow whole!

"Click, click..."

A chilling sound of bones cracking could be faintly heard coming from the snake's closed mouth.

Fresh blood slowly dripped from the corner of the python's mouth on the left side of its head.

This scene pushed the fear of all witnesses to its extreme.

Those cultivators and mortals who were still hesitating, still struggling, still hoping that "perhaps it won't be my turn," now had only one thought in their minds:

Run! Run as far as you can!

However, just as the giant python swallowed three cultivators, its left head opened again, preparing to unleash its terrifying devouring power on the next batch of prey—

"BOOM—!!!"

The fourth bolt of heavenly lightning struck down from the heavens without warning!

This time, the lightning was no longer a golden whip, but a lightning spear that was entirely azure, almost pure white, and contained an even more violent and destructive aura than before! It tore through the sky, carrying the might of heaven to annihilate all that defied the heavens, and pierced the throat of the left snake head, which was greedily open and had not yet closed, with unparalleled precision!

"Hiss—!!!"

The three-headed giant python let out its most tragic and painful roar since it began its tribulation!

The snake's left head snapped back violently, a huge bloody hole exploding in its neck, charred flesh and scales flying everywhere! The terrifying suction force that was about to be unleashed instantly dissipated!

The other cultivators, who had been locked in by the suction force and whose bodies were beginning to lift off the ground uncontrollably, suddenly felt the deadly pulling force on their bodies disappear. One by one, they fell to the ground like kites with broken strings, and then continued to run for their lives away!

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

One bolt of lightning after another, seemingly without end. The fifth, the sixth, the seventh…

Each bolt of lightning that struck left a new and horrifying wound on the giant python's massive body. Scales peeled off in patches, flesh was charred and torn apart, and one lightning spear even pierced the neck of its central head, nearly tearing it off its torso!

The giant python roared, struggled, and writhed its mountain-like body in agony.

But it cannot leave.

Behind it, in the huge fissure of the earth, nearly two-thirds of its body was still buried deep underground and had not yet been completely pulled out.

Some ancient and powerful restriction, or perhaps it is simply its own life form that has not yet completed its transformation, has trapped it tightly around this sacrificial pit, which is less than thirty feet in diameter.

It angrily tore at and devoured everything in its path that it could reach—but that was limited to the area within ten feet of the edge of the pit that its three snake heads could reach.

Those who had fought their way out of this "death radius" could hardly believe their eyes when they looked back at this scene.

The monster... can't move?!

"It...it's trapped!"

"We can't leave that pit! It's locked in place by the heavenly tribulation!"

"Run! Run out of the city! As far as possible!"

Amidst the cries of alarm, fear still lingered, but in the deepest recesses of despair, a crack finally appeared, a glimmer of hope.

Those three giant pythons were indeed trapped by the heavenly tribulation.

Once the power of the laws of the Demon-Slaying Thunder Tribulation locks onto the person undergoing the tribulation, it will form an invisible forbidden zone around them.

Those undergoing tribulation must either be struck by lightning and reduced to ashes, or endure all the lightning tribulations and complete the leap in their life level—there is absolutely no possibility of escaping midway.

At this moment, it is a prisoner of heavenly tribulation.

We can only endure it; there's no way to escape.

Those cultivators who managed to escape the snake's bite range, after running for over a hundred feet, finally collapsed from exhaustion, sitting on relatively safe street corners and rooftops, panting heavily, their hearts almost leaping out of their throats.

Ji Ruchang was among them.

He escaped faster than most. Not because he was afraid of death—of course, he certainly didn't want to die—but because he knew better than anyone that the giant python's current weakness was only temporary. Once it successfully transcended its tribulation…

He turned around and looked into the distance at the horrific battlefield in the center of the county town.

The lightning continued to strike.

The eighth, the ninth...

With each bolt of lightning that struck, the giant python's massive body would tremble violently, and its size would visibly shrink by a circle.

That wasn't a true shrinking; rather, it was a process of skin tearing open, flesh steaming, scales peeling off, and new, tougher scales growing and covering rapidly under the impetus of demonic power. This caused the entire body to be repeatedly tempered, compressed, and purified through repeated destruction and rebirth.

The price it paid was extremely high.

The left snake head was almost severed by the lightning spear, with only a layer of charred flesh remaining; the middle snake head was riddled with wounds, and half of its single horn was broken off; the best-preserved right snake head also had large charred and curled scales, and the scarlet light in its eyes had dimmed considerably.

But it ultimately survived.

As the residual power of the ninth heavenly lightning dissipated from its broken body, the churning tribulation clouds in the night sky finally began to slowly calm down and dissipate.

The terrifying pressure of heaven and earth receded like a tide.

The three-headed python—no, it should be said, the three-headed python that survived the ordeal—slowly raised its three heads, which were still ferocious but clearly more refined and solid.

Its size has shrunk by nearly one-third since it first emerged from the burrow.

But its aura was more somber, more profound, and more dangerous than before.

It slightly twisted its neck, sensing the new body that had been repeatedly tempered and transformed by heavenly lightning.

The snake head on the left, which had almost been severed off, healed and regenerated at a speed visible to the naked eye within just a few breaths after the heavenly tribulation ended. The newly grown scales shimmered with a deeper dark green color than before, and a faint golden line appeared at the edges.

It succeeded.

The county town was eerily silent.

Those mortals—thousands of ordinary people—had already collapsed and fainted in droves when the heavenly tribulation descended.

Unable to withstand the aftershocks of that immense divine power, their souls and bodies were forcibly dragged into the abyss of nightmares by that invisible pressure.

Whether they will wake up after tonight, and whether they will be mentally sound after waking up, is unknown.

Of those who remained conscious and were still fleeing, only ten cultivators with decent cultivation levels and who were lucky enough not to be swallowed by the giant python immediately remained.

Ji Ruchang glanced around and could sense the presence of ten living cultivators, including himself.

The most skilled were only a few veteran night watchmen at the fourth level of Qi Refining, just like him.

As for magical artifacts...

There are a few low-grade magical artifacts.

A mid-grade magic artifact? Possibly, but given the current state and cultivation level of the ten people, whether they can even activate it is a question.

A top-grade magical artifact? There might not be a single one in the entire Qinglan County Night Patrol Division.

Such power, when faced with a demon that has successfully survived its tribulation and whose aura is even more terrifying than before...

"It's over." Someone nearby uttered the two words in a barely audible, hoarse voice, uttering what everyone wanted to say but dared not utter.

Ji Ruchang remained silent.

His gaze passed over the layers of ruins, rubble, and the unconscious mortals, fixed on the giant python in the center of the county town that was adapting to its newborn body.

Then, his mind sank into the depths of his consciousness.

At the bottom of the dry well, the light still shines.

The second-tier Golden Sunflower stretches out its six-foot-tall, upright stem, the golden light on its flower head warm and resolute.

A golden sunflower nestled beside it, also radiating its own light and warmth.

The ancient bronze mirror floated silently, its surface shimmering with a warm, golden-silver glow.

That simple bronze lamp sat quietly in a corner of the well, waiting for its owner to activate it again.

Under the light of the two golden sunflowers and the ancient mirror, the mottled surface of the pale sunflower seed seemed to have faded by an extremely fine layer, and the milky white halo was slightly brighter than before.

Ji Ruchang slowly clenched his fist.

The giant serpent's demon servants have all been killed by it.

Ji Ruchang, who did all this, will definitely become the first target to be eliminated by the three-headed giant serpent!

However, the three-headed serpent's blood essence reserves are currently zero.

Its new body is now more powerful—but also more empty.

It needs blood as food.

Large quantities of fresh blood.

And in this county town, there are still a few "blood food" that can still stand and breathe.

Ji Ruchang loosened her clenched fist, then slowly relaxed it again.

Once things become unavoidable, Ji Ruchang can only prioritize ensuring his own safety.

He could only apologize to his colleagues.