"What happened?"It took a while before the two elders finally recovered from their shocked states. Nevertheless, the disbelief in their eyes remained apparent for all to see.
Having lived for several centuries, they had witnessed plenty of lightning tribulations, and they had undergone quite a few themselves too. Each time it appeared, they still couldn"t help but tremble slightly in trepidation before its overwhelming might... But what the heck was the fart-like thing they had just seen?
"Could it be that the lightning tribulation has a problem releasing the energy it has charged up?" the second elder couldn"t help but ask.
"Are you trying to tell me that the lightning tribulation is constipating?" the golden-robed elder glanced at the second elder sharply.
Lightning tribulation was the retribution that the heavens brought upon those who stepped beyond their own boundary. The purpose was to establish its authority and instill fear into all lifeforms.
The immense energy it had charged up would eventually be channeled into a devastating streak of lightning to strike down the offender who dared to overstep his boundaries, and Luo Xuanqing"s lightning tribulation had been charging up for quite some time already. Yet, the eventual lightning streak released ended up being so unimpressive...
"Most likely, the earlier streak of lightning is just a starter. It should be releasing a much stronger streak very soon... Ah? W-what"s going on?" In the midst of a.n.a.lyzing the situation, the golden-robed elder suddenly widened his eyes, as if he had just seen the impossible being realized.
The second elder hurriedly turned his gaze toward the sky too, and he saw the storm clouds covering several dozen li of the surrounding sky billowing furiously all of a sudden, as if an ill patient coughing violently.
This coughing continued for quite a while before it abruptly jolted forward, and a figure was puked out of the clouds.
It was the same young man who had dived into its midst earlier.
Seemingly enraged at being coughed out, the young man bellowed furiously as he wagged his finger threateningly at the storm clouds.
"You rascal, you sure have grown arrogant. How dare you puke me out?"
While saying those words, the young man dashed back toward the storm clouds. But before he could even come close to it, the fear-inducing storm cloud suddenly trembled intensely, as if falling into a state of panic. Following which...
Tz la!
It whizzed off into the distance, vanis.h.i.+ng from view in the blink of an eye.
"He actually made the lightning tribulation flee in fear?"
The two elders glanced at one another, and the overwhelming shock coursing through their minds nearly caused them to lose control of their strength and appear from their invisible state.
All this while, they had thought that the young man was doomed to die after diving into the midst of the storm clouds.
Yet, when the young man placed his hand on his hip and berated with lightning tribulation with a wagging finger, not only did the latter dare not to retaliate, it even fled frantically as if a terrified ostrich... This sight made them realize that it wasn"t that there was a problem with Luo Xuanqing"s lightning tribulation, but that this seemingly ordinary young man wasn"t as ordinary as they thought him out to be.
"That fellow is a true talent. No matter what, we must pull him over to our Luo Clan"s side!" the golden-robed elder said resolutely.
As unbelievable as the matter may seem to him, the Sanctum of Sages was still a place where geniuses all over the Master Teacher Continent gathered. It wasn"t completely impossible for a person who possessed the unique ability to deal with heavenly tribulations to appear here.
No matter the cost, they had to bring this talent over to their Luo Clan so that they could study the secrets behind his means.
"But he"s Yang Xuan"s disciple. It won"t be easy for us to pull him over to our side…" the second elder shook his head.
Yang Xuan was one of the grand elders of the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters, and naturally, his student was bound to enter the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters. There was no reason for the young man to join their Luo Clan at all!
"That"s true…" the golden-robed elder sighed in pity.
As much as they wanted the young man to join their clan, they dared not to vie with the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters, and they didn"t have the ability to do so either.
After some thought, the golden-robed elder was still unable to think of any viable solution to the matter at the moment, so he waved his hand and said, "It"ll do to just report this matter to the clan head. Yuxin should have been escorted back at the clan by now, so we should be hurrying back too so as to not hold up the Elders" Conference."
"Un." the second elder nodded.
With a slight wave of his hand, something similar to a ma.s.sive Teleportation Formation appeared before the duo, and stepping into it, they vanished from the spot, as if they had never been there before.
...
Zhang Xuan cursed and cursed, but the rage in his heart couldn"t be quelled. However, there was nothing he could do about it either.
With the size of the lightning tribulation, it should have been more than enough to fill up his dantian fully. However, due to the Dongxu Gourd, the vine, and his clone messing around, he only managed to fill up half of it...
The more he thought, the more stifled he felt.
It seemed like he would just have to rely on Luo Xuanqing and Zhang Chun"s yet-to-arrive pinnacle spirit stones for that then.
It was only the filling up of his dantian for the first time that would require the purest of energies. For subsequent times, there was no need to go through so much trouble anymore.
To make an a.n.a.logy, this was similar to expanding one"s territory and developing new grounds. It was only the first time that would require an immense inflow of resources; subsequently, once the foundation was laid, one would only have to put in minimal resources in order to maintain it.
It was for this reason that he had to use resources harnessing spiritual energy far more concentrated than concentrated spiritual energy for the first charge up, and subsequently, even absorbing the spiritual energy from ordinary spirit veins would suffice to replenish his zhenqi.
Sighing deeply, Zhang Xuan lowered his head and saw the Dongxu Gourd lying gleefully in his dantian, shaking its bottom from time to time, as if challenging him.
At the same time, his clone had also returned back to the folded s.p.a.ce, lying contentedly on the ground and letting loose a majestic burp.
As for the vine, its reaction was a little more normal. It lay motionlessly in his storage ring, seemingly still trying to a.s.similate the energy it had just taken in.
"These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…" Zhang Xuan couldn"t help but curse beneath his breath as he shook his head helplessly.
If any cultivator wielded the power to absorb the energy harnessed within lightning tribulations, they would surely be the envy of others... And yet, even just the artifacts he carried was capable of doing that, and on top of that, it turned out that he was the weakest of them all in contrast...
Deep indignance filled Zhang Xuan"s mind.
Just when could he be more awe-inspiring?
"Hai, it seems like I"m too ordinary after all…" Zhang Xuan sighed deeply.
It was one for thing for him to lose out to his clone, girlfriend, and clone... but now, even a clone and vine that he had picked up on a whim turned out to be so formidable too! If not for his resilient mental fort.i.tude, he would have killed himself out of embarra.s.sment by now!
"Zhang s.h.i.+…"
Just as Zhang Xuan was feeling deeply stifled inside, a voice suddenly sounded not too far away. Turning his head over, he saw Luo Xuanqing staring at him with his mouth agape.
All this while, Luo Xuanqing thought that Zhang Xuan only wielded the ability to scare away his own lightning tribulation, but to think that he had the ability to do the same to others" too...
Didn"t this mean that if he were to look for Zhang Xuan each time he was to face a lightning tribulation, he would be able to clear it without any danger?
"Brother Luo…" Seeing through Luo Xuanqing"s thoughts, Zhang Xuan"s reddened face quickly turned slightly pale, and his legs trembled feebly beneath him. "I hope that you won"t speak of this matter to others. I had to use a secret art earlier, and similar to the side effects from the activation of your unique bloodline, this secret art carries severe side effects too, so it would be unsafe for me to use it recklessly…"
"..." Luo Xuanqing"s cheeks twitched wildly.
Do you think that I"m blind? Putting aside how superficial your acting is, the very least you could do is to put up the act right from the start, not when I approached you!
However, seeing how the young man before him was unwilling to talk about the matter, Luo Xuanqing inwardly gave the latter a thumbs up for being as humble as him before dropping the matter from his mind.
"Zhang s.h.i.+, you have my deepest grat.i.tude. If not for your help, I could have very well lost my life to the lightning tribulation." Luo Xuanqing clasped his fist and said.
At the same time, a shudder ran through his heart and he imagined what would have happened if the young man hadn"t been here.
It was out of a moment of anxiety that he triggered the Dimension Sundering Ordeal, paying no heeds to the consequences at all then. It was only when the lightning tribulation appeared did he realize what kind of frightening force he was going against.
If the young man had been any later, he could have very well been electrocuted to death. Not even his bloodline ability would have been able to save him.
"Brother Luo, weren"t you intending to challenge your Dimension Sundering Ordeal back at the Sanctum of Sages? Why would you... What happened?" Zhang Xuan asked with a deep frown.
"I came here to look for my younger sister, wanting to ask her if what Zhang Feng said was true…" Halfway through his words, Luo Xuanqing couldn"t help but shake his head glumly. "Forget it, there"s no point talking about it..."
"The little princess, is she…" Seeing how Luo Xuanqing stopped halfway through his words, Zhang Xuan couldn"t help but panic a little. "Is she injured? Where is she?"
"Injured?" Luo Xuanqing shook his head. "How can that be? My younger sister has a.s.similated the Dimension Silencer. If she were to tap into its full prowess, not even our father will be able to do anything to her! It"s no exaggeration to say that no one in the Luo Clan is able to hurt her even in the slightest…"
Then, a thought suddenly came to Luo Xuanqing"s mind, and he raised his head and glared at the young man before him warily, "Why are you asking me this?"
"I…" Zhang Xuan was caught off guard by Luo Xuanqing"s sudden question.
"I"m warning you right now. Even though I think of you as a brother, you better not dream of touching my younger sister…"
"This... May I ask the reason for that?" Unable to take it anymore, Zhang Xuan asked with a frown. "You know that she"s unwilling to marry the young prodigy of the Zhang Clan, so why would you still go along with that?"
"I know that she"s unwilling to do that too, but being born in the Luo Clan means that there are responsibilities that she cannot s.h.i.+rk off. There"s simply no other way around it…" Luo Xuanqing shook his head. "Let"s drop this matter here. I don"t want to talk about it anymore."
"But…" Zhang Xuan exclaimed anxiously.
"There are no buts. Speaking of which, I happen to have a matter which I have to trouble you for." Luo Xuanqing raised his head and said.
Zhang Xuan was still a little reluctant to drop the matter with the answer he had been searching for dangling just ahead of him, but seeing the stern look on Luo Xuanqing"s face, he could only give up on it.
"Brother Luo, feel free to speak. As long as it"s within my means, I"ll definitely accomplish it."
"I want you to help me find the person whom my younger sister insists to be with even at the defiance of the entire clan." Luo Xuanqing said with a sharp glint in his eyes.
"This…" Zhang Xuan"s lips twitched. He hesitated for a brief moment before probing carefully, "What do you intend to do after finding him?"
"What do I intend to do?" Luo Xuanqing gnashed his teeth together as he spat, "If I don"t break his third leg, my surname won"t be Luo!"
"..." Veins popped up all over Zhang Xuan"s temples.
"What"s wrong?" Noticing the bizarre expression on Zhang Xuan"s face, Luo Xuanqing asked doubtfully.
"Ah, it"s nothing much. I"m just a little curious. Considering how much you dote on your younger sister, why would you want to beat up the person whom your younger sister loves?" Zhang Xuan asked.
As a legitimate siscon, Luo Xuanqing should wish for his younger sister"s happiness... so why would he make a move on his younger sister"s boyfriend then?
"Isn"t the reason obvious? It"s because he"s unworthy of my younger sister!" Luo Xuanqing harrumphed.
"Unworthy? You haven"t even met him before, how would you know that he"s worthy of your younger sister?" Zhang Xuan replied indignantly.
It was understandable how the likes of Zhang Chun and the others were unworthy of his younger sister... but surely he should be able to meet the mark!
He might still be a little weak at the moment, but with sufficient time, he would become the next sanctum head and rise to the very top of the Master Teacher Continent!
"Hmph, the man who is worthy of my younger sister hasn"t been born in this world yet!" Luo Xuanqing replied adamantly.
"But... surely your younger sister has to marry someone eventually? You can"t possibly stay by her side for life, right?" Zhang Xuan questioned on.
"That"s for the future. In any case, I just don"t think that there"s anyone in this world who is worthy of her. Not to mention, according to what I heard, the person whom she likes isn"t too strong either…" Luo Xuanqing said.
"Isn"t too strong?" Zhang Xuan"s heart skipped a beat as he asked carefully, "Did she say who the person she likes is?"
"Of course she did!" Luo Xuanqing suddenly turned his head to Zhang Xuan as killing intent flared from his body.