When the Tribulation Surrogate Pills first formed, they’d blown through the ship’s hull and flown outside the hold. Lu Yun himself had followed in their wake, so Xue Daozi almost instantly arrived beside him.
“Well well well, aren’t you the bold one, Lu Yun? You killed one of our monster kings and insulted our emperor, so don’t blame me for being ruthless now that you’ve shown your face around here!”
Though his mouth babbled on, it didn’t affect the speed of his other movements. He extended a hand toward the three golden pills upon revealing himself, viciously slapping at Lu Yun with the other at the same time.
“A trivial aether dao immortal? You really do have a death wish,” sounded a melodious and somewhat syrupy female voice.
“A, a trivial aether dao immortal?” Slightly dizzy from the excitement of immense greed, Xue Daozi couldn’t help but blink. A trivial aether dao immortal?
In the current world of immortals, dao immortals were the earth and sky, the overlords of all and sovereigns who dictated the existences of their inferiors. When had aether dao immortals become ‘trivial’?
In the next moment, a sweet, clean fragrance floated in from an unidentified location and wafted into his nostrils.
“How sweet! That smells so good….” Xue Daozi’s mind turned increasingly fuzzy, his body going limp and numb with pleasure. A thousand pairs of tiny hands of tiny hands seemed to be stroking all over him, and he almost groaned in bliss.
What a beautiful purple glow… was the immortal’s final conscious thought.
Puff...
Dark red blood splattered all over the sky as Lu Yun’s sword split his skull in two, destroying his nascent spirit and dao fruits. His blood dyed the three pills in the young man’s hand crimson, while the black smoke around them quickly vanished, as if willed away by death itself.
Plop!
Xue Daozi’s body keeled forward and sprawled on the ground. An aether dao immortal had been felled in a single strike!
“What a fearsome poison!” Lu Yun’s heart spasmed painfully.
There was still a contented smile spread across the two halves of Xue Daozi’s face. Even in his last moments, he hadn’t realized he’d met his end.
“That’s Xue Daozi of Whale Island!” the Deaf Prince suddenly exclaimed when he saw the corpse. “He’s a peerless powerhouse who picked nine dao fruits. Did senior brother Lu just… kill him with a single strike?”
Su Xiaoxiao dropped her hand and took a position behind Lu Yun. Her method of administering poison was extremely covert. Apart from Lu Yun and Qin Han, none of the other peerless immortals present on the scene had seen her act.
Therefore, they all thought that Lu Yun had killed Xue Daozi all by himself.
The young man smiled wryly, but didn’t explain himself. Su Xiaoxiao was one of his trump cards. Her poison arts might be unrivaled, but even so, antidotes, and other things that could lessen a poison’s effects, still existed in this world, so he didn’t plan on unnecessarily revealing her capabilities.
Her poison had pierced through Xue Daozi’s cultivation and turned him into an ordinary mortal; her master had merely struck the finishing blow. At any other time, Lu Yun’s sword wouldn’t even have scratched the flesh of a dao immortal.
……
The Tribulation Surrogate Pills had been successfully refined. Or should they now be called Tribulation Traversing Pills? It seems that the commonly accepted name is the former.
Xue Daozi had touched the three pills when he was still alive and been tainted by the black smoke, so the tribulation target had transferred to him. Now that he’d died, the disaster was over, capping these pills as true Tribulation Surrogate Pills!
However, Lu Yun was painfully aware these were the only three he could ever refine in this life. If he tried a second time… the one to die would be himself. Such was the truth he’d realized after the pills’ completion.
“Take it!” He stuffed one pill into a jar and shoved it into Qing Han’s hand.
“Is this… a Tribulation Surrogate Pill?” Qing Han stared at the jar, his lips quivering.
“Right on the ball!” Lu Yun nodded. He felt an inexplicable sense of relief when he saw Qing Han accept it; only then did he hand the second pill to Jing Dichen.
“Junior sister Jing, this one is yours. I’m indebted to you for your blood essence. I wouldn’t have been able to refine them otherwise!”
Jing Dichen’s eyes turned round with astonishment. She’d naturally heard of the Tribulation Surrogate Pill’s resounding name, but she could never have imagined Lu Yun would gift her one just like this!
She hesitated for a moment, but ultimately accepted the gift.
Pills like these were extremely strange existences and involved immense karmic repercussions. Since Lu Yun had borrowed her blood in order to refine them, she was due one of them.
Lastly, Lu Yun carefully stashed the last one inside his storage ring for safekeeping. This was the one he’d promised to the Lord of the Panorama Pavilion.
Although the others were shocked beyond words, their gazes were clear and devoid of avarice. These young folks might have been extreme degenerates, each of them a disgrace and troublemaker of the worst magnitude, but they heavily valued loyalty and comradeship. Otherwise, why would they have charged all the way to the North Sea to avenge the Unsullied Sea’s youngest princess?
For them, Jing Dichen obtaining a Tribulation Surrogate Pill was as good as gaining one themselves. It made no difference whatsoever who held it. In fact, they were fully confident that any one of them would find this pill landing in their own palm if they were ever to face a dreadful, overpowering tribulation.