Tianyi’s brows twitched as he continuously leaked blood from his mouth, but his body stayed completely still as if the blood did not come from him or stain his purple robes red.
Lei Jingye was still undergoing his Heavenly Tribulation.
Inside Tianyi’s dantian, the Heavenly River continued to form and with each passing moment the stars became more real. Although individual stars seemed tiny, each one possessed tremendous might and shone brilliantly in Tianyi’s dantian.
Before long Tianyi’s dantian became a miniature galaxy with numerous stars revolving around his Violet Gold Core.
At the instant Tianyi’s Stellar Avatar finished forming, the Wind Tribulation began.
Tianyi’s eight yang Spiritual Cores were emitting brilliance like eight suns. His Yin Dragon Pearl Core was giving off black light, it appeared extremely lustrous yet seemed to absorb all the light in the world at the same time.
Invisible blades formed of wind began to assault all nine of his Spiritual Cores. Each blade strike left a shallow white mark on the Spiritual Cores and soon Spiritual Cores began to turn whiter and whiter. Soon all nine cores inside Tianyi’s body became pure white, like white suns. The brilliance they exuded pierced through the grey cloud qi.
Seeing the nine sun-like cores inside of him, Tianyi instantly remembered the legend of Houyi shooting nine Golden Crows out of ten.
Like glass balls, cracks began to appear on all of the nine cores. The next moment the white glass-like shell exploded into tiny little fragments and disintegrated into grey clouds.
What was left were eight golden sun-like cores and one enormous core that was like a giant black sun.
Although it seemed like nothing had changed, if one were to compare the current state of the cores to the previous state they would discover that the cores were slightly smaller and had a sense of completeness.
The Wind Tribulation was extremely quick and easy for Tianyi. However Tianyi wasn’t one bit happy. The density of his true qi immediately doubled, thankfully he had strengthened his martial body to the peak of the Core Formation realm. Otherwise who knows how horrible his condition would be.
It was like his condition had regressed to over three years ago. Although the amount of true qi he possessed doubled and his martial body was cultivated to the peak of the Core Formation realm, his battle capabilities actually stayed the same.
Perhaps it was even worse now.
Tianyi now directed his attention back at Lei Jingye. Although Tianyi took some time to form his Stellar Avatar and undergo the Wind Tribulation it was all within a day. Compared to the Heavenly Tribulation which was a major tribulation, the Wind Tribulation, Flame Tribulation, and Lightning Tribulation were all minor tribulations that took less time.
But Lei Jingye’s Heavenly Tribulation wasn’t a normal one either.
Instead of the regular nine lightning bolts, Lei Jianyi was already at the eleventh lightning bolt. The ninth bolt of the Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation had already passed the threshold of a Core Formation realm attack and each attack afterwards was even more powerful.
“No more tribulation lightning, just end it here.” Tianyi muttered as he coughed into his sleeve.
Although the Heavenly Tribulation seemed to have mutated, a general rule of thumb was that the stronger the Heavenly Tribulation the greater the rewards and potential of the cultivator undergoing it.
Tianyi would love for Lei Jingye to perish under the Heavenly Tribulation, but rather hoping for something out of his control, Tianyi would rather grasp what he could control. In addition, Lei Jingyi was someone who had been reborn and had even become a Unity Realm Venerable in the alternate timeline.
He was a short lived Venerable, but a Venerable nonetheless.
Tianyi watched as the twelfth bolt lightning strike down at Lei Jingye, but Lei Jingye still blocked it. And then the thirteenth and final bolt of lightning strike down, it was 50 percent more powerful than the twelfth bolt of lightning strike.
Tianyi held his chin. “There has never been recorded of being more than nine lightning bolts in a Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation, and Violet Gold Cores only have a chance to be formed by those who are able to transcend the ninth lightning bolt. But Lei Jingye’s Heavenly Tribulation has thirteen bolts of lightning. He should have formed a Violet Gold Core.”
Tianyi’s own Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation had 81 lightning bolts, but that was because he was undergoing nine Core Formation Heavenly Tribulations at once. Although the final bolt was a merging of nine lightning bolts.
Despite just having gone through the Heavenly Tribulation, Lei Jingye wasn’t in a terrible state. He looked injured, but the light in his eyes didn’t dim as he smiled provacatingly at Tianyi.
Lei Jingye seemed to be saying, “I’ve reached your realm, now we’re equal.”
Was reaching the Core Formation realm really that important? Tianyi thought as he looked at Lei Jingye’s prideful look. It was true that once you reached the Core Formation realm, your lifespan would increase to 600 years and you would have a qualitative change, being able to produce true qi. Or is it because you’ve currently reached the same realm as me?
Whichever the reason, Tianyi didn’t plan to allow Lei Jingye leave alive.
He now knew the origin of the hatred, although he could not truly understand it as he was watching the events like a movie. But Tianyi understood that such a bone deep hatred would not be resolved with simply saying that he was not Xi Longyi.
Tianyi understood that for a person who had lost everything, only revenge was able to sate the hole in their hearts and convincing one that to let down the hatred was harder than moving the heavens. Although Lei Jingye now had his clan back and Daoyi was alive, Tianyi knew that Lei Jingye feared him. He feared that Tianyi would repeat Xi Longyi’s actions.
Plus, Tianyi was too lazy to bother with changing Lei Jingye’s mind. Lei Jingyi had the background of a protagonist, but he Xi Tianyi was also a transmigrator.
If he, Xi Tianyi, couldn’t kill Lei Jingye with all the advantages he had then he deserved to be killed.
Lei Jingye had just passed his Heavenly Tribulation and his Spiritual Core was still being formed. Tianyi wasn’t a gentleman, especially to his enemies, and thus his sword pierced towards Lei Jingye. Even if his attack could not stop Lei Jingye from forming his core, it would still disrupt his core formation and as a result might even leave a sequela that would hinder his immortal path!
Before the sword tip even neared Lei Jingye, a lightning bolt burst forward out of it. Although Tianyi wasn’t skilled in assassinations, he could still use sneak attacks.
As for fairness, who cared about fairness when it concerned life and death?
As the lightning strike reached Lei Jingye a red glow enveloped him and dispersed the lightning. Tianyi recognized the glow, was it not the protection of Red Dragon Lotus, one of the famed treasures of the Dragon Emperor?
Lei Jingye glared hatefully at Tiayi as the red light increased and created a bubble around him. Like a cannonball, Lie Jingye shot towards the exit. Tianyi seeing the sudden movement tried to sidestep but he was only half successful as he was knocked against the walls of the pagoda, continuously vomiting blood everywhere.
“Xi Longyi, just you wait! The next time we meet is the day you die!”
Leaving those hateful words Lei Jingye escaped into the skies, the restrictive powers of the Immortal Court seemingly having no effect on him. After a few moments the red light disappeared and Lei Jingye landed onto the ground. Lei Jingye frowned as he inspected the Red Dragon Lotus in his spatial ring.
“Strange, the fleeing technique should have lasted a bit longer.” Lei Jingye tried to communicate with the Red Dragon Lotus and discovered that his connection with it had gotten weaker and his control over it had also weakened.
His face completely darkened when he discovered a second will latched onto the Red Dragon Lotus, “This…is it Xi Longyi’s will?”
Lei Jingye recalled how some of Tianyi’s blood had been absorbed by the red light.
“Sure enough, even if his name has changed he is still the Dragon Emperor. I have to be careful not to use the Red Dragon Lotus against him until I have completely refined it.”
Lei Jingye’s goal didn’t change and as Tianyi suspected. Even though Tianyi was different from Xi Longyi, Lei Jingye still planned to kill Tianyi otherwise the hatred in his heart will fester and might even become his inner demon.
“Xi Longyi, we cannot live under the same sky!”
Lei Jingye said those words through gritted teeth and began to escape in another direction. He had flown away in a straight line and it would be incredibly easy to trace Lei Jingye’s route.
In addition, Tianyi had a trace of his will in the Red Dragon Lotus. There was a high chance that Tianyi would be able to trace Lei Jingye through his connection with the Red Dragon Lotus. Luckily Lei Jingye had already escaped a fair distance away, but he still made detours to hide his tracks.
But Lei Jingye was worrying for nothing, although Tianyi sensed a new connection between him and an unknown artifact but his body was incapable of giving chase at the moment. Tianyi was currently on his knees with his hands on the floor continuously coughing up blood.
His body had been in a delicate equilibrium, but that balance had been broken when he had been knocked back by the red light.
Even as he continued to vomit blood, he felt helpless. In his current state, he was more afraid than anyone else of being hurt. His body was like a porcelain doll, cracking under the slightest pressure.
Sweat began dripping from Tianyi’s forehead as he desperately tried to rein in true qi that was ravaging his body. Tianyi didn’t know how long it took, but he finally calmed down his unstable body and created another delicate equilibrium. Although the pain was excruciating, he was not without any gains.
It was like when he took a test back on Earth. Oftentimes he would just cram the necessary knowledge a few days before, but on the day of the test when he used his whole body to complete the test, the knowledge would be permanently engraved into his mind.
If he took the test again he would have used less time than the first, unfortunately this useless ability of his wasn’t too useful.
But unexpectedly, when his body was being ravaged Tianyi had consolidated his comprehension and even the slight nuances he gleaned from watching Duan Muli and Yang Linyin fight also became clear to him.
Was this the fortune amongst misfortune?
Or was it the fortune within misfortune that seemed like fortune?
Shaking those unnecessary thoughts away Tianyi began to stand up. His formerly purple robes had been dyed maroon, and his white Buzhou Immortal Sect mantle blood red. Tianyi stored away the blood red mantle and was prepared to change his clothes.
Wearing the blood soaked robes was extremely uncomfortable. Once Tianyi changed his clothes he sat down and leaned back against the wall. Forget chasing Lei Jingye, he didn’t even have any more energy to stay awake.
Tianyi tapped the jade pendant on his waist and deployed a protective formation around him before closing his eyes.
He was so tired and his body was numb from all the pain.