Chapter 24: Golden Core Tribulation Fire Refines Mortal Flesh
Lu Qingyang squatted on a Dragon Stone at the periphery of the Nether Abyss, his fingertips holding three Yinsha Pearls he had pilfered from an Ancient Tomb.
In the distance, Taiyi Pavilion's patrolling Flying Sword streaked across the blood-red sky, and he spat a mouthful of bloody foam at the sword light: "Ye Wuchen is quite diligent; it's as if this young master dug up his ancestral grave."
The qingmu spirit pearl at his waist suddenly trembled, and the thousand-year-old dragon blood grass in the pearl's medicinal field moved without wind—this was a sign that the Golden Core Lightning Tribulation was imminent.
A The fishy wind blew up the gravel and hit the protective aura，Lu Qingyang took out half a pot of spirit wine mixed with bone-eroding powder and drank it.。
Ever since reaching Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, he had been squatting here in Burial Dragon Abyss for two years and seven months, just waiting for that heavily injured Ink Dragon to shed its skin.
Three days ago, when he used three Puppets to trick Ye Wuchen's tracking talisman away, he conveniently swapped the Golden Core Pill Formula in the other party's Storage Pouch for an erotic picture.
"Boom!"
The Ink Dragon's shed skin suddenly ignited with a ghostly blue flame, and Lu Qingyang threw out nine Soul-Suppressing Nails to pin down the seven-inch mark of the shed skin.
The liquid Qi in his Dantian began to boil, and he grimaced as he pulled out twelve blood essence stones and arranged them into a spirit-gathering array—three of which he had traded for with adulterated dragon blood grass from Crippled Old Six in the black market.
When the first Lightning Tribulation struck, Lu Qingyang was busy carving Exploding Flame Talismans onto the shed skin.
The purple lightning grazed his ear and plunged into the cold pond, and several rotten Yao Beast corpses floated up in the water column that erupted.
He picked up the Ink Dragon's shed skin and wrapped it around his entire body, then raised his middle finger at the tribulation cloud: "You damn well hit accurately!"
The qingmu spirit pearl suddenly burst forth with dazzling green light, and the hourglass phantom within the pearl reversed nine times.
Lu Qingyang felt the flow of time around him drastically change; the Core Formation process, which would normally take three days, was compressed into three hours.
As the second Lightning Tribulation condensed, he was using a dagger to gouge out essence blood from his chest and smear it onto his Golden Core—this was a wild method he learned from murals in an Ancient Cultivator's Immortal Cave.
"Crack!"
The Exploding Flame Talismans on the shed skin were ignited by the lightning fire, and Lu Qingyang, with his smoking topknot, darted into the cold pond.
The Ink Dragon, slumbering at the bottom of the pond, suddenly opened its eyes, and its vertical pupils reflected his comical appearance as he fumbled with his hand seals.
Seeing that the third Lightning Tribulation was about to strike his crown, this fellow actually pulled out a bellyband he had pilfered from a Hehuan Sect female Cultivator and tossed it into the air.
"Boom!"
The Purple Heaven Divine Lightning struck the mermaid silk bellyband, producing a sky full of sparks, and Lu Qingyang took the opportunity to stuff his Golden Core into the Ink Dragon's nostril.
The enraged Yao Beast swung its tail, overturning half a cliff, unaware that the Dragon's breath just happened to envelop that glittering Golden Core.
When the sixth Lightning Tribulation fell, he hummed a little tune, squatting behind the Dragon's head, using the shed skin as a shield to block most of the lightning fire.
"Lu! Qing! Yang!"
Ye Wuchen's sword light split open the tribulation cloud, and Taiyi Pavilion's pursuers finally found this place by following the Lightning Tribulation.
Lu Qingyang spat out the Dragon Scale Grass root he was chewing, then backhanded the smoking Golden Core back into his Dantian: "Ye Daoyou has come at just the right time, quickly help Mr. Lu block this eighth Lightning Tribulation!"
With that, he threw out three Illusion Talismans, transforming into Ye Wuchen's appearance and charging towards the Ink Dragon's inverse scale.
When the Ink Dragon's sharp claws pierced through the illusion, the real Ye Wuchen was locked onto by the ninth Lightning Tribulation.
Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to leap onto the Dragon's back, the qingmu spirit pearl frantically absorbing the diffused medicinal power of the dragon blood grass.
The moment his Golden Core completely solidified, he felt his internal organs reshaped by the tribulation fire, but when he opened his mouth, he spat out a cloud of black smoke mixed with sparks: "Damn it... why does this Golden Core taste spicy?"
The cold pond suddenly erupted with towering waves, and half of a golden Daoist robe hung on the Ink Dragon's broken horn.
Lu Qingyang fled three miles, stepping on crumbling gravel, not forgetting to throw back an amplification array: "Mr. Lu will certainly engrave Ye Daoyou's heroic act of sacrificing himself to feed the Dragon onto Jade Slips and widely spread it!"
Before his words finished, he was struck by the Dragon's tail, and his gold-rimmed heart-protecting mirror shattered into eight pieces.
Three months later, Lu Qingyang squatted at a black market stall of the Yin Corpse Sect, with three cracked, inferior Golden Cores displayed before him.
Passing Cultivators pointed and whispered, but he, chewing on a dog's tail grass, scoffed: "Buy it or not, these are souvenirs from directly resisting the Ink Dragon's Lightning Tribulation."
With that, he pulled out a recording pearl, and the image of Ye Wuchen being struck by lightning, burnt crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, drew laughter from the crowd.
When the Enforcement Elder of the enforcement team rushed over upon hearing the news, only a crooked talisman paper remained on the stall: "Mr. Lu's Golden Core is complete, specially leaving this ink treasure for Fellow Daoists to enjoy—Ye Wuchen, the murderer and arsonist; Lu Qingyang, the savior from suffering."
On the back of the talisman paper was a stick figure drawing of a raised middle finger, drawn with cinnabar, its arrogant brushstrokes so infuriating that the Enforcement Elder crushed his communication Jade Slip on the spot.