After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

Half a month later, Ye Chenyan emerged from the Sea of Books Formation with Yu Qingtang.

The two had barely stepped out of the formation and hadn’t even had time to take a single breath of fresh outside air when the Sage’s Book reacted and summoned Wen Tianxia.

“You’re out already?” Wen Tianxia didn’t seem surprised. He looked up at the sky, where dark clouds were steadily gathering. “Going up?”

“Hm?” Yu Qingtang felt like there was something strangely off about the way he’d phrased that, but he figured he was imagining things and answered honestly, “Yeah. I’m about to break through.”

“Oh, right. Academy Head Wen, is this bead of mine broken? I’ve been diligently getting my seedlings yanked upward for cultivation all this time, but the water inside hasn’t moved at all.”

As he spoke, he held the bead up in front of Wen Tianxia.

Wen Tianxia gave it a single glance. “It isn’t broken.”

“How could it not be?!” Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened in shock. He tugged Ye Chenyan forward from behind him. “His is already one-third full, and mine doesn’t have a drop!”

“Didn’t you say this was related to physical strength? If I were really at that level, I’d practically be indestructible already!”

Wen Tianxia looked him up and down with a faintly amused expression. “Maybe you are.”

“Huh?” Yu Qingtang stared. “Maybe I’m what?”

Wen Tianxia reminded him, “Lotus Realm.”

“That counts too?” Yu Qingtang froze. “Have I become one with the realm or something?”

Before this, even if Wen Tianxia had told him so himself, Yu Qingtang wouldn’t have believed it.

But after leaving the Sea of Books Formation, his body really did seem completely fine.

So despite Wen Tianxia’s established history of conning him, Yu Qingtang actually believed him a little this time.

“What are you panicking for?” Wen Tianxia glanced at him. “Isn’t this perfect? You can stay inside with him longer. Otherwise, I doubt that brat would be able to settle down and cultivate properly.”

“No way!” Yu Qingtang pointed confidently at Ye Chenyan. “He takes cultivation very seriously. Right?”

His eyes met Ye Chenyan’s.

Ye Chenyan blinked and said nothing.

Yu Qingtang repeated, “...Right?”

Ye Chenyan chuckled. “Hard to say.”

He bent down, rested his chin on Yu Qingtang’s shoulder, and gave him a sidelong look.

“Do I look like I have that much self-control?”

Yu Qingtang: “...”

“Tch.” Wen Tianxia looked away. “It really is impressive that Scholar Xiao enjoys following the two of you around.”

Ye Chenyan chuckled and draped an arm over Yu Qingtang’s shoulders before asking him, “Aren’t you going to run?”

Wen Tianxia glanced at him. “Run from what?”

Ye Chenyan pointed at the thunderclouds accumulating overhead. “Don’t they say the higher a cultivator’s level, the more dangerous it is for them to be around someone else’s lightning tribulation? If you don’t leave, I’m afraid this Soul Transformation lightning tribulation is going to turn into a Mahayana lightning tribulation.”

Wen Tianxia gave a dismissive laugh. “You think I’m the reason it looks like ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) this?”

His gaze grew distant. Hands clasped behind his back, he said meaningfully, “Only a tiny number of cultivators encounter a lightning tribulation when breaking through to Soul Transformation. Every last one of them is an extraordinary genius.”

“Besides, it already looked like the heavens wanted to strike you back when you were still at Out-of-Body. It’s been building up all this time. This is no ordinary lightning tribulation.”

Ye Chenyan looked up along with him, perfectly calm.

“I’m not an ordinary Out-of-Body cultivator either.”

“Hah. Brat, you really are arrogant.” Wen Tianxia smiled without quite smiling. “An ordinary lightning tribulation exists to temper a cultivator. This one looks more like it came specifically to strike you dead.”

Ye Chenyan glanced sideways at him. “Do you think it can?”

Wen Tianxia’s gaze sharpened slightly before he chuckled.

“Who knows? Give it a try. It’s your life you’re gambling with, anyway.”

He turned around.

“Tianji Zi’s divination was accurate to the very day. Excellent. I’ll let the students of Four Books Academy witness an exceptionally rare lightning tribulation.”

With a wave of his hand, rows upon rows of Four Books Academy students flew into the air. They arranged themselves in neat ranks across the sky, sat down cross-legged, and looked eagerly toward Ye Chenyan.

Ye Chenyan: “...”

Yu Qingtang: “...With this many people watching, I might start worrying about my idol image.”

He quietly took one step backward.

“I’ll leave this grand stage to him. I’m going to find somewhere secluded.”

“Hold it.” Wen Tianxia stopped him with one hand, smiling pleasantly. “Aren’t you breaking through too?”

“I’m only breaking through to Out-of-Body. Having this many people watch is kind of embarrassing.” Yu Qingtang waved his hands repeatedly. “Besides, he’s about to have a lightning tribulation—”

Ye Chenyan looked up at the sky and, unusually, made no attempt to stop him.

Wen Tianxia, however, refused to let him go.

He pressed Yu Qingtang down where he stood.

“You’re staying too. Break through here and mooch off his lightning tribulation while you’re at it.”

Ye Chenyan’s expression turned strange. “What?”

Yu Qingtang was even more shocked. “Mooch off his lightning tribulation? You can mooch one of those?! Are you trying to kill me?”

“Relax. With the Lotus Realm, it won’t kill you.” Wen Tianxia patted his shoulder. “Didn’t I already tell you? Your Lotus Realm is approaching indestructibility. This is the perfect opportunity to let the lightning tribulation temper it.”

“Once you perfect the Lotus Realm, you might even be able to protect him with it and spare him the suffering of a lightning tribulation.”

Yu Qingtang immediately turned toward Ye Chenyan.

“Then... do you want to come hide inside when the lightning starts?”

Ye Chenyan paused and was just about to answer when Wen Tianxia shook his head.

“Not yet. He can withstand this tribulation. It’ll be good for him to take a few more strikes and toughen up his body.”

“Don’t worry. A feral brat like this isn’t going to die from getting struck by lightning a couple of times. He’ll be bouncing around again in no time.”

Ye Chenyan: “...”

Yu Qingtang opened his mouth.

“Why do I get the feeling, Senior, that you don’t even consider the two of us the same species?”

“Of course not.” Wen Tianxia stood with his hands behind his back. “Tianji Zi said someone entrusted you to him, so you’re supposed to be properly looked after. As for him...”

He glanced at Ye Chenyan.

“Tianji Zi said that while he’s still capable of beating him, he should make him suffer as much as possible.”

Ye Chenyan smiled.

“I’ll remember that.”

A deafening thunderclap exploded overhead.

A thick bolt of silver-purple lightning came crashing down.

Even though Yu Qingtang was already sitting cross-legged with the Lotus Realm prepared, he still flinched so hard his neck practically vanished into his shoulders.

The lightning was obviously aimed at Ye Chenyan.

Ye Chenyan glanced briefly at Yu Qingtang, then deliberately flew upward to meet the lightning head-on.

Wen Tianxia stood in front of the Four Books Academy students, looking up as he chuckled.

“Good. At least he’s enthusiastic about getting struck.”

Yu Qingtang looked up too, worry creeping into his voice.

“He’s really going to be okay, right...?”

Wen Tianxia grabbed him and held him in place.

“He’ll be fine.”

“And don’t even think about sneaking into the crowd. Don’t bring the lightning over here.”

Yu Qingtang whipped his head around in shock.

“How would I bring the lightning here? My breakthrough doesn’t even have a lightning tribulation!”

Wen Tianxia looked at him with an enigmatic smile and gently raised a finger to his lips.

Yu Qingtang froze—

He didn’t entirely understand what Wen Tianxia meant, but he did understand one thing.

Wen Tianxia hadn’t decided on a whim to make him break through here.

Maybe... he really had calculated all of this in advance?

Yu Qingtang looked up at Ye Chenyan.

Ye Chenyan had just taken a bolt of lightning head-on. Electricity was still crackling all over his body, and even his arms were trembling slightly.

Yu Qingtang muttered, “As expected of the Heavenly Dao’s own son...”

“Hm?” Wen Tianxia gave him a strange look. “What makes you say that?”

Yu Qingtang solemnly pointed at Ye Chenyan.

“Look at him. He got struck by lightning and his hair didn’t even get messed up. If that were a normal person, wouldn’t they already look like a curly-haired sea urchin?”

Wen Tianxia: “...”

He looked up at Ye Chenyan, and the corner of his mouth seemed to twitch upward.

“You focus on your own breakthrough. Stop spouting nonsense.”

Yu Qingtang ducked his head and obediently closed his eyes to prepare for his breakthrough.

Breakthroughs had never been especially difficult for him.

He could take it easy. His Nascent Soul would go out for a little stroll, then come right back.

For ordinary cultivators, it was only after reaching Out-of-Body that their Nascent Soul could leave their physical body. There were also cultivators who specialized in training their spiritual consciousness, allowing their awareness to separate from the flesh and evolve into specialized offensive techniques.

Cultivators below Out-of-Body had weak spiritual consciousness and almost no way to defend against such attacks.

Fortunately, they hadn’t encountered anyone like that before.

While letting his mind wander, Yu Qingtang tried guiding his Nascent Soul out of his body so he could secretly watch Ye Chenyan’s breakthrough through its eyes.

He hadn’t reached Soul Transformation yet, so he had no idea how ordinary cultivators broke through.

But generally speaking, it probably did not involve throwing hands with heavenly lightning...

His tiny Nascent Soul seemed frightened by the lightning tribulation covering the sky as well.

Instead of running all over the place like before and looking for other people’s Nascent Souls to play with, it very intelligently hid behind the highest-level cultivator present—Wen Tianxia—and furtively absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth while quietly working on its breakthrough.

Wen Tianxia looked back at it.

He chuckled, turned around again, and made no attempt to chase it away.

Yu Qingtang was privately marveling at how clever his Nascent Soul was when he suddenly sensed something—

His perception of the spiritual-power fluctuations around him had become far sharper.

Normally, he couldn’t sense Girl in the Bamboo’s presence at all.

But now he could clearly feel her standing quietly among the Four Books Academy crowd with the three spirit pets who had stayed behind, watching the two of them with concern.

And near the Sea of Books Formation, the flow of spiritual power suddenly shifted.

Someone was about to emerge.

Yu Qingtang’s expression changed.

The spiritual energy around him was rapidly being drained toward him, faintly forming a vortex centered on his body.

“Careful!” Yu Qingtang opened his eyes and called toward the two people who had just appeared at the entrance to the Sea of Books Formation. “There’s lightning out here!”

Chi Yantian’s voice rang out almost at the exact same moment.

“Hahaha! I’m about to reach Out-of-Body too!”

He had barely taken one step when a muffled thunderclap sounded.

A golden lotus suddenly expanded in front of him.

Thump!

It rammed him straight back into the Sea of Books Formation—and shoved Scholar Xiao, who had been standing behind him, back inside as a bonus.

Yu Qingtang shouted after them, “Come out later unless you want to get struck by lightning!”

No sooner had he spoken than a silver-purple bolt, drawn toward them, curved around Ye Chenyan and slammed directly into his Lotus Realm.

The golden lotus trembled slightly.

Silver-purple electricity raced over its glasslike petals, somehow making them look even more solid than before.

Yu Qingtang froze, then instinctively turned toward Wen Tianxia.

“It really can temper it?”

Wen Tianxia looked at him with a faint smile.

“I do occasionally tell the truth.”

Yu Qingtang: “...Could you maybe make it less occasional?”

Ye Chenyan had already reached the critical point.

That guy truly refused to tolerate even the slightest indignity. Even while being struck by lightning, he kept rising higher and higher. Electricity crackled wildly across his body, yet he stubbornly forced his way upward until he was almost above the thunderclouds themselves.

Wen Tianxia looked back at the students behind him.

“Have you been counting?”

“Nine lightning strikes,” Wen Changjun immediately answered, frowning. “Nine is the ultimate number. Logically, it should be over now, but those thunderclouds...”

“One doesn’t count.” Wen Tianxia pointed at Yu Qingtang. “That one struck him.”

Spiritual power rippled from inside the formation again.

Chi Yantian poked his head out.

“Is he done yet? How long is he going to keep getting struck?”

Yu Qingtang hurriedly pulled his head within the protection of the Lotus Realm and coaxed him, “Almost, almost. Just one last strike...”

BOOM!

Another bolt of lightning slammed into the Lotus Realm.

Yu Qingtang flinched.

“It really won’t break, right?”

Everyone else looked extremely confident in him.

He himself had absolutely no confidence whatsoever!

Wen Tianxia looked thoughtfully at Chi Yantian.

“Maybe you should just leave him like this.”

“He can draw the heavenly lightning over here. Once the tribulation ends, you won’t get another chance to mooch off it.”

Yu Qingtang: “...”

Chi Yantian stared up into the sky.

Then inspiration struck.

He grabbed Yu Qingtang’s arm.

“Hey! If heavenly lightning can temper cultivation techniques, then it can definitely refine artifacts too, right?!”

Yu Qingtang whipped his head around in disbelief.

“What?”

Scholar Xiao squeezed his head out beside Chi Yantian’s.

“What are you talking about out there? I can’t hear anything from inside.”

Yu Qingtang pointed at Chi Yantian, then at the sky, his face full of horror.

“Brother Xiao, they’ve gone insane! They want to mooch off the heavenly lightning to refine artifacts!”

“Hm?” Scholar Xiao looked up as well.

Another bolt of heavenly lightning crashed down onto the Lotus Realm, making its petals even more solid and radiant. One glance was enough to tell that it was becoming something extraordinary.

Scholar Xiao frowned slightly.

“That might be difficult, though.”

“Your refining furnace won’t fit inside the Lotus Realm.”

“I’ll refine the artifact inside the Sea of Books Formation!” Chi Yantian’s eyes burned with excitement. “Then at the final step, I’ll throw the furnace outside!”

“Ye Chenyan! Hold out a little longer! Don’t let the lightning tribulation end yet!”

With that, he immediately ducked back into the Sea of Books Formation.

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