Chapter 357: Senior Brother, Golden Core Formation!
Thunderclap—
At the snow-covered peak, golden heavenly lightning, infused with the boundless spiritual energy of the Dao of Heaven, guided by the Snow Jade Myriad Spirit Sword, surged into Ye Anping’s golden core.
His blood seemed to boil within him, causing his skin to erupt with patches of reddish-blue contusions.
Even though Ye Anping had already endured sixty-one heavenly tribulations, he still couldn’t get used to the searing pain they brought. He could only grit his teeth, letting out guttural roars to endure.
On a snow pine tree not far away, Xiao Tian watched Ye Anping struggling amidst the lightning, biting its lips tightly, its heart aching.
Yet, it was helpless, unable to offer any assistance.
Compared to Ye Anping’s tribulation, the tribulations endured by Feng Yu Die and Pei Lianxue were like child’s play.
Xiao Tian still remembered.
Two years ago, after Feng Yu Die’s first lightning tribulation, she collapsed in the spiritual formation.
Upon seeing this, it became extremely worried and immediately flew over to check her body, while also comforting her:
“Yu Die, hold on, I’ll check your body. The elders of the Xuan Xing Sect will be here soon.”
However, after a while, Feng Yu Die replied with a cheeky grin:
“No, no… I’m fine, just a bit… a bit numb from the electricity…”
Afterward, she was carried back to her cave dwelling by several Xuan Xing Sect Disciples, only to become lively again the next day.
Xiao Yunluo and Pei Lianxue were similar. When they discussed it, one said, “It felt like being pricked by a few needles, a little painful, but not too painful,” while the other said, “It was a bit more painful when Senior Brother practiced swordsmanship with me before…”
However, during Ye Anping’s tribulation…
Boom—
The golden lightning transformed into spiritual light, parting the snow clouds. Ye Anping, who had been seated on the mountain peak, lost his strength and fell backward.
Xiao Tian immediately rushed over, its hand reaching out to touch Ye Anping, trying to check his condition.
But just as its small hand was about to touch Ye Anping, a golden electric spark erupted from his body.
“Crack!” The sound of the spark made it retract its small hand.
“Ah…”
Xiao Tian rubbed its finger, looked at the pale-faced Ye Anping, took a deep breath, gritted its teeth, and forced itself into Ye Anping’s abdomen.
Crack-crack-crack—
It was like an electric mosquito swatter encountering a swarm of mosquitoes.
The sound of crackling filled the deserted peak.
Before long, Xiao Tian was once again thrown out by the spiritual energy of the heavenly tribulation, crashing into the snow beside it.
However, although it was ejected, it did get a glimpse of Ye Anping’s internal condition.
Due to his spiritual root aptitude, Ye Anping couldn’t digest the spiritual energy of the heavenly tribulation quickly enough.
The undigested spiritual energy was now like frightened rabbits, running and biting wildly within his meridians.
Ye Anping had told it earlier that he was fine, but this didn’t look fine at all!
Xiao Tian was so anxious it started to cry. It quickly flew back to Ye Anping’s side. Seeing that his eyes had lost their focus, it grabbed his face and shouted:
“Anping!! Don’t sleep! Don’t sleep!!”
“…”
Ye Anping couldn’t speak. He had endured his tribulations like this for the past two years, and he had planned to fall asleep peacefully. After all, Si Xuanji would come and move him back later.
But now, Xiao Tian was shouting and crying in front of him…
So annoying!
He had clearly told it not to make a fuss.
While feeling annoyed, Ye Anping also felt a hint of helplessness. Just then, he heard a crisp ringing sound.
Jingle bells…
For Ye Wan’er, this sound was like a nightmare.
But for him, it was like a campfire in the winter.
Ye Anping stopped forcing himself, relaxed, and slowly closed his eyes, falling asleep.
“Ah?! Anping?!! Anping! Wake up!!”
“This idiot! Really…”
Tears welled up in Xiao Tian’s eyes. It was only when it heard a tender scolding voice from beside it that it realized an uninvited guest had arrived. It slowly raised its head…
…
…
As dawn broke, Ye Anping woke up as usual in the bedding on his bed. However, he felt a strange sensation, as if a ghost was pressing down on him, his body feeling incredibly heavy.
He lifted the covers and took a look, seeing the culprit of this “ghostly pressure”—Xiao Tian, who was currently curled up on his chest, sleeping.
Ye Anping sighed helplessly and caressed Xiao Tian’s head with his finger. To his surprise, his finger poked directly into its head…
The sensation was as if he had plunged his finger into a basin of flowing hot water, so strange that his vision went dark.
“…”
“Moo~~”
Ye Anping withdrew his hand with a speechless expression, slid off the bed, and walked to the table with anticipation to check Si Xuanji’s message from yesterday.
—”Yesterday, I saw you collapsed on the mountaintop wearing only two layers. Aren’t you cold? Cultivators don’t catch colds, but they still feel uncomfortable, don’t they? There are still ten more heavenly tribulations. You just need to persevere for a few more months.”
Ye Anping smiled and wrote back on the paper:
“Thank you for your concern, Senior. I wonder if Senior could grant me an audience one last time? For the past two years, I have always wanted to meet Senior once to express my gratitude in person.”
After finishing the reply, Xiao Tian rubbed its eyes and sat up.
It looked at Ye Anping blankly for a moment, recalling what happened last night. Suddenly, its cheeks blushed slightly. It shook its head, dispelled the distracting thoughts, and quickly flew over.
Seeing Ye Anping’s reply, Xiao Tian pursed its lips and said:
“Anping, that so-called True Person Tianji is actually…”
Ye Anping glanced at it and interrupted directly:
“Yunluo’s sister, right?”
“Ah? You knew already?!” Xiao Tian was a bit surprised but quickly reacted, “Then why are you still pretending not to know her? And calling her ‘Senior’ all the time…”
Hearing this, Ye Anping fell silent for a moment, his lips pouting slightly.
From Xiao Tian’s words, he gathered that Xiao Tian still hadn’t realized that Si Xuanji was Dan Yue Shang Xian.
Even though she was still the artifact spirit of the Heavenly Scroll of the Dao…
He wondered if Xiao Tian was too unobservant, or if Si Xuanji was too cautious.
Ye Anping shook his head helplessly and replied:
“If she doesn’t wish to reveal her identity, why should I expose her?”
Xiao Tian pouted its lips, pondered for a moment, and said:
“That’s true. But speaking of which, when I saw her at the Imperial Sect before, I felt she was a bit strange.”
“Hmm? How was she strange?”
Xiao Tian rested its chin on its hand and analyzed for a while, saying:
“Hmm… I can’t quite describe it, but she was just strange. Yesterday, when she projected her spiritual sense to possess you, I saw how skilled she was with her spiritual sense. It didn’t seem like a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator. In terms of spiritual sense alone, she was much more proficient than Yu Die and you.”
“…”
She was definitely more proficient than him and Feng Yu Die, but…
?
For the past two years, Ye Anping had been completely unconscious during the night of his tribulations, and Si Xuanji always cleaned up the scene before leaving.
He didn’t know how Si Xuanji managed it…
Now, hearing Xiao Tian’s words, he could vaguely picture some scenes…
“Projecting her spiritual sense to possess me…”
“Ah…” Xiao Tian’s face immediately turned red, and it said shyly, “Yes, yes…”
Ye Anping pondered for a moment, exhaled, and raised his hand to interrupt:
“Never mind. I don’t want to hear it, and you shouldn’t tell me. Pretend you didn’t see it, and don’t write it in the Heavenly Scroll of the Dao.”
“Ah? I won’t write it! It’s not like you and Yu Die; I’d only write about you and Yu Die in the scroll.”
?
“Hmm?”
“Nothing, nothing! Hehe~” Xiao Tian giggled and circled him twice, changing the subject, “Anping, what are you going to do now?”
“…Practice swordsmanship.”
Ye Anping replied casually, then put on his clothes, took out the Snow Jade Myriad Spirit Sword, and walked out of the room.
…
Time flowed like a shuttle, and days and months flew by.
The snow accumulated on the Dye Bai peak melted into flowing water, and tender shoots broke through the soil in the forest.
Winter turned to spring—
Nine heavenly tribulations were passed by Ye Anping in the blink of an eye.
Although Xiao Tian always held its breath for him during each tribulation, Si Xuanji always appeared by his side on time, with her bare feet.
After scolding him as an “idiot,” she would help him regulate his Yang energy and heal his damaged meridians.
However, Si Xuanji had never agreed to Ye Anping’s request in his letter to “meet once.”
Although he had known all along that Si Xuanji was on the other side of the letters, perhaps because he had played along with Si Xuanji’s act, he had accidentally fallen into character himself.
After “dating online” for so long, with two years of companionship and help, he had genuinely developed feelings.
Yet, in the end, the other party still refused to come and see him.
After the seventy-first heavenly tribulation, Ye Anping woke up to see Xiao Tian’s smiling face and Si Xuanji’s farewell:
“Congratulations on your Golden Core formation in advance. I have also been in the Western Regions for two years, and it is time to bid farewell.
The path of immortality is long; I hope you will not forget your original aspirations.
Farewell from now on.
Perhaps one day, if fate allows us to meet again, I hope we can greet each other with clasped hands and discuss the vicissitudes of the immortal path.”
Ye Anping felt a strange ache in his heart upon seeing this and wrote back:
“Does Senior truly not wish to meet this junior?”
…
Twelve days later—
Black clouds pressed down, silver lightning danced wildly, and the sky changed.
Hundreds of miles of spiritual qi, like fireflies from the mountain forest, converged towards the mountain where Ye Anping was located, forming a vortex in the sky ten thousand feet high.
Everyone in the Hundred Lotus Sect stopped what they were doing, or paused, or walked out of their rooms, gazing towards the direction of the spiritual vortex in the sky.
On the martial stage of the Hundred Lotus Sect, Liang Ating, who was already sixteen years old, looked astonished. She put down the spiritual sword in her hand and pointed in that direction, asking:
“Foster Father, what’s happening over there?”
Liang Zhu gazed for a moment and sighed, “Your sixth uncle has formed his Golden Core.”
Ye Wan’er, who was teaching the disciples of the Hundred Lotus Sect swordsmanship, also walked over and sighed:
“Young Master Ye really formed a Heavenly Dao Golden Core, huh? Brother Liang, we bet five hundred spirit stones earlier. You lost. Let’s settle the accounts, hehe…”
“Heh…” Liang Zhu smiled wryly and waved a spirit stone pouch from his storage bag, “I was ready for it.”
…
In the Tian Ge of the Hundred Lotus Sect, Ye Ao and Kong Yulan, who were drinking tea by the window, also looked towards the distant spiritual vortex, their eyes widening slightly:
“Yulan… Why is the spiritual vortex for forming a Golden Core different from when we formed ours?”
“Are you blind? This is a Heavenly Dao Golden Core! Don’t you see the spiritual energy is golden?!”
“Ah?! What? Ping’er, that kid…”
“Hurry and change your clothes, gather the disciples of the sect, we’re going to welcome our Ping’er out of seclusion!”
…
The last “heavenly tribulation” had no lightning and no tribulation.
A gentle breeze swept across the green grass on the mountaintop. Ye Anping slowly opened his eyes, but he didn’t feel any surge of “Ah! Power is flowing out!” passion.
It felt as if he had drunk a cup of tea; his senses were much clearer.
The scent of grass in the air became more distinct, and the blue sky seemed brighter.
He sat in the distance, his gaze sweeping around, wondering if he could catch a glimpse of “True Person Tianji.” However, after waiting for a long time, no one appeared in the forest.
Xiao Tian also flew over from the nearby forest and said:
“Anping, she didn’t come this time. I searched the surroundings, but I couldn’t find anyone.”
“Alas—”
Ye Anping wore a wry smile and sighed.
It seemed he had encountered a bad woman who had toyed with him for two years and then left him without a word.
Truly…
Ye Anping propped himself up with his knees, retracted the Snow Jade Myriad Spirit Sword from the sky into his storage bag, and returned to the temporary cave dwelling he had lived in for two years.
When he built this cave dwelling, it only had one main room.
Looking back now, he felt a sense of how things had changed, as if everything from the past had become distant.
The courtyard was filled with various spirit flowers that he and Si Xuanji had planted together. The main room also had many cracks, and a dense bamboo forest, obscuring the sky, had grown behind the courtyard.
Ye Anping pushed open the door and entered the main room, walking to the wooden table where he had written letters with True Person Tianji. On the table, his previous reply was still placed there.
—”Does Senior truly not wish to meet this junior?”
It seemed Si Xuanji had truly not come this time.
“…”
Ye Anping felt a bit dejected, but after thinking for a moment, he quickly let it go.
He preserved everything in the room as much as possible. The 141 letters exchanged with Si Xuanji, protected by a wisp of spiritual energy, remained on the table.
He packed the clothes from the wardrobe and then walked out of the room.
Perhaps after another hundred years, some young cultivator would discover this cave dwelling and, from the items within, glimpse that a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator had successfully formed his Golden Core with the help of a cultivator named “True Person Tianji.”
As for who True Person Tianji was, that would be up to the discoverer to ponder.
Ye Anping walked to the front of the cave dwelling, turned around, cupped his hands, and bowed:
“Farewell from now on.”
Then, he summoned his flying sword, preparing to return to the Hundred Lotus Sect.
Xiao Tian sat on his shoulder and said with a giggle:
“Anping, are you going to go through with the act till the end?”
“Heh…”
Ye Anping let out a cold laugh and didn’t answer.
Just as he was about to ascend into the air, a fiery red bird suddenly streaked across the sky, leaving a trail of flames.
Ying—
Its cry echoed through the mountains.
Ye Anping looked up at the fiery red bird, feeling a slight confusion.
The next moment,
Tap, tap—
Two sets of footsteps came from the forest behind Ye Anping.
Ye Anping turned around and saw a woman with her eyes closed, leaning against a tree trunk, a smile on her face as she faced him.
Ying—
After the eagle’s cry, the fiery red bird from before swooped down, then flapped its wings to slow its descent, landing on her shoulder. With its bright, sharp eyes, it looked at him.
The woman took a step forward, cupped her hands, and said:
“Senior Ye, congratulations on forming your Golden Core.”
…
