Transmigrated back into the body of her child self, can the mighty Celestial Bing Meilu survive in a Xianxia world all the while staving off the advances of arrogant young masters and wannabe protagonists alike?
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Chapter 49: Breakthroughs
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Over the next few weeks, progress was made rapidly. The Ashen Mountains were a sacred ground for cultivation, the air dense with spiritual energy. Foundations tempered by constant combat and flush with countless natural treasures to aid them, everyone made progress, either in cultivation base or if not that, in strength and mastery of techniques.
Of those already in the Second Realm, Mu Gong stepped from the fifth to the seventh stage, Shang Bolin from the third to the fifth, and Xi Fu from the fourth to the seventh. Jiang Hu was already at the peak of Foundation Establishment, and he instead focused on his combat prowess, martial arts and sabre skills, integrating his newfound power into his fighting style
The first to break through to Foundation Establishment were the Elemental Five. Furious thunderbolts ripped down from the sky, armouries of lighting weapons and huge lightning beasts.
An enormous diagram of the Sixiang formed. Daoist Eartheart stood in the center shadowed by the image of a yellow dragon. In each of the cardinal directions, one of his comrades stood. In the north, Daoist Seagreen was covered by the image of the Black Tortoise. In the south Daoist Flamemight was covered by the Vermillion Bird. In the East was Daoist Goldsnake with the White Tiger, and Daoist Broadforest in the West with the Azure Dragon.
Circling around the images of the five beasts was a glowing diagram of the Bagua, the Eight Trigrams. According to the Early Heaven Sequence, Zhen, Thunder was opposed by Xun, Wind. Qian, Heaven was opposed by Kun, Earth. As fiery Heaven Qi and torrential thunder rained down, wind and earth rose to meet them, mingling and destructing in a complex interplay that filled the air with dazzling light.
This was the most basic mastery of the supremely profound World-Genesis Procession of the Four Symbols. At a higher level of mastery, they could seize full control over the eight trigrams, and eventually, the sixty-four hexagrams that represented all of creation. To the Elemental Five, it seemed completely Heaven Defying.
Though, in truth, it was just one of the countless 'low-level' formations memorized by the Celestial-Realm Bing Meilu as she sought to expand her knowledge and fill the boredom of an eternal life where interesting events may take thousands of years to develop, and people could go into closed-door cultivation for countless lifetimes. It was uncommon to find an old monster who hadn't dabbled in various arts and represented nowhere near what an actual competent formation cultivator in the higher realms could achieve.
No matter how much thunder or extermination came down from the skies, the formation easily defeated it. The Tribulation raged endlessly, as the auras of the five jointly rose into Foundation Establishment. The clouds faded soon after.
The next to break through was none other than Li Ji. A nervous expression covered his face, sweat causing his long hair to stick to his face.
"You can do this, Li Ji! The paperwork is in order, there's no way the Heavens can prove I did anything wrong. Just stick to the plan." he slapped himself to clear his nerves.
He stood atop a mountain, beginning to dance in accordance with the Evading The Jade Palace Heavenly Steps. As he did so, his Qi and Aura changed completely, until he, to the non-physical senses, seemed like a completely different person. His Qi had become a humble axe cultivator, rising to the Second Realm. This was the identity Li Ji had prepared for the tribulation. The basis of the astounding art was akin to using identity theft to avoid a conviction for a crime. You couldn't be punished if you became a different person, after all. A profound Dao indeed.
Of course, such a rudimentary strategy would only work on the weakest of tribulations. In the end, the Heavens were not blind and could see through any trickery... given enough resources, of course. However, it wasn't like they could extend an infinite amount of resources to every low-level tribulation. Just like a mortal tax office could not invest the time to deeply investigate every random person, they only used their investigative resources if there was already a reason to assume something suspicious had occurred. Li Ji would have to master a deeper form of the Steps if he wanted to survive a Core Formation tribulation.
As expected, when the tribulation came, it lacked the wrathful energy of absolute extermination and was balanced by a strong vitality. Li Ji let loose shrill screams as lighting rammed into his flesh, charring him. He reinforced himself with yin-metal qi, his organs becoming like jade and his bones like gold, his flesh becoming like a living ore. At the same time, he desperately absorbed the life force to recuperate his wounds. Blood splashed from his mouth and screams filled the air as he hung on for dear life. Indeed, if he had faced the tribulation 'rightfully' meant for him as a follower of the 'heretical' Bing Meilu, he would be dead.
But, the tribulation quickly faded, satisfied it had doled out enough punishment on the poor accountant, who began to imbibe healing pills, a bittersweet smile covering his face. At least he had successfully broken through.
"Aah! That hurt!" he wailed. "Why the hell are the painkillers so slow?"
Days later, Ji Hui began his own breakthrough.
A solemn aura covered his face as he stood atop a large hill, looking at the gathering thunderclouds above.
"For many generations, my mortal ancestors revered you. I must apologize. Anything that blocks my Dao... Is not worthy of reverence. I, Ji Hui have my own path, I will walk it to the Peak. Let the Die be cast!"
The Beast-Man Becoming Art roared from within him, and the essence of the Corpse-Refining Red Wolf flared around him, a deathly yin chill. The yin swirled around him, forming into a spectral, frosty un-fire, as the Earth-Flame Ghoul Armor took shape.
Of the Eight Trigrams, this was Kun, Earth. The opposition of the highest Yang that formed Heaven, it was of pure yin. The first lighting bolt struck down onto his armour, blazing with fiery authority.
Within it, he could feel the rejection of every principle he held, a demand he crawl back into the earth like a good human.
Perhaps at first, he had cultivated a Spirit-Dog art from sheer ignorance, of a whim. He did not know what it represented. Perhaps if he had known the difficulty, not even his love for Spirit-Dogs would have drawn him to this path.
But he was on it now. And every obstacle in his way, whether years of stagnant cultivation, dangerous Red-Wolves, or even the anger of the Heavenly Dao - All of it only solidified his commitment to his chosen path. He would cultivate like a Spirit-Dog until he reached the peak of the Martial Way.
"Screw the hell off!"
Ji Hui refused to rely on his armour as he had been advised. Earthy flame erupted around his palm, lancing into the air to directly challenge the tribulation clouds. He would show the Skies his resolve!
Meanwhile, Li Ji and Xi Fu observed him from afar.
"Did- Did he just try to shoot the clouds?" the metal cultivator asked in complete confusion. "His attack is too short-ranged to reach that high - Does-does he even knows he missed?"
"He must not, he just did it again..." Xi Fu chuckled.
Ever since the day the mere third-tier Qi condensation idiot had angrily challenged Jiang Hu to a duel for eating a wild dog, only to be beaten into the ground and forced to join their faction as a result, he had proven time and time again as a single thing. He was definitely an idiot.
Both sighed. A classic Private Ji moment.
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Lightning bolts rained down upon Ji Hui, penetrating through his thinned armour to lightly sear his flesh. He hissed but did not relent, challenging the fury of the skies with his Earthflame.
Next, weapons of all sorts began to fire down at incredible speed. Swords, spears, sabres, axes, halberds, pikes, arrows, maces and more, all aimed at him.
He slammed his fists forward, empowering with the bestial might of a Spirit Dog. Punching and slapping, he knocked the weapons aside, ignoring the outer layers of his hands charring from the thunder.
The pressure of the tribulation ramped up. A huge snake of thunder slunk down, maw open. He fired a blast of Earthflame, weakening the serpent. It rammed into him, exploding into thousands of tiny bolts of lightning that slammed into his skin to leave tiny wounds.
The next to come was a huge boar of fiery Heaven Qi that charged down at him, rearing its head to gore him with its horns. Ji Hui smoothly jumped, slamming his foot down and crushing its spine from above.
His foot tore through the lighting beast, his Yin earth flame and the Yang lighting exploding when they came into contact. A huge jolt of electricity jumped into his next and he howled in pain, scars running up his legs as the electricity cooked muscle.
Unable to walk and peppered with dozen of thunder-based scars, Ji Hui furiously stared up at the skies.
Then, the unthinkable happened. From the sky charged a huge, cow-sized lighting beast... in the shape of a Spirit Dog. A wild idea occurred to him. Rather than fight back, he raised both arms in a welcoming gesture. The Spirit-Dog of thunder slammed into him, ready to extinguish his life.
"Beast Man Becoming Art!"
His meridians opened, wildly absorbing the Qi into them, attempting the union the Beast-Man Becoming Art was known for. His meridians crackled and popped from the sheer, torrential fury of the thunder as it poured into his organs with wrath. In his Soul, the Corpse-Refining Red-wolf he had absorbed roared. Would it disappear should he assimilate the new creature?
'Of course not! I would never abandon a Spirit-Dog!'
The thunder-dog's chaotic will poured into his already shattering Dantian, meeting the Red Wolf. The two forces collided chaotically, cracks running through his Dantian. Ji Hu frowned. Why were they fighting? He pondered it for a moment.
"Hey, get along! You may be very different looking... but you're both dogs! Despite their differences, even the most opposed Dogs are one species, of one lineage, from the same source! Your differences are only superficial, the results of generations of human breeding preferences!"
A profound aura resounded through their air at his words, as if the Great Dao had descended. Flowers bloomed to life, growing around him despite the chaotic energy filling the air. As the saying went, even the plants and animals would benefit when a Sage expounded the Dao.
The yin-earth Red-Wolf and the Yang-Heaven lightning began to merge, flowing into each other until a single black and white Taiji symbol appeared.
In Truth, Yin was Yang, and Yang was Yin. It was a fact easy to be spoken of in words, but hard to truly understand. The human mind could scarcely look at fire and ice, the sky and the ground, and see the same existence in both, even if they said aloud that they did.
But Ji Hui could indeed look at two completely different beings, one a murderous, bloodthirsty wolf filled with yin-fire, and a spiritual construct of lighting with no true life, and see them as fundamentally the same thing. After all, to him... they were just both dogs. It was a realization both profound and simple at the same time.
Coughing up blood, Ji Hui collapsed, even as his foundation slid fully into Foundation Establishment.
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Bing Meilu pinched her brow in exasperation as she stared down at the moron.
'Didn't I explicitly instruct him to use the Earthflame to block tribulation? How the fuck did he manage to pour fucking tribulation lightning into his fucking meridian system?'
'Tribulation Lighting' and 'Your Meridian System' were two phrases that should never, ever, under any circumstances be put in the same sentence. Any cultivator who heard her words would shiver in absolute terror.
"The blasted fool actually shattered seventy percent of his meridian channels," her voice rose in disbelief. "And half his Dantian..."
Even Li Ji, who had the lowest combat power of any of the Inner Circle, should have been able to avoid taking any direct damage to his meridians from the Heavenly Thunder. It couldn't be stressed enough how important a Qi cultivator's meridians were. Even Body cultivators often had a need of them. They were the spiritual organ used to cultivate and without them, one could never hope to advance. Most would rather let a family member die than shatter even one meridian.
Not to mention, what happened to Private, now Lieutenant Ji was somehow even worse than normally destroying one's meridians. After all, being only in the second realm, the items needed to heal the meridians were not that uncommon. The real issue was the lingering Heavenly Law infecting the wounds, making them impossible to heal normally.
Now, it did just so happen to be that Ji Hui was in likely the only group in the whole continent with a relatively easy way to purify heavenly will. Had he been anywhere else, he would likely be doomed. Purifying Tribulation Energy was simply not worth it for a mere second realm with no backing.
What insane luck.
'Is there a god of Spirit-Dogs somewhere looking out for this idiot? Or maybe it's the Dao of Heaven screwing with me?'
"Go get me Xi Fu," Bing Meilu sighed. "And An anti-shatter soothing fern and a bottle of broken Qi reversal pills."
Li Ji nodded and ran off.
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