Chapter Ninety-Two: Once Again, the Misty Rain Formation

You Xiyue had no time to deal with Hong Chen before the unease in her body erupted at last.

She frowned at him once, then vanished from where she stood.

The instant her aura disappeared, Jun Yang sensed it. Alarm flared in his heart, and he hurried back to Starlight Island.

Sure enough, as soon as he arrived, he saw the familiar Misty Rain Formation, and Yan Qingye pacing circles around it.

Jun Yang walked up to the formation and let out a long sigh. There was nothing to do now but wait.

Yan Qingye ran to his side, anxious. “Senior Jun Yang, what happened to my little master?”

Jun Yang lifted a brow and said, in a deliberately arch tone, “Good fortune leans upon disaster; disaster conceals good fortune.”

“What?” Yan Qingye stared at him blankly. “What does that mean?”

“Have you ever seen the young ancestor’s nascent soul?”

“...No...” Yan Qingye answered weakly. He did not dare look. That would be far too disrespectful.

“From the moment the young ancestor was born, she was struck by an ancient immortal curse. This curse is also called the Seven Vows. It is a curse bound to seven heavenly tribulations. Only after fulfilling seven other people’s wishes can the curse be completely broken. Otherwise, it will flare up every year on the Lantern Festival.”

“Then... my little master’s ancient curse has flared up?”

“It is not the Lantern Festival. What would be flaring up?”

“But when I saw my little master just now, she looked to be in terrible pain.”

“Breaking a curse is hardly a comfortable process.” Jun Yang gave a distant sigh, then closed his eyes and settled into meditation.

If he did not grow stronger soon, there would likely be no need for him to keep following the young ancestor at all. Lately, he had not been able to help with anything.

Seeing Jun Yang begin to cultivate, Yan Qingye sat down across from him as well.

Inside the Misty Rain Formation, You Xiyue was suffering terribly.

The thousand-worm heart-devouring tribulation was the hardest tribulation there was, without question.

There was nothing that could restrain those worms. Ice, fire, anything else—it was all useless.

What the countless worms were gnawing at was not only the flesh, but the soul.

That sensation, pain turning from the outside inward until the whole body trembled, itching beyond endurance, was enough to make even You Xiyue, with her iron will, begin to buckle.

She had originally been sitting in meditation, but in the end she collapsed to the ground without meaning to.

You Xiyue clenched her arms with all her strength and gritted her teeth, determined to endure until this tribulation passed.

Outside the cave behind the demon graveyard in the Demon Realm, snow was still falling.

Xun Yu strolled unhurriedly into the cave and looked at Hong Chen, who had been thrown to the ground and was thrashing in madness.

“The task isn’t finished, and you’re already running off? Master and servant alike, both so unreliable.”

There was a faint note of complaint in his voice.

Hong Chen was still trapped in the despair of seeing the Demon-Devouring Pearl destroyed. He did not even notice Xun Yu.

“The Demon-Devouring Pearl, where is the Demon-Devouring Pearl? With it, I can rule the Demon Realm... hahahaha...”

“So noisy.”

Xun Yu furrowed his brows and looked down at Hong Chen. In his hand, he condensed a massive sphere of demonic power and hurled it straight at Hong Chen.

Where Hong Chen’s body touched the sphere, frost began to form, spreading wider and wider, until snow had swallowed him whole and his cries finally fell silent. In the end, he became an ice sculpture.

Unfortunately, even an ice sculpture could be a hideous one, which made Xun Yu look upon it with open disgust.

He brushed down the white cloak draped over his shoulders, left the cave, and disappeared into the forest.

With him went the wind and snow.

Seven days later on Starlight Island, the Misty Rain Formation vanished on its own.

Jun Yang opened his eyes and ran toward You Xiyue, just in time to see the black tribulation worms retreating bit by bit from her body.

Yan Qingye stood frozen at the sight.

No one knew exactly what level of cultivation You Xiyue possessed, but those worms were horrifying beyond measure. The black aura around them constantly released pressure so intense that even his soul trembled in fear, leaving him too afraid to draw near.

Jun Yang was only slightly better than he was. But he was too worried about You Xiyue to care, and rushed forward regardless. By then, You Xiyue had long since fainted.

“Young ancestor! Wake up!” Jun Yang called many times, but there was no response. When he lowered his gaze to her wrist, sure enough, her left hand now bore another black bracelet extending all the way to her little finger.

Only after all the tribulation worms had sunk into the ground did Yan Qingye finally relax and stagger over to You Xiyue’s side.

“How is my little master?” he asked.

Jun Yang’s expression was dark as he answered, “She’ll be fine after sleeping for a few days.”

“Oh...” Yan Qingye trailed after Jun Yang silently, watching him carry You Xiyue into the little wooden house.

You Xiyue had not awakened, and Jun Yang had even lost all appetite for the Heaven Pepper Flower.

Each wish had to be endured one by one; even a body of forged iron would have broken by now.

Yet if the curse was not broken, things would not be much better.

After settling You Xiyue, Jun Yang left the wooden house and went to meditate beside Starlight Pool, where the spiritual energy on Starlight Island was most abundant.

Spiritual energy rushed endlessly into Jun Yang’s body. Starlight Island was not constrained by bloodline, so cultivation there would not be suppressed.

Once he reached Saint Emperor cultivation, he would throw caution to the wind and force his way through the Eight Trigrams Formation.

What frustrated him most, however, was that Yan Qingye had been the first to undergo tribulation. Yan Qingye had originally been expected to reach the Immortal King stage only after two months, but perhaps because of the shock from You Xiyue’s tribulation worms, he had unexpectedly reached his bottleneck half a month early and had already begun his tribulation, advancing toward the Immortal King realm.

Yan Qingye’s tribulation happened to match his spiritual root perfectly: the wind tribulation, Soul-Whirling Gale, so it was rather easy for him to pass.

Perhaps because it was too easy, his nascent soul did not change the way Ye Linyi’s had, which made Yan Qingye feel very unbalanced.

“This is also a matter of fate. There is no need to take it too seriously,” Jun Yang comforted him.

“Is that so?” Yan Qingye still looked somewhat beaten down, even wondering whether he simply had no talent for cultivation at all.

Jun Yang strode over and gave him a sharp rap on the head. “You’ve already advanced to the Immortal King stage ahead of schedule, while Ye Linyi and the others are still only True Immortals or Golden Immortals. And you still dare to doubt yourself? Go cool off somewhere else.”

After scolding Yan Qingye, Jun Yang turned back to Starlight Pool and continued his meditation. He himself had not even reached his own tribulation bottleneck, so what had he been complaining about?

This time, You Xiyue slept even longer than before, only barely waking after half a month.

When she awoke, Yan Qingye was the only one at her side. Jun Yang seemed to have been completely absorbed in cultivation, forgetting the passage of time entirely.

Ever since the last time he beat up Yan Qingye, he had not opened his eyes once.

“Little master, I’ll go call Senior Jun Yang,” Yan Qingye said.

You Xiyue waved a hand to stop him. “Let him cultivate. I need to go somewhere he cannot.”

“Somewhere Senior Jun Yang cannot go?” Yan Qingye asked in confusion. “Where is that?”

Was there really still a place in this world that Senior Jun Yang could not reach?

“The Sacred Land,” You Xiyue replied.

Yan Qingye remained puzzled. “The Sacred Land?”

Apart from the Upper Realm and the Lower Realm, he only knew of the Immortal Realm and the Saint Realm. What, then, was this Sacred Land?

You Xiyue did not explain. In any case, he would soon know where it was.