Section Eighty-Four: A Door in Despair

U Hao had not yet finished speaking when the scholar in white pointed a finger and said to the cloud-hidden and unseen Wu Yun, "Unless he agrees that these immortal stones belong to me, I will immediately attempt the Immortal King realm!"

Everyone stared blankly. Elder Jin Bu of the Dragon Tower Sect said furiously, "Do not push this too far!"

Jin Bu and Rong Ya could each have taken one without any need for such anger, so why was he acting so out of character?

U Hao slowly nodded as well. "Fellow Daoist, we came here together, and you have concealed your identity all along. Now that the treasure is within reach, you seek to break through to Immortal King. Know this: by doing so, you are no different from turning against us."

"I will say one more thing. If you insist on this, do not blame us for being merciless!" Rong Ya already had his weapon in hand, ready to strike at any moment.

Just as Long Yi was also about to advise him, the buried Wu Yun shouted, "Let him be. I am not giving him a single one of these top-grade immortal stones. Hurry up and collect them first; there is still another wave to come!"

Long Yi and Gao Le quickened their pace. Even Jin Bu and Rong Ya, who ought to have taken only one each, quietly swept up some of the shattered immortal stones and pocketed them.

The scholar in white sneered. Suddenly, a white radiance burst forth from within him, piercing through the imperial artifact and carving out a spatial passage within it.

Tribulation clouds layered over one another, thunder roared, and a pair of enormous crimson eyes appeared.

With the advent of the Immortal King tribulation, the great immortal tree also began to sway, as though it wished to stop the pale-faced scholar.

"I sense something is wrong!" U Hao's expression grew grave. He was well traveled in the Loose Immortal Alliance and had never seen anyone dare to achieve Immortal King status within an imperial artifact. This was plainly courting death; the imperial artifact itself would be the first trial!

Yet after the immortal tree swayed for a long while, the tens of thousands of leaves shaken loose suddenly transformed into a massive formation, helping the white-clad scholar conceal those crimson eyes. This abnormality filled everyone with dread.

U Hao decided to withdraw. Long Yi continued collecting immortal stones as though nothing were amiss, and just as he was about to dig Wu Yun out, the first tribulation lightning came from outside, ignoring the imperial artifact, opening a passage and striking down the first blow.

The lightning struck above the white-clad scholar’s head, but the immortal tree actually extended a branch and secretly absorbed the power of the tribulation. The lightning, thick as dozens of feet, immediately thinned by a great measure.

The remaining lightning was blocked by the scholar, who raised his immortal sword and absorbed it into the sword-scabbard formation, where it vanished without a trace.

Men die for wealth and birds for food, but when death truly stands before one, all else must be cast aside. Jin Bu and Rong Ya hurriedly circled the immortal tree, trying to evade it, while U Hao also summoned an immortal tool to shield his head and attempted to leave.

But the tribulation clouds had sealed the area, and the three who had just managed to get out were swiftly drawn back within the range covered by the immortal tree.

For within the scope of the immortal tree, the tribulation lightning was at its weakest.

It was equivalent to using a single immortal tree as the finest possible shelter against heavenly tribulation.

U Hao and the others were stunned. If the white-clad scholar were to draw even a wisp of tribulation lightning toward them, then they would...

No, the scholar did not draw the lightning toward them. Instead, the tree spirit parted a slit in the blood-red eyes hidden within the shrouding space, and that opening happened to envelop the excavated Wu Yun.

Wu Yun remained utterly unharmed, not even scratched by the falling stones of immortal rock. Instead, he held the Astonishing Spirit Blade and carved a human-shaped hole in the trunk, slipping inside.

So that was why he had refused to let Long Yi dig; it was this dangerous.

A terrifying aura descended through the slit. The blood-red eyes inside the spatial rift searched for their target, and when they locked onto Wu Yun, he called out in the Dao tongue, "Old tree, are you not afraid that this tribulation will injure you?"

The immortal tree swayed violently, and the scholar in white beside it said, "It would rather wound itself than fail to destroy a parasite like you!"

The first page of three

"Good, good. Thank you for answering for it. Tell it this: do not regret it later!" Wu Yun smiled faintly, stepping out from the tree hole and facing the red glow pouring down from above. Bathed in it, he looked languid and content, as though basking in sunlight.

The next moment, the blood-red eyes fired a beam of tangible radiance, several kilometers long. It ignored the surrounding immortal artifacts formed from shifting leaves and struck the immortal tree directly.

Yes, the red light had aimed at him, yet the attacking beam struck the immortal tree.

Caught off guard, the immortal tree formed pendant-like immortal artifacts from its branches, reaching the first rank, and managed to resist.

Then the blood-red eyes grew ever redder, as though something lurking behind the spatial rift was staring coldly at Wu Yun. When the crack widened, the tribulation clouds also expanded, and the tribulation lightning striking the scholar in white intensified so much that even the immortal tree could no longer absorb it.

This strange state persisted for the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense. Though that sounds brief, it was slow in its own way. The immortal tree gradually formed into a head; all its trunks became arms, while its branches and leaves turned into weapons.

A sharp hiss sounded.

Without warning, swift as light itself, the strengthened blow from the blood-red eyes landed upon the immortal tree. This time, even after the tree transformed its whole body into a first-rank immortal artifact, it was still pierced through, the force striking the earth beyond.

It even bored more than three thousand zhang into the ground, breaking through countless layered talismans and energies, leaving the immortal tree stunned.

Countless top-grade immortal stones were reduced to nothingness in that single strike, and then the newly formed spatial crack swallowed them all, leaving not a trace. Wu Yun cried out, "Too much, too much!"

After that blow, the immortal tree used innumerable leaves to obstruct the blood-red eyes, but those eyes still saw Wu Yun flailing about and delivered a second strike, evaporating yet another great swath of branches and piercing through the back side of the tree.

The immortal tree trembled, angered by this calamity it had not sought. Just when it seemed it might falter, the top-grade immortal stones on its body lit up, and in an instant it was restored as before.

That astonishing healing power left Long Yi and the others deeply moved. Money was wonderful; it could be squandered. The top-grade immortal stones consumed here, if converted according to the official currency of the Third Immortal Realm, amounted to at least one hundred million.

Yet for the immortal tree, it was a mere trifle.

Wu Yun wailed in regret, and the scholar in white suddenly seemed to hear something. He frowned, hesitating, while the immortal tree shook even more violently. Countless immortal leaves swarmed like furious bees, yet none dared descend to the ground, only surging and roiling in place.

Then the white-clad scholar’s eyes suddenly brightened as he glared at Wu Yun. A blue sword aura left his body, shooting straight out from his eyes.

This attack was his trump card, the immortal sword gestated within him, his strongest strike. Unless absolutely necessary, he would never reveal it lightly.

"Azure Lake Divine Radiance!" U Hao, recognizing it with his broad knowledge, cried out, "You are the legendary Blue First Love, the Immortal King reborn, famous throughout the Heaven-Opening Star Domain. How did you end up here!"

After Blue First Love revealed his true form, the heavenly tribulation roiled overhead. As he attacked Wu Yun, it was as though he were provoking the tribulation itself. Another divine bolt was neutralized by the immortal tree, and when it descended onto his head, it was absorbed by the superior fourth-rank immortal sword he had summoned.

At the same time, the blue light striking Wu Yun ignored him entirely and instead hit the trunk of the immortal tree, boring through more than ten meters before vanishing.

Even U Hao was left staring in disbelief, and so was Blue First Love!

Wu Yun gestured wildly with his limbs. The immortal tree was nearly driven mad with fury, while Blue First Love closed his eyes and desperately explained through divine sense that he had absolutely not done it on purpose.

When Blue First Love opened his eyes again, they were entirely blood-red. Suddenly, his gaze split into a thousand rays of light; he would rather suffer damage to his primordial spirit and force his immortal sword to retreat than fail to strike Wu Yun and inflict a fatal wound.

This all-encompassing assault immediately caused several streaks of blue light to strike Wu Yun. At the moment of impact, three blue rays, as if endowed with spirit, wrapped around Wu Yun, turning him into a blue man.

The next instant, before Blue First Love could even spurt blood, the Astonishing Spirit Blade in Wu Yun’s hand absorbed the blue light on his body, and then the Six-Ancestor True Dragon bounced out, its two dragon eyes bulging like ox-dung eggs as it looked around wildly and shouted, "Good stuff! Where is it? Where is it?"

The second page of three

That strike was Blue First Love’s strongest. After blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, he spat twice more, pointed in disbelief, and before he could speak, he saw the tree spirit fly into furious embarrassment. One section after another of branches transformed into immortal artifacts and were hurled down.

Those branches changed endlessly, some into divine dragons, some into fire phoenixes, some like thunder gods, others like savage beasts. But Wu Yun merely extended a hand, and the coiled root of the Seeking-Dragon Grass left inside the hole trembled once. Those attacks, like illusions, all flew back into the trunk and restored themselves to their original form.

At that moment, the blood-red eyes unleashed a third strike. This blow was vicious and swift. After striking the main trunk, it instantly evaporated a vast hollow and pierced straight through.

Blue First Love was speechless. He was just about to cross the Immortal King tribulation and attain Immortal King status, only to encounter...

"Fellow Daoist U Hao, Fellow Daoist Rong Ya, Elder Jin Bu, as long as the three of you help me kill this wretch, or capture him and deliver him to the tree, I will take not a single coin of these immortal stones!"

The white-clad scholar spoke with open candor, but Bear Old Three muttered under his breath, "The key point is that these immortal stones are not even yours. What are you pretending to be some big shot for?"

Blue First Love flew into a rage and pointed at Bear Old Three, intending to crush this little demon, whose cultivation was only that of a Great Immortal. But Long Yi stepped in front and summoned a Xeon Beast.

After absorbing top-grade immortal stones, the Xeon Beast had recovered to half strength and was now at the early stage of Profound Immortal. Yet when its blurry silhouette shrouded Long Yi’s head, it faintly seemed as if Long Yi’s cultivation had risen to the middle stage.

An experienced Immortal King, even only at the middle stage of Profound Immortal, facing a late-stage peak opponent, would not necessarily win, but would certainly not lose.

The aura of the dragon race rose at once, and with the support of the numerous bones buried underground, it made Blue First Love hesitate repeatedly.

"Blade, come!"

With blood in his eyes, he grasped his life-bound immortal sword and was about to charge when U Hao and Gao Le blocked him with weapons in hand.

"From the moment you began your tribulation, we became mortal enemies. This Immortal King tribulation will also be one of our trials!"

U Hao spoke with utter resolve. As for Jin Bu and Rong Ya, they hesitated. To deal with an Immortal King in the midst of tribulation, one who was already stronger than themselves...

But as U Hao said, from the moment the tribulation began, they were already enemies. The two stepped forward, and before they could speak, the immortal tree suddenly emitted a beam of light that shrouded Blue First Love. In an instant, a healing art compressed with top-grade immortal stones took effect, and he recovered rapidly, the bloodshot veins in his eyes nearly gone.

The two leapt forward with weapons in hand, then hesitated and retreated in small, awkward steps.

"Good!" Blue First Love praised loudly. Looking at his recovered soul and body, he shouted again, "Withdraw now, and you may yet be spared death!"

He waved his immortal sword, and without using any technique at all, he swept U Hao and Gao Le aside. Then, just as blue light began to bloom upon the sword, he suddenly seemed to remember something and hurriedly pulled back!

The watching Six-Ancestor True Dragon could no longer restrain itself and shouted, "Senior, senior, this fellow cannot be killed. Keep him alive for me to absorb his blue light; it would be immensely nourishing!"

Everyone’s faces darkened, and even Blue First Love burned with shame and fury. He roared, "Even without divine abilities, I can still cut you down beneath this immortal tree!"

"Hahaha!" Wu Yun laughed. "If you can..."

He was just about to finish his boast when he suddenly heard a clamor. Turning back, he instantly saw the crowd collecting immortal stones retreating!

From the passage pierced by the blood-red eyes, many figures flew out. They were none other than those who had entered earlier, gathering together and now rushing here as one.

It was like a door suddenly opening before the desperate. And once one looked inside, there were still so many top-grade immortal stones beyond that opened door. That feeling... need not be spoken aloud.

The third page of three