The tribulation clouds were gathering. What had been a bright, sunny sky moments before was now dimming.
Though Ye Ju’s murmur was soft, Chaoyang Zi still heard it.
“Fellow Daoist Ye, there’s no need to worry. Our cultivation is ours to command, not heaven’s. We defy fate and pursue the Great Dao. It is the same for demonic beasts. As long as your heart is as firm as a boulder and your will as unyielding as entwined branches, you will overcome the heavenly tribulation, transform, and attain the Great Dao!”
Ye Ju was strangely comforted by Chaoyang Zi’s words. This was Xiao Mo’s chance, heaven’s gift. The process of a serpent transforming into a dragon involved far more heavenly tribulations than Xiao Mo was currently facing. Now, because Xiao Mo possessed the bloodline of a flood dragon, it was directly transforming into one. How fortunate!
“Master, believe in me. I will surely succeed,” Xiao Mo’s voice echoed, as if in her ear.
“Mmm, go!” Ye Ju murmured in her heart.
“Fellow Daoist Chao, thank you!”
Seeing Ye Ju calm down and her bright smile return, Chaoyang Zi felt a joy in his heart too! After pondering for a moment, Chaoyang Zi finally said,
“Fellow Daoist Ye, hearing you say that Xiao Bai could advance without experiencing heavenly tribulations, there can only be one explanation.”
“What explanation?”
“Xiao Bai is naturally a Nine-Tailed Fox divine beast. It is currently in its juvenile stage. It is already a divine beast and possesses a divine spark! For demonic beasts to ascend, they all strive to become human, immortal, or even divine! This requires thousands or tens of thousands of years of cultivation, enduring heavenly tribulations to achieve the cause and effect. Xiao Bai is already a divine beast; why would it need to endure tribulations!”
Chaoyang Zi knew this because he himself had a spiritual contract with a Qilin divine beast, bound together as partners and friends, fighting side by side!
Fellow Daoist Ye and the Nine-Tailed Fox were the same.
Ye Ju suddenly understood. So that was it! No wonder all spiritual beasts were wary of Xiao Bai, even in its current young state, when it revealed its true form.
As they spoke, a lightning tribulation as thick as a chopstick struck from the center of the tribulation clouds, as if testing.
Xiao Mo dealt with it easily, meeting it head-on with its physical body. Xiao Mo’s innate skill was electricity; tribulations of this magnitude didn’t even scratch its skin.
Rumble! The thunder from the tribulation clouds grew louder. The heavenly might was inviolable. A lightning bolt, as thick as a bowl, illuminated the entire sea surface and struck down mercilessly.
Ye Ju’s heart clenched tightly, almost forgetting to breathe!
A serpentine figure, coiling and ascending in mid-air, met it directly. The demonic beast’s body was incredibly strong. The lightning struck Xiao Mo’s head, causing its head to merely tilt. The upward-flying figure did not stop.
The third and fourth bolts of tribulation lightning converged, striking without a gap, unyieldingly. Xiao Mo retaliated, roaring and spitting out a ball of lightning. The two collided in mid-air, sparks flying like fireworks.
The lightning tribulation paused for a few seconds, then a larger, thicker bolt descended, flashing with twisted, merciless white light. Xiao Mo swooped down like a gust of wind, seemingly escaping, with the lightning pursuing closely.
Ye Ju’s heart tightened. Could it not hold on? She summoned her Yu Shou… Chaoyang Zi grabbed Ye Ju’s arm…
“Wait!”
Suddenly, Xiao Mo turned, charging directly towards the lightning like a sharp arrow. With a boom, its entire body trembled under the lightning strike, leaving its skin cracked and flesh torn. This time, Xiao Mo did not use spiritual energy to protect itself, enduring the blow with its physical body…
The sixth bolt, the seventh…
Xiao Mo’s body was covered in bloody wounds, and it roared in pain. Slowly, claws began to sprout from Xiao Mo’s abdomen. This extreme pain of the flesh breaking to reveal limbs caused Xiao Mo to roar repeatedly.
Ye Ju, seeing this, almost rushed out…
“Fellow Daoist Ye, do not be anxious. For a python to transform into a flood dragon, it must grow four limbs from its abdomen. This is it using the heavenly might to help reshape its bones and temper its divine soul!”
Chaoyang Zi tightly held Ye Ju’s hand, fearing that she, as its master, in her eagerness to save her pet, might instead harm its cultivation!
The eighth bolt of tribulation lightning struck Xiao Mo with the fury of thunder. From Xiao Mo’s torn and bleeding body, hard black scales began to emerge.
Xiao Mo seemed to have exhausted its strength and plummeted down, crashing into the sea. Xiao Mo rolled in the water. The heavenly way seemed enraged. Seeing the beast daring to defy fate, even darker and more abundant tribulation clouds gathered. Thunder rumbled, like a furious beast. A lightning bolt as thick as a barrel fiercely struck the half-dragon in the water. Yes, Xiao Mo had already broken its abdomen and grown four limbs, each with four claws. It was already a flood dragon, though only half of its scales had grown.
The tribulation lightning returned. Xiao Mo’s four limbs stomped on the waves, regaining some spiritual energy, and it actively welcomed the tribulation. This time, Xiao Mo raised its head and spat out another ball of electrical current, striking the tribulation. However, it only offset part of the heavenly tribulation, and the remaining lightning struck its body again. Xiao Mo, unable to bear the pain, roared to the sky:
“Roar! Moo! Moo!” The flood dragon’s cry was like a bull’s, yet it instilled fear. Though it lacked the might of a dragon, it possessed the presence of a flood dragon! Heaven and earth trembled. The creatures of the seabed, hearing the sound, prostrated themselves in fear.
The flood dragon’s roar pierced their ears. Ye Ju and the others quickly covered their ears, using spiritual energy to protect Ah You, who had no cultivation.
The heavenly tribulation seemed to be appeased by the dragon’s roar. After a few rumbles, it dispersed. A torrential rain instantly descended. Xiao Mo soared up, bathing in the spiritual rain. Suddenly, golden light flared intensely. The horns on its head began to grow bifurcations. The tail end of its body, which had not grown scales before, was visibly covered by black scales. The python’s body transformed into a flood dragon! Xiao Mo had succeeded!
Xiao Mo joyfully roamed the sky, riding the wind and clouds. Then, it suddenly dived into the sea, churning the waters and raising waves a hundred feet high… It was truly a flood dragon making a ruckus in the sea, with monstrous waves about to rise!
The purple bamboo ship in the distance was tossed up and down by the waves, then fell again, swaying left and right. The three people and three beasts on the ship were shaken to their core…
Ah You clung to the railing, feeling like he was about to vomit his internal organs, his face pale. Even the water spider, wrapped around the railing with its silk, was retching continuously.
All cities within a thousand-mile radius were pounded by torrential rain. Rivers and lakes swelled. Such a phenomenon in the heavens! Mighty cultivators skilled in divination were all greatly alarmed. The sign of a flood dragon transforming into a dragon indicated that this world was about to nurture a divine dragon!
Pearl City was no exception. The moat outside the city overflowed, flooding into the city. Cultivators with earth spiritual roots came out to build earthen walls to block the flood…
Ye Ju felt as heartbroken watching Xiao Mo endure the heavenly tribulation as she now felt like beating this stinky fish? No, stinky worm? Not quite, stinky flood dragon! into a jerky. Ye Ju tried several times to stabilize the ship with her spiritual energy but failed. She had no choice but to activate another function of the ship’s formation: hovering flight! The flood dragon’s disturbance of the sea had stirred the might of nature, which could not be resisted by human power!
Once the ship was airborne, the rainwater washed away the vomit. Ye Ju still worried and used her spiritual energy to draw seawater to rinse everything clean. After the people and beasts on the ship stabilized, the flood dragon was still flipping and rolling in the sea, which made Ye Ju furious.
“Staff, come!” Ye Ju summoned her Yu Shou, transforming it into a ten-meter-long staff. She flew through the air above the flood dragon and struck its head with the staff, knocking it unconscious. Grabbing the horns on the dragon’s head, she prepared to drag it back to the ship.
Chaoyang Zi watched the petite Fellow Daoist Ye fly through the air while dragging a flood dragon’s head the size of a water tank, its thirty-plus-meter-long body trailing behind her, as she attempted to board the ship…
The scene was bizarre, further deepening his understanding of Fellow Daoist Ye’s divine strength.
“Fellow Daoist Ye, this ship cannot accommodate it…”
Ye Ju was furious, wanting nothing more than to knock this creature unconscious and stuff it into a corner of the ship… Prompted by Chaoyang Zi, she realized, belatedly, that this creature was too large. Using the power of the contract, she shrunk Xiao Mo to the size of a soup basin, about five meters long, and tossed it onto the deck.
Xiao Bai had also been bumped so hard it almost vomited. Xiao Mo’s tail was still hanging off the ship. It kindly coiled around Xiao Bai, tied its tail in a knot, and kicked it into a corner of the deck.
Chaoyang Zi stared, dumbfounded, at the master and servant’s miraculous actions. This was a flood dragon! A flood dragon on the verge of becoming a divine dragon…