Chapter 46 Failing the Tribulation, Perishing in the End

With a fierce hiss, the coiled, twenty-odd-zhang-long black fire serpent suddenly straightened its massive body.

Carrying an unmatched momentum, its colossal form lunged toward Jiang Sheng. Opening its gruesome, blood-stained maw, it unleashed a barrage of fiery orbs.

The dense cluster of fireballs fell like a shower of embers, and in the blink of an eye, a deafening roar echoed through the air.

Sparks splattered in all directions as smoke billowed upward.

The once luxurious and refined immortal cavern, under the relentless bombardment of these fireballs, saw building after building destroyed, while the meticulously arranged vegetation was reduced to utter ash.

A sanctuary that had remained intact for hundreds of years was instantly reduced to a dilapidated ruin.

Amidst the harassing fireballs, Jiang Sheng continuously shifted his position. From time to time, the Azure Duckweed Sword in his hand swept out a beam of sword qi, shattering the incoming fireballs into nothingness.

Watching Jiang Sheng, who appeared utterly relaxed and at ease, Hei Huan felt a surge of even greater annoyance.

Reflecting on its journey so far, everything had gone smoothly. Not only had it managed to find rare spiritual treasures like the Fire Spirit Fruit to enhance its bloodline and physique, but it had also stumbled upon supreme natural treasures like the Jade-Green Lotus even before opening its Purple Palace.

No matter how it calculated, it was destined to successfully open its Purple Palace, transform from a mere serpent into a flood dragon, and shed its snake form to become a Black Fire Dragon.

Hei Huan had even chosen its future domain: wasn't the eight-thousand-li Taiping River outside the Green Screen Mountain the perfect place for it to command the waters and transform into a dragon?

Yet, who could have anticipated that right as it prepared to break through, a tribulation in the form of Jiang Sheng would suddenly block its path?

How could Hei Huan not be furious?

Saliva mixed with flames constantly dripped from the corners of its mouth, corroding deep grooves into the fine jade-tiled floor.

To Hei Huan, whose body stretched for over twenty zhang, Jiang Sheng was undoubtedly no larger than a tiny mosquito.

And right now, this tiny mosquito was buzzing incessantly around it, proving to be deeply irritating!

Seeing Jiang Sheng shift his footing once more, Hei Huan violently whipped its tail.

Its snake tail, as hard as steel, whistled as it tore through the air, sweeping horizontally with a single strike that completely pulverized the already ruined structures in its path.

Facing this tail-sweep laden with terrifying force, Jiang Sheng channeled even more spiritual light into the Azure Duckweed Sword in his hand.

A cyan sword qi slashed out diagonally, colliding head-on with the millstone-thick snake tail.

The sword qi shattered upon impact, but the snake tail was left a bloody mess; large swathes of scales had vanished, and the tailbone was faintly exposed.

The pain from the injured tail continuously stimulated Hei Huan, driving it into an even deeper frenzy.

The bloodline of the black fire serpent boiled, and Hei Huan’s strength surged by another notch without it even realizing.

At this moment, Hei Huan had no spare capacity to ponder why its power was still growing; its sole desire was to crush Jiang Sheng, this pesky fly, once and for all.

"Die!"

Hei Huan widened its massive jaws, and a torrent of raging flames surged forth, covering a little over half of the front courtyard in the blink of an eye.

Jiang Sheng let out a soft snort, his left hand forming an incantation seal to guide his spiritual power. The surrounding moisture rose, condensing into a dense cascade of rain needles.

Resembling a torrential downpour, the fierce flames spewed by Hei Huan were gradually extinguished by the endless barrage of watery needles. Even the top of Hei Huan's head became peppered with tiny, fine blood spots.

Why?

Why couldn't it defeat the human standing before it?

Why, just as it was on the verge of opening its Purple Palace, had someone appeared to obstruct it?

Damnable!

That fox was damned!

This human was damned!

They were all damned!

Under the excruciating torment of having hope dangling right before its eyes yet remaining utterly out of reach, Hei Huan felt its heart swell with an uncontainable rage, and violent emotions churned relentlessly.

Another volley of raindrops fell upon its body, the dense rain needles pricking countless wounds into Hei Huan's hide. Its steel-hard scales seemed utterly incapable of blocking such an assault, leaving its skin riddled with holes like a beehive.

Shaking its massive head, Hei Huan's eyes were now completely consumed by sheer brutality.

The blood within its veins grew scalding hot, surging wildly through its vessels. Hei Huan's massive heart continuously pumped gouts of scorching demonic blood, which, mixed with demonic power, circulated throughout its entire body.

Jiang Sheng keenly perceived the abnormality in Hei Huan.

"Is this... excessive bloodline pressure without the capacity to control it, triggering the opening of the Purple Palace involuntarily?"

At this moment, Hei Huan could only feel the demonic power within its body surging crazily, violently assaulting its spine.

As wave after wave of demonic power, amplified by its bloodline, surged upward from its tailbone against the current, the fierce and scorching demonic power blasted open each and every one of Hei Huan's vertebrae, rushing straight toward the crown of its head.

The excruciating pain of its spine being forcibly torn open, its flesh rent apart, and its meridians severed caused Hei Huan to roar without pause.

As vertebra after vertebra was unblocked, Hei Huan's already colossal body surged toward the length of thirty zhang.

Once Hei Huan successfully cleared its entire spinal column and its demonic body grew past thirty zhang, it would truly become a creature of the Purple Palace realm!

Excruciating pain wracked every inch of its demonic body; scales fell off, its spine cracked, and its flesh melted away. Hei Huan was driven nearly mad by the agony.

It needed a target to vent its suffering and hatred.

"Human, die! Go to hell!"

Roaring, Hei Huan ignored the fact that it was in the middle of a breakthrough and directly spat out a massive, black-and-red pillar of fire.

The black-and-red flames carried a terrifying aura capable of incinerating everything in their path, as if a mere touch would reduce a person to ashes without a trace.

A flash of surprise crossed Jiang Sheng's eyes, and he sidestepped to evade the oncoming pillar of fire.

Yet Hei Huan had now completely lost its mind, continuously spewing black-and-red flames to scorch everything around it.

Massive waves of black-and-red fire rained down, reducing the remaining structures in the immortal cavern to ash.

Even the walls on both sides of the cavern were branded with deep, scorched craters.

Jiang Sheng could even see molten lava bubbling and churning within those pits.

Bai Shan, Qing Yun, and Qing Meng had perceived the terrifying fluctuations radiating from the cavern and had retreated far away in advance.

Immediately afterward, they watched as a column of fire surged out from the immortal cavern, the black-and-red flames spilling outward for dozens of zhang!

Clearly, that was the demonic fire spat out by Hei Huan; Hei Huan had gone completely mad!

Inside the cavern at this moment, the demonic fire unleashed by Hei Huan had blanketed the entire front courtyard, and wherever the eye could see, there were only raging black-and-red demonic flames.

The demented Hei Huan no longer cared about its breakthrough; its sole objective was to slaughter Jiang Sheng.

"Ah, the shackles of bloodline."

Jiang Sheng murmured, his left hand forming a sword incantation, his fingers brushing inch by inch along the blade.

As his internal spiritual power poured endlessly into the sword, the blue lotus imprinted upon the Azure Duckweed Sword faintly showed signs of blooming.

An astonishing aura surged over the Azure Duckweed Sword, and a sharp, piercing sword intent firmly locked onto Hei Huan's skull.

"So be it. This Daoist shall grant you a final journey."

Seemingly experiencing a massive enhancement of its five senses amidst its breakthrough, Hei Huan perceived the impending, fatal crisis. Gathering the entirety of its remaining demonic power, it spat out one last colossal, black-and-red pillar of fire.

The next moment, the black-and-red column of fire collided with a beam of cyan sword radiance.

The cyan sword radiance pierced straight through the surging black-and-red demonic fire, carrying an intimidating, chilling glare as it swept across Hei Huan's body in an instant.

An invisible wave of sword qi rippled outward, and the raging demonic flames in the courtyard were extinguished under the pressure of the sword radiance in an instant.

Hei Huan froze, its mouth agape; at this point, it could no longer spit out any demonic fire.

"Who... exactly are you?"

Regaining a shred of clarity, Hei Huan turned its head to look at the Daoist standing behind it.

The Daoist wore green robes and a jade crown, walking as leisurely as if strolling in a courtyard: "I am Jiang Sheng, a Qi refiner of Green Screen Mountain."

"So it was you..."

A fine bloodline on top of Hei Huan's skull gradually widened and extended, covering its entire three-zhang-wide head before the wound finally split open uncontrollably.

Scorching demonic blood fell like rain, only to be blocked by the spiritual barrier erected by Jiang Sheng.

Jiang Sheng leisurely walked up to Hei Huan's massive snake carcass, claiming the nearly thirty-zhang-long demonic body and its blood for his own storage.

"Hei Huan is dead. Come in."

Hearing Jiang Sheng's voice transmission, Bai Shan and the others hurried inside.

Passing through the cavern tunnel—which had been scorched so smooth and expanded so much by the demonic fire that it looked like a newly widened path—Bai Shan, Qing Yun, and Qing Meng arrived before the ruins, scarcely believing their eyes.

At that moment, the relic cavern was covered in ashes; the walls on both sides were pitted with craters scorched by fireballs, and the marks of intense burning were visible everywhere.

The once magnificent and imposing cavern, filled with pavilions, terraces, and winding corridors, had been more than half-destroyed.

Only now did Bai Shan have a rough estimate of just how terrifying Hei Huan's true strength had been.

Looking at Jiang Sheng, who remained completely unscathed, Bai Shan felt a surge of even deeper reverence: Hei Huan was so terrifying, yet Daoist Jiang had slain it with such ease. Just how astonishing was Daoist Jiang's true capability?

"Let's go. Let's take a look at that Jade-Green Lotus."

Bai Shan hurriedly led Jiang Sheng into the inner courtyard of the ruins.

Seeing the Jade-Green Lotus perfectly preserved within the lotus pond, Jiang Sheng finally let out a sigh of relief.

During the battle just now, both Jiang Sheng and Hei Huan had subconsciously avoided damaging the inner courtyard.

Even Hei Huan, driven to madness by its bloodline stimulation, had consciously shielded the inner courtyard until the end—a testament to its obsession and valuation of the Jade-Green Lotus.

Now that the Jade-Green Lotus remained intact, alongside the acquisition of a near-Purple Palace-realm black fire serpent carcass, Jiang Sheng's gains from this trip could only be described as absolute perfection.

"Next, we still need to set up some formations. This Jade-Green Lotus needs to fully absorb the nutrients within this lotus pond before it can finally mature."

"With half a year remaining, nothing must go wrong here."

Bai Shan quickly spoke up, "I am willing to stay here and keep watch for the Daoist."

Jiang Sheng, however, smiled. "I had better stay and keep watch myself."

"After all, this place is within Sea County, and the battle just now likely startled quite a few people. If I do not remain here to guard it, it is inevitable that some audacious scoundrels will come sniffing around."

Hearing Jiang Sheng's words, Bai Shan nodded repeatedly.

"Then, Daoist Jiang, should all four of us remain here?" Bai Shan asked again.

Jiang Sheng replied, "My presence alone is sufficient here. The three Daoist friends may make whatever arrangements suit you best."

Bai Shan suggested, "The Daoist has just been through an exhausting battle. Perhaps I should remain outside to keep watch, while the Daoist continues your cultivation right here."

"As for Madam and Little Sister, they can either return to the Daoist's temple or go assist the Green Fox ancestral grounds."

Qing Meng nodded. "With only the Old Ancestor holding down the fort back in the clan, it is indeed unsafe."

After a brief discussion among the three foxes, Qing Yun and Qing Meng immediately departed.

Bai Shan stayed behind to help Jiang Sheng set up protective formations outside the cavern, clearing away the debris from the battle and erasing any lingering traces.

Following that, Bai Shan began his cultivation in the outer section of the cavern, while within the spacious inner ruins, only Jiang Sheng remained.

By the edge of the lotus pond, Jiang Sheng produced a straw meditation mat, sat down cross-legged, and swallowed a gathering-yuan pill to quietly regulate his breath and restore his energy.

"The Jade-Green Lotus still requires half a year to mature. Hopefully, no further unexpected events will occur during this time."

With that, Jiang Sheng closed his eyes slightly, and absolute silence descended upon the ruins.