Stranger Danger

“Uwah!”

In the end, the girl could not stand it any longer. She let out a cute cry, leaped up from her wooden fish, and smacked Xie Taohu's head with her wood hammer.

Tok!

It was said that one should not judge a book by its cover, and the idiom fit the girl perfectly. What looked like a harmless blow actually caused Xie Taohua’s feet to sink into the ground. This was just the beginning though. the girl would continue to hit his head like she was hammering a nail until he sank all the way up to his neck.

Tok tok tok tok tok tok tok...

“Ow! Ow! Enough! I’m awake! I’m awake!”

A few breaths later, Xie Taohua suddenly cried out in pain and stretched his arms out of the ground, covering his head with one hand and catching the girl with the other. After that, he leaped out of the hole in a flurry of peach blossoms and flicked three of them toward Skin Painting Gentleman, Limp Celestial and Tiger Sovereign’s forehead.

“Hahaha…”

The three peach blossoms let out an eerie, human-like laughter, and three gorgeous women dressed in pink abruptly appeared behind the trio. However, their faces were completely devoid of flesh like pink skeletons. They then hugged the trio and dyed them in pink bit by bit.

The trio snapped out of their stupor and turned as white as a sheet. It was because they recalled what just happened, and because they saw what resided within the black lotus.

Right now, they were less than ten meters away from the black lotus, so they were finally able to see it for what it was.

They thought that a treasure would reside at the center of the black lotus, but they were wrong. It was a man sitting in a meditative position. His eyes were tightly shut, and rainbow-colored spiritual light was gushing from the top of his skull. The black lotus they saw was really an image manifested from his energies and spirit.

The reason they failed to notice this sooner was one, they were too far away; two, the man’s spirit and energies were so immense that their senses were unable to pierce through them until now; and three, the black lotus was far too realistic and far more conspicuous than the man at the center.

“Is he… creating a Yin God to become a Spirit Master?!” Skin Painting Gentleman blurted out instinctively after seeing this.

“The phenomenon of Peach Blossom Mountain isn’t a treasure? It’s just someone trying to ascend to the next stage?!”

Limp Celestial looked dazed and disbelieving as well.

“There was no treasure from the beginning… no treasure… haha! Hahahaha!” Tiger Sovereign muttered to himself before bursting out in laughter all of a sudden, face gradually contorting into a furious snarl over time.

Skin Painting Gentleman and Limp Celestial looked off as well. Their eyes were bloodshot, and they looked like they might explode into violence at any moment.

Seeing this, Xie Taohua removed the peach blossom branch on his head and twirled it in his hand. Pink flowers immediately flew out of the branch and trapped the trio in its pink embrace. At the same time, Xie Taohua began moving away from them.

Fifty or so meters later, Skin Painting Gentleman, Limp Celestial and Tiger Sovereign finally broke free from the peach blossom pinning them down. Without hesitation, they pounced toward Xie Taohua.

A steely glint flashed in Xie Taohua’s attractive peach blossom eyes as he swung the peach blossom branch at the trio like a whip. As they sailed through the air, peach blossoms bloomed and withered on their bodies in the blink of an eye.

After the peach blossoms withered completely, the trio finally snapped back to reality. As if on cue, they all turned to stare at the distant black lotus and mysterious man with pale faces.

Still grabbing his peach blossom branch, Xie Taohua reminded, “Protect your mind! Do not allow that man’s power to influence you!”

“What on earth is that?” Limp Celestial swallowed audibly as he tried to slow down his racing heart. “Didn’t you hear Skin Painting Gentleman? The guy’s creating his Yin God,” Xie Taohua answered.

“But… h-how is it possible for someone’s ascension to manifest such a terrifying phenomenon?” Limp Celestial stuttered. “It’s warping everyone’s mind without even trying to!”

“Yeah. What on earth is this spiritual power? I don’t think anyone here as a greater spirit than that man,” Skin Painting Gentleman echoed in agreement.

He was a middle-stage Spirit Master and a practitioner of the “Art of Skin Painting”, a martial art that was highly dependent on one’s spirit. Therefore, his spiritual power was on par or greater than even some late-stage Spirit Masters. Despite this, he felt like a child compared to the man before him.

“This is a big world. Anything can happen.” Xie Taohua pursed his soft lips and narrowed his peach blossom eyes. “There are some profound martial arts out there that can create all sorts of unusual phenomena when the practitioner is cultivating or making a breakthrough.”

“Legend says that certain ancient and mysterious martial arts are so potent that their very existence is rejected by the world itself. Every time they are close to a breakthrough, the heavens would attempt to wipe them from the surface of the world by subjecting them to tribulations. If the practitioner fails, they would perish. If not, then they would become the heavens’ equal.”

“So, you’re saying that his martial art is powerful?” Tiger Sovereign’s breathing grew a little heavier.

At first, he thought that their venture up Peach Blossom Mountain was a complete bust. But now, it would seem that the rewards were even greater than what he initially imagined. Treasures were great, but some martial arts such as the one before him clearly held more value.

“Wait… what’s that?” Suddenly, Skin Painting Gentleman looked up and voiced his puzzlement.

“Oh no. I think… I think I jinxed it.”

Xie Taohua followed his gaze and saw a clump of dark clouds floating above their heads. However, it had five colors—green, red, yellow, white and black—and he could vaguely see lightning rippling across its surface. Its mere presence was intimidating and suffocating.

It was at this moment thunder growled a deep rumbling warning, and a green lightning the size of a water barrel shot out of a green cloud. It didn’t look particularly dangerous, and it even gave off a floral scent. Only an idiot would think that it was harmless, however. It was aimed straight at the man at the center of the black lotus.

“The Yi Wood Divine Thunder?! Me and my bloody mouth!” Xie Taohua slapped his own mouth before urging, “We need to move!”

Xie Taohua pushed off the ground and appeared ten meters away from his original position.

Skin Painting Gentleman, Limp Celestial and Tiger Sovereign all sensed the terrible power brewing in the sky and decided to heed Xie Taohua’s advice as well. They all retreated farther away from the black lotus.

Boom!

It was at this moment the green lightning struck the black lotus with a deafening boom. The latter shook violently as green lightning scattered everywhere like tiny snakes, and an invisible, anomalous power washed out.

Strangely, the withered plants in the area sprouted new leaves and branches when they should’ve been crushed into powder by the green lightning. When it faded, the former wasteland was overflowing with greenery, and the spot where the black lotus was residing was scorched black. The black lotus itself looked less tangible and realistic than before.

“What… What is that, Brother Xie?” Skin Painting Gentleman asked shakily. The bolt of lightning did not look particularly powerful, but it was a righteous power that could pierce all evil. As his “Art of Skin Painting” was a demonic art through and through, he was especially sensitive toward such powers as a matter of course.

He had no doubt that he would be a pile of ash if he was the lightning’s target.

“That’s the Yi Wood Divine Thunder of the Five Phase Tribulation. Capable of smiting evil and creating life, and it is especially deadly against heretical powers.”

Xie Taohua calmed the goosebumps popping on his skin before continuing, “The Five Phase Tribulation is a type of the Seventy Two Earth Fiends Tribulation. They are composed of the Yi Wood Divine Thunder, Ding Fire Divine Thunder, Geng Metal Divine Thunder, Wu Earth Divine Thunder, and Kui Water Divine Thunder. They correspond to the Five Phases: Wood, Fire, Metal, Earth and Water.”

“Although the Five Phases Tribulation is ranked at the bottom half of the list, it is still a tribulation and not to be underestimated. I wonder what kind of martial art that man is cultivating that the mere act of manifesting a Yin God would summon such a tribulation.”

“The Five Phases Tribulation?!” Tiger Sovereign, Skin Painting Gentleman and Limp Celestial’s eyes flickered with shock and disbelief. To say that their feelings right now were mixed would be an understatement.

The next tribulation did not appear immediately after the Yi Wood Divine Thunder was done. Instead, the fiery red cloud kept boiling and rumbling as if it was gathering its strength.

The black lotus on the ground was slowly undergoing a transformation as well, growing darker and more mysterious. What felt like an infinite amount of inexplicable energy was washing out of it.

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