Chapter 594: Chapter 594

With a loud thunder, a massive blue-purple celestial thunder descended from the sky, striking over and over again at the five-colored figure in the sky.

The five-colored figure was a Five-Colored Peacock with a wingspan of over twenty zhang. Its wings fluttered mightily amidst the celestial thunder, and a tail of five-colored phoenix feathers, stretching four to five zhang, swayed and flickered in the air like a five-colored flame, dazzling and spectacular.

Except for heavenly spirit beasts like the Flood Dragon with extraordinary talents, most demon beasts must face a Celestial Thunder Tribulation to ascend to the fifth tier, using the power of heavenly thunder to elevate their bloodline.

This thunder tribulation is extremely perilous for demon beasts. To successfully elevate their bloodline and not stop at the fifth tier on their future path, they must endure the strikes of heavenly thunder with their bodies, without protection. Using their bodies as iron and the heavenly thunder as a hammer, they strip away impurities through the hammering of celestial thunder, ultimately becoming a piece of refined steel.

According to incomplete statistics, if they truly do not use any protection, at least ninety percent of demon beasts crossing the tribulation will perish under the celestial thunder, with less than ten percent eventually succeeding—it is a path of nine deaths and one survival!

Despite this, many demon beasts with insufficiently strong bloodlines often prefer to die rather than retreat, unwilling to use divine power techniques to offset the thunder.

The Five-Colored Peacock does not belong to this category. Its bloodline is relatively high-grade, with a faint trace of Phoenix Bloodline. As long as it withstands five of the nine stages of the thunder tribulation, it can basically ascend to become a fifth-tier demon beast.

However, this does not mean it is willing to stop here.

One must know that the Celestial Thunder Tribulation is both a calamity and an opportunity. Missing this chance to elevate its bloodline through the tribulation, it would only have another opportunity upon ascending to the seventh tier True Spirit and crossing the "True Spirit Thunder Tribulation."

And ninety-nine percent of demon beasts will never have that opportunity.

Thus, the Celestial Thunder Tribulation encountered when ascending to fifth-tier is likely the only opportunity in their lifetime to elevate their bloodline.

The Five-Colored Peacock certainly does not want to give up this opportunity lightly!

If it can completely endure the nine stages of the Celestial Thunder Tribulation, its Phoenix Bloodline may transform into "Phoenix True Blood." By then, its chances of becoming a Tier Six Demon King will greatly increase.

Therefore, after enduring five stages of celestial thunder, it continues to raise its head and strike at the blue-purple thunder even if it gets struck so that its feathers fly and its blood flows freely without backing down.

This beautiful and proud big bird is fighting against the heavens with its life, trying to secure a bright future for itself from the hands of heaven.

"As they say, like owner, like pet, right?"

"Feng Xian, oh Feng Xian, this spirit pet of yours really takes after you!"

"But now, where are you really? Why haven’t you returned?"

On a desolate mountain dozens of miles away from where the thunder tribulation erupted, Zhouyang raised his head to look at the beautiful bird fighting against the heavens, lost in thought. Unbidden, the image of another beautiful and proud woman dressed in rainbow-colored clothes floated into his mind.

The looks and laughter of the rainbow-clothed beauty had long been etched into the depths of his heart, unforgettable in this lifetime.

Even after a hundred years without meeting each other, that stunning face remained as clear in his mind as if it were yesterday, unfaded in the slightest.

Then he quietly clenched his fist, softly murmuring, "Feng Xian, rest assured, whether it’s a hundred or a thousand years, I will wait for you. Even if you don’t come to find me, after I settle all worldly matters, I will come to find you, even if I have to search through the three great cultivation realms, I will definitely find you!"

After murmuring to himself for a while, Zhouyang finally snapped out of his daze, gathering his spirit to continue watching the five-colored big bird in the sky.

At this moment, it was already the seventh stage of the celestial thunder tribulation. The power of the blue-purple lightning falling now was more than double that of the first stage.

The Five-Colored Peacock let out a tragic wail upon being struck by this stage of celestial thunder and fell toward the ground.

But this fall lasted only a few moments before it managed to flap its already battered wings and stabilize its body, stubbornly gazing at the tribulation clouds in the sky. It opened its mouth and crushed a small jade bottle hidden there earlier.

Inside the small jade bottle was a drop of "Rejuvenating Immortal Dew," which Zhouyang had given it for life-saving purposes before it crossed the tribulation.

At this moment, as it consumed this life-saving item, a surge of powerful vitality rushed out from its body, swiftly repairing and healing its gruesome wounds.

The wounds on the Five-Colored Peacock’s body were not yet fully healed when the eighth Celestial Thunder Tribulation descended, crashing down onto its back.

In an instant, all those healed or unhealed wounds burst open and expanded again, and even some intact places cracked open from the impact, oozing bright red blood.

Fortunately, the power of the "Rejuvenating Immortal Dew" had not been exhausted, timely saving it from a state of severe injury and near death.

"Let it go! You’ve done well enough. The power of the ninth Thunder Tribulation is double that of the previous one. In your current state, there’s no way you can withstand it!"

From a distance, Zhouyang shouted hoarsely, advising it to give up.

The ninth Thunder Tribulation is also referred to by the demon race as the "King’s Tribulation," meaning that if one can survive the ninth Thunder Tribulation, there is potential to reach the Tier Six Demon King Realm in the future.

If this Thunder Tribulation were so easy to overcome, with the sheer number of demon beasts, Tier Six demon beasts wouldn’t be rarer than Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

But what made Zhouyang’s expression change drastically was that the Five-Colored Peacock ignored his words, still spreading its wings and soaring high to confront the ninth Thunder Tribulation.

"Damn it! That damned mixed-feathered bird!"

Zhouyang’s face flushed with anger as he couldn’t help but curse out loud, then hurriedly rode the clouds towards the battlefield of the Thunder Tribulation.

With the ninth Thunder Tribulation already underway, even if he went there, it wouldn’t draw the Thunder Tribulation upon himself, so he wouldn’t inadvertently harm the demon beast attempting the Tribulation.

And the Five-Colored Peacock absolutely must not die, or Zhouyang wouldn’t know how to explain to Jiang Fengxian when she returned in the future.

On his way, he had already taken out the remaining two drops of "Rejuvenating Immortal Dew." With this treasure, as long as the Five-Colored Peacock was still breathing, he could save it.

It’s just a pity for this treasure, being the only stock he had.

But when he reached the sky above the battlefield, he was instantly stunned.

Because what he thought was sure death, or at least severe injury and near death for the Five-Colored Peacock, at this moment, it was bathed in seven-colored flames suspended in mid-air, exuding a towering aura of a Tier Five Demon Beast.

"What a lucky bird, you actually succeeded!"

Watching the familiar scene, he couldn’t help but scold with a mix of happiness and annoyance, then put away the jade bottle containing the "Rejuvenating Immortal Dew."

If there is a divine technique better than "Rejuvenating Immortal Dew" for healing injuries, the "Nirvana" divine technique unique to the Phoenix Race is definitely one of them.

The Five-Colored Peacock successfully refined its Phoenix Bloodline under the ninth Thunder Tribulation, condensing "Phoenix True Blood," and luckily awakened and mastered the "Nirvana" divine technique of the Phoenix Race, thereby saving its precarious life.

Such luck truly made Zhouyang envious and jealous.

He was one of the few human cultivators who had personally experienced the "Nirvana" divine technique and was well aware of its miraculous nature. Having this divine technique meant essentially having a second life.

The Five-Colored Peacock awakening and mastering this divine technique meant that it would be among the top tier of Tier Five Demon Beasts and could even have a significant chance of advancing to Tier Six in the future.

Soon after, the Five-Colored Peacock successfully underwent "Nirvana." The feathers scorched in the Thunder Tribulation not only fully recovered but were even more vibrant and beautiful than before, and the original Five-Colored Tail now had two additional colors, transforming into a Seven-Colored Phoenix Tail.

Perhaps calling it a Seven-Colored Peacock would be more fitting now.

However, as Zhouyang looked at the spirited Seven-Colored Peacock flying over, he had no intention of congratulating or praising it, instead angrily scolding: "You were really reckless just now! It doesn’t matter if you die, but what am I supposed to do when your master comes to me for compensation? Where am I going to find another dumb bird like you to compensate her?"

The Seven-Colored Peacock let out a series of loud calls in protest upon hearing this.

Unfortunately, the man and the bird were at cross purposes, each making their own noises, the cursing and calling blending into a raucous noise like a marketplace.

Finally, after Zhouyang finished scolding, his anger subsided for the most part, and he flicked his sleeves and said: "We’ll let it go this time, but if you dare ignore my orders again, I’ll send you back to the Wilderness Jungle to wait for your master for a hundred, a thousand years!"

The Seven-Colored Peacock immediately fell silent upon hearing this, just looking at him with grievance-filled eyes like a little wife who had been wronged.

"Hmph, looking at me won’t change anything, Zhou said what he means. Don’t think I’ll let it slide next time!"

Zhouyang let out a cold snort, immediately retrieving the Seven-Colored Peacock back into the Spirit Beast Ring, and flew towards Chongxuan Mountain.

It was impossible to hide the matter of a demon beast Crossing the Tribulation; he didn’t want Chongxuan Mountain to attract too much attention because of this, so he deliberately led the Five-Colored Peacock away from An Country to this desolate wilderness.

Since the thunder tribulation didn’t last long, even if someone saw the gathering tribulation clouds from afar and rushed over to check the situation, they wouldn’t know exactly which demon beast was undergoing tribulation, let alone who its master was.

Half a year later, Zhouyang similarly took the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, which was about to undergo tribulation, away from Chongxuan Mountain to another place for the celestial thunder tribulation.

With the lessons from before, Zhouyang feared the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle might recklessly court death, so he specially gave it both drops of "Rejuvenating Immortal Dew" to hold in its beak as a precaution.

But in fact, Zhouyang somewhat underestimated the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle’s strength.

Although the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle didn’t possess the Phoenix Bloodline like the Five-Colored Peacock, and couldn’t fortunately awaken and condense "Phoenix True Blood" after crossing the tribulation, it, by consuming the Barbaric Beast Heart, awakened some kind of Barbaric Bird Bloodline, and its body’s strength was far superior to that of the same tier Five-Colored Peacock.

Moreover, as a thunder-attribute demon beast, its resistance to celestial thunder was far greater than other attribute demon beasts, and it could even absorb the heavenly thunder’s power to temper its body.

Thus, having completed all nine thunder tribulations, the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle only consumed a drop of "Rejuvenating Immortal Dew" to restore itself before the ninth tribulation fell, successfully crossing all nine heavenly thunder tribulations unharmed.

After crossing the nine celestial thunders, the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle did not awaken any True Spirit Bloodline like the Five-Colored Peacock, but its bloodline was greatly elevated, giving it the potential to ask the Six Tier Demon King in the future.

With both spirit birds successfully advancing to Tier Five demon beasts, Zhouyang felt an increase in confidence towards the future Chongxuan Mountain battle.

The news that the artifact from Master Cyan Yang had been refined delighted him, and he soon secretly traveled with the two spirit birds to the Profound Sun Immortal Sect, asking Master Cyan Yang to refine the Transverse Bone for them and collect his new magical artifact.

"Tier Five Upper Grade Spiritual Artifact [Flame Dragon Shield], personally crafted by a Tier Six Artifact Refining Grandmaster, using the ten pieces of Tier Six Red Fire Flood Dragon Scale and [Fiery Sun Divine Iron] you provided, the material of the artifact is comparable to a Tier Six artifact, and it can release a flame dragon for defense and attack, its power even surpassing common Tier Five high-grade techniques!"

"Moreover, during its crafting, the artifact refiner left a slot; if you can find the [Glazed Fire Crystal Stone], a Tier Five Spiritual Object, and place it in this slot, you can, through the stone’s power, activate the flame dragon without consuming your own magical power, transforming it into a Glazed Fire Dragon due to the stone’s enhancement."

In the "Cyan Yang Cave," Zhouyang was examining a red shield, shaped like dragon scales, while the cave’s owner, Master Cyan Yang, calmly explained the shield’s uses as a spiritual artifact to him. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on ⓝovelFire.net

After accepting Zhouyang’s commission, he personally went to the Yuqing Daoist Sect and, paying with two [Demon Blood Ancient Lotus] seeds, asked a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator of Tier Six Artifact Refining skills to personally refine the [Flame Dragon Shield] and a Tier Five Pill Furnace for Zhouyang.

Years later, after being refined and tempered, the magical artifact was finally completed and delivered to him, where he personally inspected and received it.

After Zhouyang finished checking the [Flame Dragon Shield], he waved his hand, and an alchemy furnace fell before him.

"Tier Five Middle Grade Pill Furnace [Flame Star Furnace], also crafted by a Tier Six Artifact Refining Grandmaster using the [Flame Star Iron] you provided, featuring unique Magic Ban from Yuqing Daoist Sect, which can significantly enhance the refining speed and reduce the time of the Yun Pill."

Magical artifacts like pill furnaces and artifact cauldrons are very difficult to refine. The [Flame Star Iron] Zhouyang provided was only enough for one attempt. To ensure success, even the Tier Six Artifact Refining Grandmaster had to lower the grade to Tier Five Middle Grade.

Of course, Zhouyang knew there was a hidden truth behind this: top major sects would never easily let a Tier Five Upper Grade pill furnace, considered a strategic treasure, leave their hands.

In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that the commissioner was Master Cyan Yang, even if Zhouyang himself went to find someone, very few artifact refiners would be willing to help him craft one, even if it was a Tier Five Lower Grade pill furnace.

Given the rarity of obtaining a good pill furnace, Zhouyang ultimately chose to have a pill furnace refined rather than an artifact cauldron.

After examining both magical artifacts, he put them all into his Storage Ring, and then, full of gratitude, gave Master Cyan Yang a deep bow and said, "Thank you for your efforts, elder. I will forever be grateful for your profound generosity; should I have the opportunity, I will certainly strive to repay your kindness with all my strength in the future!"

Master Cyan Yang, hearing his words, smiled and said, "If someone else said this, I’d just listen casually, but when you say it, little friend, I believe it one hundred percent and look forward to that day’s arrival."

Zhouyang is known for repaying kindness, as demonstrated when he chose to accompany the expedition to the [Dome Heaven Immortal Realm] to destroy demons last time.

Moreover, Master Cyan Yang was already aware of how Xu Zhengyang extended his life with Zhouyang’s help in obtaining the [Crystal Ice Orchid].

Even someone like Xu Zhengyang, who merely followed instructions to assist Zhouyang, was accompanied by Zhouyang to the Endless Snowfield to retrieve the [Crystal Ice Orchid].

Master Cyan Yang didn’t believe Zhouyang would forget the support and help along the way after successfully refining the pill and forming the infant.

Thinking of this, he waved his hand, saying, "Alright, enough idle talk, your purpose here is also to have the two spirit birds’ Transverse Bones refined, right? Let’s take care of that quickly, then you should return to Chongxuan Mountain to avoid being discovered."

Since he took the initiative to mention this, Zhouyang certainly wouldn’t refuse. He immediately followed Master Cyan Yang into the Spirit Beast Chamber within the cave and released the two spirit birds.

Compared to beasts, spirit birds find it much easier to refine the Transverse Bone. After all, parrots and mynas, common among birds, can be trained to mimic human speech.

Master Cyan Yang, this Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, personally assisted in this matter. In less than five days, he successfully refined the Transverse Bone of two spirit birds, enabling them to master the ability of speaking human language.

However, refining the Transverse Bone merely allows the two spirit birds to speak human language. To truly use this skill well, they need to interact with humans and become familiar with speaking in this way.

Hence, when Zhouyang returned to Chongxuan Mountain, he enlisted Ye Yunshan and Zhou Shengyu, two young disciples, to teach the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle and Seven-Colored Peacock how to speak human language and read.

It just so happened that Ye Yunshan taught the female Seven-Colored Peacock, while Zhou Shengyu taught the male Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, preventing any confusion in accents, avoiding the male speaking female tones and vice versa.

However, what Zhouyang and the others did not expect was, once the two spirit birds initially learned to speak human language, they met on the mountain and suddenly broke into a cacophony of insults.

"Gah gah gah, Jiang Cai’Er, you foolish bird! I heard from the master that when you were crossing the Celestial Thunder Tribulation, you were nearly struck to death. I was wondering why you didn’t get struck dead? Then I could have a roast chicken!"

"Bah, Zhou Jinpeng, you big-eyed chicken, you’re the real lowly bird. You managed to cross through nine Celestial Thunder Tribulations and awakened no True Spirit Bloodline. Your bloodline is really lowly. Birds like you with lowly bloodlines can only peck on the ground for food with other lowly birds while watching me fly to the treetops and transform into a phoenix!"

If a cultivator’s spirit pet grows to a high tier, it usually adopts the master’s surname. Hence, the Seven-Colored Peacock is naturally called Jiang Cai’Er, and the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle is called Zhou Jinpeng.

Tier Five Demon Beasts have an intelligence comparable to human youngsters. Both Jiang Cai’Er and the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle have taken the Spirit Awakening Pill, thus their intelligence is entirely on par with humans, each having quite distinct personalities.

Jiang Cai’Er, with noble blood, has a personality as proud as her master Jiang Fengxian. But she possesses that pride without elegance, transforming into a haughty and unrestrained "little pepper"—quite spicy indeed.

Zhou Jinpeng’s personality is similarly proud, but unlike Jiang Cai’Er’s inherent blood-related pride, his is an arrogance akin to an eagle overlooking the earth and viewing all creatures as prey—a sort of brazen arrogance.

This brazen arrogance makes him prone to speak without thought, offending others, and within the arrogance lies a notorious habit of speaking disrespectfully. Combined, it nearly forms a divine technique, "open mouth breeds enmity," making him skilled at creating animosity.

Even Zhouyang, his master, would feel provoked enough to want to pluck his feathers when speaking with him directly.

In any case, knowing that these two birds engage in foul-mouthed battles daily, the thing Zhouyang regretted the most was helping them refine the Transverse Bone, giving them the chance to speak human language.

"Is that human language they’re speaking? That’s language of feathered beasts!"

That’s often what he mutters when perturbed by these two birds.

But one must admit, the frequent verbal sparring between the two birds did indeed alleviate the increasingly tense atmosphere on the mountain considerably.

At least the appearance of two Tier Five spirit birds allowed disciples aware of the situation on the mountain to secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

The lineup, consisting of two Golden Core Stage cultivators and two Tier Five spirit birds, was already comparable to a middle-level sect. With such strength, even if a war breaks out, Chongxuan Mountain may not necessarily fall.

Zhouyang felt the same.

However, the reason for his relief was the confidence provided by the refinement of the Flaming Dragon Shield artifact.

This Defensive Spiritual Artifact was the most precious among all Tier Five spiritual artifacts he owned, also the most powerful. With it in hand, his survival on the battlefield significantly increased.

For the next few years, Zhouyang did not leave Chongxuan Mountain, dedicating himself to seclusion in the cave dwelling, focusing bitterly on cultivating divine techniques and refining his cultivation.

Six years passed, and the anticipated war finally erupted.

After several years of probing, the Six Paths Alliance finally confirmed that Lu Xuanji had indeed meditated into death as an immortal. Then they spread the news to dishearten the Profound Purity Dao Alliance’s morale internally, while simultaneously gearing up to launch an aggressive war of expansion.

In this war, the Six Paths Alliance launched attacks from three locations along borders, with Chongxuan Mountain—situated within An Country but backing Chang Country as its foothold—being one of the main targets.

As soon as the news of the Six Paths Alliance’s massive attack reached Chongxuan Mountain, Zhouyang immediately emerged from seclusion to gather the disciples on the mountain, fully activating the Mountain Protection Array, the Five Elements Returning to Origin Array, in a posture of resolute defense of Chongxuan Mountain.

Subsequently, within half a day, several sword lights accompanied by seven or eight large Void Traveling Tower Ships arrived outside Chongxuan Mountain.