Chapter 0091

Chapter 91: Weather the Calamity, Attain Sainthood!

Zhou Tong’s face changed and he spoke at once, urgent and firm: “No. You cannot break through now.”

The gap between half-saint and Saint was a life-and-death gate. Countless top experts had fallen before it. On that step, one usually suffered one calamity and one tribulation from the “three calamities and four tribulations.” Calamities were great disasters. Tribulations were smaller trials. By his judgment, most tribulations were a fate tribulation that hardened the bottleneck. After passing that, one would face one of the three calamities. Only by surviving that could one set foot into the Saint realm.

In a way, the fate tribulation was not a disaster but a shield. When a cultivator was too weak to face a calamity, the fate tribulation acted like a barrier to keep the much worse calamity away. Once the cultivator could break through the fate tribulation, it meant they had gained the basic ability to protect themselves and would not die ten times out of ten when the calamity came.

But now things were strange. Zhou Tong could not sense any trace of the fate tribulation on Mu Rong Ya. Her cultivation kept climbing. She was about to touch the Saint threshold. When the three calamities descended, her body, already tormented by heart demons, would never hold.

He urged her, struggling to rise even as she pinned him: “Master, stop now, or trouble will come.”

Her chill grew so heavy even he could barely bear it. Her voice turned distant and hollow, like it came from far away, as she answered in a daze: “I did not try to break through. I just feel so cold…”

Two lines of blood tears slid from her eyes. It was a sign of collapse. Zhou Tong’s heart tightened. “The danger is too great,” he decided, jaw set. “We cannot wait. Do not blame me.”

Red light surged from him. The Joyous Union Lock gathered like an angry dragon and climbed over Mu Rong Ya’s body. He called to her in a low, steady voice: “Master, listen to me. Calm down.”

Her reply was ragged and hot with strain: “How am I supposed to calm down?”

Zhou Tong’s eyes widened. For the first time, the Joyous Union Lock failed. Or rather, it was being held back. A chaotic power clung to her and shielded her against the Lock. He drew a sharp breath. [One of the three calamities has already fallen.] Only power of that level could suppress the Joyous Union Lock.

His panic lasted but a heartbeat. He steadied at once. The urgent task was to find which calamity it was. The Body-Destruction Calamity shattered the flesh. The Mind-Chaos Calamity scrambled the soul. The Path-Severing Calamity ruined one’s foundation. Each was terrifying. If he guessed wrong, the result would be unbearable.

He growled, every word like iron: “I do not care what you are. You will not hurt the one I protect. Mu Rong Ya is under my shelter. Understand?”

He might be the only person in history to threaten a heavenly calamity. Light flared at his brow. His mental power drove straight in and poured into Mu Rong Ya.

She let out a sound that was half pain, half a strange comfort. Her eyes cleared for a moment. Zhou Tong seized the opening. The Joyous Union Lock rushed in and took hold, draining her strength. He rose and pulled the soft, boneless woman into his arms, sensing every detail inside her with care.

She lifted her chin with stubborn fire, eyes full of anger and unwillingness, voice sharp as she hissed: “Little one, I hate you.” If not for the Lock, he had no doubt he would already be flat on the floor.

Then change came again. The white frost in her hair melted away. Black hair fell like a waterfall. Her bearing turned gentle and elegant once more. She looped her hands around his neck like a snake, clinging as if she would never let go, and murmured, tender and sweet: “Little one… I like you. I like you so much. Do not bully me anymore.”

Zhou Tong opened his mouth to speak, but Mu Rong Ya’s brows knit again. Big beads of sweat rolled down her forehead and soaked his clothes as she gasped: “It hurts so much… my head feels like something is tearing me apart. Little one, save me.”

Seeing this, Zhou Tong actually let out a quiet breath. [Good. It is the Mind-Chaos Calamity.] Under this calamity, the soul reversed and the mind went muddy. A small misstep would return a person to blank ignorance, stripping all wisdom and turning them into a complete fool.

His voice turned low and warm as he held her tighter: “Do not be afraid. I am here. I will carry it all for you.”

If it had been one of the other two calamities, it would be much harder. But against the Mind-Chaos Calamity, his Emperor Realm spirit was more than enough. Normally, no one could help another resist a calamity. But through the Joyous Union Lock, the two of them were already one. It was fully possible now.

He spoke close to her ear, steady and sure: “Give everything to me.”

At his words, the tension left her body. She went soft and trusting. Zhou Tong loosened his guard and opened his mind wide. He let the endless calamity aura rush straight into him. He did not move at all.

Greed, anger, and delusion piled up like a flood. They were the byproducts of a soul in chaos. They could not harm him. They even became his nourishment. [A little more… with this I can trigger the Formless Exquisite Pearl and step into the Formless Realm.]

Time flowed. Mu Rong Ya’s cultivation kept rising, stable and even. At last a gentle, mysterious glow burst from her. Zhou Tong stared and whispered in awe: “She passed the Mind-Chaos Calamity and has become a Saint.”

She had broken through just like that. There was no flood of heaven and earth spiritual energy, no awe-shaking Lightning Tribulation, no roaring signs at all. It was calm, restrained, and almost quiet. He remembered his breakthrough in his past life. Spiritual energy linked the four seas. Lightning Tribulation covered the nine provinces. Everyone under heaven knew. This now was a miracle, a sign from the gods.

He looked at the woman in his arms. She was drenched in fragrant sweat, lazy and lovely. She even snuggled closer, wearing a contented glow. Who would think that someone acting like a little daughter was actually a female Saint whose power reached the sky?

She met his eyes, then said with a serious face that could not hide her joy: “Little one, I want to take back what I said. I do not hate you. I also do not like you… I am super into you.”

Warm lips pressed to his cheek. She smiled: “This is your master’s reward.”

He joked in a dry voice, half laughing: “Your reward… is a Saint’s spit?”

She leaned in, playful and bold: “You do not like it? Then open your mouth. Your master will feed you herself.”

He waved quickly with a grin: “Stop, stop… I like it. No need to trouble you, elder.”

Her eyes narrowed as she pushed closer, almost sitting on his lap, and asked with a mock threat: “Am I old?”

Just then the door swung open. Zhang Chu Qiao walked in carrying the little demoness and announced in high spirits: “I won big.”