Chapter 295

Chapter 295: Master Ling Xiao Is About to Break Through to Void Refinement

Master Ling Xiao pressed down his excitement, straightened his robes on purpose, snuffed out the flames around him, and only when he was sure nothing looked unusual did he rise.

In the next instant he crossed space and teleported straight to the main peak.

Shen Dao Chen paused his work and looked up in surprise, his tone mildly scolding: “Ling Xiao, why did you suddenly come here? Mu Mu is about to look for you. If you come here, she will not be able to find you.”

A faint displeasure touched Master Ling Xiao’s face, but he chose to ignore Shen Dao Chen’s words and said blandly, as if it were nothing important: “I am about to break through.”

Shen Dao Chen shot to his feet, voice bursting with joy: “Truly?”

“Mm,” Master Ling Xiao replied, still outwardly calm.

“Good, excellent! Then the Flying Cloud Sect’s current crisis will be solved at once!” Shen Dao Chen’s earlier resentments toward Master Ling Xiao vanished without a trace.

“With a Void Refining Stage cultivator holding the fort, who would dare look down on the Flying Cloud Sect? Who would dare step on our heads?”

The Flying Cloud Sect’s old standing would return.

After breaking through to Void Refinement, a cultivator steps into a new world the Cultivation World calls the Transition Realm. There, cultivators continue training until Ascension.

But in the past, the Cultivation World had no such Transition Realm. In the Ninghua Sect’s golden age, cultivators at Void Refinement, Integration Stage, and Great Ascension Stage all cultivated within the Cultivation World itself.

For example, Immortal Lord Chang Li had reached the Great Ascension Stage.

The Transition Realm formed later, nurtured by the heaven-and-earth Spiritual Qi into a new world that offers denser Spiritual Qi for high-level cultivation.

After Void Refinement, the amount of Spiritual Qi needed to advance becomes beyond imagination.

In simple terms, the Transition Realm appeared to keep them from draining the Cultivation World dry of Spiritual Qi.

In the last few thousand years, only a handful have made it to the Transition Realm.

Now, finally, someone else was on the verge of breaking through, and he belonged to the Flying Cloud Sect. How could Shen Dao Chen not be thrilled?

He snorted and said with pride: “And about that child Sang Ruo, what is there to fear from a tiny, unformed sect?”

His thoughts matched Master Ling Xiao’s without planning. Once Master Ling Xiao broke through to the Void Refining Stage, he could bring Shen Sang Ruo back directly.

Although Master Ling Xiao would be entering the Transition Realm, he could choose when to go. He could remain in the Cultivation World for up to three months.

Three months was enough time to do many things.

Master Ling Xiao’s lips curved slightly as he said calmly: “Why force her to return? After I break through, I am sure she will understand that choosing me as her Master is far better than that firebird.”

He was composed and confident, certain of victory, just as he had always been, proud to the bone.

Shen Dao Chen did not argue. As long as Shen Sang Ruo returned, he would be happy.

After a moment, he remembered something, reined in his expression, and asked: “Were you not troubled by a Heart Devil, unable to calm your mind to cultivate? How are you about to break through so soon?”

He had assumed that only when Shen Sang Ruo came back to purge Master Ling Xiao’s Heart Devil would Master Ling Xiao be able to break through smoothly.

Master Ling Xiao lifted his eyelids and said with open disdain: “A little Heart Devil, what can it do to me?”

Whatever his character, Master Ling Xiao had ranked first in the Cultivation World for a thousand years. His raw strength was unquestionable.

He could force down the Heart Devil for a time.

Besides, his Heart Devil had not fully formed. And the thought that breaking through to Void Refinement would let him bring Shen Sang Ruo back had offset much of his obsession.

Shen Dao Chen asked with worry: “What about when you break through?”

Crossing into Void Refinement brings sixty-four strikes of Heavenly Lightning Tribulation, and it can also trigger a Heart-Devil Tribulation. A Heart-Devil Tribulation is even more terrifying than the lightning. A single misstep can let the Heart Devil seize control and drive one into madness.

Given Master Ling Xiao’s current state, the tribulation would likely draw out his Heart Devil. The chance of triggering a Heart-Devil Tribulation was very high.

With an unsteady dao heart, trying to cross tribulation was nine deaths out of ten.

This was the true reason Master Ling Xiao had come to Shen Dao Chen, but he would not say it. He only said coolly: “So it is lightning and a Heart-Devil Tribulation. It is not as if I have not faced them before. I will cross them again. What is there to fear?”

Shen Dao Chen’s face grew solemn as he promised: “We cannot be careless. When the time comes, I and all the Elders of the Flying Cloud Sect will serve as your Dharma Protectors to make sure you cross safely.”

“Do as you wish. I am going into Closed-Door Cultivation,” Master Ling Xiao said, and vanished from sight.

Shen Dao Chen let out a long sigh.

He felt this tribulation would not be easy, mainly because Master Ling Xiao’s dao heart already had a problem.

That had never happened before.

He hoped it would go smoothly.

No, it must go smoothly. The Flying Cloud Sect would give everything to ensure Master Ling Xiao’s success. Shen Dao Chen’s eyes hardened as he gripped his teacup.

Meanwhile, when Bai Mu Mu went to find Master Ling Xiao, she naturally could not find him.

Thunder-Scale Peak no longer bustled as it once had. Besides her, only Feng He Yun and Lu Shi Qing were on the peak.

One was busy brewing and spent every day at the winery, circling that jar of mulberry wine.

The other scoured everywhere for Shen Sang Ruo’s lingering regret, sometimes losing control, his mood very unstable.

Both were sunk in the work of retrieving feelings.

With Wen Xuan as their example, the two now treated Bai Mu Mu like a plague god, avoiding her at all costs.

When they learned she had returned to Thunder-Scale Peak, they hid in their own cave dwellings, afraid she would frame them and get them thrown into the Disciplinary Tower.

They did not want to be locked away for ten years. They still needed to recover Shen Sang Ruo’s feelings.

Bai Mu Mu could not be bothered with them. She only sneered at them in her heart and went to prepare her own plans.

Since she could not lead teams out of the sect for training, she would have to carry out Proving the Dao through Slaughter inside the Flying Cloud Sect, which meant she had to be even more careful.

It would be best to kill a group at a time. If even one disciple met with an accident, the entire Flying Cloud Sect would be on alert at once.

So she decided to raise her favorability with other disciples first, then trick them into a forbidden ground and wipe them out all at once.

News that Master Ling Xiao was about to break through was like a calming pill for the Flying Cloud Sect, and things grew stable again.

Neither Master Ling Xiao nor Bai Mu Mu hurried. Both moved forward steadily along their chosen paths.

A few days later, the System’s excited voice rang in Bai Mu Mu’s mind.

[Host, the System has contacted that power. They are willing to take us in!]

Bai Mu Mu smiled and said: “Well done. Do you know where that power comes from?”

She would not be foolish enough to sell herself out. She needed to check the other side’s background.

[That power seems to come from very far away, but the System can confirm it is safe for us.]

[We only need the Host to help it complete tasks, and it will provide power.]

[It is all benefit and no harm to the Host. Please agree quickly.]