Chapter Ninety-Seven: Surviving by a Hair's Breadth

The formation that sealed the entire abyss sprang to life. Sword talismans turned into sword qi that shot skyward, and the sword light coursed in a pattern of its own. At a glance, the array formed by the forty-nine talismans seemed like ten thousand blades hanging in the air.

Inside the tribulation zone, lightning and sword light scraped violently against one another, bursting into countless eerily beautiful blooms of fire that rose into the sky and then showered back down in glittering sparks. The onlookers all stared upward, and no one noticed the blackened, smoking figure crawling out of the ravine on the ground.

Only when she heard Yu Shiyu’s voice did Yu Youwei suddenly turn around and see him standing unsteadily at the edge of the chasm.

“Can you still hold on?” Yu Youwei asked with concern.

“I need time to recover,” said Yu Shiyu. He looked more like a smoking wooden post than a man, but the corners of his mouth split in a grin, revealing stark white teeth, and his eyes shone with unyielding battle intent.

The sword-light shield of the Return-to-Origin Formation was struck by ever fiercer tribulation lightning. Each blow sent it quivering violently, as though it might shatter like a soap bubble in the morning light at any moment.

Then, seeing the volcanic eruption at the edge of the tribulation zone, Yu Youwei’s heart leaped into her throat.

The commotion in the lightning tribulation area drew many disciples from other estates, and the Xiang clan members did not leave either. They all stood watching from afar, waiting for the moment the formation would be blasted apart by the tribulation lightning and the Yu siblings reduced to nothing.

“She really is hard to kill. Even this didn’t finish her off,” Ning Jinchun said through clenched teeth, his eyes fixed darkly on the slender figure within the tribulation zone.

Inside the zone, the tribulation lightning had still failed to break through the formation. Violet lightning and explosive shockwaves roamed madly through the air, only to be guided by the wandering sword light into the fissures in the ground, deep toward the heart of the earth. But Yu Shiyu’s condition was terrible. His injuries were far more severe than Yu Youwei had imagined; his dantian was on the verge of collapse. He struggled to guide the last remnants of spiritual power in his body through a full circulatory cycle.

The energy in the sword talismans was draining away at terrifying speed, and the sword-light shield grew more and more unstable. Yu Youwei was frantic, stealing glances at Yu Shiyu again and again. In the thunderclouds, the final tribulation bolt was gathering strength. It was taking even longer to form than the bolts before it, and its power was clearly greater as well. She estimated the formation would probably not be able to withstand it.

The volcanic magma had already begun to erupt. With heaven’s thunder added to volcanic fire, she, having tempered her body in the Dragon Blood Pool, might still endure the magma’s searing heat, but her second brother would surely die.

“Ning Jinchun, you’re dead!” she cursed, her face livid.

Far away, Ning Jinchun, who had been watching the spectacle, suddenly shivered for no reason.

“Damn this so-called heavenly law. That tribulation lightning is absurdly powerful—its might is barely any weaker than a Nascent Soul cultivator’s,” someone among the spectators exclaimed.

Time seemed to stretch endlessly at that moment. Everyone inside and outside the tribulation zone held their breath, except for Yu Shiyu, who was seizing every second to recover, his composure so remarkable that even cultivators from other sects admired him.

At last, the deep violet tribulation bolt came crashing down. Thunder roared, shaking heaven and earth. The Return-to-Origin Formation exploded with a deafening blast, and the shockwave plunged into the ravine, all the way to the earth’s core. A dull boom sounded from far beneath the ground, rattling everyone on the surface with fear. The spectators scattered in all directions, while Xiang Cunze and the others who held their ground were thrown askew by the force. Yu Youwei, still inside the tribulation zone, was blasted dozens of meters into the air.

The heavens and earth reeled. Cracks spread across the ground centered on the ravine, widening at terrifying speed. While still airborne, Yu Youwei saw incandescent red magma surge up from the fissures between the ravine and the earth.

Yu Shiyu, seated cross-legged on the ground, was flung upward as well. He was in very bad shape. Even though the final tribulation bolt had been largely diverted by the formation, the impact he endured was still astonishing. His whole body was charred, then split open by the shock, exposing vivid red flesh. The instant the blood spilled out, it was seared dry. Waves of unbearable pain and suffocation crashed over him again and again, and he could not help thinking in panic: Am I going to die?

“Hold on!” Yu Youwei shouted with all her strength. The moment Yu Shiyu slammed into the ground, her heart felt as though it had been stabbed with a knife. She might not feel much allegiance to the Yu clan, but after facing the tribulation together, she could not simply watch a kinsman of the same bloodline die before her eyes.

Amid the thunder, Yu Shiyu heard her cry. Warmth flowed through his chest. He was not alone. When he was crossing the tribulation, his ninth sister was with him. And at that moment, he truly came to regard her as his own sister.

No, I can’t die!

A fierce unwillingness surged within him. A flash of brilliant light cut through his eyes as he looked up at the lightning raging above the clouds. His consciousness followed that dancing lightning, and the berserk spiritual power in his body seemed to be suppressed by some immense will, settling rapidly as water returning to its channel.

“Ninth Sister, you hold on too!” Yu Shiyu shouted.

At that moment, he had been thrown dozens of meters into the air. Helplessly, he looked down at the molten red magma surging below, certain his life was forfeit. Yet just then Yu Youwei wheeled through the air toward him, as graceful as if she were frolicking in a courtyard, serene in appearance but swift as lightning flashing across the horizon.

Beneath a sky lit by fire and thunder into a splendor beyond words, the Yu siblings hovered together in midair, their entire beings radiating an overbearing arrogance that seemed to look down upon the world.

From afar, the Yu clan disciples were moved to tears at the sight.

Compared with them, people like Xiang Cunze, Xiang Bingfeng, and Ning Jinchun, all of whom had ulterior motives, were much more dismayed. Ning Jinchun in particular said furiously, “With lightning tribulation and volcanic eruption both going off, they still won’t die? Their luck is beyond ridiculous!”

“How can she not die?” Xiang Bingfeng muttered through gritted teeth, her voice full of envy and hatred.

The thunderclouds had not yet fully dispersed, but the power of the tribulation was already ebbing like a receding tide. Yu Youwei sighed in relief. “The tribulation is finally over. Get ready to make our exit!”

Surviving such a disaster filled Yu Shiyu with immense exhilaration. Though this crossing had happened passively, and the original target had even been wiped out, the benefits of successfully passing the tribulation were enormous. He had only just entered the Foundation Establishment stage, but his realm had been forced directly up to the Golden Core stage, and his strength had surged to the level of mid-Foundation Establishment.

Glancing at the onlookers, Yu Shiyu swept his sword through the air in a feint. The incandescent magma that burst upward was drawn after it like a soaring fire dragon. The spectators scattered like startled birds and beasts at the sight, while the Yu clan disciples and Ning Yixuan’s group rushed over.

The flow of time inside the Illusory Demon Realm differed from that outside. As the saying went, one day in the mountain, a thousand years in the world; though the difference here was not quite so exaggerated, one day inside still meant a full month outside. Worried about the situation beyond, Yu Shiyu had no mind for conversation and led everyone straight to Tiger Roar Mountain, where the teleportation array was located.

Earlier, Ning Zhongwu had explained that Tiger Roar Mountain rose like a tiger crouching on a high peak, with a hollowed interior. The teleportation array was located within the mountain’s belly. Standing beneath it, Yu Youwei could only see clear springs pouring from the stone near the “tiger claw” area, sparkling like scattered beads in the glow of the distant fire. She looked left and right but could not find any entrance into the mountain’s interior.

The disciples from the ten estates had all gathered. Once the appointed time arrived, a surge of energy would appear in the Illusory Demon Realm and activate the teleportation array. They had to leave immediately, or they would be trapped there. There had never been any precedent of anyone surviving three years in the Illusory Demon Realm, so no one dared miss the departure time. Even Ning Jinchun, afraid that Yu Youwei might settle accounts with him, did not dare hide away.

“Robbery. Hand over everything you gained, or forget about entering the teleportation array.”

With that one line, Yu Shiyu became, in everyone’s eyes, a complete and utter madman.