Chapter 154: Where Are You Going, Tang the Profligate? Seeking Subscriptions

Chapter 154: Where Are You Going, Fop Tang?

Seeing the Dao Origin Thunder Lord manifest his true form and sweep out massive bolts of lightning with a gaze of peerless sharpness, Tang Youyou realized he could no longer take this lightly.

While he could use his golden crown and heavy cloak to block the lightning bolts externally, the formless might of that lightning had ruthlessly swept directly into his spiritual consciousness.

His divine sense had already suffered damage from his long-distance journey, and this assault caused him to experience excruciating pain.

Simultaneously, the boundless tribulation water unleashed by the Qingxu Thunder came crashing down like an overwhelming deluge. Every single drop of this seawater possessed the terrifying might to pierce through a planet, to say nothing of the infinite ocean's power to crush the void and pierce through eternity.

If even a single droplet of that water were to touch him, it would be equivalent to a full-force strike from a Celestial Venerable, capable of reducing a planet to fine powder in an instant.

Tang Youyou watched helplessly as the Meteor Continent was crushed into powder by the immense volume of seawater, completely dissolving within it. Yet that endless ocean continued to surge through the empty air, rolling directly toward him.

Weighing his options, Tang Youyou knew he could tear open a spatial rift once more. However, the current floodwaters were so immense that even such a spatial rift would fail to attract them away; they would still roll forward and grind him to dust.

To say he would die was an exaggeration. After all, he still possessed the strength of a True Monarch; while he couldn't completely overcome this ocean, it was equally impossible for the seawater to truly destroy him.

What depressed Tang Youyou the most was that this battered body of his probably wouldn't be able to hold out. If he ended up looking completely tattered and torn, it would simply invite ridicule from others.

Consequently, the thought of retreating arose in Tang Youyou's mind.

However, did you think you could just leave whenever you pleased? Did you think this was your own backyard?

Standing over there was a pig butcher, after all. Even if Erlang Shen was too embarrassed to intercept you, would the pig butcher simply let you go?

At that moment, seeing the might of the heavenly tribulation grow increasingly formidable and the types of tribulation lightning multiply, Tu Zhe turned his gaze toward Little Thunder, the Three Demonic Maidens, and the various demonic dragon guards.

He discovered that Little Thunder, whose condition was the best, had already gained control of his primordial Qi. His speed of cultivation was advancing by leaps and bounds, and it seemed he had already begun condensing a golden core within his sea of Qi.

Tu Zhe checked his own sea of Qi, only to find it unchanged, devoid of any drastic alterations. A hint of envy toward his brother instantly welled up inside him.

Damn it, your big brother here hasn't even formed his core yet, and you're running ahead like this? Heh.

Envy was envy, but he was still genuinely happy for his brother.

Taking another look at the Three Demonic Maidens, Tu Zhe mentally cursed, "Are you kidding me?", and his envy grew even more intense.

What kind of world was this? Even the Three Demonic Maidens had already formed their golden cores, and there were even faint signs of those golden cores transforming into nascent souls.

Still, these were all good things. Tu Zhe hadn't reached the point of petty jealousy and hatred; at most, it was just a bit of admiration.

He quickly swept his spiritual consciousness across the various demonic dragon guards and saw that their meridians had also been successfully opened up, showing precursors to core formation. Only then did the pig butcher set his mind at ease.

Just as one worry was put to rest, another rose to the surface.

Seeing that even the Dao Origin Thunder Lord had emerged, Tu Zhe pondered: apart from his own divine sense, how could Little Thunder, the Three Demonic Maidens, and the dragon guards possibly withstand the lightning purification of the Dao Origin Thunder Lord? Meanwhile, the entire Meteor Continent had already been crushed into fine powder by the boundless seawater.

Tu Zhe immediately made a decision. He swept Little Thunder and the others back into his Sumeru Ring in one swift motion. At the same time, he cast a large-scale Concealment Spell, directly masking the heavenly secrets surrounding the Sumeru Ring on his finger. This severed the connection between the laws of the Arctic world and the Sumeru Ring, making the heavenly tribulation incapable of sensing the existence of such a ring on his finger. Having lost its targets, the tribulation would only focus its wrath upon him and Tang Youyou.

This was precisely what Tu Zhe intended. He would let Little Thunder and the others safely ascend within the ring, while he himself cultivated his golden core by refining primordial Qi, all while dealing with Tang Youyou with his full strength.

If Tang Youyou were allowed to escape today, Tu Zhe would genuinely vomit blood.

Tu Zhe's depression was entirely justified. Whether in terms of cultivation comprehension or spiritual consciousness, he vastly surpassed his sworn brothers. How was it that Little Thunder was already on the verge of forming his core, while he himself showed not the slightest sign of it?

In truth, what he didn't know was that Little Thunder had always practiced Daoist techniques, making him intimately familiar with the process of core formation. Now, with a massive, inexhaustible supply of primordial Qi at his disposal, his cultivation path was naturally smooth, unobstructed, and exceptionally fast in advancement.

The pig butcher wondered if it was because his own divine sense was simply too vast—his power was climbing endlessly, making it extraordinarily difficult to break through the realm of physical cultivation?

When he thought about it, that made complete sense.

If one compared the physical body to a bucket, Little Thunder's bucket, though not small, had a capacity only a few times greater than an ordinary bucket.

But Tu Zhe was completely different. The capacity of his bucket was countless times larger than a normal one. If calculated based on Little Thunder's capacity, even if several hundred or a thousand Little Thunders were added together, they might not equal the volume of Tu Zhe alone.

Therefore, when a bucket fills up with primordial Qi and reaches its limit, it naturally condenses into liquid; when the liquid is full, it naturally compresses into a solid—and that solid was what they called the golden core.

Thus, for someone like Tu Zhe, whose capacity was a thousand times greater than Little Thunder's, trying to form a core was truly arduous in the extreme. Not only did it require an immense amount of primordial Qi, but it demanded even more time to liquefy and solidify.

Therefore, the pig butcher didn't realize that this "bag of rotten meat" he himself disdained was actually countless times sturdier than the physical bodies of ordinary cultivators—though admittedly still somewhat inferior to the sacred body of Erlang Shen.

The problem was, how many years had Erlang Shen cultivated? How many years had the pig butcher even been alive?

Just as the pig butcher's mind was wandering and grumbling, he suddenly noticed signs that Tang Youyou was about to make a run for it. Tu Zhe instantly flew into a rage.

Damn it, you've come to cause trouble for me time and time again. If I just let you walk away like this, wouldn't this stifling anger inside us build up and drive us crazy?

Damn it, we killed you once; could it be that we can't kill you a second time?

In truth, the pig butcher could also see that the Tang Youyou who had reappeared was no longer comparable to the one from their first fight.

During their first encounter, no matter how wild he was, he was at most at the mid-stage Great Emperor realm. Yet this time around, upon his return, he was actually able to go toe-to-toe with Erlang Shen.

What kind of concept was that, damn it?

He had leaped straight past the late Great Emperor, peak late Great Emperor, early Celestial Venerable, peak early Celestial Venerable, mid Celestial Venerable, peak mid Celestial Venerable, late Celestial Venerable, and peak late Celestial Venerable stages! Even if he hadn't quite reached the early True Monarch realm, he couldn't even be a half-step away from it anymore, could he?

In just a few short days—days where he had merely been dallying with little Su and enjoying romantic moments of moonlight and flowers—this guy had vaulted across eight major and minor realms in a single bound?

If you were given a bit more time, wouldn't you leap straight into the True Immortal realm?

That wasn't very scientific, was it?

Tu Zhe didn't mention how defying the heavens his own leap-style advancement was; he was simply indignant that Tang Youyou's leveling speed was so outrageously fast.

You damn fop, you good-for-nothing maternal relative, you debauched lush, you lunatic who didn't even know which way Peking University's gates faced—how could you possibly deserve a leap-style promotion in cultivation?

Yet, it was an undeniable fact that Tang Youyou's divine powers had massively surged. Envious as he was, the pig butcher had no choice but to accept reality.

Still, this really wasn't very scientific, was it?