Ch46 - Forty-Nine Strikes

The first heavenly thunder brimming with abundant spiritual power descended and it just so happened to land on the middle of the head of the lower-leveled nine-tailed serpent. It was only one blow, yet it split its skull apart from the center! 

The head of the serpent, which was as immense as a log cabin, drooped towards two opposite sides with its reptilian pupils constricted, dying discontent. The serpent’s mouth, which was agape like a coffin as if it attesting to the fact that it dyed unwillingly and desperately wanted to take one or two lives with it before it completely perished.

The surviving serpent saw its partner die abruptly and was overtaken by unspeakable grief and indignation. It raised its head to the heavens and howled, its reptilian tongue as thick as an arm flickered out, trying to entangle Xu Xingzhi within.

Xu Xingzhi had already been burned so badly that he couldn’t even distinguish the cardinal directions anymore, but his experience accumulated from fighting all sorts of ghosts and aberrations over the many years allowed his body to develop an instinct to avoid danger. He twisted his waist to avoid its foul-smelling tongue, stepped on top of the nine-tailed serpent’s skull, transformed his fan into a sword, and swung it down with all the strength he could muster to stab it towards the back of the monster’s head!

The acrid and scalding fresh blood splashed all over Xu Xingzhi’s head and face. 

The nine-tailed serpent has cultivated every inch of its reptilian bones meticulously so it is naturally not afraid of such a minor injury, but it understood the purpose of Xu Xingzhi’s action and started to shake it’s serpentine head crazily, rolling, roaring, hating that it couldn’t just open its massive mandible in an inverted position facing upwards to tear Xu Xingzhi off from his spot above.

The serpent’s body was flexible and malleable, its scales smooth and slick. Its thick tail slapped the mountain range, creating a loud honghong sound that made the earth quake and the mountain shake.

However, Xu Xingzhi crouched down and remained motionless, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly with both hands, pressing down with his elbows as hard as he could, exerting increasing force inch by inch, slowly pushing the edge of the blade along the wound, anchoring himself on the massive serpentine head.

Extensive rain clouds pressed close like pursuing beasts, gathering above Xu Xingzhi’s head. The rapidly condensed water vapor made Xu Xingzhi’s palms a little slick and the thick breath of watery mist seemed to be even able to decompose gold and silver. The muffled thunder rolled past Xu Xingzhi’s eardrums like the hooves of ten thousand galloping horses or the frenzied tide of the Qiantang.

“Come ah.” Xu Xingzhi’s cheeks were flushed with fever and his grin even had a hint of madness that was brought on by intoxication. No one knew who he was talking to, maybe it was to the thunder close at hand or to the giant serpent he trampled underfoot, “. . . Come ah, let me see how capable you are.”

The dying roar of the nine-tailed colossus serpent made his ears ring to the extent that he couldn’t even hear the thunder clearly.

He raised his face, casting his gaze around blankly in an attempt to look for those familiar faces.

The disciples of all the sects were aware of the dangers of heavenly thunder, thus they retreated one after another. Qu Chi kept a strong hold of Zhou Beinan, whose veins bulged due to the force he exerted. Zhou Beinan’s desperate look seemed a little comedic, at the very least, Xu Xingzhi had never seen him lose his composure before. 

He thought disjointedly that even if he survived this time, he would probably still be beaten badly by Zhou Beinan.

Yuan Ruzhou already couldn’t stand it anymore and supported herself on Xu Pingsheng’s arm, who was standing by her side, and wept silently.

Jiu Zhideng’s arms were restrained behind his back by Guangfu-jun and was pressed against the ground along with his sword unceremoniously, struggling endlessly.

Xu Xingzhi’s field of vision was blurred and only felt that he was separated from that child by the mountains and the sea, but his distant screams scraped against his heart like sandpaper, making his heart ache. 

Xu Xingzhi’s lips parted slightly, wanting to advise Guangfu-jun to be more gentle, while at the same time, he swept his eyes around restlessly, trying to locate Meng Chongguang.

However, he searched left and right, but still couldn’t find a hint of that child.

Xu Xingzhi felt a slightly inexplicable regret.

A beam of silver light shone down directly above his head, Xu Xingzhi was still optimistic and at ease in the beginning, until the lightning struck his body like genuine swords and blades, making him scream a hoarse, heartstopping cry of pain. 

That flash of thunder and lightning washed through his lungs thoroughly.

For a moment, he thought that he might as well have let the nine-tailed serpent bite him in two instead for the sake of a quicker and more clear-cut demise.

That nine-tailed serpent lost its cultivation partner, and also lost its support at the same time. In the end, it was still a beast that hadn’t yet cultivated to the perfected pinnacle of the Golden Core stage. After receiving this blow to the skull, it didn’t even have the time to screech before its body turned into a lump of stiffened flesh and fell limply to one side.

Xu Xingzhi knew that the overall situation was settled so he let go of his hands with confidence, allowing his body to plunge downwards, disappearing into the mountains and forests in a blink of an eye. 

Crossing the calamity of the Nascent Soul stage required the baptism of seven times seven, forty-nine strikes of heavenly thunder.

A streak of violent thunder refused to let Xu Xingzhi go easily, chasing after his plummeting body and soared downwards.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Xu Xingzhi had already completely lost consciousness, but when there was still a glimmer of clarity left, he felt something tighten around his waist as if thousands of soft ivy were densely woven into a net, making him fall softly into a gentle place.

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Heavenly sprites were born of heaven and earth, hard to come across one even in a thousand years. They do not enter the cycle of reincarnation, do not enter the six realms of Samsara, so they naturally do not have to follow the so-called path of cultivation as set by the rules of the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages.

If one had to make a comparison, than the heavenly sprite was just born with a humanoid form and consciousness, but was already close to the physique of the Nascent Soul realm.

Over the years, Meng Chongguang has created a complete set of human meridian circuits in his body to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. At this time, he did his utmost to erase all the circuits, manifest a pure heavenly sprite physique and then folded his entire body on top of Xu Xingzhi’s, protecting him in a watertight manner. Therefore, the heavenly thunder had nowhere to strike and could only direct its maw full of anger to set Meng Chongguang ablaze. 

Meng Chongguang’s demonic form was already revealing itself, so when he received this thunder strike full of rage, his body gave a shudder as his arms fell down beside the unconscious Xu Xingzhi to support himself. A fierce and rich rusty taste surged between his lips and teeth and a few strands of dark blood appeared at the corner of his lips which he swallowed back down slowly.

. . . He couldn’t stain Shixiong. He must not.

Lightning danced across the sky like frantic strips of white silk, making bluffs and refusing to send down more thunder for a long time, as if it was making a fool out of the cultivators, allowing them a moment to breathe and when they believed that the catastrophe was about to end, it would mercilessly ignite a chain of flames to descend upon their heads.

Meng Chongguang took this opportunity to embrace Xu Xingzhi, who was wrapped seamlessly by the vines. 

Xu Xingzhi possessed a height of 267 cm. Although he had abstained from mortal food and drink because of his identity as a cultivator, his muscles and bones were still well-proportioned, had substance and was shapely, thus the common person would need to exert some effort to lift him up, but Meng Chongguang, who had just suffered the strike of a nascent soul stage tribulation thunder, was able to bring Xu Xingzhi into his arms very easily, like that of a sleeping child.

Xu Xingzhi’s body was scorching hot, his lips were parted, and the temperature of the air inhaled and exhaled was extremely high. Each gasp was blown into Meng Chongguang’s heart, scratching its surface and making it feel numb until it tingled.

“Shixiong.” Meng Chonguang whispered, “Shixiong, Chongguang is here. Don’t be afraid.”

He hugged Xu Xingzhi and walked into the dense forest with uneven steps. The slight bumps made Xu Xingzhi open his eyes uncomfortably. 

Meng Chongguang suddenly panicked and wanted to conceal his sprite-like face, but Xu Xingzhi’s head which was burnt until he was muddled was only able to barely piece together who the person in front of him was.

“Chongguang.” Xu Xingzhi placed a hand on Meng Chongguang’s lapel, his voice very light, “. . . Where did you go just now, I couldn’t even find you.”

Meng Chongguang only felt a sharp pain in his heart, even the heavenly thunder just now didn’t give him such an experience.

Xu Xingzhi patted the other’s chest twice in a daze, murmuring softly: “. . . Found you. It’s good that you aren’t injured.” 

Meng Chonguang was both sad and happy at the same time as he answered: “En, en.”

While speaking, Meng Chongguang had brought Xu Xingzhi to the place he wanted to bring him.

He put Xu Xingzhi down once more, buried his face into the crook of Xu Xingzhi’s neck and nuzzled it with attachment and cherishingly.

All the living creatures within a radius of ten miles that wanted to live, all escaped. The snake hole that the two serpents had quietly made for shelter was long deserted. 

After a short period of tenderness, Meng Chongguang properly placed Xu Xingzhi into the hole that could only hold one person and repeatedly rubbed his thumb against Xu Xingzhi’s hot forehead.

—In the beginning, at first, he had just wanted to keep this person who said interesting things by his side. Either way he was terribly bored, so with such a companion, at least he could kill some of this time which was doomed to be extremely extensive.

Since the other was unwilling to stay and accompany him to travel the mountains and rivers, then he would just follow him to where he was.

If he ever got tired of remaining there, then he could just leave at any time. 

Meng Chongguang acknowledged that he had never been someone who considered things in the long-term and even the clash and jealousy he had with Jiu Zhideng early in the morning was out of a child’s nasty intentions to snatch away rare toys for themselves.

. . . Since when did he truly start to feel uncomfortable and find it displeasing to see the contact between Jiu Zhideng and Xu Xingzhi?

He remembered that it must’ve been when he had just turned fifteen.

When Xu Xingzhi was guiding the outer sect disciples to practice the sword and had taken Jiu Zhideng along with him. 

He had always been pampered by Xu Xingzhi. Even while slacking off in swordsmanship, having a lax attitude towards his studies, no one criticized him. When Xu Xingzhi was busying about with Jiu Zhideng tagging along, he just sat on the sidelines, gnawing on a spiritual fruit that Xu Xingzhi washed for him, smiling pleasantly as he spectated Shixiong’s elegant and flowing figure like that of a crane or a pine tree as he demonstrated the Fengling swordsmanship, as if under the vast heavens, there was only this one person.

After Xu Xingzhi’s exhibition, it was the disciples turn to practice in batches. But the outer sect disciples have limited comprehension and lack of talent, so each of them displayed with merely the form while lacking the spirit which was a bit like learning the Handan walk.

Crossing his arms as he observed for shoe, Xu Xingzhi clapped his hands helplessly: “Us, shixiong-di have developed some feelings after getting along for so long, so let’s be generous and when you utilize your swordsmanship while traveling outside in the future, don’t declare that you are from Fengling Mountain, announce that you are from Danyang Peak, or Qingliang Valley, those all work.”

Xu Xingzhi’s tone was not harsh, he was obviously joking and all of the disciples burst out into a peal of laughter. 

Xu Xingzhi lifted a hand to beckon Jiu Zhideng, asking him to demonstrate two moves, naturally reaching out to support his straight and tight back, patting it as he praised: “Take a look at your fellow Jiu Zhideng-shixiong, ah, have a look here, take a glance. This waist is. . .”

Because Jiu Zhideng was touched by Xu Xingzhi like this, his originally upright waist collapsed in an instant and his cheeks flushed with crimson.

Xu Xingzhi was once appraised by Guangfu-jun as someone who “knew not the fours and sixes” and under the guidance of this person who knew not fours or sixes, the ethos of the Fengling Mountain disciples was completely different from that of the other sects and didn’t view the cultivation teachings as highly.

They hooted amicably: “Aiyou, what’s wrong with Jiu Zhideng-shixiong, why is your face so red?” 

Jiu Zhideng wasn’t very adept at communicating with others and was heckled to the point of being unable to say a word, leaving it to Xu Xingzhi to shoo them away: “Scram, you lot only know how to bully the thin-skinned.”

“Shixiong is coddling his own again. ”

“It can’t be that Shixiong feels distressed ah?”

Amidst the waves of voices one after another, a shadow crossed Meng Chongguang’s face and couldn’t help feeling a sour taste bubble up in his throat endlessly. 

Losing his appetite, he put down his fruit and called out: “Shixiong.”

Xu Xingzhi stood on the platform, his arm slung over Jiu Zhideng’s neck as he joked with the disciples below, so naturally he couldn’t hear the other’s holler.

He raised his voice slightly: “. . . Xu Xingzhi!”

Directly calling a shixiong’s actual name, even in Fengling Mountain where the rules are more lenient can be said to be a very rude gesture. Several disciples standing in the outer circle heard the ruckus, swiveled around to stare at him in displeasure. 

Xu Xingzhi still didn’t pick up on it. It was unknown what a disciple below uttered, but he laid on Jiu Zhideng’s shoulder and laughed loudly while Jiu Zhideng turned his face aside, his always cold and hard expression softened into an unbearably tender one. He stretched out his hand the gently loop around to Xu Xingzhi’s back and patted it neither too lightly nor too hard, lest Xu Xingzhi choked from his laughter.

It was only a small action, but it made Meng Chongguang descend into a panic.

It wasn’t because Xu Xingzhi was touchy feely with Jiu Zhideng, but it was because he realized that there was something off with himself.

. . . From head to toe, his entire being felt like something was awry. 

At first, Meng Chongguang thought that he was just used to fighting against Jiu Zhideng for things because he couldn’t watch the person who was usually so indulgent with him, be so nice to others as well. However, as soon as he continued with this line of thought, Meng Chongguang found that he didn’t dare to think about the possibility of Xu Xingzhi being with anyone else at all. He only had to ruminate it slightly and an icy and violent anger would burst out from the bottom of his heart.

If a youth with an appearance like Meng Chongguang’s lived in the mundane world, the matchmaker granny might have already kicked the threshold of his house down. Even if he grew up in a cultivator’s sect possessing no desires, at this age, his body had already matured.

The first time he had heart palpitations, his first heartache, his first time he tasted what jealousy felt like, was all because of Xu Xingzhi.

Even his first time. . . was because he dreamt of Xu Xingzhi taking a bath. 

Meng Chongguang realized belatedly that he couldn’t be without Xu Xingzhi. All his joys, displeasure, sorrows, and happiness were tied to this one person. Other than him, Meng Chongguang didn’t want to get to know anyone else. He only wanted to stay by Xu Xingzhi’s side, forever and ever, never parting ways.

No one has ever told him what liking was, he only knew that this obsession scared him.

Faced with such a strange experience, he was panicked, anxious, and vexed, he had even forgotten to take his personal sword with him and immediately whipped around to sprint back to his residence.

Afterwards, Xu Xingzhi, who didn’t know the ins and outs of it, coaxed Meng Chongguang for a long time before Meng Chongguang finally calmed down and tried his best to throw these weird emotions behind him. 

Soon, he followed Xu Xingzhi to Baima Peak to embark on a punitive mission to capture the ghostly practitioner wreaking havoc. Xu Xingzhi was seriously injured unexpectedly, while he had kept his emotions in check.

After this incident, though, Meng Chongguang finally could no longer control the desires that made his heart turbulent.

He found an excuse, moved into Xu Xingzhi’s room, stayed by his side, accompanying him every day and lived there until now, addicted to that life until now.

Meng Chongguang was used to seeing Xu Xingzhi’s sleeping face. He stroked Xu Xingzhi’s tear mole and earlobe carefully and then used his hand to shield Xu Xingzhi’s eyes lightly, for fear that the overly bright sparks of light would hurt his eyes. 

He whispered softly: “Shixiong, good night.”

The sound of thunder rumbled over their heads.

For nascent soul cultivators to pass this calamity, they needed to withstand the seven times seven, forty-nine strikes of heavenly thunder.

Xu Xingzhi lured the first thunder strike to split open the head of one of the nine-tailed serpents like one would split a watermelon and shared the second with the other nine-tailed serpent. 

The following forty-seven thunderbolts, without exception, all crashed into Meng Chongguang’s back.

Xu Xingzhi laid safely in the narrow snake hole, while Meng Chongguang quietly stood guarding the entrance of the cavern in a kneeling position, gazing obsessively at the sleeping face of the one residing in the cave through the blazing lightning.

Meng Chongguang counted the number of lightning strikes one by one until the forty-ninth bolt landed on his back. Before the clouds cleared and the rain dispersed, he tumbled into the cave, sapped of his strength. The joints of his fingers which clung to the uneven stones of the cave tightly were snow white and slightly twisted. They trembled as they were unable to restore their original appearance.

Even if it was the physique of a nascent soul practitioner, the might of the heavenly thunder was still terrifying. Even if it was Qingjing-jun who endured these strikes, he also wouldn’t make it out with a much better appearance than Meng Chongguang’s current wretched state. 

After the thunder calamity, Xu Xingzhi’s nascent soul body was instantly molded, his meridians flowing freely and after a bout of cleansing, the wounds all over his body disappeared, even the high fever faded and the burns from when the thunder struck the top of his head were swept away.

Meng Chongguang lunged over in a kneeling position and disrobed the clothes that were soaked by the rain clouds in a few quick motions. Tossing them aside, he pressed his still warm chest against Xu Xingzhi, wrapping the other in his arms: “Shixiong, it’s all right, it’s fine, everything’s okay. . .”

He was so tired that it took him a long time to realize that both his and Xu Xingzhi’s bodies were abnormally hot.

. . . He had actually forgotten that snakes possessed a promiscuous nature. Although the serpents in this snake cave were gone, the scent left behind and the subsequent “snake jade” that was excreted were good medicines with aphrodisiac properties. 

Meng Chongguang had never been a patient person. At the exact moment an abnormality manifested in his body, he obeyed his own heart and flipped around, pressing down upon Xu Xingzhi’s body unceremoniously.

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Xu Xingzhi had been lying there for a long time and had long been soaked thoroughly by the erotic atmosphere lingering in the cavern. Although he had obtained a nascent soul stage physique, he was still a man after all. He tilted his head, panting hard, his legs stretched slightly apart to either side.

His eyes were slightly open, but he clearly hadn’t regained consciousness and a faint and seductive scarlet glow emanated from the corner of his eyes. 

Meng Chongguang could still feel his thin and smooth waistline through the thick cultivator’s robes.

After Meng Chongguang touched Xu Xingzhi patiently all over, he placed his own lips over Xu Xingzhi’s, seemingly nipping at them until Xu Xingzhi’s hazy gaze glazed over did he hold the other’s lips in his and sucked on them a few times.

“. . . Shixiong.”