Chapter 908: Immortal Gu—Ah Youduo Stunned

“The Master’s Gu seems to have undergone a qualitative change.”

Ah Youduo looked at the Peach Blossom Gu beginning its advancement and instantly saw how much stronger it was than when she’d first seen it in the Abyss of Ten Thousand Demons.

Its aura felt deeper and more elusive.

Pink radiance and crystal-bright flower rain flowed around it, carrying a dreamlike beauty and a beguiling pull.

She watched the Peach Blossom Gu’s advancement in silence.

As its wings unfurled and its aura climbed, thousands of phantom peach blossoms condensed and bloomed. A cloying sweetness seemed to spread through the air.

The Gu on Ah Youduo stirred restlessly.

Startled, she realized her own Gu had been affected by the Master’s.

But the Master’s Gu hasn’t even reached fourth rank yet. Just a trace of aura can tug at my Gu?

She circulated her Nascent Soul magical energy to cut off the aura and calm her Gu.

Time ticked by.

When the Peach Blossom Gu fully advanced to fourth rank, pink radiance, crystal flower rain and endless peach-blossom phantoms filled the sky. Then its tribulation arrived.

Layers of ashen clouds gathered, threaded with purple-blue lightning, shrouding the visions caused by its advance.

This was the Peach Blossom Gu’s heavenly tribulation.

A Gu’s tribulation couldn’t compare to a cultivator’s Nascent Soul tribulation or a demon beast’s shapeshifting tribulation.

But its might was still startling.

Even with formations blocking out the disturbance, the Five Poisons Sect’s cultivators noticed the commotion at Five Saints Peak.

“A heavenly tribulation? Why is there a tribulation?”

“Is the Sect Master’s spirit pet advancing to fourth rank?”

“No, that’s not a shapeshifting tribulation. It looks like a Gu crossing a tribulation. Did the Sect Master refine a fourth-rank Gu?”

High-ranking cultivators of the Five Poisons Sect buzzed with excited speculation.

Whether it was a spirit pet advancing to fourth rank or refining a fourth-rank Gu, it meant their Sect Master had grown stronger.

And when the Five Poisons Sect Master advanced, they all benefited.

After Ah Youduo recovered the Gu God Cauldron and painstakingly nurtured it, the rare Gu she refined were used to train subordinates and raise the sect’s strength.

“Is that Daddy’s Gu?”

From the Five Saints Hall, Lu Jiangtang and her mother Ina watched the distant phenomena of the Peach Blossom Gu’s advance.

Lu Changsheng didn’t mind his daughter and Ina observing his Gu’s tribulation.

But his daughter was only at Qi Refining. She couldn’t see clearly and might be frightened by the tribulation’s might, so he had them watch from behind formations.

“Mm.” Ina nodded softly, her eyes full of yearning, longing and admiration.

Under the Five Poisons Sect Master’s careful guidance, she had reached the ninth level of Core Formation and possessed two third-rank Gu.

But Nascent Soul and fourth-rank Gu were still out of reach.

She knew her hope for Nascent Soul lay with the Sect Master and the Master.

If the Sect Master used the Gu God Cauldron to raise her life-bound Gu to fourth rank, Nascent Soul would no longer be far away.

If the Master lent a hand and granted resources, Nascent Soul would be within reach.

Boom, boom, boom—

The tribulation fell, smashing toward the Peach Blossom Gu.

Thumb-sized, it was tiny before the purple-blue wrath of heaven, a grain of dust in a sea of thunder.

Yet no matter how the tribulation crashed down, it didn’t budge, bathed in crystalline pink light.

“Not bad.” Gold runes wove in Lu Changsheng’s eyes. He saw the Peach Blossom Gu was borrowing the tribulation to fully fuse and digest the power of Blushing Peach Blossom. There was no danger.

As a Nascent Soul cultivator, Ah Youduo noticed it too. A mysterious and vast power seemed to reside within the Gu.

“A heavenly-and-earthly treasure that helps Gu advance?”

She realized the Peach Blossom Gu had taken some rare treasure.

That explained why it had grown so much since she’d first seen it and why it advanced to fourth rank so quickly.

She sighed with envy. As expected of the Master—he even possessed a once-in-a-lifetime Gu Dao treasure.

Under Lu Changsheng and Ah Youduo’s gaze, the Peach Blossom Gu weathered its fourth-rank tribulation. The void surged with pink radiance as blossoms bloomed in splendor, rich and sweet.

But as Lu Changsheng looked at the tribulation clouds that refused to disperse and kept brewing, he frowned.

“What’s going on?” He was puzzled.

The Peach Blossom Gu had already passed its fourth-rank tribulation. Why hadn’t the tribulation scattered?

Still, with his experience, Lu Ancestor quickly guessed it: “Demon beasts face the True Spirit Tribulation. So Gu face the Immortal Gu Tribulation?”

“It’s the Immortal Gu Tribulation. The Master’s Gu is about to become an Immortal Gu!”

Staring at the brewing disaster, Ah Youduo realized the truth.

According to the sect’s inheritance texts, not only when refining and raising an Immortal Gu, but even when a Heaven-Spirit Gu advances into an Immortal Gu, a tribulation descends.

Ah Youduo was shocked.

She hadn’t expected the Master’s Gu to not only reach fourth rank but to keep going and become an Immortal Gu.

A wave of yearning and envy surged from deep in her heart.

Immortal Gu were the dream of every Gu Dao cultivator like her.

Ever since breaking through to Nascent Soul, she’d been researching how to refine and raise an Immortal Gu.

Sadly, the materials were too rare. Even with the treasured Gu God Cauldron, it was hard to gather everything needed.

A daring hope rose in her heart.

Would the Master one day grant her Gu Dao treasures to help her raise and refine an Immortal Gu?

In her eyes, Lu Changsheng—reincarnation of the Central State Sacred Emperor—had grown from Core Formation to a mid-stage Nascent Soul giant in such a short time and could even raise an Immortal Gu. If he was willing, it wouldn’t be hard to help.

She pressed that extravagant hope down, planning to earn enough merit before bringing it up, then looked back to the tribulation in the sky.

She’d only ever read about the Immortal Gu Tribulation. She had never seen it.

So she took the chance to observe and learn.

Otherwise, if she gathered the materials in the future and refined an Immortal Gu only for it to be reduced to ash under the tribulation, she’d want to die.

“Hm? The Master hasn’t prepared anything?”

She stared at the Peach Blossom Gu wrapped in pink glow and felt baffled.

Whether cultivators or demon kings, one could borrow pills and artifacts to survive a tribulation.

Gu were no exception.

There were specialized pills and rare treasures.

Some even fed auxiliary Gu to the main Gu, melting them together under the cleansing of heavenly law to help it ascend.

Yet her Master seemed to have prepared nothing and done nothing.

Was he utterly confident in his Gu’s breakthrough?

But just recently he’d asked her about a Heaven-Spirit Gu advancing to Immortal Gu.

As she puzzled over it, ready to ask and offer help, Lu Changsheng took a single step and appeared beneath the tribulation, right beside the Peach Blossom Gu.

“Master!?” Ah Youduo cried out.

When cultivators and demon kings face tribulation, no one else may help.

Even stepping into the tribulation zone could affect its nature and trigger multiple tribulations.

“Relax.”

Lu Changsheng sent her a calm voice transmission.

He hadn’t rushed in to assist the Peach Blossom Gu.

Rather, the Gu had sent him a thought.

If they accepted the cleansing of heavenly law together, their souls and wills would bond completely.

Otherwise, after it became an Immortal Gu, its abilities wouldn’t be fully realized on Lu Changsheng.

The price was that he would have to endure the Immortal Gu Tribulation as well, which carried some risk.

But he didn’t care about that.

He’d already crossed a fourth-rank body refinement tribulation and the Nascent Soul tribulation. Why fear a little Immortal Gu Tribulation?

Boom, boom, boom—

As he stepped into the tribulation, the brewing clouds churned wildly. The aura surged, and the calamity locked onto him.

He felt tribulation qi coil around him. He stayed calm and steady, head lifted to meet the heavens without a hint of nerves.

“If you become an Immortal Gu and your effects don’t satisfy me, you’re dead.”

Lu Changsheng glanced at the Peach Blossom Gu, now bright as an egg and blazing with pink light, and said it just like that.

The Peach Blossom Gu felt aggrieved. It was doing this for him.

“Mom, why is there still a tribulation, and why did Daddy go into it?”

In the Five Saints Hall, Lu Jiangtang asked as she watched the distant storm with her mother.

She had thought it was over and was about to rush over with her mother to offer congratulations.

Ina’s knowledge was limited and the distance was great. She couldn’t guess at Immortal Gu either.

She rubbed her daughter’s head and said, “Your father is the greatest cultivator in the world. Naturally his tribulations are different.”

“Oh!” Lu Jiangtang believed every word. She stared at the figure beneath the tribulation with shining eyes and shouted, “Daddy, you can do it!”

The distance was too great to make out his face, only a rough silhouette.

Yet as she called out, she seemed to see her father smile gently at her and say, “Alright, Daddy hears Xiao Tang’s cheer.”

The Five Poisons Sect’s upper ranks were just as baffled by the phenomena at Five Saints Peak.

“Did the Sect Master raise two fourth-rank Gu?”

“I think I just saw a figure inside the tribulation. Is someone crossing a tribulation?”

While they gaped and guessed, Lu Changsheng began enduring the Immortal Gu Tribulation.

With him inside, its power rose by thirty percent over what the Peach Blossom Gu alone would face.

But for someone with a Chaos Body and Fourth-Tier Mid-Body Refinement, it was nothing.

He recalled the Nine Abyss Black Tortoise Armor and the Five-Element Yuan Magnetic Mountain, dispelled his protective mana, and took the tribulation with his flesh alone.

He wanted to see if an Immortal Gu Tribulation would grant him the baptism of heaven-and-earth laws.

Buzz. Not just his body—his spirit, a golden little figure, stepped out from his brow to receive the lightning’s cleanse.

Though his spirit had already reached late Nascent Soul,

the pain from this tribulation was still excruciating, and his first instinct was to pull back.

“When heaven assigns a great task to someone…” He gritted his teeth for the boon to come and even released his Nascent Soul Spirit Body.

“Th-this…” Not far away, Ah Youduo was stunned, dazed, dumbfounded.

Who faced a tribulation like this?

She stared like she’d seen a ghost, shocked beyond belief.

His flesh was taking the tribulation, and he’d exposed his spirit as well?

A spirit is fragile and fears thunder most of all.

The next moment, an even more terrifying sight appeared.

Above Lu Changsheng’s head appeared a Nascent Soul little figure flowing with nine-colored glazed light.

His Nascent Soul Spirit Body.

He had brought out his flesh, his spirit, and even his Nascent Soul Spirit Body to take the tribulation.

As a Nascent Soul cultivator, Ah Youduo could tell this Immortal Gu Tribulation was no weaker than the one she faced back then.

She’d only survived by relying on countless methods.

As for using the tribulation to draw in heavenly qi and strike at the Heavenly Dao Nascent Soul, she’d never even considered it. It sounded like fantasy.

Now she was seeing it with her own eyes.

“So this is a Great Dao Nascent Soul.”

Even if Lu Changsheng himself wasn’t clear on the term,

at this moment Ah Youduo fully believed his earlier claims—Central State Sacred Emperor, unparalleled Dragon Emperor Dao Body, Great Dao Nascent Soul.

How else could someone become a Nascent Soul giant in just a few decades?

Without a Dragon Emperor Dao Body, how could he nourish and elevate the quality of his Nascent Soul through Essence?

Without a Great Dao Nascent Soul, how could a Nascent Soul Spirit Body stand unmoving under tribulation?

Back when she crossed her tribulation—and even now—she wouldn’t dare expose her Nascent Soul Spirit Body to an Immortal Gu Tribulation.

The Immortal Gu Tribulation kept falling, drowning the Peach Blossom Gu and Lu Changsheng in a sea of thunder.

He and the little golden Nascent Soul both grimaced, faces twisting with pain.

The only thing keeping him going was the hope of a boon of heaven-and-earth laws when it ended.

If not, he’d never do this again.

All his years of cultivation, the worst injuries and the greatest suffering he’d endured came from tribulations like this.

“This flesh, this spirit, this Nascent Soul…”

Ah Youduo had no words left for the shock pounding her chest.

After several bolts, the little spirit and Nascent Soul donned spirit armor.

But his flesh still stood tall, taking the tribulation head-on.

At last she had a visceral sense of his physical body.

No wonder she and Ina, even together with Nangong Mili, couldn’t withstand Lu Changsheng’s whipping.

His body was punched through by thunder again and again, yet the wounds knit visibly, an undying aura flowing through him.

Finally, the Immortal Gu Tribulation ended.

Lu Changsheng’s black hair streamed and danced. His crystalline body surged with new, vigorous life force, sealing his wounds in a blink.

His spirit and Nascent Soul Spirit Body merged, like an immortal king seated in meditation, nine-colored glaze rippling with Dao rhythm.

The Peach Blossom Gu had first been a thumb-sized butterfly. After fusing and digesting Blushing Peach Blossom and reaching fourth rank, it became like a pink egg.

Now, after surviving the Immortal Gu Tribulation, it turned into a tiny pink figure an inch tall, without nose or mouth.

It floated before Lu Changsheng’s Nascent Soul Spirit Body, awash in hazy, Dao-laden pink light.

That light formed crystalline peach blossoms that coiled around his flesh and Nascent Soul, fragrant as they drifted, then sank into his body, sea of consciousness and Nascent Soul.

In that instant, a boon of heaven-and-earth laws descended upon Lu Changsheng. Peace and clarity filled his body and mind.

His flesh, spirit and Nascent Soul all received a gift from the Great Dao.

It wasn’t much.

Far less than what he’d gained after his Nascent Soul tribulation.

Even so, Lu Changsheng quietly accepted the baptism.

At the same time, every insect in the Five Poisons Sect, including the Gu within cultivators, grew restless and howled.

They cried toward Five Saints Peak as if in fear and worship.

“What’s happening?”

“Is this the might of a fourth-rank Gu?”

“With the Mountain Gate grand array and Five Saints Peak’s array at full power, the aura is almost fully sealed. How can there be such a stir?”

“It must be an extraordinarily rare fourth-rank Gu!”

“What kind of rare Gu did the Sect Master refine? Congratulations to the Sect Master on forming an Immortal Gu—his Dao is within reach!”

The Five Poisons Sect cultivators were full of doubt and chatter. Though they didn’t know the details, they offered congratulations toward Five Saints Peak at once.

Wearing a purple-red dress, silver crown and hairpins, and barefoot, Ah Youduo watched Lu Changsheng and the Peach Blossom Gu. Feeling her own Gu roar within, she murmured, “When an Immortal Gu appears, all Gu submit. So this is an Immortal Gu.”

At last she had seen the Immortal Gu she dreamed of.

Even if it didn’t belong to her.

From its aura she could tell it was a very rare fortune-type Gu.

It also carried charm and love-tribulation powers.

She couldn’t judge the precise abilities or effects.

She sighed.

She longed to study the Peach Blossom Gu, to ask about every detail of the tribulation.

But she knew such abilities were a cultivator’s secrets. Asking too much would be rude.

So she turned her focus to the Mountain Gate grand array, weaving techniques to cloak Lu Changsheng’s disturbance and aura as much as possible,

lest others notice and sense it.

After all, no great power was free of spies and agents.

News of such major commotion and two Gu tribulations in the Five Poisons Sect wouldn’t stay hidden. It would spread.

She would lock down the message as much as she could to keep others from learning the specifics.

Days later, Lu Changsheng opened his eyes. They shone bright, and he looked pleased.

“Worth it.”

Under the Immortal Gu Tribulation’s boon of heaven-and-earth laws, his flesh, spirit and Nascent Soul were all baptized.

Especially the Taiyi Spirit bound closely to the Peach Blossom Gu.

He had reached the second layer of the God-Devouring Technique. His spirit stood at the peak of the seventh layer, half a step from the eighth.

Now, with this boon and the Peach Blossom Gu’s effects, he broke through to the eighth layer.

That made the suffering of the tribulation worth it. It wasn’t self-torture after all.

More than the spirit’s breakthrough and the refinement of his Nascent Soul, what pleased him most was the Peach Blossom Gu’s advancement.

Having fully fused the Dao Seed Blushing Peach Blossom and risen to become an Immortal Gu, the Peach Blossom Gu did not disappoint.

Its original abilities didn’t just improve. It received a full upgrade across the board.