Chapter 16: Was She Mistaken?

“It is starting!”

As one cultivator cried out in shock, the lightning tribulation that had been building in the sky for so long finally crashed down.

Its power was not especially great. Even an ordinary peak Saint Monarch could withstand it, let alone Fu Qitian, who stood among the finest of Saint Monarchs.

Fu Qitian simply swung his blade in a clean, decisive motion and easily blocked the lightning tribulation.

Immediately afterward, the second and third bolts of tribulation lightning came crashing down one after another.

But to Fu Qitian, all of it was handled with ease.

With an Immortal Artifact in hand, Fu Qitian had nothing to fear.

Very soon, the final bolt of lightning tribulation, one comparable to a single strike from a Saint Emperor, descended. Only then did the calm expression on Fu Qitian’s face finally turn serious.

He took a deep breath, changing from holding the blade in one hand to gripping it with both.

In the next instant, his gaze turned incomparably sharp.

“Saint Dao Unsheathing Slash!”

With a furious roar, Fu Qitian swung his blade.

Empowered by the Immortal Artifact, this strike was even more formidable. Fu Qitian was confident that not even a mid Saint Emperor would be able to withstand it.

Along with that slash, the most terrifying bolt of lightning tribulation was cut down and extinguished.

But the force of the blade qi did not diminish. It shot straight into the clouds.

The overwhelmingly oppressive tribulation clouds were split in two and then gradually dispersed.

At that very moment, Fu Qitian shut his eyes tightly, as though he had fallen into an extraordinarily mysterious state.

“The Heart Demon Tribulation!”

Xu Ruoshan, who knew what he was looking at, recognized it at a glance, and his expression turned tense.

The Heart Demon Tribulation cared nothing for how powerful one might be. Once it fixed its gaze upon someone, the chance of falling exceeded eighty percent.

Throughout the ages, no one knew how many renowned geniuses had fallen at this very step of the Heart Demon Tribulation.

Then he looked toward Lu Xunxian.

Lu Xunxian’s expression remained calm.

He believed in Fu Qitian. If Fu Qitian could not break through, then it would only mean Lu Xunxian had misjudged him.

And Fu Qitian did not disappoint Lu Xunxian.

Before long, Fu Qitian abruptly opened his eyes, and a terrifying aura spread out from his body.

Several rings of light spread from him, forming wave after wave of ripples that expanded outward.

They spread for a full million li.

And this was precisely the sign of having broken through to the Saint Emperor Realm.

All around them, countless Saint Kings and Saint Monarchs who witnessed this scene dropped to their knees.

“Congratulations, Senior, on breaking through to the Saint Emperor Realm!”

But Fu Qitian paid them no attention. After locating Lu Xunxian, he was about to step forward and return the Immortal Artifact to him.

Just as he was about to act, Lu Xunxian’s voice sounded within his mind.

“Do not come to me yet.”

Although he did not know why his master had said this, Fu Qitian still obeyed without hesitation. His figure flickered, and he vanished from before the crowd.

The reason Lu Xunxian had done this was simple. There were too many people here.

He did not want his name to spread far and wide, because if that happened, endless trouble would come looking for him.

Even when he had beaten Xu Ruoshan and the others into the ground before, he had done so while disguised.

If Fu Qitian were to step forward and return the Immortal Artifact to him now, Lu Xunxian estimated that in less than a day, his existence would become known throughout all of Tiansheng Continent.

With Fu Qitian gone, the surrounding cultivators also understood that this newly advanced Saint Emperor likely had no wish to see them.

Though disappointed, they still all left the area.

When Lu Xunxian saw that, he too disappeared.

Among the crowd, the figures of Lin Changkong and Feng Qingyu were clearly visible.

After witnessing the breakthrough of a Saint Emperor, Lin Changkong burst into loud laughter.

“So that is how it is! I understand now, I understand! First like this, then like this, and then this is how one breaks through to the Saint Emperor Realm!”

He had originally been at a critical juncture in his own attempt to break through to the Saint Emperor Realm. But after sensing the disturbance caused by Fu Qitian’s breakthrough, he had rushed over without the slightest hesitation to observe it.

And when he encountered Feng Qingyu as he emerged from Seclusion, he figured that bringing her along in advance would also benefit her, so he took her with him.

After observing Fu Qitian’s breakthrough, Lin Changkong now had full confidence that he would break through to the Saint Emperor Realm within a hundred years.

Although he did not know why he had been unable to see the face of the newly advanced Saint Emperor, it did not matter. What he had already seen was more than enough.

But when he turned to Feng Qingyu, wanting to see what she had gained, he found that she was lost in thought.

“Qingyu, what is wrong with you?”

Lin Changkong asked with clear displeasure on his face, and only then did Feng Qingyu come back to her senses.

“Master, I am fine. I must have seen something wrong.”

“What did you see?”

Lin Changkong frowned slightly and asked.

Though somewhat hesitant, Feng Qingyu still recounted what she had seen earlier.

“You mean to say that you seemed to have seen your husband?”

“Yes.”

“Impossible. Everyone who could appear here today is, at the very least, a cultivator.”

Lin Changkong spoke without the slightest hesitation.

“Your husband did not even have a Spiritual Root. How could he possibly appear here?”

“That is true. I must have seen something wrong.”

Only then did Feng Qingyu let out a sigh of relief. Yet for some reason, an indescribable feeling still lingered in her heart.

She had shared a bed with Lu Xunxian for twenty years. There was no way she could have mistaken him, right?

“All right, let us return.”

Without giving Feng Qingyu a chance to think any further, Lin Changkong directly swept her up and hurried back in the direction of Qingfeng Sacred Land.

As for Lu Xunxian, he had naturally also sensed Feng Qingyu’s arrival.

That was why he had chosen to leave without the slightest hesitation.

At the back mountain of Myriad Dao Academy.

By the time Lu Xunxian returned, Uncle Fu had already brought the immortal blade over and tried to hand it back.

But Lu Xunxian did not take it.

“Keep it. You have followed me for many years now. Consider this Immortal Artifact your reward.”

But Fu Qitian shook his head without the slightest hesitation and stubbornly insisted on returning the Immortal Artifact to Lu Xunxian.

“If not for Master back then, I would already have died at the hands of those five peak Saint Monarchs, let alone still be alive now and able to break through to the Saint Emperor Realm.”

“I ask that Master take back the Immortal Artifact.”

Seeing that Fu Qitian had already spoken to this extent, Lu Xunxian sighed and helplessly put the Immortal Artifact away.

Fine. If he did not want it, then so be it.

At that moment, Lu Xunxian sensed an incomparably mysterious force acting upon Fu Qitian.

In the next instant, Fu Qitian’s realm began to plummet, only stopping once he had returned to the state of an ordinary mortal.

It was the Decay of Spirit.

Xu Ruoshan had also arrived before Fu Qitian by then.

“How long does the Decay of Spirit usually last?”

Lu Xunxian frowned slightly and could not help asking.

After all, he had never gone through it himself, so he naturally did not know how long it would last.

“If one is fortunate, a single day is enough. If one is unfortunate, then it can last for hundreds of years.”

Xu Ruoshan answered.

Still, even though Fu Qitian could not use Spiritual Energy, he had nevertheless broken through to the Saint Emperor Realm. His physical body was terrifyingly powerful.

An ordinary peak Saint Monarch could not possibly be his opponent.

“In that case, I wish you an early passage through the Five Decays of Heaven and Man.”

Lu Xunxian said. After all, he had never experienced the Five Decays of Heaven and Man himself, so he naturally had no idea what they felt like.

Yet the moment Lu Xunxian finished speaking, that mysterious force vanished without a trace in the very next second.

Xu Ruoshan, standing to the side, was completely dumbfounded.

What? The Decay of Spirit was gone just like that? This was about to shatter the historical record of Tiansheng Continent.

According to the records of Tiansheng Continent, the Saint Emperor who had passed through the Decay of Spirit in the shortest time had still taken a full day.

But as for Fu Qitian before them, not even ten breaths had passed.

It was enough to make Xu Ruoshan suspect that Lu Xunxian had secretly tampered with something.

But Lu Xunxian himself felt thoroughly wronged. He truly had no idea what was going on. He had only spoken casually.

As soon as the Decay of Spirit passed, the Decay of Soul followed close behind.

And then, after only a few breaths, that too passed.

Over the next short span of less than half an incense stick, Xu Ruoshan watched as the remaining three decays descended upon Fu Qitian one after another, only to be overcome again a few breaths later.

By the end of it, Xu Ruoshan had already gone completely numb and felt that the world might as well hurry up and end.