The demons in the distance saw the strange phenomenon and were about to come and investigate when they noticed one of the experts at the Tribulation Transcending stage running out as if fleeing for his life, shouting, "A rare heavenly tribulation! Unrelated people, please stay away!"
Immediately, all the demons unleashed their power, fleeing as far as they could. Heavenly Tribulation... this was no joke. If hit, those below the Tribulation Transcending stage were basically doomed; those above that stage would face a series of tribulations.
Seeing his companions flee far away, Han sighed deeply. He couldn't understand why his tribulation had come so suddenly. There had been no warning or preparation in the past few days. Could it be that he had committed many evils, which angered the heavens and caused them to suddenly send down this tribulation?
However, no matter how unwilling he was, he had no choice but to fight back with all his might.
He took out a spirit pearl and several magical treasures from his person, and threw these treasures into the sky, forming a small defensive formation. Judging from his appearance, he was doing his best to guard against the arrival of the heavenly tribulation.
In the sky, the thick clouds grew denser and denser, and gradually, a huge white bolt of lightning flashed out from the clouds.
Han looked up at the sky, all his attention focused on that one point of white light.
Suddenly, his footing gave way, and a tough vine shot out from the ground and tightly wrapped around him.
Han was greatly shocked. He never expected that someone would risk such danger to launch a surprise attack on him just as the heavenly tribulation was about to arrive.
However, before he could recover from the shock, seventeen or eighteen powerful forces simultaneously imprinted themselves on his head, back, chest, and abdomen.
Countless energies raged within his body. This unfortunate demon, despite possessing the powerful cultivation of the Tribulation Transcending stage, was ambushed by the crowd in a single exchange and immediately fainted.
A ripple appeared in the space, and Xiao Wenbing and the others appeared.
Stepping forward, Xiao Wenbing scooped up the unconscious demon and whispered, "Quick, hurry up!"
Long Shi responded and focused his search. In just a short while, he found the aura of the Qiankun Ring and said, "Everyone be careful, I'm about to activate the teleportation array."
As soon as he finished speaking, a white light shone on the teleportation array, and everyone disappeared.
Almost simultaneously, the lightning bolt that had already taken shape overhead was no longer under anyone's control and crashed down, creating a deep crater in the ground.
The demon in the distance waited for a long time, until the dark clouds dispersed, before daring to return. The place was already in ruins, and even the teleportation array had been half destroyed.
As for that demon named "Han," he didn't even leave a trace; he was directly blasted into cosmic dust by heavenly lightning.
Volume 4, The Divine Artifacts, Chapter 284: External Avatar
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A flash of light appeared on the teleportation array, and the people nearby all looked over at the same time. However, after waiting for a while, no one appeared. The demon cultivators guarding the array scratched their heads, treating it as an accident and ignoring it.
In fact, while it's rare for a teleportation array to emit light for no apparent reason, it's not unheard of. So they only discussed it briefly before dismissing it as a trivial matter.
However, in the unseen void, Starry Sky Illusion Realm was rapidly departing with dozens of people. This treasure was extremely well concealed; if one were not careful, not only these few Nascent Soul stage demons, but even top-tier experts in the Tribulation Transcending stage might not be able to detect it.
A moment later, in a desolate place far from the teleportation array, Xiao Wenbing and his group appeared from the void. Xiao Wenbing, carrying the still unconscious demon, muttered to himself, "Did you go too far? If you had killed him instantly, all our hard work would have been for nothing."
Long Shi coughed lightly. To be honest, although they had planned to capture this man alive, no one expected so many people to attack at the same time. Fortunately, everyone was a master among masters, and they immediately withdrew their power when they saw that things were not going well. However, the demon was still knocked unconscious without making a sound after being hit by more than a dozen people.
This shows just how strong their hatred for the demons was.
Xiao Wenbing turned around, his eyes filled with joy and admiration as he looked at Feng Baiyi. He smiled and said, "Baiyi, your use of the Heavenly Thunder Technique is becoming more and more skillful. You were even able to make him have the illusion that a great calamity was coming. You are truly amazing."
Feng Baiyi smiled slightly and replied calmly, "I merely used heavenly lightning to lock his earth energy."
"Hmm?" Xiao Wenbing was taken aback. He asked, "You've locked his aura? So if we hadn't captured him..."
“That’s right. If you don’t intervene, he’ll really get struck by lightning.”
"I see." Xiao Wenbing looked enlightened, but secretly shook his head. Feng Baiyi's actions were actually just a later version of the Lightning Summoning Technique. The only difference was that one was to release the Lightning Summoning Technique from the hand, while the other was to release it directly from the sky.
In fact, man-made lightning-summoning techniques are definitely different from natural heavenly tribulations. But the problem is, apart from the people of the Heavenly Thunder Palace, probably only cultivators who have survived the heavenly tribulations at the Great Completion stage can distinguish between the two.
The utterly unlucky demon was clearly neither of those two. That's why he thought his tribulation had arrived, and in the end, he was easily captured alive by Xiao Wenbing and the others.
He raised his hand and shook it, but the demon still didn't react at all, only swaying slightly with the swing of his wrist.
With a frown, Xiao Wenbing casually tossed the man to the ground as if he were a mangy dog. After examining him with his divine sense, his frown deepened. He addressed the seemingly wooden Divine Wood Venerables, "Divine Wood Venerables, take a look. Is there any hope for this fellow?"
A Venerable Divine Tree stepped forward, stared intently for a long time, and finally shook his head, saying, "This person's nascent soul has dissipated, and his brain is ruptured. There is no hope."
"Disintegrate the infant's brain? Who used such force?" Xiao Wenbing said angrily, "Didn't we agree to capture him alive? Who hit his head and dantian just now?"
Long Shi and the others immediately raised their heads, looking around as if they hadn't heard anything.
Yes, it would be strange if someone admitted it at this time.
Xiao Wenbing glanced around and ultimately gave up on the idea of getting to the bottom of things. It didn't seem worth jeopardizing internal unity for the sake of a demon. Sigh… so be it. At least there's one less person to interrogate.
"What should we do with this person?" Long Shi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he was no longer pursuing the matter. He really didn't know who hit this demon's head, but the blow that hit his dantian was indeed the work of Old Long.
So he still has to bear some responsibility, more or less.
"What else can we do but dispose of the body, of course..."
Xiao Wenbing suddenly stopped speaking, because the voice of the Mirror God echoed in his mind: "Wenbing, external avatar."
"What?"
"Why don't you use such a good avatar?" The Mirror God's voice carried a hint of temptation, making Xiao Wenbing's heart flutter.
How do I use it?
"Replace his shattered nascent soul with a dark infant, repair his head with the life energy of the Divine Tree Venerable, and then refine it. This guy can then become your avatar."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Wenbing's heart skipped a beat, for he knew that with his current level, he couldn't create an external avatar. But if it was proposed by the Mirror God, then it was a completely different story. So he asked, "But this is a spell that can only be used by those in the Nascent Soul stage. My cultivation is only at the Core Formation stage. Can I do it?"
"Of course you can. Although you haven't reached the Nascent Soul stage yet, you are already qualified for it."
A thought flashed through Xiao Wenbing's mind, and he asked, "You mean the Dark Infant?"
Indeed, darkness
An infant can replace the ability to be distracted, and even surpass it.
Xiao Wenbing nodded repeatedly and asked, "How powerful is the avatar?"
"Very strong." The Mirror God said exaggeratedly, and as if to strengthen Xiao Wenbing's confidence, it added again, "Really strong."
"How about a direct attack against the Dark Infant?"
"Each has its own merits."
"How so?"
"Your Dark Infant cannot directly use Dao techniques, but when combined with the External Avatar Technique, it can actively unleash Dao attacks. You can imagine how powerful a Dark Infant that can use Dao techniques is."
Xiao Wenbing's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this. A Dark Infant capable of using Daoist arts! At this thought, he immediately stopped hesitating and said to the Divine Wood Venerable, "This person is still of use to me. Please heal his brain injury, senior."
The Venerable Divine Tree remained silent, waving his hand. A powerful life force surged into the man's brain, and he fully recovered in a moment. However, he then said, "Brain injuries can be healed, but there's no way to heal a Nascent Soul. Moreover, this man has lost his mind, so I'm afraid we won't be able to get anything out of him."
Xiao Wenbing smiled and said, "Thank you for your trouble, senior. This is for the best. If he had some sense of reason, it would be undesirable."
Long Shi and the others were taken aback. What kind of talk was this?
Xiao Wenbing walked up to the man, flicked his wrist, and a small nascent soul appeared in his hand. With a "whoosh," it burrowed into the man's body.
Then, to everyone's astonishment, Xiao Wenbing clapped his hands nonchalantly, stood up, and laughed, "This person is in such a state that he is the best candidate to refine an external avatar, so how can we give up on him so easily?"
Long Shi's eyes twitched slightly as he carefully examined Xiao Wenbing. Not only him, but almost everyone except Feng Baiyi and Die Xian looked at the eloquent Xiao Wenbing with the same gaze, as if he were a monster.
"What's wrong?" Sensing the strange looks in everyone's eyes, Xiao Wenbing asked. In fact, he understood that creating an external avatar technique, especially using a human body, was not exactly a righteous thing to do.
But this is the Demon Realm, and the one he chose was a demon who was about to die. Logically speaking, it shouldn't have caused such a great deal of resentment.
"Ahem... Fellow Daoist Xiao, if I am not mistaken, you are only at the Nascent Soul stage." After a long silence, Long Shi finally asked the question that had been on his mind.
"Exactly."
"If that's the case, where did Fellow Daoist Xiao's nascent soul come from?" Long Shi continued to ask.
Xiao Wenbing was taken aback. Yes, to split a nascent soul, one must reach the Divine Transformation stage. How could a Nascent Soul cultivator like himself have a second nascent soul?
This is a difficult question to answer, but to tell them the truth—that this nascent soul wasn't something I differentiated myself from, but something I copied—they'll probably look at me even more strangely.
“Well…” Xiao Wenbing hesitated for a moment, then smiled and said, “My precious god.”
Long Shi and Feng Hua immediately realized that it was the trick of the Treasure God; no wonder it could unleash its power beyond its level. In their minds, gods were omnipotent, so such a small trick was naturally insignificant.
Seeing the two's knowing expressions, the other Dragon and Phoenix Venerables exchanged questioning glances. However, aside from exchanging wry smiles, they were truly unable to explain.
Because the existence of the Treasure God was not public knowledge, even within the two clans, only the clan leaders and the little dragon and phoenix knew about it. Therefore, they naturally dared not act rashly or spread it around.
After pushing the trouble onto the Dragon and Phoenix duo, Xiao Wenbing then devoted his attention to this Demon Man Han.
As expected of a top expert in the Tribulation Transcending stage, his physical strength goes without saying. He survived the sneak attack from seventeen or eighteen Venerables just now, which is truly remarkable.
Besides, the powerful spiritual energy emanating from this person was something Xiao Wenbing greatly envied. If he hadn't used the energy from the small golden talisman, he definitely wouldn't have been a match for him.
"Alright, you can start refining now." The Mirror God's voice rang out in my mind again.
Xiao Wenbing stretched out his hand, and with a flash of white light, the person disappeared without a trace, absorbed into the Heavenly Void Ring, and began to refine an external avatar under the control of the Mirror God.
However, although Xiao Wenbing didn't need to intervene in the entire refining process, the mere thought of a living person about to become his avatar gave him a strange feeling. Even if that person was a demon cub from the demon realm, this feeling was still impossible to completely avoid.
However, the Venerable Ones were completely unconcerned; in their minds, such a thing was perfectly normal. Instead, they were extremely curious about why Xiao Wenbing could use a Nascent Soul stage skill at the Nascent Soul stage.
Volume 4, The Divine Artifacts, Chapter 285: Forging (Part 1)
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Seeing that Xiao Wenbing seemed somewhat interested, Long Shi quickly calculated in his mind and asked, "Fellow Daoist Xiao, do you think three days is enough time for us to stay here?"
"Stay for three days?" Xiao Wenbing was greatly surprised and asked, "Why stay for three days? Could it be..." He looked at Old Dragon and asked, "Is your health not good?"
Long Shi was taken aback. He had been thinking of Xiao Wenbing's best interests, so how did it become his fault? He straightened his chest and said, "Old Long is all well." Then, seeing Xiao Wenbing's puzzled look, he explained, "Since you want to refine an external avatar, you will need at least three days of seclusion. We will stay here to protect you."
Xiao Wenbing's expression changed slightly, and he said, "No, tracking down the Qiankun Circle is the most important thing right now." Although this external avatar is rare, even the rarest avatar cannot compare to a single hair of Yaqi's.
Long Shi frowned and said, "Fellow Daoist Xiao, since the Qiankun Ring has already fallen into the hands of the Demon Clan, it doesn't really matter if we spend two or three more days. However, you cannot afford to delay in refining your external avatar."
"Really?" Xiao Wenbing asked in great surprise.