Chapter 140 World Four [26]

It generally takes three months to break through from the Foundation Establishment Stage to the Golden Core Stage, but for cultivators with outstanding talent, it can be shortened to two months.

However, Wen Ruyue only took twenty-seven days to complete the process of forming a pill, which was the shortest time for forming a pill in the past hundred years.

On June 6th, a huge dark cloud appeared in the Lingxiao Sect's headquarters, making the sky visibly darker.

When they saw the dark clouds with thunder and lightning covering the back mountain of the base, all the disciples in the base stopped what they were doing and came to the outside of the barrier of the back mountain according to the instructions of their leader.

"Master, did Senior Sister really break through to the Golden Core stage instead of the Nascent Soul stage?" Zhu Qiuyu felt obvious panic and uneasiness in his heart, as if something terrible was going to happen.

"The last time we met, Senior Sister was only in the late Foundation Establishment stage. She should have broken through to the Golden Core stage, right?" Qin Guang, who was guarding on the side, felt a similar sense of panic, and he couldn't help but look at Master Wen.

Sect Leader Wen did not speak, but looked up at the dark clouds rolling with thunder.

In less than half a year, he broke through from the late foundation-building stage to the golden elixir stage. This speed is extremely terrifying even in an era with abundant spiritual energy, not to mention this era with scarce spiritual energy.

There is no free lunch in the world. When you gain something, you will definitely lose something.

His eldest disciple must have done something extraordinary with the divine beast White Tiger, which is why he was able to quickly improve his cultivation in a short period of time, and incidentally attracted a thunder tribulation that had not appeared in many years.

"Master? Do you think Senior Sister will be okay?" Zhu Qiuyu couldn't help but ask again.

After his apprentice repeatedly called out, Sect Leader Wen finally gathered his wandering thoughts and gave them a firm answer. "Yes, the divine beast had anticipated the thunder tribulation. It was also the divine beast who had me arrange the defensive formation. She should have already had a way to deal with it."

Master Wen was right, Jing Ke never fought a battle without preparation.

Jing Ke knew very well that improving her cultivation too quickly would cause a thunder tribulation, but she still poured her spiritual power into Wen Ruyue's body every day.

In other words, Jing Ke wanted Heaven to send down a thunderstorm. She wanted to give Heaven an opportunity, so that Heaven could legitimately open a backdoor for its contractors.

If evil spirits were to run rampant in the human world, it would not be a good thing for the way of heaven.

Therefore, Heaven arranged for the emergence of the secret realm, giving Jing Ke a suitable reason to easily pass through the growth period and become a cultivator with strength comparable to that of the Nascent Soul stage.

And now Jing Ke has given Tiandao an opportunity to use thunder tribulation to open a back door for Wen Ruyue. If Tiandao feels that he cannot solve the evil demon by himself, Tiandao will definitely not miss this thunder tribulation.

The dark clouds with thunder and lightning stayed in the sky, then slowly lowered down until the entire back mountain was shrouded in darkness, and then the thunderclouds finally stopped.

The thunderclouds did not give much warning, and a bolt of lightning as thick as a finger struck Wen Ruyue.

Wen Ruyue followed Jing Ke's instructions and did not use her spiritual power to resist. Instead, she relaxed her body and let the lightning pass through her meridians.

hiss--

it hurts.

This was Wen Ruyue's first feeling, which made her reflexively want to use her spiritual power to resist the lightning that was pouring into her meridians.

The little tiger will not deceive himself. He must be patient and not mobilize his spiritual power to fight. He must relax and let the lightning pass through his body.

Wen Ruyue chose to believe Jing Ke, and suppressed her body's instinctive reaction, choosing to adapt to the pain of being struck by lightning.

After the first lightning disappeared, the second and third lightning struck down immediately.

Wen Ruyue was prepared to face the pain, but the second and third lightning bolts did not bring her the expected pain. Instead, she felt the abundant spiritual power flowing through her body for the first time in a long time.

The originally ordinary golden elixir also began to glow slightly, and a silver-purple lightning pattern appeared on it, making it look even more clear and transparent.

To break through from the Golden Core Stage to the Nascent Soul Stage, one needs to go through nine thunder tribulations to temper the body before one can successfully transform from a pill into an infant.

Wen Ruyue, who had just broken through to the Golden Core stage, naturally did not need to endure nine thunder tribulations. After the eighth lightning bolt as thick as an arm struck down, the dark clouds dissipated into the air at an extremely fast speed, as if they had completed their mission.

The back mountain, which was almost pitch dark, not only saw the sun again, but also had a sweet rain.

"Let's all go in and feel and experience it." Sect Leader Wen finally let go of his worries. At this moment, he also understood why Jing Ke asked him to gather the inner disciples to watch this thunder tribulation.

It seems that Jing Ke is not only prepared for how to deal with the thunder tribulation, but also knows that after the thunder tribulation, the heaven will bestow sweet rain to help improve his cultivation.

Jing Ke glanced at the Lingxiao Sect disciples who were delighted when they entered the range of the sweet rain. After the falling sweet rain repaired Wen Ruyue's body, he turned back to his original form.

Before Wen Ruyue could react, Jing Ke used his tail to circle Wen Ruyue and put her on his back. He then took off directly into the air, passing over all the disciples and returned to the small courtyard.

After she landed on solid ground, Wen Ruyue discovered that there was a layer of translucent dirt on her body. She immediately understood Jing Ke's intention and rushed into the bathroom with the little tiger who had turned back into a human.

-

The news that Wen Ruyue broke through to the Golden Core stage and attracted eight thunder tribulations quickly spread within the organization.

When the director of the General Administration learned about this, he smiled and directly fired the two confidants of the deputy director and filled the vacancies with people he trusted.

The deputy director tried to express his dissatisfaction, but was ruthlessly suppressed by the director of the general bureau.

"If the deputy director has time to go against me, he might as well go to the three places where the divine beast gave warnings. Maybe he can discover and eliminate the evil spirits in advance." The director of the General Administration said indifferently.

In order to prevent the deputy director from causing trouble at a critical moment, the director of the general bureau asked his confidants to cooperate with him and slowly undermine the other party, forcing the deputy director to go out on field work and travel back and forth between three suspicious cities.

The fact that the director and deputy director of the Special Management Bureau were at odds with each other was no secret in the Special Management Bureau, and the leaders of the eight major factions were also very aware of it.

So when Master Wen was talking about the recent situation, he also reminded his eldest disciple and Jing Ke about this matter.

"As long as nothing happens to the Director General, once the magic weapon is discovered, it will be destroyed immediately by all forces," said Sect Leader Wen. "The Deputy Director has been transferred to a local inspection post. He can't influence the decision-making of the General Administration."

"Are we going to the three places I have a sense of?" Jing Ke asked, his handsome brows slightly frowned. "Who is the person traveling with you? Is he bewitched by evil spirits?"

Sect Leader Wen shook his head. "Although the deputy director has a bad attitude towards spirits, he is absolutely loyal to the human cultivators. Making him cooperate with evil spirits is more painful than killing him."

"Moreover, the other 19 members of the special task force are taking turns patrolling those three places. Even if the deputy director is caught off guard, he will not escape their eyes." said Master Wen.

Sect Leader Wen has been dealing with those people for more than fifty years, so she still has some confidence in this.

"Okay, then I have no problem. Just let me know when you track down the evil demon." Jing Ke did not ask any more questions. Since the director of the General Administration had considered it so carefully, all he needed to do was wait.

-

Time flew by and it was already August. Summer vacation was about to end, but there was still no useful information from the task force.

The evil cultivators seemed to have disappeared, appearing less and less frequently. Even those who were caught were just small-time figures in the Qi Refining Stage.

No one was happy about it, but as time went by, everyone became more and more nervous.

The calm before the storm is what is happening now.

The director of the General Administration is very worried that Xie Zheng is brewing a huge conspiracy, so he is so quiet.

But without any concrete clues, there was little she could do. She could only send more people over and over again, asking different people to patrol the same place to see if they could find any useful clues.

In this way, it was early September, and the call from the General Administration did not come, but Gu Qi called first.

After seeing the name on the caller ID, Wen Ruyue pressed the answer button without thinking much, and then she heard a slightly unfamiliar voice.

"Excuse me, are you Consultant Wen Ruyue? I'm Cai Meng. I can't find Xiaoqi. She's missing." Cai Meng's voice came from the other end of the electric ring with a hint of panic.

"Gu Qi is missing? When did she disappear? Can you tell me in detail?" Wen Ruyue's face instantly became serious.

Relying on her previous luck, Cai Meng has now become a popular star and has more announcements to attend to every day.

Gu Qi is nominally Cai Meng's personal assistant. She will follow Cai Meng wherever she goes to shoot, and there has been no exception from last year to now.

But last night, Gu Qi suddenly said that he wanted to go out. When he left, Gu Qi was in a hurry and rushed out without even changing his shoes.

Cai Meng had encountered such things several times before, but since Gu Qi usually came back within an hour or two, she was not too worried.

While waiting, Cai Meng fell asleep on the sofa. It was not until she woke up the next day and found that Gu Qi had not returned yet that she realized something was wrong.

After dialing Gu Qi's number, Cai Meng realized that she didn't even bring her phone.

"Xiao Qi told me before that if I encountered any unexpected situation, I could contact you, Consultant Wen, so I found the number in Xiao Qi's phone and called you directly."

Cai Meng's tone was full of worry. The fact that she was able to remain relatively calm and explain what happened clearly was the result of her efforts to control her emotions.

"I see. Tell me your current address and I'll send someone to your home to protect you. As for the rest, don't worry. We should be able to find Gu Qi's location soon, and then we'll come back to see you together."

Wen Ruyue calmed Cai Meng down, and after hanging up the phone, she immediately took out her cell phone and called Director Hao of Dongzhou City.

According to the regulations of the Special Management Bureau, after the big monster completes the registration, different observation times will be arranged according to the other party's cultivation level.

If Wen Ruyue remembered correctly, Gu Qi would be under observation for a whole year because of her kidnapping and assaulting crimes. She would be required to wear a positioning device so that the Special Affairs Bureau could track her movements.

Under normal circumstances, the Special Management Bureau does not pay close attention to the location of the other party, and the deviation of the positioning equipment is between fifty and one hundred meters. In fact, the role it can play is very limited, and it is more about allowing the big monster to learn to adapt to the rules.

But if it were now, the positioning device that the Special Management Bureau asked Gu Qi to wear would become extremely important. Not only could it know Gu Qi's approximate location, but it might also be able to find the evil cultivator's lair.

After hearing what Wen Ruyue said, Director Hao immediately thought of the refining of magic weapons.

The frequency of evil cultivators' activities has decreased recently, and the big monsters are particularly protective of their own people. It is very likely that the evil cultivators are stuck at the stage of insufficient number of blood sacrifices.

Director Hao was very clear about Gu Qi's identity. As a seven-tailed fox with a trace of divine beast blood, theoretically the effect of sacrifice would be better than that of other monsters with different bloodlines.

More importantly, if the blood of a divine beast is sacrificed, it means that the magic weapon has been stained with the blood of the divine beast when it was born, and its effective killing power against the divine beast will inevitably be further enhanced.

Director Hao was very efficient, responding in just three minutes. "We've checked. The positioning equipment is still functioning normally, and the current location is Jian'an City. I'll call the Director of the General Administration right away. Jian'an City is a place we're closely monitoring, and we have at least twelve colleagues with early Foundation Establishment cultivation and above on duty."

"Advisor Wen, I will also synchronize the real-time trajectory with you. If we really find the evil cultivator's lair, we will need the help of Advisor Wen and Senior Baihu." Director Hao said.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Director Hao. I will set off with Jing Ke now." Wen Ruyue did not refuse.

The longer the evil demon wasn't found, the more worried she would be. Especially for a magical weapon that could threaten her little tiger, Wen Ruyue wanted to destroy it all the time.

After the call ended, Director Hao announced Gu Qi's movements through the internal app.

From the above, we can see that Gu Qi, who had settled in one area for five days, began to move quickly at 9:50 last night. However, in just two hours, he had left the city where he was originally located and headed west.

Judging from the rough route map, Gu Qi should have used magic to move, and most of the routes passed through uninhabited areas.

The distance between Jian'an City and Hai City is about one thousand kilometers, and it takes several hours to get there even by plane.

Of course, Wen Ruyue and Jing Ke did not plan to go by plane. The speed of flying with a sword in the Jindan stage is not necessarily slower than taking a plane.

Not to mention that Jing Ke’s current strength is comparable to that of a Nascent Soul. It only takes her about an hour to fly a thousand kilometers in a straight line.

"The approximate location is here. The locator has been modified to automatically send coordinates once a minute. We must try to find Gu Qi before the locator expires." Wen Ruyue said, zooming in on the location so Jing Ke could see it clearly.

"Jian'an City, on the outskirts of the ancient city." Jing Ke came over and took a close look at the location on the ground. "Okay, I've got this location in mind. Shall we set off now?"

"Let's set off now, the sooner the better." Wen Ruyue said.

Wen Ruyue had a good impression of Gu Qi. Since he trusted her so much, she couldn't let him down. At least she couldn't let her become one of the souls imprisoned in the magic weapon.

-

At the same time, Gu Qi in Jian'an City was arguing with the evil practitioners who had taken him away.

"Didn't I tell you that the final step requires a great demon with the blood of a divine beast to sacrifice itself, so that the magic weapon in your hands can become a magic weapon that can kill the divine beast? I must do this willingly."

Gu Qi's spiritual power was imprisoned, and his storage bag had been looted long ago.

Fortunately, these evil cultivators did not take off all the jewelry on Gu Qi, so the earrings containing the locator were still worn on Gu Qi's ears.

"We do need your help on some level, but you're not our only option. If you take the initiative, you'll become the spirit possessing the magical weapon. Not only will you retain your sanity, but you might even become stronger."

The evil elder held a crutch made of human bones and cast a cold gaze on Gu Qi. "If you don't want to, you will die, and Cai Meng, whom you've been thinking about so much, will also die. I will not even let her have the chance to reincarnate."

"Great Elder, this is not very kind of you. I discovered you the day before yesterday, but wasn't I very obedient and did nothing? I even took the initiative to tell you a piece of news." Seeing that there was no chair for him to sit on, Gu Qi did not despise it and directly found a stone of suitable height to sit down.

"It is precisely because you did nothing that we gave you an extra day as you requested, allowing you and your human wife to live together for another day." The Great Elder said expressionlessly.

"Jump into the furnace. Whether you succeed or not, we will not attack your wife, and we promise that she will have a smooth life." The second elder continued.

The Great Elder said, "You have ten minutes to consider. If that time is up, everything we have agreed upon will be overturned. You should also be very clear about the price of deceiving us."

Gu Qi smiled and said that he would think about it again, but in his heart he was already praying for help.

In fact, when Gu Qi went out to get takeout the night before yesterday, an evil cultivator disguised as a delivery boy had a knife put to his neck, and he was almost knocked unconscious and taken away as a sacrifice.

Fortunately, Gu Qi reacted quickly and guessed the reason why they risked their lives to capture him. In the end, he promised these people that they could only achieve the artifact by sacrificing themselves voluntarily, thus buying himself an extra day.

For the safety of himself and Cai Meng, Gu Qi cannot do anything too extreme or abnormal during this day, and he cannot contact people from the Special Management Bureau at will.

Gu Qi had no choice but to leave in a hurry without even taking his cell phone. This unusual thing left some messages for his girlfriend.

The time for leaving was chosen by Gu Qi after repeated consideration. She knew that after she left, the evil cultivator would definitely have other means to monitor her girlfriend's every move.

If Cai Meng called right after I left, those evil cultivators who were following me would think that I had already discussed this with my girlfriend and would definitely ignore the agreement and wipe out the whole thing.

That's why Gu Qi chose to leave at night, betting that Cai Meng would wait for him until she fell asleep, and only when she woke up the next day would she realize something was wrong and contact Wen Ruyue as he had said before.

Gu Qi didn’t know whether she had made the right bet, but she knew that her time was running out. If she didn’t take action, the promises she had made before would no longer be able to deceive them.

Ten minutes was too short for Gu Qi. The Great Elder had no habit of showing mercy. After nine minutes, he began the one-minute countdown to death.

Tolerating Gu Qi for an extra day is already their limit. If Gu Qi does not voluntarily die when the time is up, they don't mind sacrificing him with blood, and then spending some time to find a big demon who is willing to sacrifice himself willingly.

They have waited for more than six years, so it’s not impossible to wait a few more days.

"10, 9, 8..." The Great Elder's countdown also came to the end. After seeing Gu Qi still sitting there motionless, he gave a look to the evil cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Stage standing aside.

The two walked straight towards Gu Qi, whose spiritual power was sealed, and grabbed her shoulders and pressed her in front of the furnace. As soon as the elder finished counting the last few numbers, they would throw Gu Qi in and become the nourishment of the magic weapon.

The heat waves from the stove rushed towards Gu Qi, and the few strands of her hair that were not tied up soon began to twist and deform because they could not withstand the high temperature.

Oh no, it seems my little trick didn’t fool them. Is the Special Management Bureau’s response so slow?

What happened to the promise to check my whereabouts every day? Could the locator that automatically alerts me if anything seems out of the ordinary be broken?

"3, 2, 1, 0, the time is up, throw her down. That human named Cai Meng should also be eliminated to let them know that deceiving evil practitioners is not a good habit." The elder said expressionlessly.

What the fox said was indeed not to be believed. The so-called self-sacrifice might be a scam from the beginning to the end, a scam to delay time.

"Wait, let me in!" Gu Qi tried hard to prolong his life.

The two evil cultivators who were holding her down hesitated for a moment and looked back at the Great Elder.

"Give her a chance to go in by herself." The Great Elder said, inwardly looking forward to the result after Gu Qi offered herself voluntarily.

After letting out a light breath, Gu Qi rubbed his shoulders which were a little painful from being pinched, took a few steps back, and planned to jump in with a running start.

Just as Gu Qi took three steps back, staring at all the evil cultivators, the voice she was expecting finally appeared.

Bang——

A huge explosion sounded, and the underground camp began to shake, with rocks falling from above.

The Great Elder reacted immediately and gave the order, "Push her in!"