Earthly calamity

Xu Lian Blessed Land

The earthly calamity was here.

Xu Lian floated in the air with a solemn expression. He looked at the entrance of his blessed land.

Two streams of qi were surging and mixing.

His robes and hair fluttered in the wind whipped up by the heaven and earth qi.

"Soon the two qi will merge and transform into tribulation clouds. Only after that will I know what tribulation I have to face." - He thought.

This was already Xu Lian's ninth earthly calamity. He wasn't a greenhorn, but his experience wasn't deep either.

The streams of qi dispersed as they reached deeper into the blessed land.

Dark-colored tribulation clouds started to emerge in their place.

The clouds churned and rumbled violently in front of Xu Lian's eyes. They already covered one third of the lands of the blessed land.

"Worthy of my ninth earthly calamity! It is stronger than my eight one. But I'm not without preparations!" - Thinking this, Xu Lian took out the object of his confidence.

Eight Layered Leaf Nest gu house!

Xu Lian entered and waited impatiently the descent of the calamity.

Minutes passed like hours.

"Why is it not beginning yet?" - He looked at the vast tribulation clouds.

The clouds were still expanding, now already engulfing half the sky of the small world.

Xu Lian's impatience slowly turned to anxiety.

"I can't wait any longer. I'll directly attack the tribulation clouds!" - He determined himself.

Xu Lian preemptively activated his offensive killer move from the safety of his gu house.

Killer move - Pale Green Vine Flame!

A green creeping plant formed at Xu Lian's palm and shot out.

The vine curved left and right as it grew to new heights from his palm.

The leaves that sprouted from its stem flickered with green light. They were little flames lining this vine like a barbed wire of nature.

This was a wood path killer move that imitated the effect of fire path. It wasn't Xu Lian's creation, it came from the inheritance he cultivated from Bao clan.

The flaming vine reached the tribulation cloud quickly. As soon as it made contact, the single stem split in two, then it split again. Countless tiny branches appeared and continued to weave through the dark tribulation clouds.

"Burn!" - Xu Lian commanded.

The small leaves grew to three times their size. They flared up and burned with vigor.

The dark tribulation clouds started to shine brightly around the Pale Green Vine Flame.

The tribulation clouds rumbled, but stopped expanding.

Xu Lian observed quietly with a satisfied expression on his face.

"Since I cultivate wood path, the tribulation is also wood path. But my killer moves can imitate fire path. This is the perfect counter!"

The rumbling abated for a moment. Then, a thundering sound! A crescendo thunder erupted!

"The heavens are enraged. I must have thwarted its preparation in advance."

Just as Xu Lian was thinking this, he lost control of his killer move.

The Pale Green Vine Flame was stripped from his hand and sucked into the tribulation cloud like a strand of noodle.

"How can this be? I lost connection to my killer move. What calamity is this?" - Xu Lian was getting a bad premonition, things weren't going as he expected.

A change occurred. Wisps of green balls descended from the tribulation clouds.

The balls of light looked soft and gentle, but Xu Lian knew they were anything but.

On the ground, Bao Zhi also paid attention to Xu Lian's calamity.

"Wood Spirit Charms! What rotten luck. This will be troublesome." - Bao Zhi recognized the unusual calamity at a glance.

Countless tiny balls of light fell like snow, the sky was full of them.

Xu Lian launched another attack to annihilate the Wood Spirit Charms.

Pale Green Vine Flame!

The Pale Green Vine Flame struck out once again, it branched in many directions and pierced the tiny lights in its path.

"Good, these strange orbs can be dispersed. I just have to keep attacking them." - Xu Lian heaved a sigh of relief.

But next, the Wood Spirit Charms rushed towards Xu Lian's killer move like a swarm of angry bees.

"What?" - Xu Lian looked at the strange phenomenon. But soon he understood what happened. A horrified expression appeared on his face.

"These things... They are counteracting my killer move. I can no longer control it!"

The Pale Green Vine Flame was quickly consumed by the swarm of Wood Spirit Charms. Xu Lian's attack was not just ineffective, the killer move Pale Green Vine Flame broke apart and more Wood Spirit Charms emerged from it.

"What a powerful calamity!" - Xu Lian was shocked.

"Deduction! I need to deduce a solution!" - He thought.

He sent out a will of his quickly to use the brain melon plantation and start deducing.

The Wood Spirit Charms kept coming, it was like an endless sea.

Xu Lian was now filled with unease.

Bao Zhi also was concerned about Xu Lian's ability to resolve this.

"He should have already realized by now. These Wood Spirit Charms feed on wood path. They need to be either contained or destroyed before they can multiply further." - Bao Zhi recalled in his mind.

"If the falling Wood Spirit Charms reach the ground, the whole aperture's wood path foundation will be decimated." - Bao Zhi frowned. This was also a threat to him.

The origin of this tribulation was a killer move from the medieval antiquity era. It was created by the experts of Li clan in their feud against the Huang clan. The Li clan was successful in their attack, the foundation of Huang clan was raised to the ground. They were forced to withdraw their forces and concede to Li clan.

Since then, the heavens would also use this method to deal with wood path cultivators.

Xu Lian was now facing a tribulation of the same kind.

"I'm not resigning to fate!" - Xu Lian clenched his teeth.

He waved his hands and released a series of wood path killer moves.

The killer moves formed a protective wall of green vines in front of Xu Lian, blocking the Wood Spirit Charms in its way.

"I must fight!" - Xu Lian roared.

The Wood Spirit Charms were now attacking nonstop. The protective wall of vines was already almost depleted.

Xu Lian had no choice but to use the Eight Layered Leaf Nest gu house to protect himself in the air.

The Wood Spirit Charms struck the gu house with their full force, but their attacks were still ineffective for the time being.

Under the protection of the gu house, Xu Lian finally saw the situation clearly.

The Wood Spirit Charms had already spread to the entire aperture. His methods were already almost completely destroyed.

Xu Lian was now in a state of despair.

"No! I can't give up, giving up now is certain death..."

"I need time, time to deduce a solution! I can't let them reach my resources!"

"These things fall towards the ground aimlessly, but when they sense wood path they would fly towards that and latch themselves to it." - He observed as his killer moves were dismantled by the Wood Spirit Charms before they returned to their aimless descent again.

"This is it! If I attack from above, then they would chase upward. I just need to be quick to not let them reach my move and multiply."

Xu Lian controlled the Eight Layered Leaf Nest and sped through the sea of Wood Spirit Charms in the sky.

He activated his killer moves left and right, before quickly retracting them.

The Eight Layered Leaf Nest rose higher and higher. In its wake, a dense trail of Wood Spirit Charms followed.

"Not enough. Faster, go faster!" - He instilled his immortal essence into the gu house amply.

Xu Lian swooped down like a green comet to attract another group of Wood Spirit Charms nearing the ground, then quickly regaining his elevation. This happened multiple times as he was circling above the lands to gather all the Wood Spirit Charms behind him.

But Xu Lian couldn't attract all of them, despite his best efforts to gather them all together. He was just one person, and the blessed land was too big.

Two fists can't beat four palms, not to mention hundreds of thousands.

Some of the Wood Spirit Charms reached the ground and started to destroy Xu Lian's foundation. They engulfed the trees and plants. The wood path resources were ravaged.

"Nooo!" - Xu Lian roared. He was helpless to stop them.

Some of these resources were lent to him by Wen clan. How would he return them? He would end up with nothing and then some debt!

Xu Lian's heart ached as he saw his accumulations disintegrating.

The situation was getting worse and worse. The sea of Wood Spirit Charms was getting wilder as they were multiplying from Xu Lian's resources.

Bao Zhi was worried as he saw the Wood Spirit Charms sinking further into the blessed land.

"This kid doesn't know how to deal with the situation. He is just stalling for time. He waited for too long already." - Bao Zhi sighed to himself.

Bao Zhi couldn't wait any longer, he had to intervene.

Xu Lian's will in the brain melon plantation was expelled by Bao Zhi. It looked around in confusion at the dire sight of the blessed land. But it soon regained its senses and sped upward to rejoin with the main body.

Xu Lian was almost at his mental limits, but he still refused to give up.

"I can't give up! I must find a way to resolve this!" - He thought.

At this moment, the will sent to the brain melon plantation returned.

Xu Lian was surprised.

"The will returned!" - He quickly absorbed the will into his mind and learned the results of the deduction.

"I see, the solution really is simple. I just have to stall the tribulation until all the heaven and earth qi are used up. When they are depleted, the tribulation would dissipate. Brilliant! I was so troubled by them absorbing my wood path that I forgot that their source can also be depleted. The more of them there are, the faster the depletion." - He summarized in his mind quickly.

"I was already on the right path. With the solution in hand, I will pass this tribulation!" - Xu Lian's confidence returned once more.

He started to activate his killer moves wildly. Offensive moves, defensive moves, investigative moves. He used them all.

Xu Lian was giving it his all. His killer moves erupted like fireworks all around him. This patch of sky was full of them.

The Wood Spirit Charms were gathering around the killer moves, feasting on them like hungry locusts. But with the sheer number of killer moves, they couldn't consume all of them. They were at a delicate equilibrium.

Xu Lian instilled another bead of immortal essence into his gu house to keep its speed up and used one for his many killer moves.

Xu Lian's eyes were bloodshot and his hair was in a mess. He was now a wild beast, his body completely focused on the battle.

He moved his gu house as if it was his own body, curving it left and right to avoid the Wood Spirit Charms and to use his killer moves to draw them away.

Likewise, he could let the Wood Spirit Charms consume his killer moves, but he had to keep his distance, or he would be engulfed.

This continued on for more than a day.

Xu Lian was already exhausted, but he still forced himself to continue.

"The tribulation must be almost over. I just need to hang on a little longer!" - He thought.

Xu Lian noticed that the spread of the troublesome light balls slowed, as many of them were drawn to the bigger commotion in the sky. His killer moves contained more fragments of dao marks than regular trees and plants.

He checked on the Eight Layered Leaf Nest. The outer four layers were already depleted. The next layer was dotted with many wisps of light trying to eat their way through.

Xu Lian activated the gu house once more, its outermost layer started to spin.

The Wood Spirit Charms on its surface were thrown away.

But the damage was accumulating bit by bit, he couldn't dodge all the Wood Spirit Charms.

"Just how much longer? I can't sustain this longer." - Xu Lian lamented to himself.

In the meanwhile, Bao Zhi prepared to make his move on the ground.

"Originally, I prepared this method for you. Who would have expected I'll end up helping you with it instead?" - Bao Zhi thought.

Next, a huge change occurred. All the flying lights froze in the air like bugs trapped in ember. Even the tattered Eight Layered Leaf Nest was stopped.

"What power is this?" - Xu Lian was equally shocked and frightened. He couldn't control his gu house anymore!