Three-Star Pill

In the end, only after this Blazing Dragon Lion had enjoyed a Heavenly Thunder Tribulation, a Four-Nine Heavenly Tribulation, a Six-Nine Heavenly Tribulation, and a Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation did it lie miserably off to one side, charred all over—burnt crisp outside, tender within.

Since Chen Xiao wanted to test whether he could truly control the heavenly tribulations, he unleashed all four types of tribulation he could currently use, aside from the Thousand-Crush Heavenly Tribulation and the Ten Thousand Demons Refining World Tribulation.

Naturally, Chen Xiao also worried that casting those tribulations one by one would take too long, so he hurriedly made all four heavenly tribulations erupt at once. Bolts of heavenly lightning fell like rain; lightning that would originally have taken days and nights to pour down came crashing down all at once in less than three hours.

As for the Blazing Dragon Lion that had been used as a guinea pig, it survived only because Chen Xiao had shown mercy and deliberately weakened the tribulations' power.

Even so, it was foaming at the mouth, and waves of roasted meat fragrance wafted from its body.

"Blazing Dragon Lion, you should have perished beneath the Ten Thousand Generations Tribulation, but this young master is merciful and shall spare your life. You'd better behave yourself!"

Chen Xiao looked at the Blazing Dragon Lion on the ground and snorted coldly. Then, the tribulation clouds filling the sky vanished completely. The Blazing Dragon Lion, which still retained a trace of consciousness, heard Chen Xiao's majestic yet teasing words and simply rolled its eyes back before fainting outright.

Chen Xiao was over the moon. He had never expected that he could truly control the heavenly tribulations completely. Although the Blazing Dragon Lion should have faced the Six-Nine Heavenly Tribulation, Chen Xiao could utterly disregard that so-called "should have" and use the lightning tribulations however he pleased.

Then, once his cultivation reached the second level, the Orange Cloud Realm, would he not be able to control the Living Ascension Tribulation—the lightning tribulation faced by cultivators in the Tribulation Transcendence Realm? Would there still be any need to worry that his grandfather could not overcome his tribulation?

With that thought, a smile appeared at the corner of Chen Xiao's lips.

The east began to pale with the light of dawn.

Chen Xiao only felt a heavy aura pressing down before him, nearly suffocating him.

"You unfilial brat! I thought you had finally come to your senses and knew to cultivate diligently, but you were just sitting here sleeping! You, you, you—you're going to anger me to death! Mud can't be molded into a wall!"

This was Chen Tiannan's voice.

Chen Tiannan felt as though his lungs were about to explode from rage. He truly did not know what to say about this disappointing youngest son.

Last night, Chen Tiannan had spent the entire night refining the Chen Clan's inherited healing secret medicine, the Three-Star Pill, for Chen Xiao. He had come to deliver it this morning. No matter how useless the boy was, he was still his son.

When he arrived at Chen Xiao's bedroom, he saw him sitting with his eyes closed, his five centers turned toward heaven, seemingly deep in meditation. He was immediately gratified. This son of his finally knew how to cultivate!

One had to know that Chen Xiao possessed excellent talent, far surpassing that of his two elder brothers. Yet the boy was lazy by nature and had never known what cultivation was. At sixteen, even an ordinary youth in the Immortal World practicing the lowest-grade cultivation technique would have reached the Qi Refining Seventh Layer. Yet Chen Xiao was merely at the Qi Refining Third Layer. It was enough to make him the laughingstock of all.

Whenever the great city lord Chen thought of his youngest son, his face would burn red with embarrassment, and he could scarcely bear to face his subordinates.

Today, seeing Chen Xiao meditating and cultivating for the first time in his life, Chen Tiannan had naturally been overjoyed. But before that joy could last long, Chen Tiannan, whose cultivation had already reached the Integrated Body Middle Stage, noticed something was wrong.

Why was it that when his youngest son cultivated, there was no gathering of heaven and earth spiritual energy, not even a trace of true essence fluctuation?

Filled with curiosity, Chen Tiannan silently entered Chen Xiao's room. He examined Chen Xiao carefully, and rage instantly surged to his head.

There sat ** Chen Xiao cross-legged, a ** smile on his face. A thread of drool at the corner of his mouth was practically about to drip onto **, while faint snores escaped from his nose and mouth. The fellow had been asleep all along.

At once, the bit of gratification that had just risen in Chen Tiannan's heart exploded, resulting in the scene from moments ago.

Chen Tiannan pointed at Chen Xiao's nose and scolded him for a long while. In the end, he tossed a jade bottle onto Chen Xiao's **, flicked his sleeve, and left.

Chen Xiao held the jade bottle in his hand, momentarily unable to make sense of what had happened. He had clearly been presiding over heavenly tribulations just moments ago, so why had he suddenly returned here?

Could everything just now really have been only a dream?

Chen Xiao shook his head and cast away the jumbled thoughts in his mind. Controlling heavenly tribulations? Even in his wildest daydreams, he could not dream up anything so wonderful. What were heavenly tribulations? They were blades hanging over cultivators' heads. If someone could control such a thing, wouldn't that be outrageous?

Chen Xiao gave a bitter smile. Rebirth alone was already defying the heavens. If he could control heavenly tribulations after being reborn as well, then Azure Heaven truly had no eyes.

Chen Xiao lowered his head and looked at the bottle of healing medicine in his hand. He sighed softly, and a warm current rose within his heart.

His father, whether in his previous life or this one, had never shown him a pleasant face. Yet only when Chen Tiannan had broken out of an encirclement to protect him and self-detonated his Nascent Soul did Chen Xiao feel that fatherly love which had never been spoken aloud.

No matter how disappointing or debauched he was, in his father's eyes, he would always be his son. Even if his soul and spirit were scattered to the winds, he would still protect that son.

Chen Xiao knew that refining this bottle of Three-Star Pills had inflicted tremendous harm upon Chen Tiannan, leaving him unable to fully recover even two years later.

"So the Nangong Family had already begun making moves against the Chen Clan at this time." A sharp glint flashed through Chen Xiao's eyes.

Chen Xiao understood his own injuries clearly. Though he appeared to have suffered only superficial wounds, numerous hidden injuries had in fact been left throughout his extraordinary meridians and eight channels. These hidden injuries were not serious in themselves, but they would greatly affect Chen Xiao's future cultivation. Only the Chen Clan's Three-Star Pill could treat such wounds.

Chen Xiao might have been worthless, but he was still Chen Tiannan's son. How could Chen Tiannan sit by and watch such a result unfold?

However, refining the Three-Star Pill was extremely damaging to cultivators. Chen Xiao had been muddleheaded and ignorant in his previous life, but now that he had been reborn with the memories of that life, how could he not understand?

From their chance encounter on the street yesterday to Nangong Wenyue injuring him, it had likely all been premeditated. The goal was to make Chen Tiannan damage his own cultivation to refine the Three-Star Pill!

Chen Xiao gripped the bottle of pills tightly, his heart filled with complicated emotions. In his previous life, he had already owed his family far too much. His father, mother, two elder brothers, and even his maid Mengmeng had all self-detonated their Golden Cores and Nascent Souls at the final moment to protect him, winning him a sliver of hope for survival.

Now, everything was beginning anew. Would Chen Xiao allow the tragedy to repeat itself?

Chen Xiao merely made up his mind in secret, without revealing anything on his face.

Only after weathering wind and rain could a person truly grow mature.