By now, the battle raging high in the air had reached its boiling point. Both sides were fighting in earnest.
Shi Chou had only just emerged into the world. All he wanted was to find an opponent and temper himself. He had heard that Chen Fengyang of Moon-Gazing City had obtained the Town-Suppressing Seal and greatly increased his strength. Though Chen Fengyang was only at the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, refining the seal would send his combat strength soaring to the peak of the Mahayana Realm. So Shi Chou had emerged ahead of schedule and eagerly sought him out.
Nangong Xiangyan, meanwhile, assumed Shi Chou was a disciple from some unknown faction who had come specifically to disrupt the Nangong Family's plans.
If Chen Fengyang hadn't already obtained the Town-Suppressing Seal and activated some of the city's protective arrays, a quarter of Moon-Gazing City might well have been destroyed in this battle.
After all, Moon-Gazing City was merely a city for cultivators. Without any protection, it couldn't withstand the devastation wrought by two Mahayana Realm cultivators.
The two fought above Moon-Gazing City for three whole hours. When the dozen or so Tribulation Transcendence Realm cultivators lying low within the Nangong Family saw that their elder couldn't get the better of his opponent, they joined forces, formed an array, and rushed into the battle.
Chen Xiao had experienced countless battles like this in his previous life. A fight between two Mahayana Realm cultivators wasn't enough to catch his attention.
Seeing that no one in the city had suffered more than a few injuries from Shi Chou's baleful aura, he slipped back to his little courtyard.
By now, another courtyard had been set up beside Chen Xiao's original one, guarded by an array.
Poison Immortal Cai Di lived there.
But rather than a little courtyard, it was more like a medicinal garden, filled with all sorts of colorful plants. No one could say how many different medicinal herbs had been transplanted there.
Cai Di had been in the City Lord's Mansion for barely a month, yet under his unique methods, the herbs were already brimming with life.
Cai Di sat cross-legged on a cushion, flipping through a medicinal text, while Mengmeng fluttered about like a little butterfly, tending to the flowers and herbs. Mengmeng was now the young lady of the City Lord's Mansion and Chen Tiannan's adopted daughter, so she no longer had to handle the household's trivial affairs.
Cai Di had her care for the herbs only so she could learn all their different properties.
The two of them were taking it easy. Protected by the Golden Light Demon-Suppressing Array, they weren't affected in the least by the battle outside.
Cai Di was someone who could even kill a True Immortal. How could a battle between two Mahayana Realm cultivators catch his eye? As for Mengmeng, she was naturally indifferent and had no fondness for killing.
Having her study poison arts under Cai Di suited her temperament quite well.
According to Cai Di, the Poison Sect hadn't originally been founded to kill people, but to save them.
The Ten Thousand Poisons Scripture, the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect's treasured text, recorded 480 million kinds of poisons, along with deadly toxins created by mixing various harmless substances. These things hadn't been created to poison people or kill enemies.
The 480 million poisonous substances had been collected in one book, their forms and habits described—not to do anything more than warn future generations, telling them what was poisonous and must not be touched.
The predecessor of the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect, a sect long since buried by history and forgotten even by name, had been founded for no grander purpose than to teach its disciples about these poisons, so they could save people from their deadly effects.
But human nature had its flaws, and immortals were no exception.
This once-revered sect, which had made saving all living beings its mission, eventually declined and broke apart. The Ten Thousand Poisons Sect, the sole surviving branch, was all that remained of the original sect's Poison lineage.
In the end, it had become the infamous Poison Sect of the Immortal World, reviled and hunted by all. The irony was bitter indeed.
Now even the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect had vanished. The past was past, and Cai Di, its last surviving member, naturally had no wish to restore the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect—or the reputation of the sect that had preceded it.
All he wanted was to stay alive.
Seeing that Cai Di and Mengmeng were unharmed, Chen Xiao nodded to them and returned to his room.
"The Chen Clan is still far too weak. I have to raise its strength as quickly as possible... Cai Di alone isn't enough to deter the rabble."
Chen Xiao furrowed his brow. Though Chen Fengyang had obtained the Town-Suppressing Seal, he could only draw on its power within Moon-Gazing City. Once he left the city's borders, the seal would be useless.
Besides, if the Nangong Family feared the Town-Suppressing Seal and the Glazed Heaven Palace, they wouldn't have sent more people to Moon-Gazing City.
As for Cai Di, if his name got out, everyone would hunt him down.
So Chen Xiao had already set his sights on demon beasts undergoing Tribulation Transcendence and taking human form.
Last time, Chen Xiao had taken advantage of the tribulation to obtain Staff Daoist's true form. That meant he wasn't limited to playing the role of an enforcer while presiding over heavenly tribulations.
Impatient to begin, Chen Xiao hurried back to his room. He set up a small array, sat cross-legged, and sent his divine sense into the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book.
The first page of the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book was vast as an ocean, recording all kinds of spirit creatures about to undergo tribulation and the heavenly tribulations they would face.
Originally, the book's records of thunder tribulations were based entirely on merit and karma, each weighed against the other. Those with abundant merit faced weaker tribulations and had a greater chance of surviving them. As for those without merit, unless they had a rare treasure to protect them or were innately powerful, their odds of success were practically zero.
The greater one's merit, the greater one's chances of surviving the tribulation.
But now, all this was nothing more than empty words to Chen Xiao. He was the master of the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book and held the tribulations in his hands. Their strength and severity were entirely up to him. If he wished, he could let a cannibalistic fiend who had committed every evil under the sun pass through a tribulation unscathed—or make a great benefactor praised for a hundred lifetimes vanish beneath its thunder.
Besides recording heavenly tribulations, the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book also contained all sorts of peerless secret arts, ten thousand times more profound than the immortal arts of the present day.
"At the fifth turn of the Red Cloud Realm, I can have five Tribulation Disciples."
As he studied the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book, Chen Xiao suddenly came across this information.
Tribulation Disciples were the five living beings a tribulation controller could claim beneath a heavenly tribulation and turn into followers. With each turn of the nine-turn Red Cloud Realm, he could take one more Tribulation Disciple into his service.
Good grief, I'm such an idiot! I've had this treasure for so long and never thought to study it. How many resources have I wasted?
After being reborn, Chen Xiao had obtained the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book and gained the power to control heavenly tribulations. But he had been so busy cultivating and increasing his own strength that he hadn't thought to properly study the book.
According to the way he'd thought in his previous life, his own strength came first. Until he reached the Orange Cloud Realm, the stage at which cultivators ascended through heavenly tribulations, the book wouldn't be of much help to him.
Clearly, that was a flawed way of thinking!
But it wasn't too late. Chen Xiao searched the Thunder Virtue Heavenly Book for information on demon beasts about to undergo tribulation.
"My first Tribulation Disciple... It'll be you."