Breaking Through to Golden Core

Clearly, the visitors had come with ill intent.

Tang Yao raised an eyebrow. "What advice do you have for me? Why don't you dare show your true face?"

"I heard the Tang Household had produced an extraordinary young genius, so I came to see for myself!"

Before the words had faded, dozens of streaks of spiritual light suddenly shot from the other party's airship, striking straight at the Tang Household's flying boat. The Tang Household guards hurriedly activated the formation to defend it, but how could the already aging flying boat withstand such an attack?

The defensive formation flickered a few times, then shattered with a crash.

"What are you doing?" Tang Xin clenched her back teeth, her brows tightly furrowed. "Aren't you afraid of retaliation from the Azure Cloud Sect?"

A mocking smile curled the masked man's lips as he looked down at them. "I've sealed off this sea of clouds. The Azure Cloud Sect won't know a thing. As for you..." He paused for a second, toying with a string of beads.

"Heaven envies the gifted. Young geniuses fall all the time."

Were they planning to kill them to silence them?

"If you want me to fall, let's see whether you have what it takes!"

Tang Yao turned to ask the guard beside her, "In this year's ranking tournament for the five great aristocratic clans, which households are most likely to replace the Tang Household?"

"Young master, the most likely candidates are the Sun Household and the Qi Household," the guard replied, cupping his fist. But judging by how the two households conducted themselves, the Qi Household was more ostentatious, while the Sun Household kept a lower profile.

Tang Yao nodded, an idea forming in her mind.

Looking at the other party's flashy airship, the answer was all but obvious.

She immediately shouted, "Hey! The Qi Household really is a petty little household!" The other party visibly froze at the mention of the Qi Household. Tang Yao continued, "Going to all this trouble, yet you don't dare show your face. You're like a dog that has lost its home! You know that?"

The middle-aged man aboard the airship trembled with rage. Furious, he tore off his mask, revealing a visibly flushed face and bulging veins on his forehead. "Blast them!" He hurled the beads he had been rolling in his hand to the ground, scattering them to pieces. Then he suddenly sneered. "So what if you know who I am? Today is the day you die."

The Qi Household intended to strangle her in the cradle before her wings had fully grown.

Tang Yao quietly whispered to Tang Xin beside her, "I'll hold them off in a moment. Take the others and steer the flying boat out with everything you've got. Go back to the Azure Cloud Sect and find help."

"No!" Tang Xin said urgently. "It's too dangerous for you alone!"

Just then, five figures leaped from the Qi Household's airship and strode through the air toward them. Every one of them was at the Golden Core Realm. Their leader had even reached the middle Golden Core Realm, his strength far surpassing Tang Yao's.

The middle Golden Core Realm cultivator attacked first. With a fierce shout, he swung his long saber, unleashing a saber gleam several zhang long that carried a terrifying presence straight at Tang Yao.

Tang Yao's Crimson Flame Sword instantly left its sheath, and a crimson streak of sword light rose to meet it. The two forces, one black and one red, collided in the air with a resonant hum.

Tang Yao struggled immensely to withstand that blow.

Immediately afterward, the four early Golden Core Realm cultivators joined the battle at the same time, surrounding Tang Yao. "Big brother!" Seeing this, Tang Xin was about to rush forward to help, but two Tang Household guards held her back.

"Young miss, the young master ordered us to take you out of here!"

Tang Xin gritted her teeth as she watched Tang Yao fighting fiercely in the air. At last, she steeled herself. "Everyone, heed my command! Drive the flying boat at full power! Hurry!"

Tang Yao's situation was far from promising. Fine beads of sweat covered her forehead. Just as an enemy strike was about to land on her-

A red figure blocked the blow for her. When the golden light dispersed, it revealed a red-haired boy of thirteen or fourteen, his expression indignant, who had stopped the saber's shadow with his palm.

"All of you against one person? Have you no shame?" Golden-red flames danced over the Vermilion Bird's palm. He swept his hand, and a scorching sea of fire instantly forced the five Golden Core Realm cultivators back several zhang.

The Vermilion Bird could not hold out for long. His time outside was limited now. Then, as though something had occurred to him, he said, "You've already suppressed the spiritual power in your body to its limit." A smile curled his lips.

"It's time to break through."

Tang Yao froze for a moment, then immediately understood. The tribulation lightning of the Golden Core Realm was no joke.

If they wanted to kill her, she would strike them dead with lightning.

Drawing a deep breath, she leaped to the very top of their airship and stopped suppressing the surging spiritual power within her. In an instant, Tang Yao's presence began to soar. Dark clouds rapidly gathered overhead, and faint thunder rumbled.

The once azure sky was now covered in dark clouds, with thunderclouds rolling overhead.

"Is he insane? He's going to break through to Golden Core now?" one of the Qi Household's Golden Core Realm cultivators said sinisterly. "Interrupt him! He'll definitely suffer a backlash!"

The five lunged forward again, but this time the Vermilion Bird instantly unleashed his full firepower. Blazing Li Fire formed a wall of flame, temporarily blocking them. Tang Yao sat cross-legged in the air, the spiritual power in her body surging like rivers toward her Dantian!

Tang Xin, who was about to leave, looked at Tang Yao as she approached her breakthrough, with only an unfamiliar boy protecting him.

"Everyone, protect the young master during the breakthrough!" Seeing this, Tang Xin immediately changed the plan. The guards had meant to object, but at the sight of Tang Yao isolated and without support, they immediately obeyed.

The Tang Household guards formed a defensive formation in the distance, and a protective barrier enveloped Tang Yao!

The middle-aged man's face turned livid. "Damn it! Everyone, heed my command! Interrupt his breakthrough at all costs!" More than a dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators leaped from the flying boat and joined the melee.

Tang Xin led the Tang Household guards in a desperate defense. Though outnumbered, every one of them fought as though staking their lives. One guard took a blow to the chest from a Qi Household cultivator's Law Treasure, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. Wounded herself, Tang Xin gritted her teeth and held on, swiftly circling behind the enemy to deliver a fatal sword strike!

"Thank you, young miss!" The guard clutched his chest. Tang Xin barked, "Fall back to the side first!"

Overhead, the dark clouds grew thicker and thicker, and the thunder grew louder and louder. The spiritual power within Tang Yao had been compressed to its utmost limit, and a golden core was taking shape in her Dantian.

"The heavenly lightning is coming!" The Vermilion Bird spared a moment to look back and warn her.

No sooner had he spoken than a silver lightning bolt as thick as the mouth of a bowl split the clouds and struck the crown of Tang Yao's head. The heavenly lightning's power ravaged her body, but it also tempered her flesh. Under its impact, the Golden Core in her Dantian grew even more solid.

The area around Tang Yao was not so fortunate. A huge crater had been blasted into the Qi Household's airship, leaving it charred black, and its hull began to wobble precariously.

"Retreat first!" Seeing the situation turn against them, the middle-aged man hurriedly gave the order. If the airship endured the entire Golden Core Lightning Tribulation, it would probably be ruined.

But it was already too late. The second and third bolts of heavenly lightning fell one after another, each thicker than the last. Tang Yao began moving within a small area, deliberately guiding the lightning toward the airship and the Qi Household cultivators.

An early Golden Core Realm cultivator from the Qi Household failed to dodge in time. A bolt of heavenly lightning struck him and blasted him away on the spot.

The other Qi Household cultivators were scared out of their wits and scattered in every direction. The crimson flying boat had already taken dozens of successive strikes from the heavenly lightning. Its defensive formation collapsed, and its hull began to break apart.

"Tang Yao! I won't rest until one of us is dead!" The middle-aged man uttered one final cry before the flying boat fell. Then a bolt of heavenly lightning struck him, leaving him unable to move, and he plunged from ten thousand zhang in the air along with the disintegrating airship.

Tang Yao remained in the sky, drenched in blood, but her presence grew stronger and stronger. She lowered her head and replied.

"Sure! Survive first, then we'll talk!"