What Can You Do?

Su Mu pondered her words for a moment. If his guess was right, this was probably because Earth was too far from here, which was why summoning him had consumed so much power, yet had not brought him over in his complete form.

"I'm merely an ordinary person. If even Your Highness doesn't understand, I don't really understand either."

Su Mu weighed his words and did not voice his guess. He thought it would be rather stupid to lay all his cards on the table during their very first conversation.

"Since you're merely an ordinary person, it seems you're of no use. I spent so many Spirit Stones and resources summoning a useless thing like you. I might as well destroy you outright and spare myself the irritation of looking at you."

The eldest princess spoke casually, and sparks immediately began appearing around Su Mu.

The arcs of electricity had a bluish tinge and looked rather eerie.

The instant those arcs appeared, Su Mu felt an intense sense of danger, and his hands and feet began to go cold.

He seemed to have an innate, instinctive fear of this electrical light.

Su Mu swallowed and hurriedly said, "Wait, Your Highness! Although I'm merely an ordinary person, I do know a few ingenious tricks. Surely I can be of some use to you!"

"Ingenious tricks? Let's hear them."

The eldest princess remained noncommittal, and the electricity around Su Mu did not dissipate.

"I know how to generate electricity. With electricity, you can provide continuous lighting. It's a source of power."

"Have you never heard of formations? There are also luminous pearls, fluorescent grass, and other things that provide continuous lighting. This thing you speak of is quite useless."

The eldest princess's tone grew cold, and the electricity intensified.

Su Mu inwardly cursed. Judging by what he had seen that night, this did indeed seem to be a world of immortal cultivation. Earth's technology did not seem particularly appealing to the people here.

In that case, she probably had no need for things like smelting techniques either, did she?

At this thought, Su Mu kept breaking out in a cold sweat inwardly.

"It seems you're of no use to me."

"May I ask what sort of help Your Highness needs? Please allow me to think of a way!"

Su Mu was growing desperate as well. He felt she might strike at any moment, and for the sake of his life, he could only do everything he could to find a way to survive.

"Do you know how to gather national fortune? Or the arts of stargazing and divination?"

The eldest princess still felt some resentment toward this fellow, who had consumed an unknown amount of Great Liang's resources. Killing him just like this would mean all those resources had gone up in smoke.

Under these circumstances, she was still willing to hear Su Mu out a little longer and try her best to recover some of her losses.

Su Mu's face fell. He did not even know what national fortune was, so how could he know how to gather it? Stargazing and divination were even further beyond him.

Seeing Su Mu's expression, the eldest princess knew the answer without him having to speak.

Her jade-like hand twirled a lock of dark hair, and her vermilion lips parted slightly. "Do you know alchemy and pharmacology, or how to forge Spirit Artifacts?"

Su Mu's face began to turn ashen. He knew nothing about any of these things.

The eldest princess's jade-like hand slowly stopped, and a trace of disappointment flashed through her beautiful eyes. "Do you know how to achieve Tribulation Transcendence?"

This was her last question. If Su Mu still knew nothing, she might as well kill him, lest the sight of him remind her of all the resources she had wasted.

Su Mu sensed her impatience too. At her words, he gritted his teeth and said,

"About that, I probably know a little."

"Hmm?"

She had expected Su Mu to look just as clueless as before. His answer instead sparked a hint of curiosity in her.

"Let's hear it."

The eldest princess sat up a little straighter. This concerned her Tribulation Transcendence, so she had to take it seriously.

"Before Tribulation Transcendence, you must burn incense three days in advance, bathe, and change your clothes. When the heavenly tribulation begins to manifest, you must pray to Heaven, hold fast to your Dao heart, and be mindful of how hard the heavenly tribulation is..."

Su Mu spoke softly, carefully watching the movements of the graceful figure behind the curtain.

At that moment, the graceful figure inside the pavilion began to tremble, and the electricity around Su Mu began showing signs of instability.

Crack.

A sharp crack rang out from within the pavilion, and the hazy white floor, which looked quite precious, fractured inch by inch.

Su Mu jumped at the sight and stopped talking.

"This is your method for achieving Tribulation Transcendence?"

The eldest princess's face turned livid. This fellow clearly knew absolutely nothing about immortal cultivation, yet she had actually believed he knew how to achieve Tribulation Transcendence?!

Su Mu began to look flustered and spoke rapidly. "Apart from that, there's another method. During Tribulation Transcendence, erect an iron pole with a pointed tip several zhang away from you. It can help disperse the heavenly tribulation's power."

"You mean something like this?"

As she spoke, the eldest princess tossed out a chunk of iron. A flame rose out of thin air and swiftly melted it into molten iron, which then began to change shape.

It formed an iron pole-a lightning rod with a pointed tip.

Su Mu marveled at such skill. Thankfully, he had not claimed earlier that he knew smelting techniques.

Had he done so, he really would have made a fool of himself.

"Yes, like that."

Su Mu nodded, praying inwardly that the principle behind lightning rods still applied in this world.

But in the next instant, the iron pole landed just over two meters away from Su Mu.

Crack!

A thunderclap rang out of the clear sky. A streak of electricity shot forth above Su Mu's head and came crashing down toward him.

An intense sense of danger instantly surged through Su Mu. If that bolt struck him, he would undoubtedly die!

At that moment, his entire body had frozen in place, unable to move.

Countless thoughts flashed through Su Mu's mind in an instant before settling on the lightning rod.

Boom!

An immensely powerful boom rang out. Just as the lightning was about to strike Su Mu, it veered aside and struck the iron pole instead.

Su Mu felt a weight lift from him. If he had possessed a body at that moment, his forehead would probably have been drenched in sweat.

"Oh?"

The eldest princess froze at the sight. That casually cast lightning spell had actually turned aside? This man's method really worked?

If this method was genuine, did that mean Su Mu's earlier suggestions about bathing, changing clothes, and burning incense would work too?

The eldest princess was rather puzzled. None of the methods for achieving Tribulation Transcendence she knew included anything like that.

Especially those last few lines of Su Mu's. Though phrased very politely, did they not essentially mean, "Venerable Heavenly Tribulation, thank you for your hard work. I'm terribly sorry to trouble you to take time out of your busy schedule to come strike me"?

If she said that and word got out, who knew how long her fellow cultivators would laugh at her!

Yet the situation before her did cause the eldest princess to waver a little.

As things stood, her chance of surviving this heavenly tribulation was less than forty percent. She would very likely die.

Right now, she wanted to try any method that could improve her chances of achieving Tribulation Transcendence.