Chapter 296: Yihao’s Tribulation
"Do you think we’re in trouble?" Anji blew bubbles into the bath water. Mingshen and Yihao were sitting in the overflowing tub with her. They used to fit nicely in a large tub when they were younger, but now, Yihao alone takes up half the space.
Thankfully, her complexion was better. Due to gender differences, they decided to soak in the tub with their inner clothes on and recuperate together.
The warm bath steamed softly as the room cooled. Without Yihao’s extreme yang energy, the autumn chill slowly returned. Yet, the siblings maintained the toasty atmosphere, feeling half asleep in the tub. All three Solid Core cultivators mulled over the scolding they might get later.
"Let’s not think about that yet," Mingshen spoke up, the true voice of reason. "Noble Consort Liu already told us to coordinate our story. It means she would not be telling the imperial Majesties the real reason for your collapse. You can tell us everything later in private."
Anji sank deeper into the water when she heard there was no escaping. With the postponement of her ’execution’, the young girl wondered if an early bedtime would save her. Judging from her brother’s intense stare, it does not seem possible.
"I understand," Anji sulked silently.
She was too old to be sulking, but in front of her brothers, the child in her naturally appeared. It was difficult to act like Zhong Kui when she was very attached to being Zhao Anji. After all, every reincarnation was a precious, fleeting moment despite her long existential mission and accumulated memories.
"You know, my head has been feeling weird since earlier." Yihao groaned. "Anji, do you think I’ve caught the sickness from you?"
As Anji was sitting in Yihao’s lap, she did not notice his greenish complexion until he mentioned feeling unwell. Turning around, she almost jumped in surprise at his strange skin colour.
Snatching his wrist, Anji read her third brother’s pulse and frowned. Could it be that he was pushed to breaking through to the Enlightened Core stage from the earlier energy transfer?
Mingshen grabbed a wooden dipper and shoved it under Yihao as he appeared greener.
"If you’re going to puke, you better not get it in the bath water, or I’ll drown you myself," he warned with a glare.
Sensing how her older brothers were about to bicker again, Anji cut them off by hitting two major acupuncture points to halt the flow of energy in her third brother.
"We have to get out of the tub first," she told Mingshen. "Brother Yihao is about to undergo a tribulation and reach the Enlightened Core stage."
Surprised, Mingshen stared at his younger brother for two seconds before jumping into action, dragging the greenish man out of the tub. Anji wrung the water from her clothes and activated her second sight. Extreme Yang bodies went through tribulations differently. While normal cultivators had to battle heart demons and endure strikes from the heavens to find inner balance for harmonisation, people like Yihao, with no traces of Yin energy to counterbalance it, will experience excruciating pain as every cell of the body undergoes transformation.
"What do we do?" Mingshen asked when Yihao turned from green to red. His skin was positively steaming, and the room quickly turned into a sauna.
"Close the windows," Anji advised. "I’ll help to guide his energy flow to ease his pain during the tribulations. Also, help me stick up the soundproofing talismans. There should be some in my outer robe sleeve pockets."
Without delay, Mingshen got to work quickly, and Anji blocked her third brother’s voice at the acupoint with a small spell. There was only so much time she could buy with spells. The Extreme Yang energy was something that erodes everything with time. Unlike the Yin Energy abundant in sickly people that absorbs life force from external sources, Yang Energy is the life energy that burns everything it touches in excess. There was a reason why ordinary people born with Extreme Yang energy did not live long. Yihao was very fortunate that he was born with a golden core to contain that energy and refine his body into one that could host the destructive nature of pure Yang Energy.
Yet, even with all his training under Bai Dajin, it did not spare him from pain. The gap between Solid Core and Enlightened Core was huge. If Solid Core cultivators represented the physical peak of humanity, the Enlightened Core cultivation level represented transcendence into the start of immortality. In other words, the golden core would undergo a rebirth to reshape the physical body.
During golden core restructuring, the body would temporarily store all the internal qi during the tribulation, causing great disruption in natural balance. Many cultivators have to face heart demons or external calamity during the trials, but it was worse for Yihao, who had to store all the Extreme Yang energy into his cells when his golden core evolved. The constant breaking and repairing of cells caused his body temperature to rise so much that it felt as if he were on fire and melting alive. Yet, there was nothing to soothe that pain.
Even from a distance, Mingshen felt like he was standing too close to an open fire. After setting up the sound-cancelling talismans, he turned to Anji, who was even closer to Yihao than he was. Worry filled his heart. How was Anji withstanding the heat?
As Mingshen feared, Anji struggled. If Yan Ping had not sealed her artificial cores and suppressed her cultivation level to the peak of the Strengthened Core, she would be able to mitigate and ease Yihao’s pain. However, she quickly learned her new limits from the earlier experience extracting the strange energy from the Emperor that her new limits. Not one to tempt fate twice in a row, Anji focused on shielding herself with a thin barrier of energy so she could approach her third brother and administer assistance.
Like a game of whack-a-mole, Anji stared intensely at the flow of energy running rampant in Yihao’s body. Each time it threatened to overwhelm one meridian, she would hit a pressure point to redirect it to a different channel.
Seeing how intensely focused his younger sister was, Mingshen had no choice but to trust his younger siblings and their individual ability to overcome this. Of the three, he might truly be the weakest in cultivation ability. Unlike Anji, who had excellent control over energy manipulation, his control was still lacking.
Sitting closest to the door, Mingshen sat down and meditated. Thanks to the heat coming from Yihao’s body, their clothes that were wet from soaking in the tub were now completely dry.
While Anji assisted Yihao, Mingshen took advantage of the generous excess Yang Energy and used it to recuperate from his internal injuries. At the back of his mind, he apologised to Noble Consort Liu. Their bath time might take longer than initially anticipated.
