Chapter 354: Toward Immortality

More bolts of lightning continued to descend as Immortals screamed in pain within the sandstorm. The black skeleton barely escaped from the Disorienting Sandstorm Formation with Cui Haitang and Tang in tow.

"We're out! Thank goodness you're awake, Father. Otherwise, Xiao Nanfeng would have killed me!" Cui Haitang shuddered in fear.

The black skeleton twisted its head as black smoke surged from its body.

"Haitang, suppress me with the left division leader's token. I'm not going to be able to control myself much longer. Hurry! I'm going to—kill, kill, kill!" The black skeleton shook all over.

"Father, hold on. Please, help me figure out who's controlling the formation first!" Cui Haitang asked.

The black skeleton tried its best to restrain itself. Red light flashed from its eyes before it pointed toward a patch of forest in the distance.

"Is the controller there? Father, please help me kill him and destroy the formation. My subordinates are still trapped in there!" Cui Haitang pleaded.

"Very well!" The black skeleton flashed as it shot into the forest.

Blue Lantern blanched. "An Earth Immortal, after all..."

The black skeleton moved so quickly that it appeared just as Blue Lantern was preparing for its attack.

A huge storm ravaged the forest. Blue Lantern was struck and sent flying into the air, spitting out a mouthful of blood as he did so.

"Blue Lantern? No wonder the formation was so strong! I shouldn't have wasted time trying to control him. He should have died long before this!" Cui Haitang snarled.

The black skeleton locked in on Blue Lantern and launched a barrage of attacks at him. Fire and wind filled the air.

Blue Lantern activated the protective formations around him that he had prepared in advance, but the black skeleton was simply too strong. It continued to obliterate Blue Lantern's formations, forcing him on the defensive as he retreated time and again.

"Your Majesty, that cultivator seems rather strong," Tang commented.

"My father's an Earth Immortal. Blue Lantern won't be able to hold out for much longer—but the ten Immortals that came along with me are likely to perish." Cui Haitang frowned in annoyance.

Tang was wondering whether he had cursed those ten Immortals to death.

In another patch of forest, Xiang Shaoyin and the others were watching what was happening with bated breath.

"Thank goodness we didn't listen to Xiao Nanfeng. Otherwise, that skeleton would have been our foe."

"That skeleton's an Earth Immortal? We're all Human Immortals, and we're not a match for him at all!"

"Who's that fighting against the black skeleton?"

The Xiang Immortals continued to whisper among themselves.

Xiang Shaoyin's eyebrows twitched. "A formation expert!"

"Is he an Earth Immortal too?" another cultivator asked.

"No, he's likely a late-stage Human Immortal. However, his formations are incredibly strong. Xiao Nanfeng really did come prepared," Xiang Shaoyin said.

The ten Immortals within the Disorienting Sandstorm Formation had all perished, leaving Xiao Nanfeng as the sole cultivator being struck by the tribulation.

The bolts of lightning landed one after the other. Despite there no longer being any external influence, Xiao Nanfeng was still having a difficult time: the blood lightning was simply too strong.

He was unable to use any relic or weapon against the lightning, nothing but his physical body. Relics or weapons would only serve to make the lightning stronger.

Because of the immense cost of maintaining the formation, it quickly dissipated.

As the final bolt of blood lightning struck Xiao Nanfeng, the tribulation finally vanished. The dark clouds in the sky were rapidly turning rainbow-colored.

The sandstorm settled, revealing a desert pitted with countless holes. Everyone was searching for traces of Xiao Nanfeng.

"Is that Xiao Nanfeng?"

"He's a pile of bones!"

"Is he still alive?"

Xiang Shaoyin and the other cultivators gaped to see Xiao Nanfeng

lying in a huge pit, his flesh macerated to the point where bone could be seen all over his body. He was at death's door.

In the sky, the tribulatory clouds fully transformed into radiant, luck-infused clouds that shot into Xiao Nanfeng's body.

"The stronger the tribulation, the greater the opportunity. Those clouds are ten times the size mine was when I became an Immortal!" one Immortal cried out.

"Well, he's done for. He went too far trying to survive the tribulation, and he's still deeply wounded. Cui Haitang's about to kill him." Xiang Shaoyin narrowed his eyes as he looked into the distance.

The radiant clouds surged into Xiao Nanfeng's body.

Just then, Xiao Nanfeng noticed that Cui Haitang was coming his way. He was deathly weak and completely unable to block the incoming blow. With the last of his strength, he pulled out the purple seal and sent his body careening within.

Cui Haitang's sword struck the purple seal, which blocked her attack completely.

"This purple seal again? Xiao Nanfeng, get out here!" Cui Haitang raged.

She repeatedly attacked the purple seal, but it was made of some material of incredible strength. Her attacks glanced off without even a scratch. She frowned in anger and worry.

She tried to grab the seal, but it was far too heavy for her to move.

Infuriated, she brought out the Hundred-Beast Flaming Dome and covered the seal with it.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Xiao Nanfeng, let's see just how long you can stay within your seal. This time, I'll destroy you along with it!" Cui Haitang shouted.

Ferocious flaming beasts emerged within the dome and rushed toward the purple seal.

Within the purple seal, Xiao Nanfeng sat cross-legged as he recuperated. His origin qi was transforming.

An Immortal's body glowed with radiant, multicolored light, the remnant essence that ordinary Immortals were unable to absorb from the multicolored clouds that formed after a tribulation.

Because of Xiao Nanfeng's overwhelming technique, however, he was able to absorb the tribulatory essence fully, without any waste whatsoever. His gold origin qi transformed into blazing Immortal qi.

The clouds entered Xiao Nanfeng's body and were absorbed by the ten golden crows in his dantian. They too were transforming. They had originally been a little translucent, but the radiant energy that suffused them made them fully corporeal. They grew so real they almost seemed to be alive. Their feathers were clearly delineated, their eyes bright and lustrous, and their golden flames condensed into liquid flame that surrounded them. It was as though they really had become ten suns in the sky.

"I've finally become an Immortal, the first stage of the Human Immortal realm! But Sky of Ten Suns really doesn't seem like a technique that was meant to be studied at all. My tribulatory clouds were ten times the size of Ye Sanshui, but the golden crows absorbed them all. They had better be able to display overwhelming strength..." Xiao Nanfeng chuckled weakly.