Ten days after the grand meeting of Yuan Hua Sect, Wu Qi was seen hovering midair on the back of Green Cliff Mountain, above a small hill filled with jagged rocks.
Gold Horn and Silver Horn were lying weakly on the ground, using their sharp claws as they kept ripping and tearing their badly mutilated bodies. Both of them were covered in many long, bloody wounds. These wounds pierced through their scales, and many gold and silver colored scales were hanging near them.
A constant cracking noise could be heard coming from underneath their thick scales. Their bodies were growing, with bones stretching longer and thicker, and muscles becoming tougher and thicker as well. However, their skins had become the shackles that prevented them from growing further. They had no other choice but to rip and tear away the skin, freeing themselves from the cages that they were born with. They had already spent a great amount of physical strength and energy to do that. Their bodies shivered and wiggled; the noises produced from the ripping of the skins with their own claws were unpleasant to the ears. Wisps of scorching flame and gusts of biting cold breeze were spraying out from their mouths.
*Clang!* *Clang!*
A few loud clanging noises rang out as Gold Horn slammed his head onto the ground, producing many dazzling sparks. The skin on his head cracked open, revealing the newly grown skin that was milky-white in color, with a slight tinge of gold. Beside him, Silver Horn opened his big mouth and bit on a piece of broken skin with his sharp fangs, tearing it off brutally. As he wagged his head again and again, the crack on his skin became larger, revealing a large patch of silvery skin. Of course, it was newly grown as well.
Wu Qi hovered midair, quietly looking at the brothers.
The Dragon Pythons of Ice and Fire were very similar to dragons and pythons, but they were absolutely not dragons or pythons. After gobbling up so many demon cores and blood essence in Great Yan Dynasty's secret vault, the brothers had finally come to the threshold of advancing. Once they formed their Nascent Divinities, then compressed and refined the blood essence in their bodies, they would be able to inherit the memories hidden in their bloodline. From them, they could learn some extraordinary divine abilities. Wu Qi could not wait to see what kind of performance these extraordinary ancient species would bring to him.
He touched the Spirit Breeding Ring, and the same question that bothered him the last time surfaced again- was he allowed to bring his own demon pets to the match? If he brought two Nascent Divinity Dragon Pythons of Ice and Fire to the match, and was supported by ten thousand Long Bo people, wouldn't that just make him a big bully?
He was also wondering if any other cultivators would have a Spirit Breeding Ring with the internal space as large as his?
Spirit Breeding Rings were used by cultivators to house their own demon pets and various living beings. It used a similar concept as storage rings, but they were, in fact, two different types of storage devices. A storage ring could have a very large internal space, but the time within was frozen. Therefore, it could be used to store all kinds of spirit herbs and spirit pills without having to worry that their effectiveness getting lost as time went by. On the other side, a Spirit Breeding Ring was like a small world of its own. The natural energy inside it was constantly being exchanged with the outside world, and the time ran exactly like the outside world. Hence, living beings could live inside a Spirit Breeding Ring.
But, in the current world of Immortal cultivators, the materials required to craft Spirit Breeding Rings were getting rarer and rarer to find. As a result, ordinary Spirit Breeding Rings only had an internal space of roughly ten feet in diameter. If the fact that Wu Qi owned one that could house ten thousand Long Bo people were to spread, it would have scared everybody out of their wits. And perhaps, even those Heaven Immortals would hardly refrain themselves from robbing him. Nevertheless, any existence of Gold Immortal realm and above would not covet this, because they would already have the ability to create their own cave abode and carry it everywhere they went. That was so much better than a Spirit Breeding Ring.
While rubbing the ring, Wu Qi murmured in a deep voice, "They better let me bring my demon pets... Hehe!"
After smiling furtively, Wu Qi pulled out a jar of black and sticky medicinal paste from Black Dragon Spirit Ring. With a shake of his hand, the paste turned into two streams of fluid, shooting into Gold Horn and Silver Horn's mouths. With that, the two great pythons, who had nearly depleted all their energy and strength, had their spirit recovered immediately. Gnashing and grinding their teeth, they kept torturing their own bodies, making great efforts to shed off the tough and pliable cage made from their own skins.
Even as pieces after pieces of snakeskin were being pulled off by the brothers, the aura emanating from them was getting stronger. Vaguely, an ancient aura of a beast could be sensed spreading out from within their bodies, and the glow in their eyes shone brighter. All of a sudden, Wu Qi felt a coldness on his forehead as the item spirit of Dark Yin Hassock came out of his spirit ocean, alerted by the aura.
The item spirit, whose true form was a Great Ocean Splitting Beast and called himself 'Hassock', flapped his transparent wings as he stared at Gold Horn and Silver Horn. He nodded and said, "Oh, the Dragon Pythons of Ice and Fire? I reckon their population is at least one hundred times lesser than us, the Great Ocean Splitting Beast! To think that they were once a formidable species that roamed the universe! Tsk!"
Wu Qi looked at Hassock, then smiled and said, "With me, their species will flourish once again."
Hassock was taken aback. He gave Wu Qi a deep look before he nodded and said, "Perhaps you can!" After that, he inscribed Wu Qi's confident smile into his memory while shaking his head, then spun and returned into Wu Qi's spiritual ocean. There, he continued his slumber amidst the boundless ocean, quietly absorbing the innate water element energy produced within Wu Qi's body.
The bestial aura exuding from the brothers was getting stronger and more powerful. It was as if a baby had suddenly grown up into a burly man, who stood over ten feet tall and had a body full of muscles. The aura felt completely different than a moment ago. Attracted by such aura, a billow of thin, red cloud slowly came rolling towards them from the high altitude. Innumerable red lightning bolts, that were as tiny as hair, and cold white mists could be seen tangling each other in it.
It was a thunder tribulation unique to Dragon Pythons of Ice and Fire - the Thunder Tribulation of Ice and Fire. Just like the rest of the powerful creatures in the universe, such as Dragons, Phoenixes, Qilins, and many others, when the experts from these species took a leap in their cultivation base and advanced into the next realm, they would always be greeted with a thunder tribulation unique to their own species. The power of Thunder Tribulation of Ice and Fire consisted of both the aggressiveness and softness, scorching heat and biting coldness, and some other totally opposite characteristics, which made it a thunder tribulation very difficult to defend against.
But, if Gold Horn and Silver Horn wished to form their Dragon Python Nascent Divinities, they would need the help from Thunder Tribulation of Ice and Fire. They had to absorb and digest the unique power of fire and ice that came with it, fusing them into their own souls. Only then could they form the Nascent Divinities. If Wu Qi helped them defend against it now, the brothers would never obtain any progress in their cultivation base for the rest of their lives.
Looking at the tribulation cloud in the sky, Wu Qi frowned as he flew tens of miles backward and said in a deep voice, "Gold Horn, Silver Horn, be careful! Remember to consume the pills immediately to recover your energy when you feel weak!" Wu Qi had prepared many energy restoration pills for the brothers. As long as they did not commit any careless mistake, and the thunder tribulation did not wipe them out with one single strike, it would not be too tough for them to transcend the tribulation.
The brothers wagged their big heads at the same time. Then, they threw their heads back and let out a long hiss, as their bodies erected straight up like two lofty trees, pointing right into the sky with only the tip of their tails supporting them. They opened their mouths, stretching it nearly ten feet wide, aiming at the tribulation cloud in the sky with a look as if they were going to devour everything. Their newly grown skins were emitting a faint gleam, while streams of red and white lights were being emanated from the skins and slowly fusing into their bodies.
At that moment, the bright gleams of red and white color kept flicking on the brother's bodies, while gusts of cold and hot winds blew in all directions. The rapid and sharp changes in temperature made the rocks on the small hill crack and fall apart. All of a sudden, a very light thunderclap rang out in the sky as a thunderbolt mixed with the colors of red and white smashed whistling down.
Almost at the same time, Gold Horn and Silver Horn darted up into the sky, opened their mouths, and brutally bit onto the thunderbolt. They ripped them into two parts each and swallowed them in one mouthful. A loud boom rang out as their old, broken skins exploded and peeled away, sending countless scales flying in all directions. The brothers collapsed heavily to the ground, rolling and struggling in pain. Their newly grown skins were shivering rapidly and expanding at an incredible rate, while the new scales hardened slowly, with profound runes densely covering their surfaces.
Wu Qi simply sat down cross-legged as he shouted loudly, "You can only count on yourself! You can do it!"
The brothers coiled up their bodies at the same time. Gold Horn opened his mouth and sprayed out a jet of cold breeze onto Silver Horn's body, while Silver Horn shot out a fireball and threw it onto Gold Horn's body. Both of them sprayed out the forces of thunder tribulation which they could not withstand, letting their brothers digest the forces with their respective innate abilities. Also, the cold breeze sprayed out by Gold Horn, and the fireball shot out by Silver Horn, were the energies their brothers needed to form the Dragon Python Nascent Divinity, and the tempering of their true forms as Dragon Pythons.
Before the brothers could fully digest the power of this thunderbolt, the tribulation cloud trembled and sent down another thunderbolt, which was slightly larger than the first one. Once again, the brothers soared up into the sky, opened their mouths, and swallowed the thunderbolt. Then, they fell to the ground with their bodies twisting and twitching convulsively.
Again, then again, and again...
Wu Qi's expression turned serious as the tribulation progressed. He counted a total of 108 thunderbolts so far, and he saw no sign of it stopping. Although each thunderbolt only inflicted a minor injury to Gold Horn and Silver Horn, but a total of 108 minor injuries still filled their bodies with scars and wounds, and they had used up over half of the pills.
Wu Qi rose to his feet. While he was at a loss about how to aid them, the brothers widened their eyes suddenly, threw their heads back, and gave a long cry each.
Their cries sounded very much like dragons, but amidst the deep and bleak voices there hid a wild nature filled with savageness and malevolence. If the dragon cry was equal to pearls and precious jades, the cries of the brothers were equal to a crystal ball with countless pointy spikes, glinting brilliantly, yet being sharp and deadly.
Suddenly, four loud explosive noises echoed out as the humps behind their back burst open, from which came spreading out four wings that stretched nearly one thousand feet wide. The gigantic wings were densely covered with golden and silver scales. When they swung, many eye-catching runes blinked through the void, sending forth a heatwave that melted the small hill in an instant, while the cold breeze following immediately after that quickly froze the melting hill into ice cubes.
The alternating cold breeze and heatwave ravaged the ground within several tens of miles in circumference, turning them into a lava pool for a moment, then into an ice field in the next moment. Within a few breaths of time, the woods within several tens of miles in circumference had been turned into the finest dust.
Amidst the long cries, the brothers' bodies expanded, now measuring one thousand feet long. When coupled with the pair of huge, strange-looking wings behind their back, they resembled two mighty, ferocious, and dreadful, extraordinary ancient beasts. Their claws had fully grown out as well. Although they looked rather similar to that of dragons, theirs had an additional joint, and were thicker and agiler, which also meant they had a greater offensive strength. Their heads still had the same python look, but the dragon horns on top of their heads had become bigger, with more branches. On top of that, the cold breeze and heatwave enshrouding their horns respectively were so intense that no one seemed capable of getting closer to them without getting hurt.
The wings flapped as the brothers soared high up into the sky, flying straight into the tribulation cloud and absorbing its power with their formidable bodies. Thunderbolts kept smiting them one after another. Their bodies emitted a blinding light and a frightening aura, that reached several thousand miles away.
Several tens of wind breaking sounds filled the atmosphere. Apart from Patriarch Yuan Hua, all the Heaven Immortals of Yuan Hua Sect had arrived at the scene.
Upon looking at Gold Horn and Silver Horn, who were now hovering midair and absorbing the thunder tribulation, Daoist Mo Luan cursed under his breath with both shock and envy, "How can these two animals look so fierce and malicious?"
Gold Horn and Silver Horn trembled slightly. Then, they suddenly opened their mouths, aiming at Daoist Mo Luan and spraying out a stream of flame and cold breeze each.