Chapter 87 : Borrowing Tribulation Lightning
The system never fully explained what kind of energy it needed, but it promised not to harm Jiang Mo or affect this world—after all, from the moment they arrived, both it and its host had been under the Heavenly Dao's watchful eye. Even a single tribulation lightning bolt had nearly destroyed the system. Even if it harbored ill intentions to steal the cultivation world's fortune, the Heavenly Dao would never allow it!
Although being under surveillance was somewhat annoying, the system wasn't foolish—in fact, it valued its existence greatly. It knew that the previous lightning bolt was merely a warning from the Heavenly Dao. If it didn't lie low and instead came out to cause trouble, it might not even have the chance to be recycled and scrapped.
After conversing for a while, the tiger and the system didn't say much more. The system only urged Jiang Mo to continue leveling up and becoming stronger.
Speaking of leveling up, when the system was struck by lightning, she had just reached level 30 and was about to advance to the Golden Core realm. Now, after more than a month of diligent cultivation under Divine Lord Zhiming's guidance, both Divine Lord Zhiming and Senior Sister said she had reached Golden Core. She wondered what level the game system currently assigned her, and what her combat power might be.
The little white tiger rubbed her paws together eagerly, excited to check her rewards after all her hard work, and once again opened her character panel. As the system recovered, the previously blank data panel returned to normal—
[Host: Jiang Mo
Race: White Tiger
Profession: Divine Beast
Level: 32
Combat Power: 5297
Experience: 9867/20000
Points: 2665
Potential: ∞
Skills: Meditation, Basic Spiritual Energy Utilization (Blood Inheritance Not Activated)]
The familiar panel displayed before Jiang Mo, and her first glance went to the level—unsurprisingly, she had risen above level 31, breaking through to the Golden Core realm in the cultivation world. Calculating the time, she had spent over a month advancing from level 30 to 32, which was incomparably slower than her previous effortless leveling speed. However, in terms of cultivation realms, this speed was absolutely heaven-defying.
Jiang Mo wasn't disappointed. After all, that's how games worked—leveling up was easy in the early stages, but gradually slowed down later. She wasn't in a hurry at all, especially with Divine Lord Zhiming's guidance, which made her feel that this month hadn't been wasted.
Satisfied, she glanced over the panel again when suddenly she let out a surprised "Eh?" The reason was simple—the data on the panel had undergone an earth-shattering change. The previously inflated experience values and false combat power that she couldn't even be bothered to look at had changed. The numbers with more than ten digits had shrunk to four or five digits, making the entire panel look much cleaner.
"System," Jiang Mo called out, wanting to ask something but swallowing her words for the moment, quickly scanning to the bottom of the panel.
Sure enough, the two glaring debuffs had now become one. The "Congenital Weakness" debuff remained—according to the system, it would disappear when she reached Nascent Soul, meeting the birth conditions of the divine beast White Tiger, and her combat power growth would no longer be affected when leveling up. However, the "Death and Rebirth" chaos debuff had completely vanished.
After searching carefully twice and confirming that "Death and Rebirth" was truly gone, Jiang Mo still cautiously asked, "System, why has the data panel changed? A debuff is missing? And are these current stats real?"
The system had noticed these changes earlier, but it truly didn't know how the debuff had disappeared. When it was unexpectedly struck by tribulation lightning, it had immediately glitched, and after rebooting last night, it was already like this... Could the debuff have been eliminated by the tribulation lightning? The system pondered this but didn't dare tell its host, fearing she might deliberately seek out another tribulation to remove debuffs.
While uncertain about the debuff situation, the system was completely confident about the character panel data after triple-checking it, so it stated confidently: "Host, the panel has returned to normal. The data currently displayed is accurate."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Mo contemplated for a moment before immediately taking out a Golden Scale Fruit and eating it, then checking the changes to her data panel—
[Host: Jiang Mo
Race: White Tiger
Profession: Divine Beast
Level: 32
Combat Power: 5297
Experience: 9877/20000
Points: 2665
Potential: ∞
Skills: Meditation, Basic Spiritual Energy Utilization (Blood Inheritance Not Activated)]
There was indeed a change—her experience increased by 10 points, though the dehydrated numbers looked somewhat stingy. Next, she ate another Golden Scale Fruit and found that this time she only gained 9 experience points, confirming that consuming too many precious materials resulted in diminishing returns. Then she switched to a Spirit Nurturing Pill personally refined by Mount Qionghua's Peak Master, only to discover that it merely increased her experience by 1 point—a gain that could only be described as minuscule.
After these experiments, Jiang Mo felt somewhat disappointed. It seemed that leveling up by consuming pills would be much more difficult from now on. However, more than leveling up, the improvement in her combat power delighted her.
At level 32, her combat power should have been 5280, but now it was 5297, meaning her combat power had finally caught up with her level—truly a cause for celebration! However, due to the lingering "Congenital Weakness" debuff, she couldn't afford to slack off in the slightest.
The road ahead was long and arduous... For now, she would focus on reaching Nascent Soul before worrying about anything else.
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Because her combat power had finally caught up to her level, the little white tiger was in a great mood for the rest of the day. She even temporarily set aside the issue of Senior Sister not pampering her—after all, it wasn't a big deal. If the mountain wouldn't come to her, she would go to the mountain. The moment she saw Senior Sister, she immediately leaped into her arms, and didn't Senior Sister catch her?
Yun Qingyue did indeed catch the little white tiger who came flying toward her—this had become a habit developed over the past few months, so she caught her reflexively. But when the little white tiger snuggled against her neck affectionately as usual, she once again felt that awkwardness.
Before Yun Qingyue could put her down, she suddenly felt something cool against her lips—something cold and smooth was pressed against them.
The familiar fresh fragrance wafted to her nose, and Yun Qingyue knew without looking that it was an Ice Lotus Seed, and a freshly picked one at that. She touched the little white tiger's paw and found that the soft fur was still slightly damp. She spoke with resignation: "You don't need to give it to me, and don't pick them yourself next time. That ice spring is very cold."
Yun Qingyue wasn't lying. That pool of ice lotuses had been specially planted by her master when she was young and craved sweets. While the Ice Lotus Seeds were indeed precious, they weren't easy to cultivate—they required not only an ice spring but also special Cold Jade buried beneath the spring by her master.
Both she and her master had ice spiritual roots, making the Cold Jade essentially harmless to them. But the little white tiger was different—with a different attribute and lower cultivation, carelessly touching the ice spring water would merely chill her, but falling into the ice spring would cause real suffering... Although the little white tiger had now reached Golden Core, a Golden Core cub was still a cub, wasn't she?
The little white tiger nodded obediently but didn't withdraw the Ice Lotus Seed pressed against Yun Qingyue's lips. "Don't worry, I haven't finished eating the Ice Lotus Seeds I picked earlier, but this one was picked by my own hands."
The words "my own hands" always seemed to carry special significance, often representing sincerity.
Yun Qingyue lowered her gaze, her crystal-clear eyes meeting the little white tiger's golden ones, seeing them filled with expectation. Unable to refuse any longer, she parted her lips slightly to accept the little white tiger's offering, and sure enough, those already bright tiger eyes grew even brighter.
The human and tiger remained close as always. After the little white tiger acted coquettishly a few more times, Yun Qingyue listened to her milk-sweet voice and gradually felt the barrier in her heart dissolve—after all, this was still just a cub. What did it matter if she could speak? Two or three-year-old children could speak too. She had held young Junior Brothers and Sisters or little nephews and nieces before, so why overthink things now?
Once she came to this realization, Yun Qingyue no longer rejected the little white tiger's affection. She would still carry her when going out, only pushing her away or pinching her ear to lift her out when the little white tiger nuzzled her neck or tried to burrow into her arms.
Through these interactions, the little white tiger learned where her boundaries lay and became more well-behaved in her actions afterward.
In the evening, neither human nor tiger wasted time, cultivating as usual.
Dawn of the next day marked the official opening of the Three Sect Martial Arts Competition. This grand event jointly hosted by the three righteous sects' leaders differed from the previous Xuanqing Sect Competition.
Early in the morning, Yun Qingyue took the little white tiger and followed her master to fly by sword to Lingyun Hall at the top of Mount Tianyang.
They weren't particularly late—the morning glow had just spread across the mountains when they landed in front of Lingyun Hall. However, many had arrived earlier. Not only were the masters of the four peaks basically all present, but disciples qualified to participate in the competition also filled the platform in front of the hall. Zhong Heng had also arrived early and promptly came forward to greet his master and senior sister when they arrived.
Peak Master Qingyu glanced at her undemanding second disciple and noticed that he hadn't wasted this month. After receiving the rewards for placing in the top ten of the sect competition, he had clearly secluded himself to improve, and his cultivation had advanced further, ensuring a better performance in the upcoming competition.
"Not bad, you haven't wasted this month," Peak Master Qingyu nodded, not sparing her praise.
Zhong Heng had a straightforward personality and didn't mind not receiving the same special treatment as his senior sister from their master. Moreover, after he entered the top ten of the competition, his master had rewarded him as well. The cultivation insights given to Yun Qingyue earlier had naturally been shared with Zhong Heng once he reached late Golden Core, though due to their different spiritual roots, these insights served more as a reference for him.
Rarely praised by his master, Zhong Heng immediately smiled with openness: "Thank you for your praise, Master."
Peak Master Qingyu nodded, gave a few simple instructions to leave her two disciples outside the hall, then entered Lingyun Hall alone.
At this time, there weren't many people inside Lingyun Hall, just a few peak masters gathered and talking. When they saw Peak Master Qingyu arrive, they welcomed her to join them. Peak Master Qingxu asked, "Sister, has Disciple Qingyue's realm stabilized?"
Though Peak Master Qingyu wasn't talkative, she would respond when asked: "Thank you for your concern, Brother. Qingyue's cultivation has indeed stabilized."
They hadn't exchanged many words when Sect Leader Qingxiao arrived. With his arrival, the disciples from the three sects who had been gathered outside in small groups entered the great hall, filling it with the talented youth of the sects.