Legend Management Bureau Chapter 161

[ … words ]

In merely a moment, the second bolt of heavenly lightning crashed down with a roar.

Bai Suzhen immediately formed hand seals and chanted an incantation. She grabbed a piece of gauze from in front of her and tossed it into the air. However, she seemed to have underestimated the power of the transformation tribulation. Before the fabric could even expand, it was reduced to ashes the moment it touched the lightning.

Fortunately, Medusa had come prepared. Holding a slender token in her hand, she threw it straight out. Just as the gauze dissipated, the token took its place, blocking the thunderous strike for Bai Suzhen.

Bai Suzhen was truly stunned this time. She looked at the dark-green-haired woman before her. Although she could not tell her origins, she knew that this woman had already sacrificed two high-grade artifacts back-to-back just to help her.

Du Yu had long anticipated this situation. He knew Medusa could not master artifact control techniques in such a short time to wield Huaxia’s treasures properly. Therefore, he simply instructed her to throw all the artifacts directly at the lightning. By relying purely on the inherent spiritual energy of the artifacts to clash with the tribulation lightning, the items would be destroyed, but it guaranteed absolute safety. Fortunately, the Myth Administration housed the future number one artifact refiner of the Immortal Realm, who could continuously produce a steady stream of magical treasures.

Before Bai Suzhen could even utter a single word to Medusa, another explosive bolt of lightning fell from the sky. But this time, the thunder was not aiming for Bai Suzhen; instead, it struck straight toward Medusa.

“Careful, fellow Daoist!” Bai Suzhen shouted.

Yet, despite possessing numerous defensive artifacts, Medusa remained completely unmoved, allowing the heavenly lightning to strike her body directly.

“Gah!” Medusa cried out in agony. A large patch of her back was instantly severely burned, and the scorching pain nearly made her faint.

“Sister Qianqiu, now!”

Dong Qianqiu nodded and immediately turned back to look at Taishang Laojun. “Heavenly Lord, please identify it!”

Taishang Laojun slightly closed his eyes, pinched his fingers to calculate, and chanted, “Northern falling lightning, primarily damages the kidneys. This is the aspect of Gui Water, known as Aqueous Viscera Lightning. Take the Earth Essence Pill to neutralize it.”

Dong Qianqiu hurriedly transmitted her voice to Medusa. “It’s a water-attribute lightning! Quickly swallow the Earth Essence Pill!”

Enduring the intense pain, Medusa rummaged through the small cloth bag on her waist, pulled out an earthen-yellow pill, and swallowed it immediately. In just an instant, the agonizing wounds on her body were mostly healed.

“It actually works…” Medusa could hardly believe it. “Huaxia’s five-element arts are truly miraculous!”

Over the past few days, the only things Dong Qianqiu had managed to teach Medusa were how to use the Cosmos Bag and the basic identification of the five elements.

According to Du Yu’s instructions, when the first bolt of lightning struck Medusa, she absolutely could not dodge. She had to take the hit head-on right in front of Bai Suzhen to create a powerful illusion—that Medusa was going all out to help her, even at the cost of her own life.

Fortunately, they had Taishang Laojun’s guidance from behind the screen. He had given Medusa five pills of each of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—as well as five Yin Essence Pills and five Yang Essence Pills, all to neutralize the power of the Nine Heavens Divine Lightning.

Rumor had it that Taishang Laojun always kept a massive stock of these seven types of pills on him. This was because the most common injury in the Heavenly Court was being struck by lightning. Of course, no one dared to ask why that was the case.

Bai Suzhen was truly terrified this time, completely unable to comprehend what this woman was trying to do.

“Fellow Daoist, why are you doing all this?”

Before Medusa could reply, thunder roared in the sky once more. Medusa stared intently at the trajectory of the lightning, constantly thinking of how to respond. Right now, she felt a peculiar sense of security in her heart, realizing that the entire population of Huaxia was genuinely helping her. The artifacts and pills in her hands were specifically prepared to counter these exact thunderbolts.

In the blink of an eye, the heavenly lightning flew toward Bai Suzhen again. Bai Suzhen’s face paled in alarm. Having previously underestimated the power of the lightning, she no longer dared to be careless. She hastily threw out a bronze mirror and a square shield at the same time. Imitating Medusa’s method, she relied solely on the artifacts’ inherent spiritual energy to clash with the heavenly lightning. The treasures shattered upon impact. Bai Suzhen’s heart ached terribly; she had spent centuries running around to gather these tribulation-crossing artifacts, only for them to turn to ash in an instant.

But on second thought, if she could successfully survive the tribulation, the benefits she would reap would far outweigh the loss of these artifacts.

What caught Bai Suzhen completely off guard, however, was that right after she blocked the first strike, a second bolt fell almost simultaneously, giving her absolutely no time to catch her breath.

Before she could even pull out another artifact, the lightning struck her squarely in the abdomen.

“Argh!”

Bai Suzhen’s physical constitution seemed different from Medusa’s. While this strike caused severe burns, it was not fatal.

“Heavenly Lord!” Dong Qianqiu hurriedly turned and called out.

“Middle courtyard falling lightning, primarily damages the spleen. This is the aspect of Wu Earth, known as Kun-Yellow Lightning. Take the Wood Essence Pill to neutralize it.”

“Emperor Medusa, it’s an earth-attribute lightning! You need to feed Bai Suzhen a Wood Essence Pill!”

Medusa did not dare to delay. She quickly pulled out a dark-green pill from the Cosmos Bag and tossed it to Bai Suzhen. “Commoner, eat this!”

Bai Suzhen caught the pill and turned it over in her hand, shocked. The medicinal efficacy was incredibly thick, and the fragrance overflowed. It was absolutely no ordinary item. It even bore golden pill veins and subtle fluctuations of spiritual energy. Clearly, it was forged from peerlessly rare medicinal herbs by someone with the skills of a grandmaster alchemist.

“Fellow Daoist!” Bai Suzhen became a bit panicked. “This pill is far too precious. I am deeply terrified, as I have nothing of equal value to exchange with you…”

“You are so talkative, commoner. Just hurry up and eat it! I have dozens more of these pills!”

Now Bai Suzhen was utterly dumbfounded. Dozens of them?

Just what kind of terrifying background and power did she have to carry dozens of such equivalent pills on her person?

In such a critical moment, Bai Suzhen naturally had no time to overthink. She could only grit her teeth and swallow the pill. Just as expected, the searing pain in her abdomen completely vanished.

Just as she was about to take a breath, the thunder rolled again, this time hurtling straight toward Medusa.

“Fellow Daoist!” Bai Suzhen shouted. “It would be better if you leave this place first! These heavenly thunderbolts are coming for me. You are kind and charitable, and I do not wish to accidentally drag you into this!”

Medusa shook her head helplessly. Not only could she not leave, but she also had to use this woman.

“It is fine, I am perfectly well. I will help you deal with this lightning.”

With that said, Medusa pulled out another artifact and blocked the heavenly lightning. She seemed completely indifferent to the shattered artifact fragments littering the ground, which only deepened Bai Suzhen’s confusion.

Through their concerted efforts, a full nine bolts of heavenly lightning dissipated before their eyes. Two of them struck Medusa, while the remaining seven all struck Bai Suzhen.

Fortunately, Bai Suzhen possessed over two thousand years of cultivation, and it seemed she had practiced a body-tempering technique beforehand, so the lightning strikes did not cause her too much damage.

Bai Suzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Nine bolts of transformation lightning… Have I finally survived them…?”

She looked at Medusa, just about to properly express her gratitude, when she heard the thunder rumble overhead once more, crashing straight down toward her body.

“Commoner! Watch out!” Medusa yelled, but Bai Suzhen’s reaction was ultimately no match for the speed of the lightning. In an instant, her arm was severely blasted.

She let out a tragic cry, then stared in horror at the massive burn on her arm, her face full of bewilderment. “Ten bolts?!”

Medusa hurried over to support Bai Suzhen and said, “Woman, focus your energy. This miserable ordeal is not over yet!”

“Cloud lightning, primarily damages the limbs. This is the aspect of Heavenly Stems, known as Innate Astral Lightning. Take the Yin Essence Pill to neutralize it,” Taishang Laojun instructed again.

“Medusa, it’s a Yang lightning. She needs to eat that pure black Yin Essence Pill!”

Medusa immediately took out the pill and shoved it directly into Bai Suzhen’s mouth.

“Fellow Daoist!” Once the pill entered her stomach, Bai Suzhen was badly frightened and hastily waved her hands. “Please, I beg you not to expend such valuable resources anymore. I am truly overwhelmed with guilt!”

“You are very talkative.” Medusa shook her head in exasperation. “From now on, do not reject my orders.”

Several more bolts of heavenly lightning crashed down in succession. Medusa’s expression turned grim. She naturally knew that there would be eighteen bolts of lightning in total this time, but seeing that the items Bai Suzhen had prepared were almost completely depleted, the rest of the ordeal would depend entirely on her.

Du Yu had been observing the situation from the shadows the whole time. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help, but rather that he simply couldn’t. All the pills and artifacts had already been handed over to Medusa, so she would have to face the final few bolts of heavenly lightning on her own.

Medusa simply grabbed a large handful of her own pills and shoved them directly into Bai Suzhen’s hands. “Lowly peasant, I am afraid I will not have time to rummage through them one by one. Hold onto these for now. Whatever color I say, you eat.”

Trembling, Bai Suzhen received the handful of pills. Even though Medusa tossed them to her as if they were wild berries, she naturally knew that these pills were priceless and didn’t dare let a single one drop to the ground.

Medusa began focusing solely on throwing out artifacts, but soon enough, the artifacts also bottomed out.

Most of the items Master Shen refined on a daily basis were ornamental artifacts; he didn’t make many defensive ones. Being able to whip out ten of them was already unprecedented.

Out of the full seventeen bolts of heavenly lightning, only five struck Medusa, while the rest flew toward Bai Suzhen. Fortunately, Medusa was fully concentrated, using the artifacts in her hands to block them one by one for her.

“Only the last one is left!” Medusa muttered to herself. She then reached into the Cosmos Bag, only to find nothing but pills remaining.

“Oh no, Huaxia’s sacred relics are all gone!” Medusa looked up. The final bolt of heavenly lightning was hurtling straight down toward her. She had already suffered several attacks and sustained significant injuries; she genuinely had no idea if she could take this last strike.

At this critical, life-or-death moment, Du Yu suddenly had an idea and shouted from his hiding spot, “Medusa, those pills contain spiritual energy too!”

Medusa raised an eyebrow, hastily pulling a huge handful of pills from the Cosmos Bag and tossing them into the air. The pills formed a perfect arc in the sky, exactly intercepting the final bolt of heavenly lightning. The pills were entirely reduced to powder.

Taishang Laojun frowned helplessly. “This girl actually tossed my pills like scattered beans…”

Looking at the gradually quieting sky, the two women finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Bai Suzhen could not help but furrow her brows. “Fellow Daoist, did you just hear someone shouting nearby?”