After all these years of hard cultivation, she would be able to go home as soon as she ascended. With that thought, Jiang Chan cast aside her lingering fear of the lightning tribulation.
She looked resolutely upward, then suddenly broke into a radiant smile. Once she passed this tribulation and broadened her horizons in the immortal realm, she could submit her completed mission and return.
This made Jiang Chan look forward to the future even more. But pleasant thoughts were one thing, and the brutality of a tribulation was another. Bolt after bolt came crashing down. At first, she handled them with ease.
As it continued, however, Jiang Chan knew things would only get harder. There were eighty-one bolts in all. She had barely made it through thirty with the treasures she had collected over the years, and already more than half her defenses were gone.
The later the bolt, the greater its power. By the fiftieth, Jiang Chan had almost exhausted the treasures she could use. Her eyes flicked to a length of black wood in her storage ring. She could not use that yet.
She had to save it for the critical moment. For now, she would have to endure the lightning herself. Gritting her teeth, Jiang Chan withdrew her defenses and let the bolts strike her body one after another.
Those watching saw a sudden transformation on the summit. Jiang Chan’s human figure vanished, replaced by a rodent spirit beast with almost golden fur. The Sword Sect’s elders were unsurprised, but every disciple from Alchemy Peak looked as though they had seen a ghost.
Alchemy Peak’s current head stammered, “Master, Grandmaster is actually a spirit beast?”
Qingqing was equally astonished. She had only learned it today herself. Who would have thought that her master, the Sword Sect’s great alchemist, was a spirit beast, and a rodent at that?
But seeing the elders’ calm faces, Qingqing forced her mouth shut and composed herself. “Whatever her identity, she will always be our master and your grandmaster!”
The elders watched Jiang Chan leap and dart beneath the heavenly lightning. With the wind aiding her, she managed to evade more than half the bolts that fell.
Perhaps her movements had angered Heaven’s Dao, for the final three bolts thundered down all at once. Jiang Chan was already injured, her body covered in blood.
Three bolts descending together was unheard of. Alchemy Peak’s disciples cried out, then immediately clamped their mouths shut, terrified of distracting her.
Mo Yu clenched her hands. To her, Jiang Chan had always been terribly fragile. It was already remarkable that she had endured so many bolts. Could she survive three at once?
Drawing on the last trace of true essence in her body, Jiang Chan pushed her speed to its limit and barely avoided one bolt. But the other two were already upon her.
She had no strength left to dodge. With a flick of her hand, she threw out something black: an unremarkable-looking piece of wood. Among the Sword Sect’s grand elders were some knowledgeable people, and the sight of it eased one elder’s worries considerably.
“She even managed to find Lightning-Struck Wood. Treasure-hunting mice truly deserve their reputation.”
As its name suggested, Lightning-Struck Wood could absorb tribulation lightning. Used during a tribulation, it was a truly invaluable means of survival.
Seeing Jiang Chan bring it out, Mo Yu finally relaxed as well. She had been wondering why Jiang Chan had not used it yet. So this was the moment she had been saving it for.
The last two bolts were the most powerful of all. Although the Lightning-Struck Wood absorbed more than half their force, everything that remained struck Jiang Chan.
Mo Yu suddenly sniffed. “Why do I smell something roasting? Don’t tell me Jiang Chan’s been cooked by the lightning?”
Her nose was sharp enough to catch the scent even from this far away. The grand elders beside her twitched around the eyes. If they had not known how close she and Jiang Chan had been for these past centuries, they might have thought she was gloating.
Jiang Chan had not been cooked, but she was not far from it. When the final bolt came down, she truly had no strength left to resist and could only endure it.
Her golden fur had been burned completely black. There was not a patch of uninjured flesh on her, and she smelled scorched. Worse still, waves of agonizing pain coursed through her body.
After the lightning tribulation passed, the sky cleared. Jiang Chan lay motionless on the summit. Mo Yu was the first to rush to her side, and only when she saw Jiang Chan’s belly still rising and falling did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Spiritual rain began to patter down from the sky. As it fell on Jiang Chan, her scorched fur grew back. This time, it was no longer merely close to golden. It gleamed like pure gold.
Immortal spiritual energy filled the air. Jiang Chan stretched her limbs, feeling a strength unlike anything she had possessed before. She had now truly evolved into a pure-blooded treasure-hunting mouse and officially joined the ranks of divine beasts.
Seeing Mo Yu seated beside her, Jiang Chan shifted back into human form. Her robes were now a dazzling pure gold. There was nothing to be done about that, since they were formed from her own fur. Wasn’t Mo Yu always dressed in black for the same reason?
“I’m going up first. I’ll wait for you there, so don’t keep me waiting too long.”
Jiang Chan winked at Mo Yu, who folded her arms. “If you can ascend, so can I. Just wait for me to come find you!”
Jiang Chan looked toward the Sword Sect’s grand elders nearby, then suddenly removed her storage ring.
“The Sword Sect has done so much for me. Now that I’m ascending, I have little to offer in return. These are some things I’ve collected over the years. I’ll leave them to the sect.”
A grand elder with snowy hair and beard caught the ring, beaming. “You’re far too kind, Honored Divine Beast. Having you ascend here at our Sword Sect is already a blessing for us.”
Now that Jiang Chan had successfully passed her lightning tribulation, calling her an elder no longer seemed quite appropriate, so the grand elder had settled on what he thought was a suitable alternative. Jiang Chan’s eyebrow twitched at the address.
“Elder Ming, I still prefer being called Elder Jiang.”
Elder Jiang sounded human. Honored Divine Beast only reminded Jiang Chan that she was a spirit beast, and a rodent spirit beast at that!
“Thank you, Elder Jiang!” Elder Ming readily obliged. This, too, preserved the bond between them, didn’t it?
“Alchemy Peak’s future is in your hands. Cultivate diligently. I’ll be waiting for you in the immortal realm.”
After those brief instructions, Jiang Chan said no more. Everything that needed saying had already been said. Her pill recipes and insights into alchemy were all on Alchemy Peak. There was little else left to explain.
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