Wait a minute, where is my master?

As the saying goes, strike a snake at its seven-inch.

Now, the young Taoist was pondering where exactly the seven-inch of the storm cloud could be.

The nine silver-white Thunder Dragons then collided with the fire shield formed by his Fire Condensing Skill.

From head to tail, all nine Thunder Dragons disappeared into the golden-orange flames.

But they couldn't come out the other side; they vanished without a trace, as if they were clay oxen entering the sea.

The gigantic storm cloud, seeing that its second attack had failed, fell into a rare moment of silence.

The space within was suddenly calm.

Jin Xu, using his Spiritual Sense, observed that the outside world had calmed down, and he regathered the flames that surrounded his body back into the palm of his left hand.

He looked down at his hands, then around at the endless storm cloud surrounding him, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face as if he were making some decision.

Just then, a strange breeze inexplicably appeared before the young Taoist's brow.

The breeze was invisible but had a faint blue color.

It gathered into a cluster, hovering outside Jin Xu's brow for a moment before seeing that it couldn't enter.

Then, it drifted toward his Dantian.

However...

It couldn't enter there either.

This faint blue invisible breeze seemed to pause briefly; it circled around the Taoist several times, and after confirming that there were no leaks throughout his body, it reluctantly dissipated on the spot.

Jin Xu looked curiously at where this "strange" breeze had disappeared, already having an idea in mind.

"As the saying goes, strike a snake at its seven-inch. But the saying also goes, if you can't find the snake's seven-inch, flattening the whole thing isn't out of the question. If that's the case..."

The young Taoist whispered to himself as he observed his surroundings, a dangerous emotion flickering in his eyes.

However, before he could act, the vast storm cloud deployed another tactic, and bunches of deep red flame lotuses emerged from the void, slowly converging toward Jin Xu.

The deep red lotuses looked ordinary, but wherever they passed, the air twisted with burning heat, the temperature clearly terrifying.

Yet, the young Taoist looked around at the converging flame lotuses and suddenly laughed.

"You're afraid you haven't fueled your fire enough? Why add more kindling voluntarily?"

As he spoke, he circulated the Spiritual Power in his body and activated the Fire Condensing Skill.

In the storm cloud, countless deep red flame lotuses suddenly disintegrated into petals.

Then, like having a purpose, the shattered deep red petals uniformly gathered toward the palm of his left hand.

Jin Xu's left hand was enveloped with flames, indiscriminately swallowing the converging petals, and the golden-orange color mixed with a hint of deep red, appearing somewhat enchanting for a moment.

The storm cloud clearly had no response, and it remained stilled for eight or nine breaths without any further actions.

With its spiritual intelligence, it clearly couldn't understand what had just happened.

Weren't those flame lotuses supposed to burn that foreign object?

Why did they turn around and join this foreign object in their body instead?

The Taoist, who had successfully used the Fire Condensing Skill to convert the tribulation fire for his own use, saw the storm cloud space starting to settle and then chuckled to himself.

"If you've run out of tricks, then it's my turn now."

As he spoke, he slightly raised his arms, and the golden thunderbolt and enchanting flames in his palms surged violently, pouring out furiously on either side of his body.

!!!!

The dazed storm cloud seemed to wake up a bit at this moment, hurriedly summoning thunderbolts with various colors to block it.

The five-colored thunderbolts emitting blue, white, red, black, and brown flashes generated thunderous noises, condensing into various artifacts like pagodas, bells, cauldrons, swords, etc., and charged toward Jin Xu's Fire Condensing Skill and Hand Palm Thunder.

However, in less than a third of a breath, all the artifacts formed by the five-colored thunderbolts were swallowed by the raging flames and the golden Thunder Arc.

The pitch-black storm cloud now had five-tenths of its area taken over by the colors of gold and red.

As a tribulation cloud, and very possibly the strongest tribulation cloud that had ever appeared in the Nine Provinces Realm.

It clearly was not willing to just dissipate like that.

So, in that crucial moment, the tribulation cloud fused the five-colored Thunderbolt together.

A cluster of Golden Thunderbolt even more dazzling than "Hand Palm Thunder" appeared, and the moment it emerged, it transformed into the form of an ancient war god wielding a huge axe.

It heavily swung down at the surging Golden Thunder Arc coming toward it.

"Boom!!!"

The deafening explosion sound spread throughout Shangjing City below.

The dazzling Golden Thunderbolt-turned ancient war god still vanished without a trace.

The little Taoist stood in mid-air, using his Spiritual Sense to check for any remaining clouds that had not been covered by his two spells.

At the same time, he disdainfully spat out a mouthful of saliva and said, "Pah, all show and no substance."

Cough, Jin Xu admitted that when that Golden Thunderbolt appeared, he did feel a moment of panic.

After all, it was golden, just like the Golden Spiritual Power inside him.

Moreover, that Golden Thunderbolt looked much more terrifying and dazzling than the Golden Thunder Arc he created using "Hand Palm Thunder."

Only upon contact did the little Taoist realize.

This thing was just a showpiece.

Compared to his "Hand Palm Thunder", it was far inferior.

Above the high sky, Jin Xu was still carefully inspecting, aiming to completely eradicate the tribulation cloud.

Meanwhile, down in Shangjing City.

People were already panicking.

At this moment, Xia Yunzhao had just emerged from the Teleportation Array and flew to the entrance of the venue, instinctively protecting the bun stall and the older sister hiding underneath it.

She then noticed that her vision, which had seemed somewhat dark and gloomy due to the obscuring clouds, had started to turn slightly red.

She abruptly looked up and saw that the originally pitch-black tribulation cloud had instantly turned half orangish-red and half pure gold.

For a moment, the tribulation cloud seemed to resemble a massive fiery cloud.

Next, the tribulation cloud cracked, and a torrent of flames and fierce Golden Thunder Arcs swept out but stopped at just the right position.

In between these two forces,

a little Taoist priest wearing a dark Taoist robe and slightly lifting his arms, stood in mid-air with his back to her.

The Empress of Great Xia watched the familiar figure, her lips lifting uncontrollably.

Being in the Divinity Transformation Realm herself, her heart rate unexpectedly quickened for a moment.

Outside Shangjing City,

Prime Minister Qin, who had planned to temporarily hand over the control of Dragon Energy to Li Mi and return alone to Shangjing City, also witnessed this scene.

His originally desperate and aged eyes suddenly sparked with a light called hope.

A smile, hard to detect, also crept onto his deeply lined face.

...

One hundred and fifty li outside Shangjing City,

the Ancestor from the Kunlun Immortal Palace, who had halted due to the sudden appearance of the tribulation cloud, witnessed this scene,

made a dashing turn and flew back the way he came.

To blame? What for?

He should go home and drag that disappointing junior over to thank the Great Xia's royal uncle for his lessons.

If he could additionally take a master in the process, wouldn't that be adding kinship to kinship?