Days passed, and Shi Feiyang's three-thousand-year ultimate tribulation drew increasingly near.

He had made all the necessary preparations. According to his calculations, despite the dangers and some twists, he would still be able to safely overcome this tribulation, refine the highest quality Dragon Ball, cultivate the superior True Dragon Body, establish his kingdom, and formally consolidate his power. Everything seemed promising.

However, there was no guarantee that someone wasn't secretly manipulating things, altering the Qimen numerology, creating illusions to make him see this outcome.

But if he used the Scraping Immortal Pill again, his future potential would be limited. To achieve Body Ascension and secure the Golden Immortal Position, he would have to undergo another tribulation, which, involving the process of reincarnation, would span years fraught with danger. By then, with even more enemies, it might be difficult to survive, and one misstep could lead to obliteration.

Of course, he could scale back his ambition and settle for becoming an ordinary Heavenly Immortal, which was not impossible. But then, like Lu Rongbo in the Immortal Realm, receiving a mundane celestial post, playing the role of a doorkeeper Heavenly Soldier, a water-carrying laborer, a firewood-tending Immortal Soldier, or a furnace-watching boy—what joy would there be in any of that?

Was he supposed to become a pet dragon in the Heavenly Pond? Then what was he striving for? Back at Dinghu Peak, he should have taken the Heavenly Book and sought out the Emei Sect; perhaps by now, he would have already become a pet dragon showered with thousands of favors.

After much hesitation, Shi Feiyang finally resolved to make a life-or-death gamble. No matter how perilous this opportunity was, he aspired to achieve the best. Otherwise, as someone who came from being an ordinary high school student, simply learning Qimen numerology, having enjoyed a thirty-year existence of soaring through the skies and burrowing through the earth like an Immortal, he should be content!

He chose to put himself in a do-or-die situation. As the period for his last skin-shedding approached, he visited the Five Bright Palace again and called his disciples one by one, giving them instructions. Some were given Immortal Talismans with a blank patch that would only reveal its inscription after the designated time.

Once everything was arranged, he returned to the Heavenly Heart Palace and relaxed his mindset. During daylight hours, from the early two-hour period to midday, he would harvest the essence of the Sun, refining his Divine Fire Inner Core.

Over the years, he had charged the Red Snake with gathering Sun Essence for him. Every wisp of Sun Essence earned a reward of one Immortal Pill, and once condensed into liquid, each drop earned a Magical Treasure. All were recorded in the Book of Good and Evil, to be distributed en masse after his successful tribulation.

Now, in addition to collecting Sun Essence himself, he also absorbed those gathered by others, incorporating them into his Divine Fire Inner Core.

The Demon Beasts saw numerous benefits to serving him, with two being the most significant. The first was gaining protection from the natural elements or other more powerful beings, keeping them safe from bullying and consumption. The second was the free teaching of the Sun Refining Great Technique.

In the savage world of beasts, where survival of the fittest reigned, no matter how fearsome a Demon Beast was, unless it reached the pinnacle strength of something like a Cold Centipede, it would live in constant fear. It might be frolicking in the water one moment, only to be devoured by a larger creature the next. Having a safe haven was thus incredibly important to them!

The second was that they had a means to ascend. It was like having access to basic education. Normally, a newly sentient animal, relying on instinct, would need around three hundred years to form an inner core, and five hundred years to cultivate into human form—and that was for the quick ones. Some took a thousand years or more. But with the Sun Refining Great Technique, they could form their inner cores and human figures in just thirty to fifty years!

Therefore, they were eager to flock to him and willing to accept tasks distributed by Red Snake. After hearing about the rewards, they worked even harder.

Black Dragon King's orders were carried out by Red Snake like sacred edicts. Red Snake diligently supervised the progress of construction in the valleys of the right compound every day, collecting all the True Sun Essence into bottles, refining it into liquid, sealing it, and then delivering it to the Heavenly Heart Palace on Qianling Mountain. Of course, the tasks assigned by Shi Feiyang were not only limited to Sun Essence but also included Five Elements Essence and others, all of which Red Snake managed with overtime diligence.

Demon Beasts needed to face the Sun to gather the essence, casting spells to draw it from the sunlight. It took three days to accrue a single wisp and one hundred wisps to form a drop. After Red Snake collected them, they were refined by a group of highly skilled Demon Beasts to remove impurities, further reducing the quantity before it reached Shi Feiyang. Then, using Mysterious Sect Immortal Techniques, he would deeply purify and refine it even further.

The Crystal Bottles were not large, containing only three thousand drops each. In total, he had collected three bottles of this highly pure Sun Essence. A single drop, when released, could melt an entire mountain!

Every morning, he would use this True Sun Essence to enhance his cultivation of the Divine Fire Inner Core, consuming a drop every quarter of an hour, which burned his whole body with intense heat, revealing his Dragon Body as steam rose from his skin.

In the afternoons, starting from the late afternoon two-hour period, he would then consume True Water to refine his True Water Inner Core.

True Water was made from Ren Water Essence and Gui Water Essence. Ren Water Essence was extracted from river waters, where Red Snake had dispatched Demon Beasts to refine the rivers' essence energy. Gui Water Essence came from the sea, overseen by the Divine Geng, who led a large group from the Water Clan to harvest it from the ocean depths. Eventually, all were brought to Shi Feiyang, who reversed them from Acquired back to Innate, transforming them into True Water.

Originally, the Mother of True Metal had spent a thousand years and only managed to refine less than a hundred drops of True Water. After using some, only about thirty to fifty drops were left, sealed within Purple Cloud Palace for posterity.

Shi Feiyang had also filled three crystal bottles to the brim, but the water droplets were denser than the fire droplets, even more concentrated, with each bottle containing five thousand drops!

Without any fear of wasting them, every quarter of an hour he would ingest a drop of True Water and refine the Water Pill internally.

Entering the hours of the Pig, he then drifted off into a heavy sleep, while Miaomiao and the Mo brothers guarded him closely, continuing to feed him a drop of True Water every quarter of an hour.

Previously during his skin-shedding process, he would only sleep for two hours a night, but this last time, he intended to sleep from the hours of the Pig until the hours of the Ox, a total of six hours, and overall, he extended the period from two months to a hundred days.

Looking at the seemingly dead and motionless Black Dragon, Mo Zhui felt waves of heartache. Having experienced many calamities over ten thousand years, he had racked his brains and tried every possible means to avoid disasters, yet still ended up being killed several times by either humans or demon beasts. He knew all too well the perils and hardships of transcending trials.

He clenched his little fists and said to the others, "Big brother has been guarding us for so many years, during which he faced constant dangers but never let us suffer the slightest setback, not even a scare. Now it's our turn to protect him. From today onwards, for the next hundred days, we are his Guardian Beasts. Even if it costs us our lives, we must ensure big brother's safety!"

He had always regarded Shi Feiyang as his Guardian Beast, with a relationship of equals between them, hence he called Shi Feiyang big brother. Mo Xiang followed suit in calling him that, although he rarely initiated conversation. Mo Ying didn't care much about what to call him; sometimes acting coquettishly, he would call out 'big brother' or 'daddy', and once, he even dared to call Shi Feiyang his son, for which Shi Feiyang severely reprimanded him.

Mo Xiang, aware of the gravity of the situation, stopped his foolish laughter and nodded his head in agreement, while Mo Ying threatened fiercely, "If any bad guy really dares to come, I'll shatter his flesh, suck out his Primordial Spirit, and devour his Nascent Soul..."

Miaomiao didn't join in their bravado. Silently at the side, he drew out a strand of True Water, dissolved it with mana, and turned it into a hazy mist to envelop the Black Dragon's entire body.

Inside Shi Feiyang, the two Inner Cores were mating; Water and Fire were in balance, wrestling and merging. His body alternated between scorching heat and bitter cold. When he was burning hot, Miaomiao cooled him down with the mist, and when he was freezing, he would draw out a bit of Sun Essence, transforming it into the warm and comforting sunlight that filled the entire hall, shining upon the Dragon Body.

The night passed peacefully, and after the hours of the Ox, Shi Feiyang gradually woke up, returned to human form, and with a smile, told the little ones, "One day has passed, ninety-nine days to go."

During his deep sleep, he had dreamed he was back before his college entrance exams, with his teacher writing on the blackboard in a block of space, "100 days left until the college entrance examination" in colorful chalk.

Dreaming was not a good omen; perfect beings do not dream. A dream indicated that he hadn't reached the deepest level of sleep, and the mingling of Water and Fire wasn't yet profound enough—in plain terms, it could affect growth.

He contemplated his state of mind, sighed silently. He still couldn't approach the future with complete equanimity, still harbored worries, fretting he might simply die in his sleep... He had tried his best to look upon life and death with detachment, but after all, there was still that slight difference that had allowed him to dream.

The next evening, he adjusted his mindset earlier, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, it was already the hours of the Tiger, and he didn't dream again.

However, during the hours of the Goat on that day, Red Snake sent a message through a flying talisman, saying that a demon by the name of Wu Longzi had come with an alliance proposal, carrying a grave secret concerning someone plotting against the Black Dragon King and insisting he meet with him without fail.

Shi Feiyang then headed to the Five Bright Palace and had Red Snake bring Wu Longzi in.

Wu Longzi had originally conspired with Cold Centipede, hoping to set two tigers against each other so he could benefit as the third party, but he hadn't expected both Shi Feiyang and Cold Centipede to be more cunning than he, leading to him being drained of much Essence Energy by Cold Centipede, nearly losing his Dao level, and even getting infected with Cold Centipede's Dan Qi poison.

Thankfully, after Cold Centipede's death, his control over the Dan Qi vanished and the restrictions on his Primordial Spirit loosened. He went through a lot of trouble to detoxify the remaining poison, which luckily saved his life.

On the day Shi Feiyang launched a final assault on Cold Centipede, Wu Longzi fled the fastest, standing far away as a mere onlooker. Witnessing the true power of the Black Dragon King, he dared not have any more delusions and returned to his cave for reclusive cultivation.

Later, he discovered that many demons had flocked to pledge allegiance to the Black Dragon King, including his enemies. Those who used to be weak and had been almost eaten by him several times over thousands of years were now mocking him for not daring to move against the people under the Black Dragon King's protection.

He truly didn't dare. After all, that was a being even more terrifying than Cold Centipede.

Gradually, Wu Longzi also wanted to seek refuge with the Black Dragon King. He had heard about the Great Sun Refining Form Method and within just a few years, even the weakest little demons had been able to cultivate human limbs!

Wu Longzi considered defecting, but he feared that Shi Feiyang still remembered his past misdeeds. He hesitated back and forth until one day, a friend came to him for help and revealed a tremendous secret. He was overjoyed and hurried to Bright Realm to seek an audience with the Black Dragon King.

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