Chapter 1259: The Final Dark Bead

The two of them continued onward without any impediment.

The five-colored lightning the Vermilion Bird Princess had been extremely wary of didn’t even have the courage to strike down on them.

She had never felt so carefree and relaxed. Slowly, a peculiar feeling welled up in her heart.

“Hey, An Lin, why do you always do those strange things?” The Vermilion Bird Princess cocked her head to the side as she looked at An Lin with her bright, curious eyes.

“Er… well… ahem, this is all part of my cultivation!” An Lin replied with a serious expression.

“Part of your cultivation?” The Vermilion Bird Princess blinked. “What kind of cultivating did you do by kissing Yi Li?”

“Er… absorbing the power of yang!” An Lin elaborated.

The Vermilion Bird Princess thought to herself for a moment before a sweet smile appeared on her face. “So that’s what it is, I get it now! You relinquished all resistance and stood under the lightning for an entire minute so that you could absorb the power of the five-colored lightning!”

“That’s right!” An Lin nodded.

He was just thinking about how to explain this situation to her, but she had made up an explanation for herself!

“An Lin, you are the most exceptionally talented cultivator I’ve ever seen.” The Vermilion Bird Princess encircled her arms around An Lin’s arm as her eyes glittered.

“Wh… what do you want?” An Lin had a slightly ominous feeling.

“Can you teach me your cultivation methods?” The Vermilion Bird Princess spoke with excitement on her face, “Think about it, you kissed Yi Li, and I can kiss Yi Li too! In fact, it will even be safer for me. As for relinquishing all defenses and standing in this lightning pit for a minute, I feel like there’s a chance I’ll be able to do that if I make ample preparations…”

An Lin’s lips twitched. Teach her to cultivate? He couldn’t even teach Xiao Ze!

The only way he could teach her would be to transfer the system to her! Perhaps he could think about that when he learned the method to transfer this accursed system…

Hopefully, the Vermilion Bird Princess wouldn’t hunt him down after being left with the system.

“How about it?” The Vermilion Bird Princess looked up at An Lin with anticipation on her face.

An Lin shook his head. “No way!”

“Hmph!” The Vermilion Bird Princess pouted with displeasure.

Thus, the Vermilion Bird Princess failed in her attempt to become An Lin’s disciple.

The two of them continued onward for a while longer.

The lightning became more and more terrifying as they progressed.

The area of lightning An Lin was manipulating continued to shrink.

“Vermilion Bird Princess, come a bit closer.

“Yes, just like that.

“Hmm… The divine lightning is getting more fearsome. Come a little closer again.

“A little bit more.”

…

The Vermilion Bird Princess encircled her arms around An Lin’s waist, and she almost had her entire, petite body completely stuck to An Lin’s. Her flawlessly intricate features were extremely flushed, and she buried her face into An Lin’s side in order to hide it.

An Lin didn’t have the spare mental capacity to enjoy her awkward embrace. He was far too busy unleashing his Lightning Manipulation Technique to its fullest extent in order to drive away the divine lightning surging toward them.

They continued onward like this for another few minutes.

The lightning had become so terrifying that even he was finding it difficult to cope.

The divine lightning really was like the ocean, boundless, turbulent, and so viscous that there was almost no gap.

An Lin gritted his teeth and persisted.

He couldn’t use his newest Lightning Engulfment Technique as that would allow him to engulf the lightning crashing down on him, but the Vermilion Bird Princess would not be able to engulf the lightning, and as such, she would be in a grave situation.

He couldn’t manipulate the lightning crashing down upon the Vermilion Bird Princess toward him before engulfing it either. That would result in an even bigger workload, and he would probably exhaust himself to death.

Thankfully, just when An Lin was struggling to hold on, the lightning up ahead suddenly became less dense.

After walking for another several hundred meters, a cavernous space appeared before them.

Tiny bolts of the boundless lightning in the lightning pit outside converged toward the center like cobwebs, pulsing rhythmically like a heartbeat.

At the center was an irregularly-shaped golden object that was about half the size of a grown man.

It was like a bumpy golden stone with a few peculiar holes on it.

After progressing into this space, there was no longer any divine lightning striking down upon them.

The Vermilion Bird Princess shuffled a couple of steps to the side with a deep blush on her face.

Only now did An Lin experience a slight sense of loss.

There was still a hint of lingering warmth while a peculiar yet pleasant scent remained behind.

“Ahem…” a clear and extremely pleasant voice sounded.

“I can sense an extremely pure power of yang from that stone. That thing is most likely what Yi Li will need to progress to the Dao Integration Stage…”

The Vermilion Bird Princess appraised the golden object before her as she made her analysis.

A white light flashed past An Lin’s eyes.

[Divine Lightning Yang Stone: An item of extreme yang nurtured within the Chaotic Lightning Stone Space. It can greatly enhance the power of yang-type spell techniques and can also act as a foundational stone for one that possesses the body of the Yang God. This is a top-tier divine-rank material.]

“This thing is called the Divine Lightning Yang Stone, and it’s a top-tier divine-rank material. This is indeed an extremely precious treasure,” An Lin praised with a smile.

The Vermilion Bird Princess was quite surprised. “You know about it?”

“I have a rough understanding of it…” An Lin spoke with a profound expression.

“You sure do look pleased with yourself.” The Vermilion Bird Princess shot a glance at An Lin before carefully making her way forward and putting the Divine Lightning Yang Stone into her storage ring, upon which she heaved a sigh of relief, as if a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders.

She had expended two Nine Flame True Yang Fruits and a Divine Sun Feather. Thankfully, she had at least completed the objective of her mission.

“By the way, An Lin, where is your bead?” the Vermilion Bird Princess asked with a curious expression.

An Lin was currently looking for it. He had unleashed his divine sense, but he was still unable to find any trace of it.

That’s strange, the map clearly says that the final Dark Bead is located in the core region of the Five-Colored Lightning Pit!

An Lin pulled out the map again, upon which was inscribed with a line of text that was most likely meant for Huang Fuwen—You must be at least Return to Void Intermediate Stage before you search for this bead. You may summon it when you reach the core region of the Five-Colored Lightning Pit.

An Lin pondered these instructions for a moment when his eyes suddenly lit up. “I get it!”

“What is it?” the Vermilion Bird Princess asked.

An Lin didn’t reply. Instead, he pulled out the other eight Dark Beads from his storage ring before injecting his vital energy into them and letting loose an almighty roar, “Come out, my final Dark Bead!”

The eight Dark Beads all emitted dark fluctuations.

The lightning outside of the space An Lin was situated in suddenly began to surge.

A black streak of light pierced through the lightning and pounced toward the eight Dark Beads before An Lin. The power of darkness swept toward them like a tsunami opening its gargantuan mouth, as if it were trying to swallow all eight of the Dark Beads!

“Impudence!”

An Lin aimed a vicious slap at the streak of black light.

Splat!

The black light was slapped to the ground.

This was a Dark Bead as well, but it was quite a strange one. It was black and possessed an eye and a mouth, as if it were a ball of charcoal that had somehow been imbued with life.

An Lin immediately unleashed his Divine Inspection Technique to verify that it was indeed the Dark Bead he was looking for before putting it away into his storage ring.

All nine Dark Beads had been collected!

The Vermilion Bird Princess was dumbstruck. “What was that?!”

She had never seen someone summoning a bead with other beads before.

An Lin clapped his hands together. “Just another day in the office.

“Alright, everything is sorted out here, so let’s go back.”

An Lin latched onto the Vermilion Bird Princess’ hand as they made their way back through the Five-Colored Divine Lightning.

…