Pay-to-Win Cultivation: I Get 10,000x Returns

Chapter 234: Fighting While Heavily Pregnant

“Trying to run? Stay right there!” Xuanzhao exploded with rage.

With a flick of his sword-finger, streaks of golden light shrieked through the air to give chase. But before they could connect, the earth rumbled. Several massive, towering ice walls erupted from the ground, intercepting the golden lights.

Xuanzhao struck out with a palm from a distance. A giant golden handprint materialized, smashing the ice walls into glittering dust.

But that momentary delay was all it took.

When Xuanzhao burst through the curtain of ice crystals, Zhang Xian’s trail had vanished completely. He was gone from sight, and when Xuanzhao’s Divine Sense swept across a radius of nearly 30,000 miles, he found absolutely nothing. Not a breath, not a heartbeat.

“How is this possible?” Xuanzhao’s face darkened instantly.

He had let a mere Golden Core brat vanish into thin air right under his nose? This level of aura concealment was simply unbelievable.

Only now did he truly understand why his master, Grandmaster Taichu, had repeatedly warned him that this kid was slippery.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his fury, and carefully analyzed the chaotic Spiritual Qi fluctuations lingering in the air.

His expression grew graver by the second. “Thunder, Fire, Water, Wood… the intensity of each technique far exceeds the theoretical limit of the Golden Core stage. If this child is allowed to grow, he will become a fatal tumor in the side of the Guiyuan Sect.”

Suddenly, his brow furrowed. He sensed something odd.

He reached out, grabbing at the empty air. A wisp of purple thunder essence was pulled into his palm.

The wisp was faint, dissipating rapidly, but as Xuanzhao probed it, his eyes widened in shock.

“Wrong! This isn’t a technique. This thunder essence contains the distinct, oppressive majesty of the Heavens!”

A realization struck him like a lightning bolt, instantly clearing the fog in his mind.

“So that’s it. The storm clouds gathering earlier weren’t summoned by his technique. He… he couldn’t suppress his cultivation base anymore. His Nascent Soul Tribulation was descending!”

“His frantic counterattack just now—using those large-scale thunder techniques—wasn’t to hurt me. It was to muddy the waters and mask the aura of the Heavenly Tribulation. He wasn’t fleeing to escape death; he was frantically looking for a place to ascend!”

The thought terrified him. Zhang Xian was already a nightmare at the Golden Core stage. If he successfully crossed his tribulation and stepped into the Nascent Soul realm, the consequences would be catastrophic.

“I cannot let you ascend in peace!”

Xuanzhao, a mix of shock and fury, transformed into a golden rainbow and tore across the sky, chasing the direction Zhang Xian had vanished with everything he had.

However, reality was cruel.

He spent hours searching the vast, scorched earth of the Western Region like a headless fly. He burned his Divine Sense scanning every inch of soil, his forehead slick with anxious sweat, but he found nothing.

“Impossible! Even if his stealth techniques are god-tier, a Nascent Soul Tribulation is a cosmic event! The clouds cover the sky! How can there be zero disturbance?”

He muttered to himself, his gloomy eyes scanning the dead forests and mountains below.

Then, a spark of inspiration hit him.

“Right! Minor Worlds! That cunning, shameless brat must have ducked into a Minor World to undergo his tribulation. The pocket dimension’s barrier is masking the aura of the clouds!”

But a moment later, his heart sank.

The Western Region had once been a prosperous hub of civilization. The number of ancient Minor World entrances—both known and unknown—numbered in the thousands.

He was an outsider, unfamiliar with the land. How was he supposed to find the right one in this haystack?

As Xuanzhao suspected, inside a desolate, nameless Minor World.

Zhang Xian was sprinting through a mountain range.

The sky of this pocket dimension was gone. In its place was a ceiling of boundless, pitch-black tribulation clouds. The layer hung oppressively low, as if the firmament was about to collapse and crush the earth. Countless electric serpents writhed within the darkness, emitting deafening, bone-shaking roars.

A vast, majestic pressure locked onto him. It was the gaze of the Heavens, and it made his scalp tingle.

“Plans really can’t keep up with changes,” Zhang Xian thought with a bitter smile.

His cultivation had been stuck at the half-step Nascent Soul stage for a long time. Watching Li Fuxi successfully cross her tribulation had given him a wealth of insight. Then, the high-intensity deathmatch with Xuanzhao acted as the final hammer blow, shattering the last bottleneck.

His Spiritual Qi had boiled over. It was impossible to suppress any longer.

The feeling was absurd. It was like getting into a fistfight while nine months pregnant—the exertion was too intense, and now the baby was coming out whether he was ready or not.

Fortunately, during the half-month he spent chasing Nangong Yao across the Western Region, he had mapped out several hidden Minor World entrances. Without this bolt-hole, undergoing tribulation right in front of an enemy Nascent Soul would have been… awkward.

Zhang Xian looked up at the churning black nightmare above him and felt a wave of panic.

This was no joke.

His previous tribulations had been perfunctory. Because his aptitude used to be trash, the Heavenly Dao couldn’t be bothered to waste energy on him. The lightning bolts were just a formality.

But now? He possessed all five Elemental Roots. His Metal and Water roots were Heavenly Grade. His foundation was absurdly deep.

Judging by the apocalyptic scale of these clouds, the Heavenly Dao was here to collect the debt for all those easy tribulations in the past—principal and interest included.

He didn’t dare waste a second. He skidded to a halt on a flat plateau, hastily threw down a simple Spirit Gathering Array, and reached for his defensive artifacts.

He barely had time to brace himself before the sky tore open.

BOOM!

The first bolt of the Heavenly Tribulation crashed down.

“Ah!! Fuck, that hurts!”

In a corner of the same Minor World, at the mouth of a hidden cave.

Two figures cautiously poked their heads out as the thunder nearly ruptured their eardrums.

Looking up at the doomsday scene above, a clear female voice trembled. The girl pressed her furry black wolf ears tight against her scalp in terror.

“Uncle Tiger, the thunder is so scary this time! It feels like the sky is falling!”

The one she called “Uncle Tiger” was a burly, scarred man. He stared at the clouds that swallowed the horizon, his expression grim.

“This isn’t ordinary thunder, Liuli. Someone is undergoing a Tribulation Crossing.”

“Judging by the scale, it is undoubtedly a Nascent Soul Tribulation. But… the range of these clouds is terrifying. It covers the entire Minor World. I have never seen a tribulation this dreadful in my life.”

BOOM!!

Another bolt of lightning illuminated the darkness, revealing their faces.

It was the half-demon girl, Lin Liuli, and Wang Meng of the Animal Crossing Association.

When Grandmaster Taichu had swatted their airship out of the sky like a fly, Wang Meng had borne the brunt of the impact, nearly dying instantly. Lin Liuli, relying on her beast-like instincts, had jumped ship at the last second.

Against all odds, they survived.

Relying on the hoard of life-saving Pills Zhang Xian had gifted her—and a special auxiliary Spirit Treasure that blocked the erosion of [Hatred]—Liuli had dragged Wang Meng to safety.

Grandmaster Taichu was hunting big game—Long Zhi and Zhiyin. He didn’t bother checking if the “ants” were dead, assuming the [Hatred]-filled wasteland would finish them off.

He never expected that Zhang Xian’s resources were so abundant that they would miraculously stabilize Wang Meng’s injuries and find this hidden Minor World to recover in.

Sadly, they were the only ones. The other survivors of the Animal Crossing Association had all perished in the crash.

They had just settled here, licking their wounds, when the sky turned black.

Wang Meng watched the lightning tear through the void, his voice heavy.

“This Minor World has long been dead. There is no one else here. I don’t know who this ‘sacred being’ is…”