"You and Honghong have dredged the water veins of Aolai River in Huaguo Mountain. Because Huaguo Mountain is involved in the grand scheme of the Journey to the West, and influenced by your boundless fortune, the Heavenly Dao has cast a trace of faint attention upon you!"
"Honghong's Karmic Luck has risen to the Taiyi Golden Immortal Level, and she has obtained a level of good fortune favored by Heaven and Earth!"
"You have received a trace of partiality from the originally impartial Heavenly Dao, and obtained the reward of the Protection of the Heavenly Heart!"
"Under the Protection of the Heavenly Heart, no one below the level of a Sage can observe your heavenly secrets!"
"Living beings with hostility toward you will automatically be afflicted to a certain extent by the misfortune of Heaven and Earth!"
"Your innate comprehension has been enhanced tenfold!"
"Both you and Honghong have obtained a share of Heavenly Dao Merit at the Heavenly Immortal Level!"
It took the two of them a full hundred years to dredge the water veins of the entire Aolai River.
From then on, not only did the two of them obtain huge merit rewards, but they also gained a great deal of other intangible benefits.
Through a century of cultivation, Honghong had reached the peak of Refining Void and Integrating with the Dao, just a single step away from the Human Immortal Realm.
Li Qi, meanwhile, had cultivated to the early stage of Refining Void to Integrate with the Dao.
Because of practicing the Five-Turn Transforming Immortal Cold Moon Scripture, Li Qi's magical power had undergone five turns of transformation, reaching the level of the strongest magical power beneath immortals.
His magical power had already exceeded the limit of ordinary immortals' magical power by twofold, belonging to the realm of boundary-breaking magical power.
Under such circumstances, a single portion of Li Qi's magical power could erupt with the might of fifty portions of magical power from an ordinary practitioner at the stage of Refining Void and Integrating with the Dao.
Although the magical power refinement of the Five-Turn Transforming Immortal Cold Moon Scripture only had five turns, it was far more powerful than the effect of the Nine-Turn Pure Origin Secret Technique.
The level of the former's first turn was far higher than that of the latter.
Do not be fooled by the fact that Li Qi was currently only at the early stage of Refining Void to Integrate with the Dao; that was because his magical power had undergone extreme compression.
In terms of true combat power, Li Qi was already capable of fighting strong individuals at the Human Immortal Realm.
Moreover, during this process of dredging the water veins, Li Qi's magical power was so formidable that his workload in dredging the water veins was three times that of Honghong.
Therefore, Li Qi obtained the most Heavenly Dao Merit this time, and his total progress in cultivation was likewise the greatest.
Yet because his magical power had shrunk due to refinement, his visible improvement seemed inferior to that of Fusheng Dragon Carp Honghong, the River Deity.
Following the descent of the merits from heaven, Honghong completed her final step of transformation and began to attain the Human Immortal Realm!
Her ordinary magical power was transforming into immortal magical power, and her entire fish form was also leaping toward a higher level.
The Heavenly Dao Merit automatically blessed her, helping her swiftly and safely complete the leap to a Heavenly Immortal.
Afterwards, both Honghong and Li Qi felt a terrifying pressure.
Li Qi's intuition was telling him to stay far away from Honghong.
The two of them both received information sent by Heaven and Earth itself: Honghong had completed her transformation and was about to face the Three Disasters that immortals must confront.
What Honghong was about to face now was the Lightning Tribulation.
Before Li Qi could even move, Honghong swiftly used her immortal magical power to push Li Qi outside of her tribulation-crossing range.
"I am going to undergo the tribulation. You must not come over, or you will also face the heavenly tribulation, and that will be even more dangerous!"
Li Qi naturally did not dare to get close, but he grew worried.
Honghong did not possess any wondrous arts to evade the Three Disasters; could she successfully survive the Lightning Tribulation, one of the Three Disasters?
He remembered that in the tales of the Journey to the West, according to Patriarch Bodhi, the Three Disasters seemed completely impossible to survive and could only be evaded.
Yet at this very moment, the mysterious prompt appeared once again.
"You have witnessed with your own eyes that Honghong is about to survive the Lightning Tribulation, one of the Three Disasters, and you begin to ponder how to obtain the method to evade disasters."
"Yet you do not know that the Heavenly Dao seeks balance: immortal cultivators who do not experience the Three Disasters will have their future rate of advancement reduced tenfold!"
"Without experiencing the Three Disasters, the difficulty of attaining Daluo increases a thousandfold!"
"Without experiencing the Three Disasters, the difficulty of attaining a Quasi-Saint increases a hundred-million-fold!"
"Without experiencing the Three Disasters, attaining the Dao to become a Sage in the present Primordial World is utterly impossible, and the difficulty of attaining the Hunyuan Daluo Golden Immortal increases by ten trillion times!"
After reading this information, Li Qi exclaimed that it was quite something.
Although the Three Disasters carried the danger of perishing, without experiencing them, the difficulty of almost every step in future cultivation would increase exponentially.
This practically severed one's future path to the Dao.
At this moment, Li Qi fully understood why Sun WuKong, suspected of being the Child of the Era, had achieved so little.
It was because he listened to Patriarch Bodhi's words and did not experience the Three Disasters!
Clearly the Child of the Era, possessing great Karmic Luck, his achievements were nevertheless inferior to those of some ordinary top experts.
Sun Wukong had indeed been plotted against step by step; he remained forever under the control of top almighty figures, being sold and still helping others count their money.
Having discovered this, Li Qi once again raised his infinite vigilance toward the wisdom and plotting capabilities of those top almighty figures!
Black clouds gathered in the sky.
The location where Honghong was breaking through happened to be on the second highest peak of Huaguo Mountain, which was right next to the peak where the Heaven-Patching Stone resided.
This peak was the very source of the Aolai River in Huaguo Mountain.
The highest main peak stood right beside it, being the place where the Heaven-Patching Stone was located.
This peak was covered in lush trees, mountain fruit trees, and scattered seas of flowers, yet unfortunately, it was about to be destroyed beneath this Lightning Tribulation.
Since Honghong had to undergo the Lightning Tribulation and Li Qi had no good methods, he could only silently bless her in his heart.
After the huge dark clouds formed a vortex, cyan-gold lightning began to flash and gather within them.
Finally, it gathered into a thick pillar of lightning, striking straight down toward Honghong.
The scorching lightning radiance, carrying the ultimate destructive power of pure yang, sought to completely destroy Honghong.
Before this divine might of Heaven and Earth, countless mountain demon cultivators who loved to kill vomited blood just from sensing the aura, suffering no light injuries.
This lightning aura was the greatest restraint against evil and demonic cultivators, as well as those with deep karmic debt.
The pillar of lightning descended directly, suppressing everything before it.
Faced with this dangerous blow, Honghong waved her hand, and the River Deity Seal appeared in her palm. Then, a thick water shield rose above her head.
This water was not ordinary water, but rather Three-Element Heavy Water evolved by Honghong using her magical power combined with the River Deity Seal; it was a low-end version of Weak Water.
It was thick, heavy, and highly viscous, possessing powerful fluid defense.
The lightning collided with the water shield, and the might of the divine thunder of Heaven and Earth blasted a gap in the water shield. Yet this Three-Element Heavy Water quickly filled the gap, and the power of the water swiftly guided the lightning, dispersing its force into the ground while simultaneously resisting the surplus might of the thunder.
Honghong safely survived the first Lightning Tribulation without any mishaps.
However, the power of the second Lightning Tribulation far exceeded the first, directly shattering Honghong's defense and punching through one of her water dragon spell techniques.
The lightning landed on Honghong, causing massive damage to her body and soul.
Yet under these very circumstances, the merits of Heaven and Earth protected her life.
The destructive power of the divine thunder of Heaven and Earth continuously ravaged her life, soul, and magical power, while the Heavenly Dao Merit continuously repaired her.
During this process, after the destructive force within the lightning subsided, the extremely subtle creative force contained within it began to emerge.
Although this creative force was tiny, it was extremely advanced.
It continuously remodeled and strengthened Honghong's body, causing her to evolve in the direction of a more powerful immortal body.
The power of the second Lightning Tribulation quickly passed.
Before long, however, the third and final Lightning Tribulation descended once more.
This time, the lightning directly shattered the defensive and offensive spell techniques Honghong had set up with all her might, nearly obliterating her on the spot.
Clearly, Honghong's breakthrough was still somewhat rushed; her accumulation was not actually that deep, she had not experienced many battles or slaughters, her experience in dealing with lightning tribulations was insufficient, and she had not prepared pills, magical artifacts, or talismans to deal with the tribulation.
Yet Honghong was lucky, possessing Heavenly Dao Merit; while the lightning tribulation destroyed, the Heavenly Dao Merit helped her recover.
In the end, she still managed to pull through this perilous Lightning Tribulation.
However, nearly one-tenth of her Heavenly Dao Merit was directly consumed.
One must know that Heavenly Dao Merit was used by ordinary powerful cultivators to save their lives or to break through critical bottlenecks.
Using it so directly to counter the Lightning Tribulation was an extreme waste.
Yet Honghong lacked a deep foundation, so she had no other choice.
If those other immortals knew she was using merit like this, it would break their hearts enough to beat her to death.
After all, Heavenly Dao Merit was too hard to come by; many immortals toiled for tens of thousands of years, going through countless calculations and preparations, yet might still find it difficult to obtain a small portion of Heavenly Dao Merit.
Upon successfully surviving the heavenly tribulation, Honghong officially became a practitioner of the Human Immortal Realm, stepping into the ranks of long-lived immortals.
Immortal light surged around her body, and her mortal form transformed into a powerful immortal body.
At the same time, her magical power also transformed into immortal magical power, and her soul turned into a nearly immortal soul.
Having experienced the Lightning Tribulation, her level of power was very high, and she was an existence with upper-middle combat power among human immortals of the same rank.
Having attained immortality, Honghong also officially possessed the confidence to truly govern the Aolai Kingdom!
For the river deity of any ordinary major river or stream had to be at least at the level of a human immortal.
"Li Qi, I've survived the tribulation and become an immortal!"
After attaining immortality, Honghong was overjoyed. She rushed over, threw her arms around Li Qi's silkworm body, and refused to let go.
In truth, she had also been terrified and frightened just now. Only when she saw Li Qi gazing at her from afar did she find something to rely on in her heart, allowing her spirit to finally steady itself.
Without facing the lightning tribulation directly, one could never comprehend how terrifying and frightening the might of that heavenly tribulation was at the very moment it appeared.
It was also because Honghong had gone through the River Deity inheritance and learned many things about the world that she was able to stabilize her state of mind under such circumstances, and finally survive the tribulation safely with the help of Heavenly Dao Merit.
Had she not undergone the River Deity inheritance, she would have been so terrified at that moment that she wouldn't even have had the courage to resist and face it.
One could say that at that moment, Li Qi became the crucial pillar of support in her heart that allowed her to persevere and face the Lightning Tribulation head-on.