Chapter 9: Awakening the Eye, The Catastrophe Scripture of the Yellow Court

Redcloud gazed at the Nine-Nine Redcloud Soul-Dispersing Gourd, observing as a faint aura of tribulation began to rise around its surface, and his heart tightened slightly. Weighing the gourd’s powers, he realized this was not yet the optimal moment to summon the thunder tribulation and transform it into an innate spirit treasure. With a wave of his hand, he cast it onto his opened Three Flowers atop his Auspicious Cloud for nurturing.

Sensing a joyful consciousness emanating from within the crimson gourd as it sank deep into the Auspicious Cloud, Redcloud smiled and shook his head, dismissing further thoughts. Now that the spiritual root of the innate gourd vine had separated from the large red gourd, the profound foundation of the gourd began to reveal itself. Even though it had only undergone his refinement and not yet the baptism of thunder tribulation, it already displayed intelligence—a testament to its extraordinary nature.

It was well-known that ninety-nine percent of spiritual treasures in the cosmos only truly gain intelligence after surviving a thunder tribulation! Clearly, this gourd deserved dedicated refinement and cultivation; perhaps, in time, it would become a peerless innate spirit treasure, rare even among the finest.

He was quite satisfied, nodding to himself. Yet compared to the seven gourds born from the innate gourd vine, what intrigued Redcloud now was the fragment of Buzhou Mountain within his Great Luo Cave Heaven. More precisely, he was fascinated by the leaf that appeared from nothing after the tribulation, shattering the invisible hand’s fanged mouth.

He turned his gaze inward to the Great Luo Cave Heaven, looking at that fragment of Buzhou Mountain with anticipation and solemnity. Having delayed dealing with it, he now perceived with his spiritual eyes that the tribulation aura, once nearly dissipated, had spread throughout the fragment. The vitality that once suffused it was long gone. Moreover, tendrils of tribulation energy began to encroach on his cave heaven, inch by inch.

Indeed, with the boundless tribulation approaching, even a Great Luo Golden Immortal who had proven the Dao could, through a moment’s carelessness, become tainted with this tribulation aura!

Seeing this, Redcloud knew the fragment could not remain long within his cave heaven. The Great Luo Cave Heaven was a world unique to Great Luo Golden Immortals, the core of their cultivation. If true harm befell it, the damage would rival an injury to his undying spiritual light!

As Redcloud pondered how to deal with this troublesome fragment, he suddenly noticed his left eye burning with unusual heat. Before he could react, the Buzhou Mountain fragment was drawn into his left eye.

Confused, he watched as the mountain fragment, vast as half a minor world, began to crumble into dust, shrinking ring by ring until it vanished entirely. The tribulation energy that had spread everywhere compressed and converged as well.

Not only that, but the tribulation aura that had clung to his physical body was gradually drawn out from his brow, merging into the transformation.

Under Redcloud’s astonished gaze, the energy coalesced into two forms of similar size. One was the invisible hand that had devoured the gourd vine’s true spirit; upon closer inspection, its back was covered with countless eyes. The other was the leaf that had shattered the hand’s fanged mouth. Roots sprouted around the leaf, dividing it into two faces, each blinking a slender eye, vivid and lively.

Upon meeting, the two forms immediately began to entangle and devour each other, tribulation light scattering in all directions.

This leaf was indeed a willow leaf; as for the hand, he truly did not recognize it. Redcloud could not fathom the cause of this transformation, so he activated his undying spiritual light to protect his true spirit, focusing intently.

As his nerves tightened, he suddenly felt the world shift beneath him. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself suspended in the sky.

This sensation…

He was somewhat bewildered, searching his surroundings with his gaze. Guided by a mysterious intuition, he saw before him the hand, the willow leaf, and himself, shrouded in a thin layer of tribulation aura, outside the chaos.

Redcloud had become his own eye!

Fear surged in his heart; he was momentarily at a loss. At that moment, a sigh echoed deep within him, gradually awakening.

In his memory, a great hand reached for ‘him,’ extracted him from two eyeballs, cleansed him in a long river, and placed him in a place he had never seen.

“If you dare to cause disorder in the wilderness, even if I perish, I will not relent!”

The words were spoken calmly, yet carried boundless indignation:

“I have always watched you!”

...

After that, who knows how much time passed. The pair of eyes, once blind, suddenly opened.

They witnessed the rising and setting of the sun and moon, the birth of strange omens, the appearance of the first cloud in all the world, the transformation of dragons and phoenixes, and the stamping of the earth by the qilin.

They saw tribulation aura flood the sky, eerie tendrils entwining the vast land, tearing open a rift, where a colossal millstone crushed the true spirits of dragons and phoenixes, devouring them utterly.

...

After countless aeons, the eyes blinked, closed, and opened again, arriving in the Purple Palace, becoming Redcloud’s own eyes.

“You shall watch over them for me...”

With this utterance, a scripture entered his vision, engraved deep within his pupils.

...

What he had just witnessed must have been the history of the wilderness from the dawn of creation to the present.

He gradually regained his composure, glancing downward. The willow leaf’s eyes were now completely shut, lifeless, but the eyes on the invisible hand’s back bore none of their former spirit.

Whether divided or united, all would become his nourishment.

Redcloud snapped back to himself, his mind stirring. He closed his eyes tightly, and upon opening them again, a character appeared, casting its light upon the invisible hand below.

As the character was imprinted, the tribulation aura condensed, the consciousness dissipated, transforming into pure tribulation energy. In Redcloud’s gaze, the energy formed the very character he had engraved, settling upon the first star in the rivers of his eyes.

The Sutra of Yellow Court Tribulation!

With tribulation as foundation, linking the stars, comprehending the Dao of primordial heavens!

Redcloud made no further move, only feeling that sensation return as expected, and he returned from his vision to his own body.

That sensation just now…

Unable to contain his shock, he looked at his palm and gently clenched his fist. Though he was already a Great Luo Golden Immortal, a figure of renown in the wilderness, he still could not compare to even a fraction of what he had just experienced.

He looked up through the formations of the Firecloud Immortal Palace, gazing at the heavens of the wilderness.

Just now, he seemed to be outside the heavens, watching the wilderness from beyond.