Born with immortal seed

Chapter 434 Heavenly Tribulation in Ancient Myths
"Having participated in thirteen battles, large and small, and completed more than twenty sect missions, accumulating 100,000 contribution points, I have come here to exchange for a Core Formation spiritual item!"

Bai Zichen seemed not to hear and repeated himself.

"Can't you understand what I'm saying? When the Seven Deadly Poisons take effect, the seven toxins will enter your dantian and qi sea along with your true essence, and medicine will be ineffective. At that time, you will wail in pain, your liver and intestines will be torn apart, and your internal organs will rot little by little from the inside out."

The faceless Core Formation Elder's voice was serious, carrying an undeniable air of authority.

"The sect wouldn't give you the precious Pure Spirit Jade Marrow to exchange for two longevity pills, which would at least add thirty years to your life... Fifty years is enough time for you to establish a family and leave behind descendants. The sect has empty spiritual veins for you to choose from, and passing them down in the form of a family is another way to ensure longevity."

"I do not seek the next life, nor do I expect my descendants. I only wish to reach the Core Formation stage myself and enjoy the scenery of the mountain."

A hint of hesitation flashed across Bai Zichen's face, a purple light flickered on his wrist, and his mind became clear.

"Even if I die on the spot, I will never regret it."

"How precious are Core Formation spiritual items? How can you waste them? Give up this idea!"

The Core Formation Elder's sleeves trembled, and a hint of reluctance appeared on his face.

"My contribution is sufficient, and I am ranked first. The elders do not agree to my exchanging for Core Formation spiritual items, which violates the rules set by the sect's ancestor."

Bai Zichen's expression remained as firm as a rock, unwavering.

"Even if I have to kneel outside the Ancestral Hall, I will only have one request: to exchange for a Core Formation Spiritual Item. My heart will never change!"

"Enough. It's not difficult to cultivate diligently and persevere on the path of cultivation. What's commendable is that you knew the road ahead was blocked, yet you never slackened for decades, doing what outsiders see as futile work. I thought you could defy fate, but who knew you would be poisoned with the Seven Deadly Poisons in a battle. Heaven gives people hope, only to destroy it with its own hands... Since ancient times, the will of Heaven has been difficult to fathom!"

The Core Formation elder stepped out of the shadows. His face and features resembled Bai Jiu'an, his eyebrows and eyes were like Liang Yu's, and his temperament was like Ge Cang's.

"Since you have made up your mind, how could I begrudge you a single drop of Pure Jade Essence? Take it... Before you consume it, please take care of any unfinished business."

"Thank you, Elder."

Bai Zichen accepted the Pure Jade Marrow, his face showing neither joy nor sorrow.

Back in his cave, he consumed the Pure Spirit Jade Marrow. Strange phenomena appeared in the sky, with countless sword lights shooting down like birds returning to the forest.

It entrusts its divine consciousness to form a golden elixir, stirring up a vortex of spiritual energy.

The next moment, the heavens and earth, like a mirror, shattered from all directions and fell into the void.

……

"What a realistic illusion of inner demons! Even the illusionary techniques are real and can be practiced without any flaws."

It truly is formed from one's own heart, creating calamities for heaven and earth; no magic, supernatural powers, or illusions can compare.

Bai Zichen experienced a real life within it, and he can clearly recall every moment.

If one's resolve wavers and one becomes hesitant, and one desires to find a Daoist partner and form a family, then one will truly be trapped in the illusion of inner demons for decades.

There will be no other punishment, but since he is currently undergoing the Heavenly Tribulation, he will be unable to cope with the next wave of heavenly lightning. There will be no other outcome but death and annihilation.

No wonder Ge Cang said that inner demons are dangerous, and that being stronger does not necessarily mean you can easily overcome them.

The demon-slaying purple light on his wrist had disappeared, but fortunately, he had this secret technique, which allowed him to pass the first test without any real danger.

There was no time to marvel at the wonder of the inner demon tribulation. The tribulation clouds gathered overhead, a few fluttering lightly, far less intense than when Ge Cang was undergoing his tribulation.

"Could it be that I'm extremely lucky, and it's my turn to face the easiest tribulations, the Ice and Fire Spirit Tribulation or the Five Fire Divine Thunder Tribulation?"

Bai Zichen had consulted all the books about Heavenly Tribulations that the Qingfeng Sect could collect.

When Ge Cang was undergoing his tribulation, the tribulation clouds were thick and stretched for hundreds of miles, as if he had arrived at the end of the world.

Furthermore, purple lightning gathered in the tribulation clouds, evolving into yin and yang, and separating into the five elements.

The next one is the Five Elements Purple Lightning Tribulation, which ranks among the top of the dozens of tribulations commonly seen in the cultivation world. Its power is much stronger than what we are facing now.

Before he could maintain his good mood for long, the light-colored tribulation clouds changed again, and specks of starlight appeared.

On a clear, bright day, if you strain your eyes and look closely, you can discover countless stars hidden behind the clouds of destruction. The rising and falling of the sun and moon, the movement of celestial bodies—the mysteries are endless.

Moreover, the starlight seemed to come from an extremely distant place, perhaps even outside the same space.

In the blink of an eye, the summit of Flaming Mountain was shrouded in starlight and tribulation clouds, and space shifted, as if they had arrived in the void.

The Star Gazing Hall sits beneath the volcano, where all the surrounding craters have vanished, and the starlight flickers, creating a disorienting sensation.

"What kind of heavenly tribulation is this? It seems that there is no record of it in the ancient books. The starlight contains the power of annihilation... Even if it is not released, I can feel the extreme danger brought by each ray of starlight."

Bai Zichen's heart sank. It seemed to be the complete opposite of what he had thought; it was not a tribulation that was easy to overcome.

Rather, it is an extremely dangerous and mysterious type of heavenly tribulation, even more so than the Five Elements Purple Lightning and Thunder Tribulation, which is unrecorded.

The type of Heavenly Tribulation is not directly related to the cultivator's strength. A Core Formation cultivator who had previously fought against the Nascent Soul stage encountered the Three Flames and Nine Spirits Tribulation, known as the Shame of Heavenly Tribulations, and easily passed it within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

There are also ordinary cultivators who, through a stroke of luck, cultivate to the peak of the Core Formation stage, only to encounter the Fengdu True Fire Tribulation, which has a near-zero success rate, and are reduced to nothingness after the first three rounds of fire and lightning.

Therefore, after refining the Divine Pearl of Heavenly Thunder, he was not too worried about the Heavenly Thunder Tribulation.

In the cultivation world, there are only two methods to resist heavenly lightning.

They either withstand the attack themselves or use magical artifacts to clash with the heavenly lightning.

His Five-Crystal Glazed Body gives him physical strength comparable to a Nascent Soul level Body Refining cultivator, and he also possesses a Tribulation Transcending Treasure.

Even if he used cannon fodder magic weapons in the first few rounds to save his true essence, he didn't need to collect them deliberately, as he had enough third-tier flying swords.

Unexpectedly, a calamity struck, casting a shadow over my heart.

The first bolt of lightning struck down, but it was just an ordinary glimmer of starlight. However, he dared not underestimate it and summoned a Thunder Sound Sword to meet it.

Using a third-tier flying sword as cannon fodder would be an astonishing act in the cultivation world.

If it weren't for the fact that the wood-type flying sword is immune to damage, and the fact that he had the trump card of the Supreme Pure Micro Sword Box, he wouldn't have dared to act so extravagantly.

As the sword light collided with the starlight, the Thunder Sound Sword was enveloped in the starlight. When it reappeared a moment later, it had become a section of Thunder Sound Bamboo and several spiritual materials, which fell to the ground.

This bizarre starlight tribulation actually restored the Thunder Sound Sword to its original spiritual material state.

A wave of fear washed over me; how could such a calamity possibly exist in this world?

If one has to physically withstand it, will their cultivation technique regress, or will they revert to their youth?
Before there was time to think, the tribulation clouds rolled in, and the second wave of heavenly lightning immediately followed, accompanied by three stars that each transformed into starlight and attacked.

Even if it hurts, there's no time to worry about that now.

Third-tier flying swords are merely external possessions; even if they are all destroyed, there will be opportunities to refine them again in the future.

If he hadn't survived the Heavenly Tribulation, all those titles—such as the number one swordsman since ancient times, the only one with the potential to become a Nascent Soul cultivator in the history of the Northern Region's cultivation world—would have become a joke in the eyes of later generations.

Even if someone at the Core Formation stage is unparalleled in combat power, if they can't even pass the step of Shattering the Core and Transforming into an Infant, they are not qualified to be placed on the same level as a Nascent Soul True Monarch, even if their true combat power is comparable to that of an early Nascent Soul cultivator.

The ultimate goal of spiritual practice is to pursue the path to immortality; living longer is the true path.

What he thought he could easily overcome the Nascent Soul Tribulation actually brought him a real threat of death.

The three Thunder Sound Swords crashed into the starlight without stopping. No matter how skilled or exquisite your swordsmanship was, it was utterly useless in the face of the starlight.

When the starlight shines, even the most mysterious sword light will collapse, and will be sent back to its state before it was forged by some unknown force.

"Stars fall from the sky, the seas turn into fields, a calamity lasts a hundred years... I remember now, this is the future star calamity from mythology!"

Having survived only two waves of heavenly lightning, four Thunder Sound Swords have already been destroyed. At this rate, no matter how many flying swords there are, they won't be enough.

Bai Zichen, who was rummaging through drawers and cabinets to see if he could find any cannon fodder magic weapons in his storage bag, suddenly froze, and a passage of text flashed through his mind.

"Now I remember why I felt a strange sense of familiarity with this kind of heavenly lightning even though it wasn't mentioned in any of the books about heavenly tribulations... The last two pages of one of them recorded several unverified heavenly tribulations, which were said to be the trials of heaven and earth that naturally born gods in ancient times had to endure when they entered the Nascent Soul realm."

"Ancient gods were born powerful. Once they grew up, they could reach the Nascent Soul realm. The tribulations they endured were extraordinary. The descriptions in the ancient books are like myths and biographies. No one would take them as real events."

"But now it seems that the future star tribulation, one of the ancient heavenly tribulations recorded above, is almost exactly the same as what I am currently experiencing!"

Bai Zichen was struck dumb. He had read it as a mythical story and then forgotten about it. Who knew it actually existed and had happened to him?

"Could it be related to the Great Dao of Time, which triggered this heavenly tribulation?"

Throughout history, countless exceptionally talented cultivators have emerged over hundreds of thousands of years. Many of them possessed strength comparable to Bai Zichen at the Core Formation stage, as did those sword geniuses who were hailed as sword immortals. Yet, none of them had ever encountered such a tribulation.

After much thought, the only thing that might be special about him is that his path to the Great Dao is different from others, as it involves the true meaning of time.

"But my theory of alchemy can only be considered a branch of the Great Dao of Time, and I have not truly comprehended the power of time... How could it attract such a terrifying heavenly tribulation?"

Various thoughts raced through Bai Zichen's mind, but his hand movements remained unaffected.

One magical treasure after another flew out of the storage bag. Many of them had only been simply refined once. Let alone connecting with their minds, they couldn't even be controlled normally.

At this point, there was no time to worry about anything else; all that mattered was being able to withstand the starlight lightning.

Unfortunately, these magical artifacts failed to achieve their intended effect under the third wave of heavenly lightning; even with their combined power, they could not dissolve a single ray of starlight.

The annihilating power contained in starlight, when it shines on these magical treasures, causes them to fall apart.

Only a dragon-patterned cauldron shattered a beam of starlight, its fragments splitting into small mountains of ore scattered across the ground.

The Supreme Pure Sword Box was missing an invisible sword, a white bone cold light sword, and all the cannon fodder magic weapons, barely managing to block the third wave of heavenly lightning.

(End of this chapter)