"Should I call you lucky, or unlucky?"
As golden tribulation clouds bloomed one after another in the sky, True Person Baixi of the Xianke Sect—who had been flying through the air in the distance directly opposite the Huayang Sect group—came to an abrupt halt and sighed.
More than a dozen handsome boys and girls behind him, bound together by a strand of white grass that writhed like a living creature, immediately crashed into a heap when he stopped.
He truly had merely happened to be passing by. These boys and girls were Immortal Seedlings whom the Xianke Sect had painstakingly nurtured and was bringing back to the sect.
These Immortal Seedlings looked like old loofahs hanging from the same vine, their faces waxy yellow as they trembled and quivered. Only one boy among them remained calm-faced, his eyes still brimming with life.
Looking at the golden-yellow tribulation cloud shaped like a lingzhi mushroom, he softly asked, "True Person, could that be the legendary Golden Core Tribulation Cloud?"
His composure and knowledge immediately earned him an approving look from True Person Baixi. "If it is a blessing, it is not a calamity; if it is a calamity, you cannot hide from it. Since you have encountered such an opportunity, I might as well give you your first lesson upon entering the sect!"
"Tell me, what is cultivation?"
True Person Baixi pointed directly at the boy who had asked the question.
The boy answered, "To seek one's true self, cast aside falsehood, and preserve truth."
"Bullshit."
True Person Baixi burst into laughter, but his gaze swept over all the Immortal Seedlings with incomparable chill. "Remember this well: cultivation means defying the heavens, seizing fortune, and letting the weak become prey to the strong!"
The Immortal Seedlings fell silent as cicadas in winter. Yet since they had been selected, they naturally understood the rules. At that moment, they all silently memorized those twelve words of truth.
"Heavenly Tribulation has always been **. From tiny ants to colossal star beasts, all life breeding beneath heaven and earth draws upon the essence of heaven and earth. Mortals and ordinary birds and beasts cannot live beyond a hundred years; after death, everything returns to nature, without upsetting the balance. But cultivators are different. The longer they live and the closer they come to immortality, the more they absorb. When one region of heaven and earth can no longer maintain balance, it naturally sends down a great slaughtering tribulation. When it falls upon an individual cultivator, it is an ordinary Heavenly Tribulation; when it falls upon the entire Cultivation World, it is an immeasurable great tribulation affecting every living being between heaven and earth!"
True Person Baixi's expression was as stern as an iceberg, yet his eyes burned fiercer than a volcano. "You are fortunate. You have become outer disciples of the Xianke Sect; you have become cultivators. Compared to you, the countless living beings across the continents are nothing more than mayflies born at dawn and dead by dusk. But you are also unfortunate. The moment you entered the immortal path, you encountered a great cultivator at the Golden Core Peak undergoing tribulation."
Though these Immortal Seedlings had only just entered the sect, they already had a rough understanding of cultivation realms and the history of the Cultivation World. Now, tribulation clouds kept piling up in the sky, and the terrifying pressure rippled outward without end, turning their faces pale as earth. Yet this boy still steadied his mind and continued in a crisp voice, "True Person, are you afraid that witnessing this Golden Core great cultivator fail his tribulation will leave a shadow in our hearts?"
"Correct."
True Person Baixi looked at the boy, and his gaze softened considerably. "A person must know their own measure. Since the Three Sages stood side by side, the orthodox immortal sects of every continent have all entered the Three Sages' fold and acted according to the Three Sages' Dao Precepts. They raise Immortal Seedlings only within their own designated sect territories. The past chaos, where sects fought tooth and nail over a single exceptionally gifted Immortal Seedling, has vanished forever. Moreover, after their territories were designated, every sect gladly made long-term investments in nurturing even more gifted Immortal Seedlings. But even so, among one hundred carefully selected Immortal Seedlings like yourselves, at most ten or so will cultivate to the Foundation Establishment Realm. Among one hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators, at most four or five will reach the Golden Core stage. You have only just stepped onto the immortal path. The sight of a Golden Core great cultivator failing tribulation may not affect you much at first, but the longer you cultivate, the more you discover how difficult the immortal path is. What you witness today may become Inner Demons that pile higher and higher within your hearts. Yet opportunity and danger coexist. No one can say what opportunities a Heavenly Tribulation like this, undergone by a Golden Core great cultivator, may bring you."
"This disciple will remember it well." The boy earnestly gave his thanks. Compared to the other Immortal Seedlings, who still trembled uncontrollably, his serious bearing truly gave him the airy, otherworldly grace and Dao aura of an immortal.
But True Person Baixi's expression suddenly changed drastically. With a ripping hiss, he and the group of Immortal Seedlings behind him instantly became a streak of light shooting backward.
"How could it be this kind of thunder tribulation?!"
"Retreat! Retreat at once!"
At the same time, waves of incredulous cries rang out from the skies and ground all around.
The Heavenly Tribulation, which had been quietly brewing for so long, descended in earnest without any warning.
The tribulation clouds, already packed across the sky like fish scales, suddenly pressed downward by several hundred zhang in an instant, unleashing tens of thousands of bolts of lightning.
Each bolt was only as thick as a thumb, yet they were a peculiar milky white. Their light was not dazzling, but the moment they fell, terrifying waves of cold exploded through the sky. Layer upon layer of glasslike ice formed in midair without warning, as though an iceberg had suddenly been sliced into countless thin sheets and stacked flat across the heavens.
Puff, puff, puff...
When these bolts struck the ground, there was strangely no roar at all. At every point of impact, icy mist swirled before rapidly piling up into pagoda-shaped heaps of snow-white ice crystals.
When these bolts descended from the tribulation clouds, they covered an area dozens of li wide. Yet when they fell, every one of them targeted a single mountain peak with incomparable precision.
That lush green mountain instantly became a white snow peak. Terrifying cold swept through heaven and earth in every direction at an astonishing speed, and the vegetation on the surrounding peaks withered yellow in an instant.
"Ice Soul Heavenly Thunder?"
True Person Baixi stared at the snow-white peak as if he had seen a ghost, his eyes bulging from their sockets.
"Retreat! We need to retreat farther!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—unceasing sounds of bodies tearing through the air came from the surrounding sky.
Every cultivator shouting as they fled backward, including True Person Baixi, shared the same thought: they had truly lived long enough to see anything.
The Heavenly Dao laws were eternal, immutable existences born alongside the world.
The Heavenly Tribulation corresponding to each major realm in the Cultivation World was likewise fixed.
The tribulation for advancing from the Golden Core stage to the Nascent Soul Realm was the Sevenfold Thunder Tribulation.
Within the Sevenfold Thunder Tribulation, the order in which the various Heavenly Dao tribulation lightnings appeared was also fixed.
The weakest tribulation lightning appeared first. As the cultivator undergoing tribulation continued to withstand the heavenly lightning head-on, the Heavenly Dao laws would seem to be provoked into anger, sending down increasingly powerful tribulation lightning.
According to the Cultivation World's experience, at least the first four rounds of the Sevenfold Thunder Tribulation were conventional thunder tribulations. Their usual order was the Fire Cloud Thunder Tribulation opening the proceedings, continuously dropping fire clouds carrying traces of thunder force. Next came the Divine Firmament Thunder Tribulation, followed by the Azure Firmament Thunder Tribulation and the Jade Firmament Thunder Tribulation. Only when the fifth Pill Firmament Thunder Tribulation appeared would the Heavenly Dao laws formulate a unique Exotic Tribulation Lightning in response to that Golden Core cultivator's Core Qi.
Yet the Ice Soul Heavenly Thunder was unquestionably one type of Exotic Tribulation Lightning.
Right from the beginning, this Sevenfold Thunder Tribulation had skipped the conventional first four thunder tribulations entirely. How could the cultivators present not find that utterly inconceivable?
What was more, the Ice Soul Heavenly Thunder was among the more troublesome kinds of Exotic Thunder Tribulation.
What the hell was this?!
All experience came from bloody lessons.
Throughout cultivation history, cases of cultivators watching a Heavenly Tribulation only to be wiped out because they encountered an Exotic Thunder Tribulation were far from rare. No wonder these cultivators changed color and fled in panic.
"Is there any justice left in this world?"
At the center of the thunder tribulation, within that barren mountain suppressed by extreme cold, an old Daoist nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.
He was the absolute protagonist of this Heavenly Tribulation: Old Ancestor Tong Hui of the Huayang Sect.
At that moment, no one found it more inconceivable than he did, and no one was more grief-stricken and indignant.
The Heavenly Dao laws were cold and merciless. The very purpose of Heavenly Tribulation was to erase those existences that defied heaven and seized life. Yet the Heavenly Dao laws were also fair, because they treated all equally. No cultivator, regardless of origin or sect, received different treatment.
But why did these fair Heavenly Dao laws become unfair when facing him?
Every cause had its effect.
The abnormal change in this Heavenly Tribulation had, in truth, its destined cause.
Only peerless geniuses who encountered extraordinary opportunities during cultivation—supreme powerhouses whose formed Golden Cores differed completely from ordinary Golden Cores, or even freaks who possessed power beyond the Golden Core stage while still in the Golden Core stage and could contend against Nascent Soul Realm cultivators—could possibly suffer such harsh retribution from the Heavenly Dao laws.
But what kind of person was he?
Though the Cultivation World was full of people who played the pig to eat the tiger, Old Ancestor Tong Hui knew better than anyone that even within Lesser Jade Continent, he was absolutely one of the most ordinary mediocrities among Golden Core cultivators.
After forming his Golden Core, he had taken twice as long as Lesser Jade Continent's geniuses to cultivate to the Golden Core Peak.
He possessed no unique spiritual roots, and the Golden Core he had formed was utterly ordinary. Someone like him could never possibly have anything to do with an Exotic Heavenly Tribulation.
Could it be that he had cultivated too slowly, was too mediocre, and had delayed until his lifespan was nearly exhausted before being forced to undergo tribulation—so even the Heavenly Dao laws could no longer stand the sight of him?
This was far too absurd.
Before you continue