For ordinary mortals to advance to Qi Refining cultivators, they had to turn their spiritual will into a spark that illuminated the vast road of cultivation. Yet the instant they successfully drew the first wisp of heaven and earth spiritual energy into their bodies and became true cultivators, they would immediately suffer the backlash of the Heavenly Dao laws.
At that moment, they would encounter their first Heavenly Tribulation, known in the Cultivation World as the Wind Fire Tribulation.
Then, when Qi Refining cultivators advanced to the Foundation Establishment Realm, the Heavenly Tribulation they faced would be the Spiritual Poison Tribulation.
In the mainstream texts of the Cultivation World, both of these Heavenly Tribulations were classified as bodily tribulations for low-level cultivators.
Only when one completed cultivation at the Foundation Establishment Realm and advanced to become a Golden Core cultivator would the Heavenly Dao laws descend a grand Heavenly Punishment, killing a chicken to frighten the monkeys.
What Foundation Establishment cultivators faced when advancing to the Golden Core stage was already a lightning tribulation.
However, compared to the sevenfold lightning tribulation Golden Core cultivators faced when advancing to the Nascent Soul Realm, the lightning tribulation for advancing from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core was more like a stern warning from the Heavenly Dao laws.
This lightning tribulation had only four stages. Although each stage lasted nearly the time it took to burn a stick of incense, its power was simply incomparable to any one of the seven lightning tribulations faced by Golden Core cultivators.
The overwhelming majority of sects could not shelter Golden Core cultivators undergoing tribulation, but most sects could handle these four lightning tribulations faced by Foundation Establishment cultivators. This was precisely why the chance of Foundation Establishment cultivators failing their tribulations was instead far lower than that of cultivators at all other stages.
When ordinary mortals advanced to Qi Refining cultivators, or Qi Refining cultivators advanced to Foundation Establishment cultivators, almost no sect deliberately intervened. Natural selection under the control of the Heavenly Dao laws was inherently fairer and more useful than a sect's tests. If one could not pass even these two stages, there was no need to waste the sect's cultivation resources.
But things were different once one reached the Foundation Establishment Realm. Foundation Establishment cultivators were already the backbone of every sect in the Cultivation World. Thus, although the proportion of Foundation Establishment cultivators who advanced to Golden Core was also very small, most simply lacked sufficient fortune and could not cultivate to the completion of Foundation Establishment before their lives came to an end.
The end of one's life had two meanings. One was dying of old age after exhausting one's lifespan; the other was dying unnaturally due to all manner of circumstances.
Dying during sect trials, being killed while carrying out sect missions, being killed in conflicts with others, suffering deviations during cultivation, accidents while refining pills or artifacts, being killed while gathering herbs or fighting over treasures... There was a famous Cultivation World text called A Cultivator's Million Ways to Die, and it aptly illustrated just how difficult life truly was for cultivators who walked against the heavens.
Cultivators who could reach the completion of Foundation Establishment would almost always receive varying degrees of protection from their sects while undergoing tribulation. As a result, quite a few people in the Cultivation World had always felt that the lightning tribulation at the Foundation Establishment Realm did not even count as a true Heavenly Tribulation.
The Azure Gang Thunder Tribulation now facing Old Ancestor Tong Hui was one of the tribulation lightnings that commonly appeared when Foundation Establishment cultivators advanced to Golden Core.
It was not entirely unheard of in Cultivation World history for Golden Core cultivators to encounter a Foundation Establishment-level tribulation lightning while undergoing tribulation. But without exception, such cultivators had severe flaws in their foundations. For instance, they might have been congenitally deficient, with damaged meridians. Even the Nascent Soul they formed would be small, frail, and dim-witted.
In the history of the Lesser Jade Continent, the last Golden Core cultivator to encounter a tribulation lightning of this level had been a rogue cultivator seven hundred years ago.
The cultivation method that rogue cultivator obtained had itself been an incomplete fragment. As a result, when he formed his Golden Core at the Foundation Establishment Realm, the Golden Core he formed possessed only a fraction of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator's power. By the time he underwent tribulation at the Golden Core stage, his Golden Core's power was no different from that of many Foundation Establishment cultivators who had just successfully endured tribulation and formed their cores.
But Old Ancestor Tong Hui was not that kind of rogue cultivator.
The Huayang Sect was a branch of Difei Mountain and one of the orthodox Seventy-two Immortal Sects of the Lesser Jade Continent. The Huayang Heavenly Dao Scripture of the Huayang Sect was a genuine immortal sect orthodox method capable of attaining the supreme Great Dao. In a sense, the cultivation methods of these orthodox immortal sects each had their strengths and weaknesses; one could not say that one sect's method was necessarily far stronger than another's.
A complete cultivation method was the guarantee of attaining the Great Dao. The ultimate achievements of cultivators from each sect depended more on their own aptitude and opportunities.
Although Old Ancestor Tong Hui cultivated slowly, the Golden Core he had achieved at the Golden Core stage was certainly no worse than that of ordinary Golden Core cultivators.
Could it be that the Heavenly Dao laws initially sent down an Exotic Thunder Tribulation, then found it too harsh and sent down this kind of lightning tribulation as compensation?
Old Ancestor Tong Hui stared blankly at the Azure Gang Tribulation Lightning, which posed no threat to him whatsoever. After turning the matter over and over in his mind, he felt that this was the only possibility.
"Master."
Aboard the Nuclear Boat, He Lingxiu suddenly called out to True Person Wu Yang.
"What?" True Person Wu Yang's attention had been entirely fixed on the Azure Gang Tribulation Lightning. Startled by her call, his body inexplicably jolted.
He turned around and saw that He Lingxiu's expression was somewhat strange. She seemed melancholy and regretful, yet there was also a trace of inexplicable expectation in her eyes.
"Perhaps all our initial calculations were in vain."
Looking toward Old Ancestor Tong Hui, He Lingxiu said, "Our Huayang Sect may be about to produce a Nascent Soul Cultivator."
True Person Wu Yang stared at her in astonishment, not knowing how to respond for a moment.
The fifth lightning tribulation should be easy to pass.
But as for the next two lightning tribulations, who knew what might happen?
For He Lingxiu to say such a thing now seemed somewhat premature.
But he knew very well that He Lingxiu would not make baseless claims at a time like this.
Eight small black mountains stood immovably in the air.
The Azure Gang Tribulation Lightning could not shake them in the slightest.
Yet what was impossible to understand was that even this kind of tribulation lightning was merely perfunctory. It lasted only half the time it took to burn a stick of incense before beginning to wind down.
This fifth lightning tribulation had not even damaged a single magic treasure of True Person Tonghui's.
Most of those present believed that the Azure Gang Tribulation Lightning was already the bottom line of this Heavenly Tribulation, but the facts proved them wrong.
The blue light at the bottom of the golden tribulation clouds rapidly drew in, replaced by silver radiance.
The silver radiance swiftly expanded, turning into patches of silvery-white lightning mottling.
The silvery-white lightning patches continuously gathered within the tribulation clouds, forming a silver lightning pool dozens of zhang across!
Lightning in the pool rolled like liquid slurry, accompanied by booming peals of thunder.
Behind True Person Baixi, the youthful faces of a group of Immortal Seedlings were plated with a solemn, sacred silver sheen. In their eyes, the sixth tribulation lightning Old Ancestor Tong Hui faced possessed a might far surpassing any of the previous stages.
Yet this lightning pool once again sent True Person Baixi and the others into an uproar.
Wasn't this the Silver Firmament Lightning Pool, all show and no substance?
Among the fourfold lightning tribulations Foundation Establishment cultivators faced when advancing to Golden Core, it was also famed as a silver spear with a wax head, even weaker than the Azure Gang Tribulation Lightning.
In the history of the Lesser Jade Continent, there were likely only a handful of cultivators who had fallen to the Azure Gang Tribulation Lightning. As for cultivators who had fallen to the Silver Firmament Lightning Pool, there was likely not even one.
Under the disbelieving gazes of these people, the silver lightning pool, like boiling soup, began pouring silver tribulation lightning lavishly down upon the mountain below.
Countless snake-like arcs of jumping silver lightning almost completely blanketed the mountain where Old Ancestor Tong Hui stood. The silver lightning was as thick as slurry, enveloping the entire mountain as it rolled without rest. The terrifying thunder sounded as though countless massive boulders were crushing and colliding atop the mountain.
Its momentum was indeed more horrifying than that of any previous lightning tribulation.
But in truth, not much of that tribulation lightning actually struck Old Ancestor Tong Hui's surroundings.
When those silver lightning blasts struck the Black Shield and Yin Thunder Umbrella, it was like scratching an itch for them; they could not inflict any substantial damage at all.
Old Ancestor Tong Hui's Golden Core had already begun to crack slowly. The Core Qi within it was as viscous as lava spewed by an erupting volcano, continuously twisting and changing around the Golden Core as it gradually formed the outline of a tiny golden figure.
Even Old Ancestor Tong Hui's gaze had changed.
At first, he had only felt that if he could withstand two lightning tribulations, then even if he failed the tribulation, he would not fail too miserably and would not let the Huayang Sect become a laughingstock.
But now, while he was still in a daze himself, he had already reached the sixth lightning tribulation, and this sixth lightning tribulation was absurdly easy as well.
Only the final lightning tribulation now stood between him and becoming a true Nascent Soul cultivator.
"Could it be that your Heaven-Piercing Dharma Eye..." Only then did True Person Wu Yang feel as though he had fully come back to himself. He abruptly turned to look at He Lingxiu, only to find her expressionless. He Lingxiu's voice reached his ears, "Don't make such a fuss. I merely saw some clues. And this final lightning tribulation is entirely different."
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