Breaking through to Martial God

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

Violent tribulation winds surged from every direction, sweeping across heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers before crashing into Chen Xia.

First came the protective astral qi that automatically formed around him.

Before those invisible tribulation winds, the astral qi that could withstand attacks from others at his realm was like thick paper beneath a blade. It held out for only a brief moment before being torn apart completely.

Next came the golden protection activated by the Vajra Indestructible Art he had cultivated, his second defensive layer.

It, too, lasted only a moment before crumbling.

Then came...

Chen Xia's skin.

His flesh, tempered through a thousand hammerings and a hundred refinings until it rivaled metal and stone, began to throb with excruciating pain.

He possessed a martial saint body, after all, even though he had never deliberately cultivated any specialized, powerful body-refining art.

A martial saint body was ultimately beyond the reach of mundane weapons. Even a grown man swinging a kitchen knife with all his strength could inflict no injury, leaving at most a faint blade mark.

Breaking through his skin was impossible, let alone penetrating the protective layer of internal energy beneath it, or the muscles and bones deeper still.

And yet...

When indescribable pain swept through every nerve in Chen Xia's body, he looked down.

His indestructible skin had actually begun to split apart.

Thin trickles of blood seeped out.

Although his body was repairing itself furiously, it could not keep pace with the destruction.

Horror gripped Chen Xia's heart.

He finally understood why there were so few Martial Gods.

This heavenly tribulation alone was enough to claim a person's life.

Many people could never even reach this stage, and even those who did could be cut to death by the heavenly tribulation. Failure to endure