The Three Tribulations Arrive, the Saint Emerges!

"The heavens are unfathomable, and the human heart is treacherous."

"The body is easy to mend, and the Six Paths can be sought. Only these Three Tribulations are hard to cross! Hard! Hard! Hard!"

Lin Huang was reading the Nine Questions of Seeking Divinity by Bu Yuansheng, an original edition from eight thousand years ago that was now rarely seen.

Lin Huang read with great care, word by word, occasionally pausing to ponder the nuances of the text over and over again.

He had already read this book three thousand seven hundred and eighty-one times, and every time he read it, he gained new insights.

One hundred thousand years ago, the Hundred Sages returned to the ruins, the Gods fell, and the mighty long winds established the magnificent chapter of the Human Path; the era had already changed.

"The era has changed; with each passing day, the concepts from eight thousand years ago are no longer suitable. To become a God, one must naturally walk a different path." Lin Huang closed the book and walked out of the quiet room.

"Master, there are three new messages." Celestial Pivot flickered, its Artifact Spirit manifesting as a cat and leaping into Lin Huang's arms.

"Read them."

"On the seventh of the winter month, the Chengying Middle School reunion will be held at the South Gate Hotel, and you are invited to attend."

"The Arbitration Bureau has issued an arbitration resolution regarding your unpaid utility bills and electricity theft, fining you five thousand Crystal Coins, to be paid within three days."

"Finally, the number of concurrent users in the Desolate God Realm has reached your requirement; there are currently one hundred and three thousand users online."

Hearing the last message, Lin Huang's movement of drinking water suddenly froze, and he rubbed his brow. "Is it time?"

The Desolate God Realm was a Dream Net world that Lin Huang had created by pirating the Dream God Realm. It allowed people to experience dream lives within it; as the saying goes, a dream lasts for thousands of autumns, but who knows what year it is today?

Of course, the Desolate God Realm created by Lin Huang did not have official authorization.

However, compared to the Illusion God Realm or other officially licensed Dream Net worlds, Lin Huang's Desolate God Realm only required a tiny amount of Crystal Coins to obtain top-level permission, which was still very attractive to many people.

In this era, although Gods still stood high above, after the Hundred Sages Reform Heaven, the lives of ordinary people had changed significantly. Wisdom had been enlightened, civilization was brilliant, various kinds of divine knowledge were spread, and all sorts of sacred artifacts were manufactured like a flowing stream.

In the past, various sacred arts were popularized and became textbooks for compulsory education. In particular, the body of the fallen Dream God was crafted into the Dream God Realm, which encompassed the Myriad Worlds, allowing secular society to enter an era of knowledge explosion.

Almost every day, new techniques were created, and every day, new artifacts were manufactured, enriching and prospering the society of ordinary people.

Of course, in contrast to this, for one hundred thousand years, across the three thousand worlds and thousands of races, no one had become a God.

This was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.

"Disconnect the access points to the Desolate God Realm, activate all energy sources, and open all defensive Divine Arrays. Celestial Pivot, initiate special command mode. Then, begin."

After hesitating for only three seconds, Lin Huang made his decision.

The Mythological Era lasted for tens of millions of years, and especially after the Hundred Sages Reform Heaven one hundred thousand years ago, the path to becoming a God had been thoroughly mapped out; the method of Six Paths in One and the Three Tribulations had even been recognized by the Gods.

The so-called One Body refers to the physical form. What is cultivated is the body, the method of refining a mortal body into a Divine Body.

The Three Tribulations—Heavenly Tribulation, Earth Tribulation, and Human Tribulation—cultivate the soul; only by crossing the Three Tribulations can one cultivate a soul that is Eternal and Unwearing.

As for the Six Paths—Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Yin, and Yang—they cultivate matter, the rules of the entire world.

With a Divine Body that does not fall, a soul that does not perish, and the mastery of rules, only then can one be a God.

Six Paths in One and the Three Tribulations cover all cultivation techniques, each with its own merits, but if one wishes to become a God, one must cultivate all of them.

However, the body is easy to mend, and the Six Paths can be sought, but only the Three Tribulations are hard to cross. Most people in the world start their cultivation from the body and the Six Paths, but Lin Huang chose the Three Tribulations.

The Desolate God Realm, the Land of Return to Ruins.

As the final level of the Desolate God Realm, no one had been able to set foot here yet, but Lin Huang had appeared.

The entire Desolate God Realm was a Dream Net world that Lin Huang had built based on the Great Dream Heart Sutra, combined with fifteen Nightmare Race Brain Cores. In the Desolate God Realm, Lin Huang was the God, the master.

"I say, let there be light!" Lin Huang wore green robes, his long hair draped over his shoulders, tied simply in a primitive and grand style. Standing barefoot, he waved his hand, and a beam of light appeared.

It was as magnificent as the great sun, as faint as a tiny filament, instantly illuminating the entire Desolate God Realm.

At the same time, everyone existing within the entire Desolate God Realm was suddenly startled and received the news.

"The Land of Return to Ruins has opened?!"

"So fast! Could it be that this Desolate God Realm is going to shut down too?"

"Don't worry about that! Go! To the Land of Return to Ruins, where the Hundred Sages fight the Gods. Haha, Desolate God, I'm topping up 100 Crystal Coins, I want to be a Martial Saint!"

This was the charm of the Desolate God Realm; for just a small cost, you could become everything you wanted to be in a dream, even a God.

Of course, limited by Lin Huang's ability, even becoming a God in the Desolate God Realm was merely a dream; if it were in the Dream God Realm, you could become a God in the dream, and you could also become a God in reality.

"One hundred and three thousand. Hehe. With one hundred and three thousand people helping me share the burden, Three Tribulations, I want to see if I can cross you!" Lin Huang suddenly laughed loudly, waved his hand, and looked down upon the firmament.

Rumble!

The heavens and earth changed color, thunder rolled, and suddenly, throughout the entire Desolate God Realm, thunder roared and the world inverted. The world seemed to have turned into a giant millstone, with thunder adding to the pressure, grinding down all living things.

"Wow! This effect! Desolate God, you're something!"

"This is the Heavenly Tribulation! It's the Heavenly Tribulation! So cool! This money was worth it!"

The people in the Desolate God Realm shouted and cheered, calling it a thrill.

Boom!

The thunder was mighty, like light and like a prison, splitting into one hundred thousand bolts, arriving in an instant.

"Ah!"

"No!"

A short, shrill sound rang out. In the blink of an eye, the entire Desolate God Realm was wiped clean, leaving only Lin Huang standing alone, holding up the heavens with one hand.

"Not enough! Not enough! Come again!" Lin Huang laughed loudly, his hair flying. With a wave of his hand, the people of the Desolate God Realm who had just died were resurrected once more.

Boom! Boom!

The Heavenly Tribulation grew more violent, stirring up thunder that tore through heaven and earth. The people who had just been resurrected, not yet understanding what had happened, were once again reduced to dust beneath the thunder.

The thunder surged, the might of heaven unfathomable. Again and again, and yet again.

"Nine is the extreme of numbers. There are nine strikes of the Heavenly Tribulation; now, it is time to end this!"

As another bolt of thunder descended, Lin Huang took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. In an instant, it turned into wind, into a waterfall, into a mountain, and finally manifested as three defiant figures that rose up against the heavens, holding back the sky with their bare hands.

The lightning flickered and gradually extinguished.

Lin Huang felt a sense of relief in his heart, knowing that he had successfully passed the first stage of the Heavenly Tribulation.

"No wonder the world fears the Heavenly Tribulation like a tiger. It truly is terrifying." Lin Huang sighed, looking at his palms. The deep lines on his hands were gradually smoothing out, eventually disappearing until his palms became as smooth as a mirror.

Lin Huang knew this meant he had survived the Heavenly Tribulation; from this moment on, his fate was in his own hands, not the heavens'.

"Only fifty thousand left?" Before he could savor the joy of surviving the tribulation, Lin Huang flicked his finger, resurrecting the people of the Desolate God Realm, but their numbers had been halved.

"I want to file a complaint! I want to file a complaint! Damn Desolate God! It hurts! It's so terrifying!"

"It's the Heavenly Tribulation. The real Heavenly Tribulation! Damn it! We've been tricked, he's using us as cannon fodder!"

With nine strikes of the Heavenly Tribulation, even the dullest survivors in the Desolate God Realm knew they had been played, and by the most terrifying scam in history. The Desolate God had deceived not just them, but the very heavens and the earth.

He wanted to pass off fish eyes as pearls, deceiving heaven and earth to survive the Three Tribulations.

The crowd cursed, but Lin Huang didn't care. He had been planning this scheme for ten years. Since ancient times, those who could survive the Three Tribulations were all stunningly brilliant, having cultivated the Six Paths in One to the extreme before attempting it. But Lin Huang did the opposite: he would survive the Three Tribulations first, then reshape his Divine Body and master the Six Paths.

It was a crazy idea that others wouldn't even dare to imagine, but Lin Huang not only thought of it, he did it.

"The times have changed. Old ways of thinking are truly too stupid and a waste of time." Lin Huang sighed. He wasn't a second-generation god, he had no innate talent, he had no natural Divine Body; he was just the most ordinary of all living beings, a person who could never become a god.

But the times were different. With the help of the Desolate God Realm, Lin Huang felt he could create a miracle. The Heavenly Tribulation was strong, but it wasn't impossible to deceive.

The Desolate God Realm was created by Lin Huang, so to the heavens and earth, the entire realm was an existence that had to be eradicated. Therefore, all 103,000 people in the Desolate God Realm had to be destroyed. This gave Lin Huang 103,000 pieces of cannon fodder. Unlike other formations used to resist the tribulation, because Lin Huang was the Desolate God Realm and the Desolate God Realm was Lin Huang, the Heavenly Tribulation he faced never intensified. It wouldn't grow stronger due to the participation of others, as it would with a formation.

The Heavenly Tribulation had just passed, and the Earth Tribulation began.

Wind began to blow through the Desolate God Realm. This wind rose from the earth, originated from the Nine Underworlds, entered through the soles of the feet, and exited through the crown of the head. This was the Earth Fiend; this was the Earth Tribulation.

It was wind, and it was also fire. It was fire, and it was also water.

Whoosh! The wind blew, the fire burned, and the water dissolved.

In an instant, the people of the Desolate God Realm turned to ash. Lin Huang waved his hand, and the dead were resurrected once more, but their numbers were halved again. Those who had died had their souls completely annihilated by the Earth Tribulation.

The wind blew for a season, the fire scorched the wilderness, and the water flooded the world.

The living beings of the Desolate God Realm, amidst this wind, fire, and water, were like wild grass—cut, burned, and melted. In less than nine breaths, only seven people remained in the entire Desolate God Realm.

Lin Huang's figure grew thin. Even with 100,000 people helping him share the burden, he was at the end of his rope after surviving the Heaven and Earth Two Tribulations. As for the remaining six, they were even more withered, their souls teetering on the brink of extinction.

Their eyes met. Lin Huang's gaze was calm and indifferent, while the other six were gnashing their teeth in hatred and terror.

"The Heaven and Earth Two Tribulations have passed. The Human Tribulation—I am looking forward to it."

"Lin Huang. What is your dream!"

"To become a god."

"Wow, Lin Huang, you're so amazing."

Five-year-old Lin Huang, five-year-old Chen Ruo.

"Lin Huang. What is your dream!"

"To become a god."

"Then Lin Huang, you must work hard!"

Ten-year-old Lin Huang, ten-year-old Chen Ruo.

"Lin Huang. What is your dream!"

"To become a god."

"Lin Huang. Don't say that next time, people will laugh at you."

Fifteen-year-old Lin Huang, fifteen-year-old Chen Ruo.

"Lin Huang, what is your dream!"

"To become a god."

"Heh. I knew it. Forget it, never mind. Let's break up."

Twenty-year-old Lin Huang, twenty-year-old Chen Ruo.

Now, Lin Huang is twenty-five. He has given up his dream, working nine-to-five. He wakes up at 7:30 every morning, squeezes onto the Cloud Carriage, travels across half the city, clocks in at nine, and starts work. He eats at exactly twelve, continues working at one, goes to the bathroom three times during the day, and then waits until six to clock out, head home, cook, shower, and sleep, repeating the cycle over and over.

"Lin Huang. Let's get married next year. I've calculated it; with our current savings plus the year-end bonus, it should be enough for a down payment." Twenty-five-year-old Chen Ruo was as sweet as in his memories, leaning on Lin Huang's shoulder and smiling.

Lin Huang stopped what he was doing, turned off the stove, turned around, and reached out to stroke Chen Ruo's face.

"What's wrong?" Chen Ruo asked, stunned.

"Actually, I really did love you. I even thought about living like this with you—ordinary, simple, getting married, having children, growing old, and dying. But this isn't what I truly imagined. I have dreams I want to pursue and a direction I need to go; how could I stop here? So, I'm sorry, I only loved you in the past."

Lin Huang's eyes dimmed, and he sighed wistfully, watching Chen Ruo's face dissipate bit by bit before his eyes. "Is this the Human Tribulation? Indeed, the sky is not considered high, but the human heart is the highest of all."

Have you ever hated someone to the marrow of your bones?

You love to the extreme, so you hate to the extreme.

Lin Huang hated Chen Ruo, hated her so much he wanted to kill her.

So, Lin Huang snuck into Chen Ruo's home and kidnapped her.

"Lin Huang, you're crazy. I told you, we aren't a good fit. Don't do anything reckless." Chen Ruo was terrified; she never expected that one day Lin Huang would treat her this way.

"I'm crazy, indeed. From the day you left me, I went crazy. I hate you as much as I loved you. Do you know how much I loved you? I was willing to die for you! So do you know how much I hate you now?" Lin Huang was hysterical, waving a sharp knife and dousing the room with prepared fuel.

"Lin Huang, don't get agitated. Calm down. Let's talk this through, okay?"

"No need! I hate you, so let's die together!" Lin Huang laughed loudly, ignited the fire, and watched the dancing flames, suddenly falling silent.

"Does loving to the extreme lead to hating to the extreme?"

Lin Huang suddenly sighed. "But I have never hated her. I only feel a bit of regret, a bit of melancholy, because after all, I once loved her."

"Human Tribulation, you have lost. Although the human heart is treacherous, my heart is set on becoming a god, and my original intent is firm. The prosperity of the mortal world passes in a night; love, hate, and grudges are nothing to me. You want to use the mundane world to disturb my original intent, but that is nothing more than wishful thinking."

Lin Huang looked up at the sky. A twenty-five-year life, running through the mortal world, yet his original intent had never wavered. Love, hate, and resentment were, to him, nothing but passing smoke.

The human heart is treacherous. Lin Huang opened his eyes and saw his parents, who had passed away in his memories.

With hunched figures and hair turned white prematurely, Lin Huang suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

"Love, hate, resentment, the pain of parting, and the inability to obtain what one desires. Sigh, living in the mortal world, how can one transcend? Fine, let it be."

With a sigh, Lin Huang gradually lost his way.

Thirty years passed in a snap of the fingers; youth withered, spring and autumn departed. Lin's parents were now frail and old, and Lin Huang had reached middle age, with a wife and children.

"Mom and Dad's funeral is tomorrow, why aren't you sleeping yet?" Smiling as he took the coat handed to him by Chen Ruo, Lin Huang waved his hand and lifted the book in his hand.

"I just read a story. It said someone killed his wife to attain the Dao in order to become a god. Tell me, isn't that funny?"

"You only read those miscellaneous books. Be careful you don't suffer a cultivation deviation."

"Heh. I think I've already suffered a cultivation deviation." Lin Huang laughed, his gaze gradually becoming firm as he put down the book. "Sleep, we have to get up early tomorrow."

In the blink of an eye, another thirty years passed. Chen Ruo passed away from illness, leaving Lin Huang all alone.

"Dad, you should move in with us. You're getting old, and living alone makes Jiahui and me worried."

"It's fine, I'm doing well—better than ever."

Lin Huang was very old now, but his spirit was excellent. "In this life, the first twenty-five years, I was unruly and lived for myself. The next thirty years, I lived a lowly, servile life for my parents. The final thirty years, I walked on thin ice and lived for my wife. Some kill their fathers, mothers, wives, and children to prove their original intent through slaughter. But I spent thirty years in servility to repay the grace of my parents' upbringing. I spent thirty years walking on thin ice to answer the affection of my wife's half-life. Only after sixty years of being a beast of burden for all living things could I attain the eternal Dragon-Elephant of the Gods."

"The bitterness of the mortal world, love, hate, resentment, and the pain of parting. Fortunately, I experienced the mortal world! Haha!"

Looking up and laughing, Lin Huang exited the Gate of the Mortal World. With a wave of his hand, only he and one last person remained in the entire Desolate God Realm.

"What a Human Tribulation, what a human heart." Lin Huang exhaled a long breath of stale air. Love, hate, resentment, the pain of parting—the mortal world is full of entanglements. Even though Lin Huang thought his original intent was firm, he was still trapped for sixty years, finally using a lifetime of waiting to repay those twenty-five years of mortal entanglement.

Even now, standing back in the Desolate God Realm, Lin Huang was not entirely certain if he had truly passed this Human Tribulation.

"Love, hate, resentment, the pain of parting, and the inability to obtain. I suppose this final tribulation must lie in that inability to obtain." Lin Huang vaguely grasped the final point of the Human Tribulation, but the human heart is treacherous; even Lin Huang did not know where his own "inability to obtain" would manifest.

"You're finished."

Suddenly, the last remaining person spoke, their tone filled with resentment.

"You are indeed a peerless genius to have thought of using such a method to pass the Three Tribulations. But it's a pity you shouldn't have dragged me into this. I am a direct descendant of the Hong Clan; there is a Life Lamp of mine in the ancestral hall. If they don't sense me for over three months, it will go out. You should know the consequences of the Hong Clan's fury."

Lin Huang paused, glanced at the person, nodded, and ignored them.

"If you let me go now, there's still time. Although you have committed a grave mistake, with the power of my Hong Clan, I can still save your life. You are a genius; perhaps you might even have a chance to become a guest elder of my Hong Clan."

"Can the Hong Clan help me pass the Human Tribulation?" Lin Huang's leisurely question left the person speechless.

Rumble!

The Desolate God Realm suddenly shook violently, and the world began to collapse as if the heavens were changing.

"Haha. You're finished. I swear I will make you die a miserable death." The person was stunned for a moment, then burst into wild laughter. They had read about such situations in books; this was the sign of strong external interference, the precursor to the collapse of the Dream Net world.

Lin Huang's expression changed. He had already received a message from Celestial Pivot that someone was forcibly breaking through the defensive Divine Array. Clearly, the matter had been exposed.

"Falling short at the final hurdle, falling short at the final hurdle!" Lin Huang sighed. Man proposes, God disposes. This time it was his oversight; the Human Tribulation was harder to pass than he had imagined, and he had wasted too much time, otherwise, it would have been impossible for someone to find him.

"Fine, fine. Misfortune may be an occasion for good fortune. Falling short at the final hurdle—perhaps this is my stroke of luck." Lin Huang felt a sudden intuition that this might not be a bad thing. His heart settled, and he looked at the still-chattering member of the Hong Clan.

"Originally, it would have been extremely fortunate for you to survive, but you are too noisy, and I don't like it. So, you should just die." With a faint remark, Lin Huang reached out and crushed the Hong Clan disciple to death.