[Cicadas chirped and birds sang beyond the window; summer was at its height.]
[You stepped out of the courtyard where you lived. After two years in the mortal world, you had finally grown taller and taken on the appearance of an adult.]
[Your cultivation was now only one final step away from entering the Great Dao Golden Core Realm.]
[The Great Dao Golden Core required true enlightenment of the Dao Path. This was the obstacle before you.]
[Without enlightenment, rashly advancing to the Great Dao Golden Core would only lead to death and the dissipation of your Dao.]
[The First Nine Heavenly Tribulation was a lightning tribulation, a test of the Heavenly Way, and the first layer of calamity.]
[Moreover, as time passed, great cultivators speculated that with the recovery of the Heavenly Way, heavenly tribulations would only grow more difficult, and the number of cultivators who could pass them would gradually become fixed.]
[Each year, no one knew how many Dragon Court cultivators died beneath the First Nine Heavenly Tribulation.]
[The Dragon Court Realm required one to cultivate all five elements to completion, barring the door to most cultivators. The Great Dao Golden Core was even harder.]
[The road of cultivation was difficult; that had never been mere talk.]
[You stepped out of the courtyard. Little Green Peak had remained fairly peaceful these past two years!]
[They had recruited even more disciples than before. After the Jade Terrace Fairy's previous visit to Little Green Peak, its name had been thoroughly spread.]
[You had also become a senior brother of four years' standing. The Spirit Garden's affairs had long since ceased to pass through your hands. Nie Qingzhu had assigned you to coordinate the newly admitted disciples; in truth, that meant managing Little Green Peak's spirit fields.]
[The disciples originally