Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

If one’s Dao-heart was strong and stable enough, then the trial of the Celestial Immortal Wind would actually be a transformatative baptism, allowing the tribulant to slowly begin to develop a Celestial Immortal Body.

“Master, you have to hold on,” Ning said, extremely worried.

“Hold on.” Immortal Fivecraze stared at him as well.

Immortal Diancai stood there by himself, surrounded by those five pitch-black Immortal swords. He opened his eyes, revealing a smile as he looked towards Ning and Immortal Fivecraze. “The wind tribulation is over.”

“Good.” Immortal Fivecraze laughed loudly, “I just knew that your Dao-heart had to be strong, junior apprentice-brother! The wind tribulation was unable to do anything to you at all. Hurry up and replenish your elemental ki and prepare for the next tribulation, the fire tribulation!”

Ning let out a sigh of relief as well.

At least the first tribulation had been overcome.

In truth, given the Dao-heart which his master normally displayed, Ning should have felt quite confident in him. However, right before they entered this minor world, his master’s emotions had been disturbed, and he had even spoken of reuniting with his deceased junior apprentice-sister. Ning had been very worried about the effects of this former relationship on his master’s heart. Once one’s Dao-heart became even slightly unstable, then one’s body would quickly be transformed into dust.

The Celestial Tribulation was truly dangerous. One couldn’t make a single error in it; a single error would represent a complete failure!

……

Ning, Immortal Fivecraze, and Uncle White kept their divine senses spread as they stood vigilant guard for Immortal Diancai, whom they continued to watch.

Roughly an hour after the wind tribulation ended.

Rumbling red clouds suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the skies; it was as though a cloud created from an enormous ball of flames had appeared.

“The fire tribulation has arrived.” Ning and Immortal Fivecraze both watched nervously.

The fire tribulation wasn’t as insidious as the wind tribulation, but it was even more savage and ferocious! The power of those flames…if a Void-level Earth Immortal slipped for a single instant, then his body would instantly be charred into ash.

The fiery clouds in the skies slowly descended. Instantly, the temperature of the surrounding area began to rise, and the air itself seemed to glow with a blurry red light.

Crackle crackle crackle…

The ground itself began to turn soft. It began to transform into lava and began to bubble and froth.

Immortal Diancai began to levitate into the air. “Go!” Immortal Diancai pointed with his finger, and one of the five Heavenraker swords actually flew out, transforming into a giant serpent of fire that flew through the skies, stabbing straight towards the enormous fiery cloud, slashing through it and causing it to grow chaotic and disordered. However, the Heavenraker sword was quickly knocked flying backwards.

Instantly, the fiery cloud began to drop at an even faster pace. Soon, it completely enveloped Immortal Diancai within it.

Hiss hiss hiss…

The temperature had risen to a terrifying level, and even the lava within the region had been completely incinerated and transformed into nothingness. Even the stones in the distant region where Ning and the others were watching had been transformed into lava. From this, one could tell how terrifying the temperature was.

Rumble…whoosh…crackle…

Streaks of skyfire could vaguely be seen blazing from within the fiery cloud. There was golden skyfire, black skyfire, green skyfire, and even skyfire that seemed to flash like the stars…

“The various types of skyfire have descended.” Ning and Immortal Fivecraze both watched nervously.

Boom!

Suddenly…

The entire fiery cloud began to converge and coalesce around a single central point. Suddenly, a human-shaped figure appeared from within it, protected by five Immortal swords. The fiery cloud had transformed into a blazing light that was completely insubstantial. The light passed through the blocking Immortal swords, flying straight into the human-shaped figure’s body.

For a moment, the entire world turned silent. The surrounding temperature began to drop at a rapid pace. Immortal Diancai, however, emanated a fiery light as he hovered there in the skies. Ning stared at his master; his master was emanating so much fiery light, he seemed to be made out of flames himself.

“The final type of fire within the fire tribulation…the Celestial Immortal Fire,” Immortal Fivecraze said worriedly.

A Celestial Immortal Body had to be tempered by wind, fire, and lightning. Only afterwards could the Celestial Immortal Body be forged. Then, after undergoing the trial of the demonheart tribulation, the Celestial Immortal’s Dao-heart would be formed.

Only after all tribulations were passed would one become a carefree, unbound Celestial Immortal!

“He overcame it.” The distant Ning revealed a look of joy on his face. He saw that the distant Immortal Diancai’s body was beginning to slowly turn a duller color as he slowly returned to normal.

Immortal Diancai landed. He immediately sat down in the lotus position, quietly adjusting his energy levels and recovering his elemental ki.

“The fire tribulation is over. Next comes the most dangerous tribulation, the thunder tribulation!” Immortal Fivecraze murmured softly.

“Right. The thunder tribulation.” Ning’s heart clenched as well.

Of the four great tribulations, the final demonheart tribulation was the strangest tribulation. But the thunder tribulation was the most terrifying one!

The thunder tribulation was the most brutal one of all. Layers of lightning bolts would descend, continuously rising in power. Even past figures like Immortal Juhua and Immortal Northwalker had eventually been destroyed by the power of the continuous, unending thunderbolts, resulting in their Goldlotus Primals being damaged and them fleeing to become Loose Immortals. The thunder tribulation was an absolute nightmare! The vast majority of peerless geniuses would end up perishing in the face of this tribulation. There were absolutely no tricks that could be used to block the thunderbolts; each time a bolt descended, you had to block it head-on. If you couldn’t? You’d be finished!

Simple as that!

“I wonder how many bolts of thunder will fall.” Immortal Fivecraze was worried.

“Master has an extremely high level in sword-arts. His talent is very high, and he has five top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords. I imagine there will be quite a few,” Ning said worriedly as well.

The thunder tribulation…some Earth Immortals might only encounter nine bolts of thunder. Others, however, might meet with eighteen, twenty-seven, or thirty-six bolts…and according to the stories, the highest number possible was eighty-one bolts!

The power of the skythunder would be linked to many factors; in fact, it was also linked to karmic merit. Still, generally speaking, Ki Refiners would never suffer the legendary ‘eighty-one bolt skythunder tribulation!’ Generally speaking, only Fiendgod Body Refiners would encounter it while undergoing their tribulation. Many monstrously powerful Void-level Fiendgod Body Refiners would be hammered to death by the consecutive lightning bolts!

Ning knew very well that although he had already trained in the third stage of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], if he were to encounter the eighty-one bolts of lightning, he would definitely be crushed into nothingness by the power of those bolts!

“I hope he has less than 36 bolts,” Immortal Fivecraze whispered.

“Right.” Ning nodded gently as well.

Ki Refiners were innately weaker than Fiendgod Body Refiners when it came to withstanding skythunder. Generally speaking, it would be very hard for them to succeed if there were more than 36 bolts.

……