Chapter Thirteen: The Thirty-Nine Days of Tribulation

The leaders of the Seven Sects—Taiyuan Gate, Qingyun Sect, Lanyang Palace, Yingtian School, Jinyang Religion, Biyan Peak, and Cangyang Valley—each accompanied by a hundred elders who had reached the later stages of tribulation—finally arrived at the core star of the Soul Star Region.
Seven hundred people gathered around the giant crater.
Not a single corpse, not even a bone, was to be found in the vicinity of the crater. The poison gas from the Ten-Thousand-Poison Fruit could utterly destroy a person upon contact. Moreover, not a single magical artifact remained on the ground; they had all been eroded away by the poison gas.
However, after the poison gas dispersed, it merged with various soul energies, creating entities similar to Poison Soul Beasts. But these entities lacked consciousness, existing merely as clusters of energy that drifted aimlessly in the air.
Undoubtedly, the elders of the Seven Sects immediately noticed these floating clusters of poison gas.
“Elders, it seems they were killed by the poison gas.”
“Only something capable of killing elders in the later stages of tribulation and destroying top-grade spiritual artifacts could be the Ten-Thousand-Poison Fruit.”
“That’s right. If I’m not mistaken, this poison gas has the same aura as the Ten-Thousand-Poison Fruit.”
Soon, the elders, who had experienced countless years, confirmed that all seven thousand elders had died due to the poison gas from the Ten-Thousand-Poison Fruit.
Taiyuan Gate’s leader, Tai Ming, stared at the crater below with cold eyes. He thought of Qu Yi stealing his sect’s Eight-Directions Sword, realizing that it would now be impossible for his sect to enter the Vast Heaven Immortal Mansion. This hatred was impossible to erase.
The leaders of the other sects only knew that Qu Yi possessed two Eight-Directions Swords and one Six-Directions Blade. Only Tai Ming knew that Qu Yi actually had three Eight-Directions Swords. Of course, Tai Ming would never reveal this truth; otherwise, the other three sects would distance themselves from Taiyuan Gate. Without the Eight-Directions Swords, they could not enter the Vast Heaven Immortal Mansion and thus could not obtain its treasures. Eventually, Taiyuan Gate would be overtaken by the other sects. Therefore, he needed to distance himself from them in advance.
“Qu Yi, I must get those magical artifacts from you,” Tai Ming swore silently.
Suddenly, Tai Ming’s spiritual sense sensed the crater and found that the soul energies inside were different from what he had been told. Previously, a Great Perfection-stage being from Taiyuan Gate had discovered this crater and knew it blocked spiritual senses. But now, Tai Ming realized the crater no longer blocked spiritual senses, allowing his own spiritual sense to directly sense the bottom of the crater.

Soon, the leaders of the other sects also sensed the changes in this abyss. Before the seven sects joined forces, the Taiyuan Sect had already informed the six other sects about this abyss, so naturally, their leaders were aware of its situation and realized that it could no longer isolate spiritual awareness.

“Everyone, it seems Qu Yi isn’t dead and has even obtained treasures from the abyss. Let’s search this planet first,” Tai Ming spoke up immediately.

After some thought, the leaders of the other six sects agreed to Tai Ming’s suggestion.

Soon, the elders of the seven sects split into seven groups and began searching for Qu Yi’s hiding place.

It lasted for a month!

Undoubtedly, the elders of the seven sects in the later stages of the tribulation phase failed to find Qu Yi.

While the elders of the seven sects were searching on Core Star Five, Wu Yuan had already arrived on Core Star One with the Tiny Realm Ball. In an open valley, Wu Yuan landed and entered the Tiny Realm Ball, which remained motionless in the valley.

On Core Star Five, the leaders and elders of the seven sects finally agreed that each sect should head to a core planet to continue searching for Qu Yi. At the same time, they used communication tablets to send two more elders from each sect to guard the various planets in the Soul Heart Star Region, where they built spatial teleportation arrays to create a thorough net to trap Qu Yi.

Once everything was arranged, the elders of the seven sects stayed in the Soul Heart Star Region. Various soul beasts suffered heavy losses, their numbers plummeting sharply, but the elders still found no trace of Qu Yi.

The elders of the seven sects were patient and remained in the Soul Heart Star Region.

……

Time passed in a flash—twenty years.

Inside the Tiny Realm Ball, Qu Yi sat by the lake for twenty years, constantly scanning the Four Elements Dao. Since his primordial spirit had refined the Soul Nurturing Stone, his spiritual awareness had grown significantly, increasing his scanning speed by five times. What used to take a hundred years to scan the initial part of the Four Elements Dao could now be completed in just twenty years.

As a result, Qu Yi’s spiritual awareness had reached the early stage of the tribulation phase!

After scanning the initial part of the Four Elements Dao, Qu Yi immediately refined all five soul cores at the early tribulation stage, further stabilizing his soul realm.

The moment his soul realm reached the early tribulation stage, Qu Yi knew that his Thirty-Nine Heavens Tribulation would begin in five days.

Above the valley, clouds suddenly gathered, and fierce energy rushed in, as if all the elemental energies from the sky, stars, and ground of Core Star One had converged above the valley.

Energy converged, generating fierce winds that formed gusts as powerful as waves. The mountains surrounding the entire valley were flattened, and the valley itself was turned into a huge pit as the winds carved it out, causing the ground to sink hundreds of miles deep. Golden, green, blue, red, and yellow clouds appeared, forming a cloud region spanning tens of thousands of kilometers above the valley, divided into five colored zones. Within these zones resided energies of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Thunderstorms raged incessantly, with sounds so intense they could kill even a cultivator in the distracted state. Qu Yi’s Three-Nine Heavenly Calamity Clouds had finally taken shape!

Undoubtedly, the drastic changes on Core Star One must have been noticed by the elders of the seven sects, who immediately realized that someone was undergoing a calamity here. At the same time, the elders on Core Star One saw Qu Yi standing in the valley and realized he was undergoing a calamity. Upon receiving the order, all the elders from the seven sects scattered across the Soul Star Region rushed to Core Star One, intending to surround and kill Qu Yi after his calamity was over.

Once the calamity clouds formed, any cultivator other than the one undergoing the calamity who entered would be attacked by them. Since the heavenly calamity was a punishment from heaven, representing its authority, any other cultivator who dared to interfere was offending heaven’s majesty. Therefore, the elders of the seven sects could only attack Qu Yi after his calamity ended; otherwise, anyone who entered the valley would be killed by the calamity clouds.

Five days had passed. Qu Yi, standing in the valley, opened his eyes and glanced at the nearly twenty thousand cultivators in the calamity stage around him. He merely smiled slightly before focusing his gaze on the five-colored calamity clouds above. “Having mastered all five elements, must I endure physical punishment from all five energies at once?” Qu Yi frowned slightly, amused yet exasperated.

The Three-Nine Heavenly Calamity was a test of the physical body, using the energy of the calamity clouds to destroy a cultivator’s physique. The number “nine” represented the nine heavens—Blue Heaven, Green Heaven, Red Heaven, Azure Heaven, Jade Heaven, Crystal Heaven, Purple Heaven, Supreme Heaven, and Divine Heaven. Since cultivators sought to defy heaven in their cultivation, they had to endure the punishments of these heavens, meaning each heaven would send down its own calamity.

Sure enough, as soon as Qu Yi thought this, the five-colored clouds in the sky began to stir violently, preparing to unleash the punishment of Blue Heaven. “The punishment of Blue Heaven must kill this Qu Yi!” “On his first attempt at undergoing a calamity, he’s already drawn down five thunderstorms at once. This Qu Yi is truly abnormal.”

“His physical body surely can’t withstand this—five thunder tribulations hitting at once! I don’t think he can even save his soul.”
“When we first underwent tribulations, the Three-Nine Heavens Tribulation only triggered one type of energy attack. Yet Qu Yi has managed to provoke attacks from all five elements at once. Could he practice all five elements simultaneously?”
……
The elders from the seven sects around watched with various thoughts, closely observing how Qu Yi would overcome the heavenly tribulation.
As the elders watched, five azure tribulation clouds formed, with a vortex at the center of each cloud cluster, ready to release energy and strike Qu Yi.
Qu Yi saw this and calmly faced the five vortexes, waiting for the clouds to descend.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, from the five vortexes, one emitted a golden beam, one a cyan beam, one a blue beam, one a red beam, and one a yellow beam, all hitting Qu Yi at the same time.
The elders from the seven sects hoped Qu Yi would be killed by the tribulation clouds, but the next moment, they were shocked.
Qu Yi allowed the five beams to enter his body directly. Not only was his body unharmed, but the beams seemed like spiritual springs—once inside, they disappeared, as if absorbed by him.
Indeed, Qu Yi had activated the five-element techniques—“Glorious Gold and Splendor,” “Revival of All Plants,” “Unity of Water and Sky,” “Spreading Starfire,” and “Mighty Imperial Land”—to maximize his speed, allowing him to absorb the energy from the tribulation clouds upon impact.
He used all the energy from those beams to enhance the strength of his muscles and strengthen his dharma body.
“There’s no justice in this!” Almost all the elders cursed inwardly, staring in disbelief at Qu Yi in the valley.
Before they could utter another word, the clouds of the second wave of heavenly tribulations were rapidly forming—the Azure Heavens Tribulation was about to descend.
“Qu Yi actually absorbed the energy of the heavenly tribulation! This guy is absolutely insane.”
“He swallowed the tribulation energy? Was what I just seeing real? I’d rather believe my eyes are blind.”
“Hmph, the Azure Heavens Tribulation is already the weakest. The Azure Heavens Tribulation hides a green light that can shatter bones. Since you haven’t received any guidance on overcoming tribulations, I wonder how you’ll avoid it.”
……
The elders were both astonished and filled with envy.

In the valley, Qu Yi heard a message from the Weapon God: “Qu Yi, during the Azure Sky Calamity, there is a mysterious green light. Once it enters the body, it destroys the bones, preventing the cultivator from standing up again. You can use the Chaos Crystal to transform chaos energy into five Chaos Swords to cut apart that green light, while still absorbing the other energies.” Hearing this, Qu Yi smiled happily. Soon, at the centers of the five cloud vortices, five types of energy were suddenly emitted—still in the form of five light columns, but each one was one meter tall, twice as large as those during the Green Sky Calamity. Qu Yi quickly took out a Chaos Crystal, transformed it into chaos energy, and swiftly formed five Chaos Swords, which he then sent at the five descending light columns, successfully dispersing the green light within them. The energy from those light columns entered Qu Yi’s body once more, which he immediately refined and absorbed. This time, the five elements of energy were used by Qu Yi to strengthen his bones, infinitely increasing their hardness. Qu Yi sneered at the elders of the seven sects around him. “What? How is this possible?” “That green light… What kind of energy is in Qu Yi’s hands? How could it disperse that green light?” “This is utterly incomprehensible…” The elders of the seven sects were filled with astonishment once again. Of course, the third round of calamity clouds was also forming rapidly, with all the remaining energy in the multicolored clouds converging into one mass for the final Danxiao Calamity. At that moment, Qu Yi heard the Weapon God’s voice again: “Qu Yi, in this Danxiao Calamity, there is a swirling energy within the calamity clouds that can destroy a cultivator’s Yuan Ying. You can use the Five Energies and Three Flowers Divine Formula card to protect your six Yuan Yings. That swirling energy cannot affect the divine formula card, and the other five elements of energy in the calamity clouds can be used to refine the purity of the energy within your Yuan Yings.” After hearing this, Qu Yi felt delighted inwardly. Such a heavenly calamity might be terrifying for others, but for him, it was nothing but a great boon. Quickly, Qu Yi placed the divine formula card over his dantian, protecting all six of his Yuan Yings. This time, the elders of the seven sects stopped cursing, commenting, or speculating about the calamity. They prepared to attack Qu Yi immediately after he overcame it. The Danxiao Calamity descended swiftly, and the sky cleared up. All the energy converged into five light columns, all of which struck Qu Yi.

Qu Yi followed the advice of the Instrument God, allowing the five beams of light to enter his body. He only needed to guide the five elements’ energy to refine the purity of the energy within the Five Elements Yuan Ying. Meanwhile, the swirling energy in the five beams of light all went into the Divine Formula Card and dispersed immediately.
After the Calamity of the Danxiao, Qu Yi was still alive!
At this moment, Qu Yi smiled as he looked at the elders of the seven sects, holding the Eight Directions Sword in his hand.