We made you practice martial arts, and you've mastered the Great Golden Body?

Beneath this sky shrouded in an oppressive atmosphere.

"Boom~"

The thunder roared like the cry of an ancient beast, tearing through the silent air. The howling wind echoed in every inch of space, shaking all the spirits of the mountains and forests.

The once azure sky now seemed to have been freely splashed and dyed with deep and mysterious dark blue ink by an invisible painter, outlining the vast horizon in a way that was both blurry and breathtaking.

Thunderclouds hung low, dark clouds pressed down on the city, and the thick clouds were like a giant curtain hanging between heaven and earth, blocking out the light of day and immersing the world within several miles in a near-solid darkness.

Only the occasional flashes of lightning that pierced the sky, like swords of judgment, instantly illuminated this chaos, revealing the surging energy within the thunderclouds and the imminent, overwhelming power.

"Huff~Breathe——"

Bai Suzhen, with her aura as powerful as a dragon, gathered her strength and adjusted her breathing, striving to reach the most perfect fighting state at this stage.

Although this transformation into a dragon to undergo the tribulation was a hasty and helpless move, the success rate was less than 10%.

But this does not mean that Bai Suzhen should give up and wait for death, because that has never been her style. Ever since she embarked on the path to immortality and met Xu Xuan.

She came to understand a principle: there is a very important word in this world, and that is—struggle.

Only by striving can one have a chance to survive; without striving and grabbing, one can never hope to live as long as heaven and earth. We are no longer in the early days of creation, when the rules of heaven were not yet perfect.

Therefore, when Bai Suzhen met Xu Xian, the reincarnation of Xu Xuan, she did not hesitate to take the initiative to marry him. This was both to make up for the debt she owed Xu Xuan in her previous life and to prevent Xu Xian from entering the cycle of reincarnation before they got married due to various accidents.

This time, even though the success rate of surviving the tribulation is less than 10%, Bai Suzhen is determined to fight for that last glimmer of hope.

Of course, for some reason, Bai Suzhen always had a feeling that she wouldn't die.

At least not this time, and there shouldn't be any major problems for the next few hundred years. She vaguely sensed that her identity in this great calamity was not just that of a martyr.

Otherwise, she would have long since vanished into thin air due to the karma left behind by the flooding of Jinshan Temple.

Unfortunately, by the time Bai Suzhen realized this, it was too late. Forcibly transforming into a dragon not only had an extremely low success rate, but was also equivalent to a premature baby.

In terms of strength and potential, it is far inferior to that of a normal-formed jiaolong (a type of dragon).

Making up for this missing potential later on is extremely difficult.

However, once Bai Suzhen understood, she immediately felt that this nine-thunder tribulation was no longer so terrifying. The heavens have forty-nine cycles, and one escapes. In the midst of a crisis where death is certain, there is often still a glimmer of hope.

however.

“Rumble——!!!”

A thunderbolt that seemed to split the heavens and shake the earth suddenly exploded, its sound waves like the roar of a prehistoric beast, sweeping across the mountains and forests with overwhelming force.

Before countless creatures could even escape to distant shelter, they were swallowed up by the torrent of sound waves, as if struck on the head by an invisible giant hammer. Their eardrums burst into blood mist amidst the roar, and their bodies burst out with a dazzling crimson.

In the mountains and forests, mournful screams and dying sobs rose and fell, but were all crushed into dust by the roar of thunder.

The tremors of that sound wave were like a sonic boom crushing the cries of an infant, completely silencing the lament of life in the fury of nature.

At this moment, Bai Suzhen's expression suddenly changed drastically, and she was shocked. As the "protagonist" of this tribulation, she could clearly sense that the tribulation, which was about to begin, was starting to accumulate again.

The energy accumulated within is increasing exponentially; the energy contained in these thunderclouds has far exceeded the scope of the Nine Heavenly Tribulations.

"The Tribulation of the Three Nines?! How did it become the Tribulation of the Three Nines?" Bai Suzhen sensed the message coming from the tribulation, her pupils contracted, and a chilling light flashed in her eyes.

She didn't understand how something as simple as a transformation into a dragon and a tribulation of lightning could turn into a tribulation of the Three Nine Heavens.
In the cultivation world of this world, there is a common knowledge that the Heavenly Tribulation is divided into three major levels and nine minor levels, ranging from one to nine.

The power of each gear increases by tens of times.

Furthermore, the Heavenly Tribulation descends according to a fixed pattern. Tribulations of three times nine or higher are only directed at the countless gods and Buddhas, and are rarely seen even once every thousand years.

Those above the Six-Nine Heavenly Tribulation will not be discussed for the time being.

Generally speaking, only powerful beings like dragons, who do not have the status of true gods, will be subjected to the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation by the will of Heaven when undergoing tribulation.

Or, when an ordinary creature wants to break away from its original race and evolve into a more powerful life form, the will of Heaven will also send down the Tribulation of the Three Nine Heavens.

But what about now?
Bai Suzhen was merely a dragon in disguise, and she was still dragging along a weak body. Logically speaking, the second nine-day tribulation should have been the limit.

How could it turn into the Tribulation of the Ninth Heaven?

However, Bai Suzhen's doubts were soon resolved, because a slender figure happened to enter the range of her divine sense at that moment.

"That figure is... is it Shen Lian?" When Bai Suzhen saw that figure, her heart skipped a beat and she was terrified. She understood. Suddenly, everything made sense.

Why did the originally peaceful First Nine Heavenly Tribulation escalate into the Third Nine Heavenly Tribulation?

It turns out that someone interfered with her path to tribulation, which provoked the will of Heaven, leading to the deliberate upgrade of the first nine-day tribulation to the third nine-day tribulation.

"Hiss~ Hiss hiss hiss~" Bai Suzhen spat out her blood-red snake tongue, sensing something, and a thought that she herself found hard to believe suddenly surfaced in her mind.

Perhaps Shen Bailian's strength has far exceeded outsiders' imagination, and he is not simply a Celestial Realm martial artist as he appears on the surface.

At that moment, Bai Suzhen suddenly realized that the intense sense of threat from being locked by the heavenly tribulation had diminished considerably with the appearance of that figure.

The main target of the Heavenly Tribulation has now shifted to Shen Bailian.

This means that as long as Shen Bailian doesn't die, the heavenly tribulation won't target her, but at the same time, she won't be able to escape the range of the lightning tribulation.

Otherwise, if Bai Suzhen escapes this place after Shen Bailian is reduced to ashes, the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation will re-target Bai Suzhen and escalate into the even more terrifying Four-Nine Heavenly Tribulation!

"No matter what... at least we have a chance to catch our breath." Bai Suzhen quickly adjusted her emotions. Now that things have already happened, even if Shen Bailian withdraws, the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation will not be downgraded to the One-Nine Heavenly Tribulation.

Continuing to dwell on it won't change anything, so let's just leave it as it is.

As the saying goes, of the forty-nine elements in the universe, only one is missing.

Even under the calamity of heaven, there is still hope. There is a chance to survive in dire straits and for dead trees to spring back to life.

Because of the arrival of the Heavenly Tribulation, the concentration of spiritual energy in this world has also increased exponentially. Now, the concentration of spiritual energy here has far surpassed that of the Xuanbing Secret Realm.

The purity of this spiritual energy even surpasses that of the Mysterious Ice Realm. Furthermore, the current Heavenly Tribulation has only reached the level of the Second Nine Heavenly Tribulation and is still climbing towards the Third Nine Heavenly Tribulation. This means that the concentration of spiritual energy here will continue to rise for some time.

Furthermore, the focus of the heavenly tribulation is no longer on Bai Suzhen.

Therefore, while Shen Bailian was still alive and hadn't been completely obliterated by the lightning tribulation, Bai Suzhen could fully immerse herself in cultivation and use the abundant spiritual energy to restore her strength as much as possible.

If all goes well, as long as Shen Bailian can survive half of the tribulation lightning, her success rate in transforming into a dragon can be barely increased to 10%.

After all, transforming into a dragon is a long process of physical remodeling, and it cannot be accomplished in an instant.

While undergoing the tribulation of lightning, it is transforming into the body of a dragon.

Amidst the crisp clash of metal, Bai Suzhen no longer suppressed her body's instincts. Her flesh rapidly expanded and twisted, her head towering like a dragon stretching hundreds of meters across the heavens and earth.

Previously, in order to avoid suffering too much damage, she controlled the size of her body to reduce the surface area exposed to lightning strikes.

But now we are cultivating to heal our injuries, and we need to maximize the efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy in the shortest possible time.

A large body naturally means a larger contact area.

In just a short while, a vortex of spiritual energy with a diameter of over a thousand meters appeared between heaven and earth, completely covering the enormous white snake's body.

It transformed into a giant egg.

If it waits until it hatches normally, its strength will surely be mostly restored.

"It's good that they didn't come to cause trouble." Shen Bailian stood between heaven and earth, although he focused most of his attention on the thunderclouds.

But in reality, he was still observing Bai Suzhen's every move behind him. If she made any small move, he would definitely punch her and make her fall asleep immediately.

Although Shen Bailian had refrained from harming Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing because of their status as those destined to face calamity, in order to successfully obtain a large amount of divine matter, he had not yet taken action against them.

But if these two are truly ungrateful, then he will have no choice but to take drastic action.

Shen Bailian's goal in participating in this great calamity was very clear: everything had to be based on the premise that his own interests were guaranteed.

As the saying goes, if you are poor, you should take care of yourself; if you are rich, you should help the world.

Although the formula wasn't applied quite correctly, the core idea was largely the same.

However, since Bai Suzhen did not cause any trouble, but instead took the opportunity to cultivate and heal her injuries, he did not need to attack her casually, after all, Bai Suzhen was the one who guided this Tribulation of the Three Nine Heavens.

If something were to happen to Bai Suzhen, causing this Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation to disappear, then it would be a huge loss.

"Let the storm rage on!"

Shen Bailian looked at the rumbling dark clouds, his eyes filled with unusual joy, his long black hair flying wildly in the storm.

He unleashed his own source energy, his five internal organs resonated, and the Five Elements Breathing Technique was fully activated, bringing his spirit and energy to their current peak.

In the blink of an eye, thunderous sounds rolled out in all directions, and his aura was like a sharp blade, piercing through the clouds and standing shoulder to shoulder with the Heavenly Tribulation of the Three Nines.

Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!
Shen Bailian did not stop and wait for the heavenly tribulation to descend. Instead, he moved quickly in the sky. He wanted to test whether he could use his extremely fast speed to avoid being locked onto by the heavenly tribulation.

However, it turned out that he was overthinking it.

No matter where he moved or how fast he moved, he could not escape the lock of the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation.

To be precise, the heavenly tribulation was not targeting Shen Bailian as a person, but rather his true spirit. Unless Shen Bailian left this world, no matter where he fled, the heavenly tribulation could lock onto his location in an instant.

The experiment is over.

Shen Bailian stopped his movements and began to wait silently. He was not afraid of the Tribulation of the Three Nines; he was only afraid that the Tribulation of the Three Nines was just a name without substance.

But if this Tribulation of the Three Nines is truly just a hollow name, then he has even greater confidence that he can obtain more divine matter in this world.

Of course, that's a story for later. Right now, the most important thing is to get through this tribulation.

After a while.

"boom!!!"

A thunderous roar erupted.

Immediately afterwards, a towering pillar of light, radiating a hazy blue glow and winding its way to the heavens, appeared between heaven and earth. Its diameter alone reached a terrifying two or three meters, and the energy contained within it was almost solidified.

It was as if it appeared out of thin air.

In less than a ten-thousandth of a second, it had already arrived in front of Shen Bailian. In reality, this speed was still not fast enough, and he could still react in time.

However, since he had already conducted the relevant experiments before, he no longer thought about avoiding it. Instead, he grinned, laughed wildly, and opened his arms, wanting to embrace the incoming lightning tribulation.

"Hiss~! How come I didn't realize it before? I didn't expect this guy... to be a madman."

Xiaoqing focused all her attention on Shen Bailian. When she saw Shen Bailian's expression of joy rather than surprise, she couldn't help but gasp.

Besides karma, heavenly tribulations are the most feared existence for all living beings in this world.

Even the countless gods and Buddhas who reside high in the heavens are no exception.

Xiaoqing had heard that some body-refining cultivators would often use lightning to temper their bodies in order to refine them. Among these body-refining cultivators, those who fantasized about proving the Dao through force were the most fanatical.

Shen Bailian is now far more insane than those cultivators who fantasize about proving the Dao through force. He actually dares to try to temper his body with the Heavenly Tribulation. He must have either been kicked in the head by a donkey or he has lost his mind.

The Nine Heavenly Tribulations will bring down nine bolts of heavenly lightning, each stronger than the last. The power of the final bolt is comparable to the suicidal attack of a lightning beast with over five thousand years of cultivation.

The second nine-day heavenly tribulation will bring down 18 bolts of heavenly lightning, the third nine-day heavenly tribulation will bring down 27 bolts of heavenly lightning, and so on.

Even if you successfully survive the first tribulation, so what? It's just an appetizer; the real main course hasn't been served yet.

There were a total of 26 bolts of heavenly lightning following behind.

"Considering you didn't attack me, I might as well build you a cenotaph afterward..." (End of Chapter)