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

As time goes by.

"boom!"

Amidst the deafening roar, the massive pillars of lightning shimmered with a faint golden glow, descending swiftly and fraught with danger, one after another, giving no one a moment to breathe.

The rain in mid-air had long been evaporated by the extremely high temperature carried by the terrifying pillar of lightning, turning into large swathes of white mist and ionized state... before being completely extinguished and beginning to recombine from the ionized state.

In just a short while, the final bolt of heavenly lightning struck the first level of the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation.

Like a divine sword of judgment, it fell heavily, and the lightning pillar, originally one meter in diameter, expanded to three or four meters in an instant, containing terrifying energy that inspired awe.

In the face of such a calamity, even the sun and moon pale in comparison, their dimming far more than just a fraction of their former glory.

Even if Bai Suzhen were at her peak, it would be pure wishful thinking for her to resist without the aid of magical artifacts and relying solely on her physical body.

Trying to resist will only result in turning to ashes.

But at this moment, Shen Bailian had a completely different attitude and a completely different feeling.

"Comfortable, really comfortable. This trip was definitely worthwhile." Shen Bailian's current situation was not as critical as Xiao Qing had imagined. On the contrary, he was extremely comfortable and even dozed off.

The energy and purity contained in this tribulation far exceeded his previous imagination. It was as if it were made for pure body-refining martial artists like those on Earth Origin Star, and it was extremely suitable for them.

Cultivators are broadly divided into two categories.

The first category is external cultivation, which is also the mainstream cultivation system in this world. This includes becoming a god through incense offerings, becoming an immortal, and attaining the status of a righteous god in the Heavenly Court. It is evident that this type of cultivator relies heavily on magical treasures, or external forces, during battles.

The downside is that it requires high qualifications, and once the magic weapon is lost or not nearby, the corresponding combat power will be greatly reduced.

However, the advantage is that it conforms to the natural order, and those who know when to yield are the heroes. As long as one's aptitude meets the corresponding requirements, one can cultivate to become an immortal at an extremely exaggerated speed.

Furthermore, their lifespan, before achieving enlightenment, will far exceed that of cultivators of the second category within the same level.

Thus, they can live a long and healthy life, spending more time on cultivating immortality and mastering various arts. Their combat methods are diverse, and as long as they are not mentally unstable or have any underhanded dealings, their mortality rate will remain at an extremely low level.

The second type is internal cultivation, which advocates developing the physical potential of the human race as the mainstream. It can also be called the internal alchemy school, and can eventually develop into a small world.

As long as the small world exists, humanity will not perish.

The advantage is that one can use magical artifacts to enhance their combat power, but their combat power will not decrease too much when the magical artifacts are not around.

The drawback is that its fighting methods are limited, often relying solely on brute force.

However, the cultivation system of Earth Origin Star belongs neither to external cultivation nor internal cultivation. It is a pure body-refining cultivation system, like the Wu Clan in the Great Wu-Yao Calamity, where the physical body and soul are closely integrated, blended together, and inseparable.

However, the difference between the spirits of the Wu Clan and the spirits lies in the strength of their souls.

Because the warriors of the Earthly Element Star, from the very beginning of the Establishing Destiny Realm, have been pursuing the fusion of soul and body, the strength of the physical body can drive the strength of the soul, and the two complement each other.

Once you reach the Embracing Moon Realm, your soul and body are almost completely integrated. To target Shen Bailian's soul, you must first crush Shen Bailian's body—crush it in the sense of the rules.

"Om~"

A series of slight tremors continued to sound.

Shen Bailian bathed in the lightning of the heavenly tribulation, unleashing the full power of his Five Elements Breathing Technique, reveling in this ocean of energy of utmost purity.

Absorb and transform it, taking it all into the body and turning it into powerful resources... The muscles, bones, and flesh throughout the body, like an old man who has been thirsty for a long time, enjoy this endless resources to their heart's content.

At the same time, a series of notification messages appeared before Shen Bailian's eyes—

[Congratulations! Your Five Elements Breathing Technique skill has been upgraded. Experience points +2]

Congratulations! Your character level experience has increased by 2.

【…】

Congratulations! Your skill "Iron Body" has been upgraded. Experience points +1

【Congratulations……】

……

[Passive Skill: Steel Body LV5 (83/3200)] 50
At this moment, the panel, like a sycophant, popped up notification messages at an extremely fast speed, leaving Shen Bailian overwhelmed.

The weakest of the Nine Heavenly Tribulations can increase the experience points of the Iron Body by a full 50 points. What about the subsequent Nine Heavenly Tribulations, and even the Three Heavenly Tribulations?
It is worth looking forward to.

"No...no way!? Why is he still alive? How can he still be alive!" Xiaoqing was stunned when she heard the hearty laughter coming from the deafening roar.

She quickly used her magic to enhance her hearing and slapped herself hard with her snake tail. A sharp, intense pain suddenly rose from the spot where she was slapped.

This is not Xiaoqing's illusion, but the truth.

Even so, the reality was already in front of her, and Xiaoqing still found it hard to accept. Just how powerful was Shen Bailian?

Even the final lightning tribulation of the Nine Heavens Tribulation couldn't harm the opponent, and the opponent seemed to be handling it with ease.

It's like...like soaking in a hot spring.

It's terrifying, absolutely terrifying.

Thinking of this, Xiaoqing suddenly felt a deep chill rise from the bottom of her heart, a chill caused by lingering fear. At that time, she had actually dared to think of stopping Shen Bailian.
In retrospect, it seems that the other party was simply too lazy to struggle.

However, at this moment, a strange thought suddenly popped into Xiaoqing's mind: was it because Shen Bailian didn't want to hurt her?

So even with such formidable strength, why didn't they make a reckless move?

"No, something's not right... It's all my sister's fault! Yes, it's all because of my sister who led me astray!" Xiaoqing quickly shook her head, trying to dispel the absurd thought in her mind.

However, does this physical method really work?
Of course it works, at least in the short term.

Xiaoqing no longer thought that way; instead, she focused all her attention on Shen Bailian once again.

It's too early to be happy.

The Three Nine Heavenly Tribulations have only passed the weakest third.

As mentioned before, the strongest power of the Nine Heavenly Tribulation is comparable to that of the Thunder Beast, which has five thousand years of cultivation.

However, in the second level of the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation, the power of the first heavenly lightning bolt was equivalent to the full-force attack of a Thunderlight Beast with five thousand years of cultivation. Each heavenly tribulation was stronger than the last.

Even if you survive the Second Nine Heavenly Tribulation, what then? There is still the even more powerful Third Nine Heavenly Tribulation. The journey of a hundred miles is only half complete at ninety. In the tribulation of lightning, there is only success or failure, there is no middle ground.

Unless a powerful being intervenes to conceal the heavenly secrets, the heavenly calamity will naturally dissipate.

However, in Xiaoqing's view, how could this be possible? It was no different from daydreaming.

If Bai Suzhen truly had such a powerful backer, how could she have wandered for hundreds or thousands of years? How could she have fallen to such a state today?
Even now, Xiaoqing still refuses to believe that Shen Bailian could successfully overcome this tribulation without relying on any magic weapons, solely with his physical body.

Because she had lived for hundreds of years, she had never seen or heard of such a horrifying thing. Even the weaker terrestrial immortals, the true immortals, would find it difficult to do.

Let alone a mere warrior?
"Hoo~breath~"

"Boom~"

Shen Bailian calmed himself down, and as he breathed, thunder roared. He used his source power to shield himself from the roar of the thunder outside, quietly sensing his own state and looking inward.

Although the panel did not yet show that his physique attribute had improved, he could clearly sense that his physique attribute had once again reached the critical point.

next moment.

"Boom~"

With a soft popping sound like bubbles bursting, another notification message popped up on the panel at just the right moment—

Congratulations! Your Physique attribute has been improved. Physique attribute value +0.1

【Physique: 35.6】

"Sure enough, that saying is true: the harder you work, the luckier you get." Shen Bailian felt his physical attributes improve and became more confident, filled with many emotions.

What ordinary cultivators would avoid like the plague, he saw as resources to strengthen himself.

However, if he hadn't worked so hard to improve his physical attributes and persevered, he wouldn't have been able to acquire so much resources for advancement in this extraordinary world full of immortals and gods.

From the time I entered this world until now, more than half a year has passed.

Shen Bailian's martial arts realm has also improved from the late stage of the Opening Sea Realm to the mid stage of the Embracing Moon Realm, which is close to the late stage, directly leaping over a major realm.

If this were on Earth, such a rapid rate of advancement would be impossible.

To reach the current level, it would take at least a year, since the difficulty and efficiency of gaining experience points have doubled as skill rank and level have increased.

Although at that time, it was possible to convert divine matter into skill points, which could be used to quickly increase skill levels or upgrade max-level skills.

However, obtaining divine matter is a difficult problem to solve.

Moreover, if he were still on Earth, those divine beings would have already vaguely sensed the source of his power and would inevitably take corresponding measures to restrict his access to divine substances.

Meanwhile, Shen Bailian's channels for obtaining divine substances were extremely limited. One was to hunt ferocious beasts and extract the essence from their bloodlines to obtain a small amount of divine substances.

Only a large number of ferocious beasts can accumulate little by little, like sand forming a tower.

The second method is to hunt down the gods' favorites and absorb their divine essence through close contact.

Regardless of which of these two methods of obtaining divine matter is used, the divine favor can easily impose corresponding restrictions on him.

Unless his strength becomes powerful enough, such as directly breaking through to the Divine Palace Realm.

Of course, one could also take a shortcut, using various skills to amplify his attack, making it easy for him to break through to the Divine Palace Realm with his strongest strike; that's not impossible.

However, to reach such a level, his strength must reach the peak of the Embracing Moon Realm.

For ordinary martial artists, after reaching the Embracing Moon Realm, the difference in strength becomes exponentially greater with each level increase in physical attributes.

Not to mention the difference of an entire realm.

Moreover, experts at the Divine Palace Realm are basically at the top of the food chain on Earth Origin Star. Even those favored by the gods would find it difficult to deal with martial artists of this level, and might even be at a disadvantage.

However, the number of those favored by the gods was simply too great, making the number of experts at the Great Xia Divine Palace Realm pale in comparison.

Therefore, the Divine Palace Realm experts of the Great Xia Dynasty are often stationed at important checkpoints on the edge of the Zhou Tian Star Array, serving as a defense and a means to cultivate a large number of experts in a short period of time.

It's too late, but it's soon.

After the First Nine Heavenly Tribulation ended, there was no chance for anyone to catch their breath. In just a moment, the first bolt of heavenly lightning from the Second Nine Heavenly Tribulation arrived, carrying overwhelming heavenly might.

"I didn't expect it to get so intense so quickly..." Shen Bailian was bathed in lightning, his black hair became even darker, and faint irregular patterns began to appear on his body, from which one could vaguely sense the aura of the lightning tribulation.

Because the Eye of God has been upgraded to the Sense of God.

Therefore, he also gained a more acute perception of powerful energy bodies with innate attributes, such as origins, divine matter, and merit.

Shen Bailian could clearly sense that, compared to the First Nine Heavenly Tribulation, although the diameter of the lightning had shrunk considerably, this did not mean that the power of the tribulation had also decreased.

The facts are just the opposite.

As the saying goes, the essence is in the condensed form. Compared to the Nine Heavenly Tribulations, the power of the Heavenly Tribulation has undergone a qualitative leap. The power of the first heavenly lightning alone is already equivalent to the power of the last heavenly lightning of the Nine Heavenly Tribulation.

And this is just the beginning.

Compared to his leisurely state while bathing in the Nine Heavens Tribulation, Shen Bailian is now feeling some pressure. His physical body has been torn apart by the violent lightning, and some of his weak points are even experiencing a slight stinging sensation.

"That's good too. If the power is too low, it will be difficult to achieve my previous expectations." Shen Bailian's thoughts were in turmoil. In just an instant, thousands of thoughts floated through his mind as he carefully considered the pros and cons of this tribulation.

High risk, high reward.

The experience points for the skill [Iron Body] have only increased by a few dozen points, and the physique attribute has only increased by 0.1 levels.

It is far from meeting expectations.

He yearns for a higher dimension of evolution, but a higher dimension of evolution inevitably requires enduring unimaginable pain, and he had already made mental preparations when he first started practicing martial arts.

"However, I didn't expect that someone would still be plotting against me at this time." Shen Bailian frowned slightly, because he suddenly sensed that someone was watching him from the shadows. (End of Chapter)