Shushan Earthly Immortal

Chapter 440 Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations, Without Flaw or Omission (5K words presented, please vote for me at the beginning of the month~)

The longevity of a nascent soul is well-known.

After a cultivator enters the fourth realm, their lifespan increases dramatically, and they have ample remaining lifespan. After a long period of chasing lifespan through tribulations, they suddenly relax, and their mind suddenly opens up, often creating a period of rapid progress on their cultivation path. This may be due to a cultivation problem that has troubled them for many years suddenly being solved, or a blocked acupoint being broken down with a touch, or a burst of new techniques and methods being created.

This phenomenon has a special name in the spiritual practice world: "gaining longevity and wisdom." It means that with more lifespan, the pressure decreases, and the mind becomes much sharper.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon did not occur in Cheng Xinzhan. He never felt the pressure of being chased by the tribulation to increase his lifespan, and his state of mind remained calm after entering the fourth level. Although he gained longevity, he did not gain any additional spiritual wisdom, which made him feel a little regretful.

Generally speaking, cultivators who achieve enlightenment through the righteous path gain innate wonders due to the fusion of essence, qi, and spirit, resulting in a significantly increased lifespan, typically around four hundred years—equivalent to the combined lifespan of a cultivator at the first, second, and third stages of the Five Cleansings realm. At this point, the cultivator's total lifespan is approximately nine hundred years. Furthermore, great cultivators who reach the fourth stage through the righteous path will undoubtedly have a rapid breakthrough in the first three stages, typically entering the fourth stage before the age of four hundred. In other words, a cultivator only reaches middle age upon entering the fourth stage, a time of peak physical strength and vitality.

However, if a cultivator from a heterodox or demonic path uses unorthodox and mysterious methods to form a fetus, such as "shattering the elixir to form an infant," "planting a demon in a Dao fetus," "golden body in clay," or "borrowing a womb to give birth," because they have not truly grasped the essence of the Three Treasures, their lifespan will be shorter, generally ranging from two to three hundred years. Moreover, these methods involve a high risk of death and are far less reliable than the orthodox methods.

However, these demonic cultivators often find it difficult to complete the multiple purifications and transformations within the three realms. They typically attempt to form a embryo using secret methods during the lower three purifications. As a result, their waiting time in the three realms is shorter, and their lifespan is correspondingly reduced. Furthermore, they often use unorthodox and rapid methods in the first and second realms. Therefore, although their total lifespan is shorter, they enter the fourth realm much faster. Generally speaking, these exceptionally talented individuals from unorthodox paths often enter the fourth realm before the age of three hundred, and their remaining lifespan is also three to four hundred years, placing them in their prime.

This is why all the major sects in the world are founded by cultivators at the fourth level or above. Only those cultivators at the fourth level or above who establish a sect have enough lifespan to manage, protect, and nurture the next generation. If a Golden Core cultivator were to establish a sect, they wouldn't even last long amidst the frantic pursuit of lifespan, let alone shoulder the responsibility of building and expanding the sect. Therefore, they would only be relegated to minor, insignificant sects.

This is the same for both the righteous and the evil paths.

However, Cheng Xinzhan is quite different from both the ordinary righteous method of conception and the unorthodox method of conception.

He achieved the Golden Core at the age of thirty-eight, at which time he had a lifespan of three hundred and thirty-seven years. Later, after opening the Purple Palace, he gained a full sixty-year lifespan. The first cleansing gave him a full and a half sixty-year lifespan, the second cleansing gave him a full and a half sixty-year lifespan, and the third cleansing, due to the Jia Wood Dragon Thunder cleansing, gave him a lifespan of a hundred years. The fourth cleansing again gave him a full and a half sixty-year lifespan. In addition, the Nine-Nine Thunder Tribulation and the Five Elements were complete, which led to the Golden Core reaching perfection and gaining the second Golden Core supernatural power—an increase in lifespan of two sixty-years.

By this calculation, he gained 370 years of lifespan from just one of the three realms.

Before truly forming a fetus, the opening of the body's acupoints triggered the Purple Star phenomenon, and simultaneously achieved three Dharma Body realms: "Purple Glazed Body," "Yellow Court Dao Embryo," and "Pure Yang Golden Body," thus adding an extra three Jiazi to one's lifespan.

As for the embryo, it underwent a legendary experience of nine transformations, the illumination of the three lights, and the sound of the fetus for 128 days, eventually becoming a sacred fetus and entering the fourth stage of life. Its lifespan was increased to an astonishing 800 years.

Therefore, from the time he formed his core until now, he has only spent thirty-three years, but in those thirty-three years, the lifespan he gained through cultivation was a full 1,350 years. Even if we take into account the lifespan reduction caused by heaven-defying techniques such as splitting his soul into an incarnation, setting up an altar and casting spells, and using the wind bird for divination, he still has 1,600 years left to live.

He was only seventy years old.

Compared to his long lifespan, he is not even a teenager now.

However, at such an age and with such a long remaining lifespan, he was about to trigger three calamities. If others knew his lifespan and his actions, they would certainly be extremely puzzled.

The reason for using the word "引" (yin, meaning to guide or lead) is that the three calamities of the Nascent Soul stage are completely opposite to the nine tribulations of the Golden Elixir stage.

The Nine Tribulations of the Golden Core are determined by Heaven, the fixed number, and the external number, which cannot be controlled by oneself. One can only wait for the tribulation lightning from the sky to strike down and temper the Golden Core from the outside in. On the other hand, the Three Calamities of the Nascent Soul are determined by the number of people, the variable number, and the internal number. They are entirely caused by the mind and can be triggered anytime and anywhere. They also originate from within the physical body and refine the essence, qi, and spirit from the inside out.

Lightning tribulation is relatively easier to overcome, since there are tribulation-crossing sites and tribulation-blocking treasures. As long as one's wealth is sufficient, one can still obtain external assistance. However, the three calamities are extremely difficult. The disasters originate from within the physical body, and one must rely entirely on one's own cultivation to withstand them. There is no shortcut, and it is no exaggeration to say that one has a slim chance of survival.

If a Nascent Soul cultivator has a long lifespan and doesn't actively trigger the Three Calamities, they can still live. If they do trigger the Three Calamities and survive them, that's naturally good; they can take another step forward and continue to extend their lifespan. But if they can't survive them, and there's a high probability that they won't, then their soul will be scattered, their body will die, and their cultivation will dissipate.

Therefore, most people in the world who have reached the fourth realm cannot overcome this mental hurdle. They always procrastinate until the last moment before their lifespan ends, when they actively trigger calamities in an attempt to change their fate and extend their lifespan. However, by then, their physical body is already old and their primordial spirit is dim and decaying. How can they possibly survive the calamities? Thus, the ending is often death from the calamities, turning into a wisp of dust and disappearing.

However, this only makes the living more fearful of calamities, regarding them as raging floods and ferocious beasts, and they have even less confidence in surviving them, hesitating until their death. Thus, the ancients had no time to mourn themselves, but later generations mourn them; and later generations mourn them but do not learn from their mistakes, thus causing later generations to mourn again.

In the cultivation world, this has another name: "Gaining lifespan but losing progress." It refers to the fact that after cultivators of the fourth realm obtain a large amount of lifespan and get rid of the urgency of being chased by tribulations, they often lose their ambition, are unwilling to risk their lives, and prefer to live for the moment.

In fact, those who can cultivate to the fourth realm, regardless of whether they are righteous or evil, are all outstanding individuals. However, it is rare for only one in ten to advance from the fourth to the fifth realm. This is certainly due to the difficulty of achieving the Dao, but changes in one's own mindset are also a major reason.

As for Cheng Xinzhan, he had always made great strides on the path of cultivation. Even as his lifespan increased, his mindset remained consistently peaceful and serene. His cultivation was for a higher goal, and the increase in lifespan was merely a gain in the process of pursuing that higher goal, never his ultimate aim.

He never became "wise" because he relaxed his mind after gaining longevity, nor did he "lose progress" because he feared danger after gaining longevity.

Now that he has done everything he needed to do—his nascent soul is complete, his true essence is full, and his Dao domain has appeared—it's time to take the next step and trigger the Three Calamities. For him, this is a natural progression, and there's no need to agonize over it.

Cheng Xinzhan never fought a battle unprepared. His willingness to proactively trigger the Three Calamities meant he had already made his plans. In the past three years, he had carefully studied the "Golden Elixir Treatise," viewed a large number of ancestral and mountain scriptures, and read many cultivation notes left by his predecessors. He had gained a thorough understanding of the Three Calamities and was confident that he could safely overcome them.

The Three Calamities often appear alongside the Nine Tribulations. "Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations" refers to the trials that cultivators in the third and fourth realms must face, which are sent down by heaven and earth. Only after passing these trials can they achieve Dao integration and become immortals. In addition, there is another term in the higher realms of the immortal sects that is very similar to "Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations," but has a completely different meaning and is less well-known. It is called "Three Calamities and Nine Difficulties."

The Three Calamities, as most people know, refer to wind, fire, and thunder. Some, following the tradition of the Nine Cleansings of the Golden Elixir, simply call them the First Calamity, the Second Calamity, and the Third Calamity, but most people's understanding of the Three Calamities stops there. If asked about the specific characteristics of each calamity, or whether it can be further subdivided, 99% of people would be completely clueless and unable to answer.

The reason is simple: very few ordinary people or hermit cultivators in the mountains can reach the fourth realm. Among them, only one in ten thousand would dare to actively trigger the three calamities. Those who can safely survive the three calamities are truly rare. Under such circumstances, how could the specific details of the three calamities possibly spread?
It was only through the existence of time-honored immortal sects like Sanqing Mountain, whose five realms were continuously established, and their experiences in overcoming the Three Calamities were recorded in writing and passed down to future generations, that Cheng Xinzhan gained a relatively clear understanding of the Three Calamities.

In fact, each of the three calamities—wind, fire, and thunder—is further subdivided into three types, hence the collective term "three calamities and nine difficulties." As for which type a practitioner will specifically overcome when they are overcoming a calamity, that depends entirely on fate and destiny, and cannot be predicted in advance.

The three calamities, in chronological order, are wind, fire, and thunder.

There are three types of wind disasters: one is called "the wind of initiation and anger," another is called "the wind of internal evil and leakage of qi," and the third is called "the wind of disaster and decay."

None of these three kinds of calamities are easy to deal with.

"The Wind of Enlightenment and Anger", or simply "Bi Wind", is the most well-known and widely circulated disaster wind. The origin of its widespread dissemination is unknown. Perhaps it was just something a high-ranking monk mentioned unintentionally in a conversation in the early years. Later, it spread more and more widely and even became a synonym for wind disaster.

The character 赑 means "great" or "large". "Guan Ding Bi Nu Zhi Feng" means a huge and fierce wind blowing down from the top of the head. This wind is also known as "the wind that injures essence". It blows into the five internal organs through the fontanelle, passes through the three dantian (lower, middle, and lower dantian), and circulates through all the orifices of the body. If the body is weak, then when blown by this wind, the bones and flesh will disintegrate and the body will disintegrate into a handful of dust.

"The wind of internal evil energy leakage," or simply "evil wind," originates from the lungs, travels through the meridians and trachea to the whole body, and then blows through the pores of the skin. If the physical body cannot maintain perfect breath control, this wind will cause all the pores to open, draining all the body's magical power and spiritual energy, leaving one a weak mortal. Once reduced to mortal, if the external evil wind blows in through the pores, one will immediately suffer a sudden and fatal illness.

Therefore, this wind is also known as the "wind that harms one's spirit," a wind that causes an extremely undignified death. Many people in the four realms secretly pray that they will not encounter this wind when preparing to weather the wind disaster.

The last type of wind is called the "Wind of Calamity and Decline," or simply the "Wind of Decline." This wind is very rare; there are few records of it in the cultivation notes that Cheng Xinzhan read. Two senior disciples of the sect who chose to begin their tribulations before their lifespans ended faced this wind and miraculously survived, barely clinging to life.

These two predecessors referred to this wind in their notes as the "wind that shortens lifespan," saying it blows from the very bones, causing decay and aging. They speculated that the closer one's lifespan, the more likely they are to attract this wind, and the less likely they are to survive. In their notes, these two predecessors warned younger generations not to prolong their lives until their natural end, for throughout history, countless heroes and great figures have likely perished from this "wind that shortens lifespan."

This wind was precisely the one Cheng Xinzhan was most familiar with, and the least threatening to him; in fact, he longed for it. However, the specific type of wind it would bring was beyond human control. Previous generations had already summarized the patterns: the weakest point in a person's life would attract a corresponding, counteracting wind: a "declining wind" for those with short lifespans, a "wicked wind" for those with weak energy, and a "dying wind" for those with frail bodies. It seemed as if the wind was determined to kill.

Cheng Xinzhan was somewhat curious; he wanted to know in what areas he was weakest. Furthermore, he had some expectations. Of the five elements—wind and thunder—wind was the most elusive and difficult to learn. He wondered if he could glean anything new from the wind disasters.

So, at midnight that night, behind the desk in Chunyang Palace, he sat with his eyes closed and spontaneously triggered a windstorm.

"Whoosh-"

The whistling wind echoed in his inner world.

Hmm, such a loud sound, it must be a "wind of death". Is my physical body weak?
Cheng Xinzhan concentrated intently on dealing with the internal wind.

Soon, an invisible and intangible fierce wind roared out from the fontanelle and then poured into the body. Judging from its origin and momentum, it was indeed the "Bifeng" wind.

Cheng Xinzhan had a clear understanding of the situation. He was now quite proficient in using the Yellow Court Dao Embryo. With a thought, it was as if the Heavenly Court had issued a command, and the inner realms of the Five Palaces all emerged, forming a five-colored canopy. The Five Elements circulated and generated in a cycle, firmly protecting the Five Organs. The Three Mansions responded accordingly, with clouds spreading, winds rising, and thunder arising. The Purple Palace shone with three lights, resisting the hurricane; the Crimson Palace formed its own realm, impervious to the wind; and the Yellow Court produced golden elixir, roaming freely in the wind.

His entire body's acupoints shone brightly, like a constellation of stars.

Cheng Xinzhan sat calmly, unmoved by the myriad winds that blew.

The howling of the "Bifeng" gradually intensified, and the hurricane raged through Cheng Xinzhan's body, but his internal organs showed no reaction. This continued for about an hour and a half before the wind gradually subsided.

Cheng Xinzhan remained unmoved, still carefully comprehending the unique lethal effect of "Bifeng" on flesh and blood.

what!
Just as the "Bifeng" completely disappeared, Cheng Xinzhan suddenly exclaimed in surprise, because at this moment, he felt a sudden movement in his lungs. An invisible wind, without any source, arose out of thin air from his lungs and then blew throughout his body.

"Evil wind"?
How could this be? Isn't it said that the three calamities are only faced once? How come after withstanding the "Bifeng" calamity, the "Xiefeng" calamity has arrived?
No one could answer him.

He was stunned for only a moment, then he smiled nonchalantly. It didn't matter. It was good if more came. After all, he had just survived the "Bixing Wind Disaster". Cheng Xinzhan had already sensed that his lifespan in the Crimson Palace had increased by 60 years. If he could have another one, why not? He could also savor the mystery of the "evil wind" again.

Cheng Xinzhan focused his mind and ordered the inner spirits to retreat and take their places. Then, he focused on maintaining his original state, closing his essence and locking his qi, sealing his seven orifices, shutting down his six senses, blocking his qi gates, and even stopping his breathing. He relied entirely on the nascent soul's embryonic breathing to form an inner world within his body, bounded by his skin, and did his best to resist the leakage of "evil wind".

At this moment, the golden elixir that controlled all the energy within the body shone brightly, its intense radiance illuminating the entire inner world of the person. Wherever the golden light shone, the flow of energy ceased completely, and no matter how the "evil wind" blew, it remained unmoved.

This scene bears a striking resemblance to the scene when Cheng Xinzhan performed the external sacrifice of the Golden Elixir to calm the sea and stop the tides.

At this moment, from the outside, golden light emanated from his body, illuminating him as if he were a luminous glass sculpture.

The sound of the "evil wind" was muffled because it wanted to blow open the pores and escape through its body, but it was trapped in the inner celestial body of the glass. No matter how hard it tried, it was useless and had nowhere to vent.

After blowing in vain for an hour, the "evil wind" gradually subsided.

At this time, sixty more cycles of lifespan were added to his Crimson Palace Life Wheel. At the same time, he also gained some understanding of the all-pervasive nature of the "evil wind".

However, he did not let his guard down at this time. He simply reconnected his physical body with the outside world and waited quietly.

"Woo-"

Sure enough, just as he expected, a mournful wind arose within his body, and a chilling wind blew out from his bones and marrow, making his bones feel soft and his flesh feel weak, as if it would blow him into a puddle of mud.

The "bad luck" is here again.

This wind disaster is truly strange. It seems to disbelieve that such a flawless and perfect being exists in this world, and insists on testing everyone to find a weakness. On the other hand, it seems to be provoked by the Taoist's nonchalant attitude, and then, in a fit of anger, sends winds to blow again and again.

However, since he had never personally experienced the previous two calamities, Cheng Xinzhan had taken them seriously and dealt with them carefully. But this time, facing the "wind of decline" blowing from his very bones, and feeling the extremely familiar aura in the wind, he felt relaxed and comfortable, and immediately began to drink the wind and refine it.

After an hour, Cheng Xinzhan had refined half an ounce of Wind and Dew, and the "Weak Wind" within his body gradually weakened and disappeared without a trace.

The first light of dawn broke, and daylight appeared.

Cheng Xinzhan survived a typhoon overnight, and his lifespan increased by 30 years.

"Whoosh!"

Along with the morning light, the familiar crane-head divination sticks flew into the main hall.

Cheng Xinzhan opened his eyes and picked up the divination sticks.

"Master, I have something to report."

A voice requesting an audience came from outside the hall.

"Enter."

Cheng Xinzhan began reading the divination slips, replied without looking up, and then began to interpret the slips while listening to the report.

A new day has begun.

As for the fire, we'll have to postpone that until tonight.

That's what he was thinking.

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(End of this chapter)