I died young at the start, but I'm reincarnated with unlimited skill points!

Chapter 59 Li Han's Inner Demon Tribulation

Shattered pills.

Under the influence of his will, the perfect Grade One Golden Core within Li Han's body began to show its first crack.

"Click."

With that soft sound, the sky above the Sea of Absolute Spirit suddenly shattered.

Endless thunderclouds gathered at an incredibly rapid pace, blotting out the sky and the sun.

The Six-Nine Heavenly Tribulation!

Thirty-six bolts of heavenly lightning, each more violent and terrifying than the last.

For the first thirty-five strikes, Li Han withstood them by relying on his terrifying magical power and a constant stream of trump cards.

His body was tempered and refined through countless trials, and every inch of his skin contained terrifying power.

However, this thirty-sixth heavenly lightning, which had been brewing to its fullest extent, had already exceeded the absolute limit that a Golden Core cultivator could withstand.

"I'll do it."

Without hesitation, the remnant soul burned its primordial power, condensing an extremely thin yet incredibly pure ancient restriction outside Li Han's soul.

This barrier effectively blocked the destructive core of the final heavenly lightning strike for him.

"boom--!"

As the last bolt of lightning dissipated, the gray sky closed up again.

Li Han was covered in blood, with almost no part of his skin intact.

But his spine never bent.

Li Han threw his head back and laughed, his laughter tinged with blood.

The tribulation has passed.

However, his laughter had not yet subsided.

The colors between heaven and earth suddenly began to fade.

The sound disappeared.

The wind stopped.

The grey earth of the Sea of Desolation, the cracked abyss, the blurred horizon in the distance—everything was turning pale and nihilistic at an extremely eerie speed.

It was as if an invisible giant hand was erasing the colors of the entire world, bit by bit.

The tribulation of inner demons has arrived.

……

Li Han found himself standing in a pure white void.

There was no sky, no earth, no wind, and no sound.

There is only endless white.

He looked down at his hands; his magic power was still there, his consciousness was still there, and he was perfectly clear-headed.

But the teacher's voice had completely disappeared.

"teacher?"

no respond.

Li Han frowned, but did not panic.

His teacher had warned him long ago that the inner demon tribulation is a battle between a cultivator and his own heart, and no external force can intervene.

He only needs to guard his Dao heart, remain unmoved like a mountain, and wait for the inner demons to appear.

Then, defeat it!

"Li Han".

A voice came from the depths of the void.

The voice was extremely familiar.

It was so familiar that it made Li Han's heart skip a beat.

Because it was his own voice.

In the white void, a dark shadow slowly coalesced.

That was someone who looked exactly like him.

The same face, the same black clothes, the same figure.

But those eyes were pure black, without any luster, like two bottomless dry wells.

Heart demon.

It stood there opposite Li Han, smiling at him.

"You really came."

Li Han stood with his hands behind his back, his expression calm.

"Shouldn't I have come?"

The inner demon tilted its head and sized him up.

"Indeed, I shouldn't have come, or rather, I shouldn't be this strong."

As the inner demon spoke, he slowly approached Li Han.

"But who made you so obsessed that your Dao heart was shattered for a hundred years?"

"Chu Tiankuo! Lin Wan'er!"

The inner demon burst into unrestrained laughter, its laughter filled with mockery.

"Those two crippled geniuses you regarded as defeated opponents actually used their own lives to cast the most vicious curse upon you, by wiping out your entire family and killing your beloved!"

"They planted that seed of guilt deep within your soul!"

"So, I came! I absorbed the fear you've suppressed day and night for the past hundred years, growing into this form that even you fear!"

"Li Han, Li Han, for the past hundred years, you have secluded yourself in seclusion, pouring your heart and soul into your studies."

The inner demon pressed close to Li Han, demanding answers word by word.

Are you really ready?

The moment the words left his mouth, the pure white void shattered.

Li Han found himself back in the Li family's old mansion in the far south.

Mud walls, wooden doors, and the old locust tree in the corner of the yard that he had climbed since he was a child.

"Han'er, dinner's ready!"

Smoke curled from the stove as my mother, her face etched with wrinkles, carried in a bowl of hot soup, her smile kind and gentle.

"Come and eat, your dad said the dough is kneaded really well today."

Li Han froze.

His fingernails dug into his palm, his voice extremely cold and hard.

"You are not my mother. My mother died two hundred years ago."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the bowl in his mother's hand shattered, her face withered and cracked at a terrifying speed, and she collapsed at his feet, bleeding from all seven orifices.

"Han'er...why didn't you save us...?"

Immediately afterwards, more figures emerged from the courtyard.

His father.

His uncles.

His cousins, with whom he grew up catching fish and shrimp.

And there was the woman standing under the locust tree, wearing a coarse cloth floral dress, with tears in her eyes.

His lover, Su Wan.

"I said I'd wait for you to come back... but what came back were people who wanted to kill us."

Su Wan looked at him with tears streaming down her face.

Li Han's Adam's apple bobbed.

He stared intently at that face, his fingernails digging deep into his palms, blood dripping from between his fingers.

"I told you, you're not real."

His voice trembled slightly, but it still maintained its final coldness.

"Inner demons, do you think you can sway me with their faces? I've accepted all of this over the past hundred years."

"Their deaths are my fault, and I accept it."

"But once you've admitted it, you've admitted it. No matter how many times you act it out, it won't change anything."

The illusion shattered instantly.

The inner demon stood opposite him and nodded slightly.

"Good, you've passed the test of family ties."

"Then, the next level."

The scene changes again.

Li Han stood in an extremely luxurious secret room.

The air was filled with the fragrance of sandalwood, the gauze curtains hung low, and the shimmering stones illuminated the entire secret room, making it seem like a fairyland.

A stunningly beautiful female cultivator reclined on a soft couch, her skin as smooth as jade, her features exquisite, and she exuded a fatal allure that could shake the hearts of any male cultivator.

That's not Su Wan's face.

It was a face he had never seen before, yet it was so perfect it seemed unreal.

It was as if the heavens had combined the most exquisite beauty in the world, just to shatter his defenses at this moment.

"Spiritual practice is too arduous."

The female cultivator stretched out her slender, fair hand, her voice as soft as melting honey.

"You killed so many people, fled for so many years, and suffered so many injuries."

"Why bother? Stay and keep me company. What great path, what immortality, is nothing compared to this tenderness."

Li Han didn't even glance at him, and just scoffed.

"I have spent a century in solitary seclusion amidst seas of blood and mountains of corpses. Are you insulting me with mere illusions of lust?"

He took a step forward, his true energy surged, and with one palm he pulverized the female cultivator and the secret chamber into dust.

The inner demon resurfaced, still wearing that ambiguous, half-smiling expression.

"Lust, that's gone too far."

"Li Han, you are indeed an extremely restrained person."

"So, the third challenge."

This time, Li Han stood on the ruins and scorched earth of the Li family's old mansion.

More than two hundred charred corpses lay scattered about.

The old locust tree was reduced to a charred stump, next to which lay Su Wan's unrecognizable corpse, her hand still clutching the wooden carving he had personally carved that read "Wait for me to come back."

Li Han's breathing was heavy, but he still stood ramrod straight.

"What's the difference between this and the first challenge? It's just a different way of stabbing me in the heart."

His voice was deep but resolute.

"Grief? Guilt? Over the past hundred years, I have refined all of these into a part of my Dao heart."

"You...cannot sway me."

The scorched earth and corpses turned to ash in the wind, and the world returned to pure white.

The inner demon looked at him, the half-smile on his face vanished, replaced by an extremely serious scrutiny.

"You've overcome family ties, lust, death, and guilt."

"After a hundred years of refinement, your Dao heart has indeed been repaired extremely well."

"It's a pity. If it were only these three trials, you could have formed your Nascent Soul today."

The inner demon's voice suddenly turned cold and eerie.

"But you forgot something, or rather, you deliberately avoided something."

In Li Han's narrowed pupils, the inner demon's body began to shrink rapidly, eventually transforming into a tiny black figure only three inches tall, hovering in front of him.

The little man's features were blurry, yet he had the exact same outline as Li Han. He sat cross-legged in the void, looking down at him with an air of superiority.

"Li Han".

The tiny figure spoke.

"I have a few questions for you, and you just need to answer them."

If you answer correctly, you pass the test.

"Wrong answer..."

The little man smiled.

"Then you'll stay here forever."

In the white void, Li Han looked at the tiny figure, only three inches tall, without anger or panic.

Only I know best the bitterness and tears I've endured along the way.

"I have paid every price I could to get to where I am today."

"Parents, lovers, relatives..."

"I have nothing left but this life and this path!"