The Heart’s Tribulation

Anchan Commandery, Yan Mountains, Serpentwing Lake, Heartbright Island.

Whitewater Hound had taken human form and was sitting beneath the pavilion, drinking alone in melancholy. Mu Northson sat with his back against a wooden pillar, eyes closed. Little Qing hugged her knees, sitting silently in a corner of the corridor.

They were all quiet.

After a long time…

“Should we tell Autumn Leaf?” Little Qing suddenly spoke.

“Don’t tell her,” Whitewater Hound said with a sigh. “Ning’er’s place in Autumn Leaf’s heart… ah, she couldn’t bear this blow. Let’s wait. Just say Ning’er is in seclusion.”

“Keep hiding it forever?” Little Qing pressed.

“We can sense that Ning’er is still alive,” Uncle White said. “As long as Ning’er lives, we’ll keep hiding it from Autumn Leaf, and from all the Ji Clan members.”

Little Qing nodded slightly, then asked, “What about Ji Ning’s master, the Diancai Immortal?”

“Diancai…”

Whitewater Hound hesitated for a moment before saying, “Let’s wait. The most terrifying punishment of the Karmic Hellfire’s descent lasts for seven days. If he endures those seven days, it means he has survived the Hellfire. If he still hasn’t returned by then, it will mean he is truly trapped in some mysterious, deadly place beyond the Grand Xia world… Only then will we tell the Diancai Immortal.”

“Mm.” Little Qing nodded.

Silence fell once more.

They were all waiting in silence.

Seven days…

This was a great tribulation for Ji Ning. If he survived the Hellfire within those seven days, then this great calamity would at least be considered passed. But they had no idea where the Shaoyin clan had teleported him. Given their hatred for Ji Ning, they would surely have sent him to a truly terrifying, deadly land.

…

On the bank of a vast, surging river, a man in green robes sat cross-legged, holding an Immortal sword. A fishing line hung from the blade—he was fishing.

Whoosh.

A handsome youth descended on a cloud from the distance, landed, and bowed respectfully. “Greetings Patriarch Lu. I have been sent by the Xia Emperor to deliver a letter.” A scroll appeared in his hands, which he offered with both hands in a gesture of respect.

“A letter? The Xia Emperor?” Lu Dongbin turned his head to look. With a wave of his hand, the scroll flew to him. He tapped it lightly, and it unfurled automatically.

Lu Dongbin read it carefully, his expression shifting slightly.

“I understand. You may go,” Lu Dongbin said calmly.

“Yes.” The handsome youth immediately departed into the distance.

Lu Dongbin frowned. “Karmic Hellfire? The Shaoyin clan actually used such a method. This Ji Ning has extraordinary talent, but he has trained for less than a hundred years. Can he withstand it?” He then turned his gaze into the distance. Golden rune symbols appeared in his eyes, allowing his vision to pierce through space and see an island thousands of kilometers away.

On that tranquil island, a black-robed girl sat cross-legged on a sandy beach.

“This disciple of mine hides her heart deeply,” Lu Dongbin murmured to himself. “The killing intent within her is far more terrifying than I initially anticipated, and she has been concealing her true power in the Grand Xia Dynasty. But when I checked her past life in Lord Cui’s Book of Life and Death, it was normal. In her past life, she was a powerful demon, one whose strength could match a million-year-old Loose Immortal. Having a strong past life is a good thing; there is no need to hide it. At the Immortal Fortunes Assembly, awakening the memories of her past life, with the level of her past life’s insights, she could easily have entered the top three, even taken first place.”

He had wanted to take Ji Ning as a disciple because Ji Ning was an absolutely peerless sword-immortal胚子 (unpolished talent), and he vaguely sensed some extraordinary qualities in him.

As for Yu Wei…

Lu Dongbin had even more keenly sensed a hidden side to Yu Wei. He hadn’t been certain at first, but after taking her as a disciple and spending a long time with her, he naturally discovered more flaws. This eventually led Yu Wei to confess: “Master, I am hiding my strength. I just don’t want others to know about my past life. I don’t want people to know I was a great demon in my previous life. I am tired and weary. In this life, I only want to live an easy, peaceful life.”

Yu Wei clearly understood that someone of Lu Dongbin’s status could easily investigate her past life. She no longer hid it.

“Is it merely a desire for a peaceful, easy life?” Lu Dongbin’s level of insight was incredibly close to that of a Daofather. He could vaguely glimpse the subtle threads of fate. He always felt that Yu Wei wasn’t as simple as she claimed.

But he had checked the Book of Life and Death.

Yu Wei hadn’t lied.

Could his intuition be wrong?

“Yu Wei is currently calming her heart. When the time is right, she will undergo the Heavenly Tribulation,” Lu Dongbin thought to himself. “The Heavenly Tribulation is extremely dangerous. Her past life failed to overcome it. This life is also very dangerous. I can feel that her feelings for Ji Ning are genuine. If I tell her that Ji Ning is trapped in a desperate situation now, the ‘Heart Demon Tribulation’ during her tribulation might become even more terrible.”

“I will not tell her for now. I will wait until after she has overcome the tribulation.”

Lu Dongbin mused.

…

Yu Wei sat cross-legged on the sandy beach. Before her, the sea and sky were a single color, vast and boundless. Her heart was incomparably calm.

She was nurturing her Dao-heart.

Silently preparing…

According to Patriarch Lu, once she overcame the tribulation and became a Celestial Immortal, she would have completed her apprenticeship.

“Junior apprentice-brother, I will soon undergo the tribulation. After that, I will come find you immediately.” A slight smile played at the corners of Yu Wei’s mouth. Ji Ning was the warmest concern in her heart. Earlier, when Ji Ning had returned to Grand Xia, Patriarch Lu had received the news and naturally told Yu Wei! But now, she was unaware that Ji Ning was in a desperate situation.

The Three Realms refer to the realms of Heaven, Earth, and the Netherworld.

The Heaven Realm and the Netherworld Kingdom are vast and boundless, while the Three Thousand Major Worlds and the countless minor worlds are as numerous as the sand grains of the Milky Way. Beyond these worlds lies the Endless Void, a space far more vast than the Three Realms itself. Within the Endless Void hang two supreme stars, the Sunstar and the Taiyin Star, along with countless other celestial bodies.

In the Endless Void, there are also countless dangerous places. Some locations can claim the lives of even True Immortals and Empyrean Gods; there are even places that Daofathers and Elder Gods dare not approach.

The Three Thousand Major Worlds and the countless Minor Worlds are like islands and reefs in an endless ocean. The Three Thousand Major Worlds are like great islands, while the countless Minor Worlds are like tiny reefs. In the central region of these three thousand great islands and countless tiny reefs, a vast stretch of void contains a single, enormous ‘Continent.’

It is a boundless land, far vaster than a Major World. Space is interwoven and distorted, time is chaotic… it is the most terrifying place of all.

At the border between this chaotic continent and the Endless Void, Void Tides constantly crash and surge.

“Boom, rumble…”

It is like the boundary between an ocean and land. The ocean sends great waves crashing against the land.

It is the same principle.

The Void Tides strike the chaotic continent time and time again, their collision creating a region of absolute annihilation.

…

The Extinction Zone.

Boom!

A flash of white light instantly sent a young man there.

“Ahhh, ahhh.”

The pain.

It was a pain he had never experienced before. For a mortal, enough pain could cause death. For a cultivator… the first wave of the Karmic Hellfire’s descent was a terrible pain that directly assailed the heart and mind. It was completely unavoidable, even far surpassing the agony of a soul splitting apart.

The pain of the body and the soul has limits.

But the pain of the heart can rise without limit.

Under this pain, once the Dao-heart collapses, the soul will be directly burned to ashes.

“No, no…” Ji Ning endured with difficulty, barely clinging to a thread of rationality. But that thread was too weak. He didn’t even have the presence of mind to observe where he was.

The ever-increasing pain finally reached a peak.

Then, in an instant, the pain vanished.

Ji Ning was briefly stunned. The transition from extreme agony to a sudden absence of pain shook his Dao-heart.

“Where is this…” Ji Ning finally managed to take note of his surroundings.

Everything around him was pitch black.

With the faint rays of light from the infinitely distant Sunstar, he could barely make out the surging, tide-like waves in the endless darkness. The Void Tides… stretched on for an incalculable distance, and he was but a single speck of dust within them.

“Boom~~~” A wave of the Void Tide crashed into him. Ji Ning felt his entire body tremble. The terrifying force far exceeded the combined might of the Shaoyin clan’s Celestial Immortals.

In the next instant…

Everything went black before Ji Ning’s eyes.

“Young master.” A breathtakingly beautiful, seductive woman in thin robes looked at Ji Ning. She gently pushed the garment off her shoulder. It began to slip, half-exposing her chest. Then she licked her fingertip, lightly hooked it under the other shoulder strap, and pushed the garment down completely, revealing her fully nude body. She walked over gently, her large, limpid eyes gazing at him. “Young master, I want you.”

Her features, expression, and demeanor were a fusion of Yun Lu, Autumn Leaf, Yu Wei, and Nine Lotos’s most attractive qualities.

Yet she was even more alluring, more sensual, stirring up the deepest fires of desire within Ji Ning.

“Get lost.”

Ji Ning still retained his reason, understanding that this was an illusion born from the Hellfire’s descent. It was the ‘Lust Tribulation’, the second trial of the ‘Red Dust Tribulation.’ Once he succumbed, he would truly die. He immediately swung his hand, intending to reduce the woman before him to ashes.

But Ji Ning found himself incredibly weak. His palm strike was like that of an ordinary mortal. The naked, beautiful woman easily reached out and grabbed his arm, whispering softly, “Still shy?” She then pressed him down…

…

The desire of human intimacy can indeed shake a person’s Dao-heart. Unable to resist, Ji Ning could only guard his Dao-heart tightly, struggling to withstand it all.

“It seems your handmaiden hasn’t satisfied you well enough. But I have six sisters who are even better than me.” The woman lying on Ji Ning’s chest whispered in his ear. From the distance, six more women emerged, each with their own unique charm. Such peerless beauties would be hard to find in reality, and each one represented what Ji Ning’s inner heart most desired, capable of stirring his carnal desires more than anything.

He knew it was all the Lust Tribulation.

But how could the Lust Tribulation be so easily overcome? It was like knowing that drugs are harmful, yet once tasted, they become impossible to give up. It was the same principle. He knew that once he succumbed, he would face utter annihilation. But the desire of human intimacy is a fundamental part of human nature. These desires could not be eliminated, only suppressed. Unable to resist, he was still stirred up again and again.

“Pink skeletons, they are all skeletons, transformed from toads. Their bodies are covered in pustules. They are deliberately trying to deceive me.” Ji Ning chanted continuously in his mind, forcibly suppressing his own lust.

Just one chapter today.