Chapter 535: Immortal Realm
One thousand years passed in the blink of an eye.
When Yu Nianzhen opened his eyes, he had already transformed all his reincarnation qi into immortal qi, and his aura was vigorously fluctuating.
"I wonder if XiaoYue is also about to advance." He muttered with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
However, he didn’t dwell on his nostalgia.
Yu Nianzhen knew that breaking through was not only a matter of hard work but also a matter of chance.
If he failed to grasp the current opportunity, he may lose momentum and his breakthrough may be delayed until much later.
"XiaoYue, I will see you soon." He said, and with that, he flew out of the transformation pool.
Soon after, he landed on solid ground, sat cross-legged, and looked at the sky.
Without his notice, dark clouds had begun to gather.
Compared to previous tribulations, the dark clouds were denser and gave him an unfathomable feeling.
However, Yu Nianzhen was not afraid.
Before they entered the transformation pools, he and Jiang Yue had made adequate preparations.
Not only did they have a lot of Tree of Life leaves, but they also had weapons, formation disks, and talismans to help block the lightning if the tribulation was heavier than expected.
"Come." Yu Nianzhen shouted.
As if the clouds were listening, the sound of thunder filled the atmosphere, and a bolt of blue lightning fell from the sky.
The blue lightning was one metre wide, and it scorched the air as it rushed towards Yu Nianzhen.
Still, the man showed no fear.
Instead, he only gritted his teeth and bore the lightning with his body.
"One down, eighty to go." He spoke through gritted teeth.
To advance from the reincarnation realm to the immortal realm, a cultivator needed to bear nine waves of nine categories of lightning.
The first wave was the blue lightning of qi.
This lightning specifically targeted a cultivator’s qi and was the easiest to handle.
As long as a cultivator had good quality qi, they would easily get through this tribulation.
However, if they had poor quality qi, there was a chance of failing this tribulation.
This was because the blue lightning struck the impurities in a cultivator’s qi. In doing so, the blue lightning would purify the qi and compress it to a denser state.
As a result, if a cultivator had poor quality qi, there was a chance their qi would be compressed to a state below the immortal realm.
If that happened, the cultivator would directly fail tribulation and may even lose their lives.
After the nine waves of blue lightning were the nine waves of yellow lightning.
Yellow lightning specifically targeted the body.
For body-refining cultivators, this wave was easy to handle.
As long as the body was strong, crossing the second wave of tribulation was not difficult.
However, the easy part of the immortal tribulation ended with the second wave of lightning.
This was because the third wave of lightning was the silver-white lightning.
Originally, this colour of lightning tribulation belonged to extremely talented cultivators envied by the heavens.
However, during the immortal realm tribulation, this colour belonged to the soul.
Unlike the blue lightning which struck Qi and the yellow lightning which struck the body, the silver-white lightning struck the soul.
Regardless of whether a cultivator was a soul-refining cultivator, these nine waves of soul lightning were unbearable.
If a cultivator’s soul was not strong enough, there was a chance the soul would be obliterated, and the cultivator would directly die.
After the third wave was the brown lightning of cause and effect.
The intensity of this wave of lightning varied from cultivator to cultivator.
If a cultivator had needlessly killed a lot of people and accumulated bad karma, this wave of lightning was a disaster.
At best, they would lose half their life during this tribulation and at worst, they would be struck into nothing.
Following the fourth wave was the purple lightning of favour.
Like the fourth wave, the fifth wave was subjective.
If a cultivator had good luck, their fifth wave would not be too severe and would be easy to handle.
Unfortunately, few cultivators could easily cross this hurdle.
After all, cultivators were against the heavens.
Because of this, the heavens preferred mortals to immortals.
Unless a cultivator had uncommonly good luck, they would severely suffer during the fifth wave of tribulation lightning.
After surviving the purple lightning of favour was the green lightning of seven emotions.
The seven emotions were happiness, anger, sadness, fear, love, hatred, and desire.
Unless a cultivator practised the ruthless way, there was no way to avoid the seven emotions. As a result, most cultivators suffered heavily during this sixth wave of tribulation lightning.
Similar to the sixth wave, most cultivators could not easily cross the red lightning of the six desires.
The six desires were the desire for life, the desire against death, and the four desires of the human organs.
After all, cultivators fought against the heavens in the hopes of gaining immortality.
Considering that, all cultivators including those who practised the ruthless way could not avoid the desire for life and desire against death.
As for the desire of four human organs, most cultivators did not pursue beauty, taste, pleasant sounds, and pleasant fragrances.
Still, this sixth wave of lightning was mostly intense, and few cultivators could safely cross it.
When a cultivator safely crossed the lightning of the six desires, they would usher in the black lightning of the heart.
This lightning was a heart demon tribulation.
Although cultivators were constantly tested during the reincarnation realm, those trials were nothing compared to the black lightning.
However, this trial was also a little different from the rest.
This was because a cultivator could still continue their tribulation after failing this trial.
However, the demons born during this trial were difficult to kill, and the cultivator may not be able to make further progress in the future.
Following the seventh wave was the grey lightning of the dao.
This lightning tested a cultivator’s dao and was also a blessing in disguise.
If a cultivator could keep their calm and absorb the grey lightning, they would have a chance of having an epiphany.
During the epiphany, they would realise a mystery related to their dao.
Finally, the ninth wave of lightning was the golden lightning of merit.
Like the eighth wave, the ninth wave was mostly a blessing.
If a cultivator had accumulated a lot of merit, they would suffer a heavier golden tribulation.
However, after the tribulation, their cultivation would soar.
If a cultivator’s merit was considerable, their cultivation would rise to the mid or late level of the immortal realm.
However, if the cultivator was especially meritorious, the cultivation could soar to the peak of the immortal realm.
Unfortunately, no matter the amount of merit, the peak of the immortal realm was the limit, and a cultivator couldn’t directly advance to the next realm.
Since Yu Nianzhen had excellent qi quality and was a body refiner, he didn’t suffer too much during the first two waves of his tribulation.
However, there was no avoiding the soul lightning and even he couldn’t help but scream in pain.
After the soul lightning was the cause-and-effect lightning.
Although Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue had killed a lot of cultivators, they had never needlessly massacred people.
When it came down to it, they were the effect, and other people were the cause. Because of this, Yu Nianzhen’s cause-and-effect lightning wasn’t too heavy, and he easily passed.
In the same way, he easily crossed the lightning of favour.
After all, he, Jiang Yue and several others had always been favoured by the heavens.
Unfortunately, the fifth and sixth lightning waves weren’t as easy to handle.
Ordinarily, Yu Nianzhen didn’t have deep feelings for many things.
However, the few things he cared about generated many and deep emotions.
As a result, the fifth wave of lightning nearly chopped him to pieces, and he frantically absorbed Tree of Life leaves to save his life.
In the same way, he barely survived the sixth tribulation, but the rest weren’t difficult to handle.
In the end, Yu Nianzhen’s cultivation rose to the peak of the immortal realm, and he couldn’t help but smile in happiness.
’Most of the merit should be related to the killing of the Death Flower Ascension Front disciples.’ He thought.
At the same time, he looked at the sky and watched as the dark clouds dissipated.
Soon after, a nine-coloured rain fell from the sky, and the injuries on his body began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In no time, all his injuries healed, and even the pain in his soul disappeared.
When the rain stopped half an hour later, Yu Nianzhen felt like a new man.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to appreciate the changes before his body was forcibly pushed into a narrow tube.
A moment later, his body hurtled out of the tube and fell towards the ground.
