Chapter 1117: Peak of the Cloud Sea, One Loss, Two Tribulations

The Ancient God's Three Losses and Seven Tribulations, just like the Cultivator's Five Decays of Heaven and Man, are a life-threatening blade suspended above the head. If one survives the cut, their cultivation greatly increases; if they fail, their body and spirit are destroyed.

Among these, the First Loss involves Two Tribulations, the Second Loss also involves Two Tribulations, and the Third Loss involves Three Tribulations!

The Ancient God's Loss Tribulations are much more mysterious than the Cultivator's Five Decays. According to Tu Si's memories in Wang Lin's mind, the stronger the Ancient God, the slower the Loss Tribulations arrive. Although Six-star is the beginning of the tribulation's onset, some Ancient Gods only encounter the First Loss when they reach Seven-star.

There are even a very few Ancient Gods who only face the First Loss Tribulation upon reaching Eight-star. For example, Tu Si's Loss Tribulation arrived when he was Eight-star; he easily passed it and used the opportunity to greatly advance his Divine Abilities. Although he did not reach Nine-star, he achieved the Peak of Eight-star. It was only to attempt to reach the legendary and rare Nine-star that he risked Cultivating the Ink Flow Divided Soul Technique.

As for the Third Loss and Three Tribulations, which is the highest tribulation of the Ancient God race, Tu Si did not know what it looked like.

Encountering the First Loss and Two Tribulations while only Five-star was unprecedented in Tu Si's memories. Whenever Wang Lin thought of this, he would give a bitter smile. His Ancient God Loss Tribulation arrived early because he was not a Complete Ancient God, and also because he overused his Ancient God Power in the Demon Spirit Land.

All these factors resulted in him becoming the first Ancient God to pass a tribulation while only Five-star.

The Loss Tribulation, which an Eight-star Ancient God would easily pass, was a matter of life and death for Wang Lin.

The First Loss of the One Loss, Two Tribulations, involves the continuous damage to the entire body. While he was at the Vermilion Bird Saint Sect, only black bones remained of Wang Lin's Main Body's entire lower half. Upon arriving in this Cloud Sea Star Domain, the damage intensified, turning everything below his chest into skeletal remains.

This was merely the beginning, just the onset of the First Loss. As the damage continued, when not a speck of flesh and blood remained on his body, the First Loss would conclude, and the Two Tribulations would approach.

If nothing unexpected happened, the Main Body would certainly die. Fortunately, Wang Lin obtained Tu Si's Heart Essence, which gave him the power to fight back.

Deep underground in the Guiyuan Sect, where the Main Body resided, the Main Body sitting cross-legged no longer had any flesh and blood, leaving only a skeleton.

A layer of blood color enveloped the skeleton. This blood color was like a thin film, clinging to the bones and spreading across the entire body. If one looked closely, they could faintly see a small amount of blood flowing between the crimson film and the bone.

The moment Wang Lin's Clone quickly approached, an eerie light suddenly shone in the Main Body's eye sockets, as if it had awakened.

Silently watching the Main Body, Wang Lin sat down cross-legged. While acting as its Protector, he merged his entire mind and spirit into the Main Body to share the pain.

Time slowly passed, and three days went by in a flash. During these three days, the Main Body's pain continuously intensified. The sensation of having no flesh and blood left, only bones, yet remaining fully conscious, was enough to drive a person mad.

In those three days, the Main Body's size expanded tenfold!

Currently, deep underground at the Guiyuan Sect, a skeleton over ten zhang in size lay peacefully. Blood light flickered upon it, and beneath the blood light, the blood flow accelerated.

Another three days passed. Wang Lin's Main Body's skeleton had completed its full expansion, reaching over three hundred zhang. The blood on the bones, which were thicker than a man's body, was sparse but still flowing. However, the speed gradually slowed down and finally dissipated.

This blood was precisely Tu Si's Heart Essence. Through its flow over these days, it was slowly absorbed by the Main Body's bones. The instant it was completely absorbed, the First Loss ended.

At that very instant, the eerie light in the Main Body's eyes flared brightly, as if it could pierce the earth and see the azure sky outside! Simultaneously, a series of cracking sounds suddenly echoed deep underground.

“Bone Tribulation…”

The cracking sounds reached the Main Body's right foot. Its massive right foot bone seemed to be grasped by an invisible force transforming into a large hand, crushing it bit by bit.

The foot bones shattered into pieces, turning into scattered dust beside him. Under this unimaginable pain, the Main Body's entire skeleton trembled, yet the cracking sounds did not dissipate; instead, they grew more intense.

Eventually, the sound echoed deep underground like thunder. Every time it rang out, it signified the collapse of a section of the Main Body's bones. Wang Lin's Clone was pale, gritting his teeth, enduring the unimaginable pain alongside the Main Body.

Veins bulged on his face, and large beads of sweat poured down like rain.

This Bone Tribulation descended in this merciless manner. Under the powerful life force of an Ancient God, even if they lost flesh and blood, they could recover as long as a trace of vitality remained. The First Loss eliminated that vitality!

After the vitality was erased, the Bone Tribulation surged forth like a flood, aiming to destroy the Main Body's entire skeleton, which, having lost its vitality, could no longer recover. Once all the Main Body's bones dissipated, the only outcome was death.

If the Main Body died, the Clone would be destroyed.

To pass this Bone Tribulation, the Main Body must move against the damage, reawakening its vitality to fight back until the bones of its entire body are reformed.

These newly condensed bones would be infinitely stronger than before; not even a Magic Treasure could break them in the slightest!

Therefore, even though Wang Lin was in agonizing pain, he continued to endure. Both the Clone and the Main Body were enduring! Enduring the intense pain, enduring the continuous shattering and collapse of the bones throughout his body.

Only by resisting at the exact moment all his bones were shattered could this Bone Tribulation transform into an opportunity for the Main Body's strength to greatly increase! If he failed to wait until then, even if he resisted and succeeded, only a portion of his bones would have completed the re-condensation, while the rest would remain as they were before.

In that case, this Bone Tribulation would be a wasted opportunity for Wang Lin. However, Wang Lin understood that the later he resisted, the lower the success rate. As the bones continuously shattered, the wider the scope of the collapse, and the higher the difficulty of ultimately passing the tribulation.

In reality, among the Ancient God race, setting aside the Eight-star Ancient Gods, almost all Seven-star Ancient Gods would choose to wait until the moment their entire skeleton had collapsed before resisting, thereby transforming the tribulation into good fortune.

Although the intention was good, those who could truly achieve it were rare. Few of them could genuinely hold out until that step; they often began resisting the tribulation when only a fingernail-sized piece of bone remained. In this way, that fingernail-sized piece of bone became the sole weakness for many Ancient Gods.

This was true for Seven-star Ancient Gods, and even rarer for Six-star Ancient Gods to persevere until the final moment. That final moment was a dead end: advancing countless steps led to success, but retreating a single step meant the abyss, where body and spirit were destroyed.

Wang Lin was unsure if he could hold out until that step, but in order to seize this opportunity to re-condense his flesh and bones and become a true Ancient God, rather than the incomplete version he was before, a fierce determination rose in his heart.

“The Clone is a Heaven-Defying Cultivator, and the Main Body is a Heaven-Defying Race. Throughout my life, Wang Lin has Cultivated only one character: 'Defy'! Defy Heaven, defy tribulation, and even Defy Fate! A mere tribulation cannot stop my Path of Defiance!” Wang Lin's Clone and Main Body simultaneously flashed with light in their eyes, revealing an expression of absolute refusal to yield.

There was no shouting, no roaring. Merely that gaze, unyielding toward heaven and earth, wildly vented the defiance in Wang Lin's heart, silently shaking the heavens and the earth!

The cracking sounds continuously boomed. The Main Body's entire right leg had completely collapsed, and even the left leg, below the knee, had turned to bone ash. The sound of the bones collapsing spread from within the earth, gradually breaking through the surface.

Over the past half month, rumbling sounds could be heard across the entire Moluo Continent, emanating from deep underground. The sound was faint initially, but now it grew louder and louder, even causing slight tremors in the earth.

The Mortals on the Moluo Continent were terrified and bewildered, having no idea what was happening. They could only kneel and worship, praying for the heavens to cease their wrath.

The Cultivators within the Guiyuan Sect paid extreme attention to this matter, all mobilizing to investigate the cause and effect. To them, the rumbling sounds seemed like roars, stunning their minds when they heard them.

Li Xiangdong, Lü Yanfei, and the two old men—these four Elders were floating in mid-air, their gazes fixed underground. With their cultivation, they could clearly sense the source of the rumbling sounds.

Li Xiangdong had originally planned to go investigate several days ago, but Lü Yanfei stopped him. However, now the rumbling sounds were intensifying, nearly shaking the heavens.

If that were all, it would be fine. More importantly, the heaven and earth origin energy on the Moluo Continent was being widely agitated as the underground rumbling grew closer, as if an invisible force was waving, forming a Vortex that frantically drew the heaven and earth origin energy toward it.

What made the four of them feel even more terrified and unbelievable was that in the starry sky outside the Moluo Continent, vast heaven and earth origin energy was frantically gathering here. Although it remained diffused outside, if such dense heaven and earth origin energy were to rush in, the Moluo Continent's defenses would instantly collapse.

Thinking of the consequences of this matter made the four of them feel their scalps tingle.

What also alarmed the four of them were the Vicious Beasts occasionally revealing themselves in the star mist outside the Moluo Continent. For some unknown reason over the past half month, these Vicious Beasts had all been attracted here, staring at the Moluo Continent, their eyes flashing with fierce light and hesitation.

Several times they nearly rushed in, but ultimately they held back. This scene suggested that something here was attracting the Vicious Beasts, yet their reason prevented them from advancing, which explained their look of hesitation.

Among these Vicious Beasts, there were Fifth-rank, and even Sixth-rank existences! More terrifyingly, Li Xiangdong even saw a Seventh-rank Vicious Beast. A Seventh-rank Vicious Beast was enough to fight a Pure Nirvana Middle Stage Cultivator!

“Junior Sister Lü, regardless of why you prevented the three of us from investigating before, today, we must go and see what exactly has appeared on our Moluo Continent that can draw upon the heaven and earth origin energy of the starry sky and cause the Vicious Beasts that usually hide in the star mist not to appear to gather here!” Li Xiangdong's heart trembled just thinking of the Seventh-rank Vicious Beast's silhouette. He stared at Lü Yanfei with an extremely solemn expression.

The two old men beside them also looked at Lü Yanfei in silence.

Lü Yanfei bit her lower lip and nodded silently.

I owed 2,000 characters yesterday, and the monthly vote count dropped out of the top ten. Today, Er Gen gritted his teeth and made up the entire deficit. At this critical juncture, I beg for monthly vote support!!!!