Chapter 22 Tribulations.

After finishing up his business in imperial court blessed land, Man Tian left an inheritance for Meng Zhao and gave the Meng tribe rank eight gu immortal a ten year longevity gu he found in the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.

In total Man Tian had found ninety years worth of longevity gu. Taking away the fifty four years he had spent under wisdom gu and the twenty years he fed to wisdom gu and the ten years he gave to the Meng tribe Man Tian was barely making it even considering he had gained five years and a few months worth of longevity gu.

Taking things as they came was one of the strong points of Man Tian. Since he can't change the present, then he will accept it. It was akin to a phrase that went viral on the internet: "Life is like being raped. If you can't fight it, then you might as well enjoy it."1

What Man Tian needed was to survive and live his life to the fullest and try to avoid the attention of venerables, heavens will and fang Yuan to the best of his abilities.

But what gave him a headache was how to stop the clones from causing trouble.

Reaching this point Man Tian looked back at his life and wondered maybe one life was enough had I died maybe I would have a better life than this or at least I would not be suffering this much but it is what it is.

...

Man Tian had now returned to his blessed land.

Looking at the Heavenly spirit he questioned "have you undone what I had told you?"

The heavenly spirit nodded in resignation.

While in the imperial court blessed land Man Tian had come up with an idea of how to pass his immortal ascension.

The method was risky but should it succeed it would be the greatest immortal killer move to have ever been created.

Man Tian had commanded the heavenly spirit to turn the blessed land back into a grotto, speed up the time ratio and suppress the calamities and tribulations.

If the gu house succeeded he would be on his way to great and carefree life if it did not well he would have to welcome the winds of assimilation to his dear grotto heaven.

Too bad that the true stability tree was destroyed by genesis lotus immortal venerable.

This tree had many wild Immortal Gu, among which were several rank eight Immortal Gu. Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable was only rank eight back then, when he was traveling in Eastern Sea, there was a huge tsunami that caused great harm to the world, Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable's Immortal Gu could not stop this flood, he had to borrow two rank eight Immortal Gu, Peaceful Wind and Silent Wave, from the true stability tree.

But this legendary immemorial desolate plant had great status and strength, it refused to lend them to Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable. In Genesis Lotus' rage, he fought against the true stability tree and killed it, retrieving the Gu to stop the flood and saving countless lives in the end.

Even though Genesis Lotus killed the true stability tree, he praised it immensely. After becoming venerable, he sighed occasionally: it was a pity that he had to kill the tree back then. This tree was unique in the world, it had the latent ability to counter the winds of assimilation!

Recalling this Man Tian sneered at the hypocrisy of genesis lotus immortal venerable.

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable identified him as having "indifferent" nature.

Man Tian guessed this was a ploy by heavenly court or genesis lotus immortal venerable to take the true stability tree for themselves.

Man Tian looked the sky and he could feel the malicious gaze of heaven towards the grotto heaven. This malicious gaze was so serious that it gave Man Tian chills.

Every second that passed made Man Tian quit this ridiculous idea but every time he stopped himself. It was not like a mere grotto heaven was worth his life and safety.

Man Tian quickly went out of the gu house and sat on a sand dune nearby and he took out his worn out book of the legend of Rem Zu.

If one took a close look at the book they would see almost all the book has been highlighted eight to ten times per paragraph if not more and almost the whole book was scribbled on.

"Sigh no wonder nobody truly understood this book it is simply impossible considering all beings have different perspectives, opinions and lives. Infact it is harder to see similar ideas than it is to see the same ideas."

Man Tian opened , chapter five, section thirty-four —

Ren Zu stared at the skeleton head: "Next, I will eat the most important part of the Predicament's body."

Strong Gu laughed: "This is a stupid move! Oh human, your choice is extremely foolish."

The Predicament shook its body as it shrank. At the same time, countless Tribulations flew out of its neck and attacked Ren Zu.

The Tribulations were like fire, burning Ren Zu's bones. The Tribulations were like hammers, charging at Ren Zu as his bones cracked. The Tribulations were like wind and rain, sweeping at Ren Zu's lone body. The Tribulations were like flashing lightning, striking on Ren Zu continuously.

Fear Gu shouted: "Oh heaven, this is too scary, that human will die for sure at this rate."

Courage Gu encouraged: "Oh human, don't be afraid."

Self Gu and attitude Gu shouted together: "I am very strong, I am very strong, all Tribulations are mere drizzles, they are insignificant breezes!"

Weak Gu, betrayal Gu, and fear Gu flew together, wanting to escape with Ren Zu: "Oh human, quickly run. Don't believe in self Gu's words, it has already been deceived."

Ren Zu was trapped in the Tribulations, he could not escape.

When Tribulations loom over you, it is not a simple matter of running away.

"This is too scary, let's go, forget about the human." Weak gu, betrayal Gu, and fear Gu flew away together.

"You traitors!" Self Gu was furious, it grabbed onto these three Gu and bit them all.

The three Gu were injured but they were not stopped by self Gu, they quickly escaped from Ren Zu.

Self Gu wanted to chase them but rules and regulation Gu urged: "Don't chase them. Escaping when Tribulations strike due to fear and weakness, betraying one's self and courage in the process, it will only lead to death. Isn't it good that they are gone? Weak Gu and betrayal Gu are unable to help us, as for fear Gu… if the Tribulations did not appear, fear would have been pointless. But since the Tribulations are here now, fear will only lead to greater pain in the human."

"You are absolutely right." Self Gu stopped.

Hope Gu flickered with light as it supported Ren Zu: "Oh human, as long as you still have hope in your heart during the Tribulations, there will still be hope in this situation."

Strong Gu could not stop laughing: "Oh human, you are truly pitiful, you easily believe in the words of hope. Don't you know? Having only hope during the Tribulations will only cause them to continue longer, hope is the thing that lengthens the person's pain. When you stop bearing any hope, you will feel relaxed in the Tribulations."

Ren Zu did not speak, he endured the attacks of the Tribulations with great difficulty.

No matter how bent his body became, he did not fall.

Strong Gu soon found the reason — on Ren Zu's feet, there was a pair of independent wings. Even though the wings were small, they flapped stubbornly, helping Ren Zu to stand up despite everything.

Strong Gu continued to demoralize Ren Zu: "Oh human, I am starting to admire you. It is a pity that you are going to fall soon, look at your bones, they are covered in cracks now due to the Tribulations."

Ren Zu was silent.

Originally, Ren Zu's bones were shiny and intact, there were no cracks at all. Now, his skeleton was covered in cracks, it seemed like it would shatter at any moment.

All the other Gu worms were silent, only hope Gu gave out light: "Oh human, don't give up! Tribulations are not scary, the scariest thing is a person who has lost hope."

The light of hope Gu penetrated the cracks of Ren Zu's bones, into his bone marrow.

In the life of everyone in this world, cracks would always form at some point, but those were the times where the light of hope would shine in!

Ren Zu's bones absorbed the light of hope, they started to engulf the surrounding Tribulations.

Each crack was like a huge mouth, the larger the crack, the larger the mouth, and the more Tribulations it could devour.

"How could this happen?" Strong Gu was extremely shocked.

The more Tribulations that Ren Zu's skeleton devoured, the stronger and firmer his bones became.

Tribulations could destroy people, but they could also toughen oneself!

As the Tribulations continued, Ren Zu's bones started to shine in a golden light.

The Tribulations became wilder as Ren Zu's bones burned in flames, becoming dazzlingly golden.

Ren Zu started to straighten his back, he raised his head and puffed his chest, after enduring countless tortures, his skeleton shined like a golden pillar, he stood directly inside the Tribulations. This was the myriad tribulation golden skeleton.

And on Ren Zu's skeleton head, a crown grew out naturally, it was the heaven connecting bone crown.

All of the tribulations and disasters that people suffer would become their crowns of achievement in the future.

Even though the Tribulations had not ended, Ren Zu could already speak at this time: "I know, Fate has arrangements, Tribulations are the arrangements it makes for people. But I can persevere, any Tribulations that seem unendurable are all in fact endurable to me."

Strong Gu was shocked and bewildered.

Self Gu realized at this time: "I understand. Oh human, you are someone who walked out of Ordinary Abyss, that is why you can endure these Tribulations that are impossible to endure."

Strong Gu saw that the Tribulations could not take down Ren Zu, it forced itself to stay calm: "Oh human, don't forget, as long as you have hope Gu, these Tribulations will not stop. Are you going to delay our bet from earlier? I don't care! I will treat it as if you passed the Tribulations. Now, it is our turn to eat you."

"Which part of me do you want to eat?" Ren Zu sighed.

Strong Gu laughed loudly, pointing at Ren Zu's chest: "Next, I will eat your hearts!"

Ren Zu shook slightly, strong Gu's choice was too fatal, how could a human live without his heart?

"Quickly take out all of your hearts, let us eat them!" Strong Gu shouted in excitement.

Ren Zu sighed as he hesitated, before taking out the heart of sympathy.

Strong Gu directly placed the heart of sympathy into the Predicament's neck as the heart fell into its stomach. The Predicament's stomach expanded slightly.

When faced with predicaments, people often lose their hearts of sympathy first.

Ren Zu took out his heart of nobleness next, the Predicament ate it as its stomach expanded some more, it seemed to have problems digesting it.

Ren Zu took out his original heart next: "Oh hope Gu, leave now. I do not want to implicate you."

Hope Gu resided in Ren Zu's original heart, it did not fly out, instead it said: "I am not leaving, this is my home. Oh human, just toss me in along with it, I do not blame you."

Ren Zu had no choice, as strong Gu rushed him, he gave his original heart to the Predicament as food.

After the Predicament ate it, its belly expanded again.

Predicaments often caused people to lose hope as well.

Without hope Gu, all of the Tribulations around Ren Zu vanished. This caused the pressure on Ren Zu to fall, but he felt deep melancholy as well.

...

It suddenly occurred to Man Tian the problem with the second immortal aperture. What strength gu and hope gu said we're both right.

The reason why Fang Yuan's second immortal aperture would disintegrate after reaching rank eight was it was not directly from hope gu.

Of course it contained apertures but the owners were all dead or at least they did have their apertures.

As Hope gu said to Ren Zu if he died it would lose it's place of residence.

...

Ps. It was stupid of me to give the protagonist 450 heaven path Dao marks that's too overpowered. Considering heaven path has ratio 1 to 1000 against other paths if not more. I will change it to around 8 to 10.

1. I in no way support rape and I would condemn it in real life.