639 Flesh Tribulation
Wang Wei spent the next few months with his parents, postponing his seclusion. Then, he created a clone to socialize with him while his main body entered seclusion. Meanwhile, Wu Hong did the opposite as her main body entered seclusion while a clone spent time with Wang Wei’s clone. The couple wanted to spend as much time together as possible.
The first thing he did was Wang Ju’s ceremony. The process required formations, a ritual, and other resources. After everything finished, his shadow connected to her shadow, transferring some of his power to her.
A cocoon enveloped Wang Ju as she underwent a massive transformation. She will be a terrifying spy and assassin after inheriting seventy percent of Wang Wei’s power and abilities–especially if she uses them correctly with her Shadow Law.
Afterward, Wang Wei proceeded to condense his first black hole. With enough Primordial Star Essence, he condensed a black hole countless times bigger than the observable universe back on Earth.
He first checked whether there were any problems with his secondary artificial Acupoints. Then, he checked whether there were any contradictions between the black holes in the 1962 Main Acupoints. After detecting no issue, he continued to condense black holes for a total of 10,000 Second Acupoints or a grand total of 19,962.
After sensing that his body had reached saturation, Wang Wei stopped and clenched his fist to feel the power contained.
“50 Primordial Dragon Force.” He could now destroy 50% of a Great Thousand World with one attack. And that was not the only increase, but also overall defense, speed, regeneration, and survivability.
‘It’s coming.’ he thought after analyzing his body. An unknown power descended on him, and he knew it was from the True Power Dao Realm: his tribulation had arrived.
Wang Wei lay on the ground to prepare. He suddenly felt something munched on his skin, making him groan. With his pain resistance, he would not blink an eye if he swallowed an entire sun, feeling every sensation as the heat burned his throat, liquefied his intestine, or charred his bones. However, the pain intensity was nothing he’s ever experienced.
Ancient Desolate explained to him this was one of the aspects of the Flesh Tribulation. The test knew the highest threshold of anyone participating and inflicted a higher level. The severity of the pain is one of the many reasons people cannot open the Gate of Pain or continue on this path.
‘I can’t believe having a high pain tolerance would work against me,’ thought Wang Wei. However, this was not even the end. He received information or a request to take all the tests together and choose how many of them to take at once. Wang Wei decided on all of them: he wanted to finish the test for the third level in one swoop.
Ancient Desolate gave him some tips. The tribulation is divided similarly to the [Ancient Desolate Body Refining Scripture: skin, bones, blood, muscles and meridians, organs, and cells. There will also be special tests for individuals with unique body refining techniques that do not involve these categories.
Typically, Wang Wei needed to take these tests one by one in the Primordial Dragon Realm. However, the Ancient Desolate Emperor told him there would be some advantages if he took the tests together. He will receive a boost of strength afterward compared to if he took them individually. Meanwhile, the single test is to decide a body refiner’s worthiness to continue walking on the True Power Dao Realm.
After the request, the tribulation continued. Wang Wei experienced horrendous pain as he watched his skin rapidly disappear from his body, as if a creature enjoyed a pleasant meal with his body.
Suddenly, an intense fear overwhelms his mind.
‘Here we go,’ thought Wang Wei, trying to control his emotions. Watching his skin vanish, the fear of dying overcame his mind. Wang Wei knew this part of the test. His powerful soul, immune to most spiritual attacks, was useless on this occasion; the unknown power of the True Power Dao Realm did not care about his Innate Paragon Soul. And his intuition told him that even if he removed his chains and accessed his Spiritual Strenght, it would be pointless.
Wang Wei had to rely on his Willpower to bear the pain. His Dao Heart and state of mind to fight this overwhelming fear. However, things became worse for him before getting better.
After he turned into a macabre creature without skin, his muscles rapidly evaporated, exponentially increasing the pain and fear. Wang Wei was grunting and groaning, trying to keep the pain away. Meanwhile, he felt his mind was on the verge of cracking.
‘I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!’ He repeated these words over and over like an endless loop. However, things got worse for him since his organs were next.
If Ancient Desolate were here, he would give Wang Wei a thumbs up for his crazy action. When he told the latter to take the tests together, he meant two or three simultaneously, not everything at once.
By the time Wang Wei was a creature with only bone, he was screaming despite having no vocal cords; his scream came deep from his soul. He watched the dissipation of his bones, and the fear intensified. With every cell that disappeared, he felt himself driving close to madness.
And the pain did not help the situation. He could hear a whisper telling him to give up and abandon this path. And he desperately wanted to listen to it. How easy it would be to give up.
Why did he have to endure so much? If he wanted a strong body, he could just comprehend Power Law; there was no need to inflict this level of cruelty onto himself. It was not worth it.
‘I… give… u–No…I can’t… give… up.’ In this strange state where he has no corporeal form but still exists, Wang Wei discovered he could use the full power of his Willpower. So, he tapped into that power.
This action aided the situation, but it did not solve the problem. He hung on to this feeling of unwillingness and defiance. Memories of him floating in the endless void flashed in his mind.
Back then, he also had to overcome his fear of death while fighting eons of loneliness. He did not give up then, so he would not give up now. He gritted his non-existent teeth and persevered.
When only the last cell of his existence remained, his fear and pain reached an indescribable level. And when that cell also evaporated, he failed a crack in his spirit, pushing him to the verge of a mental breakdown. However, he drew on his experience of having his existence destroyed.
He reigned in all the fear and resisted the pain. He had to withstand such intensity for only ten seconds, but each felt like a lifetime. Ten seconds later, the suffering ended, and his body was regenerated cell by cell. And since his fleshly body was linked to his Primordial Spirit, it also regrew.
“That was interesting,” he muttered as he looked at his new body. This test took into account all his Willpower and pushed it beyond his limit to test him. And he felt a real challenge for the first time in a while. Not to mention, this experience was a great way to temper the mind.
“70 Primordial Dragon Force: an increase of 20. Is this my reward?” He muttered, satisfied given how difficult it is to advance in this realm. “Not just this.”
He raised his hand, and the void trembled: he did not use any Qi, law, or other aspects of his power. He materialized his Willpower to achieve this feat.
Wang Wei realized this experience had allowed him better control and access to his Willpower. For the first time, he can use the strength of his Willpower without damaging his body. Although it was only a portion, he always believed he needed to become a Great Emperor before taking that step.
“This is a good step,” he muttered about his progress. Then, he exhaled deeply, thinking about the True Power Dao Realm. He always knew it was not a simple cultivation path. But today’s tribulation confirmed his guess.
He has many theories about the True Power Dao Realm. The best one is that it is the first power system ever. After the birth of the Chaos Universe, after the appearance of the first creatures, Wang Wei believed there were no Innate Lifeforms–at least not in a sense they were born powerful with Innate Laws.
He believed these first creatures did not have a cultivation system but discovered the potential of the flesh in the form of the Gate of Power. The True Power Dao was the first way creatures achieved immortality and eternity.
There is more to his theory. He believes that the history of the Eternal Ascension World can be divided into eras. And in the first eras, there were no Lower Dimension and Heaven Wills. So, the creatures from that time relied on the True Power Dao Realm to cultivate.
He once talked about this theory with Wu Hong, but she said she did not have memories of such history. But he was probably correct.
“Did you really take all the tests at once?”
Wang Wei turned to the sudden voice and saw his wife. Not bothered by how she bypassed his formation, he replied: “Yes.”
Wu Hong did not know what to say. She remembered her flesh tribulation. She had a whim and decided to try three simultaneously, and she did not forget that horror for a long time.
In her career, she has met a few Inextionghuishable Paragons or individuals who open the Gate of Power. The number of people who could withstand two tests simultaneously could be counted on one hand. Most of them did so by accident since they knew little information about the horror of the test.
Many unlucky individuals chose two or more tests for a while and failed, ending their dreams of walking on this path.