Not only had Xing Ming personally experienced the Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation, but he had also acted as a guardian for Lin Xinghe back then, and at the same time, he had seen a few other people's Core Formations.
Even so, he was considered experienced, but he had never seen a true Body Cultivator's Core Formation.
When they fought against the Heavenly Tribulation, they did their best not to let the Heavenly Tribulation touch their own bodies. Of course, after the Heavenly Tribulation was shattered, it was unavoidable that those strange powers would affect their bodies.
It was just that in that situation, the strange power of the Heavenly Tribulation that could be transmitted over would be much less, which gave them more energy to deal with the Heavenly Tribulation.
At the very end, when their magical power was no longer enough, they would use magical treasures, talismans, and various other things to deal with the Heavenly Tribulation.
They had to prepare at least one or two kinds of various defensive magical treasures, formations, and even heavenly materials and earthly treasures of the tortoise shell type of strange species of heaven and earth.
They were told by their elders to collect and prepare as many of these defensive treasures as possible when they were in the Foundation Establishment stage, so that they could have an extra layer of protection and a greater hope of survival during Core Formation.
In fact, the number of cultivators who walked the path of body refining in the Forsaken Continent was even greater, especially the body refining lineage led by the Demon Clan.
However, when these races of cultivators formed their cores, how would they allow strangers to observe? Even with Xing Ming's status, he had only seen it four times, and all of them were human.
Today, although he had anticipated Zhang Ming's way of fighting the Heavenly Tribulation, this person had fought the Heavenly Tribulation with only his physical body from beginning to end, and he had not seen him use any magical treasures or defensive treasures. This was also something he had never seen before.
Not to mention him, even Tianxingzi was somewhat petrified when he saw Zhang Ming disperse another six Heavenly Tribulations in one breath.
The power of the subsequent Heavenly Tribulations could easily destroy a city with a single strike, causing the souls of the living beings inside to fly away and be annihilated.
When Tianxingzi was forming his core, he had only resisted the first dozen or so strikes with his own magical power. Later, he could only take out one defensive treasure after another and then watch as these extremely precious treasures were destroyed one by one.
They thought that although Zhang Ming was a Body Cultivator and his physical body was powerful, he would at least have to use defensive formations, talismans, and other treasures to help him after the seventeenth strike.
But the other party actually began to use his pure physical body to launch a proactive counterattack. This made the two of them somewhat stunned. That was a Heavenly Tribulation that was stronger than the last.
They did not know that Li Yan had accidentally come to this world during a great battle with the Black Demon Clan and had not expected the Core Formation to come so suddenly, and he was not prepared.
Although Li Yan had many plundered magical treasures on him, they were all offensive magical treasures. Those defensive talismans were too weak to fight against the Heavenly Tribulation.
If he were to self-detonate those magical treasures to fight against the Heavenly Tribulation, he would be the first to be affected as he was still at the center of the Heavenly Tribulation. What's more, he was now on someone else's territory. If he self-detonated magical treasures one after another like this, it would be hard not to be coveted.
"Although he is very strong, if he still only uses his physical body to transcend the tribulation next, just the twenty-seventh Heavenly Tribulation will likely be his death!"
Tianxingzi said faintly. Although he was shocked in his heart, he was not optimistic about Zhang Ming transcending the tribulation like this.
The Heavenly Tribulation was a type of law of the Heavenly Dao. According to the understanding of the cultivators of the mortal world, it was divided into the Lesser Heavenly Tribulation, the Great Heavenly Tribulation, and the Calamity Tribulation.
They corresponded to the three stages of Core Formation, Nascent Soul Formation, and Spirit Transformation respectively. The Lesser Heavenly Tribulation had thirty strikes, the Great Heavenly Tribulation had forty-nine strikes, and the Calamity Tribulation had eighty-one strikes.
But whether it was the Lesser Heavenly Tribulation, the Great Heavenly Tribulation, or the Calamity Tribulation, encountering a "nine" was a small difficulty. Like the ninth and eighteenth that Li Yan had encountered just now were small difficulties.
The ninth Heavenly Tribulation goes without saying. Whether it was a Body Cultivator or a Dharma Cultivator, they could basically pass it.
So when Li Yan was facing the eighteenth Heavenly Tribulation, Tianxingzi and the other thought he was going to use defensive treasures, but the result was a great surprise.
The eighteenth Heavenly Tribulation was at least three times more powerful than the seventeenth. When it came to the nineteenth, although it was still increasing, it would not grow with a destructive power of several times.
And now Li Yan had encountered the third small difficulty, the twenty-seventh Heavenly Tribulation.
If he could pass this hurdle, then he would have stepped into the Half-step Golden Core. Even if he did not pass the final Heavenly Tribulation, as long as he was seriously injured and not dead, his combat power would have completely surpassed the Foundation Establishment stage.
However, it was still not the Golden Core realm. And if he wanted to form a core again in the future, the power of the Heavenly Tribulation at that time would be twice as strong as now, which was almost a certain death for any cultivator.
So cultivators tried their best to succeed in one tribulation transcendence.
Li Yan's body was already blood-red, and his clothes were no different from a beggar's. The tattered clothes were stained with blood into thick black cloth strips, hanging on his body in tatters.
On his exposed dark skin were deep, gaping wounds everywhere, like the gaping mouths of fish. Because he had temporarily used Spirit Power to contract and wrap them, no more blood was flowing out for the time being.
But the red flesh and white bones inside were clearly visible, a terrifying sight to behold.
Another drop of "Rongsun" quietly rolled into his stomach. Li Yan was constantly gasping for breath. This was his true condition at this time, not something he was deliberately faking.
Although his Spirit Power could be instantly restored through "Rongsun," his Divine Sense and physical injuries could not be.
At this time, his Divine Sense had dropped sharply, with less than forty percent remaining. His physical body, due to repeated splitting and recovery, splitting and recovering again, had also reached a bottleneck stage of recovery.
Those silver lights no longer needed to be deliberately concealed and were already faint and invisible.
"This... this... is the Heavenly... Heavenly Tribulation!"
Li Yan gasped for breath, thinking in his heart. Ever since he had survived the pressure of the power of the two realm barriers with his physical body, he was actually sixty percent confident that he would be able to transcend the tribulation when he formed his core one day.
And all of this came from the Qiongqi Purgatory Art after being enhanced by the "Undead Nether Phoenix" Essence Blood, which was the reason he could survive in the two realm barriers.
In the past two years, the Qiongqi Purgatory Art had made some progress again, having already reached the peak of the mid-second layer, and the "Undead Nether Phoenix" Essence Blood had also almost completed twenty percent of its refinement.
This had allowed his physical body to continuously strengthen and improve.
Li Yan's confidence also had another main reason, which was that he had once seen Li Wuyi transcend his tribulation. Those Heavenly Tribulations had made him terrified at that time, but now it seemed that he could completely withstand them.
In addition, the foundation of the Malevolent Spirit Sect was of course not something that a small sect like Falling Star Valley could compare to. For cultivators forming cores and Nascent Souls, there were related records. This was the blessing that a large sect gave to its disciples. Li Yan had of course also read some relatively detailed descriptions of Core Formation and tribulation transcendence, from which he had gained some inspiration and experience.
Li Yan had not expected that the power of the Heavenly Tribulation he had attracted would be so great, far exceeding all his previous expectations.
Blue electric arcs flickered around Li Yan's body, covering the signs of his external injuries slowly repairing.
Tianxingzi and the others did not dare to forcibly probe into the Heavenly Tribulation with their Divine Senses. They could only rely on their extraordinary eyesight as cultivators, plus their Divine Senses wandering outside.
They could see the terrifying scars all over Zhang Ming's body when the electric arcs occasionally died down.
"Why hasn't the third difficulty descended yet?"
Xing Ming, after seeing Zhang Ming disperse the twenty-sixth Heavenly Tribulation, it had been almost five breaths, but the powerful twenty-seventh Heavenly Tribulation still had not fallen. This was different from his understanding.
"This has to do with this person shattering the previous twenty-six Heavenly Tribulations too quickly. This Heavenly Tribulation... hehe..."
Tianxingzi was ultimately more knowledgeable and experienced.
He shifted his gaze to the thick black clouds that were rotating faster and faster above Zhang Ming's head, and a feeling of extreme unease arose in his mind.
He had once traveled the world and, in a discussion on the Dao with someone, when they talked about the Lesser Heavenly Tribulation and the Great Heavenly Tribulation, the other person had once said this.
"Fighting against the Heavenly Tribulation should not be a case of the shorter the process, the better. The Heavenly Tribulation is born of the laws of the Heavenly Dao. It has a sliver of intelligence, so whether one can safely pass through the Heavenly Tribulation is also related to the entire process. If you disperse the Heavenly Tribulation too quickly, that sliver of intelligence will think that you are challenging the Heavenly Might with your strength, and it will accumulate more power and deliver a terrifying strike that exceeds a normal Heavenly Tribulation."
But Tianxingzi did not continue to say these words. He just stared blankly into the distance and once again fell into deep thought.
Li Yan also felt that something was wrong. In between each of the previous Heavenly Tribulations, there was almost no interval. They were continuous, as if they wanted to drown him in them and kill him with one strike.
But now, almost ten breaths had passed, and the Heavenly Tribulation still had not fallen. Li Yan looked up at the clouds that were spinning faster and faster in the sky.
"Is it accumulating power? The third small difficulty... the third..."
And just as Li Yan was staring at the top of his head for a moment, his expression suddenly changed drastically. In the vortex of the continuously rotating clouds, besides the increasingly dense and scalp-numbing thick bolts of lightning that illuminated the center of the black clouds into a flashing expanse of gray-white, a huge, incomparably large eye was slowly appearing in the center of the vortex as it rotated rapidly. This eye was still continuously enlarging, becoming clearer and clearer.
It was as if it was slowly emerging from the vortex. Its eyes were filled with endless indifference and killing intent, making it impossible for one to see any emotion or warmth.
"This... is the third... thirtieth Heavenly... Heavenly Tribulation!"
Just as this eye slowly emerged from the vortex, Xing Ming in the distance had already exclaimed in shock. His cry of alarm woke Tianxingzi from his deep thought.
"This... this is not just the thirtieth Heavenly Tribulation, but four Heavenly Tribulations combined into one!"
Tianxingzi looked up and immediately sucked in a breath of cold air.
He didn't even notice that his voice had already become somewhat strange. His originally somewhat childish voice had become very sharp. His reaction was also extremely fast. He then pulled Xing Ming and quickly fled into the distance.
"Quick, quick, quickly start the Sect-Protecting Formation, protect the other areas! Quick!"
He shouted urgently at Xing Ming, while cursing wildly in his heart.
'This damn scoundrel, how did he make that sliver of intelligence of the Heavenly Tribulation so angry that it... it actually awakened the strongest thirtieth Heavenly Tribulation in advance. And it also mixed in the powerful twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth Heavenly Tribulations. This area of three to five hundred li is going to be destroyed!'
As he shouted, Xing Ming had also reacted. He, who had always been extremely steady, also burst out with a curse at the same time.
"Damn you, Zhang Ming, are you trying to destroy the sect!"
As he spoke, the Sect Master Token in his hand was already raised to the sky. As the token and the urgent incantations sounded, the Sect-Protecting Grand Formation of Falling Star Valley, which had been quiet for nearly twenty years, once again rumbled.
Zhu Luomu and the other Foundation Establishment cultivators who were still in the distance were suddenly swept up by a sleeve that covered the sky.
None of them had reacted yet, only having time to let out a cry of alarm before they were swept away from their original spot.
At the same time, the courtyards of the various core disciples more than a hundred li away from Li Yan's courtyard were the first to be covered by falling starlight, forming a series of brilliant light curtains outside them in an instant.
Subsequently, the restriction lights in various places in the valley lit up one after another, like starlights lit up in the dark night.
This was another unexpected turn of events, which made many disciples a little dazed for a moment, not knowing what had happened again.
At the same time, Xing Ming's majestic voice sounded in their minds, finally temporarily drowning out the loud noise in the distant horizon.
"All disciples, hide in the nearest defensive restriction, immediately!"