Although they had doubts, even if they wanted to test the other party's strength now, it was impossible. Besides observing, they did not dare to make any move to contact Zhang Ming.
Especially Tianxingzi, whose injuries had only recovered by less than forty percent after twenty years of recuperation. He dared not forcefully use his magical power even more.
After another five breaths, the fourteenth Heavenly Tribulation, which had been continuously attacking, was finally dispersed.
Li Yan felt two powerful Divine Senses lingering around him, and his heart was equally tense.
He was under the Heavenly Tribulation. If the other party attacked him regardless of everything, then although Li Yan could draw the Heavenly Tribulation to the other party, he would definitely not be able to keep his own life.
Transcending a tribulation was when a cultivator was at their strongest and also at their weakest. They were strong because the cultivator themselves was at their peak state, and with the Heavenly Tribulation in hand, whoever provoked them could have the Heavenly Tribulation drawn to them.
But it was also when they were most unable to be distracted. If they were distracted, they could be blasted into nothingness by the Heavenly Tribulation in the next moment, completely disappearing from this world.
At this time, Li Yan did not dare to fully reveal his strength. He could not fathom the thoughts of these two, as that would leave him with no trump cards.
He wanted to make the other party feel that he might perish at any moment in the next Heavenly Tribulation, and in their hesitation, they would give up on launching a sneak attack again and again.
But Li Yan knew that this trick could not be played for too long, and the other party would see through it. For him, it was a matter of delaying for as long as he could.
Regarding this Core Formation, Li Yan was truly helpless in his heart. Everything had come too suddenly.
He had originally planned to leave Falling Star Valley for a while after refining his Natal Magical Treasure, and then find an extremely remote and desolate mountain to seek the opportunity for Core Formation.
He had a large number of Spirit Stones on him and was not at all worried about the presence or absence of Spirit Qi. He could go into seclusion for arduous cultivation with peace of mind.
Who would have thought that he would muddle-headedly welcome the Heavenly Tribulation? He was quite wary of the three Golden Core cultivators of Falling Star Valley. Each of these three had a mind as deep as the sea.
Li Yan could not see through them and had always been on guard. It was just that the world was unpredictable, and everything could not go according to Li Yan's plan.
Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen...
The Heavenly Tribulation poured down one after another...
Amidst the rolling dark clouds, this part of the world had turned into night. With Li Yan at the center, the area within a hundred li was no longer covered with green trees and grass, but was crisscrossed with gullies, and the earth was cracked.
The attack time of each Heavenly Tribulation was also getting longer and longer. By the twentieth strike, Li Yan was no longer as relaxed as before. His skin had already seeped blood, and with a slight movement of his body, his bones would make a cracking sound.
Although the attack of the twenty Heavenly Tribulations was dispersed by him, a lot of the destructive power attached to the Heavenly Tribulation had still entered his body.
Just a trace of this power could turn a cultivator below the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment into nothing in an instant. It was running rampant in Li Yan's body, and Li Yan had to use about twenty percent of his strength to suppress and refine it.
Although this power of the Heavenly Tribulation was full of destructive power, if a cultivator could refine it, it could have the effect of expelling impurities from their body, expanding their meridians, and tempering their bone marrow.
This was the benefit that the Heavenly Tribulation process brought to cultivators, and it was also the reason why even non-Body Cultivators' physical bodies would naturally improve after they successfully formed their core.
Cleansing the marrow and bones, tempering the muscles and refining the blood.
However, very few people dared to actively absorb this power of the Heavenly Tribulation during the tribulation. It was only when they were dispersing the Heavenly Tribulation that a little of it would enter their bodies.
Just this trace was already enough to make them have to use their strength to refine it at the same time. If someone dared to open up and absorb it, under a pincer attack from both inside and out, there was a ninety-nine percent chance of perishing.
At the twentieth Heavenly Tribulation, several bloody gashes had already opened up on the skin of Li Yan's fist, and the bone-white bones within were clearly exposed.
It was just that when the bloody gashes opened, a silver light would flash on the bone-white bones. After only a little blood flowed out, the flesh around the wound would already rapidly converge and writhe inwards.
With a shake of his arms, Li Yan shook off the last remnant of the twentieth Heavenly Tribulation. Blue electric arcs flew everywhere, like silver snakes dancing wildly.
'The Qiongqi Purgatory Art, plus the refined Essence Blood of the Undead Nether Phoenix, still cannot withstand the power of the Heavenly Tribulation. This is the power of the laws of heaven and earth!'
Li Yan took a deep breath. With a thought, a drop of "Rongsun" quietly slid into his mouth. In an instant, the Spirit Power in his body surged like a tide.
The five colors on the five-colored spirit python, which had originally been circling slowly on the Spirit Power great cauldrons, burst forth with brilliant colors. In an instant, its circling became rapid again.
Its body had shrunk by about half compared to the beginning, appearing more and more solid. All these abnormalities, including the fluctuations in Spirit Power, remained unchanged on the surface of Li Yan's body.
"Martial Uncle, why is his physical strength so strange? Even under the Heavenly Tribulation, his aura has been very stable. Although there is a decline, the speed of this decline is too terrifyingly slow!"
The two of them, Tianxingzi, in the distance, had been silent for some time. After Zhang Ming took on the twentieth Heavenly Tribulation, Xing Ming finally couldn't help but speak.
The endurance of Zhang Ming's physical body was completely beyond his prediction. At this time, he would find the Heavenly Tribulation very difficult to handle. If it had been when he was forming his core, he would probably have had to use his full strength.
On the other hand, although Zhang Ming was injured, his attack power was still stable, and he did not look exhausted. Every time he confronted the Heavenly Tribulation, although it seemed extremely difficult, he could always hold on.
This gave the two of them a false impression. Under every Heavenly Tribulation, Zhang Ming looked as if he was about to give up and perish at any moment.
But after defeating this Heavenly Tribulation, Zhang Ming, gasping heavily, quickly had his breathing stabilize again.
"Actually, you already have the answer in your heart. This is already beyond doubt. He cultivates a top-tier body refining cultivation method. He has been deceiving everyone all along!"
The sharp light in Tianxingzi's eyes grew brighter and brighter. He had already seen that something was wrong before and had become suspicious.
Now that Xing Ming brought it up, he pointed it out. This Zhang Ming, even at this point, was still trying to conceal his own strength.
Xing Ming's aura had already begun to fluctuate.
'He finally can't pretend anymore!'
Li Yan, in the midst of the Heavenly Tribulation, had his senses at their most acute. The moment Xing Ming's aura changed over there, he immediately sensed it.
'But, this is already enough. At this point, even if Tianxingzi were at his full strength, he would not dare to attack again!'
The power of the Heavenly Tribulation was now so strong that if it were to be drawn over, when the Heavenly Tribulation sensed the increase in the number of people below and its majesty was provoked, who knew to what extent its power would increase.
Li Yan felt that no one below the Nascent Soul stage could take two or three strikes. He himself would certainly be turned to dust and smoke. Unless Tianxingzi and Xing Ming had some strange treasures, they would still be seriously injured even if they didn't die.
Li Yan believed that with the abilities of these two, they would definitely be able to judge this and make a choice would not be a difficult matter.
So, since they had already seen through it, and things had come to this point, his purpose of delaying had also been achieved, so he no longer needed to have any reservations.
The twenty-first strike arrived. Li Yan took a deep breath. From under the ink-black clouds, a full five streaks appeared. Li Yan stood with his feet together and stomped fiercely downwards.
The void beneath his feet exploded with a burst of airflow. With a thud, Li Yan's body soared into the air like a huge rock.
In mid-air, he suddenly turned around and, using the strong force of his waist and abdomen, swept an elbow towards a gloomy light carrying a clap of thunder.
"Bang!"
The clothes on Li Yan's elbow exploded in an instant, and the gloomy light was also shattered by his elbow. As the electric arcs flickered, some of the remnant power of the Heavenly Tribulation drilled into Li Yan's equally torn skin.
Li Yan only frowned slightly, his speed not decreasing. He heavily tapped the void with his left foot, as if stepping on solid ground.
With another "thud!", his body turned into an afterimage and rushed forward. As he rushed forward on one foot, he bent his other knee and raised his leg, ramming his knee fiercely forward.
"Bang!" Another loud bang. Another gloomy light was shattered by his knee strike at the waist. At the same time, a spray of blood also burst from Li Yan's knee.
And before he could pause, the other three gloomy lights, which had originally struck down vertically from the dark clouds, had already changed their positions like shadows, like three incomparably swift spirit snakes, as Li Yan took the initiative to charge left and right.
They attacked Li Yan's back of the head, back, and waist and abdomen from the upper, middle, and lower paths.
Li Yan ignored the blood mist erupting from his leg, his expression cold. Without turning his head, he suddenly spread his legs in the void, squatted down fiercely, and took a horse stance.
At the same time, as his arms swung, he changed his fists to palms and fiercely separated them to the sides, while exhaling and shouting.
"Get lost!"
The sound instantly drowned out the surrounding deafening thunder and lightning. As he exhaled and opened his arms, a powerful force from his body turned into a substantial black light, pouring outwards like a surging tide.
"Boom boom boom!"
With three consecutive loud bangs, the three gloomy lights fiercely collided with the black airwave when they were ten feet away from Li Yan's body.
Like three sharp cones, they plunged headfirst into the airwave, pushing the black airwave back six or seven feet.
Then, the gloomy light began to shatter inch by inch from the tip of the cone, and then completely dispersed. This time, it actually did not cause any damage to Li Yan's body.
"Is this his true strength? To be so ferocious. Even if Xinghe were to collide with this attack, he might not be at a disadvantage. We have really underestimated him all along!"
Tianxingzi was truly shocked this time. It was only at this point that Zhang Ming had truly shown his claws.
"He has not yet successfully formed a core, but his physical body is already enough to compare with a Mid-stage Golden Core! Did he cultivate all this in twenty years?"
Xing Ming naturally also saw Zhang Ming's strength and weakness. At the same time, he still didn't believe that the other party could have had such strength when he had personally tested him back then.
But all of this had just flashed through the minds of the two. In the next moment, an even more shocking scene appeared before them.
After Li Yan let go, he was no longer passively defending like in the first twenty Heavenly Tribulations, but began to actively attack the descending Heavenly Tribulations everywhere.
As his figure moved, under the strong light of the lightning, he was sometimes visible and sometimes not. To say he was like a flood dragon would be less accurate than to say he was like a ghost.
In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, more than half of the clothes on Li Yan's body had already been blasted apart. His naked, dark body was already bleeding profusely, his skin torn and his flesh gaping.
His strong chest was heaving violently, and the ground below him had already formed a large pit a hundred yards deep and ten li wide.
As he circled and attacked in the sky, he was blasted down by the Heavenly Tribulation time and time again, but then he would quietly reappear in the sky under the Heavenly Tribulation.
"This body refining cultivation method has a matching movement technique. With the enhancement of this movement technique, even a Late-stage Golden Core Dharma Cultivator might not be able to react in the first instance."
Tianxingzi was shocked beyond words. In his eyes were only Zhang Ming's elusive figures. But he did not know that Li Yan was not someone who would casually show all his cards.
He only used seventy percent of his "Phoenix Soars to the Heavens" to deal with the ubiquitous Heavenly Tribulation. If he were to use it at full strength, even he would not be able to react, unless he was more than five hundred yards away from Li Yan.
"Twenty-six strikes! A Heavenly Tribulation of this power, he has taken on twenty-six strikes with only his physical body. This should be comparable to a Demon Clan cultivator forming a core!"
Xing Ming, on the other hand, thought of other things. Firstly, he lamented the terror of the Heavenly Tribulation attracted by a bloodline like the "Hidden Dragon Blood." This was simply not something a cultivator would want to face. Secondly, he was shocked by Zhang Ming's way of fighting the Heavenly Tribulation head-on, as if he was not afraid of death.