Not Even Pretending Anymore, The Eighty-Third Tribulation

What is the most tragic thing in life?

It is when your dearest loved one dies before your eyes, and though you desperately wish to save them, to turn back fate, you find yourself utterly powerless.

Xu Jinghong knew this pain all too well.

But Chen Yi was not Xu Jinghong.

He had both the strength and the means to defy destiny.

The moment the old man Chen Dalei drew his last breath, his vitality extinguished and his flesh decaying, Chen Yi acted without hesitation. He seized the old man’s dissipating soul—on the verge of returning to the heavens and earth—and in an instant, refined it into a Divine Pearl, preserving his true spirit from annihilation.

"Old man, rest for now. When you wake, I’ll fulfill the dreams you once thought impossible. Becoming an immortal? That’s just the beginning."

With profound determination in his eyes, Chen Yi solemnly stored the Divine Pearl deep within his consciousness, nurturing it with care.

Then, with a single step, he strode into the River of Time, carefully observing whether his actions had altered the course of history.

Fortunately, while there was an impact, it was minor.

According to the original flow of history, after the old man’s death, his soul would have returned to the cosmos, reclaimed by the Heavenly Dao to be reforged into a new soul for reincarnation.

Back then, the Heavenly Dao of the Purple Star Continent was bloated and inefficient, unlike its current optimized state. Departments like the Netherworld Bureau and the Cycle Bureau were still in disarray—recycling was slow, waste was rampant, and falsified records were commonplace.

A missing soul at the eighth level of Foundation Establishment?

Where did it go?

Never mind—just fabricate a virtual destiny to fill the gap.

Of course, the Heavenly Dao’s bookkeeping fraud was only one reason the historical trajectory remained largely unchanged. The deeper cause lay in the fact that, after reincarnation, the old man’s soul would have been reborn as nothing more than an ordinary mortal—perhaps a cat, perhaps a dog...

Having mended the greatest regret of his youth, Chen Yi’s mind was now perfectly at ease.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he descended the River of Time, arriving at the year 823 of the Calamity Era—the moment of his eighty-second attempt to transcend mortality and ascend as an immortal.

He chose this point in time for a simple reason: the previous eighty-one tribulations had all followed the same tedious script—forty-nine bolts of Violet Heaven Thunder first, followed by Chaos Divine Thunder.

The prolonged preamble had dulled the Heavenly Tribulation’s fervor, and his own increasingly resilient performance would have drastically altered the course of history on the Purple Star Continent.

Thus, the most logical choice was this final tribulation—the last one before the rules changed.

After all, at this point, the Heavenly Tribulation came at him with unbridled fury, opening with Chaos Divine Thunder, its will unyielding: either he perished, or it did.

So, if he absorbed a little more than usual… well, that was only reasonable!

The Void Expanse.

Rampant void energy raged violently, reducing all matter it touched into nothingness.

Chen Yi returned to this familiar battleground, where he had faced the Heavenly Tribulation time and again. Yet this time, he did not immediately shed his Heaven-Shielding Robe—adorned with profound runes—to lure the tribulation forth.

Instead, he first analyzed the situation, calculating the consequences of his actions.

After all, he was now substituting his past self with his future self to endure the tribulation. Caution was warranted.

Soon, he reached a conclusion.

Hmm… truth be told, the Void Expanse lay beyond the reach of the Purple Star Continent’s River of Time. It belonged to the universal tributaries beneath the main current of the immortal realm.

But this place was, by nature, void—time left no mark here, and the ages flowed like stagnant water. Only the occasional ripple hinted at past cataclysms.

Perhaps the birth of a new world, spawning a tributary of time, or perhaps a cataclysmic battle—but soon, all would return to stillness.

The crux of the matter was this: if the Heavenly Tribulation chased him back to the Purple Star Continent, and if he did not feign death as he had before to send it away, the historical trajectory would be drastically altered.

But for Chen Yi, who had already "died" once, this was no issue. He’d simply deceive it again—the Heavenly Tribulation would never know the difference.

In short, his plan to substitute his past self with his future self was viable!

"Haah…"

"Are we about to meet again at last?"

"How I’ve missed you, Heavenly Tribulation!"

With a smirk, Chen Yi shed his Heaven-Shielding Robe, revealing his flawless immortal physique.

Just as before, his vast and overwhelming aura erupted, instantly silencing the rampaging void energy.

BOOM—!!!

Swift as lightning, the long-absent Heavenly Tribulation descended, as ferocious as ever. Without hesitation, it hurled a bolt of Chaos Divine Thunder straight at him!

"Hahaha! I can feel your passion!"

Chen Yi laughed heartily, spreading his arms wide in welcome, thus commencing his eighty-second—or rather, eighty-third—transcendent tribulation.

Unlike his eighty-second attempt, where he had struggled, this time Chen Yi didn’t even bother pretending. He caught the Chaos Divine Thunder mid-air and swallowed it whole!

"Mmm, delicious!"

Licking his lips, he flashed a provocative grin at the churning tribulation clouds, his taunt unmistakable.

BOOM—!!!

Enraged, the Heavenly Tribulation abandoned all pretense of rules, striking down with three bolts of Chaos Divine Thunder at once!

Had this been his eighty-second attempt, he might not have been able to handle so much at once, forced to let some go to waste.

But the current Chen Yi had tempered himself far beyond that. Three bolts? He could swallow thirty without breaking a sweat. At worst, his stomach would rumble like thunder—no matter. He only wished the bolts were bigger!

"Did you skip breakfast today?"

"With such puny Chaos Divine Thunder, you couldn’t even kill an ant!"

RUMBLE—!!!

The tribulation clouds seethed, expanding violently—yet no new thunderbolts formed. It simply couldn’t keep up with Chen Yi’s pace, silently straining to accelerate its brewing process.

"Running out of steam already?"

"Can’t handle it?"

"Where’s your fighting spirit?"

"Come on, let me see what you’ve got…"

Chen Yi strode forward, his face the very picture of "concern."