Chapter 36 Tribulation Cloud
Zhang Jingwen seemed to be a little drunk, letting his emotions run wild and not bound by etiquette.

Gu Qingyuan chuckled in his heart. It was just ordinary food and wine, mixed with some spiritual energy. It was not nectar, so how could it be so intoxicating? He was just using the drunkenness to say things that he would not normally say, in order to build closer relationships.

One knows the truth, the other pretends to be confused, they are a perfect match.

"What are you talking about, Brother Gu? Which cultivator doesn't know about the three disasters and six calamities?" Zhang Jingwen picked up a peanut and started talking.

"The way of the golden elixir is truly extraordinary. It seizes the fortune of heaven and earth, invades the mysteries of the sun and the moon, and once it reaches the Purple Palace, ghosts and gods cannot tolerate it. When thunderstorms fall from the sky, one must see one's nature and enlighten one's mind. If one can withstand it, one will live as long as the sky. If one cannot withstand it, one will die.

Another five hundred years later, a fire fell from the sky. This fire was neither heavenly fire nor ordinary fire. It was called "yin fire". It started from the Yongquan acupoint and went straight through the Niyuan Palace. The five internal organs turned to ashes and the four limbs decayed. The thousand years of hard work were all in vain.

After another five hundred years, another wind disaster struck. This wind was not the east, south, west, north wind, nor the gentle, golden, and northern wind, nor the flower, willow, pine, and bamboo wind. It was called the "Bi wind." It blew from the fontanelle into the six internal organs, passed through the dantian, penetrated the nine orifices, and the bones and flesh disappeared, and the body disintegrated.

"Do we have to just fight through these three disasters?" Gu Qingyuan was a little curious.

Zhang Jingwen smiled bitterly: "The inheritance of alchemy has been more than ten thousand years. There are ways to avoid disasters. Each of them is a secret that is not passed down by the big sects. How can we, who are just building foundations, get involved?"

How to avoid disasters? Gu Qingyuan was secretly surprised, and suddenly remembered that he still had a trace of calamity energy trapped in him. This method of avoiding disasters might fall on the calamity energy.

Zhang Jingwen said sternly, "Fellow Daoist Gu is thinking too far ahead. If we don't reach the Purple Palace, the three disasters will not come. But we have to be careful of the six difficulties."

"The six difficulties are encountered only after one has established his foundation?"

"No, from Qi training to the Purple Palace, throughout the life of Dan cultivation, only the Golden Pill Taoist can be free." Zhang Jingwen shook his head slightly, "The six tribulations are divided into inner tribulations and outer tribulations. The outer tribulations are easier to overcome, but the inner tribulations are hard to escape."

Gu Qingyuan became interested and asked quickly, "Brother Daoist, you are very knowledgeable. Please help me solve my doubts."

Zhang Jingwen waved his hand: "It's nothing more than living a few more years and knowing more. There are two kinds of external disasters: qi blinding the eyes and karma. Those who are blinded by qi are confused and offend strong people without knowing it. Often, they are in a disaster without knowing it and are beaten and killed for nothing."

Gu Qingyuan thought of the tiger demon and nodded slightly.

"Karma is the entanglement of the past, whether it is a battle of magic a hundred years ago, or a hatred of exterminating a family ten years ago. The enemy comes to the door to open the door. If you can defeat him, the disaster will disappear. If you can't defeat him, you will turn into ashes," Zhang Jingwen continued, "these two are external disasters. If you have superb magical powers, protective magic weapons, or a guardian by your side, you can get a glimmer of hope. The difficulty lies in the remaining internal disasters."

Gu Qingyuan filled his glass with wine and listened carefully.

Zhang Jingwen picked up the wine glass, but did not drink it. He just sighed and said, "The four inner tribulations are obstacles to knowledge and perception. Those who are in the middle of them often do not know it. Their cultivation is in trouble. They try to comprehend the heaven and earth, but cannot find the essence. They are trapped in a conch shell and cannot jump out of the cage. It is difficult to make any progress in a hundred years.

The Cold Palace is a place where all kinds of sadness arise from within. Those who are struck by it are often cultivators whose life span is about to end. They are confused about the future, frustrated about reaching the realm, unable to muster up the energy, and die in depression, as if they are alone in a cold palace, wandering and helpless, hence the name.

These two are relatively easy. If one has a strong character and is able to see one's true nature, and has someone to warn and enlighten one, 30 to 40 percent of people can still make it through. But what is hard to escape is the inner demons and the entanglement of emotions. "

"These two calamities have great reputations. I have also heard of them." Gu Qingyuan quickly answered. Zhang Jingwen turned the wine glass: "It is difficult to overcome the inner demon and escape the emotional calamity. The inner demon is the inner demon. Once the demon thoughts arise, all kinds of illusions and rebirths will arise, which will arouse the great desires in the heart. After going through many illusions, one may become a high-ranking official or a prominent position. Those who seek immortality will pick the sun and the moon with their hands, and those who seek power will command the world. The hearts of immortals like us, who don't have seven emotions and six desires, will be found by the inner demon, and will be in the illusion without knowing it. Hundreds of years of life will be wasted, which is just a good dream. What's worse, the inner demon will occupy the immortal body and cause chaos."

"How can we overcome this inner tribulation?" Gu Qingyuan asked.

"Those with strong minds can break through illusions and find themselves. They can let illusions disappear one by one. Some people can break through them with force, find the inner demon, and kill it. However, the inner demon is born from the heart. If you can do it, he can do it too. It's like fighting with yourself. It's not easy to kill it."

"There is another love calamity. As the saying goes, love is sin, and no one is free from injustice. If you practice virtue, you may meet a mortal or a fairy. For a while, the red star moves, and your heart is filled with spring. You don't think about practicing, but only care about the love between men and women. I once knew a senior from Zifu who was in love calamity and pursued a mortal woman. A hundred years passed in the blink of an eye. He also searched for various secret manuals to prolong her life. He didn't listen to others' advice, and lost most of his achievements. His cultivation was wasted. It was hard to escape the fact that beauty fades easily. In the end, he died of depression, and both of them died."

"It's a pity indeed." Gu Qingyuan thought, isn't this just like the fairy tale dramas he watched in his previous life, where a group of immortal masters did not focus on cultivation, but only cared about pure love, causing chaos in the world.

"The world is unfair and harsh on cultivators like me. We are beset with calamities. Once the door to cultivation is opened, all living beings in the world will be doomed." Zhang Jingwen sighed and finally drank the glass of bitter wine in his hand.

The living creatures of heaven and earth are doomed to fail, that's accurate. Gu Qingyuan thought of all the things in this world again, and his heart trembled.

A cultivator needs to refine Qi and obtain a spiritual object to achieve magic power, and build a foundation requires three to five spiritual objects. However, the Purple Mansion requires spiritual veins as the main material and dozens of spiritual objects as auxiliary materials. It takes hundreds of years to create spiritual objects, and spiritual veins are nurtured by heaven and earth for thousands of years.

The cost of one person may not be much, but it cannot withstand the practitioners in the world working together to fleece the world. Practitioners are replaced from generation to generation, like locusts passing through a landmass and ants devouring a rice granary. No matter how thick the foundation of this world is, it cannot withstand such a fleecing method.

For practitioners, the three disasters and six difficulties are the result of the bumpy road to immortality and the obstruction of heaven. But for heaven and earth, these practitioners are demons, not immortals, and the disasters they bring down should be internal disasters to destroy the demons.

Zhang Jingwen drank a glass of wine, and Gu Qingyuan watched as a gray breath fell from the sky and hung around Zhang Jingwen.

Disaster energy! A great disaster is approaching! Where on earth does this disaster energy come from!

Gu Qingyuan was greatly shocked, but his face did not show it. The cloud patterns that had disappeared long ago were shining brightly. He raised his head and looked hard towards the sky.

The magic power burned out, and in a blink of an eye only most of it remained. The flowing cloud pattern went straight to the dome, passing through the azure sky, passing through the thick clouds, and peeking up.

Gu Qingyuan's pupils shrank, his heart was in turmoil and he could hardly control himself.

Through the clouds in the sky, I saw rolling dark clouds, covering the sky and blocking out the sun. They were all caused by the calamity energy.

The calamity clouds were so dense that they covered the entire sky. Looking up, there was not a single thing missing.

Gu Qingyuan retracted his magical power and looked outside. There were people walking on the street. The sun was shining brightly, the wind was light and the clouds were thin, and they seemed to be unaware.

It was as if the dark air pressing down on the city and the numerous calamity clouds were all illusions.

(End of this chapter)