Chapter 869 - 337: Nine Tribulations True Immortal
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This is a continent named "Eternal Immortal." As the only continent in the Small Thousand Worlds capable of nurturing life, it is naturally the center of the universe, with all celestial bodies revolving around the Eternal Immortal Continent under the influence of the Power of Circulation.
On an ordinary day, an ordinary newborn was born on the edge of the eastern lands of the Eternal Immortal Continent.
Apart from his relatives, no one paid attention to the arrival of this newborn.
His parents named him —
"Fan Wubing."
As a child from an ordinary family, being healthy throughout his life was already the greatest luxury he could hope for. Compared to those from official families, or even legendary cultivator families, he was in no way comparable.
Fan Wubing, like his name implies, grew up healthily.
At the age of eight, a storyteller came to the village, bringing colorful and exciting tales. Both adults and children loved hearing stories of immortals from outside the village.
Upon hearing about immortals who could soar through clouds and mists, overturn mountains and seas, command winds and rains, and wield lightning and thunder... young Fan Wubing planted a seed in his heart.
He wanted to leave the village, join an immortal sect, and become a cultivator.
He eagerly collected all records he could find about cultivation. But unfortunately, this village was too remote and too small. Most people’s farthest journey was to the small county at the foot of the mountain. And the mountain road to the county was not something a child could walk down.
However, he never gave up this idea, thinking that once he grew older, he would walk out bit by bit, and someday he would make it.
But, the world is unpredictable.
At the age of ten, a tiger with fiery red fleshy wings, larger than a house, suddenly fell from the sky.
It was severely injured, bleeding profusely from all over its body.
The villagers became its food to recover from its injuries.
It wasn’t until he saw a peer being devoured in one bite, witnessing its brutal chewing, that Fan Wubing realized... this was a demon beast.
A group of ordinary mountain folk, who only knew how to wield hoes, could not possibly stop this vicious demon beast and could only become its meal.
Everyone wanted to flee, but there was no escape. This winged tiger demon could not only fly but also summon strong winds.
Fan Wubing’s friends and family all met their end in the mouth of the demon beast.
Just when he was about to be ruthlessly devoured, an immortal descended.
To be accurate, it was a celestial being.
The celestial being dispatched the tiger demon with a single move. Just as the celestial being was about to leave, Fan Wubing stepped forward, asking the celestial being to teach him cultivation.
The celestial being asked,
"Why do you want to cultivate?"
Fan Wubing had just lost his family and friends but managed to suppress his resentment and sorrow, candidly answering,
"To change fate!"
"What does a ten-year-old child know about fate?"
Fan Wubing replied,
"I know! The tiger demon killed everyone in my village, that was their fate! The celestial being intervened in time, and I narrowly escaped death, that is my fate! But if I had the ability to change fate, the tiger demon wouldn’t have come here, and the entire village could have been spared!"
"Then you’ll just be a mountain folk for life. You say you changed it, but you actually haven’t."
"So, this is fate!" Fan Wubing persistently looked at the celestial being.
After much contemplation, the celestial being agreed to take him to her sect.
Starting as a servant disciple, he thus embarked on the path of cultivation.
He wasn’t a gifted person; all he could do was work harder than others.
With perseverance, he gradually climbed within the sect.
Tasks, trials, cultivation, adventures, battles...
Without background, resources, or talent... every step he took was extremely difficult, and every sparring session and battle with fellow disciples and enemies was very perilous. Yet he always managed to win, even winning narrowly, fuelled by a stubborn determination that others couldn’t quite understand.
One fellow disciple asked him,
"Why do you go to such extremes?"
Fan Wubing replied,
"Because all I have to gamble with is my life."
From servant disciple, to outer disciple, to inner sect disciple, to core disciple, and eventually to true disciple.
It took him fifty whole years, nearly reaching the age limit.
But even as a true disciple, no elder would take him as a disciple. Because his age was too old, and his talent was the worst among the sect’s true disciples history.
It seemed he was once again to journey alone.
The celestial being who saved his life accepted him, but not as a master, as a senior sister.
Only then did he learn the celestial being was named —
Fu Ming.
Sister Fu Ming was not a talkative person, even when taking him out for trials, she mostly stayed silent. Often on a trial trip, the two spoke less than ten sentences altogether.
In the following ten years, he still couldn’t figure out what kind of person Sister was.
The only thing he was sure of was that Sister was very powerful, possibly mightier than the Sect Leader, more powerful than the Supreme Elder.
The days of practicing with Sister were peaceful and cherished deeply by Fan Wubing.
Until one day, two people arrived at the sect, claiming to be from the "Xuan Sect," ordered to capture a demon cultivator.
The one they wanted to capture was Fu Ming.
Fan Wubing simply could not believe his Sister would be a demon cultivator. But his opinion didn’t matter at all.
Facing the capture by the Xuan Sect people, Fu Ming didn’t explain, keeping her usual silent demeanor. But she wouldn’t sit and wait for death. That day, everyone in the sect witnessed her powerful skills.