Chapter 1: The Immortal Who Crawled Out from Underground

  In this era where the Xian are revered and the Saints are emperors, with evil demons running rampant, as a loose immortal, Tang Jing feels immense pressure. Ordinary cultivators only need to focus on their cultivation, quiet their minds and gain insight. When their mortal bodies transcend to become saints and compete for the heavenly throne, they can welcome the arrival of the Nine Heavens Xian Calamity. If they survive, they will become immortals; if not, they will disappear into nothingness. This is also known as "if you don't succeed, you'll become a martyr".

  If the old heaven gave Tang Qing another chance, after he failed to cross the tribulation that year, he would have drifted away with the wind and disappeared into dust. He would rather die than turn to cultivate as a loose immortal, because this path of loose immortals was really too abnormal, so abnormal that even he, who had always been arrogant, felt collapsed at one time.

  Because you have no idea when the heavenly tribulation of a loose immortal will suddenly descend, perhaps when you are flirting with a girl, perhaps when you are being romantic, or perhaps when you are quietly comprehending a skill, that damned heavenly tribulation will silently and stealthily descend. And the heavenly tribulation of a loose immortal is countless times more terrifying than the nine heavens' heavenly tribulation.

  If it were just that, it wouldn't be enough to make Tang Qing collapse. What drove him crazy was that after passing through one calamity, he had to pass through another, and then a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth... You simply didn't know how many calamities you needed to pass through before it would end. It was like a dark road with no end in sight.

  "The ninth one is done...... when will it ever end?!"

  Since ancient times, there have been many who have achieved the state of a wandering immortal, but without exception, almost all of them died in the heavenly tribulation. No one has ever heard of anyone being able to walk this road of no return to its end. Tang Qing had successfully passed through the ninth heaven tribulation. Before each tribulation, he was filled with great expectations, and after each tribulation, what came back was only despair that destroyed everything.

  Hope and despair, such repetition, Tang Qing has already experienced nine times.

  "Alas!"

  With a sigh of resignation, he could only be resigned to his fate now. He shook his head and held up the crystal that was still somewhat bright in his hand, looked at the muddy mixture above him, then looked down at the dark abyss below that seemed endless, and let out another sigh. He adjusted his body, with his back against the uneven mud wall, his feet pushing hard against the stone blocks across from him to support his nearly exhausted body. After a brief rest, he began to dig again with the rough stone in his hand.

  Tang Qing still clearly remembers that after crossing the ninth tribulation, his consciousness gradually disappeared. When he woke up again, he found himself buried underground, but this was within his expectations. The ninth heavenly tribulation was truly terrifying, and the cave he had spent his entire life creating was like an ant in front of it, completely unable to withstand a single blow. Just thinking about it still made him feel chills to this day. Being able to cross over smoothly and wake up alive was, to be honest, somewhat unexpected even for himself.

  As a loose immortal, the heavenly tribulation was extremely terrifying, and each time Tang Qing passed through it smoothly, his physical body would suffer greatly. This time was even more severe, with his physical body suffering a devastating destruction, directly leading to the loss of all his cultivation, and he had no idea when he could recover.

  Tang Qing wasn't worried about losing his cultivation, for someone who had gone through the Nine Heavens Tribulation like him, as long as he was given time, recovering his cultivation wouldn't be a difficult task. To be honest, by now he didn't have any interest in whether his cultivation was strong or weak. What's the use of having strong cultivation? In the end, you still have to go through tribulations. After passing it, what can you do? You can't become an immortal, and you still have to prepare for the next tribulation.

  Crossing tribulations, recovering, cultivating, crossing tribulations again, recovering again, cultivating again, crossing tribulations once more...

  Enough, Tang Qing really felt enough. Thinking carefully, since he embarked on this path of scattered immortals, every day was spent cultivating, every day thinking of ways to improve his cultivation, afraid that if he wasn't careful, the heavenly tribulation would strike. Having lived for so long, Tang Qing realized that he hadn't even had a single good day, these years weren't lived for himself, but rather for the sake of the heavenly tribulation.

  This time Tang Qing was determined, if Tian Jie came or not, it didn't matter, if he came, then I'll just cross the calamity, and if I couldn't make it through, then I'd rather turn to dust and disappear, no longer wanting to go through such troubles.

  "Gurgle... gurgle..."

  A strong sense of hunger and fatigue swept through every inch of Tang Jing's skin, causing his entire body to go limp and his limbs to weaken. He persisted for a while longer, but his head was spinning and the air underground was unbreathable. The endless digging had already exhausted Tang Jing's physical strength, and if it weren't for his Ninefold Scattered Immortal physique, he would have probably died here long ago. Just as he was at a loss for what to do, he suddenly noticed something unusual - the mud above him was clearly different from before.

  "Could it be..."

  Tang Jing's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help but ignore the pain all over his body. He increased his strength and frantically dug up the soil. When he held that sharp stone and pierced through the last layer of mud, a faint light shone in, which was not strong but still made his eyes ache, almost causing him to fall down.

  He didn't dare to open his eyes immediately, but instead greedily inhaled the fresh air from the fist-sized hole above, at this moment, Tang Qing had a feeling of rebirth, more refreshing than drinking the divine wine that year. When he felt almost done, with one last burst of energy, he dug open the hole and crawled out using his last bit of strength.

  "Damn it, what a suffering..."

  This thorough dizziness made him feel dizzy, lying on the ground panting heavily, and after a long while, he shook his head, swayed and stood up, looking around to find himself standing in a desolate ruin, gazing into the distance, where there were ravines everywhere, deep trenches everywhere, and rugged mountains everywhere, whether it was ravines, deep trenches or mountains, all of which were barren and devoid of any grass.

  "It seems that the ninth calamity is even more terrifying than I imagined, not only destroying Laozi's cave, but also devastating the land within a hundred miles."

  Tang Jing shook his head, dragging his weak body forward with a staggering gait, and didn't know how long he had walked. Along the way, he discovered something strange: every now and then, he would find a corpse, some of which had been dead for many days and had become skeletons, while others had died recently. The corpses all had obvious wounds on their bodies, apparently having been murdered by someone.

  I don't know what happened here after Laozi crossed the tribulation, why are there so many people dead here?

  Because his clothes were blown to pieces during the tribulation, he was completely naked at this moment. He could only strip off clothes from some corpses and wear them on himself. Although the smell was unpleasant, he had no choice but to make do with it. He picked up a yellow banner from the ground, which had two big characters "Shen Suan" (Divine Calculation) painted on it. On both sides were written: "Pushing Array Method", "Rescue the Dead and Injured", "Medical Treatment of Various Diseases", "Universal Treasure Appraisal"...

  "I don't even know who this thing belongs to, but it seems to understand a lot."

  Tang Qing wandered aimlessly with the yellow banner, jumped over a ravine, and passed through a mountain range, finally seeing a living person.

  To be precise, it was a woman. The woman wore a tight-fitting outfit and had her hair tied back in a ponytail. Her face was perfectly beautiful without any makeup, and she wore a bright red cloak behind her, showing off her heroic bearing. In front of the woman was a horse carriage, but at this moment, the horse was lying on the ground with its head pressed against the ground and its eyes half-closed.

  "Your wife is serving you well at home, and yet you dare to slack off for me! How unreasonable!"

  The woman scowled, yelling at the horse, seemingly discovering someone approaching from this direction. She turned around, her eyes glaring at Tang Qing, shouting, "Damn it, what are you looking at!"

  Tang Qing had originally thought that he would meet a lifesaver, but he found that this woman's emotions were extremely unstable and her temper seemed to be quite violent. He didn't want to provoke her, knowing that his current cultivation was lost, although relying on the body of the Nine-Calamity Scattered Immortal, he wouldn't be in danger of losing his life. However, his physical body was still very weak and not suitable for fighting. Moreover, he could see that this woman's cultivation was not weak.

  We can't afford to mess with them, let's just avoid them.

  Just as he was about to leave, a stern shout came from behind him.

  "Hey! You scoundrel, stop right there!"

  Tang Jing stopped in his tracks. If he didn't, he would lose all his cultivation and what could he do then? He turned around and pointed to himself, "Call me?"

  "Am I talking to a ghost or something?" The woman glared at Tang Qing and said irritably, "Is there anyone else here besides you?"

  "What's wrong?"

  "On your flag it says 'Save the dying and heal the wounded, cure all kinds of diseases'. Come take a look at my horse and see if it's got some kind of illness." The woman in armor looked extremely disgusted with Tang Jing's quackery, but now she seemed to have no choice but to seek medical attention desperately. She said, "If you can make my horse stand up, I'll reward you with three spiritual stones."

  This woman didn't look like someone who would let things slide, but Tang Qing really didn't want to provoke her. He was truly exhausted, his whole body feeling soft and weak, sitting on the ground without even wanting to move. After a moment of contemplation, he said, "I'll help you treat your horse's injury, and I won't take any spirit stones in return. However, you have to agree to send me on my way."

  "Wow!" The woman seemed to have not expected that the divine stick didn't require spirit stones, and chuckled, "As long as you can cure my horse, sending you on your way is no big deal."

  Tang Qing stopped talking and walked over to carefully examine the horse. Having gone through nine calamities, he had extraordinary insight and could tell at a glance that this was an exceptional fine horse. Its body was tall and majestic, its entire coat a deep black, with longer hair, and if his guess was correct, it should be a Black Flame Horse. When this proud steed ran, its mane would flow freely in the wind, like a blazing flame burning fiercely.

  "Your black flame horse is not sick."

  Upon hearing this, the woman couldn't help but pause for a moment, her eyes flashing with surprise. "You can actually tell that this is a Black Flame Horse? Your eyesight is pretty good." Then she suddenly reacted and said, "If it's not sick, why did it suddenly stop running?"

  "Is this your first time traveling far from home?"

  "Huh? I didn't think you had any skills at all!" The woman was truly surprised, "My horse has been raised in captivity since birth, this is the first time he's gone on a long trip with me."

  "That's it, I miss home a bit."

  "Missing home?" The woman had never heard of a horse missing its home before and asked with interest, "What can be done about it?"

  "I'll go comfort him and he should be fine."

  "Comfort? How can I be comforted?" The woman was very curious in her heart.

  Tang Qing squatted down, gently stroking the horse's mane, saying, "Horse, I know you miss home."

  "Haha! How ridiculous, is that how you comfort it? It's just a horse, how can it possibly understand what you're saying?" The woman laughed, but just as she was laughing with joy, she saw the horse on the ground move slightly, its head also raised up, and a pair of eyes as big as bells looked at Tang Jing, with an expression as if they had met an old friend.

  "This..."

  The woman did not hear Tang Jing speak again, but she saw Tang Jing's mouth moving, as if he was muttering to himself, and also seemed to be communicating with the horse. Just as the woman was puzzled, an unbelievable scene happened: the originally weak horse suddenly stood up, spirited and energetic, raised its head, opened its mouth and let out a loud neigh, which was almost deafening.

  "You... what did you say to it, how can the horse understand your words? Are you...?" The woman suddenly seemed to realize something and exclaimed, "Are you proficient in the art of communicating with beasts?"

  "I roughly understand a bit, just enough to get by!" Tang Qing waved the yellow banner in his hand, "Without some real skills, how could I dare to carry this yellow banner?"

  The woman looked at Tang Qing again, her eyes with a little less disdain and more curiosity. She knew that the technique of spiritual beast driving was very complex and rare, and she had always wanted to learn it but never had the chance. Unexpectedly, today she met a Jianghu shaman who actually understood this strange thing, which really surprised her.

  "The horse has fully recovered, you said you'd send me on my way, aren't you going back on your word?"

  After recovering from the surprise, upon hearing Tang Jing say this, the woman shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and said "Since Officer Ling has promised you, how could he go back on his word? Escorting you for a bit is just escorting you for a bit, what's so extraordinary about that?"