Chapter 845: Earth Tribulation

Wind, Fire, Water, Earth.

Wind and Fire were already over, so two more Tribulations remained.

Gu Qing Shan once again arrived at the world made of water.

Unlike the previous time, during this Water Tribulation, Gu Qing Shan would have to face himself from six parallel worlds.

The first parallel world ‘Gu Qing Shan’ was already here waiting and gave Gu Qing Shan his test.

A few moments later.

The other ‘Gu Qing Shan’ was crouching on the ground, carefully studying the formation runes on the water surface in surprise: [ I can’t believe formations could actually do such a thing, where did you learn this? ]

Gu Qing Shan replied: “From a cultivation civilization that can only live in the sky, forever unable to land on the ground”

[ Their civilization must have been very impressive ]

“Indeed, and they were also very selfish. Here, put your hand on this jade tag, memorize them all before you leave”

…

Another ‘Gu Qing Shan’ appeared.

[ You’re the one facing the Tribulation right? So what is your [Order] called? ]he asked.

“The [Demon King Order]”

[ That sounds scary, my [Order] is called [Shelter] ]

“I know this [Order], you must live quite comfortably then”

[ I think it’s normal, probably not as tough as you’re living, but I feel kind of helpless sometimes ]

“No one can live swimmingly forever, have you gotten married yet?”

[ Not yet. I’m kind of scared to, there’s definitely going to be trouble if I do ]

“What do you mean?”

[ Hah, someone would definitely come to steal the marriage, so I’m scared of getting married ]

“What!? I would never be that pathetic, why haven’t you dealt with them yet? Can’t you even protect your woman?”

[ Hah, I’m the one who can’t protect myself, those girls are there to steal me away ]

“Ah, so that’s why”

…

[ My test will be to create an elementary-level Mech ]

“I can do that, but I’m probably not as good as you”

[ That’s fine, I’m not going to make you stay here, just do your best and I’ll let you pass ]

“Thank you, I’m also curious, why is your world’s technological level so impressive?”

[ Ah, that’s because I activated the Impartial Goddess. We broke through the North Pole spaceship’s firewall together and stole all the scientific research achievements ]

“Were you able to win against the Demon Lord?”

[ Demon Lord? What’s that? ]

“I see, ignore that question”

…

“Ah, you’re the strongest one among the versions of myself who came here to test me”

[ But still a bit lacking compared to you ]

“What is your [Order]?”

[ [Worlds Apocalypse Online: Single Player Mode] ]

“No wonder you’re so strong, alright, I have something good for you”

[ What’s this? ]

“A large-sized jade tag, all of my cultivation experience is recorded inside”

[ Thank you ]

…

While facing the Water Tribulation, Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but sigh emotionally.

Who could’ve thought, none of the ‘Gu Qing Shan’ from the parallel worlds was stronger than me.

As far as I’ve seen, I’m the strongest version of myself.

And the reason for all of this was the War God UI who had been with me from the beginning.

Gu Qing Shan had already realized this.

None of myself from any parallel worlds obtained the War God UI, they carry various other [Orders] instead.

Finally, the sixth ‘Gu Qing Shan’ from a parallel world left.

The Water Tribulation was over.

Gu Qing Shan’s figure moved and let himself be pushed away by an intense force out of this world.

The next Tribulation would be the final one.

The Earth Tribulation.

This was the last Tribulation one had to face to achieve Three Thousand Worlds realm and the most unique of the four Tribulations.

Even [Origin] had to display blood-red lines of text to remind Gu Qing Shan to face this Tribulation seriously:

[Your Excellency, you are about to enter the Earth Tribulation]

[Repeat, you are about to enter the most wondrous Earth World]

[This Tribulation is an exceptionally unique Tribulation, please do not let your guard down as the Order cannot offer Your Excellency any aid within this Tribulation]

Gu Qing Shan replied: “You said it as if you helped me out during any of the other Tribulations”

[Origin] paused briefly, then all the text on the UI disappeared.

It was reminding him through the voice function:

[Your Excellency, please be careful to pay close attention, within the Earth Tribulation, all of your abilities will be sealed away by the unique characteristics of the Earth World. You will not be able to use any abilities at all]

Gu Qing Shan asked: “Will my memories be sealed as well?”

[It will not, but as soon as you enter the Earth World, your cultivation will vanish without a trace, all of your supernatural items will also lose their effects, and your body will be reduced to that of a normal person] [Origin] explained.

“As long as I have my memories, my swordsmanship and battle experience would still remain, I know how to deal with such a situation” Gu Qing Shan replied.

[Origin] insisted: [Even so, please remain vigilant. If you die within the Earth Tribulation, all would be lost]

“I know”

Gu Qing Shan appeared calm, but in fact, he was also panicking a bit.

The Earth World.

No matter if you had immense spirit energy, knew countless intricate and powerful spells, or had a Thaumaturgy that allowed you to match ten thousand people, they would all be useless in the Earth World.

This was a legendary world within the cultivation world.

Because of the way it perfectly forbids all supernatural powers, cultivators must act like a normal person and struggle for their lives within the Earth World like the rest.

Gu Qing Shan held his breath and waited for a while.

The darkness around him slowly retreated to reveal countless lights ahead.

It was in the middle of the day.

Gu Qing Shan found himself standing on top of a field of fine grains of sand.

I’ve arrived at the Earth World!

Gu Qing Shan took a deep breath.

There was nothing but the endless desert around him.

Although, at the far end of Gu Qing Shan’s line of sight, a long and straight highway could be seen stretching into the horizon.

At the other end of the highway, there seemed to be a few buildings.

All other information in front of Gu Qing Shan’s retina disappeared, leaving only a single line of text.

[Survive for 7 days]

After he read through it, this line of text vanished as well.

The intense sunlight shined from above, prickling his skin with the sensation of heat.

Gu Qing Shan tried releasing his inner sight, only to find that his inner sight was trapped within his own Thought Sea, unable to leak even a little bit outside.

He scanned his Thought Sea.

Everything he had was currently sealed, making it so that he couldn’t even touch them.

The good news was that the timeline around the Earth sword was fully frozen.

Perhaps to ensure that everything remained the same, the Earth World’s Law directly sealed the Earth sword in its current state.

Confirming this, Gu Qing Shan felt a lot more assured.

The bad news was that when Gu Qing Shan leapt up like he always does, he didn’t fly all the way to the sky like normal.

After jumping up about half a meter, he stumbled and fell back down.

Fortunately, the sand was soft enough that he didn’t feel any pain.

Unfortunately, the grains of hot sand went through his shoes and seeped into his foot.

The [Black Smog Armor] couldn’t even be taken out, let alone worn, and the clothes Gu Qing Shan was wearing was degraded from high-grade cultivator’s clothing to normal clothing.

Gu Qing Shan muttered: “How miraculous, just what kind of power could turn everything mundane like this?”

But he quickly didn’t care about that anymore.

Because it was too hot. Just by standing here for a few minutes, Gu Qing Shan was already sweating bullets.

For a non-powered living being, the desert was an exceedingly unfriendly natural environment.

Gu Qing Shan looked at the buildings at the end of the road.

That’s my only hope for survival.

He didn’t waste any more time and quickly walked along the road towards those buildings.

There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.

The heat was being reflected off the road, causing the air above it to warp.

The entire world felt like a braising pot.

Gu Qing Shan had already taken off his outermost shirt to use as a simple hat to cover his head.

This was the toughest and longest trek he had made ever since he began his cultivation.

Sweat flowed down along his back.

The exposed skin around his body was already burnt red.

After about half an hour, Gu Qing Shan noticed in surprise that he was breathing a bit heavily.

This truly is an unimaginable world, not only did it turn me into a normal person, but my physique has also been normalized.

But there was nothing he could do about it now.

He needed to maintain stable breathing, tried his best not to look up and continue walking forward.

Another hour passed.

When Gu Qing Shan felt that his body was close to collapsing, he finally reached his destination.

A smaller road branched off from the highway that led straight into the relatively small desert town.

There wasn’t a single person to be seen in this town, but there was a faint sound of music resounding in the air.

This made sense since no one would bother going out under such intense heat.

Although he was close to fainting from a heatstroke, Gu Qing Shan still retained the most basic sense of caution.

He narrowed his eyes to observe the town.

There were quite a few buildings in this town that had marks suggesting there might have been a battle here.

Quite a few traps and some simple defensive fortifications were laid on the road.

Some of the buildings that were close to the highway were already completely destroyed, charred black with opened doors.

But as one looked further along the road, they would find that the majority of the buildings here were still intact.

Seems like the danger would most likely come from the highway.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t have time to wait.

His stamina was already reaching its end, no matter how careful he was, he needed to find somewhere to stay out of this intense sunlight.

He walked towards the town and stood in front of the first destroyed building.

After a bit of observation, he entered the building without hesitation.

This was the building closest to the highway, all the windows were already broken while the inside seemed to be in chaos with a few empty shelves fallen on the ground and nothing else.

At a glance, this used to be a supermarket or something similar before whatever disaster occurred here.

Gu Qing Shan looked around and relaxed a bit more.

There wasn’t a single useful thing left here.

But from a different perspective, this also meant that this supermarket had already been raided quite a few times.

So it should be quite safe overall.

As the sunlight couldn’t reach too far into the building, Gu Qing Shan finally got spared from the heat.

While he still had some strength in his body, Gu Qing Shan walked deeper into the building, pushed open a wrecked door, and headed inside.

The back area was where the supermarket’s warehouse and transport freights were stored.

Similar to the front, this place had also been raided by people, not leaving a scrap of food or drinks left.

There was an empty wine bottle covered in dust rolling on the ground, apparently having been left here for quite a few days.

Aside from that, there were only a few pieces of old newspaper used to wrap things.

Gu Qing Shan muttered with his dry lips, then came and picked the empty bottle up.

He carefully put it into his chest.

This was the first thing he found here that could be considered a weapon.

He picked up those pieces of newspaper and sat down in a relatively cool and dry place while leaning on the wall.

Although he was incredibly thirsty, Gu Qing Shan estimated that he could still endure it a bit longer.

The most important thing now for him was to regain his stamina.

I almost dropped that bottle when I picked it up earlier.

My current state isn’t suitable to deal with any situations.

Time slowly passed.

The sun had gone down a bit so the temperature outside wasn’t quite as high as it was before.

Gu Qing Shan also had about half an hour’s worth of rest.

His stamina managed to recover a bit.

But he felt his mouth become a lot dryer, there wasn’t even saliva in there right now.

This was a sign of extreme dehydration.

As a cultivator, when had he ever faced such a terrible struggle?

If any other cultivator had gone through this, they would most likely have begun to try and find a source of water.

But having lived through an Apocalypse, Gu Qing Shan knew better to retain his calm and caution.

He left the worn-out newspaper on the ground.

He couldn’t understand the language.

But the war-related pictures on the newspaper were still enough for him to make a few assumptions about this world.

Without being able to use supernatural powers, this world became technologically advanced instead.

From the pictures, he saw a few primitive flying implements and ammunition, as well as the preliminary form of Mech suits.

As for their enemies, it seemed to be some sort of humanoid creature or mutated humans who became monsters.

This way, it would certainly be hard for a normal person to deal with them.

While contemplating, Gu Qing Shan exercised his lower body a bit.

He was currently getting used to his mundane body to make sure that he would be able to perform some reflexive movements with the stamina he currently had.

A few moments later, the sound of an engine or machinery could be heard outside.

Gu Qing Shan stuck close to the wall and sneaked a few glances outside the window.

He saw a primitive transportation vehicle.

A truck.