This immortal was clearly ordinary, yet he was unusually confident.

Qin Qianqian returned to her room, but couldn't fall asleep. The image of Zheng Zhuang in white robes kept appearing in her mind, and the beautiful flute music seemed to echo in her ears again.

How many hardships must one endure to be able to play such a soul-stirring melody?

How many stories are buried in his heart when he usually laughs and jokes around?

"Nine Tribulations Immortal Melody" is not a name Zheng Zhuang came up with randomly, but is related to his cultivation method.

The inheritance he received from Dongfang Wuming was very different from the current cultivation system, because it was created by Dongfang Wuming himself.

Dongfang Wuming came from an ordinary sect, and the inheritance he initially received was not profound. After entering the cave, he made rapid progress and soon reached the end of his cultivation.

Forced into a corner, he had no choice but to create his own cultivation method. Perhaps he was truly blessed with good fortune at the time, and he succeeded by sheer luck.

To correspond with his cultivation method, he divided the cultivation realm into nine levels, called the "Nine Tribulations of Ascension to Immortality," which means that after experiencing nine tribulations on the path of cultivation, one can transcend the mortal realm and ascend to immortality.

However, there is no clear definition of which nine tribulations they are, since each cultivator's experience is not exactly the same, or even if the tribulations are the same, the order may be different.

The same experience has different meanings for different people, and the same experience also has different meanings for the same person at different stages.

To give a simple example, if parents catch someone making a slow-motion movement with their left or right hand, some people might experience social annihilation on the spot, while others can calmly say that they are studying the effect of frictional resistance per unit area on blood flow velocity.

The latter may experience a dramatic improvement in hand speed as a result, and may even become a professional player in the future, cough, e-sports professional player.

But for the former, perhaps because of a blow to his self-esteem, he never recovered. For him, this could be considered a tribulation, a tribulation called Yang... uh, awkward!

This is the peculiarity of this cultivation method. There is no clear explanation of what each tribulation is. In the words of Dongfang Wuming, it is the natural way of the Tao, which requires one to understand and experience it for oneself.

Even the nine levels of realms are extremely simple, from the first tribulation realm to the ninth tribulation realm, without any creativity.

No wonder the Sword of the Primordial Spirit was so excited when the poetry gathering was mentioned. Given Dongfang Wuming's limited cultural knowledge, such activities should have been out of his reach during his lifetime.

Despite the unreliability of this cultivation method, Zheng Zhuang's cultivation progressed quite smoothly.

During the last conferment of gods, the appearance of the Thunder Spear could be considered a tribulation. In the end, he successfully passed the "thunder tribulation" by relying on the mysterious Xuanhuang Qi in his body and successfully broke through to the fifth tribulation realm.

Dongfang Wuming died under the "lightning tribulation," but it is unclear which tribulation it was.

According to Zheng Zhuang's speculation, the fifth tribulation realm should be stronger than the Golden Core realm, equivalent to the current Nirvana realm. However, according to Qin Qianqian, even if they are both in the Nirvana realm, the difference between them is huge.

During his years in the ancient tomb, he survived four tribulations: the "death tribulation," the "body tribulation," the "family tribulation," and the "delusion tribulation."

Generally speaking, a "death tribulation" requires being put in a life-or-death situation and is a very difficult tribulation to overcome. However, since he had traveled through time, which is equivalent to having died once, this tribulation was actually the easiest for him.

Suddenly recalling the time travel process, Zheng Zhuang couldn't help but feel embarrassed, but those extremely awkward memories flooded back uncontrollably.

In his past life, Zheng Zhuang was a third-rate online novelist, the kind whose writing always flopped.

That day, a classmate he hadn't been in touch with for many years suddenly invited him for drinks. At first, he was puzzled, but when he met the classmate, he learned that the goddess he had once secretly admired had gotten married.

That classmate and he had both secretly admired the same girl, and since they were both still single, he naturally saw him as someone in the same boat. So he invited him to drink together to drown his sorrows, as a way of comforting each other.

It was very late when he got home, but he suddenly remembered that he hadn't updated yet. This wouldn't do. He still had to have basic professional ethics. Most importantly, he couldn't miss the perfect attendance record!

So he dragged his tired body and stayed up all night. He finally finished his writing task and was about to rest when he suddenly thought of his goddess, her beautiful face and her good figure, and his heart was filled with passion!

But then he remembered that she was already married, and thought about how he had accomplished nothing, so he could only silently open that hard drive that was sealed and then unsealed again...

In the following days, he braved the sweltering heat of Tokyo, swam several laps in the Caribbean Sea, and then rode a fast horse to visit more than a dozen of his mother's friends.

They are warm and considerate. When faced with pressure from life or others, they choose to bravely bear it, even if they end up battered and bruised, or even drink the bitter wine of life!

Zheng Zhuang was moved by their dedication and couldn't help but clap enthusiastically with one hand... because he needed to use the other hand to move the mouse.

Eventually, he got tired, he fell asleep, and when he woke up, he was in an ancient tomb, transformed into a little boy.

Strong L was reduced to ashes!

He couldn't imagine what expressions would people have when they found his body.

His epitaph might read like this:

"This was an unknown 'physicist' who used his young life to prove an unbelievable conclusion: per unit area, the greater the frictional resistance, the faster the liquid flows. His dedication to science is worthy of our learning... but we do not recommend doing so!"

Even now, Zheng Zhuang feels ashamed. He must be the first person in history to have time-traveled in this way!

After experiencing the "death tribulation," the "body tribulation" and the "family tribulation" are similar. When the body dies, the tribulation ends. Zheng Zhuang's current body no longer belongs to him, and he has been separated from his relatives from his previous life forever, because he also died socially at the same time as his body died.

Therefore, he passed through these three tribulations almost without any problems.

This is also why he was able to reach his current level in just a few years. Just like playing a game, passing through these three tribulations is like a newbie gift from the system.

But the "Wang Jie" is completely different. As the name suggests, it is an unexpected disaster. Because he had overcome the first three tribulations too easily, this tribulation came particularly fiercely. Once, he almost choked to death when he ate a "Bigu Dan" (a fasting pill).

Fortunately, he had already reached the main burial chamber, where there were no more traps or mechanisms. Even so, he remained obediently inside the chamber and did not step out, thus managing to survive the ordeal.

Zheng Zhuang didn't know what the remaining tribulations were or when they would come, but it was self-evident that each one would be more difficult than the last...