This tribulation — Earth Sink — was utterly irrational!
Not only did it trap the tribulation-crossing Gu Immortals on the ground, but it also disrupted their thoughts.
Without thoughts to command Gu Insects, how could Gu Immortals deploy any means?
Unless they had Wisdom Path methods to resist.
But there was a prerequisite: those Wisdom Path methods had to have been set up beforehand. Otherwise, once they were caught by Earth Sink first, even if the Gu Immortals had Wisdom Path contingencies in place, they would be unable to use them.
Strike first, and you gain the upper hand. Strike second, and you're doomed.
Losing the initiative meant you were all but finished.
This only demonstrated how powerful a Tribulation was — to say nothing of the Myriad Tribulations above it.
"Damn it!!" Ying Wuxie struggled ceaselessly, but to no avail. He only sank deeper, and in his fury let out a scream.
"Don't struggle, and don't let your mind race. Both will only make our situation worse. This is no longer something we can solve." Immortal Zombie Bo Qing remained remarkably calm.
More precisely, the remnant soul of Mo Yao within was calm.
She had experience.
In life, she had helped her beloved Bo Qing face his tribulations, and the tribulations she had witnessed were even more terrifying than this one!
By comparison, the Earth Sink tribulation seemed almost gentle and harmless.
"It seems we can only pin our hopes on the main body's rescue," Ying Wuxie sighed, gazing toward the Ghostly Emperor You Hun.
He saw that the Ghostly Emperor You Hun was equally mired in the mire. His enormous black feet were already half-buried beneath the surface. Worse still, the ball of his left foot was sewn tightly to the ground.
This was the result of the Immortal Gu House Embroidered Mansion's earlier attack on the Ghostly Emperor You Hun.
Judging from this small detail, one could see that although the Ghostly Emperor You Hun was incomparably powerful, he had in fact already exerted his full strength — and yet he had not gained control of the battlefield.
At this moment, two of his six eyes were fixed on the Heaven Monitoring Tower, keeping it pinned and unable to move, while the remaining four stared intently at the sky above.
Above, in the vault of heaven, the gray clouds of sorrow grew denser, and began slowly descending.
The second Myriad Tribulation arrived.
But this one was different from the first — the Wind and Thunder Cage. The Wind and Thunder Cage had been unimaginably fast. In the blink of an eye, wind and lightning engulfed you, and you were already imprisoned.
This Myriad Tribulation, however, was extraordinarily slow.
So slow it seemed to give the one crossing the tribulation ample time to mount countless counterattacks.
But the Ghostly Emperor You Hun did not move.
He stood perfectly still, like a silent mountain.
"Has the main body been hit?!" Ying Wuxie screamed. He watched with desperate anxiety. "This is such a perfect opportunity — fight back!!"
But even as the gray clouds of sorrow shrouded the Ghostly Emperor You Hun almost entirely, the latter did not stir in the slightest, continuing to stare down the Heaven Monitoring Tower and hold it in place.
The Heavenly Court Gu Immortals groaned in misery.
They had used the Phasing technique to make the Heaven Monitoring Tower dodge the Ghostly Emperor You Hun's attacks. But they never expected that the Ghostly Emperor You Hun's mastery of the Dao of Phasing far surpassed imagination — he was absolutely at the Grandmaster level.
The Heaven Monitoring Tower's Phasing tactic had been turned against it by the Ghostly Emperor You Hun, making it impossible to return to solidity. If it couldn't solidify, how could it fight? How could it harass?
"The Myriad Tribulation is coming!" Ying Wuxie gritted his teeth, glaring at the gray clouds of sorrow as they drifted downward.
Even the Immortal Zombie Bo Qing involuntarily narrowed his eyes, every muscle in his body tensing.
The Earth Sink tribulation had already left them completely powerless. Now, with the arrival of the Myriad Tribulation, would this be the end for Bo Qing and Ying Wuxie?
But the gray clouds descended... and seemed to cause no harm at all.
"What's going on? Is there actually a harmless Myriad Tribulation?!" Ying Wuxie had been on edge for a long time, only to see nothing happen. He frantically groped all over his own body with both hands, shouting in bewildered alarm.
The Immortal Zombie Bo Qing did not answer him.
It was one of the Heavenly Court Gu Immortals who recognized this Myriad Tribulation. But Ying Wuxie had no way of learning the answer.
"Could this be Gray Memories?!" the Gu Immortal who had recognized it cried out.
"What is Gray Memories?"
The Heavenly Court Gu Immortal sank into memory: "When I was young, I once inherited the legacy of an Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal. That Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal had been defeated by the Myriad Tribulation — Gray Memories. On his deathbed, he managed to leave behind his legacy. This Myriad Tribulation causes no harm to the physical body whatsoever, but instead draws out the deepest memories buried in one's heart. These are memories that once inflicted severe psychological trauma or left shadows over the life of the tribulation-crossing Gu Immortal."
"You must never underestimate this Myriad Tribulation. That Eighth Transformation elder endured it for less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn before his fighting spirit was entirely crushed. He fell into utter despair, lost all will to fight, and found no more reason to go on."
"As the saying goes, one's greatest enemy is oneself. For someone like the Ghostly Emperor You Hun — invincible under heaven — wouldn't his greatest enemy be himself? A person living in this world, even if they become a Ninth Transformation Venerable, was once weak. Everyone starts from weakness and cultivates step by step, growing ever stronger. The Ghostly Emperor You Hun massacred the world, his killing nature unfathomably terrifying. Later generations have all speculated that something traumatic must have happened to him in childhood."
"Who doesn't have hidden pain buried in the depths of their heart? Who doesn't have some unspeakable, shameful act? Who has never made a choice that went against their true nature? In the course of growing up, who has never made a mistake? Wonderful, truly wonderful! This Myriad Tribulation is absolutely perfect! I'm afraid the Ghostly Emperor You Hun is going to fall right here."
Myriad Tribulation — Gray Memories.
It was precisely because he recognized this Myriad Tribulation that the Ghostly Emperor You Hun had not moved.
He knew that no attack could dispel this tribulation. Only by plunging into it — by facing head-on every ugly memory, every shadow, every humiliation of the past — could one hope to overcome it.
The gray mist swirling around him suddenly took on a luster and began to emit sound.
What appeared before the assembled immortals was a scene from the Ghostly Emperor You Hun's childhood.
"Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"