Chapter Eighty-One: Heavenly Tribulation

The agony that made Lei Dong wish he could simply die began again.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the white holy radiance, the true essence in his meridians, the true essence within his Nascent Soul—all of it surged through his body in wild disorder, crashing and battering one another, bringing pain so terrible it was worse than death. At this point Lei Dong could not care about anything else. He could only preserve the last shred of clarity in his spiritual mind and struggle to keep the Chaotic Art circulating, doing his utmost to force the tangled powers, now mixed together beyond distinction, to continue along the art's route, one circuit after another, without cease.

As for the consequences? To hell with it. Who could worry about that now?

What gave Lei Dong a sliver of comfort was this: with each circuit of the Chaotic Art, the true essence within him grew a little stronger, while the spiritual energy and white radiance diminished a little. The change was almost imperceptible, yet undeniably real, as though the different powers, wholly unlike one another in nature, were being assimilated by the Chaotic Art and gradually transformed into ever denser true essence.

Amid this constant ebb and flow, the Nascent Soul too repeatedly collapsed and expanded, collapsed again and expanded again. Each time it collapsed, it grew a little larger than before, and a little more solid.

No one knew how many circuits later, but at last the true essence within Lei Dong's body reached some wondrous balance with the other powers. The various forces no longer charged about without order, but moved smoothly along the meridians.

Only then did Lei Dong finally free himself from the pain that seemed to bore into his very bones, and calm his mind to sense the changes within.

It was only at this moment that he suddenly realized: the Nascent Soul inside the Golden Core had fully stabilized at a height of three feet, its whole body blazing with golden brilliance, radiating a gentle yet impossible-to-look-at directly light. And the true essence within his body had condensed into a state halfway between liquid and solid, like mercury.

Even more astonishing was that within this tiny Nascent Soul, a complete system of meridians had actually formed!

The Nascent Soul slowly opened its eyes, and golden light flashed again. Then its little mouth opened to the maximum, and with a fierce inhale it swept away once more all the true essence, spiritual energy, and white holy radiance within Lei Dong's body, drawing them into itself. Along the newly formed meridians, following the route of the Chaotic Art, they began to circulate at great speed.

At this moment Lei Dong's body seemed already withered and dead, without pulse or breath. All his vigor had been poured into the Nascent Soul.

The Nascent Soul slowly swelled again. As it expanded, the already paper-thin membrane of the Golden Core grew thinner and more fragile still. A crackling series of fine sounds rang out, and tiny fissures appeared all over the surface of the Golden Core, as though it might shatter at any moment. Yet no matter how the Nascent Soul expanded and pressed, the final break still refused to come.

Lei Dong watched, urgent and anxious. He knew that once the Nascent Soul completely shattered the Golden Core, the most important barrier on his path of cultivation would be behind him. In the present state, perhaps just a little more spiritual power would be enough to break through!

He once again activated the Chaotic Art, drawing in spiritual energy from outside to lend the Nascent Soul a hand. But to his shock, for some unknown reason the Chaotic Art had actually stopped working. No matter how he urged it on, there was no response at all. That little bit of spiritual power could not enter his body!

He could only watch helplessly as the Nascent Soul swelled again and again, trying to break through the final barrier, only to fail each time. The brilliant golden light that had once blazed so brightly was now dimming little by little. Lei Dong wanted to shout in despair, but he had no strength at all and not even a sound would come out.

Could it be that he was truly going to fail like this? A fierce unwillingness surged from the depths of Lei Dong's heart.

"Snap!"

Just as Lei Dong was on the verge of losing all hope, a burst of spiritual power suddenly shot down from the point atop his head and was immediately rebounded by the Golden Core.

But it was only that fleeting, vanishing trace of spiritual power, and it produced an unimaginable effect.

Boom!

Touched lightly by that spiritual power, the paper-thin Golden Core gave a long, thunderous detonation and crumbled to dust. The three-foot-tall Nascent Soul burst forth from the shattered core and stood proudly within Lei Dong's body, its entire form radiating boundless light. Countless strands of true essence condensed into solid true qi, and an overwhelming pressure burst through his body, spreading across the heavens and earth in an instant.

Core shattered, soul born.

The most crucial life-or-death threshold on the road of cultivation had finally been crossed under a single, unintentional palm strike from Shui Yao Xian.

At this moment, the Nascent Soul within Lei Dong's body had completely taken over all true qi, circulating endlessly along both Lei Dong's own meridians and the meridians newly formed within the Nascent Soul itself, cycle after cycle without end.

Only then did Lei Dong slowly open his eyes.

Looking at Shui Yao Xian, whose face was filled with joy, Lei Dong's gaze brimmed with gratitude. He knew that the last surge of spiritual power that had rushed in from the point atop his head must have come from her. If not for her, perhaps he would have been trapped to death in that extremely dangerous state.

Lei Dong's smile made Shui Yao Xian faintly flustered for no clear reason. As though she did not dare meet his eyes, she quietly turned her gaze away, and then her little mouth fell open, her face stricken with shock.

Attracted by her expression, Lei Dong looked around as well, and he too was astonished.

Since the formation had first stabilized, Lei Dong had been caught for a long while in the struggle of the many powers within his body. Shui Yao Xian had first broken through amid battle, and then helped him recover, so neither of them had paid attention to what was happening outside. But now, by their sight, the once small Five-Point Spirit Gathering Formation had unexpectedly expanded to cover a radius of ten kilometers, with a height exceeding twenty meters.

Outside the formation, James Sam was roaring wildly, hurling colossal pillars of light again and again against the outer shell of the array. Yet that dense, thick shell did not stir in the least.

Inside the formation, the five comrades were seated cross-legged on the ground, eyes lightly closed, apparently unaffected by the outside world as they frantically drew in the rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

And to Lei Dong's spiritual sense, it was astonishingly clear that every single member had already completed one breakthrough and was now stabilizing their cultivation.

Lang Tianyu, Bei Shiliang, Luo Haoran, and Song Jingang had all crossed the barrier of Qi Refinement and successfully established their foundations, and by now they had reached the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment. As for Wu Yun, whose cultivation had originally been the highest, he had actually already reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, only one step away from forming a Golden Core!

But what changed Lei Dong and Shui Yao Xian's expressions was not this scene before their eyes. It was the astonishing transformation taking place across the entire sky!

When the aura released at the moment Lei Dong's Nascent Soul reached maturity soared into the heavens, some profoundly mysterious place deep in the sky seemed to sense something. The sky within a radius of ten li trembled strangely, and then a dense mass of dark clouds suddenly appeared overhead, stretching for several kilometers.

As if in one breath it had sucked dry the spiritual energy and moisture of the heavens and earth, the cloud spread in an instant until it seemed boundless. Very soon, between the dark cloud and the sea, a gigantic whirlpool formed. Enormous amounts of seawater were drawn up as though swallowed in a single mouthful by some immense flood dragon, spinning as they shot into the air. One bolt after another of thick lightning flashed between the dark cloud and the water dragon like scarlet flood dragons, while thunder rumbled faintly from the edge of the sky.

A might capable of destroying heaven and earth rose, gathered, and then pressed down like a deluge amid the faint thunder and lightning. Soon the center of the cloud bank, spanning more than a hundred li, was aligned directly over the tiny Five-Point Spirit Gathering Formation.

"What is this?" Lei Dong cried out in shock. But the next moment he exchanged a look with Shui Yao Xian and both of them cried out in horror:

"Heavenly tribulation!"

No wonder the two of them turned pale with alarm. Cultivators defy heaven in pursuit of the Dao, struggling against the heavens with nearly every step. Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, and even Golden Core completion were one thing, but once the Nascent Soul was fully formed, a person truly possessed two lives. That was the very essence of defying heaven, and so the heavens would bring down punishment.

For every cultivator, heavenly tribulation was the most formidable trial. If one successfully endured it, it meant the heavens had acknowledged you, and you would have earned the right to pursue the path toward the Great Vehicle and immortality. If you could not endure it, then at best your flesh would perish while the Nascent Soul escaped to cling to life; at worst, both flesh and soul would be obliterated, the body and Dao both extinguished, becoming nothing more than a wisp of drifting ash between heaven and earth, vanishing without trace.

But the problem was this: Lei Dong had once heard his old fraud of a master mention in passing that back when he achieved Nascent Soul and underwent tribulation, the terror of the eighty-one thunder strikes nearly caused the old fraud to fail. Yet that tribulation cloud had been only ten li across. How could it compare with the one before his eyes now, whose diameter exceeded a hundred li and whose vastness covered the sea like the sky itself?

Moreover, what time was it now? There was still that winged bastard outside, swinging white pillars of light and hammering down blow after blow!

"Is Heaven trying to kill me for fun?" Lei Dong had only just begun to wail when, from the far depths of the sea, a roar shook the world.

"Roar——"

With that ear-splitting bellow, the distant waters suddenly boiled as though a cauldron had been set to the fire. Great sprays of water shot up tens of meters high, then crashed violently back onto the sea's surface with tremendous force.

"What in the world is that now?" Lei Dong felt he might as well be dead. At this critical moment of tribulation, if some unknown monster came as well, it would truly be a death sentence!

Before Lei Dong's cry had even faded, the rolling tribulation clouds seemed finally to have found their target.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning more than a meter thick, carrying thunder that shook the heavens and earth, came down from the sky as though it had eyes of its own, striking straight at Lei Dong's body!

The lightning was overwhelming in force, but as it pierced the protection of the Five-Point Spirit Gathering Formation, it was like a sharp blade thrust into tender bean curd: not the slightest resistance. It struck directly at Lei Dong's head.

Terrified to the core, Lei Dong hurled Shui Yao Xian more than ten meters away. Then the muscles in his legs snapped with force, and while still seated cross-legged his body shot backward like lightning.

Yet the bolt of lightning, as though endowed with intelligence, actually turned in midair and, before Lei Dong could even land, struck fiercely against his body.