Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 231 - Raiding The Clan Vaults? online for free - AllNovelFull
"How do I get past this now?" Lin Wu wondered.
The underground hall was encased in solid rock. Normally even if someone came here by digging they would not be able to break through the rock as it was over three meters thick.
Lin Wu though did not have that problem. If he wanted, he could split the rock right here and now. He didn't even worry about the defensive formation that was placed on the underground hall, as the system had taken care of it.
The problem was that while he would be able to create an opening in the rock, what would he do when he was going to return.
After thinking for a bit, Lin Wu came upon one solution which was to create a very small hole through which the system would be able to scan the interior of the hall. But this meant that Lin Wu would not be able to get some of the items of interest from the underground hall.
Another method he could do was to enter from the main entrant, but then he would be blocked by guards. They obviously wouldn't let a beast like him enter, and while he could easily knock them out, the ensuing chaos wouldn't be worth it.
"I guess I'll just check what is in there first and see if the items are even worth taking. As for the documents and books, the system should be able to scan and obtain the data directly." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He extended a spike from his tail and inserted it into the rock. Like a hot knife through butter, the spike went all the way to the other end and opened a small hole that was less than a centimeter in diameter.
"This should be enough right system? Start the scan then," Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER INITIATED: Multiple Targets found
ENERGY RESOURCES FOUND: Wide assortment available (alchemical pills, spirit stones, bloodline crystals.)
——
"Oh? Bloodline crystals? Now that's new." Lin Wu said upon seeing the system's notification.
He knew that the bloodline crystals were refined from a beast and could be assimilated by a cultivator to gain their bloodline abilities. Lin Wu pretty much did the same, except he did not have to refine a bloodline crystal himself as the system could process it directly for him.
"Seems like this is a vault for the Lu clan." Lin Wu realized.
He waited for about two hours before the system was done, recording everything from the hall.
~Ding~
——
SCAN COMPLETE: Please check the detailed log in the separate window.
——
'Let's see what they have stored here now…' Lin Wu thought before reading through the new window that had popped up.
"Oh, my… this is much better than I thought…" Lin Wu muttered in surprise.
Due to it being the vault of the Lu clan, it contained everything that they deemed to be valuable. This included a lot of cultivation techniques. Lin Wu roughly checked their numbers and they were found to be about 103 of them there.
In addition to them, there were also some records of the Lu clan that included their history. Then there were books that gave information on the various alchemical pill, herbs, minerals, metals, natural treasures, beasts, formations, and weapons.
Overall, this was exactly what Lin Wu had been wanting for a long time and knew that it would greatly help the system. This would give it a lot of data to analyze and update its data banks.
Lin Wu also saw that the carapace fragment from the unknown beast was kept in a case in the center of the vault, but he didn't bother with it for now as he could come back here with Shirong.
He was gonna take it with him when he left, anyway.
~Ding~
——
DATA BANKS: Updated
ANALYTICS: Expedited
——
"Now this is good!" Lin Wu said with joy.
With all the cultivation techniques that the system had obtained, its speed of procession and analysis will increase once more. It was now that Lin Wu got another idea.
"Since there is this much information in the vault of Lu clan, I may as well check out the underground vaults of other clans as well… hehehe." Lin Wu decided.
He pushed some soil and rocks into the hole he had made in the wall, to not make it look obvious, and checked the other locations on his map.
"Hehe, I got 5 hours till Shirong wakes up and so many vaults to choose from…" Lin Wu muttered.
He decided to go to the Xiong clanfirst, as it was one of the top three clans and the Mu clan next. He quickly made his way to the Xiong clan and found their vault. Unlike the Lu clan, their vault was not encased in solid rock. Rather than that, they used a simple wall made out of stone bricks, all of which were engraved with formations.
Lin Wu asked the system to take care of the formations while he used a flat spike on his tail to cut out a brick from the wall. Similar to the Lu clan, they had plenty of resources in the Vault including cultivation techniques.
"You know what to do, system," Lin Wu spoke.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Multiple targets found.
——
This time the system took less than an hour to scan the entire vault. This was because the Xiong clan had a lot of things that the Lu clan did as well and as such the data was simply repeated. Most of the new data was in the form of records and documents.
After he was done, Lin Wu put the brick back into the wall and it was as if it had never been moved from there. Unless someone specifically checked it, they wouldn't be able to tell that it was removed. Besides, the formation array was still intact, so they had no reason to suspect.
"Onto the Mu clan!" Lin Wu targeted.
He repeated the same process and obtained all the data from the Mu clan, which took less than thirty minutes now. It was evident that most of the information was now getting common.
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About four hours had passed and Lin Wu had gone to nearly every clan in the city now, along with some of the other organizations like the merchants who had their own small vaults. Some of them were not even located underground, but were inside their buildings.
Still, Lin Wu followed the same method of creating a small hole and asking the system to scan all the information.
~Ding~
——
DATA BANKS UPDATED: Please check for details in the relevant window or ask the system for specific questions.
——
"AHAHAHA! It is done!" Lin Wu laughed out loud.
He briefly scrolled through the numerous windows that had popped up and nodded his head in approval. Everything that he read was interesting, and some of it was even quite scandalous.
Not only had he found out information about the resources, but he had also found out all the dirt that the clans kept on each other and some people. There were all the secrets of those clans that now laid bare in front of Lin Wu.
"This will be quite useful at the right moment… hehehe." Lin Wu chuckled.
Lin Wu checked the item and saw that it was now close to morning and even on the map he could see all the people moving around, preparing for the tribulation.
"Looks like they finished all the tests, huh." Lin Wu guessed.
He quickly returned to Shirong, who was still sleeping and entered the spatial storage ring.
Everyone in the city and around it were unaware that all of their secrets had been exposed to a certain worm.
Lin Wu calmly read through the information he had obtained while waiting for Shirong to wake up. He was particularly interested in the information about other beasts. Mostly the ones that were considered to be strong.
He found more information on the Twin Lights liger as well. Apparently, three hundred years ago a beast tide had occurred that resulted in a lot of damage to the surrounding areas of the millennium forest. Even the Deer Wood City suffered under it and thus the Ling Kingdom sent a delegattion of Nascent Soul realm cultivators to battle them.
Due to being much more stronger than most beasts, these cultivators easily slaughtered them. But then this invited the wrath of the twin lights liger king. The people back then did not know that a beast like this even existed in the millennium forest. While they knew there were some Nascent Soul realm beasts living in the forest, they never expected there to be an Adult stage Nascent Soul realm beasts.
The Twin lights liger alone slaughtered three of the Nascent Soul realm that the Ling kingdom had sent, which was quite a devastating loss for them. After the battle, the people were scared that the Twin lights liger king would kill them all, but surprisingly it retreated after that and even the beast tide ended.
The cultivators obviously knew that the beasts who had high cultivation bases were quite intelligent, pretty much on the same level as that of the humans. This led them to believe that the Twin Lights liger was exerting his authority and announcing his domain. This was but a warning to the cultivators, which they later understood after more investigations were done.
Apparently, a few cultivators from sects had captured and killed a large number of beasts in the millennium forest, all in a short span of time. This invited the ire of the beasts and thus the beast tide was initiated.
After this incident, clear rules were established and any disciples of the sects that were going to hunt in the forest had to inform their respective sects about it first.
Usually this thing was taken lightly as the number of beasts in the forest was simply massive and any reduction in them was difficult unless nascent Soul realm cultivators attacked them. That's why as long as cultivators that were in the Qi refining realm or the core condensation went to hunt, they were not restricted as strictly.
"Huh, so that mandate the beetle king was talking about has been active for a long time. Even humans cannot escape it…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Lin Wu read ahead and found out some more information about the other rulers of the forest, both the past and present. Out of the current rulers, there was no information on the olive viper king, the silver beak sky soar eagle, and the demon spine ape. But there was information on the slim arm ape and the split thorn horn beetle.
The part about the slim arm ape was also quite interesting to Lin Wu.
"Oh? I didn't expect there to be something like this in his history… the slim arm ape used to be someone's tamed beast…" Lin Wu read.
There wasn't any exact information on how it came to become a ruler of the forest but it was said that the master of the Slim arm ape died in the forest and freed it. After that, the beast grew in power and established his own domain in the forest becoming one of the rulers.
"So that's why it has some connections with humans and can speak human language. It has been living with one before and probably experienced quite a lot of the human world." Lin Wu guessed.
Lin Wu wanted to continue reading more, but then he sensed that Shirong was about to wake up.
"Ah well, I guess I can return to this later. At least I now have plenty of entertainment." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Shirong woke up and stretched his body, feeling much more relaxed than before.
'It was a good decision to take a good night's sleep.' Shirong thought.
He opened the door of the bedroom and called out to a servant.
"You called young master?" The servant asked.
"Yes… inform clan head Lu that I'm ready and that we should head out," Shirong replied.
"As you command," The servant said before leaving.
Shirong closed his eyes for a second before opening them. But this time, they were filled with determination.
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Shirong stepped out of the courtyard and flew towards the Lu clan mansion where Clan head Lu and the elders were already waiting for him.
"Young master," The elders greeted.
"Mm," Shirong hummed in response before looking towards the clan head.
"Everything ready?" He asked.
"Of course, young master. We tested all aspects of the tribulation platform and everything should work perfectly as designed according to your plans." Clan head Lu replied.
"Good, we should head off then," Shirong spoke.
"Indeed, the rest of the people have already been informed so they are at the tribulation platform since last night." Clan head Lu said.
Shirong nodded his head and everyone flew to the site where the tribulation platform had been set up. The location was to the north west of the city and was located on the plains.
An area of about two square kilometers had been utilized to set up the tribulation platform, and a set of seats had been prepared at the edge of it. These were the seats where people who wanted to observe the tribulation would sit and be protected.
There were tens of thousands of seats here that surrounded the tribulation platform in a semicircle. The platform itself was made out of tiles made of jade that had been carved with numerous formations.
All these formations integrated to form a large formation array that would operate as the core of the tribulation platform. Then at the boundary of the platforms just in front of seats, another formation array was set up.
This formation array was a restraining array and would help to contain the spread of the heavenly tribulation lightning. It would make it so that the presence of all the people would be disregarded by the heavenly tribulation and they would be able to freely observe it.
Even the seats themselves were all carried with individual defensive formations that would protect the observers from the shock waves of energies created by the tribulation lightning.
There was no specific protection from lightning itself, as any formation array that could protect from heavenly lightning would be extremely valuable and difficult to make. Even the top cultivation sects would have a hard time making one, not to mention the clans here.
Even if the aristocratic clans of multiple cities were contributing to the creation of this tribulation platform, it was still beyond their capabilities. Even if they were able to come up with the monetary cost required to get the resources, they would need an actual formation grandmaster to set up the defensive formation.
A formation grandmaster was no joke and there were less than ten of them currently in the entire long continent. Each of them was a highly respected expert and no one dared to slight them. If one wanted to hire them, they would have to wait for years on end, before they would even be able to register in the queue.
Most of them had reservations that spanned for a hundred years and as such, they were extremely busy people. Shirong's clan, the Ji clan also had its own formation grandmaster and as such they were considered a great power.
That grandmaster was the reason they Shirong had the blueprints for the Tribulation platform ready when the clans said they would volunteer to build it. The blue prints were of course not used to their full potential, but it was still enough for Shirong to use it.
In fact, Shirong was confident that even if he didn't have the support of the tribulation platform, he may be able to overcome the heavenly tribulation on his own. His increased talent and body cultivation was the source of confidence for him.
"Look! It's young master Shirong!" The people in the crowd shouted upon seeing them approach.
There were many aristocrats in the crowd, including some nobles from the Ling Kingdom's royal court as well. These were the people who oversaw the operations of the nearby cities and as such had taken this opportunity to observe a heavenly tribulation.
Shirong quickly scanned over the people and soon found the few 'targets' that were deemed to be problematic. These were the people that clan head Lu had given him and thus he was going to find an opportunity to get rid of him.
"The formation array only works against the tribulation itself, it will not restrain your attacks." Clan Head Lu secretly whispered after he saw where Shirong's gaze was looking at.
"I understand," Shirong said before flying towards the center of the platform.
Meanwhile, Clan head Lu and the other higher-ups of the different clans headed to the other part of the semi-circle. Here, individual seats had been set up for the people who were going to act as Dharma protectors.
They all took their seats and waited for Shirong to take his place. After Shirong sat down in the center in a meditative pose, the clan head spoke.
"I Lu Ren, the ninth patriarch of the Lu clan, swear to the heavens that I will follow my duty as the Dharma protector for Ji Shirong of the Ji clan.
If I violate my oath, may I be exterminated by the wrath of the heavens!" Clan Head Lu declared.
A gust of wind surrounded clan Head Lu for a moment and spirit Qi became chaotic before calming down again. This meant that the heavenly oath had been accepted, and if Clan Head Lu violated this, he would die.
The other Dharma protectors took the same oath and a similar set of events was witnessed by all the people. This was the first time they were seeing so many influential elders doing the same and as such, they were a bit excited.
It was not every day that they got to witness a heavenly tribulation and they were all anticipating it to be a good experience for them.
"Now that all the Dharma protectors have taken their oaths, I shall begin my breakthrough. Everyone should know the consequences of the heavenly tribulation and as such should take precautions." Shirong said one last time before closing his eyes.
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After Shirong closed his eyes, the entire crowd went silent. They knew better than to disturb the person undergoing a heavenly tribulation and knew that if any mishap occurred, they could become the target of the tribulation lightning as well.
Shirong stimulated the spirit Qi in his core and used his Immortal Sky Shaker Art. He had long since reached the absolute limit of the Core condensation realm and only needed a slight push of spirit Qi to trigger the heavenly tribulation.
In fact, had he not been suppressing his breakthrough consciously he would have already broken through naturally due to the spirit Qi being absorbed passively by his body.
~pop~
It was as if a balloon had been popped and the spirit Qi in the air suddenly became agitated. Wind started to pick up and strong gusts started blowing. As minutes passed by, dark clouds started catering high up in the sky.
It would take a little bit of time for the heavenly tribulation clouds to gather and this was actually good. This gave the cultivator time to adjust to the minute changes in their body and would give them a better chance at succeeding.
Though this was not what always happened. Sometimes the heavenly tribulation clouds would gather abruptly and the tribulation would start very quickly. Such was the case when the demon spine ape and Lin Wu underwent their respective heavenly tribulations.
While Shirong was preparing for his breakthrough, Lin Wu's avatar was doing the same.
"Alright system, time to upgrade to the next stage." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
CULTIVATION BASE UPGRADE: Late stage of the core condensation realm - Peak stage of the core condensation realm
SPIRIT QI CONSUMED: 12000 units [liquid spirit Qi]
——
A wave of spirit Qi rose from Lin Wu's avatar before calming down rather quickly.
~Ding~
——
CULTIVATION BASE UPGRADED: Peak stage of the core condensation realm
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [0000/24,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
BLOODLINE: 1. Crimson Eyed Emerald Worm (System Manufactured)
QI SKILLS: 1. Qi Amplification (Lesser) (Proficiency: Novice)
INNATE SKILLS: 1. Radiation Manipulation (minor) (Proficiency: Expert)
2. Cellular Manipulation (lesser) (Proficiency: Expert)
3. Cellular Crystallization (great) (Proficiency: Intermediate)
BEAST CORES: 1. Fully Condensed (Crimson Eyed Emerald Worm)
——
Lin Wu nodded at the new data and everything was according to his expectations. He wanted to be at the peak stage, as he didn't know if he would be able to withstand the tribulation lightning otherwise.
He actually didn't even know if Shirong was going to use him as a defense or not, thus there was a chance that he may not even need to act. But still, he decided to be more cautious and prepare for anything that may come his way.
"Now to wait and watch…" Lin Wu muttered to himself as the dark clouds now covered the entire sky.
The sun had long since been hidden behind the clouds and the area had become a bit gloomy due to the shade.
~Rumble~
Soon the first streak of white lightning could be seen flowing through the tribulation clouds. The tribulation announced its presence with the loud crack of thunder.
And just as that happed, the tribulation platform activated as well. Countless runes appeared from the platform and arranged themselves into the formation array. This formation array created an illusory shape that looked like a circular cauldron.
At the center of the base of this cauldron sat Shirong, while the people observed him from the outside. His face was calm without a trace of anxiety or nervousness, and his short hair fluttered in the wind.
The hair growth pills had finally worked by the time he woke up and as such he had a head full of hair, even if it was short and only a couple of inches long. His eyebrows too had returned, even though they were a bit faint and looked feminine due to it.
Still, this did no injustice to the handsomeness of Shirong and due to his change after the body tempering realm breakthrough, he had only gotten better looking. The woman in the crowd couldn't take their eyes off him and even a few men secretly took a second look at him.
While the rest of the people all looked up at the tribulation clouds in the sky. After all, that was what they had paid to watch.
~Rumble~
By now, five minutes had passed and the lightning in the tribulation clouds had become concentrated.
~Crack~
The first bolt of heavenly lightning formed quickly and struck Shirong.
~BOOM~
The shockwave released due to the tribulation lightning stuck the walls of the illusionary cauldron and protected the observers from getting affected. Still, some of the people couldn't help but get startled and a few that were of a weak heart straight up jumped out of their seats.
Their companions had to hold them back so that they would not end up disturbing the tribulation process.
The tribulation bolt hit Shirong, and his body trembled as the power coursed through it. The tribulation lightning reached his core and finally stuck it. But then an unexpected thing happened.
The unknown energy that the system had concluded to be a higher form of the spirit Qi, intercepted the lightning. It hurriedly consumed it as if it were a starved dog and did not leave even a single bit for Shirong.
Shirong who had been calm and unmoving till now, suddenly became bewildered.
'What in the name of…' He thought, feeling speechless.
Where was his tribulation lightning? How was he now going to break through if his core was not attacked by it?
There were a multitude of questions raining across Shirong's mind, and he couldn't answer any of them. Even Lin Wu who had been observing the entire thing closely, was shocked.
"What was that system?" Lin Wu couldn't help but ask.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The system has no answer.
——
Lin Wu "…"
~RUMBLE~
Then it was as if its child had been wrongly kidnapped, the tribulation cloud let out a thunderous sound, shaking the skies.
"What in the name of heaven…" all the people muttered.
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No one had expected something like this to happen and no one including Lin Wu and the system knew what had caused the change.
Lin Wu had seen how that unknown energy had consumed the tribulation as if it was nothing. The all powerful heavenly tribulation lightning had disappeared like a clay ox in the sea.
Not a single person dared to look away from the tribulation clouds as they only got thicker. Usually, there would be a slight time gap between the attributional lightning bolts as it would take a short period of time for the clouds to gather the power.
But due to being agitated, the clouds charged up a tribulation lightning bolt in just a couple of seconds and shot it down.
~Crack~
The sound of lightning crackled across the skies as the white bolt of lightning struck Shirong again.
"ARGH!!" Shirong couldn't help but let out a grunt of pain.
Just the impact of the bolt felt like a hill had been dropped onto him and when the lightning bolt entered his body it ravaged his meridians. Thankfully, due to having reached the peak of the body tempering realm, he was able to withstand it.
Shirong observed his Dantian closely and saw that the lightning was just about to reach his core. But then at the very last moment, the unknown energy flared up and soaked up all of it.
"What the heck! How am I supposed to break through like this?" Shirong couldn't help but wonder.
The pain was still spreading through his body, but he was able to bear it for now. But the tribulation did not want to give him respite.
~Rumble~
The tribulation clouds charged up another lightning bolt which was twice as thick as the previous two ones and dropped it onto Shirong.
~BOOM~
This time the shock wave created from it, triggered the tribulation platform's defensive measures and it actively tried to restrain it. The Dharma protectors watched in horror as the store of spirit stones that had been set up to power the formation array drained by a quarter instantly.
"Cl-clan Head Lu… this was not what we had planned…" Clan Head Mu spoke, his voice trembling.
"You think I font know that! We can't interfere in the process of tribulation, all we can do is wait and watch." Clan Head Lu said, feeling anxious.
The other Dharma protectors checked the formation array and saw that while it was intact for now, they couldn't say the same if more bolts like these dropped.
"Young Master Shirong has already taken three bolts of tribulation lightning, this should have been enough for him to breakthrough. Why is it not happening?" Someone couldn't help but question.
"Bah! Who do you think young master Shirong is? He is a dragon amongst men, it is obvious that his tribulation will be equal to that of his standing." Another person responded.
Thankfully Shirong was too focused on his body right now, because if he had heard this man he would have spit blood. Not only had he born the tribulation lightning, something else was taking the benefit of it.
~Rumble~
This time there was a slight delay in the tribulation clouds in the process of creating a lightning bolt and it took ten seconds longer.
~BOOM~
The lightning bolt fell like an eagle striking a serpent from the skies and struck Shirong.
"Ptui~" Shirong spat out some blood.
The lightning bolt coursed through his body and was once again absorbed by the unknown energy. But Shirong was now pissed, he did not know why that unknown energy that had stayed low key till now was acting up.
"If you are going to do this, I don't need you here!" Shirong declared as his eyes turned bloodshot.
Waves of sprint Qi emanated from his core as it got destabilized. The fine channels that were on his core got affected and the unknown energy flared up due to it. It started leaking out of the channels into the other parts of the core and affected the condensed spirit Qi.
Lin Wu was watching everything with close attention and the system was actively recording and analyzing it too. Thus when Shirong attempted to touch the unknown energy in his core the system set out warning notifications.
~WARNING~
——
FLAW DETECTED: Back door function may be disabled
ENERGY INSTABILITY DETECTED: Explosion may be possible
——
"System, can't you control the unknown energy and restrain it from affecting Shirong's tribulation?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The unknown energy has undergone a qualitative change and the system cannot manipulate it currently. Additional analysis is required to compute new parameters.
——
After listening to the system's answer, Lin Wu knew Shirong was fucked. If he removed the unknown energy forcefully, it will cause him to die due to the explosion. And if he let the unknowing energy absorb more of the tribulation lightning, the tribulation clouds will only get more strong and kill Shirong with a stronger bolt.
Shirong was currently gritting his teeth as the pain from his core assaulted his senses. The unknown energy was spreading through his core and tainting his condensed spirit Qi. Little by little the color of the core started changing from plain white to a pale blue. But this did not come easily as Shirong felt himself losing control over his spirit Qi.
It was as if it did not belong to him anymore and had been seized by someone else. Shirong was now cursing the day when he had chosen to touch the beast carapace fragment. His luck had become extremely imbalanced and tilted between very good and extremely bad.
He was getting fortunes and was then being pushed to the very brink of death. First with the Immortal Crystal Armament and the forbidden zone which respected their spirit Qi, then at the millennium forest where he was attacked by a hundred thousand beasts all at once, but then gained a great increase in his body tempering realm.
After all this, he couldn't help but ask.
"Who did I offend to suffer like this?"
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Just when Shirong was just about to lose hope, he suddenly felt a thought in his mind. As soon as he sensed it, he immediately acted on it.
~shua~
A green glow escaped from his robes as an emerald green armor appeared on his body. His robes had already been tattered by the lightning bolts and now the appearance of the armor had ripped the upper part of the robes, baring his torso.
The people could now see the armor on his body and a few of them recognized what it was.
"THE DIVINE ARMOR!" They shouted in excitement.
The wave of excitement spread as fast as excitement through the audience as they had not expected to see it at all. But the Dharma protectors were not feeling the same.
"If young master Shirong has summoned the armor, it means the situation is dire," Clan Head Lu spoke.
"Indeed, I haven't heard of anyone bearing four bolts of tribulation lightning in many decades." One of the clan heads of a neighboring city said.
"Not to mention, this is not the end. Young master has still not broken through to the Nascent Soul realm. Who knows how many more lighting bolts will descend…" Clan Head Mu assessed.
Every elder's expression turned tense as they knew if the heavenly tribulation went beyond a certain limit, the tribulation platform may not be able to bear it. The moment it collapses, each and every one of them would be under mortal danger.
There was not a single Dao Shell realm or above cultivator amongst them, that could somewhat defend them either, which meant that they would have to prepare beforehand.
~Sigh~
Clan head Lu looked at the platform for a moment before looking at the platform. While he wouldn't mind a few people in the audience dying, he couldn't let those of his clan and his allies dying in this.
A determined expression appeared on his face as he made up his mind.
"Clan heads! Prepare to retreat, this is no longer safe. The moment we feel the tribulation platform is unable to hold back, I ask you all to take your respective people to a safe area." Clan Head Lu announced.
The clan heads looked at Clan Head Lu with a complex expression. They had spent a fortune in setting up this tribulation platform and knew the risks that came with them. While they were a bit unwilling to let this go to waste, they had no choice.
While getting to observe a heavenly tribulation, especially one that was of someone as talented as Shirong was rare, they couldn't let their descendants and clansmen getting killed. Each and everyone here was the most talented people from their clans and they definitely did not want them to die. If they did, then their clans may as well die together with them.
Without talented people to lead a clan or an organization, their lifespans will be extinguished. Many clans and even empires have died out just because they were left with incompetent people.
This was definitely not something they wanted to happen. They had heard countless tales and stories from their elders and ancestors and knew well to put their greed behind them for now.
"We'll do as you suggested clan head Lu," Everyone agreed.
They took out their respective communication jade slips and gave out orders to their clansmen. One by one, the expressions of the people in the audience could be seen changing. From their previous expression of excitement to the current one of anxiety.
The ones that were a bit more weak hearted directly felt fear and left the seating area even before they were told to do so. The audience was simply told to prepare, in case it went worse. But these people acted before that and willingly left their seats, retreating another kilometer away.
But just as they did, another change could be witnessed in the tribulation clouds.
~RUMBLE~
Stormy winds appeared and the clouds started spinning. It was as if the heavens were now absolutely furious and another layer of tribulation clouds appeared on top of the current one.
As soon as the elders saw it, they knew what it was.
"The legendary Dual Layered Tribulation!" Clan Head Lu exclaimed.
"I can't believe I'm getting to witness this with my own two eyes." Another elder commented.
"Wait, if the dual layered tribulation appeared then doesn't this mean…" Clan Head Mu said with realization.
"Young master Shirong's talent is monstrous such that even the heavens are jealous!" Clan Head Xiong replied.
The other clan heads realized the impending trouble and got everyone to move the seats half a kilometer away. The people quickly got to work while the tribulation clouds formed up and charged the lightning, and within a couple of minutes, they had moved.
It was almost shocking as to how fast everyone acted in sync, even though they probably had never worked together.
Shirong too witnessed the change in the tribulation cloud and was truly feeling scared now.
'Did the Immortal Crystal Armament Sense that it was going to appear and thus told me to summon it?' Shirong wondered.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu knew why the change in the tribulation clouds had appeared. After all, he himself had experienced the higher ranked version of this, the triple layered heavenly tribulation.
"Just as I expected, my presence instantly triggered the heavenly tribulation to evolve…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He activated his radiation perception and observed the heavenly tribulation. He could see that the commensuration of the transparent part of the energy in the clouds among the blue radiation was 3% just like during his time.
"If it's this much, I should be able to handle it…" Lin Wu hoped.
His body glowed in an emerald green light that mesmerized the people watching it. Even though they were all far from the tribulation platform now, they could still see it clearly like a beacon in the night.
Lin Wu was now exerting his Radiation manipulation innate skill to the very peak.
"COME ON! I'M READY!" Lin Wu called out.
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The two layers of tribulation clouds rumbled and the lightning within it seethed. At the center of the vortex, the lightning bolt was being formed. And this time its color had changed as well.
"Look! It's the purple-white tribulation lightning!" one of the elders pointed.
This was the same kind of lightning that Lin Wu had gone through during his own tribulation a few days ago. The people were scared as they knew a change in the lightning only meant the danger had increased.
Shirong looked on nervously but was able to calm himself down.
'As long as I have the Immortal Crystal Armament I can withstand everything!' He thought to himself.
~Rumble~
The purple-white lightning bolt fell from the clouds and headed towards Shirong. The people watched nervously and some of the weak downhearted directly closed their eyes unable to watch any further.
But just as the lightning bolt was about to hit Shirong, a miracle happened.
~Crack~
"Gah!" Shirong grunted in pain from the impact.
But then he was surprised as it was not as bad as he had expected it to be. He looked up and saw that the lightning bolt was being split into two from the middle. It was as if someone had shot an arrow towards another arrow and split it in half.
~boom~
One part of the lightning bolt hit the ground near Shirong, creating a small crater, while the other part hit his body. This time, he didn't let out a grunt, as he felt like he was paralyzed.
The lightning coursed through his body and soon reached his Dantian. Now here was the moment he was waiting for. He didn't know if the same thing would happen.
~Crackle~
The lightning finally touched his core and the unknown energy flared up again. But this time it didn't consume the entire lightning. It looked like only a fraction of it was consumed by the unknown energy and the rest was taken up by the core.
And when it spread into the core, which had been tainted blue by the unknown energy, it made it tremble.
Shirong's eyes went wide as he knew it finally worked.
"YES! MORE! GIVE ME MORE!" Shirong shouted out like a madman.
The elders and the rest of the audience had seen the tribulation lightning being split in two and didn't know what to think of this.
"Clan Head Lu, this…" one of the clan heads spoke.
"Don't ask me, I'm as clueless as you." Clan Head Lu replied, without moving his eyes from Shirong.
He didn't want to miss even one bit of the entire process, as it was now quite useful to him too. The tribulation Shirong was undergoing right now was of a completely different level. Even he who was already in the Nascent Soul realm was getting some insights from it. Besides, he would need the experience if he ever had the chance to breakthrough through to the Dao Shell realm.
~Rumble~
With the first purple-white lightning down, the tribulation clouds were just getting started. The only difference was that they didn't seem to be as enraged as before. Shirong could tell that it was due to that unknown energy that they had acted like that.
The people in the audience could also feel the pressure on them reduce. Before it was as if they were in a heavy environment, but now they were feeling lighter.
~boom~
The second lightning bolt was soon formed, and Shirong looked at it with anticipation. He knew it was going to hurt but it was also going to give him benefit.
~Crack~
Same as before, just when the lighting bolt was getting close to Shirong, it got split into two. But this time, its power was just slightly more and thus people could tell that it had met some kind of resistance in between.
"Is that due to the Divine Armor?" someone questioned.
"Heavens! What kind of power does the Ji Clan have that they can make an armor such as this!?" An elder exclaimed.
They all knew very well that any treasure or tool that could resist or defend against a tribulation lightning was very valuable and its production method would be even more. Such a thing was a closely guarded secret and seldom revealed.
Just Shirong using it right now, showed how dire of a situation it was. Even back when they were in trouble due to the spatial rift showed that.
In fact, if they had not seen it resist the tribulation lightning, they would have never thought that the armor even had an ability like that. Clan Head Lu secretly looked at the other elders and then at the few people that he was worried about.
'I'll need to talk to Young Master Shirong about this… a treasure like this should not be public information…' Clan Head Lu thought.
His eyes went back to the few people that were some of the thorns in their path and was wondering if young master Shirong would be able to accomplish what he had said he would.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu was having some different thoughts.
"Okay, I think I'm getting the hang of it now…" He muttered to himself.
He sensed the spirit Qi in his body and estimated that about thirty percent of his spirit Qi was used up for those 2 lightning bolts.
'I can take four more bolts, three if they get stronger. If it doesn't end before that I will need to use up the backup amount…' Lin Wu thought to himself as more lightning charged up in the tribulation clouds.
~Rumble~
This time the new bolt was thicker than before, and Lin Wu knew it was going to be tough.
~Boom~
"HAA! Break for me!" Lin Wu yelled, but that yell came out as a screech that was masked by the sound of thunder.
~zing~
The people got to witness another shocking sight. The lightning bolt was now suspended right above Shirong, as if hanging by some threads.
~splatter~
And then it happened…
"SENIOR BROTHER!!! NOOO!!!" A girl shouted as blood splattered all over her body and the people nearby.
Everyone looked on in horror as only the bottom part of the man was left, the upper part being completely destroyed.
Just a few seconds ago, the lightning bolt that was suspended above Shirong split into two. One of the fragments was bigger and the other one was smaller. The bigger one was taken in by Shirong while the smaller one went towards the audience instead.
The people had thought the lightning bolt will hire somewhere nearby like before but it had changed its course out of nowhere and targeted the audience. It went directly to a random person in the audience and hit them.
The people didn't have a chance to even react and it was done.
The Dharma protectors looked at it, feeling bewildered.
"Clan Head Lu, the tribulation platform… it didn't work?" The clan heads from other cities asked.
Clan Head Lu didn't respond right away though. He first looked at the person who had been killed and realized that it was one of the people he had told young master Shirong to get rid of.
'Did he intentionally do it, or is this just luck?' He wondered.
Still, he knew either way this couldn't be exposed, and he immediately came up with a legitimate excuse.
"The lightning and the tribulation…" He spoke and took a dramatic pause. "They are no longer what this tribulation platform was made for…" Clan Head Lu said.
Realization dawned on all the elder's faces and they got to work.
"RETREAT! RETREAT!" They shouted.
The people in the audience finally got out of their initial shock and scrambled to run away.
Shirong on the other hand, was focused on his Dantian. The third bolt that had hit his core finally created cracks on it. Right now, forty percent of his core was covered with cracks and if he wanted to break through successfully he needed more of those lightning bolts.
As for the unknown energy, barely any of the tribulation lightning was consumed by it this time and it was as if its stomach was now full.
~Rumble~
~boom~
The next bolt of lightning came quick and was once again split into two.
~Crack~
Cracks spread further on Shirong's core and they covered about 60% of the surface. But the other part of the lightning once again shot towards the audience that was currently trying to run.
~KABOOM~
~splatter~
Another person was hit and his body was decimated. The people did not dare to stop and look this time though, as they were already too scared of everything that was happening.
"ELDERS! DEFEND YOUR CLANSMEN!" Clan Head Lu shouted.
Clan head Lu had seen who was killed the second time and it was none other than a person from the list that he had given to Shirong. He was now sure that it was Shirong, intentionally doing this. He had no idea how, but he was doing it.
The elders seemed hesitant at first, but then they gritted their teeth and flew towards their respective clansmen. Each of them took out their best defensive treasures and got ready to protect.
~Rumble~
~boom~
They didn't have to wait long as the next lightning bolt came down quickly. This time it was twice as thick as the one before it and had much more power. The lightning bolt paused for a fraction of a second before splitting again. But this time it did not split into two, but rather three parts.
One of the parts was bigger than the other two parts and went to Shirong, while the other two targeted the audience again.
~DENG~
The fragment of the lighting struck an elder who defended with a shield.
"Ptui~" The elder spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying back.
The second fragment thus continued uninhibited and struck a man who was being protected by the elder, instantly killing him and exploding his body.
"NOOO!!!!" The elder shouted in sorrow as tears dripped from his eyes.
~Crack~
Now 90% of Shirong's core was covered with cracks and he was close to the breakthrough.
"Just a little more, a little more and I'll be ready…" Shirong muttered to himself while bearing through the pain.
The lightning was coursing through his body and would ravage his tissues, creating burns and tears that hurt like crazy. Still, Shirong was able to bear through with willpower and waited for another bolt.
He opened his eyes and looked up at the sky, ignoring the tribulation platform which was now broken and the people from the audience that were trying to run for their lives.
"This should be the last one…" Shirong estimated.
He could sense that the might of the tribulation was getting lesser and lesser by the second. It was now at its limit and had probably exhausted most of the tribulation power it had. Using every last remnant of power left in it, the tribulation clouds were charging up another bolt.
It was as if a mouth had opened up in the tribulation clouds and the lightning bolt was forming in it. This time it looked like a long spear and was as thick as one too. Lin Wu saw it as well and knew this was the same as the one he had experienced.
~huu~
"Let's do this!" He said with determination.
For a second there, Shirong had a confused expression on his face.
'What was that sound?' Shirong wondered.
He had heard a strange screeching sound, that he had never heard before. He couldn't tell where it came from and he did not have the liberty to search for it right now, either.
~RUMBLE~
~KABOOM!~
This was the loudest bolt that they had seen and the shockwave created from it spread far and wide. The bolt had not even touched Shirong yet and still exuded and explosive power.
"ARGH!" Shirong shouted and lost his stance, collapsing on the ground.
The lightning bolt split into three again, but this time two parts hit Shirong while one part went to the audience.
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Shirong was currently bearing the worst kind of pain he had ever experienced. His core was now fully covered with crack and was on the verge of shattering. Even the pale blue color of the core which was caused by the unknown energy was flickering as if it was fading away.
In the real world though, the third fragment of the tribulation lightning had taken out a group of people. Two people among them were on clan head Lu's list but the remaining seven were not.
"Damn, that last bolt was too much. I was able to split the tribulation lightning bolt but could only redirect one of them… the power was just too much this time." Lin Wu said to himself as he took a look at the cracks on his body.
Of the two bolts that had hit Shirong, one had been taken by Lin Wu while the other was taken by Shirong. The bolt had caused Lin Wu's body to develop cracks and his spirit Qi was not fully drained.
He had to draw some from his reserve store and used the vital essence that he had to recover the cracks. Still, it took him much more than he had expected for it.
'Looks like the injuries from tribulation are not easy to heal… especially if it's from someone else's tribulation…" Lin Wu thought.
Both the Elders that were acting as the Dharma protectors and the people in the audience had run far now. They were over ten kilometers away and did not dare to come close.
That last bolt which had decimated nine people had come from over seven kilometers away from Shirong's location. Meanwhile, the tribulation platform, which had taken a month of preparation and many clan's contributions was now utterly destroyed.
The people were now at a loss over what to do. The ones that were the most sad were none other than the elders who had lost their clansmen. In total, twelve lives had been slot today and the people were grieving.
They had not expected something like this to happen, and they wanted to blame someone for it. But in their strange condition, they could not do so. They only had two targets to blame, either Shirong or their own elders.
They could have blamed Shirong for his tribulation, but then it wasn't exactly under his control. While they did find it serious that the tribulation bolts were hitting the members in the audience, they had no idea if something like this was possible.
They could still understand Shirong's armor stopping the lighting and splitting it to let it spread near him. But to get it to specifically target someone was not possible.
If they tried to blame their elders for setting up a shoddy tribulation platform, they would only get scolded and they still knew that it was not true. Some of them had even contributed and taken part in the construction of the tribulation platform and knew how difficult of a task it was.
In the end, they could only blame their luck or the heavens for letting a tribulation like this kill their kin.
Shirong was in a strange state currently. He was flickering between consciousness and unconsciousness, while trying to control himself. The pain from the tribulation lightning had evidently overloaded his senses and made it hard to keep a straight mind.
But then that same pain was the evidence that he was now on the verge of a breakthrough.
~shua~
Rays of light escape from the cracks on Shirong's spirit core as the spirit Qi in the environment became agitated. Soon a vortex of spirit Qi formed around Shirong and his body started to float in the air.
The rays of light coming from his core only got more intense as it finally broke apart.
~shatter~
From within the core, a tiny infant was born. This infant was none other than Shirong's Nascent Soul. But if one looked at it, they would find it to be abnormal. Shirong was still not fully under the control of his mind and thus did not see this change.
While he knew he had broken through, his focus was all over the place. But this was only until the vortex that had formed around him started to pour spirit Qi into his body.
~Huala~
Shirong's body rapidly absorbed the spirit Qi as it was then converted into vital energy by his body and healed the injuries that he had sustained. After his injuries were all healed, he finally gained the full control of his body.
He peered into his Dantian and saw the spirit Qi from the air, pouring into it. It was filling up at a visible rate and the pressure on his meridians increased slightly. He looked at the Infant in his Dantian and saw the features that were similar to him.
The one thing that was different was the Skin color of the infant, which was a pale blue instead of the normal white.
"Did this happen because of the unknown energy too?" Shirong wondered.
Lin Wu had the same question and the answer came to him in the form of the system's notifications.
~Ding~
——
SUBJECT'S CULTIVATION BASE UPGRADED: Pseudo nascent Soul realm - Infant Stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
BACK DOOR FUNCTIONAL: Disabled
RECONFIGURING: New Parameters detected
ANALYZING NEW PARAMETERS: Data Banks updated
NEW PARAMETERS: Analyzed
UPGRADING: Back door function
BACK DOOR FUNCTION: Adaptability increased [Core condensation realm - Nascent Soul realm]
——
"Oh! This is good. The system was able to automatically fix and upgrade the back door function. I really thought it was going to be destroyed." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He looked into Shirong's Dantian as well and saw the Nascent Soul, which was gently floating in the middle of his Dantian. The spirit Qi was still pouring into the Dantian and it was already filled half way through.
Lin Wu watched as Shirong's Dantian was completely filled and the spirit Qi started nourishing the Nascent Soul which was bathed in it.
"This was even more tiring than my own breakthrough…" Lin Wu thought.
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~WEENG~
Shirong's body emanated powerful waves of spirit Qi that traveled far and wide. The elders and the audience who had retreaded about ten kilometers away were still able to sense it.
But that was not all, as a different kind of energy was now present along with Shirong's spirit Qi.
~spark~
Streaks of elasticity crackled along Shirong's body as the wind started spinning around it as well. In his Dantian the spirit Qi underwent another change.
Normally a cultivator's Dantian was filled with basic attribute less spirit Qi. If they were practitioners of techniques or Qi skills that used elemental spirit Qi, they had two ways of using it.
They could either convert the attribute less spirit into elemental spirit Qi as they used the technique or store a specific amount of it in this amount beforehand. Both of these methods had their advantages and disadvantages.
But the majority converted as they used their Qi skills and did not store it as not everyone had the talent to do so. Storing elemental spirit Qi was often difficult and if their Dantian was not durable enough, they may end up hurting themselves.
Another thing that played a major role was their compatibility with the element. The ones that had a good compatibility were able to store their elemental spirit Qi without much problem, but the ones that had it lower had problems.
In the case of Shirong, his Dantian was slowly converting the attribute less spirit Qi into two different types of elemental Spirit Qi: Lightning attribute spirit Qi and Wind tribute spirit Qi.
Soon, a pool of lightning attribute spirit Qi was formed under the Nascent Soul. It was in the form of a circle and outside of it, another ring was forming. This ring was the wind attribute spirit Qi.
Then finally the rest of the Dantian was covered with the attribute less spirit Qi. It was a rather strange combination which even Shirong did not know was possible. From what he knew about the Immortal Sky shaker art, the person who practiced it would only convert the spirit Qi during its use.
Storing it was not really necessary as the speed of refinement was fast. Not to mention the space in their Dantian would be taken up, but the elemental spirit Qi. Another problem with elemental spirit Qi was this.
It could not be used for everything and one still needed attribute less spirit Qi. If they had stores of elemental spirit Qi, it would end up reducing the space for normal spirit Qi, which could in turn reduce their overall capabilities.
Shirong would have actually tried to stop this change, but since his body was doing this naturally without any interference, he just decided to watch. He reckoned that this change could have been due to the unknown energy and the tribulation lightning it had consumed.
He didn't know to what extent this change would be affecting him, but he didn't worry much as if he really had a problem, he could just purge all of the stored spirit Qi and just refine more.
Once the process was fully complete though, Shirong felt much more powerful. He clenched his fists and lightning flowed around it.
"The Immortal Sky Shaker art's next stage… I already reached it…" Shirong muttered to himself.
The Immortal Sky Shaker art allowed the user to gain control over two of the heavenly elements; the wind and lightning. In the first stage, one was only able to control the wind attribute spirit Qi as it was relatively easier than lightning to handle.
In the second stage though, one was able to use lightning attribute spirit Qi as well. Usually the control would have been a bit unstable and the user would not have been able to freely control it as Shirong had just done.
'Did the unknown energy's consumption of the tribulation lightning cause this?' Shirong wondered again.
The unknown energy had tainted the rest of his spirit Qi, which had then caused the properties of his spirit Qi to change without him knowing. Only after he had fully broken through to the Nascent Soul realm did he discover this.
It was now that Shirong noticed the fine cracks in the Immortal Crystal Armament as well.
"So you took a brunt of the damage as well…" he muttered.
But then a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes as the cracks were disappearing at a visible rate.
"I'm not going to let you go without noticing my sacrifice… hehehe." Lin Wu chuckled to himself.
In reality, Lin Wu had already healed himself a while ago. He was intentionally showing Shirong cracks which were just created by himself using cellular manipulation in combination with Cellular crystallization.
He knew that if he let Shirong take him for granted, he may end up using him as a shield every time. He wanted to let Shirong know he had certain limits and not to overdraw on himself.
By now, Lin Wu had already grown much stronger than Shirong, but he was now looking at Shirong through a different lens. Before Shirong was a source of spirit Qi and resources for him, but now he was an important pawn that had a powerful background.
Lin Wu wanted to grow in power and for that, he would need an organization behind him, of course. And to run it he would need techniques and such, which he would be sourcing from Shirong's clan. Not to mention that they likely had a ton of information hidden away that Shirong didn't know.
Even if Shirong had access to all the records, it was quite unlikely that he would have read all of them. It was those missing pieces of information that Lin Wu desired and would need so that the system could further upgrade its data banks.
~whoosh~
The wind started blowing in one direction again, and all the dark clouds that were in the sky dissipated. The tribulation was officially over, and Shirong had succeeded.
The people in the distance watched in awe as Shirong floated in the air with the divine armor that glowed with an emerald green light and sparks of thunder.
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