That's how it should be—but he was so excited that he could hardly sleep at all.

It's hard to believe that I almost had trouble sleeping just from being too excited. He subconsciously recalled the conversation he had yesterday with Xiao Lin.

He sighed inwardly. In the end, he was the one who probably didn't prepare well.

There was a knock outside his door.

"Are you inside?" A hoarse voice sounded from behind the door.

Mo Shatian recognized the voice and quickly cleaned his face before welcoming him. When he opened the door to greet his guest, as he had already guessed, it was Elder.

"Were you unable to sleep?" Elder said, his eyes seeing the dark circles under Mo Shatian's eyes.

Mo Shatian bowed, not expecting Elder himself to come to see him. "I apologize for making Elder come himself to pick me up, I will immediately correct this inappropriate behavior." Mo Shatian could only look down, feeling ashamed of himself.

For a student to make the teacher come in person is disrespectful and insolent behavior.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of. It's natural for a boy like you to be excited like that," Elder laughed. "I don't mind, after all, I'm the one who didn't set the time and place. I was the one who wanted to see you."

"Elder is too generous, thank you." Mo Shatian said, still bowing his head. "Um, so what should I do?"

"Follow me, I found a good place," said Elder as he started walking without looking back.

Not far from the previous place, there was a hill with a shady elk tree standing tall, its green and dense leaves mixed with the green grass around it, giving it a cool and peaceful feel.

Elder took a place under the tree and began to sit in a cross-legged position, Mo Shatian followed suit, and sat opposite him.

"Before we start the training, is there anything you would like to ask first?" Asked Elder, starting the conversation.

"What do I want to ask?" Mo Shatian replied, a little confused.

"Didn't you go to Xiao Ling's place yesterday because there was something you wanted to know?"

When Mo Shatian went to Xiao Ling's place, there were honestly many things he wanted to ask, but immediately forgot about them when he talked to Elder and wanted to become his disciple. At that moment, Mo Shatian was so serious that the other things on his mind started to disappear.

He began to try to recall what was on his mind at that time.

"Is the event that happened the day before yesterday...the event called the Heavenly Tribulation. What exactly happened at that time?" Mo Shatian asked.

This was the one thing he wanted to know the most, because thanks to this event, he began to experience things like the other side of his village and also the cultivators.

It was an event that changed Mo Shatian's life completely.

Elder immediately replied, "Yes, the thunderstorm that occurred at the top of Misty Mountain was not an ordinary event, but rather...a rare event called the Heavenly Tribulation." He added, "Before I explain it, it would be easier if I start explaining it from the beginning. So open your ears wide and listen carefully..."

Mo Shatian began to focus his concentration on his sense of hearing, hoping not to miss anything Elder said.

Elder looked at Misty Mountain and began to explain in a hoarse voice.

In this world there was something called Spiritual Energy. This was the purest and most natural energy in the world.

Everything in the sky, land and ocean is inseparable from this energy.

There were many opinions on the exact nature of this spiritual energy; some say that spiritual energy is the natural order of the world, while others say that spiritual energy is the lifespan of the world, and the rest say that spiritual energy is a way for living beings to escape from mortal confines.

It was not important which of the three was correct, as they were interconnected with each other and it can be concluded that spiritual energy is the essence of the world.

With spiritual energy being the essence of this world, it was only natural that spiritual energy could affect every single thing in this world either directly or indirectly. There was some evidence of this such as places rich in spiritual energy were naturally rich in natural resources, there were even some rare treasures that can only be found in certain areas, such as places rich in spiritual energy, and conversely, areas poor in spiritual energy will have the opposite effect.

This spritual energy not only applies to natural resources but can also affect living creatures. This can be proven by the fact that animals and plants are always attracted to places rich in spiritual energy, just like the animals here that can evolve into Magical Beast.

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Magical beast. Magical Beast is a term given by cultivators to animals that can perform cultivation practices.

They are usually born from ordinary animals that have absorbed spiritual energy over a long period of time before gaining spiritual awareness and intelligence. Once they gain spiritual awareness and intelligence, they will naturally start to seek out places with high spiritual energy and start to grow strong slowly over time.

They then begin to absorb the essence of the sun and moon to strengthen their bodies, and for a long time after they have absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, a core will begin to appear within their bodies that will give them magic power. The core will become the container and source of magic power for the magical beast—this is called the beast core.

This is the reason why beasts that had developed a beast core and also possessed magic powers were referred to as Magical Beast.

Of course, that wasn't the end of their development; if they still wanted to develop higher and go even further, they couldn't just rely on their beast bodies to understand the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.

It was still a mystery why only the human form could comprehend the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. And no matter the difficulties and obstacles, for those magical beasts who still wanted to go further and take human form, they had to pass through the challenge called the Heavenly Tribulation.

The truth is that this is not the true nature of the Heavenly Tribulation.

The Heavenly Tribulation was actually a punishment from heaven. It was a punishment given to those magical beasts who try to go against the rules of heaven and earth—trying to cultivate to understand the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. This punishment was given because the magical beasts trying to cultivate were acting against the heavens.

The heavens will send down tribulation in the form of heavenly lightning to crush them to nothing. For those who try and succeed, then they will gain human form and understand the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, and even if they fail, they will be turned to ashes and dust by the heavenly lightning. That is why some of them call it obstruction nd tribulation.

What a heaven-defying beast!

Truly worthy of being called a demon!

When the heavenly tribulation occurs, the heavens will send heavenly lightning bolts with tremendous amounts of Spiritual Energy rushing down from the sky and the energy waves will attract every monster within a distance of about ten kilometers. This was the reason why many monsters that should not have been around the village suddenly appeared—drawn by the Spiritual Energy.

For anyone who passes through, the heavenly lightning will create a prison that will confine them, called the hellfire lightning prison, that will confine and torment, weaken and destroy anyone who experiences the Heavenly Tribulation. This is the reason why those who make it through safely will be in a weak and helpless condition.

The phenomenon of the Heavenly Tribulation is always referred to as Demon Ascension.

Demon ascension. Demon ascension was a term used to refer to the evolution of a Magical Beast into a Demon Beast or Demon Beast trying to ascend to a higher level, with the Heavenly Tribulation as the hurdle they must cross to understand the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.

This time, when a Magical Beast passes through the Heavenly Tribulation and takes human form, that is when they are truly referred to as Demon Beasts.

Demon Beast. Demon Beast was creature with unwavering strength, indomitable spirit, as well as high intelligence that was directly tempered by the Heavenly Tribulation. They were formidable opponents to cultivators. Their cores, which have also been tempered by the Heavenly Tribulation with large amounts of Spiritual Energy make them evolve from beast cores to demon cores.

Demon Beast would make their cores the center of their cultivation as well as their spiritual energy, making demon cores much more precious and rarer.

Some Demon beasts proudly referred to themselves as a Demon Race to distinguish themselves from Magical Beast—more precisely, to distinguish those who had passed through the Heavenly Tribulation.

There were even rumors among cultivators that a demon core could help a cultivator break through to the next realm.

Mo Shatian had listened to everything carefully until this point, unable to contain his curiosity. "Rumor? Can it be proven accurate? How could a demon core be able to help a cultivator?"

Elder sighed, looking dissatisfied that his smooth and fluent explanation was suddenly interrupted. "There is a saying, there is no smoke if there is no fire. This also applies to rumors. There is no way that such rumors would suddenly appear unless there is no truth to them, of course it could just be an unsubstantiated rumor, yet I dare say that it is true."

If Elder said that, then it was the truth. Mo Shatian did not expect that Elder would lie after saying it like that, to his disciple—to his successor who might be important information to him in the future.

"A demon core is a core that contains spiritual energy as well as cultivation essence for Demon Beast, so it is only natural that a demon core can help one's cultivation. Of course, even a core that has not passed through the Heavenly Tribulation like a beast core can also aid cultivation depending on one's cultivation. Although the latter is only useful in the Essence Condesation Realm, that doesn't mean it can't be used for some other things." Elder said, ending his explanation.

Mo Shatian was silent, trying to understand everything. There were some things that he had known before—that Xiao Ling had told him—but there were obvious differences in the whole. What Xiao Ling knew was like an iceberg that was only visible on the outside, while what Elder knew was not only the outside but also the invisible part, covering all parts in detail and completely at once.

As for spiritual energy, this was the first time he had heard of it. He was surprised that Spiritual Energy was the energy that sustained this world and had a hunch that this was the energy cultivators used to cultivate.

The last one was the one that surprised him the most which was the Demon Beast. Mo Shatian was shocked to learn that they could and were able to survive the phenomenon firsthand, even he himself could feel the powerful energy waves from afar. Not only that, these beast could even take human form and cultivate like humans—truly a beast worthy of being called a demon!

Silence began to pervade the air around them, neither of them making a sound except for the wind caressing them and the rustling of leaves and grasses rubbing against the wind.

Mo Shatian was still organizing all the information coming into his brain and trying to calm down from the emotions that came up during Elder's explanation.

Elder spoke up after seeing Mo Shatian's calm state. "So, what do you think now after hearing everything, my boy? Almost all of the information you heard is common knowledge to cultivators, if not all of it. However, for cultivators from large sects or even high-level cultivators, this is even more true."

Even after calming down, Mo Shatian wasn't too surprised to learn that not all cultivators knew this. This information once again made him realize that the Elders' knowledge and experience were truly extraordinary when compared to other cultivators, just like he'd heard from Xiao Ling.

"Since I've answered your question, I guess it's time for me to explain my part," Elder stated. "I still haven't explained the most important part."

"The most important part?"

"Of course. What good is it for someone who wants to become a cultivator if he himself doesn't know anything about it!" Elder snorted.