ACC Chapter 24 Tribulation (1)

My body had weakened by a measure when my blood core had shattered, now a thick red mist hanging close to me.

I should have felt fear, yet there was a strange excitement within me. I was about to challenge the Heavens, specifically, a tribulation no one had ever conquered before.

With a command of thought, my spirit energy, the reserves still within my body after the shattering of my core powered into my trusty spear, sucking the blood-attuned spiritual energy like a vampire.

It had been a gift from my wife after my advancement to the Core Formation stage. I could still remember the pure joy it had been. Because of my commoner background, I had been poor in a world governed by Sects and clans. She too, had been an itinerant cultivator, and yet, she had saved enough to commission this surprise.

That was why I had christened it with her name, Renah.

It trembled with excitement when it felt my fighting spirit.

(Sorry for the long wait, partner.)

I transmitted, upon which it trembled a little. I was hoping it gained true intelligence, birthing an artifact spirit.

My wife had died because of some petty man, but I had vowed to never abandon this one thing which had these precious memories of her.

"We are going to be defying the Heavens today!" I declared, with the Renah lighting up with a crimson glow matching my excitement.

Thunder boomed within my ears before a force settled above me, oppressing me into the platform and almost disorienting me due to the shift from weightlessness to gravity.

It was surprising. The Heavens had just materialised gravity from the clouds themselves. Though, it appeared that they were still preparing my tribulation. The golden lightning snakes were still swimming within the dark clouds, showing no sign of falling upon me.

I was going to have to use the energy in my body to fight off the lightning. This was going to be a hefty burden due to the fact that I couldn't replenish my energy, and for some reason, after the shattering of my core, I couldn't pull upon the red mist. Any attempt I had made proved futile.

With one hand, I twirled Renah, reacquainting myself with her. It had been an long time since something or someone had forced me into drawing her. So I had gotten a little bit rusty.

I dredged up the memories of my most epic and brutal battles, not to mention the techniques and insights of that time. I even perused something as inconsequential as how the wind had felt upon my skin at the time.

"Ha!"

With a shout, my demeaner underwent a change and I became more feral, like a beast coiled to strike. Every other emotion unsuitable for battle was locked away and I stood in place, my back straight, and spear pointed heavenwards.

And a moment not too late, the Heavens finished their preparations.

With the crack of thunder, travelling at the same speed through the void as the lightning itself, a golden bolt, arm thick and bright enough to almost blind me, struck down in both fury and glory.

Before it had even been released, through precognition and dynamic vision, my spear pierced within its path, causing it to be split apart by Renah, even as I felt the heaviness of the strike.

Lightning wasn't supposed to feel heavy, but the Heavens' tribulation was different.

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My senses which were stimulated to the highest level caught the split sparks impacting the individual molecules of the red mist around me, tempering and enhancing them to a state higher than previously.

This was also an eye opener. The lightning that fell during advancement to the Nascent Soul stage tempered the body, while the nascent soul itself was birthed through defeating or overcoming a Devil. But here, it was tempering the core fragments themselves.

Even that minor distraction didn't divert me to the pressing situation at hand, the arrival of a second bolt, which I effortlessly blocked once again.

I dredged up those records, I had perused in preparation of this day. This lightning tribulation was a 9 bolt, scalling with every three strikes.

The strength of these initial bolts was equal to the last of the three bolts released when attempting the Nascent Soul tribulation.

I blocked a third, causing the tribulation to enter a period of accumulation, giving me some respite to check my finite energy reserves.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips at the fact that I had managed to to keep the drain to below 10%.

With a thought, the speed at which my blood-attuned spiritual energy circulated within my body sped up, in essence augmenting by body, especially my thinking speed and reflexes, making everything within my eyes to slow down except for the lightning snakes above in the dark clouds.

As a person who had gone through multiple battles and instances of life and death, my instincts had been honed to the max. That's why I could feel it. The change in the space around me. The pressure had somewhat stalled for a split second, as if something menacing up above had just glimpsed my way.

That alone made the hairs on the back of my nape stand up, yet also birthing the first embers of true excitement within me, turning into a raging flame that brought a smile to my face.

Something powerful was finally coming.

I lowered my centre of gravity by spreading my legs apart and sinking my hips, as if I was about to take a seat. With both hands, I gripped Renah, making sure that every little thing within me was primed for what was to come.

The clouds parted and the pressure I was experiencing doubled. A large golden head with large eyes, whiskers and a beard, appeared. Just its immense size alone would have intimidated those with lesser wills.

Its breath crackled like thunder, with small lightning snakes being exhaled with every breath.

I slid to the side, with the large head crashing into where I had just been standing, leaving behind a massive pit with charred sides on the platform tethered into the void with spatial runes carved into arrays.

This platform was so dense and thick that it had all been built in space. Its weight would have been a detriment to moving it, if it had been built on Earth.

I abandoned those lightning fast thoughts and lashed out with a horizontal strike before the long bodied lightning dragon could recover.

Its head was pushed away to the side, with some of the golden lightning sheared away to temper and enhance the mist around me.

There was a tremble within my arms at its hardness. This was a beast equal in strength to me with a core at the peak of Nascent Soul.

I spun Renah infront of me as a tail blurred in my eyes before making impact, hurling me further away, with the force having caused minute fractures within my arms, which were swiftly mended the moment my feet touched the surface of the platform, digging long furrows before I could stop myself.

The moment I stopped though, I thrust out ferociously, releasing an energy projection that clashed with the pursuing dragon's teeth, causing a screeching sound, hard on the ears.

It was weird how lightning had been given the physicality of a solid... But that didn't matter. The harder the trial, the more fun I could have!

Its momentum was slowed down by the projection, allowing me to pump even more energy into the Renah and my feet.

With a crack of the platform, I accelerated towards the lightning beast, clashing head on and triggering a shock wave of both red and gold that pushed away the red mist around us before it sprung back in under a second.

Even with its large size and weight, not to mention the momentum, I still held my ground for a moment, before parrying the large head to the side by shifting my posture.

With a vertical swipe, Renah's tipped head sliced into the long sinuous body passing by me, leaving a large gash the leaked tangible lightning that proceeded to temper more of the red mist around me.

Before its body could recoil, I once again attacked, severing a tail that scattered into even more lightning that merged with the mist.

That caused a howl of pain and rage to escape its mouth, with the thunderous sound even bursting my eardrums, which I promptly fixed with a directed flow of my energy.

With a turn, at almost the same time, we once again faced each other, with almost a kilometer between us. But now, there was a sliver of fear within the lightning dragon. It was even hesitating to lunge forwards.

But I had no such qualms, so with a kick off the ground, I sped towards it with my spear raised above my head, probably spotting a maniacal grin.

A large furrow was dug into the platform, almost a kilometer wide and deep enough to almost sever the entire thing in half. The dragon had dodged, now above, with a bulge along its throat.