No words had hurt him more than those.

Gai Lui held still. He could not move, but he held still anyway.

“You are not worth my hate.”

What?

The words echoed in his mind and drew a picture he could not hate anymore.

Gai Lui would be brought forward. Gai Jin would explain and all would judge him. He would be executed or worse, imprisoned.

“You are not worth my hate.”

Even now, when he had given up so much when he had lost so much.

Now when he had accepted death, longed for it.

“You are not worth my hate.”

Those words held him. They denied him the last bit of his pride.

“You are not worth my hate.”

Gai Lui rebelled. He reached, deep within himself and touched that most sacred of places. His lower dantian held all he needed. It held his life, his strength, and his innate qi.

He used it. To reclaim his pride. To be remembered. To die with his name known to man and to make his disciple fear again.

His body grew and healed. Bones set themselves right and muscle grew anew.

He lived again and burst from his old skin like a mayfly.

********

“Oh, come on,” I grumbled.

I’d warned that kid against killing the old man, but that was just light advice. A friendly suggestion of sorts.

But I hadn’t wanted this.

I watched as the skies darkened. Storm clouds came through and the wind began to howl.

“What’s happening?” Chin asked, suddenly alarmed by the sudden change in weather.

“Tribulation,” I replied.

“Tribulation?” Chin asked. “As in tribulation to the immortal realm?”

“Yup,” I replied.

I held my hand out and pretended to put some effort into the action. Sweat beaded my head as a false technique covered the Great Desert Strip. By now, any and all fifth ranks were within it. They had all come to observe the conflict, but now I had to put on a show of my own. I pretended to struggle with the barrier, containing the tribulation was as easy as blinking for me but I couldn’t let anyone else know that.

“Who’s the tribulation for?” Chin asked.

“Both of them,” I replied.

“Both of them?” Chin yelled.

This time attention was focused on me. I could feel senses gathering around me by the thousands. Everyone wanted to hear what I had to say, even some sense from outside the region were wriggling away like worms in the corner.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“It’s called dual tribulation. It’s rare but it happens in conflicts among those just a step away from immortality. They both have to oppose each other in numerous forms, each representing a final trial for the other. Gai Jin is strong but has no care for pride, while Gai Lui is weak but wants it more than anyone else. They are antithetical to each other.”

There was more to it than but that was all I was willing to say. I couldn’t appear too knowledgeable on the subject after all.

“You’ve seen it before?” Chin asked.

Yes, I’ve gone through it even.

“No, but I’ve read about it,” I replied.

It wasn’t just antithetical in wants but in needs as well. Gai Jin had refined his body within the demonic cave, his spirit within the battle, and his soul with his choice of letting Gai Lui live. He had aligned with himself truthfully.

Whatever action he did, he had remained Gai Jin.

But so had Gai Lui.

Gai Lui had chased death and blood all in the name of his pride. The one thing he cared for most of all.

Even in death, he had remained Gai Lui.

But to be who they were was to destroy something of the other person’s. Their daos, though not opposed in nature were opposed in action.

For either to remain, the other must fall, and for the victor would be immortality.

Each man had to be the other’s hurdle. Rin Wi had to conquer her servile past instinct. She had to rip away that definition from herself. In a way, she was the opposite of Gai Jin. She needed to move on and change, and so she faced her past.

Gai Jin chose to stay himself, so he faced the force that would make him change.

Gai Lui wanted his pride, so he faced the man who kept it from him.

Qi leaked from both of them and pushed out into the world, or at least that’s what would have happened in a normal dual tribulation. Each would face their opponent, both empowered by the other’s qi.

In this case, qi leaked from Gai Jin and went into Gai Lui. Gai Lui was dying. He had given up even his innate qi to remain in the fight and while his body tried to seek tribulation, it did not have the qi to try for it.

He had nothing to give, all he could do was take.

So he took Gai Jin’s qi and became the tribulation. If Gai Lui won, he would become an immortal and take everything of Gai Jin’s.

A parasite’s tribulation.

********

Gai Jin knew. He felt it as if it were an instinct of his soul. Immortality beckoned, and he had to go.

He saw his qi grow and multiply. It grew to be too much for him to contain and leaked out into the world, a flood bursting from his very soul.

And Gai Lui drank it all.

The old monk gurgled in delight. Power flushed and ran deep through his bones, pushing him to a half-step of immortality.

Gai Jin retreated, pulling trying to hold whatever bit of qi he could within himself.

Tribulation was different for each person.

Observed as a phenomenon, it was something that happened when qi was overproduced during vital moments of growth. It happened all the time, from one rank to the next, but it was far more punishing during certain ranks. Those tribulations were something else. They were growth, a shedding of the past, and a trial of the future.

Between the third and fourth rank, between the fifth and sixth rank, and even between the eighth and ninth rank.

Something changed. Something fundamental was shifted within you and the tribulation was the expression of it all.

It was a physical battle, along with a mental one.

The battle wasn’t always the same and neither were the rules.

Gai Lui ran at him.

Gai Jin kept his eyes open and his senses spread, losing his old master’s form for a second. He raised his hand to block the unseen strike.

Then an impact. Jin found himself flying through the air, his arm fractured and weak.

He started to heal it. To force it whole when the second strike came down from behind.

“I AM NOT WORTH YOUR HATE?” Gai Lui yelled.

His body had changed. He was taller and more muscular. His body was practically bloating with energy.

“ME?”

Another strike, this time from the side.

Gai Jin ran, channeling the Monk’s Holy Steps and sprinting on all fours.

His master trailed behind.

How?

Gai Jin’s mind raced. He was no fool. He knew how tribulations came and passed, and he had heard that immortal talking about this specific tribulation as well. Gai Lui had drained his innate qi, devouring it to empower himself, and in the process, had eaten Gai Lui’s tribulation, encompassing.

Gai Lui caught up and swatted at Jin.

There was no technique in the attack, no enhancement. It was just pure strength powered by stolen qi.

And it was the deadliest strike Gai Jin had ever received.

His bones broke and his body was sent tumbling through the air. He skidded across the desert sand like a stone that had been thrown across the pond.

His hands flashed and he produced three demonic cores from his robes and swallowed them down.

He saw Gai Lui approaching from the distance and he ran.

Gai Lui had emptied out his lower dantian, the place where your innate qi rested. But this wasn’t just that, no. Innate qi fueled you. It was the slow fire of your life. But Gai Lui hadn’t just emptied it, he had replaced it.

He had taken Gai Jin’s tribulation qi and filled himself with it.

And this was the result.