Carefully inspecting his internal world's evolution, Alexander noticed a chaotic mess to be forming below the vast sea of Universes.

'So that's why Celestial Qi is falling down and all types of Qi can freely enter a Universe...'

Paying more attention, he noticed many different Qi types falling down without hitting any world on their path, soon falling past the Lower Realms into this mess of chaotic energies.

'What do I do with... is that related to the Sea of the Black Abyss? Well, whatever...'

Now halfway done with the Origin Realm, Alexander needed to deal with the first layer of the Origin Tribulation Stage. This would mainly test the stability of his work, or so he thought as of now.

'Let's see, let's see.'

Still sitting cross-legged, Alexander surged his will and might, pulling all wild energies within him.

A beautiful vortex of many colors taking place, the asteroid crumbled, leaving Alexander's figure exposed to the void, the light of sparse stars pulled as well.

The vortex turning more and more powerful, it soon changed to a blinding orange color.

His act noticed by the Heavens received an obligated answer.

Dark clouds forming high above, their grey color picked Alexander's interest.

'Doesn't it look like the clouds from-'

A loud thunderous roar exploding across the world, sparks of blue lightning flew about unrestrained.

Preparing himself, Alexander felt a sudden blast flatten his internal world!

Coughing some sparkly universal blood, Alexander was not too happy with the trial. Clearly, the Heavens had one job, and they did so ruthlessly.

They would not advise him on what to improve. They would just blast his internal world apart like a toy until it either broke or survived long enough to be considered proper.

'Well I'm fucked...' Sighing, Alexander witnessed the cloudy Heavens to surge with more ferocity, sending bolt after bolt of powerful and heavy lightning directly crashing down inside of his Universal Core.

There was absolutely no damage to his body or even soul. The only thing he could feel and see was his internal world's above and bottom suddenly meet after being flattened like a pancake.

'And my internal world-'

"Blurgh"

'...is supposed to-'

"Blurgh"

'...survive that?'

Coughing more and more universal blood as lightning bolts struck him one after the other, Alexander already knew that he had failed. It was not a big problem, his cultivation would probably only regress to the beginning or near that point, and he'll restart all over again.

After all, his internal world was already broken everywhere. His Universal Core was thankfully still intact, same for the Infinite Chasing Boundary. However, his Universes, Celestial Realm, Origin-Tier Worlds and the likes all turned into pancakes.

It was a rather comical yet depressing scene.

'Is my internal world now made out of cookies? Look at my worlds, they crumble exactly like cookies now!'

After a tenth bolt struck him down, the tribulation cleared away.

Inspecting the damage inside, Alexander pursed his lips.

'Could be worse.'

Making weird sounds with his mouth while blowing some air, Alexander suffered a worsening mood.

'Unfortunately, I can't even sleep my sorrows away right now... I'm not in a safe spot, not even close... And that inn won't protect me either... Actually, if I had known it wasn't inside the Dark Wall, I wouldn't have even slept there to begin with.'

'But what can I say? Let's restart then...'

His cultivation having regressed from the sixth layer's peak to a broken fourth layer was a bit annoying.

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'I might even need to destroy everything for a clean... oh? Oh no! You fucking...'

'I'm sick of this shit!!' Bawling his eyes out figuratively, Alexander noticed his broken down Universes to have toughened up slightly.

'Don't you even tell me I have to...'

'I don't want to! Dammit!' Punching the void, Alexander was beyond annoyed now. He understood the reason for this tribulation beyond that of a test. If one failed the test, they would receive a small help!

Now, Alexander needed to keep reconstructing everything while suffering a painful decrease in cultivation each time until he would eventually succeed.

Not only so, but it felt more of a waste of time and labor than anything else.

'Well... here I go...' His eyes empty, his mind drifted elsewhere while he repaired everything.

After spending a painfully long amount of time redoing everything while carefully having to inspect and salvage surviving worlds, Alexander was now facing the tribulation once again.

And again he failed.

'...' Veins bulging everywhere, Alexander was not too happy. He was ever so slightly irritated. Just a tiny bit.

Doing it again, Alexander failed.

And failed.

And failed.

...

And also failed.

But would it be fun if succeeded this attempt, perhaps? But he did not, so he would not know anyway.

Oh, he also failed.

Again.

And again.

And again!

And again!!

"I'm sick of it!!" Fully angered now, Alexander could not even keep his thoughts to himself, screaming to the void. This annoyed him even further.

'Fucking Hell! Why am I even failing right now?! This is already whatever attempt it was, and only one world inside one Universe got barely damaged a bit. Why did I not succeed?'

Unknown to him, Alexander had already tried this test over thirty thousand times!

It had been over a hundred million years since!

'Okay, now is most definitely it! After that, I should have a very powerful foundation, right?' Almost crying inside thinking that all of this process might be completely worthless against someone a single minor realm above him, Alexander felt the urge to punch something.

It would have been completely fine to do this process for a few years or even centuries. A thousand years or even ten thousand years would have been doable as well. But doing the same tedious, boring act of meticulously inspecting each and every single Universe to find which part was damaged and which was improved almost caused him to go insane.

Alexander was capable of spending millions of years peacefully cultivating. It was not a problem. And so were a few failures here and there. But this process did not even make him feel stronger or more talented. It did not even make him feel like this process was worth anything!

The only benefit was a better understanding of two things.

First was the Heavens' principles and might.

As for the second...

Sending a punch to the void, a flurry of shockwaves spread across the asteroid sea, making them crumble to dust.

'So amazing, I learned the Heavens' power... which cannot even help me speed up the process because I'm not proficient enough. And even then, by the time I am, I will have my Origin Core fully completed while this power cannot work on anyone stronger than me. Because they also have gone through it...'

Frowning, Alexander felt that something was quite off for a while now. He knew that this process was very, very annoying. But would he have cared in the Celestial Realm? Alexander felt... younger.

He felt like he used to when he was an Ascension Realm Overlord. Back then, while his mental age was very high and his actions were simply for the heck of it... he was still immature compared to him as the second Overlord, when he was still at the Life Refining Realm.

'Is it because I slept or..? This is weird... It's very weird... I can't say it's unexpected, but it sort of is...'

Thinking for a bit, Alexander simply dismissed it as him being back from his robotic cultivation phase. Back in the Celestial Realm, Alexander had no real emotion. He was an expert being an expert. But from there arose a problem.

Acting as such, it was fine when being literally immortal in both body and soul. There was no point in being cautious of a pebble or even care about someone ten times stronger. Even if they wanted to seal him, it would not be able to last for very long.

'It's whatever... I'll figure it out later...' Feeling a sting at his own thoughts, Alexander felt a sense of urgency, but decided otherwise. He would not care about it, keeping his cultivation a priority.

Conditioning himself, Alexander endured the whole tribulation all over again, but this time succeeded. However, with how much effort was put into it, he could not even feel a tad bit happy. There was no real sense of accomplishment. Everything was just as expected.

It could be said that the gradual, extremely slow rate of progression lacking jumps and bumps caused a steady decline in anticipation over time. It felt more like a chore had been completed. Not a proper increase in cultivation.

Calming his already still mind, Alexander directly attempted another breakthrough. He would not waste even more time on useless failures. With his tribulation successfully completed, he should theoretically also manage an easy jump to the next layer. The two next layers were part of the easier group. Both the Origin Core and Origin Qi Mastery should end up only being a matter of time.

And it indeed was as such.

Only a few tens of thousands of years spent in refining his Universal Core, Alexander witnessed it turn bright orange. When peeking inside, the orange glow could not be seen, it was a one-way coat of Origin Energy. At least, Alexander estimated as such.

The most interesting part was the Origin Qi Mastery. While called Origin Qi, it meant Origin Energy, since both names were often used across Limbo indiscriminately.

This time, it only took the seasoned Alexander two thousand years to master Origin Energy to a satisfying degree.

His cultivation already at the third stage's peak, he only needed to complete the next three layers within the Heavenly Root Stage.

Alexander, not paying much attention to the next realms' names and even forgetting some after his boring trial, thanked his past self for not neglecting the study of Limbo's Heavens. Even though it was not quite the same as Valtos' Heavens, it was still something precious.

And when combining this understanding with the Heavens of Valtos' internal world, Alexander already felt ready to attempt yet another breakthrough.

Just to be sure, Alexander used the Heavens' pushing strength when aiming at a destroyed asteroid. Estimating the power behind the impact, Alexander was not the wiser afterward.

'What's the worse that can hap- Actually. Never mind. I'll try very carefully, and I'll see for myself. Yes, let's not go back below the fifth layer by being stupid and impatient.'

'I think I've had enough of that layer, most definitely!'