Before Maxine could so much as open a portal, she was jerked off of her feet as someone grabbed her tail. She saw the landscape rapidly change as she sped through the air and when it finally turned into an empty wasteland, she was roughly deposited onto the ground.

Maxine rolled to her feet and looked around as she took a fighting stance with her blades in hand. Instead of an enemy, she saw her Hellen, grandma Victoria and Guan floating more than a mile away from her.

Guan was behind her while grandma Victoria and Hellen were guarding infront of her. All of them were scanning the horizon with their backs to her. It only took her an instant to realize they were there to prevent anyone from interfering with her breakthrough. Daddy must've been monitoring me. Or he noticed it when I pulled those ships out of the sky. I was emitting a lot of power when I did that.

Without any hesitation, she had her shadow clones stop what they were doing and deployed the portable formation array. It had been inscribed on a series of special stones and hovered in the air around her. According to Horatio Quay, these formation stones will follow me everywhere that I go while they're active and are specifically geared to weaken tribulation lightning. It's worthless against any thing else. I just hope it doesn't get destroyed half way through. He said that might happen depending on how nasty my tribulation is.

She took one last glance at the formation floating around her before closing her eyes and was able to breach the barrier separating her from gold stage with little effort since she was already on the verge of a natural breakthrough. However, her instincts that warned her off from doing this in the past hadn't raised a single warning. The fuck?! Is this new form really that powerful? It better be since I have no fucking idea what these snake-things on my back do or how to manage four arms just yet.

Dark, angry clouds rapidly formed above her and she launched herself towards them. She could literately see and hear the crackling of the lightning bolts within it as she approached. Don't get intimidated by that shit! Just stay alert and I should survive this. With a defiant roar, she finally entered the tribulation clouds as she withdrew a single set of her twilight iron blades.

She couldn't see anything beyond a few feet around her with her eyes and only twelve feet with her spiritual sense. But she could see enough to feel threatened. The tribulation lighting was forming into an interwoven sphere around her, like a cage. It looks like I won't be running from this.

While she waited for the tribulation lightning to gather, she swiftly formed a blade at the end of her tail and extended the handle on her twilight iron blades to grasp them with her second set of arms. Since my movements are going to be awkward anyways, I might as well use these extra arms to increase the power of my strikes to compensate.

As soon as she finished readying herself, the tribulation lightning surrounding her began to rapidly launch arcing bolts at her one after the other. She instantly slashed with her blades. As she predicted, her movements were awkward due to her transformation and she ended up scattering the tribulation lightning into static clouds rather than cleave them apart. However, she was still able to negate most of their energy with ease, but as a side effect of her awkward strikes, her blades were beginning to slowly heat up. That can't be all there is to it. It's probably a simple break before the next phase of my lightning tribulation hits.

Without warning, the scattered static discharge drilled into her body. It felt she was being both destroyed and rapidly healed at the same time. The pain was so intense that she wanted to scream, but couldn't. Daddy warned me this would happen. This is just the first part of the mental tribulation. It's testing my tolerance for pain. If I fail this part, I will pass out and die from the rest of lightning tribulation. The rest of the mental illusions will be targeted at my psyche. I need to do my best to face it without it effecting my mentality.

After a few more seconds, her pain vanished and she saw a vision of herself cackling with glee while countless innocent people writhed in agony on the ground around her. I need to remain calm and relaxed. This doppelganger is nothing more than a manifestation of my fears and doubts.

"Who are you kidding?" her doppelganger said mirthfully, "You may act like you don't enjoy watching these worms suffer, but you do."

"I enjoy fighting a worthy foe, but I will never enjoy torture," Maxine said firmly.

"Oh, really? Then explain this," her doppelganger said as she waved her hand and Maxine saw an illusion of Maxwell smiling after he had fed potent aphrodisiacs and hallucinogenic herbs to feline type bests and tied up the men that had raped and killed Alice to boulders with their bare asses in the air. The deserved fate that every rapist should face. It's the only way they will ever know what it's like for their victims.

"That is no longer me," Maxine said calmly.

"Is it?" her doppelganger asked as she waved her hand again. Maxine saw her face with a tiniest of smiles as she jabbed that foolish alchemist's thigh with the needle. I don't recall that! No, this illusion is just trying to mess with me. I am no sadist.

"Is that supposed to prove something?" Maxine asked in return, "We both know that I'm capable of fabricating something like this." However, the evil version of herself simply smiled. It only took a moment for Maxine to realize why. She may be seeing a vision, but her spiritual sense could still perceive her actual surroundings. And right at that moment, another wave of tribulation lightning was being unleashed at her. It's a good thing I never retracted my spiritual sense.

Maxine ignored the illusion around her and used her spiritual sense for sight rather than her eyes while she fended off the tribulation lightning. But that didn't keep her doppelganger from taunting her.

"Face it. You are a monster," Maxine's doppelganger taunted her with a smile, "You revel in killing. You only look for a suitable excuse to unleash your bloodlust. Murders, rapists, pedophiles, or anyone else that tries to manipulate those that you care about. These are nothing more than your preferred prey. You can't even deny that you don't take some twisted joy in watching those kind of people suffer and die." Fuck. Ignore that thing, even if what she says makes some kind of weird sense, but that's how these mental tribulations work. They're nothing more than a distraction to lower your chances of succeeding.

"Be quiet. I'm trying to concentrate. Or do you wish to die with me?" Maxine asked calmly while defending herself.

"And why should I do that?" Maxine's doppelganger replied with a smirk, "I honestly believe you would welcome death after all that you've been through. Loosing your parents, sister and lover all in less than ten years. I'm not even counting the numerous friends that you lost either. It's no wonder why you were reckless after being reborn as a woman. Part of you wanted to die!"

Maxine did her best to ignore her doppelganger's words, but it still effected her enough for her to miss a single lightning tribulation bolt from striking her lower back. Her scales blackened and fell off to reveal her blistered and burnt hide. FUCK! That hurt! However, Maxine continued to slash at every tribulation lightning bolt that came hurtling at her.

"But you still found a reason to live. It's quite impressive really," Maxine's doppelganger continued, "And after awhile, you even allowed yourself to open up to a man. It's even possible that you could've loved him after a fashion. And he betrayed you! Spied on you for another. You can't deny that part of you wants to take revenge against him for that! So how are you going to deal with him? Are you going to stomp him to death? No, that would be too much of a mercy. Perhaps, you will give him a treat of being raped by the coarse dick of a feline type beast. Or would you prefer that he live the rest of his days screaming?"

While her doppelganger talked, Maxine's emotions were becoming more and more chaotic as she continued to slash at the tribulation lightning and she was missing her strikes more and more frequently.

More than half of her skin was either blistered or burnt and matters were made worse since the lightning tribulation bolts that got through carried a large portion of the scattered static electricity with them.

One of the lightning tribulation bolts that got through struck her right eye. She screamed in agony as her eye exploded, but never once stopped swinging her blades. I will NOT fall here! I will live!

"You are a stubborn one. I'll give you that," Maxine's doppelganger said in a huff, "But wouldn't it be so much easier just to let go? You're pain would be momentary if you simply lowered your weapons. Embrace death that you once longed for." Her doppelganger's words had the opposite effect on Maxine. Instead, her will to live only intensified as she thought about what the world's fate would be without her and how heartbroken Emily would be.

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In a moment of clarity, she realized that the tribulation lightning around her seemed to be loosing energy. She decided to take a gamble and gathered her remaining strength before unleashing all of it in a massive blade storm while roaring defiantly. Her attack shredded the remaining tribulation lightning and scattered the tribulation cloud. Unfortunately, she no longer had the strength to remain aloft and she began to fall.

As she fell, the remaining static charge gathered within her body, but not to destroy. Rather, it was to enhance and improve every aspect of her body and cores. Sadly, it did little to heal her injuries or purge the destructive tribulation lightning in her body.

A smile appeared on her face as she realized that she succeeded. She just wished that she didn't have to get so injured in the process. Oh, god! This hurts! And my eye! I don't even know how long that will take to regenerate.

Maxine fell for only a short time before she was caught in a princess carry by Guan. "Good job, Maxine," Guan said as she felt him inject his energies into her neck before he slowly carried her to the ground, "Now, rest. Both your mother and myself will take care of you." Whatever daddy just did, it's dulling the pain from my wounds.

"How bad are her wounds?" Maxine heard Hellen asked in a worried tone.

"Nothing too serious," Guan answered calmly, "Although, her eye may take some time to restore itself. Soft tissue like that takes longer to regenerate."

"Her face!" grandma Victoria exclaimed and Maxine saw her reach for Maxine's face.

"Don't touch her!" Guan shouted at her, "Remember, her blood is both acidic and a contact poison. I'm the only one here that won't be effected by it."

"I know that. I can't bear to see her in such pain," grandma Victoria said sadly.

"I understand that, but I'm more concerned that you might drop her if you were to get accidentally poisoned," Guan said calmly and raised his eyebrow as he shifted her weight in his arms, "She's gotten a bit heavier than I anticipated."

"I'm... not... fat," Maxine said weakly. She saw both Hellen and grandma Victoria have a look of surprise on their faces before they burst into laughter.

"Of course, you're not fat," grandma Victoria said once she recovered, "It's a side-effect of reaching gold stage. Your body has already reached the limit of strength by rearranging the composition of your cells. The only way to make you stronger now is to increase the density of your cells and thus your weight." Finally, they reached the ground and Guan set Maxine onto a carpet.

"Maxine, swallow this. It will help," Guan said as he put a small brown pill that was the size of a lozenge up against her lips. Maxine did as she was told and felt it it nourish her depleted body. It was a nutritional pill. I would have to drink ten potions to get the same effect as that single pill. I guess I'll be making pills in the future, but if I recall, there are some things that still come in potion form at my level. She felt her body exploit the effect of the pill to the maximum as her wounds began to rapidly heal, but she knew that it was impossible to heal quickly from tribulation lightning. It had a nasty tendency to linger in the wounds and inhibit the natural regeneration of those struck by it.

"Can you undo your transformation?" Hellen asked, "Your blood will remain acidic and poisonous so long as it's maintained." Maxine tried to revert to her base form again, but her body was still resisting her attempts.

"Is that bad?" grandma Victoria asked after waiting two minutes without Maxine reverting to her base form.

"Not necessarily, She may be too drained, both emotionally and physically, to revert to her base form at the moment," Guan announced, "We need to get her large quantities of meat to eat. Now." Oh, he should've just said so. I have four hundred pounds of it in my dimensional ring.

Maxine focused on her dimensional ring, but due to her exhaustion, it turned into a monumental task. However, she still managed to withdraw four hundred pounds of beast meat four seconds after Guan hand said something. Unfortunately, everyone aside from Hellen had already rushed off.

Hellen wasted no time and started to feed Maxine by hand. "I won't ask why you keep so much meat in your dimensional ring. It's more important that you eat," Hellen said while holding a 4 pound Iron Bison steak to Maxine's lips. The scent of it reminded Maxine just how hungry she was and she promptly devoured it in mere seconds while Hellen held it for her.

Hellen continued to feed Maxine from the massive pile of meat and was halfway through it before grandma Victoria and Guan returned. Thankfully, by this point, Maxine was able to move on her own and was digging into the meat pile on her own. Guan and her grandmother simply added more to the pile. Unfortunately, most of it was uncooked. It didn't stop her from eating it, though. In fact, she was getting concerned that she was still hungry after eating so much.

Maxine estimated that she ate half a ton of meat before her hunger finally began to fade. Unfortunately, burns still covered half of her body, but she could still tell that her recent meal had sped up her regeneration considerably until the healing energies reached the areas directly hit by the tribulation lightning. Shit, I was afraid of that. I have to wait for my body to purge the lingering tribulation lightning before I will heal at my usual pace. Until then, I'm going to be healing at the same pace as everyone else. That also means my eye won't be regenerating any time soon. l need to find an eyepatch in the mean time. But first, let's see if I can revert now that I'm feeling a bit more refreshed.

Maxine focused and sighed in relief as she felt her frame start to shift. When she finished changing, she was back to having two arms and none of those snake things protruding out of her upper back. Oh, thank god. I was worried that I would be stuck like that.

"Oh, thank the maker!" grandma Hellen shouted happily before she gave Maxine a gentle hug. At least, she's avoiding most of the burnt areas.

Maxine gently hugged her grandmother back and looked at Guan, "Um, daddy, how much weight did I gain in comparison to what's normal?"

"Most cultivators gain on average a 10 percent increase in overall mass when they reach gold stage and gain an additional 10 percent each time they rank up. You, on the other hand, gained a 15 percent increase," Guan answered calmly, "I believe its due to your bloodlines fusing together since I experienced a similar gain. Do not look down on your increased mass. It grants you far more advantages that you realize." When he puts it that way, it must mean my overall density increased. Having a more dense body means I'll be both stronger and tougher than others, but it won't be that much of an edge. If I have this advantage, there are likely others that do as well and they've probably had a lot more time to perfect their fighting styles than I have as well. Not to mention that I'll probably have to do at least a couple weeks of training to get used my increased weight as well as training in that new form to get used to having all of those arms and those snake-things on my back. Having that many extra limbs will certainly be a challenge to say the least.

"Ah, well, there are definitely worse things that could've happened," Maxine said, "I could've been stuck like that."

"Oh, yes. That would've been a tragedy," grandma Victoria agreed, "Vellus would never agree to marry you if you looked like that all the time." At that comment, Maxine felt a pang of sorrow.

While it was true that Vellus only spied on her to protect his clan, it still left a mark on her psyche that made it impossible for her to open up to him again like she had before. Fuck! I'm going to make those assholes from the Association regret pulling this stunt. Why couldn't they have just let me be happy? If they want daddy's knowledge so badly, I'll let them witness what it can do when wielded by a vengeful woman!

Suddenly, Hellen swat Guan upside the head and said, "Isn't it about time that you left? We need to bandage Maxine's wounds that can't be healed by your potions and we can't do that while you're here ogling her."

"Oh, yes. You're right, dear," Guan said before he left. As soon as he vanished into the horizon, grandma Victoria formed a dome over them.

"That was the thing that I least expected to see today," Maxine admitted and she looked to grandma Victoria, "You wouldn't happen to know where I can get a fashionable eyepatch, do you? I need one until my eye regenerates," After slowly pouring water over Maxine, Hellen started to peel off Maxine's charred clothes. Still, some of Maxine's skin came off with her charred clothes. Which caused her to wince in pain.

"No, but I can have someone find you one later. It's such a shame about your face. If you didn't heal so well, I would be afraid that you would be permanently scarred," grandma Victoria said as she retrieved a roll of aromatic bandages and a jar of salve, "It's been sometime since I've had to apply bandages, so don't expect perfection."

"I don't think it matters, mother," Hellen said as she helped grandma Victoria, "They'll just have to be changed tomorrow anyways. Anyways, what caused your new transformation, Maxine?"

"This is what caused it," Maxine replied as she sent the memory of Vellus Callaran's conversation with the powerful alchemist as well as her feeling of subsequent rage to Hellen and grandma Victoria, "Although, I'll admit I didn't even notice it until it was forcing me to breakthrough to gold."

"Maxine, I'm so sorry," grandma Victoria said apologetically, "I'll make that cretin pay for this!"

"Don't grandma," Maxine said firmly, "We both know he didn't do that voluntarily. I've decided to help him free his family, but after that, the most he can hope from me is my friendship."

"Fine, I won't do anything to him and I'll tell your father about your wishes as well. You know what he'll do if I don't," grandma Victoria said calmly while she continued to apply salve and bandages to Maxine's wounds, "But that can wait for later. You may not realize it yet, but your father performed some strange technique on you. I believe it's blocking out the vast majority of the pain that you should be feeling. Techniques of that nature rarely last longer than an hour, so you'll have to brace yourself for when that happens."

"It's already starting to wear off," Maxine said as she felt he wounds starting to burn ferociously, "Finish up treating my wounds and help me get dressed before it wears off completely." I know which technique he used. It's normally reserved for patients in a lot of pain. It gives them enough clarity to drink a potion or swallow a pill that puts them into a deep healing sleep.

She did her best to cooperate to speed up the treatment of her wounds, but they weren't fast enough. She was gritting her teeth to keep herself from crying out, but couldn't stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks when they finally managed to clothe her in loose robes.

Guan returned shortly after she was dressed and pressed a small pill to her lips. "Swallow this. It will help you sleep for a time while you heal," Guan said gently, "When you wake up, the pain should be more manageable." Maxine promptly consumed it and shortly after, she began to descend into a blissful slumber. Thanks, daddy. I hope I wake up before the Alliance assembly.