70. When Tribulation Descends

Clay looked at the bottle of Greater Kay'u Essence in his hands. A day has passed and he has watched all the crystal records and books provided to him by Raata. Like the books initially show to him by Ver’a, most of them were biographies antedating the human Unification War.

And if he were to summarize the chronological order of this planets history, then it started with this planet living in peace and minding its own business. Then one day, an advance civilization came to collect samples for their Spiritual Vein production but not only did they fail, but they instead caused Black Qi to permanently and continuously be produced within the planet disrupting mother nature’s ability to naturally give birth of Spiritual Veins. And if that is not bad enough, they even introduced a destructive and greedy specie called humans.

The number of Spiritual Veins continued to diminish then 10,000 years later, an Elven colony called Ul Al'iya had a bright idea of retrieving technologies left behind during the invasion and attempt to recreate spaceships that would help them explore the stars.

Unfortunately, this vista has been suppressed and although the reason is unclear, it is related when humans waged wars to unify the lands.

And here he is 20,000 years later. Not only did technology regressed but cultivators seemed to have regressed as well.

With his current incurable transformation, he no longer cared and decided to peacefully wait for his demise but after Raata gave him those books especially the crystal recording containing the name Alb Ei, things changed.

Although it is highly unlikely that Alb Ei is at the same as Albert Einstein, being a subject of reincarnation, he believes that there is a possibility of other reincarnating into this planet. And if they have their memories intact or fragmented like him, maybe can help them is some ways.

And this influenced him to create an organization to filter reincarnates and help them live their second chances in comfort regardless if they are from earth or not.

And to do that, he must first extend his lifespan.

Clay opened the bottle of essence Ver’a gave him.

“That’s the smell.” That time when he drank the Tapa'y wine, Clay did not anticipate it would cause him to breakthrough and similarly, the bottle in his hand educed a stronger reaction from his body. This bottle may not be able to extend his life to another five years, a year should be sufficient for him to build his plan and enact his visions of the future.

Clay covered his body and stepped out of the residence and saw Re'y and with his disciple training under the sun.

"Protect me while I breakthrough and kill any intruders if you can."

Clay levitated and flew towards the temple. When he initially investigated it less than ten days ago, he found out that most of the Isolation and Gathering Formations in the temple are still intact and it is specifically designed for breakthroughs.

During his first visit, the temple looked like an abandoned ruin, but today it became a celestial and breathtaking temple worthy of being called a sacred ground.

Clay bypassed and ignored everyone as he entered the hall walking directly towards the pond.

Upon arriving, he took out two Spiritual Vein Models and placed it near the first boulder.

After arranging another set of Isolation and Defensive Formations, he finally sat in meditative position and opened the bottle. He removed the blankets covering him and without any hesitation, he gulp the essence in one go.

It was refreshing but after a minute, a horrifying pain consumed his entire body. The pain radiated from his cores to his meridians.

Arrggh!

He clenched his teeth and concentrated. Just like he predicted, his Beast Cores were stimulated and triggered a breakthrough. He could easily form the patterns for Core Formation circulation however, he finds it difficult to even guide his Qi on his primary meridians and it is refusing to synchronize with his Beast Cores. He can only persevere.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Meanwhile, not far from the village, Raata’s first disciple is secretly monitoring the village. He is still thinking why his master did not take away the Spiritual Vein from the village but when he thought about taking a break, he suddenly felt an ominous ripple of energy.

He once had witnessed a Magic Beast breakthrough so he is familiar with the energy they emit but what he is sensing now is a thousand times strong.

Instinct tells him to retreat like those fleeing villagers but his master specifically instructed him to protect the village so he must stay.

As a proud successor, he decided to discard his fear then summoned a talisman to call forth his master. And seeing that someone is already trying to contain this inauspicious and threatening aura, he flew towards the village then summoned five discs to surround the temple as well.

After a quarter of an hour, two powerful figures showed up and floated mid-air overlooking the Mur Av'ic village. It is Raata and the current Patriarch of Kra'ing Sect.

Upon arrival, they were shocked by the feint ripples of energy coming from the temple. Their purpose is to ensure the safety of the Spiritual Vein and take it away if necessary but if the owner is capable releasing such power, then it is best not to offend him.

The two summoned their own Isolation Pillars and helped contain Clay’s aura.

They did not need to use Qi Crystal to support the Formation as the Spiritual Qi covering the village is more than enough to power the Formations.

Raata was particularly shocked as a few days ago, the Spiritual Qi can be contained by the Gathering Formations of the Temple, but now it has doubled or tripled escaping the temple and enshrouding the village.

At the same time, Raata’s disciple stored his discs upon noticing his master and the sect Patriarch arrived. He was about to retreat and wait for instructions however, he realized that the dangerous pulsating ripples of energy coming from the temple is actually tempering his body.

Having reached the peak of Core Formation, he knew he is lacking in this aspect. And couple that with the concentrated Spiritual Qi in the area, it should be a perfect place to meditate and in preparation of his advancement in the next few years.

Raata’s disciple found a spot then sat down and meditated however, after a few cycles of circulation, he realized his mistake and fell into a trance.

Meanwhile, Clay lost track as to how long has he been guiding his Qi to support the Core Formation patterns circulating in his primary dantian and Beast Cores. His Cores are fine and he can feel the circulation slowly stabilizing but his primary meridians seem to refuse to cooperate.

But the bigger problem is the timing of his Beast Transformation. He does not mind growing bigger horns or longer tails but every time this happens, he will lose consciousness.

He even bit his tongue to stay conscious however, he continued to feel groggy.

Clay started to regret his action. Had he known his body will be changing again today, he could have waited.

Sigh!

Clay smiled and decided to succumb to sleep. He reckons he probably will not wake up this time.

But just when Clay was about to let go, he felt the flow of Spiritual Qi perturbed as it is being sucked by a vortex outside the temple followed by a rumbling thunder.

BOOM!

Clay woke up in instinct. One of his biggest trauma is being brought to a place where he was supposed to be offered to a Magic Beast and this kind of fear is like embedded in his subconscious and his body reacted instinctively when triggered.

And thanks to this unforeseeable occurrence, the circulation pattern in his primary meridians has finally connected.

Clay felt his primary meridians and Beast Core still needed more time to completely stabilize but it was enough for him to draw power when needed.

When a person starts cultivating, Spiritual Qi will be stored in the dantian and would initially have a gaseous form. Later when they breakthrough to Foundation Establishment Level, the gas precipitates to form a lake and when stepping into Core Formation, the lake will transform and accrue in the middle creating a ball called Core.

This Core will then give birth to a little flame inside and after years of cultivation, the flame will grew bigger and bigger until one day, it breaks from its cocoon. This flame is what cultivators call Nascent Soul and once it breaks its restrictions, it will signify a new level of strength boosting the life span of the cultivator to a thousand year.

As Clay approached the entrance of the hall, he heard helpless cries begging and forcing someone to wake up. When he finally had a view outside, Clay saw Raata slapping his disciple and another Nascent Soul who had injected his Qi trying to form a seal on their disciples Core.

"Ne'i! Wake up now and seal your cultivation! Only death awaits you if you do not go through this."

"The only way to save him is to feed him a Nascent Breakthrough Pill. With our combined efforts, we can help him survive this tribulation. Unless you cripple his cultivation now.” Re'y interjected as he stood and summoned a few Formation Pillars contained from the spatial ring Clay gave him a few days ago.

This is the first time Clay had seen someone falling into a trance. Like a Buddha who is locked into his meditative position, even those slaps could not wake this junior up.

Clay looked towards the sky.

Cyclopean black clouds have formed stretching at least ten kilometer radius above them and he could feel these formidable and frightening bolts of lightning as if portraying the end of the world has come.

After a few breaths, a bolt of silver lightning as thick as a forearm descended.

CRACK!

BOOM!