Leo’s eyes sprung wide open from the sudden pain the lightning blast inflicted which for some reason ignored the laws of nature and instead of landing on one of the three Divine tribulation trees, directly struck him. He clearly remembered the nightmare from more than ten years ago when the purple lightning tortured him, even though most of the time he was unconscious.
Now, on the other hand, he could only dream about those days, because unfortunately he couldn’t pass out even if he wished – the lighting did paralyze him and, yes, the pain was unbearable, but it also filled the body with the lightning Qi of pure purple color and for some reason Leo was suddenly refreshed and energetic. The worst part about it was that at the same time he felt overly satiated, almost like he had eaten for several days straight and since there was no way to vomit out the excess Qi, the only thing he could think of was to panicky direct it towards the dantian and try to suppress alongside the rest.
When the third lightning bolt struck him, Leo was already a complete mess. Besides bleeding both on the inside and outside, he barely kept the dantian from exploding, but unfortunately the revolving ball within that consisted of liquefied purple Qi and his own blood continued to grow.
He knew there was no way to hold out for much longer and it didn’t feel fair, but the people, including his father, for some reason kept saying that ‘the Heavens are always just’. How in the world was it just to get hammered by lightning strikes every ten years? He would’ve agreed to be the lowliest of workers in the Golden city just not to go through this, even if he never could advance in cultivation, but unfortunately it looked like he was at the end of the road.
“F*******ck! I’m …” Leo roared towards the dark clouds in desperation, but before he managed to shout out what exactly he is or what he was about to do, another lightning bolt struck directly in his face as if shutting him up in annoyance.
Strangely enough that was the last one and the dark clouds dispersed right after. Leo didn’t witness any of it since it’s too hard to observe the sky while being unconscious. His mutilated body lie between the three lightning trees, but his heart was still beating despite the torment he just went through.
There was not much flesh left on his fingers or toes and his hands, legs and even the face were charred all over. Probably because of the layer of coal he was covered in he had stopped bleeding, but, truth to be said, there was not much blood left to bleed out anyway.
Leo might not agree, but Heavens actually were just. Experiencing the Heavenly tribulation while forming ones core was not a usual phenomenon, but cultivators sometimes, maybe one in few in a million, had to go over such hurdle.
The cultivation process itself is a person’s method of going against the laws of nature, but it doesn’t mean their effort was not recognized. The Heavenly laws in the form of tribulation prevented the advancement of many, but those who managed to withstand it apparently were deemed worthy. The problem was that the intensity of the tribulation was directly proportional to the cultivator’s own strength and while the absolute majority experienced it only while stepping into the Nascent soul stage, Leo with his purple lightning mutation was clearly perceived as a cheater – thus the tribulation while forming the core.
Fortunately the strength of the tribulation wasn’t close to what the unlucky Omar Wui had and Leo got caught in back then, otherwise he would’ve surely died on the spot. Thus now he somehow managed to survive the few lightning strikes, albeit barely.
For almost a month Leo lie unconscious under Divine tribulation trees and during this time his wounds slowly healed and even his flesh regenerated. Obviously it was all due to the fruits of the lightning tree he consumed and the small mountain of snake-headed beast meat and eggs he had eaten.
While passed out he missed the unique phenomenon of Divine lightning trees growing leaves. After the tribulation, the excess energy from the tribulation lightning was absorbed by the trees and already the next day they formed small, purple buds – few times smaller compared to the fruit buds which, no surprise there, also appeared on all three trees. Two days later they sprouted purple leaves which quickly grew and after few more days disintegrated by the occasional lightning bolts dancing between the branches.
If Leo would’ve plucked and stored just a few of those, he might’ve become a rich man, of course by the standards of a regular mortal realm. Now, on the other hand, the moment he opened the eyes he wondered if he should eat or sell the fruits that were already ripening, although he couldn’t comprehend how it was possible since there were no signs of trees growing them before he passed out.
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According to his understanding him surviving the ordeal was a miracle that required no explanation, but the process from budding to blooming and then to growing fruits on a Divine tribulation tree should’ve taken at least half a year. He had no clue that the windfall was only due to the extraordinary event which for the three trees worked like the best fertilizer in the world.
Leo stared at the ripening fruits for a few moments and then his sight fixated on the blue sky above the island. It looked like the sun was about to set or was just rising and depending on that he was either going to have breakfast or dinner – he felt so starved he could easily eat a whole snake-headed beast alone.
Only a while later after he cooked few pieces of meat in the lake, Leo began to curiously inspect his own condition which turned out to be surprisingly good. The worst fear didn’t come true and he was not missing any extremities or fingers, although his body was largely covered in charcoal. It did take some effort to wash it off, but underneath he only found nice and glossy skin. Of course, the old scars were still there, but he was long used to them and didn’t even notice.
Afterwards he focused on inspecting the inner organs which also looked fine, but it took some time until he gathered the courage to focus on the dantian. He did feel rather powerful and energetic and already could guess what process he went through before loosing consciousness, but his father’s example showed that there was no guarantee of succeeding.
And indeed, it looked like the Renaud family men were not destined to become incredible immortals. Instead of nice golden core his dantian had transformed into a solid purple ball in a size of a walnut that had continuous bolts of lightning flashing around it. Leo didn’t plan to step into the Core formation stage, at least not before returning to the sect, and had no clue of how to properly do it or what techniques one had to use, but he knew that once the Qi is condensed in a solid form alongside the ones blood essence, it should form a golden core. From that moment on the cultivator’s soul was located there and it becomes almost an endless source of Qi, but from what it looked like, Leo, just like many other less talented cultivators, had created the so called ‘fake core’. Technically it should’ve been blackish in color, but the fact alone that it was not golden was enough of a proof he had failed.
In comparison to the previous cultivation stages it was still amazing – from now on he could use Qi in a form of dust particles and the amount of Qi he could accumulate was multiple times larger compared to when it was in liquid form, but the taste of a loss was bitter nevertheless. Theoretically it was fine – many cultivators first created a fake core and afterwords worked hard to fuse it with their own souls transforming it into a golden one, but his father failed to do it in decades and it was likely Leo was destined to follow his footsteps.
Of course, he was set to continue to work hard, but the illusion of him one day standing on an equal ground with the geniuses of the Golden city was finally shattered – he just wasn’t talented enough. Well, he was from a mortal realm after all and ... since he currently was in another mortal realm, there was no reason to feel down. Yes, he failed, but he didn’t intend to form the core in the first place. In fact, even if he returned to the sect as he was – he immediately could become one of the most influential elders!
After sulking for few moments, Leo pulled himself together and went hunting. As it turned out it was morning and after the light breakfast he was already craving a sumptuous lunch.
Leo spent few more months cultivating on the island with the three Divine tribulation trees. After the advancement hunting snake-headed beasts became rather trivial endeavor and one could often witness him chasing after another panicked beast, trying to cut off one of the remaining heads. It did somewhat resemble a torture, but after finding out they ate the greenladners he never wanted to kill another. The meat on their long necks was good though and the same went for the eggs which Leo deemed to be edible, because the beasts inside were not born yet and ‘it didn’t count’ as killing them.
When they were finally ripe, he stored the lightning tree fruits in the amulet – for now he didn’t need any help in cultivation, especially on the island where his progress was rather amazing despite the lack of talent. Even three months hadn’t passed after the tribulation, but he was already capable of dashing over the lake without getting his feet wet, although for now he couldn’t do that while carrying the Cleaver.
There were more good news. From what it looked like, stepping into the Core formation stage had actually solved Leo’s main problem – a sudden death caused by rupturing of the Qi pathways. Even though it was harder to control the Qi in the form of particles, it strained his pathways less and the damage he took during the day was quickly healed overnight. Using Qi techniques still slightly hurt, but after the pain he went through while forming the core, he stopped paying attention to minor things.
Leo would’ve loved to continue to live such leisure life and cultivate in peace, but he encountered the biggest problem any cultivator could have – he got bored. On one hand cultivating and seeing the results of own hard work was fun, but on the other – staying at the same place with the gloomy fog surrounding it was incredibly depressing.
Probably the fact that he failed to form the golden core was the main reason Leo wanted to leave since everything about this place reminded him of the failure. But the youth had an inkling it was the case and decided he could actually come back one day if he wanted – Greenland was only a mortal realm and to teleport to it shouldn’t be that expensive. In addition, it looked like the toxic place was not particularly popular since a spot with three Divine tribulation trees was not discovered by the Immortal alliance yet and this time Leo didn’t intend to report of its existence.
Even though he didn’t like it, Leo had accepted he had the mutated fire affinity and the fact that he’ll have to live till the end of his days with it. Luckily, even though he failed to form the golden core by a chance, it looked like stepping into the Core foundation stage had resolved the lethal threat he felt all this time. Because of that he decided to have a bit of fun and go back to the sect, but right after making a stop at the Nameless city. He was really curious how did the whole endeavor with connecting the two sides of the continent end.