“What’s going on?!” Claude rushed over to Fan Yun, but Kevin answered in her stead.
“Something is causing people to advance en masse.” He said, “… the Core formation stage and below … but if we all advance at the same time …”
At this point even Leo realized the implications. The Heavenly tribulation caused by the advancement of hundreds if not thousands will probably level the city! There was a reason why every person stepped into the next cultivation stage on their own, away from everyone else.
“What are the immortals doing?” Harold thought out loud, “Kevin, should I call your father over?”
“I already did.” Kevin showed a small square device in his palm, “But I guess he’s busy trying to think of a way to resolve the situation. Let’s try to bring me away … and Claude, you take Fan Yun. We need to get some distance from the center of the city ...”
A split moment later Leo and Musa were the only ones from the group left. The shouts of panic and pain echoed down the streets of the Golden city, because it didn’t take long until the purple lightning hit those who couldn’t hold back their advancement. Few immortals took some of the lightning strikes head on in order to protect their close ones, but it only seemed to anger the Heavens, because more lightning followed and stronger than before.
The problem was – Heavenly tribulation, especially if it wasn’t theirs, was the only thing that Nascent soul stage cultivators and immortals feared. In any normal situation if their body was destroyed, they could just rebuild it, albeit with some effort, but if their nascent or immortal soul was directly hit with the purple lightning, it would be extinguished forever.
Even Leo knew these basic things, although he learned them after forming his own nascent soul. The thing was, he was probably the only one in the city who didn’t dread the purple clouds above. He even felt attracted to them, although clearly knew it likely will be a painful experience if he went there.
“It’s bad.” Musa involuntary stated the obvious.
He and Leo got above the rooftops to take a better look at the city and the view was impressive and terrifying at the same time.
“Seems like it’s concentrated around that floating island over there.” He continued and pointed in the distance, “Judging by figures floating around it, the immortals are trying to either break or fix some kind of formation.”
“Isn’t that … isn’t that Claude’s island? Didn’t we just come from there?” Leo felt his hair stand on end.
Clearly the Heavenly tribulation vortex was forming above it and it almost rained the purple lightning there. The place seemed to be protected by some kind of barrier though, preventing it from from a direct destruction, but it didn’t seem it could hold out forever.
“What can even cause an event of this scale?” Musa mumbled, but then guessed the answer and his countenance changed from concerned to one full of panic, “Leo, let’s go! We must get as far from the city as possible! This will be a disaster!”
“This doesn’t make any sense …” Leo mumbled not hearing his friend, “… aren’t they alchemists?”
“Leo! Let’s go!” Musa tried to pull him away by the arm, but Leo avoided the grab and darted into the sky leaving behind words, “I have an idea … but you get to safety, just in case!”
His train of thoughts was simple – if he could divert the lightning towards something else, the Hubert island would be safe and Jack alongside it. And the best target to divert the lightning at was himself! He knew it’ll be a rather unpleasant experience and he’ll be burnt from head to toe again, but at the same time he didn’t fear the purple lightning the same way the rest of the world did. Leo was certain a Heavenly tribulation couldn’t disintegrate his nascent soul since it, similarly to his core at the Core formation stage, basically consisted of the purple lightning. He felt stronger the more lightning he absorbed during the cultivation process under the Divine tribulation trees and in a way it worked as nourishment to his nascent soul.
The current situation ‘slightly’ differed from the regular cultivation, but Leo was certain he had to hold out only for a little while until the true experts of the Golden city dealt with the situation. The local immortals surely will find a way to get under control whatever formation caused the disaster and then the tribulation clouds will disappear on their own, along with the purple lightning.
To Leo all these assumptions seemed logical and without a second though he dashed towards the sky. Musa’s first impulse was to follow in order to prevent his friend from performing a suicide, but a lighting that struck a nearby building the moment Leo departed forced him to fall back.
In the end, Musa sighed and flew away – the same direction Harold and the rest left earlier. He was a wind affinity cultivator and the speed was his forte thus he knew he could escape situations the others might perish in. They were friends, at least according to Leo, but there was nothing he could do in this situation. In addition, not so long ago his own presence in the Golden city Musa would’ve considered being behind the enemy lines, thus to some extent he felt uncomfortable from the moment they arrived here.
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Leo guessed he had covered a fifth of the way when he realized that the floating island belonging to the Hubert family somehow seemed different. Despite his impeccable eyesight, he couldn’t discern any buildings on it, but it seemed there was a huge rune formation drawn on its surface and around it were placed over hundred people.
The only logical explanation that came to Leo’s mind was that it was the formation that allowed the island to float and the Hubert family elders were currently doing their best to support it. The problem was that it looked like the lightning strikes were becoming increasingly intense and they could loose the control any moment.
Just as Leo intended to speed up, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him. This time the usually friendly face was dark and gloomy and there was no sign left of the familiar carefreeness. The moment the immortal stood in front of him, Leo felt as if a weight of the world suddenly pressed on his shoulders as if trying to crash him to pulp. He couldn’t even breathe under the pressure, to not speak about moving an inch, but fortunately the person didn’t try to kill him outright.
“What do you think you are doing?” Master Shaw asked in a grave tone.
Leo did his best to gather his thoughts and said, “I think I can attract the lighting for a moment so the elders can do their thing … master Shaw, I …”
“You’ll die up there.” The legendary immortal simply stated and the earlier pressure on Leo vanished.
“I don’t think so.” Leo said, “You know my affinity, if I could get there …”
“You won’t.” Master Shaw interrupted, “You’ll be struck down even if you survive, your physical body is not fast enough. Your idea might not be too bad and the heart lies in the right place, but even I wouldn’t be able to last there more than a breath or two. Now go, find the others!”
“But … but I’m positive I will survive!” Leo threw a worried glance towards the floating island that didn’t have any structures left. Any moment they spent talking reduced Jack’s chances of survival thus he had to risk it, “Master Shaw, just give me a push or something. I’m already quite fast … and … we need to do something, otherwise the island … the city …”
“We?” Theodore Shaw repeated, but not in the condescending manner.
For an immortal like him it might’ve seemed silly that a puny Nascent soul stage cultivator wanted to save the city while others at his level and even many immortals already fled, taking away their close ones. Meanwhile this kid was willing to put his life on the line for the others. But master Shaw knew these were the values the Golden city was built on and that the young people like Leo were to become the future pillars of the Immortal alliance.
Of course, the legendary immortal had no clue that all Leo was interested in was only Jack’s survival and hadn’t even had a thought of what could happen to the other people in the city. On the other hand Leo had no clue how many scenarios master Shaw went through every moment and that his brain didn’t stop analyzing the situation even though he was currently conversing.
“Fine!” Master Shaw unexpectedly said, “I really hope you’ll survive, kid!”
He was unwilling to kill off the only lightning mutation cultivator at the Nascent soul stage he had ever met, but if Leo could really attract the tribulation lightning for a moment, there might be a chance to prevent the disaster that was about to level the city.
Master Shaw’s words surprised Leo, but before he could ask what he should do, the immortal said something like ‘be safe’ and half-pushed, half-kicked Leo towards the sky. Fortunately the youth managed to instinctively react and increased the speed even more and as a result for the less advanced onlookers his ascension seemed like an upward lightning strike that in color didn’t differ much from the Heavenly tribulation lighting that kept hammering the city.
Despite him being at the Nascent soul stage, the moment master Shaw ‘lent him a hand’ in front of Leo’s eyes everything blurred. Fortunately he still could recognize where ‘up’ and ‘down’ was and, trying to focus his sight on the Hubert island, rushed forth.
Obviously the ‘rush’ lasted only for a split moment until the inevitable happened and Leo was struck by tens of lighting bolts at the same time. And then tens more which were followed by countless more. Ignoring the agonizing pain, Leo tried to continue to focus his sight on the Hubert island, but before loosing consciousness his heart skipped a beat and he passed out with a simple thought – ‘f*ck!’.
From the moment the strange floating island appeared in the sky above the Golden city right at the spot where the Hubert island once floated, master Zaraki along with some other immortals tried to find a way to ‘disable’ it. Unfortunately it had the safest security system along with the strongest attack system in the world – the Heavenly tribulation lighting was not to be touched by anyone and the island was bathing in it – apparently it was somehow fueling the gigantic formation on it’s surface.
Because of it the island somehow could even withstand the sword intent master Zaraki was so proud of, at least for now. He was certain he could break it rather easy given enough time, but the problem was there was literally none left. The chain reaction that was caused by the formation, supported by the hundred and eight simultaneously advancing Core formation stage cultivators, multiplied the Heavenly tribulation’s intensity enough to erase the Golden city from the face of the realm.
Even his super-genius friend, Theodore Shaw, seemed to be helpless, but then he vanished and after few moments all lightning struck something within the purple clouds instead of the island or city. Any regular person might’ve blinked or thought something, but master Zaraki unsheathed his sword and returned back to sheath as quickly. It was so fast this time no one saw or knew what transpired, besides him that is, but the formation on the floating island’s surface dimmed and the hundred and eight cultivators all as one fell to the ground bleeding from their orifices and screaming in agony.
The next part was what made Leo panic in his last wake moment – the floating island fell apart in nice, cleanly cut pieces like a sliced up cake and fell to the ground, flattening few houses and creating huge piles of rubble. Fortunately the local immortals managed to intercept the largest falling pieces of the island before they hit the ground and direct them towards different city squares not only for the safety reasons, but for the future research as well – after all something that could cause such terrifying disaster had to be investigated so that the Immortal Alliance was able to prevent it happening in the future.
While the whole city cheered at the sky, seeing that the Heavenly tribulation clouds began to disperse, only one person noticed the lump of charred meat falling from the sky. Master Shaw picked up what was left from Leo and rushed away, only pausing for a brief moment to throw a worried glance towards the direction Kevin was brought to earlier.