Dave woke back up and looked at the lake of lava in front of him. It was fascinating to watch, magma would come up in the middle, turn into lava and drift out to the sides where it cooled and sank below the surface again. He wondered what possible tectonic activity could be causing this. There were no other volcanic remnants around that he had seen. There were not even other mountains. The only thing even close to this would be the hotspot under Hawaii back home. Then it came to him, making him shudder. There were no other signs of volcanism around because the entire plain was a flood-basalt deposit. This “little” volcano had erupted with such ferocity that it drowned all other geological structures below hundreds of meters of basalt and igneous rock. Possibly kilometers, even. He could easily test his theory by digging through the surface sediments and checking if the bedrock under a far corner of the plain was still igneous rock or metamorphic rock. He prayed that he would find good ol' limestone, you can never go wrong with limestone or even flint. Dave watched the edge of the crater where the blizzard touched the top, the illusion of a moon shining down on him. When he turned around he saw rows upon rows of disciple sitting behind him, facing the lake of lava, all silently in cultivation. He felt like a long time had gone by. Someone had even brought Lydia next to him where she was curled up and was quietly sleeping, she was well into core formation now, while Dave had reached the peak of core formation.

Dave wanted to move around, wanted to find out what had happened after he and all these disciples had gone into seclusion. The problem was just that he could not do anything without disturbing their cultivation.

He got an idea. Petting Lydia he slowly brought her out of her restful sleep. In a quiet hushed voice he taught her how to create her domain and concentrate it. Eventually he felt her domain overlap with his own and it got significantly colder for a while. Then he slowly directed her to contract her domain while he expanded his own. Soon he dropped his domain entirely and he felt hers wobble for a bit, before it finally settled in a stable state. The temperature had wildly fluctuated so a few disciple had woken up, they looked almost reverently at him as he left.

As he got further from lava that enriched the area with fire qi, the temperature dropped. Until he reached the top of the crater where a blizzard danced around. When he finally dropped past the lip of the crater and past the snowstorm he got a breathtaking view of the entire plain covered in snow. Neither he nor Lydia had their domain extended for that long, so he figured that it must just be winter now. Which meant that he had cultivated for three months non-stop and he had “only” reached the peak of core formation. Assuming that the seasons lasted roughly the same amount of time.

With some sadness he realized that he forgot to show up to the harvest festival that Xun had invited him to, back when they had parted ways. He had also missed Lydia's tribulation, he wondered if she even had one or if it had been nothing, like it was for him. With his domain safely stored away he felt himself grow closer to the breakthrough to nascent soul with every step. He hurried down the volcano and to the sect master's office.

He reached the office of his secretary and knocked on the door. She called him inside. When she saw it was him, she immediately hurried to the sect master's door and knocked on it. “Yes what is it?” The sect master called from inside. “Dai Fu has returned from the crater.” She said. “Let him inside.” The sect master called back.

Dave stepped into the office and sat down on one of the pillows across from the sect master.

“I will be undergoing my tribulation later today. I have left my beast companion to watch over the disciples in the crater.” Dave decided to show his entire hand and put all his cards on the table.

“Congratulations, should you succeed you will be named grand elder. I myself am also on the verge of advancing, I have been holding myself back by filling spirit stones for a while now.” The sect master replied.

“What does being a “grand elder” entail?” He asked, fearing that he would be drowned in responsibilities.

“It is a largely ceremonial title for someone who has contributed greatly to the sect and who surpasses the sect master in strength, but who does not want to take on the duties and responsibilities of a sect master.”

“That sounds perfect. Thank you.” Dave felt genuinely grateful that he was not being strong-armed into a position of importance, only to then get exploited. It was rare, but things like that did happen. At least back in his home-world.

“How is the war going.” He asked the most important question.

“We put a few core formation elders into Favored Tree to guard the village, this left our sect dangerously understaffed, if demonic cultivators attacked. However thanks to your selfless contribution, we now have almost three times as many core formation cultivators as we started the year with. Everyone's cultivation has skyrocketed thanks to you serving as our holy ground.” The sect leader said with happiness dripping off his voice.

“Okay, okay. What can you tell me about the nascent soul realm.” Dave asked.

“In the nascent soul realm you have to nurture your soul until it reaches a point where it can withstand immortality. In the later stages of the realm, you can supposedly launch attacks purely with your soul or hide your soul in items without perishing. The knowledge on how to nurture your soul is something you should intuitively learn as you withstand the heavenly tribulation. At least that is what was written in our records. Our sect has only had a handful of experts reach the nascent soul realm since its founding and they all perished in conflicts shortly thereafter, since the nascent soul realm does not add much to a cultivators external power. It makes them susceptible to being overwhelmed by a coordinated force of core formation experts. That is pretty much everything I know about the nascent soul realm.” The sect leader said in a long-winded explanation.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Thank you leader, I will do my best to withstand the tribulation and return to you.” Dave said before he bowed and left the room.

He left the sect on his carpet and went out into the wilderness. Sitting down to cultivate, he briefly remembered his family. His little sister and his parents. He knew that he had to be hit by the tribulation this time, whether it wanted to or not. Otherwise he would be left with no idea of how to advance. Soon sparks danced across his body. He assumed that these sparks were a sign that the tribulation was imminent. Dark clouds gathered above him. When the lightning came, it once again tried to avoid him, but he was faster. In his spiritual sense he saw grass stand up right before lightning hit it. For him it was trivial to move above such a piece of grass and be hit willingly. The lightning hit like the blow of a hammer. Most of the electric energy flowed across the outside of his body and into the ground, but a different energy hidden in the lightning invaded his dantian and went somewhere else. His inner eye followed it into a dark area different from his spiritual body where a golden blob was floating by itself. The energy tried to damage the golden mist, but when it tried to pass into his soul, nothing happened. It just sat there with his soul overlapping the energy and nothing happening, until the energy slowly faded away.

Dave returned to the outside world. The clouds were still swirling up above him, but the lightning had stopped. As if the heavens were holding their breath. His hair was standing in every which way. His body was once again covered in sparks and the clouds expanded even further, until they covered the entire sky, reaching the horizon.

This time the lightning that came down was much thicker, almost the size of a small car in thickness where it had been the width of a telephone pole before. It still seemed to avoid him like the plague and Dave no longer had the bravery to step into a lightning bolt of that size. He already gained the knowledge he needed, so why risk further pain?

Instead he sat down and examined his soul, in the middle of his tribulation while surrounded by massive bolts of lightning. Trusting that the heavens would not smite him for his brazen action. He wanted to figure out how to cultivate his soul, before the tribulation ended, so he would know whether or not he had to endure further lightning bolts. His soul was a large ball of gas-like substance with a solid core. Feeding it qi from his core did nothing. The qi just passed right through every part of the soul without doing anything. Trying to drag the soul out of void did nothing either, he seemingly could not do anything to his soul. It seemed immutable and immune to any of his interaction attempts. Since he could not figure out how to cultivate his soul, he prepared himself to step in front of another bolt of lightning.

When he did, much the same happened. One moment he was fine and the next his entire world was pain and light. A small bit of energy peeled off and went into his dantian to attack his soul. Nothing happened to his soul and he was left smoking on the ground, still without answer.

He was mentally preparing to throw himself in front of another bolt, but the tribulation had ended and the clouds were dissipating.

The lightning strikes had once again spelled out “How did you kill the heavens?”, but Dave still had no answer, so he kept quiet.

His return flight was unpleasant, his robe was burned and hung in tatters from his body and he had forgotten to pack one of his spares. The cold wind was blowing through his ruined robe and making him shiver.

He decided to take a risk and fly directly to his home to put on a new robe and underwear. His were ruined and he had no desire to embarrass himself by waiting in line.

He landed in front of his house. Tried to ignore a few onlookers and went inside. Dave had to brush aside a lot of cobwebs before he reached his spare robe in the back of the wardrobe. He put it on. Someone knocked on his door. When he opened it he was looking straight at a small group of guards. They recognized him and bowed instead of questioning him like he had expected. They quickly apologized and left.

Dave drank a quick cup of tea and left for the sect master's office. There was no reason to leave him on the grill when everything had turned out fine. Although he was still uncertain how to cultivate his soul.

He reached the sect master's office and the secretary let him inside.

“Dai Xiuying greets the immortal.” The sect master was kowtowing to him.

“What do you mean, I'm not immortal yet?” Dave was extremely confused by the sect masters actions.

“Only a reincarnated immortal skips the nascent soul realm entirely, since their soul is not in need of further cultivation. I am very sorry for any perceived slight I or my sect may have committed.” The sect master was still kowtowing, so Dave walked over and pulled him up into a sitting position and said: “I have no memory of ever being immortal, this is my first time cultivating.”

Dave took a seat on one of the pillows and gestured for the sect leader to do the same.

“What realm am I in right now?” Dave asked curiously.

“You are two realms above me, in the wandering immortal realm. A realm where you gather enough qi until you can ascend to immortality. Supposedly you gather qi until your core implodes. Then you shatter the shackles of the heavens and the earth allowing you to ascend.” The sect leader explained.

“So it isn't mandatory to leave this world?” Dave asked with intense interest.

“No, but why would you stay? There are no resources for immortals here. It would be far more beneficial to ascend to an immortal realm.” The sect master asked, confused.

“I have never once in my life used a resource to advance my cultivation, I don't see a reason to start now. Also, I suspect that my physique would make me a resource instead of being able to consume resources.” Dave said with finality.

“So you are planning to stay in our sect, even if you reach immortality?” The sect master asked incredulously.

“Yes. I quite like your little sect, I see no reason to leave you to fend for yourself.”

Dave left the sect master's office through the back door into the garden, jumped onto his carpet and left for the crater of the volcano. He had left Lydia to watch over the disciples for almost a day and he wanted to take back over for her.

His advancement had allowed him finer control over his domain, otherwise he would freeze them all solid when taking over.

When he landed in front of the disciples he nudged Lydia until she awoke and they went through the song and dance of returning his domain to fill the volcano.

Dave went back to cultivating, not because he needed to hurry any more, but rather because it was a pleasant way to pass the time.