When everyone saw Zhi take the lighting Bolt, head on, they felt their scalps numb even further. Fanghong asked the Azure Dragon with a quivering voice, “Is he going to survive?” As Fanghong asked that, every single person present looked at the Azure Dragon. Most of them didn’t know exactly who he was but seeing how respectful Fanghong was to him, they knew that he was some extremely strong expert. The Azure Dragon stayed silent for a moment before he said grimly, “I have no knowledge of a Tribulation of this scale. Coupled with the fact that Zhi doesn’t have any pills or protective Artefacts, I’d say his chances are very slim.”
The Azure Dragon sighed as he kept himself materialized there for one reason: To save Zhi’s Dragon Soul from being annihilated as well. If Zhi failed the Tribulation, he could at least protect the Soul and have it reincarnate. The old man could not find any reason for Zhi to survive. No matter who it was, they made very thorough preparations in order to take on the Tribulation but Zhi didn’t even have a single Pill to recover his Qi, not mention an Artefact to help weaken the Lighting.
If Zhi had one thing going for him, it was that his will was extremely strong and that he was insane enough to laugh at the face of Death. Other than that, he had nothing going for him with this Tribulation. He didn’t even have enough time to grow accustomed to his new body before the Tribulation began. As the Azure Dragon and the rest were watching, Zhi continuously took on lighting bolts one after another.
When the ninth Lighting Bolt hit him, Zhi felt as though it was going to pierce through him. However, When the power behind the Lightning Bolt dissipated, Zhi felt a mysterious energy bypass all of his defences and enter his body. In the beginning, Zhi was startled and grew frantic but when he realized that the mysterious energy forced out all of the impurities inside his body, he was startled.
After all of the impurities were forced out from his body, he felt rejuvenated as he thought to himself, “So the main purpose behind the Tribulation is this.” He realized that the main purpose of the Tribulation was to separate the lazy people from the hard working ones. He had read before that the Tribulation always consisted of Three Sets of Nine Bolts. Each of the Three Sets, targeted a different thing.
The First Set targeted the body and if he passed the First Set, then his body will be purified. However, when he remembered that the Second Set targeted the Soul, he felt despair. His Soul was currently borrowed by the Azure Dragon.
***
When the Azure Dragon saw that Zhi passed the First Set, he was truly stupefied. However, he quickly snapped out of his trance, when he remembered that he was currently borrowing his Soul to be there. “Shit!” As he said so, a Black Crystal Dragon, identical to Zhi, flew out from him and dashed towards Zhi.
It was obvious that this separation wasn’t something that the Azure Dragon could do willy-nilly. It’s image dimmed and turned slightly transparent. However, he didn’t return to his main body but stayed there to see it through.
***
Just as Zhi looked towards the Island, he saw his Dragon Soul flying back towards him. The Tribulation Cloud were actually waiting for him to refuse with his Dragon Soul before it started bombarding him again. When the Dragon Soul merged back to his body, a Red and Black Lighting Bolt rained down from the skies immediately. When Zhi was hit by the Lighting Bolt, he felt a tingling sensation in his Soul. However, he knew that the power of the Lightning bolts would double with each lightning Bolt.
The strength of the final Bolt was 256 times stronger than the First Bolt. Since this was common knowledge, this was the reason everyone felt as though Zhi was doomed to fail. Even Zhi had no certainty of passing the Soul Tribulation. Although, he was confident on taking the Tribulation on with his powerful body, he knew that his Soul was nowhere near as strong as his body was. After he was hit by the 6th Lightning bolt, he felt as though his Soul was getting ripped apart.
All he could do was grit his teeth and try to hold on. The 7th, 8th and finally when the 9th Lightning Bolt hit him, he felt all of it was over. There were cracks visible on his dimmed Dragon Soul and as the Lightning kept attacking the Soul ,Zhi could do nothing. Zhi saw that one more attack and his Soul would shatter. He just smiled bitterly as he cursed at his bad luck but as time passed, the final attack didn’t come. Finally, when he investigated, he saw that the Lightning was actually hitting the very weak Black and White Flames. From the Azure Dragons explanation, he understood that these two Flames were behind the whole disastrous event that had happened to him. He started hating the two Flames by quite a bit but currently seeing the Lightning attack the two Flames so aggressively, something clicked to him.
He hurriedly inspected his body and he was astonished to not find a single trace of the two Flames. After confirming it, Zhi raised his head towards the Heavens and laughed maniacally, “So it is not that you hate me but rather you hate the two Flames.” He had realized long ago that the Tribulation this time was very weird but now he found out the reason for it being so aggressive and trying to exterminate him. Suddenly, Zhi felt his Soul growing stronger and stronger as if it were being nourished by the Heavens themselves.
As he looked inside himself, he couldn’t even find a trace of the two Flames any more. After his Soul had been strengthened by a lot, Zhi was waiting for the Third Set. The Third Set was something that tested the Heart. Each Lightning Bolt would create a scenario and if his will fails him and he sinks into the illusion, he fails. This was the most feared of the Three Sets because there was no way to protect yourself from it.
Every person would have a regret or two and this Tribulation would couge out everything that you had sealed deep inside yourself. There was no way to defend yourself from this Tribulation. Only your own Will mattered. When the First Lightning Bolt hit him, he was brought back to the time, when he had the talk with his Father.
Inside himself, he felt the urge to curse at him for abandoning him. Just as he was about to explode out, he came back to his senses and he shattered the illusion. After he exited the First illusion, the second Bolt hit him. Then he was brought back to the time when he had the choice whether to help Zhishi and Feng or no. The Illusions worked very complicatedly, they had no set way of taking the memories and twisting them.
They may be a simple decision or they may be a major one, that determined the path he walked upon. Since Zhi’s will was extremely strong, he easily shattered the Illusions at first but as time went on, and the later Illusions came that tore up old wounds, it became increasingly harder. The 8th Bolt brought him back into the time, he had suffered a big betrayal from the only person, he blindly trusts now.
Zhi had wanted to strike down an enemy that nearly killed him but she had thrown herself between the two and saved his life. This was something that had enraged Zhi thoroughly and he was very close to actually cutting her down alongside the old man that had tried to kill him. Since, he didn’t know that his Uncle had been protecting him all along, he had thought that if he didn’t do what he thought was right, he wouldn’t survive.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Finally, he stayed his hand but his and the girls paths separated for a few years form then on. Even now Zhi was sometimes wondering about what would have happened if he had cut them both down instead of staying his hand. Now, he was put in that situation yet again and inside him, a malicious voice was whispering to cut them both down. This time, he nearly lost himself in the Illusion and only managed to stay his hand in the very last possible moment. When he came back to his senses, he just laughed bitterly, “Yet again, those resolute eyes stay my hand.”
Just as the last time, he stayed his hand when he looked at the girls resolute eyes that had accepted Death. After coming back to his senses, he remembered that he was currently inside the Tribulation and that he had almost lost himself in this Illusion. However, he just smiled to the girl and said, “Even though you are only an Illusion, Thank you.” The girl just smiled to Zhi and she faded away alongside the rest of the scenery.
Zhi was left inside a completely pitch black space. As he looked around, he didn’t understand what was going on. He felt as though there should be one more Illusion but for some reason, it didn’t come. Zhi tilted his head pondering on what had happened now, when an archaic voice sounded out, “Do you fear Death?” As the archaic voice sounded out, a blurry, half transparent old man appeared before Zhi. Hearing the question Zhi just tilted his hea as he asked, “Huh?”
The archaic voice sounded out again, “Do you fear Death?” Zhi thought for a moment before he smiled to the blurry figure saying, “I am afraid to die for the wrong reason.” Without missing a beat, the archaic voice sounded out again, “What is the right reason to die?” Zhi thought about it for a moment again before he still answered confidently, “Either to die how I see fit or by protecting the ones I love or that have entrusted their lives to me.” The Archaic voice was silent for a while and Zhi tried to use this opportunity to inspect the blurry old man but he couldn’t make any features out at all.
After a few minutes passed, the archaic voice asked again, “Do you want revenge on those that made your life miserable?” Zhi was taken aback by the question. Although he didn’t actively pursue revenge, he wasn’t benevolent enough to just brush this matter aside. Also, the fact that he was currently weak and didn’t have the strength to pursue revenge was also one of the reasons he didn’t make a move yet. Zhi thought about this carefully and after about half an hour passed, he finally said resolutely, “Although it is not my primary goal, I do want to have revenge on all of those that made my life miserable.”
The voice asked in a heartbeat again, “Then what is your primary goal?” Zhi smiled as if he had expecting this and said, “My primary goal is to get rid of the shackles of fate. I want to forge my own destiny and my own path. I do not need someone else telling me when to walk, when to run and when to rest. Isn’t that the whole point of cultivation?” After answering the question, the archaic voice stayed quiet.
The blurry figure however, turned more and more clear. When Zhi could finally make out the features of the old man, he was quite taken a back by the ancient aura he excluded. Even the Azure Dragon didn’t exclude an aura as ancient as this. The old man was completely normal, not handsome, not ugly, didn’t seems strong nor weak. He just seemed normal.
The old man smiled at Zhi and said, “Since the Formation of Heavens, you are the second person to reach this place while at the same time, you are the first person, to pass this Trial.” Hearing this, Zhi’s mind blanked as he looked at the old man. No one knew when the Heavens were formed but it had happened so long, long time ago.
The old man just kept smiling as he said, “You have earned the right to fight for the Throne of Heavens.” Hearing this, Zhi just snapped out of his trance as he asked, “The Throne of Heavens?” The old man nodded as he said, “The one who sits on the Throne of Heavens is the one who controls the Heavens of this Realm. Since the birth of this Realm and the Formation of Heavens, you are the first person to earn the qualifications to sit on that throne in the future.”
Zhi just didn’t know what to say any more so the old man just said, “Although, have earned the qualification, you have not earned the Throne yet.” Zhi asked suspiciously, “What do I need to do to earn the Throne?” The old man answered him, “You need to master the Seven Foundation Laws of the Realm. The Law of Fire, Law of Water, Law of Air, Law of Earth and the Laws of Life and Death.” the old man took a breath befoer continuing, “After mastering the Seven Foundational Laws, you will ´be able to find the way to the Throne.”
Zhi looked at he old man with wide eyes as he asked, “Who are you?” The old man smiled again as he said, “I am the Will of Heavens and now our time here has ended.” As he said so, Zhi’s vision started blurring as he was teleported out of that space.
The last thing Zhi heard was the old man’s warning, “All of the other Emperors of Heaven will be able to sense you now and some of them might even try to steal your destiny. So guard you back and always look forward.” These were the last words, as Zhi was teleported out of the space. As he came back to reality, the Tribulation Cloud had already dissipated and his body and Soul were being strengthened again.
However, Zhi didn’t pay any attention to that as he was replaying the conversation with the old man inside his head. Finally, he just sighed, “Why do I have a feeling that I have encountered something very troublesome.” He truly wasn’t interested in fighting for supremacy but he just wanted to do what he wanted without anyone directing him on his path.
On the forehead of his True Form appeared a golden crown that excluded an Emperors aura that made everyone from the Realm feel the urge to prostate themselves in front of him.
***
In a very distant place, outside Zhi’s Realm was a young man in golden robes that was currently pleasuring a woman. He suddenly felt the Aura of the Emperor excluded by Zhi and he looked towards the direction in which Zhi’s Realm was.
He just smiled sinisterly, “It seems like another lamb has come for slaughter.” After saying so, he focused on playing with the naked beauty in front of him.
***
In a Realm near Zhi’s. In a luxurious palace, on the throne was sitting an old man in White armour. The old man also felt the Aura of Emperor and looked towards Zhi’s Realm. He just lightly smiled as he stood up, interrupting the subordinate who was giving him a report.
All of the officials who were in the throne room looked at the old man in bewilderment as his voice echoed out, “Prepare the Gifts. A new Emperor’s Candidate has arisen from a nearby Realm, we need to make ourselves acquainted with our soon to be brother in arms.”
The officials all looked at the old man with happiness as they tripped over themselves to carry out the order.
***
In another Realm close to Zhi’s a middle aged woman in red robes was telling a story to the children inside a secluded village in the mountains. Just as she was reaching the climax of the story, she suddenly felt the Aura.
She abruptly shut up and looked towards Zhi’s Realm as she smiled, “Seems like that Realm finally has someone to take the Throne.” Without pondering much more on it, she continued telling the story to the children.
***
Zhi had no idea that he had created quite a turmoil amongst the Emperors. Some were making preparations to befriend him, some were making preparations to kill him. However, to the dismay of everyone who wanted to kill him, they could not. Zhi had enough of a backing to keep himself alive thanks to the Island and the protection of the 4 Ancestors.
When Zhi had passed the Tribulation, everyone who could, flew to him to congratulate him on passing the Tribulation. When Zhi saw everyone approaching him, he smiled helplessly. When his eyes fell on the Azure Dragon, he suddenly had an idea.
However, when the Azure Dragon saw the symbol of a Crown on Zhi’s forehead, his face fell as he rushed to his side and put up a concealment Formation. He looked at Zhi seriously as he asked, “You obtained the Qualifications of the Emperor?” Zhi was startled for a second but all he could do was nod his head. When the old man saw the nod, he just sighed as he said, “Well, your future as a wanderer who doesn’t give a damn of the Realm is now something that won’t happen.”
Hearing this, Zhi realized that the old man knew something about the Heavenly Emperor and he quickly asked, “You know something about this Emperor of Heavens thing?” The old man nodded as he said, “Yes, I do. Only one person except you has gone through the Trials besides you but he failed.”
Zhi nodded his head but before he could ask anything, the old man looked at him coldly, “That person was the Black and White Emperor.”