As Tianyi had expected, Elder Shan had forbidden him from leaving the Fleeting Mist Sect again without his explicit permission. Not only had he been the target of assassination -forget the fact that it was a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator who had done so- but a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator could have potentially killed Tianyi had he not lowered his guard and allowed Tianyi the time to deploy the formation.

Elder Shan was even displeased because Tianyi was brought into the matter because of Fleeting Mist Sect’s mission, making Sect Master Yun apologetic. Sect Master Yun gifted Tianyi a Core Formation Artifact as an apology. Although Fleeting Mist Sect had a single Nascent Soul Artifact, it was the Sect Guardian Treasure. Using a Core Formation Realm Artifact as a gift was sincere enough for the sect that currently only had Core Formation Realm cultivators.

And so Tianyi accepted it, even though it wasn’t as pleasing to him as the jade fan. At least with the jade fan, he could bring it out and act like a young master of some noble or wealthy family.

For the next few months, Tianyi quietly cultivated in the lightning sea. It can also be considered as part of the compensation from the Fleeting Mist Sect.

Within Tianyi’s dantian, his nine pillars, one large pillar surrounded by eight pillars equally spaced apart, gave off a solemn light. Each pillar was separated into nine segments and gave off a terrifying aura that would cause those of similar and weaker cultivation to be suppressed.

“I have finished forming my Spiritual Pillars, recently my speed seems to have increased, and the tribulation essence feels more like a part of me now.” Tianyi rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “I feel like my speed even outside has become different. I have a feeling that even without using the lightning sea that has smidges of tribulation essence, I can produce my own tribulation essence when I cultivate. When I get to my Core Formation Tribulation, the Heavenly Tribulation won’t increase because of that, right?”

The more Tianyi thought about it, the more he began to worry about forming his core. “Tsk, at this rate, my Sole Yin Eight Trigram Yang, Nine Core Revolution Formation will be much harder than I thought. Forget it, I should focus on reaching the peak of Foundation Establishment first.”

With those thoughts put aside, Tianyi began to form the outline of his Spiritual Altar that rested upon his nine Spiritual Pillars. Soon an altar platform that resembled a nine-pointed star began to appear like an illusionary construct. After he finished, Tianyi circulated his Three Pure True Self Visualization Scripture to heal his fatigue.

Tianyi then stood up from his lotus position and began to go through several martial forms. Each form had his hands shaped like a dragon's claws, and each form had tyrannical force and majesty. If a bystander were to see Tianyi, they would hallucinate a coiling dragon around Tianyi’s form. Upon closer inspection, you could see that every pore on Tianyi’s body would habitually open and close like it was breathing. With each breath, the skin cells would change, becoming refined like jade and delicate like a newborn infant.

The change didn't result in the skin becoming fragile. And instead, Tianyi’s skin became tougher than average Qi Gathering Realm Artifacts. Tianyi was cultivating a martial cultivation technique, also known as fleshly cultivation, called the Dragon Emperor Fist. It was a fleshly cultivation technique that his mother had given him, said to have been developed by the Dragon Emperor.

Although he was known as the Dragon Emperor, he was the nemesis of the Dragon Clan because he was a human that hunted down dragons and refined their flesh for his own cultivation.

Martial cultivation was less popular than spiritual cultivation, but it had the advantage that it didn’t depend on the cultivator’s Spiritual Vein as much as spiritual cultivation and thus was widely more available and widespread. But few truly made it far in this path because of the resources and commitment necessary. But most people did dabble in martial cultivation if they could, as it brought many benefits. The body of a martial cultivator was robust than a spiritual cultivator on average.

By the time Tianyi was done, there was a faint outline of a golden dragon that seemed to soar under his skin. “I didn’t expect to so easily master the first stage of skin tempering of the Dragon Emperor Fist. Perhaps it because my body had already been tempered in the immortal elixirs mother prepared before I began cultivation, or maybe it’s due to the lightning tempering my body went through.” Tianyi said as he pinched his own skin. It was more elastic now and had a flexible toughness to it. “And also…”

Tianyi brought out the black fragment that he had bought at the auction. He felt an even greater familiarity to the fragment now as it seemed to vibrate upon touch his skin. “This couldn’t be connected to the Dragon Emperor, could it? But why would I feel familiar with it? I only started to cultivate the Dragon Emperor Fist today. That assassin also wanted this. Could he be connected to the Dragon Emperor too?”

As Tianyi rubbed his chin, a scandalous thought flashed through his mind. “My father couldn’t be the Dragon Emperor, right? It was said that Dragon Emperor was licentious and even dared to kidnap fairy maidens of the three hegemonic sects of the Huang Realm resulting in the whole realm uniting against him and exterminating him. That youth wouldn’t happen to be my older half-brother, would he? Finding out that I am a disciple of a sect that killed his father, he swears revenge upon me?”

The more Tianyi thought about it, the more he felt how ridiculous it was. “Forget, the Dragon Emperor died hundreds of years ago. I’m only ten this year.”

Tianyi felt that after he went out, his thoughts became more and more ridiculous as he equated everything to those novels he read in his past life. “Forget it, forget it. Now that I completed forming my Spiritual Pillars, I should be able to trek deeper into the lightning sea.”

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He began to delve deeper into the lightning sea, and as he got deeper, the density of the lightning increased as well. By now, the lightning beasts did not dare to attack Tianyi because he was releasing an aura familiar to the tribulation essence and, in fact, seemed to have become invisible to the lightning beasts.

Tianyi stopped as he felt fluctuations of extreme yin qi. Normal Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators couldn’t detect it, but Tianyi was able to detect the slight fluctuations in the lightning seas because of his Heavenly Spiritual Lightning Veins. He was also familiar with the feeling of yin qi because his mother cultivated yin qi due to her Heavenly Yin Spiritual Vein.

His curiosity grew as he ventured deeper, but soon his path was blocked. Not because the lightning sea was too strong, but the tribulation essence was too strong, one wrong step he might incur a true Heavenly Tribulation. “This couldn’t be a naturally formed treasure undergoing a Heavenly Tribulation, right?”

The records within Buzhou Immortal Sect had numerous details of naturally formed treasures. They could range from those that barely reached the realm of Qi Gathering to supreme Immortal treasures. “The lightning sea has been here since the founding of the Fleeting Mist Sect, and so it can be considered at least a thousand years old. For a treasure to be undergoing this long, it should be a supreme treasure. And since the mist originates from the lightning sea, it should either be a water or yin type treasure. Mother should be interested in this.”

For the following months, until Elder Shan was finished with his business, Tianyi cultivated within the lightning sea and practiced the Dragon Emperor Fist. Then one day, Tianyi felt the lightning sea begin to tremble. He stopped his cultivation and left the lightning sea as soon as he sensed it. Confused, Tianyi exited the lightning sea and saw the Fleeting Mist Disciples all staring at the Sect Master Yun’s peak.

High above, black clouds began to gather as an invisible pressure began to press down on the cultivators. Tianyi was unlike the disciples, who had been forced onto their knees, as he had some resistance to the pressure of Heavenly Tribulation and began to move towards the peak.

“Tianyi.”

Tianyi paused and saw Elder Shan standing with the other elders of Fleeting Mist Sect. “Elder Shan, is Sect Master Yun undergoing the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation?”

Elder Shan nodded. Sect Master Yun had invited his old friend because he had gathered all the necessary ingredients for the Nascent Soul Pil except for the Violet Cloud Ferb. And as a sixth rank alchemist from the Buzhou Immortal Sect, concocting a Nascent Soul Pill would be well within Elder Shan's capabilities. After months, Elder Shan had finally concocted the Nascent Soul Pill and spent some more time aiding Sect Master Yun in setting up the formation that would aid in passing the tribulation.

“Tianyi, watch the tribulation. It should help you in understanding the Dao of Lightning as well as widen your experience.” Tianyi nodded and watched as lightning began to crash down upon Sect Master Yun.

Elder Shan sighed when Sect Master Yun began to command the formation after the first seven strikes of lightning. At first, the lightning was white, but it began to turn bluish after the twenty-first strike of lightning. Then it began to turn a deep red at the forty-second bolt lighting.

Tianyi watched as Sect Master Yun deployed Artifact after Artifact and the aid of the formation to combat the Heavenly Tribulation. After the forty-ninth strike of lightning, Sect Master Yun’s Artifacts and formations were all destroyed, and a painful shriek rang out.

The elders and disciples of the Fleeting Mist Sect began to panic at the sound, but Tianyi saw that Elder Shan shake his head. “Only seven-seven strikes of lightning, at best he can attain a three-colored Nascent Soul with the Nascent Soul Pill with practically no hope of ascending to the Unity realm.”

For Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, the more colors their Nascent Soul had, the closer to perfection it would be. Unlike the requirements of starting cultivation, where the fewer types of Spiritual Vein you had, the faster you cultivated, Nascent Souls represented the five elements that made up this world. Thus, if you had all five colors, you had a perfect Nascent Soul. Those with five colored Nascent Souls had a higher chance of ascending to immortality.

It was days later that Tianyi and Elder Shan stood atop of the Crimson Winged Eagle where Sect Master Yun, now bearing the aura of an early Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, the elders, and Pan Langyue were sending them off. Sect Master Yun sighed as he watched the Crimson Winged Eagle fly off in the distance. Then he turned towards his disciple, Pan Lanyue, who was giving him a complicated look.

“Master, what level has Little Brother Tianyi reached?” After returning to the sect, perhaps having been stimulated by the assassination or the Nascent Spirt Realm cultivators, Evil Wind Flower Picker Zhou, Tianyi had spent the majority of his time in the endless sea, enduring loneliness to cultivate.

“Little Friend Tianyi has begun exhibiting qi that resembles the heaviness and boundlessness of earth. It seems to also have hints of vast and encompassing heavens. If master was to guess, Little Friend Tianyi should be close to the Spiritual Crucible stage.” Even Sect Master Yun found this information a little hard to believe as he spoke. He had only not seen Tianyi for a little over a year, yet progress was so swift. It would take even geniuses perhaps a decade to cultivate so swiftly.

“Little Brother Tianyi said that he has a Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Vein and that the lightning sea was beneficial to his cultivation. Perhaps that’s why he has cultivated so fast.” Lanyue said, trying to find a reason for the monstrous cultivation speed. “Will Little Brother Tianyi be fine? His cultivation has advanced in leaps and bounds. What if his foundation isn’t stable enough?”

“There’s no need to worry. Stubborn Shan is a skilled Nascent Soul elder. If he isn’t worried, then little friend Tianyi’s cultivation is fine and has no problems.” Sect Master Yun said.

“Master, how strong is the Buzhou Immortal Sect?” Lanyue asked curiously, all she knew were from legends, and there was no detailed information that she could obtain with her current strength and status.

“I don’t know about the overall situation, but I have heard that the Buzhou Immortal Sect has someone near the level of divinity or even at the divinity level.” Sect Master Yun chuckled at Lanyue’s uncomprehending look. “Forget, Immortals are far too away from us. How about this, Stubborn Shan can defeat ten people of the same realm as him as long as they are not from first-rate powers.”

“Ten?” Lanyue said, shocked.

“Hahaha,” Sect Master Yun laughed. “Don't be fooled by how amiable that old fellow looks. Deep down, he has a prideful temperament as a result of being a member of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. If it weren’t for us facing danger together back in our youth, I, your master, wouldn’t have been able to invite Stubborn Shan to help me refine a Nascent Soul Pill.”