The clouds in the sky resembled the coming of a world-ending catastrophe. The furious bolts of lightning that crashed against each other in the sky create a divine spectacle.
Fulong and the other Elders looked at this Heavenly Tribulation with furrowed brows.
“How is this heavenly Tribulation so strong? This isn’t merely a Heavenly Tribulation for the heavens to curb grandnephew’s talents. This Heavenly Tribulation looks like it has every bit of intention to completely eradicate him.”
Fu Wei, Little Snow, and Li Shu stood among them with looks of worry on their faces.
“Father, why did you retreat? If great grand uncle is correct, aren’t we just leaving little Shen to die?!”
Li Shu placed a hand on his son’s shoulder in an effort to calm him down.
“Wei’er, this Heavenly Tribulation is strange. It would only do more harm to Shen’er if someone was there with him. I trust that he can overcome this sudden calamity, but if there is ever a hint where he can’t, I’ll immediately step in.”
“Be careful little Shu, if your clone were to be destroyed it’ll put our Li Clan in peril. We might have reached the Soul Transformation Realm as well, but if it wasn’t for the Life Spring most of us would have become nothing but rotten bones.”
“That’s right, we’ll also step in if your son is in danger. As of now, his importance to our Li Clan can’t be estimated. There’s no way as Elders we’ll just sit back on the sidelines and watch such a genius die in front of us.”
“Thank you, granduncle and great Elders.”
“No need for that little Shu, more importantly, we need to retreat further.”
Fulong looked at the expanding clouds with a solemn expression as he said that.
He and the others took to the air to retreat further out of the range of the Heavenly Tribulation, but as they do they start to frown harder since the Tribulation clouds showed no sign of stopping its expansion.
Fulong, along with everyone else, had dumbfounded expressions on their faces when they were forced to retreat for nearly a minute.
By the time the Tribulation reached its limit, it was already over one thousand meters in size.
“This-How is this supposed to be a Heavenly Tribulation for a Sea Expansion Realm cultivator?”
An Elder stuttered out as he looked at the tumbling dark clouds with a look of dread.
“The power of this Tribulation is indeed too exaggerated, and this is just its initial stage.”
Fulong's words had everyone reeling back in shock, but after closer inspection, they too saw signs that this Heavenly Tribulation was far from reaching its maximum strength.
“If we are this far from little Shen then how are we going to save him if he’s in danger?”
Everyone frowned at Fu Wei’s words. Not that it irked them but because they too realize this difficult problem.
Fulong's expression turned serious as he said to the Elders behind him.
“Fellow Elders, I need your help to activate this dimension's Grand Formation.”
All the Elders were taken aback by this, but after, they didn’t hesitate to nod firmly all while solemn looks played on their faces.
With Fulong as the head, the other Elders spread out behind him in an arrow formation.
Li Shu moved back with little Snow in his arms and Fu Wei followed his lead.
Fu Wei looked at the formation created by Fulong and the rest to see dazzling golden rays shining from each of them, Fulong more so than the others.
Then suddenly, on the ground below, complex golden rune symbols appeared to cover its entirety.
This place they were in was a separate dimension created with its own laws of heaven and earth. It was said to be a product of the First Emperor's power and the clan made this their Ancestral Grounds.
Fu Wei stared on in amazement as the Grand Formation encapsulated the entire dimension, which was by no means small.
He looked off into the distance to see pillars of light reaching the dome above.
In those locations were other Elders of the Li Clan.
Pillar after pillar popped up in the dimension to surround the Heavenly Tribulation. They weren’t just doing this to protect Li Shen from the Heavenly Tribulation but the dimension itself as well.
If one looked at the dimension from a high vantage point one could see that the nodes of this Grand Formation could form the shape of a lotus if lines were drawn to connect each one. This was with the terrifying Tribulation in the middle.
Inside the epicenter of this thousand-meter tribulation, Li Shen felt the weight of the Heavenly Pressure on his shoulders.
His Qi Sea Projection was still madly absorbing Time Qi from the void to fully form its structure, as well as the one in his dantian.
From twenty meters it instantly doubled in size to forty meters.
Li Shen’s hair whipped about uncontrollably as he raised himself into the sky with his Divine Will, his bare chest on display showing his perfectly sculpted muscles.
This Heavenly Tribulation was triggered after the Chaos Qi had finished its reconstruction of his body.
Looking down at the ground to see the Grand Formation for a moment, Li Shen looked back up at the swirling dark clouds containing lightning before saying.
“Despite the suddenness, I guess this couldn’t be a better place to go through my tribulation.”
“I wondered if releasing my Heavenly Physique aura to mask my breakthrough would stop this."
"That would be good and all, but something tells me my Qi Sea won’t allow it.”
Xi Shen glance behind him at the swirling vortex that now resembled a black hole that could devour anything.
Its rotation was even affecting the void causing it to be on the verge of shattering completely.
Such power made Li Shen tremble in excitement. After going through this he wondered which realm his power would fall into. His bones now felt like tiny insects were tap dancing on them giving him shivers throughout his whole body making him want to jump up in celebration.
*Bang!!*
A Massive thunderbolt two meters thick fell from the sky, aimed towards Li Shen’s Qi Sea.
With a massive boom, Li Shen’s Qi Sea took the lightning like it was nothing. Its rotation hadn’t even halted for a second.
However, the residue of such a massive lightning was redirected towards Li Shen and his body shook.
Li Shen took a step back to gather himself, while his pants were in tatters from that lightning strike.
This first lightning-bolt made him come to a realization of something.
“Who exactly is going through the tribulation here? Why do I feel like a bystander being caught up in this whole situation?”
This sudden feeling of being a side character in his own tribulation wasn't just his imagination. The tribulation lightning was actually avoiding him to go directly after his Qi Sea.
However, the power would inevitably get redirected to him.
If he didn’t know any better, it was as if his Qi Sea was purposely sending that shockwave of power towards him.
“What the fuck?!”
“If this is how it’s going to be am I even relevant?!!”
*Bang!!*
Another bolt of lightning crashed from the heavens and Li Shen shook as another shock wave ran through his body.
It wasn’t that these shock-waves of power were relatively dangerous for him, but being constant shot with lightning without any benefit was beginning to get to him.
A barrage of lightning began raining down from the dark clouds, one after another they slammed into his unflinching Qi Sea who was taking them like a champ.
However, each time Li Shen’s body would shake as he got electrocuted.
Li Shen couldn’t believe or understand this absurd situation he was suddenly placed in.
His eyes became bloodshot and he turned to his Qi Sea and furiously barked.
“Motherfucker, why are you the one going through my tribulation getting all the benefits?! This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!! I’m supposed to be the one in charge of controlling you while facing this!! Why the fuck am I being sideline?!!”
The constant stream of useless electric shocks and his lack of involvement got to Li Shen and he went off the rails swearing profanities at his Qi Sea while his spittle flew everywhere.
As Li Shen was cursing his Qi Sea for putting him in this ridiculous situation his expression suddenly changed when his Qi Sea rotation came to a grinding halt.
“Huh?”
Li Shen asked dumbfounded as he saw it start to rotate anti-clockwise. For some unknown reason, this sent a shiver down Li Shen’s spine.
His then gaze turned to the sky and he saw that all the lightning that was previously heading for his Qi Sea had somehow redirected towards him.
“Hey hey hey, what the fuck?!! How does that even work?!!”
Li Shen back paddled as fast as he could, his Qi Sea being pulled along.
*Bang!!*
*Waahhh!!*
A lightning bolt struck Li Shen and he cried out miserably. It felt as if his flesh was being flayed and his bones were being crushed.
He took the lightning bolt head-on and withstand it, but his body convulsed and he seemed one moment away from falling out of the sky.
Frighten, Li Shen stuttered out.
“Wh-why was that so painful? The lightning itself is bearable with my current physique but something else inside is making me feel as if I might die if I take too much of this. Is this what tribulation lightning is like?”
“Hey, I don’t wanna do this anymore, you should take over. I don’t care about being a side character, I won't complain.”
Li Shen turned to his Qi Sea and said with a terrified and pitiful expression, but his Qi Sea seemed to be ignoring him.
Li Shen's gaze turned to the sky and another lightning bolt shot down towards him.
Several dozen Sword and Saber Qi manifested around him and formed a sharp and piercing river that clashed against the Lightning. However, they were forcefully shattered and the lightning’s power had barely been reduced.
Li Shen seeing this got creative with his Qi Manipulation Daoist Magic and pushed his palm forwards. In front of him, a gigantic black shield made from the Metal Element was conjured.
A loud bang resounded across the sky as the lightning bolt met the shield.
Li Shen was thrown backwards coughing up a little bit of blood. His body convulsing since the lightning wasn’t fully blocked.
Steadying himself in the air, Li Shen's heart was overcome with fear as he realized there was no way he could survive this tribulation with the power he had.
Turning to his Qi Sea Li Shen began begging it to take over and face the Heavenly Tribulation again, but as more and more lightning rained down from the sky towards him his Qi Sea completely ignored him.
Li Shen’s chard black body convulsed for the umpteenth time as another lightning bolt struck him.
“URGHHH-”
Li Shen roared in frustration, or at least he tried to, but another lightning bolt promptly fell and struck his cranium.
He coughed out a mouth full of blood and this time his figure fell from the sky to land on the ground with a loud bang, a crater having been formed where he had landed.
After landing, his Qi Sea seemed to be satisfied with that outcome, and its anticlockwise rotation turned to clockwise, directing the tribulation lightning back towards it.
It hovered there over Li Shen as it accepted the battering of the tribulation as if it was tampering itself with the lightning. Its diameter would grow ever so slightly, inching towards its maximum size while it continually absorbed the Time Qi from the void.
Li Shen in the crater peeked out from one of his closed eyes to see the current situation.
After, he snorted in his heart and said.
‘Greedy son of bitch, you’re a hundred years too late to think you could pull something like that on me!’
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