Undergoing Tribulation

"One hundred thousand cultivators who had developed divine sense died?!" This number was astonishing. Developing divine sense and not developing divine sense were two completely different concepts. Those who had yet to develop divine sense engaged only in basic social production, ensuring the normal operation of a sect's grassroots foundation. Their existence was like a cornerstone at the bottom, continuously filtering out the class of those who developed divine sense to benefit the sect's growth. By producing spirit stones and staffing crucial departments that required spirit stones to function, this class kept the sect running. This, in turn, nurtured more of the managerial class, the backbone class, and the ruling class, until the sect as a whole was formed. It was no exaggeration to say that developing divine sense changed one's destiny and lifted one out of the bottom rung. One would receive decent treatment in any department, and even attempts to join other sects would not be met with refusal. To suddenly lose over a hundred thousand members of this elite class... "To demonstrate their influence to the world, the Wuji Astral Palace mobilized more than a dozen sky-patrol warships to blockade our Nine Cauldrons Sect from every angle—east, south, west, north, and even the skies above us are packed with their sky-patrol warships and Heavenly Palace cultivators." Qin Yi said, "Such a deployment naturally had a staggering effect in completely blockading our Nine Cauldrons Sect. I assume you've noticed how unstable the Virtual Spirit Realm has been lately? But... dedicating so much force inevitably left their defenses lax elsewhere. And it was right at this moment that remnants of the Liusha Sect, who had plotted for a long time, infiltrated Sun Moon Peak and shut down its guardian formations one by one. Then a Great Spell Cultivator took action... almost completely destroying that massive peak..." "How will the Wuji Astral Palace react?" Yaoguang asked. "Such an act is a grave provocation to the Wuji Astral Palace's authority. Whether to provide an explanation internally or bare their fangs to the world, they must take action. What specific action, I don't know, but... for the foreseeable future, they likely won't have the spare energy to deal with us." Qin Yi continued, "Of course, there will certainly be plenty of encirclement on the economic front, through their influence, and via the Cangwu Alliance. But at least they won't dare keep an army bearing down on our borders with over a dozen sky-patrol warships like this, completely blockading our entire Nine Cauldrons Sect... After all, heaven only knows how many remnants of the Liusha Sect remain lurking within the Wuji Astral Palace's territory, or how many factions resent the Wuji Astral Palace's tyranny and are waiting for an opportunity to strike." Yaoguang nodded. The diversion of the Wuji Astral Palace's attention... was the perfect opportunity for the Nine Cauldrons Sect to covertly grow stronger and upgrade their armaments. He immediately sought out Zi Qiangwei and produced a jade talisman. "This is a Treasure Weapon design I created by upgrading the Zixiao Type 12 flying sword. Take a look." "A Treasure Weapon?!" Zi Qiangwei was slightly taken aback, and pleasant surprise immediately surfaced in her eyes. "You... you can forge Treasure Weapons now?" "Only this particular model of flying sword," Yaoguang said. "Well, going from a spirit artifact to a Treasure Weapon counts as a significant generational leap. Let's call it the Zixiao Type 13 flying sword." In the future, the mid-grade Treasure Weapon would be the Zixiao Type 14, and the high-grade Treasure Weapon would be the Zixiao Type 15. Naturally, mid-grade Treasure Weapons were often just transitional alternatives to high-grade ones, so Yaoguang had no intention of dwelling on them. Once he had sufficient funds and elevated his Formations mastery, he would move straight to designing the Zixiao Type 15—and a Zixiao Type 15 flying sword whose performance reached the fourth or even fifth generation. If all elite Great Sword Cultivators could truly be equipped with fifth-generation flying swords... Not only could they suppress the sword cultivators of the Wuji Astral Palace, but if they clashed with the Great Sun Sword Sect again, it would no longer be the Great Sun Sword Sect beating them 40 to 7—it would be them turning that exact score against the Great Sun Sword Sect. "I'll ask Grandmaster Dong Liushui to verify it right away." Saying this, Zi Qiangwei glanced at Yaoguang. "Would you like to come with me to Red City?" "Let's have it verified first," Yaoguang said. Once his Formations level rose and he was capable of forging the Zixiao Type 15, it wouldn't be too late to visit Red City. As for right now... He had more important business to attend to. ... "Undergo tribulation?" Bailu, the Origin Spirit realm Great Cultivator assigned specifically to protect Yaoguang, looked at him with slight surprise. However, recalling the profound foundation Yaoguang had demonstrated when controlling the Nine Skies Thunder Sword Formation not long ago, understanding dawned on her. "Of course. You lingered in the ninth layer of Spirit Refining for so long to build a sturdier foundation and accumulate momentum for an explosive breakthrough, didn't you? With the foundation of your Origin Spirit right now, withstanding tempering by Blazing Sun Heavenly Lightning won't be difficult." Bailu nodded. "I came this time to consult Hall Master Bailu on the specific matters regarding heavenly lightning tempering." "Specific matters..." Bailu organized her thoughts for a moment before speaking slowly. "The Origin Spirit is condensed from divine mind; it is formless and intangible, possessing a yin nature. Lightning, on the other hand, is supremely firm and yang. The process of undergoing tribulation is essentially using the clash between yin and yang to temper the Origin Spirit. This tempering is extremely efficient, but the process is exceptionally perilous. Therefore, before advancing, we Origin Spirit realm cultivators must do everything possible to enrich our foundations and elevate our Origin Spirit realms." Yaoguang nodded. Once an Origin Spirit realm cultivator manifested their Origin Spirit within the heavenly lightning layer, the yin nature of the Origin Spirit would draw strikes from the supremely firm, yang heavenly lightning. "Tribulation tempering is generally divided into three stages. The first stage begins with drawing down the first strike of heavenly lightning for tempering and continues until nine strikes have been endured. We call this stage the One-Nine Heavenly Tribulation. Next is enduring ten to twenty-seven strikes of heavenly lightning tempering, which is the Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation. Finally comes the last stage: the Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation of eighty-one strikes. Once eighty-one strikes of heavenly lightning tempering have been weathered, the Origin Spirit's strength reaches its peak, and one can attempt to enter the Zixiao Divine Lightning layer." Bailu glanced at Yaoguang. "Your foundation is exceptionally profound, likely enough to complete the One-Nine Heavenly Tribulation in a single breath. However, I wouldn't advise you to do so. No matter how deep your foundation is, cultivation is best taken step by step. Charging recklessly ahead can easily land you in grave peril." "I will proceed as circumstances dictate," Yaoguang said, then asked out of curiosity, "I've heard that when one undergoes tempering by Zixiao Divine Lightning, it's easy to comprehend the mysteries of chaos and condense a Dharma Idol in one go. Is that rumor true or false?" "Theoretically, yes. But the reason a Dharma Idol is powerful lies not in comprehending the mysteries of chaos, but in being able to condense a Virtual Spirit Realm of one's own! And to condense a Virtual Spirit Realm of your own, you must possess a sufficiently powerful divine mind. To attain a sufficiently powerful divine mind, you must temper your Origin Spirit again and again!" Bailu explained. "A Virtual Spirit Realm," Yaoguang murmured. A Virtual Spirit Realm could be understood as a network world, an information world. Yet it was an information network in a broader sense, leaning even toward a quantum realm. The mysteries of chaotic space-time contained within it allowed communication between the Virtual Spirit Realm and the outside world to be completely free of distance limits and latency. The Virtual Spirit Realm currently used by the world was left behind by the Dharma Idols who had fallen during the war with the Moon Demon Empire; it was a public Virtual Spirit Realm. Any sect or faction could connect to and enter this Virtual Spirit Realm to send and transmit information. Yet because of its open and unrestricted nature, messages conveyed through it could easily be jammed, blockaded, or even distorted and falsified. Thus, critical communications between sects were carried out via Heavenly Palace cultivators. However, aside from the Myriad Beasts Sect, the Immortal Alliance, and the Wuji Astral Palace, no faction in the world had built an all-encompassing network of Heavenly Palace cultivators. Even within a sect like the Nine Cauldrons Sect, dead zones in information transmission would occur across the sect and its surrounding territories, let alone regions far removed from the sect. A proprietary Virtual Spirit Realm could resolve this problem completely. By leaving a portion of their divine mind and divine sense within their own Virtual Spirit Realm, practitioners could communicate effortlessly regardless of distance. Furthermore, unless their own Virtual Spirit Realm was breached, such communications could not be jammed, blocked, distorted, or modified. More importantly, if such a Virtual Spirit Realm descended upon a location as an offensive measure, it could instantly cast an information blackout zone over the entire area. In other words... It could completely destroy that sect's communications and information flow, including divine mind transmissions and tactical direction. In this era, once one side's informational layer was completely severed and communications were reduced to shouting, the battle... was essentially over. At this point, Bailu spoke up again. "Actually, the reason the upper echelons haven't decided whether to put you in command of a sword cultivator academy under the War Hall, let you focus on artifact refining, or... leave your cultivation undisturbed, is simply because they don't know how best to deploy you." She looked at Yaoguang. "Your ability to command multiple Origin Spirits and Foundation Establishment cultivators is currently publicized within the sect as a new type of formation, while to the outside world... it remains strictly classified. But the very few of us in the Origin Spirit realm can still sense that this miraculous ability... is somewhat reminiscent of a Virtual Spirit Realm." A Virtual Spirit Realm. Yaoguang reflected on it briefly. The secret technique of the God King did indeed carry some characteristics of a Virtual Spirit Realm. "Right now, within a tiny circle in our Jiuxiao Domain, there is a bold... perhaps even unrealistic conjecture." Bailu looked at Yaoguang with an expression full of anticipation, and even a hint of wild hope. "Perhaps... one day in the future, you will break through the shackles of the Origin Spirit path and advance to Dharma Idol! And make our Nine Cauldrons Sect the fourth sect in the Cangwu Great World to possess a Dharma Idol!" "I'll do my best," Yaoguang replied. Following that, Bailu continued explaining the precautions for harnessing heavenly lightning to temper the Origin Spirit. Although the information Yaoguang possessed from the Divine Path was far more complete than what Bailu described, he still listened patiently. Three days later. Yaoguang wasted no more time. His Origin Spirit left his physical body, transforming into a streak of flowing light that ascended straight toward the Nine Heavens. Bailu, Zhang Jianlin, and the few Origin Spirit realm cultivators and Jiuxiao Domain higher-ups who knew of his intention to undergo tribulation all looked up. Furthermore, Zhao He, Master of the War Hall, led two squads of sword cultivators soaring into the clouds to follow him, keeping watch from a distance to prevent any interference. Naturally, the process of tempering by heavenly lightning had to be borne by Yaoguang alone. For an Origin Spirit realm cultivator, this was in itself an act of cultivation. ... Upon entering the Nine Heavens, the yin-natured Origin Spirit quickly stirred the external yang-natured forces. Instantly, the atmosphere churned, and clouds surged across the firmament. The drastic shift in atmospheric conditions caused the internal yin and yang energies to clash violently. In less than a minute... Rumble! A bolt of Blazing Sun Heavenly Lightning streaked across the void. Drawn by the yin energy of the Origin Spirit, the lightning crashed straight down toward Yaoguang.