453: Tribulation (1/3)

Tribulation (1/3)

'The tribulation should arrive any moment now.' Lith thought to himself while looking around.1

His core was in the process of formation, and Lith knew that the tribulation would be coming at any moment to prevent him from ascending.

Rising up in ranks in the mortal realms was easy and not very risky. One would be a mortal even if they become Rank 9 except they would have a long lifespan.

But long didn't mean infinite or inexhaustible. It was still limited.

A Rank 9 could live up to ten thousand years without any problems but they would die of old age when they exceed that limit and reincarnate again.

Rank 1 could live up to a hundred years and they were the ones with the shortest lifespans.

Rank 2 could live up to 200 years. Rank 3 could live up to 300 years and so on. The lifespan increased by a hundred years for every rank until Rank 5 where it would become 500 years.

At Rank 6, a qualitative change happened. The lifespan would double, and a person could live up to a thousand years.

For a Rank 7 cultivator, the lifespan would be 2500 years, for Rank 8 it was 5000 years and for Rank 9 it was 10,000 years. The Half-Saint Realm was simply a transitioning phase and did not qualify as an increase in a major realm.

After Rank 9, to advance every major realm one had to face tribulation.

A cultivator would not face tribulation unless he was doing something heaven-defying like challenging the natural laws and rules of the universe.

The process of transforming your mortal core into an immortal core qualified as defying the heavens.

The laws of the world did not allow people to turn into immortal beings and defy the natural order. So the tribulations would take place depending upon the person's strength and foundation.

Lith knew about it and was expecting one to arrive at any moment.

But he was slightly in doubt and fully on guard as he had no idea what type of tribulation might occur here in this place.

Firstly, he had a solid foundation and he knew it. He was the strongest person in his rank. Although this was a good thing, it meant his tribulations would be stronger than others as well.

Secondly, he was in the astral world and not in his own one.

How this place would affect his ascension - Lith had no idea. He was also in the dark about the strength of his tribulation.

Lith could only grit his teeth and brace himself.

A while passed.

The tribulation finally arrived.

Winds howled and the strong breeze made Lith's clothes and his long silver hair flutter.

In Lith's vision, there was no one else present in this Astral World apart from him and the golden light around him. He was fully focused and had his attention on the tribulation.

He kept only a small part of his attention on the outside and focused fully on the tribulation. It took a greater priority as his life was at risk.

Soon, the howling of the winds transformed into a gray vortex out of which many tiny bugs appeared.

Lith squinted his eyes to see what these bugs were but he could not identify their species. They had cricket-like bodies of gray color but Lith wasn't able to point out what type of bugs they were.

Lith waved his hand in front of him and created a barrier made up of Dark elemental energy and covered himself, defending against the bugs. It was better to be cautious than sorry.

The bugs swarmed toward Lith at great speed and immediately hit the barrier. These bugs could not penetrate his barrier and Lith sighed in relief.

But soon, his relief turned to horror as the bugs sucked the elemental energy supporting the barrier and ended up weakening it.

Lith was surprised as he noticed it and immediately cast a Fire spell — Flame Slash towards the bugs and burned them to ashes.

Some bugs that weren't able to react got burnt while most escaped from the fire. Some bugs went on top of the blades of flames and absorbed the elemental energy from the flames.

It was now clear to Lith that these bugs had the power to devour elemental energies.

The bugs continued to charge toward Lith and their goal was to get in touch with his body.

Lith could tell what would happen if they ended up sticking onto him. He thus extended his wings out and flew in random motions to dodge the attacks of the bugs.

The bugs swarmed together and attacked Lith.

Millions of them ended up creating a storm of bugs and rushed toward Lith. Their speed was anything but slow and threatened Lith.

'Elemental attacks don't work…' Lith thought while dodging and thinking of a way to attack them.

He decided to use his spiritual power if he couldn't use elemental energies.

Lith opened his palm and willed his spiritual power to manifest into a sphere. A gray sphere of around six inches formed on Lith's palm and Lith immediately threw it toward the bugs.

His spiritual power hit the bugs and exploded but Lith noticed that it had little to no effect.

'What are these insects…?'

This was his own tribulation yet he had no knowledge of it. He could only rely on trial and error to find a way of beating them.

It was evident that the bugs weren't too powerful. Lith was sure he could kill them with his attacks but their numbers were so high that any elemental attack would be absorbed by them before it could deal any significant damage.

'I should try using area of effect attacks.' Thinking so, Lith gestured with his hand while running from the bugs and finished casting a spell. He looked at the bugs and softly muttered,

"Blazing Fury."

A huge tide of flames emerged from Lith's body and engulfed the swarm of bugs.

The bugs chirped loudly as they felt the high temperature from the flames and a burning sensation. This sound wave was intense enough to rupture the eardrums of people below Rank 6 but Lith, a Half saint, only felt a slight tingle in his ears.

The flames that Lith sent ended up burning a good one-tenth of the bugs before the spell was absorbed by them as usual.

Lith didn't waste time and sent another attack. He continued to attack one after another and used the Blazing Fury four times in a row.

Lith was getting a hang of fighting these bugs. As long as the attack was intense enough and could kill a group of bugs in an instant, it was a good attack.

Lith sent out waves of other area of effect attacks and in no time, he had killed more than half of the bugs. He was relieved to know that the situation was under control but the relief did not last for long.

Soon, he heard a faint cry of some creature. Lith looked in the direction of the sound and noticed it was coming from the vortex.

In no time, five eagle-like birds, over thirty feet tall, came out of the vortex and charged toward Lith while letting out an angry cry.

It was as if Lith had killed their nine generations and they were thirsty for Lith's blood.

In just a breath's time, an eagle closed in on Lith. This caused alarm bells to ring in his head and his instincts screamed danger!

Lith immediately widened the distance between himself and the birds as he was hit with a realization.

'These Eagles can use Space!'

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