Chapter 152
At a single mention that there was a Secret Method, Baek Cheong lay on the bed and waited so eagerly for a reply that she nearly strained her neck.
A Secret Method for taking a lightning tribulation gently? Of course she was tempted.
And since it had come with the caveat that it was rare, it had to be an especially precious trick.
‘What kind of incredible method could it be?’
Dao friend(7.7) was the same dao friend who had once grasped the essence of the formation glyph in just eight characters.
If a dao friend like that was going to teach her a Secret Method, her expectations could only swell.
Before long, the reply she had been waiting for appeared.
[Dao friend(7.7): Enter the lightning tribulation.]
‘…Huh?’
Baek Cheong blinked at the completely out-of-nowhere response.
No matter how long she stared at it, that one line was all there was.
For a Secret Method, it was far too abrupt.
‘Enter it? Enter what?’
A lightning tribulation was the lightning bolt heavenly dao struck down.
Even interpreted generously, telling her to enter it sounded like telling her to take the bolt head-on.
‘Some Secret Method that is.’
Baek Cheong, who had gotten her hopes up for once, stuck out her lower lip.
It was so absurd she did not even feel like arguing.
Apparently, the other dao Friends had the same question.
[Dao friend(11.23): Enter? Enter what?]
[Dao friend(729.3): Isn’t telling someone to enter a lightning tribulation just telling them to get struck dead?]
[Dao friend(48.21): Asked how to take it gently and got told to take it even harder lol]
Every reaction was bewildered.
Baek Cheong felt inwardly relieved that she was not the only one who failed to understand.
As question marks began piling up one after another, an unfamiliar reply cut in.
[Dao friend(987.886): It would be simple if you used a lightning spirit body, but is there any need?]
It was an interface number she had never seen on her posts before.
She could not even guess what a lightning spirit body was.
Still, the tone bothered her in a strange way.
It sounded as if this dao friend understood something everyone else could not even grasp.
‘What is with this dao friend?’
They gave off an oddly extraordinary air.
But as a mere Qi Condensation cultivator, Baek Cheong did not think they were someone she could carelessly size up, so she looked away.
More importantly, dao friend(7.7)’s single line kept circling in her head.
Abrupt though it was, this was not a dao friend who would speak nonsense.
While the dao Friends continued debating back and forth, Baek Cheong quietly chewed over that short reply.
Then, a memory suddenly came to her.
‘Come to think of it…’
This was when she had first comprehended the formation glyph and personally deployed the Five Elements Myriad Lightning Formation.
It had been a formation that set five elements puppetry as the formation eyes and used Five Elements Banners to clash metal qi against water qi, dropping a tiny bolt of lightning.
Compared to a true heavenly tribulation, it had been nothing but a drop in the bucket.
Still, she could say she had imitated something similar to a heavenly tribulation, however small.
‘Not that it was remotely enough…?’
Dao friend(7.7)’s words about entering it clicked into place with that memory.
To enter a lightning tribulation, she first had to create an environment where a lightning tribulation could fall.
It could be read as telling her to create an environment similar to a heavenly tribulation and receive it from within.
'Oh, that makes sense, doesn’t it?’
But the more she thought it through, the more one issue nagged at her.
Was it all right to imitate a heavenly tribulation while heavenly dao was staring right down at her?
In the past, when she had discreetly overlapped a formation with her grandfather’s heavenly tribulation, Pacheon Sword Saint had scolded her for it.
He had warned her that a lightning tribulation originated from the judgment of heavenly dao, so if she intended to imitate it, she had to hide from even the eyes of heavenly dao.
It had also been a warning that if a cultivator clumsily peered into or imitated a lightning tribulation, they could offend heavenly dao.
‘Nothing good comes from provoking heavenly dao.’
If she rashly copied a heavenly tribulation, forget taking it gently - she might just make trouble where there had been none.
Once she thought that far, her excited little heart cooled.
She had thought it was a good method, but in the end it was still pie in the sky.
‘Ugh, no good.’
Baek Cheong gave up her lingering attachment and was about to leave the Nameless Forum.
Then her gaze went back to dao friend(7.7)’s reply.
‘Enter the lightning tribulation…’
Even in the past, dao friend(7.7) had been the sort to say only what was necessary.
So there had to be a reason they had written that she should enter the lightning tribulation.
‘Since the lightning tribulation is going to fall anyway…’
The moment she thought that far, her blocked thoughts opened up.
If she did not imitate the heavenly tribulation itself, that changed the story.
What if she completely removed the lightning qi and only wrapped herself in dark clouds?
'If I become the tribulation cloud like that, I’m not the one imitating it.’
If she merely wrapped dark clouds around herself, it would not be an act of daring to mimic a heavenly tribulation.
Heavenly dao would have no reason to take issue with mere dark clouds that had not a single bolt of lightning in them.
Once she realized that, the vague path ahead became clear.
The problem was that ordinary dark clouds would be nowhere near enough to contain a lightning tribulation.
Common clouds hanging around a peak could never create an environment similar to that of a heavenly tribulation cloud.
The same went for rain clouds made with the Spirit Rain Art or the Yeonha.
All of them were lacking in rank compared to a heavenly tribulation cloud.
‘There is one thing that might be usable, at least.’
She thought of the cloud spirit Pearl sleeping inside her Storage Platform.
Clouds that a Cloud Spirit Orb had taken in and spat back out would be of a different level from ordinary clouds.
However, that alone was still far removed from a heavenly tribulation cloud, so it needed some variation.
If she wanted to make the cloud spirit Pearl’s clouds able to contain a lightning tribulation, support from a formation was essential.
‘Would it work if I just removed the formation glyph from the Five Elements Myriad Lightning Formation?’
If she only took out the formation glyph that created lightning, what remained would be a formation that added variations in accordance with the five elements.
If she used the formation to transform the clouds spat out by the cloud spirit Pearl into dark clouds capable of containing a lightning tribulation, she could probably create a fairly convincing false tribulation cloud.
‘Call it the Five Elements Tribulation Formation.’
When she drew the image in her mind, it fit together rather well.
If she received the lightning tribulation from a false tribulation cloud, its power seemed likely to be transmitted in a dispersed state.
A lightning tribulation possessed an attracting force, so it would inevitably seek out and strike its target.
Even if she raised a lightning rod high into the air, the lightning tribulation would not so much as glance at it.
That meant she could not divert it away like ordinary lightning.
Nor did a false tribulation cloud have the ability to completely scatter a lightning tribulation.
At most, it could pretend to be a real tribulation cloud, deceive the lightning tribulation for a moment, and slow its arrival.
If so, while it was briefly deceived, she might be able to receive the lightning tribulation’s power through the false tribulation cloud in a dispersed form.
'Oh, theoretically, there isn’t a flaw in this, is there?’
As far as the image in her head went, it was an impressively solid plan.
But one corner of her heart would not settle, separate from how solid the idea seemed.
No matter how plausible it was, the opponent was still a heavenly tribulation.
If she trusted the theory and took it head-on only for her calculations to be wrong, she could die.
Because she could not be certain, unease began creeping up inside her little chest.
‘This really is okay, right?’
In the end, Baek Cheong decided to ask dao friend(7.7) whether her thoughts were correct.
[Dao friend(913.14): So I should surround myself with a false tribulation cloud similar to a real one and receive the lightning tribulation inside it? Since a lightning tribulation has an attracting force, even if I set up lightning rods, it ignores them and strikes anyway. That means diverting it somewhere else is out, so instead I use the false tribulation cloud to fool it briefly and slow its arrival. Then I take the lightning tribulation as it wanders through the false tribulation cloud with its power dispersed, right?]
After posting the reply, Baek Cheong swallowed dryly.
Dao friend(7.7) seemed to cling to mystery, so they were sparing with replies.
But the other dao Friends’ reactions were unexpected.
[Dao friend(987.886): …It is utterly absurd, but I think it could work.]
The unfamiliar dao friend from earlier cut in.
Then the other dao Friends who had been watching also began to chime in.
[Dao friend(11.23): Now that I hear it, it’s weirdly plausible?]
[Dao friend(729.3): Fooling a real lightning tribulation with a fake tribulation cloud… That idea is seriously bizarre lol.]
[Dao friend(46.111): No idea whether it’ll work or not, but it does make sense.]
One by one, they began agreeing with the preposterous notion.
Some dao Friends even started debating among themselves and verifying the theory.
Just as the discussion was heating up, the awaited reply from dao friend(7.7) appeared.
[Dao friend(7.7): …? I meant that you should enter the lightning tribulation cloud, but that should be possible too.]
Baek Cheong froze blankly when she saw the reply.
‘…They meant entering the heavenly tribulation cloud?’
Dao friend(7.7)’s words, steeped in excessive mystique, were not kind.
Because of that, she had gone all by herself and let her imagination run wild, excitedly attaching tribulation clouds and formations to them.
‘No, who would understand it like that…?’
The completely unexpected reply left her dumbfounded.
Still, even dao friend(7.7) said the false tribulation cloud might work.
The unfamiliar dao friend and the others who had been watching all agreed that, at least, the logic held.
Even if she had understood it completely wrong, she had arrived at a perfectly intact conclusion.
Only then did the anxiety rising in her little chest settle down.
‘Well, as long as the result is good.’
She had ended up independently realizing a method by accident, but it did not feel bad.
Now, once she reached foundation establishment and a heavenly tribulation cloud appeared, all she had to do was wrap herself in a false tribulation cloud.
The path had opened so cleanly that all her fear over the heavenly tribulation felt almost embarrassing.
‘I should still make other preparations, just in case.’
Baek Cheong repeated to herself that being overprepared was better than being underprepared, and decided to prepare for contingencies.
After all, to become a Foundation Establishment cultivator, she first had to reach Qi Condensation grand perfection.
'And if I’m doing it anyway, I might as well fill my Dantian to the brim.’