Chapter 17
The Heavenly Tribulation struck so swiftly that Eun Seolhwa couldn't sense its approach before it pierced her body.
The Purple Firmament Thunder Tribulation (紫霄峻雷劫).
Lightning that annihilated all that was corrupt.
A symbol of purification, imbued with the light of dawn.
KRA-BOOM!
The entire Ascension Grounds were filled with purple lightning.
The wrath of Heaven, summoned by a mere ten people, crashed down as if to destroy the Ascension Grounds.
It wasn't just a single bolt.
As if determined to rain down lightning until they were reduced to ashes, the tribulation bolts looked like lines connecting heaven and earth.
And yet, no one would die from something like this.
If they wished, they could have attempted Foundation Establishment before the age of ten.
They had continually compressed the density of their spiritual power, pushed past the limits of their bodies, and awakened their divine sense before Foundation Establishment.
They had done all this because they aimed to go beyond Foundation Establishment.
Divine sense and flight, the hallmarks of Foundation Establishment.
What had once been considered the defining traits of Foundation Establishment cultivators was now possible even in the late Qi Refining stage.
Advances in cultivation technology had made it possible.
Spiritual power that surpassed that of ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators, physical abilities beyond those of Foundation Establishment cultivators of the past, and divine sense more expansive than that of most early Foundation Establishment cultivators.
They had endured so they could go farther and reach beyond.
Pietro looked down at the ten people surrounded by lightning and smiled faintly.
[This generation is qualified.]
The examiners standing behind Pietro were astonished by his calm pronouncement.
Had such words really just come from the lips of their strict and exacting director?
Had a genius who could truly challenge the Nascent Soul realm been born?
[I hereby open the Ascension Grounds' functions.]
Ignoring the examiners' agitation, Pietro pressed his palms together once more.
This was not a prayer for humanity, but a supplication to the god above the heavens.
His solemn voice rang through the vacuum.
“I, a mere junior who has barely set foot on the Dao, make this humble request.”
Rumble…
The Ascension Grounds trembled.
The land, which had stretched out as a square, began to move.
Its faces rose skyward, met one another, and folded, tracing out a three-dimensional shape.
“May I borrow the treasure of the Heavenly Firmament True Lord (天空眞君), so that they may receive even the slightest help along the arduous path of cultivation…”
At last, the Ascension Grounds took the shape of a mountain with one summit and nine peaks.
At the same time, the ten people at the center of the Ascension Grounds shot upward.
A single figure stood atop the highest central peak, while the remaining nine surrounded him in a circle, as if to protect him.
At the same time, the remnants of spiritual power and spiritual energy still drifting through the Ascension Grounds surged toward the peaks.
They were the spiritual power left behind by the roughly ten thousand cultivators who had advanced to Foundation Establishment.
Each contribution was small and impure, but…
Shaaah—
The murky gray Ascension Grounds glowed auspiciously pink.
As a radiant light, bright as cherry blossoms, enveloped the summit and peaks, the spiritual power shed its impurities of its own accord and became pure.
A thousand cultivators' worth of spiritual power converged on each peak.
The immense spiritual power healed the bodies damaged by the Heavenly Tribulation and replenished the strength they had spent using their arts.
It did more than aid them as they grew tired by the second; it also filled their bodies with vitality and strengthened their foundations.
Flash!
A massive Heavenly Tribulation, qualitatively different from the ones before, flashed within the clouds.
Those seated on the peaks sensed it instinctively.
This was the last one.
Yet no one was tense.
With their Dao Hearts firm and their bodies so at ease, the Heavenly Tribulation was nothing but a blessing that would temper them.
Eun Seolhwa smiled faintly.
[Eun Nine: (Photo of a hand whose skin is glowing on its own)]
It felt as if the burden that had weighed on her heart for so long was finally lifting.
Nine had succeeded in Qi Refining.
Relief and peace welled up within her.
At first, it had simply been a choice she'd made at her master's suggestion.
The suggestion had been to take in and raise some young children from the Nurturing Stage.
At first, it had been a bother, and her clumsy attempts to express her feelings had often hurt them unintentionally.
They had misunderstood one another and grown apart countless times.
But caring for young lives as an adult—and embracing them as her family—…
…had been enough to awaken a feeling of warmth within Eun Seolhwa's otherwise cold heart.
Her divided Dao Heart became whole.
Cultivation was transcendence.
Would she fill what she lacked and achieve perfection?
Or would she shed what she lacked and complete herself?
Eun Seolhwa chose the former.
She had once looked upon the world with nothing but coldness, but through her family, she had learned warmth.
The world was made up not of nature, but of human lives.
Rumble…
The clouds of the Heavenly Tribulation let out a single unhappy growl, then shone brilliantly.
***
KRA-BOOM!
A purple Heavenly Tribulation of an entirely different caliber came crashing down.
Even though it was only on the screen, Nine shuddered at the force that seemed to reach her so vividly.
“That's a true Heavenly Tribulation.”
It was a sight she saw every New Year's.
And yet, the Heavenly Dao's overwhelming presence was not something one could ever grow accustomed to.
The cultivators on the peaks who had successfully endured the Heavenly Tribulation ascended into the sky.
A broadcaster zoomed in on them.
Among them, Nine spotted a familiar face.
“You saw the photo I sent, right?”
She hoped it had eased her mother's burden, even just a little.
She knew her mother was always thinking about her.
Even after Eun Seolhwa disappeared among the cultivators standing in the air, Nine continued to stare blankly at the TV.
There was still one person sitting cross-legged atop the highest summit.
“Huh?”
Nine's mouth fell open.
Her dazed expression grew even more vacant.
But inside, she was filled with shock and amazement.
The Ascension Grounds had changed their shape before Nine was born.
She'd been watching in fascination, but…
All nine had endured the Heavenly Tribulation and completed Foundation Establishment, so why was someone still there?
Beyond the TV screen, in outer space, the Ascension Grounds changed shape once more.
From one summit and nine peaks, they became a colossal mountain, leaving only a single peak at the very top.
The broadcaster looked confused, swinging the camera this way and that.
The examiners were just as confused, pointing toward the Ascension Grounds.
The Foundation Establishment cultivators of this generation wore twisted expressions.
The camera showed the unidentified director of the Realm Advancement Administration, eyes wide.
Then the view shifted to the handsome young man seated at the very top of the Ascension Grounds.
His long black hair hung loose, and his eyes were calmly closed.
His blue robe was adorned with flowing black lines, lending him an air of elegance.
With each calm breath, ominous spiritual power churned.
Soon, the Heavenly Tribulation clouds above began to churn.
The black clouds grew darker, turning pitch-black.
A sense of ill omen hung in the air, as if a hole had been punched in space.
Knowledge of the Heavenly Tribulation surfaced in Nine's little head.
When advancing to Foundation Establishment, the first thing one faced was the lightning tribulation, one of the most common forms of Heavenly Tribulation.
Cultivators of ordinary talent endured just one bolt of the lowest-level blue lightning, the Azure Purification Tribulation (淸淨雷劫).
Those with a measure of talent endured ten bolts; those even more gifted endured hundreds.
For those even more gifted—geniuses whom Heaven acknowledged as having the potential to reach the Golden Core—purple lightning, the Purple Firmament Thunder Tribulation (紫霄峻雷劫), would descend.
Likewise, the degree of talent and potential for divine abilities depended on how much lightning one endured here.
But after that…
“Nascent Soul…?”
Nine murmured the words blankly.
At the same time, pitch-black lightning stirred at the heart of the empty universe, as if a hole had been punched through it.
It was black, with equally low saturation, and the surrounding universe was full of similar hues.
She should have been unable to perceive it, and yet…
Nine felt an icy shiver pass through her entire body.
It was utterly terrifying.
Just witnessing it seemed enough to shake her spirit and scatter her mind.
Its basic color was still purple.
But at its very center, there was a single speck…
A single speck of pitch-black.
The Black Annihilation Heaven-Rending Void Tribulation (黑滅天轟空劫).
One of the immense barriers a Golden Core cultivator faced while advancing to Nascent Soul.
The will of the Heavenly Dao, capable of burning even an intangible Dao Heart and divine sense.
Nine couldn't even perceive it as it fell.
The black lightning, beyond the very concept of speed, pierced the handsome young man seated at the heart of the mountain in an instant.
Nine held her breath.
“Did he die…?”
It didn't seem possible for a human to withstand something like that.
But as if to disregard Nine's guess, the black lightning continued to fall.
One bolt.
Two bolts.
….
Seven.
There were seven lightning strikes in total.
The handsome young man endured them all, opened his tightly shut eyes, and flew into the sky.
Perhaps he hadn't been able to endure the black lightning completely; his hair was patchy, and the entire upper half of his robe had burned away.
But he wasn't dead.
There were only a few scorch marks, his body was uninjured, and his gaze was still bright.
With that, the TV abruptly went dark.
When Nine turned to look at the clock, it was already past midnight.
She'd been watching the broadcast for a full seven hours.
“Amazing….”
Nine murmured as she leaned blankly against the sofa.
Her eyes were fixed on the ceiling, but her heart was still at the Ascension Grounds.
Several hundred billion people must have watched that broadcast.
So many eyes had been fixed on the scene.
In front of all those viewers, he alone had boldly endured the black lightning and advanced to Foundation Establishment.
With hundreds of billions watching, he alone commanded everyone's attention.
After that final sight, everyone had probably already forgotten the cultivators who advanced earlier.
That was how overwhelming he had been.
“I want to…”
Nine reached toward where she guessed the Ascension Grounds were and clenched her fist.
Her vacant eyes began to sparkle with life.
She had a clear goal now.
The image of the handsome young man standing proudly against the Heavenly Tribulation was etched into Nine's mind.
She had already forgotten everyone except Eun Seolhwa.
No—in the first place, she hadn't even thought them worth remembering.
A background character no one remembered.
An extra who shone a light on the protagonist, then faded away.
She never wanted to remain a mere extra like that.
“I want to advance to Foundation Establishment with everyone's eyes on me.”
She wanted to shine overwhelmingly, all alone at the center of the Ascension Grounds.
She wanted to feel humanity's attention fixed on her and make everyone but herself fade from memory.
I want to be the only one who shines.
And to do that…
“Pou, come here.”
She picked Pou up.
[User: Eun Nine]
[Talent: Five-Element Spiritual Roots 7000 / 10000]
[Constitution]
[Talisman Dao Sacred Body Rank 1 4190 / 10000]
[Golden Sea, Azure River (金海滄川) 0/10]
[Cultivation Arts: Tempering Formula 8th Star 7000/15000 / Introductory Talisman Dao Art 10th Star Great Perfection / Body Tempering Formula-12th Revision 3rd Star 50/200 / Five-Element Spirit-Raising Enlightenment Art 1st Star 20/100]
[Current Realm: Qi Refining 1st Star 2.5%]
[Body Refining Dao]
Spiritual Power Density: 40.7
Physical Activation: 14.5
Divine Sense Strength: 0
[Cultivation Art Dao]
[Please select a cultivation art 0/1]
“Cultivation Art Dao. Select the Five-Element Spirit-Raising Enlightenment Art.”
She needed to become faster than anyone else and overwhelmingly powerful.