Shirong had crossed the third ring of the millennium forest by now and had also hunted pleat of beasts by now. On the other hand, Wang Xiong and his companions were also around the third ring although on a different direction.

Shirong was heading towards the north while Wang Xiong and his companions were heading towards the west. Their sect was to the south of the Millennium forest, but for them doing south directly would mean entering the sixth ring which would be a deadly decision.

Thus they were going towards the west, and then would change their direction from there. Lin Wu had estimated that by the time Shirong and he reached the Wu Lim city, Wang Xiong would reach the southern part of the first ring.

Currently, Shirong and Wang Xiong had nearly the same cultivation base. Shirong was slightly above Wang Xiong as he had the spirit Qi while Wang Xiong had used up his to increase the power of the skill Glacier Crash.

Though considering overall strength, Shirong and Wang Xiong would be the same as Shirong had his peak stage body tempering realm cultivation along with a higher aptitude, while Wang Xiong had the cultivation technique from the Taiji Celestial's inheritance.

Even the inferior version, The Taiji Refinement Scripture, was comparable to that of Shirong's top grade Immortal Sky Shaker Art. Perhaps the only thing that would change the standing would be Shirong reaching the Nascent Soul realm.

Currently, Lin Wu was practicing the Taiji Dual Unity Scripture with his Avatar. He didn't do it with his main body, as he didn't know if there would be any additional effects that could be problematic. With the avatar, Lin Wu would have a free hand in experimenting with techniques and testing new things.

~Ding~

——

SPIRIT QI INCREASED: 200 units [Liquid Spirit Qi]

AVATAR CULTIVATION: Early Stage of the Core Condensation Realm.

-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [1200/6000] units (liquid spirit qi)

——

Lin Wu had been cultivating with his avatar for the past two days while they traveled and had obtained 1200 units of Liquid spirit Qi in that time. While this seemed like it was slow compared to hunting down beats and consuming their spirit Qi, that was not a sustainable method, while this would keep on providing him with spirit Qi as long as there was spirit Qi in the environment.

Another thing was that he could do other tasks while cultivating as well, which increased his overall efficiency. During this time, Lin Wu had checked the functions of the Tomb's formation array and had learned more about them. Before he didn't have as much time and thus couldn't see them properly, but now he also knew how to turn on the functions that were offline.

At first, Lin Wu had thought that the reason why the functions were offline was because of some kind of damage that could have happened to the formation array over the many years it had been working. But that assumption turned out to be wrong as the formation was fully intact, rather it was the power source that originally used to be part of it that had been disconnected.

This was all that was needed for Lin Wu to guess what the power source must have been.

"The Spirit Qi source beneath the Dark Bloom Caverns… that is the main power source of the Formation array. Currently it is just operating by using some spirit Qi in the area with the help of some spirit Qi absorbing formation array." Lin Wu muttered to himself.

'But why did it get disconnected?' Lin Wu wondered.

This was the second question that Lin Wu had reached after that. He had already asked the system to check the formation array for any information behind the disconnection. He thought that if he could find the reason behind the disconnection, it might be possible to reverse that without going into the Dark Bloom Caverns.

He was still waiting for that, as the system had quoted him a time period of anywhere from one day to ten days for that. Two days had already passed since he did that, and there was still no response to it.

Checking the functions also gave him information on the Tribulation Attenuation formation that the tomb had. This formation was basically a part of a tribulation platform, but this one could be used for any cultivation technique. Lin Wu had thus decided that he would be using this when the time for his own tribulation came.

Unlike the other functions, the Tribulation Attenuation formation didn't necessarily need the spirit Qi from the main source below the Dark Gloom Caverns, rather it could be powered by the auxiliary powering formations as well, as long as enough supply was assigned to it.

For now, Lin Wu had diverted 10% of the spirit Qi absorbed by the auxiliary powering formations to the Tribulation attenuation formation as he didn't know when he would need it. And by the time he does, the formation should have accumulated a decent amount of spirit Qi.

~Rumble~

Suddenly Lin Wu's main body heard the loud rumbling of thunder from the sky above. The thunder was much stronger than normal thunder and he could see dense dark clouds gathered in the sky. But the thing that was the strangest was that there was a disturbance in the spirit Qi in the air too.

"What! Those clouds and the thunder…" Shirong suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky through the gaps in the forest canopy.

He hesitated for a bit before flying halfway to the top of the trees and then climbing all the way to the top. There were a few flying beasts that tried to attack him, much to their misfortune as they were smashed with a single swipe of the spear.

When Shirong reached the top and saw the sky clearly, his eyes went wide.

"What's he shocked about? Didn't we see a few storms like this before?" Lin Wu wondered to himself.

"It can't be… Heavenly Tribulation!"