The tribulation clouds had already gathered and were now stirring up lightning within them.

Back in the hall, Lin Wu was still floating in the air but now there were multiple runes forming around him. These were new runes and were arranging themselves into a formation.

~Ding~

——

TRIBULATION ATTENUATION FORMATION: Activated

CHARGING: 56,000 Units of spirit Qi consumed [liquid spirit Qi]

CHARGE COMPLETE: Initializing process

——

Suddenly Lin Wu disappeared from the hall and appeared on top of the tomb. There, the ground had started to shift and large stone tiles were rising from the floor. They arranged themselves into a large platform before runes appeared on them too.

The runes that were floating around Lin Wu merged with the runes on the floor completing the formation.

~Ding~

——

INITIALIZATION COMPLETE: Awaiting tribulation lightning

HOST VITALS: Stable

COMPUTATIONAL A.I.: All active computational A.I.'s reassigned to the current scenario

——

~Shua~

Suddenly six pillars rose from around Lin Wu. The pillars were made of ethereal energy and if one looked closer, one could see some obscure characters written on them. Beams of energy rose from them and linked to each other, forming a circle.

The circle extended downwards, forming a dome around Lin Wu. The dome slowly became denser and denser as it became saturated with runes.

Lin Wu was still not in the control of his body and could only watch on. He was feeling relatively fine in the physical sense, but mentally he was anxious. He looked up at the dark sky and saw that the clouds were far more widespread than he had seen during the time with the Demon Spine Ape.

"Damn… this is gonna hurt like hell, isn't it?" Lin Wu muttered to himself, gaining a bit of control back.

'Oh, that's a good sign, I can speak at least.' Lin Wu thought.

He could feel a mixture of energies from the cloud. He switched to his radiation perception and found there to be blue energy hiding in the clouds. Along with the blue energy, he could feel something embedded in it.

Lin Wu couldn't tell what, but it appeared to be transparent to his perception. The only reason he was able to see it was because the blue energy was highlighting it and formed an outline for it.

It was the same as how you would be able to see a drop of water floating in a vat of oil. But along with this Lin Wu suddenly heard an unexpected notification.

~Ding~

——

CONDITIONS SATISFIED: Incomplete core is upgrading

——

The vortex of spirit Qi that was spinning around Lin Wu became even more intense and was close to a cyclone now. Inside Lin Wu's body, the incomplete core which corresponded to the unknown bloodline he had was rapidly progressing. The core was completely black in color and was originally a hemisphere.

But now it absorbed the spirit of Qi and grew to a full sphere. From there it kept on expanding until it reached the same size as Lin Wu's main core. But as soon as the second core reached its peak size, a change in the tribulation clouds could be seen.

The clouds flickered, as if they were confused for a moment. Then, the lightning in them intensified and the streaks could be seen tearing through the misty curtains. Lin Wu observed them again and discovered that the amount of that unknown energy had increased.

Before if it was 1% of the entire energy of the lightning, now it was about 3%. He didn't know if this was a bad change or a good change, but he was leaning on the side of luck.

"Thankfully, I activated the tribulation attenuation formation to be cautious. Or I likely would have had a hard time doing it on my own." Lin Wu said to himself.

Lin Wu had the confidence of bearing the tribulation on his own if it was going to be normal, but this unexpected change was not something he wanted to take chances with.

A few seconds after the second core reached its limit, more notifications popped up.

~Ding~

——

CONDITIONS SATISFIED: Upgrade possible for innate skill- Radiation Manipulation

UPGRADING INNATE SKILL GRADE: Radiation Manipulation (Grade: Minor -> Lesser)

INNATE SKILL UPGRADE: The skill description has been updated

—

Innate skill: Radiation Manipulation

Skill grade: Lesser

Proficiency: Novice

Description: The skill Radiation manipulation allows the host to control and manipulate radiation. The host can control radioactive particles to influence other objects and items. The host can use it to heat up objects, corrode, and make them decay.

The host can also sense the ambient radiation in the environment and perceive it.

The Current types of radiation that can be manipulated are: Thermal radiation and Electrical radiation

——

The grade of the innate skill had been upgraded, but its proficiency had fallen by two levels. Still, Lin Wu was pleased with this as he read the description of the skill. He knew that the description didn't give full details about what the skill could do as he had discovered more applications on it.

He reckoned that this was likely due to the lack of data from the system. He knew that the system wasn't made to deal with cultivation and it was still adapting to it. There were unknown things that influenced it which would need to be analyzed as they went on.

One of the things that was still a bit difficult to understand was the interaction of spirit Qi and radiation. Lin Wu didn't know who or how it opposed each other. Radiation naturally existed in the world but was in harmony with the spirit Qi usually. But when Lin Wu tried to control it, its properties would become restrictive towards spirit Qi instead.

"Wait, electricity manipulation… can I?" Lin Wu muttered to himself as his eyes glowed in anticipation.

He activated his newly upgraded skill and focused on the tribulation clouds above him. He sensed the energy within it, but found it to be inaccessible. It was as if a heavy anchor was attached to the energy and he couldn't influence it.