No one had expected something like this to happen and no one including Lin Wu and the system knew what had caused the change.

Lin Wu had seen how that unknown energy had consumed the tribulation as if it was nothing. The all powerful heavenly tribulation lightning had disappeared like a clay ox in the sea.

Not a single person dared to look away from the tribulation clouds as they only got thicker. Usually, there would be a slight time gap between the attributional lightning bolts as it would take a short period of time for the clouds to gather the power.

But due to being agitated, the clouds charged up a tribulation lightning bolt in just a couple of seconds and shot it down.

~Crack~

The sound of lightning crackled across the skies as the white bolt of lightning struck Shirong again.

"ARGH!!" Shirong couldn't help but let out a grunt of pain.

Just the impact of the bolt felt like a hill had been dropped onto him and when the lightning bolt entered his body it ravaged his meridians. Thankfully, due to having reached the peak of the body tempering realm, he was able to withstand it.

Shirong observed his Dantian closely and saw that the lightning was just about to reach his core. But then at the very last moment, the unknown energy flared up and soaked up all of it.

"What the heck! How am I supposed to break through like this?" Shirong couldn't help but wonder.

The pain was still spreading through his body, but he was able to bear it for now. But the tribulation did not want to give him respite.

~Rumble~

The tribulation clouds charged up another lightning bolt which was twice as thick as the previous two ones and dropped it onto Shirong.

~BOOM~

This time the shock wave created from it, triggered the tribulation platform's defensive measures and it actively tried to restrain it. The Dharma protectors watched in horror as the store of spirit stones that had been set up to power the formation array drained by a quarter instantly.

"Cl-clan Head Lu… this was not what we had planned…" Clan Head Mu spoke, his voice trembling.

"You think I font know that! We can't interfere in the process of tribulation, all we can do is wait and watch." Clan Head Lu said, feeling anxious.

The other Dharma protectors checked the formation array and saw that while it was intact for now, they couldn't say the same if more bolts like these dropped.

"Young Master Shirong has already taken three bolts of tribulation lightning, this should have been enough for him to breakthrough. Why is it not happening?" Someone couldn't help but question.

"Bah! Who do you think young master Shirong is? He is a dragon amongst men, it is obvious that his tribulation will be equal to that of his standing." Another person responded.

Thankfully Shirong was too focused on his body right now, because if he had heard this man he would have spit blood. Not only had he born the tribulation lightning, something else was taking the benefit of it.

~Rumble~

This time there was a slight delay in the tribulation clouds in the process of creating a lightning bolt and it took ten seconds longer.

~BOOM~

The lightning bolt fell like an eagle striking a serpent from the skies and struck Shirong.

"Ptui~" Shirong spat out some blood.

The lightning bolt coursed through his body and was once again absorbed by the unknown energy. But Shirong was now pissed, he did not know why that unknown energy that had stayed low key till now was acting up.

"If you are going to do this, I don't need you here!" Shirong declared as his eyes turned bloodshot.

Waves of sprint Qi emanated from his core as it got destabilized. The fine channels that were on his core got affected and the unknown energy flared up due to it. It started leaking out of the channels into the other parts of the core and affected the condensed spirit Qi.

Lin Wu was watching everything with close attention and the system was actively recording and analyzing it too. Thus when Shirong attempted to touch the unknown energy in his core the system set out warning notifications.

~WARNING~

——

FLAW DETECTED: Back door function may be disabled

ENERGY INSTABILITY DETECTED: Explosion may be possible

——

"System, can't you control the unknown energy and restrain it from affecting Shirong's tribulation?" Lin Wu questioned.

~Ding~

——

ANSWER: The unknown energy has undergone a qualitative change and the system cannot manipulate it currently. Additional analysis is required to compute new parameters.

——

After listening to the system's answer, Lin Wu knew Shirong was fucked. If he removed the unknown energy forcefully, it will cause him to die due to the explosion. And if he let the unknowing energy absorb more of the tribulation lightning, the tribulation clouds will only get more strong and kill Shirong with a stronger bolt.

Shirong was currently gritting his teeth as the pain from his core assaulted his senses. The unknown energy was spreading through his core and tainting his condensed spirit Qi. Little by little the color of the core started changing from plain white to a pale blue. But this did not come easily as Shirong felt himself losing control over his spirit Qi.

It was as if it did not belong to him anymore and had been seized by someone else. Shirong was now cursing the day when he had chosen to touch the beast carapace fragment. His luck had become extremely imbalanced and tilted between very good and extremely bad.

He was getting fortunes and was then being pushed to the very brink of death. First with the Immortal Crystal Armament and the forbidden zone which respected their spirit Qi, then at the millennium forest where he was attacked by a hundred thousand beasts all at once, but then gained a great increase in his body tempering realm.

After all this, he couldn't help but ask.

"Who did I offend to suffer like this?"