~splatter~

~thud~

The head of ten beasts rolled like marbles on the ground while their blood seeped into the soil.

It had been a day since Shirong had left the Capital city and he was now at the border of the Ling Kingdom. Most of the area there was plains but there were some small patches of trees as well.

The beasts that had just been killed were some unlucky beasts that decided to disturb Shirong's rest. They were killed with a single swing of his Immortal Crystal Armament before they could even get close to him.

~humph~

"Filthy pests… may as well become part of my strength," Shirong said before he stabbed the crystal spear into each of the corpses.

~shua~

The corpses started to shrink rapidly as they dried up. A minute later all ten beasts that were barely in the Qi refining realm were reduced to desiccated husks. While Shirong felt a faint stream of spirit Qi coming from the spear in his hand.

"No matter how many times I do this, it's always refreshing." Shirong muttered to himself with a faint smile on his face.

But this smile soon turned tense as he felt the spear shake in his hand.

~Huala~

Suddenly strong winds started blowing in the area and the Immortal Crystal Armament started glowing.

"What!?" Shirong said, feeling surprised.

The spear started to tremble in his hand and suddenly left his grasp.

~Rumble~

The faint sound of thunder could be heard coming from afar, making Shirong look up.

"No way… how can this be?" Shirong said upon seeing the dark clouds that were gathering up in the sky.

He could sense the suppression that was coming from those clouds and the warning that was contained within them.

"A heavenly tribulation… did a seal? Yes, that must be it, another seal was released." Shirong muttered to himself.

A complex expression appeared on his face, and he hesitated for a moment before retreating. He knew that if this heavenly tribulation had arrived, that too, for a weapon it was likely to be much more terrifying than his own. If he was in its range, there was a great chance he would be injured.

While he was a bit unsure of leaving the Immortal Crystal Armament out of his grasp, he knew this was something he needed to do.

~Rumble~

More thunder could be heard as the clouds got denser. Lin Wu, who was in his main body at this moment, sensed it as well and quickly returned.

"Huh? What happened?" Lin Wu said before checking the avatar's data.

~Ding~

——

AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Peak stage of the core condensation realm

-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [49,459/48,000] units (liquid spirit qi)

——

"How did it…" Lin Wu wondered but then noticed the beast corpses that were lying around the area.

"Ah, he absorbed the spirit Qi and vital energy from these beasts… no wonder it didn't trigger my alarm." Lin Wu realized.

Lin Wu had originally set it so that the avatar would inform him when he reached the spirit Qi required for him to break through to the Nascent Soul realm, which was 48,000 drops of liquid spirit Qi.

It was only a few tens of drops away from that point, but then Shirong had suddenly killed these Qi refining realm beasts which directly pushed the spirit Qi store beyond the current limit. Lin Wu had set the alarm so that he would be able to choose a time to undergo the Heavenly Tribulation.

He did not want it to happen in the middle of a battle or in the wrong place. If he was still in his avatar, he would have been able to delay the heavenly tribulation till he was in a better location, but since the alarm did not work because of a loophole, he was left with no other choice.

"System, show me the updated map." Lin Wu ordered.

~Ding~

——

SCANNER: Activated

MAP: Updated

——

Lin Wu saw all the markers on the map and almost facepalmed.

"These dumb beasts… how unlucky were you guys…" Lin Wu could not help but think.

In the entire map, Lin Wu could see that where Shirong had originally been was empty in a radius of over four kilometers. This meant that the beasts had intentionally come to sacrifice their lives to Shirong.

~Sigh~

"Thankfully this place isn't that bad for a breakthrough either…" Lin Wu said before taking a look at Shirong, who was now standing nearly ten kilometers away from him.

"Man, is he scared or what… guy ran away so far." Lin Wu chuckled.

Lin Wu reckoned that the man was still a bit traumatized from the last Heavenly tribulation that he went through and did not want to take another chance with it. Thus, wanting to be cautious, Shirong had run away quite far.

~phew~

"Well… no use waiting, let's get this over with. System, upgrade!" Lin Wu muttered.

~Ding~

——

UPGRADING AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Peak Stage of the core condensation realm -> Infant Stage of the Nascent Soul realm

SPIRIT QI CONSUMED: 48,000 units [liquid spirit Qi]

——

~Crackle~

~RUMBLE~

As soon as Lin Wu allowed his body to break through, the Tribulation which had been mild till now exploded. The clouds covered the sky and arcs of lightning could be seen coursing through them.

The first thing Lin Wu noticed was that the pressure being exerted by the Tribulation clouds was much less than the last time. In fact, when he observed it with his radiation perception, he saw that the transparent part of the energy in clouds was only at one percent.

"Better set some privacy…" Lin Wu muttered to himself as his body glowed even more.

Then wind attribute spirit Qi started swirling around his body, which then turned into a shade of pale red due to radiation being added to it. This created a curtain around Lin Wu which prevented Shirong from seeing him. Or rather his body, which was now rapidly growing to its full size.

"COME ON!" Lin Wu said as he looked at the clouds fearlessly.

~Rumble~

The lightning bolt condensed in the clouds before falling towards Lin Wu.

~BOOM~