Li Shen felt the current state of his body and smiled. The lightning had further tempered his body making his bones, muscles, and flesh, from Li Shen’s estimate, as strong as someone in the mid Foundation Realm.
But it was only an estimate though, he had gone through so many power-ups he could only find out in actual battle what his current strength was like.
To accomplish this, the little bit of residual lightning his Qi Sea left to him was barely enough so he pulled that stunt, but to be honest, he hadn’t expected the lightning bolts to be so powerful.
He had tried using Heavenly Physique aura to curb the lightning a bit, but it completely ignored it. Li Shen speculated it was his Qi Sea doing.
He had no idea what exactly was going on or why this situation turned into his Qi Sea vs the Heavenly Tribulation, but he wasn’t complaining.
Who could say they had an easier time going through a deadly Tribulation than him?
Li Shen was flat on his back looking up at his now fifty-meter large Qi Sea.
The spectacle of the numerous lightning bolts streaking across the sky to land on it before bursting apart was breathtaking in a sense.
As he casually admired this scene while occasionally shaking due to the aftershocks, Li Shen let his perception focus on the Grand Formation below him.
He expertly entered the formation’s inner structure and trace back to the nodes to see Fulong and some other Elders across the entire dimension.
He was only taking a peek at this formation as it had piqued his interest.
“It’s a multi-layer Rune Formation that can be either stronger or weaker depending on the number of nodes added to it.”
“Hmm, the first layer forms an eight-petal lotus. The second sixteen, and from there it multiplies each time a node, or in other words, a person is added. This is extremely well made, it seems like this formation can become stronger infinitely. It could definitely stand up to some back in the God Era.”
“I suppose I can’t underestimate the power wielding in this era anymore. From father's mentioned of the Primordial Era, this era was built upon a solid foundation that give way to extraordinary Cultivation Methods, Daoist Magic spells, Martial Arts techniques, and even advanced knowledge and practices of Runes and Formations creation along with Alchemy and other professions alike.”
“Such a marvelous era, I wonder what else I’ll find when I start exploring with everyone. I hope it’ll be something interesting.”
As Li Shen was having deep absentminded thoughts, which by the way he was in no position to be having, he sensed something overhead that caused him to snap back to the present situation.
His eyes widen slightly as he had a clear view of the gigantic hole that just appeared in the clouds.
“What the heck is that?”
Li Shu and Fu Wei were being obstructed by the clouds but they could still sense that something terrifying just appeared in the tribulation.
Fu Wei looked towards Fulong and the other Elders and asked.
“Great granduncle, what is happening? Is little Shen alright?”
“He’s-”
Fulong's words paused there and a strange expression appeared on his face as he had no way of explaining the ridiculous situation he saw.
Li Shen was laying flat on his back with dazed eyes, completely ignoring the massive tribulation overhead. He was simply too relaxed in this life-and-death situation.
“He’s fine I suppose, but the Heavenly Tribulation has reached another stage.”
Fulong’s expression was solemn by the end of his sentence.
“How many stages of this tribulation are there?”
Fu Wei was one of those geniuses who went through tribulation in the early stages of his cultivation. But even he who was considered one of the monstrous geniuses on the Maple Continent had only attracted a two hundred meter lightning tribulation.
And that was during his breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Realm, his brother was more of a monster than him by attracting this behemoth during his breakthrough into the Sea Expansion Realm.
Answering Fu Wei’s question, Fulong said.
“This could be the last one, or there could be more. I have seen many things in my long life but even I have never seen something like this. A Sea Expansion Realm breakthrough attracting such a Heavenly Tribulation, perhaps no one has ever seen something like this in the cultivation world simply because this is the first it has ever happened.”
Fulong’s words boiled down to, ‘No one knows the outcome of the event, but it can lead to a disastrous outcome or one where everything returned to calm.’
Fu Wei along with his father and Little Snow hoped for the latter.
Inside the Tribulation, Li Shen stared at this wormhole the size of a football stadium in a stupor.
At this moment nothing can phase him anymore.
Everything that happened so far made him he become conditioned to expect ridiculous things to occur when his cultivation was involved.
But he was wrong, completely and utterly wrong.
His body shook and his eyes dilated into pin-sized needles as something appeared inside that wormhole.
Fulong was using the Grand Formation to see what was going on inside the Heavenly Tribulation, but some mystical force slammed into his consciousness nearly shattering it.
He instantly coughed out a mouth full of blood, and he could actually feel his Soul Transformation Realm weakening slightly.
This was completely shocking. A Soul Transformation Realm expert was someone who had could be consider a deity like individual with their manipulation of Heavenly Laws. But a mere glimpse at that wormhole had caused him to lose several decades worth of Law comprehension.
Fulong’s eyes trembled as they showed his disbelief of this situation, he didn’t dare try that again.
“Such a terrifying force, not even the might of the Heavens I experience during my cultivation has caused me to feel this much dread. But what is that? A river…?”
Li Shen slowly stood and his eyes never left the river that was visible inside the wormhole.
“That’s-”
Li Shen paused and turned to look at his Qi Sea.
It was rotating faster, and for some reason, Li Shen got the sense that it was trying to connect with the larger wormhole in the sky.
If Li Shen wasn’t imagining it, his Qi Sea awfully resembled like a miniaturized version of the larger wormhole in the tribulation.
Li Shen turned away from his Qi Sea and back to the river in the sky.
It was glowing with silver lights as if millions of diamonds were glimmering inside of it.
Sensing the power eminent from it, Li Shen recognized it as the Laws of Time. And extremely pure ones at that.
“I read this description of this in the God Archives. Is this the legendary river of Time? Can it actually appear here? How could my Qi Sea be able to summon it,, it’s merely a result of my Qi Cultivation.”
Li Shen looked back and forth between his Qi Sea and the river of Time, trying desperately to understand how this was happening and what exactly was going on.
He observed his Qi Sea projection and he realized it was rotating faster as if it was desperately trying to attract something from the rive of Time.
The River of Time was flowing inside of the wormhole, but due to the pull of his Qi Sea part of it was being lifted up. The dazzling silver lights gleamed more intensely.
Li Shen can sense frustration from his Qi Sea due to his connection with it. Though it wasn’t that it had human intelligence, but was rather going on instinct. It wanted, no, it needed something from the River of Time to complete its transformation. After which Li Shen would break into the Sea Expansion Realm.
Li Shen wanted to help somehow, but he didn’t know where to start.
Well, maybe he didn’t have to.
As if whipping out his final trump card after arduously trying, his Qi Sea called out the seven sins plum blossom.
Its dazzling multicolored hue lit up the entire world and at the same time, a miniature version also appeared on Li Shen’s forehead.
After its appearance, his Qi Sea rotation increase by several folds.
The pull on the River of Time reached its maximum and all of a sudden the River of Time whips back into place splashing water everywhere on the other side of the wormhole.
A gleaming diamond that was inside the River of Time was detached from it before it slowly started to descend from the sky.
Li Shen watched, fascinated by everything as his Qi Sea eagerly pull this small gleaming silver speck towards it.
“I supposed that’s what it’s after, but I have no clue as to what that is, and because of this I don’t know if I should celebrate or be skeptical.”
As Li Shen mumbled to himself, he realized the Heavenly Tribulation was coming to an end with this, but until now, he was utterly useless during his own Tribulation. It was a completely ridiculous situation that it was being carried out by his Qi Sea.
Li Shen sulked and grumbled to himself, but suddenly, he frown as his senses caught on to something. His eyes darted towards his seven sins plum blossom in his Qi Sea projection, and his eyes immediately spout flames.
“ARE YOU A DEMONESS COCKROACH?!! HOW THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!!!”
Li Shen roared out as he charged towards his Qi Sea.
At the same time, a weak consciousness appeared in his seven sins plum blossom before the figure of the Cardinal Sins Goddess materialized between his Qi Sea and the glimmering speck from the River of Time.
She glanced towards Li Shen who was some distance away from reaching her with a contemptuous look on her face.
“To think the results of this mystical Chaos Qi fusing with your Qi Sea would cause the appearance of the Legendary River of Time. You have outdone yourself once again Avarice.”
The Cardinal Sins Goddess then chuckled sinisterly as her eyes turned to land on the glimmering speck before she said again.
“I was planning to wait for as long as it took for the right moment to reveal myself, but who knew it would come so soon? I don’t know what this spec is, but I can sense the immense power of Time from it. A Time Seed perhaps?"
"With it, I might not recover my previous power, but manipulating Time might be even better.”
The Cardinal Sins Goddess’s illusory figure moved forward towards the spec as she spoke.
Seeing that she was going to reach the Time Seed, Li Shen tried to control his Qi Sea to stop her but his seven sins plum blossom, which was partly under her control, was hampering it down.
It could break free but by that time she would have already snatched the Time Seed.
‘Fuck.’
Li Shen cursed in his heart when he saw her outstretch hand wrapping around the Time Seed.
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