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Chapter 18: What are you doing?
🕑 Added 2024-09-22 16:29:09 +0000 UTC"What happened?"
The heavy pressure on his body was forcing him to kneel down, though he held himself in the place stubbornly.
However, it was still too difficult to stay standing, as he couldn't use any spiritual qi inside his body.
His body was sweating heavily at the moment as the blood seeped out from his wounded shoulder.
Dumbfounded by the sudden change in situation, Ling Tian couldn't help but ask the system,
[Host, You weren't supposed to move your head out of the way when the Heavenly Tribulation fell at you, letting it hit your shoulder instead.
'What does that even mean?'
Ling Tian thought, not understanding the logic behind the system's explanation.
[Host, as you know, Heavenly Tribulation is something like a natural response from the world when a cultivator goes against the natural order of the world, and Heavenly Dao has the complete authority of the world.
So, the Heavenly Tribulation is the punishment from the Heavenly Dao against those who challenge it.
It involves a trial where someone must survive a massive natural disaster, often in the form of lightning strikes.
The lightning strikes increase in power, and the cultivator is forced to endure them.
However, since the heavens are the will of the world, all beings, whether human, demon, or any magical beast, are all under its authority and cannot defy it.
Because of this, the Heavenly Tribulation directly locks onto its target.
That’s why no one dares to interfere in another person's tribulation.
Anyone who does would be obliterated on the spot.
So, a cultivator facing the Heavenly Dao has only two options: defend with techniques and artifacts or fight back directly, a path that very few heaven-defying cultivators take.
And as the system had told the host before, the Heavenly Dao would not obliterate all existences that violated its rules with supreme and unstoppable power.
There's a saying: the heavens will never completely cut off all paths to survival.
The Heavenly Dao would always leave behind the slimmest chance of survival, even for those heaven-defying cultivators who go against it, making it a contradictory concept.
However, that is only if it involves these two cases.
[Host, no one can really avoid a Heavenly tribulation.].
Although the thunder strike hit your shoulder, it was originally supposed to hit your head.
By moving your head out of the way, you disrupted the natural order of the Heavenly Dao.
That wasn’t supposed to happen.
You’re only allowed to defend against it, not avoid it entirely.
As you know, the Heavenly Dao in this world is already weak and sees any anomaly as a threat to its existence.
You were already considered an anomaly when you were born, and now that you have violated its authority directly, the Heavenly Dao will not leave even the smallest chance of survival for you.
"So, you want to say that I should have let that lightning strike hit my head?"
Yeah, sure. Because that sounds like a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
If he hadn’t dodged, that lightning would’ve fried him alive! Who in their right mind just stands there and lets that happen?
And seriously, do cultivators actually face these heavenly tribulations head-on?
What is this—some kind of masochistic ritual they all secretly enjoy?
Ah, it seems they can't avoid it like he just did.
[Host, the system never said what you did was wrong.] It was a reflexive move. But in a typical scenario, cultivators have two choices when facing a Heavenly Tribulation: face it head-on or, well, die trying. What happened in your case has never been documented before.
Who are you kidding??
If this heaven is really that powerful, as he read in the books, how the hell did he avoid its authority?
He didn’t think he was anything special.
It would have been very different if he was as powerful as he was in his previous life, but now he was just a small fry who had just broken through the foundation establishment a few moments ago.
And yet, here he was, somehow dodging the heavens themselves?
He didn’t think so.
He wasn’t invincible.
If the Heavens wanted to strike him down, they’d do it without him so much as blinking.
Even if it were at its weakest.
So, how had he managed to pull off something that no one else had before?
[Host, you are forgetting the reason you faced this Heavenly Tribulation in the first place.].
Both the Supreme Chaos physique and the Chaos Devouring Cultivation technique you got are related to the chaos, and chaos had existed before anything else came into existence.
Nothing defines chaos, and as such, nothing controls it.
Anything related to it doesn't come under anyone's authority, and it is something that dominates everything.
The heavens can't dictate to you as you aren't under its authority, so you can easily avoid the laws of the heavens as they have no effect on you.
This is why you could avoid the tribulation. The heavens can't dictate to you. They have no control over you. That’s also why you can travel between worlds, devour any type of spiritual energy, and transform your Qi at will.
That's the reason why, even with the Tribulation locking onto your head, you were still able to move out of its path because its rules don’t apply to you.]
"So, it was because of the physique and cultivation technique."
Oh, sure. Now that made everything clear... except it didn’t.
So, apparently, while every other cultivator had to stand there and take their Heavenly beatdown like it was some kind of twisted rite of passage, Li Tian had unknowingly sidestepped the entire system.
All because of his connection to Chaos, which—according to the system—made him basically immune to the Heavens’ rules.
To be honest, he never thought the thing that destroyed his life was that powerful.
But now that he thought about it, that's why, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't do anything against that.
"So, why didn't you tell me before hand?"
Sure, he had read a few cultivation books these past days, but none of them ever mentioned dodging divine lightning as part of a Heavenly Tribulation.
He had been angry with himself just moments ago for not being prepared for the next strike, but now, thinking it through, he realized something: the system had always warned him before danger.
But this time? Silence.
[Host, it's the system's fault that it couldn't remind you earlier.]
"Couldn't?" Li Tian’s eyes narrowed.
As far as he knew, the system was directly connected to his soul—he couldn’t think of anything that could have stopped it from giving him a heads-up.
[Host, it has already happened; no use thinking about it.]
Huh!
He sighed.
Knowing system was hiding something, but he couldn't do anything about it after all; this was his only choice.
Not to mention, the system had a point; what's done is already done—thinking about it wouldn’t change anything.
Even if it had warned him earlier, would it really have made a difference?
The system, however, kept its thoughts to itself.
‘I would have warned you if a certain lovesick girl hadn’t been asking me so many questions about you,’ it thought. ‘So, technically, this is partly your fault too, host.’
As for the little girl in question,.
_____________
Meanwhile…
"Achoo!" Xun’er sneezed suddenly, frowning, as she looked nervously at the good-looking figure on the screen, though if one looked carefully, they would find that she also had a confused expression on her face.
She had too many things she wanted to ask the system,
But ever since she saw her Big Brother appear, the system had gone completely silent, leaving her feeling even more uncertain as she looked at that figure on the screen.
____________
____________
So, what now?’ Li Tian thought as he stared at the dark clouds swirling above,
The Heavenly Dao seemed clearly determined to see him dead.
It absolutely couldn't tolerate someone like him—a being who defied its very authority.
As he watched, the lightning began to gather again, this time with a dark purple hue.
And while he was still trying to unseal his cultivation, three continuous lightning strikes hit him one by one at a very fast speed, hitting his already wounded shoulder with terrifying precision.
His bones shattered under the force, and blood poured out like a broken dam.
It wasn’t just an attack—it was a message to him.
One that he didn't really like.
The situation was quite bad.
Although he didn't care about the pain, the huge loss of blood would be a problem for him; he couldn’t use healing pills during a Heavenly Tribulation, and the situation was getting worse by the second.
His thoughts raced, trying to find a solution as the next rumble of thunder echoed across the sky.
Boom!
The next bolt of lightning struck his Dantian, and as defenseless as he was, he couldn't avoid the blow.
The impact ripped through his flesh, crushing his bones as he collapsed onto the ground.
"Tian’er!" "Brother!" The cries rang out simultaneously from two different voices—one from the woman watching helplessly nearby, and the other from a girl in a distant world, watching through her screen.
At this moment, seeing the person they cared for being in such a state, they both desperately wanted to rush to his side and protect him from anything, but neither could do anything to help him.
One was in another world and couldn't be there, even if she wanted to, and could only cry silently.
While the other figure was stopped by the eyes of the one lying on the ground, he shook his head at her, seemingly reminding her not to come closer.
Even in his weakened state, his slight smile was still so bright that it managed to halt her advance. However, she remained near the Tribulation, watching intently.
She knew there was still hope for him—hope that he could survive somehow—but if she interfered now, they both would be hopeless.
Yet, if something went wrong, she was ready to intervene and either rescue him or perish together with him.(Well ...)
For now, she could only watch with her red eyes as the boy, who had once made her smile again—a smile she thought she had long forgotten—stood before the deadly Heavenly Tribulation.
______
"Ugh!!"
Lying sideways, Ling Tian gave an assuring smile towards the woman, who was rushing towards him at a high speed, trying to stop her, which he managed to do, for now at least.
'Really, what is wrong with you women?'
He thought, although he spent almost the entire time with this woman since he came to the sect, most of that was before he got his memory back.
So, he didn't know much about her, and he even found out that she was the mysterious sect master just a few weeks ago.
Even though she revealed her identity to him, from her noble aura and immense strength, he doubted she was merely the sect master of a small, remote sect.
He suspected she had another secret identity but didn't pry—after all, he had many secrets of his own.
So, despite having an otherworldly face that could make any woman swoon, he didn’t believe she was the type to fall for someone based on looks alone, no matter how handsome the person in question is.
And while she often took liberties with him—pinching his cheeks or kissing his handsome face—it was likely only because he had appeared to be a naïve four-year-old child at the time. He was so cute that no one could resist, so he didn’t think much of it then. (No one could resist that cuteness.)
She also seemed to care for him a great deal.
However, after regaining his memories, though he treated her as he had before, he began giving her subtle hints, reminding her that he was no longer just a child.
He hoped that if she ever learned the truth in the future, she wouldn't feel betrayed or believe he had taken advantage of her by hiding behind a childish façade.
She should have probably felt that too, but she still didn't stop her antics, instead did the opposite and increased them further.
And now,
Was she really trying to perish together with him?
He knew she was a powerful cultivator herself, so he didn't think she didn't know what would happen if someone tried to interfere in someone else's tribulation.
However, the fact that she was willing to do so anyway placed him in a difficult position.
It seemed what she had muttered that day was true, after all.
But one thing was sure: he had enough of people he cared about trying to sacrifice their lives for him.
Coughing out some blood from his mouth, he turned sideways once more, lying with his back on the ground and his eyes looking at the sky as he muttered coldly.
"That's enough."
