Duan Li saw the red glow to be ever so familiar. "Where have I seen it?" he thought.Dum! Dum!
As he approached closer, he could finally see clearly the true origin that radiated out this red glow. "T-this..!" he exclaimed as his heart started to beat faster.
How could Duan Li ever forgot this small piece of pearl? This is the very pearl that had changed his fate and destiny!
The mysterious pearl! But right at this moment, something had caught his eye that caused him to become fully alert.
"Hold on! Although the resemblance is definitely uncanny, this pearl does not have that golden glow to it!" said Duan Li with extreme caution.
This is because the myterious pearl that he remembered had its innards glowing in golden hums, not crimson red, like this one!
Wooongg!
Eh?
Duan Li could suddenly feel that his body was being tugged towards the red mysterious pearl by an intangible force! Furthermore, there was now a golden glow inside his body too!
"T-this!" exclaimed Duan Li in shock.
The golden mysterious pearl!
This was the mysterious pearl that he had first encountered in the woods while chopping down a tree back in the Xuan Village!
To think that it was hiding inside his body all these while! Just how did it managed to elude from his detection?
Right now, he could feel that the two mysterious pearls are resonating between with each other. When he finally reached a distance of about a metre away from the red mysterious pearl, the tugging force locked him down as he became rooted on the ground, unable to budge an inch.
The two mysterious pearls each are now emitting flashes of light as if communicating. Then, an eerie voice that sounded ever so sinister, hoa.r.s.e and archaic spoke out.
"So... It.. is.. time..."
This voice seemed to overshadow everything that was dark. If the surrounding of Duan Li within the blood lake right now could be described as dark due to light being unable to penetrate through it, then the voice could be said to be even darker.
Boom!
With a sudden jerk, the red mysterious pearl bolted right into Duan Li"s body, and joined to float besides the golden mysterious pearl!
Just as Duan Li was about to feel shocked, his face suddenly contorted in pain.
"ARRGHH!"
His body right now was being a.s.saulted with a pain unimaginable to him. If the pain before when he tempered at the lake was like a million needles boring through his body, right now it was like a billion!
Furthermore, he had no prior body tempering as someone in the Qi condensation realm. Thus, the pain right now was extremely unbearable for him.
In addition, every single cell within his body was like being roasted alive as he could feel himself burning, his skin exfoliating as a new layer quickly grew under it, which seemed to be more tougher and denser than his previous ones.
Due to the extreme pain, Duan Li couldn"t maintain his consciousness any longer and fainted. His body then floated gently as the red mysterious pearl inside Duan Li"s body gave out a bright crimson light as it flashed out.
BOOM!
The flash of crimson light illuminated the dark blood pool as it sent ripples of wave outwards with Duan Li as the centre. As if triggered by the ripples, the surrounding blood began to spiral towards Duan Li, specifically, towards the red mysterious pearl inside him!
"...co..aa..gu..la..te.."
When this dark voice spoke out, mulitple flashes of thunder strucked out from the thunder tribulation up above the lake onto Duan Li, seeming to obliterate him into cinders, forbidding his existence entirely!
Pshhingggg!
Yet, with the power of the golden mysterious pearl, a spherical barrier were formed around Duan Li and when these brazen thunder tribulations rammed at it, they were immediately shredded into tiny pieces of thunder elements as it got absorbed into Duan Li"s dantian!
The thunder tribulations however, had a dignity to uphold. Thus, it continued to send strokes after strokes of thunder, each with the thickness of a grown man"s arm!
But alas, every single one of them continued to be shredded and absorbed. Seeing this, how could the thunder tribulations endured it as such?
Since the ancient time, they were considered to be holy. Their main roles were to baptized every single cultivator who rose up through the ranks in order to judge whether the person was worthy or not. Yet, what is with this situation right now?
Could you please let us do our job properly?
...
Above the surface of the lake, chaos were currently ensuing.
Holy moly!
"T-the thunder tribulations are going all out! Just what in the world was happening here?!" cried out the old man, his expression horrified.
The thick black clouds were releasing crimson thunders non-stop into the lake, as if going bonkers. In fact, the thunder tribulations right now were so messy that some of them ricochet off the dense surface of the lake towards the surrounding area.
Crash!
BOOM!
The old man and the mother wolf had to put their barrier active all the time, lest they will be hit by these collateral damages.
The lake continued to spiral upwards as if being sucked into the sky. It was now reminiscent of a colossal watersprout, only in this case, was made up entirely of blood!
This entire scene was just way too horrifying for the duo as they keep swallowing their saliva and watched with bated breaths.
It was fortunate that the blood lake was extremely vast. Otherwise, such an earth shattering phenomena would definitely attract the attention of the other Guardians.
Suddenly, the mother wolf noticed a silhoutte within the centre of that sprout.
"L-look! That figure..!" she exclaimed in astonishment.
"The brazen brat!" said the old man in excitement. Somehow, he felt happy inside his heart that Duan Li had survived.
He was about to bolt forward to retrieve Duan Li. However, he could feel that something was amiss!
Extending their heavenly senses, they found out that Duan Li was currently unconscious!
"The brat is currently knocked out! But why do I sense that his aura kept on rising rapidly?" he thought as his eyes narrowed in realization, "This.. he is undergoing a breakthrough to the Foundation establishment realm!"
BOOM!
BOOM!
d.a.m.n it!
A person whom is currently undergoing a thunder tribulation must not be disturbed! Lest, there are two things that will happen. One, was that their tribulation will become stronger and two, the intervening party will be smited to dust!
Thus, unable to intervene, the old man could only gritted his teeth and clenched his fist tight as he continued to watch.
Don"t die brat!
Besides him, the mother wolf continued to scan the body of Duan Li with her heavenly senses.
"N-not only that, this human... his physical body had become so much denser and compact!" exclaimed the mother wolf in surprise.
Usually, the physical body would only be tempered for the stage that a person was currently in. For example, if someone was in the level 1 of the Foundation establishment realm, then his body tempering would be up until the level 3, which is the early stage. If the person entered level 4, which is the middle stage, then his body tempering would be up until level 6 and so on.
Yet, the physical body of Duan Li right now was on par with a pinnacle stage of the Foundation establishment realm! That is a jump of a whole realm as he was currently still in the Qi condensation realm!
To both be tempering his physical body while undergoing a breakthrough at the same time, what kind of conception was this?
BOOM!
BOOM!
"H-hey! Now that I looked closer, it seems like the thunder tribulation was being absorbed into his body! Is this your doing?" asked the old man as he turned to look at the mother wolf, thinking that these bizarre phenomena had to do with the thunder essence she gifted to Duan Li previously.
"N-no! That should be impossible! My thunder essence was meant for protection, but not like this!" replied the mother wolf as it shook its head rapidly.
"His aura right now is already at the peak of the pinnacle stage! His breakthrough to the Foundation establishment realm should be any minute now!" shouted the old man as the gales were becoming stronger that their vision had became blurry.
Suddenly, the thunder tribulation stopped as they froze in mid-air.
Seeing this, the duo were stumped.
Eh? What"s happening?
Is it over?
Just as they thought that the tribulation had ended prematurely, the black clouds turned violet all of a sudden!
CRACK!
The previous thunders were now wriggling slowly as they morphed.
"T-this phenomena! It cannot be!" shouted the old man in horror!
He knew what these violet clouds and what the thunders were morphing into. However, this was not why he was so shocked. The reason was because these tribulations were only meant for one when they are trying to release their first shackle!
In other words, ascending through the Escaping mortality realm!
CRACK!
The thunder had finally finished morphing, each of their appearance right now was so terrifying! No matter where one would to look, they were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with powers that seemed to be able to decimate the entire world!
"This is bad!" the old man bolted through the field of thunders without care any longer.
When these thunders sensed that the old man was trying to help Duan Li, several dozens of them turned simultaneously to aim at him!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
"Arghh!" the old man was strucked by these thunders and spatted out a mouthful of blood. But nevertheless, he continued to charge onward towards Duan Li.
In his mind right now, it would be impossible for Duan Li to tide through these tribulations that was meant for immortals! He also had no idea why the heavens sent such an overkill tribulation just for a mere person in the Qi condensation realm.
Thus, the only way for Duan Li to escape from this predicament would be for him to touch Duan Li"s body and use the powers bestowed upon him as one of the Guardian of the Eternal maze to forcefully send the other party out!
It would be a breach of responsibility for him to do this, but he had no choice. Otherwise, Duan Li might really die!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The thunders continued to strike at him strokes after strokes as it painted the sky with flashes of golden lightning. The mother wolf whom was witnessing this heroic scene of the old man was touched right now!
To think that this Guardian would be so valiant!
At this moment, she had a newfound respect for the old man in her heart!
"Just a little bit more!"
The old man was now riddled with numerous injuries. Even for him as an immortal, being struck rapidly by the tribulation was not something easy to recover from! He estimated that these injuries would take him weeks to be fully healed!
As the old man was about 10 metres away from Duan Li, the latter"s eyes slowly opened lazily as its lips muttered.
"...Too.. no..ii..sy..."
Duan Li then punched upwards towards the violet clouds with his right hand.
KABOOOMMMMM!
The force of this punch was too devastating that it ripped the whole violet clouds apart!
Soon, the hundreds of golden thunders floating around began to dissipate slowly.
"..." everyone.