Chapter 835 - Divine Tribulation Part 4
Alex started searching for the right answer, but to no avail. Despite having five answers in his mind, the three before it failed to complete the challenge.
"The fourth answer is about Light Reflection. Something like water reflection in the asphalt road or something like that, but at a far higher level… This is a magical world after all." Alex nodded and thought for a moment. "Though I said that, how do I stop something like this? I can't just create a big umbrella, right?"
Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what he should do. At the very least, none of his Martial Arts could cover this entire area.
"Is there anything I can use within my inventory?" Alex asked himself while opening the Inventory. He went through the list and found silk clothes in it. "I think I need this. As long as I have a big enough cloth to cover the entire island, I should be able to stop it if the fourth answer is correct."
And yet, he stopped when he was about to start. He found that there was no barrier in the sky, so if he could get closer to the sky, even a small cloth could cover a huge area with its shadow.
Realizing it, Alex flew to the sky as high as possible. This might be the first time he flew this high because he noticed that the oxygen was thin and the pressure was low. Luckily, the body of a cultivator could handle this as long as it wasn't destroyed by the atmosphere or outer space.
In the end, Alex stopped after reaching five thousand meters above the ground. He took out a cloth the size of a king-size bed and stretched it with his Spiritual Energy, covering a quarter of the island with darkness. It was at this time he was convinced that the answer was correct because the area that was covered in darkness suddenly turned into the original landscape of the island.
Alex immediately pulled another three clothes to cover the entire island before noticing something shining on the ground.
He descended to the ground and took the shiny thing without hesitation. It was a piece of metal with green dots all over its silver body. The metal released Spiritual Energy, but it might be due to the movement of the Spiritual Energy around the island, he missed this stone.
Everything was confirmed when the projection actually got elevated.
"This…" The ground was right on his neck as if he was buried inside the ground, but the real ground was the one he was stepping on. Hence, he was a bit curious about this rock and wondered whether he needed to destroy it to complete the challenge.
'This rock is called Mirage Rock. It can reflect a shining light to anything that had been programmed into this rock. Because of this useful ability, many people wanted it, albeit the supply was too rare.' Alex thought, thinking it was a bit of waste to destroy a precious stone like this.
"Wait. My Inventory was created by a special Space Element, right? If I toss this inside my Inventory, will the Divine Tribulation acknowledge me as passing the Tribulation?" Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "Never mind. I shouldn't get too greedy. As much as I want it, I should know when to stop."
Alex crushed the stone with his fists, unraveling the illusion. Disappointment filled his face, but he soon regained his composure while looking at his surroundings. His Pure Fire was protecting his body this whole time, so it wasn't like he let his guard down.
However, Alex felt a bit weird when he thought about the ninth tribulation. "If there is no Space Element Stage during my Divine Tribulation, there should be another thing that replaces it. The problem is… What element will replace it? I understand that there are many elements in the Universe, but I don't know about this world.
"The Potential Tower has nine elements, but I think none of them will appear in this ninth stage while Lightning will certainly appear in the last one because I am sure it's the Lightning of Baptism." Alex looked at his surroundings, watching any little change that happened.
Suddenly, a strange gust of wind surrounded his body. Alex glanced at the wind but found that unlike the normal wind. He saw a darker color with his Spirit Eyes, making him realize it wasn't a wind element.
Alex tried to burn the wind with his Pure Fire but to no avail. He channeled even more energy into it and finally scorched the wind as burnt smell lingered around the area.
On his right, the ground started moving as if it was an ocean wave.
"What? A moving ground? This shouldn't be possible." Alex exclaimed in surprise while giving another close look at it.
He didn't forget to use his Intent and Domain to search for an incoming attack, but nothing was found.
"What should I do? I don't even know about this element." Alex looked down. "The first thing was wind while the second one was earth, is there an element that can use these two?"
He sorted his memories by multiple elements to see if there was an element like that. However, he stumbled upon one element that was different from the rest. The element could manipulate many elements even though it was only one element. At the same time, it was like a jack of all trade, master of none.
It was strong, but it was hard to be the strongest unless you used many tricks by manipulating many elements at once. And he knew this was the element when he found the next description.
'Nature Energy is suitable to nurture Spiritual Energy. However, I can't see how this test will benefit me like the past few stages." His expression turned serious as he thought about the story as well. "If this is like a real storyline, after my soul gets stronger… No, I should say that the enemy or the mastermind will use a strategy where he confuses my mind, which is the eighth stage.
"After that, I realize that I don't have enough power to deal with the mastermind and gain power from the basic, which is my Spiritual Energy. In that case, how it can increase my power…" Alex looked down, finding Spiritual Energy hovering around him. "This…"
In one article, he read that the Nature Element user was not dangerous because of the manipulation of all elements in nature. Instead, it was deadly because they could manipulate the Spiritual Energy itself.
Just like air carried oxygen, carbon dioxide, and so on. The Spiritual Energy carried all elements in them, resulting in a mass disaster.
He wouldn't let it occur by burning everything away.
"Hell Inferno!" Alex gritted his teeth, infusing a huge amount of Spiritual Energy to the fire, letting them run rampant. It also burned all the Spiritual Energy and used it as fuel. When Alex felt the condition became unstable enough to maintain it, he activated the Hell Inferno to the fullest, causing a huge explosion that swallowed the entire island.
*Boom!*
Luckily, the island itself was too far from nearby continents. If it were not the case, they might even see the sky turned red for a few seconds.
The island that was filled with stones, broken mountains, and plants turned into a giant crater with nothing.
Alex's figure still stood in the center of the crater, but he looked up and chuckled. "I lose!"
As soon as he uttered those two words, his body started shaking uncontrollably as it was like everything in his body was sucked out and replaced by a new one.
The Spiritual Energy itself was already fused with all his body parts, organs, and even his blood. When everything was sucked out and replaced at the same time, the pain couldn't be comprehensible.
"Argh!" Alex screamed to the sky, feeling that the pain was similar to his body refining. He thought he was glad that Firia was able to beat this trial because he knew how strong of a woman she is.
The torture kept going on for one hour, replacing all Alex's Spiritual Energy with the one that suited to receive the baptism and turned to Divine Energy.
It might be the first time in a long time where Alex couldn't withstand the pain and continued screaming. And yet, if it were someone else enduring this, the foam would come out of their mouth while they would lay down on the ground like a zombie.
Little did he know that his torture was far stronger than Firia or anybody else because of his two special elements and Undying Fire Body. Someone might already fall unconscious and die if they experienced this, but Jean might love it.
At least, Alex withstood this pain excellently before he sat on a lotus pose to consolidate his new power for another hour. He then opened his mouth and checked his body.
"I do feel stronger. In fact, I feel I only need a single move to kill a 10-Star Martial Saint right now…" Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed something.
Thunder reverberated in his ears as Alex lifted his vision, seeing the dark sky. Golden light flashed from here and there, signaling Alex this would be his last Golden Lightning Tribulation.
However, the lightning didn't strike immediately as if it was waiting for something.
"That is the lotus!" Alex exclaimed in amazement when he saw a giant white lotus with all petals closed in. "According to the knowledge in my brain, there is something special about this lotus. This is the measurement where it determines someone's potential. There are ten petals in total, and if one can open it all, he/she has the qualification of becoming a rank 1 God, or it's usually called God King.
"There are some occasions that those who only opened up to nine petals managed to break free from their limit and became a God King, but it was only a genius among genius. In fact, those who managed to open nine petals alone could already be considered a peerless genius…
"Well, if I want to protect my family, I need the strongest power. I don't know if I can do it, but I will do everything until I collapse." Alex pumped his fist as he swore to do his best. He didn't say he would break the lightning like the usual way because he knew that the lightning was unbreakable.
The lotus was supplying the energy from the world itself, so it was impossible for someone to exhaust the world's strength. It was also the reason why people couldn't destroy an Upper World or Divine World like cutting them into half or crushing them.
Even Gods and Goddesses didn't possess a qualification to destroy them except they ruined the world and made every single living being in that world extinct. Different from them, the Lower World contained far less energy than these two worlds. Those God Kings had the qualification to destroy the world if they used all of their power, like the tale about the strongest Sword God cutting a lower world into half he heard from his spirit.
That was why his target of this last stage of Divine Tribulation was to make the Lightning use as much energy as possible because the more it used, the more the petals bloomed.
Thinking about this made Alex tense a little bit since his future was on the line. He took a few deep breaths, preparing himself. He clenched the two weapons as two dragons hovering around him.
The Spirit Crown also floated above his hand as he instinctively activated both Dragon Aura and Spirit Step.
Symbols after symbols appeared between him and the sky as Alex finally said, "Come!"
The golden light flashed once more before a bolt of lightning turned into a dragon and descended to the ground.
Alex narrowed his eyes, watching the power behind this golden lightning. "So, this is the lightning that will transform my body into a Divine Body. Lightning of Baptism."