On the mighty peak of a mountain, a black-robed young man could be seen sitting in meditative position, his long black hair floating with the wind.
Acheron was currently gathering a large amount of Qi from his surroundings, enough to push through the bottleneck of the small Nascent Soul.
After a few minutes of gathering Qi, Acheron finally sends it all directly into the Nascent Soul. Slowly but surely, it began expanding.
A few hours later, the former Nascent Soul has enlarged to be at least as big as half an arm. While it still seemed small compared to the body as a whole, it was well on its way to being as good as an actual body.
Acheron would gladly keep enlarging it, but this wasn't the time and place for it. He figured it would take him at least a few more months to get it to a satisfactory level. He decided to do it once he's returned to his residence in the Banyan Sect. That place also had a much greater concentration of environmental Qi.
Five days later, Acheron returned back to his spaceship, ready to take off. Using his communication device, he's already sent a report regarding the mission.
It stated that since both of the overlords resisted, he was forced to take their lives. As for the massacre of a big city, he didn't say a word about it. Someone else would deal with this mess when the time came.
His spaceship took off, and after exiting Volki's orbit, he entered the Kor'Ton planet's coordinates.
Three months later, Acheron was currently sitting in his residence in the Banyan Sect. After three months of cultivation, he's finally reached the peak of Spirit Transformation, his spirit body completely overlapping with his physical body.
In the meantime, he has also managed to cultivate the 'Profound Chaotic Canon', gaining the greatest power of the greatest cultivation technique he's ever seen.
Although the book was only theoretical in nature, Acheron managed to piece together practical information through his own insights and intelligence.
He's also gathered valuable intelligence about the Mona Galaxy, setting his plans into motion.
His target was the Arantara Secret Realm, upon which the alliance was built upon. As for how he would approach it, that will be left for later.
Firstly, in order to even get the chance to enter, he had to reach the Heavenly Tribulation realm. As for how far to go in this realm, the only thing stopping him was time.
The reason for this was that the Arantara Realm didn't allow anybody over Heavenly Tribulation cultivation to enter. As for those weaker than this, it would simply be sending them to their deaths.
The Heavenly Tribulation realm had seven stages. With only the first stage being mandatory in order to progress further. As for the rest, they all worked in order to increase one's potential. The less of these stages you go through, the lower the chance to continue onwards into the Mortal Termination and Divine Absolution realms, not to mention the realms after that.
The Planetary Subduing stage of strength was represented by Mortal Termination and Divine Absolution. As for the Galactic Travel stage, the human cultivation path dictated that one must become a Void Apprentice and then a Void Adept in order to progress through it.
Acheron, on the other hand, felt this cultivation path was completely wrong. How he would cultivate after reaching the peak of Planetary Subduing stage would remain to be seen.
The seven stages of Heavenly Tribulation corresponded with seven tribulations, one tribulation for each chakra: the Thunder Tribulation for the Crown, the Wind Tribulation for the Third Eye, the Metal Tribulation for the Throat, the Wood Tribulation for the Heart, the Fire Tribulation for the Solar Plexus, the Water Tribulation for the Sacral Chakra, and the Earth Tribulation for the Root.
Each tribulation served to build the bridge between the Spirit Body and the Physical Body. As if sending two friends to war to temper themselves and their relationship through blood and fire.
Acheron, with his powerful physical body, didn't doubt that he could get through all of the tribulations. The only problem was that he didn't want others to know how many tribulations he has gotten through.
Therefore, he would first have to find the right place to breakthrough.
He had enough time to breakthrough too. Thankfully, the Arantara Secret Realm would only be opening two years from now, leaving him with more than enough time to breakthrough the seven stages of the Heavenly Tribulation realm.
Since he couldn't do it on Kor'Ton, he quickly decided on a nearby planet belonging to the Magus Order. There, he would be able to breakthrough without worries. After all, only the Magus Order, which he didn't mind being aware of his cultivation, was present there.
After a quick journey, he managed to reach the said planet. As he was entering the orbit, Acheron received a communication request from somewhere on the planet.
"Please identify yourself before proceeding onwards." a pleasant female voice said.
"Xue Shen." said Acheron.
"Oh, so you belong to the order. Go on ahead. You may land anywhere you wish as long as it doesn't disturb the main city. Here is the map of our planet."
Acheron proceeded to land in a secluded location, very far from the Magus Order's bases.
After searching for a peaceful spot, he prepares himself for the first tribulation. All he had was to will the spiritual proximity between his spirit body and physical body to reach dangerous levels. The closer they got, the greater the ominous feeling Acheron received from the sixth sense of both bodies. And finally, they 'touched'.
The heavens began gathering tons of dark clouds right above him, as if they were about to punish him for gathering its energies in this blasphemous manner of unnatural cultivation.
Thunder roared, lightning struck. Acheron's bodies were both being bathed in strikes after strikes of lightning, not seeming to stop anytime soon.
Contrary to what he's read of other people's experiences. It was not his physical body that was having a hard time, but his spirit body. Even so, his spirit body was having a much easier time than described in other people's notes on the Heavenly Tribulation realm.
Acheron felt as if he was merely taking a very hot bath back when he was still a mortal.
Lightning was endlessly refining his bodies to become more resistant towards it. Then, Acheron understood.
The second purpose of these trials, other than building a greater connection between the two bodies, was becoming impervious to the natural elements, becoming impervious to Heaven's Will.
As a final, red-ish lightning bolt struck Acheron, the first tribulation ended.
Although Acheron felt he could continue, he decided against it. Instead, he decided to study the recently built 'bridge', understanding it to a more in-depth levels.
Since he wasn't planning on following the current human cultivation path to the end, he, of course, had to understand each step of this cultivation path at a deeper level; to understand it at a level deeper than the average cultivator.
After about an hour of meditating on this mysterious connection, Acheron finally decides to forge onwards.