Two weeks later, Yasenia's group was gathered in the Tribulation Plaza one more time. Today, Kali and Cecile were here to break through. Not only them but Angel was prepared as well.
It was a sight that took many by surprise.
Andrea asked while looking at Angel. "Did you reach the perfected stage?"
Andrea, her wounds from the tribulation still fresh, had already regained enough strength to move about freely. Though the aftereffects of her ordeal remained, she was already back to training, cultivating, and consolidating her foundation.
After entering the Dantian Spiritualization Realm, her energy became gas-like and much more tangible. Now, she could manipulate and compress it directly. The journey across the Dantian Spiritualization Realm could be said to be simple, but it needed a lot of time.
The act of compressing the energy so that it went from pure and thin gas to a solidified core was arduous enough that some didn't manage to make it. For this realm, our girls would start needing to go into close-door cultivation with increased frequency.
After all, more than energy efficiency, it was about the act of constant effort.
Angel heard Andrea's question and nodded with a smile. "I reached it a while ago, but Mirrory wanted all my intents to reach the fourth Level before I challenged the Tribulation, so I've been waiting. Yesterday, I managed to increase my Truth Intent to Level 4!"
Evelyn and the others couldn't help but wryly smile. Evelyn looked at the floating red-haired, voluptuous woman and asked. "Mirrory, will Angel be able to materialize you after reaching the Dantian Spiritualization realm?"
Mirrory shook her head. "Not yet. However, she will be able to do it faster than I expected. At first, I thought she would need to reach the middle levels of Transcendence, but at the rate she is improving, she might be able to do so right after crossing into Transcendence."
Evelyn sighed in wonder. "You are quite the treasure, eh? Just to start appropriately working with you, your bearer needs to be in the Transcendence realm."
Mirrory looked at her and spoke. "Well, you might've been too accustomed to the power level of this place, but everywhere else, people are not even considered cultivators until they reach Transcendence."
Evelyn blinked. "Oh, you are right."
Yasenia asked. "How does that work exactly in high-level sects?"
Mirrory smirked. "Curious about high-level sects?"
Yasenia nodded honestly. "I've asked you before and got some answers. For example, you told me that the minimum level in some of those sects is the unification realm. However, what about people below that?"
Mirrory nodded and explained a bit further. "While what I told you is indeed right. I meant it as official disciples. There are places in those sects where cultivators of the pre-unification realm are nurtured. However, they are usually forced into close-door cultivation until they reach Unification. Depending on the time they take, they have different scores, benefits, and more."
Yasenia nodded and got thoughtful.
Meanwhile, Cecile had advanced and arrived at the middle of the plaza. Without speaking a single word, her body surged with energy as a blizzard manifested around her.
Spatial, Moon, and Wind energies quickly gathered in the surroundings, creating a mighty hurricane.
Then, a nova of freezing winds created a layer of frost in a radius of more than a kilometer, and a pillar of light shot into the sky where the Tribulation clouds had started gathering.
Cecile looked at the sky with an unchanging face, even though the thunderous clouds gathering were much worse and more potent than Andrea's.
Andrea looked at the sky and shook her head. "I don't know if I would survive that, to be honest."
Mirrory commented. "Cecile is closely linked with Yasenia, so her tribulations are stronger and more punishing. However, thanks to this, if she overcomes them, she will receive a bigger strength boost." Mirrory said in a thoughtful manner. "As long as Cecile gets a decent Natural Treasure, and finds a suitable inheritance, keeping up in the future with Yasenia is not out of the question."
Evelyn asked. "Of us, is anyone who has no chance at all?"
Mirrory shook her head. "Thanks to Tatyana, no one. As long as you get the right opportunities, it will be possible."
Evelyn tilted her head. "Thanks to Tatyana?"
Mirrory asked. "Wasn't it Tatyana that gave the Dual Cultivation technique to Yasenia? That thing alone was enough for its creator to walk through the higher heavens, mostly unhinged. She also had a massive harem of strong cultivators." Mirrory shook her head in disappointment. "If she weren't greedy and didn't start targeting one of the Saints back then, she would probably still be alive today."
The girls felt their eyelids twitching madly. 'Her courage alone is enough to pierce the heavens, courting a SAINT!? WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME WAS GOING THROUGH THAT WOMAN'S HEAD!?'
Tatyana lifted an arrow and laughed. "What a fun person; I would've loved to meet her."
Mirrory rolled her eyes. "You would've ended up in her bed."
Tatyana shrugged. "Not now."
Mirrory actually agreed and commented with interest. "That's true. The you now wouldn't have done that. It's honestly quite interesting to see how deeply someone as old as you is changing because of actual love."
The girls blinked, and Yasenia hugged her from behind with a smile.
RUMBLE!
The loud sound of the tribulation snapped their focus back to Cecile. The black clouds looming over the Phoenix woman looked intimidating and powerful, filled with mighty serpents of pure Heavenly Lightning.
However, something happened as the serpents roamed the clouds and reached 243.
Tatyana hummed. "So, it will really happen in this realm's tribulation and not the next, huh? This brings back memories."
The girls looked at the clouds, and their eyes widened as the lightning bolts began colliding with each other with deafening sounds.
Yasenia asked. "What's happening? Why are the lightning bolts attacking each other…" Yasenia squinted and commented. "No, they are…"
Tatyana smiled and finished her words. "Merging." She rubbed her chin for a moment and used her energy to carry her voice toward the confused Cecile. "Cecile, transform into your Phoenix form; you will have higher chances that way. What you are going to start fighting is not a normal tribulation."
Cecile didn't think much about Tatyana's words and quickly took her Phoenix form.
The gargantuan silver Phoenix with a 600-meter wingspan spread her wings and released a beautiful cry.
QYAA~.
The creature carried an elegant and majestic beauty that transcended species. Her feathers glowed softly, while white fire moved along her entire shape, leaving traces in the air from its coldness.
Right after, the energies moving in a hurricane around the Phoenix converged as the creature's wings were set ablaze. The brilliance of her white flames illuminated the surroundings with an enchanting light.
Meanwhile, the sound of collisions stopped in the clouds, leaving our girls looking at the sky with widened mouths. Evelyn asked, incredulous, "Am I seeing things, or are those soldiers?"
In the sky, 13 Soldiers made of pure Heavenly Lightning stood in an orderly manner, clutching their longswords vertically with their two hands.
Cecile looked upward as well with a severe expression, her face cautious at the sudden personification of the Heavenly Lightning.
Tatyana muttered. "Thirteen… That's the equivalent of 286 Heavenly Lightning bolts."
Mirrory nodded. "Appropriate. She is breaking through three paths simultaneously. Anything less than this would be strange."
Yasenia asked while looking at the sky. "What's happening?"
Tatyana explained. "Usually, this only happens only after 242 Tribulation lightning bolts gather in the Heavenly Clouds. As you know, average tribulations go as such. To enter a cultivation path, you receive one; to overcome the first realm, you receive three; to overcome the second, you receive nine; to overcome the third, you receive 27; to overcome the fourth, the one you girls are currently doing, you receive 81; and to overcome the fifth and the tribulation into transcendence, you receive 243."
Tatyana crossed her arms. "However, it seems that if you cross different paths at once, they accumulate. That was why Andrea's tribulation had over 180 bolts." Tatyana pointed at Cecile. "She is currently breaking through three paths at once, so she has actually reached the number of bolts a Heavenly Tribulation to cross into transcendence is supposed to reach. So, the Heavens is able to increase the realm of the Heavenly Tribulation."
Evelyn blinked. "Heavenly Tribulation have realms?"
Tatyana nodded. "If not, what would I need to face? Or those stronger than me? Millions of lightning bolts? Trillions? That's not something that would kill as many cultivators because just the time to send all those raining down would be an advantage to the cultivator. So, Heavenly Tribulations Bolts can increase in quality, not only quantity. Normal tribulations are simply called Heavenly Tribulations."
Tatyana pointed at the thirteen armored beings made of pure lightning and commented. "This tribulation is usually called Elemental Army Heavenly Tribulation."
The girls suddenly remembered how when Tatyana arrived, the bolts had formed a massive dragon-like figure, and their eyes widened in realization. 'That must've been a higher-realm Heavenly Tribulation.'
Andrea asked. "Where does the 'Elemental' come from? Because they are made of lightning?'
Tatyana shook her head. "Here is the catch. Those Heavenly Lightning Bolts are not as powerful as they would be. When you reach transcendence, lightning stops being the only element present in the tribulations. Heavenly fire, heavenly water, heavenly Sun, and more. The Heavenly Tribulation chooses those elements that would do best against the cultivator and applies it."
Tatyana clarified why that didn't happen to Cecile. "We are still in the realm of going from Unification to Dantian Spiritualization. This means the Tribulation still can't access the elemental qualities. So, this one could be called [Quasi-Elemental Army Heavenly Tribulation]; a type of tribulation extremely talented people receive."
Yasenia realized. "You told her to transform because her phoenix form is much more resilient, and she has attacks that are much more powerful, right? If she were in her humanoid form, her bow attacks would probably be unable to dent those soldier-shaped lightning bolts."
Tatyana crossed her arms. "Partially, that's true. But there is more."
They titled their head with inquiring eyes, and Tatyana commented. "Her regeneration is much higher, and using her innate skill is much more doable in this form. Also, don't get fooled by their current human size. These things scale up."
While a lot of time seemed to have passed, this conversation was done at a rapid pace. They had spoken all of this in around 5 seconds. An action that, with their current senses and reaction speed, was possible to do in emergency situations like the current one.
Cecile had also listened to everything they were saying.
As soon as Tatyana finished speaking, the 13 soldiers ballooned and became as tall as small mountains, each of them at around 200 meters in height."
Tatyana smirked. "However, while they get bigger, they are not stronger. So, they have the same amount of energy in a much larger frame, which means…"
Cecile's eyes flashed as she spoke for the first time. "They are more fragile."
Tatyana grinned. "Go beat their asses, Cecile."
A massive aura explosion expanded from the Phoenix, and a mighty Phoenix cry reverberated throughout the world, filled with unwavering battle intent.
QYAAAA~!
Then, the battle of one Moon Phoenix against 13 Heavenly Lightning soldiers began.