Hello, dear readers! Here's chapter 146(too lazy to write the part number anymore)! Hope you'll enjoy it! This is the second to last chapter for Book 2, so tension is high.
Aside from that, I'm sorry I wasn't able to post this chapter last week for some IRL reasons. Still, the wait should be worth it as we're getting into the faster cultivation progress of the story.
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Bright Star City, Bright Star Island, Flowing Stars Archipelago, Earth
Omniscient P.O.V.
With his eyes closed to feel the change happening inside his body, Demian pondered.
'Peak First Level, and still three Petals left. If the pattern stays the same, Peak Second Level should be a sure thing, though I'm not sure if I can get higher than that... Well, that's not too important. No, what's confusing are those...'
'Those', as he put it, were the abnormal fluctuations from his bone marrow and his Nine Main Acupoint Systems.
From the previous slightly agitated state, they were now becoming highly unstable, though the instability was not exactly a loss of control over his body, but more of an 'anticipatory' kind of instability...
The word may not be accurate, but that was the best way Demian could describe it.
His body was... 'excited' about something, driving his marrow and Acupoint systems unstable...
'So weird... It's almost as if...'
After pondering further, that 'excitement' felt oddly familiar, giving rise to a guess in the young man's mind, one that brought a complicated feeling to his heart.
On one hand, he hoped he was wrong, as it would certainly complicate things further if true, but on the other hand, the benefits would also be immeasurable.
Shaking his head, he exclaimed inwardly.
'Forget it. Even if I'm right, it might not necessarily happen during the Tribulation, and if it does, it's ultimately a good thing. I'll just have to deal with the problems as they come.'
After taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Demian braced for the seventh lightning petal assault.
With a brief glance, he noticed how the Lotus, though having lost two-thirds of its petals, grew even more vibrant, releasing an aura so intimidating that even an average Early Core Formationwould fall under its onslaught.
A few moments later, one of the three petals left detached from the stem, turned into a lightning bolt and fell toward Demian so quickly that the young man was almost hit before he could react.
Fortunately, he knew that, being the seventh bolt, and thus part of the third tribulation cycle, it would certainly be much fiercer than the previous ones and would need him to be ready at a moment's notice.
Thus, he was still able to throw Water Bullets towards lighting bolt, the resulting clash slightly shaking the Surface Layer, though the effect barely lasted an instant before it resumed its previous stillness and the Bolt tore through his Blade Slash and Layered Water Shields, mostly ignoring the Dragon Fang armor's protection until it finally stabbed into his skin, rupturing, tearing and even melting everything in its way.
Although Demian's base power had grown to unprecedented heights, it was still not enough to stop or even slow down the rampaging lightning energy in his body.
In a brief moment, his body turned into a gory mess, with his skin, flesh and blood burnt away, tendons and organs almost liquified, and even his bones being fractured and softened from the destructive power inside the Petal.
Fortunately, both his Perk and his innate healing factor were working overtime to exhaust and convert the foreign energy into something beneficial.
Thus, though his state seemed dire, his Essence was actually growing stronger, with those deeply buried impurities being constantly refined, replaced by stronger cells, flesh tissues, bones, etc.
Cycles of destruction and creation kept happening, bringing the pain to another level, though the improvements matched the latter.
Normally, removing those deep-seated impurities was a long and arduous task, requiring not only great patience but also incredible precision and perception, though even with those, the likelihood of success was abysmal.
Naturally, some rare Heaven and Earth treasures could increase the odds, but they were extremely rare, and only a select few had access to those, either because they were born in powerful forces or simply because of heaven-defying luck.
That was for those 'surface-level' impurities, though.
In Demian's case, with every Main Acupoint System unlocked and a Special Physique, removing more impurities implied restructuring his entire body to reach a higher level of life.
It was not about strength, per se, but about the quality of one's essence.
In a sense, 'impurities' were blockages, hindering a cultivator's connection to the World's laws and Energy.
The higher the essence, the fewer impurities and the easier cultivation became.
Following that logic, there should be no limit to the impurity refinement, and the cultivator should be able to grow closer to the World's Laws endlessly.
In reality, however, it was not the case.
At least, for Mortal Cultivators, the hard limit was what was commonly known as Peak Heaven-Grade talent, those cultivators possessing a Flawless Physique.
Now, 'Flawless' was always a relative term, touching on Purity and not on Quality.
In other words, although the Purity was different between a cultivator with a Flawed Physique and one with a Flawless one, their life levels, or Quality, were basically similar.
Both were 'Mortals'.
However, if one wanted to go further, they would need to find a way to transform their Mortal Essence and bring it closer to an Immortal one, a process that normally would span six cultivation Ranks and an Immortal Tribulation to succeed.
Naturally, where there were rules, exceptions also existed, and those Immortal-Grade Talents were a way to circumvent that rule, gaining some pseudo-Immortal characteristics, though with vast differences between each individual.
Thus, Demian's situation, even if the agony he was experiencing could be described as hellish, was actually a massive opportunity that other Immortal-grade prodigies would kill for, though whether they could survive such an opportunity was up in the air.
After all, not everyone had a reality-breaking healing factor that doubled as a cultivation booster through the conversion of pretty much any energy, no matter if the latter was destructive or beneficial.
The young man was the living example of 'what doesn't kill me makes me stronger' to a ridiculous degree.
That being said, Demian's mind was too preoccupied by the Soul-searing pain he was undergoing to care about the 'benefits' behind it.
Every second, he felt torment, as if both his body and mind were stabbed, burnt, torn off, crushed, etc., all at the same time and without pause.
If a doctor asked him the annoyingly vague question of 'How painful is it on a scale of one to ten', he would answer one million.
At one point, the pain grew so high that it disappeared, his senses too numb to perceive anything anymore.
Only after what felt like years, though only half a minute went by in reality, was Demian able to regain consciousness, though the experience left a mark in his mind that would probably take some time to erase.
As his body was now back to full health, a sigh escaped his lips, with his body shuddering from the phantom pain.
While forcing himself to take deep, long breaths to calm his out-of-control heartbeat, the young man thought, his mind slowly regaining its calm.
'Fuck me, that was insane! I knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park, and getting hurt was a given, but that... That was too fucking much!'
It took another half a minute for his frayed nerves to settle somewhat, giving him enough mindspace to check the changes his body experienced.
A quick sweep of his Soul Sense and a subconscious mutter escaped his lips.
"Well, at least I didn't get through that torture fest for nothing..."
Indeed, the gains were... Immense.
Peak Low Second Level cultivation base with liquid Mana so condensed and heavy that the Water Mana almost felt like Earth Mana, a Physique tempered further, with both marrow and Acupoint System growing ever closer to that unknown transformation.
All in all, although the type of benefits may be similar to the previous Petals in terms of type, when it came to sheer quantity, that lone Bolt brought more improvements than all the preceding ones combined.
After all, each level was a chasm, requiring much more energy than those prior, so to propel him to the Peak Low Second Level, the young man was completely satisfied, turning that unbearable experience into something worth the 'trouble'.
Speaking of trouble.
Raising his gaze toward the two-petal Lightning Lotus with a mind-crushing Heavenly Aura, Demian let out a sigh.
"Guess I better get used to becoming a human candle, uh?"
Unlike his joking words, his mood was anything but jolly.
However, what could he do?
Complain to the Heavens?
Ask them to be a bit nicer to him?
What a joke!
No, he knew complaining was useless, and he had to bear with it.
Well, the upside was that he was getting enormous benefits where most would only get unbearable pain or even death.
"Twice more, Dem. You can do it!"
He mumbled, trying to cheer himself, though the results were mixed.
However, the Heavens seemed to turn a deaf ear as the second-to-last petal fell toward Demian, its power enough to instantly kill an average Third Level Core Formation.
'Fu...'
Before he could finish cursing that damn Heaven, Demian was hit by the Lightning Bolt, barely weakened by his Spells and Blade Technique, the Layered Shields covering his body crushed like useless dry sand.
Only the armor was able to bear the destructive energy without being damaged, though bearing was different from stopping.
Thus, most of that Bolt's power ultimately collided with the young man's body, leaving unfathomable destruction, beyond even the previous time.
In a fraction of a second, his skin and flesh were vaporised, quickly followed by his tendons and organs.
Even his bones partially melted, with his figure barely held upright thanks to the armor.
Unbelievably, even though his Brain had turned into mush and his Heart vanished, his body now merely soft bones and liquid essence, Demian was still alive.
However, the most incredible thing was the mystical aura growing from what was now his body, something that went beyond Mortality, though not quite enough to call it truly Immortal.
It felt powerful but also...
Somewhat incomplete.
As seconds passed by, crystalline bones hardened, the marrow it contained gaining hints of gold, somewhat similar to the golden traces in his Soul Power, though the color was somewhat faded, thus giving the feeling of incompleteness.
As for the viscous essence turned into different shapes forming organs, tendons, flesh and skin, going from a gory mess into a vaguely bloody human-shaped figure, and finally a healthy man with a body filled with impossible perfection.
Long, silky raven hair that grew back to its previous length, powerful muscles evoking everlasting strength and facial features reaching a level of attractiveness that should have been impossible for a Mortal, and a transcendent aura.
Although his cultivation was merely at the Foundation Building Rank, his body was truly on the path to transcendence, something beyond any other Mortal prodigy.
As his body was completely rebuilt, Demian drew a breath, feeling the sweetness of the air brushing against his nose and entering his lungs.
A brief tremor shook his body, with two bloody tears running along his cheeks, as he muttered.
"I made it..."
Indeed, when his body turned into some kind of bloody Kool-Aid, his perception had not been completely cut off, thus letting him sense the state of his body.
Coupled with the Soul-crushing pain, his Will did waver, wondering if his life would end today.
Fortunately, his Perk was truly worthy of being Chaos Grade, or whatever its grade was called, Chaos being simply his own guess from the name of the Ring floating in his Soul Space.
Taking a few seconds to steady his mind, he then investigated the changes inside him.
Sensing the growth, a wry smile appeared on his face.
"Why is it so bittersweet?"
Peak Intermediate Second Level.
Great boost, but it was actually the most worthless benefit he received.
The greatest was actually the transformation of his Physique.
Or more specifically, it was a half-step transformation, bringing his Physique toward the pseudo-Immortal-Grade, though still somewhat falling short.
Golden Immortal Soul Power, Golden Immortal Marrow and Golden Immortal Acupoint Systems.
Each of them would bring one's talent to the Immortal-Grade, while having all of them would make one a High Immortal-Grade talent, something possible in theory, but impossible in reality in Mortal Worlds.
'I'm still some ways away from the Golden Immortal Marrow and Golden Immortal Acupoint systems... I wonder if the last petal can help me get through that threshold... That might make our situation more dangerous... But then again, who fucking cares?!'
High Immortal-Grade prodigy...
Being a Low Immortal-Grade already put him on the radar of some nasty people, but at least he was not the only genius of that grade in the world.
Now, though?
Having gone through Hell and back, his mindset had completely changed.
He... He wanted everything and to hell with the consequences!
As long as he grew fast enough, major problems would turn minor and minor problems would become inconsequential.
'No use wasting my energy on what ifs.'
Shaking his head slightly, he then turned toward the last Petal attached to the lightning stem, its aura giving a sense of impending doom, even beyond the eighth one.
From his perception, its power seemed to vaguely touch on the Mid Core Formation, rendering any attempt at defending himself virtually useless.
Letting out the umpteenth sigh of the day, he mumbled.
"Seems like I'll have to go through that shit again... Hopefully, I'll get enough out of it..."
Bracing himself for the coming agony, Demian still prepared his usual Spells, though he knew they would be as useful as using a small pebble to stop a falling meteor.
Then again, that small pebble may be the difference between living and dying for him.
Shaking his head inwardly to clear his mind from unneeded thoughts, he then observed the last petal slowly detaching itself from the golden stem, transforming into the dreadfully powerful lightning bolt, its aura evoking death and destruction.
It then started falling toward him so fast that he could only muster half a curse before he was hit directly
'Fu...'