chapter 559  espi’s breakthrough (part 2)

    unlike the previous lightning that looked illusory, despite obviously being fully real, the second lightning that descended from the sky, had not only a different color but a completely different sensation overall.

    which is quite a rare sight considering the fact that normally the punishment lightning that descends whenever a tribulation is ongoing, goes along with the attribute of the one who is being tested.

    that is the origin of the increase on the quality/quantity of the spirit energy of the specific element that the cultivator that advances, in the planet where the process took part.

    in the four heavenly quadrants, not much is known about punishment lightning, because no one dares to mess up with the heavenly law.

    interferrnig with other people''s tribulation to help, is one of the most dangerous things to do, but it isn''t a guaranteed death, depending on the one who is advancing, the tribulation might be mild enough for a strong cultivator to intervene if necessary.

    but participating and observing is different than messing up with it, evil cultivators specialize in using others as guinea pigs and so there are records, of people being forced into other''s tribulations, to try and study the punishment lightning, or even storing some of it in a special spirit treasure.

    as you can imagine the result was an instant but horribly painful death for both the perpetrator and the one who was in the process of advancing, that being said, if the consequence was only the death of the guinea pigs, evil cultivators would have had obtained what they wanted.

    but everyone involved in the "offense" received the punishment of the heavenly law, to the point that even galaxies away, on the planet with the clearest sky, hidden with formations and other things, those who ordered the experiment were struck by lightning out of the blue, some died on the spot, others suffered deviation, others were never able to advance again and their realms even regressed, and others died in mysterious ways.

    even those related to the perpetrators, often had bad luck and faced many hardships as a result of what their relatives did.

    so, one of the few things in which even those crazy psychos agreed with the righteous cultivators, was "never mess up with a tribulation", in comparison slaughtering non cultivators, using them as resources and other messed up things, would only stain one''s existence, but there were a lot of flaws that could be exploited.

    for example, evil dual cultivators who used drugs or other underhanded methods, to get the "consent" of the other party, guaranteed that they wouldn''t be on the scope of the heavenly law, it was quite inconsistent.

    anyway, the lack of information regarding punishment lightning isn''t limited to mortal planes, even eris and mylene who come from a divine firmament, only knew that those lightnings are in fact formed by around 90% percent the same energy that the cultivator has and 10% of the real punishment lightning, after all is a trial not an execution.

    in comparison, the lightning casted upon those who offended the heavenly law, can go up to around 50% of real punishment lightning, which means death regardless of one''s realm, that knowledge has been passed down from ancient times, as even in a divine firmament, messing with the heavenly law is a taboo. no?v(el)b\\jnn

    this time the lightning landed on the part of espi''s body which had the piece of yang radiated wood attached to it, surprisingly the impact didn''t seem to have hurt the little wyrm.

    but then the wood lit up in yellow flames, and espi couldn''t help but slightly twist its lower body, the flames were obviously burning it, luckily it didn''t last long before its scales absorbed it.

    the air nearby that part of espi''s body, looked blurry as a proof of the heat it was affected by it, also there were some slight burn marks on those scales, but soon they were cured, as the scales cooled down.

    despite the still lingering pain, the little wyrm bravely looked at the sky, waiting for the next round of lightning, normally during a tribulation one is free to move, you can even avoid being hit by initial strike of the lightning, if you are skilled enough, but apparently one of the conditions of espi''s tribulation was to take all the hits directly.

    something seen from time to time in the tribulations of those who are only body path cultivators, at the moment of their advance, which are most of the time those who either have really low talent in the other paths or lack resources, so they have to focus on one path, to earn money for their secondary, which means losing time to cultivate.

    "heh, i originally thought that only one of your two godmothers was going to be interested in that little wyrm, but it seems i was wrong, one of those two was crazy enough to purposedly only cultivate the body until reaching the transcending realms, while telling all the other members of the young generation of her family "i''m giving you all an advantage, so that you are convinced that i''m better than you", which she proceeded to prove right, as she beat the crap out of them, while being a single path cultivator", said lilia with a nostalgic voice.

    "..."

    "as expected of mom''s friends...", mumbled aster, to then look at the third lightning that was about to descend on espi, this one took more time to form, but it was for a good reason, which is the fact that not only the cloud had two different colors, but the amount of electricity that gathered there was around the double.

    without any warning, two different colored lightning descended this time, one was black colored and carried an ominous chilling sensation, at it aimed at the yin core of the snake from the group of leading spirit beasts.

    the other lightning had a semi-transparent and white tone, and it refracted the light, gaining a multicolored glow, that one was aiming at the piece of the diamond that was obtained from the place where the diamond bone orchid grew.

    the two different lightnings impacted the little wyrm at the same time, making it bent its body, both the core and diamond exploded into many shards that incrusted into espi''s scales, making it bleed for the first time since the tribulation started.

    instead of worrying, aster who felt kana''s grip tightening once again, smiled and then said.

    "don''t worry, this part was meant to be like this, look espi isn''t in pain anymore, the shards are being absorbed by its flesh instead of the scales this time".

    kana''s eyes sparkled as she saw the shards of the core and the diamond, sink into espi''s body, before the wounds closed and the scales that were fractured by the lightning repaired on the spot.

    but a mental one, similar to what soul path cultivators tend to experience, in fact espi seemed to be in a trance, as it remained quite with an absent-minded expression.

    though the whole previous process seemed to last too much, it all happened in a matter of minutes, in comparison the last part of the tribulation actually had lasted more than ten hours, as the sky that had started to darken suggested.

    aster and the others didn''t move an inch and kept observing the little wyrm from afar, espi stayed still like a statue, if it wasn''t for the fact that it was breathing, one would think it had passed.

    "aster, someone is coming this way, they are trying to get rid of the illusion formation, and had started to pinpoint the nodes, it''s that woman again", said eris.

    with that woman, eris referred to the supreme elder from the blacksmith peak, as to why it was coming this way, she probably just wanted to cause troubles, because the formation covered not only the valley but the nearby area.

    julian previously was taken by surprise, at the murderous aura which aster was radiating back when the wounded image of espi was revealed, so he directly interfered.

    "ahem, you stay here, i''ll go take care of it", he said, to which aster nodded without stopping looking at the little wyrm, right now he couldn''t care less about those clowns.

    julian used his authority to leave and go confront those who were approaching the area, and no even a few minutes later, aster got a message from julian.

    "most had left, only the supreme elder and some other elders from the blacksmith peak are demanding to be allowed to pass through the area", the moment julian''s words finished aster casually said.

    "if they have a complain they can send their disciples to the life and death arena to fight against me, otherwise tell them to piss off".

    the message was delivered by aster without julian having to interfere, because he didn''t send a written message, but actually called him through the communication talisman.

    after that he cut off the connection just in time to see something finally happening, unlike the other nine materials, the tenth one which was aster''s blood, didn''t attach to espi''s scales.

    it remained unaffected until now, the mix of blood and red liquid floated out of the container and integrated with the area where espi''s heart was placed, as well as its forehead.

    "crack!", the next second, all the presents were in awe at the sight of espi''s body crumbling apart, turning into a pile of white dust.

    "b-big brother...", kana''s eyes widened but before she could make any assumptions, aster patted her head and said.

    "look above".

    everyone raised their heads and were amazed at the pretty spectacle of different colored lights, illuminating the sky, making small light particles to fall on the whole area, it was a phenomenon caused by espi''s advance, it caused one just like sarina, camila and felicia did.

    with a flashy rain of multicolored light, the tribulation finally ended, and aster who felt a "call" coming from the pile of dust, made the little girl let go as he approached it.

    "hisss~", the moment he did, he heard an enthusiastic hissing sound coming from the center of the pile of ashes.

    aster crouched down and removed the dust with his bare hands, to reveal a one-meter snake wrapped around itself, it had pearly white scales and light green eyes, which were gazing at aster.

    "come here", aster extended his hand towards the cute little thing, and espi happily accepted the invitation, as it wrapped around aster''s left arm, to then close its eyes, falling asleep shortly.

    aster smiled and petted the little wyrm, well it would be more accurate to call it a lindwyrm now, since it had changed from looking like a scaled sand worm with a snake-like head, to a perfectly looking white snake, it had no wings or limps yet, but that was understandable as it was barely in its infant stage.

    he then returned to where the other girls were, and closed the roof on the barrier of the valley, while eris also cancelled the illusion formation, everything else could wait for later now, everyone approached to see the cute thing wrapped around aster''s arm.

    mira was especially curious about espi, more accurately she was curious about why after absorbing all those materials and radiating their respective attributes, now it returned to be in "blank", even its scales were of the purest white and didn''t gain any color.

    ''did something go wrong... no it properly advanced, but i have never heard of a pure white attribute less lindwyrm, to advance that wyrm had to obtain an attribute'', she thought.

    while the ligress girl was lost in her thoughts, kana''s reaction was much simpler, she was gently caressing espi''s scales, which were smooth like jade, happy that her friend was fine.