Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Each breakthrough to a major realm brought with it a tribulation, so long as one had a Dao.

From Saint to Immortal, Immortal to Divine, Divine to Celestial, and if there was a way beyond that, it would all have a tribulation that one had to go through to reach the next stage.

The tribulation that came when one went from Saint to Immortal was called an Immortal Tribulation but was generally referred to as Lightning Tribulation.

Instead, an Immortal Tribulation referred to something else entirely.

Because the world was slowly losing Qi over time, there was a rule created by the Sun God and Moon Goddess when they prepared the Heavens. Anyone under Heaven, who was an Immortal, had to break through at least once every 10 thousand years. To test whether one had or not, every 10 thousand years, Heaven would send them a tribulation. Only those who passed the tribulation were allowed to live. Those who didn’t would die and return their Qi to the Heaven.

That was what people understood to be the Immortal Tribulation now.

In order to survive every 10 thousand years, cultivators had to go through these tribulations.

However, over time, the purpose of the tribulations had changed a lot. For most people, breaking through at least once in 10 thousand years was easy. In fact, many people could easily reach the Divine realm in that time. As such, the Immortal Tribulation did not matter as much from a judgment perspective.

However, along with the tribulation, there also came down rich aura that surrounded the cultivator as a reward should they pass the Tribulation. That reward had become something people went through the Immortal Tribulation for.

Beyond the Divine realm, especially in the higher Divine realm and Celestial realm, finding enough Qi to properly cultivate was a rarity. So, in most cases, people called upon the Immortal Tribulation to bring with it the rich aura they could cultivate with.

To many, the longevity they gained from not going through the Immortal Tribulation was not worth staying weaker than others. Strength came with its own greed and demanded its own sacrifices. It was a rarity to find a strong cultivator who hadn’t done it once.

Those who never had to were truly the blessed ones.

However, everyone agreed that one should only start using the rewards in the later stages. After all, the world had not yet become so bare of Qi that an Immortal had to go through it.

Unfortunately, given his circumstances, Alex felt he had no other choice.

As such, he gave up 10 thousand years of his own lifespan and called upon the Immortal Tribulation.

The sky gathered with dark clouds, with occasional purple flashes glowing brightly within them. Alex could feel the gathering aura in the sky and understood it would come down at any time now.

Perhaps doing it inside his residence had been a bad idea, but at this point, there wasn’t much else he could have done. He was not going to leave this place for another.

He looked up and waited for the first bolt of lightning to come down.

The lightning bolt came instantly, crossing through the roof as though practically skipping past it, and struck Alex. The attack left a deafening boom inside, but the structures around him remained standing. Bright golden light glowed from within the walls that had formations protecting them. The entire courtyard had dozens of protective formations active at any given time.

Alex felt the attack and narrowed his eyes a little. It was quite a bit weaker than he expected it to be.

”Not even Immortal Ascendant 1st realm,” Alex thought to himself.

That was not what he had been expecting from this.

This wasn’t the first time he had done this, after all. Before this, he had already given up 30 thousand years of his lifespan and brought on the Immortal Tribulation 3 times. Back then, he had done it out of another necessity when he had to learn about the Heavenly Clouds that gathered in the sky before coming down with lightning.

Alex had to test both the Tribulation Clouds and the Pill Clouds back then in order to help form one of his Creations, the Heavenly Clouds.

And now, he needed the Energy that came after the tribulation was complete.

He felt both instances were valid reasons for him to bring on the Immortal Tribulation.

The second bolt of lightning fell and struck him again. Given his body cultivation, Alex had to do nothing but simply sit there and take it all. The final lightning bolt would be strong enough to kill an Immortal Ascendant 4th realm cultivator, so he would be alright all the way through.

That was also why he had expected the lightning bolts to be stronger from the start. But it seemed they were going to improve in strength slowly overall. The second bolt had the strength of the Immortal Ascendant 1st realm.

The third lightning bolt fell afterward, and Alex felt a strength at the peak of the Immortal Ascendant 1st realm.

The fourth bolt reached the Immortal Ascendant 2nd realm, and the fifth one was a step stronger than that.

The sixth one was at the Immortal Ascendant 3rd realm, and the seventh one was nearly at the next realm.

The eighth bolt was a step stronger than that, entering the Immortal Ascendant 4th realm. At this stage, any Immortal Ascendant 4th realm cultivator would be weakened quite a bit unless they were able to use a good defensive technique.

And finally, the 9th bolt of lightning fell, reaching a strength nearly equivalent to the Immortal Ascendant 5th realm. Any cultivator far below that level would die at that point.

The final lightning bolt hit Alex, and he felt it tease his skin and do nothing more.

Once the final lightning bolt came down, all the Energy from the previous lightning bolts immediately came together to fill the room with rich aura, along with enough healing aura to restore anyone who had survived.

Alex smiled slowly and quickly closed his eyes as he began to devour the aura into his body and cultivate it all as quickly as he could.