Immortal Mortal

Before the first lightning bolt could land on him, Mo Wuji already shot out multiple electroballs. Since the time that he opened his first meridian, he had survived many hits from such lightning bolts before. But even though he did not fear lightning strikes, this was a heavenly tribulation after all, so who knew how strong the lightning bolts would be?

He did not make any preparations for this heavenly tribulation, even not possessing a single decent piece of defensive spiritual equipment. Moreover, he had witnessed a Class 6 demonic beast undergoing a real lightning tribulation in the Five Elements Desolate Domain. That scene remained fresh in his mind even till this day.

”Crack crack crack!”

Mo Wuji’s electroballs collided with the falling lightning bolts, causing flashes of light to explode out. The lightning bolts from above immediately blew Mo Wuji’s to bits, and landed on him without being obstructed at all.

”Crack! Crack!” The crisp sound of Mo Wuji’s bones breaking could be heard. One of the lightning bolts even created a wound that ran from his forehead all the way to his chin.

Facing such a terrifying lightning tribulation, Mo Wuji’s heart sank. How would he survive this? This was just the first round of lightning bolts, and who knew how many more awaited him.

The Heaven Calamity Stone gave off a glow of spirituality, and with the lightning tribulation’s explosions added on top of that, Mo Wuji, who was undergoing heavenly tribulation on the stone was completely concealed.

All of the people outside did not know what Mo Wuji’s situation was, and if they knew that he was blown half to death by the first lightning bolt, some of them might have prepared to take action against him.

”Boom! Crack…” As he just took a few healing pills, the second wave of lightning bolts came pouring down.

Mo Wuji clenched his teeth, and produced countless pole shadows to form a blockade while he tried to use the Reverse Circulation Technique to the maximum for absorbing the lightning essence within.

There was no escaping the lightning tribulation. One could only endure through it.

”Boom boom boom boom!” Dense flashes of lightning landed on Tian Ji Pole’s pole shadows, causing the pole shadows to instantly fade into smoke. A large swath of lightning bolts landed on Mo Wuji’s body once again, which put his bones through another round of breaking.

However, Mo Wuji was using all 105 meridians to execute the Reverse Circulation Technique at once, and focused on absorbing the lightning essence, hence the damage from the lightning tribulation, while still quite great, did not threaten his life anymore.

A mere ten breaths time later, the third wave of lightning bolts rained down.

The Tian Ji Pole swung out for the second time, forming endless Nirvana Pole Shadows, and at the same time, Mo Wuji wobbled his way up. If he just sat on the floor and allowed the lightning tribulation to carry on striking him, even if he succeeded in it, death definitely would be waiting for him.

At this point he was keeping his body up just based on his elemental energy and spiritual will, as the bones in his legs were practically gone.

Thick lightning bolts continued to strike the Tian Ji Pole’s pole shadows, which caused them to break down even faster than before.

Mo Wuji did not care about the lightning bolts that fell, creating various seals with his hands, and activating his 105 meridians for reverse circulation to the extreme. It was surely impossible to fight such a lightning tribulation head on, so the best option was to absorb the lightning essence in it.

Mysterious hand seals flashed by like a shiny illusion array, forming circle after circle of ripples around Mo Wuji. These ripples eventually formed the rough figure of a giant dragon. At this moment, he had already unleashed the Revolving Star Passage Technique to the first level of the Xing Stage, the Dragon Rising Star Shift.

”Crack!” With Mo Wuji’s hand seals, the lightning bolts that broke Tian Ji Pole’s pole shadows suddenly changed direction, directly impacting the ground at his feet.

The strength of these lightning bolts were reduced to a minimum, which made it the most ideal point for absorbing the lightning essences. All of the lightning bolts surrounding Mo Wuji’s body began being soaked up by him like rainwater on a sponge, ceaselessly flowing into him.

This sort of lightning bolt brought with it spiritual energy of a higher quality that that in a spirit pith, and Mo Wuji could clearly feel an insane rise in his cultivation level, and the shackles that held him back began to crack. At the same time, his broken bones rapidly healed under the nourishment of this spiritual energy.

Seemingly sensing that Mo Wuji had diverted the lightning bolts away, the lightning tribulation became even stronger. Thunder roared and lightning flashed in space, and the fourth wave of lightning surged at him, like an ocean sweeping over the Heaven Calamity Stone.

At this moment, all cultivators standing around the Heaven Calamity Stone were stunned. What kind of lightning tribulation was this? Why was it so extreme for a someone merely advancing to True God Stage ?

”This guy shouldn’t be in the Great Circle of Nihility God Stage right? Otherwise how could there be such a terrifying lightning tribulation? I’ve seen the lightning tribulation of a Worldly Immortal before, and it wasn’t much compared to this.”

”I also think that this person doesn’t seem like he’s in the Nihility God Stage, since Li Xiuran was rank 1 on the Earth Board. Li Xiuran defeated a True God Stage Level 1 expert before, and no matter how strong a Nihility God Stage cultivator might be, he would not be a match for such a fierce man.”

Now the number of cultivators that came crowding around to watch Mo Wuji undergo tribulation kept growing and growing, and their discussions became increasingly intense.

As for the matter of Mo Wuji snatching the Heaven Calamity Stone, no one cared about it anymore. Even if the Heaven Calamity Stone were in one’s possession, who would dare to step forward in the face of such lightning bolts and seek almost certain death?

”No, I dare say that this man is not undergoing a Worldly Immortal lightning tribulation, but an authentic True God lightning tribulation.” A different voice in the crowd spoke out.

”Why do you think so? Have you seen such an extreme True God lightning tribulation?” Immediately, someone retorted.

Another long haired man spoke in a low voice, ”I don’t know what lightning tribulation he is undergoing, but I definitely would not be able to take one like this.”

Many people recognised this long haired man, who was a real True God Stage Level 2 expert. A True God lightning tribulation that even a True God Stage Level 2 expert could not bear with; as such this could really have been a Worldly Immortal lightning tribulation.

The cultivator that previously confirmed that Mo Wuji wasn’t going through a Worldly Immortal lightning tribulation shook his head and said, ”Because I know who this person is.”

”Who is he?” Upon hearing this, almost everyone asked frantically. The whole crowd stared at this cultivator, obviously waiting to find out who was undergoing the heavenly tribulation.

One had to know that this was the person that had killed Li Xiuran, so if he was really in Nihility God Stage, then he would definitely be rank 1 on the Earth Board after that.

”I’m not sure what his name is, but I know that he should be Rogue Cultivator 2705.” Seeing that the surrounding people looked upon him with confused looks, he added on, ”I believe that everyone should not be unfamiliar with the past Mortal Board rank 1, Gu Shaoyi?”

Naturally, Gu Shaoyi was not a stranger to anyone, as he was once considered only second to Li Xiuran. It was a pity that he was actually defeated by a cultivator of the same level after making a trip to the Lost Continent, and gave away his title of rank 1 on the Mortal Board, returning shamefully.

…

Hmm, wait, wasn’t it Rogue Cultivator 2705 that defeated Gu Shaoyi? Could it really be this guy?

”That’s not right, how long has it been since Rogue Cultivator 2705 defeated Gu Shaoyi? No matter how fast he cultivates, he can’t really be undergoing the True God lightning tribulation this quickly right?”

”Who says that it’s not possible? Can you remember that some time ago, Rogue Cultivator 2705 actually went onto the Earth Board, and also killed Fu Zhize, taking over rank 9831.

”Something like that actually happened? Could this really be Rogue Cultivator 2705 that came from the Lost Continent? Oh right, how are you so sure that this is Rogue Cultivator 2705?” This last sentence was directed towards the cultivator that claimed that Mo Wuji was Rogue Cultivator 2705.

The cultivator stared at the flashes of lightning around them, and Heaven Calamity Stone where the lightning never stopped, before saying, ”Because he was using a metal pole, and Gu Shaoyi was defeated by one.”

”That’s right, Rogue Cultivator 2705 indeed uses a metal pole.” Hearing this cultivator’s explanation, everyone immediately felt that this made perfect sense.

Someone continued, ”Gu Shaoyi never recovered after his defeat by Rogue Cultivator 2705. If he finds out that even Li Xiuran has been killed by Rogue Cultivator 2705, it would probably be a piece of comforting news. Who knows, he may even revert back to his original genius state.”

”Ha ha, a cultivator that can’t even accept a single defeat won’t amount to much even after recovering. The person that comes to mind is the Yan Clan’s Yan Yangnan though, who exclaimed that he regretted not being able to fight Rogue Cultivator 2705 when he obtained rank 1 on the Mortal Board. Once he finds out that Rogue Cultivator 2705 killed Li Xiuran, and had such a terrifying lightning tribulation, he would probably secretly celebrate that Rogue Cultivator 2705 never crossed paths with him.”

Even though the cultivator with the lowest cultivation level here was at the advanced Nihility God Stage, but rank 1 of the Mortal Board was still something they took note of.

…

Mo Wuji could not hear any of the discussions that happened on the outside, and before the fourth wave of lightning landed on him, he could feel a strong sense of impending danger, as the thick lightning bolts actually carried killing intent with them.

Before he could react, large swaths of lightning bolts had already struck him.

Even though Mo Wuji’s Revolving Star Passage Technique had already reached the Xing word’s first level, Dragon Rising Star Shift, the recently healed bones in his legs tore apart rapidly.

To his surprise, he could not feel the lightning essence within the lightning bolts, and only boundless killing intent from them flowed into his body. Even his meridians showed slight cracks. This riled him up. How was this some lightning tribulation, it was simply an attempt at his life.

All of the elemental energy stored in the three elemental storage channels were drawn out at this instant, forming elemental energy shields one after another, trying to block out the killing intent that was tearing his meridians apart.

Those lightning bolts seemed to possess a will of its own, and actually circumvented Mo Wuji’s elemental energy shields, continuing its assault on his meridians.

As Mo Wuji had 105 meridians, even if a few were torn, it would not cause his cultivation to drop by much. However, it was not easy to open all 105 of them, so how could he allow the lightning tribulation to destroy everything? He had never heard of lightning bolts from tribulations that specifically targeted meridians, so thankfully he still had a spirit storage channel.

The spiritual will in the spirit storage channel was mobilised, and the elemental energy shields came alive in all of the meridians, constantly blocking off the killing intent from the lightning bolts, not allowing a single meridians to be destroyed.

To Mo Wuji, he would rather have all of the bones in his body shattered and regrown, than to allow any damage to his meridians. For someone like him that did not have spiritual roots, the meridians in his body was his foundation.