The First Store System

Chapter 443: Stages

“RUMBLE!”

Seeing a familiar figure, Votayl stepped forward. But he came to a sudden halt as the sky rumbled.

Votayl looked up in the sky and found it turning darker and darker.

Since there was a building and it stopped anyone from seeing through it, Votayl wasn’t able to see Hartol in the air.

George had also stopped since the land had started shaking while the rumble grew louder.

Aakesh’s aura had minimized the effect of the upcoming tribulation, so the people present in its range only felt a slight discomfort due to the shaking of the land.

The Primal tribulation had three stages. Only after cultivators passed the three stages would they be able to ascend.

The first stage was the illusion test. In this round, the cultivator would lose himself in his worst fears.

To pass the stage, the cultivator would need to exit the illusion as soon as possible.

The more time they spent in the illusion, the harder it would become for them to exit, and if they completely lost themselves, their soul would die out, resulting in complete destruction, never to reincarnate.

After the cultivator passed through the first stage, they would feel their will turning stronger, and only after the process ended did the turn of the second round come.

In the second round, the tribulation would test the soul strength of the cultivator.

In this round, the sky would rain soul fire.

The soul fire would completely burn the soul to ashes, creating a dead state for the cultivator.

After the complete burn, the cultivator would only have his physical body and will be left. The soul would then start regenerating. At that time, the pain would reach an unimaginable amount.

During this process, right from the start, the cultivator couldn’t lose his consciousness. If they lost, the burnt soul would disappear, giving complete death to the cultivator.

After the soul would reform itself, it would be several-fold stronger than in the previous situation and would be good enough for a low-level God.

After the growth of the soul, it would be the turn of the physique since a weak physique with a strong soul would result in the complete disintegration of the body and then the soul.

It would be now the time for the third stage. In the third round, the sky would rain thunder.

The thunder wouldn’t be any ordinary thunder but the tribulation thunder.

The tribulation thunder will destroy the body of the cultivator, and then it will automatically restore.

The process would continue for as long as the user could hold, but the destruction and creation process should at least occur eleven times for the body to reach a strong enough level to sustain the soul.

During all this, the cultivator should remain conscious. Losing consciousness would result in the complete disintegration of the body, and then the tribulation thunder would destroy the soul.

Only after passing all the three stages would the cultivator reach the quality of attaining divinity and ascending to the Sacred dimension.

There was an exact duration of nine seconds between each stage, giving enough time to the cultivator to prepare ahead.

Hearing about the stages, the tribulation looked easy, but when facing it, it became the most difficult thing to accomplish.

The Primal tribulation had a minuscule amount of success.

Out of ten cultivators attempting the tribulation, rarely one succeeded. As for the survival rate, there was none.

It was also the reason behind many Immortals reaching peak Immortality and the pseudo-divine physique, but still not daring to ascend and continue to stay in the Primal dimension. It was the reason behind the Primal dimension having so many peak Immortals staying in it.

***

‘What just happened?’ Hartol asked himself as he suddenly disappeared from the store and appeared in the sky above the story. A stupefied him looked around him.

‘Am I going to face my tribulation here?’ Hartol thought again as he felt the threatening pressure released by the sky toward him.

His face couldn’t help but turn pale since the Primal tribulation wasn’t something to joke about. If he failed, he would face his doom, so he needed to have preparations before attempting it.

“Damn it!” Hartol couldn’t help but curse as the training area resulted in his cultivation having a sudden increase, breaking the limit barrier right away.

He couldn’t postpone the tribulation anymore since he had no such opportunity after that sharp increase. Since the barrier had broken before Hartol could manipulate his cultivation, he had no choice but to face it straight away or fail and die.

Hartol was already aware of the three stages of the tribulation, so he couldn’t help but shudder thinking about only facing the first stage, his worst fear.

Time flew by.

The sky had turned completely dark. There was no difference between midnight and the current time.

Aakesh snapped his fingers as the people around here were afraid of the dark and only lived in the sunlight.

The next moment, a tiny sun made of his energy appeared floating in the center of the range of the Primal tribulation and removed every semblance of darkness present in the area.

“RUMBLE!”

The sky loudly rumbled in anger as if it thought of the sun as a challenge to it.

The sky wanted to destroy the sun, but before it could do that, Aakesh released a hint of his aura, aiming toward the sky. The next moment, it returned to calm, ignoring the sun, and only focusing on Hartol, the cultivator.

Hartol, floating in the air, took a deep breath as he got ready to face the first stage of the Primal tribulation.

The next moment, his body suddenly relaxed. It still floated in the air, but the eyes were blank. If someone were to see Hartol, they would think he had already died.

***

Time flew by.

With passing time, Hartol’s body started fading slowly.

‘You can do it!’ Votayl prayed in his heart, seeing the condition his bodyguard was in.

After a wait of a few minutes, Hartol’s body started having sudden movements.

The body slowly started coming back to life as Hartol’s fingers moved. His eyes were still blank, but expressions began appearing.

At that moment, Hartol looked to be seeing something terrible as he had a horrified face, while sweats had started oozing out.