623 Lightning Tribulation Part 1

Alex flew a bit far from the barrier toward the Undead Territory. He remembered there was a huge plain that was perfect to undergo his Lightning Tribulation.

It was only a few teleportations away from the barrier, so Alex only needed a few minutes to arrive. He opened his Inventory and took Nelson's card.

"Summon."

"Young Master." Nelson clasped his hands respectfully as soon as he was summoned.

"I think I don't need to tell you where we are, right?" Alex asked with a small smile. 

"Yes. I will start patrolling around the area. Young Master can finish the Special Realm first." Nelson said and disappeared.

Without Nelson here, Alex quickly took out his blood bottles. Learning from the experience, he was planning to make an additional Special Realm, so even if the first one broke, there was still the second one.

Alex even used a rank 7 Barrier Array to create this Special Realm to reinforce its defense.

The array itself was quite big. The first one had a hundred meters in radius while the second one had two hundred meters. However, he found out that he had enough blood to create the third barrier, rank 7 Gathering Array and Lightning Rod Array. Even if he needed more monster blood, he could simply ask his spirits outside, specifically Jeanne, since she could extract the blood. 

He ended up creating the third array with a three hundred meter radius array. This would be his third line of defense since if these three still broke, there was still a huge array that trapped the three races.

With how powerful the barriers that were created by multiple Martial Saints, Alex had absolute confidence that this barrier wouldn't break. Of course, he hoped the barrier didn't break at all, but better safe than sorry. 

Alex looked at his surroundings first and asked Nelson.

"There is no one around. It should be fine even if you activate it without an illusion array." Nelson reported.

Alex nodded and activated the special realms, summoning three barriers in succession. The Gathering Array was also activated by him.

"I have reinforced the barrier with my Space Element as well. Back when I challenged my Martial Emperor's Lightning Tribulation, the barrier couldn't hold the whole thing and ended up breaking. Now, I will make sure no one will know about this." Alex nodded. 

Even if it broke, the three races wouldn't necessarily tell a single soul outside this place. Besides, their target was to go home, so Alex thought it would be fine even if the three races knew about this. Still, Alex might be ninety percent sure about this, but he couldn't ignore the rest ten percent. For that reason, he added the barrier. 

However, it would be troublesome if the other influences began their chase to him whether they wanted to attain his loyalty or kill him to avoid future problems. 

He didn't know why but wondered about his Martial Saint and Martial God Lightning Tribulation in the future. He might need to hide his Martial Saint Tribulation as well because he wasn't ready yet to let the whole world see. However, he might have a different perspective for his Martial God Tribulation.

That Tribulation would result in him becoming a God, the peak of this world. Even if he let them see his Tribulation, they couldn't do a single thing. Even his Spirits were enough to protect him at that moment from anyone who wanted to hinder him.

The only problem would be if someone actually reached God Stage again in the future. They might blurt that information, making Alex a bit hesitant about it. In the end, he shook that thought off and told himself to discuss it with the spirits in the future.

Shaking the thought off, Alex looked at his surroundings and checked his condition.

[A gentle reminder for you, Host. You are going to get the last variant of the Gacha System when you reach Martial Monarch.]

Alex smiled, knowing the system just wanted to cheer him up by reminding him about the reward. "I am looking forward to it."

[Mission: Martial Monarch Stage

Reward: Unknown Gacha Type

Description: Become a Martial Monarch and unlock every Gacha Types.]

"Thank you for the mission. Is there no reward for the tickets or something?"

[I can't disclose it, but Host can look forward to it.]

"I see." Alex nodded before focusing on his matter again.

"I need to cultivate for one or two days before I can trigger the Lightning Tribulation. As for the preparations, I have done everything and could only do my best." Alex nodded to himself.

Alex then sat down in the middle of the array and began cultivating again. 

After finishing his patrol, Nelson came back to his side and stood by not far from him. He didn't make a sound or release even a little bit of his presence to not alarm Alex.

It was only two days later, the atmosphere started to change. Suddenly, a loud sound appeared in the sky.

*Rumble!*

Hearing the rumbling sound, Alex opened his eyes and rose from the ground. The dark cloud began gathering above his head, creating a scary entity above him. The air temperature dropped, gradually turning into chilly.

Calmness still filled his face as Alex looked up to the sky. He took out his Sword and Spear, preparing to face the Lightning Tribulation. He also released his Pure Fire from the Phoenix Seed.

A huge amount of Pure Fire gushed out of his body and circled around him. They looked pretty docile but would attack someone ferociously when Alex ordered to. He activated his fully evolved Spirit Eyes to see if there was something different he could see with his eyes. However, he found out that the dark cloud didn't have any true form or whatever. It was just a big chump of energy gathered around that cloud.

*Rumble!* *Rumble!*

The rumbling sounds began reverberated in his ears as blue light began flashing from within. Alex's expression turned serious as he watched this unfold. The Lightning Tribulation that was always scary for him appeared once again today. He took a deep breath before releasing his domain and covered his weapons with it. 

He had prepared everything he could, and there was nothing for him to do other than passing this Lightning Tribulation. 

Alex took a deep breath before saying, "Come!"

*Rumble!*

As if responding to Alex's words, lightning appeared from within the cloud.

…

At the same time, there was something happening a bit further from his place. 

*Tremble!*

In the Undead Territory, specifically in Atlas's palace, a vibration shook the entire territory. He, who was sitting on his throne, suddenly stood up and shouted. "Wait! What is this?"

A powerful wave of energy suddenly swept the room, jolting Atlas's mind. "This… It's coming from the Soul Altar?"

He quickly came out of the castle and flew toward his Soul Altar. 

Zekhram had been waiting for him outside with his forehead covered with sweat. "Atlas. Do you know anything about this?"

"What did you do?" Atlas shouted.

"I don't do anything. It suddenly released powerful energy like this." Zekhram shook his head furiously.

"We need to take out the weapons first until I can identify the source of this problem," Atlas said with a severe expression. He was afraid this sudden phenomenon might do irreplaceable damage to Alex's weapons. He had promised him to deliver the sword and spear with perfect quality in exchange for breaking the barrier.

However, he couldn't see Alex if something happened to his weapons. His Soul Altar would be destroyed anyway if they were going home, so Alex's weapons had more importance.

"Understood. I will help you." Zekhram nodded. He had come to this place a month ago after nurturing the soul inside Alex's weapons. The weapons were eating the souls to nourish itself at the moment, so this sudden problem made him panic. 

"This is…" Atlas observed the Altar and noticed something off. "The soul and energy in the Altar are being depleted? No… To be exact, it is going to the top…"

*Gasp—* It only took him a moment to realize what would happen after this sudden change. He shouted to Zekhram. "This is not good. We are going to grab those weapons from this place. If I'm going to fix the Altar as it is, the weapons might have some kinds of accidents."

"What should I do?" Zekhram shuddered and asked immediately. 

"I am going to make a safe passage for you. It will only be one or two seconds. You need to grab the weapons within that time." Atlas said. 

"Understood!" 

"Sh*t!" Atlas cursed when he saw blue light appear on top of the Altar. There were many white wisps that were hovering around the tower. At the same time, the blue lines on the tower also glowed brightly as it released powerful energy. 

"Mion Rio A!" Atlas chanted as blue lines appeared on the ground from his feet toward the Soul Altar. The moment blue lines appeared, the souls that were hovering around the tower suddenly disappeared, creating a two-meters hole toward their formation.

"Now!" Atlas shouted.

Without his shout, Zekhram already knew it was the time. He jumped toward the hole, entering the Soul Altar once again and grabbing the two weapons before retreating outside. 

There wasn't much of a distance to begin with, so he somehow managed to get outside the barrier before the blue lines vanished. 

"That was insane." Zekhram took a deep breath a few times to calm himself down. "There was too much pressure inside the tower."

"What is exactly happening?!" Atlas narrowed his eyes. 

"I don't know." Zekhram shook his head. "Why don't you fix-" 

Before he could complete his words, the blue light that slowly expanded on the top of the Altar suddenly shot to the sky like a laser.

"This…" Atlas became even more bewildered. "This Soul Altar never becomes like this… Why is it suddenly happening? Does someone challenge Heaven at the moment to make the souls become unrest like this?"

"What should we do?" Zekhram didn't understand what he was talking about and only wished for a solution. He checked the weapons and let out a breath of relief when nothing happened to the two weapons. 

"I don't know what is happening, but our objective right now is to stop this phenomenon. I will calm the soul and deactivate the Altar for now. It might be hard but doable. You help me by stopping the others from coming here." Atlas instructed.

"Alright." Without further ado, Zekhram vanished into thin air with the two weapons.

On the other hand, Atlas looked at the sky and found this ridiculous. The dark cloud circled the blue light like it was creating a portal. However, he also noticed that Heaven seemed to have sucked all this energy for itself. 

He realized and gritted his teeth. "I can't stop it like this!"

"Ah!" Atlas took out his wand and raised both hands. "Even if I can't stop it, I will reduce the energy amount as much as possible. Something like this shouldn't happen for too long. Also…"

Blue lines began appearing one after another from his feet, spreading toward the tower and enveloping the Altar. It created a five hundred radius circle filled with blue lines before creating a barrier. "Don't underestimate me!" 

The blue lines linked with each other, and the barrier suddenly obstructed the blue light. Thirty percent were absorbed by Atlas's barrier, but it was still far too much. 

"I will fight with you till the end!" Atlas gritted his teeth and increased the power output. The blue lines shone brightly and began absorbing at least half of the energy.

"Come!"