Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1649 - 1648 - Mystery Tribulation

Each major realm added a new part to the tribulations. Gold Tier in the World Realm was the first so it was the shortest and weakest. Elements, physiques, and maybe a few more were common.

True Lords and progenitors were damned rare but they too could happen as Lind was living proof of.

The Diamond Tier was transformative. It was beginning to shed the mortal coil for the skies and thus a fundamental shift was needed to prepare but not a large difference from the Gold Tier.

The Sky Realm Ascension tribulation was the first true nightmare for cultivators. It was harsh, unforgiving, and tested every aspect of them until that point in their lives. Success was to fly off the surface of the mortal world while failure was often met with obliteration.

The Heaven Realm was a transition but it laid the foundation by filling in the missing elements and other aspects to prepare for the next major step.

The Immortal Realm Ascension tribulation made the Sky Realm Ascension look like a toddler. Entire tracts of land could be turned to glass or sects wiped from the map if preparation was not taken properly.

The shedding of mortality was not instant but the majority of it was done in that tribulation so it was a horrifying experience with many rounds to it.

The minor tribulations between tiers for each Immortal Tier were simply more transition but still severe. The massive steps between required harsh testing.

Where once it was just major realms, now it was each tier!

Divine Realm Ascension tribulation could shatter worlds. A complete transformation from one kind of existence to the next required Laws, Daos, and all aspects to be taken to their limits and beyond.

It could take centuries to endure and survive but the reward was clear.

Power unrivaled compared to before!

Yet, it was only the beginning once more. Unlike the Immortal Realm tiers, the Divine Realm was a complete step of major realms between tiers! While a Sovereign Tier was a king, they could still be killed by enough Radiant Tiers working together to bring them down.

That was not the same in the Divine Realm. Lind aside, a Journeyman Tier had nothing to fear from Apprentice Tiers. They were simply beyond them.

Thus, the tribulation from one tier to the next was just as horrifying as any ascension tribulation and more.

Lind, however, was a monster. His broad foundation, fortuitous encounters, and harsh life experiences had allowed him to see things deeper than most. Thus, he was able to pierce the relatively normal section of the Journeyman Tier Tribulation.

He accelerated it and easily endured it because his body had been refined and pushed far beyond normal. He had plumbed the depths of his Mysteries and had his existence refined by them fiercely.

The normal tribulations were a waste of time so he fed power into the clouds to accelerate the process and get through it. He had known there was no threat and only benefit there for him.

Now, however, he faced the new addition he could not affect at all.

The Mystery Tribulations. Just as with Daos and Laws before, Divine Realm cultivators added Mysteries to their existence and thus had to face tribulations about them when the time came.

He looked up solemnly as golden lighting began to build in strength across the sky. The black clouds actually took on silver traces and he suspected black ones were hidden in there too.

Just as it was in his dantian, the 3 Mysteries worked together!

He prepared himself as pressure began to push down on him but the pair of Twins to the side had their jaws dropped wide open.

They had seen much in the world over the long lives of the original selves yet never in any record or personal adventure had they seen someone speed run a Divine Tribulation and then treat the most dangerous part as if it was a simple challenge!

Before either could comment, they felt their own existence threatened by the tribulation clouds above! They retreated just as a massive burst of golden lightning bolts struck out to attack Lind!

He had no time to study it as he was standing and then slammed into the metal surface instantly. His body was not taking damage but bursting with vitality! His body bulged with power, strength, and all facets of being alive.

It was chaos. He felt his draconic instincts screaming at him to fight, to fly, to mate, and everything possible. It was like all aspects of being alive were going to tear him apart but he stirred his dantian.

Death and Samsara worked together to temper his body and guide the wild tribulation energy right into his Life layer. It was like trying to tame the core of a world. Forces on par with birthing life for an entire plane filled his meridians and roared into his dantian.

His body burned but slowly the energy merged with his Life layer. He had thought it was bright before but it was now blinding to the point he could not directly look at with his aura even!

He collapsed to the scorched metal beneath his feet but the tribulation waited for no one. Midnight lightning began to gather before he could recover!

He was about to panic when his Life Layer flared and his body was restored at a rate that shocked him. It was not simply regeneration, it was like all aspects that made life possible reached the peak and beyond in an eyeblink!

He suddenly understood why Journeyman Tiers were so terrifyingly powerful. They took a qualitative and quantitative leap in their Mysteries!

How had he been killing them? His harmony was not some all powerful weapon! Something was off with his assumptions but he had no time to ponder as the instant he reached his peak, the black lightning built in power above him.

Where the gold had made the world full of vitality, all the warmth was taken instead and Lind felt the color of the world fade away. Even sound died as the black lighting flashed out from all the clouds.

The world died. It was the only way to describe the sensation and Lind was next. He could not let that energy freely rampage like he had the Life Lightning.

Silver energy answered him but his Life Layer was infinitely harder to command!

The density of the energy was so high it was a miracle he could move it at all but it also drained his newly recovered state!

He just barely created a funnel to suck in the black lightning. It threatened to end him if he did not command it properly. Lind felt his body begin to wither and his vitality was draining away just being exposed to its aura!

He could not afford to delay as the Death Mystery energy flowed in his meridians and into his dantian.

The decay and necrosis began to spread as he was nearly brought to the end of his life at that moment.

He had wondered why Journeyman Tiers were not more numerous than they were and he had his answer.

The tribulation was literally life or death no matter how prepared they were, the final rounds would destroy them if they rushed it at all.

Before the last spark of his life was extinguished, the lighting was fused into his Death Layer. Where the Light Layer blinded, the Death Layer became a void that sucked all inside it without remorse!

His dantian returned to a neutral balance from the brilliance of the Life Layer alone.

Lind was haggard but his vitality was being restored and the world was also coming back from the brink. He noticed the tribulation platform was broken.

The clouds, however, were not done with him.

The clouds shifted color entirely to silver and Lind felt a tremor in his existence. He felt like his once rock solid connection to his life was now a cliff he was barely hanging onto by his fingertips.

He did not wait for the power to keep building as both his Life and Death layers were summoned and as expected, it was infinitely harder to make them listen to him.

Still, the lighting was building and he knew if he was struck, he would be shattered. His existence would be shredded and dispersed back into the cycle of life and death.

The first two had been more at risk of overload by their nature but Samsara was going to completely wipe him from existence if he did not act before it struck.

Just as silver lighting was building he noticed a change to the cloud cover. It was shrinking! The entirety of the last round would be everything left in the tribulation!

Fear began to fill his heart. He was confident after 2 rounds but the power was clearly far beyond the Apprentice Tier!

He swallowed the terror and focused his mind. His emerald harmony responded and added to the Mystery energies intertwining outside his body. The instant he did that, he was nearly exhausted.

His vision dimmed but then blinding silver lightning fell in sheets to crash into him. He heard the crack of metal and knew the platform was destroyed.

He had no time to even sense what might happen before his conjured energies acted. It was like a massive tree that glowed with emerald light.

The dark bark was topped by leafy gold but its roots sucked in the Samsara energy before a root connected to him was unlocked. The energy roared into his body and the connection to his own identity became fragile.

He felt like he was about to fall apart as it slammed into his dantian. The instant his layer got even a drop, all 3 layers flared to life and his vision snapped back to clarity.

He was far more solid than he ever felt before and he grasped why Divine Realm cultivators felt more real than the worlds he had lived in before. Life, Death, and Samsara Layers were the foundation of all existence. To condense and integrate that energy into a cultivator would make them a self contained reality unto themselves!

Exhaustion almost claimed him again as the conjured tree slowly dispersed after the last of the tribulation was processed.

The platform was gone. The sky was clear of any atmosphere that was roaring back from outside to fill the void. He teetered on his feet before it all settled and he felt the next layers unlock.

Heaven, Earth, and Qi awaited him! He was a Journeyman Tier!