Chapter 72: Elaine's Heavenly Tribulation / Volume 3 End!

"This is quite nerve-wracking and unpleasant to be forced to watch on the sideline knowing you can't interfere with the process." Commented Elif with a frown as he stood in the distance and watched Elaine's figure sitting in the middle of an enormous altar while she prepared to break through to the Saint realm and face her first heavenly tribulation.

"Well, now you know how we felt when you did this, but Elaine will be fine. She isn't sitting on the Tribulation Altar for no reason after all." Said Marcus with a slight smile, though you could also sense the nervousness seeping out of him.

"Your words don't sound very convincing with how nervous you are, Marcus." Said Tiana, as she and Tyler were also watching Elaine; however, they seemed very much calm.

"You're no exception either, Maria; you two need to stop being so nervous, if anything were to go wrong, she could easily activate the Tribulation Altar, and because of a certain someone, you can also activate it as well now." Said Tyler while eyeing Elf as he finished speaking.

"Hmph, excuse me for wishing to test my limit, grandfather, but you act like what I did was terrible; nothing even really happened." Replied Elif, casually dismissing Tyler's words.

"Nothing happened? You were literally in a near-death situation, and you call that nothing happened!?" Exclaimed Maria in protest at Elif's casual demeanor.

"Yet, look at me now, Mother, I'm perfectly fine; you wouldn't even be able to tell I had almost died. So really, nothing happened." Answered Elif as Maria almost slapped him, but she stopped when she sensed changes taking place within Elaine.

Sensing the changes within Elaine, we all stopped talking and intently focused on Elaine; a few minutes later, we witnessed Elaine leave the mortal plane and finally step into the true ranks of cultivation after absorbing large amounts of Qi. However, our joy didn't last for long, as shortly after, she advanced to a Saint; the sky up above was quickly getting filled with dark clouds, and as time passed, every now and then, small arcs of lightning would jump out from the sea of dark clouds like a fish before quickly submerging themselves once more.

Eventually, dark clouds completely covered the once bright sky, all eagerly waiting for heaven to rain down their punishments; however, Elaine must've sensed the pressure from above as she opened her eyes not long later and quickly stood up while staring at the sky and when she did so, a lone lightning bolt shot out from the dense sea of clouds to strike Elaine. Unfortunately for that lightning bolt, Elaine had been ready and swiftly ended that lightning bolt's life with a royal elf's palm; however, that attack signaled the start of heaven's arrival, to which began a bombarded of lightning attacks from the dark sea of clouds above.

'Hmm, each of those lightning bolts are striking down with the strength of a peak Saint; however, it seems Elaine is taking care of them easily enough. Though I'm worried about is not Heaven's Arrival, it's Heaven's Descent; that's where it truly gets dangerous.' Thought Elif while watching Elaine casually destroy every lightning attack aimed at her.

With heaven's arrival having transpired for some time, it finally started slowing down on its attacks until the sky was no longer littered with explosions and lightning bolts; however, that just meant the heavenly tribulations' second phase was about to begin, heaven's descent. And as if right one cue, you could see large amounts of lightning converging to a single point directly above Elaine as the first tribulation lightning formed.

Once the lightning bolt had been fully developed, it didn't waste a single moment and instantly shot out from the sea of clouds toward Elaine's head with the strength of an early saint lord; however, even though heaven's descent had started, it was merely the first tribulation lightning, so it was quickly taken care of by Elaine, still, after sensing the strength of the lightning bolt, her scythe swiftly appeared in her hand after destroying it.

Yet, heaven did not rest for a single moment as immediately after the first lightning bolt was destroyed, it began the creation of the second lightning tribulation, and that didn't even take too long as shortly after it was launched out from the dark clouds with more strength than the previous attack. However, just like the one before it, Elaine dealt with it swiftly as she attacked with another royal elf's palm, resulting in the mutual destruction of both attacks.

"Elif, have you toward Elaine your experience with your heavenly tribulation?" Asked Maria, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Yes, I had, but I had lied about me defeating the ninth tribulation lightning; knowing Elaine, she would try to copy me and attempt destroying the last tribulation lightning instead of using the tribulation Altar, and I don't wish for that to happen. Though if I knew you had modified the tribulation Altar, I would've told her the truth." Answered Elif as he watched Elaine defend against the third tribulation lightning.

When the fourth tribulation lightning struck down, instead of using the royal elf's palm like she's done for the last three, I saw her tightly grip her scythe and use the reaper of death against the incoming lightning. Nonetheless, while it did manage to destroy the lightning bolt, just as I predicted, it isn't the best technique to use during a heavenly tribulation. The reason the Reaper of Death is such a powerful technique is because of its ability to erode living beings with death Qi; however, the corrosion ability is significantly dampened when used on an inanimate object with no lifeforce, so it's not very compatible against a lightning bolt, and it seemed Elaine realized that as well from the frown on her adorable face.

The fifth and sixth lightning tribulations were dealt with similarly to the first three, though the sixth lightning tribulation required two attacks instead of the usual one as it struck down with the strength of an early saint king.

With the sixth lightning bolt having been taken care of, Elaine arrives near the end of the heavenly tribulation but also the most dangerous, and with how long it's taking for the seventh tribulation lightning to form compared to the sixth, it's easy to identify the increase in difficulty. After a couple of seconds, the seventh tribulation lightning leaves the safety of the clouds and charges toward Elaine, who instantly attacks with several royal elf's palms in succession after the previous one had been destroyed. Yet, still, the seventh tribulation lightning managed to survive the onslaught of attacks, though not without it being severely weakened to the point where Elaine could finish it off with a swipe of her scythe.

Once the seventh tribulation lightning had been obliterated, the lightning up above began constructing the eighth tribulation lightning, which took several seconds before it finished and stormed towards Elaine, who was already attacking with a royal elf's palm; however, with the eight tribulation lightning being much stronger than the previous one, even after bombarding it with roughly ten royal elf's palm it still survived. With the lightning bolt about to reach Elaine, she gripped her scythe tightly and violently swung it at the approaching lightning bolt with full force, causing a small shockwave to erupt from their collision; the two stayed in a clash for several seconds until, eventually, Elaine finally overpowers the eighth tribulation and slices it in half, but unfortunately not without injuries.

'Luckily, she's okay, but I wish she didn't get hurt.' Thought Elif, wishing all the injuries could be transferred to him so Elaine doesn't have to feel the pain.

With the eighth tribulation lightning having been defeated, the sky above, which is usually active with arcs of lightning snaking across the dark clouds, goes silent before suddenly erupting violently as all the lightning converges to the center and begins forming the ninth and final tribulation lightning; even from here, I can sense the nervousness from Elaine. After waiting for twenty seconds, the ninth tribulation lightning was finally finished. With it radiating the aura of a peak saint king, it violently struck down toward Elaine, who in response attacked with a royal elf's palm until she ran out of Qi, however unfortunately, all of her attacks merely slowed down the lightning bolt before it continued charging towards her at full force.

We saw how Elaine looked visibly frustrated before tapping the medallion hanging to her waist, which caused the formation on the tribulation altar to glow brightly before enclosing Elaine in a transparent barrier. When the lightning bolt collided with the barrier, an explosion went off, and when the dust cleared, not even a scratch was apparent on the barrier. With the last tribulation destroyed, the dark clouds up above quickly dispersed, and the beautiful sunny day returned.

"Congratulations, dear!" Said Tiana as Elaine suddenly appeared in her arms when the barrier disappeared.

"Thanks, grandmother." Replied Elaine while sounding quite frustrated.

"Upset that you couldn't beat the last tribulation lightning?" Asked Tyler with a smile.

"I should've been able to beat, and it's disappointing." Answered Elaine, feeling disappointed in herself.

"No need to dwell on it; you gave everything you had, and that's all you can do; out of the six of us, Elif has been the only one capable of defeating all nine tribulation lightning bolts from the first Heavenly Tribulation." Said Marcus as he tried to cheer Elaine while accidentally exposing Elif.

"Brother? But he said he couldn't beat the ninth tribulation lightning either." Said Elaine, feeling slightly confused, though when she realized no one tried correcting Marcus's statement, she looked over to Elif in slight anger.

'Really, father.' Said Elif blandly via divine sense while dryly staring at Marcus.