The Trial Stage 7

Maria is currently just walking around the World of Ice. It's not that she has defeated all of the beasts here that she can just rest, but just that she couldn't even fight them or couldn't find them. She killed all of the Mid-Stage magical beasts in the area and most of the most Late-Stage beasts. She was also able to get in a fight with a Peak-Stage but wasn't able to kill it. The stronger Late-Stage beasts had watched her fight and slaughter all of the other beasts, so they ran off to hide until she went away. With them being of the ice element, they were able to traverse the terrain here much better than Maria. While they were hiding, she decided to attack one of the Peak-Stage magical beasts but it seemed to have no intention to fight as it just kicked her away then skated off. They wouldn't go hide, but it seemed to be saying that fighting each other wasn't worth it. Maria tried to attack again, but this time another one snuck up behind her and slashed her back pretty good. It wasn't able to kill her in one hit and knew that it would still be a tough battle with 2 of them, so they just looked at her and waited for her to leave.

Maria reluctantly walked away and is currently just wandering around the area, bored. Then she finally heard the voice that will take her out of this place.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 6 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 7."

"FINALLY!" Maria yelled as she got dragged away to another world.

"Welcome to Stage 7. Stage 7 is the World of Lightning. Use this place to temper yourself as well as understand the element of lightning. Survive this place for 30 days to reach the next stage. Begin!" The mechanical voice informed her again, but Maria felt it was shorter than before.

As soon as it finished speaking though, Maria got struck by lightning!

"AAAHHHH!! What the hell?!" Maria screamed in pain as the lightning coursed through her body.

The first thing the lightning did was strike her heart as it tried to kill her. The beating of her heart started to slow down more and more as lightning energy started to gather there. Her heartbeat got to the point that it barely beat once every minute. She was just barely alive right now. After all of the lightning energy from that lightning strike condensed in her heart, it now exploded out to the rest of her body!

"UUUuuurrgh!! What! Is! THIS?!?" Maria yelled in pain as she gritted her teeth. She felt like she just got smitten from the Heavens!

The lightning energy started to rampage through her body. It went through her meridians and started to destroy the Qi she had in them and the heat that radiated from the lightning started to melt her meridians. It traveled through her blood as well as it started to eat away her blood causing her to get extremely pale and shrivel up. It then went through the rest of her body and started to eat away any remaining energy that was stored in her bones, muscles, organs, and even the marrow.

The lightning had destroyed every bit of energy in her body and started to wreak havoc on the rest. Maria became paler and paler until her breathing became ragged and then stopped altogether. Her heart then stopped beating!

Maria died!!

She collapsed on the ground and her shriveled-up body just lay, lifeless.

Then another lightning strike came, but this one was a bolt of bright gold lightning. Maria had felt like she was struck by the heavens, but this strike looked like the Heaven's itself.

This strike came crashing down onto Maria's body. This lightning strike was full of vitality and energy, not like the last lightning strike that only caused destruction. The lightning forcefully entered her heart and forced it to beat again. Once her heart was beating again, the lightning energy then flooded her body like an ocean crashing into a desert.

It first entered her blood vessels and started to fill them up, but the blood that was being produced now had a hint of golden lightning coursing through it. The golden lightning then made its way into her meridians that were melting. It flooded it with energy, which caused her meridians to constantly expand to hold all of this extra energy that now flooded them. Her meridians looked like they might explode, but they reached the maximum size before they started to harden again as that torrential lightning was not trying to destroy them anymore. This lightning energy then made its way into the rest of her body. Her muscles, organs, bones, and marrow were being replenished with this golden lightning energy. Her muscles that were shriveled up started to expand to their original state, but now they also contained more Qi in them than before. The same thing happened to the rest of her body. Her bones that were starting to crack and dry up now had a vitality to them that wasn't previously there. The marrow in her bones started to refill with the lightning energy as they started to produce blood again, but this time they were crackling a bit with golden lightning coursing through them. Her internal organs also held more Qi in them than before. They become a bit tougher and were now able to withstand the pressure of the Qi in her body better.

Maria's whole body now shone in a grand golden light as it became revitalized with unkempt power now. She even looked more beautiful than before too! Her face started to have a sharper look to it, but still held onto her gentle-youthfulness. She looked like a Goddess of Light right now as her shoulder-length golden blonde hair started to grow as it went down to the middle of her back. Her skin didn't turn to a beautiful jade-like color like Mira's but turned into a golden-jade color that shined brightly.

The lightning energy had completely returned her body back to full health and more. She still laid there unconscious, but every beat of her heart caused lightning to course through her body.

*THUMP*

Her body had now fully integrated with the energy that was used to revive her!

*THUMP*

All of her organs in her body started to get back to work as they did their best to repair any injuries with excess energy.

*THUMP*

Any hidden injuries in her body were completely healed and her body tried to wake her up.

*THUMP*

Maria's eyes started to flutter. After a second or two, she began to open her eyes as a golden light shone through them briefly. Her eyes were blue, but now they had streaks of gold in them.

"Huuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaa *cough* *Cough*" Maria took in a huge breath.

"FUCK!!! What the hell was that?! I nearly died! These stages are nothing, but HELL! What did the lightning even d-" Maria screamed, but stopped herself as she checked her body.

The first thing she noticed was her skin. It had become more Jade-like but now had a hint of gold in it as well. She then realized that her body had an immense amount of power in it, power that was screaming to come out! She felt like her meridians held much more Qi in them than before and her blood was running through her body with immense vitality! She could feel tiny jolts of energy every time her heartbeat, like part of it, was lightning.

She then felt that her head was a little heavier and noticed that her hair went down to the middle of her back. She also felt like she got more beautiful as well.

"Was this something like… a rebirth? I feel like I was just reborn and the potential that my body held is now being fully utilized. All of the untouched power that my body held, the tempering from the last 7 stages, my Stage 3 Qi Condensation have all started to integrate. I feel like I can use the power that my body was supposed to have now.

Maria immediately took out her sword and used her Triple Draws sword with 50% of her energy and used all of her strength. She raised her sword and swung down. She just aimed for the ground and slashed!

*BOOM**CRACK*

Her sword penetrated the ground by about 40 centimeters and caused the ground around her to crack.

"What… is this power? Why am I so strong? What exactly happened?" Maria asked but received no answer. She would only get answers when she asked the caretaker after she was finished.

*CRACKLE**CRACKLE**BOOM*

Maria heard a rumbling sound above her as she looked up and saw a green lightning strike crash down on her.

"AARrrrghh!! AGAIN?! WHY?" Maria screamed in pain again, but this lightning energy didn't seem as harmful to her body as the first lightning strike. This lightning rampaged through her body as it ate up and destroyed anything that didn't have this lightning energy flowing through it. The only difference was this lightning would help to replenish the energy that it ate and destroyed. It also wasn't as effective as this single lightning strike was incomparable to the first and second ones. The effectiveness of this strike wasn't even 1% of the previous 2. Maria started to have an ominous premonition of the next 30 days. She hoped that she wasn't continuously struck by lightning for the next 30 days.

***

Mira was currently sitting on a throne of ice in this Ice World. She had killed all of the beasts here as well. There were no Peak-Stage Rank 2 Magical Beasts for her in this stage like Maria, but Mira was also able to kill all of the Late-Stage Rank 2 beasts here. Mainly because it was just a bad match-up. The more she fought in this world and against the various ice beasts, the more she began to understand the uses of ice. She was able to skate on the ice with, she tried to make a domain of ice but lacked understanding, she tried to control the beasts' ice but again lacked understanding in the Dao, she wanted to condense her ice but lacked the understanding to do so. She WAS able to make it so she can use ice as a binding tool. She then began to think about what ice does.

Ice doesn't just freeze things or condense things. Yes, it does that, but that is only a basic understanding of Ice and has no originality. Ice isn't like a fire that can only burn, but it can bring the sensation of burning when it gets cold enough. It's like water, but just a more intense form of it. If ice is condensed enough then it can be hard like earth. When ice gets cold enough it can freeze the air and wind around it. In non-cultivation worlds, ice is the cause of lightning strikes. The freezing temperatures of ice were there in the beginning and worlds will return to that state in the end. Mira also remembered a term she heard in her previous life. When something is so cold that nothing can get colder than it. That term is absolute-zero. Absolute. Some people call the absolute, God, others think of it as a fact. But the absolute is something that is not dependent on anything other than itself. Humans put their standards on things and say that good and evil are absolutes of the world, but a true absolute doesn't care about that. There is no good or bad, before or after, beginning or end, to something that is absolute. If the universe were to disappear, the absolute would stay. When an absolute wants something, then everything around it doesn't have a choice other than to obey.

Mira had an epiphany. Mira needs to reach the peak! She needs to hold the absolute! She's been played with for hundreds of years. The 'god' that is screwing with her soul, the pain of killing herself because she didn't want to be defiled. The immense loss that she's felt over the years. The inability to control her life!

"I'm SICK OF IT!!" Mira yelled in rage.

"I will make sure this fucking multiverse fears my name!! The only way to make that happen is to go down the path of absolute! The only Dao path that will only ever fit me for any element will be the absolute! I will go down the Absolute Ice Dao path. There shall be nothing out of my control!" Mira yelled in indignation.

Something inside Mira clicked at this point. She felt that the bottleneck she had faced before had finally started to open up a path. She wasn't able to get past it as the path of the absolute is not an easy one. Mira will have to constantly try to gather insights about this Dao, but when she finally passes through this first bottleneck, she can only imagine the power that her ice will hold then.

After this feeling passed, she heard the mechanical voice again.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 6 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 7."

She was then dragged to another world and listened to the mechanical voice again before she could look around.

"Welcome to Stage 7. Stage 7 is the World of Lightning. Use this place to temper yourself as well as understand the element of lightning. Survive this place for 30 days to reach the next stage. Begin!" The voice said to Mira.

'No beasts?' Mira thought before she heard an extremely terrifying sound above. This was the sound of death! All of the hairs on her body stood up as she looked up towards the source of the sound. She saw deep black lightning rampaging through a golden-black cloud that blocked out the entire sky of this world.

*CRACKLE**CRACKLE*

"Fuuc-!"

*BOOM*

Mira was struck by this lightning as any resistance she tried to put up was immediately destroyed. The black lightning immediately started to gather in her heart as it did for Maria. Her heartbeat slowed down and came to a point where she was barely alive. When she reached this point, the lightning energy had completely gathered in her heart before it exploded out of it and rampaged in her body.

"Fuck! What... is… This?!" Mira tried to scream out, but could barely get the words out.

The lightning started rampaging through her meridians destroying all of the Qi in them, then melting her meridians. She felt her meridians becoming like melting rubber. They started to become very malleable and sticky. After the lightning ate all of the energy in her meridians, then it moved towards her blood.

The black lightning traveled through her blood and started to destroy any blood that was in her body. Mira's body started to shrivel up like an old woman and she became extremely pale. Mira was on death's door right now, but her sheer willpower was keeping her conscious through this ungodly pain. After there was no more blood in her body, the next thing the black lightning went towards was her bones.

Mira's bones were a bit unique due to her Extreme Yin Physique, but the lightning still entered them and started to destroy any energy in them. The bones started to dry up and crack and the lightning began to leave towards her organs, muscles, and marrow.

Mira had stopped breathing and her heart stopped beating at this point, she was dead. Well, she should be, but there was a part of her body that refused to take this lying down. Her physique reacted with the black lightning as it finished off all of the energy. It was something akin to the lightning returning to the source. The friction caused by the lightning in her icy bones caused tiny sparks of lightning to sprout. These were small, ice blue lightning sparks, but the destructive black lightning reacted to it and latched onto her bones. The black lightning flowed through all of the bones in her body as it latched onto the blue lighting in it. After the black lightning connected to her bones, the black lightning now had thick streaks of icy-blue lighting coursing through it. The black lightning continued its rampage through Mira's body, but the blue lightning in it started to add her physique to the rest of her body. Even though Mira was dead right now, she started to exude a freezing aura around her that only became thicker as time went on.

The black-blue lightning traveled to her marrow, organs, and muscles. The energy in her body was getting destroyed completely, but after all of the energy in them was gone, they started to turn blue as the blue lightning coursed through her entire body. This didn't give her any energy but would allow her to utilize her Ice Dao smoother as if it was a part of her being.

After her body was devoid of energy, the black lightning was completely used up, but something unexpected happened. When her body didn't have any more black lightning rampaging through it, the blue lightning stepped up. Her bones lit up with a bolt of icy lightning that started to grow and grow until it was like an explosion that caused every part of her body to start coursing with this blue lightning. Her entire being was being turned into a vessel for ice. Her muscles, organs, marrow, bones, meridians, blood vessels, even part of her skin. Her Jade-like skin, which is shriveled up right now, started to give off a hint of an icy blue-white Jade. Even shriveled up, looked extremely beautiful. Her hair also changed a bit. It went from shiny silver to icy silver.

After her body finished its transformation, even her shriveled-up body gave off a feeling of icy dread.

Right after that was done the sky started to crackle with golden lightning.

*CRACKLE**CRACKLE**BOOM*

Mira's body was struck with this golden lightning. The energy from the lightning started to gather in her heart. Her now, icy-blue heart, was filling up with golden lightning energy. After all of it gathered in her heart, it didn't do the same thing it did for Maria. The icy lightning still coursed through her body and it found a new source of energy to latch itself onto. The blue lightning intertwined with the golden lightning energy in her heart. After the blue and gold lightning were connected, they shot out towards Mira's blood vessels. It started to repair her vessels and fill started to start trying to fill it up with new blood. Except for this blood now had a bluish hue to it with thin strands of blue lightning coursing through it.

After new blood started to fill up her blood vessels, it went for her Meridians. Her meridians were like a burnt flat tire and the energy that coursed through it was airing it up with Qi. Her meridians began expanding as they were filled with an Icy Qi. The icy Qi started to strengthen her meridians at the same time as well. They were able to expand to greater widths because the durability was increasing as they were expanding. They then reached a point where they might burst if any more Qi filled her meridians.

The blue and gold lightning finished healing and filling up her meridians when it turned to her bones, marrow, organs, and muscles. The golden-blue energy began to rush into every part of her body as the icy aura and Qi that Mira's body was releasing increased.

Her muscles, organs, bones, and marrow were being replenished with this golden-blue lightning energy. Her muscles that were shriveled up started to expand to their original state, but now they also contained more Qi in them than before. This was the same Icy Qi that was in her meridians, not the golden Qi that filled up Maria's body. The same thing happened to the rest of her body. Her bones that were starting to crack and dry up now had a vitality and coldness to them that wasn't previously there. The marrow in her bones started to refill with the icy lightning energy as they started to produce blood again, but this time they were crackling a bit with icy blue lightning coursing through them. Her internal organs also held more Qi in them than before. They become a bit tougher and were now able to withstand the pressure of the Qi in her body better.

Unlike Maria's body that shone with golden light at this point, Mira's body was freezing everything around her with magnificent Icy-blue light and aura. It was like the Goddess of Ice was just born, no something even greater than that! Her cute and childish face now had a cold and sharp look, but it still kept some of her childish features. Her skin was now an icy jade look. It was not an icy-blue, but more like the clear ice that had the hint of blue when the light hit it just right. Her hair also turned into this icy silver and gave off a cold feeling.

Mira still lay there unconscious as the remaining energy coursed through her body to complete her metamorphosis, but now her heartbeat started to affect the surrounding area.

*THUMP**SWOOSH*

As her heart beat, her aura expanded further out of her body as it caused a mini blizzard of ice to swirl around her.

*THUMP*

Icicles started to form in the air around Mira as she unconsciously created a domain around her. The icy lightning coursed through her body as it revitalized all of her internal organs.

*THUMP*

Her blood began pumping from her heart and her marrow began producing blueish-red blood that coursed through her body. All of her previous injuries were also healed.

*THUMP*

The domain of ice around Mira expanded once more before it condensed and retreated back inside Mira's body. When this ice domain completely assimilated with her body, there was an explosion of energy that came out of her body. Mira's eyes then began to flutter open. When her eyes opened, a blue light crossed through them. One could also see tiny blue veins in her wine-red eyes.

"Huuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaa!" Mira took in a huge breath as she woke up.

She took a couple of deep breaths to make sure she was alive and that she was still in this body. She knew that she had died right there, but her consciousness and soul didn't leave her body. She let out a faint smile as she was still alive in this body. She was unwilling to leave this body and current life. This would be her best chance to make it to the peak.

Mira then checked her body and was happily surprised by what she immediately saw. Her skin was now an icy jade color and incomparably smooth. Mira started to stretch and heard a bunch of pops from her bones and joints as they got used to moving. The next thing she realized was that she seemed to constantly release a frigid aura. She couldn't even control it. The temperature around her was just constantly cold. Mira tried to create an Ice Needle and was able to form one over 2 times faster than before and the needle was denser and sharper as well. She then gasped her scythe. Not only did she feel her connection with it increase, but when she added the second blade at the bottom, she noticed that she contained much more Qi in her meridians than before and that her Qi also contained that frigid aura.

The last thing she noticed was that the rest of her body contained more Qi in it than before and that her entire being was like a vessel to use the power of ice. She felt like the potential of her body was unlocked and was assimilating. She felt unbound power that she previously didn't have, but her thoughts got interrupted when she heard crackles in the sky above and notice green lightning coursing through the clouds. Mira stored her scythe and spread out her arms and sneered towards the sky.

"Hehe. Come!" Mira yelled as the green lightning came crashing down onto her body.

This lightning rampaged through her body as it ate up and destroyed anything that didn't have this lightning energy flowing through it, but the blue lightning in her body latched itself onto this green lightning. It was even able to intertwine itself into half of the lightning as it was much weaker. The green lightning was supposed to help replenish the energy it destroyed, but the icy lightning took that job over and left the job of destroying the energy to the green lightning. This helped to increase the efficiency of the lightning just a bit. The effectiveness of this strike still wasn't even 2% of the previous 2 though.

'So this is what the next 30 days will entail. Good! Keep it coming!' Mira thought as lightning continued to flow through her body.

***

Maria and Mira were having two totally different experiences. Maria was suffering the painful torture of lightning strikes that would take hundreds of strikes to become useful. While Mira was enjoying her nice green lightning bath as her icy aura grew as more of her physique assimilated with the rest of her body.

After a very long and tortuous 30 days, Maria finally heard the voice of the mechanical angel!