18 It's not Enough?! Ahh! A Tribulation Cloud!

Ke YongAn felt disoriented for a moment. The first thing she heard was the trickling of water. Lights of different colours flickered all over the place, and the clear pond in the middle caught Ke YongAn's attention.

What a nice place...Since Ke YongAn's cultivation wasn't that high, she had to wade into the spring, her clothes uncomfortably sticking to her skin.

The pool was quite shallow, allowing Ke YongAn to sit in a lotus position with the water tickling her neck.

She began to cultivate.

With the pure Qi source, it didn't take that long to refine as it continued to be absorbed into her lower dantian. However, as the liquified Qi began to disappear, the water level began to recede. Ke YongAn successfully advanced to the 9th rank, but she didn't stop there.

The pond's water was drained until only half of it remained, yet Ke YongAn still did not feel as though she would break through. So she continued to absorb.

Of course, if others saw this scene, they would feel extreme pain in their hearts, and undelterated shock. Had anyone heard of one wastefully using such a source to advance in cultivation? Each drop was equivalent to a thousand gold. No one had heard they needed this much to breakthrough into the 9 passages realm.

Most of the time, one only needed a few drops, depending on how pure the Qi was. It was even possible to break-through with just one drop.

As the pond was drained to only one-third of its size, Ke YongAn felt worried.

"Is this not enough?"

First of all, there was something in her dantian that greedily absorbed half of the intake. Second of all, it seemed the thing was admanant at widening her lower Dantian, causing her to need more Pure Qi to equal the amount it was expanding by. It was in an endless cycle of her dantian feeling full, but at the next moment, needing more to fill.

Just as Ke YongAn was about to give up her efforts to breakthrough into the 9 passages Stage, the sky seemed to suddenly darken overhead. Lightning flickered in its depths.

Ke YongAn looked up, feeling appalled. What kind of phenomenon occured for the sky to react this way? It was here that Ke YongAn finally felt her cultivation base rise once again.

Everyone in the palace noticed this phenomenon at once, ceasing their work. They knew this was a tribulation cloud, but they did not know who was breaking through.

As for Emperor Huang ZiYun, he knew a little more than others. For one, although this was a tribulation cloud, it was too weak to be for a Spirit Awakening Stage traversing to the Spiritual Seas Level. He was curious about this case. It had been countless years since he had personally saw this scene. Emperor Huang ZiYun showed a rare expression of melancholy. Brother...are you still doing okay?

However, Emperor Huang ZiYun was unable to sense who was undertaking this trial because of Heaven's interference. All Emperor Huang ZiYun knew was that the person breaking through was in his palace.

Could it be? A possibility of who it was flitted across Huang ZiYun's mind, but despite that, he decided it was unlikely.

Meanwhile, Ke YongAn sat passively in the pond, diligently absorbing the Qi. Suddenly, she paused and her brain began to draw circles. Wait. If this source is rare in the world, and I just absorbed all of it, wouldn't Emperor Huang ZiYun beat me up? Ke YongAn paled at the thought, but what was done was done.

Knowing that she was slipping out of a meditative state and could potentially cause a Qi Deviation, Ke YongAn focused on the task at hand. Thunder began to rumble, and the wind began to pick up. It seemed to be in accordance to Ke YongAn and her rising cultivation base that was now a sliver away from the 9 Passages Stage.

The first bolt of lightning stuck down, and Ke YongAn, who was unprepared, looked up in surprise. She hastily guarded her vital organs with Qi, but still sustained heavy damage. Blood leaked out of her mouth and her body twitched maddly from the infused lightning. Ke YongAn could barely feel her burning limbs.

However, she had no time to rest for a second lightning bolt stuck down! This one was twice as large as the last one, but Ke YongAn was prepared this time. She guarded and fortified her internal organs with Qi, as she could not use Qi outside of her body.

The lightning bolt came in contact with Ke YongAn, and although the lightning tribulation was still significantly weak compared to those for the Spirit Awakening Stage, it was still powerful to the Qi Strengthening Stage practitioners. Therefore, Ke YongAn's body trembled from the pressure as the aftershock of the lightning hit her internal organs. Ke YongAn coughed up blood once again, in intense pain.

However, there still seemed to be another lightning bolt simmering within the cloud. Ke YongAn looked up incredulously while fortifying her organs with Qi yet again. Do I have to sit through all 3 sets?!

Ke YongAn could not get up from her spot for a myriad of reasons. One. The Pond area was small, and if she moved out, there was a chance to ruin the surroundings. There was also the problem of creating a blockage for her Qi to travel around. If she stood up and moved around while sending Qi to her internal organs, because of the sudden harder-to-control Qi, she might end up injuring herself. Of course, she could still send Qi to fortify her organs when standing up, but that would take a longer time.

Goshdarnit...Why didn't she learn a Qi skill when she could?

Ke YongAn was unable to wallow in her regret as the third lightning bolt advanced. Her face drained all colour at the size of it. She didn't know if she would live or die from this.

In this last stand, Ke YongAn did not care about anything anymore and swung her fist forward. Actually, perhaps she would had a better survival chance without swinging her measly fist forward.

And, the lightning invaded her body, causing havoc. Ke YongAn fainted from the pain, her limbs ragdolling and spasming on the ground.

Just as the lightning reached her three dantians, there were two resistances. Both began to drive out most of the lightning, leaving the essense to fight against the two. However, contrary to all expectations, the two things began to compete each other to absorb the lightning!

As if scared, the lightning sensed this threat and wanted to flee, but it was too late.

Devoured, the lightning ceased to exist. The activity in two of her dantians began to calm down, leaving a bloodied Ke YongAn behind.

A small thingy

Ke YongAn: So stingy! Why don't you heal me?!

There is no reply.

Huang Xing: How come I don't have these powers when I was inside her body?!

There is no reply.

Emperor Huang ZiYun: Brother? Is this what you left behind?

There is still no reply.

Ke YongAn, Huang Xing and Emperor Huang ZiYun: ...

The things inside the dantians: ...(we can't speak or anything. What did you expect us to say?)