Chapter 86: Phoenix and Heavenly Tribulation

Once I'm back inside the spirit realm, the portal below me closes up, and the space returns to normal, though I am too preoccupied with my thoughts to notice.

'They managed to escape from me.' Thought Elif in anger and embarrassment.

"Is everything alright, your highness?" Asked Idonea after seeing Elif stand there silently.

Hearing Idonea call out to me, I stop my train of thought and release a sigh before replying.

"No, but it isn't anything serious. Let us leave this place; I wish to return home quickly." Said Elif after finally managing to suppress his anger as he gave one last look at where the portal was originally before flying into the sky.

As Idonea and I were about to fly away, we stopped as we suddenly sensed a sizeable amount of Qi erupt nearby; looking down, we observed as one of Comet's so-called 'women' seemed to be going through some metamorphosis; bright hot flames were enveloping her body; however, it didn't cause her any harm.

Soon enough, her body had been completely converted into flames, leaving her flesh and blood behind; however, it also seemed to have given her a substantial boost in strength, nothing that could threaten Idonea or me, but otherwise, she was now quite a powerful cultivator in this realm.

"I'LL KILL YOU FOR KILLING MY BELOVED!!" Yelled the fiery woman while crying tears of fire as she tried launching herself toward Elif before again getting pressured to the ground by Idonea.

While I did find her sudden change somewhat interesting, after everything that had just transpired, I was not in the mood to deal with her. However, luckily for her, just when I was about to let Idonea do as she pleased to the women, I saw a black portal appear, and emerging out of it was a giant white Phoenix; its presence caused the vicinity to increase in temperature significantly.

'Hmm, it seems like she must've awakened her Phoenix heritage or something; otherwise, the Divine Phoenix Clan wouldn't send someone down here. Still, I couldn't care less.' Thought Elif as he watched the white Phoenix land beside the women Idonea was pressuring before transforming into a young woman while keeping her hair as white flames.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Prince Elif. Though I must say, I wish the circumstances could've been better." Said the white Phoenix as she stood in front of the women on the ground, causing her to take the brunt of the pressure Idonea released, but it didn't seem like it affected her.

"So do I, and I'm sure, as you can see, I'm currently not in the most energetic mood." Replied Elif as he held back his anger while conversing with the Phoenix, though he still sounded incredibly annoyed.

"Then I won't take up any more of your time; the Phoenix Patriarch has ordered me to retrieve one of our clan's missing descendants, Though it seems like you two currently have some type of conflict." Said the Phoenix as she looked between Elif and the young women behind her, who finally managed to stand up.

"It's fine; you can take her; she's not worth wasting my time on anyways. Besides, I wished to one day visit the Divine Phoenix Clan; I don't wish to create some bad blood between us over something so insignificant." Said Elif, wanting to get this conversation over quickly.

"We, the Divine Phoenix Clan, appreciate your generosity, and I'll relay your words back to the Patriarch, as I'm sure he and the Clan would be greatly delighted to have you as a guest. Until then, this will be farewell, Prince Elif." Said the Phoenix, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the disregard of one of their descendants. Still, she didn't dwell on it and forcefully grabbed the young woman before she could do something stupid and entered the black portal.

With both Phoenix's finally disappearing, Idonea and I quickly left the sect before arriving at the location where the old Demon previously lived. Once inside the cave, I arrived at the area with the large opening before sitting down and began cultivating; hopefully, by the time I finish, my emotions will finally settle down.

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"Are you sure everything is prepared and ready, your highness? There is nothing else I must do?" Asked Idonea worriedly as she looked up at the sky, though everything seemed normal.

"Yes, Idonea, so stop worrying so much. I've already placed the portable Tribulation Altar, and while it may not be as powerful as the one back home, it's more than enough for the Heavenly Tribulation I'm about to attempt." Said Elif as he looked at the small tribulation altar surrounded by large barrels of cherries.

Shaking my head at her nervousness, I landed on the tribulation altar and inputted a few spirit stones to power it the altar, though I don't plan on even using it anyways; it's just there for decoration. Once that's done, I set a few spirit stones near me before I begin cultivating since when I break through to the Divine realm, I will need to absorb a tremendous amount of Qi, and this spirit realm probably couldn't even supply ten percent of my needs.

So with that out of the way, I hovered in the middle of the altar and began cultivating, yet, it didn't take long before I sensed the ethereal dome blocking me from advancing to a Divine.

'Yep, everything's the same as last time, now, all I must do is bypass this ethereal dome, and I'll finally become a Divine; no longer will Marley be considered the leading figure of our generation.' Thought Elif excitedly as he manipulated his Qi to attack the dome, quickly destroying it.

Once the dome had been destroyed, I began absorbing all of the Qi from the spirit stones as fast as possible, and within nearly a minute, my strength had risen by several times, and there was no sign of it stopping any time soon.

Only after roughly five minutes did I finally stop absorbing the Qi from the spirit stones, and doing a quick examination, I estimated that my power had increased by almost one hundred times my previous limit. Once I've gained complete control over my newfound strength, I'll only get stronger.

However, unfortunately, Heaven wasn't just going to let me gain control over my power peacefully; focusing my senses back to reality, I'm suddenly hit with a bombardment of information, forcing me to retract my divine sense back to my body for now.

'Now I somewhat understand what Idonea meant by being able to see a new world. However, until I gain proper control over my power, I'll be forced to keep my senses constrained to my body; otherwise, my mind will be overloaded by information.' Thought Elif, shaking his head before looking up at the dark sky that began striking down with several lightning bolts.

While blocking all of the lightning bolts, I was using this chance to refine the control of my power before the real heavenly tribulation started; however, something suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't thought of before. How was the spirit realm still intact?

With that question, I slowly spread out my senses and tried to see if I could find the answer to my question, and only when heaven's descent had stopped did I finally manage to find the answer. However it shouldn't have taken so long, but with me not having complete control of my senses, I was forced to look through nearly a mountain's worth of information.

'It seems Heaven has separated the area around us and enveloped us in a dimension strong enough to contain a Divine's power. Quite interesting, but I can worry about that later; I need to prepare for the Heavenly Tribulation that's about to come.' Thought Elif as he retracted his senses and prepared for the first lighting bolt that had already been unleashed.

Watching the first tribulation lightning head directly toward me, I waited for it to near me before punching it, quickly destroying it. After experiencing my first heavenly tribulation, I found it to be a waste of time to utilize any of my techniques against the first three lighting bolts; saving that Qi for the final three was much more critical.

So just like the first lighting bolt, the next two lighting bolts were quickly dispatched with a simple punch and kick, respectively; anything more than that would've been overkill, and while I did sustain some damage, it was incredibly minor, just some scratches and slight burn marks.

Summoning Hokori, who I haven't used a single time since arriving in this realm, I unsheathed it and coated the blade in sword aura while striking the incoming lighting bolt, cutting it into different pieces before it dissipated. Just like the fourth lighting bolt, I attacked the same exact way against the next lighting bolt, destroying it as well.

However, I did once again receive some minor injuries, but I was trying my best to save as much Qi as possible, though unfortunately, my plan didn't work against the sixth lighting bolt as I was forced to launch a heavenly scar first to weaken it before finishing it off with Hokori.

'Ninety-five percent full, definitely better than last time, and that should make a large difference.' Thought Elif while looking up at the dark clouds as they formed the seventh lightning bolt.

Seeing the seventh lightning bolt leave the clouds and charge directly at me, I brought Hokori above my head before slashing it down while launching a decently powerful heavenly scar at the incoming lightning bolt. As I was still trying to save as much Qi as possible for the final tribulation lightning, my attack only caused it to lose enough strength to where I could defeat it by only using my physique.

Once it arrived near me, the lightning bolt and I got into a stalemate for a short while until I eventually managed to overpower it and slice it in half; unfortunately, I sustained quite a bit of injuries on my arm. Inspecting the burn marks on my arm, I sighed before shifting my attention back to the dark clouds as they formed the eighth tribulation lighting.

When heaven launched the eighth lighting bolt toward me, I swiftly attacked with a powerful royal elf's palm, followed by another heavenly scar, all while hoping to significantly weaken it, which I achieved; now, all I have to do is destroy it. Even though I had weakened the lightning bolt, it still took a tremendous amount of effort to destroy it using only my physique, and in the process, I once again suffered injuries while worsening the already present ones.

'An Elf's physique really isn't their strong point, huh.' Thought Elif as he quickly scanned his body to understand the extent of his injuries.

Although I was now quite injured, it was mainly superficial wounds, except for some bone fractures; other than that, nothing serious, and most importantly, nothing that'll interfere with the last tribulation lightning.

Watching the dark clouds up above as it created the ninth and final tribulation lighting, I copied its actions and began manifesting my largest and strongest royal elf's palm to date, utilizing almost all of my remaining Qi. Though the process took much longer than I was used to as, once again, the control of my power plummeted with the sudden influx of strength; luckily, heaven gave me just enough time to finish the attack before it sent the ninth lightning bolt.

Sensing the terrifying power of the ninth lightning bolt as it speedily headed toward me, I launched my giant purple palm at the incoming lightning bolt. The moment they collided, they were forced into a stalemate, neither one of them advancing an inch. Yet, I could see that my palm was getting filled with cracks as time went on, which I expected as I didn't believe my one attack would've destroyed the lightning bolt.

Eventually, after several seconds, the purple palm, which was filled with fissures and cracks, could no longer hold on and succumbed to the might of the night tribulation lighting as it continued its charge toward Elif; however, you could tell it was significantly slower than before.

While my attack didn't destroy it, it did manage to greatly weaken it, but the lightning bolt's power was still equivalent to the previous tribulation lighting; not something I would want to take head-on, as though while I'm confident I will survive, it won't be without severe injuries. So using the little amount of Qi I still had remaining, I attacked with heavenly scars until I no longer had any Qi left at my disposal.

'Tch, even after all the improvements I've made from the last Heavenly Tribulation, this lighting bolt still has more strength than the seventh Tribulation lightning, albeit not by much, but still, this is going to hurt.' Thought Elif as he tightly gripped Hokori and struck the incoming lighting bolt with his sword, stopping its advance.

For what felt like several minutes, me and the lightning bolt struggled against each other, neither one able to beat the other, though unfortunately, only one of us could feel pain. After finally being fed up with this stalemate, I channeled all the sword aura covering Hokori into the tip of my sword before compressing it and launching it at the lighting bolt that would constantly zap me.

My attack hardly did anything other than create a small hole in the lighting, but using that as an opportunity, I stuck the hand holding Hokori into that hole before covering it in sword aura again, causing it to ravage the inside of the lighting bolt until it was eventually destroyed.

Once the lighting bolt was finally destroyed, I stabbed Hokori into the ground and used him to prop myself up as I looked at the vanishing dark clouds with a smirk.