D.C.Haenlien

  A five-petaled lotus appeared above Tianyi's head, and the thinning of the tribution clouds stopped. The crackling clouds grew denser and denser, and the bckness reached the point that it no longer resembled a cloud but a hole in the sky. It was as if the previous tributions clouds had just been a glimpse of what was to come. The rumbling thunder became silent as it was repced by vibrations that seemed to shake the very earth.

  It wasn't just the physical aspect of the heavenly tribution that changed but the spiritual aspect as well. The majestic pressure crushed down even those outside the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribution. Mengfei and the Unity Realm elders were fine under the crushing pressure, but sweat dotted Daoyi's forehead. Her skin paled, and her breathing became impaired as if there was a stone crushing her chest. Mengfei gnced at her disciple, and a barrier was erected in front of Daoyi that shielded her from the abnormal pressure.

  Elder Shan was only slightly better, but his true qi became slightly erratic under the pressure of the heavenly tribution. His nascent soul felt as if it was beginning to destabilize, causing him to frown. His body began releasing a medicinal scent and vital qi. At the same time, the stifling pressure was alleviated.

  "Strange, the heavenly tribution should have already been over. Why does it seem that Junior Nephew Tianyi is undergoing another heavenly Tribution." One of the spectating elders said.

  "The abnormal occurrences started to happen as soon as the white lotus appeared. It seems to be Junior Nephew Tianyi's Nascent Soul?"

  "Strange, very strange. The orthodox nascent soul of a cultivator should be human in form unless Junior Nephew Tianyi is practicing soul cultivation as well? Only a soul cultivators are able to form nascent soul that is different from their appearance."

  "Spiritual, martial, and soul. Grand Elder Xi's son sure is ambitious. But this doesn't expin why the tribution clouds have not dispersed."

  "When Junior Nephew Tianyi formed his spiritual core, it was nine, and he had to undergo nine Core Formation Heavenly Tribution. This time, it seems that Junior Nephew Tianyi is going to do something simir."

  "Nascent Soul isn't the same as a spiritual core. Even if Junior Nephew Tianyi has nine spiritual cores, that should not give him the ability to form multiple nascent souls."

  "Perhaps not, but soul cultivation is esoteric. Do you have any insight, Elder Jiao?"

  Elder Jiao gnced at her fellow Unity Realm elders and contempted before speaking. "There are cases of soul cultivators splitting their soul when their nascent soul formed to form soul clones. But that isn't a normal method. I don't think Junior Nephew Tianyi will take such an action at such a critical juncture."

  "Perhaps, it is another simir circumstance. Grand Elder Xi must have given some pointers. As expected of the peak immortal of the Huang Realm."

  "It is a pity that we were not able to witness Junior Nephew Tianyi's abilities. He doesn't need to compete for resources in the sect, and rather than compete in a tournament, Junior Nephew Tianyi would rather spectate."

  "Has junior nephew Tianyi even sparred with anyone in the sect?"

  At this question, many of the elders fell silent as they tried to find an instance of Tianyi actually fighting with someone in the sect.

  "I heard that a disciple of an elder requested to have a sword spar with Junior Nephew Tianyi. The result was that he lost in a few rounds."

  "I'm surprised Junior Nephew Tianyi was able to reach this stage without any battles."

  "Back then, I heard Grand Elder Xi had constantly been adventuring."

  Suddenly, one of them pointed at Tianyi, diverting their conversation. "Look! Junior Nephew Tianyi's lotus nascent soul is showing change!"

  On the white lotus above Tianyi's head, tiny light balls had formed on each of the five petals. Each light was a different color: red, bck, yellow, green, and white.

  Slowly the different colored lights began to shape into a form with a head, two arms, and two legs. Each one took the form of an adolescent, not even five years old yet. All five had the exact same face as each other. They all resembled Tianyi when he was at their age.

  The only difference was the color the robes each wore, all of them corresponding to the light they had once been. Even the coronet atop their heads was the same. It was like a little child trying to dress and act like an adult, Tianyi's spitting image when he was that age.

  Adorable, really.

  As the five robed children formed and their figure's translucency turned more solid, the lotus petal below them began to grow faint in reverse. The five-petaled white lotus began to wither. The white lotus formed by Tianyi in preparation to form his nascent soul was now used to nurture his five new nascent souls.

  Each one of Tianyi's nascent soul emitted a different sort of aura: the red-robed nascent soul emitted a fiery aura, the bck-robed nascent soul emitted a watery aura, the green-robed nascent soul emitted a forest-like aura, the white-robed nascent soul emitted a metallic aura, and the yellow-robed nascent soul emitted an earthen aura.

  Each nascent soul was a one-colored nascent soul. Ordinarily, a one-colored would spell the end of a cultivator's immortal path, but Tianyi had five one-colored nascent souls, each one corresponding to one of the five elements.

  When a cultivator formed a nascent soul, the number of colors it contained represented its potential. One-colored was the worst and meant that their path had ended, while five-colored was supreme, and as long they do not perish, attaining unity was all but assured.

  Although Tianyi had five nascent souls, he had encompassed all five elements that a five-colored nascent soul would possess. Although each one seemed to only be a one-colored nascent soul, with but a thought, Tianyi could easily convert the element they represented. This meant that while each of his nascent souls was a one-colored nascent soul, they were also five-colored nascent souls simultaneously.

  Not all five-colored nascent souls were supreme. Some were even inferior to three-colored nascent souls. The most crucial aspect of multicolored nascent souls was the bance between each element. The more banced they were, the more perfect the nascent soul.

  Xia Yushan, due to his proficiency in the Five Element Sword Arts, had attained a supreme five-colored nascent soul. The Five Element Methods cultivation manuals were perfect in forming the perfect nascent soul. A violet-gold core formation master who formed a five-colored nascent soul might not be superior to a gold core formation master who used the Five Element Method to form their five-colored nascent soul.

  Even if Tianyi didn't cultivate the Five Element Method, this didn't prevent him from learning it. He had already learned the Primordial Heavenly Scripture and the incomplete versions of the Soulheart Heavenly Scripture, Timeless Heavenly Scripture, and Spatial Heavenly Scripture, so it would be a shame not to learn the Five Element Method descended from the Five Phases Heavenly Scripture.

  As the white lotus entirely withered and disintegrated into tiny motes of light, the five nascent souls all opened their eyes. Their eyes held countless fshes of lightning. A single gnce would cause a mortal to suffer an attack upon their soul.

  The five nascent souls sunk into Tianyi and appeared above his Dragon Yin Pearl Core in a circle. Once they appeared there, the stability of the true qi of chaos became even sturdier. Before, there was still a slight leakage of true qi from Tianyi's body. But now, if Tianyi so wished to, those of the same realm would not be able to discern his cultivation base. He could even completely hide his cultivation and appear mortal to those weaker than him with enough effort.

  The inside of Tianyi's body, the cosmos became more natural with the addition of the five nascent souls, and he could feel that his true qi's potency became even more powerful. The thing that made Tianyi happy the most was the feeling of weightlessness. Until this point, his body still had pressure, slight as it was, from his inability to control his true qi of chaos perfectly.

  Even when he created his martial cultivation method, the force of the true qi and spacetime cshed and negated each other. Because of this, although Tianyi's body was no longer in danger of exploding, he felt as if there was a discrepancy between his thoughts and movements.

  Tianyi rested his cheek on his palm as he gazed upwards at the Heavenly Tribution clouds. There was a damnable smirk on his face that was just asking for a beating.

  "I guess forming five nascent souls after fracturing a nascent soul in the process was a bit too much of a loophole even for the Heavenly Dao." Tianyi light said. As if in response, the tribution clouds rumbled and caused the earth to shake even more.

  Tianyi stood up and dusted his robes and gazed furiously at the Heavenly Tribution; his face was saying, "bring it."

  The pure bck tribution clouds thundered with golden light as a strike of bck lightning struck the ground a few hundred meters in front of Tianyi.

  It wasn't a meaningless move.

  Where the lightning struck, a giant composed of tribution lightning stood. Its golden body crackled as the lightning streaked across its skin. The tribution clouds no longer looked as dark after sending summoning the lightning giant.

  The second strike of lightning struck down. The giant of lightning was now covered in armor composed of bck lightning. The third strike, a crown adorned the giant's head. The fourth strike, the tribution giant grasped a sword of lightning in its hand. And the fifth strike, a divine dragon with two horns and a flowing white beard wrapped around the tribution giant. The lightning dragon roared at Tianyi in a provocating manner.

  The tribution cloud became almost ash in color, having lost a significant amount of its power from forming the tribution giant. But it still hovered in the sky as if to pass judgment.

  "This...is new. I never heard of the Heavenly Tribution having this form. Although the inner devil tribution is supposed to be the most fearsome of tribution, I don't think I have any inner devils. I wonder what my inner demon tribution will be?" The tribution giant roared at Tianyi and broke him out of his thoughts as if saying, "you dare look away while this one is before you!"

  "Whoops, better focus on the matter at hand," Tianyi said, but there was no hint of worry in his eyes or voice.

  Vapor the color of void began to be released from Tianyi's pores. The bck mist soon entirely encased Tianyi, hiding his form from prying eyes. The mist began to grow rger and rger until it was over a hundred meters tall.

  The mist then gradually changed shape and formed a giant version of Tianyi down to his features. Two holes emitted crackling light where his pupils would be. Compared to the grey cloud giant Tianyi formed before, this giant had greater detail down to the fold of Tianyi's robes, and its skin was like a void with countless stars emitting.

  As if in agreement, both the tribution giant and cosmos giant began walking towards the other. The air crackled with sparks as the two giants neared each other, neither willing to show weakness.

  The tribution giant raised its sword overheard once the cosmos giant neared within its striking range.

  SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH

  The sound of the sky bifurcating was heard as the tribution sword descended, seemingly like a sea of lightning descending.

  In response, the cosmos giant held out his right hand and locked the tribution sword's bde in its hand. Lightning crackled and thundered rumbled from the sealed sword. But no matter how the tribution lightning battered the cosmos giant's hand, it remained stalwart. The cosmos giant was even absorbing trace amounts of lightning through contact.

  At the same time as the sword descended, the dragon formed of tribution lightning soared forward. It wrapped around the cosmos giant's body and even started to strange its neck.

  The cosmos giant's left hand pulled against the dragon's body as it tried to unwrap the dragon. The tribution giant delivered a mighty kick that unched the cosmos giant onto its back and caused it to release the tribution sword.

  The cosmos giant began to distort as the tribution dragon constricted even more. At this time, the cosmos giant formed its two hands into cws and sshed the tribution dragon.

  The tribution dragon roared in pain as the cws penetrated deep into its body. Lightning bled from its body, and with its integrity ruptured, the tribution dragon began to deform into pure tribution lightning. The tribution lightning shrouded the cosmos giant in an aura of lightning, continuously damaging it.

  The cosmos giant lumbered into a standing position, the ground quaking with each of its movements. When it stood up, the tribution giant was upon it as it sshed downward with the tribution sword once again. Cws met sword as the two giants duked it out. The cataclysmic battle raged on as the two behemoths cshed again and again.

  Should a normal Nascent Soul Grandmaster intercede within the battle, just the wind generated from each swing of either giant's arm would result in lethal damage.

  Crack!

  The tribution sword fractured under the repeated strikes from the cosmos giant. Upon shattering in two, the tribution sword morphed into lightning and enveloped the cosmos giant, much like the tribution dragon was destroyed.

  But the tribution giant was undeterred as it began to rain fist after fist upon the cosmos giant that was still shrouded in tribution lightning. When each fist nded on the cosmos giant, the lightning rippled outward from the contact point. As the battle continued, the number of stars within the cosmos giant began to diminish, and even its size decreased.

  The cosmos giant abandoned all thoughts of defense as it allowed the fist to nd on its body and returned the assault threefold onto the tribution giant. At first, the tribution armor blocked the cosmos giant's assault. Soon, cracks appeared on the tribution armor before it, too, shattered and turned into tribution lightning that reignited the shroud of lightning assaulting the cosmos giant.

  The cosmos giant ignored this as it continued to engage in a primitive slugfest with the tribution giant. This battle was an endurance match to see which of these two titans would fall first.

  The answer was the cosmos giant as gss-like crack began to appear on its body. With each passing second, the web-like cracks grew until the form of the cosmos shattered. The void-like mist dispersed to reveal Tianyi's figure in the air. His stature was like an ant before the elephant that was the tribution giant.

  But the tribution giant had already lost all its armament. Its base body formed of tribution lightning had begun to distort. It appeared as if another strike would destabilize it.

  Tianyi pointed his finger at the giant, and a bck sphere condensed upon his fingertips. Without seemingly any outside force, the bck sphere shot towards the tribution giant. With each second, the boundary of space was devoured and fueled its growth.

  The tribution giant roared in indignant fury as it brought both arms crashing down upon the bckhole coming towards it in great defiance. Upon contact, the giant's arms distorted into a mist of lightning and were sucked into the bck hole. Before its body could even lose its integrity, the bck hole greedily started to devour the tribution lightning giant.

  The giant roared once more as it consciously dissolved its form into a net of lightning that soared towards Tianyi. But right as it neared Tianyi, it was pulled back and devoured by the bck hole.

  Tianyi watched the bck hole shrank under his commands until it disappeared into the world. Blood started to leak from the edge of his lips, to which he wiped it away with his sleeve.

  "Sssssssssssssss," Tianyi hissed in pain as his clothes rubbed his skin, slightly pink as if it had been scalded by boiling water.

  Inside Tianyi's body, his cosmos body, the tribution lightning, and the space devoured by the bck hole reappeared within. Before it could rampage, bck clouds sparkling with starlight encased it. No matter how the tribution lightning raged, the true qi of chaos ground and dissolved it into pure energy absorbed by Tianyi.

  D.C.Haenlien