A Goal Is Born

The heavenly tribulation fell so fast there was not even time to sense its approach, and it punched straight through Eun Seolhwa's body.

Purple Firmament High Lightning Tribulation.

Lightning that annihilated all that was impure. A symbol of purification, carrying the breath of the coming dawn.

BOOOOM!

The entire Ascension Ground flooded with violet thunderlight.

Heaven's wrath, called down by a mere ten people, struck with force enough to erase the Ascension Ground itself. It was not a single bolt. The tribulation lightning stretched from sky to earth like a continuous thread, as if determined to pour until nothing remained but ash.

But none of them were the sort to die from something so trivial.

Had they wished it, they could have challenged Foundation Establishment before the age of ten. They had compressed the density of their spiritual power without end, forced their bodies past every limit, and awakened divine sense long before Foundation Establishment. All of it for one reason — they looked beyond Foundation Establishment itself.

Divine sense and flight, once the hallmarks of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

What the old days had treated as the signature of Foundation Establishment was now possible even in the late Qi Refinement Stage. The advance of cultivation technology had made it so.

Spiritual power that surpassed ordinary Foundation Establishment. Physical ability that outstripped the Foundation Establishment cultivators of the past. Divine sense broader than that of most early Foundation Establishment cultivators.

They had endured so they could go farther, and wider.

Pietro looked down at the ten figures wreathed in thunderlight and smiled faintly.

The examiners standing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠behind him flinched at the calm declaration. From the mouth of that strict, exacting Bureau Chief? Had a genius truly been born who could challenge Nascent Soul?

Unmoved by the examiners' stir, Pietro pressed his palms together once more. This was not a prayer for humanity. It was a petition to the god above the heavens. His solemn voice rang through the vacuum in true speech.

"This humble student, who has only just set foot upon the Dao, humbly entreats."

Rumble…

The Ascension Ground shuddered. The land that had been spread flat in a perfect square began to move. Faces of earth heaved skyward, folded against one another, and took on three-dimensional form.

"By the treasure of the Firmament True Lord, may they receive even a little aid upon the arduous path of cultivation…"

At last the Ascension Ground resolved into the shape of a mountain — one central summit and nine surrounding peaks. At the same moment, the ten cultivators who had stood at the center of the Ascension Ground soared upward with it. A single figure rose ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠alone to the highest center; the remaining nine ringed him as if in escort.

And with that, the residual spiritual power and spiritual energy still drifting through the Ascension Ground surged toward the peaks. It was the power left behind by roughly ten thousand cultivators as they ascended to Foundation Establishment. Each portion had been meager and impure, but—

Shaaa—

The dull gray of the Ascension Ground bloomed into an auspicious pink light. When that cherry-blossom radiance embraced the summit and the peaks, the spiritual power shed its turbidity of its own accord and assumed a pure form.

A thousand cultivators' worth of spiritual power poured into each peak. That vast tide mended flesh scorched by tribulation lightning and replenished the strength spent on techniques. It did more than steady them as they tired in real time — it filled their bodies to overflowing and laid a firmer foundation beneath them.

Flash!

Deep within the clouds, a bolt of tribulation lightning of a different order entirely flickered into being. Those seated upon the peaks knew at once. This would be the last.

Yet not one of them tensed. Their Dao hearts stood firm, their bodies at ease — the lightning was nothing more than a blessing by which they tempered themselves. Eun Seolhwa smiled faintly.

She felt it then — the shackle that had weighed on one corner of her heart for so many years, finally beginning to loosen. Nain had succeeded at Qi Refinement. Relief and peace rose and filled her from within.

In the beginning it had been nothing more than a choice made at her master's suggestion. Would she not try raising children of the nurturing period, just once?

At first she had found it tiresome, and her clumsy handling of emotion had left wounds she never meant to inflict. Times without number, they had failed to understand each other's hearts and drifted apart. But the work of an adult cradling a life smaller than herself — the act of embracing a complete family —

— had been more than enough to call a new emotion into Eun Seolhwa's once-frozen interior: warmth.

Her misaligned Dao heart settled into one. Cultivation was transcendence.

Would she fill what was lacking and achieve perfection? Or pare ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠away what was lacking and complete herself?

Eun Seolhwa had chosen the former. The woman who had looked upon the world with nothing but coldness had learned warmth through family. The world was not nature alone — it was made of human lives.

Rumble…

As if displeased, the tribulation cloud gave a single cry, then blazed with brilliant light.

BOOOOOOM!

Even through the television screen, Nain felt the raw force of purple tribulation lightning of an entirely different caliber as it crashed down, and a shiver ran through her.

"So that's a true heavenly tribulation."

It was a sight she saw every New Year without fail. Even so, the pressure of the Heavenly Dao was not something one ever grew used to.

She watched the cultivators on the peaks, having successfully withstood the tribulation, soar into the sky. A network employee zoomed in on them. Among those faces, one was familiar.

"You saw the photo I sent, right?"

She had hoped it would lighten her mother's burden even a little. She knew Eun Seolhwa was always watching over her. Even after Eun Seolhwa vanished among the cultivators standing in midair, Nain kept staring blankly at the television.

One person still sat in full lotus at the highest summit of the peaks.

"Huh?"

Nain's mouth fell open. Her already vacant expression grew more vacant still — but inside, she was flooded with shock and disbelief.

The Ascension Ground's transformation had happened before Nain was even born, so she had been watching with simple curiosity. Nine people had already endured the tribulation and finished Foundation Establishment. Why was someone still left?

Beyond the television, in the vacuum of space, the Ascension Ground changed shape once more. From one summit and nine peaks, it became a single colossal mountain — a Great Peak that retained only one apex. The network crew, equally rattled, swung their cameras every which way.

The feed caught examiners pointing at the Ascension Ground in equal confusion. The newly advanced Foundation Establishment cultivators of this generation, their mouths twisted. The nameless Bureau Chief of the Promotion Management Bureau, eyes gone wide.

And then the viewpoint settled on the beautiful young man seated at the very apex of the Ascension Ground.

Long black hair spilled down his back. His eyes were closed in serene stillness. His robe was blue, but elegant black lines traced through it, lending him a quiet dignity. With each calm breath, an ominous spiritual power roiled.

At once the tribulation clouds of the heavens began to churn. The black clouds deepened, turning ink-black, void-black. An ominous presence hung as if a hole had been torn open in the fabric of space itself.

In Nain's small head, everything she knew of heavenly tribulations rose to the surface.

When one rose to Foundation Establishment, the first form of heavenly tribulation one typically faced was lightning tribulation.

A cultivator of ordinary talent endured only a single strand of the lowest grade — the blue Clear Pure Lightning Tribulation. Those with some measure of talent weathered ten strands; those more gifted still, hundreds.

And for a genius the heavens themselves recognized as having Golden Core potential, they sent down the purple heavenly tribulation — the Purple Firmament High Lightning Tribulation. How much of that lightning one endured there likewise decided the potential of one's talent and divine abilities.

But what came after that—

"Nascent Soul…?"

Nain murmured the words in a daze. At the same moment, in the hollow center of space where a hole seemed to have opened, a pitch-black bolt of tribulation lightning writhed into being. It was the same black, low in saturation, and similar colors crowded all around it.

By rights she should not have been able to perceive it at all— yet Nain felt a bone-deep chill sweep her entire body. It was horrifying.

Simply witnessing it made her spiritual nature shudder and her mind feel as if it might scatter. The base color was still purple. But at the very heart of that purple, a single grain—

A single grain of pure black was mixed in.

Black Destruction Heavenly Roar Void Tribulation.

One of the great walls a Golden Core Stage cultivator faced while ascending to Nascent Soul. The will of the Heavenly Dao, which burned even formless Dao hearts and divine sense to ash.

The moment it fell was beyond Nain's ability even to register. Black tribulation lightning that had left the concept of speed behind punched, in some unplaceable instant, through the beautiful young man seated at the heart of the Great Peak.

Nain held her breath.

"Is he dead…?"

She could not imagine any person surviving something like that. But as if to mock her guess, the black tribulation lightning kept falling.

One strand.

Two strands.

…

Seven.

Seven bolts of tribulation lightning in total.

The beautiful young man who had endured them all opened his tightly shut eyes and rose into the sky. Even he had not weathered the black tribulation completely unscathed — his hair was patchy, and the upper half of his robe had burned away entirely.

But he had not died. Only a light scorching remained; his body held no wounds, and his eyes burned sharp and clear.

With that final image, the television clicked off. Nain turned her head toward the clock — the time had already slipped past midnight. She had been watching the broadcast for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a solid seven hours.

"Amazing…"

She mumbled it, still slumped blankly against the sofa. Her eyes were aimed at the ceiling, but her heart was still fixed on the Ascension Ground.

It must have been a broadcast watched by no fewer than hundreds of billions. That many eyes had been locked on it. And there, alone in the very center of that attention, he had received the black tribulation lightning head-on and advanced to Foundation Establishment.

Under the gaze of hundreds of billions, he had monopolized every last stare. At that final moment, every person alive had surely already forgotten the cultivators who advanced before him. It had been that overwhelming.

"I want…"

Nain stretched a hand toward the place where she guessed the Ascension Ground must be and clenched her fist. The vacant look in her eyes sparked and came alive. A clear goal had taken shape.

The image of that beautiful young man, serenely withstanding tribulation lightning, burned itself into her mind. Everyone else, Eun Seolhwa excepted, she had already forgotten. No — from the start, she had never felt they were worth remembering.

A background no one remembers. An extra who exists only to make the protagonist shine, then vanishes. She absolutely refused to remain that kind of stage prop.

"I want to advance to Foundation Establishment with everyone's eyes on me."

At the heart of the Ascension Ground, she wanted to shine alone — overwhelmingly. She wanted to feel the attention and the gaze of all humanity, and make everyone else fade into forgetfulness.

I want only me to shine.

And to do that—

"Pou, come here."

She scooped Pou up.

"Technique Dao. Select the Five Elements Spirit Ascension Enlightenment Method."

She needed to grow faster than anyone — and overwhelmingly stronger.