A Continuous Heavenly Tribulation Event

Even as the Humanity Clones collectively lost their minds, Yu Hee's limit break — the Golden Core inside her Mental World metamorphosing into a Nascent Soul — continued without pause.

Not one of them wasted breath cursing a broken game that refused to pause while the player's mind was dragged off to watch a cutscene. Because, well — it really was a broken game.

The real problem was something else entirely.

Among the Humanity Clones, only three could handle spiritual energy — and two of those were half-measures who could manage only half each, which meant the practical count was two. And the one who could fully command Slaughter Tribulation energy rather than mere skills was, without exception, the main body alone.

Swallow the Heavenly Tribulation into the Golden Core inside the Mental World. Clash the Slaughter Tribulation energy stored within — disguised as spiritual power — against it in mutual annihilation. Harvest the experience points generated that way to forcibly forge a Nascent Soul seed and awaken it.

Only after confirming that memory of the main body's plan did the Humanity Clones finally remember the egg left behind in the mansion inside the Golden Core — the Nascent Soul seed itself.

"The Heavenly Tribulation! We have to shove the Heavenly Tribulation into the Golden Core!"

But a halfwit who only knew how to absorb and a halfwit who only knew how to pour out had no business handling a Heavenly Tribulation. And the Humanity Clones who couldn't move Slaughter energy had no way to shift the Sea of Slaughter the way the main body could, using the recoil to force the tribulation down into the Golden Core.

The shared thought that this entire breakthrough was about to fail had barely finished circulating through their minds when—

"Wait — that wasn't the end of it?!"

The Humanity Clone holding control of the physical body screamed, and every other clone's attention snapped to the same point. High above the base, multiple Heavenly Tribulations were taking shape once more.

Amid the chaos of the Humanity Clones, control of the body finally passed to Yu I-seong.

"Why did she even stick this thing in here."

From the heart, her exclusive weapon and Natal Dharma Treasure — a golden spear refined by a mere mortal soul that had achieved Transcendence — revealed itself in a flash of radiance.

Yu I-seong's gaze turned skyward.

Despite having already unleashed a Heavenly Tribulation of monstrous scale and failed — only to watch the power poured into that tribulation get swallowed whole by an abnormally massive Golden Core climbing toward Nascent Soul — the heavens, now infinitely weakened, still could not stand by and watch. Multiple Heavenly Tribulations came cascading down.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Compared to the overwhelming tribulation still thrashing inside the Mental World, these were less than a hundredth of its strength. But there were more than a dozen of them, and that was power the Humanity Clones alone — without the main body — could never hope to stop.

Elder Togo had already spent himself scattering more than half of that first colossal tribulation's force. Cheon Nan-cho might block one, but she would vanish under the rest.

Yu I-seong laid her left hand over the main body's heart, where her Natal Dharma Treasure had been drawn from.

The Item Filter Mod was currently disabled; if it had been on, the crimson radiance that marked a Mythic-grade item would have erupted outward.

Strictly speaking, it was the first Mythic-grade item they had ever obtained — but it had been acquired by Yu I-seong, who had slain the angel in the main body's place, and so it carried a restriction. As its power unfurled—

Golden spiritual energy became wings of a metallic sheen that looked, at a glance, like pure gold, unfurling behind Yu I-seong's back.

Trusting the heart the nameless angel had given her, Yu I-seong took up her golden spear and began to dance.

She had transcended — but Yu I-seong was still a mortal. The Mythic-grade item had changed her race and taught her the sense of handling spiritual energy, and she could use a handful of techniques and cultivation methods the main body had started learning and then abandoned. Even so, she believed her identity was that of a mortal. In other words: she was not a cultivator.

Golden spiritual energy coiled around the golden spear. The aurora she had grown familiar with poured forth, billowing like a veil to blanket the sky and meet the Heavenly Tribulations head-on.

Cutting the tribulations clean through might have been one thing — but simply holding them back like this was something Yu Hee's body could endure while performing the spear-dance that unfurled the aurora. Yu I-seong's soul, sustaining it, could not withstand the backlash.

She could slash or sever a Heavenly Tribulation, but she had no power to erase one outright. And with multiple tribulations falling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at once, Yu I-seong simply kept going — slowly, stubbornly, flashing polar light from her golden spear ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠amid the vortex of spiritual energy, continuing her spear-dance without pause.

The Heavenly Tribulations heaved as if to shatter the aurora, flaunting their full majesty. And there was not one or two of them, but many. Yu Hee's body might have been fine — but cracks were already spreading through Yu I-seong's soul.

No matter that she had transcended, Yu I-seong was only a fragment of Yu Hee's soul to begin with. Perhaps her soul simply lacked the toughness.

Even so, Yu I-seong did not stop.

As if it did not matter whether a soul on the verge of shattering broke apart entirely — brushing aside the Humanity Clones' fretting.

Surpass your limits.

Even if you are only a tiny shard of a soul that was never more than a part.

I am myself — and this, entirely, is by my own will.

The Heavenly Tribulation finally smashed the aurora to pieces.

Yu I-seong's golden spear — as good as her Natal Dharma Treasure — cleaved into a tribulation and snapped. A moment later, Yu Hee's body took a Heavenly Tribulation dead-on and went still.

Watching the remaining tribulations plummet as if they had been waiting for exactly this, Yu I-seong opened her mouth.

"...Ah."

She had thought that dying once to a Heavenly Tribulation, reviving through the Mythic item, and tasting a realm ascent might help when she advanced to the next stage. There was just one problem with that plan.

What the Heavenly Tribulation was targeting was a cultivator carrying a Golden Core in the process of becoming a Nascent Soul.

Yu I-seong was not a cultivator, and she carried no Golden Core.

From heaven's point of view, this had to be considered carefully. A report had clearly come in that a cultivator was challenging the Nascent Soul realm. Upon inspection, the target turned out to be an extremely vicious offender — by heaven's standards — so they had fired a maximum-output Heavenly Tribulation. The target had then swallowed the whole thing and started evolving, so heaven had taken the bleeding and launched more tribulations — only for the target to suddenly turn out not to be a cultivator at all. Wouldn't that be even stranger?

And to begin with, whether transcended or not, an ordinary mortal who was not a cultivator should have been pulverized by the mere aftershock of a Heavenly Tribulation. That was the normal outcome!

Heaven, watching someone hold a single spear and block tribulations under the banner of Transcendence, had not bothered to doubt and had simply driven the rest of the tribulations home. From heaven's perspective, the whole thing was unfair.

But what could be done about it? You cannot set fire to fire, and watering water does not change the water. Some things simply had no compatibility at all.

As the racial name Heavenly Puppet Warrior itself made clear, this was a race that worked under heaven to begin with — a puppet. A Heavenly Tribulation sent down by the sky did not merely become a power source amplifying the Mythic-grade item; it became a stepping stone that carried Yu I-seong's soul across into the next realm.

Feeling the Mythic item that was her heart — the core of the Heavenly Puppet Warrior race — thrum as it took in every last Heavenly Tribulation and unleashed spiritual power, Yu I-seong, still holding control of the body, spoke.

"Erosion."

A world of spiritual energy holding nothing but a single tiny golden-tinted studio apartment — that is, Yu I-seong's Mental World, not Yu Hee's — unfolded through the power of a skill.

They had all been flung out of the Golden Core mid-metamorphosis into a Nascent Soul the moment the main body vanished to watch a story sequence, and for a second it had looked as though they would simply disappear. They had barely managed to take shelter inside the one intact tower left in the Mental World, and even the Humanity Clones who had seized control of the body were just as anxious.

Because if the main body did not return, the ascent to Nascent Soul would fail — the Golden Core absorbing the Heavenly Tribulation was already swaying more and more unsteadily.

And so, while the Humanity Clones trembled between dread and anticipation for Yu I-seong, who had closed her eyes and entered her second Transcendence—

Yu Hee was trembling too.

Stop the useless background lore already...!