Heavenly Tribulation Clouds
Days passed like arrows from that point. Baek Cheong had finally slipped free from Gok Elder's watchful eye, free to indulge in her forum trolling to her heart's content. And the Moomyeongbang was still ablaze from the heated debate she'd ignited over the supremacy of spells versus martial arts.
Who chokes to death mid-battle scarfing down pills? Real combat demands formations, hands down. One well-laid killing array can shred ten cultivators of the same level.
You could lay a formation in the time it takes to fling one talisman—and it's a hundred times faster. Talismans are the pinnacle of spellwork, whether for versatility or efficiency.
The cultivators' fierce pride in their arts showed no signs of cooling. Amid the chaos, Baek Cheong darted between factions like a bat in the night, slyly fanning the flames.
Every provocative reply she tossed in sparked explosive reactions. From there, the fire spread to entire threads, escalating the brawl. Repeating this enough times unearthed some intriguing posts.
"Oh?"
Heavy hitters—big shots by the look of them—would step in with lengthy rebuttals. It wasn't rare.
Baek Cheong devoured the serious breakdowns with keen interest. She didn't grasp or comprehend the content, but she read them like introductions to arts.
One technique in particular piqued her curiosity: the heretical art known as Puppet Technique.
With materials and spirit stones, you can command immortal puppets ignorant of fatigue or pain. But it demands vast divine sense and advanced sense division, so few dare tread its path. Get the divide-mind method, though, and anyone can start...
'Vast divine sense and sense division.'
Baek Cheong perked up at the tantalizing phrases. Those were right in her wheelhouse.
"I handle multi-spellcasting with ease, after all."
Controlling dozens of puppet dolls at once might not even be a stretch. But the Puppet Technique had a fatal flaw.
Moreover, Puppet Technique was shunned and taboo in the cultivation world, with no proper ways to learn it. Above all, it wasn't that captivating for Baek Cheong to hunt it down herself, enduring the hassle.
"Eh, I'll pick it up if the chance comes."
She shelved her interest in Puppet Technique. But days of nonstop forum lurking had worn thin even the bait she'd tossed into Moomyeongbang, boredom creeping in. The spell-versus-martial debate had ballooned beyond her trolling powers to rein in or redirect. With cultivators across the lower realms staking their convictions, it had spiraled into realms beyond her ken.
"Bored... maybe I should cultivate..."
After endless lounging, Baek Cheong dragged herself up. With no fun distractions, she chose training to kill time, resuming the routine she'd neglected for days.
...
Mornings began with absorbing heaven-and-earth spiritual energy to fill her dantian. Her supreme-grade pills and Five Elements Pills nurtured her spiritual roots, slowly filling the exponentially vast dantian.
Nights meant the dull but essential groundwork: solidifying her realm and strengthening her meridians. In between, she put her White Day magic tool to work, honing Five Elements Circulation, Ice Dragon Chains, and basic spells for satisfying gains.
Occasionally, she'd tinker with the pill furnace just enough not to forget, or draw rank-1 talismans on paper to pass the time.
...
Thus, days of balanced cultivation and forum antics flowed peacefully—another month slipping by. And great changes stirred in the family.
"As of today, I enter secluded cultivation."
At last, Baek Mujin set aside his heavy duties as family head. As a late-stage Core Formation cultivator, he dove into long seclusion to shatter the barrier to Gold Core.
Gok Elder still showed no sign of emerging from the pill room, wrestling day and night with the pill refining clues Baek Cheong had tossed him: Chaos Domain and Taiji Orbit.
Baek Muyoung shouldered even the family head's duties now, shuttling between the merchant house and main hall in a frenzy—another month flying past.
***
One clear, bright afternoon.
Over the serene Yeonha Baek estate, pitch-black thunderclouds gathered, exuding an ominous aura. Not metaphorically—vast ink-black clouds blotted the sun, casting the entire family grounds in deep shadow.
Rumble!
The clouds swirled like a massive typhoon, a circular hole at the center like a gaping maw in the heavens. It was a chilling, overwhelming sight, as if the Heavenly Dao glared down at the earth.
"H-Heavenly Tribulation!"
Baek Cheong, training in the garden; her uncle handling merchant affairs; her mother; other family members and retainers—all dropped everything, rushing out to gape skyward in terror.
The pressure from the clouds was unmistakably the harbinger of Heavenly Tribulation. Heaven's judgment on those defying its laws. But shock mingled with doubt on the retainers' faces.
Whose tribulation was it? No one could guess.
"Is the Supreme Family Head breaking through to late-stage Gold Core?"
"Too fierce for a minor realm tribulation past mid-stage Gold Core. Could the family head have already formed his Gold Core?"
"Even for him, Gold Core Tribulation just a month into seclusion? Too soon."
Amid the murmuring retainers, Baek Cheong stared up, a cold sweat trickling down her spine.
No way... me?
Memories flooded back: her nonstop forum agro and deceptions, sowing inner demons in countless cultivators. Was Heaven personally striking her down for her karmic debts? She'd done plenty to feel guilty about.
"Everyone, fall back!"
A thunderous roar soon echoed. It was the Supreme Family Head, absent since entering his own long seclusion.
The retainers hastily knelt in obeisance. But Baek Mu-ae's gaze fixed not on them, but the roiling heart of the Heavenly Tribulation Clouds.
"That Gok bastard finally did it."
His quiet lament left Baek Muyoung and the retainers doubting their ears.
"Supreme Family Head... you mean Gok Elder has summoned the tribulation?"
Baek Muyoung's voice trembled. Baek Mu-ae nodded gravely.
Everyone knew Gok Elder had secluded himself for insights into pill refining. This phenomenon screamed a new pill refining method yielding pills.
Purely through refining to call Heavenly Tribulation? A heaven-defying feat for the histories.
"What kind of refining could..."
It meant forging pills that shook the Heavenly Dao's order—forbidden by heaven itself. No one could guess the heaven-defying pill's nature. They stared fearfully at the sealed pill room.
But one among the crowd.
Baek Cheong went pale, screaming inwardly.
Short Inscription Pill Refining Method...!
She recalled the ploy she'd fed Gok Elder to escape pill hell. He'd actually implemented the absurd method, engraving artificial short inscriptions on pills—a heaven-defying act.
But... on what pill?
Curiosity surged about the pill he was forging. But with tribulation imminent, stray thoughts vanished. She stared piercingly at the clouds.