The Lightning Tribulation and the Hidden Gaze
Peering into the Thunder Tribulation, the center of the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud that had been suppressing the atmosphere flashed brilliantly. At the heart of the pitch-black clouds, the Thunder Tribulation condensed, and Thunder Qi began to coalesce. The air was drawn in as if the entire sky were taking a deep breath; the wind ceased, and even the leaves on the trees stood still.
‘Now.’
Baek Cheong began to infuse the Five Elements Banner with energy according to their attributes. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. In the calculated order, the energy of the five elements was injected into the five-colored cloth, imbued with their respective roles and directional properties. Simultaneously, the Character-pattern talismans attached to the chests of the Five Elements Puppets erupted in light. Source, Main Body, Boundary, Anchor, Support. The foundation of the Five Elements Formation activated, spreading the formation across the entire clearing. Finally, she sent the logic of the Thunder Qi Character-pattern into the white and black cloths.
‘Strip Away the Illusory Form, Preserve the Essence.’
The logic, which stripped away the shell of form to leave only the essence, melted into the energies of Metal and Water. The Metal attribute drew a thin line across the space. The Water attribute poured along that line. The two energies collided at the center of the Five Elements Formation.
At that very moment, the Thunder Tribulation fell from high in the sky. A dazzling bolt of tribulation lightning plunged from the hole in the center of the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud toward the Taesang Clan Head Hall, shaking the earth. The sound of thunder, swallowing heaven and earth, echoed across the mountains and rivers.
Crackle.
And in that very instant, lightning erupted from the center of the Five Elements Ten-Thousand-Thunder Formation as well. The lightning created by the formation fell from the void, and the accompanying thunder was completely buried by the roar of the tribulation lightning pouring from the sky. There was not a single error. It was worth the effort of calculating it in her head so many times.
‘It worked.’
But there was no time to savor the success. Immediately after the lightning burst and the thunder subsided, the clearing was divided into two types of energy. Outside the formation, the energy of the Thunder Tribulation remained. The aftermath of the lightning that had struck from the sky drifted in the air like scattered threads. It was a power from a realm vast, overwhelming, and untouchable by humans. On the other hand, inside the formation, the Thunder Qi created by the Five Elements Ten-Thousand-Thunder Formation lingered. It was a primal logic that compressed the energy scattered in all directions to the extreme, releasing it at a single point in an instant. It was an artificial Thunder Qi recreated by the formation.
Though it was a time span bordering on an instant, Baek Cheong felt the difference clearly with her entire body.
‘It’s definitely different.’
The Thunder Tribulation was a judgment delivered by the Heavenly Dao. The Thunder Qi was the primal form of the Thunder Tribulation dwelling within that judgment. The two shared the same root, but their levels were entirely different. She had reached the point of manifesting Thunder Qi by stripping away the shell of the Character-pattern with Strip Away the Illusory Form, Preserve the Essence, but in the face of the Thunder Tribulation phenomenon, her own Thunder Qi was infinitely weak. She had stripped the shell, yes, but she could not say she had reached the essence. Deep within the Thunder Tribulation remained a profound part she had not yet touched.
‘Just a little more...’
Baek Cheong wanted to examine it more deeply. A feeling that she could realize the difference between the Thunder Tribulation and Thunder Qi more clearly lingered in her heart. However, the time allowed by the Thunder Tribulation was merely a fleeting moment. The energy of the tribulation was not staying; it was dispersing. Diluting at an invisible speed, the vague realization she had grasped slipped away like sand through her fingers.
‘Not enough.’
She struggled to hold onto the edge of that realization, but her depth was lacking. As a result, a bitter taste seemed to coat her mouth. If she could have looked just a little more closely, her understanding of Thunder Qi could have advanced one step further. Baek Cheong lifted her head to look at the sky. But the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud was already scattering, as if it had finished its duty the moment it poured out a single bolt of lightning. The pitch-black clouds that had filled the sky dispersed, and warm sunlight poured down.
‘The tribulation is already over.’
Unlike the Great Heavenly Tribulation where one leaps from Core Formation to Golden Core like her father, this was a Minor Realm breakthrough from the middle to the late stage of Golden Core, so the Thunder Tribulation ended in one strike. In the end, she had no choice but to promise herself a next time.
‘Still, there was a harvest.’
Just realizing the difference between the Thunder Tribulation and Thunder Qi was a valuable experience. Previously, she had only looked at the Thunder Tribulation from the outside, but this time, she had placed the Thunder Qi she created and the Thunder Tribulation of the Heavenly Dao side by side to compare them. Having grasped the outline of the sensation, however vaguely, she thought she would be able to look deeper next time.
‘Let’s pack up.’
Baek Cheong hurriedly dismantled the formation. She retrieved the energy of the Five Elements Banner in reverse order and wiped the talisman paper on the chests of the Five Elements Puppets. The pieces of the talisman paper, which had burned into ash from being used once, crumbled in her hands. She also gathered the Five Elements Puppets one by one into her Storage Pouch. Cheongroe, Jeokroe, Geumroe, Baekroe, Heukroe. Finally, she tucked away the Five Elements Banner and tied the Storage Pouch to her waist.
‘Quickly, before someone catches me.’
She had to return before the time while everyone’s attention was focused on the Taesang Clan Head Hall ended. Leaving the clearing, she hurried her steps as she entered the mountain path. Pushing through the branches and riding the downhill slope, she headed toward the family estate. When she caught her breath and descended to a place where people were visible, the foot she was about to step forward stopped on its own.
The Pacheon Sword Sovereign, wearing a shabby robe, was standing between the trees as if he had been watching from the very beginning. It was as if she had been caught red-handed in a situation she couldn't escape.
‘I’m in big trouble.’
Baek Cheong squeezed her eyes shut as if that would hide her head. There was no way to hide the fact that she had used Thunder Qi. The traces of Thunder Qi remaining where she had deployed the formation probably hadn't disappeared completely yet. Moreover, the Pacheon Sword Sovereign was someone who could see through things that other Nascent Soul cultivators could not. He would have read not just the traces of Thunder Qi, but even the traces of her having directly deployed Thunder Qi on top of the formation. No excuse would work.
‘Am I going to be dragged off to the Heavenly Sword Sect to learn a sword formation that uses Evil-Repelling Bamboo...?’
Silence flowed for a while, and an awkward atmosphere drifted between them. Soon, the Pacheon Sword Sovereign opened his mouth in a calm tone.
“Thunder Qi is a heterogeneous energy. Since it is a system different from the five elements or Yin-Yang, it is bound to stand out if you deploy it.”
Baek Cheong opened her closed eyes slightly to check the Pacheon Sword Sovereign’s expression. It was a dry, emotionless face, no different from usual. “Next time, conceal it properly.”
And that was all he said. No questioning, no reprimand, no persuasion followed. ‘...Am I not becoming his disciple?’ Baek Cheong was bewildered inside. Only confusion followed at the sight of him covering up her mistake. Soon, the Pacheon Sword Sovereign lightly lifted his right hand. He waved his hand leisurely in the air. It was an unremarkable movement. But Baek Cheong noticed a subtle change through her Divine Sense. Something she hadn't perceived until now disappeared, and a void of energy was suddenly revealed.
‘A Boundary Formation?’
The Pacheon Sword Sovereign had withdrawn the Boundary Formation he had set up. As the barrier vanished, the energy from the outside rushed in all at once. The Heavenly Tribulation Cloud was dispersing, but the aura of the Heavenly Dao was still spread throughout the area. The pressure of the Heavenly Dao remained as if crushing the ground. And inside the barrier, she hadn't felt that pressure at all.
‘The barrier was the dividing line between the inside and the outside.’
Only after the barrier was lifted did she feel the difference clearly. Outside, the aura of the Heavenly Dao was suppressing the atmosphere, and inside the barrier, she had been completely free from it. Because the barrier existed, she had been able to avoid the detection of the Heavenly Dao even while deploying Thunder Qi within the formation.
‘So that’s what he meant by conceal...’
She finally understood the meaning of the concealment the Pacheon Sword Sovereign had spoken of. It wasn't limited to just avoiding people’s eyes and ears. He meant to conceal it from the Heavenly Dao as well. The Thunder Qi she had realized was an energy originating from the judgment of the Heavenly Dao. If a cultivator peered into the Thunder Tribulation, they could incur the displeasure of the Heavenly Dao. The Pacheon Sword Sovereign knew this fact, and he had been watching after blocking even the gaze of the Heavenly Dao with a barrier. Baek Cheong looked up at the Pacheon Sword Sovereign, realizing even this fact. But the Pacheon Sword Sovereign had already vanished without a trace.
‘What on earth is the Sword Sovereign...’
She couldn't understand why the Pacheon Sword Sovereign was so favorable to her. The fact that he had set up a barrier meant he had been watching her from before she deployed the formation. He had been watching from the start, yet he hadn't stopped her or scolded her; instead, he had even protected her by blocking the aura of the Heavenly Dao. It was a consideration that far exceeded the duty of a master, too much to explain simply by a coincidence of interests. But reading the intentions of the Pacheon Sword Sovereign was beyond her capacity. There was something suspicious about seeing it as unconditional favor. She only vaguely sensed that some grand plan was intertwined, but she was not in a position to see through the identity of that plan.
‘Something to take care of before ascending to Transformation.’
The real reason the Pacheon Sword Sovereign toured the continent using his disciple as an excuse. A thought crossed her mind that it might be related, but she decided to leave it as it came. Thinking over and over about something that had no answer would only give her a headache. Another thought suddenly interrupted her mind, which had been lost in contemplation.
‘Wait.’
Baek Cheong paused and looked up at the sky. The remnants of the dispersing Heavenly Tribulation Cloud were being carried away by the wind.
‘Grandfather!’
Between examining the Thunder Tribulation and Thunder Qi, and being caught by the Pacheon Sword Sovereign, she had completely forgotten the most important fact. Her grandfather had just undergone the Heavenly Tribulation. She had assumed he would be fine because he was such an extraordinary person, but she couldn't be at ease until she confirmed it herself. She rushed down the mountain path in a hurry. Her clothes caught on branches and her feet tripped on stones, but she ran without caring. She left Baekryeonsan and headed toward the Taesang Clan Head Hall.
. . .
People were gathered in front of the Taesang Clan Head Hall. The family servants and retainers were gathered and murmuring, and she could also see her uncle, mother, and father. At the same time, the state of the Taesang Clan Head Hall caught her eye first. Half of the building, beyond the eastern wing, had collapsed. The roof had caved in, the pillars were broken, and the walls were cracked, with debris scattered everywhere.
‘To think it would be this much.’
It was because it wasn't a typical Thunder Tribulation. The Thunder Tribulation that descended during the Minor Realm Heavenly Tribulation of the Golden Core stage was different in scale from the start. It had the power to blow away half of a distant building in a single strike. However, the collapsed building was not a problem. In the cultivation world, if cultivators set their minds to it, they could rebuild it in a single day, so the state of the building was not important.
‘Where is Grandfather?’
Baek Cheong pushed through the crowd. The gazes of the servants were focused on the collapsed eastern wing. At that moment, there was a sign of life beyond the debris. And her grandfather appeared, pushing his way through the ruins of the eastern wing. Not a speck of soot stained his robe, and his aura was a level deeper than before. As he stepped on the debris and emerged with a gait that was completely nonchalant, a sigh of relief burst out among the servants. Her father and uncle also stepped forward and bowed their heads to offer their greetings.
‘As expected of Grandfather.’
Baek Cheong felt relieved inside and her worries eased. To a Golden Core elder looking toward the Nascent Soul stage, the Minor Realm Thunder Tribulation must have been nothing more than a light trial.