by Virlyce
What? Using other people to beat my tribulation? That’s an excellent idea! I knew Ilya was the best answerer around. But wait, will they let me in? “But to get in, I have to go past the defensive formation myself, no? Can I do that before the lightning falls?” For the weak sects, the formations took at least five minutes to break apart. Some sects even took up to twenty minutes!
“Don’t worry about that. All you have to do is wear their robes. Only Star Phoenix Sect members can wear red. So wear these”—a red robe appeared in Ilya’s hand along with a sash that had a name stitched on it in gold—“and run over there saying you saw the person undergoing the tribulation nearby and you wanted to hide inside the sect.”
“You’re a genius, Ilya! Help me put these on! But where did you get these?”
“One of the sects we attacked had a visitor from the Star Phoenix Sect, so I stole her stuff.”
Stealing the clothes right off a woman. I taught Ilya well!
“You’re thinking something stupid, aren’t you? Hurry up and go before the tribulation starts.” Ilya patted down my clothes after she finished tying the sash. “You better not die, Lucia. You’re the only hope I have of going back home.”
I managed to make it to the entrance of the Star Phoenix Sect. I say entrance, but it’s actually a space between two bamboo poles that says, “Entrance.” There’s nothing on either side of the poles, and there’s one person in red robes standing between the poles. What would happen if I tried to enter the sect from the not-entrance space? Apparently, I’d get fried. I sent Puppers through to test, and he instantly combusted into a pile of ash. So … now I’m here. In front of this disciple. In my not-suspicious outfit. “Hi.”
“Returning to the sect?” The person in red stared at my sash. Then his brow furrowed. Did he know the person this robe belonged to? Ilya didn’t steal this from a famous person, right? “Sister Hapless, is it? Your parents have an odd naming sense.”
“Mm. Yeah.” Actually, everyone’s naming sense in the Immortal Continent is weird. People here name themselves after adjectives and nouns. There aren’t any proper names like Puppers or Mrs. Wuffletush. Sheesh. “Let me through? The tribulation’s scary.”
“Hmm.” The red-robed man squinted at me and stroked his chin. “Those ears…. That bushy tail….” His eyes narrowed even further. Was he going to see through my disguise!? “Ha-ha! You almost look exactly like Heart Devil Lucia, but there’s no way she’d be here. Go on in.”
…It worked! And what’s with the weird nickname they gave me? Heart Devil Lucia? Jeez. It’s so tasteless. “Yup, yup. There’s no way Lucia would be here at all. I bet she’s busy doing busy stuff. Yup.” Now I’ll just walk past him with my impeccable acting, and … I’m in! That was easier than I thought. According to Ilya, I still have a few minutes to find a place to seek shelter before this tribulation starts. It’s a good thing sects are so large; I wouldn’t be able to do this in a sect with only a few people. I’m glad not knowing fellow disciples is an extremely common thing. Heck, I traveled with a hundred thousand Shadow Devil Sect members for a year and I can only match Softie’s name with her face. Everyone else is just ‘black-robed fellow’ or ‘hey, you’. Ah, I’m getting distracted. Hmm. Safest building…, safest building…. The cafeteria! It’d be a disaster if the food was … wait. Cafeterias aren’t important in the Immortal Continent. Then the next safest place is the … treasury! Treasures should have a lot of protection…, which means it’ll be hard for me to enter. Darn. This is a lot more difficult than I thought. Eh, whatever. I’ll head over to that pagoda over there because it’s the biggest building and it looks like a lot of people are gathering around it. Whew, there’s really a lot of people surrounding a stage. Is there a play going on? I want to see!
“Fellow brothers and sisters! The time to declare war on the Shadow Devil Sect is now! For the past year, they’ve terrorized Kong County! They’ve slaughtered hundreds of sects!” …We did? “They’ve robbed trillions of spirit stones!” What!? I only got several thousand thousand thousand thousands! “They’ve stolen billions of companion beasts and ate them in front of their crying owners!” …Guilty as charged. “Are we going to let them continue terrorizing the county!?” But there’s nothing left to terrorize. “We attack in three days! Let us herald the summer with the blood and tears of the Shadow Devil Sect! We’ll exterminate every last one of those bastards and display their chosens’ heads on our sacred artifacts!”
Wow. That’s a bit … excessive. I prefer to have my head attached to my body, thank you very much. It’s a good thing they don’t notice me. I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have come here based on the cheers of support the crowd’s giving the speaker who wants to impale my head on a golden pike. Mm. Welp, it’s too late now. I’m already here, and the lightning’s about to fall. I hope this works out! I’ll slip inside the building and then I’ll—
“Excuse me, Junior. What are you doing?”
Me? “I’m digging.”
“This is the skill-storing pavilion. You’re not allowed to dig here.” The person at the front desk didn’t seem to like the fact I took out a shovel and started tearing through the tile. Well, it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t like it! There’s a huge thundercloud up there and I don’t want to get zapped by lightning. “S-stop! Didn’t you hear what I said!? How are you digging so fast!?”
Dig. Dig. Dig. Mm. This should be deep enough. Now, I’ll take out this cylindrical building and use it as my first layer of protection. It should be sturdy since I stole it from the armadillo or whatever sect. Apparently, it was a trial tower or something like that, but I’m sure it definitely works better as a shield. Should I keep digging? I don’t think one building will be enough…. Alright, it’s settled. I’ll keep digging downwards! I have to increase the distance between me and the lightning as much as I can. My tail’s so stiff I could use it to kill someone. Err, easily. I could kill someone with a non-stiff tail, but it’d be harder. Oh? Red light’s coming out of the ground. Did I discover a treasure? That’d be super neat! I remember I dug up a wine barrel back in the—gah! I’m falling!
“What’s this!? Who dares intrude on the forbidden ground!?”
The forbidden what? First, I’ll pick myself up off this really warm floor. And … there’s four scary-looking people staring at me! Just judging by the qi coming off of them, they’re about as strong as the sect leader. And behind them, there’s two big bright-red eggs. “Uh. Hi. Wait, no! I mean, uh, Junior Lu—Hapless greets the, err, elders?”
…I don’t think they’re falling for it. The four elders looked at each other and—
Bang!
Eh!? The ceiling’s collapsing!
“What did you do!?” The four elders dove towards the eggs and created a barrier over them. Of course, I followed the elders! I feel safer next to them than I do by myself when tribulation lightning is trying to kill me! My tribulation finally started. I can tell because there’s purple lightning everywhere.
“Is … this an earth-realm tribulation?”
Boom!
Lots of screams came from outside the red barrier that I was hiding in with the four elders. I thought I dug really far down. How can I hear the screams so clearly?
Kaboom!
“T-this is a disaster!”
Well, that tower that I placed as a shield didn’t last very long. Neither did the skill-storing building of the Star Phoenix Sect. There’s a giant hole leading to the surface and I can clearly see the tribulation clouds above me. It’s a little like looking up a chimney at the sky, but the chimney’s a giant tunnel and the sky’s trying to kill me.
“Look!” One of the elders beside me pointed up. All I saw was a red speck amongst a sea of black and purple. “The ancestral beast is resisting the lightning! We have to help it!”
“Wait! What about Junior Hapless? Doesn’t this tribulation look like it’s hers!?”
“Is it yours!?”
Uh…. “No?”
“Shit! Who are you trying to fool!?” One of the elders lunged at me, but I dove towards the eggs and hid behind them. They’re definitely protecting these for a reason! I’m sure they won’t try attacking!? Why are they trying to set me on fire!? The eggs are fireproof! No wonder!
“Wait!” I grabbed mini-DalDal and raised it over my head. “If you don’t stop, I’ll break these eggs right now!” The four elders paused and I took that chance to store the eggs into an interspacial pouch. Hostage acquired! “Help me pass the tribulation and I’ll return the eggs!”
“Y-you!” One of the elders pointed at me. His face was red and it looked like he was about to … he spat out blood. As expected.
“Do you know what you’re doing!?”
Of course! I’m surviving! But before I could respond, lightning rained down onto the red barrier, causing cracks to form. One of the elders screamed and vomited out a fountain of blood. Then he fell onto the ground while clutching his chest. While the other three elders stared at him, I pointed at the sky. “Questions later! Tribulation now!”
The elders, except the one on the ground, cursed before summoning a bunch of fancy artifacts outside the barrier. There were swords, shields, axes, handcuffs, whips, shovels, and more. One of the elders called out a giant cone that he held to his mouth. “All sect members shall work together to surpass the tribulation! Activate the defensive formation, Sect Leader Feather!”
Gah! That hurts my ears! So loud. His shout was even louder than the tribulation thunder. I think my ears are bleeding. Well, they’ll heal quickly. Mm, but Ilya had a really good idea when she had me come here. There’s definitely no way in hell I could’ve suppressed this tribulation by myself. I guess that just means I’m not strong enough…. Maybe if I ate these eggs I’d get a super boost to my strength. Hmm.
***
This year’s been a productive one. I’ve learned a lot about the Immortal Continent while accompanying Lucia on her reign of terror. It’s a pretty nice place. Occasionally, people have a hard time pronouncing my name even though it’s only two syllables, but other than that, I can’t really complain about how I’ve been treated. I’m not discriminated against for having purple skin, and I’m pretty sure people are extra aware about their manners around me because I’m Lucia’s companion. Being the disciple of the sect leader’s wife helps too, I’m sure.
Over the course of the year, I’ve been heavily studying alchemy. It’s interesting and not too different from the alchemy I’ve seen back at home, but that’s only referring to the fundamentals. The alchemy here is much more developed; there’s thousands upon thousands of more formulas and raw materials and effects that pills can produce. But at the same time, the alchemists here aren’t as innovative. They’re still using cauldrons that they have to control the heat of manually. I’ve developed a grill that can be set to—and maintain—any temperature up to a thousand degrees that’ll evenly cook whatever is placed on top of it. Lucia already has one of these. With this magic tool, the obvious thought comes next: why not use it for alchemy? With this, anyone can become an alchemist even if they can’t control fire.
Other than my progress in alchemy, I’ve also crossed over the third wall to the tenth circle. Mana is massively abundant in the Immortal Continent. Maybe it’s because no one uses it; I don’t know. I’ve also washed out my impurities in one of those impurity-cleansing pools that the lesser sects had, and my speed at accumulating mana greatly increased. I tried to convince Lucia to wash herself too, but she says she doesn’t want to bathe in fish pee. I’m not sure how fish pee is related to cleansing impurities, but I’ve already become numb to Lucia’s nonsensical replies. The tribulation that I had to go through when I became a tenth-circle magician wasn’t a very difficult one. My fellow disciples helped me in exchange for pills. I’ve become something of a drug dealer; I’m not too proud of that, but a girl’s got to make a living somehow, eh? The Shadow Devil Sect members hand me raw materials, and I convert them into pills for spirit stones; it’s a lucrative business.
Speaking of tribulations…, there’s a massive one going on right now: Lucia’s. It’s … going well, I assume. At least, it hasn’t ended which means Lucia didn’t die. For the past three hours now, it’s been going on and on and on. There’s been hundreds of boats flooding into the area, all of them belonging to the five fingers of Kong County. I suppose the birth of an earth-realm expert isn’t a very common thing, and the tribulation clouds span an extremely long distance. The sects must be coming out to scout and seek an opportunity to ingratiate themselves with the new earth-realm expert. It’s weird to think Lucia’s already at the top of the food chain of Kong County when she’s only been here a year and everyone else that’s as strong as her has been cultivating for at least a hundred years or so. She’s just that naturally gifted. It’s really not fair. But she had a rough past, so I suppose it evens out. …A little.
As for my plan to use the Star Phoenix Sect to surpass her tribulation, I’d say it’s going pretty well. Although I can’t see the whole sect from my vantage point on the boat, as far as my vision extends, it’s pure destruction. The buildings are burnt to the ground. There’s charred corpses everywhere. Charcoal and ashes are fluttering about. The lightning’s continuously pouring down like rain, and the remains of whatever’s left of the surface is slowly eroding away under the pressure. Did Lucia dig underground perhaps? There’s massive craters everywhere, and the lightning seems to be traveling further into the sect. But sadly, I can see it striking down, but I can’t see the ground it’s hitting. According to Softie, we’re not allowed to intrude in another sect’s airspace—like we’ve been doing for the past year. It was okay to do it to the lesser sects, but the Star Phoenix Sect has earth-realm experts to stop us. I really want to see what’s going on though, but I guess I’ll wait. I don’t believe Lucia will die—wicked people live forever.
“Sister Ilya, are you worried?” Softie asked. She was standing next to me on the bow of the boat. I’ve started calling her Softie after hearing how Lucia and Durandal called her; though, I should be calling her Chosen Moonlight or Elder Sister Moonlight. Titles and etiquette weren’t too difficult to learn, but it’s a little awkward calling middle-aged men junior brothers, so I tend to avoid talking to them.
“Lucia’s the last person I’d be worried about.”
Softie pursed her lips and stared beyond the horizon. “I can’t help but feel nervous. What if she becomes seriously injured? Or what if she doesn’t make it? She’s in enemy territory all by herself….”
“She has Durandal and Puppers, remember?”
“Puppers died instantly before Lucia even entered the sect.”
That’s true. Who knew there’d be a vaporizing formation? Well, it makes sense. It’d be impractical to build a wall around the whole territory seeing as it’s constantly expanding—not to mention the cost of materials and labor. But Durandal’s still there with Lucia. Though he’s weaker than her, so I guess that doesn’t matter. Speaking of which, I wonder if he’ll undergo a tribulation as well when he reaches the earth realm. Wouldn’t it be horrible for the Star Phoenix Sect if right after Lucia’s tribulation, Durandal’s occurred? But the chances of that happening are close to nil. And I don’t wish that kind of misfortune on anyone. “Well, either way, I believe in her.”
Softie sighed. She lowered her head and clutched her necklace. Which was made out of a focus bone that Lucia gave her. For some reason, I have the sneaking suspicion Softie’s feelings for Lucia are beyond a normal friendship. There’s these little things that Softie does for Lucia: wipes off her sweat during training, offers to feed her during mealtime, offers a lap for her to rest on. …Yeah. They even meditate together at night after Lucia and Durandal conclude their nighttime activity. It’s a bit weird, and I feel like I’ve lost my place next to Lucia’s side. But I really don’t mind. I’m free from Lucia’s nonsensical whims and I get to use her reputation? That’s a great deal.
“Say, Softie, how long
do earth-realm tribulations normally last?”
“Lucia’s should end soon. The final lightning is building up, see?” Softie pointed up at the black cloud. The lightning that was purple was now red, and a giant vortex was forming. It looked a little like an eye. “If she survives, then our sect will be the strongest in Kong County. Maybe we’ll even win the upcoming King Province Exchange.”
These people in the Immortal Continent sure have a thing for exchanges, huh?
***
“It’s ending! There’s one last bolt!”
Is it finally over? The elders beside me had tears in their eyes as if they had witnessed their family dying in a natural disaster and were unable to do anything to help. But it’s not over yet! There’s still that vortex in the sky that’s building up a really, really big thunderbolt. I can sense it. My tail’s telling me by standing erect. I’ve only used up that single tower so far during this whole tribulation; I think it’s been pretty successful. But the Star Phoenix Sect…, yeah. They must hate me. The heart devils inside of them agree with me.
“Reinforce the formation!” the elder next to me shouted into the cone that amplified his voice. We were in a crater surrounded by a whole bunch of Star Phoenix Sect members. The tribulation had destroyed almost the whole sect. The formation that the sect members were using to defend against it required a lot of qi in the area to power, and every time it blocked a strike, the area would be void of qi. So we’ve had to traverse through the whole sect, absorbing every ounce of qi while leaving behind a path of destruction. Once, a sect member said the easiest way to stop the tribulation was to kill me, but the elders were afraid of their eggs being broken. I knew hostages were the way to go. Hmm, this reminds me a little of the Godking—he tamed a phoenix, right? Should I try? Well, I don’t think I’ll be able to considering I’m surrounded by a whole sect and the only thing that’s keeping me from being mobbed is the tribulation. If only there could be another tribulation after this one….
