1893 Head On

Alex arrived in one of the islands floating in the ocean to the west of the Western Continent. He did not wish for anyone to know he was still in this world and was now going to break through, so he decided upon this land after Bai Jingshen's suggestion.

Only the ones who knew he was still alive were gathered there. Bai Jingshen, Scarlet, his clone, Emily, Lilin, his master, his senior sister and brother, and a few others waited at the side while Alex sat at the center of the island with his eyes closed.

50 years of preparation was surprisingly enough time for Alex to fearlessly affront his Inner Demon and defeat it.

Within minutes of beginning his breakthrough, Alex already passed through the Inner Demon and had now arrived at his Lightning Tribulation.

Everyone was surprised as the sky began the darken in seconds and lightning crackled in the sky, threatening to come down.

Alex took a deep breath as he stared at the sky. He had prepared for this for a long time, and now that the moment had arrived, he wondered if his preparation was of any use.

He quickly pulled out a pill for improving his resistance to lightning attacks and ate it. Once the pill dissolved in his stomach, he was as ready as he could be.

At Alex's current state, he had a Qi cultivation at the peak of Saint Transformation 9th realm. In that realm, his Qi had all but completely turned into Immortal Qi already.

He was currently an Immortal in the body of a mortal.

His body cultivation had reached the peak as well, just shy of reaching the Immortal realm itself. In fact, Alex was currently calling for the Lightning Tribulation through his body's cultivation as well.

Both body and Qi resulted in the same tribulation, and he was allowed to break through for both at once, so Alex decided to do just that.

If not, he would apparently have to go through Lightning Tribulation at a later point for just his body, or so he was told.

Bai Jingshen had suggested that he do it together, as that was what all the White Tiger's with White Tiger's Dominating Body did.

Aside from Body and Qi, Alex also had his Blood Aura, which Alex could feel was much stronger than just the peak of the Saint realm. He had reached the peak of the Saint realm much earlier in his cultivation, and because of his improvement in his own cultivation, his Blood Aura was supposed to improve as well.

However, the heavens suppressed its power. Alex could feel it. To free its power, he would have to reach Immortality.

Alex's Sword Domain was in a similar situation, although not as suppressed.

Finally, his Spiritual strength was perhaps the most normal of all, being only slightly stronger than Alex's cultivation base. He hadn't gotten the chance to absorb more beast cores after the war, which had significantly reduced his Spiritual energy improvement.

With all of this strength at his disposal, Alex doubted he could lose.

And as the thought crossed his mind, the first lightning bolt fell down from the sky.

A light purple flash of blinding light came down from heaven, reaching Alex all but instantly. Alex could see the path of the lightning bolt, the size of it, and its strength.

Seeing all that, he decided to not do anything.

He simply stood where he was and took the lightning bolt head-on.

The massive lightning bolt struck Alex, causing the many people watching to gasp in surprise. They fully assumed that Alex had made a mistake and had taken a hit.

Only Bai Jingshen knew otherwise.

The bright light vanished and Alex emerged from the destroyed landscape, completely unhurt. He stood where he had stood before, looking at his arms as though to search for something.

"Not a scratch…" Scarlet said softly. "He truly has grown stronger."

"Did he use a technique? I didn't see anything," Luo Mei asked.

"I don't believe he did," young Emily said. She was not so young anymore now that decades had passed since the last time she had seen Alex. She was the only one of the many in the group to have the Demon Eyes technique, and could thus see things more clearly than everyone else.

Alex had expected to survive the first lightning without using Qi, but expectation did not stop him from being scared. However, now that he had done that, he knew he could survive.

Just after the first lightning bolt alone, Alex could feel his Qi getting denser and his body becoming stronger as well. And the suppression he had felt on his blood aura was also somewhat lifted as well.

He would need to lift it more to see results. He needed to take on more lightning bolts.

Alex looked to the sky and opened his arms. "Come on! I welcome it all."

The 2nd lightning bolt fell and he handled it with his body alone. After that, his body had grown stronger once again.

Alex felt his Qi grow denser as well, and in doing so, he had managed to open up some space in his Dantian. Alex knew that he had to fill this part of his dantian as much as he could because he needed a lot of Qi to begin with.

Alex waited for the 3rd lightning bolt and let it hit him. Once again, his body had grown stronger and so had his Qi. And some more space had opened up in his Dantian.

Alex immediately sat down and began cultivating. 3 hits were enough to open up enough of his Dantian that he could begin gathering Qi for it.

Eating pills or using formations was not an option for Alex as that could cause the heavens to see it as an external aid and make things harder for him.

Instead, he had to use his regular cultivation technique to gather Qi at the moment. Thankfully, the Immortal ranked Five Yang Divine Path was an incredible aid for him to quickly gather a lot of Qi.

As soon as Alex began cultivating, Qi rushed from the surroundings, entering his body. As the Qi passed down many meridians, they conjoined at points, becoming stronger so that the grade of the Qi he gathered was stronger.

The Yang Qi Alex gathered was a step away from being Immortal Qi just during the absorption process. So, converting it into Immortal Qi was the easiest task for his cultivation process.

Another lightning bolt fell on Alex, but it only strengthened his body and Qi once more, allowing him to gather even more Qi.

When the 5th lightning bolt fell, Alex felt his first true pain since the beginning of the cultivation. Since he was purely using his body to fight the tribulation, it was lagging a little behind in terms of strength now.

Also, the fact that he was not using any weapons to fight wasalsoweakening him a little. Thankfully, his body healed almost immediately, barely even using his Qi.

And Alex continued cultivating.

The fresh Qi Alex gathered in his Dantian was quickly turned into Immortal Qi, which compressed even further, becoming stronger.