Chapter 2014 Drunken Breakthrough

While the Ever Spring Mistress questioned what was happening, the Saintess decided to answer her.

"It wasn't automatic… he did it intentionally." The Saintess replied. "Of course, he probably didn't know it would trigger a tribulation…" she didn't know how far Lin Mu's grasp on reality went right now, but whatever he did was enough to trigger an immortal tribulation that had appeared without any other sign.

It was quite strange, as there were no traces of tribulation energy appearing before it. As if a barrier had be broken, the Immortal Tribulation simply poured out of the fabric of space!

~CHIRP~

"MASTER!" It was a horrifying scene for Ashy, as her master was now completely drowned by the flames and couldn't be seen at all.

"Should we—" The Ever Spring Mistress understood that things had definitely gone wrong now.

"No… we can't interfere in this now." The Saintess replied. "He'll have to overcome it himself."

"But he's drunk," the Ever Spring Mistress stated.

"And whose fault is that? Hmm?" The Saintess shot her a look.

"Mine…" The Ever Spring Mistress lowered her head. "But I can help him. At the very least heal him." She added.

"It won't be needed." The Saintess shook her head. "You're lucky its a Fire Elemental Immortal Tribulation. If its just that he should be able to manage." She added.

"Are you…" Before the Ever Spring Mistress could say much though, a change happened.

~WHOOSH~

A pulse of energy spread from the center of the flames, as they were all pushed aside.

"That's a little too warm." Lin Mu spoke, searing hot magma swirling around his body. The temperature of the magma was several times higher than the flames that were pouring out of the red crack. Lin Mu's robes were fully intact and he seemed to be uninjured. But even in all that, his eyes were still glazed and he was drunk.

~BOOM~

The Immortal Tribulation flames coming from the crack didn't like that Lin Mu was pushing them away like ease and flared up. They surrounded him once again and threated to consume him.

~HONG~

But when they did, the searing hot magma simply turned into a mixture of immortal Qi and expanded. It turned into a sphere around Lin Mu and acted like a barrier.

~BOOM~BOOM~BOOM~

The Immortal Tribulation flames collided against the immortal Qi barrier, and created multiple explosions. But they were unable to break through it. Instead, the barrier actually released a suction force and started pulling the flames towards it.

"Warm, but look useful…" Lin Mu muttered as he extended his hand.

He then made a grasping gesture and the barrier expanded, taking on the shape of a hand. It extended from around his body and grasped the Immortal tribulation flames that were pouring out of the red tear. The hand successfully 'held' the flames as well as stopped them from proceeding any further

~WOONG~

And then… the hand started absorbing the flames.

The hand grew in size as it absorbed more of the flames, turning it into fire elemental Qi and assimilating it.

The more it absorbed, the greater its size became, until it was about ten meters tall and had dwarfed the red tear from which the Tribulation flames were pouring out. Now they could no longer threaten Lin Mu and were helplessly being absorbed into the hand.

"Hmmm… free Qi…" Lin Mu said as he pulled his hand back, causing streaks of the newly absorbed fire elemental immortal Qi to leave the illusory hand and come towards him.

~SHUA~

The fire elemental immortal Qi then mixed with the rest of the Qi, and became part of it. It was the converted into searing hot magma and floated around Lin Mu. He continued to do this, and the amount of magma around him continued to grow.

"Is he… Assimilating the Immortal Tribulation!?" The Ever Spring Mistress was left stunned. "And that too drunk?"

"He sure is." The Saintess was a bit surprised, but knew that Lin Mu would be able to overcome it.

She had 'observed' Lin Mu using the Longgui Bulwark Armor technique several times before in the Evergreen Pillars Forest and knew that normal flames were no longer enough to threaten him. And even if these were Tribulation flames, it was going to be quite hard for them to do much to Lin Mu.

Especially if he got the upper hand first. Which was exactly what was happening.

Lin Mu was using the superior power of the Longgui Bulwark Armor to suppress the Immortal Tribulation flames, and forcefully assimilate them into his mixture of magma. Since he had already become familial with suppressing vilest energies, doing it while drunk felt natural to him.

He didn't need to 'think', he just needed to 'will' it.

Somehow in his state of drunkenness, he had taken another step in mastering the Longgui Bulwark Armor.

The intended effect that the Ever Spring Mistress had talked about, had simply not happened. There was no sign of Lin Mu's body removing any impurities so far.

Instead it seemed like he would be taking another path and continue to overcome the Immortal Tribulation like it was nobody's business.

The amount of magma continued to grow, until it looked like a hill of magma floated behind Lin Mu. It looked rather otherworldly and if one glanced at it from the back, it looked like a lavafall.

This combined with Lin Mu standing in front of it, casually absorbing the immortal tribulation flames looked rather domineering.

In a way, it was taunting the Immortal Tribulation.

And it was quite offended by it too, but there wasn't much it could do other than be helplessly assimilated by Lin Mu.

Some time later, the red tear could no longer stay open and had run out of energy. Lin Mu had also absorbed all of the flames and the magma hill had grown ten times bigger.

~SHUA~

And when the red tear finally closed, Lin Mu's breakthrough was complete.

A red halo now surrounding his Nascent Soul!