"I don't know who's in the right or wrong," William answered truthfully, "but why should I pick a side?"
Sir Reynolds nodded, "Then what will you do?"
"The same thing I've always done, fight for myself." William replied as he closed his eyes once more.
The tribulation clouds formed in the sky, expanding to a range of ten thousand kilometers in an instant. Just the first formation was equivalent to a peak Core Formation Tribulation!
The expansion continued for a few more minutes, aweing the Artifact Spirit. It broke past the Golden Core Realm and stopped at the beginning of the Nascent Soul Realm, just a level higher than the previous Tribulation, but countless times more difficult.
William heaved a sigh of relief when the clouds stopped expanding. Its strength wasn't unbearable, and he should be able to pass the Tribulation without the use of his Regeneration Talent.
William opened his Earth Domain like before, constructing multiple layered domes over his head that would protect him from each Lightning Bolt.
The first Heavenly Lightning Bolt formed, threatening to strike William down with its great pressure, but unaware of its victim's true strength. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novᴇlfire.net
Master talks about the Heavens like they are a person or a group of people, but they don't seem very smart. If they saw me break the last Tribulation, shouldn't they give me one harder than this?
William's brain started to hurt as he thought about all these minor details. When the first Lightning Bolt struck his Earth Domes, William didn't even react and continued to think about the purpose of the Heavens.
Maybe it was the fact that William was undergoing a Tribulation, but he suddenly felt like the mysteries were slowly unraveling themselves. That being said, he didn't press further for an answer, lest he run into more trouble like the System warned.
The Lightning Bolts continued to strike down on the Earth Domes, but even as the strength of the Tribulation increased, William was able to defend against each strike effortlessly. He didn't disperse the Heavenly Tribulation this time, opting not to test fate.
His first Earth Dome collapsed on the final Heavenly Lightning, but the second Dome was able to bear the remainder of the impact without a problem.
-Survived a Heavenly Tribulation: +10 PP
Damn, only ten points...
William was a bit disappointed in the Potential Point rewards now, considering how many Points he needed for his next upgrade. If not for the Potential Farms, William would be struggling to earn Points right now.
Despite not dispersing the Heavenly Tribulation, William wasn't rewarded by the Heavens. Instead, the World seemed to sense that William had broken through and sent waves of Spirit Qi to his body from the ground.
It seems the Heavens are stingy after all. Maybe they don't want to share their rewards with me because I've already accepted it from the World?
It was just a guess, but William felt it was reasonable.
He felt the Spirit Qi enter his Dantian directly, causing moderate pain as his Dantian seemed to expand. This was different from the previous Tribulation, which made him curious about what had changed.
He consolidated his breakthrough and checked his new Status.
-Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1 (0/2000)
-Cultivation Base: 9000/100000
Fifty years? That's more like it!
Not only had his lifespan increased by a great deal, but his Health and Mana Reserves had increased by five hundred, while his Cultivation Base expanded to ten times the size of before.
William did the math on his future Cultivation and smiled wide when he found the answer he was looking for. If he filled his Cultivation Base, he could break through directly to the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm!
"Are you ready to go, Disciple William?" Sir Reynolds asked.
"Alright, I'll open us a portal then." Sir Reynolds retrieved a Portal Stone from one of his pockets and was about to crush it.
"Wait," William stopped the Artifact Spirit from crushing the Portal Stone, "I should be able to do it."
Sir Reynolds stopped and looked at William with confusion, "Have you already mastered the ability to create long-distance portals with the Space Element?"
William nodded then shook his head, "Not on my own, but I can with this."
He pulled out the Artifact he had worked on for weeks from his Space Ring and tightened it around his waist. He adjusted his robe until it was covering the Artifact, then flicked a strand of Mana at the Dial, activating the Arrays.
Even though it was unfinished, the Elemental Spheres that were installed allowed him to at least have greater control over the ten installed Elements.
Unfortunately, William couldn't appraise the item since it was technically unfinished, which didn't make sense considering he was able to appraise broken items and their fragments before, such as the sealed Mana Gathering Staff and the incomplete Array Wheel.
One might wonder why William was wearing the Artifact that didn't have the Space Element when he was about to create a portal, but he knew.
According to his experiments, Master Riyald, and the System, the absence of other Elements made it easier to create stable portals. This was why William had so much trouble with the Space Element despite the fact that it was at A-Rank.
With short-distance portals, this wasn't an issue, but for the current task, William would rather not risk his life over something trivial.
With all the other Elements interfering with his Mana, William's Space Element was weakened greatly. But now that he had the Artifact Belt, William could activate a sort-of reversed Domain, removing the presence of the other ten Elements completely.
Sir Reynolds sensed the Mana of many Elements disappearing, then a small portal just big enough for them was formed in the center of William's overlapping reversed Domains.
The Artifact Spirit nodded his head in approval, "I never expected this to be your solution to congested Mana Circuits. Well done."
William nodded his head while sweating slightly. He was currently maintaining ten Domains at the same time while using the Space Element, which was sucking away his Mana quite quickly.
Even with the Titles improving his Mana Efficiency and his incredible Mana Regeneration, he would still run out of Mana if he maintained this portal for more than a few minutes.
The two entered the portal and returned to the residence, where William went back to his room and used the remaining nine thousand Spirit Qi to push his Cultivation to Foundation Establishment 4.
Phew, back to where I left off. That didn't take too long, but I'd rather not do it again.
William enjoyed the feeling of improving his strength repeatedly, but there was no reason to search for an even greater Cultivation Technique right now. If his Cultivation dropped to the Qi Refinement Realm, he would probably face an even stronger Nascent Soul Tribulation.
If that happened, what would he face when breaking through to the Core Formation Realm? Would it be in the Soul Formation Realm, or even above that?