Chapter 52 – Drop Of Rain

On an island around the Thundershields guild ship, Kieran had settled inside a high cave where he could see the sea. If the Thundershields guild came for him, he could see them from afar and prepare himself in consequence.

Inside the cave, he sat cross-legged, the crystal essence around him being drawn towards him before being cleansed from all his impurities and circulating through his entire body.

Inside his spiritual world, his two crystal trees had reached their limit. No more crystal essences could be absorbed by them.
Runihoril's voice echoed through his spiritual world.

"It's good. Keep it up. You have to keep attacking the 'barrier' within your crystal trees until you manage to break your limit."

Thin particles of golden crystal essence began to surround his two crystal trees. As time passed, these thin particles became a golden layer that tried to penetrate inside the crystal trees by force.

Time passed slowly when he felt a strange feeling as if a huge weight was pressing him down.

The more he attacked the limit to reach the next rank, the more this feeling amplified.

Finally, he couldn't take this feeling anymore and opened his eyes. The air around him suddenly felt much heavier than before he tried to breakthrough his limits, the feeling of pressure on his body didn't go away as if something was trying to push him down.

"What is happening?"

"It's the Heaven Harbinger. It's a sign that a Heavenly Tribulation is forming..."

"A Heavenly Tribulation?! A Heavenly Tribulation really appears during my breakthrough to Bronze rank?!"

"You must get out of the cave. Otherwise, it may collapse on you when the Heavenly Tribulation begins."

Kieran followed Runihoril's instructions and left the cave quickly. Dark clouds and shimmering lightning began to gather above his head, forming a huge cloud of 50 meters as the crystal beasts who were close enough to feel its apparition fled away from it with trembling bodies.

When he laid his eyes on that black cloud, the pressure he felt increased in several folds, almost causing him to stumble in his tracks.

"This... This is a Heavenly Tribulation?!"

Shock could be heard in his voice. The dark cloud he saw in front of him was nothing like any other cloud he had seen to this day, terrible pressure emanating from the cloud as if a divine existence had descended from the heavens to bring his punishment upon a mere mortal.

"It's a Heavenly Tribulation Cloud. It forms when a cultivator has to go through a Heavenly Tribulation. The bigger the cloud, the greater the potential of the cultivator and the harder the Heavenly Tribulation becomes."

"Is this cloud considered large or small?" Kieran asked out of curiosity.

"This Heavenly Tribulation cloud is considered average size."

'For someone who enters the realm of the transcendent...' Runihoril finished his words in his mind.

"Average size…" Kieran muttered blankly.

"Try to focus, Kieran. No matter what happens during the Heavenly Tribulation, you must remember to keep a calm mind. When a Heavenly Tribulation appears, the elements will come together to form a Heavenly Tribulation Cloud. When the Heavenly Tribulation begins, you will be attacked by an element against which you are weak."

"An element against which I am weak?"

"Yes, every life form is born with an affinity with one or more elements. The Heavenly Tribulation will target your elemental affinity by attacking you with the element against which your affinity is weak. When the Heavenly Tribulation begins, you must do your best to resist it. Your body and your crystal trees will naturally refine the energy of the Heavenly Tribulation while you resist it. This will make your body and your crystal trees much stronger than a normal cultivator."

Kieran nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on the dark cloud in the sky, the terrifying pressure that emanated from it increasing as time passed.
"Relax, keep a calm mind. With your abilities, I'm sure you'll be able to withstand this Heavenly Tribulation."

He exhaled a long breath as a resolute gaze crossed his face. He slowly activated his two crystal trees. His body took the form of a lycan, and the crystal essence within his spiritual world began to flow inside his body.

After thirty minutes of waiting anxiously, a small drop of rain fell from the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud before landing on him.

The moment the drop hit his body, he felt like he had come into contact with a rock. The next moment a waterfall fell from the cloud, crashing violently on his body.

"Urghh..."

He stifled a scream as he tried to bear the pain of standing under this waterfall, in which each drop of water was the equivalent of a rock.

He tried to calm his mind, concentrating on circulating the crystal essence in his body to resist the waterfall that was crashing down on him as his body and his crystal trees slowly refined the energy of the Heavenly Tribulation.

Time passed slowly in this state, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour...

His upper body was bent forward as he resisted the pressure of the waterfall for 2 hours now when he felt the pressure on his body rapidly lessen until it disappeared entirely.

Raising his head, he could see that the waterfall had disappeared, a sense of relief invaded his body.

"It's finished..."

"Don't get distracted. It's not over!"

Runihoril's voice startled him as he hurriedly circulated his crystal essence once again.

The pressure emanating from the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud suddenly increased several folds. The sound of a roar could be heard coming through the cloud, as a faint shape could be seen moving within.

His body began to shake, and suddenly, a dragon's head made entirely of water emerged from the cloud, roaring in his direction.

The water dragon lunged at him as its long serpentine body left the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud.

Seeing the water dragon come closer in his vision, he gritted his teeth, crystal essence emanating from his body, forming a small protective layer on the surface as the dragon's head hit his body.

His vision went black for a second before he regained his senses. The dragon's strike had knocked him unconscious for a moment.

As he tried his best to resist against the water dragon, a second dragon head emerged from the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud.

Kieran's face suddenly turned white as the second head lunged at him without giving him time to breathe.

The giant's transformation shifted inside his body as his right arm became deformed.

"Crystal Essence Claw!"

His claws made contact with the second dragon head, who pushed his arm back. He quickly made the giant's transformation inside his body move again while forming a new layer of crystal essence around his body to resist the attack of the second dragon head.

The attack shook his whole body, but he managed to stay fully conscious this time.

The two dragon heads weighed against his body like two huge mountains. He could hear his bones cracking under the strong pressure.

Much to Kieran's horror, a third dragon head larger than the first two emerged from the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud.

'I won't be able to resist for long if the number of water dragon's heads continues to increase.'

He turned his attention to the first water dragon that had attacked him. The layer of crystal essence he had formed to protect him created an opening to let the first dragon enter inside his body.

He felt his whole body tremble as the water dragon entered his body, trying to attack each of his cells.

A cold sweat ran down his forehead as he used all his concentration to circulate the water dragon through his body by using the Heavenly Sun Body technique while maintaining his lycan form, as well as maintaining the second dragon head outside of its body.

He could feel that the speed at which he absorbed the Heavenly Tribulation energy had increased by letting the water dragon enter his body directly, but he felt tremendous pain every time he passed the water dragon through his whole body.

Finally, the third water dragon fell on top of him, his posture faltering for a moment as he almost fell to his knees.

He rose slowly, fending off the two water dragons who tried to break through his layer of crystal essence.

After ten long minutes, the water dragon inside his body was completely absorbed by his body and his crystal trees. Without wasting a single moment, he brought in the second dragon while a 4th dragon head started to form in the Heavenly Tribulation Cloud.

"It never ends..."

Kieran gritted his teeth and continued his fierce fight against the Heavenly Tribulation.