When Lu Yin saw Long Kui’s expression, a thought flashed through his mind. The elder was trying to remind Lu Yin to keep an eye closed for the duration of this mission. Even if he uncovered anything, he would need to stay silent about it in order to not ruin the White Dragon Clan’s reputation. However, this was also not anything that could be said aloud, which was why Long Kui was reminding Lu Yin of his status.
“Do you understand?” Long Kui pressed.
Lu Yin replied, “I understand.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Long Kui nodded, and his face relaxed. This child was not too stupid.
There were certain things that could not be said, lest they prove true. This was particularly true when it came to Humility’s Gate and traitors. After all, these two organizations concerned the entire human race, and not every ancestor was as much of a misfit as the Liu family’s ancestor.
One day later, Gui had flown into the gray mountain range that surrounded Flying Armor Pass. Half a day had already passed from when they had encountered a patrol from the Flying Armor Troops, which had bowed to Long Kui without approaching.
Gui was flying towards Flying Armor Pass in a normal fashion, when Long Kui shouted, “Stop.”
The giant beast froze, and then looked to the south with a bit of confusion, but that quickly changed to fear.
Long Kui’s face had already grown solemn. “Let’s go see.”
Gui changed directions and made his way south.
Lu Yin felt confused. “Elder, what’s wrong?”
“Someone’s undergoing a stellular tribulation,” Long Kui said solemnly.
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed, stellular tribulation? This sounded very familiar. Where had he heard it before? Wait, stellular tribulation? Tribulation crystals?
“Do you know about the stellular tribulation?” Long Kui asked Lu Yin as he looked at the youth oddly.
Lu Yin answered honestly, “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t actually know anything at all about it.”
The sky suddenly changed far away, and the void warped before a vortex formed over it. It was like a massive monster that released roars in bursts and caused the entire void ro roil.
Lu Yin’s pupils instantly shrank as the star energy inside his body began to surge out of his control. Noticing that he could no longer control his own power, Lu Yin’s hands began to tremble.
“The universe is split into the visible universe, and the true universe. The visible universe is what we all see and live in, while the true universe is more pure. The biggest difference between Envoys and Enlighters is that Envoys have broken free of the visible universe and are able to touch and enter the true universe. The energy in the true universe is called stellular energy, and star energy is what spills over from stellular energy and is then used by people to cultivate. Yes
“Once one becomes an Envoy and is able to come in contact with the true universe, they are able to cultivate with the source of star energy: stellular energy. The true universe’s source of stellular energy is not endless, so Envoys need to use their bodies as a vessel to store the stellular energy that they drag into the visible universe. By drawing a portion of the stellular energy from the true universe, the true universe will have one less portion of it. In order to protect its resources, the true universe will bring upon stellular tribulations to the cultivators who attempt to do so. Its goal is to destroy the vessel carrying the stellular energy.
“And this is a stellular tribulation,” Long Kui explained lightly.
Lu Yin was surprised to learn of such a thing. So star energy was just energy leaked out from stellular energy? Lu Yin remembered that one time when he had confronted one of the Sixth Mainland’s Imprinters, the powerhouse had simply dissolved Lu Yin’s star energy with stellular energy, which had made anything that Lu Yin could do with star energy completely useless.
As for the stellular tribulation, Lu Yin saw it as something like the relationship between the Mother Tree and the monsters in the Lower Realm.
One side nurtures, while the other destroys. It was a cycle of mutual growth and restraint. In this scenario, cultivators were like the Mother Tree, while the stellular tribulation was like the monsters. The purpose of the two was the same, which was to return the universe to its original state.
This was how the universe continued the cycle of life.
Gui stopped after Long Kui finished speaking, as the stellular tribulation in front of them had already fully formed.
“Isn’t it possible to simply avoid the stellular tribulation?” Lu Yin asked.
Long Kui shook his head. “That’s not possible. The only option is to defend against it. The stellular tribulation senses the stellular energy vortex within a cultivator’s body, and the more stellular energy the vortex contains, the more terrifying the stellular tribulation. Also, the tribulation is able to sense if a powerhouse capable of resisting is nearby, and the power of the tribulation will then increase accordingly. Any stellular energy within range of the tribulation will be attacked, no matter who it belongs to.”
Lu Yin stared into the distance where he saw an old man with an expression of fury on his face as he roared up at the sky. There were numerous people watching the old man, but no one dared approach him.
“Come on, stellular tribulation, come on! This old man will survive!” the old man roared before taking several weapons out of a cosmic ring. There were various defensive tools, as well as all kinds of strange items.
The stellular tribulation twisted the void above the man’s head, and the void broke before a swirling stream of energy fell down and struck at the old man.
The old man went pale and roared in defiance. An impressive amount of star energy shot into the sky, and at the same time, nine lined battle force covered the man’s hand. Combined with the star energy, the old man’s palm strike was so powerful that Lu Yin did a double take. This old man was not a normal Enlighter.
The stream of qi descending from the void struck the old man’s hand, and the earth and sky exploded. The violent stream of qi shot out in all directions, and simultaneously crushed the old man down to the ground where his blood splattered around him. The vortex over the old man’s head twisted and took a rope-like shape that entered the old man’s body.
“Each stellular tribulation is different, and no one knows what sort of tribulation they will have to face, but it will always appear in a form that the universe has already seen.” Long Kui’s voice was solemn, as every expert who attempted to become an Envoy would have to suffer an stellular tribulation, as there was no escaping this disaster.
Behind every ten Envoys who successfully broke through, there might have been a hundred enlighters who were erased by the stellular tribulation.
The old man shattered his cosmic ring and clutched a treasure that looked like a conch shell in his hand. At the same time, he was frantically trying to swallow a medicinal pill in an attempt to recover a bit.
The rope-like vortex that had appeared during the stellular tribulation whipped towards the old man and he lifted a hand where a conch shell flew out, with a low echoing noise. The void was pushed back, and the tribulation was forced upwards. It acted in much the same way as the protective ring that Lu Yin had been given, and it had a power level of roughly 500,000.
The rope-shaped vortex pulsed with the dull sound, and the sound gradually faded. The shape of the vortex then changed once more, and it took the shape of a spear that charged for the old man and stabbed through his body, pinning him to the ground.
A wail was heard, and a woman cried as she raced for the old man. She looked to be his granddaughter.
The old man had been pierced through, and could not survive. He bitterly looked over as his granddaughter ran towards him, and said bitterly, “Grandpa spent his whole life for this, yet still ended up dying to the tribulation. Silly child, don’t cultivate any longer. This cultivation path is wrong.” After he finished speaking, his body was disintegrated by the spear and completely disappeared.
The woman finally arrived, but she was not even able to see her grandfather one last time. She saw nothing but empty space and a shattered cosmic ring on the ground.
Long Kui shook his head and sighed. “Clearly that man was fully prepared, and he even had a defensive treasure the level of an Envoy to help him pass his tribulation, but unfortunately, his energy was too powerful and he stood too far above regular Enlighters, and so his preparations were not enough to keep him alive.”
After speaking, Long Kui patted Lu Yin on the back. He then turned around and continued towards Flying Armor Pass.
After Lu Yin heard Long Kui’s comment, his back went cold.
The strength of a stellular tribulation was determined by the amount of star energy within a person’s body? That did not make any sense! Lu Yin had about 200 times the amount of star energy that a normal cultivator possessed, and not even the old man who had failed his tribulation had as much star energy as Lu Yin already possessed, and Lu Yin was still only a Hunter. How much star energy reserves would Lu Yin possess after becoming an Enlighter? What about when he was trying to become an Envoy? It would be drastically more than that old man, and likely at least 200 times more.
Lu Yin thought of the stellular tribulation, and then considered one 200 times more powerful than what he had just witnessed. He gulped. It seemed like the universe itself must hate him.
“This is where people come to pass their stellular tribulations. After a certain amount of time passes, there will be tribulation crystals of different sizes forming in this place. This is why the Flying Armor Pass has tribulation crystals. These tribulation crystals can help people open the lower meridian point, and the middle meridian point. This should let you understand the importance of Flying Armor Pass, and you have to be cautious while here.” Long Kui could not stop himself from giving Lu Yin yet another reminder, which amply demonstrated the importance the man gave to Flying Armor Pass.
Lu Yin was still caught up thinking about that terrifying tribulation he had just witnessed. A person’s body would be instantly and utterly destroyed after they failed their tribulation.
Undergoing a stellular tribulation did not only mean that a cultivator would be able to use the true universe’s stellular energy, but also that the true universe would take back the stellular energy from a cultivator’s body, and the two forces would be in constant competition.
It was not long before a quaint city appeared in Lu Yin’s vision. It was Flying Armor Pass.
Gui stopped less than a hundred miles away from Flying Armor Pass. No one was allowed to freely enter the city, not even the White Dragon Clan’s elders.
Long Kui carelessly commented, “This is as far as I can take you. After all, you need to complete your mission for the Fourteenth Gate, and it would be inconvenient for me to intervene.”
“Thank you, Elder.”
“Try to stall with this mission. The Junior Progenitor will soon find a way for you to get back to Dragon Mountain in the Higher Realm,” Long Kui said.
Lu Yin nodded before jumping down to the ground.
The gray dirt was extremely hard, and Lu Yin discovered that it was comparable to the hardness of natural minerals once he stepped on it. It seemed like this place had been repeatedly refined by countless stellular tribulations.
The entire gray earth was in the shape of a cauldron with three legs. The ancients had held an unusual obsession with cauldrons, and everything that had a connection to cauldrons was out of the ordinary.
Lu Yin remembered the Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation. It had been a very long time since he had last visited the Daosource Sect’s ruins. He still wanted to acquire that battle technique that was known to be invincible, but unfortunately, he had no time to return for it.
Flying Armor Pass was not somewhere that normal people could visit, so it was almost all cultivators in the city.
The number of people rose the closer Lu Yin drew to the city.
The land opened up before him, and Lu Yin saw a majestic city. There were armies flying about patrolling the sky and the surface, as well as guards in the air to protect the city’s gate.
Even though he could not see runes in this universe, Lu Yin’s control of star energy was able to tell him that Flying Armor Pass held an extraordinary aura, and it reminded him of a sourcebox array.
This was a place that was constantly fought over, and so any power that gained control of the city would naturally establish the strongest defenses possible.
Lu Yin entered Flying Armor Pass, but had no idea as to how to find Guo Shan. However, he believed that Guo Shan must have some means of finding him instead. It would be rather amusing if the mission failed because neither was able to find the other.
He ordered a few snacks in a restaurant, and then enjoyed them while gazing into the distance. He was able to see that far from Flying Armor Pass there were numerous cultivators digging in the ground, and all of them were holding similar tools. They were some sort of detector, and everyone was searching for tribulation crystals!
Before long, an average-looking middle-aged man approached Lu Yin. “Little brother, can I sit here?”
Lu Yin turned to look at the man who was smiling at him. The man had a kind-looking face, but his clothes were rather simple and sloppy. “Please, have a seat.”
The man sat down and looked at Lu Yin before introducing himself with a smile, “I’m Guo Shan.”
