Noah raised his head and saw that black clouds had covered the sky. The Heaven Tribulation had begun as soon as his dantian crossed the limits of the sixth rank. The enlightenment brought by the Divine Deduction technique had made him unable to stop in time to prepare for that event.
'My greed always puts me in these situations,' Noah cursed in his mind as he stood up to face the Tribulation.
The Divine Deduction technique had consumed a quarter of his mental sea, so he had enough mental energy to fight. His body was also at its peak. The abrupt arrival of the black clouds didn't put him in a disadvantageous position. Noah had only lost the chance to prepare a few defenses.
A thick lightning bolt fell from the enlarging clouds, but a dark beam suddenly pierced the sky and destroyed the attack. Snore and Night had guarded Noah during his training, so they were ready to fight anytime.
'Eager to kill me?' Noah thought as a cold smile appeared on his face.
Snore quickly moved near him, and Night fused with the environment as it prepared for the battle. The Demonic Sword released a roar before landing in Noah's hand.
Noah was ready to fight. It was finally time to push his existence in the divine ranks. He only had to defeat Heaven to enter the last known realm.
The black clouds continued to enlarge. Their last lightning bolt was an attack capable of quasi-rank 7 might, but Noah had fended it off easily. That amount of power couldn't even make him move.
The Tribulation seemed to understand that. Its first attack was only a test to probe Noah's power, and it didn't like what it revealed.
Noah's existence was already far beyond what power in the heroic realm could handle. The Heaven Tribulation needed to resort to divine power if it wanted to injure him.
A series of lightning bolts fell from the clouds, but Noah decided not to move when it sensed their power. They were attacks with quasi-rank 7 power again, so he didn't need to do anything about them.
The lightning bolts converged in his position and destroyed everything on their path. Ground, water, and air crumbled under their might, but Noah didn't even move when they landed on his shoulders.
The upper part of his robe broke, but no marks appeared on his skin. Those attacks couldn't hurt him. His body was already worthy of being in the Immortal Lands.
The Heaven Tribulation began to radiate a peculiar aura when it saw that Noah could ignore attacks on that level. The black clouds appeared angry that a being in the lower plane could endure their might so easily.
Noah limited himself to stare at the Heaven Tribulation. That was his chance to test his power before the ascension, but he wasn't sure if the black clouds were a worthy opponent.
His mind still sensed a vague danger coming from the clouds, but Noah could see how they couldn't launch anything stronger than that in their current form.
'What will you do?' Noah wondered.
He was quite interested in Heaven's power, but he felt disappointed in that Tribulation. The greatest hurdle in the cultivation journey couldn't even force him to deploy his defensive methods.
The crackling noise radiated by the clouds became more intense as they continued to enlarge. The entire sky turned black as the Heaven Tribulation became a worldwide calamity.
'Quantity can't help you here,' Noah thought as he stood on the surface of the sea.
That transformation didn't change anything for him. The cloud's power didn't enter the divine ranks, so they couldn't release anything capable of hurting him. Enlarging the scope of their attacks was useless if none of them could threaten Noah.
The clouds became denser after they covered the whole plane, but their power didn't increase even at that point. They didn't release any other lightning bolt either, and Noah eventually grew bored of that loud spectacle.
If the Heaven Tribulation couldn't bring some excitement, it was better to be over with it quickly. Noah wanted to move to the Immortal Lands, and wasting time wasn't in his style.
Noah began to fly toward the array of clouds. Snore rose with him, and Night watched everything from his hiding place.
Cracks opened in the sky as Noah focused. His mental waves began to radiate his sharpness through the world, and the power they carried managed to destroy its structure.
The lower plane couldn't withstand Noah's existence anymore. He had become unfit for the Mortal Lands. The power that he wielded was too much for that frail matter.
The black clouds launched more quasi-rank 7 lightning bolts, but they didn't manage to slow down Noah's calm flight. His head didn't even budge when those attacks landed on it.
A peculiar event then happened in the array of clouds. A loud crackling noise ran through them and silenced the sparks that had accumulated in their dark insides.
'Is this anger?' Noah thought when he heard that noise.
The crackling sound resembled an angry roar. It carried Heaven's reluctance to bow to him, and it caused another transformation.
The clouds began to condense. They retracted to converge in the sky above Noah. Sunlight soon fell on the world again as they gathered their power in a small area.
The vast layer of clouds quickly transformed into a black mass that released rumbling noises. Sparks ran over its surface before converging toward its center.
The dangerous sensation in the back of Noah's mind became more intense during that process. He knew that Heaven Tribulation was preparing something capable of defeating him, but he wouldn't give it the time to complete the transformation.
Noah wanted to test his power, but his desire for a proper battle didn't make him blind. He would have the time to enjoy proper fights once he reached the Immortal Lands. He had to prioritize the destruction of the Tribulation now.
Snore opened its mouth and released its dark beam. The violent energy contained in its attack swept the dense mass of clouds and destroyed the gas.
Noah's eyes sharpened when the dark beam dispersed and revealed that area again. A large crack had appeared in the sky, but an orange humanoid figure now flew in front of it.
The gravitational pull of the void didn't seem to affect the figure. Its body was an array of orange sparks that remained still while releasing loud crackling sounds in the environment.
Pure lightning made that figure. It resembled the Heaven Tribulation's embodiment, and it radiated an intense aura that forced the laws of the world to work faster under its influence.
The world seemed to cheer at that sight. The laws in the matter recognized the crackling humanoid figure as their ruler and did their best to please it.
The structure of the world became sturdier. Noah felt that the matter wanted to create a suitable battlefield for that creature made of lightning.
Noah didn't feel any doubt at that sight. The orange figure represented the dangerousness sensed by his instincts. The array of lightning bolts that made that existence carried divine power!
"You must be Heaven," Noah said as his cold smile broadened