Chapter 168 - 'Void. We Meet Again.”

"I've called you all here to witness something that you all will go through IF you manage to reach my current level." Red states his purpose of gathering everyone.

"What is it?" Havvah is intrigued.

"We don't even know what level you really are…" Ahdem utters his thoughts aloud.

His words trigger everyone's curiosity.

Everyone, including Ahdem and Havvah, had sparred with Red from time to time. Red however, always limits himself to their respective levels during the spars. The most powerful each of them has seen Red is when Red shows them the maximum potential they can do with their current cultivations, giving them something to strive for.

"Then let me give you an idea." Red says, surprising the group.

Before they can even confirm if they really heard what they heard, Red opens up a portal to the treasure dimension and, "Come with me.", leads everyone in.

After crossing the treasure dimension, everyone finds themselves standing in the middle of a huge igloo.

They find Xoz'gekal, wearing thick clothes, waiting for them just a few steps away from the portal.

The demon was left behind by Red to watch over the activated treasure fragment he planted a few days ago.

"Looking the part, Xoz." Red chuckles, seeing Xoz'gekal looking like a tall Inuit.

"Whatever." Xoz'gekal scoffs summoning a small flame vulture to carve out the ice floor to make more room in his igloo.

"Don't bother. We won't be camping with you." Red stops Xoz'gekal before leading the group out of the igloo.

As soon as everyone step out of Xoz'gekal's camp, they almost get blinded by the glare of the icy and snowy expanse being shined upon by the sun.

Even though the group now all have incredible physiques, they still feel the cold.

*whoosh* A gust of wind assaults the group giving everyone's faces a chilly caress.

"W-where are we?" Akane asks almost shivering from the cold.

"Antarctica." Red tells everyone as he starts ascending the sky using spiritual energy platforms.

"…" The group simply follow Red by doing the same thing, no longer surprised that they are somewhere very far away from home.

After the group reaches three hundred meters above the ground, "Fumio." Red calls out and stops.

"Yes?" Fumio is taken aback, being solely addressed.

"You've seen a fraction of what I can do back in that uninhabited island." Red says.

"Yes." Fumio remembers Red's fight with Dominic and his use of the giant sword tip to cut down Dominic's almost impregnable defense.

"…" The others are curious as to why Fumio and Red were in an uninhabited island.

"Boss showed me the Folding Sword Art." Fumio informs the group.

"Ah…" Everyone understands.

The Folding Sword Art.

With just a few quick and perfectly consistent consecutive swing of a sword, along with the circulation of elixir in specific meridians in a pattern, Red was able to condense and shape his spiritual energy into a very sharp sword energy. And just a fraction of that technique was able to easily deal near mortal damage to Dominic.

Fumio has some understanding in it and has attempted many times to execute it during his spars with the others. He never succeeded in landing a strike on any of his fellow disciples using the battle technique however.

"Anyway." Red interrupts.

"Let me show you a hint. Watch carefully." He says and raises his hand to the sky, his middle and index finger the only fingers unfolded.

Everyone then sees a skyscraper sized phantom of a sword blade appear in the sky.

They feel their hearts tremble.

Not only because of the sheer size of the sword, or the chaotic spiritual energy it is emanating, they also feel immense danger warning them despite the sword being at least a hundred meters away.

Red then moves his hand.

This makes the giant sword phantom change position from pointing straight down, to its tip raised higher than its base. Then, at an incredible speed, everyone see the sword phantom slash towards the ground.

*FWAHHHH*

The immaculately flat snow desert is disturbed when fog and snow dust suddenly explode on the ground at a straight line, measuring at least a hundred meters and tens of meters deep.

As the dust clears, they see a perfectly straight ditch appears right where the sword swung its entirety.

The cultivators and one demon, are speechless at the size of the damage to the landscape.

They thought that Red's display is over but they see that from the huge ditch, the gigantic sword they saw earlier, resurfaces and returns to its previous position in the sky. They notice that it has not lost its form despite leaving a deep cut in the thick Antarctic ice.

They do not get the chance to release the breaths they are holding when suddenly, four more phantom swords, the same size and length as the first one Red materialized, appear beside it.

Then, with another twitch of his fingers, Red manipulates the five swords.

The scene earlier repeats itself, only this time, multiplied by five.

The sound of explosion reverberates once again and followed by the ground exploding with snow dusts, revealing more ditches.

Red retreats the swords once again to the sky and doubles their number, with a total of ten giant phantom sword blades.

The other cultivators can only watch and feel small before ten swords arrogantly standing in the sky.

Red once again with just his will and a wave of his hand, has the swords assault the ground once again.

A few moments later, the cultivators can only stare muddleheadedly at the mutilated landscape.

"Hmmm… Not bad." Red takes them out of their daze with his words.

The cultivators also see the giant swords in the sky has disappeared as if the swords were never there in the first place.

They then look at Red with stunned gazes.

They want to ask Red questions but they do not even know what to ask.

"Havvah-san." Red addresses the woman.

"If we fill the ditch with salt, or blood, wouldn't that be perfect?" He asks as he points at his handiwork.

"…" Havvah and Ahdem speechlessly look at the ground.

Just a few seconds later, they are stunned once again right after recovering from Red's display.

"T-that…" "I-it is." The two share helpless looks.

Their expressions take their fellow cultivator's curiosity and they get inquiring gazes from them.

"Kichirou-san is saying that we can just fill those lines with salt or blood, and we have ourselves quite possibly one the largest demon-trapping seals." Havvah explains to the group.

The group then falls silent. Red's display is a lot for them to process.

"Boss." Fumio gets his words back first.

"Did you go all out?" He asks.

"No. That's just pure elixir manipulation and control. I've not even used the most basic spiritual energy battle technique." Red explains.

"…" The group is stunned once again.

If Red can cause such destruction with just his elixir and his control with it, they can only wonder what Red can do with even the most basic battle technique.

"Fumio. I hope you picked up something." Red then asks Fumio.

"Sorry boss… It was too spectacular to learn from." Fumio answers honestly in embarrassment.

He does not need to feel embarrassed however as his fellow cultivators can relate to what he is feeling.

"That's unfortunate." Red shrugs.

"Anyway. The reason why I brought you here is because I will undergo what I would call a 'tribulation'." He informs the group.

"Tribulation?" The cultivators get curious.

"Do you all think the universe will simply let us exploit its rules without consequences? I will be the first of us to suffer that consequence." Red tells them with a smirk.

"…" The group feel their spines tingle.

They do not know why they are currently feeling immense danger suddenly appearing in the air, but it makes them very uneasy.

Red then smiles as he releases the breakthrough he had been suppressing for the past few days.

He then looks up at the sky with a welcoming smile.

His students see his actions and they too, look towards the sky.

If they felt small while witnessing Red's destructive display, they feel even smaller with what is currently happening.

Above them, they the clear sky suddenly become darker.

The clouds that were few and scattered are now quickly swimming towards the part of the sky that is directly above them. A few moments later, grey clouds, covering half of the sky, have now accumulated and are slowly spiraling around a focal point.

*Krrshh* *kkrssh* They then hear the deep rumbling coming from the center of the spiral of clouds,  as if an ancient primordial beast is about to show itself.

"Everyone. Please, give me some space. Fifty meters should be more than enough." Red says before descending straight down to the ground.

His disciples quickly take out their flying swords and they hurryingly follow Red's orders. They cannot wait to get to safety.

The unease in their hearts get relieved for now as they feel that the farther they are from Red, the safer they feel.

"Haaa…" Red then sits down on the cold ground, with legs crossed.

Then, he starts executing the Celestial Body Cultivation Technique.

Unlike his casual exterior to his disciples, there is worry in his heart.

He has already lost track of how long it had been since he became a Sovereign in the Infinite Realms. That is how long since he last had a cultivation tribulation.

While he vaguely remembers his previous life breaking through the stage he is about to break through, he feels uncertain of his success. After all, ascending to the Nascent Soul Stage focuses on the connection of his soul and his body.

The uncertainty roots from the unequal strength of his soul and body. His body and his Core, despite being almost as perfect as his foundations in his previous life, is containing his soul which he suspects is even larger than that of a True Immortal's. It is simply something he has never heard of before happen in his very long existence, so his wisdom about cultivation is a bit useless in his current case.

*KRrrkk**Krrrk*

He hears the rumble of the void thunder accumulating above him.

He can only take a deep breath to clear his mind more.

He has already tried his best to toughen, purify, and refine his body to the utmost limit he can.

He wants to find more treasure around Terra that might assist him in this tribulation, but he ultimately decided not to.

He wants to fully reap the benefits of the void lightning that will assault him at any moment from now.

He knows the risks of it. He knows that not only will he fail in his tribulation; he will also die and his soul will dissipate back into the void.

But even so, he does not care if his tribulation really fails.

He has already lived long enough.

The only regret he will have if he dies, is that he will not be able to witness his new disciples' growth.

That his disciples will have to learn from the millions of jade slips he painstakingly made and stored somewhere, instead of them learning personally from him. 

*rumble*

A flash of light shows itself among the clouds, and Red feels a greeting coming.

"Void. We meet again."

He smiles as he welcomes the first lightning.