Chapter 353 Striking Fear.

Shi Lang had stopped caring about the world outside, he was focused on refining and refilling his spiritual energy, the level of his primordial soul was also growing slowly. The infant inside his soul sea was now akin to a toddler. This change was the result of ten days.

If anyone else was to see this growth rate they would be doubting if Shi Lang had any special physique or treasure on his body. They would not be half wrong though. The treasure Shi Lang had was his old soul. His soul was skin to a hungry beast that has tasted spirit energy once before, and now, after eons it was allowed to feel the same again.

Using his experience, Shi Lang was providing the soul with refined spirit energy, this made the progress accelerate even more than what it should be if he had any treasure on his body. Shi Lang was getting stronger with every passing second and the people outside were cowering in fear.

In the past ten days, five teams of two from the Ace division, have accomplished their tasks. The people had no idea what made the Ace division seek this sort of challenge, but they were all on point. They challenged from the captain rank and then slowly climbed up. They would fight in tags without any break, and the fleets were left senseless, even the first mate of the commanding general was rendered useless.

The surprising thing was that from all the sixteen fleets, ten were given the challenge and the rest were left untouched. One of them was the first fleet, four were made from the majority of ingenious species members, and the last but not the least was the fleet headed by General Charlotte Knight.

The message was loud and clear, Shi Lang had sent a slap to the faces of the supporters who forgot the fact that they are not politicians but guardians of the peace and prosperity. They needed to be humiliated to be reminded of their real position. He had written a letter to each of the generals which was given to them after the generals were defeated by the ace division experts.

The generals were the only ones who seemed to have put up a tough fight and even lost standing on their feet. However, in the letter all their doubts were cleared, Shi Lang had purposefully asked the two people to go easy on the Generals and save them some dignity, if they were to be defeated in front of their soldiers than the morale of the fleet will crumble and he did not want this.

His words surprised the people, but they all knew the meaning behind this. He was giving them a chance to correct their ways. While most of them were indignant, they also knew that if they did not do as told, Shi Lang will crumble their dignity and then appoint a new general in their position. This was not a bog thing for him to do, after all, he was the man who had replaced the entire general council.

…

On Mythya, a separate ocean of despair had taken over the lives of the cadets here. The Tartarus finally started acting like the hell they had thought it was in the early days. They thought that the Ace division had been easy on them earlier, but given this level, it was because the commander was back and he did not wish for anyone to slack.

Some people speculated what was going on with Shi Lang. Some thought he has already left the place to deal with some mission, while some thought that he was seriously injured and was in the base healing himself silently. The last claim was even more ridiculous, some people said that Shi Lang had ran away from home after a fight with his wife.

None of them could guess that Shi Lang was here to get stronger and was in seclusion? That was because Milo was providing the people with rumors. This was a way to keep these guys off track and distracted. They needed to learn how to focus their thoughts. Milo loved chaos, he was a true sadist in the base.

After a period of fifteen days, Shi Lang opened his eyes in the ninth level. He said, "Milo, close the maze, I need to go out the time is short."

The voice echoed directly in Milo's mind. The man was shocked but he still followed the order quickly and thought, done. Shi Lang walked out of the ninth level, and then quickly walked through the maze.  He ignored the eyes of the cadets set on him. Barton was lying in a small pool of blood spraying a healing agent on his wounds when he spotted Shi Lang walking out quickly.

His heart was indignant, he wanted to question this man if the cadets were so worthless that he would not even spend a minute to talk to them, but he was injured and could not catch up to Shi Lang. At least not before they reached the surface.

He spotted Shi Lang standing on the top of a cliff, and wanted to move closer to vent when Jill appeared next to him and pressed her hand on his shoulder as she said in a cold voice, "If you take another step, I will splatter your brain here on the ground. Do you understand?"

Her voice was cold and she was not joking. Suddenly another voice sounded, "Jill what is boss looking at the sky for?"

The voice belonged to Sparrow, Jill looked at Shi Lang in distance and shrugged her shoulders as she said, "Everyone, be alert and prevent any intrusion. Boss is in a different state of mind, anyone who tries to get close to him will die."

The entire team replied in a yes. X appeared beside Jill, and with a few taps on Barton's body he immobilized him and also took off his body cams. Barton looked at him wrongly and X said, "What you are about to see, is not allowed to be circulated, at least not until you want your head to roll."

...

In the distance, Shi Lang stood on a cliff looking at the cliff. His eyes were filled with red light, as if a fire of battle. The sky was resonating with his thoughts. The black clouds began to roll together and suddenly a crimson streak of lightning could be seen in the clouds.

Shi Lang chuckled loudly and said, "What are you waiting for, Come, I am ready for you."

His voice and reaction shocked the people, they did not know what was going on, but suddenly, the crimson lighting struck towards Shi Lang. The people wanted to tell him to leave the spot, but he jumped off the ground and rushed to meet the streak of lightning head on.

The streak of lightning and the human clashed, a delayed explosion sounded and shook the void with the impact. The people were all standing a hundred meters away, they were all forced to retreat at least another hundred meters. X said, "Use your spirit energy to protect yourself, but do not radiate any fighting intent, that lightning will kill you all."

The people did not expect something like this, and before they could ask where Shi Lang was and what happened to him, they saw the figure with crimson lightning crawling all over his body, but the figure looked like it was not effected at all. Shi Lang was busy refining the lightning into spirit energy to provide himself with a greater nourishment.

This was a method of maniacs but he was not a sane person anyhow. The asura sutra in his mind was where he learned this technique. The second lightning streak was also condensing among the clouds and the people had no idea what to say to explain this phenomena in front of them.

Shi Lang channeled the energy in his entire body, tempering it even further. Giving the people a shock, Barton was doubting his life, he could not understand what level of strength it took for someone to face lightning.

As soon as Shi Lang finished digesting the first bolt, the second streak of lightning fell from the sky, the result was the same, but the impact was stronger than before by twice. Shi Lang was pushed down to half the height of where he was flying. Jill was bewildered and asked, "What is this? Why is boss seeking the lightning?"

X replied, "This is the heavenly tribulation. This is how he cultivators advance to the levels above core condensation. You know that you are reaching the peak of core condensation, but you have not yet unlocked your primordial soul. The day you unlock your primordial soul, you will face the first tribulation. Three lightning bolts. The day you reach the second level of this realm, you will face second tribulation, six lightning bolts, and the third level will have you face nine bolts.

The power of each bolt multiplies, for example, the second bolt is twice stronger than the first, and the third bolt is four times stronger than the second. You know the math now."

The people were scared, they could not believe what they just heard, this was a simple face off with death. X said, "Did it strike fear in your hearts? Then your path of cultivation ends here. Remember, you can fear it, but only when you steel your heart to face the fear can you go further on this path."