527 Divine Tribulation
"Automaton, can you fit this thing inside?" I asked.
"It is possible, but it will only fit on the fifth floor," said the Automaton.
"Fifth?"
"Yes, in case you forgot, the Lord of Lords pagoda has nine floors in total, you only had access to four of them since your cultivation level was too low, now, I can open up to the sixth floor for you," the Automaton asked.
"Interesting, I suppose the rest of the floors need a higher cultivation level then," I asked.
"Not only higher cultivation level, they'll need a great amount of Origin Qi to open," said the Automaton.
"Origin Qi?" I asked.
"Yes, I suppose the limitation on the information needed for you to know more has been lifted if you could understand the words I speak. Since you already obtained a good amount of purified Origin Qi from the Primordial Serpent God,"
"So that's what it was, I suppose it's a higher form of Saint Qi," I asked.
"Yes, it's a type of Qi that comes form the beyond, from where the pagoda's lord came from," the automaton said.
"Wait wait, you said the Lord of Lords, came from the Beyond?"
"It is what is called in this lower realm, but the **/*@@@°°° Is a far vaster world, far greater than you can ever imagine... hmm, I suppose the restriction are still there for you, you'll need to grow stronger to know more, but so far I can explain a bit without the restrictions interfering."
"Then allow me to ask, who is the Lord of Lords?"
"Since I can't give detailed information about him due to the limitations, all I can say, can you imagine the strongest being, the mightiest you could ever imagine?" the automaton asked.
Nothing in mind came but the Primordial Serpent God, though I cheated in the way of taking over it, it is still mighty and strong...
"Before you answer," the Automaton added "Now imagine someone who can beat that being black and blue by a landslide," the automaton said.
I shook my head, " I can't even phantom the might of the second being then, The power of the Lord of Lords is that strong," I sighed.
"No, the Lord of Lords can beat the second guy black and blue by a land slide, that's how strong he is..."
"The power level seemed to jump a bit too much...I was a frog in a well I suppose," I said.
"I wouldn't blame you, you've been introduced to cultivation in a very barren and lowly area, yet you still managed to obtain great opportunities to grow, though with your current ability, you'll not even be able to stand your ground against the weakest of the cultivators in the Beyond since both your starting points are different, if you get the opportunity to go there, I believe with your wit you may be able to topple the power levels... but that requires leaving this prison."
"So you're saying that even the weakest cultivator from the beyond can easily take down the Primordial Serpent God?" what kind of power do they have this is in the realms of deity.
"No, I never said that, even in the Beyond, The Primordial Serpent God is a feared being. But what you fought right now, is a creature that hadn't had Origin Qi in its body for billions of years, it was hungered, weak and exhausted, and was slowly consuming planets to generate miniscule amounts of Origin Qi to sustain its life, waiting for the day it could return, if this thing is unleashed back in the Beyond, even the mightiest of the lords there will have trouble dealing with it. This is a great opportunity, for now, let me store it inside. Also, you know what will happen once you're outside the Serpent?" the Automaton asked.
"I guess it's time for that, right," I said.
"Yes, you've been suppressing your cultivation base for far too long, the moment you allow a fraction of the energy from the Golden Blood, the Blood Essence of the Primordial God out in the Vast Expanse, the Heavens will notice it, and will come down upon you with storms of lightning enough to eradicate planets..."
"Hold up now, the Heavenly Tribulation shouldn't be this serious?" I asked.
"No, it should be even more," said the Automaton, "Currently, what resides in you, is the Blood of a Being that its very existence is higher than the entire Vast Expanse, you're considered a creature that is elevated above the level of the Vast Expanse, so you must be struck down, however, the Heavens are Fair, and will never give you more than you can handle even if you feel they did."
Alright, might as well be ready for it since I can't escape it.
"Lord, are you ready?" asked the Automaton0
"Yes, go on ahead, consume the serpent," I said.
Suddenly, the entire Primordial Serpent God's body which was clearly nothing more than a husk as I had sealed its soul and gave it to my Draconic. Which meant it is nothing more than resources.
The entire body began shuddering and rumbling as it was about to completely teleport the whole thing.
A small teleportation gate appeared in front of me. "Get inside my Lord, I'm beginning the transposition," the Automaton said.
Once I was inside the Pagoda, the Automaton teleported it outside the Serpent's Belly and right next to it, then soon the energy fluctuations of the Planet Core inside the pagoda seemed to go off the charts as the automaton was using every ounce of its power to completely lock off the serpent in a different subspace inside the pagoda itself.
"Do we have enough energy?" I asked.
"We have enough energy to take the Serpent Inside, and once it's inside, I'll harvest some of blood of the Primordial Serpent God to fuel the Pagoda, and only when we obtain another Planet Core can we use full function again.
"Good to know, also I suppose I should leave soon," I said as I felt the calling of the Heavenly Tribulation growing stronger and stronger.
"It would be wise, since we're exhausting a lot of energy I can't hide you from the eyes of the heavens, it might strike the Pagoda down to hunt you, Godspeed Lord..."
"Right," I said as I left the pagoda and appeared in the Vast Expanse once more for what felt like a hundred years...
***
"Do you see that?" a cultivator who was waiting to see what was wrong with the Primordial Serpent god asked.
"Feels like it's giving birth or something, its energy weakened a lot," the other cultivator said.
"Are you stupid? How can it ever give birth, it's been here for billions of years, and its only one, how could it even mate?" he asked.
"I don't understand still, how is it losing its Qi this fast? Something isn't right," the first cultivator said.
Another soon came in and asked, "Guys, are you also waiting for its death? I have a group of cultivators here with me, we're planning on harvesting the Primordial Serpent God once it dies, as much as possible before the big Four come..."
Hearing the name of the Big Four meant one thing, this event is already known to most of the Four kings of the Vast expanse, and if a battle were to happen for the corpse of the serpent, there will be a lot of deaths..."
"Working together seems like a good idea, we can split the work and claim pieces and bits, before the Big Four come we should have harvested enough to live off several lifetimes, so yes we'll work with you, how many of your group are there?"
As the group were discussing how to divide their loot, not realizing they were counting their chicken before they're hatched. The entire body of the Primordial Serpent God suddenly disappeared.
And instead, the body of a man which was comparable to a grain of sand to the serpent appeared instead.
The group of cultivators didn't understand what happened, or how could the serpent just disappear, and thus their only realization was that it had to do with the person that appeared next to it. So they moved fast to question him before he would escape with probably the entire serpent.
But just as they made it a fraction of the way, space itself seemed darker than usual. Which was an absurd notion, if not for the fact that actual clouds were manifesting within space itself.
An absurd notion, but in this world it was real all too real and only idiots would not recognize this phenomenon.
"H-heavenly Tribulation?! No, this is something more..." the cultivator said as he stopped.
The clouds, instead of their crimson blood color, were pitch black, so black that no light was able to reflect against them, they looked like the emptiness of the abyss itself.
Not many knew of this type of tribulation, since it was so rare only one case was ever recorded, and those who knew it are far in and between.
Since this tribulation only happened once when a being too powerful descended upon the Vast Expanse. His origin unknown, his goal unknown and his presence was for but a minute...
Only few know of this person, and it was the Lord of Lords... but that's a story for another time...
The tribulation that came with him was recorded in legends as the end of the world itself due to the strength it came with.
And now it appeared once more.
A Divine Tribulation.