Boom!
The moment he stepped over the trial starting line, John found himself immersed in a world of lightning. If before when he used his finger to draw the lightning was a stream, then the current situation in front of him was a raging river. Lightning struck out violently at him, striking his entire body.
Even with his newfound essence runes and initial lightning attribute body, John found it hard to endure the baptism of lightning he was currently feeling.
Supreme Battle Art!
John had wanted to avoid using the Supreme Battle Art to strengthen his body, since his blood essence reserves dictated how long he could use it. Although he had obtained a vast amount of blood essence prior to entering this world, and another large amount from killing the beasts on the mountain, he still wanted to avoid using the Supreme Battle Art unless completely necessary.
John took a few steps forward and was struck by an even more powerful stream of lightning. His flesh started to char black and crack, shocking him into a painful retreat.
'Gah! How powerful. I won't be able to move that much forward without tempering my body further.''
Although he could move forward for some time with the Supreme Battle Art, it was far too costly to do so.
John sat down at the very edge of the trial and took out the Celestial Lightning Script jade piece, and started cultivating the script. Before he had focused on mostly his internal organs, bones and muscles, as his external body was strong enough to withstand the lightning with the Supreme Battle Art, but John soon realized that his thinking was foolish.
'I need to completely temper my entire body, leaving no part untempered. If I only focus on my internals, when the Supreme Battle Art runs out, I'll die by having my skin violently shredded from my body.
With the Supreme Battle Art active, John was able to resist the destructive damage of the lightning, but that was just a temporary solution. He could tell that his body alone would not be nearly strong enough to get to the center pedestal, which was over thirty yards away and had much stronger lightning.
'I'll sit here and focus on tempering my outer body. Then my inner body until I can withstand this area fully, at which point I'll slowly move ahead and repeat the process anew.'
John grit his teeth at the pain and the pain to come. Based on this plan of his, John knew he would be in continuous, unrelenting pain until he either passed the trial or died.
Lightning continuously struck his body, while John did his best to resist it. His divine sense was sent into the jade piece, at which point he started cultivating the Celestial Lightning Script, this time focusing on his outer body.
Time continued to pass slowly as John endured the painful torture of lightning raining down on him as he focused his mind as best he could on cultivating the script.
'If I hadn't endured all the extremely painful trials so far in my life, I would no doubt have passed out from the pain by now, and passing out would mean sure death.'
John had thought himself quite unlucky having experienced so many painful events in the last year, but now realized that those events were also blessings in disguise. Only by experiencing those painful events was John able to endure this current trial. If not, he would have passed out by now and died.
After some time, John could see faint runes start to glow on his skin, but the progress was much slower than he would like.
'If it goes on like this, the pocket realm will close before I get to the pedestal. I have to think of something.'
John wracked his mind for ideas on how to make himself progress faster. Thinking back to cultivating the script outside the trial area, John remembered how his charred body would peel away to reveal the lustrous runes glowing beneath. His eyes lit up as he thought of the solution, but also a tinge of reluctance was present as well at what it meant for him.
'Based on my previous experiences cultivating this, it seems the more I allow the lightning to damage my body, the faster the tempering process. But at the same time, the more damage I take, the closer I am to death if I make one mistake. The fastest way to cultivate this script seems to be balancing on the edge of death, making my body take as much damage as possible, without stepping over the edge...but this will also be the most painful and dangerous way by far.'
John grit his teeth as he tried to think of other solutions, but was unable to come up with anything.
'I guess it's this or nothing. I just hope I can endure the pain.'
John sat there for a moment and took a deep breath before taking the plunge. He slowly started retracting the Supreme Battle Art, weakening his body's defense.
Gah!
Flesh exploded in several places as John's body was struck by the continuous lightning stream. Without the protection of the Supreme Battle Art, John's body was slowly but surely damaged by the lightning. Any other cultivator would have died a hundred deaths by now, but thanks to his extremely powerful Immortal Asura Body, John was able to hang on with just the strength of his body.
The artifact spirit watched in shock as John allowed the lightning to fall on his body in such a manner.
"I can't believe his body, without being augmented by any arts or techniques can withstand the force of this lightning without being destroyed. Just what type of body does he have? Not only that, but the pain he is enduring now is immense. I suppose we will see what falls first. His will, his body, or this trial."