The clouds continued to grow and when the third bolt of lightning came down, it was much bigger than the second bolt.
It had grown twenty times in size and over three hundred times in power, but even then, Lin Fan only felt a slight tingle.
His lightning laws were increasing at an incredible rate, which increased his resistance to lightning laws. With each bolt that hit him, it actually affected him less and less since he was growing stronger along with each bolt.
It wasn't just his lightning laws that were becoming stronger, Lin Fan was also using the energy in the lightning bolts to feed the suns in his dantian. As the suns were fed this energy, they also released energy that helped nurture Lin Fan's body, making it even stronger.
With each bolt of lightning, Lin Fan became stronger and stronger.
Even though he had technically only broken through to the Fragmented Soul Realm, he was already close to breaking through again to the mid Fragmented Soul Realm.
Looking up at the cloud that was growing in size, Lin Fan couldn't wait for the rest of the lightning to fall down on him.
But how could the heavens take this kind of insult?
The fourth bolt of lightning was the same, growing in size and power, allowing Lin Fan to increase his cultivation again, but the cloud began changing when it came to the fifth bolt of lightning. Instead of growing in size, this time the lightning gathered underneath the cloud.
The lightning began gathering under the cloud, coming together to take a specific shape.
Lin Fan was confused by this, but there was someone here who knew what this was.
Angela was the newest Spirit Overlord, so she wasn't born that long ago and her knowledge wasn't that deep, but Momonga was a different case. He was the King of Death, the Lich King who had lived for eons, so naturally his knowledge was deep.
Even though he had a deep knowledge, this was something that had only happened once in the entire history of this universe. It was what had happened with the one and only recorded person who had ever reached the God Realm and ascended to the heavens.
This was the tribulation of the five sacred beasts.
It was said that this world was created by the five sacred beasts, the four cardinal beasts of the Azure Dragon, the Phoenix, the White Tiger, and the Black Turtle who had created the world and the one beast above them, the Qilin who created the heavens.
As the creators of this world, it was natural that they ruled the heavens and when one truly went against the heavens, their figures would appear as part of the tribulation to punish the offender.
There was no doubt that by borrowing the power and likeness of the five sacred beasts, the lightning would reach a completely new level of power, it was definitely not something that Lin Fan could easily pass even with all the cheats that he had.
The first sacred beast to appear was the Black Turtle.
The Black Turtle was said to have the greatest defensive abilities, but there was nothing special about its attack abilities, so it was considered the weakest among the five sacred beasts.
This lightning that took the form of Black Turtle didn't hesitate as it went into its shell and began spinning as it fell down towards Lin Fan.
Lin Fan knew that this was completely different from the previous bolts of lightning.
Lin Fan gathered his laws in his fist, but this time it wasn't just the same three laws, but he gathered five different laws all together to create an even stronger glow compared to normal. His body had been strengthened after he had broken through to the second layer of the Nine True Sun Body Art, which allowed him to endure the stress that was caused by the mixing of even more laws.
He didn't hesitate at all as he threw his first out towards the spinning turtle shell that was flying right at him.
As soon as his fist made contact with the turtle shell, he felt like he had just punched a rock, causing his hand to turn numb.
In truth, if Lin Fan hadn't taken the initiative to attack the turtle shell, he would have been able to clear this bolt of lightning easily.
The main power of the Black Turtle was its defensive abilities and what came with it was the ability to reflect attacks.
If Lin Fan had just passively accepted this bolt of lightning, it would have harmlessly passed through him like all the other bolts. However, since he chose to attack, the turtle shell had reflected his attack with the added power contained in the bolt of lightning, which made it much stronger.
It was just a good thing that Lin Fan still had his absorption power and his two suns in his dantian.
The absorption power negated a part of that reflected attack while the two suns continued spitting out energy that kept healing him, making his body stronger. It was the same principle as exercising, healing the muscles again and again made it much stronger compared to before.
Unlike the previous bolts of lightning, Lin Fan actually had been forced a step back by this bolt. He had been pushing his laws on full force during this which did take quite a bit of energy, but he also gained a lot of energy from scattering the bolt of lightning that also contained much more energy compared to before.
However, Lin Fan didn't have a single moment to rest as the next bolt of lightning was already prepared.
This bolt of lightning had taken the form of a Phoenix.
The Phoenix bolt of lightning spread its wings as it charged right at Lin Fan, just like the spinning turtle shell.
Lin Fan once again gathered his laws in his fist and punched out against the Phoenix, but this time he found that it was much easier to scatter it compared to the Black Turtle.
But then he realized what was wrong.
Even though he had scattered it, the lightning didn't dissipate.
The power of the Phoenix was in its vitality and its ability to regenerate even after death, so even when the lightning bolt was dissipated, all the scattered lightning remained around Lin Fan, slowly burning him.
He could feel the lightning coursing over his skin, wreaking havoc across his body. It burnt his skin wherever it flowed, not stopping for a single second.
If this continued, he would be slowly burnt to a crisp by the lightning, but Lin Fan still had his secret trump card.
The suns in his dantian spewed out energy at full force to heal every bit that was burned while the absorption power sucked up the energy of the scattered lightning running across his skin. It was a fight of endurance as Lin Fan continued to heal while weakening it.
Eventually, the lightning reached a point where it could no longer burn him and he was finally able to slowly absorb the rest of the lightning to heal himself.
He could feel his powers surging from absorbing all of this, but it was taxing on his body. It drained away at his vital energy bit by bit since he was forcefully healing himself, but it was also a good thing that the two suns in his dantian were slowly replenishing that vital energy.
Once he finished absorbing the remnant lightning, once again, there was no time for him to breathe as the next bolt of lightning fell down.
This bolt of lightning took the shape of an Azure Dragon.
Unlike the previous two bolts, the Azure Dragon didn't charge forward with just its body, it created a wave of lightning that followed behind it like a wave on the sea as it crashed down on Lin Fan.
Unlike before, this wave didn't hit Lin Fan head on, but rather completely avoided his punch and wrapped around his body.
There was so much lightning around him that it even burnt the air around him, making it hard to breathe. All that lightning had created a cage that had completely surrounded Lin Fan, trapping him, making him unable to move a single muscle.
It was another battle of endurance since this lightning completely surrounding him was burning him away. It also burnt away all the oxygen from around him, so that he couldn't breathe at all.
Even if Lin Fan had broken through to the Soul Realm, he was still human in the end and required oxygen. If he didn't take care of this soon, he would suffocate to death.
Just like with the previous bolts of lightning, Lin Fan's solution was the same. He used the absorption power while healing his body with the suns in his dantian. Once again, he was able to break free just like this.
At this point, Lin Fan experienced another breakthrough, reaching the high Fragmented Soul Realm.
Normally it would take a Soul Realm Expert several decades to have this kind of progress after breaking through to the Soul Realm, but Lin Fan broke through again and again while undergoing his tribulation.
The next bolt of lightning was naturally in the form of the White Tiger.
There was no trick this time, the White Tiger prided itself in its ability to attack, so it focused all the energy in the bolt of lightning into a single point.
When that bolt of lightning hit Lin Fan, it pierced right through his knuckle, going into his hand and burning right into his arm where it finally stopped.
It had cracked through all of Lin Fan's defenses and pierced right through him, but Lin Fan had acted quickly.
He used his absorption power to gather all of the scattered energy into a single point, clashing against the tip of the lightning bolt. Neither side gave away and Lin Fan kept healing himself with the energy from the suns in his dantian to keep up this defense.
Of course, during this entire process, Lin Fan felt unimaginable pain. After all, there was a bolt of lightning that was stuck in his arm…
But the bolt of lightning eventually stopped going forward and was slowly pushed out of Lin Fan's arm.
That was the difference between the two sides, Lin Fan could continue gathering energy to support himself while the bolt of lightning only had the power that it had gathered in the beginning. Once it was stopped, it couldn't gather more energy to fight back, so it would slowly dissipate away.
Finally, Lin Fan was able to push the bolt of lightning out of his arm, but there was a smoking hole that was in his right hand where the middle knuckle was. If one peered in, they could see all the bones and sinew that were in Lin Fan's arm.
He had defeated four of the five sacred beasts, but there was still one bolt left.