I used the Tiger Stinger skill, a challenge to heaven's assault as I faced against the bolt with my sword and decided to break through it before it bore through me. I flashed forward, both slashing and thirsting my sword, hand extended and my legs taught from the jump, I came in a challenge against heaven's will, and my sword and the lightning clashed at one point.
A loud explosive sound echoed in the vicinity, enough that the many cultivators that have just arrived were forced back from the shockwave of my affront to heaven's doom.
But in this battle, I came up short, and the lighting bolt was far more powerful than what power I could muster in my challenge. I was struck down against the ground, where my whole body was ravaged by tendrils of red lightning. Yet, the lightning didn't burn my body this time, it had to struggle against my robe, the robe made from hundreds of thousands of small inscriptions that hardened it and made it sturdier.
I stood up from the ground I was buried under, toppling rubble and stones from above me as I grinned, my whole body was seared, and my face was covered in soot, dust, and grim, yet I smiled focused as the third lighting bolt gathered to come down upon me.
I gathered my Qi within me and roared in challenge, heaven wanted me dead, and I would never bow down to death without a fight. Qi surged within my body, dreadfully delighted at my challenge, my own Qi was a challenge against heavenly will. My own Qi, my poison Qi was never a part of the heavenly law, it was its own law, it didn't follow the rules of the cultivator's Spiritual Qi meridians. And therefore the heavenly Qi decided that it didn't want a challenger to its primordial authority.
Heavenly Qi, spiritual Qi, the very world's natural energy disdained to see another variant of itself guiding another cultivator to the top and it didn't wish for it to be rivaled so it came at me, with not one, not two, but three lighting bolts as big as my thighs as they shot at me.
"He's dead," one of the cultivators spoke, and I was amazed at how I could still hear him though he was so far.
Another shook his head, and even that motion I was able to perceive without having my eyes on him. Was this Divine Sense? I grinned, I have yet unlocked another ability. Right, let's focus up. If these three bolts struck me, I'll be doomed and there is no way for me to survive. That is if I were to take them head-on.
Then inspiration dawned on me, as I remembered a step, a single step I had done within the laughing slaughterer's pagoda. The step I took against his stairs, the step that cracked those sturdy steps that months of me using my skills couldn't even scar. That step came to me and I felt that It was what I needed to use.
With the same fugue and insightful sensation, I had that day, I raised my leg and struck at the ground, causing a huge boulder to raise from under me and fly up in the air. In one breath, I jumped after the boulder grabbing my brush from my pouch and then I wrote.
My hands splattered golden ink on the back of the massive boulder, with exaggerated moves as the writing had imprinted itself in masterful calligraphy.
"INDOMITABLE!"
The words shone brightly in gold then, in a sickly bright green as the lighting bolts shot at the boulder and found a resistance that they didn't expect to be there.
The bolts were stopped and they crashed against the Indomitable Boulder, cracks appeared on it, but it resisted, parts of it were broken off, but the boulder still resisted. The first bolt exploded shaking the hovering boulder but it couldn't move it much, the second bolt shattered and it also failed to pierce through, finally the final bolt inflated itself with the remains of the other two bolts and came down on the Indomitable boulder with so much force that it turned it to dust as it passed through it. Yet the boulder did its job, weakening the bolts as much as possible before it came in contact with me.
The bolt was powerful still, but not enough to threaten my life.
I was struck down once again, against the ground. My bones cracked, my chest heaved and my face was burnt halfway through. Yet I stood once again, gazing up against the turmoiled skies, there were now four more bolts, far bigger and far mightier than before.
But I wasn't giving up, the thrill to battle heavens themselves sent new waves of energy coursing through me, my adrenalin pumped and my lips stretched into a devilish grin, "Bring it on!"
The clouds had heavily dissipated, this was heaven's final assault, afterwards, the heavens will have finished its judgment and I would be free to live until I once again breakthrough to the nascent realm. The end goal is near, but I'm near exhaustion, X is useless, my robe is damaged, my Qi is depleted yet I smiled, this was…enjoyable. This challenge was invigorating and I felt alive fighting against this impossibility. Man imposes but heaven disposes, yet I would not take heaven's disposal with meekness, I'll rise above and never bend my back to it.
I looked up and knew that using the same trick again would not work, the hasty Inscription on the boulder was good, but there were no other massive boulders near me, not that I could feel with my divine sense. Nor do I think that Heavens will fall to the same trick again. I needed to battle the last bolts with my own power, power that was fading rapidly.
Yet, I won't back off.
I pulled a handful of poison pills from my pocket and took them all at once. This would undoubtedly kill me on any other day, but I needed a lot of energy to do what I'm about to do, and my natural reserves were far too exhausted to rely on.
I immediately digested the pills and power beyond what I could imagine surged through me. My body, though it was being threatened to collapse from the sheer amount of Poison Qi was ecstatic, looming doom and fear were outright discarded as my mind raced to find ways out of this mess and the only solution it found for me was in an image of the Poison God's own challenge against might far greater than him.
I raised both my hands in perfect remembrance of the Poison God's own Poison Tiger claw. His power was strong enough to break a planet, and I for a small second felt the Poison God's avatar, his own soul possessing me.
For a fraction of a second, I was able to see all the minute mistakes that I have made in my own attempt to replicate The Poison Tiger Claw and I adjusted.
The Qi needed to course through me, the rotation of my newly birthed Core, and my bearing, even my own emotion needed to be as proud, ferocious, and as courageous as that of a tiger. Even in the face of heavenly Tribulation, I needed to brave through it, fight against it, not resist, not struggle, but to actually believe that I WILL triumph!
And with that I swung down both my hands in a clawing motion, causing the world to heave in fright as if the real Poison God as appeared once again. The earth trembled, the grass withered and the skies churned as six claws of green energy far bigger than the lighting from heaven were summoned.
My body gave the poison Qi for the skill, all of it but a fraction to keep me alive, and this power struck down against heaven's lightning. The two energies collided and in their collision, the world threatened to crack.
The earth shook and parted from under me, and the skies shuddered and its cloud dispersed, all that was left were the battling forces of heavenly energy and my green deadly poisonous claws.
Then came the end, as both energies failed to bore through each other and destroy each other, they then aimed at themselves, blowing up to cause the other destruction. And in that self-implosion, the world shook as I was thrown off where I stood from the mere shockwave, tumbling and spinning like a ragdoll on the ground, unable to break my fall as I continued to rapidly crash against dirt, stone, and small bushes, where my rapid deadly tumble was stopped by a massive boulder that cracked against me as I cracked against it.
I could feel my whole body suffering from pain and so many internal injuries that I could barely keep my eye open. My skull was definitely fractured, not to mention several ribs, my arm, and heavy damage to my liver, and a broken leg.
Still, I grinned, I survived, as I glanced up, with a blurry eye, I could see the seething skies dissipating and energy from the world began to surge.
Whenever the Heavenly Tribulation clouds come, death, doom, and destruction are left in its wake. Heaven is cruel, yet merciful. As an apology to the destruction Heaven always creates, it blesses those who suffer its wrath and survive. And I could feel it. The residual lightning energy in the atmosphere began to mend my wounds. Though I was not attuned to the heavenly energy, though I couldn't cultivate it, my body, for some reason was still nourished by it.
A dislocated shoulder popped back, the broken leg suddenly mended itself back, and my wounded flesh healed visibly, no even the burn on my face nor the burnt hair remained as it was replaced with healthy skin, far healthier than even when I broke through to Core Formation.
Soon, Wu Di came rushing in after me, "You crazy bastard! Are you okay?" He asked. Worry, apparent on his face.
"More or less, but I'm feeling hella sore, wait, I think I'm gonna throw up," I said and pushed Wu Di to the side.
I regurgitated all the impurities from the mass of pills I just consumed and I was definitely not feeling well. Thanks to heaven's compassion my body was healed and even the damage from the pills I ate was lessened but it was still there, I'll need to heal myself, a few pills and probably a couple of days of rest would bring me back to full health.
"How is grandpa Shen Bao?" a feminine voice asked, it was Yuzehan the girl that accompanied Xiao Lang and Wu Di.
"He's doing fine, but…I don't think Grandpa Shen Bao is applicable anymore," rat-faced Xiao Lang said with a sly grin.
"Oh, my," Yuzehan's face flushed a bit as she looked at me.
"What's going on?" I asked frowning.
Yuzehan immediately pulled up a mirror and handed it to me, I took it and glanced at my face.
Apparently, all the tumors on my face had disappeared and instead of the wizened old man who had years stolen from him by time, there was a middle-aged man with a stout-looking face, the man even had a goatee and was…handsome. If not for the gaping hole in that man's face I would have mistaken him for nobility with a slightly pale face due to some sickness, that very paleness though gave the man a sense of handsome evilness to his disposition.
"The hell?" I asked and the man in the mirror also mimicked my face. "That's me?"
"Apparently, Grandpa Shen Bao became handsome uncle Shen Bao," Yuzhen said.
Xiao Lang grinned as he said, "Seems that Yuzehan is no longer interested in the lion's cubs and wants the lion all for herself."
The girl flushed once more and playfully smacked Xiao Lang on the head.
To which everyone began laughing.
And I was left with a smile on my face. I continued looking in the mirror and grinned, bar from the gaping hole for an eye, I actually…looked more human than before.