This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder

In order for a mortal to cultivate, they must have a Spiritual Vein. Even cultivators of the martial way required a mortal to have a Spiritual Vein above the shattered grade. This was due to the need to sense the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. Without being able to sense spiritual qi, mortals would not be able to absorb them.

All mortals possessed Spiritual Veins. The difference was simply the type and quality of Spiritual Veins a mortal had. There were five primary types of Spiritual Veins: fire, water, wood, metal, and earth. And each vein was further divided into five different grades of quality: shattered, fractured, flawless, perfect, and heavenly.

A shattered Spiritual Vein was useless, and the difference between having one and not having one was almost indiscernible. And those who had pentad Spiritual Veins, having all five elements, were also incapable of cultivating. Only those with quadruple or less Spiritual Vein were capable of cultivating.

But the most supreme Spiritual Veins were single Spiritual Veins, also known as Heavenly Spiritual Veins. Mutated Spiritual Veins were also included in this category and were far rarer than regular Heavenly Spiritual Veins, like Tianyi’s Lightning Spiritual Vein or Mengfei’s Yin Spiritual Vein.

However, Tianyi's Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Vein was undergoing even further mutation, surpassing the limits of a Heavenly Spiritual Vein. His grasp of lightning attuned spiritual qi became even greater, and there was a faint sense of domination as if he was the ruler of lightning. As if in response to this heaven-defying power, the heavens began to rage, and tribulation clouds began to form above Tianyi's location. Despite not advancing to the next realm, Tianyi was going to undergo a Heavenly Tribulation!

Tianyi, who was attuned to all types of lightning, naturally felt the Heavenly Tribulation forming, but he didn’t show any panic and instead showed a fearless smile as he looked up. It was as if the tribulation lightning in the clouds was an open book for him to read.

The tribulation clouds continued to gather and amass power above the palace, and the clouds continued to darken until pitch black with frequent flashes of lightning and the crackling of thunder. Suddenly, the Heavenly Tribulation struck as a golden bolt of lightning pierced through the palace ceilings towards Tianyi. The reason a Heavenly Tribulation was called a tribulation and not a calamity was because you could run and hide away from calamities, but you could never avoid tribulation.

The lightning pierced through all the Nascent Soul level formation of the palace and directly struck Tianyi’s body. But Tianyi didn’t avoid it as he allowed the bolt of lightning to encase him.

Tribulation lightning may be a great threat to other people, but to me, who has the mutated Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Vein, it is instead a big gift to me! Or should it be Tribulation Lighting Spiritual Vein? Whatever the name, tribulation lightning is a pretty excellent source of energy for me now.

Tianyi used his previous experience and the toughness of his Bone Refining stage body to defend against the lightning while he absorbed it and converted it into spiritual qi.

Ever since he had returned to the Buzhou Immortal Sect and talked to his mother, his cultivate had stagnated at the early Spiritual Altar Foundation Establishment. He wanted to infuse the power of tribulation essence into his Spiritual Altar and Pillars before he entered the Spiritual Crucible stage. But he didn't want to keep relying on external sources for tribulation essence, so he waited until he could produce tribulation essence him.

It was only today that he had gained a sliver of enlightenment on the nature of tribulation essence and the majesty of the Heavenly Dao that allowed him to produce his own tribulation essence.

The second strike of tribulation lightning came down.

And then the third strike.

The fourth strike.

The fifth strike.

The sixth strike.

The seventh strike.

My Spiritual Altar is almost finished forming. I have to thank the Heavenly Tribulation for sending down these bolts to quicken my cultivation. Tianyi was naturally just thinking about this. If he were to really say that out loud, who knows whether or not the Heavenly Tribulation will send out a bolt of lightning that he couldn’t withstand and directly exterminate him for his impudence. Not to mention the reactions of other cultivators who treated Heavenly Tribulation with veneration.

The eighth strike.

Tianyi frowned as he took the eighth lightning strike. He could feel that its power was nearing the limit of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Although he could still defend against it and absorb it at the same time, if the next strike would be even stronger, Tianyi wasn’t confident he would be able to finish the Heavenly Tribulation uninjured.

After he finished dealing with the eighth bolt, Tianyi spread out his arms, formed his hand into claws, and moved them in a coiling pattern. The Heavenly Tribulation didn’t bring forth the ninth strike immediately after the eighth bolt, which made Tianyi even warier. Calming his nerves down, Tianyi amassed spiritual qi into both his hands and began building up the power of his attack even more.

After the time for a kettle of water to boil passed, the ninth lightning bolt finally descended. At the same time that the ninth lightning bolt descended, Tianyi struck upwards. Two illusionary coiling dragons rose from his hands and soared skyward against the descending bolt of the lightning. The two illusionary dragons clashed against the tribulation lightning, and they roared savagely as if they were alive and possessed the natural arrogance of the Dragon Clan. Alas, the two dragons were still illusions in the end, and after clashing for a few moments, they were destroyed, and the bolt of lightning continued its descent.

Tianyi didn't panic as his attack was destroyed. The lightning bolt showed the power of the Core Formation Realm, while his attack was only at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Raising one palm upwards while the other faced downward, Tianyi's body resembled a pillar that supported heaven and earth. An illusionary white pillar created by qi appeared with Tianyi at its center and gave off an aura of agelessness as if it was an eternal pillar that would never be destroyed.

The lightning continued its descent and struck Tianyi. But he was inside the pillar made of spiritual qi, and it protected him against the lightning. However, the pillar began to have numerous cracks appear on it. Against the overbearing might of the tribulation lightning, it finally shattered, and Tianyi’s face began to pale.

But Tianyi wasn’t done as he unsheathed his sword and used the Heartless Sword Art and struck the tip of the descending lightning. It was all for this moment. He used his two illusionary dragons to slow down the lightning and used the spiritual pillar to temporarily stop the lightning to observe the lightning, finding its weak point for him to strike against. And now that his sword tip struck the tip of the descending lightning, it fractured into a thousand different bolts that spread out like an umbrella.

The tribulation lightning wasn’t so easily defeated as the bolts then curved back to attack Tianyi from all sides. But for Tianyi, as long as the attack wasn’t gathered at one point, he wasn't afraid. Using a portion of his attention, Tianyi deflected and delayed half of the bolts while dealing with the other half. And after dealing with half, he dealt with the rest.

By the time Tianyi was done, his face was deathly pale as he vomited a mouthful of blood. Your mother! That attack was at least at the mid Core Formation Realm! Tianyi cursed as he quickly swallowed a recovery pill and felt his damaged meridians and internal organs heal. His skin, muscles, tendons, and bones had been strengthened, so they coped with the excess energy better than his internal organs.

“Damn, thankfully, that was the last one. Otherwise, my internal injuries would have taken me months to heal.” Tianyi said. “Absorbing tribulation lightning is good and all, but I’m still a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator. Absorbing the power of a Core Formation Realm attack would just make me explode! My intuition is telling me that the Heavenly Tribulation will appear more frequently in the future and not just when I ascend realms.”

On the one hand, it was the Heavenly Dao giving free energy to speed up Tianyi's cultivation. On the other hand, there was a real risk of death and exploding from absorbing too much.

“Only when one reaches Immortality would the Heavenly Tribulation stop, ascending into Immortality means severing one’s connection to the mortal world. Don’t tell me I have to become an Immortal for the Heavenly Tribulation to stop?”

Although Tianyi’s words were full of helplessness, his eyes had a hint of excitement. Why? It was because the protagonists in all the stories were often too heaven-defying and suppressed by the heavens and the world, yet they would overcome all those obstacles. This pressure made Tianyi feel that he was a little like the protagonist of a cultivation novel.

The Xi Emperor wrung his hand in worry as he watched the Heavenly Tribulation descend. “Younger Sister, Nephew Tianyi is still at the early stage of the Spiritual Altar Foundation Establishment. Why would Heavenly Tribulation appear?”

Xi Mengfei, who was next to the Xi Emperor, had an expressionless face as she watched the Heavenly Tribulation and her eyes pierced through all obstacles watching Tianyi. She already had a guess, but the matter was a big matter, with the fewer people knowing, the better. “Yi’er is a genius among genius. The scripture he cultivates in is heaven-defying. It is no surprise that Heavenly Tribulation would come.”

The Xi Emperor furrowed his brows. Although the sentence seemed reasonable, there was still something missing. Forget it, he thought. Perhaps he was simply a frog in a well, not knowing how wide heaven and earth were.

The biggest worry would be Xi Tianyi dying to the Heavenly Tribulation, causing a grudge to form in his younger sister’s heart. It must be known that the most significant reason that the Xi Dynasty was able to become a cultivation empire was because of his sister, Xi Mengfei. Should he lose her support, who knows how many of the surrounding powers would want to bite a chunk of the Xi Dynasty?

Although he had stopped expanding and was consolidating power step by step in order to produce more cultivators for the Xi Dynasty, this was not something that could be done in a few years. Even after nine hundred years, it was still not enough. Their power was already weaker than the amount of land and resources they should be able to protect. It was only thanks to his relationship with his sister that he was able to keep war from erupting.

The Xi Dynasty would even occasionally send gifts to the surrounding powers to maintain friendly relationships.

“Your majesty… this…”

The Xi Emperor sent a glance at his empress and his children that had come because of the sudden arrival of the Heavenly Tribulation.

"Everything is under control. Return to your dwellings."

The Xi Emperor ordered using his spiritual sense to the people who had come to see what was happening as well as a few head eunuchs managing the affairs of the imperial palace. After that, Xi Mengfei and the Xi Emperor watched as bolts of lightning descended one by one from the black clouds.

The Xi Emperor glanced at his younger sister. Although she may not know, and not many would be able to discern it. For him, who had known this younger sister since she was young, some habits were hard to change. When Xi Mengfei became nervous or full of worry, her face would be even more expressionless, and her body would seize up like having been frozen in a block of ice. From this, the Xi Emperor could tell that his younger sister wasn’t as confident as she portrayed herself as.

When the black clouds dispersed, the Xi Emperor revealed a smile of relief as he looked at Xi Mengfei.

“Emperor-Brother, Yi’er has passed his Heavenly Tribulation. Let us return and discuss the matter once more.”

The Xi Emperor nodded as the two of them returned to his study room. It was only the two of them. Not even his personal eunuch was there, much less the officials.

“The girl Yi’er was staring at, who is she?” Mengfei asked.

The Xi Emperor thought a bit and recalled how Tianyi was staring at a particular spot in the banquet hall with an unfocused gaze. “The area Nephew was looking at should be the seats of the Jiang family.”

“As for the girl. Minister Jiang has three daughters. The eldest daughter, Jiang Qingwa, she’s one of the rising geniuses of the Xi Dynasty.” The Xi Emperor looked at his younger sister, and seeing her shake her head, he continued.

“His second daughter is Jiang Chunye, said to be an idiot but about a month ago she suddenly showed great talent in martial arts and knowing many skills, changing her reputation. Much more, she was able to cross stages and defeat her sister during the banquet.” The Xi Emperor saw Mengfei tilt her head the slightest bit and knew that she couldn’t recall Jiang Chunye. Perhaps she wasn’t even paying attention during the whole banquet.

The Xi Emperor held in his sigh. The hope of someone catching her eye and being accepted as a disciple was crushed. “The third and youngest daughter of Minister Jiang. Speaking of which, her name is quite a coincidence. Jiang Daoyi, the Yi character is the same as Nephew Tianyi’s. There has not been much information about her, and she rarely goes out, like an invisible person. She does not seem to have cultivated at all in her life.”

Xi Mengfei’s dark eyes flashed for a brief moment. “That should be the girl. Bring her to me.”