Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

2083  Rage of the Heavens

Maybe a Lord didn't sound very impressive. If two Sovereigns in Aika and Old Wan couldn't change and stabilize the situation, then how could a mere Lord do so? But there were two main issues to account for here. First… the Seventh Heaven didn't have many Lords to begin with. Jojo was able to have a huge impact despite still being in the Omniscient Realm. It wasn't until the Eighth Heaven where Lords became a bit more commonplace, but even then, there might only be one in several trillion cultivators. These weren't existences that just popped up everywhere even if Ryu's life now made it feel like it was so. And second… Starlight was far from a normal Lord. Starlight was under the tutelage of a hegemon of the Eighth Heaven. It was also said that he was granted the Chaotic Silk Meridians from this master of his, and as a result, his power had grown at an exponential rate the more perfectly he assimilated with it. But these were just external matters. Sure, a powerful master would likely not raise a useless disciple, and powerful talent likely wouldn't forge a mediocre genius. But these weren't the matters that should be considered the most… Instead, what had caught the attention of the world was Starlight's Tribulation. In the cultivation world, Tribulations could be triggered by a great number of things. Sometimes they were artificial, like what Ryu had experienced when his Dao first broke through on the First Heaven, or sometimes they were natural, like all the times Ryu had caused Tribulation Pill Clouds to descend. However, there was a third category of Tribulations, one that was unavoidable and the very reason why the crossing over from Omniscient to Lord was such an enormous hurdle. Cultivation Tribulation. Also known as the Rage of the Heavens Tribulation. The control a Lord had over the world was so far beyond what lower Sky Gods could match that this seemed to be the only appropriate response by the Heavens. The Lord Realm was a tipping point, a point where cultivators began to take more than the Heavens could easily return. As such, the Rage of the Heavens was called down, causing an exceptionally high death rate. It could be said that for every thousand Omniscients that even reached the threshold to trigger a Lord Rage Tribulation, a thousand would die. It wasn't until you began to get into the six and seven figures that you might get one or two survivors. And this was often regardless of talent and background. That was because the Rage of the Heavens couldn't be fooled. Everyone had the same odds of survival… These matters, though, could be skewed. If everyone had the same odds of survival, why did it seem that so many geniuses could weather the storm? And that was precisely where the danger Ryu felt lying on the horizon came from. These geniuses could survive the Tribulation because they had the Fate to do so. They were granted Blessings by the Heavens that gave them slightly higher odds of survival than all others, and this was precisely what they relied upon to reach the realms they did. But Ryu… he had no such Fate. That said, this matter wasn't about Ryu. In the documented history of Rage of the Heavens Tribulations, there were many separating tiers, and usually, this decided just what kind of shocking existence would be birthed on the other side… should this existence survive, that is. The first Tier was known as the Foundations Rage Tribulation. This Tribulation was the most normal of them all and only required one to survive a normal barrage of lightning. Whether it was a First Revolutions Foundations Rage Tribulation, or a Ninth Revolutions Foundations Rage Tribulation, would decide whether one had to only survive a single volley of lightning, or nine of them. It could be said that in the history of the True Martial World, basically no one got First or Second Revolution Tribulations. That was because of the unique geography of the landscape. Lords almost never appeared beneath the Seventh Heaven. And those above this threshold all met certain standards of cultivation and talent that weren't easily falsified. As such, the Third Revolution was considered the standard of a "normal" Lord. If one was a Sixth Revolution Lord, you were leagues beyond a Third Revolution one. It could be said that a Lord of the latter caliber could one-shot one of the previous caliber. However, this gap wasn't large enough for a Sixth Revolution Lord to defeat a Third Revolution Sovereign. That said… a Ninth Revolution Lord might be able to fight a very close battle and just barely lose to a Third Revolution Sovereign, assuming that they were already at the Peak of the Lord Realm and the Sovereign wasn't very far into the Sovereign Realm. However… it was said that Starlight wasn't a Ninth Revolution Lord. He was an Elemental Rage Lord. Above the Revolutions Rage Lords were the Elemental Rage Lords, existences that didn't just face Lightning Tribulations, but Elemental Tribulations. In fact, not only was Starlight an Elemental Rage Lord… he was a Seven Revolution Elemental Rage Lord. With a normal Seven Revolution Rage Lord, they would face seven volleys of lightning, each one growing progressively more powerful. This would amount to a total of 63 lightning bolts with nine for each Revolution. However… Elemental Rage Lords faced off against Wind Tribulation, Fire Tribulations, Water Tribulations, and finally, Earth Tribulations. They didn't have seven volleys. They faced off against seven times four volleys, for a total of 252 different assaults on their life, each from a different walk of life. The Elemental Tribulations weren't just difficult because of the number, but rather also the variety. What cultivator could boast perfect immunity to all of the Elements? Eventually, whether it was Wind, Fire, Water, or Earth, you would run into a combination or a variation of these Elements that you couldn't defend against… And this was the Tribulation that Starlight had made it through.

[Author's Note Below!] Heyo everyone! If you're a fan of me, please help out my other novel, Genetic Ascension!! Please go to your profile>inbox>events>and then click on "Vote for your favorite WSA candidate author!" to help GA out :) The more you guys vote, the higher likelihood there'll be of GA getting an adaptation in the future <3 Happy reading :)

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