Thunder Calamity and the Three Who Transcend

"Is this the power of the twenty-fifth heaven of Magnetic Rotation?"

Lu Bian stood alone atop a snowy mountain. When sunlight fell upon the glaciers at its summit, it created the natural wonder known as "sunlight gilding the mountains."

Shi Tianwu had told Lu Bian that the twenty-fifth heaven was a threshold in the cultivation of Magnetic Rotation. When Lu Bian truly reached that realm, he discovered that the "threshold" had taken on a literal, tangible form for him.

Something real was waiting for him here.

A sense of foreboding stirred in his heart, so Lu Bian gave Chenxiang some instructions, then went alone to the desolate, snowy peak to await the "thing" that had made him uneasy.

Lu Bian meditated atop the mountain for three days, restoring his strength and readying himself.

When he sensed that "thing" approaching, he opened his eyes.

Thick clouds veiled the sky above the snowy mountain. Though it should have been daytime, there was no light, as if night had fallen.

A tremendous sense of danger was brewing within the clouds.

Lu Bian used his magnetic field perception to probe the clouds that covered the sky and the thunder and lightning building within them, to see whether they were the work of the immortals of the Heavenly Court.

His perception told him that this was simply the natural workings of heaven and earth. He felt no magnetic field response from any immortal.

"Am I about to undergo a tribulation?"

Over the past three days, Lu Bian had brought his body into peak condition. Now he was ready to face the lightning tribulation.

"Ultimate Quantification Art!!"

The gloomy sky suddenly lit up. Bolts of lightning came crashing down, and the thunderclaps boomed in Lu Bian's ears a moment later.

Lu Bian sat cross-legged atop the snowy peak, ready for this. He raised his right palm toward the sky and pressed his left hand to the ground, actively drawing down the lightning and channeling the bolts that struck him into the earth.

The thunder of heaven and earth kept battering Lu Bian, yet he felt only a slight numbness throughout his body, a prickling sensation like someone giving him a massage.

His instincts told him this lightning tribulation posed a great threat, yet the actual experience had done him no harm at all.

Could it be that, because the Magnetic Rotation he cultivated was based on electromagnetic force, the heavenly lightning could not hurt him?

Was his daily Magnetic Rotation training actually more grueling than this lightning tribulation?

The lightning tribulation battered Lu Bian for a whole day. It burned his outer clothes to ash, cleansed his skin, and quickened his thoughts.

The heavenly lightning and the magnetic field energy within Lu Bian's body underwent a wondrous transformation. Each time it coursed through him, it connected him to heaven and earth, granting him an indescribable wisdom and insight...

Lu Bian had attained enlightenment.

When the clouds parted and the spectacular sight of sunlight gilding the mountains appeared once more, an astonishing aura rose from Lu Bian.

It was the power of three hundred thousand metric tons of Magnetic Rotation!!

After overcoming the lightning tribulation, Lu Bian's power had risen yet again.

Lu Bian stood up, stark naked. He reached out and grabbed at the air—and somehow caught a piece of clothing.

He had gathered and recombined the surrounding matter, making it take the form of clothing.

Once a Magnetic Rotation cultivator reached two hundred and fifty thousand metric tons of power, they could roughly transform matter. Combined with a certain level of the Perfect Realm, this rudimentary ability to alter matter allowed them to perform simple acts of "creation."

Lu Bian: [@Shi Tianwu... bro, I've finished my tribulation.]

Shi Tianwu: [Is it over? I have a theory about the lightning tribulation you just went through.]

Shi Tianwu: [I came up with it after reading Journey to the West.]

Shi Tianwu: [When Sun Wukong was cultivating, his master told him to guard against the Three Calamities and Hardships: the Thunder Calamity, the Fire Calamity, and the Wind Calamity.]

Shi Tianwu: [Sun Wukong's cultivation stole the creation of heaven and earth and seized the secrets of the sun and moon. If he could evade these three calamities, he would live as long as heaven itself.]

Lu Bian: [Bro, the Magnetic Rotation martial arts you taught me feel kind of off now. Is this even martial arts anymore?]

Shi Tianwu: [Before you reached the power of the twenty-fifth heaven, I didn't tell you about the realms beyond it. To put it simply, once you reach the highest realm of cultivation, you'll be no different from those immortals, Buddhas, gods, and divine beings.]

Shi Tianwu: [In your world, immortals, Buddhas, and divine beings escape the cycle of reincarnation. They neither live nor die, and their lives are as long as those of the mountains and rivers.]

Shi Tianwu: [The twenty-fifth heaven is one threshold. The fiftieth and seventy-fifth heavens are two more. I suspect you'll face the "Fire Calamity" at the fiftieth heaven and the "Wind Calamity" at the seventy-fifth. Once you overcome the Three Calamities, you'll become one of those three transcendent beings.]

Lu Bian: [Three transcendent beings, huh?]

Shi Tianwu: [You're at the twenty-fifth heaven now. I can call you a Martial God.]

Shi Tianwu: [Martial God Lu Bian.]

Lu Bian: [Just calling me Martial God sounds powerful and badass, but add my name and "Martial God Lu Bian" sounds like a dog.]

Shi Tianwu: [Actually, some animals do have stronger magnetic field power than you. You're not wrong to think of it that way.]

Lu Bian: [I'm logging off.]

Shi Tianwu: [The Dharma Sutra can help you face the "Fire Calamity" and the "Wind Calamity" later.]

Lu Bian read through Journey to the West in his mind, repeatedly going over the chapter about the Three Calamities and Hardships. He discovered that Great Sage Sun Wukong had learned how to evade the Three Calamities. Patriarch Bodhi had said, "What difficulty is there in evading the Three Calamities?"

Patriarch Bodhi told Great Sage that, five hundred years after his pill was perfected, heavenly thunder would descend to strike him. He would need to see into his true nature and understand his mind, then evade it in advance.

Great Sage had evaded this "Thunder Calamity."

But what about Lu Bian?

He had stood beneath the thunderclouds and bathed for an entire day. Even his sneezes sent arcs of electricity flying.

Not only had this "Thunder Calamity" failed to hurt him, it had helped him connect with heaven and earth and attain enlightenment.

Next time, he would face the "Fire Calamity."

The fire of this "Fire Calamity" would rise from the Yongquan acupoint in his soles and burn straight through to the Niwan Palace. In other words, this "Yin Fire" would start at his feet and burn upward, right through the top of his head.

"The Dharma Sutra..."

"Is Second Bro hoping I'll comprehend the supreme wisdom in the Dharma Sutra on my own?"

After reading the chapter about Great Sage's cultivation in Journey to the West several more times, Lu Bian realized that Great Sage really was heaven-defying. All it had taken was for Patriarch Bodhi to teach him a mantra, and in thirteen years he had gained powers that reached the heavens.

Great Sage had cultivated under Patriarch Bodhi for twenty years. He spent seven years without formally cultivating, then learned the Great Celestial Immortal Art, the Seventy-Two Transformations, the Somersault Cloud, and other arts in the following thirteen years, achieving the Dao...

"Hmm?"

Lu Bian suddenly realized that he hadn't been cultivating for very long either. It seemed he, too, would overcome the Three Calamities and become one of the "three transcendent beings" within thirteen years.

"Yare yare~!"

Lu Bian summoned his power and flew toward home at five hundred kilometers per hour.

Lu Bian thought that his flight counted as cloud-climbing.

To truly ride the clouds, he would have to be able to travel across the Four Great Continents in a single day. The Four Seas were the four vast oceans between the Four Great Continents.