Thunder Calamity and the Three Classes

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

Lu Bian stood alone on the peak of a snow-capped mountain. When the sun's rays struck the glaciers at the summit, they created the natural wonder known as the "Golden Mountain in the Sun."

Shi Tianwu had told Lu Bian that the twenty-fifth heaven was a threshold in the practice of Magnetic Rotation. When Lu Bian truly reached the realm of the twenty-fifth heaven, he discovered that the concept of a "threshold" had manifested for him into something substantial.

Something real and tangible was waiting for him there.

An ominous feeling stirred in his heart, so Lu Bian gave some instructions to Chenxiang before heading alone to the lonely, snowy peak to await the "thing" that brought him such unease.

Lu Bian meditated on the snowy peak for three days, gathering his strength.

The moment he sensed the "thing" had arrived, he opened his eyes from his meditative state.

The sky above the snow mountain was obscured by thick clouds; though it should have been daytime, it was as dark as night.

A highly threatening sensation was brewing within the clouds.

Lu Bian used his magnetic perception to probe the clouds that blanketed the sky, wondering if the thunder and lightning brewing within were the handiwork of the immortals from the Heavenly Court.

His perception told him that this was a natural phenomenon of the heavens and earth; he felt no magnetic reaction from any immortal.

Am I about to undergo a tribulation?

Lu Bian had adjusted his body to its peak state over the past three days, and at this moment, he prepared himself to face the thunder tribulation.

"Ultimate Quantification Art!!"

The dim sky suddenly lit up as bolts of lightning struck down, the roaring thunder following a beat later to explode in Lu Bian's ears.

Sitting cross-legged on the snowy peak, Lu Bian was well-prepared. He held his right palm up toward the sky and his left hand down to ground himself, actively drawing the lightning in and channeling the strikes hitting his body into the earth.

The thunder of heaven and earth struck Lu Bian repeatedly, yet he only felt a slight numbness in his body; the tingling sensation felt as if someone were giving him a massage.

His intuition told him this thunder tribulation was a major threat, yet his personal experience revealed it caused him no harm at all.

Could it be that because the Magnetic Rotation he practiced was based on electromagnetic force, the heavenly thunder could not harm him?

Was his daily magnetic training actually more intense than this heavenly thunder tribulation?

The thunder tribulation battered Lu Bian for an entire day, reducing his outer garments to ash, cleansing his skin, and sharpening his mind significantly.

The heavenly thunder and the magnetic power within Lu Bian's body underwent a marvelous transformation. Each time it coursed through him, it connected him to the heavens and earth, granting him an inexplicable, intuitive wisdom...

Lu Bian had achieved enlightenment.

When the clouds dispersed and the spectacle of the Golden Mountain in the Sun appeared once more, a staggering aura emanated from Lu Bian.

It was the power of Magnetic Rotation: 300,000 horses!!

Having survived the thunder tribulation, Lu Bian's power realm had actually improved once again.

Lu Bian stood up, completely naked, and reached out into the air, successfully grasping a set of clothes.

He had collected and reorganized the surrounding matter, causing it to manifest in the form of clothing.

Once a Magnetic Rotation practitioner reached the power of 250,000 horses, they could roughly manipulate matter. Combined with a certain level of the Perfect Realm, this minor ability to alter matter allowed for simple "creation."

Lu Bian: [@Shi Tianwu... Brother, I have finished the tribulation.]

Shi Tianwu: [Is it over? I have a theory regarding the thunder tribulation you just endured.]

Shi Tianwu: [I concluded this after flipping through Journey to the West.]

Shi Tianwu: [When Son Goku was training, his master told him he needed to guard against the "Three Calamities." They are the Thunder Calamity, the Fire Calamity, and the Wind Calamity.]

Shi Tianwu: [Because Son Goku's training involved seizing the creation of heaven and earth and encroaching upon the mysteries of the sun and moon, avoiding these three calamities would allow him to live as long as heaven itself.]

Lu Bian: [Brother, the magnetic divine art you taught me feels wrong now. Is this still a martial art?]

Shi Tianwu: [Before you reached the twenty-fifth heaven, I did not inform you of the subsequent realms. To be precise, when you reach the strongest realm, you will be no different from those immortals, Buddhas, and holy beings.]

Shi Tianwu: [In your world, immortals, Buddhas, and holy beings transcend reincarnation, are unborn and undying, and share the same lifespan as the mountains and rivers of the world.]

Shi Tianwu: [The twenty-fifth heaven is one threshold; the fiftieth and seventy-fifth heavens are two more. I suspect that at the fiftieth heaven you will encounter the "Fire Calamity," and at the seventy-fifth, the "Wind Calamity." Once you pass the three calamities, you will become one of those beings.]

Lu Bian: [One of those beings, huh?]

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

Shi Tianwu: [Martial God Lu Bian.]

Lu Bian: [Calling me just Martial God sounds powerful and imposing, but adding my name, "Martial God Lu Bian," makes it sound like a dog's name.]

Shi Tianwu: [Actually, some animals do have stronger magnetic power than you, so your thinking is not entirely wrong.]

Lu Bian: [I'm logging off.]

Shi Tianwu: [The Dharma Sutra can help you deal with the subsequent "Fire Calamity" and "Wind Calamity."]

Lu Bian browsed through Journey to the West in his mind, repeatedly reading the chapter on the "Three Calamities." He discovered that the Great Sage, Son Goku, had learned a method to "avoid" the three calamities, and Patriarch Bodhi had told him that avoiding them was not difficult.

Patriarch Bodhi told the Great Sage that five hundred years after his elixir was formed, heaven would send a thunder calamity to strike him, and he would need to see his true nature and clear his heart to avoid it in advance.

The Great Sage had indeed avoided that "Thunder Calamity."

As for Lu Bian himself?

He stood beneath the thunderclouds bathing for an entire day, with electric arcs flying out every time he sneezed.

This "Thunder Calamity" had not only failed to harm him, but had instead allowed him to commune with heaven and earth, leading to a moment of enlightenment.

Next, he would face the "Fire Calamity."

The fire of this "Fire Calamity" would ignite from his Yongquan acupoints and burn straight through to his Niwan Palace. In other words, this "Yin Fire" would start from the soles of his feet and burn upward until it pierced through the top of his head.

"The Dharma Sutra..."

Is Second Brother trying to make me comprehend the peerless wisdom within the Dharma Sutra on my own?

After reading the chapter on the Great Sage's cultivation in Journey to the West several more times, Lu Bian realized that the Great Sage was truly heaven-defying; merely by hearing the oral formulas taught by Patriarch Bodhi, he had attained heaven-reaching abilities within thirteen years.

The Great Sage studied under Patriarch Bodhi for twenty years, seven of which were spent without formal training, while in the remaining thirteen, he mastered the Great Celestial Immortal Art, the Seventy-Two Transformations, the Somersault Cloud, and other techniques to attain the Dao...

"Hm?"

Lu Bian realized with a start that his own cultivation time was also short; it seemed he, too, would pass the Three Calamities within a span of "thirteen years" to become a "third-tier being."

"Yare yare~!"

Lu Bian channeled his power and flew toward home at a speed of five hundred kilometers per hour.

Lu Bian thought to himself that his current mode of flight could only be considered crawling on clouds.

To truly soar on clouds, one would need to be able to traverse the Four Great Continents and the four vast oceans between them within a single day.