Transformation Lightning Tribulation

"Too far away, and the earth vein network has been damaged too severely. Even if I wanted to repair it, I lack the means. Forget it."

Shi Mo shook his head inwardly, then extended his invisible senses in other directions:

"Hmm, the earth vein power in the other directions is quite rich. Eh, this underground spirit vein... Such dense earth vein spiritual energy! And farther away, there are so many thick primary underground spirit veins. Could there be vast stretches of mountains here?"

"So many primary underground spirit veins—they are not much inferior to the underground spirit veins beneath Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain. As expected of West Kunlun. Hmm? There are also quite a few blocked earth veins. If I could clear them and connect the earth vein spiritual energy throughout all of West Kunlun... That is a nice thought, but I have yet to transform. I fear I lack the means," Shi Mo thought fervently before quickly calming down.

"I should first connect some of the primary spirit veins nearby! Every additional primary spirit vein I connect will greatly improve the earth vein network's efficiency in gathering earth vein spiritual energy. After all, one primary spirit vein represents an entire earth vein network!"

Next, through Shi Mo's efforts, dozens of primary earth veins that he could sense in the surrounding area were connected one by one without him even realizing it.

As more and more primary spirit veins were connected, Shi Mo's senses reached farther and became clearer, allowing him to successively clear some of the major spirit vein passages blocked between different spirit veins.

"This feels like my stone pillar body is a great tree, while the underground earth vein network is like its roots."

Increasingly pure and dense earth vein spiritual energy seeped out through the stone pillar, until the spiritual energy throughout the cave had become like moist, vaporous energy. Immersed in cultivation, Shi Mo felt incomparably content.

"It is practically like soaking in an energy hot spring. Whose cultivation abode in the Primordial World can compare to this place now?"

Yet this comfort did not last long before Shi Mo was startled awake by a sudden muffled rumble of thunder and a suffocating sense of pressure.

"Hmm? What is going on? Thunder? Could my transformation lightning tribulation be arriving? How am I supposed to withstand it?" With no experience whatsoever, Shi Mo could not help feeling uneasy and flustered.

At the same time, dark clouds gathered above Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain, and violent lightning power formed a dark purple vortex.

An invisible, majestic aura spread through the air. The living beings who had gathered around Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain because the spiritual energy of heaven and earth had grown denser, yet did not dare venture deeper into the mountain, hurriedly fled away.

Boom! A thick bolt of purple lightning suddenly crashed down upon the main peak of Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain, which was encircled by nine steep peaks like stars surrounding the moon.

For a time, as violent lightning power spilled outward, the dense spiritual mist and immortal aura shrouding the main peak dispersed and thinned, revealing the mountainside scarred with burn-like marks from the strike, as well as a pit of shattered stone at the summit.

At the same time, within the cave, space seemed to warp as a dazzling pillar of lightning struck down. The stone pillar trembled slightly, and cracks immediately appeared across its smooth stony surface.

The long-forgotten numb sensation made Shi Mo shudder. "This lightning tribulation can actually ignore the mountain's obstruction? Still, its power is not that great."

Boom. Immediately afterward, another bolt of lightning emerged from the warped space and crashed down, making the stone pillar shake as the cracks upon it visibly increased.

"Lightning power truly tempers my body better than earth vein energy," Shi Mo thought calmly as he sensed the tribulation lightning growing stronger.

Just like that, after more than thirty bolts of tribulation lightning struck in the blink of an eye, the lightning, now several times more powerful, finally blasted apart the stone pillar covered in mottled cracks, revealing within it a figure like a jade giant whose human outline had already taken shape.

Boom! The tribulation lightning, still increasing in power, continued to strike. Shi Mo's crystalline, luminous eyes flickered as he felt the changes within his body, unable to suppress his delighted anticipation.

"Lightning power breeds life within destruction. Undergoing tribulation to transform truly is a complete rebirth."

Under the bombardment of tribulation lightning, fragments faintly fell from Shi Mo's body as his silhouette became increasingly distinct, as though he were being sculpted by heavenly lightning.

At the same time, Shi Mo's body slowly shrank, as if a piece of iron were being refined into steel through countless temperings to purge away impurities. Before he knew it, he had become a lifelike human figure.

"Hmm?" Suddenly, as a bolt of tribulation lightning whose power surged sharply struck him, Shi Mo, like a jade man, shuddered all over. Purple lightning flickered across his body like sparks. "My jade body alone can no longer withstand this..."

Before the next bolt of tribulation lightning fell, Shi Mo willed it and mobilized surging earth vein spiritual energy to protect his jade body.

"It has grown stronger again! Even my jade body, continuously tempered by earth vein energy, cannot withstand it. How could other living beings in the Primordial World possibly endure such lightning tribulation? Could it be that the power of the lightning tribulation differs according to one's innate foundation?" Shi Mo wondered inwardly.

"Then my lightning tribulation should count as one of the more powerful kinds, right? There have already been more than fifty bolts. Nine is the ultimate number, and eighty-one bolts should supposedly be the limit. I wonder how many bolts my tribulation will have?"

The power of the tribulation lightning continued to rise, and soon there had been more than seventy bolts. Shi Mo finally had no choice but to use the Wind-Fixing Pearl.

"Looks like my lightning tribulation truly may reach eighty-one bolts."

Shi Mo activated the Wind-Fixing Pearl to meet another bolt of tribulation lightning. Seeing the pearl easily disperse it before even unleashing its true power, he finally felt reassured.

"As expected of a top-grade innate spiritual treasure. Its power truly is extraordinary! With the Wind-Fixing Pearl, this transformation lightning tribulation is in the bag."

Very soon, the eightieth bolt of tribulation lightning arrived. Though it was much more powerful, the Wind-Fixing Pearl still blocked it.

The Wind-Fixing Pearl even devoured and refined much of the tribulation lightning, but the remaining lightning power that struck Shi Mo still left his entire body numb and stinging.

"My jade body is feeling more and more like a true fleshly body."

The clear sensation of pain instead stirred Shi Mo's emotions. After transmigrating into the Primordial World for so long, he was finally about to possess a physical body and be able to leave this place to venture and travel through the Primordial World.

"Hmm?" But after waiting for a while without seeing the eighty-first bolt of tribulation lightning descend, Shi Mo was just beginning to think the tribulation had ended when lightning above suddenly blazed brilliantly. An incomparably gorgeous pillar of lightning, seemingly containing the majestic might of Heaven, directly pierced through the main peak of Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain and struck down, frightening Shi Mo into hurriedly activating the Wind-Fixing Pearl with all his strength to meet it.

Boom, boom, boom. Amid the explosive roars, violent lightning power nearly instantly filled the entire cave, but then everything within the cave seemed to freeze into stillness.

Once the lightning power dissipated, Shi Mo's reappearing figure was covered in fine cracks, resembling porcelain that could shatter at any moment. Strands of residual purple lightning power still coursed faintly through those cracks.

At the same time, surging earth vein spiritual energy poured up from beneath his feet and continuously flowed into Shi Mo's body. As it expelled and wore away the remaining lightning power on his body, it also repaired the cracks across him at a visible rate.