Chương 94: Arc 5: Chapter 27

“Don’t worry, Mistress, I’m sure that this little bit of energy won’t have much of an effect on me,” Song Ming smiled, as she placed her hands on the remnant of the planar energy stone, once a large and proud object reduced to about half or two thirds of what it was, “Just worry about your own breakthrough.”

“Fine… but if you start feeling odd later, make sure that you don’t just ignore it and act as if everything is okay. I don’t want you to change any more than you have already,” Bianca said, but she also put her hands on the stone and focused.

She didn’t need to focus much, frankly, but she wasn’t going to let herself get distracted even when that was the case. As soon as she reached the next realm, she’d be facing the terrifying lightning that did quite a bit of harm to Song Ming’s wardrobe, and also forced her to unleash her full strength via the Crusader’s Runes. Bianca’s equivalent of this would be to use her Demon Queen side, but that also meant that she would be in an undesirable state the moment the power of her energy flaring up and growing more powerful thanks to the formation of her anchor.

Considering the effect that it had upon Song Ming, she couldn’t help but think that it might be bad for her as well, but at the same time, she couldn’t really do without it. Her own skills would only be driven by intense hatred, which would be impossible to activate in full unless she managed to draw upon some hitherto unknown hatred of bright lights and plasma… if that was what the lightning even was.

Still, she didn’t get too long to ponder the situation, since her rate of absorption was absolutely immense, especially without her handing over her share of the energy to Song Ming, like before. Thus, in almost no time at all, her cultivation advanced to the brink.

There were almost certainly some minor physical changes with each breakthrough, as usual, but she was far more focused upon what would inevitably follow, and once she felt it coming, she… well, it was a fascination sensation, for one. She had obviously never experienced the prelude to a tribulation herself, not as anything more than a bystander, therefore she was a little surprised that she’d been able to recognise its signs in an instant, but it was such a distinctive feeling that it made sense.

It felt as though she was being gazed down upon by something far superior to her, and that she was being challenged. Asked whether or not she had the power, the right, the ability, to take the next step and ascend beyond her current limits.

Despite never feeling it before, it was more than obvious what it entailed, and thus she knew to begin her preparations.

“I need to get to the array,” she said, removing her hands from the… the dust that remained of the planar stone, “Ideally right now, since I have no idea how to control the whole tribulation thing… Do I even control it?”

“Not quite, so we’ll get you over there as soon as possible,” Yan Taijun said, reaching out and enveloping Bianca with her energy, rising a short distance into the air as her feet left the ground, “Hold on, and focus on keeping your energy under control. As soon as it exceeds your capacity to control, the tribulation will descend, so be sure that you don’t unleash it while we’re anywhere… expensive.”

“Is this place-”

“Yes, it is most certainly expensive… and will likely be lost when the war breaks out, so that’s just fantastic,” the leader of the Dancer’s Abode grumbled and sighed, “Just hold on.”

And with that, she rushed out of the inner garden and towards the defensive array, floating in a sea of ribbons and carrying Bianca in much the same way. She would’ve told the dancer that there was no need for this, since the Demonic Tyrant would control her energy perfectly for however long was needed – at least in theory, since she imagined that it would be ever so slightly ridiculous if it could just hold the tribulation off forever – but flying through the air wasn’t too bad either.

She had been curious what it felt like, even if, in her case, the flight was more akin to a few long leaps, but in the end, she was thrown into the middle of the array meant to handle tribulations, with the others arriving not too long after via various means.

“You can do it, Bianca!” her wonderful pet, Song Ming, exclaimed, cheering her on.

“I know I can, cutie,” she replied with a smile, then turned aside and looked to the skies, ‘Now, question is, will I be dealing with the ordinary lightning, or will my Demonic Tyrant somehow call down something worse? In either case, would I be able to handle it on my own, or will I need to bring out the Demon Queen?’

It was hard to know, but at the very least she was sure that the Demon Queen could be called upon whenever she wanted to, so it wasn’t too bad.

Once she was sure that the array was active, she allowed the Demonic Tyrant to let her energy rampage as it wished, and soon the mass of crackling crimson and dark mists began to expand beyond the boundaries of the invisible sphere that was her dantian.

And as soon as it crossed some unseen threshold, the skies above darkened, and sounds of thunder filled her ears. The area was soon covered in the shadow of the storm clouds above, and she felt a certain power seeming to reach down from above, enveloping her, grasping the expanding energy pool and keeping it from continuing on forever. Likely, this was the restricting force that prevented ascension to the third realm without passing the tribulation.

A random thought occurred to her – if something or someone gave her a large enough burst of energy, might she be able to bypass this limit?

Perhaps she could, but she doubted that the heavens, whatever they truly were, would ever allow such a thing to go unpunished. She’d likely have to experience a tribulation regardless, so it was pointless to inquire whether there was another planar stone for her to take and drain to bypass this current challenge.

Instead, it seemed far wiser to take the lightning head on and test her own abilities, and whether she’d need to risk her own mind to progress.

‘Here I am, about to fight literal lightning… fuck me. What a world I ended up in. Why couldn’t it have been a nice one filled with sunshine, rainbows and lots of hot women that hadn’t invented clothing?’ Bianca sighed as she unsheathed the dark blade she had kept at her hip instead of the kitchen knife, “Alright, let’s see what the tribulation has got for me.”

As though on command, the lightning fell from the skies, the first bolt crashing towards her rapidly, yet slowly. It fell just quickly enough for her to be able to swing her blade a single time, though Bianca made sure to flood that swing with all the hatred she could muster on command.

The two clashed, and soon the victor became obvious – lightning rushed past her energy and crashed into her body, scorching but oddly not shocking her, like she had expected. It burnt her pristine skin, causing it to redden greatly, but she couldn’t feel any damage beside that, though it would obviously be different if she allowed several bolts to hit her without a while to recover. As tough as her skin was, there was no chance it was invulnerable.

“Bianca! Be careful!” Song Ming called out, rather needlessly, since she could see the threat regardless.

Before the next bolt hit, she tried to discern the exact extent of the effectiveness of her attack, and estimated it to be able to divert and negate at least a third and up to half of the bolt’s overall size. This was good, since it ensured that she wasn’t seriously harmed this time, but it also meant that unless she could match it, she had no chance of blocking the lightning completely.

Her Abyssal Shield was able to match some percentage of the power of her Dominion’s Light, but it lacked the amplification from hatred and killing intent, so overall, it would be able to handle a fifth or sixth of the lightning bolt even if she concentrated the barrier to the limit.

‘How come I’m able to think through all this so well? Usually, I’d just see it all as absolute nonsense, but now I’m reasoning through it all somehow- oh, don’t tell me that lot are correct? N-No, the Demon Queen- oh shit!’ she realised that her thoughts had ended up wandering and thus the next bolt of lightning was already on its way down.

She rushed to swing again, adding the anger she felt from being struck by the first bolt to empower the slash a little more, only to halt and quickly change to a stab, her reasoning being that the more energy actually hit the lightning bolt, the better. Then, before checking the effectiveness of her attempt, she raised her empty hand and manifested the Abyssal Shield at the most concentrated point she could afford, the dark mist condensing into a thick layer of shadow right in front of the path of the lightning bolt.

Her hasty stab was able to match the previous slash, suggesting the change was correct, but the resulting energy still crashed into the shield she had just raised, crashing through it and landing onto her body yet again.

It was less intense than the last round, but her skin had yet to recover, so the spike of pain was significantly more intense. Parts of her body were clearly exceeding their limit, and with another lightning bolt, she was sure that the defences of her skin would no longer be sufficient, and she’d be suffering a lot, lot more than she already was.

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Therefore, if she wanted to get out unharmed, she either had to figure out a way to do better, or to allow the Demon Queen to take charge.

‘Surely it wouldn’t be so bad, right? It’s just a little while, and I know I can break out of it when I have to, and she doesn’t really do much bad when she is in charge… and she is technically me, even if I would still prefer to blame the Demonic Tyrant,’ Bianca sighed, ‘But she would be able to handle this with no problems, I imagine. Just a single swing and the heavens would back away and she’d probably leap to the ninth realm or whatever…’

She stopped, since she felt like she wasn’t too far off the truth. With her power and a mind that could actually make sense of everything in this world, she would likely be able to get far, and if she was also unscrupulous while doing so, then there really wouldn’t be any difficulty.

And while she didn’t appreciate the nature of her other side, whether it was trauma or otherworldly power that spawned it, she knew that in this case, the safest bet was to let the expert take control.

 

Thus, as the next lightning bolt arrived, her aura changed. It was subtle, so nobody that was unfamiliar with it would have a clue as to how and why it transformed, but everyone that was watching had experienced or heard of the Demon Queen at least once. With that knowledge, it wasn’t hard to determine that they were witnessing that legendary state, but Yan Taijun and Yu Juan weren’t certain as to how it might help in this case. While it certainly made her more proficient with her skills and weapons in a way, it wouldn’t help against a straightforward threat like the one before her, right?

They were very, very wrong to assume such a thing.

The moment that the Demon Queen took control, she narrowed her eyes and looked upon the brewing lightning, then sighed and placed her empty hand on the edge of the blade, near the hilt, wrapping her fingers around it to cover the dark metal beneath. She tightened her grip, then suddenly her jaw clenched as a drop of crimson fell from her hand.

“I was sure that she only had a few skills, and this isn’t one of them… what is she…” Xue Yaling muttered to herself, suppressing her words once she realised the others noticed, but continued to gaze upon the situation intently.

As more blood fell from the blade, Bianca slid her hand up the metal, leaving a trail of crimson upon the edges. Once she reached the tip, she finally let go, glancing at her bleeding palm and fingers for a brief moment, but that single moment carried with it an enormous change. The already deepened aura changed further, darkness and hatred enveloping her figure. It was almost visible with the naked eye, a shadow gathering at her feet, surrounding her silhouette.

The next bolt of lightning was already approaching, but she didn’t attempt to guard herself with an Abyssal Shield. Instead, she swung her sword to cast off the droplets of blood that still stuck to it, and then swung at the skies once more.

If the initial slash that had opened her attempt at transcending the tribulation was a strong wave of crimson energy, then this was utterly devastating. The energy crashed into the lightning and exploded, the crimson and silver mixing together in a burst of light that flooded the land, briefly blinding everyone as they had to shield their eyes and avoid the immense glare.

“Was that some kind of blood sacrifice to enhance her strength?” Yan Taijun asked the kitsune, who was by far the most knowledgeable about the skills at Bianca’s disposal out of the lot of them.

“No, she shouldn’t… Ah, no, I think I got it. The power of her energy is amplified via her anger, hatred, killing intent and the like. I had assumed that when she was in this state, she was able to channel it freely and use it to its maximum potential, but it appears that I had slightly misunderstood.”

“How so?”

“Even the Demon Queen can get angry, and it seems like she dislikes pain. Not a great shock, considering how her body cultivation is so focused on minimizing the harm anyone can do to her, but interesting regardless.”

“So she deliberately pissed herself off? Interesting…” the leader of the Dancer’s Abode nodded.

The next bolt was met with an even stronger slash of crimson, seemingly amplified more and more with every drop of blood that fell from Bianca’s palm. All that ended up reaching her body was the light from the collision, and in it seemed to be a vast power that allowed her energy to condense within her once more, though it didn’t limit its influence only on her planar energy.

With every bolt she overcame, her skin visibly grew lighter, as did her hair, and on each occasion that she glanced back for whatever reason, they could see her eyes redded further. In addition, her movements became slightly quicker, slightly stronger, and the wound on her hand healed quicker with every passing moment. It was obvious that the moment she passed the tribulation, not only would the wound be healed, but she would also experience a breakthrough in regard to her body cultivation technique.

Luckily for all those present, the suspense vanished when it became more than obvious that her capabilities exceeded that of the tribulation. Although each bolt grew a little stronger, even the final blast was nowhere near sufficient to lay a figurative finger on the Demon Queen, the Mistress of the future Demonic Sect, and potentially the first ninth realm figure in many, many years.

The tribulation faded and the shadow of an anchor manifested around Bianca’s figure, though she didn’t hesitate to unleash the anchor behind her as she turned to face the observers of the tribulation. It crashed into the earth with immense force, a pillar easily three metres tall and with a standard pointed tip and three sides that grew wider the further down it went, the thickest point being somewhere near a third of the way up.

It didn’t point in a specific direction, much like Song Ming’s anchor, but where hers was beautiful to behold, the anchor of the Demon Queen radiated malice and was made of a dark material filled with cracks that radiated crimson light, dying the land with its vibrancy.

The aura around it was immense, easily three or four times the size of the anchor, radiating darkness out and swallowing the air, leaving everything tinted in a peculiar mixture of black and red, darkness above and crimson below. It was unlike most other anchors in the world – though unusual and exceptional anchors had been noted and reported before, so it wasn’t entirely unheard of – and made her seem as though she was far, far above the third realm already.

Her skin and body also changed from before the tribulation. Whereas before she could be considered slightly pale, as though she needed a little more sun and never had a chance to get a tan, now she was clearly pale, contrasting greatly with her vivid crimson eyes, where blue was barely present anymore.

In addition, her hair had gone from a brownish blonde to an outright blonde, miraculously transforming the entirety of the strands rather than requiring her to cut and regrow her hair like last time. Furthermore, there seemed to be a certain increase to her strength, though it was difficult to perceive the specifics of it from a glance, and it was almost certainly not sufficient enough to change her current fate of lacking might against direct physical force.

All in all, her appearance had undergone a massive change, and with the anchor behind her, it was blatantly radiating evil and aggression, as though she was about to enter the battlefield between the Exarch and Long Shiyi and simply annihilate both sides and claim the winnings for herself.

She even happened to take up a posture that made her look rather imposing, the tip of her blade placed on the ground while she rested a hand on the other end, one foot forward as if stepping forth.

Of course, as the tribulation’s effects faded and they were able to get used to the aura of the anchor, the impression faded to a certain extent, but in the end, she was still notably more dangerous than before, and for the moment, she was still the Demon Queen.

“Fucking lightning… and normal self…”

 

END OF ARC 5

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