It was a sunny AND rainy day in some remote waters somewhere in the middle of a vast and peaceful ocean. There was one and only one huge piece of dark cloud up in the sky, with silver lightning shooting out from the center the sound of thunder rocking the whole sky.

All Jason and Caroline knew, was that they were no longer on earth - because there were three suns in the sky - one big orange sun with two smaller blue suns circling around the orange one.

At this very moment, Jason was standing alone on a small island, surrounded by weird looking grass and trees and clear blue ocean water. Caroline was standing very far away by Jianmen’s side on a platform made of magically solidified yet not frozen sea water, and with a magical screen in front of her showing the close-ups to Jason.

This was the second tribulation of Jason, which if he got past, he would be officially a cultivator of the third layer. Caroline recently got past hers two weeks before, and it was not a pleasant experience for her - her Xuanli was fiery, but on that day, the fire and brimstone that ravaged the sky and scorched the earth she was standing on really forced her to gain a new understanding of her own Xuanli as well as the power of the fire element.

And right now, just like what Jianmen told them, that each tribulation had its own theme revolving around the cultivator’s Xuanli and the general patterns of their power, the cloud spiraling and roaring right above the island on which Jason was standing started raining down silver energy shards and even swords, knives, axes and spears at Jason.

Jason took a long breath and stared at the spiraling piece of cloud above him as well as the silver energy shards and weapons that were coming his way. 

With his metal spear that was shaped like a pen in hand, Jason drew up a circle around him - this was his version of a protective array, and one over which he had gained the best grasp. Jianmen nodded in approval - Jason did a really good job crafting this protective array, he would make some small alterations to deal with the weapons from above, but that was because he had more experience and knowledge with the law and mechanism of tribulation. And he would’ve taught Caroline and Jason more about the tricks of dealing with the kinds of tribulations they would be facing. But the law and mechanism of tribulations would actually punish this kind of deeds quite severely - during a tribulation, the cultivator could only bring all the things they gained by themselves or at least made the majority of the effort in obtaining - like one’s knowledge, one’s skills, and even enchanted weapons one had enough control over.

The first wave of silver energy shards and weapons crashed onto the bubble shield from the protective array, the protective bubble flickered and was shaken, but it remained in its place and unbroken. Jason sweat a little, but still looked like he was in good condition.

“Okay, first wave done. Easy enough.” Caroline became only more nervous, “Two more waves to go.”

The cloud in the sky stopped spiralling for a brief moment, then it shrunk in size and was condensed into around a quarter of its former size and in the shape of a gigantic sword.

“Shit! That’s different from mine!” Caroline gasped.

Jianmen watched the formation of the cloud sword with a concerned look on his face, but he didn’t explain anything specific to Caroline when met with Caroline’s inquiring look: “Just watch, I’ll explain later.”

Just this moment, the sword of cloud rose higher into the sky, as if there was an invisible hand on its handle and readied it for an attack. Jason first released his Xuanli to recharge the protective array, then his whole body started shining in silver light, especially both his hands holding the long pen-like spear.

“The first ‘official’ tribulation would be all about the basics. Just bear in mind, you need to know the ways of your Xuanli enough so that you have some ideas and instincts on how to deal with different kinds of scenarios. Each cultivator would face different things in this cultivation, based on their own characteristics and personalities. It will test your strength, your resolve, your determination and how fast you can think on your feet. ” Jianmen’s advice resounded in Jason’s head: “So first, try to see what the tribulation is throwing at you - if it it’s a wide area attack, then shrink and harden your defenses; if it’s a concentrated attack, then diffuse it bit by bit and parry or break it at the right moment; if it’s a strong flurry of attacks, then keep your eyes open, be ready to parry and fight like you’re up against several foes.”

Just this moment, the sword of cloud rose to the peak of its trajectory, its blade completely blocking the view of the three suns from Jason’s position. Jason closed his eyes and sunk into his thoughts, then as the sword of cloud swung down, about six silver shadows of him appeared around him, with the same posture, same outfit and same weapon as Jason.

Jason lowered his body with his silver shadows around him, then leapt into the air, right at the downward swinging sword of cloud.

The six silver shadows leapt higher and faster than Jason, and formed a straight line right in front of him against the edge of the sword of cloud.

A loud sound of thunder broke from the air, the sword of cloud reached the lowest part of its U-shaped trajectory and started rising up again, but in this process, a crescent-shaped silver energy blade was released upon Jason and his silver shadows.

The shadows of Jason kicked the air below and on their side, silver energy exploded and launched three of them to the upper left side and three to the upper right. Then almost at the same time, his shadows started launching volleys of high speed flurry of thrust attacks at the energy blade above.

Silver shadows of tips of spears shot up at the sky like concentrated machine gun bullets. And when coming into contact with the downward flying energy blade, these shadows of spear tips crashed and dissipated into harmless energy shards in the air. But in this process, the integrity of the energy blade was gradually chipped away.

“Break!” Jason roared in mandarin when all six of his silver shadows exhausted all their power and disappeared from above him, his pen-spear finished a 3D drawing of a large drill bit with three spinning cones with sharp teeth, and at the command of his roar, the drill bit shot up at the silver energy blade. Right after this final counter-attack at the silver energy blade, Jason fell back down to the center of his protective array.

“Holy shit - he’s creative. An oil drill bit against the tribulation?” Caroline laughed out loud.

“Boom!” even against the incredible destructive power of Jason’s silver drill bit attack, the energy blade still won - though broken, a final piece of energy blade landed right onto Jason’s protective bubble. And this time, the protective bubble just flickered once, before the last bit of the energy blade shattered and was reduced to harmless energy in the air.

“Last wave.” Jianmen regained the rhythm of his breaths, then he looked up at the sky, with nervous anticipation.

The sword of cloud morphed back into its original shape, but this time, the size was bigger than it had ever been.