The Imperial Academy ─ The Ninth Prince's Residence

Feng Cai sighed as he entered his unique cultivation abode and sat on a lotus position in the small patch of land in the center of the lake, as he felt the pure Qi all around him, he thought that it was time for him to start advancing into the next minor steps of the Core Realm. And so, he finally opened himself, absorbing large amounts of Qi into his dantian through meditation.

He already did so passively like any cultivator. Still, it could not compare to doing so consciously, the rich Qi of his garden gathered all around him, and he felt his cores start to shake, signalizing that they were close to the first of the five minor tribulations of the Core Realm. These five tribulations being that his cores would be bathed in one of the five elements per each minor tribulation.

The order being wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.

As he wanted to get stronger soon, to better survive against any bullshit that the world could throw at him, Feng Cai wanted to advance at least two of the five minor tribulations. Something that with the rich Qi of the garden he could easily do so. Now, there was a risk that his foundation would create tiny cracks thanks to his rapid advancement, but he was sure that it would not happen. Thanks to the fact that he has God Qi inside him.

The line of gold that completely circled all nine of his cores, God Qi was something much more potent than even the Qi of the Immortal Realm, something that could cause things that were considered impossible with barely an effort. Keeping his foundation more solid than it ever was, was something paltry in comparison to what he knew it could do.

Feng Cai breathed in and out and began the Tribulation of Wood. Vines appeared in his Dantian, and moved to all nine of his cores, they then interlaced themselves on them and started to squeeze. Hard. So much so, that his nine cores started to change their shape. Throughout the process, Feng Cai did not let out even a small sound of discomfort focusing all of his attention on overcoming the Wood Tribulation.

If he was distracted even for a single second, there was a great chance that the vines would break all of his cores, and then his Cultivation Path would be ruptured with the only chance of him returning to being a cultivator lying with his Royal Father who could arrange for his return to a proper cultivator. And even if he knew that his father would not hesitate to help him, Feng Cai still did not want to end up in a situation like that.

Feng Cai did not know how long the minor tribulation lasted, but in the end, he didn't care, as, in the end, he managed to succeed.

The vines disappeared into particles, leaving behind his nine battered cores, which had shrunken in size and even had marks where the vines had squeezed them in an attempt to shatter them. 

Feng Cai breathed in and out before he returned to his meditation and began the second minor tribulation, the Tribulation of Fire. As he began in both his dantian and his entire body he was feeling hot, like he was without protection before the rays of a scorching sun, this was because in his dantian fires began to appear consuming all in its flames.

It localized itself around his cores, it was trying to melt his Cores with its enormous heat. But same as it with the first minor tribulation Feng Cai persevered, all of his focus went into preventing his cores from being melted, and to do this he would have to endure the scorching heat that was unbearable.

But even with his visible discomfort, he endured, because he had to if he wanted to continue to live in this world. And soon, after what felt like years, the tribulation ended, his nine cores had now been cleansed of any blemishes, and looked, even more, brighter than before.

Feng Cai started breathing hard. 'That was... holy shit!'

He had never thought that those minor tribulations would be this intense. From getting his spiritual cores shattered by vines, to a heat that was like the sun itself, made him worry about what the other tribulations were like in both effect and strength.

"Should I try one more?" Feng Cai whispered to himself. "I am certain that I can, but only one, I will do both metal and water later when I am more ready"

Nodding at his logic, Feng Cai went back into his meditation and began the Tribulation of Earth. The first thing he felt was what could only be described as nine mountains being dropped on his shoulders at the same time. This was true, for in his dantian nine mountains taller than anything he had ever seen, had fallen in his nine cores.

This was a test of resistance, the objective being for the cultivator to outlast the mountains that manifested themselves in their dantian, or else their cores would be destroyed by those very same mountains.

Feng Cai would not lie that as the tribulation went on, there were several close calls that genuinely felt like his cultivation path was going to be severed, but he persevered and the results came forth as the nine mountains began to show visible cracks on them. Until a few seconds after all of them shattered.

Seeing that the tribulation had ended, Feng Cai fell over, his previous state totally forgotten as his body felt like it just come out of a one-sided beatdown.

'Not going to do anymore' Feng Cai thought as he tried to calm himself down. 'I will try the last two later'

If wood, fire, and earth were like this then Feng Cai didn't even want to know how terrible both Metal and Water were going to be when he decided to initiate these two Minor Tribulations.

"Alright, now I am going to my bed and sleep this away like a bad hangover" Feng Cai whispered to himself, as he got up with surprising difficulty and headed to his room and more importantly to his bed.

'I hate everything' Feng Cai thought as he forced himself not to scowl at his current prediction.

Just after he went to sleep, he had been awakened only after a few hours for his father had announced a Royal Banquet with all of his children, wife, and concubines that were present in the Capital City. After he heard that, Feng Cai's only thoughts as he prepared himself were how bad this would go down. As one that knew all the tropes of his current world, it was clear that the Royal Banquet was an immense red flag, but Feng Cai had to go, his position demanded for he does so.

This didn't mean that he didn't like it, especially since he had to meet the other black sheep of his family that were not Feng Wei, who had been exiled in an unofficial manner for his many actions, and those were both Feng Fa the Second Prince and Feng Jie the Sixth Prince.

If Feng Wei was the sadistic brute that only wanted to kill, then Feng Fa was the hedonistic little shit that liked to sleep around with any woman that fancied him, and Feng Jie was the arrogant piece of shit that felt for the virtue of being a prince of the empire he was entitled into doing anything he wanted with no consequences.

A characteristic is seen in the other two as well, but Feng Jie somehow managed to surpass them in his level of arrogance.

It was a good thing that Feng Cai was far away as he could from them, by the virtue of being sitting beside his mother who was sat beside his own father, now Feng Cai was not some kind of political genius but even he could understand the message of him being the closest of the Heavenly Emperor.

He only hoped that it didn't cause any problems for himself.

...

...

...

'I just jinxed myself didn't I?" Feng Cai thought with sadness. He should be better than this.

But despite his worries, the banquet moved without any catastrophic event, which all in all, was a good thing, even without the context of Feng Cai's situation, this was a banquet organized by the Emperor himself, and any misconduct on any of the guest part could receive a high punishment no matter their excuse.

Beside him, his father rose. "I have news that I want to share with all of you"

AlucardV

Happy new year!