Malevolence and bloodlust wafted off the spiraling cloud structure. Static in the air caused my arm hair to raise. My scalp numbed.

In this life, the heavens wanted me dead.

I pulled out five protective talismans and slapped them all over my body.

Step one of Lin’s plan to defeat her fears — throw money at it.

I had a limited number of these, but I’d estimated that there would be between ten and eighteen lightning strikes and purchased double the amount I required. Of course, I had left around a quarter to Clear Eyes but that was fine. Frankly, if everything I’d already prepared wasn’t enough to get me through this, then this tribulation’s power would have grown to the point I’d need Salamander’s pagoda. Which I didn’t have.

The light from the clouds pulled in towards its center. The world darkened. That was the sign.

My muscles were stiff, my hands shook, and my ass tightened like I was trying to hold in the side effects from a Cleansing Dan. But, as someone with centuries of practice moving through fear, I didn’t freeze. Or shit myself.

I pointed my blade towards the eye of the tribulation. “Thousand Cuts!”

A thousand little blades of sword Qi traveled in one concentrated beam, meeting the sudden lightning strike that bore down on me.

Most of it dispersed or branched, leaving only a tendril that hit my chest. It packed one hell of a punch! I skidded backwards from the impact while all five talismans burned away.

Some of the bolt had broken off, hitting random areas around the grassy field. Where they struck, gashes formed. Small fires started. The scent of smoke and charred grass spread through the area.

I was still alive!

I laughed.

Now that I’d tested my strength against it, I estimated that its power was just under the equivalent of a tribulation to reach the Golden Core realm. At this point, I doubted I could survive a strike without my prepared defenses.

The reason I needed so many defensive techniques and items wasn’t because I planned to sit and look pretty. No. The best way to face my tribulation was to attack it. Defensive measures were backups for when my attacks weren’t enough.

Which would be — all the time.

I’ve found that, as long as I prepared properly, surviving a tribulation was mostly a matter of logistics and tactics, rather than strength. If I didn’t prepare and just repeated the same strategy, the cloud would either grow more powerful, or start changing things up just to fuck with me.

Heavenly lightning wasn’t like electricity. Nor was it something natural. It had rudimentary intelligence and a will of its own.

During my very first tribulation, I created a lightning rod similar to the one I had used in the sect trials. The tribulation completely ignored it. Then, it lasted eleven strikes rather than ten. It was like I’d offended it.

For this tribulation, I would fight it. But it wouldn’t be easy. Not with the fuzzy spiritual energy that Qi Condensation was limited to. I had skills and knowledge, but in the end, raw power mattered.

I replaced my used up talismans and glared up at the storm.

“Bring it asshole!”

The cloud thundered, swirled, then darkened once more. It glowed further down the spiral.

It would come from the left.

I sent another Thousand Cuts where I could feel the lightning. Of course, I didn’t stop there. As a test, I created a shield out of my spiritual energy to prevent the last bit of lightning from hitting me. Unfortunately, it punched through my shield and struck toward me.

Fuck.

My talismans stopped the last part from actually damaging me. I ended up skidding out of where I’d placed my faraday cage formation and into one of the defensive formation circles. The poor field had collected more scorch marks. Rain fell as if the tribulation was trying to put out the small fires it had created. It also made the grass slippery. That fucking son of a squall.

Considering that my shield barely did anything, I’d need to add two extra talismans to this next strike. As I suspected. It would be better to rely on consumables for defense and reserve my own energy for attacks.

Cold sweat collected on my forehead. Or maybe that was rain. Whatever.

I tightened my grip on my sword. Two down, eight or sixteen to go.

I could do this! I could beat my fear and this tribulation.

And of course. Of fucking course, that was when the shadows appeared at the edge of the valley, surrounding me on all sides. They stood just outside the range of the tribulation clouds.

No. I shouldn’t assume this was trouble from the start. This could just be bored disciples checking out who was going through this strange not-exactly-Golden-Core tribulation.

As I added a fresh layer of talismans, I stretched my divine sense outward, and touched a familiar cloaked presence. Little Black?

She pointed at me and a hundred spiritual arrows flew at me from all sides.

HA! Hahahaha! I understood.

She’d betrayed me. But she was still alive. That meant this black market creep had to be a demonic convert.

As a member of the Demonic Sect, they would have even worse and higher-level soul enchantments than the one I’d cast on her. Likely one that absorbed other attempts at meddling. It also explained why I felt that bit of resistance.

She was someone born within the sect, who didn’t have to get approved by Senior Auspicious Paifang. This made her the perfect person to corrupt.

Since she was sending arrows at me, I guessed she hadn’t heard about my sect trial. Or maybe she thought spiritual arrows could do more damage to me than mundane ones.

She... wasn’t wrong. If they could hit me.

Shit. There was no way I’d get my spirit stones back.

Since I was already in one of my defensive formations, I activated it. The arrows that curved towards me pinged off the rounded shield and plunged into the surrounding ground, including where I’d placed my flag sticks. Fortunately, the higher-quality flags didn’t take damage from getting bombarded. If I hadn’t upgraded my wood, those would be toast.

From my right, lightning fell. “Thousand Cuts!”

Before the last bit could get through, I activated the enchantment I’d added to my shoes to turn them into a flying tool. I briefly stepped into the air as if I were a golden core. The lightning, stuck to its downward path, blasted the ground where I would have been. The sound would have deafened me if I hadn’t had body cultivation.

Of course, I knew from experience that avoiding the bolt like that wouldn’t work against this tribulation a second time. I could already see it boiling with anger.

Life was not giving me a break today.

“Dear customer, before you die...” The evil giddiness in her voice made me want to strangle her. “Did you actually think a brilliant merchant like me would let a potential big fish like you get assassinated... and only receive money as compensation? Are you that dumb or was that all an act?”

This biiiiitch. “What did the demonic sect offer you?”

Of course, she wouldn’t answer. I could practically see her smugly smiling, amused that I’d never know.

Another volley of arrows pinged against my defensive formation, causing it to flash. My spirit stone battery drained significantly. Her underlings must be at Foundation Establishment.

“With your tiny wallet, how long can your defenses last?”

I slapped a few more talismans onto my robes. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

“And I’d be grateful if you’d die here.”

“Fuck you!”

Volley after volley of spiritual arrows hit my formation. I took that moment to use the split mind technique and separated my thoughts into four parts.

Two evaluated the attack pattern of the arrows and the tribulation. I focused another on sending distress calls. Because I could not handle this shit on my own. They were too far away for me to attack them.

The last analyzed my time with Little Black, searching for clues.

***

This bitch had loved meeting me in that cave with the lightning burns. Then, when I was getting close to collecting all the items I needed for my tribulation, she told me that story about her father. Something I now found suspicious as fuck.

Of course I wouldn’t have noticed it back then.

She must have had someone discover my weakness. Then she subtly influenced me, pushing me to slowly develop an inner demon.

It was like that time Senior Grand Deviant Fire taught a friend’s disciple a seemingly harmless attack spell. It was only later that the disciple discovered it was incompatible with their cultivation technique and that, out of jealousy, Deviant Fire had purposefully ruined their progress.

Wait. No, that wasn’t exactly it.

Actually, the whole thing really fucking reminded me of those messed up algorithms from my past-past life. They found depressed people and showed them images and stories that encouraged harmful tendencies and self-destructive behaviors. There was even one company that was successfully sued because of their negligence.

This bitch had used her stories and environments in the exact same duplicitous way. Trying to coerce me into fearing my tribulation so much that I would develop an inner demon. One that would prevent me from increasing my strength and becoming another powerhouse for the righteous sects.

Or they just wanted to get rid of the disciple of Immortal Zhenren Sword Within the Light of Virtue.

Regardless of why, she realized it hadn’t worked fast enough. She or her demonic boss must have sent those assassins after me.

While my fear was real and my putting it off of it exacerbated the issues, the reason I’d been so close to developing an inner demon was because of the demonic cultivators!

***

The first person I attempted to contact was the Sect Leader. ::Aunt Lin! You’re back?!::

::You didn’t know?::

::This isn’t a good time! I’m in a fight.”

Same.

::If you can, get somewhere safe. We enacted our plan to take out the demonic sects’ infiltrators, but there were far more than we suspected.::

Shit! Before I left, he’d mentioned something about clearing out this infestation. And I gave him the two weeks I would have been gone to get it done. But I returned from my trip a week early thanks to Shadow Gopher. I couldn’t have known about it since I’d been back less than a day and spent most of that time in the space where no one could contact me.

The next person I tried to talk to was Salamander, but he was still in closed door cultivation.

I attempted to get a hold of Garlic and Verdant Bamboo but they were both in fights of their own. The whole sect was drowning in chaos.

Just my fucking luck.

If I knew the sect was going to do a damn spring cleaning, I would have dragged everyone I could over here to protect me during my tribulation.

So, all of my higher realmed acquaintances were busy fighting traitors.

That left those at Foundation Establishment. The first person on that list I contacted was Unyielding Firestorm. “Great Martial Aunt Lin! This isn’t the best time!”

“I know, but I’m in the middle of my tribulation and being attacked by a bunch of demonic archers.”

“... I’m on the other side of the sect... I’m on my way, but I don’t know if I can reach you in time. Stay alive.”

“Always.”

The next person I talked to was Clear Eyes. “Senior! This isn’t a good time. There are trusted inner sect disciples detonating their dantians, destroying important buildings, and killing promising disciples.”

Fuck. The demonic infiltrators were trying to cripple the newest generation. “Be careful! You’re likely one of their targets! Salamander too.”

“I will!” He paused. “Ah, Senior. Are you okay?”

My head ached. This was either the strain of keeping up the split mind technique or a natural consequence of my situation. “Of course not! I’m in the middle of a tribulation while being attacked by goddamn demonic cultivators. I need backup.”

“That massive tribulation is yours?! It’s enormous! It looks like a Golden Core tribulation but double in size. I thought you were only in Qi Condensation?!”

I mentally sighed. “Just get somewhere safe.”

“Great Aunt!” He sounded touched. “I’ll come as soon as I can.”

“Staying alive is more important. I’m not out of options yet.” I still had the space. Of course, if I used it too often, I could either make the tribulation think I’d failed — which would become my reality — or enrage it further.

Maybe I’d create a new Dao. The way of tribulation infuriation.

***

I survived another volley of arrows without a scratch.

The merchant’s cloak vibrated with her rage. “Are you a cockroach? How do you keep surviving?”

“Tell me how you brought your archers into the sect, and I’ll tell you, Little Black.”

“Don’t call me that! That name is a disgusting reminder that you tried to make me your underling. I’d never work for a weak child like you!”

Again, the tribulation zipped down. Clenching my teeth, I secretly pulled out a few more talismans and, in a fucking power move, I let it hit me without flinching, even though it still hurt. Of course, my heart rate increased and my ears rang, but my talismans stopped it before it could actually damage me.

All Little Black would see was a little girl getting struck by lightning like it was nothing and smoke coming off the top of her head.

Of course, doing things this way just pissed off the Tribulation, but whatever. I’d proved my fucking point.

Little Black took a step back. Then, from her exaggerated movements, it looked like she was yelling at her archers to keep attacking me, only harder.

The speed of the arrows released increased. My formation, which had helped to decrease the lightning’s attack power, had weakened rapidly. Nearly all the spirit stones at its core were consumed.

I subtly pulled out another series of talismans and plastered them all over my body, increasing the amount by five. Shit. I was going through more of my stock than I suspected. At this rate, if my tribulation lasted more than ten bolts, I would run out of these.

Of course, I still had my armor.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to damage my new armor, but it should be my last line of protection before my body took a hit. I’d likely need it to save my ass toward the end of this tribulation if my formations didn’t last.

The small pile of mid-tier spirit stones I’d used to power this small defensive formation turned to dust.

Arrows flew towards me.

I laughed and used my Impossible Leap combined with my flying shoes to almost instantly fly upwards several feet. That drained more energy than I liked, but it took me out of the way of their arrows.

I allowed gravity to pull me down into one of my other defensive formations.

I pointed my fist at Little Black, then extended my middle finger. Once again, I fired off another Thousand Cuts.

Bolt number five was twice as thick and three times as fast. Surviving the tribulation’s strike with only talismans had obviously made it unhappy. With this new speed, dodging was impossible. Fortunately, I had a space.

I flashed into my room and caught a glimpse of Little Spring reading the note I’d left. Since I basically blinked in and out, I didn’t have time to talk, but he also didn’t see me.

Fortunately, it explained my reasoning for not telling him the truth. That would help ease any guilt he may feel. Once this was over, I’d sit him down to have a proper goddamn conversation. Like rational people.

But first, I’d have to avoid becoming a fried arrow cushion.