Upon understanding his situation, Sage quickly took off running. He stepped upon the open air, dashing up into the sky and quickly leaving the city limits. Lionheart Town had turned the event into an attraction, but the fact of the matter was that people had died and a great amount of property damage was done. Given he was sheltering there in Xiong Xiong Xiong’s house, it would be pretty rude to destroy the man’s house.

Heading outside the city limits had him striding out into an even greater storm. Stormport City earned its name for a reason after all. It was one of those spectacular impossibilities of the cultivation world. The city was built around a large semi-circular bay, which was beautifully sunny and clear nearly every day of the year. Yet, outside that tropically warm and blue bay, there was a raging storm that was just as consistent as the clear conditions of the bay. The sky was constantly gray and rain fell in varying amounts. The storms varied in intensity and the locals knew exactly which days had the least intense storms and they’d also developed many defensive measures for their ships which were able to bring them through the worst parts of the storm and out into the rest of the sea.

At the entrance to the serene bay the two ends of the semi-circular bay were made of two narrow but tall mountain peaks. These two rocky cliffs extended to either side like walls and seemed to be somehow responsible for the strange climate conditions. The stormy clouds would release intense torrents of lightning and rain as they approached the area above the two ridges, expending all of their fury and energy. By the time they passed the peaks they would dissipate into small soft and white fluffy clouds, drifting lazily over Stormport City.

The people of Stormport City were thus very confused and terrified by the sudden sight of a black stormcloud suddenly appearing over their city that only ever received light drizzles of rain. This single cloud was small, but it was darker and more potent than the clouds outside the port. Sage could feel the attention such a sight was drawing as he rapidly fled the city, escaping to the outskirts. Bear Three’s manor was at the edge of the city near one of the ridges and the black cloud seemed to draw some of the energy from the already existing storms as he approached. Noticing this, he quickly turned away, rushing away from the shore as quickly as possible. Thankfully, the black cloud above him separated from the storm over the sea and stopped drawing more of its power. Even so, it had gotten larger from that brief contact and he cursed inwardly.

It seems I can’t use those peaks to help resist the tribulation.

He could only rush away from the water as quickly as possible, trying to get far enough away that it wouldn’t pull from the constant storms. His time was limited as the storm cloud above him continued to gather strength and after a few minutes he had to stop running as he felt the power above him building to a crescendo.

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This jungle will just have to do.

Stopping where he was, he slammed his palm down onto the ground, the great force of his strike causing the earth to crack. Large fissures ran outwards from his position, which made it easier for the green energy he poured into it to spread. The flood of green light was actually caused by many tiny particles of energy, each of them showing that they were actually tiny seeds when they sprouted small shoots. Spreading outwards they took the form of roots rather than flowering leaves, expanding rapidly into every direction and crawling into and around all the roots of the dense jungle around him. They spread rapidly over a massive area, covering a radius of nearly a mile in just a few breaths of time.

The dense system of roots stopped spreading and instead seemed to come to life, tens of thousands of small tendrils burst from the ground, numerous as blades of grass. Such a sight could only be seen because the jungle covering that same area withered rapidly. Those roots drained all the energy from the jungle, taking them for their own and putting the whole area under Sage’s control. The ‘grass’ rose up to Sage’s knee, creating a small clearing of high grass in an otherwise dense and tall jungle.

Then Sage waved his hand and dozens of small discs flew out into the distance. Some of them flew as far as the edge of the 1 mile circle he’d created, while others fell much closer, each of them being guided by his Spirit Power to land exactly where he intended. Then the sea of small tendrils standing up from the ground shifted. They twisted and curled, braiding themselves together and laying over to form lines and shapes between the metallic discs that had been thrown out over the area. The energy contained within all of those ‘grasses’, the Parasitic Roots, was channeled into the hastily formed shapes and lines between the discs.

A shimmering fence rose from the circular perimeter, a barrier of energy rising up into the air. The fence grew taller and taller, shrinking in radius as it did, forming into a hemispherical shield over the clearing with Sage at its center. This was a method that the researchers had come up with to help Sage form an Array Formation rapidly, using the energy of the surrounding wildlife to charge up the Parasitic Roots that shaped themselves into the lines and symbols required to create an array. The Formation Plates were only needed to act as the intersections of the formation rather than being the main medium of its creation.

Then a spherical metal cage appeared around Sage, this one just large enough for him to not reach its edges if he were to spread his arms out. This metallic cage was made up of many hexagonal sections linked together, each of them individually a Magical Tool forged to act as a conduit for lightning elemental Qi and created all at the same time as a set using the same technique as the Formation Swords that Sage had made all those years ago.

The preparations were complete just in time as the black cloud above him released a bright flash, a shining bolt of neon blue lightning smashed down upon him without any further ado. The power contained within that bolt was far beyond any simple Lightning Qi, carrying an energy that smashed against all the laws in the world around him. Sage sheathed his body with the power of law, layering them over the Jade Mantle that was already covering his body like armor. The lightning flashed through the formation barrier he’d erected before crashing against the cage around him.

Sage shook as the energy struck his body, crashing into the layers of law and then saturating the Jade Mantle and seeping into him. The first bolt had penetrated every layer of defense and passed all the way to the interiors of his body. This power was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. The arcs of lightning moved as if they had a will of their own, running about inside his body and targeting the weakest parts of him. His internal organs and the smallest meridian pathways suffered burns from that violent lightning.

That was only the first bolt.