Chapter 2440: A brand new tribulation I

There were no thoughts running through Lex’s mind, but he wasn’t dead yet. He could still feel pain. He could feel his body - what was left of it - protesting aggressively against his every action, or rather his only action.

His right hand, repeatedly squeezing and relaxing, forcing his heart to pump. Things had not gone according to plan. He placed the egg shell on his heart expecting to fuse with it when his Rebirth by fire ability kicked in. But the ability wasn’t kicking in.

No wonder Phoenix’s were on the verge of extinction - their ultimate ability, which triggered upon entering a near death state, came with performance issues.

Thus, even with his mind shrouded in darkness, and even with all his thoughts disappearing, Lex could feel the pain in his body. Pain - it was so easy to ignore when he had a goal, a purpose, and some energy to pursue those goals. But when all he felt was pain, with no mind to understand context, it was not so easy.

In that case, existence became an endless abyss, without start or end, and only darkness and pain to keep company. What then, kept the hand moving? Kept the heart beating?

For some people, it could be a profound sense of purpose or meaning. But for Lex, in that moment, at the bottom of the crater, it was an overwhelming sense of pettiness. He refused to die out of sheer spite against the ability Rebirth by Fire, for which he had such great expectations, but it refused to activate. In his last moments, all he could think of was that if he wanted something done right, he had to do it himself.

So even when he felt nothing except pain, using whatever trace amount of energy left in his body, Lex refused to give up. He refused to give in. He kept his heart pumping.

Yet there was no blood left, so what was the heart even pumping?

Energy. It was pumping out trace amounts of energy so little, that the only thing it could fuel was his own hand.

The egg shell had protected his heart, but that did not mean Lex could automatically absorb or fuse with the egg shell. His heart wouldn’t suddenly gain the egg shell’s powers. The only reason Lex had been able to fuse with things for so long was because of his Empyrean bloodline, but mostly because of his cultivation technique.

At the moment, however, Lex was not using the technique so the heart couldn’t fuse with the egg. So where was the energy coming from?

It came from the heart itself, and whatever was left of his body. Much as what Lex experienced during the gluttony retribution, his heart forced some energy out of his body, bit by bit, piece by piece, giving him the ability to continue pumping.

Had circumstances been even slightly different, Lex’s excellent healing abilities would have long kicked in and started to heal him. But that last bit of cursed energy, trying to kill Lex, suppressed it all.

But ultimately, true power never came from hate. The hatred of a prehistoric monstrosity, empowered by two, mutated tribulations, clashed against Lex and tried to wear him down. It kept him from healing and tried to suppress him until those final embers of life were extinguished.

But while the energy from the tribulation waned, the intensity of Lex’s spite remained strong, keeping his hand pumping so long as it was not entirely deprived of energy.

Under Harriot’s concerned gaze, the tribulation field around Lex slowly weakened as its energy dissipated until at last, it vanished.

For one, brief moment, absolutely nothing happened. Then all the energy in the surroundings that had been pushed out by the tribulation field came rushing back in, flooding Lex’s body. At the same time, a thin patch of tribulation clouds began to form over Lex’s body.

"Umm, is his tribulation supposed to start back up?" asked Harriot as he stared at Lex.

Eclipse, who was reading through her secrets, paused and looked up.

"I mean, this kind of thing has never happened before so it’s hard to guess, but I would have guessed that the tribulation should have ended after that," she said, looking towards Lex. Then she narrowed her eyes. She could not peer into what was happening with the tribulation laws since her abilities were sealed, but she could make an educated guess.

"Or perhaps the Primordial Dao Body tribulation did fuse with the whole tribulation, and only occupied the lightning one, allowing the others to continue as intended. But that seems unlikely. Yet if it fused with the entire tribulation, and each one occurs with the same intensity, then this is no longer a tribulation. This is just a death sentence."

After a few moments of observing the clouds, though, another thing occurred to her and she shook her head. A certain look flashed through her eyes as a look of anticipation appeared on her face.

"I have another theory though. Lately, the universe has gained a lot of energy, and many of Arch-Heaven’s laws have evolved. Maybe... what we’re seeing is a new, never before seen version of the tribulation."

Harriot was surprised by Eclipse’s words, but that didn’t ease his concern. Lex was on his deathbed right now, and he was in no condition to face anything.

In truth, Lex was already much better. When the natural, ambient energy came flooding back, his body rapidly absorbed it like a dried out sponge, allowing him to heal. Of course, his healing was by no means something that would be quick. Considering the state of his body, with no external help, it would take him anywhere between ten to twenty thousand years of healing before recovering to a moderate state. That would still not be close to his full strength.

He turned back around, but this time he didn’t see Eclipse busy with work, nor was she looking on casually. Instead, she was looking at Lex with a great deal of anticipation as if she knew what was about to come.

A stream of transparent energy flowed down from the clouds and wrapped itself around Lex’s body, slowly lifting him off the ground and bringing him up to the clouds.