The 7th lightning bolt came crashing down from the sky, leaving behind a pillar of light. It arrived upon Scarlet, but even before it could hit her, one of the eight eggs flying around Scarlet immediately flew toward the lightning bolt.
The moment the egg struck the lightning bolt, the two attacks exploded. A massive amount of energy was released from the clash, sending shockwaves to spread for dozens of kilometers.
Alex and the rest were buffeted by the energy as well, and each one of them was surprised that Scarlet now had the power to stop something like this.
"Just 2 more," one of the elders said, his prayer in the words clear to everyone.
"She can do it," another one said.
"Not two more," Alex said. "There's many more to go."
A few of the people showed surprised expressions. It appeared that they weren't aware of how a lightning tribulation worked.
However, the ones that did, the elders, nodded. "2 more and she can be free from danger," the first elder said.
Just as they were talking, the 8th lightning bolt prepared to fall.
Scarlet had her 7 eggs floating around her that she prepared for the next 2 lightning bolts. She was starting to feel the tired feeling she remembered having the last time she did this as well.
The lightning tribulation asked a lot out of the body for how short it relatively was.
A person could go on for hours fighting someone else, but when it came to lightning tribulation, just a few attacks left everyone tired and weak.
Scarlet's Qi constantly moved inside her body, absorbing the energy left behind by the Tribulation lightning bolts. The absorbed Qi slightly improved her Qi, sending her closer and closer to the Immortal realm.
When the 8th lightning bolt fell, she sent the next 2 eggs into the sky, both of which landed on the end of the falling lightning bolt and instantly exploded.
Another explosion sent a force of air and energy crashing down on Scarlet and she had to protect herself from it. Not only that, she also had to maintain her technique and the 5 other eggs she still had floating around her.
This was a technique she could only use once in a fight, and she could let the eggs get wasted just from some shockwaves.
She felt the remaining energy from the lightning bolt flow into her body, making her Qi slightly stronger. She felt even more tired now like all she wanted to do right now was go to sleep.
But not yet. She had more to go through.
She screeched loudly, letting out a melodic phoenix scream. The fire around her burned brighter and so did the eggs.
All 5 of the eggs started revolving around her even faster as Scarlet prepared for the final of 9 tribulation lightnings.
The moment the final purple lightning flashed in the sky and streaked its way down, Scarlet sent all 5 of the eggs flying into the sky at once.
The five eggs met the 9th lightning bolt, and the world lost its colors. The explosion from the crash nearly broke the fabric of reality itself as space cracked all around the explosion.
Everyone was forced to look away as the bright light that formed from the explosion nearly blinded them all. The sound of the explosion echoed back from the dunes in the distance, and the sand in the air slowly settled.
When the dust was mostly gone, everyone saw a ragged Scarlet standing firmly on the ground with the sand underneath her molten from the heat of her body.
It was still bright red and slowly turning to glass, but no one's eyes remained on it for long. They all looked at Scarlet and worried for her.
She seemed tired, but there was more to come.
The sky rumbled in a warning. Purple lightning flashed within the clouds and slowly an aura gathered in the sky.
No one dared to send their senses up there, but Alex could see the aura that gathered, or more precisely, he could see its color.
A bright yellow aura filled the sky, slowly coalescing together to converge on a single point in the sky.
Alex frowned a little at the sight of the aura as he understood it to be something related to the Yang aura. However, he couldn't tell what aura it was. It was not one of the regular ones that everyone knew it seemed.
The aura took some time to get together and when it finally converged into the one small spot, it slammed onto the ground with a thunderous noise.
Scarlet was ready.
She took flight, streaking directly into the air, and she used a technique.
Unyielding Prominence Spark.
Her beak grew bright red, shining like the first ray of light at the dawn, and she struck the lightning bolt with it.
Another round of wind and aura buffeted the audience in the distance who had to protect themselves. They quickly searched for Scarlet and found her back in the crater where she had begun.
Her feathers were in disarray and she seemed slightly hurt but was otherwise fine.
Alex looked to the sky as another aura started gathering. If the first one was yellow like a midday sun, this one was bright red like an evening sun.
'True Fire Dao,' Alex thought. It took him no trouble to recognize this one. 'So… whatever she had learned previously was weaker than this?'
That told him nothing as the True Fire Dao was something clearly at the peak of what Dao could be. He hadn't yet known of a Dao that could be stronger.
The red aura in the sky converged onto a single point and then streaked down from the sky once again.
Scarlet had her talons out this time, both talons glowing bright white with light, and then she flew to the sky once again, striking the lightning bolt with her talon.
The force behind this lightning bolt was clearly much higher than the previous one and even Alex felt the fear flowing through his and Scarlet's bond. She was scared this time around, maybe even a little hurt.
But the good news was that she was alive. That was all that mattered.
The dust settled and Scarlet was on the ground, tired and hurt from the breakthrough.
"That's weird," Alex said when he saw that. He turned toward one of the elders and asked, "Isn't the individual who breaks through to the Immortal realm supposed to be healed of all injury at the end of it?"
"They are," one of the elders replied.
"Then why is she—"
Alex's words stuck to his throat when his gaze turned to the sky and saw the dark clouds with lightning still hovering in the sky above them.
And he didn't see only the clouds.
He saw aura gathering in the sky once more. A multicolored cloud of aura formed in the sky, swirling with red, yellow, and purple energy like the colors in a Phoenix fire.
Alex frowned at the sight. He remembered something similar happening during his breakthrough when heaven produced all the Daos he was about to learn and created an aura surrounding it to threaten him.
Was this that?
The answer arrived as soon as the question formed in his mind.
The aura started converging into one point, ready for a third lightning bolt.
