Yet… Despite Jade not being as beautiful as any one of his wives, despite her destroying her image in his heart every time he recalled that crazed and depraved look in her eye after Ri destroyed her face, despite knowing that she played a key role in making Meiying's life a living hell for almost two years… Dyon still found it difficult to hate Jade.
An innocent woman was dead. She could never come back and it was Jade's fault. Yet, Dyon always found himself making excuses for her and that wracked him with guilt.
So, when Dyon silently slipped into the Eostre family tombs, a sacred place Ms. Everdeen was buried in with her crystal coffin, and saw all of the frozen traitors of that family kneeling before, his heart couldn't help but stop beating when he noticed a new kneeling ice statue in the place he had sworn to drag Jade to…
And… his eyes blurred the moment he realized that that new kneeling ice statue was Jade herself…
"What…" Dyon felt short of breath, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to fill his lungs to their full capacity.
The twins who were standing on Dyon shoulder looked from him to the ice statue he couldn't take his eyes from. It didn't take long for them to understand the history of this place with their abilities.
'So, the Eostre family tried to betray their Elvin kin by relying on the Daiyu and this was their punishment? To forever kneel before the coffin of that pitiful old lady?' Little Yin's immature voice was projected to her brother, clearly she was saddened by this story.
"H-How long?" Dyon squeezed these words out, directing them toward the twins. "How long has that statue been there?"
Dyon closed his eyes the moment he heard the response from the twins. The date they gave him… It was the same date that Jade disappeared from the clutches of the Daiyu…
He didn't know how to feel. Jade, a woman he thought he would have to hunt down, had already been punishing herself for more than 20 years.
With Dyon's senses, he knew that this was her true body, there was no doubting it…
Somehow, she looked just as beautiful as the first day Dyon met her on the library terrace. It seemed the Daiyu had healed her scars for her, one way or another. What Dyon didn't know was that the last time Chenglei and Elder Daiyu had seen her, her face was just as deformed…
Her silver hair draped along her slender shoulders, her eyes were closed as frozen tears dripped from them… Her delicate features were contorted in a picture of absolute guilt and remorse…
Dyon's heart inexplicably quaked. He wanted to break her out, he wanted to forgive her for everything she had done.
Wasn't this exactly what he had been waiting for? It wasn't her fault that her family technique distorted her personality and ravaged her mind. It wasn't her fault…
Dyon grit his teeth… It wasn't until a full day later that he finally bowed to Ms. Everdeen's coffin and left.
No matter how he felt… It wasn't his place to forgive… It wasn't his forgiveness to give…
Even Dyon didn't fully understand the turmoil in his mind. Maybe because he came from the mortal world, he had more sympathy and awareness for mental illness and health as compared to the rest of the martial world, but he still didn't feel right. In the end, he skipped meeting with Ri and her parents and instead secluded himself in the middle of the Elvin Forest.
Although the twins didn't fully understand why Dyon was feeling the way he was either, they remained silent.
'Maybe cultivation will take my mind off of these things… It's about time I broke into the saint realm…' Dyon looked up into the skies, wondering how difficult a tribulation would be.
With a single leap, he floated on a thick branch of the tallest tree he could find before closing his eyes in meditation.
Till now, Dyon had been holding back his energy cultivation so that he could temper his body and meridians once more, first. Doing this would have guided him into the Pseudo-Saint realm, similar to Prince Nova and his comrades.
However, Dyon had no need for this step anymore. One had to remember that the Titan Diamond Body constitution allowed for 12 chances at "rebirth". This "rebirth" not only erased any hidden injuries, but rebuilt the body from the ground up.
The reason Dyon's body cultivation had leaped from the fourth grade to the first wasn't as simple as just his constitution. It was because the rebirth allowed for the perfect redistribution of his celestial cultivation.
The repetition of the foundation and meridian formation stages were only necessary for those who didn't follow the body path, as they worked as minor replacements for it. However, since Dyon's body had been remolded to peak levels of perfection, he had no need to think about this step again until the day he attacked the dao formation barrier.
However, just as Dyon was about to unseal the remaining energy within Evangeline's seals, two immature voices began to yell in his ear.
"Hey! What are you doing!" Little Yin snapped Dyon out of his concentration.
"Are you trying to kill us?! Just because you're depressed, don't take us with you!" Little Yang growled adorably.
"Huh?" Dyon raised an eyebrow. "What are you two talking about, I'm trying to cultivate."
"You idiot!" Little Yang berated. "You're not just cultivating, you're about to enter the saint realm, meaning a tribulation is coming. Hasn't your master ever taught you what that means?"
Dyon paused before shaking his head. Although he had spent a lot of time studying cultivation techniques, heavenly tribulations were something he always ignored. Just like his trials, he was planning on going in blind.
"Stop being mean." Little Yin cut her brother off. "Big Brother Dyon, you can only undergo your tribulation in absolute seclusion. If others are nearby, you risk not only yourself, but them as well. No matter what kind of concealment abilities we have, the heavens will definitely sense us and increase your trial's difficulty."
Dyon blinked. "Oh… That's what you meant."
Understanding washed over Dyon as he realized he really was about to make a mistake. There was nothing the heavens hated more than interference in its tribulations. So, there were rules in place that made sure that no one could help another with a tribulation.
The only exception to this rule were Heaven's Children, but as Dyon's grand teacher stated, if for any reason the heaven's child that helped you pass a tribulation wasn't able to be there for your next one, you would definitely die. This was because the heavens would multiply the difficulty by many times over as punishment for your dodging its last test.
'It seems I still know too little about the martial world…' Dyon thought. His arrogance still got the best of him sometimes.
"What else should I know, then?" Dyon asked, thinking that he might as well find out now before he sent the twins away.
"You should know that although lightning tribulations are the most talked about, they aren't the only tribulation that exist." Little Yang explained. "If you had to describe lightning tribulations, they would be similar to a supreme grade beast. Although it has the most potential for destruction, it was also possible for it to be weak as well."
"During every tribulation, the saint, celestial, and dao tribulations, you will face three challenges, so to speak. The paths you follow are what decide what these challenges are, however, it's impossible to guess what your tribulations might be regardless. This is just a guiding line." Little Yin continued.
Dyon sighed, and here he thought he would have an easier time since he followed all three paths. It turned out that it was wrong to think that the body and soul didn't receive tribulations, it was just that, for some reason, it was energy that decided when these tribulations would appear.
"The so-called "lightning tribulation" is actually just one category a challenge can fall under. You can have energy, body and soul challenges that take the shape of lightning. However, you can also have a "fire tribulation" and it's also possible to have an "energy tribulation."
"Among these three categories, a lightning form of tribulation is almost guaranteed to appear. Fire and energy are rarer, while energy tribulations are the most unpredictable. They can range from a mental attack to physical. Sometimes, tribulations that have never appeared before, or tribulations that haven't been seen since ancient times, can appear." Little Yin finished.
"Still, tribulations are opportunities. The more difficult they are, the more chances the heavens give you to improve. If you survive that is." Little Yang chortled.
