Everything happened within an hour.
At first, Kiana noticed the changes surrounding Shi Tian. His clothes started to get torn off out of nowhere. Blood started to seep out of his body.
But then, it stopped.
That was the start of another round of changes.
'He became stronger..?'
Kiana could not shake off that uneasy feeling. Her spiritual consciousness had always been observing him closely. She saw how his dantian exploded with a poof.
To outsiders, it did not look hard to do. Shi Tian stood still for ten minutes and had a huge power up.
She is not as naive as to think it was really that easy, though. Up to now, she hasn't fully memorized the 1,599 meridians within the body. She only relied on practical applications and remembered how it 'felt'.
Cultivation is very time-intensive with insane improvements as a trade off.
What followed next were even more disturbances. The spiritual qi inside Shi Tian turned purer, causing the spiritual qi created within their radius to funnel into him. It is a mystifying sight.
That wasn't the end of it all.
When the Mind (Shen) dantian exploded, a heavy and suppressive feeling came from him. It made her uncomfortable, which marked the beginning of her moving away.
The biggest change came in the thirty-minute mark.
Kiana saw three different colors blend into gold.
'That works?!'
She thought of her mixing crayons back then. Silver, blue, and gray do not produce gold.
Idle thoughts aside, the 'pressure' Shi Tian gave off increased to a whole new level. Kiana had to move back even further. The dozens of trees surrounding him are either cut down or collapsed to the ground. A heavy physical pressure emanated from him alone.
Shi Tian can cause physical pressure to his surroundings by standing alone. The 'danger' he emitted is very different.
"Ow!"
Kiana's spiritual consciousness got cut off. She can no longer observe his internal changes.
"He reminded me before…"
The Tuna did not pay attention to it due to her getting caught red-handed. Now that it got cut off, she was reminded of her crime (singular) again.
The pressure around him soon stabilized. The fluctuations of spiritual qi he gave off is extremely huge in her eyes. Her spiritual consciousness could not compare to Shi Tian's anymore.
It is the difference of one major realm.
In the eyes of Foundation Establishment cultivators, Qi Refining cultivators can be settled with a wave of their hand.
It reminded Kiana of something.
'..!'
A honkai beast.
Not just any other honkai beast, but a huge honkai beast. It is the emperor-class honkai beast she encountered years ago.
Shi Tian gave off the same menacing aura as that.
To her surprise, she met his gaze. His eyes are now opened. It is filled with the same sharpness as before, though it did not hurt her one bit—full control does that.
Rumble-!
The skies rumbled. She looked up and saw an extremely heavy thundercloud forming. What's even stranger is its forced absorption of spiritual qi.
Kiana saw Shi Tian's smile last before his body shot off to the sky. His figure got surrounded by a hazy silver light. He did not need his sword to fly.
'Oh. Oh! I remember!'
More things came out of the back of her mind. She remembered the things about thunder tribulations.
Out of nowhere, a thought appeared in her mind.
'I can only watch…'
The first few months she slacked off caused her to fall behind Shi Tian's progress. The gap was magnified when he gained spiritual materials that boosted his progress. Now, she is more likely to rely on Shi Tian.
The roles are completely reversed.
A part of her remained unsatisfied; another felt… curious.
Will I be protected now?
'Humph. I will definitely catch up!'
The Tuna fully admitted her utter and complete defeat. It served as a booster far more effective than food and HOMUs.
Clap-!
Bzzt-!
Her eyes followed Shi Tian. Just now, a bolt of white lightning struck him. He managed to destroy them, causing stray thunderbolts to rain down the ground.
Bam-!
The remnants of the lightning came down a second later. It rained upon dozens of trees, causing some of them to burn.
The hazy silver light continued to fly towards the clouds. With each lightning bolt, a rain of smaller lightning descended to the ground. The lightning bolts grew stronger in every strike.
Things changed during the fourth lightning bolt.
The expected aftermath did not appear. The silver light clashed with it head on, with the lightning bolt disappearing after it did so.
The fifth up to the ninth lightning bolt disappeared every time it touched the silver light.
The thundercloud was about to bring down its tenth and final punishment when…
Shiing-!
Rumble-!
BAM-!
A brilliant silver light tore through the tribulation clouds. Its pressure and momentum is extremely strong. A Late Stage Foundation Establishment will die in this attack alone.
The tribulation clouds are merely formed by an Early Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Its highest strength is the Middle Stage Foundation Establishment. Its outcome is predictable.
Rumble.
The black clouds were cut in half, forcing it to dissipate until the clear blue sky returned.
It is the first and formal appearance of the [Daluo Sword Art] (lit. All Encompassing Sword Art). One of its two purposes is to put everything you have understood into the sword. It is a charged strike with everything he got, pushing his sword's power to another level.
The tribulation clouds are used to prove that sword's prowess.
A Sword Heart cuts all false and true.
Spiritual qi dispersed before floating around like usual.
Under the halo of sunlight, a figure wrapped in hazy silver light was all that could be seen.
*****
An hour has passed.
The obvious vacuum of honkai energy was originally unnoticeable. The tribulation clouds changed things.
It got caught by weather stations. The sudden emergence of a thundercloud put its personnel with mouths wide open. Nothing can explain this phenomenon.
Nothing except the honkai.
Before it could be passed to relevant authorities, however, another shocking thing happened.
The thundercloud disappeared just as it appeared.
Further investigation and satellite footage revealed the truth. A silver light cut it into half, causing it to disappear. The abnormality regarding the lack of honkai energy surfaced. It overlapped with the previous two cases that had been investigated.
The abnormal weather report escalated into a top-secret file.
In the end, this case was passed onto Schicksal's officials… who then passed it to their Far East Branch.
"Got it…"
A childish voice came beneath the desk. Her height did not reach the desk level. The majesty of the Far East Branch was doomed from the beginning.
"Everyone's out… except for her…"
Thus, it spelled a redhead's descent into Shenzhou.