After finishing her story, Night gave him a reluctant smile. The slight tug at her lips carried sadness, but also unexpected warmth, as a flicker of hope passed through her golden eyes.

  “Master always wished for the world—especially his Asura race—to prosper in peace, and thanks to his strength, this was mostly the case for many millennia. Alas, nothing lasts forever. With his departure, it is more than likely that history will repeat itself. The Daeva greed knows no bounds and seems ingrained in their very blood. By accepting Ang War’s eyes and his teachings, you could become a positive force, maybe even help balance the scales in the future. After all, each cleansing storm begins with a waft of wind.”

  Night paused, her voice growing heavier. “However… it’s not easy to make the eyes of a god your own. Final death is a distinct possibility, and before you succeed... the pain will be monumental.”

  Suffering death in both body and soul—final and irreversible—was a fate dreaded by every cultivator. Monumental pain? Cade was quite proud of his resistance to suffering. If he trusted himself to survive anything, it’d be torturous pain.

  But should I take this risk?

  “Senior… My cultivation is pathetically low. Do you know what the chance is of me surviving the attempt?” He had to ask this question—the stakes were far too high. He just didn’t know what he’d do if he didn't like the answer.

  “A coin’s toss.” Night sighed.

  Cade’s heart instantly sank to his abdomen. This essentially meant leaving things to fate. His life was very precious to him, and if he were to take a big risk, it had to be justified. He needed to know exactly what the gains would be and whether the benefits could offset such insane risk.

  “Senior Night, can you tell me what purpose the eyes actually serve? Master Ang War mentioned that I would be able to finally see. But what does that even mean?”

  “There are many paths one can take through life, and even the brightest flame can be quenched if drowned. I’m unable to list all the benefits the eyes could bring you—as I simply do not know them—but to my understanding, they would be of huge benefit in helping you choose the correct path to tread and potentially overcome one of the worst pitfalls owning the object brings.”

  Cade lowered his gaze, pondering on these words. His father had said that life and death—blessing and calamity—were often separated by a single decision. If Ang War’s eyes could help him make the correct decision in a dire situation… Obtaining them would mean everything for preserving his life in the future, potentially multiple times, at the cost of placing everything on the line at this moment.

  His jaw tensed, and his sight hardened with grim resolve. If I die now, then it means fate wasn’t on my side after all. In that case, my future would likely end up bleak anyway.

  He lifted his eyes, meeting Night's steady gaze. “What do I need to do?”

  “You’ll need to go through the highest heavenly calamity—otherwise known as the godly tribulation,” she answered, her tone devoid of all softness.

  Cade’s eyes nearly popped out of their orbits, and his jaw went slack, yet he quickly collected himself.

  “Apologies, Senior, I actually changed my mind. Thank you for this amazing opportunity, but I’ve just remembered I have an important meeting with a couple of fellows,” he said, standing up and dusting off his robes.

  Night watched him wide-eyed before bursting into quiet laughter.

  “It’s not as bad as it sounds. You won’t need to go through it physically.”

  “I won’t? Then how…”

  Night's arm rose, and so did the golden glow above their heads, floating down to stop half a foot above her palm. Cade turned away his gaze, gritting his teeth. Allowing the glow to barely enter his field of vision turned discomfort into searing pain.

  “First, you need to refine this golden lightning’s spirit. It’s not something that existed in this world before my Master brought it to life. However, it adheres to the heavenly daos; hence, there is no risk in using it, other than the obvious difficulty in mastering it. Once you have grafted the spirit into your soul, we can proceed with the eyes,” Night began her explanation. “Compared to other lightning spirits, this one is rather unique. At low intensities, it can purify and purge. At higher ones, it can refine life, take life, and even give life. In this way, it greatly resembles heavenly tribulation—hence my Master called it the golden tribulation lightning.”

  “Senior Night, it’s not that I don’t trust your words, but just being close to it is very painful,” Cade said, still looking sideways. “How am I supposed to refine it?”

  Night offered him an understanding smile. “With my help, naturally. I will have to mark your flesh with a lightning resistance formation that will draw its power directly from the object. It’s called a Flesh Formation, and it is my Master’s invention—part of his Red Reaper Scripture, which is now rightfully yours. With the formation’s help, you will be able to reach into the spirit’s core and begin absorbing it into your soul. The spirit itself has been pacified and won’t resist. However, it will still be rather unpleasant.”

  “Pain I can live with. If this is all that I need to do, then that doesn’t sound nearly as bad as I thought it’d be,” Cade commented, clearly relieved, his voice lifting ever so slightly. Ang War’s scripture on its own was doubtlessly a life-changing treasure, and if it could teach him how to use the godseed, then he absolutely had to learn it.

  “Once you’ve achieved elementary success in refining the spirit and Ang War’s eyes have linked with your nervous system, this is when the tribulation will start,” Night continued.

  “Oh. Alright,” Cade nodded.

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  “However, you will only need to go through its memory. The godly life force inside my Master’s eyes has been mostly refined through the thousands of years spent wrapped inside the Golden Tribulation Lightning, as that was its role. Yet—and I can’t stress this enough—it will feel very real. In fact, it will feel no different than if you were going through it yourself. And…” Night winced, as if she were about to disclose the truly bad part. “Master’s godly tribulation lasted 17 years.”

  “What?!” the Asura exclaimed wide-eyed.

  “If it makes things any better, it will only feel this long. You’ll be reliving a memory inside your realm of consciousness. With it being preserved inside Ang War’s eyes, the real-world time should be very short in comparison. My estimate is around a dozen hours, two dozen at the most, depending on how well your soul and mind can keep up with the memory projection,” Night quickly added.

  Cade frowned and started his usual routine of pacing around—something he had fallen into a habit of doing a long time ago. There was much to think about. He checked his timekeeper—he’d been inside the Realm for three full days. A full day for reliving 17 years of torture, and I could still make it on time for my meeting with Reeve, King, and possibly Aria. Hopefully I won't die in the process—or end up a mindless, drooling wreck.

  Obtaining amazing things requires an adequate sacrifice. Since he’d be reliving the memory, wouldn’t surviving it depend on his willpower? His trust in his ability to live through tremendous torture didn’t stem from his elevated pain threshold but from his burning conviction of being able to bear with it no matter how bad it got.

  “I’ll risk it,” he stated decisively, turning towards Night's floating form.

  “As I knew you would,” the spirit smiled. “Is there anything you want to do first before we begin?”

  “Nothing I can think of,” Cade shook his head.

  “Then we might as well get started. The lightning resistance formation is the size of a palm. It’s best to place it near your voracious heart. Would the left side of your chest be fine?” she inquired.

  Cade nodded, taking off his robe and tunic. As long as the formation didn’t need to be carved into his forehead, it didn’t matter to him where it ended up.

  “Lie down,” Night swiped her hand, and a large bed appeared right next to her. It looked very out of place inside this gloomy hall. Cade did what she asked, lying on his back and staring at the hall’s ceiling shrouded in darkness. Even though something inside of him begged him to back out, he knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he passed on this chance.

  Night began her preparations, bringing out a table, a chair, and various powders, some of which glowed, while others stunk to high heavens. She dosed the powders with precision using a small silver scale, then added several drops of a fresh-smelling liquid.

  “I’m preparing the ingredients for the ink, the main one being ground bones of a Rank 5 spirit beast with a lightning attribute. The rest is mainly there to help contain and soften its power,” Night described the process as she worked, eventually obtaining a small bottle containing golden liquid.

  “All flesh formations require a small amount of golden marrow as an ultimate preservative. This way, the ink will never fade. Different formations usually require special ingredients, and I have no idea how accessible those will be on Teraxis,” Night commented, shaking the small bottle so fast it turned into a golden blur. “Keep in mind, if the part of your skin containing a flesh formation ends up damaged, the formation will stop working and will need to be redrawn.”

  Cade nodded with a heavy sigh. He took in all of this with the resignation of someone who had accepted his fate. While being able to resist lightning sounded great, he couldn’t find it in him to get excited, knowing that what awaited him on the horizon was 17 years of torture.

  Night closed her eyes and began drawing complex symbols in the air above his chest with a glowing tip of her index finger. Every stroke she added made the formation more complete. It appeared as a series of four squares, each inscribed into a circle and nested within each other. All of the edges glowed with potent runes.

  “This will hurt a little,” she said, pushing the inscription into his chest with her palm. The sensation was a little unpleasant at first, then briefly erupted with searing pain. Cade didn't even get to wince before it was over. Night promptly began to apply the golden liquid with the tip of a brush. The whole process took nearly four hours from start to finish before the spirit gave its work one final look, nodding in satisfaction.

  “It’s done,” she gave him a faint smile. He could tell she was happy with the final result. Cade looked down at a dull, complex golden tattoo on the left side of his chest. Suddenly, his spherules began to spin, and the tattoo pulsed; then, just as the little orbs calmed down, it lit up with soft, golden light. He immediately felt the discomfort from being near the golden lightning vanish entirely, and he looked at Night with even more respect. He knew how long it took artificers to craft simple formations. A day for a basic heating circle—like in his kettle left in the Sword Dao house—was considered fast. Night's lightning resistance formation was incomparably more advanced.

  “Thank you, Senior,” he said with deep sincerity. “What should I do now?”

  “Wear this. It’s made of tribulation silk. This fabric absorbs lightning. It will help,” she handed him a red, voluminous, hooded robe. “I will place the orb here,” she pointed at the nearby patch of stone floor, “so you can slowly reach into it with your mind. The spirit won’t try to fight you—it has no consciousness to speak of. Slowly and steadily graft it into your soul. There will be some pain, but I’m sure you can take it. Once the process is done, you should see the spirit’s representation inside your realm of consciousness—a sign you have reached elementary success. It’s best if you don’t look directly at the eyes, though,” she added with a wry smile.

  Cade did exactly as she instructed. The moment he reached into the golden radiance with his mind, his soul felt a massive jolt, sending waves of pain into every part of his body—as if he were actually struck by lightning. His irises flashed like thousands of glittering stars.

  This is meant to be a little pain?! Feels like it could bring the dead back to life.

  And it had only just begun.

  Six hours later, Cade—his upper body covered in blood and sweat, with scarlet tears dripping from his eyes—coughed up the final mouthful of blood. His vision swayed, but inside his realm of consciousness, a cracking orb of golden light floated above the sea of red mist, appearing perfectly content within its new environment. If not for the lightning resistance formation and the robe, this wouldn’t have been possible.

  His soul hurt, though, and he felt he had gained a moderate soul wound from the effort of taming the powerful spirit. Night looked at him with a newfound dose of respect and no small amount of surprise.

  “I have to say, I was prepared for it to take a lot longer. I wonder—is your soul innately stronger, or was it tempered through a great number of life-and-death experiences?” Night said, her tone bordering on bafflement.

  Her golden eyes flashed, and he felt both his soul and body nourished back to health. He promptly bowed, cupping his fist.

  “Thank you, Senior Night. I was concerned that my soul would be too weak to pass the tribulation,” he said gratefully. “As to its strength, no, I didn’t have many such experiences. Unless you count weeding, which I’ve done a lot of in my life. It’s a thankless, mind-numbing task that never ends. It’s like dying, but on the inside,” he remarked with a wry grin.

  “It certainly could have had an impact,” Night’s lips formed an easy smile. “You’re young, and your cultivation is low, but you’re very strong, physically and mentally. Your chances aren’t bad.”

  “Great! What’s the next step?” Cade asked, now growing a little excited, pushing the vision of upcoming, inhuman suffering into the back of his mind.

  “Now,” she said, and their gazes met, “we have to take out your eyes.”