Shocking awakening

There were at least 1500 cultivators gathered here, which was not that much actually, considering the outer sect's total population of over 20000, but it was still a large quantity, that would empower the tribulation lightning significantly, if I could find the optimal place to stand in the crowd. But since I have no way to find this out before the first batch of lighting falls, I decide to just wing it. I walk in the middle of the market square and sit down in the middle, while listening to the banter of the surrounding people.

-This should be tribulation lightning, but by the Gods, why are there so many clouds? Just who is it that angered the heavenly tribulation to this extent?

-I watched Elder Brother Shifeng's Spirit Activation tribulation last year, and it was nowhere this horrifying! There were only a few clouds, but still, the three waves of lightning that fell were absolutely terrible. Elder Brother Shifeng easily resisted the first one, struggled with the second for a bit and almost died to the third one. He had to recover for half a year, and if it wasn't for Elder Lu Dao personally assisting him in purging the aftereffects of the lightning, he probably wouldn't have recovered even until now. But due to his success in fighting the tribulation and advancing to the Soul Severing realm, he was selected as an inner sect disciple last month at the Inner Trials. The person advancing right now has no chance of surviving this ordeal, since this tribulation seems incomparably more powerful than Elder Brother Shifeng's.

-Selling Light Stones! Ten for one low grade spirit stone! The best tool in this darkness, cheap and convenient, get them right now!

-A couple of days ago I heard that Brother Black Fang is about to break through to the Soul Severing stage. This tribulation might be because of him, I just don't understand why there are so many clouds. Let's go check his situation.

-Are you crazy, if this tribulation is coming for him, and he is that way, I'm going this way instead. I don't want to be anywhere near the crazy bastard who invoked this kind of wrath from the heavens!

-That guy is so weird, meditating there all alone in the middle of the square. Maybe he's trying to divine the location that the lightning will fall?

-How could that be? Us Mortal Cultivators have no chance of divining the heavens' will. He might just be a fruitcake cultivation maniac.

Are they talking about me? You assholes will die so painfully...

The heavens got tired of waiting at this point, as the middle of the clouds above me lit up and a thick bolt of lightning descended upon me. Everybody in the square was first shocked to see this, then horrified, as they realised they're too close to me, so they'll also be hit, and because there are so many people around, it will be an extraordinarily strong lightning too. But their thoughts of fleeing couldn't be faster than the supplementary lightning that suddenly started to fall. Suddenly an area of 99 meters around me got covered in thick bolts of lightning, not only killing, but essentially evaporating all cultivators within that radius. With this, the strength of the tribulation lightning was established, and in the next stages at least the same amount of lightning would fall. Since there was nobody else around but me, all on me, I guess.

As for me, I was just fine. I activated some additional threads of analysis for 'awakening Eve', 'lightning' and 'usage of recently departed souls'. The energy requirement for these would have sapped me dry in minutes, but thanks to all the lightning they actually started operating at an extreme pace. I immediately learned the 'Advanced Lightning Absorption', 'Advanced Lightning Domain', 'High Rank Lightning Steps' and 'Transcending Tribulation' techniques from the lightning research, got everything I wanted to know about how to awaken Eve and my mind overflowed with information and techniques regarding to souls. I expanded the last analysis to the all-encompassing 'soul' category, and started 'elemental energy' research, preparing for the next batch of lightning.

I theorized about this earlier, but electric energy is actually way more efficient for analysis, since Eve was originally a computer-based existence, thus her primary energy source was electricity. This also explains why the tribulation was so horrifying in the first place, since the heavenly tribulation recognised her as a powerful lightning-attributed spirit, so the lightning it would have to send to deal with it had to be much stronger too.

The next batch of lightning falls, and I start frowning. Its power is at least triple of the first batch, and this time it all falls upon me, yet it seemed to have less of an effect on the analysis threads than before. This was because my 'Transcending Tribulation' technique automatically dispersed a huge portion of the lightning before it reaches me. But then I cheer up quickly, as I see the lingering pure electrical energy surrounding me. While 'Transcending Tribulation' blocked the lightning from hitting me with its full power, its energy couldn't have just dispersed into nothing, so it stayed as lingering pure lightning elemental energy. And my 'Advanced Lightning Absorption' that just leveled up to 'Heavenly Lighting Absorption', started to absorb it and turning it into computational energy even more efficiently than before. Thus 'Advanced Lightning Domain' leveled up to 'Tribulation Domain', 'High Rank Lightning Steps' to 'Tribulation Steps'. Then a weird effect of the analysis occurred, and the three top rank lightning abilities combined into one: 'Tribulation Control'. With this I could redirect or absorb any lightning at will, and even become a lightning bolt for a short while, travelling to any distance with the speed of light. This was almost as OP as my spatial abilities.

Speaking of which, I now know 'Advanced Spatial Manipulation'. It seems to be yet another combination of my 'Portal', 'Teleport', 'Spatial Seal', 'Spatial Blade' and 'Spatial Disruption' abilities, which all leveled up to the advanced level, and got combined into a bit more efficient ability.

But my biggest gains were the newly acquired temporal abilities. 'Basic Rewind' is the ability to switch places with my past self, effectively travelling back in time, but with my new abilities and powers. My lifespan couldn't be rewinded either, which should be this ability's only drawback. 'Basic Time Shield' stops time for a few seconds around me, thus I can deal with an enemy or his attack. And finally 'Basic Wither' speeds up time in a small area, until all signs of life are gone. It's a horrifying ability that I suppose came to me thanks to the destructive nature of the tribulation lightning that I witnessed.

The tribulation clouds power up for the final, third strike. I'm well prepared for this one. When the thick bolt of lightning falls, with just a thought I stop it over my head, then start to slowly assimilate it into Eve's spirit. Except that after I send in the first small strand, Eve starts screaming in my consciousness:

-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Stop! Stop! I'm awake! Don't zap me anymore! Damn, that hurts! Stop, stop, I'll get killed if you send all that lightning into me!

-Yeah, I knew you were awake for a long time, since otherwise the tribulation wouldn't have started. But would you believe me if I told you that this lightning won't kill you?

-No. That's insane! I could never endure it!

-Yeah, you will.

And with that I let the full might of the lightning envelop my soul and her spirit.