The Tribulation

Lucas stood in the garden waiting on Alicia and me.

"What took you so long to attend my class you two?" He growled irritated.

"Jason was challenged to a Deathmatch by Shen. Then pissed off Kiera the ice princess. He's on a roll today!" Alicia laughed as she skipped past him.

I groaned as I slowly walked past their curious eyes of Lukas. I sighed as he ushered us over to several plants and a large bronze three-legged cauldron. Lucas stood before the eight of us and began to teach us the basic herbal preparation. He went on for a few hours, teaching us how to identify each herb by smell and what it looks like. Then they showed us how to make a simple stamina pill. The rest of the class was for us to try and make the pill. Several furnaces blew up leaving others with blackened faces and singed clothing. Others had a blacken pill come out. Alicia Had a nice golden-colored one. My cauldron shook violently as a bright shiny gold pill with red veins flew out to my hand. Luas almost screamed like a little girl when he ran over to me trying to snatch it from my hand. I quickly slapped his hand away and glared at him.

"I'm assuming this valuable yea?" I said backing away.

"What sect are you from? How are there pile veins in this?? That's a high-level pill!" He exclaimed looking at the pill with greed.

I looked at it and popped it in my mouth. Lukas looked as if I had killed his puppy in front of him. I felt an enormous amount of energy rip through my body. My veins bulged under the extreme pressure my blood was under. My eyes began hurting and my muscles burned like they were on fire. I groaned in pain as I struggled to breathe. Suddenly clouds gathered overhead. Lukas began backing away from me motioning everyone else to get behind him. His eyes locked into me with a pale face he grimly said.

" One of one thing is about to happen and it's extremely and I mean like it might kill you., Lightning is about to strike you. It's a heavenly tribulation. It's going to hurt. A lot." He backed far enough to not get hit.

The sky began flashing as black, grey clouds filled the previously bright day. A bolt of lightning crashed on top of my skull sending a shock throughout my entire body, then another and a third. Lucas watched as lightning repeatedly hit me. Thirteen times later I felt as if I had been in a fistfight with Zeus. My hair was fried, and my skin was slightly burnt. I couldn't move very fast. Everything screamed in agony as I looked at Lukas to help me. His face was blank. Everyone's where at this point. Yi Meng and several other instructors raced over to where we were. Everyone just stared quietly for a second.

"You ok Jason?" Yi Meng asked quietly looking worried.

"He must be brain dead from those thirteen strikes. I've never seen anyone survive that many and be normal." Lucas said stepping towards me.

I looked around blankly as I struggled to stand. Yi Meng grabbed one arm and Lucas grabbed my other. Marcus and the other teachers were busy picking up their jaws from the floor as they heard what had happened. They walked me over to a stone bench seat and sat me down. Yi Meng looked into my eyes and waved her hand.

"I'm not braindead you fool." I groaned.

Yi Meng Jumped back and started at my sudden words. She glared at me for a second but then sighed with relief.

"You are a monster. How do you feel?" She asked.

"Sore, everything hurts. Doing anything hurts." I replied trying to keep my words short.

"Well, you will reap great rewards from this, Lightning is Heaven's Trail. Gifts of cultivation aren't free. You'll make huge progress for surviving this." Yi Meng said.

I smiled weakly and gave a thumbs-up as I coughed out black smoke. Marcus swept me up and carried me towards the dorms. I tried to struggle against the embarrassing situation. Certain girls blushed and whispered as we passed them.

"Do you see what you're causing?" I asked as the burly man carried me.

"Fastest way to get you to rest without harming you," Marcus grunted.

Molly was sitting at her desk at the front of the dorm. She glanced up grunted and looked back down for a second. Her head then whipped back up and she began fussing like a mother hen. I was hustled to my room and put to bed. I heard Marcus talking to Molly.

"Take care of him. He went through a tribulation. He was struck thirteen times. He might not be ok." He whispered.

"Leave it to me. He will recover I will make sure of it!" She replied with a hint of excitement.

I groaned and sat up. I had to focus on cultivation. I tried and a shot of pain stopped me dead in my tracks on cultivation for right now. I lay back down and passed out. Over the next few days, Molly did everything she could to help me recover. She brought homemade soup and food to cheer me up and kept checking on me every few hours. She ran around like a true dorm mother making sure things were taken care of for the regular day-to-day but still checked up on me. The woman was a true trooper. I kept trying to cultivate each day, the painless and less with each try. After the third day, I was able to draw the energy inside me. While I was cultivating, I appeared in a blank space. I looked around and saw nothingness. The sound of water rushed towards me and the blank space was now a massive ocean. I stood over the water and walked around. There wasn't a sky or any land. A loud crash brought me back to reality as I saw Molly's face just inches from mine.

"I'm so sorry I tripped and almost hurt you!" She said as she hurriedly got up blushing a deep hue of red. I chuckled

"Thank you, Miss Molly. I appreciate everything you did for me. You are a gem of a woman." I said as I stood up slinging a button shirt over my chest.

She looked away and scurried back to whatever she was doing before she checked up on me.