370 Tribulations (2/2)
”Facing a lot of swords or battling against someone powerful.”
For the elements, it was easier to imagine that would be something related to them, but it was quite difficult imagining it for the weapons and martial arts.
”The answer is battling against a shadow of myself. Each level of the tribulation has a different shadow restrained in power to that of the tribulation, and to succeed you need to make the shadow acknowledge you.”
Yale felt that it made sense that the shadow was that from the one who created the essences.
”The battle happens in a mental space where the battle restrictions are quite similar to those in the Timeless Border. With your current level, you are already capable of clearing all the tribulations for the Essences I left behind. Martial arts, sword, spear, rod, hammer, axe, whip, and archery. Those eight Essences are the ones I left behind, and you are already capable of succeeding easily in the Essence Tribulation for all of them. Do you understand why you can't improve more here?”
Although there were more types of weapons, the Laws and Essences ended englobing them in those eight areas. A dagger and a saber would still be considered part of the Sword Essence, but a dagger for throwing would enter in the Archery Essence.
”It is difficult to believe, but if you say that I am so capable, then I believe it.”
Despite being difficult to believe, Yale felt that if those words were true, then it would be easy for him the day he wanted to become an Essence God with the Sword Essence.
”Don't think about using this experience to your tribulation.”
Yale was shocked by hearing that statement.
”Don't misunderstand me. Although I don't know what will happen to your memories of our battle, your experience would remain as long as your consciousness returns to the real world. However, there won't be any tribulation for you in those eight Essences because I have already acknowledged you and as a shadow, I am far stronger than those of the tribulations.”
Yale couldn't understand how that could count as passing the tribulation when he didn't even learn the full Essences and fused with them.
”Although this space isn't within the universe, it isn't outside either, that is why it is called Timeless Border. Acknowledging you here is valid since the conditions are even harder than in a real tribulation. Although I must admit that I can acknowledge whoever I want, and that person wouldn't face any tribulation related to those eight Essences, but the tribulations were set to test if the person was really able to control the power of the Laws and Essences properly to avoid them going berserk.”
Trying to control Laws or Essences without being strong enough in body, soul and mind would lead to losing the control, and even those who succeed sometimes had their mindsets affected and suffered changes of personality like that red-eyed man who turned into psychopath due to being unable to endure the Darkness Law and the Darkness Essence correctly.
There was a flaw in some tribulations making that one could avoid failing by allowing the Law or Essence to corrupt their minds.
With some elements like the Fire, one would just become more hot-headed, but when it came to Death and Darkness, the results of using that shortcut were far too severe.
A full Essence couldn't be properly controlled by someone who isn't ready, and Yale experienced it himself when he turned berserk after using them. Given his soul empowerment, there wasn't any problem to use Laws, but he couldn't allow going carelessly with Essences. Of course, the eight mentioned by the Battle God were some Yale wouldn't need to worry.
”This feels like cheating for having connections, but I suppose this is also some kind of power.”
Skipping two tribulations thanks to the soul empowerment and having a free pass to eight Essence Tribulations was something anyone would go mad to obtain, but it wasn't that easy.
”The advantage of doing a tribulation before needing it is that failing doesn't mean guaranteed death. For example, the Life and Death Trials are a simulation of the tribulation to become an Essence God in Life and Death, and those who surpassed it could avoid facing that combined tribulation, but the real tribulation couldn't be stopped, while the Life and Death Trials could be stopped to save the one experiencing it.”
If Yale had recovered the memories about the Life and Death Trials before the war, he wouldn't have lost the control of those Essences, but since he didn't remember anything about it, it wasn't until he recovered those memories and accepted it that his status as someone who cleared them was reestablished.
It wasn't that weird that powerful experts tried to create and use pseudo-tribulations to ensure that their descendants would succeed. After all, the soul empowerment couldn't be inherited endlessly, and usually, only the eldest child managed to obtain it, so letting that child dying in a tribulation would be very bad for them.
However, except for the Life and Death Trials, there weren't any other standardized methods to skip the tribulation. There were some to prepare for it, but that wouldn't prevent the tribulation from happening.
Of course, battling with the Battle God to make him acknowledge you was also a method for those eight essences, but Yale was the third in the story to manage to do that as normal people couldn't even meet with him.