Isn't this just cheating?

It had been a week since Alex had made the [twin phoenix soul scripture] and he had absorbed enough sun and moon qi to form a replica sun and moon, each where abou the size of a car and where made of pure sun or moon qi. They circled around a palace made of beautiful purple and red tiles, as if made from the very light of dawn and dusk, this was his mind palace.

In the center there was a small piece of ground that had been raised up compared to the rest of the floor, that was where the alter would go. But neither the sun, moon, or palace where done yet, he had only built the palace to about 2km² in area, and 30 meters high. He planed for the finished palace to be bigger then even a real royal palace.

Curently he was sitting out in an open field, preparing to break through to qi absorbing, he would have liked to absorbe the (perfect dantian formation stone) and (perfect spirit root stone) but when he tried the system warned him that he needed to be at at least gold core to refine them. Alternatively, if all his stats were in the same range as gold core, he would be able to absorbe them, but according to the system the lower end of someome who just entered gold core was 20,000 to 30,000 in every stat. And just as a reminder stat growth was not linear, it was exponential. added onto the fact that every 1/10 was a 'realm' difference, for example, 10, 20, 30 all the way to 100 in a stat.

The power someone would wield with even just 1,000 in any stat was horrifying, let alone 20,000 to 30,000. At that point they should not even be considerd human, but a demi-God.

To be fair, Alex having 67 in each stat was already far beyond what any human from his old world could achieve. The highest a normal mortal human could have in a stat would be 15, and that was already the absolute peak of possablity. At 67 Alex could mold space grade alloys with his bare hands like it was wet clay. Even without his 50% addition, he still had 45 in every stat, at which point he could punch through a inch thick plate of steal if he tried.

Anyways, back on topic. Alex was in the middle of an open field for two reasons, he was about to break through to qi absorbing and bone forging, and he didn't want to be distributed while doing so. And the second reason was because he was going to go through a tribulation. Normally the first tribulation one would go through would be advising from foundation building to golden core, or bone refining to organ refining.

For spirit cultivation the tribulation would be the standard lighting and thunder, and for body cultivation it would be one of the three elemental chalenges. Corpse water, which would decay the body as it touched it. hellfire, whcih would burn hotter depending on how much 'bad karma' one had. and blade wind,which would slice the skin open as it passed.

But alex was sure he would under go a tribulation despite being some stages early, he knew this because when he tried to advance earlier that week his system warned him that he would undergo a tribulation due to his [child of heaven] trait. On the upside, his bonuses from the tribulation would be massive.

Taking a deep breath, Alex guided his inner qi from his bone marrow, which was a deep crimson at this point, to his bone connecting the two and forming a steady stream of inner qi between them to refine the bone. while at the same time turning the 108,000,000,000 whisps of 99.999999999% pure qi that was stagnant in his meridians, into 1 strand of 100% pure qi that woukd flow through them.

As the connections to his bones began to form and the strand began to condense a rumbling sound came from the clouds above, as they turned from their once peaceful and calm white, to a deep grey with flashes of lightning streaking through them. Once 52 bones had been connected and 25% of the qi had condensed, sickly green rain began to fall as a bolt of purple lightning began to snake through the clouds. Once the rain reached him, it passed through his cloaths harmlessly, but began to sizzle once it touched his skin, burning the top layer of it away slowly.

Once he was a third of the way through the breakthrough the bolt of lightning fell on him, only to be compleatly negated, absorbed and used to refine him further. The same went for the corpse water rain, as it burnt away the top leyer of skin, a new layer quickly grew to replace it, this one more resilient then the last.

Seemingly enraged by this disrespect three bolts of lightning formed and the rain began to fall heaver, once all three bolts where formed they instantly struck down. But once again it was simply absorbed into him, it's power being used to purify his body, qi, and soul further.

Yes, when the lighting struck him he would pull as much as he could into his mind space, and use it to form the base of what would be his alter and storm clouds above the palace, in-between the circling sun and moon.

Once again enraged by Alex's nonchalance 6 bolts of purple-red lightning formed, as corpse water began to rise from the ground and suround him along with the rain. Seeing as it was right there and just waiting to be used, Alex opened his mouth and began to drink the corpse water, not only to refine the inside of his body, but also to pull into his mind space and form a lake under his palace.

The 6 bolts of purple-red lightning struck at the same time as the corpse water, when he reached 50% of the way into his break though. 54,000,000,000 whisps of qi had murged into the strand, and 103 bones had been fully connected to their marrow by now. Each bolt of purple-red lightning carried three times the force as one bolt of purple lighting. But still it was not enough to harm him severely, he still used it to strengthen himself, to purify his qi further, and to form constructs in his soul, and the corpse water inside him still was not enough to decay him, as he used it to strengthen his insides, cleanse his qi, and form constructs in his mind palace.

Furious at Alex by this point the clouds above began to rumble as they parted above him, and pools of corpse water began to form around him. Noticing the change Alex thought 'Oh shit, that can't be good.'

As if on cue, silver streaks of lightning began to stretch from the clouds into the gap above him, connecting directly above where he was sitting, and began to send even more power into the point of connection forming a massive spear of lighting above him. While the corpse water began to churn in their small pools around him, condensing from their sickly green so become a deep emerald color. 'Oh this realy can't be good. Hey heavens, any chance I could say sorry?'

There was no response while Alex was waiting as the spear of lightning above continued to grow, and the corpse water become a deeper emerald. So Alex progressed to 70%, then 80%, then 90%, 95%, 97%, finnaly as he reached 99% complete in his breakthrough, the heavens where done. the spear of silver lightning was dropped from above down onto him, and a wave of deep emerald corpse water rose to cover him at the same time. As the bolt stuck him, the water surrounded him. Both hitting him at once, his flesh burnt and rotted, his blood boiled and decayed, his inerds where cooked and turned in to mush.

As alexs body was torn asunder he pulled out his backup plan, the furnace. At his command a furnace made of bone with macabre carvings on its surface came out from his chest, before he commanded all the lighting he coulden't controll, and all the corpse water he couldent absorbe into it. Lighting the flame of vitality, and refining them both.

Furious at this the clouds above continued to spew purple lighting and sickly green water, which was easily absorbed by Alex, in actuality this helped him, as his body, qi and soul were able to refine themselves further, and handle the silver lighting and emerald corpse water.

The clouds where already at their ropes end after releasing the silver lighting and emrald corpse water, but with their continued assault they ran out of energy even faster. As the last of the lighting fizzled out, and the last of the of the corpse water was drained, the clouds dissipated. And the last of alexs qi whisps fused into a singular qi strand which swam around his meridians freely, while his marrow and bones where fully connected and inner qi began to flow into them.

Coughing out some blood Alex fell back onto the ground from his seated position as his body began to stick itself back together itself. His skin was all but gone, his muscles burnt, his mind strained to its limits and his energy drained to its last drop.

"Fuuuuck. Everything hurts. It was just advancing to bone refining and qi absorbing, why did you have to be so hard?" As alex continued to curse he also payed attention to the furnace which was still refining the silver lighting and emerald water he coulden't absorbe, along with some purple lighting and sickly green water he added in their to supplement it. "At least I got something nice out of it."