The Strongest Businessman

"Hmph, I'm stronger than you think, Dylan. Like you said, we need to pass it each. So, I'll distance myself. We'll meet after our tribulations. Don't you dare die!" Rian harrumphed. He sprinted away and went to another secluded location within the Great Pine Forest while the tribulation clouds followed him.

"You are quite fascinating, indeed." Dylan smirked but his expression suddenly turned serious when he sensed another incoming lightning. It had not even passed several breaths but it has already sent another one!

*Tzzzzk* *Tzzzzk*

Dylan decided not to get careless as he used his Heavenly Eyes. Being an extension of him, he only needed a thought to activate it on his whim. Under the Heavenly Eyes, he was able to see that there was another follow-up lightning from behind the first one!

"You trying to sneak up an attack on me? Hmph, take this, Energy Slash!" Dylan raised his Waning Moon Sword and injected his spirit energy into it. The sword did its magic and created an amplified layer on the Energy Slash as it was released! It even seemed more like a Crescent Moon Slash than an Energy Slash.

*Zooom* *Boom!*

The slash soared​ to the skies and met the lightning! However, the lightning was stronger than Dylan imagined. It broke through the amplified layer in just one breath but it was not as successful when it met the true Energy Slash within.

The other thunder eventually met the energy slash and easily overpowered it but still, at the cost of losing some of it's strength. The lightning still maintained its speed and dives down to Dylan.

But, Dylan was already prepared for it as he raised his Shield of Dusk to guard against the weakened lightning. At the moment of impact, Dylan directly used the energy reduction ability of the shield which burned​ about half of its strength and guarded the attack. Despite its weakened state, it was still able to push Dylan's​ feet to the ground by half an inch!

"I guess I somewhat underestimated it's strength." Dylan recalculated when he saw that he miscalculated the strength of the second wave.

He based his calculations on the strength of the first wave which was comparable to an attack of an Pinnacle 8th level Spirit Veins which was already equal to his strength. He thought that it would at least increase by one stage or maybe two at most. He never expected that it would directly jump four stages and step into Peak 9th level Spirit Veins, already stronger than Dylan's current strength and it was only the second wave.

In spite of this, Dylan did not feel down because he was at least able to get a point of reference by degree of which the strength of the lightnings that the vortex will send.

"The third wave is here." Dylan looked at the sky as the dark grey clouds vortex released three visible lightning serpents which aimed to destroy Dylan. Each one had the strength of Pinnacle 10th level Spirit Veins! However, the hidden lightning behind the middle one did not escape his Heavenly Eyes as he was using it to detect even the slightest bits of fluctuations of energy.

*Trzzzk* *Trzzzzk* *Trzzzzk*

In this third wave, he was able to confirm his speculations that this world's trend of Heavenly Tribulation was increasing strength and number of lightnings that would be sent down by the multiplicative of two.

Dylan still did not know as to how many waves his going to receive so he needed to conserve his strength for each wave. But with this knowledge he gained from his observations, he would be able to utilize his strength in an efficient and appropriate manner for the waves to come.

Dylan used a Crescent Moon Slash which was sent to deal with the middle lightning and the hidden lightning and used two energy slashes to deal with the other two lightning.

*Boom* *Boom*

Two explosions was heard right after. The two Energy Slash and the two lightnings were just par with each other which resulted to an explosion. The Crescent Moon Slash, however, easily destroyed the two lightnings with its inner layer still surviving after the clash!

Keep in mind that the Crescent Moon Slash is a special skill that Dylan made either by stacking two Energy Slashes or inputting energy equivalent to Energy slashes. Thus, when it receives the power of Superimposition, it's end result would be something equivalent to 4 energy slashes!

'It seems like I can overcome the next two waves easily.' Dylan thought to himself. But despite being confident with his calculations, he was still on guard.

After 20 seconds, the vortex sent the next wave! This time there were no hidden lightnings because the 8 lightning serpents were all visible and directly dived down. It was due to this that Dylan's eyes turned more serious because the strength increase was unlike the past two amplifications, it was now five stages, an entire level! Each singles of those lightning serpents had the strength of a Intermediate 12th level Awakened Spirit!

Dylan did not become careless as he decisively gripped the Waning Moon Sword and shouted, " Half Moon Slash!"

When it was released by Dylan, it truly resembles the bright half-moons in the sky, a celestial body ascending in the starry night!

A Half Moon Slash was a skill that Dylan made with inspiration of the Crescent Moon Slash. He thought that if he could infuse 2 Energy Slashes​ into one Crescent Moon Slash, why not fuse two Crescent Moon Slash into one slash! Thus, the theory of the Half Moon Slash!

But, the process of realizing a theory was not easy. During their journey to the Thundercloud, he experimented on the skill in order to perfect it but he was still unable to find the right amount of energy to equalize the output of energy.

After several failed attempts, Dylan finally pinpointed that the problem was due to the low quality of his energy. He suspected that he would first need to transmute his refined natural energy into spirit energy before becoming qualified to execute the skill. Thus, he only left this thought untouched and thought he would only continue after he reached the Awakened Spirit Realm.

However, due to the, Instant conversion ability of the Supreme Core, Dylan was finally able to successfully execute it.

The Half Moon Slash was far different than the Crescent Moon Slash due to the amount of energy exerted to create it. The Half Moon Slash was a wide slash of about 12 meters long! With its superimposed layer, it extended to 14 meters long!

When the eight lightnings clashed with the long Half Moon Slash, an attack which was equivalent to 8 compressed Energy Slashes​, a grand explosion was heard which reverberated to the entire forest!

*KABOOOM*

"A success! I never thought I would successfully execute it during a Heavenly Tribulation.​'' Dylan smiled with a hint of pride. He was impressed by how strong the Half Moon Slash was! It could withstand the power of heavenly lightnings!

"Damn!" Dylan noticed 2 fluctuations of energy which descended in a very swift speed. It seemed like the Half Moon Slash was only capable of cancelling out 6 lightnings. Despite being caught by surprise, Dylan was still able to raise his shield to guard.

But the combined strength of the two was still comparable to an Intermediate 11th level Awakened Spirit ! Dylan was burning half of its energy away but he was still being pushed down to the ground. His feet was thoroughly planted on the ground and burried about half a foot deep.

It was fortunate that he was able to react quickly or else he might have been seriously injured.

"I really could not afford to be complacent in even for a second in moments like this." Dylan engraved this lesson to his mind.

The vortex above was still swirling and harnessing strength. After 10 seconds, it immediately materialized the fifth wave which was comprised of 16 lightning dragons that emitted the strength of Pinnacle 13th level Awakened Spirit Realm each! It has not only increased by one whole level, it increased the strength by 6 stages!!

'Don't tell me the next one would reach an increase of 7 stages and the one after that 8!' Dylan was gritting his teeth in this development. If this trend continues, the next wave would have 32 lightning which are comparable to the High 15th level of Awakened Spirit and the next wave at that would be comparable to an Origin Realm attack!

By the rate by which each wave increases, Dylan felt that he would only last till the next two waves. If there was another wave after those two, he would be obliterated! He was really praying that this would end in this wave or the next wave or the one after that or else he would be completely destroyed without a corpse.

"Raaaaa!" He roared ferociously as he unleashed his next move. Right now, he could not do anything but fight for his life. He could not turn back time and even if he could, he would still have done the same thing in order to obtain strength he needed to achieve his goals!

" Tyrant's Thundercloud Wave!" Dylan shouted imposingly. He raised both his hands which was currently conjuring greyish clouds that released electric sparks! It was not only his hands, his feet also conjured the similar cloud.

The clouds were quickly being produced that it filled Dylan's surrounding in just ten seconds! The strange thing was this clouds seemed to be bouncing when it hits a surface just like balloons. The clouds was being lifted by an unknown force and ascended spirallingly and created a giant mass of thunderclouds.

This was another skill of Dylan's Tyrannical Thunderbolt Clouds. The Thundercloud Wave is a type of skill which can be used both for attack and defense. This skill requires large amounts of energy in order to do because it requires the user to conjure a large amount of solid thunderclouds. An expenditure which was comparable to using 6 Crescent Moon Slash. If trapped within, one will be trapped in an neverending strikes of lightning!

The reason it can be both used for attack and defense because it the thunderclouds are solid enough that they could be akin to rocks! Due to it being created in large amounts, this creates hundreds of layers within that whittling down the power of the attack that comes through!

This attack can be also used for entrapment and concealment since the clouds are solid enough to prevent seeing with the naked eye or hearing with the bare ears. However, this could only be achieved during Grand Perfection because the clouds conjured are as many as thousands and the clouds could even be comparable to steel!

But, even during Novice Mastery, it can still create tens of layers and be as solid as a rock.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *BOOM!!*

The 16 lightning dragons also came down at this moment and crossed paths with the giant thunderclouds​. A series of explosions followed after as the 16 lightning dragons drilled down to the tens of layers that Dylan created! Alas, it was still unable to drill through it entirely with its strength of Pinnacle 13th level Awakened Spirit Realm.

"I managed to stop it but I'm starting to notice that the time the waves respawn is irregular and each interval is becoming shorter and shorter after each wave." Dylan let out a sigh of relief seeing that he was successful in guarding the attack. But, he had noticed a very alarming matter that the intervals between each wave is getting shorter every after a wave is released.

*Crackle* *Thunder roars* *Crackle*

Just as Dylan was starting to recuperate, the inevitable lightning dragons started to materialize with more haste compared to its previous waves.

"Damn it, it has only been ten breaths and it's already materializing !" Dylan looked frustrated when he saw the materialization of the dragons nearing completion. In just two more breaths, the 32 lightning dragons were complete and gave off the pressure of a High 15th level Awakened Spirit Realm. It quickly descended right after materialization!

"Sailfish Monarch: Shrouding Thunder!" Dylan opened his arms wide and he swiftly conjured​ a sailfish that was shrouded with lightning. The sailfish swam in mid-air and headed forwards to the lightning vortex. After gaining some speed, a lightning sea appeared behind the sialfish and when it reached a certain height, the sail fish stopped and the lightning sea shrouded half of the Great Pine Forest, creating a large dome made of lightning above Dylan!

Unlike the Thundercloud Wave, the Shrouding Thunder was a skill tailor made for defense! At Grand Perfection, it could protect the entire sky of the giant Thundercloud City from an attack of an Immortal Saint, much less a Great Pine Forest which was only a hundred kilometers big.

*Kaboom!*

When the lightning dragons crashed against the humungous lightning dome, another defeaning explosion occurred!

*Tzzzzk* *Tzzzzk*

Despite the sturdiness of the Shrouding Thunder skill, it was still unable to completely block the 32 lightning dragons and let 8 lightnings dragons pass through it. The 8 lightning dragons came descending like True Dragons aiming to destroy the earth!

Dylan knew that he would not be able to completely the 32 lightning dragons because the skills Heaven Rank Techniques can only give him a maximum boost of strength of 6 levels given his current mastery of Novice. Thus, some of the lightning dragons could still pierce through the Shrouding Thunder skill since it was 3 stages stronger. However, it did not break complete​ly since it was a defensive skill that could still block a peak of Awakened Spirit Realm expert as is.

*Zzzzhhhhh*

" Burning Dusk!" A 3 meter radius diagram appeared above Dylan as he shouted the name of the skill and disintegrated the 8 flames that came down in just a matter of seconds!

The was an ability of the Shield of Dusk which creates diagram that has two peaks with a sunset in the middle with inscribed ancient characters. It is a skill that Dylan discovered within the shield while he and his employees were travelling. This skill could block any attacks that are at the Origin Realm despite being a High Spirit Rank Treasure. However, it could only be utilized three times and after that the shield would crumble. With his life on the line, Dylan could use one of three.

"It seems like there's one more wave." Dylan had a solemn expression on his face as he looked the terrifying strength contained within the swirling vortex.