As Lex lay there in the ground, coming to terms with the situation, the very first lightning strike from his own tribulation was finally ready. As Lex looked up at it from the ground, he could not help but recall nurse Honey.

Back when he was studying at the academy in the Crystal realm, nurse Honey had tended to him and healed him back to perfect health when he got injured. He wondered if she would be free to see to him after this was done - he might need a bandaid or two.

The lightning bolt, in the shape of a Farham, was unleashed from the black clouds, aiming for Lex- the first of nine.

Since he was becoming a level 1 Heaven Immortal, he would only have to endure 9 lightning bolts, each one several times stronger than even the strongest bolt from his tribulation when he was becoming a level 9 Earth Immortal.

After that, he would have his Fire tribulation, and this time, he would even have a Spiritual Tribulation! How exciting! As if that was not enough, Lex had no idea how many lightning bolts he'd have to tolerate from the realm tribulation, or if the realm tribulation included other kinds of tests.

Suffice to say, this was going to hurt... or not.

Just as the lightning beast was about to strike Lex, he brought his hand forward with a casual grace, as if he was in no rush whatsoever, and caught the beast shaped lightning bolt by the neck. Lex used his left eye to study the laws that made up this lightning bolt, comparing it to the bolts he used to be struck by when he was an Earth Immortal.

Lex only had a brief moment to do as much before the lightning fused into his body. The immense momentum of the lightning bolt was lost when Lex caught it, so it was only the lightning itself which harmed Lex- or tried to.

Back when he was entering the Earth Immortal realm, the lightning bolt from his major tribulation hadn't managed to harm him, but at least it hurt a lot. This time, the lightning bolt didn't even do that.

It tried, but it couldn't. Instead, it simply delivered his body with a pure stream of energy. Lex had no idea what this particular type of energy was called, but it was just a more concentrated form of the energy which had turned him from a mortal into an immortal. Now, already an immortal, the energy merely tempered his body, soul and spirit, allowing him to become strong enough to bear the weight of Relational laws.

The problem was, once again, Lex was already strong enough to bear it. The energy just made it the change official, so that Lex wouldn't be relying on his other aspects of himself to tolerate their influence.

His tribulation this time actually seemed easier than when he became an Earth Immortal. To be fair, he wasn't fighting a war during his tribulation, so that helped.

After the energy from the first bolt was used up, Lex turned to look back up at the cloudy sky, and saw the energy gathering for the second strike of the realm tribulation. Now that was going to hurt, and the worst part was, he didn't even get any benefit from it since he wasn't a realm.

"Lotus, wake up. Heaven is trying to cheat us out of a well deserved upgrade," he said, activating his Lotus form. While he wasn't a realm, his lotus was most certainly bonded to one, and had the status of a realm, so it could certainly benefit from this tribulation.

As it so happened, any increase in his strength improved the lotus, and vice versa, so...

The world turned white once more, caused by a lightning bolt so massive that Lex could not fully perceive its size. It struck the ground with a roaring vengeance so devastating that the laws of the realm were incinerated.

The laws that made up a realm were many, and as the laws fought against one another, they formed a complex web so intricate that even Immortals could not entirely comprehend the laws of a realm. When such a thing occurred, there was bound to be bloating. There were bound to be laws that did not, in any way, positively contribute to the functioning of the realm, and were just an outdated representation of various changes that the realm may have undergone.

Over time, these laws would change, or be swallowed up by other laws. During a realm tribulation, however, those laws were directly incinerated, turning back into the unique brand of Chaos energy from which laws were made.

When the lightning strike from the realm tribulation struck Lex, the actual effect of the lightning bolt ignored him completely, merely passing through his body before entering the realm. This time, however, since Lex had attained the status of a realm, he suffered the same consequences.

All the bloating inside of him, all the waste from the countless materials and laws he had fused into his body through his cultivation technique or other means, all of it and more, began to incinerate, turning into Chaos energy.1 The energy then fused into the rest of his body, strengthening him.

The same happened to Lotus, and since Lotus was fused with the Midnight Realm... the redundancies in the Midnight Realm were slowly eliminated. Of course, since the lightning bolt had to travel through Lex to Lotus, and then to the Midnight Realm, the realm itself was barely affected. Most of the benefit, as well as the damage, was borne by Lex and Lotus.

This time, Lex did not look up at the sky, nor did he have any spare energy to think about nurses. All his focus was on containing the Chaos energy, preventing it from going rampant inside his body and soul, and absorbing it so that he could heal in time before the next lightning strike.

Lex's charred body lay limp on the ground, his hair on fire, completely vulnerable. Of course, even in this state he was not concerned about his own tribulation strikes - they weren't strong enough to harm him at all. Or at least the first strike hadn't been.

If Lex was in any condition to observe the sky, he would notice that the lightning bolt was slowly changing, as if it was on the verge of transcending the Farham form, and entering the next one.