Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

A terrible power brewed in the sky over Jack. A large black cloud, extending for tens of thousands of miles, making the cultivators present look like ants. Every storm cloud on Earth was tiny compared to this.

Jack looked up. He knew what he was facing—this wasn’t his first rodeo. Invigorated and recharged by his breakthrough, he felt invincible. He clenched a fist; his inner world supplied endless power, power he was eager to vent. “Come,” he whispered.

“Heavenly tribulation…” Elder Heavenstar muttered in the distance. His eyes widened. “This is bad. Everyone, retreat!”

The spectating cultivators didn’t need to be told twice. They flew away, and even the massive Death Boat was driven away a great distance.

Everyone had heard stories about heavenly tribulation. The Dao of the universe followed its own rules, almost as if it was alive—these rules had shaped the path of cultivation long before the System did. However, rules meant limitations. Sometimes, a cultivator would dare to break those limitations, dare to defy the heavens, which would result in the universe itself blasting them to oblivion.

Heavenly tribulations were no joke. They weren’t opportunities or trials; they were assassinations. Everyone who managed to provoke a tribulation was an extreme genius of their generation, and even then, they almost always perished.

There was even a theory that, if not for tribulations, there would be double the number of Archons in the universe.

Of course, tribulations were beyond rare. Even for Jack, whose path so far converged to perfection, this was only his second. The first had come when he broke through to the D-Grade, a combination of using treasures to greatly accelerate his breakthrough and having absorbed the Life Drop. Back then, however, it hadn’t been a real tribulation, just a minor one activated from afar by Axelor, the Old God of Entropy. Jack had received assistance from the spirit of Enas and managed to overcome it.

This tribulation was something much more serious. He had openly and brazenly defied the rules of cultivation—twice. He had received the gifts of the Heavenly Dao, then challenged its authority. He had enraged it. This was a strike sent to kill him.

Jack knew all those. He could sense the power brewing in the clouds above—it was far, far superior to anything an early B-Grade should be able to defeat. He felt dwarfed. He suspected that even A-Grades could fall to this tribulation, let alone him. The heavens intended to not give him a single path to survival. He might die here, on his most glorious day, just as the doors to his future opened wide.

Why did he feel so excited?

Endless energy coursed through Jack. He was more powerful than ever, so powerful that even he didn’t know his limits. His battle lust awakened. He desperately yearned for a worthy battle, an anvil on which to test his newfound strength which had never appeared before in the history of the cultivation world.

The black clouds rolled for tens of thousands of miles, roaring and covering each other as if fighting to kill him first. Thick bolts of dark lightning jumped from cloud to cloud like black dragons. The condensed power was easily enough to annihilate planets, but then again, so was Jack’s.

“Careful!” Elder Boatman’s voice reached his ears. “This tribulation is far too powerful! You cannot take it!”

Jack smiled. “Watch me.”

He shot upward. The crowd, who had by now retreated a hundred thousand miles away, cried out in surprise. Jack was less than an ant to these black clouds; yet he courageously rushed into them, meeting them head-on.

A bolt of black lightning cracked down to meet him half-way. Jack punched it. This was no Meteor Punch or Supernova—just a regular punch infused with the might of his B-Grade power. Yet, this strike was far more powerful than anything he’d ever used in the past.

His fist met the lightning bolt and shattered it. A shockwave rolled out, disrupting space for a thousand miles, and black sparks filled the area. Jack felt a slight tingle, but he possessed a body far superior to anyone else at his level—mere sparks couldn’t hurt him.

“Haha!” He laughed. “Come at me, heavens. More!”

They roared and obeyed. More lighting bolts flew down. Jack smiled and rushed to meet them, smashing them in an explosion of black and purple. Just a touch of those energies made spacetime shiver; it was a level most people had never witnessed before.

Inside the Death Boat, people watched Jack from either screens or windows, cheering at the top of their lungs. They had no idea what was going on any longer; only that Jack Rust was attempting something impossible. He was the greatest talent they’d ever seen—how could they not cheer for him?

As for the cultivators spectating from a hundred thousand miles away, they couldn’t stop gaping in awe. They had a much better grasp of the situation than the low-level cultivators in the Death Boat. The powers at play were terrifying; let alone C-Grades, even most B-Grades had to admit that a single one of those lightning bolts would reduce them to ash. Jack’s power had already surpassed their understanding—and this was just the opening salvo.

Brock looked on proudly, but also worried. Elder Boatman’s hood was dark, not revealing his face. Elder Heavenstar was looking around. “We have to do something!” he said. “We can’t let him perish like this!”

“He will not,” Boatman replied. Alongside him, Brock nodded. They were on the same wavelength.

Jack kept rising. His inner world felt like a burning furnace, containing endlessly condensed power. Be it in quantity or quality, he far outstripped most B-Grades present. His Dao galloped outward, a fist aimed at the skies, demanding true freedom. Lightning bolts rained down. The sounds of Jack’s impacts were like drums, beating to the tune of liberation, of breaking the shackles.

The image of him rising against the heavens etched itself into the hearts of everyone watching. He inspired them. They saw paths invisible before, possibilities they hadn’t even considered. If Jack could defy the heavens, then what could they do? How could they challenge their fate?

“Jack Rust!” someone shouted, soon joined by the rest of the crowd. “Jack Rust! Jack Rust!”

Their voices reached Jack’s ears as he clashed against the tribulation. He grinned. This was it—this was the feeling.

So far, the part of the tribulation he’d extinguished was minimal. The clouds finally decided to up the ante. A bolt thicker than before crashed down, reaching him in the blink of an eye. Jack punched out, shattering it, but his fist went numb. His speed dropped a bit.

Another similar bolt fell, then a third. Before Jack knew it, the clouds were raining thick black thunder, submerging the world in low thunderclaps. Flashes occurred with every lightning bolt, coloring the scene black and white. Jack was shooting out punches, but he was beginning to be pushed down by the sheer volume of attacks.

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He refused to be outdone.

“Meteor Punch!” he roared. As his next fist smashed out, a large purple meteor shot upward. It carried highly condensed power—it broke through several lightning bolts, vanquishing them before it ran out of energy. Jack roared and kept shooting. The sky rained lightning bolts on his head, but he rained meteors back, meeting it in the middle. The world was shaking from their clash.

The tribulation pushed harder. The lightning bolts turned even thicker, even more powerful, their tips now shaped as roaring black dragons.

Jack narrowed his eyes. A large colosseum appeared with him as the center. It did not contain an audience this time—instead, it was the spectating cultivators who found themselves in the stands, supporting Jack with their cheers. His power shot up again. His Brutalizing Aura spread out, incomparable to what it used to be, and tried to strangle the clouds above.

Jack wasn’t just defending against the tribulation. He wanted to rip it apart, and that only made the universe angrier.

His storm of meteors gained ground. Even against the dragon-shaped lightning bolts, he was winning, and his energy seemed endless, his body indefatigable.

Slowly but surely, like a boulder rolling down the hill, the tribulation increased its output. Ten times as many thunderbolts descended. They swarmed Jack’s meteors, reversing his advantage and pushing him back. Jack had to fly lower, creating more space between him and the clouds.

He gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to use more power, but he could sense that the clouds still weren't going all-out; if he didn’t power-up, he would just die. The remaining parts of the asteroid below him had long turned to dust.

“Life Drop!” he shouted. The Drop itself had run out of power during his breakthrough, but some still remained in his inner world, floating aimlessly around. Now, he channeled that energy into his body, pushing it past its limits. He grew a foot taller—two new arms appeared under his armpits, and his punching speed doubled while his power increased as well.

The higher realms he reached, the more energy he needed to enhance his body. Right now, he couldn’t maintain this form for long. He had to make it count.

Yet, it seemed pointless. Even as he increased his power, so did the clouds. Every collision was powerful, so many of them that they overlapped. Shockwaves filled the world. The spectators had to retreat yet again, afraid of getting caught in the blast.

“Sage!” Sovereign Heavenly Spoon exclaimed. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Tribulations can only be faced by the individual,” the Sage replied, shaking his head. “If you try to help, the universe will just summon more power to match you. It is useless. All we can do is believe.”

The sovereign thought about it and nodded. “Then, I will believe. It won’t be the first miracle he creates.”

As for Starhair, his face suddenly seemed a bit better. “Too bad,” he told Min Ling. “He had a good ride, but here’s where it ends.”

She was too worried to care. “If you don’t shut up, I’ll drive my spear up your ass.”

Dorman laughed. Starhair threw her a disapproving glance, then fell quiet.

Jack was at a disadvantage. He was almost going all-out by now, but the tribulation matched him, and he hadn’t even gone through a tenth of it. He suspected it could power up much more—could he?

Everything he did from now on would quickly deplete his energy…but what choice did he have?

Before he could think further, the tribulation’s power rose again. Rather than dragon-shaped lightning bolts, actual black dragons emerged from the clouds, made of electricity. They were completely lifelike, all the way to their long whiskers. Their eyes shone with intelligence. They rushed at Jack, roaring at him, and he discovered that even his Meteor Punches couldn’t deal with these dragons. Each could be considered a B-Grade creature, and there were dozens of them, even hundreds.

How was this a tribulation aimed at an early B-Grade!?

More than ever, Jack realized this wasn’t a test, but a genuine attempt against his life. This tribulation was designed to be unbeatable. He wanted to beat it even more.

A dozen dragons flew around him, their paths unpredictable, and opened their jaws to bite down. Jack’s eyes flared. Electricity emerged from his body as well, a purple one, as his speed and power redoubled. This was the Thunder Body, which he’d studied intensely on the trip to this galaxy. He still couldn’t maintain it for long, but he was running out of options.

His body disappeared from between a dragon’s jaws. He flickered everywhere, teleporting all around as his punches tore their bodies apart. He massacred the dragons. Dozens of them cried out in death, dispersing into black sparks which couldn’t harm him. Dozens more arrived from above—Jack faced them, killing as many as the tribulation threw at him. Within seconds, the void itself was melting, and the space around him was electrified for ten thousand miles.

The spectators were speechless. This wasn’t power an early B-Grade should have, no matter how talented. It even approached the A-Grade!

Elder Heavenstar looked on silently, his eyes flashing with doubt. Jack was fighting at such a high level, yet the tribulation was nowhere near done. Heavenstar had to wonder about something so ridiculous he never could have imagined it. If he was in place of Jack…could even he survive this tribulation?

Did I really just compare myself to an early B-Grade? he wondered in disbelief. Yet, reality often surpassed expectations. Heavenstar was one of the weakest A-Grades—he had to admit that, if Jack became just a little bit stronger, he would have the qualifications to face him. How impossible was that!?

Elder Boatman remained silent, his expression inscrutable. As for Brock, his eyes were narrowed, his body tense. The two seemed inexplicably similar as they stood side by side.

Jack smashed his fist into a dragon’s face, disintegrating its entire body. He then teleported above another, ripping it apart with his bare hands, and turned to shoot a Meteor Punch behind him, obliterating a third dragon. The Life Drop transformation and Thunder Body were similar techniques—using both at once multiplied their effects. Jack’s current physicality had reached extreme degrees. He surpassed planets in durability without even using his Dao.

Yet, the tribulation was just too large. Even with power almost an entire Grade above his level, he still struggled. He would run out of steam before it did. There wasn’t even a contest—it was just unfair.

Despair overtook Jack’s heart even as he slew the dragons. He was half-spent already, but the tribulation was mostly intact. This wasn’t a trial he could hope to face. It wasn’t something he had any hope against. It was just plain bullying.

“Damn you, heavens!” he roared, smashing out a fist so powerfully it tore through three dragons before dissipating. Five more flew at him, their jaws unhinged. Jack’s eyes widened in anger. He shot out punches and destroyed them, but one managed to bite his leg. He lost all feeling. Even his extremely sturdy body went numb for a moment, and his leg was spasming. He regained control almost instantly, but he couldn’t afford to be hit again.

This is bad, he thought. If he was already accumulating injuries, wasn’t he on the road to death?

Thinking to that point, Jack changed tactics. This tribulation wasn’t something he could hope to face directly—he may have overpowered the Heavenly Dao during his tribulation, but this was the equivalent of the Heavenly Dao bringing its three older cousins to beat him up.

Jack flew back, using his understandings to protect himself. He warped spacetime around the dragons, making them collide against each other. They exploded in fireworks.

The tribulation released a pulse of spacetime, directly changing the laws of the world, which completely invalidated his understandings. His Daos of Space and Time became useless.

Jack’s eyes flashed with anger but he persisted. These dragons weren’t just energy bodies, they were alive; he turned to his Dao of Death, spreading thin strings of Death around him to directly sever the life inside the dragons. He succeeded—dozens of them turned into mindless clouds of energy, quickly losing their stability and imploding.

The tribulation released another burst of Dao; it directly nullified his Dao of Death, severing the strings. The laws of the world changed again, making his Dao useless. Jack roared. Going out on a limb, he used the Dao of Life to overfill the dragons with life, making them lose themselves and their sense of purpose. Before he could even carry out his attack, the tribulation released a third pulse, completely altering the laws of Life around the dragons and making his Dao of Life useless.

“Won’t you even let me fight!?” Jack roared. His understandings of the Dao were nothing compared to the heavenly Dao itself. If it purposely warped the rules to sabotage him, there was nothing he could do! Was he just supposed to stand there and die?

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