novelraw Chapter 222 : The Senior Brother's Conscience Is Condemned
Chapter 222 : The Senior Brother's Conscience Is Condemned
The thunder bird was completely dumbfounded by what it saw. It had thought its lightning would surely strike this cultivator dead, but she emerged completely unscathed... How was this possible?
How, how could this be??
"A Divine Transformation mid-stage peak beast, you look quite deceptive. So this is all the power you have? It seems I really overestimated you earlier. The power of your heavenly lightning doesn't even match 30% of my Nascent Soul stage... no, Golden Core stage tribulation lightning. If you have the ability, come at me more fiercely. Don't let me look down on you!"
Chu Sang gave a middle finger.
This utterly provoked the Divine Transformation stage spirit bird, its eyes turning even redder. It cursed and swore, surprisingly speaking in human language, "Arrogant and presumptuous human cultivator, you really think I don't dare to strike you dead? If you have the guts, just stand there and don't move! I'll make sure you never return!"
"Fine, I'll stand right here without moving. Let's see what you can do to me," she said quite arrogantly.
Behind the thunder bird were countless subordinates. They joined forces to condense a vast and powerful, terrifying lightning cloud. Bolts of heavenly lightning, each more overwhelming than the last, fell from the sky, striking her fiercely.
Chu Sang didn't dodge, but faced them head-on. She wasn't a masochist, of course, and wasn't pointlessly seeking punishment. Her calculations were very clear—
The power of the heavenly lightning gathered by these thunder birds was strong, but still far from comparable to her Nascent Soul stage tribulation lightning.
If she were to face her Nascent Soul stage tribulation again, even with Chu Sang's current cultivation, she couldn't be 100% certain she would survive. But these thunder birds' heavenly lightning was a different matter.
Having survived the Nascent Soul stage tribulation, she had no fear of these thunder birds' heavenly lightning. On the contrary, this tribulation lightning falling on her body could temper her physical strength, making her flesh even stronger and tougher, advancing her body cultivation to another level!
Tribulation lightning is something every cultivator at Golden Core stage and above must experience. For cultivators, it is both a challenge and a reward and opportunity. As long as one survives the heavenly lightning, their cultivation will advance, and their physical strength will be tempered to become even more powerful and formidable by the heavenly lightning.
However, the power of heavenly lightning is truly terrifying, and the failure rate of each tempering far exceeds the success rate. For the vast majority of cultivators, it is definitely more harmful than beneficial.
Moreover, heavenly lightning only appears when breaking through major realm boundaries after the Golden Core stage, making it something that can be encountered but not sought after.
But Lightning Transmutation Hill was different. Here, heavenly lightning was present at all times, and this heavenly lightning was within her ability to withstand, not enough to strike her dead instantly. It could perfectly serve as an aid in tempering her body.
What doesn't kill her will only make her stronger.
"Boom—"
Thousands upon thousands of thunder birds gathered in the sky above, forming a vast expanse of dark lightning clouds that almost blotted out the sun and sky. The lightning power from all those thunder birds striking simultaneously with all their might was like a sharp blade instantly piercing through the darkness. Chu Sang's entire body was instantly penetrated by the lightning power, her magic robes tattered and torn. Even though she had taken several pills in advance, her body was still torn open with huge wounds by the terrifying lightning power, blood seeping through her red robes, dyeing them an even deeper shade.
Countless strands of lightning power intertwined within her ruptured flesh, with sprouting blood buds intertwining with the lightning, rapidly repairing her damaged body, over and over again.
At first, her body's repair speed was relatively slow, and Chu Sang became extremely disheveled. This sorry state delighted those snarling thunder birds even more, and they struck even more fiercely with their heavenly lightning.
But as her body was rebuilt and repaired time and time again, the speed at which blood buds mended her wounds became faster and faster, eventually far surpassing the damage brought by the lightning power.
The repair speed was so fast that from the outside, Chu Sang appeared almost completely unscathed!
The jubilation in those beast's hearts instantly turned into unprecedented panic. What terrified them even more was that the spiritual energy fluctuations from the young woman had become even stronger?!!
She originally had strength at the peak of Nascent Soul mid-stage, but the heavenly lightning had instead helped her break through that bottleneck, advancing her to Nascent Soul late-stage!??
Damn.
The leading Divine Transformation thunder bird was dumbfounded. It had exhausted itself striking for half a day, almost depleting its lightning and life force, yet how had this little girl actually leveled up??!
This was simply unbelievable.
Not normal......
Absolutely not normal!
This person is definitely not normal!!!
It gave up, no longer wanting revenge, completely panicked in its heart, and turned to flee.
"Want to run? It's not that easy." How could she possibly let it go so easily after it had provoked her?
Chu Sang leaped to pursue, her body now even more light as wind after breaking through to Nascent Soul late-stage, her explosive power and speed becoming even stronger and faster. She reached out and grabbed a bird leg, pulling hard downwards. "Keep striking me with a few more high-quality heavenly lightning bolts containing lightning essence, continue helping me temper my body."
"You damned girl, you forced me to this!"
The thunder bird had never encountered such a tenacious and shameless human cultivator before. It cursed angrily, ramming east and west, spinning 361 degrees gracefully in the air, trying to shake Chu Sang off, but to no avail.
Angered, it spread its wings, and countless energy-materialized feather arrows shot directly at her. Chu Sang quickly let go and fell, her Mystic Spirit Sword transforming into a huge feather fan to support her. At the same time, she drew the Primordial Soul-Chaser and charged up to counterattack once more.
Even though this person was merely a Nascent Soul stage human cultivator, she inexplicably terrified this Divine Transformation stage thunder bird, leaving it flustered and panic-stricken. It didn't even know why it felt such deep fear towards this person. Hurriedly, it gathered its power again and shot out tens of thousands of feather arrows, rushing towards her.
This was its killer move, containing all of its beast power as a Divine Transformation mid-stage peak. She couldn't possibly dodge it! She would surely die!!
This beast was indeed a bit smarter, knowing that lightning power was ineffective against Chu Sang and would only make her stronger. It stubbornly refused to use lightning power again, only attacking her with other techniques.
Since that was the case, this thunder bird was of no use to her anymore......
Chu Sang coldly decided to release Hong Niang for a buffet meal.
Just at this moment, she keenly sensed a sudden change in the surrounding pressure. Even the combined pressure from that fierce Divine Transformation stage thunder bird and its thousands of minions hadn't made her feel such great pressure. So...... it was highly likely that the legendary Lightning Beast King had appeared!
Cui Xiu had said that the Lightning System Beast King had left a trace of its divine soul in the domain, and nothing within the domain could escape its divine eye. It seemed this was true.
However, Chu Sang still knew her own capabilities. That Lightning System Beast King had no need to descend here for a few small ants it could easily crush, disrupting its grand plans. So most likely, it was the divine soul left behind by that Lightning Beast King that could no longer stand by and watch, actively intervening to crush her, this ant that had disrupted the rules.
More and more lightning clouds gathered, covering the entire sky with a layer of night color. In an instant, it was as if eternal night had descended. A thicker and thicker bolt of heavenly lightning condensed in the former sky above, no longer golden in color, but dark purple.
Purple heavenly lightning......
The pressure this bolt of lightning gave her was almost comparable to her last life-and-death Nascent Soul stage tribulation lightning......
Chu Sang couldn't help but lament that she had gone a bit too far this time. Last time, she had barely survived that Nascent Soul stage tribulation by using every means at her disposal, destroying countless magic tools and talismans. This time, she hadn't prepared nearly as many lightning-resistant magic tools in advance.
The dark purple heavenly lightning seemed to have installed a tracking device on her. No matter where she fled, it pursued her relentlessly, striking again and again.
As Chu Sang fled for her life, she silently estimated her chances of success in this extreme escape. Ugh, 30% at most......
Wrong.
It's 100%!
Chu Sang's previously worried and gloomy face suddenly lit up with brilliance. The corner of her lips curled arrogantly as she gave the middle finger to that bolt of heavenly lightning above, "Have you ever heard a saying? What doesn't kill me makes me stronger! Just wait until I get out of here alive, and I'll settle accounts with you, you old fart!"
"......Heh, arrogant child! Die!"
The dark purple heavenly lightning finally condensed to its peak, descending with this contemptuous and cold rebuke from above.
Destroying a mere Nascent Soul cultivator with heavenly lightning of such power would be as easy as turning over one's hand.
At this critical moment of life and death, a sharp sword light descended from the sky, cleaving the heavenly lightning in two.
Cleaved... cleaved in two?
The majestic and imposing heavenly lightning was thus split in half by a single sword strike, forcibly terminated.
How... how is this possible?
"Senior Brother is awesome! Senior Brother is mighty!"
As expected of a Divine Transformation stage sword cultivator with a lightning spirit root, the lightning power of this sword strike was truly magnificent!
Gu Chang'an withdrew his sword and hurried over with the others. Only when he saw his Little Junior Sister standing intact before him did he breathe a sigh of relief.
"Wuwu, Little Junior Sister, are you alright? I was so worried about you!" Tantai Ming wanted to rush over but was held back by Mu Chihuai. He tossed her a bottle of high-grade spirit replenishing pills and surveyed the scene, asking, "Just you alone? Have you encountered the Eight Trigrams Sect disciples? They also came to Lightning Transmutation Hill."
"We met earlier, encountered a beast tide, so we split up to run. They should be nearby......" Chu Sang briefly recounted what had happened, and also learned from Gu Chang'an and the others that there was indeed a teleportation array at the bottom of the abyss. She must have accidentally stepped on the teleportation array and been randomly teleported to Lightning Transmutation Hill.
"Leaving such a group of fragile talisman cultivators in such a dangerous place, we were indeed negligent earlier. Let's hurry to find them, otherwise we might have to collect their corpses soon," Wen Renyue said, raising her voice.
What she said made sense, and the others thought so too.
After Gu Chang'an's sword strike had severed the heavenly lightning, the beast king's divine soul seemed to have some reservations about them. Not only did it not continue to call for their deaths, but it suddenly fell silent.
The calmer it was, the more it symbolized ill omen.
They understood the principle of calm before the storm.
They needed to speed up.
The other sects also decided to quickly go search for the fragile talisman cultivators of the Eight Trigrams Sect. They didn't want to return to the cultivation world carrying dozens of coffins, only to be scolded to death and have debts demanded by those protective elders of the Eight Trigrams Sect.
Just as Gu Chang'an was about to follow the team to search for people, he was held back by Chu Sang. "Senior Brother, wait a moment. Let them go find people. You and I have another task."
"What do you want to do?" Gu Chang'an looked at her suspiciously. His Little Junior Sister's mind always came up with some strange ideas. He had to be cautious and couldn't casually agree like he did at first, without even hearing the conditions clearly.
"It's nothing urgent. The Eight Trigrams Sect has been wandering here for several days but hasn't confirmed the exact location of the beast king's palace. Now that the beast king is aware of your existence, your mutated lightning spirit root is a good thing for it to break through its bottleneck. It's probably rushing over to take your life now. We don't have time to continue searching. We must quickly find a breakthrough point, get what we need, and leave."
"So you want......"
Gu Chang'an quickly understood what his Little Junior Sister wanted to do.
The Divine Transformation stage thunder bird was a small beast king of Lightning Transmutation Hill. When Chu Sang first arrived, she nearly fell to her death thanks to it. As payback, Chu Sang had raided its nest, and thus a person and a bird had been entangled in a half-day's ill-fated relationship.
That thunder bird had taken advantage of the chaos to escape earlier, but Chu Sang naturally knew where its lair was. She immediately took a shortcut to raid its nest.
It would be somewhat difficult for her to cause trouble alone, but with Senior Brother, a Divine Transformation stage sword cultivator, raiding a small beast king's nest would be a simple matter.
The whole family, including the eggs, were all captured.
"Brother Thunder Bird, since we can be considered acquaintances now, let's negotiate something. Take us to the beast king's palace, and I'll let you all go," Chu Sang initiated peaceful negotiations.
"Pah! Don't even think about it! Despicable human cultivators, I'll kill you! I'll tear you to pieces!"
Chu Sang wiped her face, stood up, and dusted off her hands. "It seems you really prefer to learn the hard way. Come, bring his wife and eggs here."
"You, what are you going to do?!!!"
Chu Sang smiled wickedly, lowering her voice to that of a villain, "We have an ancient saying in the cultivation world: A wise man submits to circumstances. I don't think you want your family to suffer physical torment, do you? I advise you not to be ungrateful. Cooperate with me."
"......"
Gu Chang'an stood to the side, holding his aching head. Why did this scene look so strange? Why did he have the mistaken impression that they were the villains, doing all sorts of evil deeds??
"Heh, you've got guts, still not talking? Come on, Senior Brother, start the torture!"
Gu Chang'an silently stepped forward and pulled out a large pot.
"Aaaah, you bastards, let go of my eggs! Come at me!"
⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱
Half an hour later.
The group arrived at the beast king's palace.
"Eh? Senior Brother, why doesn't your complexion look good? You're not injured, are you?!" Wen Renyue came over for a look and saw Gu Chang'an looking as if he had lost the will to live. She couldn't help but mutter.
"Senior Brother is fine. Senior Brother's conscience is just being condemned. He's having some doubts about life," Chu Sang said.
⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱
With the experience from their previous looting, they were now familiar with the process. They ransacked the beast king's treasure vault, upgrading their equipment.
As they were leaving, Gu Chang'an seemed to sense something and went to the back of the palace, where there was more than meets the eye.
This place had an array set up on the outside. With Chu Sang and the Eight Trigrams Sect disciples present, they quickly broke through this array.
They discovered a pool of water!
No, it wasn't an ordinary pool, but a lightning pool, constantly churning with fierce and terrifying lightning power.
Chu Sang had reason to suspect that this lightning pool was the essence of the entire Lightning Transmutation Hill, as well as the beast king's cultivation holy land.
This beast king really knew how to enjoy itself.