novelraw Chapter 220
Chapter 220
Even from a great distance, he could hear the sound of explosions echoing through the abyss.
A short while later.
Qi Sheng, a Core Formation third-layer cultivator, landed steadily at the bottom of the Thunderfall Deep Abyss. The absolute darkness around him made his vision falter for a moment.
He casually summoned several fireballs, evenly distributed within a radius of more than ten meters around him, providing a bright view. The place was not only deep but also vast; the bottom of the pit stretched nearly a hundred li in diameter.
To call it an underground world would not be an exaggeration.
He could not be certain which direction Wang Yu had fled to, but judging from the position where he jumped down, the nearest cave wall should not be far.
“Fragrant Silk Bat.”
“Chi chi chi—”
As expected, this spirit beast confirmed the location without the slightest disturbance, completely ignoring the nine illusionary bodies that Wang Yu had released, and flew straight toward his true body.
Seeing this, Qi Sheng immediately followed, but at the same time, he took out several talismans with black backgrounds and golden patterns and carefully stuck them onto his body. These were Lightning-Avoidance Talismans.When suddenly struck by thunder power, these talismans would swiftly generate a layer of protection to prevent him from being paralyzed and trapped under continuous lightning strikes. Experience had taught him this.
Although there had been no sign of thunderstorms when he entered, no one could tell if sudden rain might fall—summer’s sunshowers came and went unpredictably.
If a special mechanism of this place were triggered, he could respond immediately.
Not long after.
Before even the time it took for one stick of incense to burn, Qi Sheng noticed a disturbance ahead. The Fragrant Silk Bat circled in the same spot, repeatedly sending warnings.
“Concealment formation? Hmph, naive!”
Qi Sheng instinctively flicked his sleeve. Spiritual power surged forth with a gusting wind; light-blue wind blades intertwined into a dense web that instantly shattered the concealment formation.
He sensed something was wrong and tried to retreat.
A large number of prearranged talismans suddenly detonated. Among them were many second-rank talismans, and he even noticed talismans commonly used by disciples of the Yellow Spring Monastery.
“Ninefold Yellow Blade Talisman, Ice Spear Curse Talisman, Sandstorm Talisman, Smoke Corrosion Poison Talisman...”
There was no need to think—it was undoubtedly Wang Yu’s setup.
Merely maintaining his protective True Qi barrier, Qi Sheng could block most of the talisman explosions. When the barrier reached its limit, the remaining force could easily be deflected by a wave of his hand.
“Wang Yu—!”
At this point, Qi Sheng was visibly angered. The wind surged under his feet, enveloping both his body and the Fragrant Silk Bat. He began accelerating rapidly.
…
…
Far away, in an unknown cave.
Wang Yu suddenly heard the sound of explosions. After calculating the timing silently, he grasped the enemy’s progress and his heart sank slightly.
“So fast... which means that from the moment he reached the bottom of the pit, this fellow did not hesitate and went straight in the correct direction.”
Muttering to himself, Wang Yu quickened his pace, even activating his perfected escape technique Frost Moon Wings for additional speed.
There was no doubt—his opponent’s relentless pursuit struck him hard.
At this moment, his Divine Sense radiated outward, using the Searching Mountain Hunting Demon Technique to imprint the cave’s terrain into his mind.
By continuously calculating the intersection of passages, he slipped into a small hollow that served as a kind of transit node, then decisively detonated it behind him.
He then activated the Purple Dragon Earth-Escape Art at its small mastery stage, tunneling forward to disrupt the enemy’s tracking and cause temporary confusion.
However—
The plan was good, but the execution went wrong.
The Thunderfall Abyss was an extremely unique environment. Over the years, endless thunderstorms and frequent rains had lashed this place, while countless natural lightning bolts struck it continuously.
Massive quantities of thunder energy had seeped into the rocks and soil.
As Wang Yu burrowed underground using the Purple Dragon Earth-Escape Art, it was like entering a sea of thunder. Each step was met with electric shocks, almost interrupting his spell’s circulation.
Fortunately, his body was strong enough to ignore low-level lightning damage. Moreover, his arms were engraved with Wind and Thunder Spirit Mark Patterns, giving him a high degree of resistance to thunder qi.
Barely managing to tunnel about a kilometer, he finally could not endure it any longer and emerged from the ground.
“Damn it!”
He cursed under his breath, rubbing his tingling body, but then suddenly froze.
“Huh—?”
He noticed that the Dragon Blood Secret Medicine accumulated within his body had begun to be absorbed at a faster rate. The condensation of essence blood along his spine had doubled in speed.
“That’s it. Since ancient times, there have been methods of tempering the body with thunder. Directly confronting heavenly lightning is reckless, while gathering natural thunder qi is too slow.
“The thunder energy within this pit is just right—strong enough to temper the flesh, yet not to the point of damaging the foundation or risking life.”
Thinking of the pursuers behind him, Wang Yu felt a pang of regret.
It was a rare opportunity, and missing it made his heart itch as if scratched by a cat.
“Snowjade.”
He halted mid-stride and released the Three-Tailed Snow Fox. When it looked at him in confusion, Wang Yu removed his hairpin, placed the Lunar Yin Corpse-Nurturing Coffin and Fiend Corpse tied to it into the fox’s mouth, then draped his robe over its back.
He instructed softly, “Just keep running forward with all your strength. When you feel exhausted, take the supreme-grade pill in the robe’s pocket. If you’re caught, release the fiend corpse to stall the pursuers.”
The snow fox blinked blankly, but Wang Yu’s tone left no room for refusal.
The spirit beast possessed intelligence, not to mention that foxes were among the most cunning and clever of all demon beasts. It felt as though its master had deceived it, yet it could not pinpoint where the problem lay.
Awaiting Snowjade was a long race that could not be ended in the short term.
“Wait a moment,” Wang Yu said.
He reached into his inner robe and took out an aged storage pouch. It was the standard-issue storage pouch of an outer disciple of the Blood Reversal Sect, carrying a deep imprint of his aura.
Inside were items of sentimental value, among them a dried arm carrying the densest trace of Wang Yu’s dissipated aura.
It was the divine corpse arm he had previously discarded. Letting Snowjade wrap it with her tail, he instructed once more.
“If you encounter a thunderstorm, hide inside the Corpse-Nurturing Coffin. Nothing will harm you there. Now go… with all your strength.”
The three-tailed snow fox looked back every few steps.
At the corner, it finally stepped upon icy mist and began galloping close to the ground. It did not know where to go or what to do. It only knew—it must run forward.
Wang Yu then burrowed into the rocky soil. Feeling the thunder energy constantly seeping into his body, he went two thousand meters deep before he could no longer endure it. Activating the Wind-Thunder Spirit Pattern, he began to absorb the lightning force actively.
The thunder marks on both his arms grew ever brighter, gradually spreading to cover his entire forearms. Three thousand meters deeper, the Wind-Thunder Spirit Pattern reached its limit, forcing Wang Yu to take out the Starfall Cold Furnace.
He crawled inside. The Ice Chi Flame surged from within him, transforming into chains of fire that sealed the furnace completely. It was the Sealing Pill Method of the Cold Chi Alchemy Technique.
The higher the rank of the pill, the longer the refining time required.
Especially during the Essence Condensing Stage of alchemy, even the most intense fire-refining methods could not complete the process swiftly. At such times, the Sealing Pill Method was used to close the furnace and allow the pill essence to mature slowly.
Even if the alchemist left midway, there would be no major issue.
A high-grade Sealing Pill Method could prevent even the faintest leak of pill aura. Applied in this situation, it was equally an excellent Concealment Technique.
As a third-rank fragmented pill technique, the Cold Chi Alchemy Technique had already been restored to second-rank perfection and was placed in his idle slot for gradual recovery.
Its Sealing Pill Method barely reached third-rank, yet when combined with the Invisibility Technique and the Breath Conceal Spell, plus the swift movements of the three-tailed snow fox, Wang Yu was confident he could evade pursuit.
When the Ice Chi Flame dimmed and silence returned, Wang Yu began to digest the lightning energy entering his body. Droplets of refined blood condensed at an unimaginable pace.
His body cultivation rose rapidly, seemingly without limit.
Qi Sheng was still pursuing Wang Yu’s trail.
Whenever he encountered a blocked tunnel, a single Wind Palm was enough to clear away all obstacles.
At a junction where nothing was left, he sensed the end of Wang Yu’s aura. Patting the Fragrant Silk Bat, he crossed a thousand meters in an instant.
As long as there was air flow within the passage, the Fragrant Silk Bat could detect scent over great distances. A mere thousand meters was trivial.
Upon reaching the spot, the Fragrant Silk Bat suddenly became restless.
“Chirp, chirp—”
Qi Sheng communicated with it through divine sense for a while, then nodded repeatedly. “I see. After arriving here, Wang Yu’s aura became stronger.
“The aura of the Corpse Slave and the fox are here too? Good, we are close. Continue the chase.”
After Qi Sheng left, Wang Yu underground sensed the tremors above gradually fade. He quietly let out a breath of relief. If the enemy could track him, he could also sense the enemy’s presence.
Detecting only one pursuer, his thought of escaping subsided. He could not be sure where the others were. If they were waiting near the Thunderfall Pit, he would be trapped.
Moreover, the three-tailed snow fox, the Yin Corpse, the Corpse-Nurturing Coffin—all were things he could not abandon. Leaving now would bring both risk and loss.
Better to remain underground and refine his body with thunder energy until reaching the limit.
And so—
Within the furnace, Wang Yu continued to absorb the latent thunder energy from the earth. The secret medicine infused with dragon blood in his body accelerated its digestion, continuously producing refined blood along his spine.
When all the medicine in his system was consumed, he took out more secret elixirs from the Sea-Heart Ring and swallowed them. Such a chance to temper the body with thunder energy was rare even in a thousand years.
His refined blood quickly reached a bottleneck, surging toward the limit of nine hundred and ninety-nine drops.
What Wang Yu did not realize was—
As he absorbed the lightning energy, the Wind-Thunder Spirit Pattern drew even more lightning toward him. Around the Starfall Cold Furnace, a dense layer of lightning condensed.
It crackled and flashed, yet only the portion Wang Yu permitted through his divine sense could enter the furnace.
He had become like a sphere of living lightning, endlessly accumulating, and accumulating still.
When it reached a certain threshold, the entire Thunderfall Abyss was triggered. The thunderstorm mechanism activated.
All the cavern walls flared with lightning as thick as an arm.
The bolts intertwined into a vast electric net, converging toward the pit’s center. As they passed through tunnels and gathered at each node, they merged into an even greater storm.
When they finally reached the massive cavity at the bottom, hundreds of miles wide—it became a Sea of Thunder Storms. Foundation Establishment cultivators could not survive there.
Even Core Formation cultivators would find survival uncertain unless they possessed specific countermeasures.
Once the storm formed, the thunder energy within the pit grew increasingly violent.
For Wang Yu, this meant that his body refinement efficiency soared to an astonishing level.
At the instant when his refined blood reached nine hundred and ninety-nine drops, they merged into one, then dispersed again, repeating this cycle three times.
Finally, they condensed into a single drop of True Mixed Blood.
The Nether Demonic Flood Dragon Technique operated at full power.
“Scatter.”
With a soft shout, a Nether Demonic Flood Dragon of pure blood essence appeared, its body swelling rapidly to more than thirty meters in length. Wang Yu’s physical strength skyrocketed.
Body Refining, Second Rank Late Stage—achieved.