Chapter 289
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Zhang Xiaohua was not unfamiliar with heavenly lightning. Back when the first thread of true qi appeared in his meridians, and again when he had tried to save the herbs of Huanxi Villa, he had already attempted to draw lightning. The feeling of being struck by heavenly lightning was still fresh in his memory—it was not something he was eager to go through again. Yet now, the lightning before his eyes served as a reminder.
“I should’ve drawn heavenly lightning twice before. The first time was unintentional—I was just about to fall unconscious and didn’t get to taste the feeling of it. But when I woke up the next day, there was true qi in my body, and the Big Dipper Divine Fist seemed to have advanced a layer. The second time, I drew it on purpose. I summoned it too early, and the lightning struck my body. I passed out on the spot. Thankfully, it was midnight at the time. That taste… it was etched deep into my bones, truly unbearable. But the pain brought great rewards. The herbs were revived, my true qi had grown quite a bit, the Big Dipper Divine Fist advanced another level, and black impurities were expelled from my body—very much like the marrow cleansing described in the Heart Sutra. Every time I was struck by lightning, I gained something from it, and my body didn’t show any abnormalities. If I could get struck more often, wouldn’t I benefit even more?”
At that thought, Zhang Xiaohua was startled by his own wild idea.
He Tianshu had once warned him not to practice internal arts during thunderstorms, as it was easy to fall into deviation. But here he was, actively seeking out thunderstorms to draw lightning.
However, the martial path and the immortal path were different. Maybe those on the immortal path didn’t fear being struck by lightning?
Zhang Xiaohua couldn’t help but feel a bit of wishful thinking.
In truth, Zhang Xiaohua was gravely mistaken. In the immortal path, there were indeed spells involving heavenly lightning—like the Five Thunders True Arts—which could summon lightning from the heavens. But as for using heavenly lightning to temper the body and cultivate? That was something unheard of. Such an act was no different from an old man swallowing poison—simply courting death.
Yet once this thought sprouted in Zhang Xiaohua’s mind, it was like a worm—he couldn’t get rid of it no matter how he tried.
“Should I try drawing lightning again? After all, it was just painful before—though much worse than that White-Haired Old Man’s Soul-Searching Hand. But if I can time it right, and summon lightning just before losing consciousness, wouldn’t I be spared the pain? Besides, the cultivation afterward can be controlled by the twinkling lights. What am I afraid of?”
The more he thought about it, the more Zhang Xiaohua didn’t want to return to the cave to cultivate. He slowly paced at the cave entrance. This cave was deep in the mountains—could lightning even strike here? If not, wouldn’t the heavenly lightning just strike the mountain instead? If it shattered the rocks, wouldn’t he be buried underneath them?
Zhang Xiaohua looked up at the sky, then again at the mountain peak, hesitation rising in his heart. After all, if he didn’t stay inside the cave, he would have to go up to the mountaintop. On a night of heavy rain, to be soaked through from head to toe until dawn—that was no task fit for any normal person.
As he was thinking, the rain started to fall. Raindrops the size of beans came pouring down, pattering loudly as they slammed against the rocks, as though trying to show their might to Zhang Xiaohua.
A burst of thunder cracked through the sky—kacha-kacha! The sound echoed endlessly across the surrounding sea of mountains, far more imposing than anything Zhang Xiaohua had ever heard at Huanxi Villa.
Huddled within the cave, Zhang Xiaohua watched the sheets of rain with a face that shifted between gloom and resolve. Inside, his heart swayed back and forth.
Seeing that the night was already deep, Zhang Xiaohua knew he had to make a decision. Clenching his jaw, he thought to himself, “At worst, it’s just another try. There was already a first and a second—why fear a third? It’s only pain that tears through flesh and bone. I’ll just take it like the White-Haired Old Man interrogating me in the middle of the night again!”
With that thought, he sprang to his feet decisively and dashed out into the storm. In an instant, the downpour had drenched him completely, soaking him through.
By the time he performed his Qinggong and arrived atop the mountain peak, not much time remained. He was about to pull out a small yuan stone when a thought stirred in his heart. Instead, he reached for his coin pouch. With a sweep of his divine sense, he retrieved the massive Lying Ox Stone and sat cross-legged upon it. First, he tried to absorb Yuan Qi from the Crouching Ox Stone, all the while calculating the timing in his mind. When the moment seemed about right, he extended his divine sense outward into the pitch-black night sky, doing his utmost to draw in the sparse Yuan Qi of Heaven and Earth from above.
Just as Zhang Xiaohua had expected, once the surrounding Yuan Qi within his divine sense was depleted, more Qi from the surrounding heavens and earth began to flow toward him. And the thunder rumbling above the clouds gradually grew closer as well.
A soft crack echoed through the air. It was a faint rumble of thunder in the distance, but Zhang Xiaohua’s heart trembled. “It sounds far away… but why does it feel like it’s striking right inside my chest? Could it really be moving in my direction?”
Sure enough, the thunder grew louder and louder, shaking Zhang Xiaohua’s heart even more with each peal. The last few thunderclaps struck directly on the edge of his divine sense. His face turned slightly pale, and even the pounding rain couldn’t wash away the trace of fear in his heart. “Why hasn’t the time come yet? Hurry up and fall asleep! Otherwise, Heaven’s Soul-Searching Hand might be even fiercer than the White-Haired Old Man’s acupoint strikes…”
With a thunderous ‘boom’, the roar of thunder and a bolt of lightning struck directly above Zhang Xiaohua’s head. A blinding surge of energy split the heavens, and in an instant, countless threads of the Yuan Qi of Heaven and Earth formed around that energy. As soon as they manifested, Zhang Xiaohua’s divine sense drew them in through every pore of his body. The immense energy was also absorbed into his body, and immediately, a searing, heart-wrenching pain coursed through his mind—so intense it was beyond endurance. At that moment, Zhang Xiaohua’s vision turned black—whether he had blissfully fainted or serenely slipped into a dream, no one could say.
Just as with the previous times, the twinkling radiance within Zhang Xiaohua’s dream instantly surged from his head through his entire body. His whole form pulsed with a mysterious frequency, as though resonating with the stars. In a flash, the boundless night sky above responded—innumerable stars casting down endless starlight, transcending space and time to envelop Zhang Xiaohua completely. The starlight that entered his meridians behaved the same as before—repairing the channels that had been torn apart by the overwhelming energy. At the same time, it separated the lightning’s energy and vitality: most of the energy was absorbed by his bones, now lustrous and jade-like, while most of the vitality was drawn into an unknown place deep within his mind. Only the remainder of the energy and vitality was refined by his meridians.
With the first bolt of lightning drawn, the following thunder seemed to find its outlet. All of it surged toward this desolate island, one strike after another hammering down upon Zhang Xiaohua’s head. All the energy and vitality was absorbed by him.
Up to this point, everything seemed to follow the same path as before—cultivation and refinement proceeding in due course. But this was the vast ocean, not the inland plains. The thunder here was unlike that of Huanxi Villa—its quantity and intensity on an entirely different level. Countless bolts rained down, and the starlight around Zhang Xiaohua’s body began to falter. At first, it dimmed subtly and unnoticeably, then gradually grew dense, transforming into a milky-white glow almost visible to the naked eye. This milky light became thicker and thicker, until finally, not even the torrential rain could get close to him.
Even so, the unending bolts of lightning far exceeded what the starlight surrounding Zhang Xiaohua could dissolve. With each strike, the starlight trembled violently, as though on the verge of collapse. Just then, the Reclining Ox Rock beneath Zhang Xiaohua suddenly radiated a dazzling brilliance, as if something within had been activated. All the energy and Yuan Qi of Heaven and Earth generated by the lightning were immediately drawn in by that radiance, sucked into the Yuan Stone. At the same time, the Yuan Qi that Zhang Xiaohua was absorbing surged as if stimulated, multiplying in speed several times over as it poured into his body.
The vast Yuan Qi drawn into his body was refined by the meridians suffused with starlight, transforming into Zhang Xiaohua’s own true qi. This true qi traveled through his meridians, pulsing forward with a steady, rhythmic flicker. It was only now that the true qi he had cultivated at the third level of Qi Refinement began to truly stabilize and balance, stepping past the initial phase of tempering and into the middle phase of accumulation.
The sea wind blew like blades, and the rain poured down like buckets. In the pitch-black night, atop the desolate island, a faint radiance flickered steadily. Subtle and unremarkable—without close attention, who could even notice it?
Not far from the island, a massive jellyfish glided through the sea. The towering waves posed no threat to it, yet it seemed to sense a deep-seated tremor from within—a primal fear, an instinctual pressure emanating from the island itself that stirred a desire to flee.
For more than ten days, it had lingered here, lured by the fluctuations of the yuan stone, hoping to once again obtain it. But on this stormy night, that terrifying sensation coursing through it soon extinguished its will to remain. With a sudden crack, another bolt of thunder split the sky. The radiance on the island dimmed slightly. The giant jellyfish hesitated no longer—it dove into the depths and swam far away. Beasts like it, whose lifespans were unfathomable, might lack human intelligence, but at times, their instincts were far sharper than the eyes and experience of any man.
Only when the eastern sky lightened with a faint silvery hue did the rampant storm at last subside. The clouds parted, the rain ceased, and the whole ordeal seemed to end far more quickly than storms of the past.
As the morning sun rose from the sea, Zhang Xiaohua drew a deep breath. A wisp of true fire essence entered him in an instant, and the flame in his eyes flashed and vanished. The flickering ceased just as abruptly, and with a final breath, the starlight that had surrounded him was drawn entirely into his body. Zhang Xiaohua opened his jet-black eyes.
He silently circulated his cultivation technique and examined the condition of his meridians.
“Not bad. The true qi within my meridians has increased significantly from yesterday—it seems I’ve passed the halfway mark. I should be in the middle stage of the third level of Qi Refinement now. Though getting struck by lightning yesterday was hardly pleasant, the gains were tremendous. If I could endure one more night like that, I might reach the peak of the third level.”
As the thought crossed his mind, Zhang Xiaohua’s lips curled slightly into a smile.
In truth, what he did not know was that the unknown place deep in his mind had absorbed the vast majority of the lightning’s vitality—and undergone immense transformation. Furthermore, his jade-like bones, after being tempered, now showed faint signs of translucence. That was energy drawn from nearly the entirety of the heavenly lightning! Compared to that, the increase in true qi within his meridians was but a minor improvement.
Zhang Xiaohua stood up and stored the Reclining Ox Rock into his money pouch. Ah, that’s right—the Reclining Ox Rock had also absorbed a vast amount of Yuan Qi of Heaven and Earth the previous night, a transformation Zhang Xiaohua himself was entirely unaware of.
“Huh? What’s that foul, fishy stench? Aiya, don’t tell me it’s coming from me again?”
Zhang Xiaohua glanced down, and sure enough, there was more of that pitch-black, sticky gunk clinging to his body. He immediately turned to fly toward the small lake, but halfway there, he suddenly realized, “If I bathe in the lake, won’t all this smelly gunk end up in the water? How am I supposed to drink and eat from it later?”
Left with no choice, he turned around and flew toward the seashore instead. But as he neared the sea, another thought struck him—what if that massive sea creature was still lurking beneath the surface?
So it turned out—even bathing wasn’t easy.
In the end, clutching his small sword in one hand and staying on high alert, Zhang Xiaohua hurriedly washed himself at a shallow spot along the shoreline.
Little did he know, the enormous jellyfish had already been frightened away by the radiance released during his cultivation the night before. It had fled long ago—how could it possibly ambush him now?
Once he’d cleaned up, Zhang Xiaohua laid his clothes out on the rocks to dry and, bare-bodied, began practicing the Big Dipper Divine Fist. At first, he thought nothing of it, but to his surprise, he discovered his fist technique had advanced another level. By the sixth round, he could already feel the flow of bone-tempering begin. After completing nine full cycles, a blissful sensation rose from the depths of his very bones—as if in that moment, he could soar into the heavens.
He immediately tried casting his Floating Technique, and sure enough, he flew even higher than he had the day before.
“Could the Big Dipper Divine Fist be related to the Floating Technique?” Zhang Xiaohua was puzzled. As far as he knew, there wasn’t any direct connection between the two techniques.
The sea breeze on the deserted island was quite strong. In just that short amount of time, Zhang Xiaohua’s clothes had already dried. Although there were still parts of the island he hadn’t explored, he was fairly certain he was the only person on this vast, lonely isle. Even if he wore clothes, there wouldn’t be a single female animal to see him, let alone a girl. Still, he felt that it was better to be clothed.
“Hmph, after all, I was enlightened by the Shuowen Jiezi!” Zhang Xiaohua mused to himself with some pride.
After dressing, he didn’t bother returning to that cramped little cave. Instead, he went straight to sit atop the mountain peak to contemplate the Earth Escape Technique. After all, the higher one sat, the farther one could see. If any ships approached, wouldn’t he be able to spot them in time?
That morning, perhaps due to the solid foundation he’d laid over the previous days, or perhaps simply because he was in high spirits, Zhang Xiaohua managed to comprehend the third incantation of the Earth Escape Technique in no time. In the afternoon, his understanding of alchemy fundamentals also showed significant progress. He even felt an urge to take out the cauldron from his pouch and give it a try. However, the alchemical texts clearly stated that alchemy involved many complex incantations. He hadn’t even fully grasped the basic incantations for Earth Escape yet—how could he dare to act rashly? If he ended up damaging the cauldron, he wouldn’t even have a chance to cry about it.
“Besides, I don’t have any herbs at all—what would I even use to practice?”
Just like that, another twenty-some days passed. Not only did Qin Shiyue fail to show up, there wasn’t a single ship that sailed by—not even a speck on the horizon. Zhang Xiaohua couldn’t help but feel a little disheartened.
Still, discouraged as he was, his cultivation progressed in leaps and bounds. In these twenty-some days, there had been four or five thunderstorms. No wonder—on this vast ocean, the Yuan Qi of Heaven and Earth was far more abundant than inland. Of course, the number of thunderbolts that descended each time varied, and so did their tempering effects.
“My Big Dipper Divine Fist has reached the fifth layer now. I can sense the bone-tempering flow after practicing all five rounds. But progress seems to be slowing down. Before, every time I summoned thunder, I advanced a whole layer. Now, it takes four storms just to reach the next stage. It’ll probably get harder from here on out. Fortunately, the Carefree Heart Sutra has also made progress. Although advancing to the fourth layer of Qi Refining requires a significant accumulation of true qi, the amount of Yuan Qi absorbed during each thunderstorm just isn’t enough. No wonder people say the world’s Qi is thinning—if it’s this scarce, it’s no surprise the Immortal Dao is fading away.”
