Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation

The glare from this sudden change in scenery irritated Xiao Chen’s eyes somewhat. He could not help but squint.

A clump of golden electric light floated gently above the center of the lake in front. The radiance that Xiao Chen saw all around originated from this hovering clump, turning his surroundings golden.

This light had to be the Divine Lightning that Ao Jiao mentioned. Xiao Chen could feel that the electric light contained energy akin to that of a boundless sea, vast and infinite.

However, at this moment, it seemed very gentle; the entire place gave off a sense of peace and calm.

Xiao Chen glanced at Ao Jiao beside him and startled despite himself. Ao Jiao’s exquisite and charming body actually turned golden as well.

Her skin, eyes, hair, and clothes were all golden. However, this golden color seemed to have life in it, not giving off the impression of an inanimate object.

“How did you turn like that?”

Ao Jiao giggled and smiled. “In my eyes, you look like this too.”

Xiao Chen raised his hand, and he indeed had become like Ao Jiao, covered in golden light from the inside out, looking very strange.

I wonder if I can recover from this? It is going to be very hard to get used to if I stay like this forever.

Ao Jiao could make out Xiao Chen’s worries. She smiled and said, “Don’t worry. This is its domain. After we entered, we were assimilated. All we have to do is go out. You can try cultivating here, see if there are any unexpected effects.”

Xiao Chen did as she advised. He sat down cross-legged on the surface of the golden lake. Then he closed his eyes and circulated the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation.

In mere moments, he opened his eyes in pleasant surprise and said, “This place is made up of the purest lightning-attributed Spiritual Energy. Cultivating here would be ten times faster than cultivating outside.”

She nodded and said, “With your talent, you should be able to cross the threshold of Martial Sage and advance in less than three years. The more Quintessence you have, the more Heavenly Sage Laws you will obtain.”

Then, Xiao Chen asked about the matter that most concerned him. “What should I do to advance my state of thunder to the will of thunder?”

Ao Jiao shook her head and replied, “I don’t know. Sang Mu comprehended his will of thunder here. However, only he knew the details of how he did it. He never told anyone. Furthermore, everyone’s situation is different. His experience might not be useful to you.

“To you, this is an opportunity to break through to the will. You still need to rely on your own comprehension.”

Her words stunned Xiao Chen at first. Then he understood. He smiled and said, “To comprehend a will, one needs talent, breadth of knowledge, and opportunity. The first two are easy to achieve, but the last is hard to come by.

“Many geniuses get stuck at the stage of ‘opportunity.’ Given that I have such an opportunity, I should learn to be satisfied already.”

Everything depended on fate. Even if one failed, as long as one put in their best effort, there would be no regrets about it.

Ao Jiao smiled and said softly, “You have already comprehended the state of thunder to its peak. Your breadth of knowledge is sufficient. Being able to comprehend the immortal state of thunder back at Thunder Emperor Valley is proof of your talent.

“You already have enough talent and breadth of knowledge. Now, with the opportunity here, comprehending the immortal will of thunder is a matter of time.”

Xiao Chen smiled faintly and said, “Thank you for your auspicious words.”

“Work hard on comprehending the will of thunder. I will also use this opportunity to raise my strength as well.”

Ao Jiao nodded, and her body slowly sank into the lake. Ripples spread out for a while before disappearing completely, leaving behind the purest environment for Xiao Chen.

Seeing this scene, Xiao Chen could not help but shake his head and smile bitterly. This girl…you can just cultivate here. You are not going to get in my way anyway.

He gave the Divine Lightning floating one kilometer above the lake a profound look. Then he entered deep thought.

Logically speaking, given the might of the Divine Lightning and his proximity to it, even if he did nothing, he should have been slagged already, blasted out of existence.

However, even though Xiao Chen could clearly feel the vast energy within the Divine Lightning, it seemed gentle and calm, not containing any of the berserk nature of lightning.

In nature, all states had many aspects. Wind had the gentle zephyr, the cool breeze, the strong gale. Fire had warm flames, slow flames, Yin flames, and blazing flames. Water had floodwater, clear water, and creek water.

Only thunder and lightning did not have much variance to them. Even the weakest lightning could easily kill an ordinary person; it had no sense of gentleness at all. Lightning was mighty and decisive, killing in one strike.

Xiao Chen had never seen such gentle lightning as the one before him. He thought for a while and found it bizarre. Then, he boldly flew to the Divine Lightning.

His figure flashed as he approached it. As he got closer, the sense of vastness intensified as though he approached a boundless sea.

Xiao Chen’s state of lightning became insignificant to the point of negligible before this boundless energy.

Controlling the restlessness in his heart, he arrived before the Divine Lightning. When looking carefully, he discovered that the exterior of the clump of light seemed like a thick eggshell protecting something.

Could it be that the true Divine Lightning is inside? Xiao Chen thought with a frown on his face. If that is so, does that mean that I have to break this clump of light before I can see the Divine Lightning?

Xiao Chen’s state of lightning had reached its peak long ago. He only lacked an opportunity to break through that bottleneck, focusing everything to a point and forming a will.

If the Divine Lightning was his opportunity, the effects would definitely be much weaker if he had to comprehend it through this barrier.

However, the danger consequent to breaking this barrier was unknown. It could destroy Xiao Chen in an instant.

To break or not to break?

Break!

A war waged within Xiao Chen’s mind. After some time, he clenched his teeth and made his decision with a determined expression on his face. He had to break it. As long as it could increase his chances of comprehending the will of thunder, any amount of risk would be worth it.

However, he still needed to be cautious. After retreating a kilometer, he moved the Heavenly Sage Laws in his body, and pure lightning-attributed Quintessence surged to his fingertips like a river.

“Chi! Chi!”

The purple lightning-attributed Quintessence gathered into a beam of light. Then, he fired it at the eggshell-like clump of light in front.

Against Xiao Chen’s expectations, the clump of light was easier to break than he had imagined. His Quintessence instantly tore a finger-sized hole in the clump, and a strand of golden lightning surged out wildly from inside.

Everywhere the Divine Lightning passed, it tore the Kunlun Realm’s incredibly resilient space in half, creating streaks of long black tears.

Having long anticipated this, Xiao Chen quickly retreated the instant he shot out that purple light. The golden lightning that shot out only brushed by his shoulder.

The afterimage that the golden lightning left in the air separated the black tears and space.

Xiao Chen sucked in a breath of cold air. Then he felt a chill run down his back. His heart pounded heavily without end. If he had been slightly slower, the golden lightning would have torn his body in two.

Legend said that the physical body of a Martial Emperor could resist the destructive force of space shattering. Other than that, only some peak creatures and Spirit Beasts could resist a spatial tear.

However, no matter which physical body it was, Xiao Chen’s physical body was still much weaker. These unremarkable spatial tears would easily rip him to pieces.

He glanced at the hole in the clump of light, then quickly transformed his Spiritual Sense into a line and sent it in.

The scene Xiao Chen saw stunned him. Unexpectedly, this clump of light contained a small world of several tens of thousands of kilometers consisting of only a chaotic dark space.

At the deepest depths of this small world, Xiao Chen saw thousands of berserk lightning.

The strands of golden lightning turned into berserk dragons filled with spirituality. As they roared and snaked about, they gave off such apocalyptic energy that could shatter tall mountains.

That golden lightning that came out earlier was just an ordinary spark from the depths of this small world—a spark that had traveled several tens of thousands of kilometers, which decreased its might.

Xiao Chen could not estimate what kind of destructive power the surrounding dragon-shaped lightning would have if it had flown out. The entire Misleading Fog Lake would probably vanish in an instant.

He finally understood why Ao Jiao had said that the lightning that the Thunder Emperor produced at his peak was merely a tenth of this Divine Lightning.

Xiao Chen now even felt that being able to have a tenth of this Divine Lightning’s might was already an exaggeration.

“The surrounding dragon-shaped bolts of lightning are definitely not the true body of this Divine Lightning. They are merely electrical light it casually released. I have to see what exactly that Divine Lightning looks like!”

Xiao Chen carefully controlled his Spiritual Sense and continued sending it forward. In an instant, his Spiritual Sense moved five hundred kilometers.

Being able to move so fast in this small world was a surprise. As his Spiritual Sense shot forward, he even clearly felt the movement of time.

“Ka ca!”

Chaotic lightning struck his Spiritual Sense. In that instant, his Spiritual Sense turned into ashes, and the scene he saw in his mind immediately vanished.

Xiao Chen’s pupils constricted. The hole that he had torn open in the clump of light earlier was already starting to mend slowly; his Spiritual Sense did not have any more chance to enter it.

Without hesitating, he pointed with his finger and created another hole. After that, in the time it took for a spark to fly, he dodged a bolt of golden lightning that came flying out from within.

He repeated this several times. Xiao Chen kept sending his Spiritual Sense in as it got destroyed over and over again. As he did so, he gradually closed the distance to the Divine Lightning in the core of the small world.

Those bolts of golden lightning that shot out were just like the life-harvesting sickle of a death god. Every time one brushed by Xiao Chen, he could not help but break out in a cold sweat, no matter how strong his mind was. If he were the slightest bit careless, he would lose his life here.

Xiao Chen lost count of how many times he sent in his Spiritual Sense before he finally passed the many dragon-shaped lightning bolts and saw the true form of the Divine Lightning.

However, there was no Divine Lightning, only a talisman—a supreme Thunder Talisman.

The Immortal scripts, the strokes of the brush, and the form of the characters gave off Immortal Qi, indicating that this was an Immortal Epoch Thunder Talisman.

This appearance matched the introduction for Thunder Cultivation in the Compendium of Cultivation. However, the grade of this talisman was too high, transcending the grading system in the Compendium of Cultivation entirely.

Xiao Chen could not tell what grade this talisman was. Sage Grade? Immortal Grade? Divine Grade?

Just one glance was sufficient to imprint the characters on the golden Thunder Talisman deep in Xiao Chen’s mind. It was like a bolt of lightning tearing through his blinkered mindset, opening him up to new possibilities.

Xiao Chen felt as though he comprehended something. He quickly retrieved his Spiritual Sense and urgently tried to absorb everything he saw earlier.

Within his sea of consciousness, his surging Mental Energy started to bubble nonstop. Then, he modeled the high-grade talisman in his mind, according to his memory.