Struck by Lightning

On the opposite cliff upstream, three men and a woman stood there like statues, utterly motionless.

"There are people over there," the long-haired woman said softly.

It was nighttime. The moon shone bright and the stars were sparse; the weather was fine. Yet the woman held a Flower Rain Umbrella, which was exceedingly strange.

The person beside her was a monk, with a perfectly round face, round eyes, and a round head. A string of prayer beads hung around his neck, each bead as large as a fist. They revolved around his neck on their own without touching his body.

"Third Sister, the people near Tianmen Town may not truly be people."

The monk's face was expressionless. "Even the people in Shuofang City may not be people, much less a strange place like Tianmen Town. That person across the way has four Fox Demons following him. He is most likely a demon that has taken human form, not a human."

"We came this time to see who was so bold as to dare lay hands on someone from the Tong Family. I never expected to encounter a Venomous Viper cultivating into a Flood Dragon."

The third person was a dignified-looking Scholar. Unhurriedly, he said, "Flood Dragons are exceedingly valuable, and Poison Flood Dragons are even more so. After this Venomous Viper becomes a Flood Dragon, it will turn into a highly poisonous Black Flood Dragon. It would be excellent to take it in to guard the estate, use it as a mount, or present it to the high officials and nobles of the Eastern Capital."

The fourth was a young man, precisely the Scholar who had traveled together with Tong Fan, Yang Sheng, and the others in Ghost Market. His eyesight was simply too poor. Separated by the ravine and at such a distance, he could not clearly make out Su Yun beneath the moonlight and failed to recognize him.

The young Scholar said, "Uncle Xuan, Yang Sheng has already gone to capture that boy, but there has been no news these past few days. I wonder if something happened to him."

"Yang Sheng is a good young man. He can be promoted."

The Scholar Tong Xuan said, "He is merely a little too eager for quick success and instant gain. After a few years of polishing, he can still be of use. The Tong Family needs people like him, but his ambition must be reined in."

He was an old hand of the martial world, experienced and well-informed. He knew that Yang Sheng was working so hard because he wanted to curry favor with the Tong Family and ride its momentum to soar into greatness. He simply had not expected Yang Sheng to already be dead.

"The key is Tianmen Town."

Scholar Tong Xuan frowned. "We have actually failed to find Tianmen Town these past few days. How strange."

The monk said, "Tianmen Town is sinister indeed. I heard that even the Great Emperor of the Eastern Capital was alarmed by what happened back then..."

He furrowed his brow and did not continue. The others also seemed to recall something they considered taboo, and no one spoke again.

Below them, the Great Black Snake in Snake Ravine suddenly began breathing rapidly. The moonlight from the bright moon in the sky actually gathered together, forming a beam as thick as a water barrel that slanted down into Snake Ravine!

As the light condensed, the surroundings dimmed.

The beam shone upon the Great Black Snake coiled atop a reef. A patch of light moved from the great snake's head down its body, slowly reaching its tail, then moved back from its tail to its head.

Wherever the light patch passed, crackling sounds rang out, as though something were bursting apart.

The skin on the Great Black Snake's head had already split open. The crack was precisely where Su Yun had cut it with the Snake-Swallowing Sword.

At that moment, the Great Black Snake had already poked a long snout out from its shed skin.

It was called a snout because, compared to a true dragon, a Flood Dragon's mouth was thin and long like a bird's beak. Yet it was filled with incomparably sharp dragon teeth, making it look ferocious beyond measure.

The tiny dragon horns atop the Great Black Snake's head had also emerged. Its body wriggled bit by bit beneath its shed skin, and under the intensely condensed moonlight, its pitch-black scales took on a metallic sheen.

Although Su Yun could not see this scene, he immediately sensed the change in the Great Black Snake's qi and blood!

Originally, the Great Black Snake's qi and blood had resembled a massive egg. Now, he sensed a living creature wriggling inside that egg, refining its qi and blood.

Most peculiar of all was the way the qi and blood flowed within the great egg. On its surface, the Great Black Snake's qi and blood formed several strange patterns.

Within Su Yun's "field of vision," these patterns flickered in and out. With every flash and fade, the Great Black Snake's qi and blood was continuously purified, sublimated, purified again, and sublimated again!

Every purification and sublimation of qi and blood accompanied the Great Black Snake's breathing. It was purified when it exhaled and sublimated when it inhaled.

What Su Yun could not puzzle out was that the Great Black Snake's qi and blood never seemed to diminish. Instead, it showed signs of growing ever stronger. This absolutely defied common sense!

The qi in qi and blood referred to vital energy, while blood referred to blood.

During the process of purification and sublimation, the total amount of vital energy should decrease. Yet the Great Black Snake's was increasing.

"Perhaps it is the effect of absorbing the essence of the sun and moon."

Su Yun pondered inwardly. "Great Furnace Transformation also has a method for absorbing the essence of the sun and moon. Every morning, I face the rising sun and regulate my breath to absorb the sun's essence. But The Whole Village Eats absorbs it many times faster than Great Furnace Transformation!"

He carefully memorized the patterns upon the great egg of qi and blood that he "saw," then attempted to use the pill furnace within his body as a cauldron and his own vital energy as the great egg, setting it above the cauldron.

Su Yun tried making the great egg of vital energy rise and fall with his breathing, then tried forming those strange patterns upon it. Yet he could never grasp the method. He always felt that something was still missing. It was likely because the Great Black Snake's cultivation technique was exceptionally unusual.

Just then, he suddenly sensed several comparatively weak auras of qi and blood appearing around him.

"They are nearby villagers!"

Su Yun's spirits rose. "They have suffered bitterly at its hands, so they have come to take its life while The Whole Village Eats transforms and undergoes its tribulation!"

As time passed, more and more qi-and-blood auras appeared in the surrounding forests. Before long, Su Yun sensed hundreds of such auras.

"This is going to get lively!" Su Yun was extremely excited.

Below in the mountain ravine, the Great Black Snake had already shed the skin from its head, revealing an enormous head like that of an ox. Its body writhed, and the great egg of qi and blood suddenly became incomparably bright.

A humming vibration came from within the egg. The surrounding trees shook until their leaves rustled loudly, and ripples instantly spread across the waters of Snake Ravine!

Thunder suddenly rumbled in the sky. Flower Fox, the four people across the way, and the "villagers" hidden in the surrounding woods all raised their heads to look. At some point, clouds had obscured the moon.

Yet moonlight pierced through the clouds like streaks of luminous thread, shining upon the great snake transforming in Snake Ravine.

The moonlight rubbed against the clouds, causing peals of thunder to rumble within them. From time to time, flashes of light burst from the clouds.

That was lightning.

Whenever the lightning flashed, the shadow of a Flood Dragon could vaguely be seen swimming amid the clouds. It was impossible to tell whether it was a real Flood Dragon or an illusion cast by the shadows.

Su Yun could not see this scene, but he "saw" a stream of qi and blood shoot skyward from the great egg of qi and blood, connecting with a cloud of qi and blood in the heavens.

What he "saw" was completely different from what everyone else saw!

"Moo—"

The Great Black Snake raised its Flood Dragon head, and a clear, resounding dragon's roar rang out, echoing through the mountains!

The Great Black Snake twisted its body and suddenly lunged forward, breaking free from a section of snake skin. With a sharp snap, a pitch-black, gleaming claw brimming with power emerged from the shed skin and dug deeply into the reef.

This half-snake, half-Flood Dragon monster raised its head and released an even more soaring dragon roar. The clouds in the sky seemed to have received an order as a blood-red flash burst from them and struck toward the monster!

Crack—

The lightning was like a sharp blade splitting open the night, illuminating Snake Ravine. For that instant, it was bright as day.

The half-snake, half-Flood Dragon monster was struck until its skin split and flesh tore, blood streaming everywhere. Cheers immediately erupted from the surrounding forests. "Good!"

Taking advantage of the lightning's glow, Scholar Tong Xuan looked around and saw demons dancing wildly throughout the surrounding forests. Seeing the Flood Dragon suffer, those demons were overjoyed.

"Tianmen Town and the hundred miles around it truly deserve to be called No-Man's Land. This place has completely become a world of Demons!" He frowned deeply.

Su Yun did not "see" the blood-red lightning strike down. What he saw was an even purer, more refined strand of qi and blood within the cloud of qi and blood rushing toward that great egg of qi and blood!

Nor did he see the Great Black Snake being struck until its skin split and flesh tore. Instead, he saw the Flood Dragon within the egg devouring that qi and blood to reconstruct its body, transforming and evolving itself!

He could not see with his eyes and could only sense qi and blood, yet the sight he "saw" was completely different!

"This qi and blood is far too intense. Is The Whole Village Eats relying on this qi and blood to transform?"

A sudden realization struck him. Transforming from a snake into a dragon was a leap from one form of life to another. Mere accumulated cultivation was not enough; one had to borrow the power of heaven and earth to transform oneself!

"The Whole Village Eats is borrowing the qi and blood of heaven and earth to aid its transformation!"

Su Yun did not know whether that cloud of qi and blood in the sky was the qi and blood of heaven and earth, but The Whole Village Eats was using it to transform, borrowing the power of heaven and earth to leap into another form of life and become a Flood Dragon!

"If I had not witnessed it with my own eyes and sensed it myself, I would have thought undergoing a tribulation was simply getting struck by lightning. Who would have thought there were so many mysteries within it!"

Su Yun grew excited. "My Crocodile Dragon's Roar must transform Crocodile Dragon qi and blood into Flood Dragon qi and blood to achieve Flood Dragon Transformation. Could it also transform this way?"

He was brimming with interest. "I do not know how to gather the qi and blood of heaven and earth, but The Whole Village Eats does! Perhaps I can try borrowing a little of its heavenly qi and blood!"

He immediately tried again to form a great egg of vital energy above the Heaven-Earth Great Furnace within his body, controlling the vital energy's flickering.

At that moment, a second bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking toward the Flood Dragon transforming in Snake Ravine.

Before this bolt fell into Snake Ravine, for some unknown reason, it split off a tiny streak of lightning. Before the terrified eyes of Flower Fox, Hu Buping, Qingqiu Yue, and Li Xiaofan, it struck Su Yun on the head beside them.

Zhai Zhu: There are currently four characters in Records of the Abyss. Everyone, remember to show them some love! Zhai Zhu is currently organizing information on the fifth character, who will soon meet everyone!