The clamor of the qualification trials had yet to fully die down when Lin Feng's communicator received an encrypted message from Lei Lie's residence, summoning him to come at once.
It was still that tranquil courtyard shaded by Green Bamboo. Lei Lie stood beneath the Lightning Attracting Wood with his hands behind his back, his aura deep and still as an abyss.
"Teacher." Lin Feng bowed respectfully.
Lei Lie turned around, his gaze flashing like lightning as it swept over him. He nodded faintly. "Not bad. Your foundation is solid, your aura refined, and the True Meaning of Thunder has become even purer. You performed very well on the Cloud Climbing Ladder and in Phantom Beast Alley. You did not disappoint me."
"It was all thanks to your guidance, Teacher." Lin Feng remained neither servile nor overbearing.
"Forget the empty formalities." Lei Lie waved a hand, his expression turning grave. "I called you here for two matters. The first concerns where you will go next."
He took out a gilded letter stamped with Beichen Martial University's star emblem, faint energy rippling from it, and handed it to Lin Feng.
"Beichen Martial University has sent a special admission invitation. You will not need to participate in the provincial examination's main competition. You will be directly recommended into the Thunder Institute, and they promise resources on the level of a core disciple, including the first three levels of the low-grade Earth-rank Thunder Element Cultivation Method, the Purple Firmament Astonishing Thunder Canon."
An Earth-rank cultivation method! Core disciple treatment! Direct recommendation!
Those terms could not have been more generous! They were enough to move any genius! As one of the nation's top academies, Beichen Martial University's Thunder Institute was even more renowned, producing one thunder-path powerhouse after another.
Lin Feng accepted the letter. It felt warm and smooth in his hand, and he could sense the sincerity and energy contained within. He remained silent and did not immediately state his position.
Lei Lie looked at him, understanding flashing through his eyes as he continued, "The second matter is a warning. Your performance in the qualification trials was too dazzling. It has already drawn some unwanted attention."
"Shadow Kill Pavilion?" Lin Feng looked up.
"Not only them." Lei Lie's gaze sharpened. "Shadow Kill Pavilion is merely the blade laid out in the open. The real trouble lies with the hand gripping that blade. The Zhang Family's collusion with certain forces in the Provincial Capital runs deeper than we imagined. They cannot stop you openly, but in the provincial examination's arena, where fish and dragons mingle together, they have plenty of ways to make you 'die by accident.' There may even be Cleaners' tentacles that have infiltrated this place through this opportunity."
Cleaners! The Scavengers of cosmic civilizations!
Lin Feng's pupils contracted slightly. He had not expected a mere provincial-level martial examination to possibly involve such a terrifying force.
"Your choice concerns your life and death, as well as the road you will walk in the future." Lei Lie's voice was low. "Accept Beichen's special admission, and you can temporarily avoid the sharp edge, growing steadily under the martial university's protection. But you may miss certain opportunities in the provincial examination, and lose some of your edge. Participate in the provincial examination, and you will face every open spear and hidden arrow head-on. The risks will be immense, but if you can carve a path through the encirclement, it will temper your will and strength as never before."
The courtyard fell into brief silence, broken only by the rustle of wind through bamboo leaves.
Lin Feng rubbed the gilded letter in his hand. The extreme pressure atop the Cloud Climbing Ladder, the spiritual battles in Phantom Beast Alley, the absolute suppression on the arena... and the killing intent lurking behind the scenes like a venomous snake all flashed through his mind.
Grow steadily? No. That was not his path.
His path was a heaven-piercing thunder path blasted open with his fists amid life-and-death battles!
He slowly placed the letter back onto the stone table before Lei Lie, his gaze as steadfast as rock.
"Teacher, I choose to participate in the provincial examination."
His voice was not loud, yet it carried an unshakable decisiveness.
A startling brilliance erupted in Lei Lie's eyes, and a truly delighted smile appeared on his face. "Good! This is what it means to be my, Lei Lie's, disciple! If you cower and hesitate, how can you command thunder and sweep the universe clean?!"
With a sweep of his hand, he took back the letter. "Since that is your choice, you will remain at Thunder Listening Pavilion for these ten days! I will personally straighten out your cultivation method and temper your Thunder Gang! Before the provincial examination, I will raise your strength another step!"
"Thank you, Teacher!" A surge of warmth and heroic spirit rose within Lin Feng.
Over the next ten days, Lin Feng completely immersed himself in Thunder Listening Pavilion's dense Thunder Spiritual Energy. With a Peak Martial Master like Lei Lie personally guiding him, his understanding of the Thunder Foundation Establishment Chapter and the second level of the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade advanced by leaps and bounds.
Lei Lie did not teach him any more profound cultivation methods. Instead, he focused on "solidifying the foundation" and "tempering the artistic conception."
"Your quantity of true qi is already sufficient, but its quality is not pure enough! Compress it! Compress it again! Make every strand of true qi contain explosive power!"
"Thunder Gang is not a shield. It is an extension of destruction! Imagine it as the edge of your fist, invincible and unstoppable!"
"To draw upon the thunder spiritual energy of heaven and earth is not to forcibly plunder it, but to resonate with it! Feel their 'breathing'!"
Under Lei Lie's scoldings and guidance, Lin Feng exhausted his true qi time and again, then rapidly recovered beneath the Lightning Attracting Wood. His Thunder True Qi became ever purer and more condensed. The layer of dark-purple Thunder Gang, initially only a thin film, became slightly thicker and more stable, its color deepening considerably.
[Thunder Foundation Establishment Chapter proficiency greatly increased, Thunder True Qi purity +15%.] [Nine Heavens Thunder Blade second level mastery increased to 18%, Thunder Gang stability and power slightly increased.] [Strength: 998kg] [Agility: 53m/s] [Spiritual Power: 39]
After ten days of bitter cultivation, his strength had already approached the peak of the middle stage of Martial Artist. He needed only one opportunity to break through that barrier and enter the Late Stage Martial Artist!
On the eve of the provincial examination, just as Lin Feng finished cultivating and prepared to return to the city, another encrypted communication came from Chen Wu. His tone was more urgent and furious than ever.
"Brother Lin! We found out! Those Zhang Family bastards really were up to no good!"
"Through their connections in the Provincial Capital, they spent a fortune to hire two people! One is a freak from the neighboring Jiangbei Province named Blood Hand Tu Gang. He's a Late Stage Martial Artist. They say he cultivates some wicked method, and his tactics are vicious. He committed quite a few murders in Jiangbei, then went into hiding after being wanted. No one knows how the Zhang Family found him!"
"The other is even more troublesome. He's a Rogue Cultivator from our Jiangnan Province, Shadow Fox Mo San, a Peak Martial Artist. He is exceptionally skilled at concealment and poison, and he is one of Shadow Kill Pavilion's peripheral gold-medal assassins! Both of them used fake identities to slip into the provincial examination's main competition roster!"
"The Zhang Family's goal is to find a chance to kill you in the provincial examination's melee! Even if they cannot kill you, they want to cripple your cultivation! And I suspect Shadow Kill Pavilion may have sent someone even stronger to hide in the shadows, ready to personally step in if Mo San fails!"
Tu Gang! Mo San! One an open spear, the other a hidden arrow! And there might even be a backup plan from Shadow Kill Pavilion!
Lin Feng's eyes instantly turned as cold as ten-thousand-year ice. To get rid of him, the Zhang Family had spared no expense, colluding with vicious criminals from another province and hiring a gold-medal assassin. They had truly lost all conscience!
"Is the information reliable?"
"I'm eighty percent sure! Tu Gang's whereabouts were confirmed by friends over in Jiangbei. As for Mo San's identity, an old Attendant from our escort agency deduced it from his poison techniques. There's basically no mistake!" Chen Wu's tone was certain.
"Alright, I understand. Thanks, brother." Lin Feng said in a deep voice.
"Brother Lin, you must be careful! The provincial examination arena isn't like the city. There are too many rules and loopholes for them to exploit!" Chen Wu warned worriedly.
After ending the communication, Lin Feng stood in Thunder Listening Pavilion's courtyard, looking up at the sparse stars in the night sky. Yet the aura around him was like a volcano on the verge of erupting, suppressed and terrifying.
He slowly raised his hand. A strand of dark-purple Lightning Arc, condensed to the extreme, danced at his fingertips, letting out a faint yet heart-palpitating crackle.
"Tu Gang... Mo San... Shadow Kill Pavilion..."
"Do you want to use me as a stepping stone? Or treat me as fish on the chopping block?"
A cold, cruel curve lifted at the corner of his lips.
"Then come."
"Let's see who hunts whom!"
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