"Jin'er, how did your cultivation go this time?"
In the great hall atop that Lingzhi Mushroom-like mountain platform, Qiu Jin'er's soul flew in and settled into the body of the girl sitting cross-legged. A beautiful woman smiled. "Bathing in thunder and refining the soul is the Leihu Clan's secret art. It took your mother quite some effort to steal it. Refining the soul this way makes it incredibly resilient. You have an Innate Wood Spirit, and your soul was born unified. If you can temper it with thunder, your future achievements will be no worse than those of the Four Great Young Powerhouses of Sword Gate."
Qiu Jin'er opened her eyes and said, "Mother, I met a senior brother in the thunder layer. He was refining his soul there too, with his soul hidden inside a soul weapon. I chatted with him for a few moments."
The woman said nervously, "Could he have been an alchemist of the Leihu Clan? I stole the Leihu Clan's secret art. If they find out, I'd have a hard time saving face..."
Qiu Jin'er hurriedly said, "He wasn't from the Leihu Clan. He said he was from the Zhongshan Clan, and his name was Zhong Yue."
The woman let out a sigh of relief, then asked in puzzlement, "Which great clan is the Zhongshan Clan? Why have I never heard of it? Could they have stolen the Leihu Clan's secret art of refining the soul with thunder too?"
"Senior Brother Zhong is a thief too?" Qiu Jin'er asked in surprise.
The beautiful woman rolled her eyes at her. "What do you mean, thief? We're simply eager to learn. Calling it stealing sounds so unpleasant! Another day, I'll go to the Sect Master and steal Sword Gate's most profound art, the Great Freedom Sword Qi, for you to practice."
Qiu Jin'er stuck out her tongue.
Zhong Yue's soul returned to his body, and he could not help letting out a startled cry. His sea of consciousness had actually shrunk!
His sea of consciousness had originally covered three thousand mu, and it had continued expanding as his cultivation grew deeper. Yet now, it had shrunk drastically, down to just one thousand mu. It had suddenly lost two-thirds of its size!
"What happened? Could my cultivation have fallen by two-thirds all at once?"
Xin Huo leaped out of the Dragon Scale Sword Box as well. Hearing this, he shook his head. "This is the marvel of tempering with thunder. Your spirit was not resilient enough before. Although your sea of consciousness was vast, your spiritual power was weak. This time, the thunder tempered away the impurities in your spiritual power. Though your spiritual power shrank considerably, it became purer and more resilient! Look, there are flashes of thunder and lightning in your sea of consciousness. That is a sign of powerful spiritual force."
Zhong Yue's soul looked around. He saw faint streaks of lightning stirring in the sea of consciousness, like golden serpents hidden beneath the surface.
"Your spiritual power is still not strong enough. Once it becomes strong enough, your sea of consciousness will turn into a Thunder Pool, a Thunder Sea! Your spiritual power will become Thunder Plasma and Thunder Liquid. That kind of spiritual power will surpass that brat Shui Qinghe's by countless times!" Xin Huo continued.
"A Thunder Pool and Thunder Sea? Thunder Plasma and Thunder Liquid?"
Zhong Yue's eyes widened. His heart yearned for it, and he murmured, "When will I be able to reach that stage?"
"Have you not noticed that your soul has shrunk too?"
Xin Huo said smugly, "Now leave your soul through your body and take a look at it."
Zhong Yue hurriedly left his body with his soul. The surrounding scenery instantly became enormous. Xin Huo, that tiny flame, floated before him and was actually more than ten times larger than he was!
His soul was now no bigger than a bean, while Xin Huo was incomparably majestic. Zhong Yue turned to look at his own body and was horrified to see it resemble a giant standing between heaven and earth, godlike and demonic, so tall it defied imagination!
His soul had originally been about the same size as Xin Huo's, but now it was pitifully tiny.
"Your soul also shrank after being tempered by thunder, with its impurities refined away. Rest well and take a few more Feather Spirit Pills. Use your spiritual power to temper your physical body, then continue cultivating tomorrow."
Xin Huo smiled. "Once your body is strong enough, bring it into the thunder layer as well and let the thunder temper it. But you're still far from strong enough."
"Have my body struck by lightning? Won't it get charred?"
Zhong Yue steadied himself. He took out three Feather Spirit Pills and swallowed them, then visualized the Flood Dragon Totem to temper his body. He immediately felt the pills' medicinal power being consumed at a furious pace. After the time it took to burn one incense stick, the medicinal power of all three pills had been exhausted, and he had no choice but to swallow three more.
"Earlier, I used the Flood Dragon Totem to temper my body, but my body could no longer improve. Now that my spiritual power has grown stronger, I can actually improve my body again!"
Zhong Yue was both surprised and delighted. He continued cultivating, and in a single night, he unknowingly consumed sixty Feather Spirit Pills!
"At this rate of consumption, I'll probably have to chew on the ground to fill my stomach in the future..."
At dawn, Zhong Yue opened his eyes, half amused and half exasperated. He had consumed sixty Feather Spirit Pills overnight, an even greater expenditure than cultivating on the brink of life and death. He now had only a little over two hundred and fifty pills left, which would last him four or five days at most.
However, his gains from that night's cultivation were extraordinary. His body had improved, and he now felt filled with explosive power. Every movement he made was like thunder!
Every muscle in his body held terrifying explosive force, while each tendon quivered like a bowstring drawn taut. The speed at which his nerves transmitted signals was even more astonishing!
"I wonder how strong I'll be after five days. Will I be able to match Shui Qinghe?"
Zhong Yue performed Soul Sacrifice. The Dragon Scale Sword left its sheath, and its sword light shot into the sky, carrying him back into the thunder layer. He drew down thunder to temper himself. Not long afterward, Qiu Jin'er flew over, and the two chatted for a few moments before cultivating separately.
"Pairing a male and female for cultivation really does make it less tiring."
Sitting on Zhong Yue's shoulder, Xin Huo thought, That boy Yue saw a little girl like this who was already an alchemist, so he turned the pressure into motivation and started cultivating with all his might. He simply doesn't know that Innate Spiritual Bodies are different from ordinary people. An Innate Spiritual Body is born with a unified soul and is born an alchemist; it doesn't become one through cultivation... Hmm, should I tell him? Better not. Young people ought to have some drive!
Over the following days, Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin'er seemed to have made an appointment. They cultivated there until they could no longer hold on, then left.
Five days later, Zhong Yue's sea of consciousness had been refined down to just five hundred mu, while his soul had become a tiny little speck, even smaller than an ant. If he had not constantly taken Feather Spirit Pills to cultivate over those days, his sea of consciousness would likely have been even smaller, and his soul might have shrunk until it could no longer be seen!
Although his sea of consciousness and soul had shrunk, he felt that his sea of consciousness, soul, and body were all far stronger than before. His sea of consciousness was especially remarkable. Thunder rippled within it, transforming into golden serpents that swam through the depths. With a thought, the golden serpents danced wildly, an utterly terrifying sight!
However, Zhong Yue had finally exhausted all his Feather Spirit Pills and could no longer continue cultivating.
"Upper Court disciples can receive ten Feather Spirit Pills each month. For me, that's merely a cup of water against a burning cartload of firewood—not even enough for an hour of cultivation."
He could not help clutching his head as he pondered. "Before, I could still go to the Sword Gate Demonic Ruins and build up some merit. But now that the Demonic Ruins are closed, I'll have to find another way. I wonder if I can find some other method of earning Feather Spirit Pills..."
Just as he was about to rise, a woman's bell-like voice suddenly rang out from outside the courtyard. "Junior Brother Zhong! Junior Brother Zhong Yue of the Zhongshan Clan!"
"That's Senior Sister Ting's voice!"
Zhong Yue's heart stirred. He hurriedly rose and went outside. As he opened the courtyard gate, he wondered, Why has Senior Sister Ting come looking for me?
When the gate opened, Zhong Yue could not help being startled. Outside his little courtyard stood a riot of flowers, with more than thirty female disciples of the Upper Court craning their necks and looking around curiously. At the front were Ting Lanyue, Yu Feiyan in black, and Tao Daier in red. He did not recognize the other women.
With so many girls gathered together, the air was filled with their feminine fragrance and the scent of rouge and powder. They must have gathered flower pollen and refined it into their own rouge and foundation, spreading it over their skin to give themselves an extra hint of softness and fragrance.
In the distance, the male disciples of the Men's Court poked their heads out from one courtyard after another. Seeing so many female disciples appear in the Men's Court, they were all startled, and their eyes filled with envy as they looked at Zhong Yue.
"Why have all of you Senior Sisters come to my place?"
Zhong Yue was puzzled. "Senior Sisters, please come inside. I'll brew some tea for you."
"We're not going to sit inside."
Ting Lanyue giggled. "Junior Brother Zhong, we're planning to go down the mountain for experience and head to Beast God Ridge to warm up for the Unrestricted Duel. There are more and more ferocious beasts around Beast God Ridge, and several nearby tribes and clans have suffered from their attacks. Many villages have been devoured down to the last person. We happen to be going to Beast God Ridge to quell the beast disaster. We can also earn some merit and spend it freely on spirit pills, soul weapons, and such."
Tao Daier laughed from the side. "Originally, we didn't plan to bring some stinking man along. But Senior Sister Yu said you were capable and that we could take you with us. Besides, I've smelled you before, and you don't stink at all, so we decided to bring you along."
Zhong Yue's heart stirred. The Dragon Blood Sword Box flew over and landed at his feet. He smiled. "Thank you for taking me along, Senior Sister Tao."
Yu Feiyan was rather cold. "No need for more words. We're leaving immediately. We might even reach Beast God Ridge by nightfall."
Tao Daier hurriedly took out a small cloth pouch and smiled. "Beast God Ridge is quite far. If we walk there, it'll probably take two or three days. I borrowed a bag of clouds from the alchemists of my Taolin Clan. If we ride the clouds, we can reach it before sunset today."
When the pouch was opened, colored clouds bubbled out of it. Before long, Zhong Yue and the girls were standing among the clouds, feeling a force beneath their feet lift them toward the sky.
Zhong Yue clicked his tongue in wonder. Tao Daier smiled. "These clouds were refined into a soul weapon by an alchemist of my Taolin Clan. They're called Cloud Canvas. They have no power and are only used for traveling. I'll control the direction, while the other sisters will take turns using their spiritual power to propel it. That way, we can fly to Beast God Ridge. When someone's spiritual power is exhausted, she'll come down and switch with someone else. We'll take turns resting and preserve our battle strength, so that we won't arrive at Beast God Ridge with no spiritual power left."
In the Men's Court, hundreds of male disciples stared blankly as the cloud carried the flowerlike girls and Zhong Yue into the air, each of them utterly dejected.
"There's a Great Stud Bull in the village next to ours. It's incredibly sturdy. Every first and fifteenth day of the month, the villagers from all around have to lead their cows over to mate with it. More than a dozen cows line up waiting, while the other bulls can only watch with longing."
Someone looked up at the cloud and murmured, "We call that Great Stud Bull..."
"Brother, why are you telling us this?" the male disciple beside him asked curiously.
In the distance, a bearded man's eyes grew brighter and brighter as he stared at the cloud flying out of Sword Gate Mountain. He chuckled. "They're finally willing to leave... Prepare the Thunder King Boat. We disciples of the Leihu Clan are going to Beast God Ridge too. I'll personally meet this Zhong Yue!"
More than twenty elite disciples of the Leihu Clan answered in unison. They dragged out a huge boat more than ten zhang long. A divine statue towered in the center—the statue of Lei Gong, engraved and painted with all kinds of thunder patterns. Everyone boarded the Thunder King Boat. The great vessel rose into the air and headed toward Beast God Ridge.
At the same time, in the Women's Court, Li Xiuniang of the Lishan Clan summoned the disciples of the Lishan Clan and raised a huge leaf into the air. It was a lotus leaf from the Demon God Flower, enormous beyond comparison. The group stood atop it and flew straight toward Beast God Ridge as well.
"Zhongshan Clan, I hope you won't disappoint me..." Li Xiuniang murmured.
Before you continue