Thunder Prison Sky Lock

The morning mist dispersed, but the stench of blood at the bottom of the cliff had yet to fade.

Chu Ning slowly walked back to the cave. Behind him lay Wang Zheng's corpse, the blood pool reflecting the morning light with a dark-red sheen. He glanced at the Rusty Saber in his hand, whose blade still bore traces of wet blood.

One saber to seal the throat—clean and decisive.

The people the Wang family had sent to hunt him down had been wiped out to the last man.

He let out a long breath and stepped into the cave.

Chu Ning's boot soles crushed the scorch marks on the ground. They were star-map-like cracks seared into the stone when Little White Fox's Demonic Power had run wild.

Ice crystals had formed along the rock walls, interwoven with Thunder Fire into bizarre patterns. The lingering might of the Mysterious Sun Fruit's remolding of her demonic core had turned this tiny cave into an ice-and-fire purgatory.

He flicked a finger at a certain icicle. With a ding, the fragments of bronze nails sealed within the ice crystals came pattering down.

"Even the stones remember that slaughter..." He rubbed the blood groove on the Rusty Saber. The fingernail Wang Zheng had blasted away before dying was still lodged in the gap.

Chu Ning leaned against the rock wall and closed his eyes in thought.

He had now become an enforcer of Thunderclap Martial Hall, and from the beginning, he had intended to sever every connection between the Wang family and the martial hall.

Now, his elder sister had secretly moved into Thunderclap Martial Hall, making it difficult for the Wang family to find her whereabouts for the time being.

Even if the Wang family eventually discovered where his elder sister had gone, the protection of Hall Master Lei Wanjun would be enough to stabilize the situation temporarily.

If Lei Wanjun could not protect her, Li Jing'an would never sit idly by.

After all, the Wang family's connection with Blood Refining Hall had already been exposed. Since it involved the secret of the Longevity Pill, Li Jing'an could not possibly ignore it.

At that thought, his heart settled somewhat.

But even so, he could not afford to lower his guard.

"Shen Yan..." Chu Ning murmured softly.

Shen Yan was a shrewd merchant, but when faced with true profit, he might not be able to keep the secret.

If Shen Yan exposed his identity and whereabouts, Chu Ning could not guarantee that the Wang family would not track him down.

Fortunately, he would not immediately fall into a desperate situation in the short term.

Even so, he could not rely on luck.

He had to raise his cultivation as quickly as possible and strengthen his own battle prowess.

Otherwise, sooner or later, he would have to face the Wang family directly—and confront the truly terrifying ancestor of the Wang family.

Chu Ning drew a deep breath. He already had a plan.

He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began organizing his martial arts system.

Ever since obtaining the Chaos Divine Order, he had grown amid life-and-death struggles. Every time he encountered danger, he had been forced to use the divine order to advance martial arts ahead of time.

But now, he had mastered quite a few powerful techniques. It was time to sort them out thoroughly.

He sank into his sea of consciousness. Scene after scene of battles surfaced in his mind, and every instance in which he had used the Chaos Divine Order to advance a martial art was replayed with perfect clarity.

Hardening Cultivation Technique:

Rough Stone Hardening Technique (Grand Completion)—Advance Cost: None; Repayment Cost: Perform one thousand deep squats while carrying a five-hundred-pound boulder; Fully repaid.

Hundred Steps Penetrating Willow (Great Accomplishment)—Advance Cost: None; Repayment Cost: Kill thirty people consecutively with a bow and arrows; Fully repaid.

Classified Martial Arts:

Yellow-Rank Low-Level Technique, Thunderclap Saber Art (Second Layer)—Advance Cost: Temper the body with heavenly thunder one hundred times on a stormy night; Repayment Cost: Split stones without breaking them; Fully repaid.

Mysterious-Rank Mid-Level Technique, Sky-Rending Shadow Flight Technique (Initial Entry)—Advance Cost: One year of lifespan; Repayment Cost: Kill a ninth-grade martial artist; Unrepaid.

Basic Beast Taming Technique, Golden Cudgel Spell—Advance Cost: None; Repayment Cost: One year of lifespan and one hundred taels of gold; Fully repaid.

Qi Refining Foundation, "Chaos Origin Qi Refining Method" (Grand Completion)—Advance Cost: None; Repayment Cost: None.

He had never carefully studied the operating principles of the Chaos Divine Order, but as the number of martial arts he advanced grew, he had faintly sensed some clues.

Every advancement required a price. The advance costs of low-level martial arts were relatively simple.

The higher the level of the martial art, the harsher the price.

These things gradually made Chu Ning realize that the divine order did not grant power for nothing. Its essence was more like an equivalent exchange.

When he advanced the Sky-Rending Shadow Flight Technique, his bones had become lighter and his ability to sense the flow of qi within his body had strengthened. This meant that the divine order's power did more than provide "memories"—it also carried out a certain degree of enhancement.

At the same time, however, the cost of advancement had also intensified. The overdraw on his stamina and lifespan had become abnormally obvious.

In the short term, he had gained a growth rate beyond that of ordinary people through the Chaos Divine Order, and his strength had risen dramatically.

In the long term, the consumption of his lifespan made Chu Ning uneasy.

If he continued relying on advanced martial arts to improve himself, then even if he became an unparalleled expert in the future, he would still be nothing more than a powerful man whose lifespan was nearing its end.

His fingertips brushed over the white hair newly sprouted at his temples. Suddenly, Chu Ning sprang up and swung his saber!

The Rusty Saber scraped across the mountain wall, sending out dazzling sparks. Thunderous Force wrapped in fury smashed apart the ice crystals sealing the bronze nail.

"Eighteen years of lifespan..." He stared at the ice shards pattering to the ground, a suppressed chuckle rolling from his throat. "Enough to smash how many Wang Lins?"

Little White Fox carried a bloodstained strip of cloth and rubbed it against his palm. It had been torn from Wang Zheng's corpse and bore the Wang family's secret insignia.

The charred fingerprints along the cloth's edge were exactly like the scars left when his elder sister had been burned by a branding iron years ago.

"The Chaos Divine Order must be used with caution!"

Chu Ning drew a deep breath, his fists slowly tightening.

"I can't rely on the Chaos Divine Order without restraint anymore."

He finally realized that if he recklessly overdraw his lifespan, then even if he reached his peak in a short time, he would quickly march toward ruin.

He had to rely on his own cultivation and comprehension instead of placing all his hopes on the divine order.

From now on, he would advance martial arts only at the brink of life and death, avoiding pointless consumption of his lifespan.

The most important thing next was to delve deeper into the martial arts he already possessed, raising his battle prowess through constant combat and understanding.

As for his future choice of martial arts, he would prioritize those he could cultivate independently and develop, reducing the side effects brought by advancement.

With that thought, he sat cross-legged once more and began adjusting his battle strategy.

Close-combat offense: Thunderous Force empowered by the Thunderclap Saber Art and Rough Stone Hardening Technique, pursuing explosive power.

Long-range ambush: Hundred Steps Penetrating Willow, using the right moment to snipe and kill from afar.

Protecting the soul: Chaos Origin Qi Refining Method combined with the Void Spirit Bell, concealing his aura and guarding his soul.

Mobility and evasion: Sky-Rending Shadow Flight Technique. Though it remained unrepaid, he could temporarily rely on its body technique to evade his enemies.

Battlefield control and beast taming: Golden Cudgel Spell for support, with the Snow Fox assisting in battle at critical moments.

Once his thoughts had become clear, he exhaled a long breath.

His battle prowess was now much greater than before.

In a one-on-one fight, ninth-grade martial artists were no longer anything to fear.

But against true experts, such as eighth-grade martial artists, he still had no guarantee of victory.

Against a sixth-grade expert like the Wang family's ancestor, the gap remained enormous.

The sudden sound of a dead branch snapping came from outside the cave.

Chu Ning's blade was already pointed at the entrance, but he discovered that it was the Void Spirit Bell warning him. Three Blood Ravens were pecking at Wang Zheng's eyeballs.

"Crack!"

A miniature bronze nail rolled out from the eyeball crushed by a raven's beak.

After experiencing battle after battle, he had come to deeply understand that although advancing martial arts through the Chaos Divine Order could bring tremendous improvement, it was ultimately not a long-term solution.

If he truly wished to set foot on the path of the strong, he had to rely on his own understanding and tempering, allowing martial arts to merge completely with his body and form a battle style uniquely his own.

"To completely master my martial arts, I can't merely cultivate each one separately. More importantly, I have to learn how to combine them and unleash power far beyond that of any single martial technique."

Chu Ning slowly closed his eyes, recalling his earlier battle with Wang Zheng.

In that instant of life and death, he had unintentionally combined Hundred Steps Penetrating Willow with Thunderclap Saber Art. The arrows had actually carried the might of thunder, linking together in the night sky to form a cage of lightning that left Wang Zheng nowhere to flee.

"If I can master this lightning cage technique, wouldn't that mean I can use a bow and arrows to form a binding force and trap my enemy within a Thunder Prison?"

Chu Ning abruptly opened his eyes, brilliant light flashing within them.

He thrust the Rusty Saber into a crack in the rock and drew his bow, aiming at the Blood Ravens outside the cave.

Thunderous Force climbed along the bowstring and clung to the arrows, but the instant they left the string, it ran wild and scattered in all directions.

The three arrows exploded into a web of lightning at the cave entrance. The startled Blood Ravens' feathers burned with azure flames as they drifted down.

"Not right..." He wiped the cheek scorched by Thunder Fire, then suddenly pressed an arrowhead against the saber's body.

"Clang—!"

At the instant the saber's ring and the arrow's howl resonated, nine lightning patterns formed a cage in the air, freezing the falling raven feathers into a sky-wide star map.

Chu Ning's pupils reflected the magnificent Killing Formation. "This is it... Thunder Prison Sky Lock!"