Electricity

"Xia's nights were truly restless."

Baili Qingfeng walked along a path on campus, listening to the uproar around him.

After the events at noon had fermented, they had stirred up a powerful response among the hot-blooded students of Xia'er University. Even now, every one of them was filled with righteous indignation.

Just like the five people walking toward him at that moment, each of them blazing with fury. "If I hadn't been away then—if I'd been there, I guarantee I would've been the first to charge in and beat those beasts to death."

"Hmph, scum like that should be sunk in the Wu River. Keeping them alive is simply a waste of food."

"If I weren't afraid of getting expelled, I'd charge straight to where those people live and give them a good beating."

The group vented their fury.

However...

What Baili Qingfeng heard was the unwillingness hidden behind the weak.

Because they were weak, they only dared vent their resentment here. Though they felt stifled and enraged, they did not dare take any further action.

Likewise, because Xia was weak, the Aurora Empire pressed it at every turn, while Xia could only retreat step by step. After all, even an ordinary citizen of Xia Country knew that if Xia truly went to all-out war with the Aurora Empire, Xia would be destroyed, while the Aurora Empire...

At most, it would merely shed a little blood.

If the Aurora Empire's foundation were powerful enough to match Baili Qingfeng's physique, then before the scent of blood could spread and attract a pack of wolves, the empire might already have recovered completely. It would be like Baili Qingfeng being cut by a knife, only to find the wound gone before he reached the hospital.

"I've only reached Qi Refining Blood Renewal. Although Nourishing Essence Soup shortened my cultivation time considerably, if I keep training, I'll still need another three or four months before I can complete four sets of Rushing Thunder Thirty-Six Forms within ten minutes. That's a little slow... If only I could soak in Nourishing Essence Soup once or twice more."

Baili Qingfeng decided to return to Wuhe City on Sunday and ask his uncle, Baili Tianxing, about it—to find out exactly what medicinal ingredients Nourishing Essence Soup required.

When Baili Qingfeng returned to the dormitory, Batu, Gule, and Momier had yet to come back, so he opened a book and began reading.

The current seemed unstable. The bulb's orange-yellow light flickered on and off, and after a few minutes, it simply went on strike...

It went dark.

"Burned out?"

Baili Qingfeng glanced outside. It was almost eleven, and everything was pitch-black. The dormitory supervisor had probably gone to bed long ago.

Since there seemed to be a spare bulb, Baili Qingfeng immediately replaced it by hand.

"Bzzzt!"

While he was changing the bulb, something went wrong with one of the operations. An electric spark flashed, and Baili Qingfeng clearly felt himself get shocked.

After being electrocuted, Baili Qingfeng's right hand instinctively jerked, as if trying to fling away the pain brought by the shock. Yet just as he instinctively went to fling out the electricity, his consciousness moved with it, and in the end...

He seemed to have truly flung out a faint spark of electricity.

The light stood out strikingly in the pitch-black dormitory.

"Hm!?"

This unusual change stirred Baili Qingfeng's heart.

"Electricity?"

He thought of the methods he cultivated.

Rushing Thunder Thirty-Six Forms, Thunder Breath, and Thunder Sovereign Visualization Method all originated from the lineage of the Ancient Thunder Beast.

Rushing Thunder Thirty-Six Forms simulated the Ancient Thunder Beast's movements when sitting and lying down, Thunder Breath simulated its breathing, while the Thunder Sovereign Visualization Method likewise visualized the Ancient Thunder Beast.

The Thunder Beast was a Divine Beast that controlled thunder and lightning, and it had truly appeared in this world.

Of course, it certainly was not as powerful as the creatures in myths, commanding all the lightning in the world at will. But it was still a powerful beast. Like an electric eel, it possessed the power to discharge electricity—and the amount of electricity it could release was several times greater than that of an electric eel.

"If the Thunder Beast's body contains powerful bioelectricity, then perhaps practicing Rushing Thunder Thirty-Six Forms and Thunder Breath would become smoother... Should I try it?"

Baili Qingfeng had always been a man of action.

Xia's safe voltage was two hundred volts, while the human body's safe voltage was only thirty-six volts. Even a martial artist with a strong physique would die after being shocked for too long. Baili Qingfeng found a resistor, connected a wire from the plug, and then gripped the cable...

"Bzzzt!"

And then...

Did the circuit breaker trip?

Baili Qingfeng was somewhat dumbfounded.

Looking at the extinguished light, the breaker really had tripped.

So be it.

Baili Qingfeng paid it no mind and practiced one set of Rushing Thunder Thirty-Six Forms indoors.

"It has some effect, but it's very weak. Without the resistor, the effect should be better."

Baili Qingfeng carefully sensed the changes.

Having cultivated the Thunder Sovereign Visualization Method to the fifth level, he had long since been capable of Internal Reflection, and his perception of his own body had naturally become extremely keen.

"Looks like I'll have to properly study some books about electricity."

Baili Qingfeng said.

At midnight, Batu, Gule, and Momier returned to the dormitory, each of them reeking of alcohol. Gule in particular had been carried back by Batu and Momier.

Perhaps taking advantage of his drunkenness, Gule could not help shouting when he saw Baili Qingfeng. "It was Qingfeng who held me back! If he hadn't held me back, I would've charged in long ago. I would've beaten those beasts to death! You were too cowardly to go up, but I dared!"

"Baili Qingfeng, who would've thought that despite looking so tall and sturdy, you'd have no courage at all."

Batu, who was just as drunk, added from the side.

Momier frowned and said unhappily, "Enough. Everyone has their own choice. Don't force your thoughts on others. Gule, if Qingfeng hadn't held you back at noon and you really had gone up there, you probably wouldn't have made it to the hospital—you would've been arrested by the Guard Division. The Guard Division arrested more than thirty people at noon."

"So what? Those Aurora People dare to act arrogantly in our Xia, so we'll beat them back! That Russell guy thinks practicing martial arts makes him so impressive... Believe it or not, we could pool our money, hire an expert, and sink him straight into the Wu River."

"Stop talking nonsense."

Momier said that, then added to Baili Qingfeng, "He's drunk. Don't mind him."

Baili Qingfeng nodded without saying anything.

The night passed amid such clamor.

At five the next morning, Baili Qingfeng left the dormitory building, found a place on campus, and began practicing Rushing Thunder Thirty-Six Forms.

Although it was September, the campus was still extremely quiet at five in the morning.

As Baili Qingfeng practiced Rushing Thunder Thirty-Six Forms, he watched the eastern horizon slowly pale, strand by strand, until the sky was completely bright. His heart, too, gradually settled.

Handle the matters that should be handled, and ignore those that should not.

Associate with those worth associating with, and do not associate with those who were not.

Nine out of ten things in life went against one's wishes. To hang oneself from a branch in the southeast over the slightest setback—how laughable.

After practicing Rushing Thunder Thirty-Six Forms for a while, Baili Qingfeng did not return to the dormitory. Instead, he left the campus and went to an Internet café not far from the university, then logged onto the Sword Rain World forum.

As soon as he entered the forum, the first thing he saw was a declaration pinned in bright red.

"'Proud Heaven Sword God' Bai Yuxiao is back! True warriors dare to face bleak lives and dare to look straight at dripping blood."

Baili Qingfeng opened the post. Inside was a passionate declaration from Bai Yuxiao, claiming that he was an unyielding warrior of the new era who was determined to fight the old, rotten antiques to the very end.

After the declaration, he had even included an account number for a messaging app, openly recruiting like-minded companions.

At the end, he had added one more sentence: there would be benefits for those who downloaded it.

Baili Qingfeng glanced at it, downloaded the software, and logged in with his own account.

It was a group instant-messaging app, though its functions were still quite basic.

After Baili Qingfeng joined, he had only just greeted everyone when a deputy moderator immediately posted a message: "The moderator was just beaten into the hospital again by the Master of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion after uploading thirty fist techniques and breathing arts. The benefits will be unable to update for some time. Please understand..."