(A quick shameless plea for votes while the book is featured.)
A wisp of Black Qi curled around Lei Dong's fingertip, restless as a nimble, sharp-eyed black snake as thick as a chopstick. In the past few years, ever since he had intensified his cultivation of Black Dragon Chant, Lei Dong's ability to shape and control Netherworld Ghost Qi had improved considerably. His understanding of it had also advanced by leaps and bounds.
Lei Dong had spent a long time considering what form his control technique should take. In recent days, though, he had gained some insight. It had begun while he was recuperating on Fisherman Island. He had seen fishermen using all sorts of methods to catch fish, and had encountered all kinds of nets. Fishing with nets and using a technique to control an enemy were, in a sense, much the same. Nets came in many varieties, each with its own use, but Lei Dong felt the most domineering was the sticky net. It was made of threads as fine as silk. Any fish that swam through would be ensnared by the strands, like a spiderweb, and the more it struggled, the tighter they wound, leaving it no chance to escape.
And no matter how thick the other nets were, they too were woven from strands of thread.
Therefore, if he wanted to develop a control technique that used Netherworld Ghost Qi, the first essential was figuring out how to form threads that were both fine and sturdy. The wisp of Black Qi spun steadily, faster and faster, while Lei Dong sank into thought. Before long, driven by his divine sense and true qi, the Black Qi transformed into a thread as thin as a needle. It looked promising, but Lei Dong knew it was an illusion.