What Ghost King? It merely had a thousand years of cultivation to lord over others.
It dared hurt my nephew, you vile creature. Today, this old man would make your soul scatter and your spirit dissipate.
With that, he pulled a red wooden box from his robes.
The box looked sleek and polished. I had no idea how Martial Uncle managed to fit so many things inside his clothes.
He opened the box, and a talisman interwoven with golden light and purple lightning flickered within.
I knew this was one of Maoshan's highest-grade talismans: the Golden Light Purple Thunder Talisman.
Martial Uncle took the talisman out and pinched it between his fingers. Unlike other talismans,
this one was much larger, roughly twice the size of an ordinary talisman.
Martial Uncle held the talisman between his fingers and muttered an incantation. Lightning and golden light intertwined across the talisman.
It crackled loudly, looking terrifying.
From where I stood, it looked as though Martial Uncle were clutching a high-voltage wire.
The electric arcs stretched more than a meter outward, except they were purple lightning mixed with golden light.
The female ghost stopped in midair, her body trembling violently like chaff in a sieve. Her pupils shrank sharply as well.
The Maoshan Talisman Compendium Martial Uncle had given me contained a record of it.
The Golden Light Purple Thunder Talisman was supremely firm and supremely yang, a natural bane to ghosts.
Just as Martial Uncle prepared to launch the talisman, the female ghost suddenly shouted, "Wait..."
Martial Uncle drew the talisman back slightly, then craned his neck forward.
With a lecherous grin, he asked the female ghost, "May I ask if there is anything else?"
The female ghost held it in for a long time until her face turned red, then said awkwardly,
"This King... This King will not hold it against you. You may leave."
Martial Uncle gave an "Oh" and said, "We can leave after killing you too!"
The female ghost was instantly left speechless. Then, looking at the talisman in Martial Uncle's hand, she said,
"A talisman of this level must take decades to refine, right?
Why not lay down our weapons? You save a talisman, and I keep my life. Wouldn't that be a win-win situation?"
Martial Uncle smiled at the female ghost. "I was only teasing you. It is best if we do not have to fight.
If you had sat down and spoken calmly from the start, I would not have attacked you so fiercely.
But my nephew was injured like this because you struck first. You must give me an explanation, or this matter cannot end peacefully."
The female ghost's mouth twitched as she said indignantly, "You barged into my territory and slaughtered all my subordinates.
Now you want to kill me too, yet you are demanding an explanation from me? On what grounds?"
Martial Uncle shamelessly said, "That's right, I am demanding an explanation.
As for why, it is because I can take your life right now.
I think that if our positions were reversed, Your Excellency would not spare us either."
The female ghost lowered her head and pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Fine."
Then she raised a hand, and a blinding white light shot toward me.
My first thought was to run. Mainly because this woman was too terrifying.
The aftershock of a single clash had nearly taken my life. To her, killing me would be as easy as crushing a stink bug.
But I could not stand up. Before long, the white light entered my body.
Gradually, the pain throughout my body vanished. The wounds on my back and legs, where the corpses had scratched me, were healing at an incredible speed.
Soon, I sprang to my feet, lively as ever and full of vigor. I immediately ran over to Martial Uncle's side.
Martial Uncle smiled and asked whether I was all right. I said I was fine, and he nodded at me.
Martial Uncle smiled at the female ghost. "That generous? This is a Ghost King's exclusive natal Spiritual Energy. That must be several years of cultivation, no?"
The female ghost darkened her face and said she had no choice. Man was the knife and she was the fish on the chopping block. Then she fell silent.
At that moment, I suddenly felt as if something were about to burst out of my body. When I examined myself carefully, I discovered that I was about to break through.
I had originally been at Qi Gathering Late-stage, but now I was about to break through into the early stage of Dao Inquiry.
I immediately sat down cross-legged, drew my consciousness inward, and examined my body.
I sensed a powerful current of Spiritual Energy racing through the meridians inside me.
I watched quietly, feeling somewhat nervous for a moment.
Before long, I realized that I could actually see the flow of Spiritual Energy within my body. Then it suddenly rushed into one particular place.
That place then opened up into a space, and I entered it.
Or rather, my consciousness entered it. Inside, dark clouds blanketed the sky, while thunder and lightning raged everywhere.
A layer of lightning also crawled across the ground. At first, I was a little afraid.
Later, a bolt of lightning passed beneath my feet, and I discovered in astonishment that I was unharmed.
Gradually, I completely relaxed my mind and no longer felt afraid at all.
Instead, I felt as though I had come home, a feeling of deep familiarity and closeness.
A bold thought suddenly arose in my mind. I did not know why, but I felt that I could control this lightning.
It was an absurd thought, so absurd that even I was startled.
I tried lifting one finger, and something miraculous happened.
A small cluster of lightning crackled atop my fingertip.
From afar, it looked like the fireworks I used to play with as a child.
After lighting them, a little cluster of sparks would burn there with a crackling sound.
It was especially beautiful, except mine had replaced fireworks with lightning.
I tried again, making the lightning cling to my palm.
Immediately, louder crackling erupted, accompanied by sparks of lightning.
I wanted to make it bigger, but no matter what I did, it would not change any further.
I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. Then I looked at Martial Uncle, who was looking at me as well. He asked, "You broke through?"
I nodded and replied, "Yes."
A flash of delight crossed Martial Uncle's eyes, and he asked,
"Did you see a space inside? Or did you sense anything?"
I said yes. There had been thunder and lightning inside, with lightning everywhere.
There was even lightning beneath my feet, but it seemed unable to harm me.
Martial Uncle's mouth fell open, his eyes widening like bronze bells. Even the female ghost beside him wore an incredulous expression.
Martial Uncle asked urgently, "Really?"
Before I could answer, he continued, "Come, come, come. Release it now and let me see.
No, that's not right. Strike me with your palm. Let me feel it."
I froze on the spot and said awkwardly, "Hit you? That wouldn't be good, Martial Uncle. What if I hurt you?"
Martial Uncle's face darkened. "How could that be possible? With that little cultivation of yours, you think you can hurt me?"
Seeing this, the female ghost could not help but laugh.
After hesitating for a moment, I said, "Then here I come!"
Martial Uncle stood there with his hands on his hips and said, "Come."
I circulated my spiritual power, and a layer of electric arcs immediately covered my hand, accompanied by crackling sounds.
Then I struck Martial Uncle in the chest with my palm. Martial Uncle stood rooted in place, his body twitching once.
Seeing Martial Uncle standing there in a daze without moving for a long time, I asked whether this meant I had a Lightning Attribute.
Martial Uncle nodded. "Mm. This is the Lightning Attribute, and the Lightning Attribute is the strongest of all attributes.
Whether in rarity or destructive power, especially when dealing with yin entities, it is simply a dimensionality-reduction strike."
I asked Martial Uncle whether the Lightning Attribute was very rare.
Martial Uncle told me to look at the attribute rankings myself: water, fire, earth, wood, wind, lightning. The farther down the list, the rarer they were.
He also said that in more than sixty years of life, he had only ever seen one person with a Lightning Attribute.
Then he hurriedly corrected himself. "Oh, no. There are two now. The other one is you."
Then he stroked his chin and muttered to himself, "Could this thing be hereditary?
But all these years, I have never seen anyone inherit a relative's attribute. Strange, truly strange."