Ethereal Thunder

"Since he has such a bright future ahead of him, would he be willing to spare some time to teach me spells?"

After Li Mo voiced his concern, Shen Yun smiled and reassured him.

"Don't worry. In the past, he definitely wouldn't have had the time, but he recently bought a magical artifact and borrowed a large sum of Spirit Stones. Now he's desperate to pay off his debt. Even a mosquito is meat, so go ahead without hesitation."

With that, Li Mo decided to give it a try. Following Shen Yun's directions, he found Tian Fen.

The man was a head shorter than Li Mo. He had a broad forehead and a square head, making him a truly peculiar sight, with an astonishing bone structure. When he learned why Li Mo had come, his eyes immediately lit up.

Li Mo could tell that the man was indeed short on Spirit Stones.

"Sure, sure. How many Spirit Stones do you have on you?"

Li Mo was helpless.

"I have twelve Spirit Stones on me, but according to my agreement with Shen Yun, I only need to pay eight to learn an intermediate beginner-level spell."

"What's so impressive about an intermediate beginner-level spell? How about this: find a way to scrape together three hundred Spirit Stones, and I'll teach you the secret Lightning Techniques I've mastered!"

Li Mo gaped at him.

The man made it sound so easy. Three hundred Spirit Stones—that was equivalent to three thousand taels of silver. Where was a mere fourth-level Qi Refining disciple like him supposed to get that kind of money?

Even back when Nine Rivers Thunder Dragon Tai Shou went to the Eighteen Mountains to rob people, it had taken him more than two months to scrape together four or five thousand taels of silver. Li Mo didn't have Nine Rivers Thunder Dragon's strength, and he had no desire to become a wanted criminal hunted by Heaven's Mandate Bureau.

As for secret arts, they could be understood as special spells known only to a small circle of people.

Such spells might be passed down within a niche faction, or invented by chance. They often had rare and unusual effects, and weren't included in the sect's spell-ranking system.

Besides these, there were also so-called divine abilities.

Divine abilities generally referred to basic spells widely known across the various sects. The term could also mean advanced secret arts, or sometimes the signature spells of high-level cultivators that were widely recognized—or spells cultivators praised one another for knowing.

When the Spirit Eye Technique of Lingmu Sect was cultivated to an advanced stage, it became what was known as a Great Divine Ability.

"Secret arts, well..."

Li Mo sighed and shook his head.

"Although I'm quite tempted, I'm afraid my pockets are empty. Besides, my magical power is weak—I'm only at the fourth level of Qi Refining. Even if I mastered a secret art, I'd have trouble putting it to use."

Tian Fen looked at Li Mo with a disappointed expression, as if he were a hopeless case who couldn't live up to his potential.

So he settled for the next best thing.

"How about this? I'll teach you an advanced beginner-level spell. With your fourth-level Qi Refining magical power, you should be able to cast it once, barely. But I'll only teach you for seven days, up until the year-end examination. Whether you master it in that time will depend entirely on your aptitude. Twelve Spirit Stones, take it or leave it. What do you say?"

"This..."

Li Mo hesitated.

Seven days was a very short time to master an advanced beginner-level spell. It would certainly be difficult. But then he suddenly remembered Zhang Guoyin's words of advice.

"Life is like a play, and every play must end. I hope you'll do everything in your power to seize the opportunities before you. Don't end up like this old man, filled with regrets for the rest of your life."

Li Mo took a deep breath, his gaze growing resolute.

"Deal."

He was about to draw up a written agreement, but Tian Fen waved his hands dismissively.

"Don't worry. I'm somebody in the Advanced Study Hall. Why would I cheat you out of twelve Spirit Stones? Once this examination is over, I'm planning to take a position in the Law Enforcement Hall. If you have Spirit Stones in the future, you can come find me again."

"All right, then."

After all, they were in the sect. It was unlikely that the man would cheat him.

As soon as Tian Fen received the Spirit Stones, he stuffed them into his Storage Pouch and grinned.

"Come with me. Once you master this spell, I guarantee it'll benefit you for the rest of your life."

The two went to Wudao Peak in the back mountains, where Tian Fen demonstrated the spell for Li Mo.

"Watch closely."

Tian Fen shouted, "Summon Thunder Slaves!"

Roiling bolts of lightning gathered before Tian Fen, forming two thunderous creatures that looked like hunting dogs and radiated a dangerous aura. Li Mo was stunned. It was a Five Elements Spiritual Power summoning technique!

With his current strength, he might have a chance if he had to deal with a single Thunder Slave.

But faced with two at once, he would be doomed.

Tian Fen snapped his fingers. The two thunderous creatures immediately sat down, letting him reach out and stroke them.

"This is the advanced beginner-level spell I'm going to teach you: Summon Thunder Slaves. Their strength depends on your comprehension of lightning, and their number depends on the strength of your magical power. Your power will keep draining for as long as they're summoned. But since this is only a beginner-level spell, the Thunder Slaves' maximum strength theoretically won't exceed the twelfth level of Qi Refining."

Li Mo was quite tempted.

Compared to Palm Lightning and the Lightning Ball Technique, Summon Thunder Slaves deserved its status as an advanced beginner-level spell. It was already beginning to leave the realm of ordinary knowledge, displaying the extraordinary qualities of a cultivator's divine abilities.

But as interested as he was in mastering Summon Thunder Slaves, there was another question on his mind that he couldn't shake.

"May I ask, aside from spending Spirit Stones to learn spells from other people, what other ways are there to learn spells?"

Tian Fen was taken aback, then burst out laughing.

"The easiest way, of course, is to find a good master, but that takes a bit of luck. Next, you can sit in on lectures given by your martial uncles and aunts. Then there's the Scripture Pavilion, but learning the spells there requires sect contributions. Usually, only cultivators holding positions in the Outer Sect halls bother with that."

Tian Fen seemed quite knowledgeable about the subject.

"You can also go trade at the marketplace down the mountain. It's run by our sect. And in the various counties, there are smaller marketplaces frequented by local Lineage cultivators and Rogue Cultivators. Other than that, you could investigate ancient cultivators' cave dwellings, hunt down rogue evil cultivators, exchange insights with other sects... Of course, if you're a genius who can comprehend and invent your own spells, then forget I said anything."

"Thank you for the guidance."

After committing Tian Fen's words to memory, Li Mo began asking him to explain the casting techniques for Summon Thunder Slaves.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.

The disciples who had gone home to visit their families returned to the sect one after another.

The annual year-end examination would begin tomorrow. Li Mo stayed in the back mountains, asking Tian Fen for guidance until late into the night. Once he had confirmed there was nothing left out, he followed Tian Fen's instructions and tried casting the spell again.

The magical power in his Dantian began boiling almost instantly.

With a loud shout, a dazzling bolt of lightning appeared before Li Mo. But the mass of lightning immediately collapsed and scattered. In the end, the lightning spiritual power failed to transform into the so-called Thunder Slave.

"Too bad. Your comprehension of lightning is still lacking. You haven't reached the minimum requirement for casting Summon Thunder Slaves. But there's nothing wrong with the spell itself."

Tian Fen stretched lazily.

"All right, it's almost midnight. Our agreed-upon deadline is up, and we have the examination tomorrow. I'm heading back to rest."

After Tian Fen left, Li Mo stood where he was, breathing a little hard.

"What a shame. I was so close."

Still, at least his efforts over the past seven days hadn't been wasted.

Although he still couldn't cast this advanced beginner-level spell, he had mastered every aspect of its casting. From now on, he could slowly work on comprehending the Way of Thunder.

After seven days of studying from dawn till dusk, he was about to reach his limit.

That night,

Li Mo discovered that he had entered the Mystic Dream again.

After all, once the summer flood season ended, he often went an entire month without entering the Mystic Dream even once. His luck was pretty good today.

The desolate, ancient land was silent as ever. Dark clouds blanketed the sky, and enormous shadows drifted past now and then.

Li Mo, in his shadow form, was about to instinctively circulate the Greater Celestial Circuit when he suddenly remembered what Tian Fen had said.

"My comprehension of lightning is still lacking?"

Li Mo slowly raised his head and looked up at the cloud-filled sky.

The Mystic Dream's sky was almost always churning with dark clouds, its atmosphere bristling with thunder.

From the first time Li Mo entered this place, he had noticed after waking that lightning seemed to hold a special significance here. The Mystic Box also recorded many methods for surviving tribulations of thunder. He had studied them for a while back when he was with the Pingshan Society, but soon gave up.

After all, who could hope to get struck by lightning?

"Maybe I can comprehend the power of lightning here?"

As the thought crossed his mind, Li Mo sat down on the ground.

Instead of cultivating by circulating his energy like he usually did, he closed his eyes, released his divine sense, and tried to comprehend the Way of Thunder here.

Gradually,

countless roars and murmurs surged toward Li Mo from all directions, like a flood bursting through a breached dike.

His brows furrowed slightly.

Fortunately, after three years, Li Mo had gradually grown used to this pain. He endured the sensation that his head was about to explode and continued listening carefully to the sounds around him.

"Sun Palace, Mystic Peak..."

"Spirit Reflection Mountain, Goddess Palace..."

The same mysterious place names that seemed impossible to find. Their names sounded as if they were being shouted by the mouths of countless people writhing in pain. The voices grew raspier and more anguished by the moment.

Evil, twisted shadows seemed to be closing in on those ethereal legends. Their absurdity, immensity, and wickedness defied description. The twisted monsters greedily surveyed the earth from above.

Li Mo's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

A bead of sweat ran down his forehead. He felt as though he was about to lose the strength to hold on.

Suddenly,

Crackling!

A bolt of lightning came crashing down from the sky and struck Li Mo's shadowy form squarely.

Caught off guard, he couldn't help but groan. His body crumpled to the ground, and his shadowy form, which had been solid as if cast from substance, seemed on the verge of falling apart!

"Ah..."

Wrapped in lightning, Li Mo endured the pain for a moment before finally letting out a hysterical cry of agony. He rolled around on the ground as the shadow at his edges kept dissipating.

"How could this happen?!"

Li Mo struggled to keep his wits about him.

He didn't understand why this was happening and began to regret his recklessness.

Just as Li Mo thought he was doomed to die this time, the pain seemed to start subsiding. He forced himself to look at his shadowy body and saw that his shadow had grown much fainter, but the lightning around him had been completely drained away.

"What is this?"

Suddenly,

amid the countless noises that had poured into his mind earlier, a certain sentence seemed to become crystal clear.

Before he could think, he felt as if something foreign had appeared inside his body. His mouth opened against his will, and he began retching over and over.

A clump of golden paper floated—or rather, burrowed—out of his open mouth.

Li Mo, still panting in his shadow form, felt somewhat shocked by the bizarre sight. Even so, he slowly extended his weak, trembling right hand, opened the mysterious ball of paper he had vomited up, and looked at the words inside.

"Th-this, this is... an Elixir Recipe?"

Li Mo stammered through the words, his heart churning like a storm-tossed sea. He couldn't make sense of the bizarre logic behind it all.