After connecting his consciousness to the Virtual Universe, Lu Ming went straight to the shopping section.
He searched directly for "Thunderlight Vine," looking for the best plan to help one break through to immortality.
Whoosh!
A highly detailed list instantly appeared, accompanied by success-rate estimates and explanations of the results from the Virtual Universe Company's authoritative department.
After looking it over, he found the total cost came to 1.68 billion Hunyuan Units.
Good heavens!
1.68 billion!
That was about the entire fortune of an ordinary King-Level Immortal.
It showed just how expensive it was to cultivate a plant life-form into an Immortal God—especially a powerful one.
"One batch probably won't be enough. Little Thunder isn't an ordinary Thunderlight Vine. It has a Hundredfold Gene, making it a hundred times stronger than an ordinary perfect Thunderlight Vine. Naturally, it'll need a hundred times the resources—in other words, a hundred batches."
A hundred batches. At 1.68 billion Hunyuan Units per batch, that came to 168 billion Hunyuan Units!
That sum would be enough to bankrupt the vast majority of King-Level Immortals!
Even King-Level Limits were no exception!
Cultivate an auxiliary plant life-form? You'd have to be crazy!
Fortunately, Lu Ming had a cheat. He wasn't short of money!
Over the past thousand years, he had accumulated more than two trillion Hunyuan Units!
Buy!
He had to buy them!
"One hundred batches. Given Little Thunder's size and potential, that may only be the bare minimum. I'll need to leave plenty of extra to make sure nothing goes wrong."
After a brief moment of thought, he made his decision.
"Buy! Let's go with two hundred batches! So what if it's 336 billion Hunyuan Units? I've spent over a thousand years making this money. Isn't this exactly what it's for?"
336 billion Hunyuan Units!
If word of that sum got out, it would drive countless King-Level Immortals across the Human Territory mad!
And now, Lu Ming was going to invest every last unit of it in a single World Lord Level Thunderlight Vine!
"Confirm order: 'Thunderlight Vine (216-Vine) Immortal God Breakthrough Perfect Resource Package.' Quantity: 200 batches."
Lu Ming calmly gave the instruction to his virtual assistant.
[ Ding! Please confirm. Total order amount: 336,000,000,000 Hunyuan Units.]
The cold system prompt rang out, as if confirming the astronomical sum.
"Confirm payment."
[Payment successful! The goods will be delivered to your designated secure address through a secret channel of the Cosmic Galaxy Bank.]
Watching his account balance shrink by a huge amount in an instant, Lu Ming felt nothing but anticipation and reassurance.
The money had come easily in the first place, so spending it didn't bother him.
"Little Thunder, your master just spent a fortune on you that even countless King-Level Limits couldn't afford. Don't disappoint me..."
After paying the staggering sum that would leave even King-Level Limits dumbstruck, it took only a month for a specially made storage container holding 200 batches of perfect resources, escorted in secret by the Cosmic Galaxy Bank, to arrive safely at the lord's manor on Tianque Planet.
As soon as Lu Ming received it, he wasted no time. He boarded an ordinary D-class spaceship and left Tianque Planet, using Cosmic Shuttle to reach a Barren Star Domain far from the core regions of the Human Territory.
Stars were sparse here, energy was scarce, and even space pirates couldn't be bothered to visit.
After picking a lifeless rocky planet at random, Lu Ming put away his spaceship and vanished into his Internal World—the "Forest of Life" supported by the Thunderlight Vine.
The central area of the Forest of Life had already been cleared.
The Sacred Tree of Life, a million kilometers tall, radiated a gentle yet immense aura of life. Before it, the 216-Vine Thunderlight Vine, its entire body a deep purplish gold and wrapped in terrifying lightning, waited quietly.
Every one of its vines was like a forged length of purplish-gold divine metal, its flowing lightning patterns faintly echoing the radiance given off by the Sacred Tree of Life.
"Little Thunder."
Lu Ming appeared in midair.
"Master."
The enormous Thunderlight Vine sent him a wave of excitement mixed with a hint of nervousness. It knew that the moment that would decide its fate had arrived.
"Relax. Follow the sequence and method I taught you, one step at a time."
Lu Ming's voice was steady, reassuring.
He had already taught Little Thunder every detail of the best breakthrough plan through the Virtual Universe.
"Yes, Master!"
The first step began.
With a wave of his hand, Lu Ming produced two hundred crystal bottles blazing with lightning. Inside was the "Myriad Thunder Source Liquid," which looked like liquid thunder.
"Swallow them!"
Boom!
Two hundred main vines shot through the sky like purplish-gold dragons, swallowing the crystal bottles and the Myriad Thunder Source Liquid inside them.
In an instant, dazzling lightning burst across the entire Thunderlight Vine. Countless electric snakes darted wildly, unleashing a deafening roar.
Fine cracks even began to form across the vine's surface, only to be rapidly repaired by its immense vitality.
"It hurts... The lightning power is so immense..." Little Thunder sent through its consciousness.
"Endure it! This is only the beginning!" Lu Ming said calmly. At the same time, he waved his hand, producing the second batch of resources: two hundred "Life Cores" radiating a rich aura of life.
"Keep devouring!"
The process was tedious and drawn out.
One precious material after another was devoured by the Thunderlight Vine in a precise sequence and proportion.
The Myriad Thunder Source Liquid tempered its essence, the Life Cores supplied energy, Void Crystals stabilized its world, and insights into the laws guided the crystals to enhance its resonance... Every step was crucial. There could be no mistakes.
The process lasted a full five days!
The combined volume of the materials consumed was nearly two-thirds the size of the Thunderlight Vine itself!
Their value came to the staggering sum of 336 billion Hunyuan Units!
"The final step!"
Lu Ming's gaze sharpened.
"Devour all thirty-six of these auxiliary materials at once!"
The 216 main vines, already poised and ready, instantly became purplish-gold blurs that devoured everything in their path. They swept up the final batch of materials, each glowing with a different light, their energies perfectly complementary.
The instant it finished devouring them, the entire Thunderlight Vine suddenly froze.
Then—
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A dense barrage of ear-splitting cracking sounds erupted from every inch of the Thunderlight Vine's body!
Its purplish-gold vines, stretching across tens of thousands of kilometers, were instantly shrouded in countless brilliant colors. The light swirled, breathtakingly beautiful, yet filled with the utmost destruction and renewal!
Split! Regenerate!
The old vine skins, structures, and even some of the internal tissues rapidly peeled away and crumbled like a shedding skin. New vines, tougher and imbued with deeper mysteries of the laws, grew at a visible pace!
It underwent a complete transformation every few seconds!
This rate of evolution was so frenzied it was suffocating!
Lu Ming hovered in midair, staring fixedly at the Thunderlight Vine below as it twisted and struggled through pain and rebirth, growing stronger by the moment. He silently urged it on: "Hold on! You have to keep going! If you stop now, all our effort will have been wasted!"
This high-frequency, perfect evolution continued for a full two hours!
Two hours later.
"Whir—"
At last, the special energy that had been accumulating deep within the Thunderlight Vine's core, formed from countless precious materials fused together, found its chance to erupt!