Freedom

After a satisfying breakfast, Huang Tian returned to his apartment and continued cultivating.

But after about three hours, he felt a slight swelling in his meridians. He had clearly reached his limit.

"Looks like I can't cultivate for more than twelve hours a day. Otherwise, the spiritual energy might circulate chaotically, and I'd end up worse off than before."

He came out of his meditative state. "Since I can't keep absorbing spiritual energy, I might as well try cultivating those two spells."

Huang Tian turned to the pages describing the Earth Golem Technique and Lesser Cloud and Rain Technique, doing his best to memorize and understand the contents.

Two minutes later, he closed his eyes. The cultivation methods for both spells surfaced in his mind, clear as day.

At the same time, he understood every detail and key to cultivating the spells, as though he had practiced them countless times already.

"My memory and comprehension have both improved significantly!

"Is this also an effect of cultivation? The first might be, but the second... Mo Qiu never said that cultivating the Yellow Heaven Mountain-Suppressing Spirit Scripture would improve comprehension.

"So it must be my superpower at work again."

Huang Tian was very pleased with the changes his superpower had brought, and he wanted to say:

Not enough! Not enough!

He shook his head and chuckled, feeling rather childish at that moment.

"I really am still young. My thoughts jump all over the place, and it's easy to get carried away..."

Huang Tian steadied his mind, suppressing the urge to try casting a spell right away. He picked up his keys, locked the apartment door, went downstairs, hopped on his electric scooter, and headed for Guangming Park.

Guangming Park had a grand name, but in reality it was just a flat plot on the outskirts of the city with a pavilion and a dozen or so pieces of exercise equipment. Several small hills stood behind the park.

There were no ferocious beasts on the hills, but the trees were dense and there were plenty of mosquitoes in summer. So as soon as night fell, people exercising or resting at Guangming Park usually left at once, lest they serve up a feast for the mosquitoes.

Huang Tian already lived near the outskirts of the city. After a ten-minute ride or so, he arrived at Guangming Park.

He parked his scooter and walked along the gravel path into the park. There were only a few elderly people there at the moment. Some were resting on the long stone benches in the pavilion, while others were playing chess with furrowed brows.

Huang Tian didn't stop. He walked straight through the park, then followed a narrow path into the hills behind it.

The farther in he went, the thicker the trees and undergrowth became. Birds were often startled by Huang Tian, flapping up into the sky and circling several times before settling back onto the branches.

Avoiding the crisscrossing branches, Huang Tian strolled unhurriedly up the hill. At last, the dense trees completely blocked his way.

Huang Tian stopped and looked around. Some trees stood tall and straight, while others leaned like beauties resting against a wall. The place was utterly quiet, broken only by the distant, faint sound of old men in the park shouting about takebacks in their chess games.

"This place is nice. Quiet, and no one around."

He stood on the dirt, closed his eyes, and focused. After a few breaths, he faintly sensed a weighty feeling rising from the earth.

His thoughts stirred. He drew on the spiritual energy in his body, fingers shifting through hand seals.

"Form!"

Rumble~

The ground within several meters trembled slightly. The surrounding earth and gravel seemed to be kneaded by an invisible hand, quickly swelling upward and gathering together to form a nearly three-meter-tall golem holding a stone hammer.

The golem's face was indistinct, without features, but just from its height, build, and weapon, one could tell how powerful it was.

Huang Tian walked up to the golem and found that he only reached its waist. Curiously, he patted its belly, back, and arms.

"It really does feel like dirt and stone."

Huang Tian circled the golem and said softly, "Reach out."

The golem immediately stretched both arms straight out.

"Lift your leg."

The golem quickly lifted its leg.

"Pick up that rock."

The golem walked in the direction Huang Tian pointed and easily lifted a boulder half its height, holding it at its waist.

"It's strong, and it moves pretty quickly. The Earth Golem Technique really is a decent low-level defensive spell. The drawback is that it consumes too much spiritual energy. Just forming a golem that can only last fifteen minutes used up nearly a third of mine."

"Mostly, my cultivation level is too low. If I were a few levels higher, I'd naturally have more spiritual energy in reserve, and casting spells would definitely be much easier."

Huang Tian shook his head and looked at the motionless golem. "Disperse!"

At his words, the towering golem immediately crumbled into chunks of stone and piles of dirt.

After testing the Earth Golem Technique, Huang Tian didn't rush to try the Lesser Cloud and Rain Technique. Instead, he took out his phone and opened the weather forecast.

"It says the weather will change in an hour, with a light rain."

He looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was already mostly hidden behind thick clouds. The sky was gradually darkening, and the air felt stifling.

"I'll use this time to meditate and replenish the spiritual energy I've spent."

More than half an hour later.

Huang Tian felt the spiritual energy in his body had returned to its full measure and nodded slightly. When he looked up again, the sun was completely obscured. Layer upon layer of dark clouds piled up like ink, and the daylight grew dim.

"Time to try the Lesser Cloud and Rain Technique."

His fingers shifted through hand seals. Spiritual energy surged out, guiding the moisture in the air to gather around him like a tornado.

Whoosh, whoosh~

Gusts of warm wind swept past, gently swaying the branches on the hill. Soon, the wind grew stronger. Trees swayed, leaves whirled through the air, and dust rose.

The clouds above seemed to follow the wind as they changed. Lead-gray clouds moved swiftly and piled together, growing darker and darker until they turned from lead gray to charcoal.

At the same time, the clouds sank lower, pressing down over the sky. It was as though something was churning and brewing within them.

Rumble—

Suddenly, a violet, spiderweb-shaped bolt of lightning tore across the sky. A thunderous roar followed, startling the birds and beasts in the woods. Some cowered in fear; others cried out in alarm.

Drip, drip.

Raindrops fell onto the leaves with soft splashes. In the blink of an eye, the sparse drops joined into strings, then wove together into a dense curtain of rain.

The rain poured as though basin after basin were being tipped down from the sky, roaring without the slightest sign of stopping.

The wind howled through the downpour, sometimes lashing the rain sideways, sometimes sweeping the moisture upward. Muffled thunder rumbled faintly through the layers of dark cloud, but the din of the storm drowned it out completely.

The whole mountainside was filled with the unending roar of the downpour washing over everything.

Huang Tian looked relaxed, letting the rain wash over him from head to toe.

As a boy, he had loved getting soaked in the rain, strolling and running through it because he thought it was cool.

When he grew up, he realized how foolish and embarrassingly childish that behavior had been.

But now, he gladly bathed in the violent wind and rain, because at that very moment, he felt something powerful within him: a sense of utter freedom.

Long trapped in a cage, I had finally returned to nature!