Night deepened, and Tianyuan City's clamor finally began to slowly subside.
After returning to his room at the inn, Shen Xiu did not rest. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the bed and completely immersed his mind within his body. The cultivation method for the seventh transformation of the Ninefold Thunder Body Art—"Thunder Soul"—surfaced continuously in his mind. Every word, every sentence contained the Thunder Emperor's ultimate understanding of physical cultivation.
The first six transformations tempered skin, flesh, bones, marrow, blood, and heart, fusing the power of thunder into every tangible part of the body. But the seventh transformation, "Thunder Soul," tempered something intangible—the soul.
The human soul was the most mysterious and elusive existence between heaven and earth. It had no form, no mass, yet carried all of a life's memories, consciousness, and emotions. Fusing the power of thunder into one's soul sounded like a fantasy from the heavens. One misstep, and one's soul would scatter, vanishing utterly from this world.
But the Thunder Emperor had done it, and Shen Xiu had to do it too.
He drew a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes. The thunder origin within him began to circulate slowly. An exceedingly fine thread of thunder power departed from his heart, traveled upward along his meridians, passed through his neck, and finally reached the golden mark between his brows.
That golden mark was the symbol of a Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Art cultivator, as well as the crucial point linking soul and body. Shen Xiu carefully controlled that thread of thunder power, letting it seep into the mark bit by bit.
Boom—
The instant the thunder power touched the mark, something seemed to explode in Shen Xiu's mind. His consciousness was dragged by a powerful force into an unfamiliar space—the depths of his own soul.