Thunder Marsh

"Why did I suddenly feel my heart palpitate, as if something had its eyes on me?"

Lei Xiao clutched his chest and frowned toward the northwest.

Yet the feeling had come quickly and vanished just as quickly, as though it had all been an illusion.

"Could someone be plotting against me?"

A sharp glint flashed in Lei Xiao's eyes as a figure surfaced in his mind—Zhao Gongming.

He had not forgotten the malice he had sensed from Zhao Gongming when they parted. In the Primordial World, there were not many living beings who bore ill will toward him, and Zhao Gongming was one of them.

Moreover, the Eye of Heavenly Retribution could see through karma. Since Zhao Gongming had appeared in his mind, Zhao Gongming was most likely plotting against him.

"Zhao Gongming, you'd best behave yourself. Otherwise, don't blame me for disregarding the bond between fellow disciples."

A cold gleam flashed through Lei Xiao's eyes. Then he turned into a streak of lightning and continued toward the Primordial Continent.

No matter what, his cultivation was still too weak. He needed to increase his strength.

Thirty years later.

"The Primordial World is too vast. Even with a speed far beyond that of an ordinary peak Golden Immortal, it still took me thirty years just to travel from Wind Abyss to the Primordial Continent." Lei Xiao sighed.

Standing at the edge of the Primordial Continent, his gaze swept over the boundless land before him. In the distance, he saw the outline of an enormous mountain peak.

Mount Buzhou.

Those three words naturally surfaced in his mind.

Looking at that enormous mountain silhouette, seemingly at the edge of heaven yet also right before his eyes, Lei Xiao felt his own insignificance for the first time.

Truly, like a mayfly glimpsing the blue heavens.

"Keep moving. Based on the direction I divined, flying at full speed should get me to Thunder Marsh in roughly a hundred and twenty years."

Lei Xiao took a deep breath, suppressing the awe in his heart that came from the ancestral vein of the Primordial World. With a flicker, he transformed into a pale violet streak of lightning, concealed his aura, and sped toward Thunder Marsh.

There were countless powerful experts on the Primordial Continent. If a mere Golden Immortal like him drew too much attention, some "expert" who found him displeasing might simply attack him.

Far more living beings on the Primordial Continent had taken form than in the East Sea. Seeing so many figures transformed into innate Dao bodies, scarcely different from the humans of later generations, Lei Xiao was initially somewhat dazed.

Some memories from later generations had been stirred.

But Lei Xiao quickly came back to himself. They were not humans. In the current Primordial World, the human race had yet to be born.

Before he knew it, a hundred and twenty years had flown by.

He had arrived at Thunder Marsh.

Lei Xiao halted his escape light, and the sight before him made him pause in surprise.

Thunder Marsh was not the hellscape he had imagined, with thunder raging and lightning serpents dancing wildly.

On the contrary, this vast and boundless marsh possessed a strange yet magnificent beauty.

The thunder filling the sky was no longer a violent force of destruction. Instead, it had transformed into crystalline spiritual flowers and exotic grasses, and towering verdant trees.

Purple lightning condensed into petals, golden arcs of electricity became branches and leaves, and silvery-white thunder wove itself into vines. The entire Thunder Marsh resembled an immortal realm forged from lightning.

"So this is Thunder Marsh..."

Lei Xiao murmured softly, amazement flashing in his eyes.

He finally understood why this great marsh was called "Thunder Marsh" rather than "Thunder Sea" or "Thunder Domain."

Here, thunder was no longer simply a force of slaughter. It had become the vitality that nurtured all things. Supremely yang and unyielding thunder had settled and evolved through endless ages, ultimately becoming this world of lightning.

"What a fine Thunder Marsh."

Lei Xiao stepped inside. The thunder beneath his feet turned into soft grass, and with every step he took, fine sparks of lightning spread from beneath his soles, as though he were walking atop a river of stars.

Violent thunder power entered Lei Xiao's body, but before it could damage his flesh, his body automatically absorbed and refined it.

"Even the ordinary thunder here contains wisps of thunder origin. To others, this place is a land of death, but to me, it is a sacred ground for cultivation."

Lei Xiao could clearly sense that after entering Thunder Marsh, the fusion speed of the Purple Firmament Origin Divine Thunder had increased by more than tenfold.

And this was only the outermost edge of Thunder Marsh.

Lei Xiao calmed his excited heart and was about to continue forward when an extremely dangerous sensation suddenly rose within him.

He instinctively looked up and saw a bolt of black lightning descending from above. Wherever that black lightning passed, space was silently torn apart and shattered.

"What kind of thunder is this?"

Lei Xiao was horrified. He could feel even the Purple Firmament Origin Divine Thunder within him trembling faintly, as if it had encountered its natural enemy.

Without time to think, Lei Xiao immediately activated the Eye of Heavenly Retribution.

The Eye of Heavenly Retribution could be considered part of the authority of heavenly tribulation. Even thunder at the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal level would be suppressed before it.

A purple-gold vertical eye abruptly opened between his brows, radiating an ancient and majestic aura.

At that instant, as if answering a summons, the flowers, grasses, and trees around him that had been nurtured from wisps of thunder origin uprooted themselves and transformed into pure thunder power, which flowed into the Eye of Heavenly Retribution.

In an instant, the aura of the Eye of Heavenly Retribution began to soar madly.

The vertical eye, originally only purple-gold, was now tinged with a faint shade of chaos. Within it, countless bolts of lightning seemed to be born and extinguished, while heaven and earth evolved.

That ancient, majestic aura gradually transformed from suppression into a judgmental intent that stood above all things.

Nourished by Thunder Marsh, this land of thunder origin, the Eye of Heavenly Retribution was undergoing a terrifyingly rapid transformation.

Yet even so, the feeling of being shrouded by death did not fade.

"I have to use the Sword Qi Teacher left behind."

Lei Xiao immediately activated the Sword Qi Tongtian had left him. It was his life-saving trump card, yet he did not hesitate in the slightest to use it.

A life-saving trump card was indeed precious, but if he did not use it now, he would have no chance to use it after he died.

The instant the Sword Qi was activated, Lei Xiao felt as though the entire world had frozen.

It was not that time had truly stopped, but that the "Dao" contained within that Sword Qi was too terrifying. In that moment, it completely filled his senses, leaving no room for any other information.

A streak of clear light surged out of Lei Xiao's body, its sword intent piercing the heavens.

The sword intent was clear and cold as water, yet sharp as heavenly punishment. There was no earth-shaking momentum, no vision that blanketed the sky. There was only a simple strand of Sword Qi, quietly suspended above Lei Xiao's head like a silver thread.

The silver Sword Qi trembled gently and silently met the attack.

The instant the two ultimate forces collided in midair, everything became deathly silent.

Like an incomparably sharp blade, the silver Sword Qi cut into the black lightning.

The destructive power carried by the black lightning surged frantically, trying to devour and erase the Sword Qi. But wherever the Sword Qi passed, that destructive force melted away inch by inch from its tip like ice and snow beneath a blazing sun.

Yet the black lightning was equally extraordinary. It too gradually wore away the silver Sword Qi. In the end, after more than half of the black lightning had been consumed, it completely ground away the silver Sword Qi.