Sword Drawing Heaven's Might

"I'm not sure."

Hu Liena grew anxious.

"You're going to try without being sure?"

"When it comes to cultivation, how can anyone be certain of everything?"

"At least your teacher and the elders watch over you when you absorb Soul Rings. What if something goes wrong with this?"

Su Chen looked at Hu Liena.

"When you challenged me earlier, did you know for certain that you'd lose?"

Hu Liena's face reddened.

"That's different."

"How is it different?"

"I... at least I won't get struck to death by lightning."

Su Chen nodded.

"That is a problem."

Bibi Dong suddenly spoke.

"If you wish to try, I'll stand guard for you."

Hu Liena froze.

"Teacher!"

"Don't try to persuade me."

Bibi Dong rose to her feet, purple soul power flashing around her.

"Su Chen is right. Soul Rings may not be the only path."

"However, I'll give you only one chance."

"If I sense anything wrong, stop immediately and go to Spirit Hunting Forest."

Su Chen smiled.

"Fine."

Hu Liena bit her lip.

"I'm coming too."

"What are you going for?"

"To help keep watch."

"With that little soul power of yours, if lightning comes down, I'll have to deal with you first."

"Su Chen!"

Bibi Dong gave Hu Liena a calm glance.

"Nana can come, but she must stand farther away."

"This disciple understands."

Before long, the three arrived at the high platform outside Papal Hall.

Dark clouds had already pressed down over Wuhun City.

The rain had yet to fall, but the air was already heavy with moisture.

Su Chen neither went into the open wilderness nor asked Spirit Hall to clear the area.

The platform was high enough, and no ordinary soul masters were nearby.

Bibi Dong stood dozens of paces away, her soul power forming an invisible barrier around Hu Liena.

Hu Liena folded her arms, her gaze fixed tightly on Su Chen.

"You're really going to draw lightning here?"

"Lightning doesn't belong to my family. Whether it comes or not depends on whether it's willing to show me some respect."

"Then why did you make it sound so convincing earlier?"

"I can't lose in presence."

Hu Liena snorted irritably.

"If you fail, I'll laugh at you every day from now on."

"Then you'd better find somewhere to hide first."

Su Chen walked to the center of the platform and laid the ordinary iron sword across his knees.

Supreme Guidance Art slowly began to circulate.

Spiritual energy gathered from all directions, flowing through the twelve primary meridians before finally sinking into his dantian.

Unlike the frenzied absorption during his initial awakening, Su Chen kept every strand of power firmly under control this time.

Thunderclouds churned overhead.

Bibi Dong's eyes shifted slightly.

Those clouds had originally been nothing more than ordinary rain clouds.

Yet as Su Chen circulated his cultivation art, lightning-attributed energy within the clouds began gathering above the platform.

It wasn't soul power.

It was the purest, most violent power of lightning between heaven and earth.

"Teacher, does this count as success?"

Hu Liena kept her voice low.

Bibi Dong didn't answer.

Because even she couldn't judge what was happening before her.

Su Chen didn't look up. He merely used his spiritual sense to perceive the changes within the clouds.

Lightning wasn't merely destruction.

The clouds accumulated moisture as the yin and yang energies of heaven and earth collided, compressed, separated, and erupted. Only then did lightning descend.

Destruction carried rebirth within it.

After the thunder passed, all things received rain.

The path of the sword was the same.

Without an edge, a sword was merely a piece of iron.

But if its edge was too fierce, it could easily break.

One had to use lightning to strike away the impurities within ordinary iron, while also borrowing lightning to preserve that sliver of vitality.

A realization rose within his heart.

[ Ding! ]

[ Observing the workings of heaven and earth's lightning, you have comprehended the principles of thunder arts' birth and destruction. ]

[ Combining the Supreme Guidance Art with the origin of the sword path, enlightenment successful! ]

[ Self-created thunder art: Violet Firmament Thunder-Attracting Art ]

A vast amount of formulas flooded into his sea of consciousness.

Drawing lightning wasn't about forcibly seizing heavenly thunder.

It was about using one's own spiritual energy as a lure, the sword as a vessel, and the mind to anchor the Sword Intent of lightning.

Su Chen opened his eyes and formed hand seals with both hands.

"Violet Firmament draws lightning, the sword draws heaven's might."

The clouds suddenly flashed.

Hu Liena instinctively stepped forward.

"Su Chen!"

Bibi Dong raised a hand to stop her.

"Don't go over."

The next moment, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky.

It didn't strike a person.

The lightning struck the ordinary iron sword with perfect precision.

The blade shuddered violently.

Su Chen's palm went numb from the impact. Spiritual energy surged wildly within him, guiding the lightning force entering through the sword into his meridians.

Agonizing pain spread from his arm through his entire body.

Hu Liena's face turned pale.

"Teacher, make him stop!"

Bibi Dong's fingers tightened slightly.

"Wait a little longer."

"But he's hurt!"

"How can cultivation be without injury?"

The moment those words left her mouth, Bibi Dong herself paused.

Once upon a time, she had walked this very path.

Pushed onward by fate, gritting her teeth, refusing to lower her head.

On the high platform, Su Chen didn't release the sword.

Lightning force rampaged through his meridians. His originally smooth circulation of spiritual energy was scattered again and again, then gathered together again and again.

Under the pressure of the lightning, the Supreme Guidance Art circulated faster and faster.

The ordinary iron sword emitted a deep hum.

Fine cracks surfaced across the blade.

Hu Liena's eyes reddened.

"The sword is going to break."

"It won't."

Sweat beaded on Su Chen's forehead, but he continued staring at the blade.

"If ordinary iron wants to become a sword, it has to take a few beatings."

The second bolt of lightning descended.

This time, Su Chen raised the sword on his own initiative.

Lightning poured in through the sword tip.

The cracks on the blade didn't widen. Instead, they were gradually filled by streaks of purple light.

Those streaks flowed between the sword's spine and edge before finally condensing into several fine patterns.

Bibi Dong's expression finally changed.

That wasn't the power of a Soul Ring.

Nor was it a soul skill.

That ordinary iron sword was absorbing the laws within the lightning.

Within Su Chen, the soul power that had remained at level ten began to change.

It was no longer merely soul power.

After circulating through his meridians, being tempered by lightning, and compressed by Sword Intent, that power became more condensed and more stable.

Within his dantian, a strand of pale-purple energy slowly condensed.

Qi Refining Stage, first layer.

Su Chen slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.

The thunderclouds above lost their pull and began to disperse.

At last, rain began to fall.

Hu Liena shook off Bibi Dong's hand and rushed to the center of the platform.

"How are you?"

"My hand's a little numb."

"That's it?"

"What else? Did you want me lying on the ground coughing up blood?"

"That's not what I meant!"

Su Chen spread open his hand.

There were indeed several burn marks on his palm, but they weren't serious.

Hu Liena looked at the sword, her eyes slowly widening.

The ordinary iron sword had changed.

The blade was still plain, but pale-purple lightning patterns now ran across it. Rainwater fell onto the sword and slid along those patterns, while tiny flashes of electricity occasionally flickered.

Bibi Dong approached and extended her hand, though she didn't touch the sword immediately.

"Is this the law you condensed?"

"Not yet."

Su Chen shook his head.

"I merely left the lightning inside the sword."

"The Soul Ring still hasn't appeared?"

"No."

The relief Hu Liena had just felt vanished, and her heart tightened again.

"Then after all that, you're still level ten?"

Su Chen raised the sword, his fingertips lightly tracing the lightning patterns.

"My soul power level hasn't changed."

"But the path has."

Bibi Dong looked at Su Chen, then at the sword.

"From today onward, this sword will no longer be an ordinary iron sword."

Su Chen thought for a moment.

"Then let's call it the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword."

Hu Liena immediately nodded.

"That's a good name."

Su Chen looked at her.

"Weren't you about to laugh at me for failing just now?"

Hu Liena turned her head aside.

"When did I ever say that?"

"You did."

"You heard wrong."

"Teacher, did you hear it?"

A rare hint of a smile appeared on Bibi Dong's face.

"This one only saw someone who was so anxious just now that she was nearly in tears."