Command the Five Thunders

The Qi-Gathering Pill seemed to have become the most widely accepted trade resource besides spirit stones.

Many of the sect's benefits and rewards were distributed directly as Qi-Gathering Pills.

Yet Dong Lin had hardly relied on pills during his cultivation.

"Every medicine carries some toxicity. No matter how purified and refined these Qi-Gathering Pills are, there will still be some residual pill toxicity."

Unless he truly had no other choice, Dong Lin preferred not to take pills to accelerate his daily cultivation.

The Spatial Ring Senior Brother Lu had given Dong Lin held ten cubic meters, nearly enough to meet all his current storage needs.

Spatial Rings were controlled with spiritual energy and relatively easy to use, but retrieving and storing items came with a certain delay. Using one in battle could sometimes cost a crucial opportunity.

High-level cultivators generally switched to more advanced Profound Void Rings. Their requirements were considerably higher, as they needed spiritual power that could be projected outward and were operated using divine sense.

Qi Refining Stage cultivators, and even most Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, could use their spiritual sense for acts such as controlling objects, but it was still rather inadequate for operating spatial rings.

Because Profound Void Rings required divine sense to manipulate space, the demands placed on divine sense were extremely high. Without some understanding of spatial power, it was easy to injure one's own divine sense.

Spatial Rings were created specifically to solve this problem,

as a second-generation storage ring,

allowing cultivators to use storage rings with virtually no difficulty.

They could be called an unparalleled, groundbreaking invention in the cultivation world.

The principle was rather complicated, but ultimately, spiritual power controlled the ring's surface,

while the spatial ring itself handled and responded to the spatial processes of storing and retrieving items.

The Spatial Ring had been adjusted and optimized based on the Profound Void Ring.

Its downside was that storing and retrieving items was somewhat slower than with a Profound Void Ring, and it was also far more expensive.

Meanwhile, the Profound Void Rings used by high-level cultivators were much less difficult and costly to forge.

Since their difficulty and cost were lower than those of Spatial Rings, Profound Void Rings were naturally generally much larger as well.

The ten-cubic-meter ring in Dong Lin's hand was already considered fairly large among Spatial Rings,

while ordinary Profound Void Rings generally started at ten cubic meters,

and enormous spatial rings holding hundreds of cubic meters were not rare.

Unfortunately, Dong Lin could not experience such high-end spatial artifacts for the time being.

Dong Lin sorted through his valuables and tossed them all into the ring in one go.

"I should find a time to sell some Qi-Gathering Pills. Keeping them with me is just a waste."

Living on Black Mountain, Dong Lin had no shortage of spiritual energy,

so there was no use for pills that assisted with gathering spiritual energy. He might as well sell them for spirit stones.

"The advantages of living on Black Mountain are simply too great!"

After living there for only a few days, Dong Lin had felt Black Mountain's superiority in every respect.

It was completely incomparable to the Spirit Chambers where he had lived before.

"Apparently, the sect also has Mystic Yellow Spirit Chambers open to disciples for a fee. I wonder whether their spiritual energy concentration reaches that of Black Mountain."

Too few disciples were qualified to cultivate on Black Mountain. There were fewer than a hundred in the entire sect.

For an immortal sect like the Heaven Sect, which had tens of thousands of disciples, one hundred was an extremely small number.

The difficulty of cultivating the later stages of the Thunder Summoning Art still exceeded Dong Lin's expectations somewhat.

It took nearly half a month before he truly brought this Lightning Art to perfection.

Lightning transformed into streaks of thunder dragons that roamed around Dong Lin.

The Spirit Infusion Art, Dong Lin's only defensive method at present, had also been further developed by him.

Now, when Dong Lin cast the Spirit Infusion Art for defense, he could add lightning attributes to it.

This greatly enhanced the defensive properties of the spiritual energy shield produced by the Spirit Infusion Art.

What had once been a spiritual energy shield that merely neutralized spells had become a lightning shield that annihilated them.

Its former transparent, intangible state had also transformed into a form where lightning coursed around Dong Lin's body.

When Dong Lin cast the Spirit Infusion Art, he looked like a thunder god descending into the world, wreathed in lightning and exceedingly intimidating.

Successfully grasping the True Intent of Thunder immediately gave Dong Lin a sudden insight.

His divine sense slowly approached the faint golden radiance stretching across his mind.

The portion concerning Command the Five Thunders revealed itself to Dong Lin at that moment.

Dong Lin instantly understood many things.

The essence of his talent for Lightning Arts had been bestowed upon him by the progenitor of this Lightning Art within his mind.

Now that his cultivation had achieved a modest level, Dong Lin could finally understand a small part of the complex knowledge that had been instilled deep within his mind.

Command the Five Thunders essentially encompassed all the foundations and mysteries of Lightning Arts.

This art, Command the Five Thunders, was one of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang Arts. It had been created by the Heavenly Court's Thunder Ancestor, the Nine Heavens Responsive Primordial Thunder Universalizing Celestial Worthy.

The Five Thunders were Sky Thunder, Earth Thunder, Water Thunder, Divine Thunder, and Shrine Thunder.

Sky Thunder governed the proper order of Heaven and the cycle of the four seasons, bringing forth all things, protecting against calamities, beheading heavenly demons, dispelling plagues, capturing heavenly fiends, curing all difficult evils, saving lives and aiding childbirth, and healing great suffering.

Earth Thunder governed the growth of all things, nourished the five grains, swept away insects and locusts, slew mountain spirits and stone monsters, cleared mountain miasmas and pestilence, delivered dead souls, restrained the earth's energies, and prayed for clear skies or rain.

Water Thunder was also called "Water Thunder." It governed the use of thunder to bring rain, relieved droughts, eradicated flood dragons, venomous snakes, vicious mirages, and spirits, stirred winds and raised clouds, and governed the affairs of the water palaces.

Divine Thunder governed slaughter and punishment, dealing with improperly worshipped deities, demons causing trouble, mountain fiends and the Five Communicators, as well as the spirits of Buddhist temples, pagodas, halls, residences, Daoist temples, mountains, and rivers.

Shrine Thunder was also called "Demon Thunder." It governed the killing of ancient artifact spirits, subduing lingering primordial energies, and destroying altars and temples. No memorial need be submitted; it could be employed at one's discretion.

Dong Lin spent three full days and nights before he barely managed to sort through the terror of Command the Five Thunders.

Sky Thunder swept away heavenly demons and exterminated evil aberrations.

Earth Thunder nourished all things, removed spirits and monsters, and delivered the souls of the dead.

Water Thunder governed the affairs of the water palaces and innately countered all water-based members of the Demon Race, including flood dragons and vicious mirages.

Divine Thunder governed slaughter and punishment. It possessed the greatest power and could destroy even deities.

Shrine Thunder exterminated demons and devils, cleansing resentment and Baleful Intent.

The Five Thunders encompassed nearly everything. By fully mastering this art, one could practically take the place of the Thunder Division, patrol Heaven and Earth, punish evil and promote good, and regulate wind and rain.

"Doesn't that make me invincible?"

After sorting through this Heavenly Gang Art, Dong Lin muttered to himself.

"In this world, it would be a complete dimensionality-reduction strike. With a single Divine Thunder, how could these cultivators possibly compare to enlightened true immortals?

Even deities sustained eternally by the power of incense offerings could be slain. That was the tyranny of the Heavenly Court Thunder Division's orthodox arts!"

The five kinds of Lightning Arts within Command the Five Thunders had no particular order of priority.

Yet regardless of which one it was, cultivating and mastering it would not be easy.

Judging from the effects of the various Lightning Arts, Sky Thunder and Earth Thunder were the ones Dong Lin was most likely to need at present.

The remaining three Lightning Arts, especially Divine Thunder, were immensely powerful, but they were of little use to Dong Lin at his current level.

If a Qi Refining Stage cultivator like Dong Lin truly faced a deity, he would likely be glared to death by a heavenly god before he could even form hostile intent or cast a spell.

Now, the Heavenly Gang Art Command the Five Thunders had only just entered the doorway.

As for the truly supreme immortal art that led directly to the end of the Great Dao, the Eight-Nine Mystical Art, Dong Lin still had no clue.

He had no idea how to begin with the true treasure hidden deep within his mind.