Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder

"Since I promised to help Senior Brother Lü spur these three seeds, I should cultivate Earth Thunder first."

Cultivating Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder was no longer as easy and casual as the Thunder Summoning Art.

From the very first step, it required the cultivator to grasp the True Intent of Thunder, wield the power of True Intent, circulate spiritual energy through complex pathways, connect with heaven and earth, and thereby unleash Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder.

This lightning art borrowed neither favorable timing nor advantageous terrain, nor did it originate from within the cultivator's body. Lightning arose from the void; wherever divine sense reached, it could be unleashed with a single thought.

"Isn't the concept of the void a little too complicated?"

After studying at the Immortal Arts Hall for so long, Dong Lin had gained some understanding of several True Intent attributes.

Yet he had never heard of the concept of the void.

The void was everywhere. Wherever there was space, there was void.

Trying to understand even a trace of the void's power in order to wield this Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder had stumped Dong Lin for a long time.

Fortunately, the golden ball of light contained not only the technique itself, but also explanations of its underlying principles.

It was as though an Immortal who had perfected the technique had poured every part of the cultivation process and every detail of their understanding straight into Dong Lin's mind.

Though Dong Lin understood only half of what was inside, as long as he spent enough time, he would one day comprehend it all.

Since the grand ceremony, Dong Lin had cultivated continuously for more than three months.

Aside from tending his Spirit Field on schedule, he had thrown himself heart and soul into cultivating Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder.

When he opened the hall doors, winter had descended upon heaven and earth, and all things lay silent.

The entire Inner Realm of Heaven Hall was veiled in a faint layer of white.

Dong Lin stretched out a hand and caught two snowflakes drifting down in a gentle sway.

He watched the hexagonal snowflakes slowly melt in his palm.

"The weather in the Inner Realm is actually this realistic? I wonder if it's synchronized with the outside world."

Dong Lin mounted the immortal crane and left Heaven Hall through the teleportation array.

Outside, the sun shone brightly. Though winter was approaching, the sky stretched cloudless for thousands of miles, without the slightest trace of snow.

"Does the Inner Realm's weather system operate independently? It already counts as a small world of its own, doesn't it?"

Dong Lin fell into thought.

The immortal cranes were raised by a branch subordinate to the sect's Cavern Repository. Generally, every personal disciple who had yet to reach Foundation Establishment

and needed to travel would be specially assigned an immortal crane for transportation.

This kept them from constantly troubling Elder Feng to ferry personal disciples up and down Black Mountain.

Dong Lin arrived at the market and sold most of the Qi-Gathering Pills on him, keeping only one bottle of Black-Tier Mid-Grade Qi-Gathering Pills in case of emergency.

Besides aiding cultivation, Qi-Gathering Pills could also be consumed during magical combat to replenish the spiritual energy depleted by casting spells.

Although their effects were similar to specialized spirit-replenishing pills, they were considerably more expensive than spirit-replenishing pills serving the same purpose,

so cultivators generally kept spirit-replenishing pills on hand instead.

But Dong Lin truly had little use for them in cultivation,

so, flush with money as he was, he felt there was no need to buy an extra bottle of spirit-replenishing pills.

After all, Dong Lin had no immediate need to engage in magical combat, so it was better to keep a bottle of Qi-Gathering Pills.

"If I'm ever forced to take one, I wonder whether I can handle the immense spiritual energy of a Black-Tier Qi-Gathering Pill."

After selling the pills, along with the insect shells he had harvested over the past few months,

he counted the Spirit Stones on him back and forth several times, then nodded in satisfaction.

At that moment, Dong Lin possessed more than three thousand eight hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Qi-Gathering Pills were valuable enough, especially Black-Tier Qi-Gathering Pills.

The market price of one bottle of Black-Tier Low-Grade pills was around five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

The four bottles in Dong Lin's possession had sold for a total of two thousand Spirit Stones.

He had not returned to his Spirit Chamber for a long time, but everything inside remained unchanged.

Thanks to the marvels of Heaven Hall, so long as no outside clutter was brought in, dust barely accumulated within.

The entire Spirit Chamber was still clean and orderly.

Dong Lin put the jar of spirit tea into his ring and looked around.

As for the meditation cushion with its fairly effective mind-calming properties, Dong Lin now had a better one and no longer needed it.

However, the Hanging-Eyed White Tiger Painting on the wall caught Dong Lin's attention.

There seemed to be some secret hidden within it, yet Dong Lin could not quite say where it lay.

Not dwelling on it further, he put the painting into his ring first, intending to study it carefully when he had time.

After nearly three months, Dong Lin had only barely entered the doorway of Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder.

His cultivation had also naturally grown by ten yuan due to Black Mountain's dense spiritual energy.

Within his dantian, he had accumulated one hundred and thirty-three yuan of spiritual energy.

Next, Dong Lin planned to devote himself fully to raising his cultivation.

Cultivation was the foremost priority for cultivators; realm was the foundation of everything.

Only once one's realm rose could the power of one's techniques increase, and one's horizons broaden.

He took some spirit-energy-infused soil from the Spirit Field and filled the clay pot he had casually bought at the market.

After returning to Thunderwave Hall, he planted the three seeds Senior Brother Lü had given him.

"Earth Thunder governs growth and emergence. Its effect should be better than the Sky Thunder containing True Intent that Senior Brother requested. If it doesn't work, I can nurture them with Sky Thunder instead."

Dong Lin activated Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder. Three finger-thick strands of electricity wrapped around the three seeds.

Though there was little electric plasma, the lightning power contained within its flickering violet glow was enough to make one's heart pound in alarm.

He figured he would nurture them like this each day for several days. If there was no movement, he would try switching to Sky Thunder.

After around ten breaths, more than half of Dong Lin's spiritual energy had already been consumed.

After withdrawing his hand, he placed the clay pot in the alchemy room and was just about to turn and leave.

"Hmm?"

A faint cracking sound made Dong Lin stop. He lowered his head toward the Date Spirit Thunderwood seeds in the clay pot.

The slightly larger one had split open at the top of its seed shell, and a touch of tender green sprout flickered in and out of view.

"The effect is this good?!"

Dong Lin had still underestimated the effect of Earth Thunder.

"Another application tomorrow, and the other two seeds will probably sprout as well."

Dong Lin nodded in satisfaction, then turned and went back to cultivate.

Before cultivating, he took out the White Tiger Painting that he had previously stored in his ring from the cultivation Spirit Chamber and hung it in his cultivation room.

"It does feel like a pretty good decoration."

Dong Lin looked at the White Tiger, vivid in both form and spirit, and nodded with satisfaction.

Early the next morning, Dong Lin had just finished cultivating and stretched lazily when he planned to go deal with the seeds first.

Two clangs sounded from outside the hall doors.

"Is Brother Dong here?"

The visitor was Gu Chen, a newly promoted true disciple of Dragon Splendor Sword Pavilion.

"Senior Brother Gu, what brings you here today?"

"At the last grand ceremony, we never added each other as contacts. I asked around,

but none of the senior brothers and junior brothers familiar with me had your contact information, Brother Dong, so I had no choice but to come find you in person."

"Back in the outer sect, I really didn't know anyone. What brings Senior Brother here?"

"Junior Sister Tao, Baili Tianming from the Law Enforcement Hall, and I have recently been discussing forming a fixed team

so we can enter secret realms together for exploration and training. We thought you would be a perfect fit, Brother Dong, so we wanted to ask whether you'd be interested in joining."

"A team?"

After pondering for a moment, Dong Lin nodded.

"Thank you, Brother Gu, for thinking of this junior brother. I hope Brother Gu will look after me more in the future.

I may still be lacking when it comes to actual combat."

"Haha, that's easy enough. Go out and train a few more times, and practical combat experience will naturally come.

This time, I even thought that with a cultivation fanatic like you, Brother Dong, you might not be willing to form a team and head out."

"Oh, right. We plan to register our team with the Hunting Alliance. We'll just put your name down directly when the time comes, Brother Dong."

"Can we still register with the Hunting Alliance after the mountain has been sealed? Sure."