Heavenly Lightning Tempering the Body? Eight-Star Dou Shi!

He could not spare a thought for why this change had occurred. All that mattered was that he could refine the lightning arcs.

Zhou Changqing froze for only an instant before throwing everything he had into it, sending Dou Qi throughout his body to refine the rampaging lightning arcs.

Then, just like the first one, every lightning arc fused with his lightning-attribute Dou Qi, stimulating his metal-attribute Dou Qi to turn into the brilliant Golden Radiance that seeped into the flesh and bones wherever it passed.

For a time, every inch of his body shone with Golden Radiance from within.

Even the surface of Zhou Changqing's body took on a faint golden glow because of the Golden Radiance!

And the flesh cells destroyed by the lightning arcs gradually repaired themselves under the nourishment of the Golden Radiance.

The charred tissue on his skin peeled away at a visible rate, exposing the newly grown flesh and skin beneath!

As for the energy of those lightning arcs, his lightning-attribute Dou Qi carried it through his circulation, finally converting it into Dou Qi that entered the vortex in his dantian, becoming nourishment for Zhou Changqing's growing strength.

With his entire mind focused on refining the lightning arcs, he had no idea how much time passed.

Only when the lightning arcs inside his body were finally refined away did Zhou Changqing abruptly open his eyes.

Then his entire body sprang straight up from the ground with a swish, landing on his feet.

"Whew, that was close. I nearly died."

Feeling the rain strike his face, Zhou Changqing murmured under his breath, his heart still trembling with lingering fear.

This time had truly been perilous. First, Heavenly Thunder had struck at him; he had barely dodged it, only to be hit by its aftershock.

Even the low-grade tier-three inner armor he had just changed into had been damaged again by that aftershock.

That armor could withstand a full-force blow from a low-level Da Dou Shi!

Even so, quite a few of the remaining violent lightning arcs had still entered his body.

Although a Dou Shi's body was stronger than an ordinary person's, it had undergone no qualitative transformation. It was still flesh and blood. How could it resist lightning?

Fortunately, at the most critical moment, he had successfully fused the Dormant Thunder Method with Steel-Condensing Force, refining all the lightning arcs as quickly as possible and escaping mortal danger.

But the sensation of lightning invading his body had been agonizing, worthy of ranking among the world's worst tortures!

No wonder his previous world had used electric torture to force confessions.

Even now, the memory made Zhou Changqing's heart and innards quiver.

He looked down at himself. His clothes had been burned to tatters by the lightning arcs and were covered in mud. He looked worse than a beggar.

But Zhou Changqing had no time to worry about that. He hurriedly picked up the silver magic core lying on the ground, a crack running through it, and put it into his Storage Ring.

This thing had drawn the Heavenly Thunder just now. Earlier, he had been unable to move, but now he dared not leave it exposed.

If another bolt struck, Zhou Changqing would not withstand it. He really would be dead.

Seemingly traumatized by the strike, Zhou Changqing now felt nowhere was safe. He abandoned any thought of pitching a tent and took off running.

Reaching a rocky mountainside nearby, Zhou Changqing pulled out his Great Sword without another word and began cutting through the rock to excavate a cave.

After some effort, a hole large enough to hold three people appeared in the uneven rock face.

Zhou Changqing crawled inside and immediately began stripping off his clothes.

Within a few breaths, he had thrown all his tattered clothes outside and dropped the damaged inner armor at his feet, leaving himself stark naked.

At the same time, freed from the restraint of his clothing, the charred tissue on his skin fell to the ground in large patches.

"Hmm? Wait!"

Just as Zhou Changqing finished a hasty cleanup and was about to take fresh clothes from his Storage Ring, he caught a glimpse of his body out of the corner of his eye and suddenly froze.

Then he touched his abs and chest in surprise, looking rather dazed.

"What happened to my physique?"

His entire body was exposed now.

He could clearly see the smooth lines of his muscles, lean layers covering most of his body beneath the skin in proportions that could only be called golden.

To describe just how good it looked, it was as though an anime physique had stepped into reality.

If that were all, Zhou Changqing would not have been surprised at all.

His physique had always been the sort that looked slim clothed and muscular undressed, not much worse than those anime protagonists.

But unlike before, his muscular contours were now noticeably more defined, and the slightly imperfect distribution of some muscles had become exceptionally balanced.

In short, although his figure had been good before, it had still seemed a little thin. Now, however, it had gained a distinctly masculine vigor.

It was as flawless as a meticulously sculpted work of art!

Moreover, compared with before, his skin had gained an almost imperceptible, extremely faint metallic sheen!

Studying the changes in his physique and feeling his firmer, tougher abs, Zhou Changqing forgot even to get dressed and sank into thought.

Could it have been because of that?

He recalled how his metal-attribute Dou Qi had dissolved into Golden Radiance and merged with his flesh while he refined the lightning arcs.

Zhou Changqing began to suspect why this transformation had occurred.

It was simply too similar to the changes in his metal attribute Dou Qi when he tempered weapons and armor.

Combined with his knowledge of the original novel and many other novels from his previous life, the answer was not hard to guess.

Heavenly Thunder had tempered his body!

He needed to look no further than Xiao Yan and Lin Dong. One had gone to the Void Lightning Pool to cultivate, while the other had directly drawn down Heavenly Thunder to cultivate the Great Sun Thunder Body.

Afterward, both their bodies had become immensely powerful!

Clenching his fists and sensing the strength that far exceeded what he had possessed before Heavenly Thunder struck him, Zhou Changqing could hardly think otherwise.

At this thought, Zhou Changqing suddenly grew excited.

"Does that mean I can temper my own body the way I temper weapons, making it stronger?!"

"Use my body as a weapon?!"

If that really worked, Zhou Changqing dared not imagine how powerful his body could become!

After all, the formidable Iron-Cleaving Mortal Weapons and Magic Core Armaments he had forged already offered a glimpse of the possibilities!

In an instant, Zhou Changqing could no longer sit still. Without caring whether he was dressed, he plopped down on the smooth stone floor and began circulating his cultivation method.

But before he could even guide his Dou Qi, Zhou Changqing was startled again as he looked inward at the vortex in his dantian!

"My cultivation level?!"

Looking at the Dou Qi vortex, which was considerably denser and larger than before, Zhou Changqing was bewildered.

Earlier, he had focused solely on refining the lightning arcs, and after waking, he had been too busy getting away to notice any changes in his Dou Qi vortex.

Now, recalling the lightning arcs he had refined, he instantly understood why this change had occurred.

"It must be because I refined the lightning arcs into Dou Qi. That pushed my strength even further!"

After assessing his cultivation level, Zhou Changqing's heart shook with delighted surprise!

"Eight-Star Dou Shi?!"

His strength had already reached the level of an Eight-Star Dou Shi!

He had only broken through to Five-Star Dou Master a few days ago!

By his estimate, without any pills or other resources that accelerated cultivation, reaching Eight-Star Dou Shi would have taken him at least half a year.

Yet one lightning strike had spared him half a year of arduous cultivation?!

Even among pills, very few could produce a leap of three stars like this!

In the original Battle Through the Heavens novel, the only pill he knew of that could raise someone's strength by three stars at the Dou Shi or Da Dou Shi level was the Three-Pattern Green Spirit Pill!

This effect rivaled that of a tier-four pill!

To think such good fortune had actually fallen into his lap!

The ancestors truly had not lied: fortune and disaster leaned upon each other!

Survive a great calamity, and blessings were sure to follow!

Eventually, his joy over his increased strength gradually subsided.

Zhou Changqing remembered his original purpose and immediately began circulating his Dou Qi, directing it into his flesh.

But what happened next left him rather frustrated.

No matter how he drove the two types of Dou Qi, his metal attribute Dou Qi showed no change whatsoever.

At most, it simply no longer clashed with his lightning-attribute Dou Qi.

(End of chapter)