A cheat ability? A lightning protection coil

As he carefully sensed the mysterious quality within his Lightning Attribute Dou Qi, Zhou Changqing found it strangely familiar.

"This... why does it feel like the Heavenly Thunder that struck me before I transmigrated?"

After pondering for a moment, Zhou Changqing remembered the bolt from a clear sky that had struck him and sent him to be reborn on the Dou Qi Continent.

The two were not exactly alike, but their underlying quality was extremely similar. The aura manifested by his lightning attribute was simply far, far weaker!

Realization began to dawn on Zhou Changqing.

The lightning that had sent him across worlds was definitely no ordinary bolt!

He had previously assumed his transmigration was just an accident. After all, he had no cheat ability like a system, only the classic opening of being struck by lightning.

Thinking about it now, that bolt had appeared out of nowhere, struck him squarely, and even possessed the power to cross worlds. How could it have been ordinary?

Earlier, when his life had flashed before his eyes, he had only awakened after recalling that bolt from a clear sky. Otherwise, he might have died once those memories finished playing.

As for why the essence of his lightning attribute had never undergone such a change before, it was probably because he had never been struck by the Heavenly Thunder before.

Earlier, the residual force of the Heavenly Thunder had hit him, and the arcs entering his body had fused with his lightning attribute, producing an incredible change. Only then had the source of his lightning attribute undergone this transformation!

"So I've had a cheat ability all along, but getting struck by lightning was the condition for unlocking it?"

Zhou Changqing's face darkened.

If not for this accident, who knew how long it would have taken him to discover that!

After all, what sane person went looking to get struck by lightning?

Wasn't that just courting death?

Most importantly, Zhou Changqing had absolutely no idea what this mutated Lightning Source did or what miraculous properties it possessed.

It was essentially unlocked, yet no different from being locked.

"Forget it. Why think so much? I'll find out eventually."

Zhou Changqing shook his head, stopped fretting over whether the sky would fall, and instead began cultivating the Heavenly Dipper Gold-Tempering Art.

His strength had suddenly jumped three stars. He needed to stabilize his realm and solidify his foundation, or further advancement might leave that foundation hollow and unstable.

The rain was heavy.

It continued for nearly an entire day before finally ending.

Washed by the downpour, the air in this part of the Magical Beast Mountain Range felt renewed, purer and damper, carrying a faint earthy scent mingled with the fragrant freshness of grass and trees.

Occasionally, he could even catch a delicate floral fragrance drifting over from afar.

As the dark clouds dispersed and sunlight spilled down again, the dense branches and leaves screened the light, letting it filter through gaps in the foliage to scatter patches of dappled brilliance across the muddy ground.

Zhou Changqing had already finished cultivating. After checking the sky, he walked out of the Cave and began darting around to search the surrounding area.

He had said he would send every nearby Flame Wolf and Silver Lightning Leopard down below to atone to his adoptive parents. Naturally, he would not go back on his word.

He was all about keeping his promises.

If he said he would kill your whole family, he would kill your whole family—not one would escape!

He also needed to pay his respects to his adoptive parents and comfort their spirits in heaven with the news that he had avenged them.

And he needed to make preparations for the next thunderstorm.

Time quietly slipped by.

Nearly half a month passed.

During that time, Zhou Changqing settled right there in this part of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

Each day, aside from searching for Flame Wolves and Silver Lightning Leopards, he cultivated.

His cultivation as an Eight-Star Dou Shi stabilized and even advanced further, bringing him close to the threshold of Nine-Star Dou Shi.

During this period, he also found a secluded spot and excavated a cave dwelling of a full hundred square meters inside a mountain.

Using the clothes belonging to his adoptive parents that he had brought along before leaving, he made a cenotaph inside. He offered the magic cores of Flame Wolves and Silver Lightning Leopards as sacrifices and paid his respects properly.

He would even occasionally bring the captured descendants of those two beasts to the cave dwelling and prepare them as dishes for his adoptive parents to enjoy.

The rest of the time, Zhou Changqing surveyed the Mountain Peaks in the area and tinkered with his body-tempering method.

That day.

The sky was gloomy, with dark clouds gradually gathering overhead. Lightning flickered faintly within them, and muffled thunder rumbled from time to time.

Zhou Changqing had already climbed to the summit of the highest Mountain Peak in the surrounding area.

He had cleared the summit ten days earlier.

Not only had he cut down every tree at the top, but he had also used his Great Sword to painstakingly carve out a platform of roughly fifty square meters.

Standing on the rocky platform, Zhou Changqing looked up at the sky. As he watched the dark clouds grow denser, a faint, excited smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Hopefully it'll work this time. You'd better pull your weight, beast."

Muttering under his breath, Zhou Changqing turned toward a bound, fiery-red wolf beast nearby that measured over two meters long.

It was a high-level tier-two Flame Wolf, its strength roughly equivalent to that of a human Seven-Star Dou Shi.

The Flame Wolf's jaws were bound shut, and its legs were tied with specially made metal wire, leaving it unable to move.

Moreover, another iron wire extended from the wire binding its front paws.

That wire ran several meters before connecting to one side of a Metal Coil shaped like a spool and standing half a meter tall.

The other side of the Metal Coil had a similar iron wire extending from it, connecting to an iron rod as thick as the mouth of a bowl that had been driven into the rock at the center of the platform.

Looking at his handiwork, Zhou Changqing grew expectant.

Ever since learning that the Heavenly Thunder could work with his two types of Dou Qi to temper his body and rapidly improve his Dou Qi cultivation.

He had been pondering how to draw the Heavenly Thunder into his body to temper himself without being struck dead.

As a transmigrator, Zhou Changqing was not particularly learned, but he still knew some basic modern facts.

To reduce an electric current, he needed resistance.

But he did not know how to make a resistor, nor what kind of resistor could weaken the Heavenly Thunder enough for flesh and blood to barely withstand it.

So he had come up with a crude solution.

A lightning rod plus a Metal Coil.

Metal conducted electricity, but each metal's conductivity differed. Some were high, others low.

And weren't those metals with low conductivity a form of resistance themselves?

As a Weapon Refiner, Zhou Changqing naturally understood the properties of many metals.

Thus, he had picked out several of the metals he knew to experiment with.

In his first three attempts, he had used Flame Wolves as test subjects, choosing ones whose physical toughness was almost equal to his own current physique.

Yet without exception, those Flame Wolves had fallen before the terrifying power of the Heavenly Thunder.

This was his fourth experiment, and he was using the metal with the lowest conductivity among the materials he knew of and possessed—

Black Jin Iron!

If it still failed, he would have no choice but to leave the mountains and gather more metals in human cities or towns.

"Boom!"

A muffled thunderclap exploded across the heavens!

Dazzling lightning lit up almost the entire gloomy mountain forest within a five-kilometer radius, as though a camera flash had gone off.

"Gulp..."

That overwhelming heavenly might made Zhou Changqing tremble. He could not help swallowing and retreating several steps.

He had truly developed a fear of being struck. He dreaded getting hit again through a moment's carelessness.

Looking around, Zhou Changqing decided this was far too unsafe. He withdrew from the summit platform and descended to a spot thirty or forty meters below the peak.

Watching the faintly visible silhouette of the black rod atop the mountain, anticipation once again surfaced in Zhou Changqing's eyes.

"Whoosh...!"

Under Zhou Changqing's watchful gaze.

Rain poured down, soaking the dry mountain forest.

Zhou Changqing activated his inner armor's defenses, keeping every drop of rain outside.

Time slowly passed.

Then, suddenly!

"Rumble!"

A dazzling flash burst across the heavens, accompanied by terrifying, deafening thunder!

From within the dark clouds, a fearsome bolt of silvery-white Heavenly Thunder as thick as a python twisted downward!

The space through which the lightning passed seemed on the verge of warping beneath its violent, destructive power!

"Crack!"

"Bzzzt!"

As though drawn by something, the Heavenly Thunder struck straight toward the Mountain Peak where Zhou Changqing stood!