Divine Firmament Calamity-Averting Thunder Body

After defeating Li Xuantong, Mu Chen's reputation at the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy reached its peak.

The battle in the Spirit Fighting Arena had been utterly staggering. He had crushed the second-ranked student on the Heaven Ranking with his aura alone, and the whole fight had lasted only a few breaths.

The news spread through the entire academy like wildfire sweeping across the plains.

Whether freshmen or seniors, everyone spoke Mu Chen's name with unmistakable awe.

On the morning of the third day after the battle, sunlight spilled across the courtyard.

Luo Li, Tang Qian'er, and Wen Qingxuan stood in the courtyard, preparing to head to a high-grade Spirit Gathering Array together to cultivate.

"Aren't you going to cultivate today?" Tang Qian'er looked at Mu Chen, a hint of something different hidden in her bright eyes.

Mu Chen shook his head. The Gray-Brown Sparrow on his shoulder was lazily preening its feathers.

"The academy's Spirit Gathering Arrays aren't quite suitable for me," he said. "I'm going to take a look at the Thunder Domain."

Luo Li nodded gently, her crystal-clear eyes resting quietly on him. "I heard it's easy to get injured cultivating in the Thunder Domain. Be careful."

"Don't worry." Mu Chen smiled and reached out to ruffle her silver hair, which felt cool and silky beneath his fingers.

Wen Qingxuan stood to one side, her red dress stirring gently in the morning breeze.

She looked at Mu Chen, her lips moving as though she wanted to say something. In the end, she merely turned her face away, her high ponytail tracing a crisp arc through the air.

"Let's go." She turned first and headed out of the courtyard.

Luo Li gave Mu Chen a slight nod and followed her with Tang Qian'er. The three slender figures soon disappeared at the end of the tree-lined path.

Mu Chen watched them leave and only withdrew his gaze once they were completely out of sight.

"Time to get to work," he murmured to himself.

The entrance to the Thunder Domain was a colossal stone platform suspended in midair.

Paved with an unknown dark-blue stone, the platform stretched ten thousand feet across, its surface covered in scars left by time and blackened patches from lightning strikes.

There were no railings along its edges, and below lay a bottomless sea of clouds.

At that moment, people crowded every part of the platform.

When Mu Chen landed at its edge, he attracted little attention. There were too many people, and his black clothing was unremarkable.

Only a few sharp-eyed senior students recognized his face. Their expressions shifted slightly, and they instinctively retreated several steps to give him room.

Mu Chen paid them no mind and looked toward the space ahead of the platform.

The sky there was dark and gloomy. Space twisted and writhed like a rift leading into another world.

Lightning flashed within the rift. Thunderbolts like silver serpents occasionally tore their way out, only to vanish the instant they touched the outside world, leaving nothing but rolling thunder rumbling from the distortion.

The presence of lightning reached him from afar, making his skin faintly tingle.

"So this is the Thunder Domain..." Mu Chen murmured.

Without stopping, he moved, becoming a streak of black light that swept through the air and shot straight toward the distorted space.

Outside the distortion, a faint membrane of spiritual energy rippled like a curtain of water.

The moment Mu Chen touched it, he felt a slight resistance. This was presumably the Thunder Domain's barrier, meant to screen out those who lacked sufficient strength.

Shrrk-

The membrane tore apart as easily as rippling water. Without slowing, Mu Chen plunged headfirst into the rift amid flashing lightning and rolling thunder.

Boom!

His vision abruptly darkened.

Deafening thunder swept over him from every direction, as though tens of thousands of enormous drums were pounding beside his ears at once.

The air was saturated with violent lightning energy, and every breath brought a tingling sensation.

[Master detected entering the Thunder Domain.]

The familiar mechanical voice sounded deep within his mind.

[Notice: Check-in is available in the current area. Check in?]

Mu Chen's brow twitched.

He hadn't been able to check in upon entering the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, yet he could upon entering the Thunder Domain... That left him somewhat uncertain about his own theory again.

Without hesitation, he silently said, Check in.

[Check-in location: Thunder Domain]

[Check-in successful!]

[Reward obtained: Divine Firmament Calamity-Averting Thunder Body]

[With calamity-averting as my plow, I forge my immortality; breathing wind and thunder, I unite with the Dao.]

A vast torrent of information, accompanied by profound concepts, surged into his sea of consciousness.

The Divine Firmament Calamity-Averting Thunder Body was a body-refining cultivation art.

Perhaps Mu Chen's knowledge was simply too limited, but he truly could not recall where this art came from.

Yet it was unquestionably a body-refining art that far surpassed the Great Pagoda Art!

The thunder body was merely its outward manifestation. At an advanced level, he could use the tribulations and punishments of heaven and earth to temper his own body. It could truly be called heaven-defying!

"The Thunder Domain has ten layers. The lightning on the first layer is too weak. We'll go straight to the top."

Mu Chen lowered his head and glanced at the Gray-Brown Sparrow nestled against his chest.

"With the Spirit Value converted by the elder, plus what I earned from the Heaven Ranking, I now have five and a half million."

"I'm still one and a half million short of the seven million needed to exchange for northern abyss dragon-kun blood essence."

"When we get there, I'll cultivate on the tenth layer, and you can condense Heavenly Thunder Beads beside me. Once you've made over seven thousand five hundred, we'll have enough Spirit Value!"

The sparrow abruptly raised its little head, blazing excitement bursting from its black, beanlike eyes.

It made no sound, but its rapidly bobbing head conveyed its stance clearly-

Agreed! A thousand times agreed!

Bei Ming Dragon Kun's blood essence was the key to completing its final evolution and joining the ranks of divine beasts!

For that, forget seven thousand five hundred Heavenly Thunder Beads-even seventy-five thousand would be worth the effort!

Mu Chen said no more. With a movement, he became a blurred black shadow and swept toward the twisting, writhing spatial rift ahead.

A few sharp-eyed senior students saw a blur flash before their eyes, as though someone had brushed past them. By the time they focused their gaze, only an afterimage remained, disappearing into the rift.

"Just now... who was that?" a senior student asked hesitantly, swallowing.

His companion shook his head blankly.

It had been too fast. They hadn't seen the person's face at all.

Just as Mu Chen broke through spiritual energy barriers one after another, pushing deeper into the Thunder Domain-

Outside the Thunder Domain, on the floating stone platform.

A dense mass of figures covered the stone surface, their voices bubbling like boiling water.

Suddenly, an exceptionally dazzling shaft of light shot up from the platform's edge, tearing through the clamor!

Everyone fell silent and turned to look at once.

The light came from the Thunder Domain Stele, which had stood there for countless years.

The stele was pitch-black, but now dazzling light flowed across its surface like mercury, illuminating the faces of nearby students.

"Another new record?!"

Startled, uncertain murmurs rippled through the crowd. The Thunder Domain Stele was normally as still as a lifeless object; only a major change in its records would produce such a phenomenon.

Every gaze locked onto its surface. The instant that mass of silver light appeared, it shot fiercely upward like a meteor streaking against the heavens!

It moved so quickly that it left an afterimage, sweeping past one renowned name in the academy after another-

Su Xuan, Crane Demon, Xu Huang...

The silver light left them all behind without the slightest pause.

Its ascent continued. With a slight leap, it surpassed the name countless people had once looked up to-

Li Xuantong.

Light flowed across the stele, and the inscription became clear:

"Mu Chen, Eighth Layer of Thunder Domain."

Before the crowd could erupt, the silver light on the stele moved again!

After only the briefest pause, it surged fiercely upward once more, blazing so brightly that it even pushed beneath it the name that represented the pinnacle of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy's students.

"Mu Chen, ninth layer of the Thunder Domain!"

"The ninth layer?! He's entered the ninth layer?!" someone cried out, excitement written all over their face.

The ninth layer was a forbidden zone that only Shen Cangsheng had ever briefly set foot in!

Yet-

The silver light was still changing!

The boiling clamor abruptly ceased, leaving only heavy breathing and the muffled pounding of racing hearts.

Every pair of eyes stared fixedly at that mass of silver light, waiting to see where it would finally stop...

On the stele's surface, the inscription emerged clearly.

Every stroke seemed forged from lightning, radiating a pressure that made their hearts tremble:

"Mu Chen, tenth layer of the Thunder Domain."

"The tenth layer..." someone murmured hoarsely. "But when I remember it's that monster Mu Chen, it doesn't seem surprising at all."

Indeed.

Aside from that freak of a genius, who else could step so naturally into that deadly realm of lightning that existed only in legends?