The restrictions on the cave abode suppressed every living being, forbidding them from assuming human form or advancing beyond the True God realm. Shi Yi understood that, in their place, he too would escape this cage at any cost.
"Of course I know how to leave," Shi Yi sneered. "But why should I tell an enemy?"
Lightning flared in the Wind-Thunder Leopard's eyes. Its fur bristled, and thunder coursed through its muscles. "Once I capture you, I'll have ways to make you talk!"
Before its words had faded, the leopard became a streak of purple lightning. Its claws tore through the air, trailing five lightning scars straight toward his throat. Rather than retreating, Shi Yi advanced, his right fist wrapped in lightning patterns that warped space as it crashed into the beast's claws.
"BOOM!"
A blast of air erupted, sending rock flaking from the canyon walls. The Wind-Thunder Leopard used the momentum to leap into the air, its ghastly white fangs snapping toward the crown of his head. Shi Yi spun and delivered an uppercut. Lightning exploded against the leopard's jaw, blasting it into the mountainside.
"An expert in the late Array Formation stage," Shi Yi said, shaking out his wrist, "yet you bite and claw like a wild animal?"
The heap of rocks suddenly exploded, and ancient formation patterns appeared around the Wind-Thunder Leopard. "Human, you'll pay for those words!" With its furious roar, two lightning clones split from its body. The three giant leopards surrounded Shi Yi in a triangle.
The first swipe skimmed past his ear, leaving five charred trenches in the ground. Before he could catch his breath, the clones on either side pounced together, the force of their claws sealing every avenue of retreat. Lightning wings suddenly appeared behind Shi Yi, and he soared into the sky-
Only to find the true killing blow waiting overhead. A lightning sphere had already formed in the real Wind-Thunder Leopard's mouth. A column of plasma as thick as a bowl's rim plummeted like a falling star. Shi Yi's pupils abruptly contracted!
"BOOM!"
Blinding lightning exploded in the canyon, its savage energy completely overturning the ground within a hundred-zhang radius. A cruel smile appeared on the Wind-Thunder Leopard's ferocious face. It was certain that beneath a Treasure Art of such power, even an opponent of the same realm would be reduced to ash.
"A mere human dares..." Its taunt cut off abruptly. A tall, straight figure walked slowly out of the dust. A phantom Black Tortoise enveloped Shi Yi, its blue-black shell covered in ancient Dao patterns that had blocked every last trace of the world-destroying lightning storm.
"A decent use of your Treasure Art." Shi Yi lightly brushed nonexistent dust from his sleeve, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes. "Compared with the Wind-Thunder Leopard I killed a few months ago, you're considerably more adept at lightning techniques."
"What?!" The Wind-Thunder Leopard's fur stood on end, silver lightning patterns flashing wildly across its body. "You dared to kill one of my kin! I'll tear your corpse into ten thousand pieces! The entire Wind-Thunder Leopard clan will hunt you to the ends of the earth!"
Shi Yi sneered at its words, terrifying divine light suddenly bursting from his Double Pupils. "An utterly meaningless threat. You'd be better off considering how to escape me alive! Anyone who dares attack me dies!"
Before his words had faded, his figure vanished from the spot. The Wind-Thunder Leopard's pupils contracted sharply. The combat instincts within its inherited memories screamed a warning, but it had no time to react-
"BAM!"
An iron fist wreathed in lightning slammed savagely into the Wind-Thunder Leopard's flank. The protective lightning armor covering its body tore apart as easily as thin paper.
"CRACK!"
The clear sound of breaking bones echoed through the canyon. The Wind-Thunder Leopard's three-zhang-long body flew backward like a tattered sack, smashing through seven enormous boulders before embedding itself deep in the cliff. Spiderweb cracks spread outward from its body, and the entire mountainside trembled faintly beneath the blow.
"Urgh-" The Wind-Thunder Leopard spewed a great mouthful of silver blood. With its true body injured, its two lightning clones collapsed. It struggled to rise, only to discover that the tyrannical divine power had completely shattered its meridians.
Shi Yi approached through the air, each step stirring ripples of lightning patterns in the void. He looked down upon the dying Wind-Thunder Leopard, a lightning talisman pulsing with an aura of destruction condensing at the fingertips of his right hand.
"No! My clan's ancestor won't let you..." The Wind-Thunder Leopard's howl was swallowed by an earthshaking explosion. Blinding lightning surged skyward, leveling the entire cliff. When the dust cleared, only a vast, charred crater a hundred zhang across remained, with a thoroughly blackened Wind-Thunder Leopard lying at its bottom.
"The area around here belongs to the Wind-Thunder Leopard clan. Killing one today will probably bring retaliation from the clan..." Shi Yi stood at the entrance to Thunderclap Valley, his robes snapping in the wind. Runes flowed through his Double Pupils like an inverted river of stars, and his profound gaze pierced layer upon layer of lightning veils, taking in every detail within the valley.
Silver lightning as thick as Flood Dragons coiled around the surrounding rock walls. Every crack of lightning shook the void. A Wind-Thunder Leopard's corpse lay across the valley entrance, its fur charred black.
"Retreating now would certainly be the safe choice..." He stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the thunderclouds churning overhead. "But how could I abandon such a sacred ground of the Thunder Dao over a few beasts?" Before his words had faded, the Primordial Chaos Heaven-Refining Grand Formation within him abruptly began to revolve. Countless golden formation patterns poured out, weaving an intricate Grand Array over his body.
"...Humm."
As the formation fully activated, Shi Yi's figure and aura gradually blended into his surroundings like a drop of ink dispersing in water. When he stepped into the valley entrance, the purple lightning that normally struck anyone on sight flowed around him like docile swimming snakes, continuing to roam freely between the rock walls.
"What a way to merge with the void! It shields me from perception, yet even the Thunder Dao Laws are clear to my senses." Shi Yi sensed everything around him and drew a deep breath. Even his breathing resonated with Thunderclap Valley.
After flying deeper into Thunderclap Valley for roughly half a day, Shi Yi suddenly felt his heart tighten. An inexplicable sense of danger surged over him like a tide. He immediately activated the Heaven-Refining Grand Array, only then suppressing that feeling of dread a little.
"It seems this is the farthest I can safely cultivate." Shi Yi stood in midair, his robes snapping beneath the thunderclouds. Gazing farther into the canyon, he murmured, "To go any deeper, I'll have to perfect the third layer of the Primordial Chaos Heaven-Refining Formation..."
Before his words had faded, a bolt of pitch-black lightning suddenly struck. As thick as a millstone, it descended from the highest heavens to the earth, forming a bridge of destruction between heaven and earth. Wherever its light passed, space twisted, and even the surrounding spiritual energy burned with an acrid, scorched smell.
Shi Yi's pupils contracted slightly. He watched the void still trembling after the lightning had faded, fine beads of sweat already seeping from his forehead. "This must be the boundary between the outer and inner valleys. The lightning's might in the inner valley is actually this terrifying..."
Finding a boulder densely covered in lightning patterns, Shi Yi sat cross-legged and formed seals with both hands. He began comprehending the Thunder Dao Laws, and countless purple runes appeared from the void, circling him like swimming fish. Each time a lightning pattern entered his body, spiderweb-like electric light spread across his skin, with lightning plasma faintly visible flowing between his bones.
Three days passed, and a three-foot-thick lightning cocoon had formed around Shi Yi. Muffled thunder occasionally sounded within it, answering the thunderbolts in the valley from afar. Stranger still, lightning flashed as he breathed, and tiny sparks occasionally scattered from his hair.
On the seventh day, the lightning cocoon suddenly began to shake violently. Dazzling purple light shone through its cracks, faintly revealing that the human figure inside had become translucent, all his internal organs transformed into networks of lightning. A crisp, delicate fragrance spread through the air. This was actually
a sign of the Thunder Dao Laws taking tangible form.
Just as Shi Yi immersed himself in comprehending the Thunder Dao, a silver streak suddenly cut through the air outside the valley. A Wind-Thunder Leopard over a zhang long approached through the sky, each fall of its four paws stirring ripples in the void. Most astonishing of all, nine afterimages trailed behind it, making every leap seem like ten Fierce Beasts charging together. The Fierce Beast's golden pupils suddenly contracted, and it abruptly turned toward a certain cliff. With a piercing sonic boom, only a slowly fading lightning afterimage remained where it had stood.