Time slipped away in cultivation.
Loa found a waterfall thirty li outside Thunderclap Valley.
Water plunged from a cliff thirty zhang high into a deep pool, its roar deafening. Bare rocks lined the pool, sheltered from the wind and dry enough for a simple lean-to. There were no signs of high-ranking magical beasts nearby. Occasionally, a few fifth- or sixth-rank creatures passed through, only to flee in abject terror when he swept his sword force over them.
It was a good spot.
He settled there.
His days became exceedingly simple: cultivate at daybreak, sleep at nightfall. Food? When he got hungry, he went into the woods, killed some creature foolish enough to cross him, and roasted it. After eating, he resumed cultivating.
Accumulate battle-qi. Temper his lumbar vertebrae.
Of the five lumbar vertebrae, only the last remained.
During the day, he sat on a rock beneath the waterfall, letting its pounding temper his body while circulating the Wind-Thunder Two Forms Transformation Scripture, sending Two Forms Battle-qi washing through his meridians again and again. The blue-green and violet vortex in his dantian had grown another two sizes since he first reached the late sixth rank, and it spun faster, too. With every revolution, it absorbed a trace of free thunder element and wind element from the surroundings, breaking them down, merging them, compressing them, and making them his own.
At night, he focused on tempering his fifth lumbar vertebra.
Tempering the lumbar domain was harder than tempering the sacrococcygeal domain. The bones were larger and deeper, and required more battle-qi. But after these months of adjustment, he had found the frequency that suited him best.
It was not merely the wind vibrations of Windhowl Cliff. He had combined them with the wind passing through thunder on Thunderclap Mountain and his consummate