Palm Thunder

Gu Zhao had thought he had stumbled into a scene of a heroine upholding justice and punishing evil. He was just considering what excuse to use to strike up a connection with her, to chat and see if he could learn about this world from the side.

Unexpectedly, before he could speak, the woman was even more proactive than he was, bluntly saying that she wanted to "have a chat" with him.

Yet when the villagers, who had just been looking at her with gratitude, heard her words, their eyes immediately cleared. In an instant, they scattered with a roar. Even the old man who had been trembling and needed support moments ago hobbled at full speed into a nearby house.

Bang bang bang!

A string of doors slammed shut in an instant.

"Caw caw caw..."

Other than two crows perched on the branches at the village entrance, the entire village fell silent as a chicken.

Gu Zhao stood stunned for a moment before he understood.

Running into bandits coming down the mountain to plunder might not get you killed. Running into someone who had instantly wiped out dozens of bandits and apparently was no good person—that was the real danger!

All he could say was that even ancient villagers who could barely read a few words had better crisis awareness than he did.

But it was already too late for Gu Zhao to run. Not only was the woman targeting him, he also saw her gently blow another breath toward him.

Gu Zhao's pupils shrank. "I'm dead!"

The next moment, he felt a gust of sinister wind blow into his body, as though it wanted to freeze him stiff.

"Don't be afraid." The Woman in Green had already arrived beside Gu Zhao and lowered her head slightly. Gu Zhao could not only see the faint tremble of her chest, but also smell the sweet fragrance on her body. "What I blew wasn't Soul Scattering Wind. It won't scatter your soul."

The woman laughed in a seductive voice. "Don't move. Let me help..."

Before she could finish speaking, Gu Zhao suddenly sprang backward, opening up the distance between them.

Woman: ⊙_⊙???

"I really misjudged you." The woman narrowed her eyes and looked Gu Zhao up and down with great interest. "So you're a Mage after all."

"I'm not a Mage, I'm a Taoist priest!" Gu Zhao assumed a defensive stance, though his body was still trembling a little. "Who are you?"

That gust of sinister wind had entered Gu Zhao's body and, in the blink of an eye, transformed into a chill that seemed intent on freezing him stiff. But as soon as the chill moved, it triggered an instinctive reaction from the Mana within him.

The Mana in his body was not particularly abundant yet, but the moment it touched that chill, the chill melted away like ice and snow. Naturally, he was not restrained by it.

"A Taoist priest?" A flash of confusion passed through the woman's eyes, as though she had never heard the term.

But she did not care. Instead, she raised a jade-like hand to her lips and laughed softly. "You can't even tell that I'm not human. You really are a little Mage fresh out of the nest."

Gu Zhao's pupils constricted. "You're not human?"

"I am the Divine Maiden of the Golden Wind Sect. Ordinarily, only sect members who have rendered great merit may enjoy my body. Today, I'm letting you have this bargain, yet you still aren't overwhelmed with gratitude. Hurry and come into my embrace."

The woman smiled as she walked toward Gu Zhao.

At the same time, the woman's eyes turned pitch-black. Her face became pale, her crimson lips like blood, and her entire person became cold yet seductive. A bone-chilling aura instantly spread out and wrapped Gu Zhao within it.

"Little Mage, just be good and submit..."

The woman had barely gotten halfway through her words when she saw Gu Zhao extend his left hand, press his thumb inward, clench his four fingers, and tuck his nails within.

The next moment, a vast and majestic aura surged wildly from Gu Zhao's body, directly sweeping away all the surrounding cold yin energy.

Woman: ⊙_⊙!!!

A faint numbness suddenly spread through the woman's body, as though catastrophe was about to descend upon her. She hurriedly stopped and asked, "Who are you?"

Gu Zhao's right hand twitched, and he opened his mouth as though he wanted to speak, but no words came out.

The woman's expression shifted, and a trace of a smile curled across her lips, as if she had noticed something.

Gu Zhao opened his mouth again. His right hand froze in midair, seemingly exerting all his strength, yet he still could not utter a single word.

The smile in the woman's brows and eyes deepened by another measure. With an understanding smile, she said, "Little Mage, your Mana is too weak. There's no need to force yourself—you might hurt yourself. Why not submit to your big sister instead and enjoy the greatest bliss under heaven?"

The next moment, Gu Zhao's right hand suddenly moved. As his fingers formed seals, his lips began to chant.

"Lightning chases lightning, heaven and earth are my eyes. Righteous Qi from all directions, electric light flashes!"

After four lines of four characters, sixteen characters in all, Gu Zhao raised his right hand upright, then turned it slightly and aimed his palm at the woman.

"Edict!"

The moment Gu Zhao suddenly began speaking, the woman sensed that something was wrong and immediately leaped backward.

As Gu Zhao finished chanting and aimed his palm at her, she stared intently at his palm, raised a cloud of black smoke, and prepared her defense.

But as the word "Edict" rang out, she saw only a flash of violet light and golden radiance before her eyes, heard a thunderous crack by her ears, and felt as though her mind had been struck by a heavy hammer. Her entire body suddenly tightened...

Then darkness swallowed her vision, and she knew nothing more.

Gu Zhao stared blankly at the scene before him: a heap of charred black powder, and a set of green robes falling from thin air.

Then he could not help raising both hands, his eyes filled with surprise and disbelief.

"Heavenly Thunder Seal, Palm Thunder, thunder-raising incantation..."

"My god! It actually worked!"

When the Mana in his body had suddenly acted up and dissolved the other party's chill, a flash of inspiration had come to Gu Zhao.

Since the Five Thunder Token had activated the Innate Qi he had cultivated over ten years of Taoist practice, while also gradually filling his body with Mana, that meant the Taoist Scripture he practiced was effective.

And if the cultivation methods in the Taoist Scripture worked, then would other Taoist arts work as well?

So Gu Zhao had instinctively formed a Heavenly Thunder Seal, also called the Heavenly Thunder Art. Then his entire being felt as though it had ascended, as if he had transformed into the righteous Qi of heaven and earth, Thor of the Ninth Heavens.

Thus, brimming with confidence, Gu Zhao prepared to chant the Great Heavenly Thunder Duke Incantation.

But he could not chant it!

Not only could he not chant it, he also felt the Mana in his body stir violently and his soul grow hazy.

Gu Zhao immediately understood that with his current strength, he could not yet unleash such a powerful thunder incantation. So he switched to the Five Directions Savage Thunder Incantation, only to find that he still could not cast it.

No longer daring to delay, Gu Zhao decisively switched to the most basic Palm Rising Thunder Incantation, and finally managed to cast it.

Then he watched the Woman in Green, who had just blown dozens of bandits to death in a single breath, prove utterly incapable of resisting the bolt of lightning unleashed from his palm.

The gathered black smoke scattered in the thunderclap. Her fair and tender body disintegrated in the electric light. A beauty who had been both pure and alluring just moments before had now become a heap of black powder, no longer human in shape.

"Well, she really wasn't human," Gu Zhao muttered.

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly sensed the Five Thunder Token in his mind tremble and emit a pull. Then a wisp of aura burrowed into his mind and was absorbed by the Five Thunder Token.

The next moment, he felt that the lightning around the Five Thunder Token in his Sea of Consciousness seemed three parts brighter. It slowly stimulated the Mana circulating within him, making its flow noticeably faster.

"Golden finger!"

"Kill monsters and level up!"