Thirty Years, a Fleeting Opportunity!
Thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye.
The changes in Divine Firmament Plain are incomparable to those of the past.
Within a territory spanning 300,000 li, seven groups of bear demons each occupy a region, with crisscrossing Spirit Vein and abundant mineral resources; patrolling bear demons traverse between the spiritual mountains, maintaining perfect order.
Lei Ya's Azure Profound Tribe is rooted in the eastern border, its Profound Lightning ceaselessly day and night; Lei Li's Life-Extinguishing Tribe guards the south, mining spiritual minerals among the mountains.
Baoting Hong and Xuanlei Min each led the northwest, and the region remained peaceful.
Thirty years is not a long time, but it is enough for these seven tribes to take root.
Shan Li took care of everything perfectly.
The allocation of Spirit Vein, the scheduling of mineral resources, the patrol rotations, and even the occasional friction between the seven departments were all quelled by her words.
No one made a fuss anymore.
Firstly, they were impressed by Shi Jian's strength, and secondly, the various departments had indeed gained tangible benefits over the past thirty years.
Resources are shared to a certain extent, and knowledge is passed down and exchanged among all parties, which is far superior to the previous situation where everyone was fighting their own battles.
The Lightning Bear Line has already shown some promise.
Deep within Divine Firmament Peak, in that forbidden area perpetually shrouded in purple-gold thunderclouds.
The cave abode was tightly closed and had not been opened for thirty years; Shi Jian sat cross-legged on a futon, with purple-gold lightning arcs flowing endlessly around his body.
Thirty years.
Thirty years of sitting in meditation, thirty years of contemplation, thirty years of honing one's skills.
He has already fully comprehended the Purple Pivot Lightning Immortal Foundation.
Over the past thirty years, he has repeatedly deduced every trace of the Daoist essence and every change in the Purple Pivot Lightning a thousand times.
From the most basic condensation of thunder to the resonance between the Immortal Foundation essence of immortality and the Dao of Lightning energy of heaven and earth; from the ultimate burst of attack and slaughter to the subtle control of thunder at the heart.
Purple Pivot Lightning, Shu means central hub; it governs and controls thunder.
The core of this Immortal Foundation lies not in the ferocity of the lightning, but in -- [Defense]
Control thunder with your mind, and lightning with your spirit, transforming all the Dao of Lightning energy in the world into your own.
Now, with just a thought, Shi Jian can summon the Dao of Lightning energy within a hundred miles as if it were his own arm.
The purple-gold thunderclouds that lingered above Divine Firmament Peak no longer needed the Lightning-Attracting Grand Formation set up by Shan Li to maintain them; Shi Jian's very existence was a living lightning-attracting array.
His breath caused the thunderclouds to gather and disperse.
His heartbeat caused the lightning to flicker.
His Immortal Foundation was perfected, and his Nascent Soul was as clear as crystal.
Shi Jian opened his eyes, and a flash of lightning disappeared into the depths of his purple-gold beast pupils.
The next instant, his entire body emitted a series of crisp cracking sounds; thirty years of solitary meditation had made his aura increasingly restrained and invisible.
Shi Jian took out the earthen-yellow Jade Slip and probed it with his Divine Sense once more.
He had read Shan Wanling's Spirit Transformation into a deity hundreds of times over the years; every word was etched into his mind.
But each time I reread it, I still gain new insights.
"The difficulty of Spirit Transformation lies in comprehending the Immortal Foundation; only when the Immortal Foundation is perfected can one seek confirmation from Heaven and Earth..."
"At the moment of breakthrough, one must invoke the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, using the Nascent Soul as the foundation, carrying the Dao's essence, and leaving a mark between Heaven and Earth..."
"This process is extremely dangerous; the slightest mistake will result in being assimilated by the Great Dao, and one's soul and spirit will be scattered..."
He already knew these words by heart.
But what truly concerned him was a passage at the end of the Jade Slip.
"The opportunity to Spirit Transformation cannot be forced; it's not something you can act on just because you feel ready. Rather, it's a glimmer of enlightenment given to you by the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. If you don't seize that moment, who knows how many more years you'll have to wait..."
"Back then, I waited a hundred years before finally getting that sliver of opportunity..."
"When the opportune moment arrives, you will sense it—an extremely profound feeling, as if something in the world is calling to you; or as if the Great Immortal Foundation within you is resonating with some grander existence..."
"Remember, when the opportunity arises, you must not hesitate..."
Shi Jian put away the Jade Slip and sat down with his eyes closed.
He was waiting, waiting for that glimmer of opportunity.
Shan Wanling waited for hundreds of years, some Demon Cultivator waited for thousands of years, or even their entire lives, but they never got to see it; yet Shi Jian had an extremely firm feeling in his heart.
It'll be soon.
Purple Pivot Lightning Immortal Foundation has reached perfection, his divine soul strength is comparable to that of a Nascent Spirit Transformation, and his bloodline and Root Bone have been tempered by the Dao Venerable, making him even more extraordinary than before; his foundation has been honed to its limit.
Everything is ready, except for the east wind.
Time passed day by day.
Shi Jian sat upright in the stone hall, the purple-gold lightning arcs around his body becoming increasingly restrained, until finally they even disappeared beneath his skin, becoming invisible to the naked eye.
However, subtle changes were taking place within his nascent Nascent Soul.
Thirty-six strands of primordial energy circulated slowly in the Dantian; each strand resonated subtly with the Dao of Lightning energy of heaven and earth.
The resonance was like the distant sound of bells, sometimes there, sometimes not, sometimes faint.
Shi Jian was in no hurry; he knew the resonance would grow stronger and stronger.
Several more months passed.
The resonance intensified, and the thirty-six strands of Qi in the Dantian began to spontaneously accelerate their operation; the Daoist essence of Purple Pivot Lightning Immortal Foundation, as if being drawn by something, faintly converged in a certain direction.
That direction wasn't inside the cave abode, but above the sky.
Shi Jian suddenly opened his eyes, feeling a connection with the Celestial Person!
It's here!
He could sense that something vast and immense in the universe was casting a gaze upon him.
That gaze was invisible and intangible, yet it caused his Immortal Foundation to surge wildly.
That was the echo of the great Dao of Heaven and Earth.
It was the Dao of Lightning itself, the Great Dao Origin of Purple Pivot Lightning below the Divine Firmament Dao Fruit, that resonated with him in some unseen place deep within the heavens.
The feeling was extremely mysterious, like a tightly closed door suddenly revealing a crack; and what shone through the crack was not light, but an indescribable summons.
Shi Jian took a deep breath and, without further hesitation, vanished into the void.
Boom!
The mountain suddenly exploded, sending debris flying for miles.
Purple-gold lightning erupted from his body, soaring into the sky; the lightning pierced through the mountain, through the rocky peaks, and shot straight into the heavens.
The purple-gold thunderclouds above Divine Firmament Peak surged wildly at this moment.
The thunderclouds, originally covering a radius of a hundred miles, expanded in all directions at a visible speed; a hundred miles, a thousand miles, ten thousand miles...
In just a few breaths, it enveloped the core area of the entire Divine Firmament Plain.
Within the thunderclouds, purple-gold lightning arcs were as dense as a spider web, crackling and popping.
The commotion was ridiculously loud.
Across a territory spanning 300,000 li, all the bear demons simultaneously raised their heads.
What happened?
"Over at Divine Firmament Peak..."
In the Eastern Realm, Lei Ya was cultivating in his cave abode when he suddenly sensed an extremely powerful aura of Dao of Lightning. He abruptly opened his eyes, his azure vertical pupils filled with shock.
"This aura... it's Lord Shi Jian!"
He soared into the sky and looked up at the western sky.
Purple-gold thunderclouds blotted out the sky, covering tens of thousands of miles in radius; arcs of lightning darted wildly among the clouds, their vastness far exceeding that of the Nascent Soul stage.
"How could this be? He's about to break through to the Spirit Transformation stage!"
In the southern region, Lei Li also sensed this aura; his short, stocky body shot out of the cave abode, his face filled with disbelief.
"Only thirty years? He's going to break through to the Spirit Transformation in just thirty years?"
He cultivated for six hundred years and barely reached the Nascent Soul Late Stage, and still hasn't found the right opportunity; but Shi Jian, after thirty years of seclusion, has already taken action.
The gap was so vast that it drove the bear to despair.