Preparations! Thunder-Shrouding Mystic Armor!

The cave abode behind the mountain.

The array's light barrier dissipated from within, and Shi Jian lay prone at the cave entrance, his eyes half-closed. The fur on his body had grown back, glossy and smooth.

There was no trace of the wretched state he was in a year ago, when he was struck by lightning and turned into charred remains.

"What is it? Speak."

Sun Bo'an handed over the secret letter, and Shi Jian glanced at it, his ears immediately perking up.

Kunyuan Secret Realm.

The Spirit Transformation.

The founder of the Three Kingdoms.

He had pieced together a vague outline of this information from fragments of words before, but now that he saw the complete description, the waves in his heart were far greater than they appeared on the surface.

Spirit Transformation.

What does that mean?

Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation...

He was a black bear in the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, and he hadn't even touched the threshold of Golden Core. To him, the Spirit Transformation was the highest realm in the world.

Legend has it that cultivators at the Spirit Transformation can prove the Dao, thereby mobilizing the power of the Great Dao between heaven and earth. With a wave of their hand, they can change the world and reshape the landscape of a region with their bare hands...

Even from these few pieces of information, one can glimpse the Spirit Transformation!

What might be inside the cave abode left behind by the Spirit Transformation Lord Wei Hua?

Cultivation Method? Spiritual objects? Inheritance?

Even picking up a single fallen leaf could be an unparalleled fortuitous opportunity for him, one that transcends his bloodline!

Moreover, only those at the Foundation Establishment are allowed to enter.

Those at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages cannot enter, which means that within the secret realm, he is at the very top of the food chain!

A bear demon whose cultivation had reached the Foundation Establishment Late Stage and who wielded the power of lightning.

Just thinking about it is terrifyingly powerful!

Even if he were to contend with thousands of cultivators of the same realm from the three major cultivation worlds, Shi Jian was confident that he could escape unscathed.

"That old Daoist priest Yun Du certainly thinks highly of me."

"Ancestor, what do you mean...?"

"Go."

In short, decisive and efficient.

Sun Bo'an opened his mouth, but couldn't help but say, "Ancestor, that secret realm is a melting pot of all sorts of people, with cultivators from the three kingdoms gathered there."

"The elite disciples carefully cultivated by various powerful factions will likely all participate, inevitably leading to some conflicts..."

"If you go, I'm afraid..."

What are you afraid of?

Shi Jian yawned. "Bo'an, what are you worried about? Are you afraid I'll die, or that I'll be enslaved by others?"

"Rest assured, while I may not be invincible among those of the same level, there are very few who can truly threaten me..."

Is Yao girl going too?

"Yes, there's also a late-stage Foundation Establishment elder from White Cloud Temple Foundation Establishment Late Stage named Yun Che, who is a sword cultivator."

Upon hearing this, Shi Jian snorted but offered no comment.

Sword cultivators are the most troublesome.

These types of people are single-minded and their combat strength often far exceeds that of others of the same level, making them difficult to deal with. However, precisely because of this, they can be considered good teammates in secret realms.

Unexpectedly, Yun Du involved Sun Yao in the process.

This girl's cultivation is still shallow, and she doesn't know what Yun Du's intentions are, but after all, she is his personal disciple, so she must be going there with some kind of mission.

Let her be. Young birds will eventually leave the nest; it's good for them to see the world.

Three months is neither a long nor a short time.

Shi Jian remained calm and composed. There is no such thing as a smooth journey on the path of cultivation. Rather than a danger, this was more like an opportunity.

Perhaps the opportunity to break through to the Golden Core fortuitous opportunity lies within this Kunyuan Secret Realm.

After Shi Jian emerged from seclusion, he ate the remaining four Thunder Essence Fruit to enhance his control over the power of lightning.

Now, he can easily attach the power of lightning to his body or claws to enhance his speed and destructive power.

Palms, claws, shoulder blades, back—wherever the Demon Essence flowed, silver arcs of electricity, like maggots clinging to bones, gradually seeped into the depths of the skin!

It is no longer just a superficial embellishment, but has truly become part of our being.

The Lightning Origin is growing.

Although still small, it has grown from a seed that has just broken through the soil into a slender seedling...

After eating the fruit, the next step was further refining it.

The Lightning Spirit Liquid that had accumulated in the Thunder Pool for several months was mostly consumed by Shi Jian!

This stuff is hundreds of times more flaky than the Thunder Essence Fruit. A single dose may not be very effective, but its effects are noticeable with large quantities and repeated use...

Not satisfied with simply devouring it, Shi Jian immersed himself in the Thunder Pool, letting the pale purple liquid submerge his limbs. The Lightning Spirit Qi seeped into his pores, slowly merging with the Demon Essence within his body.

Anyone else would probably be pulverized the moment they went in!

Every day, Shi Jian could feel his fur changing, not getting thicker, but becoming denser.

After being repeatedly tempered by the energy of Lightning Spirit, his physical body became much more resilient.

He solidified the foundation of his Foundation Establishment Late Stage, making it incredibly strong. Through repeated tempering and refinement, only top-grade magical Law Artifact could damage its core!

But that's far from enough!

While Shi Jian was making preparations, the Sun Clan wasn't idle either...

With a list in hand, Sun Mao traveled to several surrounding prefectures and cities, and through the channels of the Merchant Alliance, he acquired thunder-related ores from various places.

Purple Firmament Iron, Thunder-Patterned Adamantine, and Mystic Magnetite.

It's all second-tier spirit ore, and it's quite expensive.

The Purple Firmament Iron alone cost three thousand Spirit Stone. This batch of ore wasn't for sale, nor was it for the clansmen to use for refining weapons.

Instead, they made armor for their ancestor!

The Demon Beast couldn't Hand Seals or control a sword. Once the flying sword was in the bear's paw, it was just a toothpick and couldn't be activated at all.

But armor is different. Once you put it on, it only needs to be infused with spiritual energy to operate on its own, making it most suitable for Demon Beast.

It suits all hands, feet, and races; as long as you have a suitable build and thick skin, wearing it will give you an extra layer of protection.

Finally, Sun Yao stepped forward.

She found the head of the weapon-refining hall in the temple by posing as an elder in charge of the White Cloud Temple.

In the end, they promised a large sum of Spirit Stone and treasures as a reward before finally persuading the head of the Refining Hall to take action...

One month later.

A suit of armor, entirely black and adorned with numerous dark purple patterns, lay quietly before Shi Jian...

The armor plates were layered like scales, forged from the Purple Firmament Iron to an extremely thin thickness, yet exceptionally hard.

The surface of the armor is inlaid with a pattern of Thunder-Patterned Adamantine, the lines of which are simple and can guide the power of lightning, serving both as defense and amplifying the power of lightning.

The shoulder armor was widened to two feet, with an outward curve.

It fit snugly around the bear demon's broad shoulders, and the armor was expandable, able to grow or shrink according to the demon's size...

The breastplate is barrel-shaped with a smooth inner surface to prevent it from rubbing against the fur.

The most ingenious part is the spine, where a main array pattern runs through the entire armor, using Mystic Magnetite as nodes. This pattern can divert the spiritual energy impact of external attacks to all the armor plates to withstand it together.

Taking a punch from it is equivalent to taking the full weight of your armor; it's the finest of all magical Law Artifact!

Its name is: Thunder-Shrouding Mystic Armor!

[The Pomodoro Technique crashed at noon today, it scared me half to death! It completely wiped out my books, I couldn't even find them online. Thank goodness, it was a false alarm. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought the engineers had eaten a bear.]