The Third Stage

To be precise, the mountain has disappeared.

What was once Dayi mountain is now reduced to a single stone pillar beneath his buttocks.

He was awakened by a tremendous roar.

The mountainside that was originally in front of us was replaced by a sky full of lightning.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but lightning and clouds intertwining and exploding.

The silver-black lightning and the pitch-black clouds seemed to constitute the entirety of the world at this moment, together forming the apocalyptic scene before our eyes.

Amidst the swirling lightning, the lightning and clouds gradually began to intertwine and swirl, their rotation accelerating until, in the blink of an eye, they formed towering columns of thunderclouds resembling tornadoes.

Each of these thundercloud jets is at least a kilometer thick!

They are constantly moving, moving at incredible speeds, covering millions of meters in no time.

The powerful suction generated by the friction at the edges of the two thundercloud streams when they converged triggered bursts of explosions, some of which were even blasted apart by the two thundercloud streams.

The explosion shook the heavens and earth, filling people with fear and dread.

If a person were to be inhaled, the consequences would be unimaginable.

There were constantly swirling columns of thunderclouds, which would collide with each other and dissipate after a massive collision, only for new columns of thunderclouds to form.

Two new pillars of thundercloud energy were rapidly forming in the distance, clearly moving towards Lin Xiao's direction.

He definitely couldn't cultivate now. Although the pillar of thundercloud energy hadn't appeared in front of him yet, he could feel its intensity even from a distance. Not to mention the explosive force of the two pillars colliding with each other. Even though he was still far away, he knew that if he encountered it, he would probably be badly injured.

So he stopped being overconfident and continued cultivating, and instead decided to play hide-and-seek with these air currents.

He finally understood why Nascent Soul Cultivator could survive the Cloud Burst; it wasn't because Nascent Soul Cultivator could withstand the intensity of the thundercloud's airflow—they simply couldn't.

Only because the Nascent Soul Cultivator was fast enough, his movement speed was slightly faster than the movement speed of these thundercloud energy columns, that he was able to survive.

Of course, if some Golden Core cultivators have methods to increase movement speed, that should also work when Spiritual Power is abundant.

He had already flown away before the two pillars of thundercloud energy reached Lin Xiao.

But after he had flown several thousand meters, he suddenly heard a familiar sound.

That was the sound of a spirit ship crashing!

A relocation ship was struck down by stray lightning!

Lin Xiao immediately turned around and sped off in the direction of the sound.

Because he was so close, he arrived at the site of the crashed spirit ship almost instantly.

This was a medium-sized relocation ship, carrying several thousand people. However, the ship has been shot down, and most of the people on board are seriously injured.

Fortunately, the relocation ship was protected by defensive arrays and was not damaged by the fall.

The injured quickly treated themselves, and the lightly wounded crew members immediately took up the hull of the relocation vessel and lifted it off again to continue their journey.

Suddenly, someone on the ship pointed into the distance and exclaimed, "It's a column of thunderclouds! The third stage has begun!"

Ahead, two fully mature columns of thundercloud energy, each nearly five kilometers thick, were rapidly approaching in parallel! The gap between them was very small, and the edges of the gap were already frantically rubbing against each other, causing frequent small explosions.

Lightning flashed and thunder roared, accompanied by the howling of swirling air currents that filled everyone's ears.

"They're coming!"

"Still two!"

"Run!"

"Where can I run to... I can't escape anymore, waaaaah--"

"It's the third stage... and we've run into a thundercloud column... We're finished..."

"We're fucked!"

"I'm doomed... Waaah..."

The group was already badly injured, and now they didn't even have time to run away. They could only watch helplessly as the pillar of thundercloud energy hurtled towards them.

Everyone closed their eyes in despair, awaiting death.

Suddenly they heard a young voice shout, "Everyone, hold on tight!"

The next instant, a burst of spiritual light appeared on the hull of the huge relocation ship, and it flew to one side with a "whoosh," instantly escaping far away from the original path and range of the two pillars of thundercloud energy.

They were saved.

People at the stern peered back over the side of the boat and could only vaguely make out a tiny, blurry figure that had encountered the incoming column of thunderclouds at the spot where their boat had crashed.

Lin Xiao used all his strength to push the relocation ship out at extreme speed, thus preventing it from encountering the column of thundercloud airflow.

However, the speed of the thundercloud air columns was too fast. In almost an instant, the two towering air columns had already arrived in front of him.

He had no chance to escape and was caught off guard, falling into the crushing range of the two air columns.

Once sucked into the vortex by one of the pillars of thundercloud energy, Lin Xiao realized that the suction force inside was simply suffocating, and even with his Nascent Soul power, he could hardly escape.

He was spinning wildly in the vortex, surrounded by explosions of all sizes, and lightning crackling and sizzling as it passed over his entire body.

His robes were already on the verge of tearing apart in just a moment!

Worse still, this column of air began to collide violently with the one next to it. The intense friction between the two caused the vortex of air to collapse, and Lin Xiao, who was in the middle of it, felt his Qi and Blood and qi surging all over his body, causing his meridians to become chaotic.

Moreover, he sensed that the surrounding cloud explosions actually contained a faint spatial force!

Amidst the frenzy and chaos, Lin Xiao seemed to sense that something was about to happen.

The next moment, the two pillars of thundercloud energy collided even more violently, locked in a fierce struggle, as if both wanted to completely crush the other, neither willing to back down.

As if they had reached a critical point, they finally could not maintain this enormous power and suddenly dissipated!

The powerful energy scattered by the explosion violently pulled Lin Xiao into the center of the vortex. The extremely intense currents of lightning seemed to be tearing him to pieces!

Lin Xiao gathered all his remaining Origin Qi and used it to protect himself against this terrifyingly powerful energy.

That powerful, invisible force, like a demon from the abyss, roared and fiercely tore at the protective Origin Qi shield around Lin Xiao.

The two sides engaged in fierce and continuous confrontation.

In the ensuing stalemate, unexpectedly, the wisps of spatial energy generated by the friction converged!

The spatial power was caught in the gap between that terrifying energy and the resistance of the Origin Qi, and actually tore a spatial rift as tall as two people in front of Lin Xiao!

Lin Xiao subconsciously looked into the spatial rift, and in just one glance, he was deeply captivated by the boundless darkness within. In that instant of distraction, he was sucked into the spatial rift by its suction force!

The instant he was sucked in, Lin Xiao quickly opened the spiritual energy channel between himself and the Lock Ring, ensuring that the Lock Ring could automatically draw his Spiritual Power and remain connected.