Chapter 128: Fighting for Life While Courting Death

The thunderclouds, which had been relatively stable, were striking the endless Boundary Sea as usual, without causing much disturbance to the human lands. But at this very moment, they erupted into a frenzy, for an uninvited guest had dared to recklessly intrude, seeking his own destruction.

The massive thundercloud, seemingly possessing a will of its own, immediately veered, directing countless bolts of purple-gold lightning toward the intruder. Even the distant human lands were affected, causing the earth to tremble with countless explosions. The three people waiting anxiously in the distance retreated several miles in an instant, fearing the collateral damage.

Nangong Hongbo and Puyang De, veteran powerhouses who had lived for over a hundred, even several hundred years, appeared anxious but remained relatively composed. Beside them, Bai Ling’er’s crystalline eyes, brimming with mist, were fixed intently on the thunderclouds, filled with urgency and worry. Her hands moved incessantly, flying like butterflies as she struggled to calculate something. As her hand seals grew more complex, her elegant form began to tremble, at first slightly, then violently.

When her jade-like face turned deathly pale, the movements of her hands finally ceased. She exhaled softly, like the scent of orchids, amidst her trembling. The worry on her face finally eased just a little.

"Girl, how is it?"

"Senior Nangong, I do not know why, but it is as if Xiao Pang’s fate is being obscured by heaven's secrets. I cannot calculate it clearly. I can only vaguely see that this journey is destined to be a great tribulation for him, yet there is a glimmer of life hidden behind it. I hope he can pull through."

"That is good, that is good indeed."

Nangong Hongbo finally felt a bit more at ease. He thought to himself that the wicked live for a thousand years; this shameless brat didn’t have the look of someone destined for a short life, so he should indeed survive this catastrophe.

"The technique you just used must be from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, right? Are you a disciple of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion? What is your relationship with the old man God Calculator?"

"This girl here, she is the closing disciple of old man God Calculator."

"This..."

"What is this? Don't you see that I, the old man, have personally come out to protect the path for that boy? As a mere master of the Transformation Realm, what kind of attitude do you think you should have? I don't need to explain what this implies, do I?!"

"Yes! The Senior's teachings are well-taken."

Puyang De had been genuinely surprised by Bai Ling’er’s technique and had let the question slip out. Before Bai Ling’er could open her delicate lips, Nangong Hongbo had already cut in. Having been lectured by a Tribulation Transcendence powerhouse, Puyang De felt no resentment and immediately fell into deep thought.

Indeed, he was well aware of what this represented—a person of destiny. If things went poorly, the entire continent might have to look up to him in the future. The fact that he had been subdued by this boy while he was still young became much easier to accept. Perhaps this was his own turning point, as his cultivation had been stagnant for too many years.

Of the few people of destiny in the world, while he had not encountered others, as an old hand in the cultivation world, he knew that someone as approachable as Gu Xiaopang was a breath of fresh air in the Fengshen Continent. If handled well, it would be of great benefit to his entire Absolute Kill Tower.

This was the very reason why the Asura Mansion had paid a huge price to hire the Absolute Kill Tower, and why even the Puppet Sect wished to eliminate him as quickly as possible. To put it bluntly, the Asura Mansion, the hegemon of the Southern Territory, would never allow a person of destiny to emerge from any sect or faction other than their own within their jurisdiction. As for the Puppet Sect, they were being directed by another person of destiny from the Central Territory—though, of course, no one knew this yet.

...

Returning to the matter at hand, when Gu Xiaopang dove headfirst into the massive thundercloud, it was as if he had poked a hornet's nest. Countless bolts of purple-gold lightning, as thick as fingers, swarmed out like snakes leaving their den toward him, even before he had regained his footing.

"Damn, that’s way too many!"

"Ah... numb, my whole body is numb!"

"You brat, did you cultivate the power of lightning for nothing? Hurry up and use it!"

"Ah, right, how could I forget that!"

Following Old Man Qin’s reminder, Gu Xiaopang immediately channeled his internal lightning power to circulate throughout his body, slowly devouring the external lightning that had struck him.

The signs of recovery lasted only a few seconds before countless more electric snakes lashed out at him. Knowing his refining speed was too slow, Gu Xiaopang grew frustrated. He thought, *I don't believe it! If I can handle the power of space, surely I can handle a little lightning.*

Just like when he had recently used spatial spiritual energy to create a space furnace in the void to refine chaotic currents into spatial spirit crystals, Gu Xiaopang copied the method. Risking his powerful physical body to endure the wave of electric snakes, he instantly extracted the lightning-attributed portion from his multi-colored spiritual energy crystals, forcibly forging it into a lightning furnace, and fueled it with all his own lightning power.

At this moment, Gu Xiaopang’s eyebrows were singed, his hair stood on end, most of his clothes were destroyed, and black smoke drifted from his body. The five self-forged items on his limbs, such as his gale boots and bracers, were crackling with electrical currents. Looking like a beggar, Gu Xiaopang stared with wide, round eyes at the new wave of electric snakes brewing to attack him.

Seemingly frustrated by two failed strikes, the hot-tempered thundercloud forcibly drew back some of the lightning from elsewhere. The electric snakes, which had been the thickness of a finger in the first two waves, were now more than three times as thick. They vibrated rapidly for a moment, as if revving their engines, before charging at Gu Xiaopang in a swarm.

Gu Xiaopang subconsciously gulped. Before he could even pull his tongue back, the swarm of electric snakes was upon him.

"Ah..."

"Take it in, you bastard!"

As his entire body was scorched black and plumes of thick smoke rose, Gu Xiaopang, roaring in agony, successfully forced the purple-gold lightning bolts that had struck his body into his newly forged lightning furnace.

"Suppress! Refine!"

He channeled all his internal lightning power into the furnace. The trapped purple-gold lightning snakes thrashed and crashed, their explosive energy making the furnace rattle, though luckily, no cracks appeared. His entire body was numb and devoid of feeling; Gu Xiaopang was now operating solely by willpower.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds...

After an unknown amount of time, as Gu Xiaopang, whose nerves had begun to go numb, gritted his teeth and persisted, the lightning snakes inside the furnace finally began to slow their assault.

"There’s, there’s a chance. Just hold on a little longer, must hold on."

Gu Xiaopang, who felt as if he were about to fall into a coma, still had remnants of lightning rampaging through his meridians. Even his soul sea was surging with violent waves, and his mental energy vortex seemed to be turning more sluggish. Mentally urging himself, he held onto the last shred of clarity in his spirit, focusing on the stabilizing snakes within the furnace, and continued the refinement.

Heaven does not disappoint those who try.

The snakes inside the furnace grew smaller and tighter until, gradually, purple-gold crystals the size of sunflower seeds floated quietly within. Gu Xiaopang smiled genuinely, feeling truly happy.

"Refine."

With a roar in his heart, several purple-gold crystals were instantly and forcibly refined into the walls of the furnace, increasing its sturdiness by more than fifty percent. Gu Xiaopang then controlled the furnace to capture the remaining snakes roaming his meridians one by one and resumed the refinement.

It seemed that the fact his lightning had been partially refined by an outsider had truly enraged the massive thundercloud. Suddenly, two pitch-black, cavernous holes appeared within the thundercloud, and the area beneath these holes appeared as if it had been torn open, revealing a massive gap.

Gu Xiaopang, inside the black clouds, did not feel the full extent of the change, but the three people waiting anxiously outside were almost frightened out of their wits. What were they seeing?

The massive thundercloud mass seemed to transform into a terrifying skull. Its two hollow eye sockets stared intently at a spot within it, and the gaping mouth beneath the sockets seemed to inhale, sucking away nearly a third of the lightning that had been striking the endless Boundary Sea. The thundercloud mass began to swell as if it had a stomach.

Unaware of this change, Gu Xiaopang was still desperately accelerating the refinement of the countless snakes in his furnace. At the same time, he instinctively knew that the next wave of purple lightning would be even more dangerous and that he had little time left to prepare, so he did not dare to waste a single moment.

Gu Xiaopang’s physical body was incredibly strong, having achieved resonance with the Earth Ladder and climbed eighty steps of the Sky Ladder, but under such divine power, it still appeared as fragile as paper. This was only because Gu Xiaopang was standing on the edge; had he been reckless enough to rush into the center of the thundercloud, there wouldn't even be a speck of ash left of him.

Just as Gu Xiaopang successfully refined another batch of purple lightning crystals and forcibly fused them into the furnace walls, a lightning tide, several times larger and having been brewing for a long time, crashed down on him without mercy.

"Ah..."

Having lost all sensation in his body, as if he were already dead, Gu Xiaopang summoned strength from nowhere and let out another long, agonized roar that resounded across the sky. The three people waiting far away felt their hearts tighten.

Amidst his agonizing roar, Gu Xiaopang, using the last shred of clarity in his mind, forcibly opened the furnace lid and, with reckless abandon, pulled a massive mass of purple electricity into the furnace.

As the lid sealed shut, Gu Xiaopang lost consciousness in that very instant.

"It’s over, I can no longer sense that brat’s aura."

"I... I can’t either."

Nangong Hongbo let out a startled exclamation, and Puyang De followed with a cry of alarm. Bai Ling’er stumbled and collapsed to the ground, once again beginning to calculate.

"Senior Nangong, what should we do now? Should we rush in to save the Young Master? Maybe there is still time."

"Rush in? If your Young Master isn't dead yet, rushing in now would make his death a certainty."

"Then, then..."

"Stop with the 'thens.' No one can do anything now. Sigh, it all depends on the fortune of that reckless brat."

"Even if I had the heart to save him, this thundercloud would not allow it. I can guarantee that if I were to actually enter, all the lightning power would be concentrated and detonated at once."

"This is why, despite the many capable people on our Fengshen Continent, only the Hall Master of the Tyrant Palace has ever dared to venture out to explore the Boundary Sea."

"Perhaps the Lord of the Profound Beast Forest could, but no one has ever seen them."

"Girl?!"

As Nangong Hongbo sighed, Bai Ling’er, who had been calculating, suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed, unconscious.

...