Word Count: 2,524 Words
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'Tsk, tsk, tsk. The wonders of nature. This Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning doesn't possess the miraculous special abilities of the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame or the Nihility Devouring Flame. But if we're speaking purely of destructive power, it's likely not inferior to either of them.'
The greatest strength of a Heavenly Flame naturally lay in its miraculous abilities.
For a thousand years, no one on the Dou Qi Continent had managed to refine a Tier 9 Golden Pill. The Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning had therefore not appeared for a very long time.
The golden lightning dragon lay coiled in the deepest reaches of the sea of lightning, its eyes tightly shut. Golden arcs of electricity flashed ceaselessly across its body, and a faint destructive force spread outward from it, twisting the surrounding void to an extreme degree.
Dense masses of Black Demon Lightning circled a thousand feet away from the golden lightning dragon. The sight made them seem like subjects paying homage to their king.
Xiao Yan's shock only deepened as he laid eyes on the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning once more. He had indeed once entertained the thought of refining it, but in the end could only shake his head helplessly. This was not a Heavenly Flame. Almost all of the resistances he possessed were useless against it, and the Flame Mantra even more so.
Even though the Nine Dragon Lightning Flame gave him both lightning and fire attributes in his Dou Qi, the Flame Mantra was useless here, and he had never cultivated a lightning-attribute Qi Method. Trying to refine the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning would be no different from suicide.
The destructive force of the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning was comparable to that of the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame. Without the Flame Mantra and the resistance provided by his many Heavenly Flames, Xiao Yan would have died without question when he refined the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame back then.
Not long after Xiao Yan quietly drew near, the coiled golden dragon deep within the lightning pool slowly opened its tightly shut eyes. Lightning flashed and thunder roared within those pupils, as though the entire world had been reflected into those enormous dragon eyes.
The Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning's dragon pupils suddenly flicked toward Xiao Yan's position.
It had actually discovered him!
'Hm? It can even spot me?' Xiao Yan's heart jolted. He was just about to retreat when a thick bolt of golden lightning shot from the dragon's body, piercing through the void like a chain and hurtling straight toward him.
RUMBLE!!!
The golden lightning was unbelievably fast and struck him in an instant. Golden electricity exploded like a storm of fireworks, forming a crackling lightning field around him.
"You didn't think it would still be like last time, did you?"
Xiao Yan's calm voice drifted out from within that golden lightning field. The raging golden lightning began to visibly contract, as though some invisible force had seized hold of it. Dense threads of golden heavenly lightning rapidly burrowed into Xing Tian's body.
Xing Tian stood like a lightning rod. The Dragon Phoenix patterns across its body flickered with wave after wave of crackling light.
That casual strike from the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning had actually failed to do anything to Xing Tian, now that it had fused with Huang Tian and the Northern Dragon King!
Xiao Yan casually brushed a few lingering arcs of lightning from his Soul Robe and pulled back his hood to reveal his true face. His dark, pearl-like eyes stared straight at the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning.
"Back then, you blasted me right out of this lightning pool. You didn't think that after all this time you could still send me flying as easily as before, did you? I wouldn't have come without confidence." He tucked both hands into his pockets, utterly unafraid.
The Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning was indeed powerful, with strength comparable to a 7-star Dou Saint, but Xiao Yan had his own grounds for confidence. He now had Xing Tian, a puppet with the special ability to absorb lightning and temper its body. Its strength already surpassed that of the Northern Dragon King, reaching the initial 6-star Dou Saint level.
If the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning successfully evolved and completed its spirit-gathering, Xiao Yan might not be able to defeat it. Right now, however, before that process had succeeded, he did not need to fear it too much.
The golden-lightning-laced dragon pupils narrowed slightly at the sight of Xiao Yan's true face. It recognized him. Back then, a sneaky little thief had crept close and devoured quite a bit of its Black Demon Lightning.
But that same little thief, whom it had once sent flying millions of miles with a casual strike, now actually possessed the strength to contend with it!
Golden lightning crackled and sizzled across its body with growing violence. It was the king of lightning. Even without true intelligence, a trace of pride still resided within it. Rejecting outsiders was instinct, and destroying intruders was simply its nature!
"If you want to fight me, then go ahead. The energy in your body has already reached its peak. If you don't gather a spirit soon, it'll start spilling over. Setting aside whether you'd win or lose after fighting me, how much confidence would you still have left to succeed?"
"Of course, you can rest assured. I, Xiao Yan, do not actually want to become your enemy. If you succeed in gathering a spirit, I'll turn around and leave. If you fail, then I won't be polite about the energy that erupts from your body. I happen to need it for my breakthrough."
Xiao Yan was rather straightforward and stated his purpose plainly. He simply did not believe the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning would succeed.
He slowly withdrew a full kilometer to show he had no intention of interfering with the spirit-gathering.
Not long after he moved away, the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning seemed to realize it could delay no longer. A dragon roar that shook heaven and earth erupted from the deepest reaches of the Void Lightning Pool.
WHOOOM!!!!!!!!
In the deepest region, enormous arcs of lightning burst from the golden dragon's massive body. Mournful dragon cries rang through them, shaking the entire world. The surrounding Black Demon Lightning was so terrified it scattered far away.
In an instant, every bolt of lightning across the center of the vast Void Lightning Pool fled, revealing the enormous golden dragon in its entirety.
'Spiritual energy is gathering. It really is starting to gather a spirit!'
The light in Xiao Yan's eyes flickered rapidly. The Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning was terrifying, but it still lacked true intelligence. If the spirit-gathering failed, most of the energy in its body would dissipate, leaving it in an extremely weakened state.
Even with his composure, Xiao Yan's heart began pounding fiercely.
If he could take this Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning for himself, refining it might allow him to break through to 6-star Dou Saint or even higher in a single leap. Even leaving it unrefined and simply keeping it in hand would give him a formidable trump card for the future. Against an opponent at the 7-star Dou Saint level, the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning would be a devastating killing move.
A 7-star Dou Saint!
Across the entire Dou Qi Continent, the number of people who had reached that level could probably be counted on two hands!
Xiao Yan slowly suppressed the turmoil in his heart with sheer patience. His gaze flickered as he stared into the depths of the lightning sea, his decision long since made. He calmed himself and fixed his eyes on the golden dragon, where one lightning storm after another continued to erupt across its massive body.
Mournful roars and low growls rang out from the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning as the surrounding Black Demon Lightning kept their distance. It had clearly reached a crucial moment.
CRACK!
A golden lightning storm nearly one-fifth the size of the dragon's body exploded viciously across its surface. Golden arcs brimming with destructive power rampaged wildly. Even something as powerful as the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning could only struggle under this internal backlash. Yet amid that violent thrashing, a trace of spirit began to surface in those dragon eyes that had once been cold and utterly devoid of emotion. They now looked a touch more alive, no longer as lifeless as a sculpture.
Xiao Yan licked his lips involuntarily. He had not expected the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning to endure such ferocious backlash just to gather a spirit. But if it could survive this trial, it would likely become an extremely terrifying existence in the future.
The world held no shortage of strange wonders. The Bodhisattva Ancient Tree was one such example. It was merely an ancient tree, yet in its prime it had once traded blows with a legendary Dou God. Even so, the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree did not possess especially strong intelligence. The more powerful a natural spiritual object, the harder it was to form true intelligence. That was true for the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree, and it was equally true for the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning.
BOOM! BOOM!
As that trace of spirit emerged in the dragon's eyes, the backlash within its body grew even more violent. Deep peals of thunder boomed endlessly from inside it. Each terrifying explosion made Xiao Yan's scalp tingle, and under those ferocious detonations, much of the spirit that had just formed in the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning's eyes was forcibly blown apart.
'What a terrifying backlash. No wonder the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree could never form intelligence. If it had to endure something like this, just how horrifying would that backlash have been...' Xiao Yan clicked his tongue in amazement as he watched more of the spirit in its eyes scatter. Judging by this, the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning's attempt to form intelligence really might not succeed.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, the overwhelming masses of Black Demon Lightning seemed to sense it instinctively. A strange sound tinged with sorrow spread through the entire sea of lightning, and then countless strands of Black Demon Lightning surged forward one after another, throwing themselves at the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning without regard for their own existence.
The moment those countless bolts touched its body, they transformed into tiny black streams of electricity and seeped inside. As they did, the violent explosions within the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning gradually weakened. It was as though the Black Demon Lightning were using their own bodies to resist the backlash raging within.
Under their suicidal charge, the spirit in the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning's eyes grew denser and denser. At the same time, however, its originally brilliant golden body dimmed steadily. The backlash was leaving it increasingly weak.
"ROAR!"
A mournful roar echoed from the depths. The Black Demon Lightning in the surrounding sea went mad, hurling themselves into it without hesitation. But as the spirit in its eyes grew richer, the explosions inside the golden dragon body also grew more frenzied. The destructive ripples spreading outward made even Xiao Yan, standing far away, feel his heart quiver.
'It seems Heavenly Flames truly are special. When the Three Thousand Burning Flame, the Fallen Heart Flame, and other Heavenly Flames gathered their spirits, it shouldn't have been nearly this dangerous.'
Heavenly Flames really were unique.
The Nine Dragon Lightning Flame emerged from Xiao Yan's body and hovered beside him, its eyes wide with shock as it watched the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning's spirit-gathering unfold as though it might destroy the world itself. This was simply outrageous!
Xiao Yan could feel the surrounding spiritual energy and the energy of the world converging toward the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning's body. It was somewhat similar to when he refined tier 8 medicinal pills and had to gather natural energy to grant them spirituality.
The difference was that the spirit the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning required was not the sort possessed by ordinary tier 8 pills. What it sought was far closer to the Pill Tower's Old Ancestor. It wanted to become an existence like that.
Unfortunately, the Pill Tower's Old Ancestor had only reached its current state because the alchemist who refined it had ultimately completed the pill at the cost of his own life, fusing a wisp of his soul into it. Without that sacrifice, the Old Ancestor could never have possessed such formidable strength and spirituality.
Xiao Yan could now refine Tier 9 Treasure Pills. Although such pills possessed spirit, that spirit was much closer to instinct when they first took shape, nowhere near comparable to the two Pill Beasts, Tuan Tuan and the rabbit.
After all, Tuan Tuan was a Pill Beast born only after being nurtured by Saint Zhao Hua for a thousand years.
'It looks like it's going to fail.' Xiao Yan's voice was utterly calm. As a bystander, he felt little emotion about it.
The backlash within the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning was increasing almost exponentially. At this rate, no matter how fearlessly the Black Demon Lightning threw themselves forward, they would be unable to suppress those backlash explosions. And once they failed, the intelligence the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning had painstakingly begun to gather would be blown apart entirely.
When that happened, the energy within its body would burst out alongside that shattered spirit. All of it would naturally end up benefiting Xiao Yan.
The outcome was clear. He let out a soft sigh. No one knew how many ages the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning had endured before finally taking shape. If it failed now, it truly would be a pity. Heaven had granted it overwhelming power, yet at the same time had stripped it of another right.
Deep in the lightning sea, the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning lay coiled, its radiance all but extinguished. That body, once looking as though it had been forged from pure gold, had grown much more illusory. Against such terrifying backlash, it was powerless to resist.
As though it had accepted its fate, the golden dragon lay still in the depths of the sea. The surrounding Black Demon Lightning ceased their charge and circled around it, releasing low, mournful cries filled with grief.
"...Sigh."
Xiao Yan gazed at the now-feeble Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning and let out a long breath. In its current state, it no longer gave him the same sense of danger as before.
'The spirit-gathering failed.' He shook his head and stepped across the void. A single flash carried him into the depths of the lightning sea, where he looked up close at the golden dragon stretching several thousand feet. Its extremely dim dragon eyes glanced at him once, but this time it did not launch another attack.
Woo... woo... woo...
The Nine Dragon Lightning Flame protecting Xiao Yan transformed into nine dragons and gazed sadly at the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning before them. It was a Heavenly Flame, but it also possessed the lightning attribute. Toward this sovereign existence among all lightning, it could not help but feel a measure of pity.