Chapter 674: Thunderfiend Beasts — The Thunderbone Forest
Once all the Thunder Prison Clan cultivators had passed through the archway, a cultivator from the Dongli Imperial Dynasty called out loudly, "My Dongli Imperial Dynasty follows right behind!"
With that, the cultivators of the Dongli Imperial Dynasty immediately surged forward into the archway.
The Creation Heaven Sect, Reincarnation Holy Land, and Burning Heaven Divine Sect also spoke up in turn and rushed in.
Seeing that the five great powers of the Eastern Province had all entered first, the remaining cultivators no longer hesitated and quickly followed.
Shen Mo did not rush ahead, nor did he lag behind—he slipped into the crowd and entered the Thousandfold Thunder Prison.
Of course, before leaving, he made sure to take another look at Shi Tianhao's life panel, memorizing every recent opportunity listed there.
Buzz!
The instant he passed through the stone archway, it was as though he had walked through a curtain of water.
In the blink of an eye, the world spun, and he seemed to arrive in an entirely new realm.
Shen Mo looked up and saw blinding arcs of lightning tearing across the sky from time to time.
Massive Thunderfiend birds soared high above.
In the distance, towering mountains loomed, shrouded in demonic mists and rolling thunder.
"Ah!"
A scream rang out.
Following the sound, Shen Mo saw a hapless cultivator besieged by three Thunderfiend Eagles.
The man's defensive artifacts and defensive techniques were all broken apart by the fiendish lightning.
His eyes were gouged out, and his body was riddled with bloody holes.
Even worse, more Thunderfiend birds were diving from above—Thunderfiend Falcons, Thunderfiend Eagles, Thunderfiend Vultures, Thunderfiend Pengs…
The cultivators' scalps prickled in terror.
Some had thought of trying to rescue the unfortunate man, but that thought died instantly.
Survival came first.
In the next instant, the unlucky cultivator was torn apart and eaten by the flock, leaving behind only some bloodstained scraps of cloth as proof he had ever existed.
Shen Mo had no intention of moving with the main group.
The more people there were, the bigger the target.
These Thunderfiend Beasts had not tasted human flesh for thousands of years—now that they had, their appetite was whetted, and they would surely go all out to attack human cultivators.
Shen Mo was confident in his own strength and could easily travel alone.
With a leap, he shot forward at incredible speed, vanishing into a dense forest in the blink of an eye.
But this forest was not lush and green—instead, from the roots to the trunks to the leaves, every part was a dark violet-black.
The "fruit" hanging from the trees were actually clusters of purple-black skulls.
These trees were known as Thunderbone Trees, perfectly adapted to the environment of the Thousandfold Thunder Prison.
The "fruit" on the treetops were in truth Blackbone Bats, creatures in a symbiotic relationship with the Thunderbone Trees.
The bats would attack any living being that wandered into the forest, devouring their flesh.
The Thunderbone Trees would release lightning to assist the bats in their attacks.
The remains and droppings from the bats' meals would then fall to the roots, nourishing the Thunderbone Trees' growth.
Entering this forest meant enduring endless assaults—from falling lightning and from the Blackbone Bats.
But Shen Mo did not care.
Beneath his robes, he wore the Lightning-Avoiding Garment; over his body, the Gilded Dragon Might Armor.
The damage from lightning was negligible to him.
Floating beside him was the Black Dragon Shears.
Tai'er worked tirelessly to protect its master—any bat that dared approach was sliced cleanly in two in an instant.
"How dare you harm my wise and mighty master! You deserve death!"
Tai'er's expression was like that of a loyal hound, as though it recognized only Shen Mo as its master and would gladly give its life for him.
But the constant spinning of its beady eyes betrayed its true, self-serving nature.
Shen Mo paid it no mind.
His focus was on a single goal—
The great opportunity hidden within this Thunderbone Forest!
The first of Shi Tianhao's recent opportunities lay within this very Thunderbone Forest.
According to his destined path, upon entering the Thousandfold Thunder Prison, Shi Tianhao would be relentlessly pursued by flocks of Thunderfiend birds.
In his desperate bid to evade them, he would charge into this Thunderbone Forest.
Shi Tianhao was on good terms with Lei Zizhen, so he also possessed a Lightning-Avoiding Garment.
Relying on it, he managed to avoid much of the damage from falling lightning.
However, the pursuit of the Blackbone Bats clung to him like maggots to bone, impossible to shake off.
He fled while fighting, retreating step by step.
In the depths of the Thunderbone Forest, he would ultimately discover a massive yet withered Thunderbone Tree.
That was where the true opportunity lay.
"We're here."
By this time, Shen Mo had already arrived at the forest's center.
His speed was naturally on an entirely different level from Shi Tianhao's.
Shi Tianhao had to spend all his effort dodging the bats' attacks, and his Lightning-Avoiding Garment could not completely nullify the Thunderbone Trees' lightning strikes.
If a barrage of lightning rained down on him, he still had to evade.
Because of these two factors, his path through the forest could never be a straight line—he was forced to weave and detour constantly.
Shen Mo, however, possessed such strength that there was no need to take any detours.
He simply advanced straight ahead.
Anyone—or anything—that dared block his way, he cut down.
At first, swarms of Blackbone Bats descended upon him.
But after tens of thousands of them were slaughtered, these bloodthirsty Thunderfiend Beasts lost their nerve.
They only dared to follow from a distance, never approaching within a thousand feet of him.
Most likely, the bats were counting on the dense lightning summoned by the Thunderbone Trees to kill Shen Mo, so they could scavenge the remains.
"So this is the dead Thunderbone King?"
Shen Mo studied the massive tree with a look of wonder.
A Thunderbone Tree would take three thousand years to sprout, another three thousand to grow, and another three thousand to harden.
During these nine thousand years, its height hardly changed.
Only upon surpassing this threshold would it suddenly grow madly, eventually becoming a Thunderbone King.
The combat power of a Thunderbone King was fearsome.
Ordinary Thunderbone Trees could only summon green lightning.
A Thunderbone King, however, could draw down violet lightning!
Under a storm of violet lightning, even Shen Mo would be injured.
Fortunately, the one before him was already dead.
Its leaves had all fallen, leaving behind bare, skeletal branches.
Yet even these branches still carried the lingering pressure of a former king.
As Shen Mo gazed at the Thunderbone King, his sight seemed to penetrate its surface and reach its core.
A Thunderbone Tree over six thousand years old could condense a tree heart within its trunk.
Perhaps because it had grown in the Thousandfold Thunder Prison for countless years, it had long adapted to the environment, developing a natural method to repel Thunderfiend Beasts.
The tree heart of a Thunderbone Tree could drive away ordinary beasts.
However, if the difference in strength was too great, the Thunderfiend Beasts would still attack without hesitation.
As for a ten-thousand-year-old Thunderbone King, it would form a Ten-Thousand-Year Tree Heart within.
This heart, brimming with violent Thunderfiend power, was extremely effective against the Thunderfiend Beasts of the Thousandfold Thunder Prison.
But to activate its Thunderfiend power and repel the beasts, one needed to cultivate the techniques of the Thunder Prison Clan.
This was precisely why, whenever the Thousandfold Thunder Prison opened, the survival rate of Thunder Prison Clan cultivators was far higher than that of other factions.
An ordinary Nirvana Realm cultivator could hardly absorb the Thunderfiend power within such a heart, let alone know how to unleash it to suppress the beasts.
Its only practical use for them would be to take it out and use it as a material for crafting artifacts.
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