He couldn't afford to wonder why this change was happening; all that mattered was refining the lightning arcs.
Zhou Changqing was stunned for only a moment before he threw his all into the effort, circulating his Dou Qi to every corner of his body to refine the rampaging lightning.
Subsequently, every arc of lightning behaved like the first. After merging with his lightning-attribute Dou Qi, it stimulated his metal-attribute Dou Qi, causing it to transform into a brilliant golden essence that fused into the surrounding flesh and bone.
For a time, every inch of his body glowed with this golden light.
Even the surface of his skin began to shimmer with a faint, golden luminescence!
The cells that had been destroyed by the lightning were gradually repaired under the nourishment of this golden essence.
The charred tissue on his skin began to flake off at a visible rate, revealing new flesh and skin beneath!
As for the lightning energy itself, it was carried along by his lightning-attribute Dou Qi through a full circulatory cycle, ultimately converting into pure Dou Qi that flowed into his Dantian vortex, becoming fuel for his growth.
He had no idea how much time had passed, his entire focus consumed by the task of refining the lightning.
When the last of the lightning within him was finally refined, Zhou Changqing's eyes snapped open.
With a single, sharp movement, he sprang straight up from the ground to a standing position.
"Whew, that was close. I almost died."
Feeling the rain on his face, Zhou Changqing muttered to himself, his heart still pounding with lingering fear.
The danger this time had been very real. First, the lightning had struck directly at him; he had barely dodged, only to be hit by the aftershock.
The Tier 3 low-grade inner armor he had just put on had been damaged again by that aftershock.
This was a piece of defensive equipment capable of withstanding a full-power blow from a low-level Da Dou Shi!
Even so, a significant amount of the residual, berserk lightning had still managed to invade his body.
Though a Dou Shi's body was stronger than an ordinary person's, it hadn't undergone a fundamental transformation. It was still flesh and blood—how could it possibly withstand lightning?
Thankfully, at the most critical moment, he had successfully merged his Thunder Awakening Art and Steel Condensation Art, allowing him to refine all the lightning at the fastest possible speed and escape the life-threatening crisis.
But the feeling of having lightning course through his body was an agony beyond description, a torture of the highest order.
No wonder electrocution was used for interrogation in his past life.
Just thinking about it now made Zhou Changqing's heart tremble.
He looked down at himself. His clothes were tattered and burnt by the lightning, caked in mud. He looked worse than a beggar.
But Zhou Changqing had no time to worry about that. He quickly picked up the cracked, silver Monster Core from the ground and put it into his Storage Ring.
That was the thing that had drawn the heavenly lightning. He couldn't move before, but now he didn't dare leave it exposed.
If another bolt struck, Zhou Changqing knew he wouldn't survive it. He'd be dead for sure.
Seemingly traumatized by the experience, he felt unsafe everywhere. Forgetting about setting up a tent, he broke into a run in a random direction.
Reaching a nearby rock face, he didn't hesitate. He pulled out his greatsword and began carving a cave into the mountainside.
After some effort, a large cave, big enough for three people, had been carved out of the uneven cliff.
He ducked inside and immediately started stripping off his clothes.
In a matter of moments, the tattered rags were tossed outside, the damaged inner armor dropped at his feet, and Zhou Changqing was completely naked.
At the same time, without the constraint of his clothing, large flakes of charred skin sloughed off his body and fell to the floor.
"Huh? Something's not right!"
Just as Zhou Changqing was wiping himself down, about to pull a fresh set of clothes from his Storage Ring, he caught a glimpse of his body in his peripheral vision and froze.
He looked down in astonishment, running a hand over his abs and chest, his expression one of utter confusion.
"How did my body end up like this?"
Standing there exposed, he could clearly see the fluid lines of his muscles. Lean, refined muscle now covered most of his frame, forming what could only be described as a perfect golden ratio.
It was so perfect, in fact, that it was like a physique straight out of a 2D world had walked into reality.
If that were all, Zhou Changqing wouldn't have been so surprised. His previous build was already the "lean in clothes, ripped without" type, not far off from the protagonists of those 2D worlds.
But what was different now was that the curves of his muscles were more defined, more solid. Any slight imperfections in his muscle distribution had vanished, leaving a perfectly symmetrical form.
In short, while his physique had been good before, it still carried a hint of slenderness. Now, it radiated a powerful, masculine energy.
It was as flawless as a masterfully carved work of art!
Furthermore, his skin now had a faint, almost imperceptible metallic sheen that it hadn't had before.
Staring at the changes in his body, feeling the newfound toughness of his abs, Zhou Changqing completely forgot about getting dressed, lost in thought.
"Could it be because of that?"
He recalled the moment when he was refining the lightning, when his metal-attribute Dou Qi had broken down into golden essence and fused with his flesh.
A vague understanding of why this had happened began to dawn on him.
It was too similar to the changes his metal-attribute Dou Qi underwent when he was forging weapons and armor.
Combined with the original novel and the countless other stories he had read in his past life, the answer wasn't hard to guess.
Body tempering with heavenly lightning!
He didn't have to look far for examples. There was Xiao Yan, who trained in the Void Lightning Pool, and Lin Dong, who directly drew down heavenly lightning to cultivate his Great Sun Thunder Body.
Both of their physical bodies had become incredibly powerful as a result.
He clenched his fist, feeling a strength far greater than what he possessed before the lightning strike. It was hard not to come to that conclusion.
At this thought, a wave of excitement washed over Zhou Changqing.
"Does this mean I can temper my own body just like I forge a weapon, making it even stronger?!"
"Using my body as the weapon?!"
If that was truly possible, Zhou Changqing couldn't even begin to imagine how powerful his physical body could become.
After all, he knew the incredible potential of his methods from the mundane-yet-razor-sharp weapons and the powerful Monster Core armaments he had created.
Instantly, Zhou Changqing couldn't sit still. Forgetting that he was still naked, he plopped down on the smooth stone floor and began to circulate his cultivation method.
But before he could even begin to guide his Dou Qi, he looked inward at his Dantian vortex and received another shock.
"My cultivation level?!"
Staring at the Dou Qi vortex, which was now much more condensed and powerful than before, Zhou Changqing was bewildered.
He had been so focused on refining the lightning earlier, and then so preoccupied with escaping after waking up, that he hadn't noticed the changes in his vortex at all.
Now, thinking back to the lightning he had refined, he instantly understood.
"It must be because I refined the lightning arcs into Dou Qi, which pushed my strength to the next level!"
After assessing his new level, Zhou Changqing's heart pounded with joyous surprise.
"An Eight-Star Dou Shi?!"
His strength had actually reached the level of an Eight-Star Dou Shi!
He had only just broken through to become a Five-Star Dou Shi a few days ago!
By his own estimates, reaching the level of an Eight-Star Dou Shi without any medicinal pills or other cultivation-accelerating resources should have taken at least half a year.
But getting struck by lightning had saved him half a year of hard cultivation?!
Such a jump of three stars was something even few medicinal pills could accomplish.
In the original Battle Through the Heavens novel, he knew that the only thing capable of raising one's strength by three stars at the Dou Shi or Da Dou Shi level was a Three-Vein Green Spirit Pill.
The effect was comparable to a Tier 4 medicinal pill!
And such an incredible stroke of luck had actually happened to him!
The ancestors were right! Every cloud has a silver lining, and great fortune follows a near-death experience!
As the joy of his breakthrough gradually subsided, Zhou Changqing remembered his original goal and immediately began circulating his Dou Qi, trying to guide it into his flesh and blood.
However, what happened next left him feeling rather frustrated.
No matter how he tried to command the two types of Dou Qi, his metal-attribute Dou Qi remained completely unchanged.
The most it would do was not clash with his lightning-attribute Dou Qi.