Chapter 174 - 148: Ji Zhixing? How Is That Possible?

Chapter 174: Chapter 148: Ji Zhixing? How Is That Possible?

Having spent so many days in the Spirit Ruins Treasure Land, he had naturally heard about this moving Thunder Pool.

As far as he knew, while the thundercloud was dangerous, it wouldn’t actively attack targets from afar. It would only strike if someone stepped directly beneath it.

"If it keeps heading our way later, we’ll just dodge it. It won’t be too late to attack this Twisted Forest once it leaves," Cao Zhenxing said.

Gongye Zhou and Yu Mengdie nodded in agreement.

Like the Twisted Forest they were currently attacking, this thundercloud was one of the major challenges in the Spirit Ruins Treasure Land. Since the three of them had already joined forces to tackle the forest, they had no desire to provoke anything else.

RUMBLE!

Just as they reached an agreement, the distant thundercloud bore straight down on them. Dark clouds churned, lightning flashed, and the low, heavy rumbling drew closer and louder, bringing with it a suffocating sense of oppression.

"It’s really coming." Frowning at the sight, Cao Zhenxing and his group hadn’t expected the thundercloud to actually press in their direction.

Without hesitation, they immediately dodged to the side.

BOOM!

Suddenly, the moment they moved, a bolt of lightning struck from the cloud. Surprisingly, it didn’t strike straight down. Instead, it twisted and slithered like an agile lightning snake, striking at them from a slanted angle.

"What’s going on?" Their expressions changed as they hastily scattered.

But just as they dodged the bolt and breathed a sigh of relief, they looked up to see the previously forward-moving thundercloud make a sharp mid-air turn, bearing down on them once again. Its speed surged instantly, exuding a terrifying, menacing aura.

"What the hell is happening?" Their eyes widened in disbelief. They wondered if this thundercloud was actually chasing them.

In the distance, the seven or eight students from the three universities who had been watching Cao Zhenxing’s group attack the Twisted Forest were equally dumbfounded. They had heard about the thundercloud before and knew it only struck when someone walked beneath it. However, they had never heard of it actively attacking anyone, let alone actively chasing its targets.

"Huh? Someone else is coming!"

"Is that... Xiao Mingyue?"

"Looking at her trajectory, it seems she’s following the thundercloud."

Suddenly, someone spotted several figures rushing over from a distance, tailing the thundercloud. One of them was Xiao Mingyue, a familiar face to many.

"Why is Xiao Mingyue alone? Where’s Ji Zhixing? Aren’t those two always joined at the hip?" Curious, some looked around but couldn’t find any sign of Ji Zhixing.

RUMBLE!

But a moment later, they completely forgot about such trivial matters. Amidst terrifying peals of thunder, the dark Thunder Pool that was bearing down on Cao Zhenxing’s trio suddenly unleashed over a dozen bolts of lightning at once. The bolts struck simultaneously from the cloud, each as thick as an arm, lunging downward like a frenzy of lightning pythons baring their fangs and claws.

"Not good!" Cao Zhenxing and his companions turned pale with fright, hastily accelerating their evasive maneuvers.

Gongye Zhou flapped the illusory equine wings on his back, his body drawing an arc through the air as he easily dodged several bolts. He was simply too fast; even the lightning striking after him couldn’t keep up.

But Cao Zhenxing and Yu Mengdie were much slower.

A watery ripple flashed across Cao Zhenxing’s body as he moved rapidly, but there were too many lightning bolts covering too wide an area for him to evade them all. Two bolts struck him. The watery ripples flickered violently, absorbing the force of the lightning, but the impact still made his body stall and his footsteps stagger.

Yu Mengdie fared even worse. She wasn’t fast to begin with, and faced with so much lightning, she couldn’t dodge at all. Two bolts slammed into her, instantly shattering the Nightmare Curtain protecting her body. Then, a third bolt struck, hitting her squarely.

"Ah!" Yu Mengdie let out a miserable scream as the strike sent her flying. In a mere instant, her flesh was split open, and her entire body was left charred black.

"Damn it!" Gritting her teeth, Yu Mengdie tried to stand up.

But the next second, the lightning from the thundercloud rained down once more. This time, there were even more bolts—dozens of them at a single glance. A dense barrage of purple-gold lightning poured down like a torrential storm, covering a radius of tens of meters.

Yu Mengdie’s expression changed drastically. Before she could dodge or even call upon the Azure Sky Divine Wood, she was completely swallowed by the successive lightning strikes.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Lightning exploded, kicking up a thick cloud of smoke and dust. With a ripple in the void and a final scream, she was teleported back to the Dead Wood Regeneration Forest.

"Yu Mengdie got teleported away!"

The students watching from afar were in an uproar. To see a genius who had integrated a Tier 5 Radiant Moon-grade gene be battered into such a miserable retreat by a thundercloud—even being forcibly teleported back to the Dead Wood Regeneration Forest—was a truly shocking sight.

"What exactly is going on?"

On the other side, Cao Zhenxing was also being bombarded by relentless lightning strikes. This time, over a dozen bolts hit him, one after another, as endless as a violent storm.

"Celestial River Profound Water Shield!" Cao Zhenxing roared lowly. The watery ripples on his body flared brightly, forming a thick curtain of water around him. The lightning struck the curtain with muffled rumbles, causing it to tremble violently, but it barely managed to block this wave of attacks.

"Thank goodness..." Cao Zhenxing breathed a sigh of relief.

But before he could even finish exhaling, the thundercloud hovering in mid-air rumbled again, raining down another barrage of lightning. This time, there were even more bolts.

"Azure Sky Divine Wood..." Cao Zhenxing’s eyes bulged. Not daring to hesitate for another second, he hastily cried out.

But he was still a step too slow. The descending lightning suddenly accelerated. Before he could even finish his sentence, he was entirely engulfed by the bombardment.

"Cao Zhenxing got teleported away too!"

"Did they violate the laws of heaven or something? Why is the lightning targeting them specifically?"

The seven or eight university students watching from a distance were utterly dumbfounded. It was too bizarre. This thundercloud had never actively attacked anyone before, yet today, not only did it attack, but it relentlessly chased down Cao Zhenxing’s trio. It was as if the three of them had committed some unforgivable sin, and even the heavens couldn’t bear the sight of them anymore.

"Ji Zhixing?"

Just then, in the distance, Gongye Zhou flapped his illusory equine wings and soared into the air. He applied some vision-enhancing potion to his eyes and peered into the thundercloud from mid-air. With that look, he immediately spotted Ji Zhixing hovering within the thundercloud, wings beating steadily.

"It’s you?"

"How is that possible?" Gongye Zhou’s pupils shrank, his face filled with sheer disbelief.