Chapter 296: The Lightning Lake (Continued)

Kael took the thirty-first step.

CRACK-BOOM!

The lightning struck with increased ferocity. His Transcendent Core absorbed the energy—hummm—but something was wrong. The absorption rate had outpaced his core’s ability to refine the lightning mana. The electrical energy was accumulating—fzzzt—not dispersing. His mana circulation became erratic.

Hhhh...

He took the thirty-second step. CRACK! Another strike. His core shuddered. The lightning mana inside him crackled—sizzle—bumping against his other mana types, creating friction. If this continued, the pressure would shatter his core.

Kael stopped. He floated cross-legged on the lake’s surface—hummm—and deactivated Lightning Body. The electrical armor around his form vanished, leaving him exposed. Lightning immediately gathered above him—crackle—but Kael ignored it, focusing entirely on his internal circulation.

Calming the erratic lightning mana. Compressing it. Refining it. Forcing it to integrate with his core’s natural rhythm.

His eyes were closed. His breathing slowed. Hhhh... hhhh...

Meanwhile, thirty-four steps ahead, the rank 9 Mana Heart cultivator had paused. He looked back over his shoulder.

His eyes narrowed.

A Mana Heart Rank 6 cultivator was keeping pace with him. The gap between them was closing. The man’s pride—built over years of cultivation, of being the strongest in his sect, of reaching the absolute peak of Mana Heart—cracked.

That brat... he must be using a treasure. There’s no way a Rank 6 is absorbing the lightning naturally at this stage.

The man’s eyes turned cold. He turned around and began walking back toward Kael. His aura flared. Lightning gathered around his fists.

He was going to attack.

Kael opened his eyes.

He reached into his system storage and pulled out the Netherworld Soul Locking Flag. Flutter. The dark cloth unfurled, runes blazing.

He took the next step.

CRACK-BOOM!

The lightning descended—Rank 8 Mana Heart power. It struck the flag instead of Kael. The runes on the cloth blazed—flicker-flicker—and the electrical energy was distributed. Not to Kael. To the fifteen souls inside the flag’s pocket dimension.

The souls absorbed the lightning. Tempered and refined by it.

Oh.

Kael smirked.

The flag can distribute the lightning to the souls. I can use this place to temper them.

He took the next step. CRACK! The lightning struck the flag. The souls drank the energy greedily.

Step by step. Crack. Crack. Crack.

The rank 9 Mana Heart cultivator stopped. He watched as Kael casually walked forward, a flag absorbing the devastating lightning strikes that would kill even a Rank 9 cultivator at this stage. The strikes from the thirtieth step onward were powerful enough to kill anyone at Peak Mana Heart.

The man’s hostility evaporated. He turned back around and resumed his own crossing—step, step—faster now, as if trying to put distance between himself and the monster with the flag.

Hours passed.

Kael reached the fortieth step. The souls inside the flag had been tempered significantly—their forms denser, their soul energy sharper. He rolled the flag up and stored it in his system storage.

That’s enough for them. The rest is for me.

He stretched his arms above his head. Pop-pop. His joints cracked. The final ten steps stretched before him.

Ahead, the Peak Mana Heart cultivator took his final step—fifty—and crossed the lake. He collapsed on the opposite shore, coughing blood. His body was covered in electrical burns. He sat down heavily to recover.

Kael smirked as he took the forty-first step.

CRACK-BOOM!

Peak Mana Heart lightning descended.

"Heaven’s Mandate Body Art."

His aura surged—hummm—and concentrated around his body. His skin hardened. His muscles compressed. His bones tightened. His body became as hard as a leviathan’s carapace—dense, impenetrable, absorbing the impact and growing stronger with each collision.

The lightning struck him. BOOM. His body absorbed it. The impact pushed him back half a step, but he held. The electrical energy fed his aura—shimmer—making the carapace denser.

He took the forty-second step. CRACK-BOOM! Forty-third. CRACK!

Three hours passed.

Step forty-eight. The lightning struck with Quasi-Spirit Soul power. BOOM! The impact rattled his bones—creak—and his aura cracked.

Step forty-nine.

CRACK-BOOM!

The lightning was devastating. His Heaven’s Mandate Body Art absorbed it, but could barely hold on at this both. His aura was flickering—fzzzt—destabilizing.

Kael stood on the forty-ninth step. One more.

He had a crazy idea.

Kael took the fiftieth step.

He deactivated Heaven’s Mandate Body Art.

CRACK-BOOOOOM!

The lightning struck his bare body.

AGH—!

Pain. Lightning coursed through every cell—sizzle-sizzle-sizzle—through his muscles, his bones, his organs, his blood. His body convulsed—twitch-twitch—and blood erupted from his mouth. Cough.Splatter.

He stumbled forward. His feet hit solid ground at the opposite shore. He collapsed cross-legged—thud—and forced himself to circulate.

Hhhh... hhhh...

The lightning inside him was wild—crackle—tearing through his meridians. But his Tier 5 body was resilient. Slowly and painfully, the lightning settled. The electrical energy embedded itself in his muscles and bones—creak—making them denser.

An hour passed.

The lightning inside him finally calmed. His body had absorbed what it could. The rest had been expelled through his pores as residual static—fzzzt.

Kael opened his eyes.

He had sustained internal damage and micro-fractures in his bones.

"Nine Rivers Soul Mending Art."

His aura shifted—hummm—forming nine distinct flows within his body. Like nine rivers converging, the aura washed through his muscles and bones, mending tears and fractures. Sssss. The healing was visible as his wounds and tissues regenerated visibly and the pain faded.

Hhhh...

If he continued this—pushing his body to the limit and letting the lightning temper him—he could reach Mid Tier 5 before the Inheritance Ground closed.

Kael stood. He looked toward the horizon. He had spent almost an entire day crossing the Lightning Lake. The Peak Mana Heart cultivator was already gone—having recovered and moved on.

Kael scanned the landscape ahead. The inner zone of Vaelthor’s domain stretched before him. He rushed forward. Whoosh.

Then he saw it. A huge canyon in the distance.

Thirty minutes of running brought him to the canyon’s edge. He jumped to take flight—hummm—but his soul sense screamed a warning.

WHOOOOSH!

He dropped back down—thud—as a massive winged lightning beast soared overhead. Then another. And another. The sky above the canyon was filled with powerful lightning beasts—Spirit Soul level. Flying was basically suicide.

Kael entered the canyon on foot.

It was like a labyrinth. Narrow passages, walls glowing with pulsing lightning veins—crackle-fzzzt.

Kael walked for an hour. He passed beast corpses—some fresh, some decayed. Storm hounds. Lightning serpents. Thunder lizards. All killed by cultivators who had come before him. The bodies denoted that quite a few people had already explored this canyon.

Then his soul sense picked up movement ahead.

A pack.

Kael rounded a corner and stopped.

Storm wolves.

Twelve of them. Each one two meters tall, covered in grey-blue fur that crackled with electrical energy. They immediately sighted him.

GRRRRR.

The alpha’s growl vibrated the canyon walls. Rumble.