Word Count: 2,851 Words
******
As his cultivation grew stronger, Xiao Yan's courage had swelled right along with it. A hint of pride and complacency had begun to creep into his manner. Had Venerable Yao been by his side, the old man would undoubtedly have rapped him soundly on the head for it.
'Let me take a look. Perhaps there's some treasure to be found. If I can snag a Heavenly Lightning Bead, I'll be striking it rich.' Greed flickered through Xiao Yan's eyes as he licked his lips. No sooner said than done, he strode directly toward the Void Lightning Pool.
The Void Lightning Pool stood as a supreme holy land for lightning-attribute body tempering, and the only such place adrift in the void that belonged to no one. Whether the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe had left it this way deliberately or not, the pool had always hung in the void, ignored and unattended.
Though called a 'pool,' in truth it was an endless sea of lightning, a boundless ocean of thunder. Even with Xiao Yan's current strength, the sight still drew a sigh of genuine awe at the wonders of nature.
'Tsk, tsk, tsk. This Void Lightning Pool truly is a peerless treasure ground. If I were the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe, I'd definitely have dragged it home by now.' Xiao Yan blinked as ideas began forming in his mind. Perhaps he could follow the example of the Nine Serene Deep Ground Python Tribe and the Heaven Demon Phoenix Tribe by relocating this Lightning Pool into the Xiao Realm.
Now that he had reached the Dou Saint realm and gained the ability to open small worlds, it was time to find an opportunity to act: to bring the Xiao Realm back into the Yan Alliance and let the Xiao Clan's members return to their homeland. He would erect ancestral tablets for the clan's forebears and let the younger generation burn incense before them. That alone could be considered fulfilling his obligation to Ancestor Xiao Xuan.
Of the Yan Alliance's four great pillars, the Jia Ma Empire now not only completely occupied all territories in the North-Western Region but also held numerous cities across the Central Plains' northern and western reaches. Its domain had grown vast and far-reaching. The Misty Cloud Sect had merged with the Flower Sect to become one of the foremost colossal factions in the Central Plains. Even Cai Lin's Snake-People Tribe had entered the Yellow Springs Mountain Range and claimed nearly half the Beast Region.
Every allied territory had expanded considerably. Yet his Xiao Clan's holdings still consisted of nothing more than Xiao City and Wu Tan City. No matter how one looked at it, that simply wouldn't do. At the very least, they deserved a small world of their own!
Xiao Yan nodded to himself and stepped into the Void Lightning Pool.
Here, whenever lightning flashed and thunder rolled, countless bolts tore across the surface of the sea, releasing blinding radiance. Arcs of lightning surged like waves in an ocean, as if some colossal magical beast were thrashing fiercely in the depths.
The lightning here was so fierce that even spatial turbulence dared not drift in. The entire region exuded a suffocating pressure. The arcs grew unnaturally violent as Xiao Yan advanced, as though driven by some invisible force. Storms and detonations raged ceaselessly, rendering the entire Void Lightning Pool a place of extreme peril.
Hidden deep within that lightning ocean lurked many mysterious creatures. Their bodies were powerful enough to withstand the baptism of thunder, and some could even harness it to bolster their own strength. A few were as enormous as whales; others as slender and agile as serpents, shuttling freely through the electric torrents.
Of course, even back when he had been merely a Dou Venerate, Xiao Yan had dared walk through this Void Lightning Pool to temper his body, let alone now. The lightning arcs at the outer edges crashed harmlessly against his skin, feeling no more threatening than the tingle of a lighter's spark.
When he reached the spot where he had previously halted, the lightning before him had already begun turning pitch-black. As someone now capable of refining tier 9 medicinal pills, Xiao Yan immediately recognized this as Black Demon Lightning. Even its weakest strands could deliver a blow comparable to a high-level Half-Saint's full-force strike.
He lifted his gaze toward the deeper recesses of the Void Lightning Pool. There lay a strange region that churned like an enormous vortex, a black hole in the fabric of space. Even Mang Tian Chi had not dared approach it back then.
'No wonder even Headmaster Mang Tian Chi had no choice but to turn tail and flee.'
As he reached the true depths, the surroundings dimmed abruptly. Xiao Yan raised his head and stared at the massive clusters of black lightning writhing slowly before him like dark dragons. Even with his current strength, his expression couldn't help but turn grave.
A single bolt of Black Demon Lightning posed no threat to him, but continuous bombardment was another matter entirely.
Yet only in such a perilous place could Heavenly Lightning Beads form. Like the Core Fire Beads he had obtained at the Sun Fire Ancient Altar, Heavenly Lightning Beads were of an even higher grade and could substitute for the Monster Cores required in Tier 9 Mysterious Pills.
The Monster Cores needed for Tier 9 Mysterious Pills had to come from magical beasts with strength equivalent to 4-star to 6-star Dou Saints. Such creatures were old monsters among old monsters; finding one proved difficult enough, let alone slaying it.
'Let's see just how far my current strength can take me.'
Boom!
The instant Xiao Yan stepped into the deepest region of the Lightning Pool, he unsurprisingly drew the Black Demon Lightning's attention. A bolt of black thunder roughly a hundred feet thick, wide as a small building, writhed like a giant python and blasted directly toward him.
Xiao Yan summoned Mao Wu without hesitation. The cat opened its mouth wide and swallowed the entire bolt of Black Demon Lightning in a single gulp.
Meow! ~o(=∩ω∩=)m!
"Hm? You can condense Heavenly Lightning Beads artificially?!"
"Meow meow~"
Mao Wu stuck out its tongue. Resting upon it floated a tiny black bead. That bolt of Black Demon Lightning had been refined into this small pearl through Mao Wu's devouring power, but it remained far too small to serve as a proper Heavenly Lightning Bead for a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill.
This unexpected discovery delighted Xiao Yan. As expected of the Nihility Devouring Flame after evolving into a Heaven Seed Flame! Its devouring ability could actually manufacture Heavenly Lightning Beads!
His heart leapt with excitement. With a mere thought, he channeled vast amounts of Dou Qi and Spiritual Strength into Mao Wu's body. Empowered by this support, Mao Wu's jaws gaped even wider as it inhaled violently. Even bolts of Black Demon Lightning that hadn't been targeting Xiao Yan were dragged off course and sucked into that storm-like maw.
From that point on, Xiao Yan and Mao Wu became like a pair of diligent street sweepers. Armed with his 'Mao Wu-brand vacuum cleaner,' Xiao Yan roamed in every direction, absorbing Black Demon Lightning to condense Heavenly Lightning Beads, stockpiling reserves so he wouldn't need to worry about Monster Cores when practicing tier 9 pill refinement later.
He pressed steadily deeper as Mao Wu's devouring power swept the void clean, consuming strand after strand of formidable Black Demon Lightning. Though some particularly powerful bolts did cause him minor trouble, they amounted to nothing serious. With his current cultivation, ordinary Black Demon Lightning simply couldn't threaten him.
After seven days of relentless sweeping, a strange sensation suddenly stirred in the depths of Xiao Yan's heart. A prickling wave of danger made his scalp go numb!
Mao Wu sensed it too. Its entire body puffed up like a startled cat, fur standing on end, as it stared fixedly toward one particular spot within the boundless Void Lightning Pool.
A deafening rumble split the air. A golden lightning arc leapt from a patch of pure darkness, flashing by at what might as well have been the speed of light, gone in the span of a blink. Yet that fleeting trace of gold was enough to make Xiao Yan's pupils contract sharply, his face freezing in shock.
"Gold?!"
His heart shook as though an earthquake had struck. In all his memory, there was only one kind of golden lightning, and that was the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning summoned when refining a Tier 9 Golden Pill!
Xiao Yan stared unblinkingly toward that region, eyes flickering with thought. After a moment, he rose slowly into the air, recalled Mao Wu into his body, and began moving step by deliberate step toward the darkness.
The closer he drew, the heavier that peculiar pressure became. Before long, Xiao Yan's feet halted of their own accord. His pitch-black pupils, tinged now with a trace of shock, fixed on the heart of the lightning sea.
There, a colossal dragon lay coiled upon itself, its entire body a radiant, molten gold as though cast from pure bullion. Golden lightning spat and crackled across its surface, spilling outward in surging arcs.
"Woah!! Holy shit, shit, shit!" Xiao Yan's heart quaked violently. "This is Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning! No... this is Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning that's gathering a spirit?!"
In terms of raw destructive power alone, the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning was absolutely comparable to the top three Heavenly Flames on the Heavenly Flame Ranking. Of course, the reason Heavenly Flames earned their name lay not so much in their might as in the special abilities they possessed.
Even so, the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning remained a supremely powerful existence!
It would only ever appear when a Tier 9 Golden Pill was successfully refined. Each time this lightning descended upon the world, the commotion it caused was truly earth-shattering. The surrounding world would tremble, and even ordinary elite Dou Saints appeared tiny and insignificant beneath its thunderous might. Ancient tomes dating back to the primordial era contained no shortage of records describing peak alchemists who had refined Tier 9 Golden Pills and the astonishing natural phenomena their success had summoned.
Even high-level Dou Saints did not dare to lightly receive the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning!
No matter how blindly confident Xiao Yan might be, he would never claim he could withstand it!
Most critically, this Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning had already begun gathering a spirit! Just like the Fallen Heart Flame, the Nine Dragon Lightning Flame, and the Three Thousand Burning Flame before it, it was no longer a mere amorphous mass of energy. It had taken on a defined form.
Perhaps because it resided so close to the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe, the shape it had assumed was that of a long golden dragon, bearing a faint resemblance to the Ancient Void Dragons themselves.
The stronger a heavenly divine object was, the harder it was for it to gather a spirit. Take the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree: its tree spirit had remained stuck at the level of pure instinct. Of course, that was also partly due to having been suppressed by a Dou God's negative energy for ten thousand years. Even so, it illustrated just how extraordinary a stroke of fortune was required for a divine object of this caliber to gather a spirit and give birth to true intelligence.
Even with Xiao Yan's mental fortitude, he couldn't help but feel his breathing grow difficult.
The colossal golden lightning dragon lay coiled in the deepest reaches of the lightning sea, its dragon eyes shut tight. Golden arcs flickered ceaselessly across its body. A faint ripple of annihilating power spread quietly outward, distorting the surrounding void to an extreme degree.
Densely packed Black Demon Lightning hovered in a ring ten thousand feet from the golden dragon, arrayed like subjects bowing in reverent worship before their king.
Just as shock seized Xiao Yan's heart, the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning slowly opened its dragon eyes. A hint of dimness clouded their depths. Only the faintest wisp of spiritual intelligence stirred within. Yet the instant those eyes turned toward Xiao Yan, an icy chill surged from his scalp all the way down to his soles!
The Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning was clearly none too pleased about someone peeking at it.
"Crap!"
Xiao Yan didn't waste a single breath. He whirled and fled.
BOOM!
A strand of golden lightning no thicker than an arm tore through the void as though distance meant nothing, flickering into existence behind Xiao Yan in the span of a blink.
'All I did was take one look!' Xiao Yan cursed inwardly. You're the one sleeping with the door wide open. How can you blame me for peeking?!
As the wisp of Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning bore down on him, his gaze sharpened. With a single thought, every ounce of power in his body erupted to its absolute limit!
'Dual Clan Marks, manifest!'
'Vajra Glass Body, Ancient Phoenix Bell, Dragon Phoenix Ancient Armor, protect!'
'Flame God Seal!'
BOOM!!
In that instant, Xiao Yan detonated the full, ultimate state of his power. The Flame Mantra whirled recklessly, pushing itself to the breaking point as eight different Heavenly Flames surged forth and wrapped around his body in a blazing cocoon of protection.
His right hand condensed a palm seal. The Flame God Seal emerged as ten thousand flames paid homage! One seal blasted out, burning the sky and boiling the seas!
BANG!
Even with the Flame Mantra having reached the High Tian Class, the Flame God Seal still drained most of the Dou Qi in Xiao Yan's body. The strike rocked the entire Void Lightning Pool, instantly whipping up towering waves of lightning tens of thousands of feet high.
Golden lightning collided with the Heavenly Flame God Seal. Lightning and Heavenly Flames twined together fiercely. Blinding white light exploded outward like a sun detonating. The whole Void Lightning Pool shuddered and swayed beneath that cataclysmic force.
Whoosh!
A figure shot backward like a falling star, blasted from the deepest reaches of the Void Lightning Pool in an instant.
Naturally, that figure was Xiao Yan.
"Cough, cough." He let out a heavy cough and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
Though he hadn't suffered any serious injuries, he cut a truly sorry figure. His hair had been fried into a full-blown afro.
Staring back toward the distant Void Lightning Pool, Xiao Yan gnashed his teeth in frustration yet found himself utterly helpless. He was beginning to understand how Feng Qing Er had felt.
"You just wait! When I reach 6-star... no, 7-star Dou Saint, I'll refine you into a medicinal pill!" Xiao Yan gritted his teeth in fury. All I did was take one curious peek, and you react just like Xiao Yu!
Of course, he knew perfectly well that the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning hadn't truly intended to kill him. Otherwise, it wouldn't have merely sent a single feeble lightning arc his way.
After that thorough beating, Xiao Yan very sensibly tucked away his carefree attitude of 'the sky is vast, the earth is wide, and I can go wherever I please.' He tossed out a final round of harsh words for his dignity's sake and then slunk out of the Void Lightning Pool, thoroughly humbled.
'Good thing no one saw that. Otherwise, I'd have completely lost face.'
This expedition had yielded several Heavenly Lightning Beads, valuable reserves for future Tier 9 Mysterious Pill refinement, but his face had certainly taken a beating!
There were still powerful divine objects in this world that he simply could not afford to provoke. Not yet.
…
Meanwhile, in Eastern Dragon Island's ceremonial hall, numerous figures with extraordinarily powerful auras sat in solemn rows. The weakest among them were Half-Saint level experts. Someone like Hei Qing, at peak 8-star Dou Venerate, could only stand quietly to one side and listen.
"Strange. Why hasn't there been the slightest movement from the Southern, Western, and Northern Dragon Islands?" Zhu Li, seated in a lower position, couldn't help but furrow his brows.
Some time ago, Zi Yan had finally and completely refined the Dragon Phoenix Origin Fruit, completing the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe's inheritance before emerging from seclusion. She had then summoned every wandering elder home. Afterward, the First Elder, the Second Elder, and Zhu Li as Third Elder had traveled together to the three Dragon Islands.
They had ordered the three islands to immediately cease all internal conflict, end the mutual slaughter, and reunite under the Dragon Emperor's rule.
Following that, the three Dragon Islands had indeed stopped fighting. The internal warfare had ceased. Yet what puzzled Zhu Li and the other elders was that, despite considerable time having passed, the three Dragon Kings had never once shown themselves, nor had they come to Eastern Dragon Island to pay their respects.
The three Dragon Islands had fallen deathly silent. They had even sealed themselves off entirely, setting the islands adrift and concealing them somewhere in the void. Their whereabouts were unknown.