With a brilliant flash, a bolt of heavenly lightning struck the iron pillar erected on the mountain's peak!
At the sight, Zhou Changqing's eyes blazed with a mix of excitement and trepidation. He broke into a dead sprint, racing toward the mountaintop platform. Within moments, he had arrived. His gaze fell upon the lightning rod, still arcing with electricity, and the iron coil through which faint tendrils of lightning could be seen flowing. Both the pillar and the coil were now glowing a fiery red, not just crackling with power. The tip of the pillar, in particular, looked as if it had been heated in a forge. Raindrops that fell upon it sizzled and instantly evaporated into puffs of white steam.
His eyes then darted to the nearby Flame Wolf, and an intense, feverish light ignited within them. The beast was not dead. Though its fur was curled and scorched black, its body trembling uncontrollably, its life force indicated it was merely severely injured.
"It worked!"
An irrepressible excitement surged through Zhou Changqing, and he let out a triumphant whoop. He approached the Flame Wolf and examined its condition. It was just as he had perceived: heavily wounded, but not fatally. Rubbing his hands together, he eagerly began to untie it.
"Sizzle..."
The moment his hands touched the wolf's body and the iron wire, tiny arcs of electricity shot into his palms, making his fingers go numb. He immediately circulated his Gold-Lightning Dou Qi, channeling it into his fingers. The invading electricity was instantly enveloped by his lightning-attributed Dou Qi. As the two combined, that unique resonance appeared once more. The metallic Dou Qi dissolved upon contact with this resonance, transforming into a golden light that fused into the flesh of his fingers. He could clearly feel the tissue in his fingers growing stronger.
This feeling made Zhou Changqing even more impatient to begin, but he forced the impulse down. After freeing the Flame Wolf, he swung his greatsword in a clean arc, decapitating it. Then, he dragged another Flame Wolf from the side of the platform and bound it in the same manner as the first.
One experiment wasn't enough. His life was on the line; he couldn't afford to be careless. He needed to be certain. Returning to his previous observation spot, he settled in to watch once more.
"BOOM!"
...
"BOOM!"
...
After using two more Flame Wolves, the results were virtually identical to the first. This proved it: his body could withstand the heavenly lightning after it had been weakened by the coil. The conclusion made Zhou Changqing itch to try it himself.
And so he did. He finished off the last Flame Wolf and tossed it aside, then sat down in its place. He grasped the iron wire, settled into a cross-legged position, and began circulating the Celestial Gold Tempering Art, awaiting the next lightning strike.
"RUMBLE!"
He waited for nearly half an hour. Finally, the bolt of lightning he had been anticipating descended with terrifying, awe-inspiring might, smashing into the iron pillar. The blackened pillar, which had already cooled, instantly glowed crimson again. A powerful current surged down the pillar and through the wire into the coil. After being weakened layer by layer, it finally traveled down the wire and into Zhou Changqing's body.
"AARGH!"
His arm went numb, and an intense burning and tearing pain instantly swept from his limb through his entire body. Though the lightning had been greatly weakened, its terrifyingly violent energy was not to be underestimated. It was powerful enough to grievously injure a high-tier Rank 2 Flame Wolf; its force was no less than the highest-powered electric chairs from his previous life.
The moment that familiar agony surfaced, his first instinct was to flinch, to retreat in fear. But the thought of the benefits steeled his resolve, and he brutally crushed the lingering shadow in his heart. His expression twisted into a savage mask, his eyes flashing with ferocity. "Damn it! I've been struck by lightning twice already, you think a little current like this can scare me? Refine it! Refine it all!"
If it doesn't kill me, I'll refine it to death's door! He was no longer the useless weakling from his past life. He was a ruthless man who had fought and clawed his way through the Dou Qi Continent for sixteen years, a man who had killed and seen blood.
Forcing himself to endure the destructive torment of the powerful current, Zhou Changqing furiously circulated the Celestial Gold Tempering Art. His Gold-Lightning Dou Qi surged forth like soldiers given the command to charge, swarming toward the arcs of electricity rampaging through his body. In mere moments, beneath his clothes, his fair skin, which already had a faint metallic luster, began to radiate a hazy golden light.
Amidst the pain, which felt like ten thousand steel needles piercing him at once, Zhou Changqing could clearly perceive every inch of his flesh undergoing a transformation. His muscles, skin, bones, and meridians were all strengthening at a frenzied pace.
"Incredible! This is so damn incredible!"
The sensation of his physical body growing stronger at a visible rate seemed to make him forget the torture, which felt like being flayed alive. He even found himself wishing the pain would become even more intense. The corners of his twitching mouth contorted upward into a difficult smile. He was actually smiling! If anyone else had witnessed this scene, they would have cursed him for a madman. Who in their right mind could smile through something like this? A complete lunatic!
The pain came quickly, but it also faded just as fast. In only half a minute, every last arc of electricity in his body had been completely refined. The agony swiftly receded.
"Hah..."
Zhou Changqing let out a long, heavy breath. Compared to the lightning strike from half a month ago, this experience, while still agonizing, was far more manageable. He immediately turned his senses inward to inspect the Dou Qi vortex in his Dantian. He had consumed a massive amount of his Gold-attribute Dou Qi during the tempering process, and he wanted to see if the vortex had fallen out of balance like he feared it might.
Sure enough, the golden portion of the gold-and-silver vortex had not shrunk in the slightest. It remained in perfect equilibrium with the liquid-state silver Dou Qi.
"It seems my mutated Lightning-attribute Dou Qi really can convert lightning energy into Gold-attribute Dou Qi, maintaining the balance of my vortex," he mused. "This cheat of mine is something else. Even though I still don't fully understand its mechanics, this ability alone is world-shaking. From now on, I won't have to worry about my two Dou Qi types becoming imbalanced when I use lightning to temper my body."
Though he couldn't comprehend the fundamental change that had occurred in his soul's Lightning Source, Zhou Changqing knew that if word of this got out, it would cause an unprecedented uproar. It was possible to convert between different types of Dou Qi of the same element by using different cultivation methods. But converting between different elements was considered an unbreakable law of nature, no matter how high-grade the cultivation method. It was simply impossible. If it weren't, alchemists wouldn't be so rare; everyone would just cultivate Fire and Wood-attribute methods, strengthen their souls, and become an alchemist in no time.
This alone was a testament to how extraordinary his Lightning Source had become. Of course, the primary reason was that his soul inherently possessed the Gold attribute. Otherwise, Zhou Changqing guessed that no matter how special his Lightning Source was, it couldn't have created a new attribute for him out of thin air.
He withdrew from his inner contemplation. Clenching his fist, he felt his newfound strength and smiled again. Before the lightning strike half a month ago, his physical body was decent, but only comparable to the full-strength blow of an initial-stage Dou Zhe. Now, though he couldn't gauge the exact limit, his raw physical power was definitely on par with a mid-stage Dou Zhe.
That's right—he could fight a mid-stage Dou Zhe using their full power with his bare hands, without using any Dou Qi. It might only sound like a mid-stage Dou Zhe, but this was an insanely powerful leap. The gap between a Dou Shi and a Dou Zhe wasn't an insurmountable chasm, and the difference in their physical bodies was even smaller than the difference in their Dou Qi. For example, a high-tier Rank 2 Magical Beast known for its physical prowess would have about this much raw strength without channeling its own Dou Qi. It was only at higher realms like Dou Wang and Dou Huang that the physical gap between cultivators became truly immense.
And he had achieved a body comparable to a magical beast of the same rank after just two sessions of lightning tempering. This proved just how worthwhile his research had been. Compared to such gains, the pain of the lightning was a trivial price to pay.
Besides his physical body, Zhou Changqing's Dou Qi cultivation had also seen a significant boost. Previously, he had only just touched the threshold of a nine-star Dou Shi. Now, he could clearly sense that he was just one final step away.
This improvement seemed small, completely incomparable to the last time. And in truth, it was. This time, the lightning was weakened—by almost ninety-nine percent of its original energy. The last time, the remnant lightning that entered his body had contained at least ten percent of the original bolt's power. With such a massive disparity, the results couldn't be compared. Even his physical enhancement this time was less than a quarter of what he had gained before.
Even so, when compared to normal cultivation, this was an astonishingly fast shortcut, one that was just as effective, if not more so, than consuming medicinal pills.