Chapter 98 - Tempting Fate (I)
Chapter 98: Tempting Fate (I)
At the Stone Ring Reservoir, “Rumble…” the sound of thunder kept ringing out from the clouds. The lightning wood was placed on a boulder at the highest point on the mountain.
The might of nature made one’s hair stand on end even from a distance.
Chen Yiming stood at the bottom of the mountain and waited quietly. The power of lightning from nature wasn’t something he could withstand at the moment, so he had no intention of getting too close.
Suddenly, a white, branch-like bolt of lightning struck down from the clouds a few kilometers away, heading straight for the mountain where Chen Yiming had placed the lightning wood.
The power of lightning from nature was far stronger than the power of lightning formed by internal force. Wherever it passed, there was a violent sizzling sound, and it chased away the darkness in its way.
The entire mountain was lit up as if it was daytime.
“Bang!”
The lightning wood was struck by the lightning, and the power of lightning caused an explosion, emitting a blinding white light.
The boulder below instantly exploded, and countless pieces of rubble flew everywhere before falling to the bottom of the mountain.
“My new Undying Body talent seems to be surprisingly compatible with the path of lightning,” Chen Yiming said as he witnessed everything.
The essence of martial arts was the evolution of the body. The power of lightning happened to be an external power that was very easy to find. Other than the fact that it was unstable and could easily cause injuries to oneself, it had many advantages.
The Undying Body talent that he had just added gave him the ability to automatically heal injuries. As long as he did not die immediately, his body would automatically recover.
At this moment, darkness once again engulfed the top of the mountain. About ten meters away from its original spot, the lightning wood was flickering with light. It was stuck in a crack in the boulder.
Chen Yiming leaped into the air and made use of the trees and rocks to reach the lightning wood.
“The crack in it seems to have gotten much bigger.”
Blue sparks of electricity kept jumping out of the cracks. A small amount of lightning constantly touched the surrounding weeds, and the weeds were instantly burned to a crisp.
At the same time, he could clearly feel that the power of lightning in the lightning wood had weakened a little.
“An undamaged piece of lightning wood should be able to lock the power of lightning completely inside. If I don’t use it immediately, the power of lightning inside will quickly dissipate,” Chen Yiming muttered.
He released his internal force and used it to cover his palm. Immediately, blue sparks of electricity appeared on the surface of his palm, and the power of lightning in the lightning wood suddenly became extremely lively.
Chen Yiming reached out and picked up the lightning wood. The two sources of electricity fused together without any resistance.
Under the enhancement of the external power, the power of lightning formed by his internal force flickered with a blue light that was even more dazzling than before.
“The lightning wood probably has a special transformation ability. Otherwise, this lightning power that doesn’t belong to me wouldn’t have fused with my internal force so naturally.”
He sat cross-legged on a rock by the side and began his daily cultivation, using his internal force, which was enhanced by the external power, to temper his body.
“Swish! Swish!”
The power of lightning formed by his internal force was 30% more active than usual. Electric currents swam through his muscles and bones just like snakes in water.
These electric currents would cause a certain amount of damage to the body at the area it was tempering. For example, the muscle fibers would be burnt and broken by the electricity.
His new Level-1 Undying Body talent, gave him the special ability of automatically healing injuries. The level of the talent was only at the first level, so it was not at the stage of “Reborn from blood” which was described in the introduction to the talent.
However, he could also clearly feel that at the places tempered by the power of lightning, after a large number of cells in his body had lost a lot of water shriveled up and were on the verge of death, a mysterious force rejuvenated the cells.
“It feels good to cultivate without any worries.” Chen Yiming let out a long breath.
When others used the power of lightning to temper their bodies, they had to carefully control the strength of the lightning used, afraid that their bodies would suffer irreversible damage.
Because of this, they would have to find various treasures with different levels of lightning power for each stage of their cultivation.
But he had the Undying Body talent, which gave him the special ability of automatically healing his injuries. He could use methods of cultivation that could cause injuries to himself without the worry that his body would not be able to recover.
Half an hour later, the power of lightning formed by his internal force gradually returned to its original strength.
“The power of lightning formed by my internal force increased by about 30%. Half an hour of cultivation with this enhancement is equivalent to a week of my usual cultivation.” Chen Yiming closed his eyes and carefully sensed the changes in his body.
At the same time, he continued with his cultivation to make up for the time he had wasted during the day.
…
A few kilometers away from the Stone Ring Reservoir, on a small hill, Wu Yunsheng stood at the top of the hill and looked in the direction of the mountain where Chen Yiming was.
The entire Stone Ring Reservoir was shrouded in darkness. Only the spot where Chen Yiming was standing was shining with a dazzling blue light. A sizzling sound was also emitted continuously from that spot.
The blue light flashed, illuminating a figure that was sitting cross-legged. The sizzling sound broke the silence.
“I was too late. The lightning wood has already been charged and is being used by Chen Yiming,” Wu Yunsheng muttered to himself, “But even so, Chen Yiming, don’t you even think about returning to East Lake City alive.”
He kicked off from the ground and charged forward in the direction of the figure.
His position as the eldest senior brother of the school indicated that he had the highest chance of becoming the next head of the school among the core disciples.
Chen Yiming seemed to have a physique that had an extremely high resistance to lightning. If he really joined the Tongbeiquan School, even if he did not take over Wu Yunsheng’s position, it would still create more uncertainty for his future.
Wu Yunsheng’s goal was to completely eliminate this possibility and this variable that might threaten his position.
“Is someone there?” Chen Yiming opened his eyes and stood up, his gaze sweeping across the forest.
The blue electric sparks dancing across his body slowly extinguished, and the surrounding forest turned dark again.
Without the sizzling sound, the surroundings fell silent. He could clearly hear the sound of footsteps and the sound of wind breaking coming from a kilometer or two away.
Judging from the sound of the footsteps, it did not seem like a mutant beast, but a human.
“Was he just passing by? Or did he come specially to look for me?” Chen Yiming asked in confusion.
The disturbance caused by his internal force was so obvious that it clearly demonstrated that a warrior was cultivating at this spot.
Even if it was someone that was also from the warrior realm, they would not have approached so rashly. At the very least, he had never encountered such a situation before.
There was only one possibility. The other party was coming for him.
The distance of one to two kilometers wasn’t far. Chen Yiming had just gone through the list of people who might have a grudge against him when a figure walked out of the darkness dozens of meters away.
The person was about 2.5 meters tall and was wearing a short-sleeved training robe from the Tongbeiquan School. There was a black belt tied around his waist, and his muscular arms could clearly be seen.
“Someone from the Tongbeiquan School,” Chen Yiming said in a low voice, narrowing his eyes.
Wu Yunsheng stopped about ten meters away from him and said calmly, “I heard that you took the lightning wood that Liu Liyuan was going to give to me. You’re really bold.”
“You?” Chen Yiming asked in surprise.
It had been a few days since Liu Liyuan had given him the lightning wood.
This person had to come at this time, which was neither too early or too late.
His reasoning was full of loopholes and could not stand up to any scrutiny.