Chapter Sixteen: Nine Sources Divine Thunder

The cave-heaven world.

On the sandy beach by the island, Ji Ning sat cross-legged. Beside him lay a black gourd and four other gourds. The black gourd was the 'Five Thunder Gourd,' while the other four were ordinary gourds, each containing a single Chaos Thunderbolt.

'The five Chaos Thunderbolts in the Five Thunder Gourd are exactly what I need. With the nine Chaos Thunderbolts gathered, let's begin.' The methods of the Nine Sources Divine Thunder secret art flowed through Ji Ning's mind.

He immediately began to channel his divine power into one of the gourds. Inside, a black lightning bolt exuding an endless yin-cold aura crackled with extreme violence.

Following the methods of the 'Nine Sources Divine Thunder,' Ji Ning's divine power formed a strange net of power that began to envelop the Chaos Thunderbolt. A single Chaos Thunderbolt couldn't even kill an ordinary World-level cultivator; it generally only swept away those below the World level. Ji Ning's divine power, further purified by the fusion of his seventeen avatars, easily captured this Chaos Thunderbolt.

'Collect.'

The net of power wrapped around the yin-cold black lightning bolt. Though the black lightning erupted with power time and again, the net merely expanded and contracted, resilient and unyielding, leaving the black lightning no escape.

'Back then, I risked my life to obtain the Nine-Angled Electric Serpent, even losing many avatars. But compared to Lord Wanshan's methods, it's like the difference between heaven and earth.' Ji Ning sighed. Lord Wanshan's methods were like a master fisherman, easily capturing the lightning no matter how violent it was.

But capturing was merely the beginning of cultivating this secret art—the simplest part.

'Whoosh.'

The net of power, carrying the black lightning, entered Ji Ning's body and was quickly dragged into his chaos world.

In the golden core chaos space, misty and vast, a Dao tree over twenty thousand feet tall with lush foliage stood at the center.

'Source of lightning, form!' At a corner of this chaos, chaos soil surged with divine power, forming a massive formation. With a thunderous roar, a black lightning bolt struck down, and the formation immediately channeled divine power, continuously absorbing the black lightning.

'Rumble...'

Countless black lightning bolts coursed through the formation patterns spanning ten thousand feet.

'One source of lightning is temporarily formed.' Ji Ning nodded to himself. Creating the lightning source was very easy; the hardest part was the final condensation into the 'Nine Sources Divine Thunder secret art,' where the nine Chaos Thunderbolts were kneaded and harmonized like alchemical ingredients to form a complex secret art. That difficulty was a thousand or ten thousand times greater than forming the lightning source!

Ji Ning felt a bit daunted. Could he manage it? Lord Wanshan himself was a true supreme expert in alchemy and artifact refinement; Ji Ning was not skilled in that area.

'Again.' Ji Ning successively captured the other eight Chaos Thunderbolts and built eight more lightning sources on the ground of his golden core chaos space.

Boom—Boom—Boom—Boom—Boom—Boom—

The nine lightning sources shone in mutual radiance, each containing different lightning.

'The simplest tasks are done. Now I need to cultivate the Nine Sources Divine Thunder secret art. Let's give it a try.' Ji Ning felt some pressure. This was a secret art formed from nine Chaos Thunderbolts, relatively simpler.

The final secret art formed from nine Dao Thunderbolts would be truly complex, but Ji Ning knew that even the Chaos Thunderbolt version was extremely difficult for a World-level cultivator.

'Begin.'

Ji Ning's purified divine power surged into the nine lightning sources. Since the lightning sources were already formed, the originally violent lightning was tamed by the formations—far more effective than the taming methods Ji Ning had used for his Nine-Angled Electric Serpent secret art.

'Sizzle...' Under the control of divine power, nine bolts of lightning flew out, intertwining like lovers, gradually merging...

Bang!

The nine bolts suddenly disintegrated and dissipated.

'Failed.'

'According to the secret art, the nine bolts must ultimately merge into one, forming a secret art seed. Then I can draw on the nine Chaos Thunderbolts through this seed to unleash the secret art at any time.' Ji Ning felt a headache. 'Though they are tamed, making them follow millions of steps of gradual fusion and harmonization—these lightning bolts are inherently violent. The slightest disturbance causes failure.'

Ji Ning's divine power was pure enough, and his control was strong. His soul, nurtured by the power of the blueflower mist, was exceptionally powerful, allowing finer control. Yet he still failed because Lord Wanshan's secret art was too complex and delicate.

'Try again.'

...

Ji Ning attempted again and again to condense a secret art. Once successful, a seed would form, and he wouldn't need to exert such effort again; he could unleash the secret art through the seed at any time.

But!

It was truly difficult! After over a hundred attempts, even his powerful soul felt weary. Once, he was only a few steps away from success, but still failed.

'Let's rest a bit.' Ji Ning muttered to himself. 'Condensing the secret art from nine Chaos Thunderbolts is this hard. How hard will it be to condense one from Dao Thunderbolts?'

'Eh—'

As Ji Ning paused to rest, he continued to observe his inner body and suddenly noticed...

'The power of the blueflower mist can be transformed into divine power, divine force, or heartforce.' Ji Ning thought. 'Though it can't leave my body, it can easily enter my golden core chaos space. Divine power can control lightning; can this blueflower mist power control the lightning too?'

The power of the blueflower mist was far stronger than divine power!

'Let's try.' Ji Ning grew expectant. The blueflower mist power, which pervaded every part of his body, also existed in small amounts in the golden core chaos space. Now, it surged in continuously and flew straight to the nine lightning sources at the edge of the chaos ground.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Nine streams of blueflower mist power, like nine dragons, plunged into the nine lightning sources and began to attempt control of the lightning.

Immediately, the nine Chaos Thunderbolts flew out, moving through the air with ease and obedience.

'Haha, indeed! The blueflower mist power controls these lightning bolts ten or a hundred times more easily than divine power.' Ji Ning was overjoyed. Previously, it was like a mortal swinging a heavy axe; now, it was like a mortal holding a pair of chopsticks—the ease was incomparable.

The nine bolts of lightning, like snakes, began to intertwine in the air, perfectly coordinated, constantly changing.

Gradually...

The nine bolts merged into eight, then into seven... finally forming a single bolt of lightning—a crimson-gold lightning bolt whose aura made Ji Ning's heart tremble. It far surpassed the level of Chaos Thunderbolts; Ji Ning guessed that even a Dao Thunderbolt might not be much stronger.

Boom—The crimson-gold lightning bolt suddenly struck down onto the nearby soil. The formation soil, already prepared, absorbed the crimson-gold lightning as if alive, forming a massive imprint.

'The secret art seed is formed.' Ji Ning breathed a sigh of relief.

From now on, as long as the nine lightning sources provided lightning, it would be transformed through this secret art seed into the terrifying crimson-gold lightning.

'This Chaos-level Nine Sources Divine Thunder, a single bolt can directly kill a World-level cultivator at perfection.' Having sensed the power of the crimson-gold lightning, Ji Ning was even more convinced of Lord Wanshan's words.

Of course, with Ji Ning's current strength, the main use of this Nine Sources Divine Thunder was as a 'domain'—a vast amount of lightning enveloping the enemy. The pressure enough to kill a perfected World-level cultivator was a terrifying restraint!

When strength was evenly matched, such a restraint had a huge impact.

Back then, Lord Wanshan had used nine secret arts simultaneously to restrain his enemy, causing Emperor Melobo to flee in panic, even suffering severe injuries and nearly losing his life. In the end, Lord Wanshan refined a large amount of his flesh and blood into a drop of Eternal Divine Blood.

...

Having cultivated the Nine Sources Divine Thunder, Ji Ning was in good spirits. Just over two months later, Lord Damo sent one million cubic units of chaos nectar. Though Ji Ning had been prepared, his heart still trembled—seeing one million cubic units of chaos nectar before him was truly震撼.

For an Ancestral Immortal or Ancestral God, a hundred bottles was already remarkable.

For a World-level cultivator, a hundred cubic units was quite astonishing.

One million cubic units would make even a Daolord of Life and Death envious.

'I've never seen this much.' It was a small cave-heaven, with a tiny lake inside. Ji Ning looked at the elegant little lake, only ten feet across—truly small—but his eyes still shone, for the entire lake was chaos nectar!

...