Spirit Realm

“We finally got out!”

Outside the lush forest, a vast wilderness stretched out into the distance.

Surveying the view before her, Song Tingyu wore a look of joy on her face as if their days of hardship had finally come to an end.

“We walked in the direction that Luo Chen pointed out to us for the past ten days. At long last, we know that we were not on the wrong path.” Du Xiangyang also smiled. “After the wood spirit was sealed, the forest returned to normal as well. The ancient trees no longer move around on their own. That’s why we didn’t get lost and were able to leave this forest!”

“Is this wilderness the Forbidden Land of Thunder that Luo Chen previously mentioned?” Song Tingyu asked doubtfully.

“What do you think, Qin Lie?” Du Xiangyang asked with a smile.

“We’ll reach the Forbidden Land of Thunder after we’ve passed through this wilderness!” Qin Lie said affirmatively.

“How do you know?” Xie Jingxuan could not help but ask.

“I sense the powerful fervor of a thunder lightning field!” Qin Lie said excitedly.

The Forbidden Land of Wood and Forbidden Land of Thunder were separated by a field of wilderness. At the other end of the wilderness was an intense thunderous commotion.

He knew that they were heading in the right direction.

“Then let us pass through this wilderness,” Du Xiangyang said cheerfully.

“Let’s go!”

A day later.

Upon passing through the wilderness, a swampy area covered in a torrent of rain and crisscrossing lightning became visible to them.

At first glance, there were all kinds of ponds, puddles, and swamps along with mountains of various heights.

“Prak prak prak!”

Bolts of light blue lightning accompanied by thunderous rumbling would reverberate from every direction of the swampy area every so often. They were deafening.

“This is the Forbidden Land of Thunder!” Qin Lie’s eyes gleamed with an odd light as he broke out into a smile. “How wonderful! This place is great!”

“What’s so great about it?” Du Xiangyang asked with curled lips.

“It’s good for my cultivation! Hehe!” Feeling happy, Qin Lie didn’t say anything else to Du Xiangyang and stepped into the forbidden land.

Du Xiangyang and the others had no choice but to follow.

The Forbidden Land of Thunder was a place where wind, rain, rumbling thunder, and lightning would frequently appear. Its weather was extremely nasty.

Ponds, puddles, and swamps filled every corner of the area. A single misstep might lead to someone sinking deep into the ground.

Qin Lie’s group could hardly find a place that was dry along the way. There was rarely a time when the sky wasn’t filled with rain or lightning.

“There isn’t much to be worried about. As long as we aren’t struck by lightning, we’ll be fine.” Qin Lie kept comforting the group. “We simply need to replenish our spirit energy with the spirit stones for now, that’s all.”

A shield of scarlet light surged to cover Du Xiangyang’s body. Xie Jingxuan’s shield of light was green, whereas Song Tingyu’s was a rainbow of color.

They formed the barriers of light with spirit energy from inside their bodies, using them as precious clothing that covered their entire being and nullified the lightning that would occasionally strike from the sky. The shields protected them from actual harm.

However, maintaining the shields of light required energy, and every once in a while, they would have to recover that energy using their spirit stones.

Qin Lie was the only one exposed to the elements, completely wet.

He only wore short, animal-skin pants, baring his nude upper body while calmly walking amidst the raging storm.

Lightning would strike his body every so often, causing huge sparks to appear. The energy from the lightning would then vanish into his body.

It was as if his body were absorbing it.

Sometimes he would grin and laugh aloud, looking incredibly comfortable and relaxed. It was obvious that this Forbidden Land of Thunder suited him greatly.

When they arrived at the foot of a small mountain, Qin Lie examined its peak and saw that it was covered in dense thunder and lightning energy. He was immediately attracted to it.

“I’m going to cultivate for a while. You guys go dig out a cave and hide inside of it.”

“Do whatever you want.” Du Xiangyang shrugged his shoulders.

He took out the sword that burned with scarlet flames and began to dig a hole in the body of the mountain. He was the first to slip inside.

Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan looked each other in the eye before taking out their own weapons, digging their own caves, and hiding in them as well.

This way, they did not need to get wet in the rain or be on guard against random lightning strikes. This allowed them to breathe a bit easier.

For the time being, this was how they recovered their strength.

At the peak of the small mountain.

Wearing a pair of leather pants and exposing a large portion of his body, Qin Lie quietly sat in the thick of the raging thunderstorm.

At the third stage cultivating Heavenly Thunder Eradication, Qin Lie needed to temper his soul with thunder and lightning. He would need to borrow the power of thunder and lightning to support his cultivation. This meant that, the more that thunder and lightning were gathered in one spot, the faster he would be able to progress through this stage of his cultivation.

Qin Lie had previously used the power of his thunder Natal Palace in his dantian’s spirit sea to temper, shatter, and reform his soul.

In reality, this method wasn’t very efficient and wasn’t where the true magic of this stage of the cultivation occurred.

Qin Lie ultimately needed actual thunder and lightning for this stage of his cultivation. He needed to be tempered by natural lightning bolts!

The Forbidden Land of Thunder was mired in perpetual rumbling thunder and crisscrossing lightning. For Qin Lie, this was the cultivation paradise he always dreamed of.

Just like how the ultimate blood ground could greatly benefit those who cultivated the Blood Spirit Art, the Forbidden Land of Thunder could also improve the efficiency at which he cultivated Heavenly Thunder Eradication to the maximum!

Qin Lie began circulating Heavenly Thunder Eradication and attempted to draw thunder into his own body.

“Boom boom boom!”

With a thought, every organ in his body and every pore on its surface began to rumble with the indistinct sound of thunder.

The lightning bolts that were gathered above this small mountain all focused on the spot that Qin Lie sat like magnets that were attracted by one another, or spirit snakes that smelled the scent of blood.

From time to time, the deafening roar of thunder would resonate nearby. The increasingly oppressive giant web of lightning that covered the sky slowly descended.

Lightning twisted and turned in midair, dancing like serpents and dragons while filling this land with dazzling electrical light.

“Prak prak prak! Boom!”

A sudden bolt of lightning as thick as a pail descended from the sky, striking Qin Lie’s shoulders.

Tendrils of lightning and waves of thunder surged into his body and soul..

Violent, berserk thunder energy instantly flooded his entire body, causing it to involuntarily tremble.

“Good!” Qin Lie grinned amidst the raging thunderstorm and howled angrily like a beast. “Again!”

Bolts of lightning descended from the sky and mixed with the sound of thunder.

Like earthworms or spirit snakes, numerous lightning bolts reached his sea of consciousness and Soul Lake, blasting his True Soul.

Qin Lie’s True Soul was like a spirit artifact that had been tossed into a furnace and refined. It was constantly tempered and refined by an obscene amount of lightning bolts and explosive thunder.

As that thunder and lightning tempered his True Soul, it became immeasurably tough, resembling a piece of fine iron that had been tempered hundreds and thousands of times.

It was as if the impurities inside of his soul were gradually being burned away by the power of lightning and thunder.

Even Qin Lie’s Soul Lake grew clearer and clearer as his True Soul underwent this strengthening process. The wisps of his soul consciousness and thoughts became compact and pure, as if they were being tempered by a flaming iron hammer.

The third stage of Heavenly Thunder Eradication, where one tempered their soul with thunder and lightning, was obviously a miraculous soul tempering art that was mysteriously profound.

To top it all off, this was a soul tempering process that used thunder and lightning, the bane of all souls!

Amidst the raging storm of rain and lightning, Qin Lie was half naked as he sat at the peak of the small mountain. He relentlessly tempered his True Soul, releasing odd howls from time to time.

Once this cultivation begun, it was as if it would never stop. Day by day, time passed. Song Tingyu, Xie Jingxuan, and Du Xiangyang had recovered a long time ago, and every time they awakened and walked out of their stone caves, they would inwardly click their tongues.

Qin Lie, who was attracting thunder and lightning into his body, caused every trace of the two in the surrounding area to gather. This made the strength of the thunder and lightning in this particular area become nearly ten times more frightening than any place nearby!

The second Song Tingyu and the others left their stone caves, they would be met with an apocalyptic deluge of lightning strikes. This made all of them grumble on the inside.

They weren’t even able to climb up to the peak of the small mountain and check on Qin Lie’s condition. They could only hide in their caves and wait for the moment that Qin Lie stopped cultivating.

They ended up waiting for nearly half a month.

“It stopped! It finally stopped!” Du Xiangyang cried out, poking his head out of his cave one day.

Song Tingyu and Xie Jingxuan followed suit and appeared from their own caves.

The thunder and lightning, which had only intensified for the last half month, had completely disappeared.

The previously raging storm no longer plagued the area either.

The world seemed to have found peace in this instant, causing the three who had been painstakingly waiting all this time to finally let out a sigh of relief.

They hurriedly ran up to the peak.

Qin Lie still sat atop this small mountain, back straight, unmoving, and half naked.

After half a month of hard cultivation and being assaulted with thunder and lightning countless times, not only did Qin Lie’s body not appear to be scorched, it was even filled with a jade-like luster.

Threads of fine electricity casually swam across his dazzling skin while the somewhat melodious sound of thunder occasionally rumbled from within his body. The sounds didn’t evoke any fear or discomfort.

Qin Lie suddenly smiled and opened his eyes.

Two bolts of dark blue electricity shot out of his eyes like electric snakes.

This immediately surprised Song Tingyu, Xie Jingxuan, and Du Xiangyang.

There was no mistake. It wasn’t a gaze that just looked like lightning. Lightning actually shot out of his eyes!

“Qin Lie, you… have you made a breakthrough?” Du Xiangyang cried.

“Mn. I have entered the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm.” Qin Lie grinned.

“Congratulations.” Xie Jingxuan’s tone was calm.

“Oh you, the speed of your progress is also pretty amazing!” Song Tingyu’s eyes were filled with joy.

“I heard that you shattered your soul twice in order to destroy Black Voodoo Cult's voodoo toxin, forcing your realm to fall from the Netherpassage Realm to the Manifestation Realm.” Du Xiangyang had a strange look in his eyes. “You shattered your soul twice and dropped to the Manifestation Realm twice, but now you’ve taken a step further and directly entered the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm. This is… inconceivable.”

“For me, shattering my soul is but a process in my cultivation that I must go through.” Qin Lie calmly stood up with a gentle smile.

He noticed that he was obviously a little different than before. After this duration of tempering his soul with thunder and lightning, it was as if the many negative emotions in his soul had been purified.

He suddenly felt as if his mind had become remarkably calm.

It felt like he was returning to his original self from the abnormal state he had recently been in.

“How strange... The feeling you’re currently giving me is so strange…” Xie Jingxuan frowned and stared at him deeply. She took a moment to solemnly think to herself before saying “The feeling you’re giving me is very similar to the one I felt when I first met you. I remember you being a simple apprentice of Li’s Shop at the time.”

“That’s right! That’s exactly it!” Song Tingyu exclaimed softly.

“What do you mean?” Du Xiangyang looked confused.

“Give me some time to think.” After zoning out a little bit, Qin Lie gradually came to a realization and closed his eyes to ponder.

The third stage of Heavenly Thunder Eradication, Thunder Lightning Soul Refinement, was the tempering of one’s True Soul with thunder and lightning. Through repeated lightning strikes, Qin Lie’s True Soul would be purged of impurities so that it would become clean and spotless, as would his mind...

“Other than the fact that Heavenly Thunder Eradication by itself is an exotic spirit art, grandfather took me to Ling Town, taught me this spirit art, and told me to diligently cultivate it because… it could also purify my soul!” Qin Lie finally understood.

Previously, when he had been fighting Fan Le in the poisonous bog of Armament Sect, Qin Lie was accidentally invaded by the past memories of his soul and influenced by them.

Now that his soul was tempered and baptized by thunder and lightning, those negative emotions seemed to have been burned away as well.

In other words, he had removed the influence of the past “him.”

“This is actually very good for you,” Xie Jingxuan said quietly.

“This is the real you.” Song Tingyu gave him a soft smile.