Chapter 194: Feng Tu

Zheng Fa's mind had already inclined toward visiting the Heavenly Stele.

It would be far too difficult for the Jiushan Sect to flee—people can leave easily, but a spiritual vein is hard to find.

Truly severed from a spiritual vein, the Jiushan Sect would not be far from destruction.

Moreover, if the Great Zizaimo Mo Sect had no Lei Chi restriction, whether they would even have a chance to flee would be uncertain.

Yan Wushuang suddenly said, "Actually, within the Heavenly Stele, there is little danger to one's life."

"Hmm?"

These words left Zheng Fa momentarily stunned.

"It is not that there are none; entering the Heavenly Stele carries some danger, but within it, there is hardly any contention among us." Yan Wushuang's words left both Zheng Fa and Zhang Shijie somewhat surprised.

They looked at Yan Wushuang and found that not only Yan Wushuang, but also the two beside him, Chu Tianque and the other, wore expressions of full agreement.

This matter was probably not a secret; since Yan Wushuang had already spoken of his role in governing the Heavenly Stele, explaining this was quite straightforward:

"The rules within this Heavenly Stele are strict, and matters of contention are rare." Yan Wushuang said to Zheng Fa, "Of course, this does not mean there are no difficulties here; on the contrary, this Heavenly Stele..."

At this point, Zheng Fa saw bitter smiles on the faces of all three.

"It can be said that it has required us to exhaust our efforts."

Hearing this, Zheng Fa felt quite puzzled in his heart.

But the three of Yan Wushuang seemed unwilling to explain further; only before leaving did Yan Wushuang say, "Brother Zheng, if you enter this Heavenly Stele, we will be opponents. These words contain few secrets, but I was entrusted by Han Lao—otherwise, I would not have told you."

"Ah? The Remnant Sun Sword Immortal Han Lao? His request?" Zheng Fa blinked, his expression blank: "Brother Yan, do you know why?"

"..." Unexpectedly, Yan Wushuang's expression was even more blank than his: "Perhaps... you should check your family genealogy?"

"..."

Zheng Fa watched the three depart.

Turning to look at Zhang Shijie and the other, he saw confusion on both their faces; they too seemed unable to understand what the Remnant Sun Sword Immortal was thinking.

"Shijie."

After thinking for a while, Zheng Fa finally spoke.

"Go ahead." Unexpectedly, before Zheng Fa could say anything, Zhang Shijie said directly, "I will wait for you outside."

"Mm."

After casting a deep glance at Zhang Shijie, Zheng Fa slowly headed toward the direction of the Heavenly Stele.

Ahead lay inescapable Lei Ting; with every step, several streaks of lightning flashed across his body.

The power of this Lei Ting was three parts stronger than that within the Lei Chi.

Indeed, with every step forward, he could feel the energy within the lightning growing stronger.

At first, Zheng Fa could withstand it with his own Fa body.

Later, he had no choice but to activate the Shen Xiao Yulei Zhenfa.

There are many Lei cultivation techniques, each with its own unique merits; some techniques specialize in summoning heavenly thunder to slay enemies, while others continue to refine the body using thunder methods.

But as the true transmission of the Jiushan Sect, the core essence of the Shen Xiao Yulei Zhenfa lies solely in controlling thunder.

This is a cultivation technique that can control Lei Ting—the four realms of the technique, Pi Lei Tian, Yu Lei Zhong, Sheng Lei Hua, and Cai Lei Shi, actually correspond to the early, mid, and late stages of Foundation Establishment up to Golden Core formation.

As one's realm advances, the cultivator practicing this technique gains increasingly stronger control over Lei Ting.

For other sects, this technique would not be highly valued—simply put, it enhances a cultivator's affinity with thunder but offers little offensive capability.

But the Jiushan Sect happens to excel at Fu methods!

When the Shen Xiao Yulei Zhenfa is combined with Lei Fu, it yields an effect greater than the sum of its parts, even allowing the Jiushan Sect to establish a great reputation in the past.

Your own master's Lei Fu array is even more outrageous; ordinary people simply cannot use Lei Fu to form arrays—heavenly thunder is too Ji Baolie and difficult to control.

Without the controlling ability of the Shen Xiao Yulei Zhenfa, a Lei Fu array would likely explode and kill the array-former directly.

Although Zheng Fa has not yet reached the realm of Pi Lei Tian, the Shen Xiao Yulei Zhenfa has just barely entered the initial stage; now that it is activated, the spiritual power within his body seems to have formed a faint connection with the surrounding Lei Ting.

The heavenly thunder that originally surged toward him decreased by three parts, making him feel much more comfortable.

Ahead.

The three of Yan Wushuang stood within the Lei Ting, looking back at Zheng Fa's figure; Yan Wushuang frowned, as if unable to figure something out.

"Senior Brother Yan, what are you thinking?"

"I am thinking... why exactly is Han Lao so highly regard Zheng Fa?" Yan Wushuang explained, his eyes upon Zheng Fa filled with curiosity: "I have mentioned Han Lao's personality to you before—he, um, does not even look upon the two of you."

Upon hearing this, the faces of the other two also darkened.

As true transmissions of the Xuanweiwu Sect, they were rarely ignored by others.

But the Remnant Sun Sword Immortal would do so.

Han Lao's temperament was known throughout the Xuanweiwu Sect; in the past, the two could comfort themselves—

That old man looked down on many people; who were the two of them?

But now, Han Lao's attitude toward Zheng Fa could not even be described as treating him differently; he was practically rushing to curry favor...

The two thought for a moment, and in their hearts, they felt some curiosity and a unwillingness to yield toward Zheng Fa.

Watching Zheng Fa walk through the Lei Ting, despite some emotions, Chu Tianque nodded quite sincerely and said, "Zheng Fa's realm of refining the body with Lei methods and his cultivation technique are not lacking; he is indeed somewhat similar to Zhao Shimei Xue... In a sect like the Jiushan Sect, calling him a Heavenly Prodigy would not be an exaggeration."

Zhao Shimei Xue smiled faintly and nodded lightly.

Hearing the two speak thus, Yan Wushuang also understood in his heart—though they were praising Zheng Fa, there was an implicit sense of superiority, and their tone carried a hint of judgment.

He had to admit, his own thoughts were much the same:

Zheng Fa's current performance was not enough to surprise him; indeed, in their past interactions, he could not say he had not carried some thought of lowering his status to befriend him.

It was just Han Lao...

"Zhao Shimei Xue, if he has now entered the Heavenly Stele, how large do you think the Feng Tu will be?"

At this moment, Chu Tianque suddenly asked.

That Xue Shimei pondered lightly, then slowly spoke: "I see that at his age he already possesses Foundation Establishment cultivation, faster even than Zhang Wuyi—likely he must have a single spiritual root plus a Dao Body. Yet his cultivation is currently a bit low; we were all granted five hundred li upon our initial enshrinement, so he should be granted fifty li?"

"I think so too..." That Chu Tianque nodded, even cursing: "This divine position is truly strange... what does it mean to wield the earth through thunder arts? I still haven't figured it out!"

Hearing these words, not only him, but Yan Wushuang and the other two had faces full of bitterness.

Yan Wushuang spoke, half comforting, half complaining: "Even the Heavenly Stele, this thing, our Tianhe Sect has failed to comprehend for tens of thousands of years... its rules are strange, truly difficult to fathom."

Zheng Fa knew nothing of these three's conversation. He slowly walked to the Heavenly Stele, and only then did he discover the Heavenly Stele was incomplete.

It was a magnificent square jade pillar, but looking upward, one could see the top of the pillar seemed to be missing a piece, revealing a sharp corner pointing toward the sky.

As he slowly approached, a shimmering light rose upon the Heavenly Stele, as if sensing his approach.

When he was still about half a zhang away, a dazzling rainbow light rose from the pillar, enveloping his body. When he opened his eyes again, he found the scene before him had changed—

The road beneath his feet seemed made of shimmering Bai Yu; traces of spiritual energy flowed within this jade, a spiritual material rarely seen even in the Xuanwei Realm.

Looking forward, a great hall blocked half the sky. The base of this palace floated in the air, connected only by three wide steps, with no other support whatsoever.

Many people were walking up those steps into the hall; Yan Wushuang and the other three were among them.

Zheng Fa was about to fly toward that palace, but when his spiritual energy stirred within, he discovered something strange—though his internal spiritual energy could still circulate, he could not cast any spells.

Within his Yang Yuanfu Dao Foundation, most of his talismans seemed to be asleep, no longer moving.

The only one still operating was the Lei Suofu he had condensed.

Zheng Fa took out talismans from his storage bag and found that, aside from thunder-attribute talismans, the others were dull and gray, with no flash of spiritual energy, as if all had become ineffective.

Only then did he understand why those people were walking so properly.

"Rules..."

Recalling the two words Yan Wushuang had kept hearing, Zheng Fa's heart stirred inwardly:

Others merely found these rules strange, but Zheng Fa saw a hint of familiarity within them.

If one followed his speculation on spiritual energy and talismans, the rules of this place could roughly be described as—

Spiritual energy can only influence electromagnetic forces, and cannot influence other matter?

Thinking thus, his interest in this Heavenly Stele World grew greatly:

This seemed like a natural testing ground where variables were controlled!

Since he could not fly, relying on his legs, Zheng Fa quickly reached the entrance of this palace.

The great hall was divided into three sections.

The central hall's door was tightly closed.

The left and right sections were both open, yet previously everyone had walked only into the left section; no one went to the right.

Zheng Fa was hesitating when he encountered Yan Wushuang and the other three, who had just emerged from the left hall.

"Brother Zheng, you should first enter the right hall to obtain the enshrined earth."

"Enshrined earth?"

That Yan Wushuang seemed to want to keep some mystery, merely beckoning to Zheng Fa, appearing to ask him to follow.

The two behind him also exchanged glances, seeming somewhat interested, and each glanced at Zheng Fa.

Yan Wushuang was among this group extremely conspicuous; as soon as he moved, another five or six cultivators also approached.

Zheng Fa felt somewhat puzzled, but followed Yan Wushuang's gesture to the entrance of the right side hall.

"We come to these three great halls every time we enter the Heavenly Stele World," Yan Wushuang explained with a smile as he drew near: "We call the left side hall the Hundred Treasures Hall, and the right side hall the Divine Enshrinement Hall."

"Divine Enshrinement?"

Zheng Fa asked, somewhat sensitively.

"You will know once you enter."

Yan Wushuang gently pushed Zheng Fa; Zheng Fa followed the force, took two steps, and stood at the entrance of the right side hall.

Looking up, he saw quite a few divine statues standing within the hall.

He counted and found there were as many as twelve.

These divine statues were tall and mighty, each resembling a pillar holding up the sky, but upon closer inspection, Zheng Fa discovered that every single divine statue's face was blank, appearing somewhat eerie.

Zheng Fa stepped lightly into the hall; the moment he entered, he felt that these twelve eyeless divine statues were somehow "staring" at him.

His steps became even lighter as he slowly walked before these divine statues.

Before Zheng Fa could even stand still, twelve beams of golden light suddenly shot forth from the faces of the twelve divine statues, weaving across his body.

He felt as though he had been scanned from top to bottom, from inside to out, thoroughly examined by this Jin Guang.

What surprised and puzzled him even more was that this Jin Guang actually entered his sea of consciousness, heading toward that yin-yang fish jade pendant.

That jade pendant was startled awake, trembling slightly and emitting faint glimmers; this light was nearly imperceptible, yet the Jin Guang quickly retreated, looking rather dejected.

These twelve beams of Jin Guang left Zheng Fa's body and converged before him into a ball of light. Suddenly, several majestic voices rang out from within the light ball; they chanted a passage in unison.

"The Heavenly Court is shrouded in dust; the Immortal Venerable has lost his position."

"The order of heaven and earth is in chaos; yin and yang are out of balance; all beings suffer."

"Since you have received the inheritance of the thunder arts, possess deep fortune, and have achieved extraordinary merit, we now grant you a divine position: to wield Lei Ting, correct the heavenly order, govern clouds and rain, and nourish the myriad people."

"So decreed."

Zheng Fa listened dazedly to these words, still unable to react.

The light ball before him gradually solidified and shrank, revealing the shape of a scroll.

Outside the door, Yan Wushuang and the other three also watched this scene.

"If it is fifty li of enshrined earth, it should be a bamboo tablet?"

Chu Tianque said, and that True Disciple of the Supreme Dao, Xue, shook his head, seeming not to know either: "We two both hold the five-hundred-li divine seat and received bronze tablets."

One of the onlookers following behind them said, "It is a bamboo tablet; I received one. You two are disciples from the Xuanweiwu Sect; as soon as you entered the Heaven Stele, you were granted five hundred li of fiefdom, so naturally you do not know."

There was no lack of flattery in this tone.

"Then the two of us still cannot compare to Brother Yan," Chu Tianque said. "I do not know how the God-Sealing Hall makes its judgments; Brother Yan actually received a silver tablet and governs five thousand li of fiefdom."

Yan Wushuang smiled with a touch of pride, but waved his hand and said, "It is all luck. Moreover, this is merely the initial enfeoffment. In the future, as you accumulate Heavenly Merit, you will also be able to expand your fiefdom."

"That is not so," Xue Zhenchuan pouted, shaking his head and saying, "With a larger initial fiefdom, Heavenly Merit naturally accumulates faster. Otherwise, how could Brother Yan have remained at the top of the Heavenly Merit List all this time?"

These words made everyone nod; looking at Yan Wushuang, envy surfaced on their faces.

"Silver... a silver tablet!"

Someone who had been watching Zheng Fa suddenly shouted. Everyone turned around in alarm, only to discover that the enfeoffment document before Zheng Fa was actually made of silver, and that radiance caused everyone to fall into silence.

"... Is this why Han Lao valued him?"

Even Yan Wushuang was stunned for a moment, muttering to himself.