Chapter 10: Evil Lightning Chain Attack

Currently, Wei Yuning can already cast his sect's highest‑level spell "Lightning Chain Attack".

However, his Lightning Chain Attack is a bit different: others' Lightning Chain Attacks are pure spell attacks that strike only once, but his sometimes ends with a golden vine that behaves like a living thing—sometimes it wraps around the opponent, sometimes it pierces into the opponent's body to absorb Qi, sometimes it even feeds on the opponent's flesh and blood; although it lasts only a second or two and doesn't cause major damage, it inflicts a greater psychological shock.

"How evil!" the disciples exclaimed in unison.

It has been seven days since any disciple has been willing to spar with Wei Yuning; even his friend Man Niu refuses. During his cultivation time, Wei Yuning can only vigorously strike the big tree and rocks.

This matter drew the attention of the herb garden overseer Hong Le, who questioned Wei Yuning in detail but got no clear answer; during the inquiry he learned an unexpected piece of information: Wei Yuning is actually a named disciple of Elder Tai Chong. After learning this, he gave up further investigation. Since he is a disciple of one of the sect's elders, what more could he meddle with?

However, Hong Le's lack of investigation doesn't mean no one is probing. The outer gate overseer of Ke Lai Feng, Hong Zhi, was much stricter. He knows well that Wei Yuning comes from the fallen Jiuzhou Small World; originally he only sent Wei Yuning to the sect's unimportant herb garden as an ordinary planting disciple. Given his talent, he could probably reach the Opening Light stage, a two‑hundred‑year lifespan, which wasn't a bad deal. Who could have imagined he would earn Elder Tai Chong's special attention?

But that isn't the point; the point is that strange vine, because this kind of attack bears the hallmarks of Abyssal creatures, which are as evil as Demon‑Realm beings and, in some respects, even more wicked.

"Could it be that the Jiuzhou Small World, once famed for producing many great beings, has truly fallen into an Abyssal world?" Hong Zhi could only think that.

Although energetically the vine shows no negative energy such as curses.

Of course, Hong Zhi cannot imprison or expel Wei Yuning because his cultivation method has no issues; although his visualization differs slightly from that of ordinary sect novices, that is normal—sect visualizations vary widely, and a golden ancient pine is not an evil thing in any respect. Moreover, he still needs to save face for Elder Tai Chong.

Thus, Hong Zhi merely treats Wei Yuning as a special disciple worth tracking.

Wei Yuning feels aggrieved—could shouting "Go, Pikachu!" to the Lightning Chain in his mind before each attack really be a mistake?

He certainly can't confess this secret, childish, brain‑dead behavior to others. In fact, based on his recent understanding of cultivation techniques, especially basic alchemy, granting sentience to artifacts has always been the biggest challenge in forging. The alchemy workshop has compiled many methods; he merely borrowed the simplest one, and who would have thought it would activate the Lightning Chain's "hidden attribute" attack.

Besides daily cultivation and herb‑garden chores, he also earns spiritual stones to purchase the ingredients for Foundation Establishment Pills. Compared with the painfully slow progress of cultivation, his stone‑earning speed is first‑rate. This has become an open secret among the herb‑garden disciples: Wei Yuning can sense the presence of Moon Beetles. Currently, eighty percent of the sect's Moon Beetle supply depends on him, and he has quickly become a notorious wealthy newcomer among the new disciples.

In less than a month, Wei Yuning gathered two sets of Foundation Pill ingredients as a precaution. Qing Fei has a high alchemy talent and began learning to refine Foundation Pills within five years. However, Foundation Pills differ from basic pills like Soul‑Returning Pill or Clear‑Tone Pill; they are the only primary pill that improves overall bodily function, and they are highly complex.

At present, Qing Fei's success rate for refining this pill is estimated at about thirty percent, and it is only an estimate because she has not yet refined it alone. At that rate, two sets of ingredients are actually insufficient, but Wei Yuning cannot obtain more materials at the moment.

Yunyin Sect traditionally discourages disciples from using Foundation Pills to establish a foundation, and only a bizarre desert‑origin cultivator like Wei Yuning constantly thinks about early foundation, so the internal demand for Foundation Pills is low and the ingredients are not particularly rare.

However, this is only true within the deep‑rooted Yunyin Sect; the sect has its own unique spirit‑herb cultivation technique, but to other sects on Bixi Island, Foundation Pill ingredients are absolutely scarce, such as the Qingluan Sect, which is allied with Yunyin Sect.

Qingluan Sect is three thousand li from Jiuyun Peak; their totem is the divine bird Qingluan, making them a very famous female‑cultivator sect on Bixi Island. Their combat strength is unremarkable, placing them mid‑tier on the island, but their divine sense is extremely strong, unafraid of mental attacks, and they excel at illusionary spells, giving them a distinctive character.

The marriage alliance between Qingluan Sect and Yunyin Sect has only a short thirty‑year history, occurring once every ten years, each lasting seven days; this is the third alliance.

Qingluan Sect has many female cultivators, and inter‑sect marriages are a way to raise their sect's status; although Yunyin Sect is not prominent on the island, its surface strength can rank among the top five. The two sects have cooperated many times in recent years and are mutually satisfied.

Yunyin Sect always acts low‑key, rarely interacting with local sects; outside sects know little about its background. If not for cultivating more gifted descendants, Yunyin Sect and Qingluan Sect probably wouldn't have much contact.

In the previous two alliances there was little deep interaction, so when Qingluan Sect heard that Yunyin Sect still had surplus Foundation Pill ingredients, they immediately showed great enthusiasm.

Within a night, all Foundation Pill ingredients circulating in Yunyin Sect's market were bought up. The goods weren't purchased by Qingluan Sect themselves, nor were they allowed into Yunyin Sect's Nine Peaks except Ke Lai Feng. According to rumors, the buyer was a direct disciple, a direct descendant of the nine ancestors of Yunyin Sect, who gave the materials as a gift to a female cultivator of Qingluan Sect.

No one knows whether this rumor is true, but the market's Foundation Pill ingredients will certainly be unavailable in the short term. It is said that some elders in the sect are furious—not because they lament the loss of the ingredients, but because if the matter spreads, it would bring external interference to the sect.

For many small and medium sects, a Foundation Stage disciple is already a core force, and for the countless scattered cultivators, Foundation Pills are like divine medicine.

But the incident has happened, and it can only be let go.

Wei Yuning's two sets of ingredients have already been given to Qing Fei; now they just await the result.

Roommate Man Niu still maintains his cultivation enthusiasm; his most repeated line remains "I've already hit the bottleneck of the Foundation Stage." Yet his hurried steps and nervous demeanor show his heart is not that calm.

With Wei Yuning as a partner, Man Niu is no longer miserable; he can now eat spirit‑beast meat every meal and, in his spare time, snack on dried fruit made from spirit fruit.

However, Wei Yuning can only help Man Niu to this extent.

If he wished, he could help Man Niu more, but he cannot, because it would expose his greatest secret.

Searching for spiritual energy is Wei Yuning's biggest secret. The world is full of spiritual energy, but where is it denser? Besides the well‑known spirit‑crystal veins and spirit springs, there are natural convergence points of spiritual energy. These points vary with season, time, terrain, and weather, and even the most skilled cultivators cannot pinpoint them unless they sit down to cultivate and feel the differences.

Therefore, such natural convergence points are a rare treasure for cultivators—encounterable but not easily attainable.