Chapter 129

As she ventured deeper into the outer ring, Qian Renxue immediately felt a wave of numbness spreading over her; it was not her body that was numb, but her mind. Yet strangely, with the protection of the left wrist bone of the Purple Lightning Holy Light Qilin within her body, her soul power flow speed actually doubled amidst this numbness.

This means that cultivating soul power here is at least twice as efficient as outside! "This lightning is indeed quite mysterious."

No wonder ordinary soul masters can't stay long; besides the body, this lightning can actually erode the spirit as well.

Qian Renxue shivered slightly, but a sweep of her mental power dispelled the numbness in her perception.

The outer ring of the Lightning Grand Canyon has few soul beasts; most sense Qian Renxue's powerful soul power fluctuations and avoid her in advance, and this lightning cannot harm Qian Renxue in the slightest. The continuous lightning-attribute energy, unceasing, as Qian Renxue walks through the scorched-black forest, she gradually discovers that the surrounding scenery actually contains a hint of artistic conception.

It is that very faint, very faint artistic conception of yin lightning. Feeling this trace of yin lightning's artistic conception, Qian Renxue involuntarily withdrew her soul power shield, allowing the electricity to leap about on her blue dress.

"Although this electricity is dark and strange, this darkness is greatly beneficial to my purple lightning."

Qian Renxue closed her eyes and walked calmly through the forest; her original eager rush to the core area gradually gave way to fascination with the strange lightning of the outer ring of the Lightning Grand Canyon.

This lightning possesses a natural corrosive power that can corrode both body and soul power.

She carefully sensed its flavor, and an image of a black lightning bolt striking down suddenly appeared in Qian Renxue's mind.

As dusk fell, the sky lay like a heavy leaden plate pressing down; the canyon above was deathly silent, save for the occasional wail of a cold wind blowing through.

Suddenly, distant black clouds rolled in like a surging ink sea, with faint eerie light flickering within the cloud layers; moments later, a deep, muffled roar seemed to come from deep underground—the roar of yin lightning.

It was not like ordinary thunder that explodes; instead, it carried a suppressing force that made the earth tremble slightly. Under this yin lightning, the entire Lightning Grand Canyon seemed to fall into endless fear and anticipation, not knowing what storm would strike next.

Qian Renxue's expression remained unchanged, yet a hint of shock welled up in her heart—could such terrifying lightning have occurred before in the outer ring? For some reason, that scene had been preserved.

"First comes thunder, then lightning—now I understand. It is not the lightning that numbs the mind, but the thunderclap released when this yin lightning strikes. It's interesting: sound waves transformed from shock waves numb the enemy, making defense nearly impossible. Indeed, lightning also has many paths."

"Unlike the fierce, domineering yang lightning that confronts enemies head-on, yin lightning lurks in darkness, not as loud and earth-shaking as yang lightning."

"It is nature's silent force, accumulating energy in stillness; when it erupts, though it lacks blinding, dazzling light, it possesses equally awe-inspiring power."

"True strength needs no ostentation; inward restraint and accumulation can likewise bring tremendous impact."

As the surrounding lightning power was absorbed by Qian Renxue into her soul bone, the light at her fingertips grew increasingly dim, yet the danger posed by this lightning surged rapidly; within the originally splendid purple lightning, faint traces of black slowly emerged.

【"Not bad"】

Qian Renxue's train of thought came to an abrupt halt; she suddenly snapped back to reality, slowly opened her eyes, and in her purple pupils lay a hint of bewildered confusion and perplexity.

Among the myriad lightning in the world, each is different; though the corrosive lightning of this outer ring and her own purple lightning are both yin lightning, their essences differ, and she must find her own path.

But just now, a bold, heroic male voice rang in her ears, possessing extraordinary divinity.

Is that a deity? Qian Renxue abruptly halted her steps, gazing at the scorched blackness within this lightning heaven and earth, lost in thought; after a moment, she revealed a faint smile and actually strode swiftly through the electric light.

"My insights from the outer ring are sufficient; next I'll go to the mixed zone—what will the lightning there be like?"

The outer ring of the Lightning Grand Canyon is vast; here it is hardly smaller than the Sunset Forest, with four-fifths of the entire island's area falling within the Lightning Grand Canyon's domain.

Qian Renxue continued deeper into the forest; thanks to her speed, it still took her a full two days.

The mixed zone of the Lightning Grand Canyon differs starkly from the outer ring; the originally pale blue mist in the air gradually turned pale purple, and even with Qian Renxue's eyesight, she could not see clearly beyond fifty meters.

These purple lightning bolts resembled Qian Renxue's own lightning more closely, just as she was about to continue her contemplation.

Suddenly, a sense of alarm rose in her heart; Qian Renxue instinctively tapped the ground with her toes and leapt lightly into the air.

A deep purple shadow flashed past beneath her feet; had she remained in her previous position, she would surely have been struck by it.

"Who!" Qian Renxue cried out coldly, yet she saw no trace in the direction from which the attack came.

Her eyes narrowed slightly, and Qian Renxue's body instantly exuded a chilling aura; Xiao Qing lifted its head from her right wrist.

Qian Renxue fully released her perception; having reached the Spirit Abyss level of mental power, she inherently possessed strong perception, capable of covering over a thousand zhang, but this was merely a rough mental impression.

After all, she is not a true mental-attribute soul master; she cannot, like Huo Yuhao's Mental Detection soul skill, present everything clearly and three-dimensionally in her mind, but merely determining the enemy's position is sufficient.

Five hundred meters ahead to the right front, a massive figure covered in deep purple fur moved like a leaping star pellet, constantly shifting at high speed, its trajectory seemingly centered on Qian Renxue.

Qian Renxue understood at once that this soul beast had locked onto her; she was already fortunate to have encountered, after two days inside, a soul beast daring to attack her.

While Qian Renxue was scouting, that deep purple figure had already rushed toward her at breakneck speed, seemingly sensing her observation; the deep purple soul beast merely flickered, then instantly darted onto a large tree, pushed off with its feet, and shot toward her like a purple bolt of lightning.

Qian Renxue gave a light smile, her eyes flashing with icy light—perfect timing to test her current lightning! The soul power undulation at her left wrist suddenly surged; she extended her left arm sideways, and a silver-white Qilin arm claw erupted forth.

At this moment, Qian Renxue finally made out the appearance of that soul beast.

It was, in fact, a Scarlet Fire Monkey, yet it bore no resemblance to the Scarlet Fire Monkey Qian Renxue remembered.

In the information she learned from the Spirit Hall's Complete Book of Spirit Beasts, the Crimson Fire Monkey can be considered a low-level spirit beast; most are of ten to a hundred years of cultivation, and even a hundred years is considered rare.

Even a hundred-year Crimson Fire Monkey has a very single attack method; aside from being relatively fast and having stronger mobility in the forest, there is nothing particularly remarkable.

But this Crimson Fire Monkey is completely different; its size is more than ten times that of a normal Crimson Fire Monkey, its height exceeds seven meters, and its entire body is covered in deep purple fur that emits faint lightning as it moves.

A ten-thousand-year spirit beast, mutated? Undoubtedly, this is a mutated spirit beast—a Crimson Fire Monkey whose attributes have mutated due to long-term residence in the Thunder Grand Canyon; it is no longer appropriate to call it a Crimson Fire Monkey.

Looking at the soul power fluctuations, it also has a cultivation of twenty thousand years.

Perhaps it should be called the Lightning Monkey King? Or maybe the Violet Lightning Monkey King? That Violet Lightning Monkey King is extremely ferocious, with arms and mouth wide open, deep violet lightning constantly surging over its entire body as it charges straight at Qian Renxue; its body leaps forward from midair, claws extended, simultaneously descending to envelop Qian Renxue.

「Boom——! 」

Qian Renxue's mouth corner twitched slightly, a hint of disdain in her purple eyes, and a sudden thunderclap erupted from her Kirin Claw.

The Violet Lightning Monkey King's body suddenly stiffened in midair, its spirit shaken by the crackling of dark purple lightning.

But at that very moment, from its continually open mouth, a deep violet lightning ball burst forth, accompanied by a terrifying crackling sound, piercing the surrounding distorted air in an instant and arriving instantly before Qian Renxue's chest.

What a cautious monkey; it held back that electric ball, fearing its own countermeasure.

「Heh, monkeys are just monkeys after all. 」

Qian Renxue swung her left hand, the Kirin Claw wrapped in dark purple lightning, fiercely striking the incoming electric ball; a numb sensation instantly spread, and the powerful energy impact caused the ground beneath her feet to begin cracking.

「Sizzle——sizzle——」

The lightning ball was cleanly sliced apart, and along with it, the Violet Lightning Monkey King behind it was torn asunder.

The Kirin Claw shadow, tinged with purple and black, continued to slice through the forest behind it; a single claw shadow instantly covered a terrifying thirty-meter range, and five thirty-meter-long claw blades—bone of silver-white and edge of dark purple—descended from the heavens, as if to destroy heaven and earth.

Amidst the piercing explosion, vast stretches of forest toppled outward; the Violet Lightning Monkey King's body was torn in half by the claw shadow, yet due to its tremendous vitality it still clung to life, lying on the ground.

The Violet Lightning Monkey King stared in disbelief at the cold Qian Renxue before it.

It was not only strong in strength, but more importantly possessed a wisdom that many spirit beasts lack, excelling at seeking advantage and avoiding harm.

But the fight hadn't even reached the point where it could use intelligence and tactics—it was instantly killed. The Purple Lightning Monkey King's ultimate skill hadn't even been used, and its "calling people" fighting style hadn't been deployed.

Qian Renxue tilted her head and said lightly, "Your lightning isn't strong enough—are you giving my claws a massage? It's nice and tingly."

The Purple Lightning Monkey King widened its eyes, emitting sharp cries, then died unwillingly; afterward, a pitch-black soul ring slowly condensed above its body.

Qian Renxue examined the corpse, found no soul bone, then tapped Xiao Qing's snake head.

"Can you still eat this thing's soul ring?"

The Xiao Qing at her wrist suddenly surged, rapidly enlarging in midair; in moments it became a blue-green flood dragon with fangs, its body stretching to eighteen meters long, appearing exceptionally slender.

A pair of ruby-like eyes, noticeably more imposing than before, lifted to gaze at Qian Renxue, its aura radiant. Qian Renxue gently stroked its head, saying, "The color of your eyes isn't the gloomy terror of before; it's a beautiful texture—could this be the influence of my Eight-Winged Angel martial soul?"

Xiao Qing has now grown up; the difference between true dragons and pseudo-dragons on the Douluo Continent lies in whether they have wings—I don't know if Xiao Qing will sprout wings later.

Xiao Qing stuck out its tongue, which wrapped entirely around her palm; its eyes showed a hint of pride as it kept swaying its tail, seemingly showing off its strength to Qian Renxue.

Qian Renxue twitched her mouth, pulled her hand from its tongue, then washed it thoroughly with water attribute, feeling much better.

"No more licking my hand from now on."

"Hiss—"

Xiao Qing let out a resentful hiss, then turned its gaze to the Purple Lightning Monkey King on the ground, but this time it merely glanced disdainfully at the black soul ring before crawling toward the corpse.

With a flick of its tail, it coiled the two halves of the Purple Lightning Monkey King into loops, forming a snake formation.

Then it opened its massive maw and slowly swallowed the corpse into its belly.

Qian Renxue stared at Xiao Qing, pondering: was it because the Purple Lightning Monkey King's bloodline was too low, so Xiao Qing refused to absorb its soul ring to complete its origin? Indeed, even if the Purple Lightning Monkey King is a mutant soul beast, it's merely a variant of the Crimson Fire Monkey, its species ceiling set; it seems we'll need to find higher-quality soul beasts to feed Xiao Qing.

After two days on the road, Qian Renxue stopped to rest properly, finished eating the dried soul-beast meat, then sat cross-legged to recover; in the Thunder Grand Canyon, soul power drains quickly—although she has the Angelic Sacred Core, allowing her to consume and restore soul power simultaneously, the mental numbness is indeed becoming more apparent.

Although it currently isn't a negative effect for her, she still needs to recover her mental state out of caution.

This meditation lasted quite a while: one purpose was to replenish expended mental power, another to consolidate her insights; most importantly, resisting the numbness here speeds up mental power growth, and as time passes, the numbness Qian Renxue feels in this place grows ever lighter.

After training her muscles to a full hundred percent pink, her terrifying adaptability finally manifested in the Thunder Grand Canyon.

When Qian Renxue awoke from meditation, she found Xiao Qing coiled like a fortress beneath her, its ruby-like eyes fixed unblinkingly on her.

In the distance, the Purple Lightning Monkey King's ten-thousand-year soul ring had dissipated over time; undoubtedly, this soul ring was wasted, but there's nothing to be done—Qian Renxue now looks down on such ten-thousand-year soul rings, and frankly, if the Purple Lightning Monkey King hadn't attacked first, she wouldn't have bothered with it at all.

"I told you to keep watch around, yet you've tucked your head in to look at me—aren't you afraid of being ambushed by soul beasts?"

Qian Renxue patted Xiao Qing's snake head to make it move away, then ate some dry rations herself; as Xiao Qing is a martial soul, it won't hunger as long as it has soul power, and besides, a snake can go a long time after one meal, so Qian Renxue saved herself the trouble of feeding it.

"Let's go, continue toward the core zone; I want to sense this purple lightning at the deepest point of the mixed area."

"Hiss—"

Xiao Qing suddenly let out a sharp hiss, its gaze sweeping fiercely around.

The surroundings remained shrouded in purple mist, and in the dimness, faint blood-red beast pupils flickered.

Xiao Qing warily eyed the distant darkness, where dozens of gazes glowed—each belonging to at least a ten-thousand-year soul beast.

A dozen or so ten-thousand-year soul beasts attacked together; even Xiao Qing could hardly defend itself, so the only option was to flee.

"Huh? Soul beasts?" Qian Renxue blinked, wondering how so many had suddenly appeared.

Yet the soul beasts hidden in the darkness emerged, their eyes glowing red; dozens of soul beasts, mostly ten-thousand-year, appeared—sharp-edged, lightning crackling, each with a long tail like a curved lightning whip, barbed, looking ferocious and evil.

"Interesting, they're all ten-thousand-year mutant soul beasts—are these lightning beasts?"

Qian Renxue licked the corner of her mouth, her left hand surrounded by crackling electricity shaped like a claw, then said to Xiao Qing, "If you finish this meal, you won't know how long it'll sustain your soul power consumption."

No matter how many lightning beasts there are, Qian Renxue fears nothing. Her Storm Sword Domain and Eight-Winged Angel martial soul excel at handling groups of enemies—as long as none of these lightning beasts exceed thirty thousand years, no matter how many come, they'd be instantly killed in a single clash. Qian Renxue's eyes flashed cold; she was about to activate the Storm Sword Domain when a strange spiritual wave suddenly swept over.

All the lightning beasts, upon feeling this spiritual wave, instantly lost their blood-red eyes, whined obediently a few times as if trying to please someone, then scattered.

This spiritual wave, she couldn't fathom—whether in quantity or quality of mental power, she was far inferior.

Afterward, for unknown reasons, the lightning-attribute soul beasts she encountered on the way to the core zone no longer took the initiative to attack her.

As she walked, Qian Renxue discovered those soul beasts were actually guiding her forward.

They led Qian Renxue to a road entirely purple—this was the first time she'd seen a non-black road in the Thunder Grand Canyon.

At the end of this road, beneath a cluster of over ten purple strange towers, lay a thousand-foot-deep pit containing a white staircase descending into the dark underground.

Before the pit, Qian Renxue halted again, closed her eyes, and carefully sensed the surrounding thunder power.

Xiao Qing's massive serpent body raised its head, hovering in the air as it circled Qian Renxue.

All things around her were ignored; her thoughts were wholly immersed in the thunder, trying to discern the insight left by some unknown presence deep in this mixed zone.

Gradually, the buzzing of electricity in her ears grew louder, turning into thunder; aside from the thunder, the world held no other noise, and through this thunder, Qian Renxue's mind seemed to conjure an image.

A low rumble suddenly sounded; almost instantly, lightning filled the sky, bolts raining down, while the earth suddenly shot forth purple-black vines with a jointed bamboo-like appearance, unlike the blue-gold Blue Silver Emperor vines Qian Renxue had seen before.

With their appearance, the ground instantly became an ocean of lightning, like a prison of lightning from the falling sky, enveloping the entire world.

The vision ended abruptly; then over ten purple strange towers blazed bright, as deep-purple lightning energy from the mixed zone swirled like vortices into the towers, forming over ten purple-gold bamboo-joint-shaped beams that swiftly merged into Qian Renxue's left wrist, turning the original black-purple lightning of her soul bone into a brilliant purple-gold.

Then a strong numbness instantly spread from her left arm throughout her body, causing a slight tremor.

After a full half-hour, Qian Renxue slowly opened her eyes, gazing at the constantly flickering purple-gold electricity on her body; a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes.

This… this is? The ultimate thunder intent of the Thunder Abyss Vine! Such a soul beast is likely unheard of by most soul masters; it's a legendary creature, perhaps not discovered by humanity until after ten thousand years!

It is a plant-type soul beast that, from birth, stands at the pinnacle of its kind, innately intelligent; when it first sprouts, it resembles a bamboo shoot with just a single segment, and it must grow where thunder and lightning are abundant.

It can develop only during rain and thunder; each lightning strike strengthens it, with a hundred strikes equating to one year of cultivation for an ordinary soul beast.

Thunder is the most violent of natural forces; under its trial, the Thunder Abyss Vine grows continually, but at first its growth is extremely slow and difficult, because it must wait for natural thunder to strike it directly before it can develop.

Thus, while other soul beasts cultivate for a year, it might need ten years to accumulate enough lightning strikes—its cultivation speed is at least ten times slower than that of ordinary soul beasts.

Yet, as time passes, once the Thunder Abyss Vine reaches a hundred-year cultivation, the situation undergoes a complete transformation.

Upon reaching a hundred years, the Thunder Abyss Vine can, during thunderstorms, actively attract lightning to strike itself.

Often, in a single night it can receive a hundred lightning strikes; although at that point its cultivation gain isn't merely a hundred strikes per year, its cultivation speed increases greatly.

Due to its nature, once the Thunder Abyss Vine cultivates to a certain level, its destructive power becomes terrifying, often creating a spectacular sight of lightning pools across a region; this lightning pool expands with the vine's growth until it devours everything around.

A ten-thousand-year Thunder Abyss Vine can alter the heavens, summoning lightning to strike the mortal realm and wield thunder's power to annihilate the outside world.

Therefore, once this Thunderous Yanyu Vine of such cultivation appears, it will inevitably cause disaster in a region; only super-powerful beings have the possibility to destroy it.

But the Thunderous Yanyu Vine also has a drawback: because it relies on continuously absorbing thunder to enhance itself, once it reaches a certain level, the destructive power of the annihilated thunder after extreme compression becomes too strong, making it possible for it to self-destruct at any time.

The vast majority of Thunderous Yanyu Vines only appear in deep mountains and old forests, developing in those uninhabited places, yet ultimately they are destroyed in their own growth process.

Depending on the growth experiences of different Thunderous Yanyu Vines, they generally self-destruct after about twenty thousand to fifty thousand years; extremely few can cultivate beyond fifty thousand years, and a Thunderous Yanyu Vine with a hundred-thousand-year cultivation has never appeared in history.

However, for soul masters, the Thunderous Yanyu Vine is absolutely the most desired soul beast for thunder-attributed soul masters; it possesses three divine abilities: Thunder Electric Forest, Thunder Hell, and Thunderous Electric Dance.

For most vine-type plant soul beasts, entangling skills are relatively normal; for example, Tang San Gege's Blue Silver Emperor is like that.

But this Thunderous Yanyu Vine fundamentally lacks such entangling ability; from the moment of its birth, it exists solely for attack, born for battle, and will not cease until death. Therefore, it has always been acclaimed as the strongest attacker among plant-type soul beasts, without equal.

Most importantly, legend says the Thunderous Yanyu Vine is a soul beast formed by mutating from the divine blood shed when the Thunder God fell; in the Thunderous Great Canyon, there might truly be traces of a deity.

These visionary images are clearly that mysterious existence deliberately showing them to her; she also wants to go to the core area to meet that kind person who has been secretly helping her. He truly gave her a great gift, relying on the extreme thunder power obtained from the soul bone, her trip to the Thunderous Great Canyon was not in vain.

6600, the last day of the vacation, straight to 6600, brothers.

(End of chapter)