Chapter 435: Controlling Thunder

Although the two had figured out the method Xuan Jin used, Zhang Nuo was still completely baffled as to what specific materials were employed! Within this Cold Pool, very few things could endure for long! If they were ordinary materials, they would be frozen by the pool water in no time, eventually crumbling into dust!

"What did you use to build a bridge between them?"

After pondering for a long time, Zhang Nuo finally asked this question!

"Actually, it was quite a coincidence! Aside from the portion of ores I devoured that were needed to produce Mysterious Crystal Stone, the rest accumulated within my body! I used them to create metal connecting lines while retreating, and only then was I finally able to lead the lightning onto the Four Spirits Square Cauldron!"

Xuan Jin made it sound easy, but the degree of difficulty involved was imaginable; no wonder Xuan Jin had only just returned after being gone for so long!

"However, although I managed to lead the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder onto the cauldron, I lost too much metal from my body! My cultivation also dropped back to the Sixth-Rank!"

Hearing this, Zhang Nuo was startled. He swept his Divine Sense toward Xuan Jin, and sure enough, the Spirit Power fluctuations emanating from his body were only at the level of a Sixth Rank Spirit Beast! He hadn't expected that one trip out would cause him to drop an entire realm!

"Xuan Jin! I really have to thank you this time! Otherwise, we would have been completely trapped to death in this place!"

With gratitude and pity in his eyes, Zhang Nuo gently patted Xuan Jin on the shoulder!

"You are my master! If it weren't for the nourishment of your bloodline, I wouldn't be who I am today! As long as I am allowed to recuperate for a period of time, there will still be a chance to return to the Seventh Rank realm in the future!"

With a faint smile, Xuan Jin blinked his tired eyelids a few times before finally burrowing into the Spirit Beast Bag. Watching the Spirit Insect sleeping soundly in the bag, a fire of hope ignited once again in Zhang Nuo's heart!

He turned his head to look at Su Haizhen and found his beloved resting her chin on one hand, her face full of suspicion, as if she were struggling with some question!

"What are you thinking about? We have a chance to get out; aren't you happy about that?"

Zhang Nuo gently pinched Su Haizhen's delicate, jade-like face and said. However, this time, Su Haizhen had no intention of joking with him at all. After raising her head, she said to Zhang Nuo earnestly:

"Tell me the truth, is Xuan Jin the incarnation of a 'Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect'?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhang Nuo's expression changed. During the hundred years they had spent together in the cauldron, he had never told Su Haizhen about Xuan Jin's true origins. He hadn't expected that today, while Xuan Jin was explaining how he connected the Small Tripod to the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder, he would reveal a flaw!

Just imagine, what kind of Spirit Beast would feed on metal? And after losing the metal in his body, his cultivation dropped significantly! With a bitter smile, Zhang Nuo found it difficult to continue hiding it, so he had no choice but to nod slightly!

Upon receiving Zhang Nuo's confirmation, Su Haizhen was completely stunned! Although she had known before that Xuan Jin was certainly no ordinary Spirit Beast, she had never imagined that it was the legendary 'Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect!' As if she didn't recognize Zhang Nuo anymore, Su Haizhen carefully re-examined him!

This seemingly ordinary youth actually possessed such a Spirit Insect! It was truly something she could never have dreamed of!

"This matter was originally the greatest secret I held! Since you are already my Dao companion, it is fine for you to know!"

Reaching out to hold Su Haizhen's small hands, Zhang Nuo said softly.

"Just how many more secrets do you have that I don't know about?"

Su Haizhen suddenly felt that the Zhang Nuo before her was very ethereal, not like the Zhang Nuo she had known before! This person was filled with a mysterious aura! Even after spending over a hundred years with him, she still hadn't completely uncovered it all!

Seeing Su Haizhen's worried appearance, Zhang Nuo's heart was touched, but every secret he carried was unspeakable. If it hadn't been for the accidental discovery of Xuan Jin's secret today, he would never have volunteered to speak of it!

"Some things are better left unknown to you! Just remember, I will not harm you!"

Pulling his beloved tightly into his arms, Zhang Nuo whispered into her ear! After a long while, the two finally separated! Looking at Zhang Nuo with a firm gaze, Su Haizhen nodded heavily! The worry on her face was swept away, and she returned to her former self, saying:

"Since you don't want to say, I won't force you! Now that the 'Purple Lightning Wild Thunder' has been led onto the Small Tripod, what is the next step? My mysterious husband!"

After teasing Zhang Nuo, Su Haizhen looked at the four ancient thunder-controlling sacred beasts still continuously devouring the purple electric arcs around them! With a helpless smile, Zhang Nuo walked to the base of the cauldron wall, looked up at the head of one of the sacred beasts above, and after thinking for a while, said:

"Now is the time when the Four Spirits Square Cauldron is absorbing the lightning; I can't do anything. I have to wait until it is full of Purple Lightning Wild Thunder before I can proceed to the next step of controlling the thunder!"

Previously, in the Small Tripod, although there was lightning, it was ordinary lightning after all, and it was very easy to refine. But this time, what had been led into the cauldron was Purple Lightning Wild Thunder; to control it as before, he would have to put in a great deal of effort to refine it!

Facing such powerful lightning, Zhang Nuo had no confidence at all in whether he could successfully refine it! However, according to the method given by Chunyangzi, the chance of success was still over sixty percent! This was only with the help of the Four Spirits Square Cauldron; otherwise, there wouldn't even be a thirty percent chance!

The Purple Lightning Wild Thunder was not like the Red Glow Fire of the past; there was a huge gap between the two! In terms of power, they were worlds apart! The difficulty of refining it had also increased significantly!

However, Zhang Nuo had no path of retreat; only by replacing the lightning within the Four Spirits Square Cauldron with the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder could he have a possibility of escaping to safety!

The Small Tripod took a long time to absorb the electric arcs. Four months later, the four sacred beasts on the cauldron wall that were controlling the thunder finally closed their mouths in satisfaction and eventually vanished. A large amount of purple electric arcs remained on the cauldron wall, lingering for a long time without dissipating!

Looking around, Zhang Nuo sat quietly in the very center of the Small Tripod, then closed his eyes slightly, merging his mind and spirit with the Small Tripod to feel the abundant Purple Lightning Wild Thunder within!

Su Haizhen stood a few yards away from Zhang Nuo, watching him with concern, silently praying in her heart that nothing would happen to him!

When Zhang Nuo began to refine the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder, dense purple electric arcs emerged beneath his seated body, but these arcs did not directly come into contact with Zhang Nuo! As strands of Spirit Power radiated from his body, continuously wrapping those arcs within them, the refining process officially began!

This process was extremely long, just like when he refined the Red Glow Fire back then. First, Zhang Nuo had to let his body become familiar with the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder! Only after having a little contact did he dare to introduce more electric arcs!

There was one point that put Zhang Nuo most at ease: these electric arcs were not directly refined into his body; they only needed to exist within the Four Spirits Square Cauldron. All he had to do was be able to skillfully control these arcs!

Even so, he still spent a great deal of effort to 'make friends' with this Purple Lightning Wild Thunder! Especially since there was still Demonic Qi and Yin Qi within his body; for these two, the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder could be said to be their greatest nemesis. The Yin Qi was fine, but the most serious was the Demonic Qi!

The Purple Lightning Wild Thunder, which was born with a powerful ability to restrain Demonic Qi, would immediately become violent upon encountering even a trace of Demonic Qi, and would not stop until the Demonic Qi was completely annihilated!

To avoid causing unnecessary trouble, Zhang Nuo sealed all the Demonic Qi in his body into one Divine Sea. Since his cultivation had entered the Nascent Soul Late Stage, another Divine Sea had opened within his body, which meant that there were now seven Divine Seas in Zhang Nuo's body!

This terrifying number of Divine Seas was something even Spirit Severing Stage cultivators could not hope to reach! It was precisely because Zhang Nuo had a relatively large number of Divine Seas that he could spare one entire Divine Sea to store the Demonic Qi!

However, even so, because he had practiced the 'Eight Extremes Demon Veins', some of the meridians in his body remained forbidden zones for the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder! Once touched by it, it would immediately result in severe consequences! At best, the meridians would be damaged and require a period of recuperation to recover; at worst, his cultivation would drop significantly because of this. As for what level he would drop to, Zhang Nuo didn't even dare to think about it!

Just like this, after more than a year of cautiously refining the 'Purple Lightning Wild Thunder', Zhang Nuo finally achieved some initial success. At this time, he could control the electric arcs within the cauldron to perform any action, but this alone was not enough! Because the effect he wanted was to completely control the electric arcs, reaching a state of total proficiency!

Watching the strands of purple electric arcs wandering around Zhang Nuo, Su Haizhen's heart was almost in her throat. She knew a little about what kind of supernatural powers Zhang Nuo possessed! Even under these circumstances, for Zhang Nuo to be able to utilize the electric arcs to this degree was already not easy. If he wanted to make a further breakthrough, it would probably take a very long time!

Zhang Nuo was also very clear about this point. He continuously explored experience during the refining process, and with the guidance of Chunyangzi, three years later, he finally fully mastered the operation of the Purple Lightning Wild Thunder!

When Zhang Nuo presented a fist-sized purple electric arc before Su Haizhen, the purple lightning illuminated his face, making it look somewhat eerie! The 'chi-chi' sound continuously coming from the electric ball no longer sounded as harsh as before; Su Haizhen instead felt that the sound they emitted was so melodious, as pleasant as heavenly music!

As Zhang Nuo closed his five fingers, the mass of electric arcs in his palm exploded with a 'boom', and then flew back onto the cauldron wall!

"Now that you have learned to control this Purple Lightning Wild Thunder! Does that mean we can leave this place?"

Su Haizhen looked at Zhang Nuo's face, her heart greatly stirred. She had been waiting for this day for a long time. To lead the electric arcs onto the Small Tripod, Xuan Jin had lost a rank of strength, and Zhang Nuo had also risked his life to learn to control these arcs! All of this was to escape from the Cold Pool!

But the next sentence Zhang Nuo said made Su Haizhen's heart sink once again!