Chapter 85: Lightning Prison Token of Judgment

The biggest difference between the core area of the Lightning Hell and the outer regions was that there were trees here.

A special kind of tree known as "Lightning-Struck Ironwood."

Lightning-Struck Ironwood averaged about four hundred meters in height—very tall, but not very thick, with a diameter of only about five meters, which was far too thin relative to its height.

This proportion was equivalent to a person two meters tall being only as thick as a single finger!

Yet this kind of Lightning-Struck Ironwood covered the area where the lightning was most ferocious.

All things in creation counter and complement one another; this Lightning-Struck Ironwood was not indestructible, but it could channel and disperse the power of lightning into the ground without sustaining damage to itself, and could even absorb a portion of the lightning energy to temper itself.

For many Lightning Mages, the primary material of their staves was Lightning-Struck Ironwood.

But this material only appeared in the core areas of instances like the Lightning Hell, and such places all had monsters of level five hundred or even above Saint tier.

The Thunder Beasts in the core area were generally level two hundred fifty or above; these monsters were very suitable for the Kui Ox to level up on.

Of course, Lu Zheng had come here to get the Kui Ox struck by lightning, not to have it kill monsters.

But this did not interfere with that.

Working toward both goals at once might even allow it to level up faster than the Nine-Headed Undying Bird.

Lu Zheng had long since released the Kui Ox after confirming there was no one else around; as a divine beast that governed lightning, the moment it appeared, the lightning power in the surroundings converged madly toward it.

Bolts of lightning four or five meters thick rained down ceaselessly onto its body.

Then, Lu Zheng noticed this fellow's experience points begin to skyrocket!

Seeing this, Lu Zheng slapped his forehead.

"We came too late!"

Indeed! If he had brought the Kui Ox to a place like this earlier, there would have been no need to painstakingly chase down monsters to hunt—with such tremendous energy and experience points growing this fast, even two levels a day would be an understatement.

If the experience points gained from killing the nearby monsters were added on top of that, maintaining three levels a day was very likely achievable.

In a few days, this ox's level would surpass the Nine-Headed Undying Bird, and might even directly surpass Baize! Baize's limitations were too severe.

It could only target demons and evil beings; against monsters that lacked either of those two attribute affinities, its lethality was very limited, and it might even heal the monsters instead!

Lu Zheng's mainstay had always been Taotie, but now, he felt that the previous successful case was worth drawing lessons from—he needed to cultivate a divine pet with high magical burst damage, opening battles by carpet-bombing with large-area violent magical skills.

Setting everything else aside, earning a massive amount of experience points could not only restore mana but also add a bit of combat power.

While thinking this, suddenly, Lu Zheng sensed an intense energy fluctuation.

He immediately used the "Void Walk" skill to teleport nearby.

He discovered a professional engaged in combat with a level-four hundred monster.

Level four hundred was still only within the Saint tier; only beyond level four hundred did one enter the demigod tier. Its power had not yet undergone metamorphosis, so the Saint-tier professional fighting it was not suppressed by the high-level energy of divine power.

On the contrary, this level-three hundred ninety-three Saint-tier professional's attack skills carried divine power damage attribute bonuses! This, of course, was perfectly reasonable.

The divine shard that Xuanyuan Wuji obtained from slaying a demigod would certainly be distributed to his subordinates, helping them gain an additional source of overwhelming power to increase their leveling speed.

That fellow had always been hoping for someone to take over early so he could retire.

Before a prodigy like Lu Zheng appeared, he had surely already scouted some candidates and cultivated them vigorously so they could take over from him sooner.

But now that he had Lu Zheng, he clearly felt the others were unreliable and had placed all his hopes on Lu Zheng.

This level-four hundred monster was very powerful, and moreover, it was not a Thunder Beast.

【Monster: Lightning Prison Guard】 【Quality: Overlord tier】

【Level: LV. 400】

【HP: 1,240,000/25,000,000】

【Mana: 840,000/5,000,000】

【Strength: 80,000】

【Agility: 60,000】

【Spirit: 100,000】

【Constitution: 70,000】

The Lightning Prison Guard was very powerful, but it was already on the verge of being slain, and Lu Zheng recognized the person who was about to kill it.

This person wore purple leather armor and wielded a gun-cannon nearly as tall as himself—this was the creator of the record for the second test of the Alliance-wide Professional Examination before Lu Zheng, the Epic-tier professional Lightning Magic Cannoneer Wu Tuohai.

Lu Zheng did not intervene; he watched him slay the monster before revealing himself.

"Student Lu Zheng greets the senior!"

He still maintained his usual humility.

Hearing this, Wu Tuohai turned to look and, upon confirming it really was Lu Zheng, laughed.

"It really is you. For you to appear here is quite strange! Don't tell me your third divine pet has a lightning attribute?"

Lu Zheng said in surprise, "How did you know I have a third divine pet, senior?!"

Wu Tuohai said with a smile, "Do you take everyone for fools? Before, you hid everything and refused to reveal a single divine pet. Given your cautious personality, if you didn't have a third divine pet, why would you let two show?"

Hearing this, Lu Zheng gave an awkward smile, tacitly acknowledging the matter of having three divine pets.

He had six anyway, so being guessed at having three was nothing to worry about! "You've come at just the right time. I've wanted to slay this Lightning Prison Guard for a long time, and today I finally killed it. It dropped a Purple Sun Chest—let me see what's inside."

As he spoke, Wu Tuohai opened the Purple Sun Chest on the ground.

Inside were three items: a 【Lightning Prison Chains】 skill book, a gem called the "Eye of Heavenly Lightning," and a token.

【Item: Lightning Prison Token of Judgment】

【Effect: Holding this token allows passage through the Lightning Storm Cave to enter the Judgment Lightning Prison plane instance and undertake the inheritance trial of the higher god "God of Lightning Judgment," Suomo.】

A divine throne inheritance trial!? Upon seeing the token's effect, both Wu Tuohai and Lu Zheng showed expressions of astonishment, and then Wu Tuohai's expression turned serious.

Lu Zheng could not help but ask, "Senior, is there some problem?"

Wu Tuohai glanced at Lu Zheng and did not answer directly; after a moment of thought, he still spoke up.

"Previously, the War God Xuanyuan once told a few of us old fellows whose strength was still passable something: the gods have very likely already fallen."

Lu Zheng immediately denied it: "How is that possible? I previously slew the projection of the Fire God Laban, and this guy held a grudge against me for it and laid a curse on me."

Wu Tuohai shook his head and said:

"According to the War God Xuanyuan, the vast majority of the gods should have perished. A small portion might still be alive, and another portion had their divine thrones usurped. After Evil Gods and evil demons are killed, they will revive, whereas Orthodox Gods require someone to inherit their divine throne! In recent years, the number of Evil Gods has been increasing, and the War God Xuanyuan sensed that this world was becoming unstable, so he kept urging us to hasten our advancement, lest one day he cannot attend to all his avatars at once, leading to some direction suffering destruction and slaughter at the hands of an Evil God."

Hearing this, Lu Zheng was stunned on the spot. Wasn't that old gentleman Xuanyuan Wuji urging him to cultivate as quickly as possible so he could retire early and find a young, pretty girl?! It turned out the truth behind it all was actually an invasion by Evil Gods!

(End of this chapter)