144: Chapter 144 Smashing the Thunder Core, I'll Be Blind for a While

As Chen Fan's spiritual body spread out a faint blue light screen ahead, the outline of the bronze hall door slowly materialized from the void.

On the lintel, nine lightning locks writhed like living things, the sound of crackling, dark blue electric sparks exploding crashing into his remaining sense of hearing—the sound was extremely similar to the screech of rusted rebar being cut by a power saw on a construction site. He could even recall the scene from last summer when he was squatting under the scaffolding eating a steamed bun and watched his coworker Old Zhang get his hand scorched by flying metal shavings.

"thunder core energy critical," Black Crow's vibrating transmission suddenly pierced his temples. It was a tremor similar to a pebble dropped into a deep pool. "Any later, and it will crawl into the main system through Shadow Pavilion's hidden line." Chen Fan's Adam's apple bobbed; the back of his neck still retained the warmth left by Su Shuang's fingertips.

He fumbled and gently placed Su Shuang on the edge of the stone platform. The ends of her hair brushed against the back of his hand, carrying the familiar jasmine scent from the Teahouse, yet it felt hotter than usual, like cotton wool touched by a spark.

"Let me... connect to it." Su Shuang's voice was wrapped in the static hiss of electricity. Just as Chen Fan was about to speak, her fingertip suddenly poked his glabella.

Molten gold light burst from her pupils. In his spiritual body's perception, the frequency of the entire thunder core suddenly began to fluctuate, as if its pulse was being grasped by an invisible hand. "Smash the seventh lock." This was the last sentence she transmitted through their spiritual link, her final tone torn to shreds by the thunderous storm.

Chen Fan clenched the hammer of the thunder god in reverse. The thunder patterns on the hammer handle were burrowing along the lines of his palm toward his arm, burning his skin until it sizzled.

He sat cross-legged on the ground, injecting his critical strike spiritual body into the hammer—the faint blue spiritual mist enveloped the hammer's shadow as it rose into the air, hovering three inches above his head.

His heartbeat roared in his ears. On the third beat, the spiritual hammer shadow suddenly shot out, precisely striking the first lightning lock.

"Crack—"

The crisp sound of the chain snapping mixed with a muffled chuckle in his chest.

The second strike, the third strike... The first five locks shattered into dust like bamboo strips split by a sharp blade.

As the sixth strike landed, he heard the Silent Thunder Monk's gasps suddenly become rough, like a broken bellows drawing air.

The mad monk had moved to the side of a hall pillar at some unknown point. His kasaya was riddled with scorched holes from the lightning fire, revealing a dark red tattoo on his chest—a small Buddha with hands clasped in prayer, now being torn apart by the lightning flow.

"System initiating Ultimate Thunder Punishment." The system prompt's electronic tone carried a hint of mania. Chen Fan suddenly felt his scalp tingle. Within the spiritual body's detection range, purple lightning was pouring down from the cracks in the ceiling, like countless poisonous snakes flicking their tongues.

The Silent Thunder Monk's roar nearly shattered his eardrums: "Thunder should not kill people—it should protect people!" Before the words fell, Chen Fan perceived that familiar life fluctuation surging forward, and two calloused hands plunged "thud" into the lightning veins embedded in the wall.

Purple lightning instantly coiled around the Silent Thunder Monk's arm, drilling through his blood vessels toward his entire body.

Chen Fan could "see" his skin smoking, his muscles torn by the electric current into curling strips of red flesh, yet the mad monk's mouth was still moving, as if reciting some scripture.

A dull thud of a heavy object hitting the ground came from Thunder Child's position. Chen Fan turned his head—no, he couldn't see; he could only sense through his spiritual body that the youth who always huddled near the bronze bell was spitting out a mouthful of black blood, staining the rust on the bell's surface, and shouting hoarsely: "The last chime... pause for ten breaths!" Then, he fell completely silent.

"Old Jing!" Chen Fan's throat tightened. The spiritual hammer shadow hovered before the seventh lock.

He could sense the Silent Thunder Monk's life fluctuation rapidly decaying, like a candle blown by the wind.

But he couldn't look back, couldn't be distracted—Su Shuang's heartbeat was still beating within his spiritual body, one beat, two beats, aligning with his own heartbeat into the same rhythm.

"Heart Returning Blast." He gritted his teeth and compressed the blue flame in his dantian to its absolute limit. That was a rare skill obtained by doubling critical hits in the previous dungeon.

The searing pain of the blue flame burning inside his body shot through his entire body along his blood vessels. He suddenly laughed; so the sense of pain was still there—this damn thing was much more useful than sight or hearing.

The critical strike spiritual body suddenly swelled amidst the pain. The faint blue light screen displayed dense trajectories of lightning flow, like a shining net.

"Chain Critical Strike, activated." As soon as the system prompt exploded, Chen Fan felt millions of steel needles piercing his eardrums—his last sense of hearing was gone too.

But the spiritual body at this moment clearly "saw" that the electric sparks on the seventh lightning lock were weakening. Su Shuang's molten gold pupils were shining through the thunder core's barrier, like two golden threads tethering those purple lightning bolts.

He no longer counted heartbeats but followed the sensation of pain within his body: shift left three inches, raise arm, smash down.

The spiritual hammer shadow of the hammer of the thunder god collided with the seventh lock simultaneously with the Heart Returning Blast.

The bronze shell of the thunder core cracked like a shattered bowl, fissures spreading wildly from the lock points.

The purple lightning surged back like a tide. Chen Fan was thrown to the ground by the blast wave, his forehead hitting the bluestone slab. Blood flowed down his nose and into his mouth, tasting as metallic and sweet as rust.

He reached for his eyes. The blindfold had long been burned to ash by the lightning fire, but his vision was still pitch black—this time, he was truly blind.

But the system notification for the critical strike spiritual body evolving through resonance rang out clearly: [Spiritual Body Sustained Combat for 25 Seconds, Cooldown Reduced to 3 Minutes; Cost: Permanent Loss of Vision].

Chen Fan knelt on the ground, suddenly throwing his head back and laughing. His laughter, mixed with bloody foam, sprayed onto the fragments of the thunder core: "Blind is blind! My hammer knows the way!"

"Fan... I'll take you home," Su Shuang's spiritual message swept across his heart like a feather.

He looked up abruptly—although he couldn't see, he could sense her standing in the center of the thunder core, arms spread wide. The previously rampant purple lightning was actually slowly converging according to her gesture, like a tamed beast.

Chen Fan gripped the hammer of the thunder god and stood up. The critical strike spiritual body formed a faint blue halo around him. The Heart Returning Blast surged upward against the lightning veins. The electronic tone in the system prompt suddenly shifted: [Infinite Multiplier Protocol · Preload 37%].

"Go to hell, System!" he roared, smashing the hammer of the thunder god toward the deepest part of the thunder core.

A roar echoed throughout the entire hall.

Chen Fan was thrown against the hall pillar by the blast wave, but before his consciousness blurred, he "saw" through the spiritual body's vision that the purple lightning had transformed into a towering pillar, stabbing straight into the sky against the system's hidden line—that direction was the location of Shadow Pavilion headquarters.

"Success?" he murmured, sliding to the ground, his hand fumbling to grasp the corner of the clothing next to him.

It was Su Shuang's, carrying the scent of jasmine, and also carrying the residual heat of the thunder core.

A muffled sound of huge stones cracking echoed in the distance. The entire Thunder Abyss began to tremble. He could feel the stone slabs under his feet cracking, as if someone was flipping over the entire chessboard from underground.

"Fan," Su Shuang's voice was as light as a sigh, yet clearer than any thunderclap, "It's time to go home."

Chen Fan smiled and gripped her hand tightly. In the darkness, the spiritual body's blue light grew brighter and brighter.