61: Chapter 61 Heavenly Thunder Refines the Body, Condensing the Origin!

"All of you, withdraw. If you are touched by even a sliver of this heavenly might, you will likely be struck into charcoal on the spot..."

Shi Jian's voice was not loud, yet it made the entire Stone Forest hum and vibrate.

Sun Lin had already tucked away his talismans and bolted. Elder Rat hesitated for a moment, but after a glance from Shi Jian, he immediately cupped his paws and scurried away in a flash.

The crowd of minor demons also retreated toward the outskirts of the Stone Forest...

Having cleared the area, Shi Jian silently adjusted his state. After confirming there were no living beings nearby to interfere, he began to calm his heart and mind, waiting for the right moment.

It was not that he was being overly anxious.

Rather, something like Heavenly Thunder Body Refining was simply too perilous. Cultivators of the Human Race used heavenly thunder to temper their physiques and clarify their Dao Hearts.

For him, using Heavenly Thunder Body Refining to temper his Physical Body was merely a secondary benefit.

Instead, he intended to use the intervals of Heavenly Thunder Body Refining to draw the power of lightning into his body, thereby comprehending the profound mysteries of the thunder within. Furthermore, he aimed to intercept a portion of that lightning power to transform his body and stimulate his Bloodline!

There were no predecessors on this path.

Or rather, Shi Jian had no means of obtaining such profound methods; he could only rely entirely on his own exploration, using his body to blaze the trail.

The sky grew increasingly dark, and the fierce winds howled.

Thick, leaden-gray clouds stacked layer upon layer, like Mount Tai pressing down from above, sealing off the entire world so that not even a sliver of light could penetrate.

The atmosphere was heavy, sweltering, and oppressive.

Shi Jian planted his limbs firmly and exhaled the turbid air. Standing at the very center of the Stone Forest, he awaited the baptism of the thunderous sky, biding his time!

The wind stopped.

All things fell silent.

Then, a bolt of heavenly thunder crashed down with a roar!

A purple-white pillar of lightning plummeted straight from the heavens like a silver serpent, its roar echoing for thousands of miles before finally striking the stone pillars on the periphery...

Boom!

The rock layer on the surface of the stone pillar was instantly shattered, sending stone shards flying like rain.

Then came the second, third, and fourth bolts; the flashes of lightning were continuous, as if all the wild thunder accumulated over months was being poured down at once!

Thunder fell like a curtain; wild lightning fell like rain!

Sun Lin’s guess had been correct.

The heavenly thunder first struck the periphery and was then guided layer by layer by the stone pillars, finally converging in the center until it formed an unstoppable momentum of ten thousand bolts.

Shi Jian counted in his heart.

Seven, twelve, twenty...

The thunder had merged into a continuous, deafening roar. A scorched smell permeated the air, the ground trembled slightly, and stone fragments danced wildly.

By the time thirty-six bolts of heavenly thunder had fallen, the guiding stone pillars on the periphery were already saturated.

All the residual lightning power followed the natural paths between the stone pillars, surging toward the center of the Stone Forest like a flood overtopping a dam.

This was the moment Shi Jian had been waiting for!

He took a stance and released his Demonic Qi, taking the initiative to receive that terrifying heavenly might.

In the next instant, a bolt of heavenly thunder several times more violent than the ones before followed the patterns of the Stone Forest and crashed onto his body.

There was no buffer; it happened in a flash.

The moment that power poured into his body, Shi Jian's consciousness felt as though it were instantly torn into countless fragments...

This pain was not merely the numbing sensation of his Meridians being washed out, nor was it the burning sensation when the Thunder Leopard's Demon Core entered his stomach...

It was his bones cracking.

It was his blood vessels bursting!

It was every hair, every inch of skin, and every muscle fiber being pierced simultaneously by tens of thousands of red-hot iron needles!

Shi Jian's limbs suddenly braced outward, his back arched high, and a mist of blood erupted from his mouth and nose, his blood flowing like a surging river...

The roots of his black fur were scorched and curled by the electricity, his skin was cracked with countless wounds, and blood gushed out like a spring.

His flesh turned a strange purple-black, and on the surface of the bones beneath the scorched meat, countless lightning patterns as fine as hair emerged...

His majestic blood and Qi desperately attempted to repair the damage.

But the heavenly thunder would not give him any chance to catch his breath...

A second bolt of heavenly thunder converged and fell once more.

Shi Jian's body was slammed three inches lower this time, his claws sinking into the ground as stone fragments flew...

The flesh on his left shoulder burst open, revealing the shoulder blade. Electric arcs danced across the bone's surface, and terrifying penetrating wounds tore through flesh, skin, and bone.

He did not fall.

His limbs were planted in the ground like nails, and from his throat came low, wild roars of extreme intensity...

But these were not cries of pain; he was clenching his teeth, forcefully suppressing all screams back into his stomach, intending to forcibly refine those slivers of lightning power!

The third bolt.

A crisp snap came from his spine; a section of his tailbone had broken...

The fourth bolt.

The tendons in his right front limb tore, and the entire leg went limp, but he used his Demon Essence to forcibly prop it up, persevering with grim determination...

The fifth bolt.

...

The heavenly thunder continued to fall; Shi Jian had already lost count of how many bolts there were...

His consciousness wavered back and forth between clarity and fainting; every time he was about to lose awareness, the next bolt of heavenly thunder would shock him awake.

Meanwhile, the Demon Essence within his body circulated frantically.

The lightning power pouring into his body was not being fully resisted.

In the most brutal manner, Shi Jian used his blood and Qi to envelop it, his Demon Essence to suppress it, and his bones and Meridians as containers, forcefully pouring slivers of the thunder's Origin into his Demon Core!

The Demon Core vibrated violently within his Dantian.

On the surface of the originally pitch-black and turbid Demon Core, one white crack after another appeared, but these were not signs of shattering...

Rather, it was the lightning power continuously forcing its way in, reconstructing the Demon Core bit by bit!

Shi Jian knew that this was the most critical moment.

If he couldn't hold on and the Demon Core shattered, he would meet his end right then and there, or at the very least, suffer a crippling injury...

If he endured it, it would be a supreme windfall!

Shi Jian bit down on a nearby stone pillar, shattering two of his canines. With a mouth full of blood and stone fragments, the pain instead made his consciousness completely clear.

Endure!

He thought of nothing else; there was only one word in his mind.

He did not know how much time had passed.

Perhaps it was half an hour, perhaps an entire night...

When the thunderstorm gradually subsided, the last few residual bolts of lightning fell sporadically on the peripheral stone pillars, as if a furious Heavenly God had finally vented his anger.

The cloud layer began to thin, and a ray of faint light leaked through the cracks...

In the center of the Stone Forest, a Black Bear lay prone on the ground.

His fur was scorched black, his flesh was a mangled mess, and his limbs were bent at unnatural angles. A section of his tailbone was broken, a piece of his left ear was missing, and not a single patch of intact fur could be found on his entire body.

The surrounding ground had been scorched into a glass-like state, smooth as a mirror, reflecting Shi Jian's utterly wretched appearance...

But he was still breathing.

Though weak, his chest still rose and fell. Every breath carried blood foam and a scorched smell, but he had survived after all!

Shi Jian barely managed to prop up his broken body. While still feeling lingering fear, he also felt the exhilaration of being reborn through destruction...

He lowered his head and sank his consciousness into his Dantian.

The Demon Core was still there.

On the surface of the pitch-black Demon Core, those white cracks had closed, replaced by a circle of extremely faint silver electric arcs.

The electric arcs slowly moved around the Demon Core, appearing and disappearing like a lurking baby snake.

It was very weak, so weak it was almost invisible.

But its existence was incredibly real!

This was not a residue from external power being poured in, but a sliver of thunder Origin that the Demon Core had conceived and circulated on its own...

It was also a seed.

Planted upon the Foundation he had spent decades painstakingly building.

Shi Jian grinned, revealing a mouth full of shattered teeth and bloodstains...

His appearance was hideous, frighteningly so, yet he laughed with extreme satisfaction!

For no other reason than that this method of using heavenly thunder to drench the body and refine the might of lightning, transforming it into one's own fortune, was no different from gambling with his life...

And he, in the end, had succeeded!