62: Chapter 62 Preparation

On the night of the fourth day, the transformation was successful.

A five-foot-long, blue-grey Wind Wolf stood in the center of the karst cave.

Its fur shone with a sleek, oily luster under the moonlight; its eyes were fierce, drool hung from the corners of its mouth, and its chest rose and fell slowly with each breath.

To the naked eye, this was a Wind Wolf.

Scanning with Divine Sense, it was also a Wind Wolf—the aura, body temperature, and frequency of spiritual power fluctuations were all characteristic of a Wind Wolf.

The Wind Wolf paced back and forth a few times.

Its wolf claws tapped against the stone platform, making a faint clicking sound.

Its movements were still somewhat stiff, especially when turning; the angle of its neck rotation bore a trace of human habits.

A moment later, the Wind Wolf's body twisted.

The blue-grey fur receded from its skin like a retreating tide, and its bones crackled as it reverted to human form.

Jiang Yan knelt on one knee on the stone platform, gasping for air.

Sweat dripped from his forehead onto the stone surface, creating a small, dark water stain.

He did not get up immediately.

He recorded the data of this transformation in his mind: the transformation process took about ten breaths, which was not fast enough to be used in combat.

The duration still needed testing, but he estimated that he should be able to maintain it for several hours without using spiritual power for combat.

The biggest problem was muscle memory—the limb instincts of the wolf form and human form were different; after transforming, it took a few breaths to adapt to the new body structure, and this gap of a few breaths would be fatal in actual combat.

But he also sensed something unusual—the Body Refining Foundation of the Star Saint Body was coordinating with the transformation.

The silver-white star patterns within his body would glow slightly as his muscles and bones twisted, instantly repairing the tiny tears caused during the distortion process; the star patterns flashed under his skin, maintaining the stability of his skeletal structure.

The pain was also significantly reduced because of this.

He frowned slightly.

The higher the Body Refining cultivation, the less the loss during transformation—this meant that as the Star Saint Body improved, the duration could be further extended.

This discovery was very valuable.

...

Another ten days passed, and the route of spiritual power circulation in his Meridians changed direction.

The incantation for the second level of the Wind-Thunder Sword Scripture, "Thunder Motion Style," surfaced from the depths of his memory, lighting up in his Sea of Consciousness word by word.

In the Wind-Thunder Sword Scripture, the Wind Rising Style focused on speed and variation, while the Thunder Motion Style focused on lethality and paralysis.

He had already mastered the first level, Wind Rising Style, and his Flying Sword's trajectory was as elusive as leaves in the wind.

The second level, Thunder Motion Style, was a qualitative leap—spiritual power transformed into thunder, and when the sword was unleashed, it carried the might of thunder; it not only paralyzed the Physical Body but also had a natural restraint against evil entities like ghosts and specters.

This happened to be a perfect match for the characteristics of the purple-veined thunder sword.

The golden thunder bamboo itself possessed natural thunder arc patterns, and after the purple pattern gold threads were embedded, it gained increased Divine Sense conduction capability; this bamboo sword was practically tailor-made for the Thunder Motion Style.

He held the purple-veined thunder sword in his hand.

The moment spiritual power was injected, pale golden thunder arc patterns appeared on the bamboo sword's blade, and it began to hum and vibrate.

This was not the vibration of the sword body itself, but the thunder arcs on the sword jumping.

The lightning transformed from spiritual power moved up and down along the sword spine, constrained by the Restriction circuits, moving faster and faster, its color transitioning from pale gold to a blinding, incandescent white.

He held the sword still.

Thunder arcs shot out from the sword tip, exploding in the air on their own, and fine sparks of electricity spread along the blade to the hilt, and then down the hilt to his fingers.

A needle-like numbness came from his fingertips, his hairs stood on end, and visible pale blue electric arcs jumped across the surface of his skin.

He did not let go.

This level of lightning strike could not cause substantial harm to himself—there was a Restriction on the hilt acting as an isolation layer.

But he needed to adapt to this subtle change in feel.

During the Wind Rising Style, the sword was as light as the wind, with no resistance when controlling the Flying Sword.

During the Thunder Motion Style, the sword body gained the recoil force of thunder; every time the sword flew out, it was no longer weightless and elusive, but had an explosive recoil.

He controlled the Flying Sword to stab at the rock beside him.

The moment the sword tip pierced into the rock crevice, thunder arcs exploded from the tip, spreading along the lines of the crevice like a living creature.

A continuous crackling sound rang out as rock fragments were shattered from the inside by the electric arcs, breaking into a dozen smaller pieces that rolled onto the ground.

The cross-section showed radial scorch marks, and a small patch of dark green enamel had been scorched in the center by the high heat.

The physical slashing power of this sword strike might not be as good as a gold essence Flying Sword, but the accompanying lightning paralysis effect was solid.

A Cultivator hit by this sword would have their spiritual power circulation delayed for at least an instant, and the accompanying Divine Sense attack would also cause them to be dazed for an instant.

If he stabbed twice in succession, the lightning strike effects would stack, and the lethality would double.

Next, he tried attacking continuously.

He swept the Flying Sword horizontally, and lightning burst from the sword body, forming a half-foot-wide pale golden fan of electric arcs.

Wherever the fan swept, the air was ionized, emitting a hissing sound.

He stopped and adjusted the nodes of his spiritual power output.

The thunder arcs from that strike were too scattered; they looked intimidating, but the actual lethal radius was only one-third of the sword blade.

He concentrated his spiritual power along the centerline of the sword spine, compressing the diffusion angle of the thunder arcs.

When the second sword flew out, the electric arcs were no longer a fan, but condensed into an extremely thin, pale silver line of thunder, extending several feet forward along the sword edge.

When it hit the rock wall, there was a muffled thud, and an extremely thin cut appeared on the rock surface; the rock at the edges of the cut was scorched to a greyish-white color and was still faintly emitting wisps of blue smoke.

A burnt smell emanated from the crevice, along with the crackling sound of a few tiny electric arcs jumping within the cut.

"That is enough." He retracted the purple-veined thunder sword, and the thunder arcs on the sword blade slowly dissipated.

...

Divine Sense training was placed after the actual combat drills.

His Divine Sense grew steadily under the daily practice of the Taixu Nourishing Spirit Art.

From four zhang to five and a half zhang, and then from five and a half zhang to the current six zhang.

The increase did not look large, but the volume of the sphere covered by his Divine Sense had actually expanded by several orders of magnitude.

At this moment, he sat cross-legged on the stone platform, spreading out his Divine Sense.

An invisible spherical barrier expanded outward from him as the center, penetrating the rock walls of the karst cave, passing through the mountain above his head, piercing through the layers of pine forests outside the cave, and extending all the way to the limit boundary of six zhang.

Within this sphere, all information flooded into his Sea of Consciousness simultaneously.

Subsequently, he poured his Divine Sense into the god-slaying flying knife.

He injected spiritual power at the same time.

Under the infusion of Divine Sense, the natural patterns on the blade of the flying knife glowed with a purple light.

He sensed a kind of feedback—it was not resistance, but resonance, as if those patterns were actively guiding his Divine Sense into the core layer of the flying knife, condensing the dispersed power into an extremely thin line.

Equivalent to the Divine Sense of a Qi Refining Level 6 Cultivator, after being superimposed with the natural amplification of the purple pattern gold, even if a Late Stage of Qi Refining Cultivator were standing in front of him to take this strike now, it would likely not be as simple as just Divine Soul stinging—severe damage to the Divine Soul, or even annihilation, was possible.