15: Chapter 15 The Land of Thunder and Swamp: Can it withstand ten thousand thunderbolts?!

Lin Ye did not speak and turned to leave.

Seeing this, Tushan Yue was stunned for a moment and hurriedly followed.

There were many fierce beasts nearby when she came, and her intuition told her that following Lin Ye would be safer!

"Who on earth are you?"

Tushan Yue followed behind Lin Ye, curiously eyeing the short stick at his waist. "Those few moves when you killed the Taotie cub just now—I did not even see how you made your move. That power, that momentum, you are definitely not an ordinary person!"

Lin Ye did not stop his steps: "Just traveling around for experience."

"Experience?" Tushan Yue paused for a beat, then her eyes suddenly lit up. "Is that not an adventurer?!"

She caught up in two or three steps, with her hands behind her back, her body slightly leaning forward, tilting her head to look at the side profile of Lin Ye while her pitch-black hair slipped from her shoulders. "My biggest dream since I was a child has been to become an adventurer! Otherwise, I would not have run to such a dangerous place all by myself. A strange phenomenon descending from the heavens—what a great opportunity! If I did not come to see it, I would regret it for the rest of my life when I go back!"

Lin Ye glanced at her: "You certainly have some nerve."

"Of course!" Tushan Yue puffed out her chest, then deflated again. "It is just that my strength is a bit lacking... So Master, take me as your apprentice!"

"..."

Lin Ye: "Not taking any."

"I am begging you!"

"No."

"Please!"

"..."

"Please, please, please, please..."

"Alright."

Lin Ye had a headache from her noise. "Shut up and I will accept you."

Tushan Yue immediately covered her mouth, revealing only a pair of eyes curved into crescents. "Thank you, Master!"

Lin Ye felt a bit messy in his heart.

He inexplicably gained a long-legged fox apprentice.

However, what she said was not wrong... She was a local native, and with the Qingqiu Fox Clan passing down knowledge through generations, her understanding of this area was definitely better than his own from flipping through notes.

Bringing her along could double the scavenging efficiency.

"Any leads?" Lin Ye asked very bluntly.

Judging by the appearance of Tushan Yue, she must be someone who loved to stir up trouble, so she would not know a little.

"There is a place relatively close to us. It does not take much time to rush over. Do you want to go take a look?"

"Where?"

"Thunder Marsh."

Lin Ye raised his eyebrows slightly.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas records: "In Thunder Marsh there is a Thunder God, with a dragon body and a human head; when it beats its belly, it thunders."

That was the territory of the ancient Thunder God. Although the Thunder God itself had long vanished into the river of time, the residual thunder power in the abandoned Thunder Marsh had persisted for tens of thousands of years without dispersing!

"I heard the elders in the clan mention it when I was a child,"

The speech speed of Tushan Yue quickened once she got serious. "They said that when the Thunder God was making clouds and casting rain back then, it left behind a core condensed from ten-thousand-year thunder in the depths of Thunder Marsh. For so many years, I do not know how many exotic beasts and practitioners wanted to go get it, but they were all struck into charcoal by the lightning. Not a single one came out alive."

Speaking of this, she shrank her neck. "I have always wanted to go take a look, but I did not have the guts. The thunder in that place is too violent; not a single blade of grass grows within a radius of a hundred zhang. Getting even slightly close fills the air with electric arcs, and whoever gets struck dies."

Lin Ye stopped in his tracks.

Ten-thousand-year thunder core?

If he remembered correctly, the power of thunder was also one of the ways to temper the body.

Otherwise, why would so-called tribulation crossings all involve heavenly lightning?

If he could use the power of thunder to stimulate his physical body, allowing his tendons, bones, flesh, and blood to be continuously torn apart and repaired in the lightning, the efficiency of refining the accumulated multiple energies in his body would definitely double!

Moreover, in actual combat, the attribute of lightning was the most domineering among all elements.

He already possessed the Temporal Crimson Fire. When the time came to dual-cultivate thunder and fire—one solar, one violent—that visual style would be unimaginable!

"How far is it?"

"Not far, right in the southeast direction of this area, in a dried-up basin. We will arrive in a little less than half an hour."

After finishing, Tushan Yue hurriedly added, "But Master, let us just go take a look, do not be impulsive. That thunder core is not that easy to get. So many powerful beings have perished inside over the years. Let us just look, just look..."

Lin Ye did not answer and had already stepped toward the southeast direction.

A little less than half an hour later, the two stood at the edge of the Thunder Marsh basin.

Tushan Yue did not dare to take another step forward.

The scene before them was ten times more terrifying than she had described.

A thick layer of lead-gray thunderclouds pressed heavily over the entire basin, hanging extremely low, almost brushing against the ground.

Electric snakes danced wildly among the clouds, and cyan-purple lightning bolts struck down densely, exploding on the ground and kicking up shattered rocks and dust several zhang high.

The air was filled with a pungent scorched smell, and every breath made the nasal cavity and throat of a person feel painfully scraped by something.

The rocky ground of the basin had been struck by lightning for who knows how many tens of thousands of years, forming a layer of smooth glazed substance on the surface, which flashed with an eerie light under the reflection of the lightning.

In the center of the basin, a pale golden lightning bolt hovered mid-air. It was so dazzling that the surrounding air was violently distorted.

That was a lightning core condensed to near-substantial form, suppressed within an extremely small range, constantly exploding and contracting.

Every explosion burst forth with ten thousand electric arcs, crackling noisily.

With it as the center, the lightning glow within a radius of a hundred zhang wove an airtight power grid, and any living creature approaching it would be instantly struck into charcoal.

Lin Ye stood at the edge of the basin, feeling the violent lightning aura rushing at him from the air, and frowned.

Too violent.

This was not something that could be hard-carried by physical body alone.

Around the thunder core in the center of the basin, hundreds and thousands of such electric arcs were dancing wildly at the same time.

His current physical body could at most withstand a few bolts of lightning in the marginal area; going any further inward would mean certain death.

"No wonder no one has been able to get it for so many years. This thing is simply not prepared for ordinary living creatures."

Tushan Yue hid behind a giant rock behind him, exposing only half her face, her voice trembling: "Mas... Master, you saw it too, right? This thing really is not something humans can take. Let us leave. There must be other heavenly treasures nearby, I will help you find them again..."

"Mm-hmm."

Lin Ye nodded and turned to leave as well.

Although somewhat disappointed, this was something that could not be helped.

However, just at this moment, when a bolt of lightning struck not far in front of him, the zhulong seal deep within his sea of consciousness gently moved.

Then that falling lightning actually changed its landing point and struck far away.

"Huh?"

That lightning was hiding?

He raised his right hand with his palm facing upward.

The dark red Temporal Crimson Fire rose from his palm, its edges wreathed with a halo of black flames.

As soon as the flame appeared, the violent lightning aura permeating the surrounding air suddenly weakened by a few points.

And quickly retreated.

Those electric arcs that originally spread toward the surroundings automatically bypassed him when they were still several zhang away from Lin Ye, as if there was something that made them afraid to approach.

The pupils of Lin Ye contracted slightly.

He lowered his head to look at the flame in his palm, then raised his head to look at the thunder core in the center of the basin.

The next second, he tried to urge a trace of the Zhulong Divine Sense to trigger the zhulong seal within his body.

A dark red dragon-shaped phantom faintly emerged from behind him. Although it was only the size of a palm, that savage aura belonging to the ancient Zhulong silently diffused through the air.

The thunder core in the center of the basin abruptly shrank.

The pale golden lightning, which was violent to the extreme, noticeably contracted the moment it sensed the aura of Zhulong.

It was like a poisonous snake suddenly encountering a natural enemy of a higher rank, instinctively curling up and retreating.

Tushan Yue suddenly poked her entire head out from behind the giant rock, her eyes wide as saucers: "Mas... Master, why is there the aura of Zhulong on your body?! That momentum just now..."

Her gaze swept back and forth between the visibly cowed thunder core in the center of the basin and the dragon fire in the palm of Lin Ye. Her voice suddenly pitched higher, carrying incredulous shock: "It is afraid! Master, the thunder core is afraid of you... No, it is afraid of the aura of Venerable God Zhulong!"