157: Dancheng

The Prodigy did not stop.

After trapping Feng Xu, countless earth spikes stabbed at his body in succession, fine dust constantly eroding him.

At the same time, his body was rapidly repairing itself under the infusion of Lightning Tribulation power.

However, he had the Lightning Tribulation to repair him, while Feng Xu had yuanwu xielü as his human vessel. Possessing the Indestructible trait, he could not be harmed by these things at all.

For a moment, neither side could do anything to the other.

These two Prodigies, one a reflection of the Lightning Tribulation and the other a silhouette of time, looked like two actors in rubber suits fighting in a tokusatsu show.

"Looking at it this way, Feng Xu is even fiercer," Zhou Yan thought, "shattering the opponent so many times relying solely on combat instinct."

"If not for the Lightning Tribulation energy repairing him, the opponent wouldn't have lasted a few moves."

While he was pondering, an earth spike that had long been condensed behind him suddenly stabbed toward his heart.

But the moment the earth spike hit Zhou Yan, it didn't penetrate, instead turning into a puddle of soft mud.

This Prodigy was truly not simple; while fighting Feng Xu, he could still secretly mobilize the power of the earth veins, attempting to sneak attack the spectating Zhou Yan.

However, Zhou Yan's Divine Sense was now close to the Nascent Soul Realm level, so no matter how hidden the opponent was, it was impossible to succeed in a sneak attack across so many Realms.

As early as when the opponent was condensing the earth spike, Zhou Yan had quietly injected water into it, causing it to turn into mud upon touching him.

"It's time to end this."

Zhou Yan raised his hand and lightly pointed a finger at the Prodigy.

This was the strongest Spell he had forcibly mastered using his Water Manipulation Divine Ability: Hundred Rivers Convergence.

Under his Divine Sense lock, the opponent had nowhere to escape.

The water flow wrapped around like ropes, enveloping him into a water lotus about to bloom.

Calculating based on the remaining lightning energy within the opponent's body, when this water lotus blooms, that will be the moment this Lightning Tribulation dissipates.

This Undergoing Tribulation should be over.

However, as expected, an accident still happened.

A giant rock arm suddenly swung out from the water lotus, and then the arm expanded continuously, a nine-meter-tall stone man bursting through the entire water lotus.

"Damn, can't you just disappear obediently?" Zhou Yan couldn't help but complain, "What kind of thing did this Lightning Tribulation copy?"

He could clearly see that the stone man's feet were connected to the earth veins, constantly drawing power from them.

Without a doubt, this should be the final trump card that the Prodigy used when he passed his own Lightning Tribulation back then.

As for how to describe this stone man, one could completely call it Little Wang Yao.

Although its health bar hadn't thickened, its recovery ability was extremely strong, and it didn't even need to rely on lightning energy anymore; if left unchecked, it could probably exist for a long time.

Just when Zhou Yan thought he had messed up and prepared to bring out Zhou Yans Marvelous Array, a gentle light emerged from within his body.

Feeling the new information in his Sea of Consciousness, Zhou Yan almost couldn't hold back his laughter again.

He forced himself to look a bit more serious, and the moment the stone man rushed toward him, he solemnly declared.

"Stealing the power of the capital's earth veins is a crime punishable by death."

As his voice fell, the stone man, which was constantly drawing the power of the earth veins, rapidly shrank and collapsed.

The earth vein power it had already acquired also drained away rapidly, backfiring on itself and wearing down the lightning within its body.

By the time it stumbled to in front of Zhou Yan, it had shrunk into a tiny lightning figure with little energy left.

The opponent threw a punch, and Zhou Yan only extended two fingers, easily pinching that fist.

Now it was only about a meter tall, appearing incredibly petite in front of Zhou Yan's three-meter-tall Dragon Transformation form.

The tiny lightning figure struggled desperately, using both hands and feet to try to break free.

"Pfft, hahaha." Zhou Yan finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Amidst his laughter, he grabbed it and tossed it into his mouth, chewing twice.

Its texture was like popping candy, crackling and popping in his mouth.

This remaining lightning no longer posed a threat; instead, it was beneficial to his Lightning Manipulation Divine Ability.

When Zhou Yan finished eating the popping candy, the thunderclouds in the sky also dissipated.

Simultaneously disappearing was the shackle in his Sea of Consciousness.

Zhou Yan clearly felt that his understanding of the world had gone a step further.

His whole body felt warm and fuzzy; the pleasure brought by the Breakthrough far exceeded any kind of joy he had known.

"No wonder so many Cultivators develop Heart Demons due to stagnant cultivation... This leap in the level of life is truly fascinating."

With the interruption of the Prodigy's power supply, the blockade of yuanwu xielü was also lifted.

Seeing it still maintaining the appearance of Feng Xu, Zhou Yan was a bit surprised.

"I didn't expect it would take less than three minutes to deal with him."

He waved his hand, signaling yuanwu xielü to end its transformation and come to his side as a Protector.

After retracting time like a shuttle, he also ended his Dragon Transformation and sat down in meditation on the spot.

The Lightning Tribulation had been passed; now it was time to reap the fruits of victory.

Zhou Yan's consciousness sank into the deep space.

It was pitch black all around, with only a large tree emitting a green light and a Golden Core beside it.

"It's the same scene as seen in the System; I thought it would be different." Zhou Yan felt slightly disappointed.

Next was Core Formation.

He had already obtained his Lifebound Treasure and had gone through the baptism of the Lightning Tribulation.

Now, with his Dao Foundation connected to the Magic Treasure, it was like having an external hard drive plugged in, greatly increasing his storage capacity.

At the same time, his Divine Sense had gone a step further, and his level of control had also greatly improved.

Now, he only needed to transform his Spiritual Root into a Golden Core, and everything would be complete.

Zhou Yan opened his eyes to take out the Nascent Soul crystal he had previously obtained, then closed his eyes and returned to his internal space.

"Let's begin."

He circulated his powerful Divine Sense, drawing in external Spiritual Qi while absorbing the essence of the Nascent Soul crystal.

This Nascent Soul crystal was truly powerful; a little bit of essence was better than a large amount of external Spiritual Qi.

Zhou Yan guided the energy into his Spiritual Root, feeling his Spiritual Root constantly filling up and his Dao Foundation steadily solidifying.

After reaching a certain critical point, he suddenly compressed it, which left the previously full Dao Foundation with a large empty space again.

Repeating this process, the Spiritual Root gradually shrank, and the Dao Foundation became thicker and more solid.

Zhou Yan even snatched a moment of leisure to equip the Metal Spiritual Root from his backpack.

Anyway, the Nascent Soul crystal had a strong effect, so he just refined the Metal Spiritual Root along the way.

It was a pity that there were only these two high-quality Spiritual Roots.

The Metal Spiritual Root seemed to be saying: "Thanks, Big Brother, I'll follow you in the next life."

The Wood Spiritual Root seemed to echo: "This wave, this wave is the first Core Formation driving the second."

The Core Formation process was actually easy, after all, the difficulty lay in the Undergoing Tribulation.

After experiencing the baptism of the Lightning Tribulation and breaking through the limit, Zhou Yan already possessed Nascent Soul-level Divine Sense.

Originally, the Core Formation process only required Core Formation-level Divine Sense to be fully focused, but now he had super-doubled power, making it easy to condense two Golden Cores simultaneously.

He could even divide his attention to control the external yuanwu xielü to help clean up the courtyard.

The main theme was composure.

When the first cyan-green Golden Core condensed into shape, Zhou Yan felt a palpitation, and all the cells in his body seemed to be cheering.

Immediately after, the second golden Golden Core was also successfully condensed.

The cells that had just calmed down cheered again, this time with even greater momentum.

Zhou Yan truly felt the excitement of his body.

After the two Golden Cores were completely solidified, Zhou Yan's body also began to feel strange.

Unlike during the Dragon Transformation, this change was much gentler.

There was no heart-wrenching pain, only occasional mild itching.

First the body, then the bones, every inch of skin and every inch of flesh gradually softened, steaming with white aura.

Zhou Yan felt as if he were in a sauna; his whole body was warm and fuzzy, feeling sweat constantly being expelled, with heat surging from within his body.

This state lasted for quite a while.

When Zhou Yan came back to his senses from that incomparably comfortable feeling, similar to when his Divine Sense broke through, his body had undergone earth-shattering changes.

The originally distinct cell structure had disappeared, replaced by a seamless whole.

His skin was delicate and soft, and his bones were as white as jade.

The internal organs transformed from ordinary organs into components that carried the Dao Foundation.

Zhou Yan could clearly perceive that his lungs and liver were significantly stronger than his other organs, which should be related to the Metal and Wood Golden Cores he had condensed.

And his kidneys also seemed to have suddenly connected to the internet, beginning to change rapidly.

This was probably the effect of that demon core that had been cleansed into a Golden Core.

"But that Golden Core is actually Water-attribute? Looking at its fiery red appearance, I thought it was Fire-attribute."

After checking, Zhou Yan realized that this Golden Core was a dual Water-Lightning attribute; the reason it was as fiery red as the sun was because the Lightning attribute was asserting its existence.

That was not surprising then.

In the end, the five internal organs took shape: the liver was the strongest, the lungs and kidneys were next, and the heart and spleen were the weakest.

And the star located in the Sea of Consciousness also became brighter after the body completed its sublimation.

When Zhou Yan opened his eyes again and scanned himself with his Divine Sense, he couldn't help but exclaim.

"Holy crap! How did it turn me into a little femboy!"