"Who exactly is this Chen Mo, and is he really as incredible as they say?" In a corner of the tavern, Xiao Yixian rested her chin on her hand and muttered softly.
"Despicable and shameless! That storyteller is just spouting nonsense," Xiao Yan said angrily. If it weren't for the crowd around, he might have smashed the table upon hearing Chen Mo's name.
"The storyteller does seem to be exaggerating. Although that kid's actions are strange, they aren't as outrageous as described," Yao Lao transmitted his voice secretly to Xiao Yan.
"You know him?" Xiao Yixian asked.
"I ran into him once in the Magic Beast Mountain Range, but unfortunately, we didn't fight," Xiao Yan replied, crossing his arms with a hint of regret. "It's only been a few days, so there's no way his strength could have increased that much."
Naturally, Xiao Yan didn't mention how he had been embarrassed during their encounter.
Xiao Yixian, being highly intelligent, sensed from Xiao Yan's gritted teeth that there must have been some conflict between the two.
However, since Xiao Yan didn't bring it up, she wisely decided not to press the matter and instead offered, "I see. He must not be a good person then."
Xiao Yan didn't continue the topic. He stood up and approached the elderly storyteller, who was counting his money with a trembling hand.
"Give me a copy."
"Three gold coins."
...
In a room, two people blushed as they looked at what was indeed a rather risqué booklet.
"Isn't the publisher afraid of offending Yunlan Sect with this?" Xiao Yixian blushed, quickly turning her face away from the illustrated pages.
"These are made by small workshops. The empire's officials have tried to crack down on them, especially after an incident involving a royal consort, but the more they try to suppress it, the more popular it becomes. It's still hard to find in larger towns, though. You can only..." Xiao Yan explained slowly.
Hearing this, Xiao Yixian gave him a peculiar look. "How do you know so much about this?"
"Well, uh... I may not have eaten pork, but I've seen pigs run," Xiao Yan replied awkwardly. "I just heard about it."
...
In the blink of an eye, another three days passed.
At Yunlan Sect,
Late at night, a purple bolt of lightning broke through the clouds, accompanied by violent wind and rain, striking down on Yunlan Mountain. The resulting brightness made it seem like daylight had descended on the entire mountain.
In the disciples' quarters,
Many disciples covered their ears, complaining bitterly, "It's happening again! That damned lightning is back. Do you know how I've survived these nights?"
"Ever since it started raining, the lightning hasn't stopped. What's going on with this weather?"
Boom! Another purple bolt of lightning struck down.
Several elders emerged from their palaces, their gazes all directed towards the back mountain of Yunlan Sect.
In the brief flash of light,
The elders could see it clearly.
On the back mountain, a strange, tattered bamboo plaque was suspended in mid-air, swaying precariously.
Beneath the plaque, a long rope was attached, and at the end of the rope, a figure sat cross-legged, its face obscured.
Moments later, another bolt of lightning struck, accompanied by fierce wind, rain, and deafening thunder, hitting the swaying plaque with destructive force.
The onlookers then saw the lightning travel down the rope and enter the figure's body.
The terrifying current flickered within the figure, causing its body to convulse, revealing the distribution of its bones to the shocked onlookers.
"My heavens! Who could this be, using lightning to cultivate?"
"It looks familiar... Could it be Chen Mo?" someone speculated.
"It's him," Yun Leng confirmed as the other white-robed elders stared in disbelief.
"This..."
The other elders were stunned. They had never heard of such a method of cultivating by being struck by lightning.
On a boulder in the back mountain,
After three days of lightning cultivation,
Chen Mo had gradually adapted to the intensity of the lightning.
Indeed, the next step in mastering the Divine Elephant's Suppression Technique required enduring lightning strikes.
The relentless lightning coursed through his body, as if slicing his flesh and cutting his bones with tiny knives. But Chen Mo endured it.
The violent energy from the lightning circulated through his muscles, bones, and meridians, eventually converging into a vortex in his lower abdomen.
Crack.
A sound like an eggshell breaking echoed from within Chen Mo's body as two tiny particles awakened, adding the strength of two more giant elephants to his body. The surrounding Dou Qi surged into him with an intense force.
Chen Mo's aura climbed rapidly. If a soul expert were watching, they would see that the lightning vortex in Chen Mo's core had transformed into a ferocious thunder elephant, roaring within his Dou Qi cyclone.
Buzz! Another lightning bolt struck down, shattering the makeshift kite Chen Mo had crafted to pieces.
The lightning illuminated the shocked faces of the elders.
In their stunned gazes, Chen Mo's cultivation broke through from a two-star Dou Fighter to a three-star Dou Fighter, and it continued to climb until it stopped at the peak of three stars.
Yun Leng was speechless.
He was so shocked that he couldn't even put his feelings into words.
"This guy... can't he be a little more low-key?"
Yun Yun had already arrived, hovering in the air with Nalan Yanran. The two stood in the sky, shielded from the intense wind and rain by the light cyan wings behind them.
As they watched quietly, two more figures suddenly appeared behind them, landing on the roof of the palace.
The newcomers were Alchemy King Gu He and his disciple, Liu Ling, who had just returned from the imperial capital after passing the third-tier alchemist exam.
Liu Ling, dressed in the robes of an alchemist, looked quite young, no more than twenty-one or twenty-two years old. His deep gaze first took in the continuous lightning over the back mountain before he turned to Nalan Yanran, smiling gently, "Long time no see, Yanran."
Hearing the movement, Yun Yun and Nalan Yanran turned to look.
Yun Yun nodded slightly in acknowledgment before turning her gaze back to the back mountain. Nalan Yanran glanced at the badge on Liu Ling's robe, congratulated him on becoming a third-tier alchemist, and then also returned her attention to the back mountain.
Liu Ling was momentarily taken aback. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he looked towards the back mountain. With the aid of the brilliant lightning, he saw a figure wreathed in thunder and fire darting about on a large boulder in the dark.
"Who is that?"
"Chen Mo, the first-place winner of this year's Inner Sect competition," Gu He said with a gentle smile. "I forgot to mention earlier—he's also my new disciple."
"Teacher's new disciple? Chen Mo..." Liu Ling murmured to himself, then suddenly realized, "It's him!"
No wonder the name sounded familiar.
During the third-tier alchemist exam at the Alchemist Association in the imperial capital, Liu Ling had heard this name from the association president, Fa Ma.