Chapter 099

Chapter 99: Heavenly Thunder Body Refining

It was another Thunder Tribulation, and less than half a year since the last. This was Ye Wan Wan’s second tribulation since coming to Heavenly One Sect.

Compared to her mess last time, this time she stood beneath the Heavenly Tribulation lightning with a strange calm. She looked up at the thunderclouds, and in her cool eyes there was only one word: [Come.]

There was no fear, no nervousness, only a hint of challenge.

Li Wan Zhi and Fang He An were both shaken.

Thunder crashed. The first bolt ripped the night like white fire and streaked straight for Ye Wan Wan. Everyone’s hearts leaped into their throats.

Ye Wan Wan raised one hand and formed a guiding seal, drawing the Heavenly Tribulation lightning to temper her body. Li Wan Zhi recognized it at once and cried out: “Thunder Command Art!”

He blinked hard and spluttered: “Wait, when did she learn that?”

It was only the most basic lightning-guiding gesture, strictly entry level. Li Wan Zhi suddenly remembered how Ye Wan Wan had watched him practice while she was healing on Disciples’ Peak. He glanced at Fang He An, and the two of them shared a look of disbelief: “Oh come on.”

So just by watching him practice, she learned it?

But that basic gesture couldn’t control most of the Heavenly Tribulation lightning, and the tribulation itself was overwhelming. Even if she tried, it would be hard to direct. Still, she wasn’t trying to split the lightning.

She wanted body tempering.

A true body tempering.

The Heavenly Tribulation lightning avoided the seat of her Primordial Spirit and spread from her torso into all four limbs. From the inside out, its power swept through her body, blood, bones, and skin.

Everything.

A small Thunder Command Art stirred a great Heavenly Tribulation lightning, and it slammed her straight into the ground.

Li Wan Zhi shouted in panic: “Junior sister!”

Ye Wan Wan pushed up, staggered to her feet, and moved her lips to form silent words toward Li Wan Zhi across the storm.

Li Wan Zhi froze, slow to react. Fang He An grew anxious and asked quickly: “What did she say?”

Li Wan Zhi snapped back to himself, sat cross-legged, and his eyes reddened as he answered in a hoarse voice: “She said this is the best time to comprehend the Thunder Command Art, and I should seize it.”

“Don’t waste it.”

Fang He An stared, stunned: “At a time like this she can still think about cultivation?”

Li Wan Zhi said quietly: “Yes.”

Because Ye Wan Wan was also cultivating.

An Innate Spirit Bone is hard to fake. If no one can sense a special bone, they will judge only by physical toughness and raw strength. So she used Heavenly Tribulation lightning to refine her body. If once wasn’t enough, then twice. If twice wasn’t enough, then again and again. She would push her body to a strength others could never reach. Then she would have the first condition needed to pass as someone who possessed an Innate Spirit Bone.

She glanced at the woman not far away who watched her with tight, worried eyes and thought with a fierce warmth: [She is my light. She led me here. No one will touch her.]

Ye Wan Wan sat down again at once. She shoved Mystic Spirit Pills into her mouth like they were free and ran Spirit Refining Art at full speed. It was a wondrous art that refined the spirit and also refined the body, and it fit Ye Wan Wan perfectly. Right now, it helped her absorb the power of Heavenly Tribulation lightning as fast as possible and turn it into strength inside her.

Thunder boomed again. As the second bolt fell, Ye Wan Wan opened her eyes and met it without flinching as she called out: “Come!”

Unlike her first tribulation, when she had guided most lightning into the ground, this time Ye Wan Wan chose an extremely rough and reckless method: she took the lightning with her flesh.

The girl was struck down again and again.

Everyone had thought her second tribulation would go very smoothly. Even Pei Xuan and Yan Ju had thought so. But when they saw her crawl out of a pool of blood over and over, using each gap between bolts to continue her body refining, they sensed it clearly at last: her madness.

The madness buried in her bones, and the stubbornness that came once she decided on a path.

Watching the girl under the thunderlight press down her pain and refuse to scream, Yan Ju spoke in a low voice: “Senior brother, now I understand why the Heart Questioning Sword chose her.”

This level of obsession, this talent, this disregard for everything, and this hint of wildness were exactly like the Heart Questioning Ancestor back then. Both immortal and devil.

But Immortals and Devils are two sides of one path. The Ancestor had said long ago that cultivation is for cultivating the heart, and Immortals and Devils are just two different choices on the road. An immortal can be devilish, and a devil can be an immortal. Everything depends on one’s choice.

The sect records say he was punished by the first generation’s ancestor for those rebellious words. Yet after he died, that same ancestor left his words as the Power of the Dao in Heavenly One Sect’s largest seclusion hall, where every generation’s disciples come to comprehend. They watch it often.

So Heavenly One Sect never discriminates against the Devil Clan. They judge by the heart, not by appearances. To slay devils or punish immortals, if either goes against one’s own dao, then go against it.

Yan Ju’s spirit platform suddenly shook. Pei Xuan felt it too. At last he moved his gaze away from Ye Wan Wan and looked at his junior brother with a small smile as he asked: “Are you going to break through?”

Surprised by his own insight, Yan Ju still nodded: “Yes. I think within two months, I can break through.”

Pei Xuan’s eyes warmed: “Good news.”

When Yan Ju broke through, the hundredth generation of Heavenly One Sect’s disciples would all step into the Divine Transformation Realm.

The two of them kept watch until Ye Wan Wan finished the entire Thunder Tribulation. Using Heavenly Thunder Body Refining, she endured through the eighth bolt. At the ninth and final bolt, Pei Xuan spoke, his tone leaving no room for argument: “Enough.”

Only then did Ye Wan Wan, trembling, summon a Five Elements Array. Using High Grade spirit stones, she set the formation and dissolved the last of the Heavenly Tribulation lightning. When the lightning faded, gentle rain poured down.

Pei Xuan waved his sleeve. Drawing the nearest spiritual rain, he wrapped it around Ye Wan Wan, using the rain’s power to repair her body. He said with steady confidence: “You comprehend; I will guard you.”

Ye Wan Wan did not hesitate. She closed her eyes and settled into comprehension.

With Pei Xuan guarding personally, eight days and eight nights passed before Ye Wan Wan woke from her meditative state. She opened her eyes and stood; as she rose, her bones crackled and popped, like everything inside her was stretching open.

Sensing the change, she drew back a fist and punched into empty air. The wind of her blow split the mountain path ahead cleanly in two. The force traveled seven or eight zhang forward.

It felt very much like the first time Bai Jian shattered a whole roadside inn.

Ye Wan Wan clenched her fist and smiled with deep satisfaction.

She turned and looked up at the man on the stone terrace and called out, bright as spring water: “Master!”

She ran toward him, face glowing. Halfway there, her steps slowed, and a memory stirred. She blurted out with a sudden, girlish pride: “Master, I broke through Qi Refining!”

In her mind, another voice answered from long ago, cool and distant: “You are now a cultivator. You must not be as willful and spoiled as a mortal. Learn from your Eldest Senior Brother’s steadiness and propriety. That is the correct way.”

Once, when she was eight, she had shared a joy like this. That cold admonition was all she received. Since then, she had learned to hide her feelings.

Ye Wan Wan’s smile faded. Her steps became proper and restrained.

Pei Xuan noticed the change at once and asked with a frown: “What is it? Did something go wrong in your insight?”