Chapter 346: Lightning Cultivation?

When Hao Ren and Zhen Congming returned to the Ethereal Summit, Xie Yujia and Little White had been waiting for them for a long time.

"We're back! We're back!" Zhen Congming shouted while flying directly toward Xie Yujia's elixir making room.

Eager to join them, Little White carried Xie Yujia and flew into the elixir making room immediately.

Thud! Thud!

Zhen Congming took the two heavy elixir furnaces from his storage space and placed them on the ground.

The two elixir furnaces were black and ugly, and Zhen Congming estimated that they could only withstand ordinary elixir fires. If they wanted to use Little White's demon fire, they needed to get the white jade elixir furnace.

However, these two furnaces were made with thick black copper, and Little White's demon fire wouldn't burn through them immediately. He calculated and felt like if they let the two furnaces take turns, the furnaces would last about one month. If the two furnaces were all burned up, he would go to White Sand Sect and take the last white jade elixir furnace.

Little White trotted to the two elixir furnaces which still smelled like burning smoke. It sniffed at them with curiosity.

"It's boring to make level 1 and level 2 elixir pills. Let's start with the level 4 Foundation Establishment Pill." Zhen Congming took out an elixir pill recipe from his sleeve.

All the ingredients for the elixir pill were listed on the recipe. Of course, if the ingredients were handed to an inexperienced elixir master, he or she could potentially destroy them all instead of producing any elixirs.

"1,000-year-old polygonum, Uncaria Gold Plant, South Sea Ginseng, Jade Bamboo, 10,000-year-old Sea Turtle Shells..." Zhen Congming placed the materials on the stone table one by one.

Usually one began the study of elixir making from creating level 1 and level 2 elixir pills. However, after witnessing Xie Yujia making Beauty Pills, level 3 elixir pills, Zhen Congming thought she could begin with level 4 elixir pills.

Before Qiu Niu set off, he had assigned a 'homework' to his disciple Zhen Congming, ordering him to make 100 level 9 golden pills. Seeing Xie Yujia's talent in elixir making, Zhen Congming was exhilarated and decided to take her as his 'disciple' to help him make elixir pills.

"While you are busy with this, I'll go and cultivate..." Seeing Zhen Congming and Xie Yujia preparing for elixir making, Hao Ren didn't want to stay and watch them. He flew out to the open space in the valley.

Today, he wanted to try the lightning cultivation on Fifth Heaven. One of the unique features of the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll was to create many sword energies and attack enemies; the other unique feature was to activate heaven lightning with the five elements.

After choosing a flat area in the valley, Hao Ren took his stance and inhaled deeply.

Swoosh! A dash of hundun sword energy shot up from his palm.

Hundun lightning broke all things into the five elements, and this sword energy instantly pierced a hole in the array formation surrounding the valley.

Attracted by the hundun lightning, the nature essence in Fifth Heaven surged toward it swiftly. Instantly, clouds tumbled.

The essence came over in a whirlpool, and the white clouds rushed from the nearby mountains toward the direction of the Ethereal Summit.

Boom!

From the depth of clouds, the first heavenly lightning was already crashing down!

Like a fierce heavenly dragon, the purple heavenly lightning was thicker than Hao Ren had expected. It was almost as powerful as the heavenly lightning in Zhao Kuo's Heavenly Tribulation!

It was much thicker than those on First Heaven!

Bang! The Heavenly lightning was much more powerful than Hao Ren had expected. It was so thick that it couldn't pass the hole in the array formation and crashed solidly on the array formation!

Dang... The entire valley shook.

Xie Yujia had been circulating the Life-Death Notes in the elixir making room. She stumbled when that lightning crushed down, and the herbs she had tossed into the furnace splattered out.

A dash of black light shot out of the elixir making room into Hao Ren's cave abode.

"Big Dipper Constellation Array! Tianshu Star!" Zhen Congming quickly turned the compass.

The array formation that was engulfing the valley emitted pink light, and the metal components that constructed the array formation all made big banging sounds.

Meanwhile, the second heavenly lightning struck down toward the valley.

The array formation made crackling sounds, and countless debris rolled down from the mountains.

"Tianquan Star and Yuheng Star!" Zhen Congming turned the compass again.

The metal poles with array flags on them, which were buried around the valley, responded and emitted white light beams.

Then, another heavenly lightning crashed down!

Boom! This one was even more powerful.

The two elixir furnaces in Xie Yujia's elixir making room collapsed, and the demon flames and spiritual herbs spilled out.

Immediately, Little White carried Xie Yujia and flew out of the cave abode.

Outside the valley, f;ames burned in everywhere. The scattered lighting had lit up the surrounding trees.

Without the stimulation of new chaotic lightning sword energies, the lightning clouds above the valley gradually scattered before turning into streaks of nature essence.

This sudden event even burned a few hairs off of Little White's butt.

With a livid expression, Zhen Congming rushed out of Hao Ren's cave abode into the center of the valley, bumping into Hao Ren and pushed him half a meter away.

"Are you crazy?! You activated heavenly lightning on Fifth Heaven!" he shouted.

If he didn't control the array formation, the whole Ethereal Summit would have exploded due to the three dashes of heavenly lightning!

Although the array formation withstood the three strikes of heavenly lightning, it was severely damaged, and Zhen Congming would have to repair it.

In theory, this array formation could only withstand the attacks of Core Formation Realm cultivators. However, the three dashes of heavenly lightning had the power of Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.

Without the protection of the array formation, the spiritual herbs Zhen Congming had planted with great care would have been scorched!

At this thought, Zhen Congming was even more furious.

"Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t!' Zhen Congming used the newly-learned word to express his fury.

"I can't use lightning cultivation on the Fifth Heaven?" Hao Ren was baffled.

The upheaval was greater than he had expected. He had just released a tiny trace of hundun lightning sword energy, but the reaction he received was much more violent than he had ever imagined.

"Lightning cultivation! What you did was not lightning cultivation! Sh*t!" Zhen Congming pointed his finger at Hao Ren in a fury.

"I have been cultivating like this on First Heaven," Hao Ren answered him.

"First Heaven! First Heaven!" Zhen Congming was almost choking with anger. "You were lucky that you were not struck dead by the lightning!"

He glared at Hao Ren and said, "Your cultivation method is wrong! It's a miracle that you are still alive!"

On the one hand, he was furious that Hao Ren activated the heavenly lightning which almost destroyed his array formation. On the other hand, he was fearful that Hao Ren, his big brother, would be struck dead by heavenly lightning.

"What happened? Are you ok?" Riding on Little White, Xie Yujia came to Hao Ren's side and asked anxiously.

Upon Xie Yujia's arrival, Zhen Congming softened a bit. He rolled his eyes at Hao Ren and said, "I'll show you what lightning cultivation is!"

From his sleeve, he took out a dharma treasure that looked like a chess board. He then grabbed some chess pieces from the board and tossed them onto the ground.

The white and black chess pieces collided with each other and released traces of electrical sparks. The surrounding mist floated to him and formed a mass of dense white clouds that was as big as a palm. Inside the cloud, faint lightning flashed.

"Do you see this? This is called Small Cloud Rain Array!" Zhen Congming gritted his teeth in exasperation. "Brother, no one would activate the lightning clouds in the sky to strike themselves repeatedly! If you fail once, all your cultivation strength would be destroyed!

Xie Yujia was amazed when she looked at the man-made clouds that were as big as a palm.

Zhen Congming blew at the cloud, and it floated to the nearest spirit herb releasing a drizzle.

Hao Ren was surprised that array formations could simulate artificial lightning. He was speechless in embarrassment when he thought about his wrong idea of using the heavenly lightning to temper himself; he legitimately thought that this was the unique cultivation method of the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll.

As Zhen Congming had pointed out, the power of each heavenly lightning was so great that it could easily shatter his Zhen-level dragon core if he were not careful.

"Besides the Small Cloud Rain Array, there are Big Cloud Rain Array, Great Cloud Rain Array, and Super Cloud Rain Array... I can give you whatever lightning you want! Building an array formation is basically building a small environment. After all, nature itself is the biggest array formation!"

Hao Ren thought for a while and felt like Zhen Congming was right. After all, cultivation itself was stealing essence from nature. Of course, there were levels of thieving skills.

Taking advantage of nature's mechanism, the array formations could simulate all kinds of situations in nature. That was why they could create the mini version of heavenly lightning with a small amount of nature essence.

Hao Ren had a sudden understanding. Since he had chosen the unpopular Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll, he had to figure things out all by himself; he didn't know that his idea about lightning cultivation was totally wrong!

"Man, I really admire your style!" Zhen Congming blurted out another phase he had picked up recently. Then, he put away the chess board and said, "I'll build a Small Rain Cloud Array in your cave abode."

The more powerful Hao Ren was, the safer Zhen Congming would be. That was why he tried his best to help Hao Ren improve his cultivation strength.

Shortly, flashes of lightning appeared in Hao Ren's cave abode.

In the surrounding area about dozens of kilometers from the valley, the small sects also witnessed the weird shift in nature. The senior elders of the sects gave instructions to their disciples, "In the next months, don't get close to that area! There is probably a Nascent Soul Realm master there. The earlier dashes of lightning showed that a master passed a Heavenly Tribulation!"

As to the three small sects around the Herb King Valley, they were both astonished and pleased.

"Obviously, a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator lives in there! Since this master didn't kick us out and even offered to give us elixir pills, he gave us the permission to continue living here. In other words, as long as we obeyed his orders, no one would dare to mess with us!" the three sect masters thought to themselves, and they suddenly stood straighter!