Chapter 13: Millennium Spirit Skill - Thunder Duke, Assist Me!
Chrysanthemum Douluo was a bit puzzled, wondering what this had to do with storms. It was just as strange as his first spirit being called "Woodworking Two-Piece Set." But as long as Tianling likes it himself... although it's a bit weird, it sounds quite domineering.
"Good name. So, for the second spirit ring, do you have any plans? Judging by your current physique, a thousand-year spirit ring is definitely not a problem."
Xia Tianling carefully sensed his current body, thought for a moment, and said, "With my current physical condition, absorbing a spirit ring of around two thousand years should be fine. An Asian Thunder Dragon, a subspecies of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, possesses both lightning and strength attributes, which should suit me quite well."
His own greatest strengths were undoubtedly his lightning affinity and dominant power. The Woodworking Two-Piece Set itself had no attribute; whatever was added to it would shape it. So, the priority choice was naturally the most familiar lightning. Besides, having already named it Storm Battle Axe, and even having a hammer form before fusion, not becoming some kind of Thunder God seems a bit unfair to this axe!
Not the same time, but the same Spirit Hunting Forest.
"Ollie Gei, let's do it, brothers!" (Translator's Note: Internet slang/meme roughly meaning "Come on! Let's get it done!")
That afternoon, a "lucky" Asian Thunder Dragon of around two thousand years was caught by Chrysanthemum Douluo to become Xia Tianling's spirit ring. This time, he didn't dare let Xia Tianling handle it alone. A two-thousand-year lightning-attribute Asian Dragon – forget Xia Tianling who just got his first ring, even a three-ring Spirit Ancestor might not be able to defeat it.
However, what stunned him was that when Xia Tianling possessed his True Dragon spirit and pushed his bloodline aura to the extreme, pressing down on the Asian Thunder Dragon, the unlucky dragon actually fainted directly from fear! A pungent, foul smell rose from the ground. It had even wet itself in terror.
Asian Thunder Dragon: Big bro, can you just give me a quick end? It's bad enough a Titled Douluo caught me, but then you scare me with such intense bloodline pressure, plus the internal injuries, plus the Titled Douluo's aura suppression... How am I supposed to withstand all this?
Things became much simpler after that. The Two-Piece Set spirit appeared, Fusion activated. Xia Tianling hefted the Storm Battle Axe, gathered his strength, and ended the small... uh... rather large unlucky fellow's life in three strikes – a huge dragon head was chopped off.
Chrysanthemum Douluo scratched his head. Although he knew that dragon clans were very susceptible to bloodline concentration, he hadn't expected this Five-Clawed Golden Dragon to be this dominant. You know, even if Yu Yuanzhen, the clan leader of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon family, came, he could barely paralyze an Asian Thunder Dragon with fear, and not a particularly strong one at that. And that was largely because he was a Titled Douluo.
Xia Tianling delightedly sat down cross-legged, skillfully drawing the purple spirit ring over to begin absorbing it. With the experience from the previous absorption, plus the deterrence of the True Dragon aura and the attribute compatibility, the absorption speed was very fast this time.
The spirit power from the millennium spirit ring continuously reformed Xia Tianling's body while also slowly helping compress the False Core within him. Under the pressure of the massive spirit power, the originally liquid Golden Core became increasingly solid, constantly rotating, and slowly ascended from the lower Dantian.
The moment the False Core reached the Middle Dantian at his heart, the tempering of his entire body's spirit power was complete. The False Core instantly solidified from liquid, becoming a true Golden Core!
Golden Core, formed!
Afterward, the abundant spirit power from the millennium spirit ring continued to nourish and strengthen this Golden Core, which was originally only the size of a longan fruit.
Rumbling thunder sounded in the sky, but it was only sound. Soul Land, or rather, the Douluo Star, has no such thing as lightning tribulations. And the Heavenly Dao of the plane where the Dao Sutra originated couldn't send the tribulation across dimensions, leading to the current awkward situation of thunder rumbling without any actual tribulation appearing.
Lightning Tribulation: [Pouting angrily!] Are you exploiting a bug here?
Xia Tianling couldn't care less about all that; he was currently immersed in the pleasure of his power increasing. His spirit, the Qi Sea in his lower Dantian, and the Golden Core in his Middle Dantian formed a stable circulatory path. Spirit power continuously flowed between the three, slowly growing.
By the time the Asian Thunder Dragon's spirit ring was perfectly absorbed, his spirit power level had also risen from level 21 during the False Core stage to the current level 23.
This made Xia Tianling, upon coming back to his senses, sigh with emotion. Spirit rings, such excellent aids for cultivation, were turned into necessities for breaking through major realms by whoever created the Spirit Master profession – simply idiotic to the extreme. Hasn't anyone tried creating other cultivation methods to change this situation?
In the future, when my cultivation is successful and the compulsory education initiative is on track, I will definitely popularize the
However, what he didn't know was that, including Tang San, even if he wanted to teach them, the people of Douluo couldn't cultivate it. The reason lies in the Dao Sutra's strict requirement for the cultivator's aptitude: only those with Five Elements Spirit Roots can cultivate it, and they must have a balance of the five elements. His current body was created by an unknown entity, so his talent was naturally top-notch, perfectly replicating the characteristics of an Earth human body. But the people on the Soul Land continent do not possess this constitution of having all five elements. Most of them only have one or two attributes, and often derivative attributes outside the five elements like wind, lightning, light, or dark, which is very awkward.
"Tianling, how is it? Did you get the spirit skill you wanted?" Seeing Xia Tianling spacing out after completing his breakthrough, thinking he was sensing the effects of his second spirit skill, Chrysanthemum Douluo walked over and asked.
"Ah? Ah! Yes, I got it, I got it." Snapped out of his thoughts, Xia Tianling summoned his Two-Piece Set spirit. Now, faint lightning power flickered around both the hammer and the axe.
"My second spirit skill releases lightning power, attaching it to my whole body and spirit, increasing strength and attack power somewhat. Maintaining this state continuously consumes spirit power. When I attack an enemy or an enemy makes physical contact with me, it will cause paralysis and an explosion."
"Of course, the paralysis effect varies from person to person. If I fully release my spirit power in the Storm Battle Axe state, then every strike can paralyze an opponent of the same level, but the duration depends on their physique and lightning resistance. However, doing so rapidly consumes my spirit power. In that state, I can probably only sustain it for about five minutes."
"I call this state—Thunder Duke, Assist Me!" (Léigōng zhù wǒ!)
Don't underestimate five minutes; this duration was already thanks to the enhancement from the Golden Core and the quality of spirit power refined by the Dao Sutra, which was several times greater than that of Spirit Masters at the same level. If it were another Grand Spirit Master of the same rank, they probably couldn't even last one minute. Besides, if you were pursued and hammered for nearly five minutes by a Power Attack type strength Spirit Master whose every hit could paralyze you and add a small explosion, you would definitely understand that day why flowers are so red. It might be manageable for Tool Spirits or Plant Spirits, but Beast Spirits would have to pray for themselves. Even if you had high lightning resistance and found a chance to counterattack, just touching him meant taking a lightning-attribute counterattack yourself – simply excessively unpleasant.
"Another enhancement-type skill? Sounds quite good. If the opponent can't effectively control you or create distance, once you get close, even a Spirit Ancestor would definitely fall within five minutes under this lightning possession state." Chrysanthemum Douluo sensed the power coming from the Storm Battle Axe and patted Xia Tianling's shoulder firmly.
"Haha, I'm just exceptionally talented."
"Well then, let's head back. This spirit ring acquisition mission was a perfect success." Chrysanthemum Douluo looked at the excited Xia Tianling and didn't say much more. Kids are always happy after getting new toys.
(End of Chapter)