"Who is this Chen Mo? Is he really as amazing as they say?" In a corner of the tavern, the Little Fairy Doctor propped her chin on her hand and murmured softly.
"A despicable and shameless scoundrel. The storyteller's words are nothing but nonsense," Xiao Yan fumed. If it weren't for the crowd around them, the table in front of him would have been shattered the moment he heard Chen Mo's name.
"The storyteller's account is indeed exaggerated. Although that guy's actions are peculiar, they're far from being as dramatic as described," Yao Lao transmitted his voice secretly.
"Do you know him?" the Little Fairy Doctor asked.
"I ran into him in the Magical Beast Mountain Range before, but unfortunately, I never got to fight him," Xiao Yan said, crossing his arms with a hint of regret. "It's only been a few days. There's no way his strength could have grown so dramatically."
Of course, Xiao Yan wouldn't tell the Little Fairy Doctor about the time he had been humiliated.
The Little Fairy Doctor was clever enough to sense the tension between them from Xiao Yan's gritted teeth and clenched fists.
But since Xiao Yan didn't bring it up, she wasn't foolish enough to ask. Instead, she chimed in with a resentful tone, "If that's the case, then he must not be a good person."
Xiao Yan didn't continue the topic. He stood up and walked over to an elderly man who was counting money so vigorously that his hands seemed to cramp.
"Give me a copy."
"Three Gold Coins."
...
In a room, the two of them blushed furiously as they looked at the contents. It was indeed a "book."
"How bold of this publisher! Aren't they afraid of angering the Yunlan Sect?" The Little Fairy Doctor's face turned red as she glanced at the illustrated book, quickly turning her face away.
"These are all produced by small workshops. The imperial authorities once cracked down hard because of the Princess Consort's incident, but the more they banned it, the more popular it became. Still, it had some effect. In larger towns, you definitely can't find these openly. Only..." Xiao Yan explained calmly.
Hearing this, the Little Fairy Doctor looked at him with a strange expression. "How do you know so much about this?"
"Well, cough, haven't you heard the saying, 'If you haven't eaten pork, you've at least seen a pig run'?" Xiao Yan replied awkwardly. "I heard about it."
...
In the blink of an eye, three more days passed.
Yunlan Sect.
Late at night, a purple bolt of lightning broke through the clouds, accompanied by a violent storm, and struck fiercely above Cloud Mist Mountain. The light it produced illuminated the entire mountain as if it were daytime.
In the disciples' quarters.
The disciples covered their ears, complaining bitterly, "Here it comes again! This damn lightning! Do you know how I've been spending these nights?"
"Ever since the rain started, this lightning hasn't stopped. What's going on with this weather?"
Boom!
Another purple bolt of lightning struck.
Several elders emerged from the palace, their gazes fixed on the back mountain of the Yunlan Sect.
The light flashed briefly, and in that fleeting moment.
The elders could see.
On the back mountain, a strangely shaped, tattered bamboo plaque hovered in mid-air, teetering precariously.
Beneath the plaque, a long rope was attached, and at the end of the rope, a figure sat cross-legged, their face obscured.
Not long after, another bolt of lightning, accompanied by the fierce storm and deafening thunder, struck the teetering plaque with apocalyptic force.
Then, everyone clearly saw the lightning travel down the rope and into the figure's body.
Terrifying electric currents flickered within the figure's body, and as it convulsed, everyone could even see the distribution of its skeletal structure.
"My heavens, who is this? They're actually using lightning to cultivate!"
"He looks familiar. Could it be Chen Mo?"
"It is him." Amid the uncertain gazes of several white-robed elders, Yun Leng confirmed it.
"This..."
The other elders were shocked. This method of cultivation by being struck by lightning was something they had never heard of before.
On the giant boulder in the back mountain.
Three days of being struck by lightning.
Chen Mo had gradually adapted to this kind of lightning.
Indeed, the step of Divine Elephant Suppressing Prison Strength still required being struck by lightning.
The frenzied lightning entered his body, cutting his flesh and bones like small knives, but Chen Mo endured it.
The anti-violence energy converted from the lightning flowed through his muscles, bones, and meridians, finally forming a vortex that gathered at the Qi Vortex in his lower abdomen.
Crack.
A sound like an eggshell breaking emanated from within Chen Mo's body. Two particles awakened in succession, adding the strength of two more giant elephants to his body. The Dou Qi around Chen Mo surged madly into his body.
Chen Mo's aura rose steadily. If a soul expert were watching at this moment, they would see that the electric vortex at Chen Mo's Qi Vortex had transformed into a ferocious Thunder Giant Elephant, letting out a long roar within his vortex.
Buzz!
The lightning continued to strike. The crude kite Chen Mo had made was already on the verge of falling apart, and now it completely disintegrated.
The lightning illuminated the shocked faces of the elders.
Under their stunned gazes, Chen Mo's cultivation broke through from a two-star Dou Master to a three-star Dou Master, and it continued to climb until it stopped at the peak of the three-star Dou Master.
Yun Leng was at a loss for words.
Because Yun Leng's shock at this moment was beyond expression.
"You, don't you know how to keep a low profile?"
Yun Yun had already appeared. She brought Nalan Yanran with her, and the two stood in mid-air, protected by pale green wings, the fierce wind and rain unable to reach them.
As the two watched quietly, two sounds of breaking wind were heard, and then two figures suddenly appeared on the palace roof behind Yun Yun.
The newcomers were none other than Pill King Gu He, followed closely by Liu Ling, who had just returned from the capital after passing the third-grade Alchemist exam.
Liu Ling wore an Alchemist Robe and looked quite young, appearing to be only around twenty-one or twenty-two. His deep eyes first looked towards the back mountain where the thunder continued, then turned to Nalan Yanran, and he smiled softly, "Long time no see, Yan Ran."
Hearing the commotion, Yun Yun and Nalan Yanran turned to look.
The former nodded slightly before turning her gaze back to the back mountain, while the latter glanced at the badge on Liu Ling's robe, offered some congratulatory words on his becoming a third-grade Alchemist, and then also turned her gaze back.
Liu Ling was momentarily stunned, his brows imperceptibly furrowing as he looked towards the back mountain of Cloud Mist Mountain. Under the dazzling lightning, a figure wreathed in Thunder Fire darted around on a giant boulder in the night.
"Who is he?"
"Chen Mo, the top contender in this year's Inner Sanctum competition," Gu He said with a gentle smile. "I forgot to mention it to you since you just returned. He is also my newly accepted disciple."
"Teacher's new disciple? Chen Mo?" Liu Ling murmured softly, then suddenly felt a jolt of surprise. "It's him!"
No wonder he seemed familiar.
When Liu Ling was taking the third-grade Alchemist examination at the Apothecary Association in the capital, he had heard this name from the association's president, Fa Ma.