Chapter 90: Variant Spirit Beast
“Poof!”
The Ice Soul Python fired a bright silver ball of ice from its mouth. While the ball of ice was spinning, a cold chill spread out in every direction before destroying the stone pillar Qin Lie was behind. There was actually the shocking sound of thunder.
The Rank Two Ice Soul Python was about six or seven meters long and as wide as a human’s waist. Its beastly eyes glittered with brutality as it swiftly charged at him.
Qin Lie suddenly turned around and glanced at where the ball of ice had exploded. His eyes shone with a strange light.
“Let’s go! What are you waiting for?” Gao Yu halted and urged him to leave quickly, his expression urgent.
At this moment, the escaping group slowly spread out. Tu Ze and Kang Zhi went one way whereas Zhuo Qian, Han Feng, and Chu Peng went the other. However, they were all still moving to the outer edge of the stone forest; it was just that they split up halfway for convenience’s sake.
Qin Lie and Gao Yu had stuck together. Close behind them was the Ice Soul Python and a dozen-odd snake and python type Rank One spirit beasts.
Because these Rank One spirit beasts were slightly slower, after a time of pursuit they were gradually left behind and the Ice Soul Python were the only one still pursuing.
Both Qin Lie and Gao Yu would attack and provoke the Ice Soul Python from time to time to prevent it from heading back, aggravating it so it wouldn’t stop chasing them.
“Fwoosh!”
The silver ball of ice was crystalline bright and about the size of a fist. Once again it flew over with a biting chill.
Qin Lie did not run away. Instead, his eyes were bright as he closely watched the clump of faint blue inside the ball of ice. From inside it he could feel… a surge of thunder energy!
The Ice Soul Python was an ice type spirit beast. Its body was cold and chilly, and its attacks usually consisted of blades of ice and dregs of ice. It relied on cold poison to hurt people.
However, this Ice Soul Python seemed to be slightly different. Its ball of ice contained a thunderous wave, and after it landed, it also resulted in a roar of thunder and powerful explosion…
This attracted Qin Lie’s attention.
Seeing that another ball of ice was headed in his direction, Qin Lie held his breath and channeled Heavenly Thunder Eradication. Electric currents covered his his entire body, and there was thunder faintly roaring from inside his body.
The terribly cold ball of ice headed straight for Qin Lie’s chest. A chill that seeped into his bones rushed at him, causing Qin Lie’s entire body to turn rigid, and even his blood felt like it had frozen over.
“As expected of a Rank Two spirit beast; this chilliness is unbelievable!” Qin Lie’s face turned slightly as he continued to channel Heavenly Thunder Eradication, and right before the ball of ice was about to hit him, he suddenly stuck out his finger and pointed.
A thumb-sized light blue lightning abruptly shot out of his fingertips and struck the ball of ice perfectly.
“Boooom!”
The silver ball abruptly exploded, and the thunder energy stored inside it exploded as well, causing dregs of ice to shoot out everywhere.
“Pew! Pew!”
Some ice splattered against Qin Lie’s body, and a chilly flow spread out along with them, causing his teeth to chatter like crazy and his muscles to feel like they had frozen over.
“Thunder! There is thunder energy inside the balls of ice!” Qin Lie exclaimed.
The ball of ice forming inside the Ice Soul Python’s mouth had a translucent, icy and crystalline shell. However, once it shattered, the thunder energy inside would immediately explode outwards.
The explosive thunder energy was actually even stronger than the icy power itself. It seemed that this was the balls of ice’s true power and the Ice Soul Python’s key to killing people.
“Qin Lie, what are you doing?” Gao Yu returned from the front and stood beside Qin Lie.
At this moment, the Ice Soul Python twisted its body and raised its head high. It had also made its way in front Qin Lie, and cruelty and malice leaked out of its eerie green eyes.
“This Ice Soul Python is a bit special. The balls of ice it spits out contains the power of thunder!” Qin Lie was excited. “In that case, its beast core definitely contains the power of thunder! Perhaps there are thunder type spirit materials inside its body. I’m going to kill this Ice Soul Python!”
“A variant spirit beast?” Gao Yu looked startled for a moment before he yelled out, “A variant spirit beast is harder to deal with than a normal spirit beast, and this is a Rank Two Ice Soul Python no less… it’ll be very hard for the two of us to take it down!”
“Let’s give it a try!” Qin Lie’s expression was filled with eagerness. “Since the two of us are only at the Refinement Realm, five of those six Rank Two spirit beasts have gone to pursue Tu Ze and Zhuo Qian, and there was only one Ice Soul Python that chased us down. It will be slightly difficult to take down this Ice Soul Python even if we work together, but it is not without hope, especially when it’s an Ice Soul Python that has cultivated both ice and thunder!”
“Alright then, let’s give it a try!” After a few seconds of ponderment, Gao Yu’s expression too shook and showed excitement. “Do you want to be the main attacker or me?”
“I’ll be it; you attack from the sides!”
Qin Lie sucked in a deep breath and took out the wooden sculpture. Channeling Heavenly Thunder Eradication, the cracking sound of electricity came from inside the wooden sculpture as fine streaks of electricity formed on top of the sculpture’s head.
“Boom Boom!”
Explosive sounds of thunder resounded from inside his bones, and as if the blood and cells throughout his entire body were being activated. With the wooden sculpture in his hand, Qin Lie suddenly attacked the Ice Soul Python head on.
The Ice Soul Python let out a strange cry, opened its stinking mouth, and formed yet another silver ball of ice. The ball of ice, overflowing with chilliness and refracting a glaring icy light, whirled at him.
Qin Lie did not dodge. Waving the wooden sculpture at the ball of ice, the tightly woven electric net formed by the wooden sculpture shrank.
Each strand of lightning joined into a single beam and transformed into a thunderbolt the size of an arm, and it abruptly collided with the ball of ice above.
“Boom!”
The ball of ice suddenly exploded as pieces of ice flew at all direction. The thunderous energy inside exploded, and the scalding thunder wave engulfed Qin Lie.
“Boom Boom Boom!”
The sounds of thunder resounded from Qin Lie’s body. It was the thunder’s explosive energy inside the ball of ice flowing out as the ball exploded.
If Gao Yu was the main attacker, even if he knew from that the ball of ice was special, the thunder energy would still blast into him after he cracked the icy thunder ball’s shell.
Gao Yu, who was in the same realm as Qin Lie, would definitely be hurt or even severely injured if that explosive thunder energy were to flow into his body. He would lose the ability to fight again.
However, Qin Lie had been cultivating the power of thunder and lightning for many years, and his body could withstand the invasion of thunder energy from the Ninth Heaven. His body had long been tempered to the peak of sturdiness, and he became a monster who could withstand being bombed with most types of thunder and lightning energy. That was why the explosive thunder energy could not even scratch him.
Quite the opposite, after the thunder exploded inside his body and the surges of slightly chilled thunder energy seeped in, it disappeared as he absorbed it all with his flesh and bones.
A refreshing and comfortable feeling invigorated him instead. He could obviously feel the increase of thunder energy inside his body.
He immediately realized that his judgment was correct. He was the best candidate to deal with this specific Ice Soul Python that would normally be deadly to the average martial practitioner!
“Fwoosh Fwoosh!”
Another icy thunder ball was blasted at his head. The Ice Soul Python gave a strange howl and actually looked to wrap Qin Lie with its pail-sized but nimbly twisting body.
“Gao Yu! Don’t let it wrap around me!” Qin Lie yelled out loudly as he withdrew, and with the wave of a hand, he had formed yet another lightning and stabbed the icy thunder ball with immaculate accuracy.
When the icy thunder ball exploded, he immediately stopped retreating; instead, he moved forward to take on the second wave of thunder.
Explosions of thunder energy were accompanied by the booms of thunder. Rampant thunder energy surged into his body before it vanished in silence along with the extinguishing sound of thunder.
“Thunder and lightning. They may often be mentioned together, but they are in fact two different kinds of energy. Thunder is explosive sound, whereas lightning is a blaze of beams of electricity. The two energies are actually different, but they are often added to each other and can be found deep inside the nine heavens. When I cultivated Heavenly Thunder Eradication in the past, I have attracted more lightning than thunder energy, so my body’s ability to accommodate the violent energy of thunder seemed to be slightly lacking…”
Sensing the power of thunder inside his body, he came to a careful understanding as his recognition of Heavenly Thunder Eradication became clearer and clearer.
Heavenly Thunder Eradication cultivated both thunder and lightning, combining the two most dominating and violent energies in the world into one. With lightning complementing the power of thunder and thunder complementing the power of lightning, it blended both energies together to form a terrifyingly powerful attack.
However, his cultivation of Heavenly Thunder Eradication for the past few years was the result of the gathered energy during a lightning storm. They consisted of mostly lightning energy, and their thunder energy was obviously much weaker.
The strange formation inside Ling Town’s Herb Mountain could attract and gather lightning from the sky, then split and weaken it before conducting the energy into his body to temper his tendons, flesh, and blood.
The wild and explosive power of thunder would most likely cause a terrifying explosion the moment it landed, and this kind of power was… very hard to control and weaken.
Therefore, his cultivation of Heavenly Thunder Eradication was probably slanted towards the attraction and gathering of lightning energy and a lot less in regards to thunder.
Later on, when he detached himself from the shackles of Herb Mountain and went to train on his own inside the Arctic Mountain Range without relying on the strange formation inside Herb Mountain, his body was directly exposed to the sky and thus caused both thunder and lightning to fall on his body. That was how his body contained a portion of thunder energy.
However, compared to lightning energy, the thunder energy stored inside his body’s acupoints, tendons, and bones were far, far weaker.
This caused him to use mostly lightning to attack when he fought with other people because he didn’t have much thunder energy stored inside his body. This was also why his attacks were all comprised light blue lightning without the complementary violent and destructive power of thunder. Due to this factor, he was unable to unleash the true abilities of Heavenly Thunder Eradication.
“So that is how it is. I get it now.”
Another icy thunder ball exploded, and another wave of thunder energy flooded him. The rampant and explosive thunder sank into his body, entering his acupoints, tendons, and bones. He quietly felt for the changes inside his body and gradually came to an understanding; he understood how he could unleash the true power of Heavenly Thunder Eradication.
“Thunder and lightning. Thunder and lightning. Thunder, and lightning!” The palms on his two hands pressed together into one. Blazing lightning interconnected at the center of his palms, and sounds of violent thunder roared out from inside his hands.
“Thunder Lightning Ball!”
A faint blue electrical ball formed from lightning slowly appeared at the center of his palm. The outer shell of the ball sparked with lightning, and there was roaring thunder alongside it within.
The fist-sized Thunder Lightning Ball gradually came into form. The eye-piercing faint blue electrical light and explosive sounds of thunder sent shudders into people’s hearts.
Just like the icy thunder ball, its external shell was formed into a ball shape by lightning, and its interior contained the wild explosive energy of thunder!
“Boom!”
The Thunder Lightning Ball was thrown out. Quick as lightning like a bolt of electrical light, it instantly launched at the Ice Soul Python’s head. Immediately after, lightning shot out and thunder energy exploded outwards.
The head of the Ice Soul Python was blasted bloody by the explosive thunder energy, and a hole pooling with blood and brain matter suddenly appeared.
The Rank Two spirit beast was actually blown up in one shot after the Thunder Lightning Ball made direct contact with its head.