After a moment of thought, the sword spirit plucked Pengluo out from where it was swimming in the thunder pool.
"Lend me a hand. We'll join forces to bring the projection of the Nirvana Pagoda here."
Pengluo blinked in surprise, then muttered, "At most, I can only guarantee a tenfold acceleration in the flow of time, you know.
"And it drains quite a bit of mental energy..."
One sharp glance from the sword spirit was all it took to make Pengluo shiver from head to toe.
It hastily transformed into a streak of white light and merged into her body.
A divine sigil surfaced between her brows, forming an alluring crimson mark.
The sword spirit then formed hand seals with both hands, tearing through the void to physically drag over the projection of the Nirvana Pagoda!
At that very moment, everyone within the White Jade Tower sensed the shift in the flow of time.
The Nirvana Pagoda's spiritual light flickered, and time within accelerated drastically.
Ye Feng's eyes gleamed as he sent a low voice transmission to the others.
"No need to worry. It must be Big Brother drawing upon the power of the Nirvana Pagoda.
"Let us simply focus on our cultivation."
Out in the pitch-black void, a hundred-zhang-tall tower glowing with spiritual radiance stood erect in the center of the thunder pool.
The thunder pool, which spanned ten thousand zhang of the void, was encircled by the coiled form of a massive dragon.
Within the central tower, a white-robed youth sat with his eyes closed in deep cultivation.
Around him, vibrant auroras flashed ceaselessly, seven-colored mists churned, and thunder crackled and roared.
Waves of profoundly mysterious aura radiated outward from his body.
Sitting cross-legged in deep concentration at the heart of the thunder pool, Li Guanqi wore a peculiar smile on his face.
It was a calm, serene smile.
Li Guanqi felt as though he had transformed into a bolt of lightning, roaming freely through the thunder pool.
He sensed the condensation and gathering of these ancient bolts of thunder.
They seemed to have been born out of chaos itself.
Thunder was the majesty of heaven and earth—a breathtaking tapestry woven from both destruction and vitality.
*My spiritual root carries the fury of heaven. Only through cultivating until this day have I truly grasped the essence of thunder.*
Li Guanqi quietly observed every minute shift within the thunder.
At this moment, he was the thunder itself!
Cultivation was like swimming upstream against the current; every step required contending with unseen karmic hindrances.
Those possessing a lightning spiritual root would inevitably find their cultivation speed hampered in the later stages if their physical bodies were too frail.
The overbearing nature of thunder was something an ordinary cultivator's meridians simply could not endure.
It was like treading a tightrope woven of lightning, where the slightest misstep would reduce one to fine powder!
With this thought, Li Guanqi resolved to teach Li Congxin the body tempering technique of the Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art once he emerged from this secluded cultivation.
Otherwise, Li Congxin's future path of cultivation would prove exceptionally arduous.
In Li Guanqi's world, thunder shook the nine heavens, and lightning danced across the firmament!
Thunder held within it the power of pure yang at its most pristine.
At this moment, Li Guanqi finally touched the shackles of the laws of thunder!
Yet the instant his consciousness made contact with the laws—
*Pfft!*
Li Guanqi was jolted awake, hurled hundreds of zhang backward by an invisible force as though struck by a colossal blow!
Scorched black all over, a flicker of dread crossed Li Guanqi's eyes.
His face was slightly pale, his gaze trembling with lingering terror.
Just now... he had felt an unprecedented force of destruction!
That power had enveloped him like divine wrath descending from the heavens.
It felt as though prying any further would obliterate his divine soul entirely.
Li Guanqi slowly pushed himself up, calming his racing emotions. Licking the blood trickling from the corner of his lips, a frenzied glint gradually surfaced in his eyes.
"You won't let me look?
"Then I damn well will!"
*Whoosh!*
In a flash of lightning, Li Guanqi settled back into meditation at the center of the thunder pool.
This time, he pushed his internal technique to its absolute limits, frantically devouring and refining the surrounding liquid thunder essence.
Spiritual light flared between his brows as he plunged once more into the depths of enlightened cultivation!
His consciousness crossed the boundless, surging sea of thunder, arriving once more before that luminous barrier.
He thrust both hands violently into the barrier before him, straining with all his might to tear open the shackles!
"To conform is mortal; to rebel is immortal!
"I, Li Guanqi, have cultivated to this day to glimpse the Great Dao and ascend to its highest peak!
"A mere power of laws—what makes you think I wouldn't dare pry into it?!"
At that moment, fine cracks began to spread across the barrier of shackles before him.
In his conscious form, Li Guanqi's expression twisted into a ferocious scowl as he unleashed his absolute greatest power!
Gradually, the barrier in front of him began to splinter, the fissures widening bit by bit.
At the center of the thunder pool, the waters around Li Guanqi abruptly boiled into a frenzy!
Drawn by the shifting aura, the entire ten-thousand-zhang thunder pool surged violently.
Not only that, but the thunderous power within Li Guanqi's own body erupted without warning.
In an instant, a tempest raged through the void, and terrifying lightning swept outward across a hundred li!
This startled Jiuxiao so much that the dragon immediately flew out to the perimeter to act as Li Guanqi's guardian.
Reflected in Jiuxiao's enormous golden dragon eyes was the silhouette of Li Guanqi sitting cross-legged at the center, the dragon's gaze gleaming with sharp light.
At this moment, the space around Li Guanqi was saturated with chaotic energies of heaven and earth, interspersed even with traces of dread-inducing thunder!
Though these bolts appeared unremarkable, every single one possessed the power to punch through the void itself.
The sword spirit's eyes flickered, her hands clenching tightly beneath her long gown.
"He... he has touched the power of laws!
"What comes next is the most perilous part... I wonder if he can hold on!"
Matters unfolded just as the sword spirit had anticipated.
Li Guanqi's consciousness was currently facing an unprecedented crisis!
Under normal circumstances, a cultivator taking steady, grounded steps would have stopped the moment they touched the barrier of laws.
Yet what kind of person was Li Guanqi?
With his temperament, now that he had reached the barrier of laws, there was no chance he would give up here!
Even if failure awaited him, he would see it through to the end!
*Rumble!*
Ripples of dazzling lightning expanded outward in wild, rolling waves.
Space tore apart in an instant. High above the deserted sea of the Daochan Domain, the sky was violently split open by boundless thunder, forming a dense web of pitch-black fissures.
The cracks blanketed an area a hundred li across the ocean skies, each tear stretching thousands of zhang in length.
Beneath the firmament, the sea churned in violent waves. The storm clouds blotting out the sky sent countless sea beasts cowering in terror.
The sword spirit murmured, "Such an immense disturbance...
"It seems Guanqi's natural affinity for lightning is extraordinarily high!
"Yet... the stronger the affinity, the more perilous the trial he must face."
Behind the cracked barrier, Li Guanqi's consciousness stood in stunned silence.
A sea of thunder stretching endlessly beyond the horizon was surging straight toward him!
Every single bolt was comparable to a bolt of World Annihilation heavenly thunder!
And such lightning was boundless before him, rolling forward like an infinite, inexhaustible ocean.
Li Guanqi gritted his teeth and moved through the lightning with every ounce of strength he possessed.
Yet within just a single breath, several bolts struck him squarely!
Chapter 1274