Chapter 4714 — The Thunder and Lightning Legacy

This earth-shaking battle between supreme beings went on for no one knew how long, and no one knew who had ultimately emerged victorious. In any case, Wei Zhao would never learn the outcome, much less what had become of the giant electric eel. Halfway through the scene, the immense fragment of memory suddenly shattered, and the obsession that had been calling out to him vanished with it. In an instant, heaven and earth returned to peace.

"Hoo!" Wei Zhao let out a long breath of foul air and abruptly awoke from the memory. As he stared around in astonishment, cold sweat poured down him and lingering fear seized his heart. It felt just like waking from a nightmare.

Fortunately, he had witnessed the memory fragment as an outsider. Had he truly been there in person, the terrifying beings would not even have needed to act; the tangible pressure alone would have crushed him to pieces.

Wei Zhao instinctively glanced around, then suddenly froze. Only then did he realize that his body had somehow returned to normal. More than that, it had been reborn and transformed into something far stronger.

Curiously examining himself from head to toe, Wei Zhao discovered that the strength of his physical body had increased by at least a substantial margin. Even his meridians had become far more resilient, utterly incomparable to what they had been before. Such a tremendous improvement was certainly worth ten years of arduous cultivation. Yet that was not what shocked him most.

What truly left Wei Zhao stunned was the true energy surging through his meridians. It seemed to carry within it a trace of lightning.

"You were already a freak with five elemental and seven total attributes. Now you have become a freak with five elemental and eight total attributes. If the nature of your spiritual roots were ever measured, the whole world would be thrown into chaos," the old ghost sighed ruefully.

"You mean I have gained the thunder attribute?" Wei Zhao asked in astonishment, scarcely able to believe it. It seemed inconceivable, but at that very moment he could clearly and unmistakably feel the power of lightning within his true energy. There was no doubt about it.

Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. He possessed all five elemental spiritual-root attributes, while also carrying the two illusory attributes of ice and mist. Now he had acquired the exceedingly rare thunder attribute as well. Wei Zhao suddenly felt that he had made an enormous profit from this trial on West Island. Even if he failed to obtain the Thunder Mystic Vine afterward, this newly gained thunder attribute alone far outweighed every heavenly treasure. It was something one could never obtain simply by asking.

"That is right. It is all thanks to that barrage of lightning just now. It seems that great electric eel truly intended to pass its legacy on to you; it even flattened this obstacle for you. With your comprehension, cultivating its lightning techniques should not be too difficult," the old ghost cackled.

Wei Zhao's eyes lit up. He had long yearned for the giant electric eel's peerless lightning techniques. How could he possibly hold himself back after hearing this? He immediately began his first attempt. Leaving aside that world-destroying Heaven's Punishment technique, even the fleeting flash of a deep-purple electric arc would give him another formidable trump card.

Crackle, crackle! Although it was his first attempt, in only a brief moment he successfully gathered the lightning power coursing through his meridians. Electric arcs then flashed across his fingertips, growing denser and denser until they gradually covered his entire palm. From a distance, it looked as though he were wearing a glove made of lightning, giving him an intensely surreal, almost science-fictional appearance.

"Why is it blue?" Wei Zhao frowned at the electric arcs leaping across his palm. The giant electric eel's most ordinary arcs were deep purple, while its Heaven's Punishment killing technique was black outright. How had his own lightning ended up the ordinary color blue? Its intimidating presence had immediately fallen by ten levels.

"Heh heh!" At this, the old ghost burst into laughter. Had he possessed a physical body, he would probably have been rolling on the ground by now. Laughing so hard that he could barely catch his breath, he said, "You really are a riot! Lightning is that great electric eel's innate ability, and its cultivation realm is already above the Sea-Splitting stage. That is why it can produce deep-purple and even black electric arcs. And you, a mere human at the Nascent Soul stage, actually want to be just like it. Are you trying to be funny?"

After hearing the old ghost put it that way, Wei Zhao could not help blushing. He had indeed been indulging in a flight of fancy. The giant electric eel could use nothing more than a deep-purple electric arc to ambush and kill Sea-Splitting experts. With his present strength, trying to produce a killing technique of that caliber was indeed absurdly presumptuous.

For Wei Zhao, who had only just crossed the threshold, being able to wield the most basic blue electric arcs proficiently was already quite impressive. As for turning them deep purple, that meant increasing their power by at least ten thousand times. It was simply beyond the ability of someone at the Nascent Soul stage. Humans could not do it, and even spirit beasts gifted with the power of lightning had no hope of achieving it.

As for the black lightning that resembled Heaven's Punishment, until he reached the Sea-Splitting stage, it was something he could do no more than imagine. It was still far, far beyond his reach.

After briefly testing the power of the lightning in his hand, Wei Zhao found that it was more than enough to deal with ordinary people, but insufficient against high-level cultivators. It fell far, far short of what he had imagined: that he would be able to match the Five-Element Killing Aura from the very beginning.

Wei Zhao sighed softly. It seemed that he would have to cultivate diligently from now on. Otherwise, this lightning killing technique on which he placed such high hopes might eventually become nothing more than a burdensome ornament, and that would be a terrible waste of a heavenly gift.

After dismissing the electric arcs leaping across his palm, Wei Zhao finally had the chance to take a proper look around. Aside from being shrouded in blood-colored mist, Heavenly Dao Mountain was actually not particularly remarkable.

There was not a blade of grass or any other vegetation in sight. Only a vast expanse of pitted, uneven ground stretched before him, apparently bearing the traces left behind by that great battle in ancient times.

What surprised Wei Zhao, apart from the countless pits and hollows, was that many people were sitting cross-legged here. They all seemed to be immersed in some kind of realization, their faces variously startled, smiling, or furrowed with frowns. No two expressions were quite the same. The only thing they shared was that they appeared utterly lost in some sort of illusion, unable to free themselves. In all likelihood, they too had been drawn in by the lingering spiritual obsession of some powerful being, just as Wei Zhao had been.

Seeing the dense multitude of people, Wei Zhao initially assumed they were all trial participants who had arrived ahead of him. But after making a rough estimate of their number, he suddenly drew in a sharp breath. The number of people sitting here far exceeded the number who had taken part in this trial.

In other words, the overwhelming majority of these people had been sitting here for years, decades, or even centuries.