Chapter 38: Thunder-Net of the Dipper!

Yong'er looked up at the endless purple thunder filling the sky, a trace of fear flashing across her small face. Although she was capable of absorbing the power of heaven and earth for her own use, her spiritual energy was severely depleted right now, and all her divine abilities were lost. With the seven-colored divine light reduced to a flicker, how could she possibly withstand this righteous might of heaven?

"No, Brother Ni cannot be left to die!" Yang Nan gritted his teeth. Ni Cai had to be saved. Even though this genius of array formations was entirely obsessed with his craft, Yang Nan could never bring himself to stand idly by and watch him turn to ashes out of fear of the heavenly thunder!

Though they had not known each other for long, the two had hit it off immediately upon meeting. No matter what, Yang Nan could not simply watch Ni Cai perish!

"I'll just have to stake everything on this!" Stoking his magical power, Yang Nan spat out the spiritual pearl from his lower elemental aperture, transforming it into a green dragon around his body. The dragon and snake intertwined, rushing straight toward Ni Cai at the epicenter of the lightning!

Boom, boom, boom!

With every step Yang Nan swam forward, countless bolts of lightning crashed down. The heavenly thunder struck deep into his soul and divine consciousness, seemingly tearing his three souls and seven physical souls apart. His physical body, hidden within the black snake, was likewise baptized by the heavenly thunder. A bizarre phenomenon occurred: in a single instant, Yang Nan's flesh and soul were blasted into fragments by the lightning, only to instantly re-form inside the black snake's body!

With every single bolt of immensely powerful lightning that struck, Yang Nan's body and soul would scatter and then reassemble.

Had it not been for the protection of the black snake magical weapon, he would have utterly lacked the ability to gather his physical body and reunite his soul!

The moment the heavenly thunder shattered his body, the black snake magical weapon radiated a fierce aura, restoring its master's deeply hidden flesh and soul back to wholeness in the blink of an eye. Faced with the most unyielding and tyrannical lightning power in heaven and earth, Yang Nan was as helpless as a newborn infant, forced to rely entirely on the exceptionally resilient magical weapon to shield himself.

Yet, this bizarre ordeal made his suffering indescribable. Who could possibly endure the agony of being pulverized into dust only to be reassembled over and over again? And that for dozens, hundreds of times?

This torment defied description in human language. If one possessed anything less than supreme willpower, the slightest lapse in concentration would cause them to truly dissolve into dust!

The purple light was like a prison, and the black snake was like a thread, struggling desperately as it swam across the firmament. The spiritual energy contained within the black snake magical weapon grew weaker and weaker, causing Yang Nan's rate of reassembly to slow down correspondingly! If the magical weapon were to exhaust all its spiritual energy, Yang Nan would instantly be annihilated into ashes!

Boom, boom, boom! ! !

The void was boundless, and countless purple bolts of lightning and electric serpents intertwined tightly. Driving two types of magical power simultaneously, Yang Nan endured dozens of heavenly thunderbolts in a row as he forced his way into the web of thunder-fire and lightning. The green dragon spiritual pearl had been struck by the heavenly thunder until not a trace remained; Yang Nan's decade of painstaking cultivation in water-elemental Daoist arts was entirely washed away here!

The black snake magical weapon itself expanded violently, as though it were about to be burst apart by the forcefully channeled lightning. Struggling bitterly to maintain the form of his weapon, Yang Nan finally coiled his way to the heavenly multicolored boat. By this time, seventy or eighty percent of the thirty-six heavenly thunder arrays on the boat had been destroyed, the sarira pearls had long since been pounded into dust by the countless bolts of lightning, and the nine-element tortoise shell array had completely vanished into thin air!

Just as Ni Cai was sinking into despair, he suddenly saw a massive black snake at the edge of the horizon stretch out its tail to coil around the multicolored boat, shielding the vessel with its own body. Countless bolts of lightning struck the snake's body one after another, stripping away countless scales and exposing terrifying, bloody flesh.

The black snake was covered in wounds, seemingly struggling in its death throes, while Yang Nan, trapped within the snake's body, desperately maintained a single, lingering thought: I must rescue Ni Cai and get him out of here!

Overwhelmed with emotion, Ni Cai shouted at the top of his lungs, "Yang Nan, go! Leave me behind! If you get caught in this lightning web, both of us will perish!"

Yang Nan smiled bitterly in his heart. Even if he wanted to leave now, he couldn't. The terrifying lightning web had long since unleashed a boundless, irresistible suction force, trapping the black snake's body in a death grip. The green dragon pearl was utterly obliterated, the water-elemental power he had painstakingly cultivated was completely eroded away by the lightning, and the black snake's body could no longer hold out, beginning to disintegrate piece by piece!

Boom, boom, boom! ! !

Ten thousand bolts of lightning crashed down, and Yang Nan, still within the snake's body, realized that he could no longer piece his shattered flesh back together!

The very next moment would be Yang Nan's dying hour!

Clang...!!!

Yong'er leaped out of the small copper coin, her small hand waving as the seven-colored divine light formed a timely barrier against the myriad bolts of lightning. Countless heavenly thunderbolts still mercilessly slammed down, sending violent ripples through the seven-colored divine light. With a tense expression on her small face, Yong'er screamed, "Master, run! Jump out of the weapon's body and come into my coin world!"

The situation was critical, and Yong'er only knew how to loyally protect her master. Trapped deep within the lightning web with no escape, allowing Yang Nan to enter the coin world was the ultimate and only viable strategy!

Yang Nan gave a bitter smile. "Jump out of the weapon's body? Your seven-colored world can only accommodate spirits; wouldn't that make me a lonely wandering ghost?" Yang Nan had long since thoroughly explored Yong'er's coin world. While merging with the copper coin entirely was exceedingly difficult, projecting his spirit within it posed no problem at all!

However, to abandon his physical body and become a ghost, reduced to practicing ghostly cultivation from then on, watching a lifetime of arduous effort wash down the drain—how could he possibly bring himself to do that?

Yong'er's seven-colored divine light endured only a dozen or so bolts of lightning before beginning to shatter. Panicked, she screamed, "Master, hurry into the magical treasure! If you don't, your soul and body will be utterly destroyed!"

Lightning, the seven-colored divine light, and the radiance of the black snake intertwined around Yang Nan's repeatedly scattering and re-forming flesh like opposing armies locked in fierce combat. Yang Nan felt as though in one moment he had turned to ash, yet in the very next he still existed in reality!

As the three lights tangled around Yang Nan's body, a flicker of his spirit suddenly made him feel a faint, wispy surge of energy emanating from the small copper coin!

This power was as soft as silk and as clear as water, flowing slowly into his soul like an endless stream. Bolstered by this formidable aid, the undying ghostly wheel once again forcefully re-gathered Yang Nan's scattered soul!

Had he not long since viewed life and death with detachment and possessed superhuman willpower, the moment his concentration slipped, his physical body would have turned to smoke and vanished!

"Yang Nan, you should just listen to Yong'er!" Ni Cai said, consumed by immense self-reproach. "This is entirely my fault for being greedy for success and pushing too far, committing such a grave error. Now that the mistake is made, ten thousand deaths would not be enough to expiate my guilt!"

Boom, boom, boom! ! !

Another dozen or so bolts of heavenly thunder crashed down, destroying Yong'er's divine light into absolute nothingness in a single stroke!

Before Yong'er could even emit a groan, her divine light was severely damaged, and she retreated into the coin world to take refuge. Only by residing within the coin world could she guide her master's spirit inside!

"Ah-nan, we have shared this journey as friends. Who could have imagined we would die together like this..." Ni Cai felt a sharp pang in his heart, knowing that the next moment would mark their mutual doom. It mattered little if he died himself, but dragging a good friend like Yang Nan down with him was a sin he could never forgive!

"No! We have not reached the end yet! Let me try!" Raising his head, Yang Nan looked at the yin-corroding magical weapon, whose flesh was continually disintegrating and falling away. His eyes grew increasingly bright. Gathering his magical power in an instant, he forced his physical body back together. Within his upper elemental aperture, the undying ghostly wheel spun rapidly as he silently recalled those six grand characters he had strived to comprehend over the past few months!

An invisible figure seemed to stand in the sky, wielding a vermillion brush. With dots, horizontal strokes, downward sweeps, upward ticks, and hooks, he wrote out one colossal character after another. Those faint characters emerged from nothingness, growing from small to large until they filled the entire firmament in an instant!

Past, Present, Future!

The six god-given, miraculous giant characters were written out by Yang Nan from his upper elemental aperture. Like countless divine weapons soaring straight up into the firmament, they firmly blocked the sky above. The six phantom-like giant characters radiated a boundless, expansive aura, unexpectedly drawing all the heavenly thunder toward themselves in an instant!

"These six characters actually possess such an effect?" Just as Yang Nan was momentarily stunned, Ni Cai instantly understood and shouted, "Yang Nan, quickly retract the black snake avatar and enter the multicolored boat! These six strange characters have blocked the heavenly gang lightning web, let's flee for our lives!"

Yang Nan shook his head, a look of nascent realization dawning in his eyes. "There's no need to flee. I never imagined these six characters would possess such wondrous utility..."

Past, Present, Future! The six characters, manifested from Yang Nan's divine will, contained his various profound understandings of the immortal sage who had left them behind. These six characters were at once reminiscent of the myriad dao of the three lives and the soul of a physical weapon! After absorbing the lightning, they actually transformed from illusory to substantial, gradually turning into genuine, solid characters!

"This is the true Three-Element Divine Sword Grand Incantation! This is truly the spiritual will left behind by Patriarch Qingya!"

Yang Nan murmured softly, then suddenly drove his snake body to fly right into the center of the six characters, accepting the baptism of the heavenly thunder together with them. The majority of the heavenly thunder was blocked and absorbed by the heavenly canopy of the six characters, while the small fraction that broke through was absorbed by the multicolored boat, Yong'er, and Yang Nan.

As the heavenly thunder continued to pound down, the six characters separated stroke by stroke, resembling individual divine weapons that seemed capable of endlessly absorbing the power of heaven and earth without ever reaching saturation, continuously converting and assimilating the heavenly thunder.

Witnessing this strange spectacle, Yang Nan was overwhelmed with wild joy. The secret technique of the six characters, which he had spent months bitterly cultivating and comprehending, was indeed matchless in power. As long as they absorbed this endless heavenly thunder, this weapon soul would truly be perfected!

The yin-corroding magical weapon was already of a saintly grade. After its scales were stripped and its blood sprayed by the thunder's impact, the body of the weapon became even purer. The other half of the primordial crystal yin-spirit iron contained within the snake's body was refined alongside it by the heavenly thunder, causing this natal magical weapon to leap triumphantly into the middle saint grade!

Returning to the multicolored boat and expelling his magical power to temper the weapon's body, Yang Nan faintly sensed that his soul seemed to have lost a certain water-elemental power, yet gained a boundless, righteous force in its place!

Delighted, he inwardly inspected his nine apertures, only to find that his upper elemental aperture was crystal clear throughout, his lower elemental aperture remained stable in spiritual energy despite lacking its pearl, and a brand-new thunder pearl had formed within his middle elemental aperture!

This thunder pearl was supremely unyielding and yang-aligned. Every single shred of lightning power that had entered his body poured into the middle elemental aperture. Through this disaster, he had actually been blessed with good fortune, genuinely refining and opening a brand-new aperture!

"Misfortune is what fortune leans upon, and fortune is what misfortune hides within! It seems that saying is an absolute truth!" Having endured the bombardment of the heavenly thunder, Yang Nan's willpower became even more unyielding than before, and his Dao-heart made tremendous progress. Had he fled out of fear of the heavenly thunder, his realm would have remained stagnant forever; indeed, the outcome of this twist of fate was hard to predict.

Filled with purple light, the six characters of Past, Present, Future had reached their absolute limit in absorbing lightning power, yet the heavenly thunder continued to pound relentlessly. Knowing that if this went on any longer they truly wouldn't need to leave, Yang Nan urged Yong'er and Ni Cai, flying back from the edge of the firmament to the summit of Azure Underworld Mountain. The six characters, having been transformed from Yang Nan's vital essence, breath, and spirit, naturally followed his shadow and flew down right along with him.