On a small hillside, Ling Feng stood alone atop the tallest tree, the tip of the spear in his hand, Canglong Yinyue, shimmering with a cold light.
Ling Feng looked up, facing raindrops the size of beans. The tree stood firm, but the rustling of its branches and leaves proved that a strong wind was blowing.
"Boom!"
Lightning flashed from the dark clouds every so often, followed by resounding thunder.
"Hoo... come at me!" With everything ready, Ling Feng took a deep breath, raised Canglong Miechen in his right hand, extended his left hand to the sky, gave a middle finger, and shouted loudly.
Shen He at the foot of the tree: ???
The storm clouds in the sky: ???
They were both stunned by Ling Feng's audacious act, directly challenging the heavens. Was he that arrogant?
"Be careful."
Shen He at the foot of the tree said worriedly.
"Don't worry, I have it under control."
Ling Feng nodded, indicating everything was in hand. He had the Star-Patterned Armor and the Feather of Revival as his trump cards.
The storm clouds were probably encountering such a brave human for the first time, not only unafraid but also provoking it.
If it could be tolerated, it would not be borne.
It was unclear whether this storm cloud truly had consciousness or if it was mere coincidence.
"Boom!"
With a flash of lightning, a lightning bolt as thick as a person, like a spear of the thunder god, hurtled towards Ling Feng with an unstoppable force of electricity.
The next moment.
A powerful current flowed down from the tip of Canglong Miechen and finally struck Ling Feng.
In the storm clouds' view, with this full-force strike, Ling Feng was certain to die. Not a demon god, not a powerful being, not even a possessor of a Vision of the Electro Archon. Would he not die?
However, the next second, it was dumbfounded.
The lightning, its full-force strike, slowly dissipated around Ling Feng as time passed. Ling Feng, far from showing any pain, instead looked as if he were enjoying it. There wasn't a single trace of injury on his body, as if the lightning was merely massaging him.
At the foot of the tree, Shen He saw that Ling Feng was unharmed, confirming he wasn't lying. Her tensed heart relaxed.
At the treetop, Ling Feng clenched his fist. The power of that strike was within his expectations.
With his body cultivation at the peak and having gained some resistance to lightning from the previous tribulation, ordinary lightning in nature could hardly harm him now.
The lightning's power struck down by the storm cloud was quickly absorbed and decomposed by the Thunder Forging Body Technique, nourishing his cells.
Of course, this didn't mean the storm cloud's lightning was weak. Compared to heavenly tribulations, which were a special kind of lightning, ordinary lightning truly paled in comparison to the formidable electrical power of a heavenly tribulation.
After all, before he transmigrated, people online had been struck by lightning several times and survived. It was even more so for him. However, there was one difference: the lightning that struck those people was as thick as a tree branch, while his was as thick as a person. They were on entirely different scales.
If the lightning that struck him were to strike that person, they would likely be reduced to nothing, not even ashes, and would simply vanish from existence.
"It's not enough, still a little short."
Ling Feng muttered softly. With that last strike, his body cultivation had one foot already in the Transcendent realm, but it still lacked a little to fully enter it.
Ling Feng's gaze fixed on the storm cloud, his Canglong Miechen held high, hoping the storm cloud would strike him again.
Perhaps fearing Ling Feng, the lightning indeed struck, but none of it hit Ling Feng. Instead, many places around him were struck.
No matter how Ling Feng provoked the storm cloud or raised Canglong Miechen in an attempt to attract lightning, none struck him. They all bypassed him, as if deliberately avoiding him.
By the time the storm cloud drifted overhead, not a single bolt of lightning had fallen on him.
"Damn it! You struck everywhere around me but not me. Come on, give me another one! I'm just a little short!" Ling Feng complained.
Ling Feng leaped down from the treetop, landing gently on the ground. He looked at Shen He and said with some urgency, "Senior Sister, wait for me here. I'll be back soon. I finally encountered a stormy day with thunder, how can I let it get away!"
With that, Ling Feng darted out, chasing after the storm cloud. No matter what, he had to break through to the Transcendent realm today. If he had iron on him, he would definitely forge a lightning rod.
Seeing Ling Feng chasing from below, whether it was blown by the wind or truly evading him, the storm cloud sped up, infuriating Ling Feng.
He no longer held back. He unleashed Canglong Yinyue, used the Carefree Sword Control Art, and soared into the sky. He caught up and directly plunged into the storm cloud.
Since you won't strike me.
Fine!
I'll take it by force, I'm telling you.
Five minutes later~
Ling Feng: ٩(*´◒`*)۶
Ling Feng, satisfied, flew out of the storm cloud, returned to Shen He by sword, and continued their journey to their destination, Wangshu Inn.
The storm cloud, on the other hand, did not strike any more lightning for a full ten minutes, as if all the electrical power within it had been drained. (ot-t)尸
On the way, Ling Feng was testing the toughness of his Transcendent realm physique.
He first used the Wufeng Sword to slash his arm with full force. The result was only a slightly reddened thin gash, without even breaking the skin.
He then tried out several weapons such as the Tiger-Fish Blade, Canglong Miechen, and Canglong Yinyue. The final test results were also obtained.
Only weapons of three-star quality or higher could leave wounds on him, marking him as having achieved a preliminary level of invulnerability to blades and spears.
His strength had also increased slightly. Currently, in terms of pure strength, he could lift stones weighing over ten tons.
Of course, this was based on his pure body cultivation. If he cultivated both body and strength, his strength would be even greater. His current physical strength was somewhere between that of a Qi Refiner and a Body Cultivator.
Compared to Shen He, who purely cultivated strength, his strength was still weaker than hers at the moment, but surpassing her was only a matter of time.
However, all he wanted now was to win a game of arm wrestling against Shen He. After his last tribulation, he had once again asked Shen He for an arm-wrestling match, and the result was, as expected, another defeat. It had become his obsession to finally win against Shen He in an arm-wrestling match.
...
The border area between Dihua Marsh and Guoli Plains, where Wangshu Inn was located, was bustling with many carriages. Unlike in the game, where it was empty and quiet, in reality, the shouts of merchants selling their wares were incessant. Stalls lined both sides of the road, selling various goods, some from Liyue, some from Mondstadt, and some from other nations.
If Stone Gate was the true border connecting Liyue and Mondstadt, then this area was the important junction for merchants from Liyue and Mondstadt, as a large volume of goods had to pass through here for transportation between the two regions.