The Great Ruler Chapter 437-442

Chapter 437 – Gate of the Northern Heavens

"Special training?"

Mu Chen stared in shock towards the Northern Sea Dragon. Spotting the arc of the latter's mouth showing the shadow of a smile, a faint chill shook through his heart, while a reassuring feeling rose within him. Nevertheless, with a dry laugh, he replied, "That isn't too good. Doesn't our Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy pay particular attention on being equal in treatment? If you give me preferential treatment, won't it be too inappropriate?"

Hearing that, the Northern Sea Dragon rolled his eyes before snappily replying, "That's because your strength is considered the weakest amongst your group. Due to the Eighth Ranked Convergent Spiritual Array outside of the Gate of the Northern Heavens, you'll gain a pretty good result in your training and cultivation if you enter there. However, it's hard for you to push yourself to the maximum degree. Therefore, enough of this convenience and acting obedient. If not for your outstanding performance on the Divine Spiritual Mountain, I'd be too snappily care about you."

Hearing those words, everyone gave a smile. Patting Mu Chen's shoulder, Shen Cangsheng spoke out, "Since Northern Sea Great Sir sees that much in you, you should obediently undergo the special training, Mu Chen. However, after coming out of the Gate of the Northern Heavens half a year from now, if you trail behind us by too much, don't blame everyone for finding you to compare notes. I believe that they should have great anticipation in wanting to sending you flying with a kick."

At this moment, Li Xuantong, He Yao, Zhao Qingshan and the rest had already cast their gazes over, with slight anticipation brimming within their eyes. This made Mu Chen tug at the corners of his mouth. From the looks of it, his progress this year had been too fast, causing these fellows to remember it in their hearts

On the other hand, Su Xuan covered her smile with her hand, a smile that was soul-stirring.

Giving a bitter laugh, Mu chen shook his head, ignoring them. Looking towards Luo Li, who was by his side, he spoke out with reluctance, "That means to say that I'll not be able to see you for half a year?"

Luo Li's lovable face immediately turned pinkish in embarrassment, with her gaze turning soft due to Mu Chen's fond reluctance to leave. Holding his hand, she softly replied, "It's nothing. It's best that you properly train and cultivate for the next half a year. With me not around, you'll not get distracted. However, you cannot slack off. If not, you'll truly be tossed behind by us."

Hearing her reply, Mu Chen could only laugh in helplessness, though he truly felt some slight pressure. The Gate of the Northern Heavens seemed to be extremely beneficial towards training and cultivation.

"Okay, everyone should go back first to properly prepare to enter the Gate of the Northern Heavens tomorrow. Once you guys enter, the next time you will come out will be half a year from now," said Dean Tai Cang after waving his hand.

"Yes!"

Hearing that, everyone gave an immediate reply, before turning around and leaving.

Seeing the young men and women leaving from the hall, Dean Tai Cang exhaled in relief, before speaking out while sighing, "From the information we've gotten, amongst the five Great Academies, I'm afraid that the elite students of our academy is still at the last of the five. Next up, lets see what kind of improvement and progress these young fellows can achieve in the next half a year."

"Northern Sea, are you certain that you don't want Mu Chen to enter the Gate of the Northern Heavens?"

Nodding his head, the Northern Sea Dragon replied, "Although the Gate of the Northern Heavens contains vast and strong Spiritual Energy, it isn't especially suited for Mu Chen. I'll use the next half a year to let him undergo special training. It should be able to let him become stronger by a substantial margin."

"Then, I'll have to trouble you for this."

With the confirmation from the Northern Sea Dragon, Dean Tai Cang could feel at ease. For the next half a year, the elite students of the various Great Spiritual Academies would advance by leaps and bounds in their strength. This was an extremely special period of time. In fact, it would also change the internal elite student rankings in the various Great Spiritual Academies. Any academy that didn't follow this trend might be tossed far, far away by the rest.

He did not hope for Mu Chen to be dropped out from the team just like that.

The next day.

Before the giant hall, Dean Tai Cang looked towards Shen Cangsheng, Li Xuantong, Luo Li and the rest who had all arrived. Nodding his head, with a wave of his hand, he shot straight towards the deepest part of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.

Although Mu Chen wasn't going to enter the Gate of the Northern Heavens to train and cultivate, he had also followed along. One reason was to send Luo Li off, with the second reason due to him being rather interested in the Gate of the Northern Heavens.

The group of people rapidly shot over the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, entering the heavily guarded, deepest depths within a dozen minutes. Present before them was a stretch of verdant mountains and forests. However, the entire region was enveloped with dense Spiritual Fog. The Spiritual Aura present in this region was thick and strong to the point of being inconceivable. The fog had even condensed to form Spiritual Liquid droplets, fluttering within the region, while radiating with magnificent splendor.

When the Spiritual Fog of the region had grown to its extreme limit, Dean Tai Cang waved his hands, signalling for everyone to stop. With a wave of his sleeve, a spatial fluctuation rippled out, causing gales to whirl up across the region. In the next instant, the space before him unexpectedly started to rapidly warp and distort, with rays of brilliance radiating out from it. Faintly, one could discern a gigantic glowing array, approximately ten thousand metres large, taking form within the space.

Space continued to warp and distort within the gigantic glowing array. Within the glowing array was an independent space, with vast and ocean-like Spiritual Energy present within it, gushing out wave after wave. All of the Spiritual Aura present within the entire region of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy originated from here, supporting the students in their training and cultivation.

This was the origin of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.

"What a frightening Eighth Rank Convergent Spiritual Array."

Seeing this sight before him. Mu Chen gave a sigh in admiration. This Convergent Spiritual Array already had its own independent space. A Spiritual Array of this degree would absolutely require people whose attainments in Spiritual Arrays had reached Grandmaster realm to be able to arrange it! With a changing of hand seals, rays of brilliance converged before the Eighth Ranked Spiritual Array. In the next instant, one could faintly discern a giant bronze door approximately a hundred metres tall appearing within. The giant door was shut tight, with its surface being covered to the brim in mysterious runic patterns that appeared to be some kind of seal that completely isolated the vast and boundless Spiritual Energy before leaving this independent space.

"That's the Gate of the Northern Heavens?" asked Shen Cangsheng and the others as they cast their scorching gazes towards the giant bronze door, eager to hop in and try it out.

With a flick of his finger, a ray of light shot out from Dean Tai Cang towards the giant bronze door. As it struck, the mysterious runic patterns on its surface started to glow bright, with rays of light extending out, covering the entire giant door.

Creak.

When those runic patterns completely lit up, a heavy sound finally rang out from the tightly shut giant bronze door as it slowly started to creep open.

Rays of brilliance rushed towards the sky.

Following its opening, vast, majestic Spiritual Aura covered the earth and hid the skies as it swept out. This Spiritual Aura was too vast and boundless, causing it to actually transform into a tornado, wreaking havoc as it crazily spun around. As the Spiritual Aura perfused out, it blanketed the entire Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy at extremely rapid speeds, instantly causing a tremble that shook the minds of countless students. The Spiritual Aura present in the sky was numerous times more vast and stronger then usual.

"Hallmaster Mo You and Elder Zhu Tian will accompany you guys into the Gate of the Northern Heavens. If anything happens, they bring you all out immediately," said Dean Tai Cang with a stern gaze. "Within the Gate of the Northern Heavens, the Spiritual Energy present there is overly vast and boundless. Just some slight commotion will be enough to cause a major upheaval of the environment. Therefore, you guys definitely have to be careful and vigilant."

"Yes!"

Shen Cangsheng and the rest immediately respectfully replied.

"If you're prepared, head inside," said Dean Tai Cang after nodding his head.

"Let's go!"

Taking the lead, Shen Cangsheng shot over, heading towards the Gate of the Northern Heavens. Behind him, after taking a deep breath, Li Xuantong, Su Xuan, He Yao and the rest immediately followed suit.

Being the last, Luo Li looked towards Mu Chen standing beside her. With a faint smile, she said, "It's time for me to go in. In the next half-year, you have to properly train and cultivate under Senior Northern Sea."

Looking towards the young girl before him, great reluctance was still present in his heart. For the next half-year, he would not be able to see her. This was somewhat unbearable for him. However, the only thing he could do was to extend his arm and hug the little waist of the young girl, before giving a gentle kiss on her glistening forehead. "Be careful."

A pinkish shade appeared on Luo Li's lovable face, before she gave a nod. Pushing against Mu Chen's chest, she turned around, transforming into a graceful swan as she shot into the gigantic bronze door, her figure disappearing within in a blink of an eye.

Behind her, Hallmaster Mo You and Elder Zhu Tian followed suit and entered the giant bronze door. As everyone had completely disappeared within the Gate of the Northern Heavens, the giant bronze door started to slowly close, isolating that vast and endlessly terrifying Spiritual Energy into the independent space.

"Do you have some beef with that Saint Spiritual Academy's Ji Xuan?" Standing beside Mu Chen, a faint smile appeared on the face of the Northern Sea Dragon as he asked the former.

Slightly nodding his head, Mu Chen replied in a soft voice, "A death grudge."

"Then, I'll have to tell you this. That Ji Xuan isn't that easy to deal with. His performance in the Saint Spiritual Academy is not one bit inferior to you. Although you have defeated Mo Xingtian in the Divine Spiritual Mountain this time, according to the information we've received, two months ago, Ji Xuan left for an outbound mission and decimated an entire Sect by himself. Furthermore, there were three people in the Sect who had passed the First Little Disaster of the Three Sovereign Disasters," said the Northern Sea Dragon.

Hearing that, Mu Chen's eyes slightly contracted as he thought, He destroyed a Sect possessing three experts that had passed their Human Body Disaster? That kind of difficulty had even surpassed the difficulty of killing Mo Xingtian. Truly, Ji Xuan's a formidable opponent.

"The Saint Spiritual Academy has a Stand Spiritual Heaven, something that's similar to our Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy's Gate of the Northern Heavens. It's also a secret training ground for them. As of now, Ji Xuan has already entered it. Half a year from now, his strength would be even more formidable. At that time, if you only possess the strength you have now, it's best that you don't participate in the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament, since you will completely be unable to match up to him."

Hearing this, Mu Chen gave a faint laugh. Turning his head towards the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, he replied in a soft voice, "Senior Northern Sea. There's no need for you to say those words to stimulate me. During this half a year, I will accept whatever special training you throw at me. As long as you can bring it out, don't worry about me not being able to endure it. Regardless of how formidable a Ji Xuan is, I will deal with him in this Great Spiritual Academy Tournament."

The eyes of the Northern Sea Dragon faintly narrowed, while a smile surfaced on his withered face

"Good brat, nice guts!"

A smile also surfaced on Mu Chen's face as he raised his head. Looking towards the horizon, a chilling glint started to condense within his eyes.

Ji Xuan, let's have a good fight this time.

Chapter 438 – Special Training

On the second day after Luo Li and the rest had entered the Gate of the Northern Heavens to train and cultivate, under the guidance of the Northern Sea Dragon, Mu Chen headed to a place that wasn't foreign, yet made his scalp turn slightly numb. This place was the last level of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy's Lightning Territory.

Rumble!

The vast and boundless sea of lightning occupied the horizon within this black space. With a single look, one would not be able to see its end. As it churned and surged, gigantic angry dragon-like Divine Black Lightning would roar from the sea of lightning with astonishing claps of thunder that would cause even space to shake and tremble. The might of this region was extremely frightening.

Standing at the last level of the Lightning Territory, Mu Chen raised his head to look at the jet-black sea of lightning before him. Although he had entered it once before, looking at it still caused his heart to palpitate. The pure jet-black colour gave an extremely suppressed feeling to people who saw it, as if anything would be devoured upon entering it.

"Senior Northern Sea, how are we going to train?" Looking at the rivers of lightning descending from the middle of the sea of lightning, Mu Chen couldn't help smacking his lips, before cautiously speaking out.

The Northern Sea Dragon stroked his bald and hairless head, causing his appearance to look truly comical, appearing not one bit like the great academy protector of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. Shooting a glare at Mu Chen, he curled his lip up as he asked, "How's your training in your Thunder God Physique?"

"Diplo Rune Lightning Physique." Mu Chen honestly replied.

Hearing that, the eyebrows of the Northern Sea Dragon twitched before nodding his head in indifference while saying, "That's not bad. However, from now till the end of this period of time, you have to cultivate your Thunder God Physique to Quadra Rune Lightning Physique."

Hearing that, Mu Chen was instantly startled. Any body refinement Deity Tier Spiritual Art was already difficult to cultivate, with the Thunder God Physique being one of the most outstanding within the lot, which made cultivating it even more difficult. For the sake of obtaining his Diplo Rune Lightning Physique, he had spent god-knows how much blood and effort. Wanting to let it leap to a Quadra Rune lightning Physique, how difficult would that be?

"Next up, you'll enter there and cultivate for me, and you're not allowed to come out." The Northern Sea Dragon pointed towards the jet-black sea of lightning hovering across the space, before speaking with an indifferent tone, "In addition, you're not allowed to use the Divine Black Lightning Poison to mask your Spiritual Energy fluctuations."

Mu Chen was immediately startled by those words, while his scalp started to turn numb. Having tested it before, he knew about how terrifying that sea of lightning was. Previously, when he had entered, he had completely relied on the Divine Black Lightning Poison to mask his aura. Only by doing that was he able to stay safe without a hitch. However, now, the Northern Sea Dragon didn't allow him to mask his aura. Wouldn't that lead to the rampant attacks from countless Divine Black Lightning upon him entering?

Although his strength had grow quite a bit since then, compared to the frightening Divine Black Lightning, it still wasn't considered as anything. Furthermore, he could clearly remember that there was still a terrifying Lightning Spirit present within the sea of lightning, a frightening existence that even the Northern Sea Dragon found to be troublesome. What if that thing casually sends an attack at him. At that time, it might already be enough to turn him into ashes.

"There are countless strands of Divine Black Lightning energy within this sea of lightning, and there's nothing more suitable to temper your Thunder God Physique than that. Furthermore, the Divine Black Lightning also contains energies. As long as you're able to endure it, it will have great benefits to your cultivation, not being one bit weaker than cultivating in the Gate of the Northern Heavens."

The Northern Sea Dragon replied lazily, "Naturally, if you're afraid, we can choose a normal method. However, when the half-year training ends, when Shen Cangsheng, Li Xuantong and the rest come out, they would toss you very far behind."

Spurred by those words, Mu Chen laughed as he shook his head. Not planning to saying anything more, he nodded his head and replied, "Let's start, then."

"That's the way," replied the Northern Sea Dragon, nodding his head. "Don't be concerned about that Lightning Spirit. I've already sealed it up. It's up to you to toss around in the lightning sea, so long as you can endure it.

After muttering for a moment, the Northern Sea Dragon gave a clench of his withered hand, causing a black lightning light to condense within his palm. In the next instant, it transformed into a black jade slip sparkling with lightning light. With a flick, he sent it flying towards Mu Chen, which the latter hastily catching it. Looking over at it in doubt, he saw three ancient words condensed from the lightning present on the surface of the black slip.

Lightning Controlling Technique.

"Lightning Controlling Technique?"

Mu Chen blankly stared at it as he asked in doubt, "Is this an offensive Deity Tier Spiritual Art?"

"Deity Tier Spiritual Art?" Hearing that, the Northern Sea Dragon gave a sneer as he replied, "Dumb brat. This isn't any Deity Tier Spiritual Art, but a Divine Technique!"

"Divine Technique?"

Hearing that, a shock instantly shook through Mu Chen's mind. Within the heavens and earth, there were myriads of unpredictable things, with Deity Tier Spiritual Arts being one of them. As for the so-called 'Divine Techniques', they were incomparably mysterious and profound. It's said that there were various kinds mysterious energies in the heavens and earth. Once they were shaped and activated, they would erupt with extremely terrifying power. Those familiar skills that were able to do this were known as Divine Techniques.

However, Divine Techniques had extremely harsh conditions for cultivating in them, Furthermore, their memonics were extremely rare. They were things the would have considerable value, even in the eye of Sovereign realm experts. In the past, Mu Chen had only vaguely heard about them. However, he had yet to see any Divine Techniques first hand, with no such thing even being displayed in the Spiritual Values Hall. However, the thing before his eyes that was given to him by the Northern Sea Dragon was unexpected a Divine Technique!

"Generally speaking, Divine Techniques are things that only Sovereign realm experts are qualified to get their fingers on. However, this "Lightning Controlling Technique" has some origin with the Thunder God Physique you're cultivating. As long as you can sense the true meaning of lightning and thunder, you'll be able to successfully cultivate it. When you're against an enemy, with a thought, you will be able to attract lightning and thunder of extraordinary might." The Northern Sea Dragon slowly replied.

"Attract lightning and thunder?" Mu Chen's eyes were brimming with shock and admiration. This was a Divine Technique? It truly was formidable. There were some special Deity Tier Spiritual Arts that were also able to form lightning and thunder to attack one's enemies. However, Mu Chen knew that those kinds of lightning and thunder weren't pure, with most of them being formed from condensed Spiritual Energy. They weren't the pure lightning and thunder of the heavens and earth.

However, the so-called "Lightning Controlling Technique" was able to achieve this. From this point, this Divine Technique truly was much more mysterious and profound than the Deity Tier Spiritual Arts.

"It's extremely difficult to cultivate this Divine Technique. It's best that you properly comprehend it when you're cultivating within the sea of lightning," said the Northern Sea Dragon as he stuffed his hands into his sleeves, his lazy appearance showing not one sign of wanting to give a detailed explanation to Mu Chen.

Seeing this, Mu Chen could only nod his head in helplessness while he stored the "Lightning Controlling Technique". Raising his head up to look at the jet-black sea of lightning, he took a deep breath as his gaze started to slowly turn cold. Since he had decided to come here to accept the special training, he would naturally not retreat or back down. Wanting to obtain greater power would require a corresponding investment. Power that came with no effort wasn't something that Mu Chen liked, since that wasn't reliable.

"If you're truly unable to endure it within the sea of lightning, just take out the Lightning God's Lotus. It'll protect you." The Northern Sea Dragon slowly said.

"Yes."

Gently nodding his head, Mu Chen stomped his feet, shooting across the horizon like a peng. Boundless Spiritual Energy circulated and protected his body, with lightning light sparkling across his body. Clearly, even his Thunder God Physique had been activated. The sea of lightning before him was a place where death would occur nine out of ten times. Therefore, he could not help being careful and vigilant.

Bang!

Countless black lightning howled about within the edges of the sea of lightning, appearing as if they had detected Mu Chen's approach. Instantly, claps of thunder resounded, with bolts of lightning covering the earth and hiding the skies before striking the latter's body.

Chi! Chi!

Lightning arcs exploded across Mu Chen's body as the robes he was wearing instantly turned into ashes. Intense pain started to radiate across his entire body. Nevertheless, not a change happened to his expression; after all, he could be considered to have some few attainments in his Thunder God Physique, He was completely able to endure the Divine Black Lightning at the fringes.

Nevertheless, Mu Chen didn't have contempt or disdain for those bolts due to this, since he knew that the truly terrifying Divine Black Lightning was hidden within the sea of lightning. Compared to those, the Divine Black Lightning on the outside was not worth even a look.

Hu.

Mu Chen headed forward at an extremely fast speed, nearing the jet-black sea of lightning in the blink of an eye. Looking towards the heart-palpitating darkness present before him, Mu Chen deeply exhaled, before stomping the air. With a plop, his body rushed straight into the sea of lightning.

Chi!

Upon rushing in, Mu Chen could immediately feel the rampant lightning energies crazily gushing over. During the previous time he was here, he had relied on the Divine Black Lightning Poison to mask himself up, which caused the sea of lightning to not treat him as anything. However, after rushing in without any cover, he finally knew what extraordinary power this sea of lightning was hiding.

Boundless Spiritual Energy endlessly gushed out from Mu Chen's body, resisting against the corrosion of the lightning energies. After entering more than a thousand metres deep, he started to slow his speed down. Taking a seat, two lightning runes sparkled on his chest, while black lightning arcs jumped across the surface of his body.

Boundless Spiritual Energy flared and rose up around his body, forcing the black lightning liquid away from him, creating a metre wide space in his surroundings.

Sitting in there, he was able to see bolts of Divine Black Lightning appearing akin to giant dragons wriggling and squirming about within the jet-black depths of the sea of lightning, each of them discharging with frightening power.

"Time to start."

Mu Chen muttered, while a fierce shadow rushed forth within his black pupils. Now, everyone was making preparations for the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament half a year from now. Although he didn't enter the Gate of the Northern Heavens, he knew that training and cultivating within there would have considerable danger. Since everyone was risking their lives to train and cultivate, he should also put in effort here.

This half a year was where changes would be extremely huge. For the sake of the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament, the various Great Spiritual Academies would use various kinds of methods to increase the strength of their elite students. Half a year from now, everyone's strength would have improved by leaps and bounds. If he was still feeling immeasurably self-satisfied by defeating Mo Xingtian, he might turn all of the hope the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy had for him into froth and shadows.

Taking a deep breath, Mu Chen stared at those giant dragon-like bolts of Divine Black Lightning. In the next instant, a deep roar abruptly rang from his throat.

"Come! Let me see how frightening you all are!"

Bang!

Boundless and imposing Spiritual Energy explosively erupted from his body!

Rumble!

When his Spiritual Energy erupted, it had completely set off the sea of lightning. Rumbling sounds erupted from the giant bolts of Divine Black Lightning as they split apart the sea of lightning, before starting to furiously rumble towards this foreigner present here.

Chapter 439 – Bitter Cultivation

Rumble!

Frightening peals of thunder resounded within the jet-black sea of lightning as gigantic hundred-metre long bolts of Divine Black Lightning furiously shot over. As the lightning liquid flared up, a gigantic pathway was created within it. Like a fierce giant python, the bolt of Divine Black Lightning furiously struck against the insignificant body of the figure present within the sea of lightning.

Bang!

Lightning liquid in a hundred-metre radius around the figure was blown away, with the little figure sent flying back thousands of metres. Lightning arcs crazily danced around across his body, while a sweet taste appeared from his throat as a mouthful of blood uncontrollably spurted out, before being transformed into nihility by the lightning liquid.

Clutching his chest, Mu Chen's face had turned slightly pale, while faint and brief trembles shook throughout his body. Indescribably intense pain racked his insides, with his body appearing as if it wanted to fall apart, while his bones gave off the feeling as if they had been shattered.

This Divine Black Lightning was truly too frightening.

If not for his small attainments in his Lightning God's Physique, added with him having some slight resistance against the Divine Black Lightning, he might not have lived from that strike.

Mu Chen raised his trembling hand to wipe of the bloodstains at the corner of his mouth. However, before he could complete this action, peals of thunder resounded across the sea of lightning once again as another gigantic bolt of Divine Black Lightning shot over, striking his body at lightning speed.

Bang!

Yet again, he was sent flying thousands of metres back, the bloodstains at the corner of his mouth growing increasingly thick.

There were too many bolts of Divine Black Lightning within the sea of lightning. They came in succession, with seemingly no stop to them. Such a ferocious attack made people nearly unable to catch their breath.

Mu Chen's body was continuously sent flying back by the successive attacks. As this continued, a faint black shadow even appeared on his body as his skin had been scorched black. Furthermore, under the scorched skin, blood started to seep out from his pores. Clearly, his insides had been smashed into a pile of mess by the successive strikes from the Divine Black Lightning.

At this moment, Mu Chen could precisely understand exactly how frightening this special training was.

Under the successive strikes from the Divine Black Lightning, Mu Chen could even faintly sense the feeling of meeting with death. This special training should be ranked at the Hell-level…

The spectacle happening now was cruel. However, faced against the successive strikes and spurting mouthfuls and mouthfuls of blood, Mu Chen's eyes clearly started to slowly turn scarlet, while his breathing became labored. The intense pain racking his body had grown so much that it had turned slightly numb to him. An abnormally happy feeling brought about when the intense pain had reached its extreme limit started to rise, sliver by sliver, within him, causing his reasoning to quietly submerge.

In this world, if one wanted to obtain a more powerful strength, one would need to pay a price unimaginable to normal people. For the past year, Mu Chen's strength had advanced by leaps and bounds, with normal people only being able to observe his rapid advance. However, no one would have imagined that Mu Chen would have to pay such a price just to possess such rapidly advancing strength.

Time-after-time, he had crossed hands with opponents whose strength surpassed his. Time-after-time, his life had hovered at the gates of death. Due to having experienced time-after-time of fighting with all he had, he was able to walk all the way till now.

All of those bitter difficulties were smashed by him. How could this special training make him, Mu Chen, give up here?

Slivers of blood started to seep out from Mu Chen's eyes as he wiped away the bloodstains at the corners of his mouth. Looking at the gigantic bolts of Divine Black Lightning shooting over from the far distance, a howl rang out from his throat. On his body, the lightning runes sparkled as he unexpectedly took the initiative and rushed forward. Like a mayfly faced against a giant tree, he violently smashed against the Divine Black Lightning.

Bang!

A giant bang resounded as a stretch of lightning liquid swept out as Mu Chen's body was sent flying back once again.

On the outside of the sea of lightning, the Northern Sea Dragon stood with his hands behind his back. Looking at the figure of the youth being sent flying back and spurting blood time-after-time again, not a single trace of emotion was present on his ancient face. Nevertheless, slight fluctuations were present in his eyes. From him entering till now, Mu Chen had already endured 18 bolts of Divine Black Lightning. Even a person who had passed his Fleshly Body Tribulation would be in a considerable miserable state under attacks of such a degree. Despite that, this youth was still preservering on.

His perseverance and tenacity caused even the Northern Sea Dragon to slightly nod his head. Indeed, being able to distinguish himself in the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy in the past year, this Mu Chen truly has his redeeming qualities.

"What a young lunatic. My special training isn’t for you to lose your tiny life."

Upon seeing Mu Chen endure five more bolts of Divine Black Lightning, a helpless smile finally appeared on the face of the Northern Sea Dragon. At this time, the former was like an arrow at the end of its flight. If he continued to push himself on like this, something might really happen.

With a move of his body, the Northern Sea Dragon disappeared from the space he was standing on, appearing in the next moment in front of Mu Chen. With a wave of his sleeve, he smashed and dissipated the bolts of Divine Black Lightning that were hurtling over once again. With a smile, he spoke out, "You're able to endure over twenty bolts of Divine Black Lightning for your first time. That's not bad. Take out your Lightning God's Lotus and recuperate your injuries before continuing. This training isn't something you can accomplish just by concentrating and taking it head-on. You have to continue to become stronger under this tempering. That way, you will be able to endure the successive strikes."

Hearing that, Mu Chen gave a painful smile. Yet, such a minute action appeared to cause all the muscles in his body to tear, with his blood and flesh appearing to have been lit aflame. Nevertheless, he raised his fingers and summoned the Lightning God's Lotus, before slumping powerlessly on it, his chest heaving up and down. Clenching his teeth, he endured the intense pain racking within him and sat down. At this moment, his insides had been turned into a pile of mess by the strikes from the Divine Black Lightning, something that he needed to recover as quickly as possible.

Chi. Chi.

Black lightning arcs danced across the surface of Mu Chen's body as slivers of energy from the Divine Black Lightning continuously drilled into Mu Chen, tempering that broken body of his.

Although the intense pain was still radiating across his entire body, at this moment, Mu Chen could faintly discern that the flesh, bones and blood where the intense pain had radiated across appeared to have turned scorching hot, while a power started to slowly increase. Clearly, the previous bout of crazy attacks did not only bring him intense pain and injuries.

His body was slowly growing more tyrannical under the bout of crazy attacks.

Although the degree of increase was extremely small, Mu Chen believed that if this continued to accumulate, there would be a time when he would have a quantitative change to his body.

The long half-year training had just started now.

Sitting on the Lightning God's Lotus, Mu Chen opened his eyes approximately half an hour later. The scorched areas on his body peeled off, revealing fair, white skin beneath them. Merely, that white, fair skin wasn't frail and weak as it contained frightening power within.

Mu Chen cleaned away the bloodstains at the corner of his mouth. Although intense tearing pain still racked his insides, not a single tremble was visible on his face as he forcefully endured all of it.

Shaking and swaying, he stood up from the Lightning God's Lotus, unexpectedly wanting to have another bout with the Divine Black Lightning.

Looking at him, the Northern Sea Dragon frowned as he spoke out, "You brat, aren't you pushing yourself too hard? Your mother's not some simple person. Wouldn't she help you a bit at the very least? With her help, how would your accomplishments be this little?"

"Although my mum isn't simple, my dad is," replied Mu Chen in soft voice as he smiled.

Hearing that, the Northern Sea Dragon blankly stared at Mu Chen, before nodding his head and saying, "So it's like that. The status of your mum isn't a good thing for you."

He seemed to have understood something, since the gaze he sent towards Mu Chen now had an additional sigh within it. With the character of that clan, they might not be able to tolerate this little fellow. That's why his mother couldn't stay by his side…

"However, I've promised my dad that one day, I'll bring my mum back." Mu Chen spoke out in a slow manner.

Nodding his head, the Northern Sea Dragon replied, "As for this, someone as strong as your mother isn't able to accomplish it. If not, she wouldn't leave you two."

Raising his head, Mu Chen looked towards the jet-black sea of lightning, while a smile seemed to appear on his face.

"Since that's the case, I'll have to become stronger than my mum! Strong until I can statter the thing that is preventing us from coming together!"

Raising his head, Mu Chen spread his arms out and gave a hearty roar of laughter. In the next instant, with a move of his body, he shot straight out. As his laughter reverberated across the sea of lightning, Spiritual Energy erupted from his body. Instantly, the sea of lightning started to churn as bolts of Divine Black Lightning crazily hurtled towards him once again.

Looking at the tall and frail-looking figure of the youth in the far distance, a faint smile appeared on the face of the Northern Sea Dragon as he thought, This little fellow's ambition isn't low. However, that clan wasn't something that could be easily dealt with. Placed within the entire Great Thousand Worlds, they were considered to be big shot existences. Nevertheless, who would be able to understand the future achievements of the youth before him?

This was a hazy world, with the Spiritual Energy present within being boundless to a seemingly frightening degree. Converging in this world, the Spiritual Energy had formed an extremely terrifying pressure. Therefore, other than the mountains and hills present within this space, any other plants would grow to extremely short heights, yet were all excessively resilient.

The air present here appeared to be a hundred times heavier than what’s in the outside world.

Slow, heavy footsteps rang out from the distance in this quiet, Spiritual Energy filled world. Across the horizon, multiple figures were walking from the distance, pacing themselves as they walked, step-by-step, over from the distance.

It was a group of young men and women. At this time, they were tightly clenching their teeth, their bodies slightly stooped forward. The Spiritual Energy within their bodies was pressed down to a state akin to pools of stagnant water upon their arrival in this space, resulting in extremely slow circulations. Every step they took consumed massive amounts of strength.

The frightening pressure on them caused their bodies to weigh akin to a ton.

"This is the Gate of the Northern Heavens? The hell! I'm almost unable to endure this kind of torture!" A deathly pale shade covered Zhao Qingshan's face as he staggered and stumbled. Perspiration had already drenched his robes, with the aching pain radiating from his insides, causing him to be extremely tired and exhausted to the point of causing dizziness in his mind.

Although there weren't any frightening sneak attacks, continuing to walk on like that was sufficient to cause a person to collapse.

Ahead of him, Shen Cangsheng, Li Xuantong and the rest were also profusely perspiring, their lips parched and cracked. Upon entering the Gate of the Northern Heavens, they had walked on like this ever since. The quietness in this place made it appear akin to a dead realm. If not for them walking along the same path together, they might truly be unable to hold on any longer.

"Our half-year training has just begun." Li Xuantong's hoarse voice rang out, "Do you think it'll be easy to obtain strength and power? If you can't persevere, just break the jade slip, and Elder Zhu Tian and Hallmaster Mo You will bring you out."

Hearing that, Zhao Qingshan gave a bitter laugh before saying, "It isn't that I can't persevere, but can't we take a short break? If we continue on like this, I feel that my body will explode…"

Mu Fengyang and the rest shot a look at each other, before nodding their heads.

Both Shen Cangsheng and Li Xuantong had looked over, with their expressions showing one of slight hesitation.

However, while they were hesitating, a black-robed young girl following behind them had quietly walked passed them. Her jade-like hand holding her longsword, she walked, step-by-step, into the distance. At this moment, sweat had already flowed down her jade-like arm, completely drenching the longsword in her hand.

Seeing the side of the absolutely beautiful face, Li Xuantong could see the young girl clenching her teeth tightly, her gaze just like the stubborn and dedicated gaze she sent out years ago, causing people's hearts to stir.

"Let's go."

With a gentle sigh, he took heavy steps forward, following behind her.

Seeing this, Zhao Qingshan and the rest could only bitterly smile in helplessness. Even a girl could endure and persevere. If they stopped now, they would really lose too much face. Therefore, quietly howling in anguish in their hearts, the group of people continued to slowly tread on under the terrifying Spiritual Energy pressure pressing down on them.

Chapter 440 – Well-Prepared

In the space within the final level of the Lightning Territory, where it was dim and dark all year around, the black sea of lightning flowed down from the heavens as low claps of thunder endlessly reverberated within the entire space.

Within the endless sea of lightning, quietly sat a thin and frail-looking figure. Gigantic bolts of Divine Black Lightning howled endless around him, before violently descending towards his body. Under those frightening attacks, the figure intensely shook, while his skin seemed to turn scorched-black. However, compared the previous time, where he was miserably sent flying back, this was clearly much, much better.

Floating in the sky, the Northern Sea Dragon looked towards the spectacle happening within the sea of lightning, causing him to slightly nod his head. Over the past ten days of being struck by those rampant attacks, it was clear that Mu Chen was gradually adapting to his current situation. Although the pain racking his insides didn't lessen by much, he was finally able to endure and hold it back.

The Northern Sea Dragon was also able to sense that the skin below each scorched patch on Mu Chen's body had become slightly stronger than before.

Nevertheless, faced against such tempering by the Divine Black Lightning, he shouldn't be growing stronger by just this little bit. Every single bolt of Divine Black Lightning contained boundless energies of the Divine Black Lightning, as well as Spiritual Energy. However, not much of them were present on Mu Chen's body…this clearly didn't make much sense.

"Is that little fellow purposefully suppressing those energies within his body?"

Faint rays of brilliance flashed within the eyes of the Northern Sea Dragon as an amused expression appeared on his ancient face, before mumbling out, "Truly a fellow with extremely high perception. Is he planning to amass ample preparation before starting a spurting breakthrough?"

According to the calculations of the Northern Sea Dragon, Mu Chen should be slowly gaining strength under the constant tempering from the Divine Black Lightning. However, from the situation in front of his eyes, Mu Chen didn't choose to undergo this method. He had had absorbed all of those energies into his body and suppressed them together with all his might. When those energies were absorbed as they entered his body, they appeared unassuming. However, if they were condensed together to a certain degree, they would erupt like a ruptured dam, revealing considerably astonishing might.

The cultivation of the Lightning God Physique was considerably difficult, even if one possessed such a natural training ground like this sea of lightning. However, how could raising one's Diplo Rune Lightning Physique to a Quadra Rune Lightning Physique be anything easy? If one used the conventional method to do so, one wouldn't be able to reach such a stage even if one were to train for half a year.

It seemed that Mu Chen was also clear about this point. Therefore, he had opted for a different method, which was to prepare before shooting forward.

He suppressed all of those energies within his body like a teapot filled to the brim with boiling water, while tightly pressing the lid down, not letting any water rush out. However, he could only do so for a period of time, since it's not something that can be done for long. That's because once those energies were unable to be contained anymore, they would erupt with an extremely frightening rush.

Currently, Mu Chen was accumulating just for that kind of rush. Once it reached that stage, he might be able to rely on it to rush towards the heavens in a single leap.

Such an idea was extremely good, yet it required one to endure even more pain and suffering than usual. At this moment, it should feel like dynamite exploding within Mu Chen's body. Once he couldn't control it any longer, he would have to pay a considerably heavy price.

As he continued to see this spectacle, the Northern Sea Dragon gave a helpless smile. This little fellow truly doesn't let people to stop worrying about him. Looks like I'll have to start watching him more tightly. If something unexpected happens, he would be able to immediately take action.

Rumble.

Just as the Northern Sea Dragon was smiling from his helplessness, bolts of Divine Black Lightning continued to shoot around within the sea of lightning, covering the earth and hiding the skies as they endless struck down towards the lone figure present there.

The energies within his body started to slowly condense together under the rampant onslaught…

Time quietly elapsed by under this dull and bitter training.

During this period, the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy had sunk into a peculiar state of peace, with the elite influential figures in the top ten places of the Heavenly Rankings having disappeared due to closed training. After losing those influential figures, the entire spiritual academy appeared to be much quieter than usual.

Naturally, under this peace and tranquility was a tense and taut atmosphere, with quite a few students mustering their strength and undergoing training and cultivation. After all, the Great Spiritual Academy Competition was around the corner. Although they didn't have the qualifications to participate in it, everyone knew about some details of the current situation of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.

The results of their Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy weren't good in the past Great Spiritual Academy Tournament a few years ago. Within the five Great Academies, they had taken bottom place. Due to this, there were some elite Spiritual Academies that had been sending covetous gazes at them, attempting to replace them as one of the five Great Academies. Many of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy's students wouldn't remain in the academy for the rest of their lives. After training and cultivating over here, they would leave to either join a stronger place to continue their training and cultivation or to return to their families or clans.

However, even though that was the case, that didn't prevent them from have feelings for the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. Although there were innumerable Spiritual Academies present in the Great Thousand World now, not many would allow people to feel a sense of belonging like the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. Naturally, this was perhaps due to the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy possessing a rather good Dean. Dean Tai Cang's speech then had clearly moved the hearts of quite a few students.

A Dean that would have your back as long as you returned to the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, regardless of whatever happens. In the entirety of the Great Thousand World, this was still considered a rarity.

Therefore, everyone was clear that the elite influential figures at the top ten places within the Heavenly Rankings were undergoing bitter training and cultivation in preparation for the upcoming Great Spiritual Academy Tournament. Those ten were prepared to fight for the glory and honor of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. Therefore, they naturally could not fall behind those figures.

Perhaps due to discovering such an atmosphere within the Spiritual Academy, the higher-ups of the academy had actually sent word out that students who were able to break through to Heavenly Completion Stage would be able to obtain the qualifications to enter the Gates of the Northern Heavens. Once this news circulated around, it instantly caused the quiet Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy to flare up as the eyes of countless students who possessed pretty good talents became red. During this time, they continued to patronize the Lightning Territory and the various great convergent Spiritual Arrays, making every second count as they trained and cultivated in an attempt to allow themselves to break through to Heavenly Completion Stage so that they obtained the qualifications to enter the Gates of the Northern Heavens to train and cultivate.

Under this stimulation, everyone managed to obtain pretty good results, since the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy was not lacking in talent. There were some Seniors and quite a few students stuck at the Heavenly Transformation Stage that only needed to take one step forward to breakthrough to Heavenly Completion Stage. Therefore, within the short span of two months, among those outstanding students who had stayed stagnant over the past few years, some people had started to break through, causing the training atmosphere within the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy to dramatically increase…

While the atmosphere within the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy had turned fiery, the last level of the Lightning Territory was still as dim and dark, with peals of thunder continuously resounding out.

Mu Chen quietly sat within the sea of lightning, black lightning arcs crazily danced across the surface of his body as they endlessly drilled into his body through his pores. An indescribably rampant energy was faintly discernible as it radiated from him, causing the lightning liquid in his surroundings to continuously flare and surge.

Anyone present would be able to sense how gigantic the stockpile of energies were in Mu Chen's body.

Rumble!

Bolts of Divine Black Lightning still continued to howl within the sea of lightning, descending onto Mu Chen's body, causing the glow of lightning to erupt and blot the skies.

Faint shivers shook through Mu Chen's body as he crazily absorbed the energy of the Divine Black Lightning and the boundless Spiritual Energy that had intruded into his body. However, despite that, his forehead started to wrinkle up as the explosive feeling he was waiting for still did not arrive…

"It's still not enough."

With his hands behind his back, the Northern Sea Dragon looked towards Mu Chen, who was seemingly submerged in the glow of black lightning. At this moment, his forehead too was wrinkled up. Mu Chen had been in there for three whole months, yet the energies he had accumulated within his body had not reached the level required for him to break through in one shot. If he was to trigger their eruption now, both his individual strength and his Lightning God Physique would be promoted. However, it was clear that the promotion level wouldn't make him satisfied.

After the three months of adaptation within here, Mu Chen was starting to gain some resistance towards the Divine Black Lightning.

"Since its the case, I'll give you a more powerful one…" A smile surfaced on the ancient face of the Northern Sea Dragon. In the next instant, with a wave of his sleeve, deep roars seemed to ring out from the deepest part of the sea of lightning. As the lightning liquid rippled, a giant black dragon slowly surfaced from within the jet-black sea's depths.

Brimming with the glow of lightning from its gigantic body, a cold and ancient luster radiated from the surface of the giant dragon's body.

This giant black dragon was impressively the Lightning Spiritual that was present in the sea of lightning some time ago. However, at this very moment, it was sealed up by the Northern Sea Dragon. Therefore, there was some transformation of its shape due to the Northern Sea Dragon's intent.

Opening its eyes wide, the Lightning Spirit looked towards Mu Chen present within the sea of lightning. In the next instant, opening its fierce giant maw, a furious roar rang out from it.

Bang!

All of a sudden, a gigantic glowing pillar of lightning liquid shot out from the giant maw of the Lightning Spirit. Splitting the sea of lightning apart, it violently shot towards Mu Chen's body.

Chi! Chi!

Mu Chen intensely shuddered as the black lightning light crasily sparkled across his body. Tiny wounds actually started to appeared on the surface of his body, signs that he was unable to endure the pressure of keeping the gigantic energies inside of him.

However, despite that, Mu Chen still didn't plan on stopping. On the contrary, he continued to crazily absorb the boundless energies contained within the glowing pillar of lightning liquid. Now, if he suppressed the energies even more viciously, the eruption would be even more ferocious!

He had suppressed them for three whole months, and suffered a three whole months of torment and torture. Therefore, he didn't wish for any little thing to satisfy him.

As he stared at Mu Chen and noticed the blood patterns continuing to extend across his body, the face of the Northern Sea Dragon grew slightly solemn. The appetite of this brat truly isn't small. However, isn't he not scared that he'll get bloated to death like that?

Should I let him continue?

A frown appeared on the face of the Northern Sea Dragon, before he shook his head in helplessness. Leave it be. That brat isn't hot-headed or impulsive. Since he has such an appetite, he should also know the risks and dangers involved in doing so. Now, I should try my best to assist him.

Thinking till there, the Northern Sea Dragon no longer hesitated anymore. With a flick of his finger, the Lightning Spirit roared once more, causing lightning light containing boundless energies to howl out, instantly enveloping Mu Chen's body.

Chi. Chi.

Blood patterns rapidly extended out, causing Mu Chen to appear, from a distance, akin to a porcelain-made person that was able to break, a scene that would cause a person's heart to feel fear and apprehension.

Crack!

All of a sudden, a faint sound seemed to ring out, causing the eyes of the Northern Sea Dragon to furiously contract.

Chapter 411 – Quadra Rune Lightning Physique

Crack.

The breaking sounded so tiny it couldn't be heard, making it almost impossible to hear within this sea of lightning against the peals of thunder. However, despite that, when the sound quietly rang out, the face of the Northern Sea Dragon turned solemn, while his body seemed to have almost turned tense in an instant. Sending his gaze piercing through layer upon layer of the sea of lightning, he stared tightly at the thin and frail figure within.

Bang!

All of a sudden, boundless, rampant fluctuations erupted from that location as black rays of lightning brilliance unexpectedly started to radiate from the blood patterns on the youth covered in them. As they extended out, some abnormally tyrannical lightning and thunder fluctuations started to seep out from those blood patterns.

That seal of his appeared to be about to shatter.

Whoosh!

All of a sudden, at this moment, Mu Chen's eyes snapped open. Clapping his hands together to form some hand seals, a fierce roar akin to the clap of thunder rang out. The roar caused the lightning liquid in his surroundings to be driven back, creating a gigantic thousand metre large empty space with nothing being able to get close to Mu Chen.

Black lightning arcs crazily danced across his body before condensing together, forming something akin to a gigantic thunderstorm.

"Were the Divine Black Lightning energies accumulated within his body too powerful?"

The Northern Sea Dragon muttered and he tightly focused on everything happening before him. From the looks of the situation, Mu Chen appeared to already be unable to suppress the frightening energies he had accumulated within his body. If he continued to forcefully control them, he might risk blowing himself up.

At this moment, Mu Chen was clear about the situation within his body. Despite the dangerous position he was in, his face remained calm and serene. Rapidly changing his hand seals, black lightning light could be faintly seen gushing out from underneath his skin. Two lightning runes condensed on his chest, while a glow of lightning started to crackle as it too started to condense. This was the unexpected the sign of a formation of a lightning rune.

Clearly, Mu Chen was attempting to make a breakthrough now!

Crackle!

Increasingly rampant black lightning arcs continued to gush out from Mu Chen's body. From the distance, his entire body seemed to be encased by lightning arcs. As they crazily sparkled, they finally transformed into rays of lightning light, before drilling into making the third lighting rune on Mu Chen's chest.

As those energies from the Divine Black Lightning gushed in, the third lightning rune started to slowly take form.

As the lightning rune gradually took form, Mu Chen's skin also started to turn jet-black, giving him an ice-cold and solid feeling when looked at, as if there was nothing in this universe that was able to shatter it apart. An indescribable sense of tyranny.

At the same time, Mu Chen's body started to grow slightly taller.

The formation of the third lightning rune wasn't too difficult, since the energies of the Divine Black Lightning accumulated by Mu Chen over these past three whole months came into play. As the energies continued to endlessly gush out, it caused the lightning rune to appear increasingly vivid and lifelike, akin to a true rune formed by thunder and lightning.

This formation lasted for approximately a dozen minutes, before the last black lightning arc on the surface of his body disappeared.The third lightning rune on Mu Chen's chest had truly condensed and took form. At the instant of its formation, the blood patterns that covered Mu Chen's body disappeared, while dim rays of brilliance gushed out, and a incomparably tyrannical energy fluctuation radiated along with it.

Although Mu Chen was still quietly sitting there, not moving a single inch, he could already give people a feeling as if any movement from him could shatter the earth and rend the skies.

"Triple Rune Lightning Physique?" muttered the Northern Sea Dragon as his eyes slightly narrowed. Being able to have such an improvement after being in there for three months was in fact considered a pretty good result. He was slightly exaggerating when he had demanded for Mu Chen to reach a Quadra Rune Lightning Physique within this half-year; after all, he knew the difficulty required in training and cultivating the Lightning Physique. Cultivating a Body Refinement Art was, by itself, extremely difficult; let alone the Lightning God Physique, which was considered as a rather good Body Refinement Divine Art.

"Oh?"

However, just as the Northern Sea Dragon was quietly thinking, all of a sudden, he turned his gaze around and noticed that Mu Chen didn't show any signs of coming to a stop after the complete formation of his third lightning rune. The youth was tightly clenching his teeth. Due to the past three months of bitter training, a messy stubble had grown on his handsome face. Nevertheless, it caused him to appear exceedingly firm and determined. Clapping his hands together, his hand seals changed once more, unexpectedly continuing to display the mnemonic seal of the Lightning God Physique.

"Harrh!"

A low roar rang out of his mouth, once again, as the thunderstorm behind his back started to expand, enveloping his entire body within it. Gigantic rays of lightning light howled out, streaming endlessly as they smashed into Mu Chen's body.

Under the strikes from the lightning light, little bits of glowing lights actually started to condense above the third lightning rune on Mu Chen's chest!

He actually wanted to condense his fourth lightning rune with one spurt of energy!

"Indeed, he's banking on this idea, huh?" the Northern Sea Dragon muttered.

Rumble!

The black thunderstorm crazily revolve around Mu Chen's body, with the energies of the Divine Black Lightning endlessly spewing out from the sea of lightning, before finally rushing into Mu Chen's body. This torrential flow was considerably tyrannical. If not for Mu Chen having crazily endured all of the strikes from the Divine Black Lightning, he might not have dared to endure such a flow. However, even though that was the case, he felt that his body appeared to be dissolving apart as intense, searing-hot pain racked him, appearing to want to split his body into pieces.

However, at this moment, he could only clench his teeth and continue to endure.

More and more energies of the Divine Black Lightning howled over. However, despite that, the formation of the fourth lightning rune was clearly a hundred times more difficult than the third one. Even with those boundless energies of the Divine Black Lightning pouring into his body, it was only able to form less than half of that lightning rune. There was still quite a bit before its complete formation.

This ending caused a shadow of deep worry to flash within Mu Chen's eyes. He never imagineed that his three months of accumulation would still be unable to completely condense his fourth lightning rune. Indeed, this Lightning God Physique was extremely hard to train and cultivate.

"Truly such a reckless brat."

The Northern Sea Dragon shook his head in helplessness, before muttering, "When helping people, help to the end. Seeing that your mother had helped our Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, this old man will help you once more."

As his voice rang out, he gave a flick of his finger. All of a sudden, the Lightning Spirit at the depths of the sea of lightning roared out, as if it had heard some kind of order. However, despite that, it appeared extremely unwilling, resulting in it starting to struggle in an attempt to escape its controller.

"Hmph!"

A cold snort rang out from the Northern Sea Dragon. All of a sudden, black feathers started to grow out from the gigantic body of the Lightning Spirit. Drilling into its body, the black feathers appeared to take root in it body. As black rays of brilliance gushed from them, an earth shattering roar of fury rang out, one that sounded of extreme pain.

After struggling for quite a while, it finally started to gradually turn obedient. With a roar, a little ray of black lightning light flew out from its head. That little black lightning light looked like a drop of lightning liquid, yet it appeared as if there was a thunder and lightning world within it. As the lightning flashed and thunder clapped within it, it appeared extremely strange and peculiar.

Whoosh!

The drop of black lightning light liquid rapidly shot across the sea of lightning. Finally, piercing through the thunderstorm, it shot straight towards Mu Chen's forehead.

Instantly, Mu Chen's body turned stiff and rigid as rays of black lightning light exuded from his forehead at astonishing speed. In a blink of an eye, it had extended across his entire body. From afar, he appeared to have been encased in black vines, looking rather mysterious.

Bang! Bang!

All of a sudden, the surface of Mu Chen's body exploded apart as clumps of a blood mist rose up. At this moment, his face started to warp and distort, clearly indicative of the extreme pain and agony he was feeling now.

As the blood mist rose from the surface of his body, the lightning light that had covered his entire body started to crazily pull back towards the fourth lightning rune on his chest. That lightning light seemed to contain extremely astonishing energies of the Divine Black Lightning, causing the lightning rune that was having difficulty condensing to rapidly extend.

Mu Chen's body continued to explode apart, with more and more blood mists spraying out. Finally, they formed a thick layer of hardened blood, wrapping Mu Chen's body tightly within it.

After an unknown amount of time, the thunderstorm on the outside started to slowly dissipate away.

Mu Chen quietly sat within the sea of lightning, with the lightning liquid being unable to get close to a dozens metres from him. At this moment, his aura seemed to have turned exceedingly weak, with not a single activity being able to be detected from him.

With his hands on his back, the Northern Sea Dragon quietly watched the scene before him. Not showing any signs of taking action, he just stood in the air as he quietly waited.

This wait continued on for five days.

Within these five days, not only did the hardened blood that had encased Mu Chen not make any strange movement, not even a single movement could be detected from the body within. From the looks if it, it appeared as if he had lost all life and vitality.

However, despite that, the Northern Sea Dragon still didn't take action, while his eyelids droopily hung low. All of a sudden, his gaze moved.

Whoosh!

A piece of hardened blood had quietly slid off within the sea of lightning. Like a chain reaction, the pieces of hardened blood rapidly dropped off, quickly turning into dust and fluttering away.

As the hardened blood fell off, a tall and thin figure appeared. As the youth opened his eyes, black lightning light flashed within his black eyes, appearing abnormally fierce to the point that would cause people to not dare to look straight at him.

He slowly stood up, his black hair fluttering around. Lowering his head, he saw four lighting runes softly sparkling on his chest. The vivid and lifelike lightning runes were akin to the most beautiful lightning arcs in the universe, radiating with immeasurable energy within, as if they contained the prestige of the heavens and earth.

Four lightning runes.

Quadra Rune Lightning Physique!

Looking at the four lightning runes, Mu Chen slowly clenched his hands tightly, while the surging energies akin to a tsunami endlessly gushed out from his body. This was a sense of power he had never felt before. The current Mu Chen had absolute confidence that he would dare to fight head-on against an expert who had passed his Human Body Disaster just purely with this power!

This power would truly cause people to be too intoxicated.

Ah!

An arc curved upwards at the corner of Mu Chen's mouth. Finally, unable to hold it any longer, he opened his mouth wide, raised his head towards the sky and gave a long howl. His roar thundered out, causing huge waves that blotted the skies to form within the sea of lightning. As thunderous claps rampantly howled out, they condensed behind the youth. At this moment, he looked just like a god of lightning descending from the heavens!

After three months of bitter training, he had finally received his compensation!

Chapter 442 – First Stage

Rumble!

The black sea of lightning endlessly surged and churned, while claps of thunder resounded across the entire place, causing even the surrounding space to hum and vibrate.

Whoosh!

All of a sudden, the black sea of lighting split apart as a figure radiating with lighting light shot out, before coming to a hover above the sea of lightning. Gigantic bolts of Divine Black Lightning howled out, descending on the figure. Countless rays of lightning light shot out, yet the figure just stretches his hands out, appearing in an extremely intoxicated state.

After promoting his Lightning God Physique to Quadra Rune Lightning Physique, Mu Chen's resistance to the Divine Black Lightning was much stronger than before. No longer would he be struck into a considerably miserable state. In fact, when the rampant energies of the Divine Black Lighting had entered his body, they only brought about a slightly numb feeling, an extremely comfortable sensation.

Hu.

Lowering his hands, Mu Chen exhaled a clump of white mist, within which even sparkled with lightning light. A smile brimming with excitement was present on his face. Indeed, this Quadra Rune Lighting Physique is much, much more tyrannical than the Diplo Rune Lightning Physique.

Raising his head, he looked towards the Northern Sea Dragon in the distance, before shooting over with a move of his body.

Sweeping his gaze across Mu Chen's body, a satisfied smile appeared on the face of the Northern Sea Dragon. Raising one's Lightning God Physique from Diplo Rune to Quadra Rune in the span of three months. This was already a rather good speed of improvement.

"Thanks Senior Northern Sea." Mu Chen spoke out respectfully as he cupped his hands. He knew that the Northern Sea Dragon's help was essential for him to be able to have such an improvement. If not, he would need at least one more fold of time to be able to obtain similar results.

Waving his hands, the Northern Sea Dragon replied, "Since you're participating in the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament for our Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, I'll naturally help a bit to avoid losing face."

Speaking till here, he paused for a moment,shooting a look at Mu Chen, before continuing. "However, for the past three months, I can only help you promote your Lighting God's Physique to this level. It doesn't provide too much of a promotion to your Spiritual Energy cultivation."

Hearing that, Mu Chen nodded his head. During the last three months, he had primarily trained and cultivated his Lighting God's Physique. Although his Spiritual Energy had also increased, it wasn't at the astonishing rate of improvement as his Lighting God's Physique. Nevertheless, he was already extremely satisfied. After all, within the short span of three months, it was impossible for him to drastically improve in both aspects. He had to choose one of them to focus on.

"There's still three more months till the half-year mark. For the next three months, I'll do my utmost to train and cultivate my Spiritual Energy and raise my cultivation level," replied Mu Chen with a smile.

Hearing that, the Northern Sea Dragon nodded his head and said, "Okay. However, for the next three months, I'll not be guiding you anymore. You'll be changing places. For the next three months, you're belong to someone else."

"Someone else?" Mu Chen gawked.

"Your final three months will be guided by Elder Ling Xi. It'll be fine if you follow along with her. She said that if you follow her, she'll let your strength rise by leaps and bounds for the next three months."

With a mischievous laugh, the Northern Sea Dragon sent a grin toward Mu Chen while saying, "Training under her is always better than following this uninteresting old man, right? She's such a beautiful lady, and has an extremely good relationship with you. You have to seize this opportunity, okay? This is the very first time I've seen Ling Xi care so much about a male. Even in front of us, she always appeared cold and icy."

Hearing that, embarrassment filled Mu Chen's face. What kind of words are these…?

"Okay. Time for you to go. I've to close up for a while."

The Northern Sea Dragon placed his hands behind his back, while rays of brilliance seemed to circulate across his ancient face. At this moment, the incisiveness of his gaze was so sharp, it appeared to be able to pierce through space, giving people an indescribable feeling of tyranny.

Seeing this, a faint tremble shook through Mu Chen's heart as he probed. "Senior Northern Sea, are you going to break through?"

Clearly feeling extremely good, the Northern Sea Dragon grinned as he nodded his head. With a sigh, he replied, "I've already been stagnated in this realm for so many years. It's all thanks to you by helping me obtain that Lightning God's Pill. After preparing for half a year, it's time for me to try breaking through…"

Hearing that, Mu Chen smacked his lips. If the Northern Sea Dragon was to succeed in his breakthrough, he would become a genuine Earth Sovereign. Placed within the entire Great Thousand World, he would be considered a Regional Overlord. After all, even a power as strong as the Luo God Clan, their strongest expert, which was Luo Li's grandfather, Luo Tianshen, was only an Earth Sovereign. Being able to protect the Luo God Clan under the covetous glares coming from the other three Great God Clans, this showed exactly how powerful a person of this realm of strength possessed.

Although it was a only a fine distinction between a Ninth Grade Sovereign and an Earth Sovereign, the difference in strength was as different as sky and earth. If the Northern Sea Dragon possessed the strength of an Earth Sovereign in the past, even if one were to give the Demonic Dragon Palace the courage, they wouldn't dare to provoke the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. Even to so-called 'Immeasurable Old Ancestor', wouldn't dare to step foot into this Northern Heavens Continent.

"Then I'll first congrat Senior Northern Sea on your breakthrough here," said Mu Chen respectfully as he cupped his hands towards the Northern Sea Dragon.

With a smile, the Northern Sea Dragon nodded his head. With a wave of his sleeve, space started to warp and distort, before a pathway to the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy was torn open.

Seeing this, Mu Chen didn't hesitate anymore. Turning his body, he strode into the warped space. As the space chaotically fluctuated, his body completely disappeared within it.

Seeing that Mu Chen had disappeared, the face of the Northern Sea Dragon gradually grew solemn. With a clench of his hand, a smooth, round Lightning Pill appeared within. This pill possessed a jet-black splendor, with lightning covering its entirety, appearing as if it was developing into a lightning world, causing it to appear immeasurably mysterious.

Rumble!

As this Lightning God's Pill appeared, lightning instantly flashed and thunder clapped within the last level of the Lightning Territory as countless bolts of lightning shattered across the horizon, causing this dim and dark space to be lit up like daybreak.

Roar!

A roar rang out from the depths of the sea of lightning at the same time. The Lightning Spirit seemed to have discovered the Lightning God's Pill.

The Northern Sea Dragon shot an indifferent glare towards the depths of the sea of lightning, before retracting it back. Black halos of light started to ripple from his body. In the next instant, his body warped and distorted, rapidly expanding in size. In a short span of a few breaths, his body had transformed into an endlessly gigantic life form.

This life form's body was of a jet-black colour, and appeared like a fish, yet wasn't a fish, like a dragon, yet wasn't a dragon. It spread it's wings out, wings that looked akin to vertical clouds that seemingly covered half of the space.

As the Lighting God's Pill rushed towards the sky, the Northern Sea Dragon opened it's giant maw, akin to a whale sucking in water. As the Lightning God's Pill descended alongside the endless rampant lightning and thunder, it was completely engulfed up by the giant maw of the Northern Sea Dragon.

Bang! Bang!

As the Lightning God's Pill entered his body, with a jump, the gigantic body of the Northern Sea Dragon rushed into the depths of the sea of lightning. In the next instant, the entire space grew rampant as the sea of lighting surged and churned. Gigantic waves towering thousands and thousands of metres high swept up, appearing to want to destroy the entire space, their imposing might extremely terrifying.

An astonishing breakthrough was quietly fermenting within the depths of this sea of lightning.

After stepping into the spatial pathway, Mu Chen naturally wasn't privy to the astonishing commotion that had happened after he had left the Lightning Territory. Furthermore, even if he knew, he would be of no use at all. A breakthrough to that realm was completely dependent on oneself. Other than praying for good luck for the Northern Sea Dragon, there was nothing he could do.

In the air above the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, space started to warp and distort, before Mu Chen appeared from it. Looking across the azure horizon, he stared at the Spirit Beasts flying across the sky, before hearing the sounds of vitality ringing out from the entire Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy. At this moment, he could not help breath a sigh of relief. Every time he came out from the Lightning Territory, he always had a feeling of finally seeing the light.

That place gave people too much pressure when they were within it. Nevertheless, it had to be said that it truly was an absolutely fantastic training ground.

Hovering in the air, Mu Chen swept his gaze around. After slightly pondering, he shot straight towards the mountain peak, where Ling Xi was living. As of now, Luo Li and the rest were clearly still training and cultivating within the Gates of the Northern Heavens. Therefore, with no need to head back to the Freshman Region, it's best for him to seize every moment and find Ling Xi now.

After a couple of minutes, Mu Chen descended on the quiet mountain peak. This was where Ling Xi lived by herself. Not only did no student dare to come within its vicinity, it was also extremely rare for the higher-ups of the academy to come here; after all, they were all too clear about the icy-cold temperament of Ling Xi. The latter didn't even give much face to Dean Tai Cang, so what about them?

Even though this was the case, there was nothing they could say, since within the entire Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy, other than the Northern Sea Dragon and Dean Tai Cang, not even the five Heavenly Seated Elders were a match for Ling Xi. Therefore, she had such a transcendent capital.

After descending onto the mountain, Mu Chen quietly walked into the courtyard. Sweeping his gaze across, he spotted the white-robed female sitting before the bamboo house.

The female possessed a graceful, slender figure, her chest stood outstandingly under the cover of her white robes, her little waist thin and slender with a pair of artistic looking eyebrows. Despite this, however, her beautiful face had too much of an ice-cold expression on it. At this moment, one of her fair hands held the spine of an old book, while the other gently played with her long hair. This spectacle was akin to a scene of a painting, causing Mu Chen to turn slightly absent minded upon seeing it.

Who would have guessed that the person considered as the third strongest expert of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy would actually be such a beautiful young lady…

"What's the matter? Gaping in awe?" While Mu Chen was slightly absent minded, a clear, pleased voice rang out from before him, only for him to notice that Ling Xi had already retracted her gaze from the ancient book in her hand. Raising her lovable face up, she had sent a faint smile towards Mu Chen. At this moment, the ice-cold expression formerly present on her face had completely melted away, replaced by an arc that curled up at the corners of her lips, a scene that would cause the flowers to lose their colour.

Scratching his head, Mu Chen replied with a smile, "Elder Sister Ling Xi's really getting more and more beautiful."

"More beautiful than your little female friend?" asked Ling Xi teasingly.

With a mischievous laugh, Mu Chen walked over and said, "Sir Northern Sea said to allow Elder Sister Ling Xi guide my training and cultivation from here on."

Hearing that, Ling Xi gently nodded, before waving her hand towards Mu Chen to ask him to sit beside her. Placing her jade-like hand on her cheek, she started to quietly stare at the handsome face of Mu Chen.

Mu Chen turned slightly embarrassed by her stare, causing his gaze to wander away.

With a faint smile, Ling Xi shook her head, extending her ice-cold jade-like hands to rub his face. Over the past three months of focused training and cultivation, a stubble had grown on his face, causing the tender and immature appearance of the youth to disappear by quite a bit, replaced by the firm and persistent face of a true man.

Upon being touched by her ice-cold jade-like hand, Mu Chen was slightly startled, before his body turned stiff as he noticed a small sharp blade appearing between Ling Xi's slender fingertips.

"Elder Sister Ling Xi…"

However, not waiting for him to retreat back due to his conditioned reflex, Ling Xi had already moved closer. As her fragrance came buffeting over, faint fluctuations surfaced within her beautiful eyes. Streaking over, the sharp blade gently shaved off the messy stubble present on Mu Chen's face

Seeing this, Mu Chen gawked as he stared at the absolutely beautiful face just inches before him, before seeing the earnest expression on her face. At this moment, emotions gushed out from him. A Ling Xi like this was truly like an Elder Sister…

Chapter end