Gah!
John screamed out in pain and grit his teeth as the lightning that was striking his finger and exploding outwards was forcefully drawn into his body. John felt like his insides were set on fire, and that he was about to explode from within. Although he had only drawn a small portion of the lightning into his body, it was already more than he could handle.
However, he calmed his mind and started guiding the lightning according to the Celestial Lightning Script. Unbeknownst to him, the moment John started following the principles of the technique, the jade piece in his hand gave off a slight but profound aura, encapsulating him in the aura and ever so slightly changing the nature of the lightning within him. At first, John didn't know the technique would actually work, and it seemed like taming this wild and violent lightning was a futile effort, but he continued to follow the principles of the script.
With his divine sense, John could see his meridians, muscles, and even organs start to slowly and painfully char internally. Lightning continuously snaked throughout his body, and John felt like his teeth were about to shatter from how hard he was gritting them. The pain kept growing, causing John to feel as if he was on the verge of death, but his previous experiences with pain allowed him to hold on far longer than any other cultivator at his level would be able to.
After what felt like an eternity, John could no longer bear the pain and collapsed to the floor unconscious.
...
Some time later, John slowly opened his eyes and tried to sit up.
Ow!
'It feels like my entire body is on fire.' John slowly sat up and popped a healing pill into his mouth. The next few hours were spent focusing on healing, and he was surprised to find his body healing much faster than expected. The charred spots within his body slowly started to heal, and he was completely shocked to find that faint runes were left in the place of the charred flesh. The runes emanated a slight lightning aura.
"What are these runes?" John couldn't help but murmur out loud.
The Celestial Lightning Script did not mention anything about runes, and so John was completely befuddled as to what was going on. He inspected his entire body, and although most of his body was normal, around five percent of it had these runes etched into his meridians, muscles, organs, and even bones.
"Those are Lightning Origin Essence Runes..The Celestial Lightning Script is famous for many reasons, these runes included...but it's strange. From what I know, these specific runes should not appear in your body. Peculiar…"
The voice had suddenly spoken out at John's question, startling him slightly.
"Lightning Origin Essence Runes? What are those?" John asked.
The voice stayed quiet for some time before speaking out.
"I suppose I can explain this much. Attribute bodies contain essence runes. Almost all attribute body cultivators are born with essence runes naturally, and these runes allow cultivators to harness those specific powers with much greater power than normal cultivators. The more runes the body contains, the more powerful that cultivator will be. There are also different types of runes, each with their own profundity and levels of power."
The voice paused for a moment before continuing.
"The Celestial Lightning Script is famous for being one of the only arts that can forcefully create essence runes within the body. However, even then, I've never heard of…"
The voice trailed off, leaving John curious as to what it was about to say.
"Never heard of what?" asked John.
"Nothing. As I was saying, the Celestial Lightning Script is extremely powerful and profound. How did someone like you manage to obtain it?"
John was surprised by the sudden change, and decided to play the same game as the spirit.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that."
The artifact spirit was silent once more, and John felt quite refreshed refusing to answer in the same manner as the spirit.
"No matter. Although I can't be one hundred percent certain, I believe your situation is unique even amongst other Celestial Lightning Script cultivators. Perhaps...perhaps you may just be able to obtain the inheritance, but it will still be incredibly risky. I would still advise against it."
John listened to the voice in silence before turning back towards the trial line. He took a deep breath and extended his finger once more. Lightning crashed out of the round object and onto his finger, at which point it violently entered his body.
John grit his teeth in pain as he once again guided the lightning throughout his body, but was surprised to find that it was easier to do so than before. Although the pain was still great and the lightning struggled violently within him, he was able to guide it more efficiently. Every time the lightning passed by a rune, the rune would give off a slight fluctuation, calming the lightning ever so slightly.
The process continued for almost an hour before he forced himself to stop. Although he hadn't passed out like last time, his body was still quite badly damaged internally by the lightning. John popped another healing pill in his mouth and focused on recovering while he thought about the lightning trial.
Hours later, John sent his divine sense into his body and watched as more charred flesh peeled away to reveal lightning runes underneath.
'How profound.'
John was not sure how the Celestial Lightning Script etched essence runes into his body, but he could feel the effects it had on his body. Not only did the lightning do less and less damage as time went on, he could also feel a growing affinity to the lightning itself, as if it belonged to him.
He continued to repeat this process for the next two days, guiding lightning from his finger through his body, and then circulating it throughout according to the Celestial Lightning Script. At one point, John tried to guide the lightning by his own comprehensions to see what would happen, but he immediately coughed out blood and quickly went back to following the Script.
'I almost just died there. If I hadn't gone back to following the Celestial Lightning Script, I definitely would have. How dangerous.'
After two days of continuous cultivation, John felt as if he was reborn anew. Wherever he sent his divine sense into his body, John was able to see faint runes etched into his body. Almost twenty percent of his body now contained runes, and his control over the lightning within his body had improved several fold.
After careful inspection of his body, John looked up towards the pedestal holding the round object. He stared it at it for over an hour before finally making up his mind.
'Cultivation is about taking risks. If I play it safe whenever I face a dangerous opportunity, I can only resign myself to a life of mediocrity. And I would rather die than being mediocre. If my journey up to this point has shown me anything, it's that the mediocre can only resign themselves to the whims of the powerful. And I refuse to allow anyone but myself control my fate.'
John steeled his nerves and paused for a moment before taking a step forward towards the pedestal.