Muffled booms continued to ring out of John's meditation chamber for quite some time. A while later, the muffled booms subsided. John continued to sit there in a meditative position as a small smile broke out on his face.
"The Thundergrass Essence Pills did not let me down."
John's essence cultivation had successfully reached the late Qi Condensation realm. The Thundergrass Essence Pills were the best cultivation pills for Qi Condensation cultivators in the entire sect, and each had cost over seven thousand spirit crystals. John had been expecting much from them, and they did not let him down.
His divine sense pierced internally into his body to inspect his dantian and its changes. Whereas the Qi in his dantian in the mid Qi Condensation Realm was condensed into a honey-like viscosity, it was now so thick as to almost be a solid substance. It was brimming with much greater energy.
John carefully continued to inspect his dantian, and eventually noticed some signs of potential flaws if he continued on this quick cultivating path. When he was in the mid Qi Condensation realm, his honey-like dantian was completely pure and uniform, while now there were small signs of instabilities and impurities. However, taking time to focus on stabilizing his cultivation would remove these impurities before they became flaws.
"This is to be expected after breaking through so quickly. I'll focus on consolidating my foundation before I think about breaking through to the Core Formation realm."
After inspecting his dantian thoroughly, John stood up and walked out of the meditation chamber. Kirii was sleeping just outside of its entrance, clearly having worn itself out from all the running.
John bent down and pet Kirii for a moment before walking further into the battle area of the basement.
A scroll suddenly appeared in his hands, which was one of the scrolls Elder Ragur had given John for his missed classes.
"I didn't have time to go over this one yet, but now's a good time."
One of the classes John had missed was one that went over introductory lightning techniques. It was meant to introduce the youths to the process of using lightning Qi in attacks, as lightning Qi was quite destructive and hard to control, especially during Qi attacks.
Improper control could lead to self-harm, and so the class focused on the basics. However, John still did not have a proper lightning based attack, so he was willing to learn any attack at this moment, no matter how rudimentary.
"Lightning Finger, sounds quite simple," John commented as he continued to read the scroll.
The attack was one of the most simple attacks possible, which was just sending lightning Qi from the dantian through several main meridian pathways, reinforcing the Qi slightly, and finally sending the Qi through the finger acupoints to unleash a simple beam of lightning.
John read through the scroll completely and practiced several times before putting it away and raising his arm. His finger pointed outwards towards the far wall of the basement, and his mind focused on converting his Qi to lightning Qi and sending it in the manner depicted in the battle art.
Lightning Qi immediately surged out of John's essence dantian, surged through his meridians, and exploded out of his finger.
Bang!
A loud thunderclap sounded out as a destructive beam of lightning pierced directly towards the far wall.
Boom!
The lightning beam collided with the wall of the basement, and the formations of the basement lit up in full to neutralize the power of the attack. John stared at the wall in a slight daze, before he walked over to it to inspect it.
A trace of lightning continued to linger on the wall where the beam had landed, and John could notice that the wall had charred ever so slightly, even with the formations neutralizing power.
"That attack was far more powerful than what the scroll depicted," John mumbled out loud as he inspected the remnants of the attack.
The attack was supposed to be a simple one, incapable of doing much harm, but John was sure that even late Qi Condensation experts would not want to take this attack head on, at least not without resisting with their full force. Not only that, but there was a lingering aura of destruction where the lightning had struck.
"Isn't this a bit much?" John mumbled with a wry smile as he came to an understanding.
John had quickly put two and two together. His attack had been far more powerful for two reasons. The first was his Lightning Attribute Body, thanks to the Celestial Lightning Script. His lightning body gave him incredibly precise control over lightning Qi, and therefore none of the Qi was wasted throughout the attack process, unlike other cultivators.
The other part which helped was the Primordial Extermination Lightning cultivation technique. This cultivation technique had been given to him by Celestial Soulrend, and was an essence dantian cultivation technique.
The technique was quite amazing, as John could tell his essence cultivation had instantly increased in pace as soon as he had started using it. Not only that, but the technique also changed the very nature of the dantian itself, making it more attuned to lightning Qi, and John was finally able to see first hand how amazing it was.
Although he had noticed some slight changes to his essence dantian as he had used the Primordial Extermination Lightning technique to cultivate, he didn't know what the chances would be since he had never attacked with a lightning based battle art.
However, without him even thinking about it, his dantian had naturally infused a destructive and annihilative property to his lightning Qi, instantly changing it to something far more powerful than normal lightning.
With these two things combined, a simple training battle art had turned into something he could use in real battles. While it wasn't stronger than his Divine Reaping Scythe or Supreme Battle Art, it was something he could unleash almost instantly to catch his opponents off guard.
"With my cultivation advantages in lightning, I really need to learn higher level lightning battle arts. My combat prowess will skyrocket if I do so."
John's mind trailed towards his spirit crystal situation, and a thought crossed his mind.
"I never gave it much thought as I didn't have any money before, but I'm sure there are lightning battle arts to buy, just like I bought the pills."
Although he had spent nearly three hundred thousand spirit crystals so far with his generous gifts, as well as the pills he bought, John still had over four hundred thousand spirit crystals. This sum would be more than enough to purchase several lightning based battle arts.
While the Sect would teach him and the other youths more powerful battle arts as the classes progressed, that was too slow for John. The Sect eased the youths into the more powerful battle arts to get them accustomed to using lightning, but John had no such concern for caution with his unique situation.
"My battle with Russell is coming up soon, and I'm sure he's also made progress since the last time I saw him. I need to be as prepared as possible."
John had obtained the help of the Sect in regards to his clan's matters, but that was contingent on his talent. If he ended up being an average talent in the sect's eyes, they wouldn't see the benefit in stationing a Heaven Tribulation cultivator as a protector. As such, John wanted to maintain his status as the top first year Core Disciple without question.
John's scythe suddenly appeared in his hands.
"It feels quite a bit lighter than before. I'll be able to swing it with much greater force now."
After feeling the weight of the scythe for a bit, John focused his mind and raised the scythe above his head. It began to glow a brilliant red, and a moment later, the scythe sliced down in front of him. His face paled slightly from the Qi exertion.
Divine Reaping Scythe!
An incredibly sharp red scythe image flew out from John and towards the walls of the basement.
Che!
Instead of the loud boom given off by most attacks, a sharp piercing sound echoed out as the attack collided with the wall. The formation runes lit up once more, and began to neutralize the attack. However, the formation runes stayed lit much longer than before as it struggled against the attack.
Only several seconds later did the formation finally die down having finally neutralized the attack. However, John was able to see a faint line carved into the wall itself, showing that the formation had not completely neutralized the attack. A satisfied smile appeared on his face.
"It's at least twice as strong as before."
John put away his scythe, and pointed his finger outwards once more. He wanted to feel the thrill of utilizing a lightning attack again, as it was intoxicating the first time he used it. The rush of the rampaging lightning surging through his body and out towards his target made John feel completely alive, as if he was battling a beast internally the entire time.
Lightning Finger!
Having practiced the attack already, the Lightning Finger John produced this time around was even more powerful. It exploded against the wall once more, and after being neutralized by the formation, a small charred area remained visible
Lightning Finger!
Lightning Finger!
Lightning Finger!
John dashed all about the basement, simulating a battle while unleashing his attack. He wanted to be as familiar as possible when using this attack, as its simple but quick execution could help him in battle.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Loud booms continued to echo throughout the basement, causing quite a ruckus. The sound eventually woke Kirii from his deep slumber, and Kirii began to curiously watch John as he continued to attack with his lightning battle art.
While watching the lightning attacks, Kirii felt an innate longing towards the lightning, and an urge rise up within himself.
Lightning Finger!
John unleashed one final Lightning Finger, and it once again exploded outwards in an incredibly fast beam of lightning towards the wall. Suddenly, the amount of lightning in John's vision increased greatly, and a feeling of danger overwhelmed his senses.
BOOOOM!
The large basement suddenly shook violently, and a large explosion radiated outwards from the wall John had just struck. The runes on the basement walls lit up with full force in an attempt to neutralize the attack.
The force of the blast knocked him back quite a distance, and would have injured him if he had not had such a strong body. John landed on his feet and slid back quite a distance before coming to a stop.
"What just happened? I attacked the wall, when all of a sudden a beam of lightning even more powerful than my own appeared."
After a moment of thought, realization struck John.
"It couldn't be."
He quickly turned around, and noticed that Kirii was awake, standing just a few feet behind the spot where he had landed. Small flickers of lightning danced on the outside of the crystal located on Kirii's forehead, before it eventually faded away.
Kirii looked up at John with its innocent eyes, and quickly hopped up into his arms, snuggling deeply in his embrace.. John caught Kirii, and began to pet him before turning around once more. His eyes looked towards the site of the blast, and his eyes widened in surprise.
The basement wall now had a large hole in it, several yards wide and deep.