After leaving the cultivation room, the only thing Xiang Shaoyun could do was return to his room and start recovering from energy exhaustion. Although he had the lightning bone that could generate innate purple lightning for him, he had transferred an excessive amount of innate purple lightning essence to Zi Changhe. It was completely different from regular innate purple lightning exhaustions during battle.
After refining the 49 strands of innate purple lightning from Xiang Shaoyun, Zi Changhe would be able to unleash part of the innate purple lightning's power in the future as well. Even though it wouldn’t be comparable to the pure innate purple lightning Xiang Shaoyun had, his new lightning power would still be much stronger than his original lightning power.
From the benefit Zi Changhe stood to gain, the massive toll the energy transfer took on Xiang Shaoyun was understandable. Currently, Xiang Shaoyun could feel that his lightning bone was completely empty, and a large amount of energy was required to satiate its hunger.
But even after refining a large amount of spirit crystals, the lightning bone was still not satisfied. It was as if the bone had no interest in the energy within spirit crystals.
Looks like I need to absorb some natural lightning, Xiang Shaoyun told himself.
Since there was no way he could quickly replenish the energy of his lightning bone, he called Long Hui over. Nowadays, Long Hui was acting as Xiang Shaoyun's butler. If news of this spread, it would cause a massive uproar.
"Long Hui, has Xie Sanqian sent the 10,000 mid-grade spirit crystals over yet?" asked Xiang Shaoyun.
Long Hui replied respectfully, "Yes, two days ago. But since the young master was in seclusion, I did not disturb you with it."
"Good. Take the spirit crystals and buy some lightning elemental items for me," said Xiang Shaoyun.
Long Hui then left to carry out the order.
...
At the depths of the Hundred Beast Mountain Range, a group of extremely powerful individuals were in an intense battle with the local demonic beasts.
Rumble! Rumble!
World-shaking explosions erupted unendingly, collapsing numerous mountains and reducing many ancient trees to powder. The energy explosions were extremely terrifying, and not even Kings could create such explosions. These individuals were at least Emperor Realm cultivators.
"Damn it! Leave! We need to leave or we will all die!" shouted a person fearfully. He was mounted on a seven-tailed silver fox, swinging a saber repeatedly at the demonic beasts around him.
This was a group of experts that had arrived from a different province. As for the man on the seven-tailed silver fox, his name was Linggu Haonan. He was the leader of the group and was an extremely strong combatant.
As for why they were here instead of somewhere else searching for the person they were supposed to be hunting, that was because they had accidentally discovered the tracks of a top-tier beast, the white tiger.
Thus, they put their mission on hold and focused on taming the white tiger first. After all, they could sense that the white tiger they had discovered was only a Demon King. If they managed to capture the beast and train it into a top-tier white tiger, it would be an accomplishment worthy of pride. In comparison, accomplishing their mission of killing a cripple was a negligible feat.
But right as they were about to capture the white tiger, a large number of demonic beasts appeared to attack them. Even Demon Emperors had appeared, which made them realize that this mountain range was probably the territory of the white tigers. Moreover, they also realized that it was an ancient mountain range. There wouldn't be so many terrifying demonic beasts otherwise.
Leading his subordinates, Linggu Haonan carved a path of blood away from the demonic beasts. Many of them were killed during the escape. Tiger Emperors, lion Emperors, wolf Emperors, mutated three-eyed ape Emperors...all these powerful demonic beasts were working together to attack the group.
Inwardly, Linggu Haonan cursed, Good thing I escaped when I did. I can feel there are even more terrifying beasts deeper in the mountain range. If those beasts had been provoked as well, none of us would have been able to escape.
More than half of Linggu Haonan's group had been killed, and the survivors were forced to find a place somewhere hidden to recuperate. They no longer dared to try anything against the white tiger. The only thing they could do was report this to their sect when they returned. Their sect would have to send some powerful experts to come deal with this white tiger.
In the depths of the Hundred Beast Mountain Range, a sturdy and handsome young man was standing facing the wind on top of a mountain. He was dressed in a white pelt outfit that clearly showcased his finely-defined muscles.
Staring into the distance, he muttered, "I think I heard them mentioning boss's name. Are they here for my boss?"
After thinking about it for a bit, he called out, "Jin Wo, come."
At that command, a sturdy middle-aged man appeared noiselessly beside him. In a deferential manner, he said, "Jin Wo is here, your highness."
"Come on a trip with me. I need to look for my boss," said the young man.
The man called Jin Wo replied, "Your highness, the patriarch has commanded that you are not to leave so early."
"Bastard, not even you are listening to me anymore?" the young man turned around and bellowed.
Jin Wo trembled and quickly said, "Jin Wo dares not."
"Come with me, then," commanded the young man overbearingly.
Just as the young man was about to leave with Jin Wo, a few silhouettes appeared noiselessly before them and blocked their way.
"Prince, please do not make things difficult for us," said the newcomers deferentially.
"This is so infuriating. I'm going to look for the patriarch right this moment!" said the young man furiously.
With his current strength, he would not be able to leave with brute force. The only way he could leave was by the permission of the patriarch. No matter what, he did not wish to see harm come to his boss.
...
Within the Cloud Pavilion, Long Hui had just finished gathering some lightning elemental items for Xiang Shaoyun.
Looking at the lightning elemental spirit-grade medicines of pitiful quality, he was left speechless. He said, "Long Hui, is this all the Cloud Margin Pavilion has? Only the high-tier spirit medicine thunderbloom and the mid-tier spirit medicine lightning snake vine? You can't find anything with better quality?"
A guilty look covered Long Hui's face as he said, "Sorry, young master. We have a vice pavilion master called the Lightning King. He has been in seclusion trying to break through to the Emperor Realm for the past two years. Thus, many lightning elemental items have been sent directly to him. The rest were all shared between the various disciples cultivating the lightning power. Furthermore, lightning elemental herbs have always been rare. The pavilion never has much of them in stock."
Hearing that explanation, Xiang Shaoyun couldn't even bring himself to blame Long Hui.
"Fine. You may leave first. I will be in seclusion for a few days," said Xiang Shaoyun.
"Yes, young master," Long Hui answered.
After Long Hui left, Xiang Shaoyun entered his cultivation room. When he failed to sense any signs of breakthrough from Zi Changhe, he muttered, "Looks like senior brother has not finished refining the lightning power. Well, I will focus on entering the eighth-stage first then."
Thus, Xiang Shaoyun returned to his own room and swallowed the two stalks of spirit medicines to replenish some of his lightning energy. He also made use of the two herbs to try breaking through into the eighth stage.
While Xiang Shaoyun was in seclusion, someone came delivering him a challenge.