The energies of innate purple lightning, white tiger vicious gold, and Yun Flame rippled out of Xiang Shaoyun, presenting a dazzling sight. Each was extremely unique and capable of unleashing a dreadful might. It was understandable why Xiang Shaoyun wasn't willing to give up on any of them.
More importantly, the three energies respectively occupied a star, taking up three of his stars in total, and they were now one with him. It would be very hard to get rid of any of them without destroying the star itself.
Devouring Ghost could sense Xiang Shaoyun's current situation, and the look in his eyes dimmed.
"Young master, if you knew it was wrong to cultivate so many different powers, why had you still decided to do it? You must know that although each of these unique powers are very good, in the long term, they will turn into your burden," Devouring Ghost sighed.
Xiang Shaoyun smiled. "Don't worry. I have my own considerations. Yes, cultivating three powers is a wrong path of cultivation. Therefore, I am going to cultivate nine powers, building a cultivation path unique to myself."
"But..." Devouring Ghost was at a loss for words.
"You want to say that nobody has ever succeeded, right?" Xiang Shaoyun asked. "Just because everyone has failed does not mean I will fail. No matter what, since I've already made my choice, I will do my best. Regardless of how difficult it will be, I won't fail."
Xiang Shaoyun was radiating complete confidence, showing no worry whatsoever about the path he had chosen. During his breakthrough into the Skysoar Realm, he had actually managed to attract nine different powers to him, which had further reaffirmed his belief that this was his destined path.
In fact, he was already capable of cultivating battle techniques of other elements, but he felt that without the support of a different element's unique power and a stable foundation for it, there was no point.
He refused to believe that after gathering six more unique powers in his six other stars, he wouldn't be able to break the shackle that had stopped the path of so many before him. This was in a sense one of Xiang Shaoyun's ambitions, and it was quite clear that to be able to come up with such a goal he was a person who thought uniquely.
One ought to know that each unique power in existence was extraordinary and rare. Getting even one of them was extremely hard and might result in death. Since Xiang Shaoyun dared to dream such an ambition, he was already prepared to die trying.
It was curious what Devouring Ghost would think if he knew what was in Xiang Shaoyun's mind. At present, he had nothing else to say when he saw Xiang Shaoyun's resoluteness. He went back to the original topic. "To cultivate a defensive battle technique, the fastest method is by getting attacked."
"Getting attacked?" Xiang Shaoyun asked in confusion.
"Yes, when under attack, you can only use your defensive battle technique to defend yourself. This will expedite your comprehension of the battle technique and increase your mastery of it. Of course, this is a rather risky solution, and there is a risk of leaving yourself a long-lasting injury," said Devouring Ghost.
"Ok, let's do it. I have already been tempered by natural lightning, so my physical flesh is much tougher than others'. I won't easily receive long-lasting injuries," said Xiang Shaoyun with a firm look in his eyes. "You will be attacking me. Restrain the strength of your attacks to the King Realm. That will work best."
"Me? That won’t be optimal. You should summon lightning bolts instead. You can temper your defensive technique at the same time as growing your lightning bone, killing two birds with one stone," suggested Devouring Ghost.
Xiang Shaoyun's eyes lit up as he slapped his forehead and said, "Yes, why have I not thought of that? Let me give it a try."
He was already a Skysoar Realm cultivator and already had basic mastery over the energy in his stars. Drawing lightning to him was nothing difficult for him now. He erupted the power of his first star and his lightning bone. Instantly, his body was flooded with lightning energy as a roaring purple dragon soared out of him into the sky above.
Without any hesitation, Xiang Shaoyun soared to the sky as well. With his own star, he established a connection with a star beyond the sky and roared, "Heed my call, natural lightning. Descend!"
He mustered all his mental power, his mind becoming one with his body as he formed a connection with the natural world. Wind blew madly around him. During the Transformation Realm, he had once drawn natural lightning from the sky with his saber. Now that he was a third-stage Skysoar Realm cultivator, he could easily repeat the feat. Sure enough, at his shout, the sky darkened as a bolt of lightning came shooting toward him.
Rumble!
Before Xiang Shaoyun could even circulate the Six Goldplate Manual's cultivation mantra, he was struck. He dropped from the sky and crashed into the ground, looking rather sorry.
Fortunately, he was someone who could survive even silver lightning bolts. A regular lightning bolt was not as powerful and could only cause minor injuries and damage his clothes. As a whole, he was still in good condition. The lightning bone within him absorbed all the lightning energy on his body, reducing the harm the lightning could do to him.
"Shit, that was fast," Xiang Shaoyun spat.
Once again, he did the same and connected his star with the star beyond the sky, summoning another bolt of lightning. Yet another bolt of lightning shot down from the sky. In a flash, it reached him.
This time, he was already prepared, yelling, "Six Goldplate Manual!"
He circulated the Six Goldplate Manual, drawing from the gold energy in his body. Instantly, the gold energy covered his body, forming a protective barrier around him. The defensive barrier was formed through a combination of his gold energy and king aura. Although he could only display a tiny bit of the Six Goldplate Manual's true power at the moment, the barrier still greatly boosted his defense, especially when compared to his defenses from when he was a Transformation Realm cultivator.
Bang!
The lightning struck Xiang Shaoyun's body, sending him slamming to the ground again. He stood up shortly after and grumbled, "This defensive technique does not seem to work? Let's give it another try."
Once again, he activated the Six Goldplate Manual and waited until he reached an optimal state before summoning another bolt of lightning. With a flash, he was struck mercilessly yet again.
Other ordinary Kings would find it hard to resist natural lightning bolts like this, yet here was Xiang Shaoyun, being struck head on again and again. In some way, this sight of his bitter cultivation was quite sorrowful to look at.
Not far away, Devouring Ghost stood silently. Inwardly, however, he was alarmed, The young master is summoning natural lightning way too easily! When he grows more and reaches the point when he can summon a large number of lightning bolts, who will be able to face him? That was how the previous master had obtained his freakish combat prowess that rendered him undefeated! Unfortunately, the young master has opted to cultivate nine different powers.
Xiang Shaoyun was not aware of Devouring Ghost's thoughts. Again and again, he summoned lightning bolts to strike him. And again and again, he activated his Six Goldplate Manual only to be destroyed by a strike of lightning. He was injured repeatedly, but his life was protected by the lightning bone, which was constantly absorbing all the lightning energy. His first star also benefited from the rain of lightning, and a certain mysterious power within his astral cosmos sea was hungrily absorbing the lightning energy.