When Li Yundong heard Zi Yuan’s words, a ripple ran through Li Yundong’s heart. However, he suppressed his excitement and asked, “Your Cultivation Quotient is about the same as mine. Why can’t you cultivate the Five Thunder Skill?”
With a smile on her face, Zi Yuan said, “Because I’m a woman with a five punctures body, and also a virgin!”
Li Yundong asked in confusion, “That has nothing to do with learning thunder magic. Ao Wushuang is a woman with a five punctures body. Why did I hear from Su Chan that Ao Wushuang knows the Five Thunder Skill?”
Zi Yuan explained with a smile, “It’s actually very simple. The ancients often said that thunder is male and electric, so we know that only men can use thunder and drive electricity.”
Li Yundong asked curiously, “Is there even any difference between thunder and electricity?”
Zi Yuan chuckled. “Of course there’s a difference! Electricity is the derivative of thunder, and thunder itself not only has the properties of electricity, but also an extremely strong destructive and explosive ability. Above the Five Thunders, there are also the Nine Thunders and Heavenly Thunders. When the Heavenly Thunders are rampant, the rivers and mountains will be blown to pieces, but electricity itself does not have such power. In other words, if you want to drive thunder, you need an extremely powerful Yang Qi as your backing and support. I am a woman with her maidenhood intact, and the Yuanyang in my body is only enough for me to cultivate Yang Spirit, not to drive the Five Thunders.
“As for Ao Wushuang, she once had an intimate relationship with my master. They exchanged Yin and Yang Qi, so Ao Wushuang had extremely powerful Yang Qi in her body and could use the Five Thunder Spell, but I couldn’t.”
Li Yundong suddenly understood. He nodded and blurted, “So if you find a man, you will be able to…”
After saying these few words, he realized that something was wrong. At the moment, Zi Yuan’s face had already turned beet red, and she stared at him with embarrassment and anger. “I’m being so kind by teaching you Magic and Cultivation, but you’re making fun of me?”
Li Yundong was used to seeing Zi Yuan’s usual nonchalance, so he was already accustomed to her beauty. At that moment, seeing that she was ashamed and angry, he actually found that she looked even more charming than usual, especially when he looked at her under the moonlight, its pearly rays tripling her beauty. For a moment, Li Yundong couldn’t help but feel his heart beating wildly. He coughed awkwardly and said with an embarrassed smile, “It was just a casual remark. Please don’t think too much.”
Zi Yuan could feel that her cheeks and ears were burning. She glanced at Li Yundong fiercely and said, “Hurry up with reciting the above words. We can cultivate slowly when we go back!”
Li Yundong laughed dryly and hurriedly lowered his head to read the Five Thunders Jade Book in his hand. But even after reading it for a while, Li Yundong still felt that his heart was in a mess and he could feel Zi Yuan’s sharp and ashamed gaze lingering on him.
Li Yundong simply recited the words on the Five Thunders Jade Book in order to still his mind. Holding the book in his hands, he read aloud, “Unity Qi and Spirit, come back to life, sit and sleep. If one raises his spirit, let him use it to practice their power. One can use his Zhen Qi and obey the principles of nature to create clouds, rain and thunder!”
Li Yundong read for a while and slowly calmed down. Gradually, his spirit and Qi became mixed, and he entered a state in which he forgot both himself and others. Every word he read came out of his mouth and became clearly imprinted in his mind. When he had finished reading, he sat cross-legged on the ground and fell into a deep meditative state.
Zi Yuan saw that he had begun to meditate on Tao. It was clear that he had had a brainwave while reading the book. Thus, Zi Yuan cast a protective spell on him.
After reading these manuals, Li Yundong had a preliminary understanding of thunder and electricity.
In this Five Thunders Jade Book, there was not only the original text, but also tiny notes scrawled all over the margins. One of the notes was particularly poignant to Li Yundong.
It read: “The cultivation of thunder magic focuses on the cultivation of Neidan, and also the cultivation of Neidan and the Tao which are its foundation. When Neidan and the Tao are made use of, all kinds of magical changes and mysterious skills will be formed. Once Neidan is made, the Qi will be full. This Qi is also known as the innate ancestor Qi or the Hunyuan Qi. Our Taoist said that the Qi becomes the Three Gods. The Qi is the Hunyuan Qi, and the Hunyuan Qi is the Tao. ‘Wang Shichen prayed for Baduanjin’ had a clear explanation of the thunder magic: When heaven and earth get this Qi, the world will be full of changes and human beings will be the spirit of all things. When they get this Qi, they will feel the heaven and earth, the ghosts and gods, and breathe in the thunder and rain.”
Just underneath this small comment, someone had written: “If a person can gather Qi of Five Elements into the Five Thunders, the thunder magic will be the innate Tao, and the Thunder God will be in my spirit. From this, it can be seen that a person can actually create thunder and electricity themself with the help of Qi of Five Elements and does not need to completely borrow Primordial Unity Qi from between heaven and earth!”
Thinking of this, Li Yundong gathered the Qi of Five Internal Organs in his Dantian, hoping to test the lightning produced by the Qi of Five Elements first.
With a stir of Li Yundong’s mind, the Qi of Five Internal Organs rushed out, like countless wild horses storming out of the gate, rushing towards the lower Dantian of his lower abdomen.
Generally speaking, when a cultivator practiced Qi, the Qi of their organs would pass through the Neidan and then quickly flow away, forming a continuous atmosphere akin to flowing water. Li Yundong transferred all of the Qi of Five Internal Organs to the lower Dantian of his abdomen so that there was no place for the five elements of the Qi of Five Internal Organs. All of them gathered together. The five elements of Qi of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth were surging and shaking each other.
Li Yundong suddenly felt like the Dantian in his lower abdomen had become a big drum, and the rumbling noises inside seemed to be the sounds of thunder and lightning brewing. An extremely powerful force was surging in his lower abdomen, and there was nowhere for it to safely dissipate.
Li Yundong had only been working on this for a short while before he felt that the power within him was getting stronger and stronger. Before long, he became unable to control himself and could feel a faint pain in his lower abdomen.
Li Yundong was shocked in his heart. He knew that ever since he had reached the Zhuji phase, his body had been hardened to the point where it was extremely tough. In particular, his internal organs were as hard as steel. Even if every single breath he took gathered together to attack every single internal organ in his body, it would not have caused him to feel such pain.
However, in less than a minute, his lower Dantian could no longer bear the force, and there was a sign that it was going to explode.
Li Yundong quickly controlled his Qi and directed it to the Dantian above his head. At the same time, the Baihui on his head opened, and an extremely powerful force instantly spurted out from his Baihui, making a loud noise reminiscent of a sudden clap of thunder.
At that moment, they were in the cave again. The loud noise was truly ear-splitting. Even Zi Yuan with her profound cultivation felt a sharp pain in her eardrums from the harsh sound and she could not help but frown.
Finally, Li Yundong woke up from his meditation. He said with lingering fear, “Amazing. Just now, my lower abdomen was almost blown up!”
Zi Yuan gawped at Li Yundong and said, “You haven’t yet learned to walk, but now you want to learn to run! You should slowly acclimate yourself to this power first, then gradually increase the strength of it step by step. Don’t think that it will succeed in one go. If there is a problem when you practice thunder magic, forget me, even Yu Huang Da Di wouldn’t be able to save you!”
Li Yundong laughed and said, “It’s okay. I just want to try the thunder magic from the Five Elements Qi. I’ll try the Primordial Qi’s thunder magic and see how it works.”
Before Zi Yuan could even say anything, Li Yundong had already sat down in meditation again. Not long after, his primordial spirit left his body and shot into the air. Zi Yuan was unable to stop him.
Zi Yuan sighed and thought, “Li Yundong, ah, Li Yundong, don’t mess around! This is Mount Longhu! This is the most powerful place in the world for Taoists. If you make any trouble, it won’t be easy to deal with!”
While Li Yundong and Zi Yuan were practicing Thunder Magic at a side peak, on the main peak of Mount Longhu’s Qing Palace, The Lady of the Earthly Fire, Zhang Ling, was refining the soul of Deng Yu and Deng Jiao that she had brought back to the side palace.
In this palace, there was a large magic circle in front of Zhang Ling.
The magic circle was surrounded by Eight trigrams, and Yin and Yang were in its center. There were two water platforms on the two points of Tai Chi, Yin and Yang. The water platforms were full of various black and white talisman and patterns. In the magic circle, two lotus buds of the same color and shape were floating, and within those buds were two small people faintly shining.
Both of them curled up like babies, but they were only as big as a thumb. Through the pink lotus leaves, one could see their limbs and fingers clearly.
The Lady of the Earthly Fire Zhang Ling looked at them with a strong sense of love and joy in her eyes. Her disciple, Zou Ping, was standing next to her.
Zou Ping looked at her in confusion and asked, “Master, there’s something I don’t know whether or not I should ask.”
Zhang Ling didn’t look at her, her eyes still focused on the buds. She asked, “Go ahead, is there anything you can’t ask me?”
Zou Ping cupped her hands together and asked respectfully yet somewhat doubtfully, “Master, I can understand why you’re trying to use the twins’ souls as the souls of the sword, but why did you put so much effort into setting up this magic circle?”
Zhang Ling smiled slightly, but she didn’t answer directly. Instead, she asked in return, “Do you know what kind of magic circle it is?”
Zou Ping nodded and said, “Yes, it’s the Five Elements Samsara Magic Circle!”
Zhang Ling turned her head and looked at her approvingly. “Oh, then do you know the function of it?”
“Of course I do,” said Zou Ping with a smile. “This magic circle is mainly used for helping people get rid of memories of their past and present lives, allowing them to enjoy things anew.”
Zhang Ling smiled gently. “Since you know what this magic circle is used for, why did you ask me such a question?”
Zou Ping didn’t understand what she was saying. “But what’s the point of doing this to them?”
Zhang Ling snorted and said, “You only know one side of the matter, not the other! The twins’ souls were stolen from the cave residence of Linggong Sect. Their origin is unknown. Do you know who they were? Do you know their real identities? Once these two souls become the souls of the sword of the Sanjue Magic Circle, the power of the Sanjue Magic Circle will be completely controlled by them. If they retain memories of their previous lives, the Sanjue Magic Circle will completely lose its effect when they meet someone they know! When that happens, do you intend to take responsibility for it, or shall I?”
Only then did Zou Ping understand what was going on. She smiled and said, “Master, you’re thinking too much and I was being careless. However, these twins seem like they could come to the world at any time.”
As if triggered by these words, the flower buds suddenly emitted a colorful light and the petals slowly opened one after another, revealing two identical tender girls within.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Ling suddenly became serious. She quickly touched her index fingers together and shouted, “Ping’er, cast a protective spell on me. I’m going to remove their memories of their previous lives!”
At that moment, a deep and resonant clap of thunder rumbled from the sky outside the partial palace of Shangqing Temple.
