Chapter 340: Absorbing the Power of Heaven and Earth (I)

Dark clouds rolled in, pressing down on and almost engulfing the city of Miamir. Gusts of violent wind howled, and thunderbolts roared among the clouds with overwhelming power.

It had been five days since Yan Ruoyi woke up, and the weather forecast warned of a thunderstorm and typhoon today. On the edge of the hotel rooftop, dressed in a Daoist robe, Li Daoyi stood with his hands behind his back.

Suddenly, a light dazzled from within the dark clouds. A purple lightning bolt descended from the sky like a dragon of destruction, stretching for thousands of meters.

Boom!

The powerful thunderclap reverberated through the heavens and earth as the lighting struck Li Daoyi and exploded, splitting into countless snake-like bolts that crawled on the ground around him. The smoky, scorching smell pierced the air within a dozen meters.

In response, Li Daoyi's aura surged, and his whole body radiated a dazzling light like a giant light bulb.

"Ah, this feels good. After being out for so long, I finally encounter weather that I can feast on."

As he spoke, Li Daoyi stretched his hand toward the sky. Instantly, the dark clouds trembled, and an even more violent thunderbolt descended from the sky, striking him with a loud bang, followed by a third...

Boom! Boom! Boom!

One after another, the bolts fell; their dazzling light illuminated the hotel’s surroundings.

The deafening roars drew the attention of the hotel staff and the concert group, who ran to the windows to watch. The reporters hidden around the hotel also took out their cameras and frantically took pictures of the rooftop.

Seeing this audience, Li Daoyi's eyes shifted slightly. The lightning around him intensified, and his entire body slowly floated up dozens of meters away from the rooftop.

Boom!

Another thunderbolt descended from the sky, striking Li Daoyi again, followed by yet another bolt.

At that moment, with the relentless onslaught of the roaring thunderbolts, Li Daoyi looked like a celestial being from Eastern legends undergoing a tribulation. The reporters watched with excitement.

"Is this the power of an Innate Awakener? It's so mighty!"

"Yeah, I used to hear people talk online about Innate Awakeners being terrifying and powerful, but I never imagined it to be this great."

"He's directly controlling the thunderbolts!"

"I heard that Innate Awakeners are something called reserved kings[1], and have incredible combat power and extremely fast cultivation speed. They can easily reach the Ninth Heavenly Realm, and only need to put in a little more effort to ascend to the throne. I envy that."

"Does this mean he has a higher talent than Chu Batian?"

"You could say that. Chu Batian killed a god avatar, but that avatar was just a Sixth Heavenly Realm cultist.

"Li Daoyi also has another advantage. Since he’s an Innate Awakener, he just needs to reach the peak of the Sixth Heavenly Realm to be able to break through to the Seventh. But Chu Batian needs to cultivate top-level secret arts to do that.

"Most of the Federation's secret scriptures were created by advanced cultivators who have broken through the Eighth and Ninth Heavenly Realms. They’re refined from the cultivator’s personal experiences, so they’re most suitable for their creators.

"Any others who cultivate them will find it harder as they go along, because they’re not compatible, and they can forget about breaking through to the king level. So if Chu Batian wants to keep up with Li Daoyi, he would need to create his own secret scripture.

"But even if he has freakish talent, it would still take him at least a year or two to create his own secret scripture while at the Sixth Heavenly Realm. By that point, Li Daoyi might already be at the Ninth."

Someone nodded thoughtfully. "In that case, Chu Batian really can't compare to Li Daoyi."

While two knowledgeable reporters discussed the topic, some others nearby quickly took out their phones to record the information. Secret scriptures, advanced cultivators, and detailed information about Innate Awakeners were information they hardly had access to.

They couldn't believe their luck today. All they needed to do was embellish the details when they got back to their offices, and tomorrow’s hot topic very well could be theirs.

Recently, there had been an unseen force on the internet erasing Chen Chu's achievements of killing the god king avatar, while elevating Li Daoyi's identity as an Innate Awakener, along with comments downplaying the avatar’s strength. As a result, in just a week, the hype around Chu Batian had faded online; within another half month, most people would likely forget about him.

Li Daoyi's tribulation... or rather, his cultivation, lasted for about half an hour. He only stopped when the charge in the cloud layer was almost depleted. He glanced calmly at the reporters below before slowly descending back on the rooftop, looking increasingly ethereal and detached while surrounded by lightning.

After landing, he looked at Chen Chu, who had been watching from a distance, and said slowly, "Brother Chu, I've realized something."

"What have you realized?" Chen Chu asked curiously.

Li Daoyi nodded. "I finally understand the essence of your effortless showing off. It's not about actively trying to impress others, but simply doing your own thing naturally."

"..." Chen Chu was speechless. He thought Li Daoyi had gained some insight into his cultivation, but it turned out to be nonsense. He never even intended to show off in the first place!

Chen Chu then said with admiration, "Brother Li, do all you Innate Awakeners cultivate like this? Just absorbing and releasing the power of nature? This is some freak-like behavior."

No wonder these guys cultivate so quickly. This guy directly absorbed the thunderbolts.

Li Daoyi disagreed. "Brother Chu, don't these words hurt your conscience? After all, who can be more of a freak than you?"

He was an Innate Awakener, so it was normal for his cultivation to be fast.

Chen Chu, on the other hand, started with below-average ability, surpassed his school's geniuses in half a year, dominated an entire mutated beast battlefield, and even counterattacked and killed a king's avatar. That was true freak-like behavior.

Li Daoyi continued. "Not all Innate Awakeners can absorb transcendent energy for cultivation. It requires us to innately reverse the power we control."

"Innately reverse?" Chen Chu asked curiously.

Li Daoyi explained. "Although we awaken with a certain ability, it’s only slightly enhanced to start with, and there are different levels among Awakeners. The first tier consists of those who can control the natural elements, like thunderbolts, fire, ice, even gravity and space.

“Then there are those with physical awakenings, like innate divine power, physique hardening, telekinesis, speed, or mutated eyes. But due to the degree of strength, only those in the first tier are called Innate Awakeners, while others are just ability users.

"Our so-called innate power is to comprehend one's controlled ability to the extreme, touching the essence of its laws. For example, I touched a thread of the law of thunderbolts, allowing me to directly absorb the natural power of lightning for cultivation and combat.

"Since we’ve become so familiar with the laws of our abilities early on, we can quickly advance through the Ninth Heavenly Realm to become kings... as long as we don’t die, of course."

"I see." Chen Chu didn't expect that there were such levels among Awakeners.

At that point, Li Daoyi curiously asked, "Brother Chu, how is your progress with the secret scripture?"

Chen Chu thought for a moment. "Almost there. I should complete the seventh stage within ten days."

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

After a week of intense deducing, the secret scripture had progressed rapidly from its foundational general outline, and he had finished integrating a chain of the four-arm ability runes. He just needed to resolve the remaining two arms before he could start cultivating.

The external constructs behind the head would need to be addressed after breaking through to the Seventh Heavenly Realm. Before the Ninth Realm, the constructed space wouldn't significantly impact his combat power.

While he couldn't comprehend the power of hurricane and earth abilities from the Silver Colossal Dragon and the Deep Sea Dragon Turtle, this problem was actually easy to solve. He could exchange for top-level resources containing wind and earth attributes, which would hold a trace of the power from the corresponding laws.

The only issue was that these resources were very precious and rare, requiring thousands of merit points to exchange for—roughly equivalent to killing a level 8 colossal beast.

1. It means Innate Awakeners are viewed as potential candidates for becoming a king. ☜