Chapter 2126: Enemy Attack!

“When did I fall into an ambush?” Shang Xia prided himself on being cautious. He had never fully trusted whatever He Jiubin said, much less believed nonsense like the Lightning Prison only targeted one’s divine soul. He had been on guard the whole time, yet still, without sensing the slightest sign, he had fallen straight into a trap.

Though startled, Shang Xia remained calm.

Whoever his enemy was, ambushing him would not be easy. And judging from what he could see, there was no way such a crude formation could restrain a grand completion stage Sage like himself. Therefore, Shang Xia was certain the hidden assailant still had another move prepared.

Even so, standing idly by and letting the opponent act without consequence was never his style.

He started to circulate his inner qi, expanding his own domain as the foundation, and unleashed a martial intent he had not used in a very long time, the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

One’s martial intent strengthened as their cultivation grew. Even the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm he had comprehended in the Martial Realm, should, in theory, possess power of a grand completion stage Sage.

However, though the upper limit of such abilities rose with cultivation, their true strength depended on how long their martial intent had been tempered.

That was Shang Xia’s problem. He had advanced far too quickly.

From the Martial Realm to the grand completion stage of the Seven Star Realm, barely a century had passed. He used less than 100 years to achieve what others needed 300 to 500... Or even more years to.

Because of this, he had devoted little time to tempering his earlier martial intents, leaving them somewhat behind in power compared to those of his current realm. In combat, he seldom relied on techniques he comprehended in the past.

At that very moment... Shang Xia decided that unleashing the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm was exactly what was needed.

In such an uncertain situation, brute force might not be the best way to break the deadlock. Sometimes, dissolving a crisis with the right touch was better than smashing through it. Besides, Shang Xia wanted to keep some trump cards hidden in case the unseen enemy revealed another trap.

With one sweeping strike, reddish-gold lightning burst forth from his palm, merging seamlessly into the silent lightning surrounding the sea of clouds.

Yet this blow was not meant to shatter the cage of lightning around him, it was to merge with it completely. The reddish-gold radiance spread through the interwoven lightning, staining it with its own color.

In his divine soul, a gap opened in the once-sealed sea of clouds and it started to expand.

At the same time, that numbing sensation assaulting his soul and will seemed to fade noticeably.

If he wished, Shang Xia could have escaped the Lightning Prison right then, but he did not.

Instead, he remained where he was.

The suppression of his divine soul had thrown all detection into disarray. Though his perception told him there was no danger nearby, his intuition warned him otherwise.

The contradiction between what he sensed and what he felt made him even more wary. Rather than act rashly, he chose to wait and observe.

His composure clearly surprised the enemy hidden in the dark.

Suddenly, the heavy clouds churned again. Massive bolts of lightning tore through the void, slamming into the Lightning Prison surrounding Shang Xia and suppressing the reddish-gold lightning he had just infused outward.

Shang Xia let out a muffled groan. His divine soul felt as though it had been struck by a hammer when the lightning struck.

But once again, his soul proved far more resilient than the hidden enemy had expected. The confusion and loss of control the enemy had anticipated never came. Shang Xia merely tilted his head slightly, a faint trickle of blood seeping from his nose. His gaze grew sharp the next instant, almost gleaming with divine light.

The hidden expert’s heart trembled. The second Shang Xia turned his head, he stared in the direction he was concealed.

“He can’t possibly have discovered me!”

While the man in hiding hesitated, wondering if he had been exposed and whether to retreat, Shang Xia’s eyes swept horizontally across the void, scanning his surroundings as though searching for something.

In the end, he appeared to find nothing.

The hidden figure exhaled softly in relief, then muttered coldly, “You think standing there without moving will let you face anything that comes?”

As his words faded, he reached into the void and seized a sphere woven from countless strands of lightning within the clouds.

“The vessel has been chosen. A young body, rich in vitality, unmatched in cultivation. Whether it succeeds depends on you. All I can do is trap him here and weaken him as much as possible.”

With that, the man tossed the lightning sphere into the sea of clouds.

The orb seemed almost alive, its brilliance pulsing rhythmically like it was breathing.

Once released, it vanished into the dense web of lightning within the clouds.

The next instant, the thunder that had been soundless roared to life, not in the void around Shang Xia, but within his own mind. Each rumble echoed like a temple bell, shaking his divine soul again and again.

Had his will been any weaker, his consciousness would already have fallen into chaos, his mind a storm of confusion from which he might never awaken.

Fortunately, his secret art, the Man and Heaven Synergy Chapter, had long since refined his soul into an extraordinary existence. It was far stronger than cultivators of the same level.

The thunderous ringing within his soul truly did temper it.

Even while maintaining full awareness, Shang Xia felt himself becoming much more weightless than before, as though something impure was being washed away.

He was still dizzy and dared not move too violently, but he could sense his divine will growing denser and purer.

As time passed, the shock of that soul-piercing thunder remained constant, yet Shang Xia gradually adapted to its cleansing rhythm. When his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm suffused the surrounding lightning and began absorbing its soul-tempering essence, the martial intent itself started to evolve.

The figure hiding in the distance also noticed the change.

Just as Shang Xia was beginning to comprehend the deeper principle behind the lightning in the Lightning Prison and its ability to temper the soul, a sudden shift occurred.

From the dense, silent lightning around him, a knot of thunderous light burst forth, shooting straight for his brow.

When Shang Xia raised his hand to intercept it, the light detonated without warning.

At that instant, a peal of thunder unlike any before exploded within his mind. Even with a soul as steadfast as his, he was momentarily stunned, if only for the blink of an eye.

In that same moment, the lightning that had burst toward him reappeared, not outside, but within his sea of consciousness itself.

The strands of electric light that scattered from the explosion twisted together like countless tendrils, winding around his divine soul and tightening, trying to burrow deep and bind it fast.