Chapter 326: The Duke of Thunder's Artifact

The Outer God Puppets scattered across the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God came to a standstill.

As the puppet bodies ceased their movements, a faint divine radiance emanating an ethereal aura emerged.

This aura was like the gentle breeze of a tranquil mountain stream, the scent of lush plants, or the sweet juice of a ripe fruit. It was a pure temptation that calmed and refreshed one's soul.

Zhao Yuanqi had just slain a Mountain Ghost Race warrior when this aura washed over her. Her nostrils flared and her eyes gleamed with excitement as she approached a black iron statue.

Cautiously reaching out, she sent her divine sense to probe the statue.

A mesmerizing black demonic flower in bloom floated within the statue's empty head.

She sent her divine sense into the black flower and sensed a unique soul aura, which merged into her divine sense.

Her divine sense became imbued with divine essence.

"This..."

More divine essence spread out, seeping into the acupoints at the bottom of her sea of consciousness and generating new strands of divine sense.

"It's real!"

Zhao Yuanqi snuck a glance at where Qi Qingsong and Zhou Qingchen were each gathering divine essence as well.

They had all spoken with Pang Jian beforehand and already knew what would happen in the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God.

Turning her head, she saw Dong Tianze eagerly rushing toward a statue that resembled a fire lion.

Meanwhile, the fierce Ice Race warriors focused on slaughtering the foreign race invaders from outer worlds.

They paid no attention to the motionless Outer God Puppets and seemed unaware of the pure divine essence within them.

Their only concern was the resources found on the foreign races' warships and the fragments of the Divine Court of Thunder.

"I can't fall behind!" Excitement filled Zhao Yuanqi as she concentrated on gathering divine essence.

Whoosh!

Pang Jian came to a slow stop above the pit with the silvery-white pool.

The pool holding the Duke of Thunder's Dao Seals and the grayish-brown iron tree had caught his attention.

He curiously scanned the area near the pool, vigilantly eyeing the remains of foreign races and Thunder Race warriors scattered around it.

Was this what the Duke of Thunder used to construct the Divine Court of Thunder and control those cultivating the Dao of Lightning?

Pang Jian mused.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Bing Ji and Bing Yun, two Ice Race warriors with Rank Six bloodlines, also hovered above the pool.

"Sir, please be careful," Bing Ji said worriedly. Then, with an embarrassed expression, added, "We've never left the Frozen Land, so we don't understand anything about the outside world. We're not sure if this thing is dangerous."

"Hm, alright. First, go inform the others not to hunt the native Thunder Race," Pang Jian instructed.

"Understood." Bing Ji left to relay the message.

The iron tree had withered and the pool could no longer gather lightning.

Pang Jian drew a lightning bolt from his lightning vortex and directed it into the silvery-white pool, curious to see if it would reveal any hidden mysteries.

Zzzzt!

The streak of lightning touched the cracked walls of the pool.

The Lightning Dao Seals in the pool twisted and writhed wildly as if sparked back to life.

A suction pulled on Pang Jian's sea of consciousness!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Pang Jian's golden divine sense in his sea of consciousness shriveled.

As the Lightning Dao Seals in the Thunder Pool absorbed Pang Jian's divine sense, something within the pool seemed to glow.

The Observer's lone remaining eerie eye flickered with a cold light as it watched the scene from high above.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Realizing something was amiss, Pang Jian summoned hundreds of Nether Abyss Spirit Bees to resist the strange suction on his sea of consciousness.

Sever!

A heavenly blade, formed from divine sense, slashed through the void within his sea of consciousness and severed the invisible connection between him and the Thunder Pool.

Pang Jian quickly averted his gaze from the Thunder Pool and shot into the air.

"Sir!" Bing Yun directed his Spirit Avian to Pang Jian and pulled him onto the Spirit Avian's back.

"The Thunder Pool," Pang Jian muttered. "Something in it activated after it absorbed my divine sense!"

A chill ran down Pang Jian's spine as he carefully examined his sea of consciousness.

His vibrant, full strands of divine sense had withered away into thin strands, drained of divine essence.

"Sir, be careful!" Bing Yun screamed.

Crack!

Boom!

The lightning hanging over the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God twisted and turned like giant dragons as they hunted the invaders.

The thick bolts of lightning targeted the outsiders—regardless of whether they were human cultivators, foreign race invaders, or Outer God Puppets.

Many were killed in the blink of an eye.

"The Duke of Thunder's wrath!"

"Retreat from the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God!"

"This place isn't safe anymore!"

The invading foreign race warriors desperately fled toward the skies.

Lightning streaked through the air in a flurry of color. Teal, blue, yellow, orange, purple, green, and red filled the sky as the seven-colored lightning bolts targeted the invaders from the outer worlds as if imbued with divine consciousness.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The seven-colored lightning instantly reduced its victims to mists of blood and piles of bones.

Screams of despair filled the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God.

The few surviving Thunder Race warriors wore expressions of schadenfreude as they watched the eternal lightning in the sky transform into lethal weapons.

Their deep-seated grudges had finally been avenged.

"Kill! Kill them all!"

"Slaughter every last one invader!"

"Wipe all the foreign races and outsiders from the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God!"

The Thunder Race warriors roared, cries of vindication echoing throughout the land.

"All the lightning in the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God is converging toward that pool!" Pang Jian ordered. "Don't block their path! Stay away from them!

"Qi Qingsong, Senior Sister Zhuang, take the puppets whose divine essence you haven't fully absorbed and move them to the outskirts of the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God!

"Bing Yuan! Bing Ying! Forget about the invaders' warships! Don't rush to plunder their supplies, they're not going anywhere. Everything they carry will be yours!

"Just move away from that pool and retreat from the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God!" Pang Jian commanded.

"A young Godslayer," the Observer muttered, still watching from high in the sky.

Its banner no longer fluttered and the eerie holes riddling it were no longer filled with eyes.

The Observer had only left behind a weak sliver of divine consciousness, which manifested as an evil eye overlooking the scene below.

It had already prepared to sacrifice this sliver of divine consciousness.

"The puppet bodies of many lower-ranking Outer Gods were slain here. News of this will surely spread.

"A young human from the Abyss is raising a large swarm of Nether Abyss Spirit Bees and slaughtering Gods to absorb their divine essence. He's refining his divine sense in preparation to forge an extraordinary, unprecedented divine soul.

"This boy..." the Observer trailed off as Pang Jian floated over to hover directly in front of it.

"You actually dared to stay here." Pang Jian frowned.

He sensed a minuscule trace of divine consciousness within the flag, so little it was hardly even worth devouring.

"I left only a tiny sliver of divine consciousness behind. Even if it's absorbed, I won't feel any pain." The Observer's single eye watched as lightning converged on the silvery-white Thunder Pool. "Are you aware that some beings are not afraid of the Nether Abyss Spirit Bees?"

"I know, like the Duke of Thunder," Pang Jian calmly replied.

When Pang Jian first entered the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God, he had already sensed the unease of the Bee Sovereign.

Despite the Nether Abyss Spirit Bees' formidable ability to devour divine consciousness, they still instinctively feared the Duke of Thunder.

The physical bodies of the bees were fragile, and their greatest power lay in their ability to consume the divine consciousness of Outer Gods.

However, the Nether Abyss Spirit Bees held no such advantage against a God like the Duke of Thunder as they could not consume his divine consciousness.

The tyrannical nature of thunder and lightning inherently suppressed soul-based creatures—this was the law of the Heavenly Dao.

This law bound even the Nether Abyss Spirit Bees.

"Mm, you truly are clever," the Observer acknowledged. "But I have some bad news for you."

"Do tell."

"The lightning suspended over the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God did not gather in the Thunder Pool because the Duke of Thunder deliberately prevented it.

"The Duke of Thunder was likely aware that his most trusted companion had betrayed him.

"After all, when he was injured after delving deeper into the Dao of Lightning, the seven Thunder Gods had not only learned of his weakened state but also managed to find him deep within the Thunder Abyss.

"That would have been impossible unless someone had spread the news and guided them in.

"The seven Thunder Gods attacked the severely wounded Duke of Thunder and the Divine Court was destroyed. The core, the Thunder Pool, sank into the depths of the earth.

"The Thunder Pool rests at the center of the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God, collecting thunder and lightning wherever it drifts.

"For millions of years, the Thunder Pool drew lightning to the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God, but none ever flowed into it.

"The reason for this is simple—once the Thunder Pool gathers enough lightning, its aura can no longer remain hidden.

"The current ruler of the Thunder Abyss is well-informed about the Duke of Thunder, the Divine Court of Thunder, and the Thunder Pool.

"The Thunderveil Godbeast will sense this place the moment the Thunder Pool shows signs of unusual activity and extend their divine consciousness through the pool.

"And you and your Nether Abyss Spirit Bees are useless against it," the Observer revealed.

"Can its true body come here?" Pang Jian asked with a cold smile.

"It cannot." The Observer sighed. "The bizarre mist operates on its own laws of the Heavenly Dao. It's something not even the Gods can fully comprehend.

"The same restrictions bind all who enter this space, regardless of race or species. No one can break the rules of the bizarre mist. Not even the Gods.

"Gods like me can only attach a small part of their divine consciousness to special objects, but this is the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God.

"Now that the Thunder Pool is filled with lightning bolts, a Thunder God can transfer their divine consciousness here through special means and transform this land into their divine domain.

"In this domain, with control over the core of the Divine Court of Thunder, the Thunder Pool, the Thunder God would be invincible.

"You, and everyone you brought here, will be annihilated the instant their divine consciousness arrives," the Observer concluded.