Chapter 349: Chapter 348: Advanced Thunder Technique: Five Directions Barbaric Thunder Spell
’Truly an expert!’
Taoist Yan Ling’s Dao Practice was by no means weak. He was older than Taoist Yan Song and had arrived even before Taoist Shen Hao. While he hadn’t been as aggressive in the Otherworld as Taoist Shen Hao, he still possessed roughly seven hundred years of Dao Practice. Bolstered by his Taoist True Qi, he shouldn’t have been losing even to an opponent with a millennium of practice.
Yet now, as he pitted his Taiyi Divine Light against that banner-type Magical Treasure, he was still clearly falling behind.
BOOM!
Before Gu Zhao even drew near, he raised his hand and unleashed a Palm Thunder.
Given Gu Zhao’s current Cultivation, the power of even his simplest Palm Thunder was on a completely different level. A bolt of violet-gold Thunderbolt erupted from his palm, traversing space in an instant to strike the banner.
But the banner simply swayed in the air, shooting out a beam of red light that met the Thunderbolt head-on.
HISS—
After a piercing crack, the red light had actually managed to block the Palm Thunder!
But it was clear the opponent hadn’t blocked it with ease. Though the main bolt of Thunderbolt had vanished, tendrils of lightning still crackled across the sky. The banner trembled, obviously shaken by the impact.
"Who dares!"
A sharp cry rang out, the voice both piercingly cold and strangely alluring. A figure appeared beside the banner, grasping it firmly as she turned to face Gu Zhao.
By now, Gu Zhao had already reached Taoist Yan Ling’s side. His eyes fell upon the beautiful woman before him, clad in red with a cold, severe expression.
Sensing the thick Evil Qi emanating from the woman’s Magical Power, Gu Zhao didn’t waste a single word. He instantly formed the Celestial Thunder Seal with his left hand. A mass of Five-Colored Thunderclouds materialized in the sky at a visible speed, blotting out the sun as thunder rumbled ominously.
The woman in red felt the oppressive might of the thunderclouds overhead, and her face fell. Without a word, she shot downwards, rushing toward the battlefield below.
Far below, Huang Yuan, Taoist Qingwei, and the others appeared to be injured, but they were still locked in a fierce battle with a man in red, whom they had surrounded.
The next moment, the red-clad woman dove straight down. But before she could even reach the battlefield, her vision blurred, and the young man who had just appeared was suddenly blocking her path.
"You’ve committed countless evils and reek of Evil Qi," Gu Zhao stated coolly. "You’re not getting away."
The woman’s pupils contracted. "I am Li Hongning of Red Moon Valley in the Southern Border!" she demanded sharply. "There is no grudge between us. Why attack me on sight?"
"Red Moon Valley in the Southern Border?" Gu Zhao raised an eyebrow. He had assumed she was just a demon from Wuya Ridge or Southern Yazhou, not from Red Moon Valley, which was even farther south.
But...
The mention of the Southern Border’s Red Moon Valley only made Gu Zhao cast aside any remaining hesitation.
If she had been from a major power in Yazhou, one that could produce experts on par with Ancestor Mie Yang or Celestial True Monarch Tianchen, he might have been more cautious and planned for a slower approach. But the Southern Border Mountains lay outside the domain of the Great Ning. The two regions were already at odds. ’Isn’t attacking her perfectly justified?’
He was no longer the naive newcomer, the Xiaobai, that he had been upon his arrival. Daluo Palace had not only firmly established itself in Changping Prefecture, but through his daily conversations with numerous local friends, he had also learned the general lay of the land in this world.
The Great Ning Court of the Central Plains, ruling over Twenty-Three States and 198 Prefectures, spanned tens of thousands of miles and occupied the most expansive and fertile lands in this world. The Xuanwei Divine Sect’s two Celestial Venerables and the Spirit Court’s two Great Saints were the supreme experts of the age, gazing down upon the world with unmatched might.
Beyond that, the Eastern Sea contained countless islands, home to the Demon Race of the sea and tyrants of the sky. The East Sea Dragon Race was the most powerful among them, presided over by an Old Dragon King with Ten Thousand Years of Dao Practice.
The Northern Wilderness was a frozen, desolate land with a sparse population. The dominant force there was the terrestrial Demon Race, who had established tribal nations and coveted the lands of the Great Ning to their south.
The Western Divine Country was the complete opposite: a scorching land of endless yellow sand where human populations were linked only by scattered oases. The dominant powers there were dozens of Ghost Gods with profound Dao Practice, divided among forty-eight Divine Countries, each ruling its own territory.
The hundred thousand mountains of the Southern Border were similar to the West. However, while the oases of the West were separated by deserts, the valleys of the South were divided by mountain ranges. It was a land of treacherous terrain and perilous waters, where fiends ran rampant. All manner of Demons and Ghosts carved out their own territories, founding sects and dynasties, living wild and unfettered lives.
Aside from the Sea Race of the Eastern Sea, who had no interest in the mainland, the other three powers all coveted the dazzling world of the Central Plains. For millennia, the mortal realms had been locked in endless wars, and experts from all sides had frequently clashed.
Frankly, if those three powers united, their number of top-tier experts would far exceed the four in the Central Plains. But for one, they were not of one mind, each hoping the others would take the brunt of the fighting. For another, the Central Plains had other hidden masters. And finally, the Central Plains Court had always maintained good relations with the East Sea.
Thus, even when dynasties changed in the Central Plains, none of these three outlying powers had ever succeeded in conquering it.
Over time, the various powers developed a sense of territoriality. There were no explicit rules like "No Trespassing"—after all, these were masters with centuries or millennia of Dao Practice, capable of flight and Earth Escape, and impossible to truly stop.
However, the unspoken rule was that you did not cause trouble in another’s domain. If things escalated, you risked being attacked by a united front.
Of course, this was just the general state of affairs. Just as the Central Plains Dynasty housed powers like White Spirit Mountain, which was affiliated with a Spirit Monarch, it also had deviant sects like Silent God Mountain and even Fallen Demon cults like the Nether Fire Sect...
The other regions were hardly monolithic either. For example, within the hundred thousand mountains of the Southern Border, there were inherently good-natured beings like the Celestial Foxes of Cyan Hill Mountain and the residents of Luming Mountain, but there were also savage, bloodthirsty beasts of prey.
As for this Red Moon Valley, Gu Zhao had never heard of it. But one look at the Evil Qi clinging to the woman before him told him all he needed to know: they were not good people.
"Dongjia Qian Yuan Heng! Heaven and Earth held within my palm! Five Thunders Quick Descent Qi, Enter My Thunder Wheel!"
With his left hand, Gu Zhao formed the Celestial Thunder Seal, Earth Thunder Seal, Dragon Thunder Seal, Water Thunder Seal, and Community Thunder Seal in succession. His right hand continuously wove Thunder Spells as he chanted, his eyes glowing with lightning. His entire being seemed to fuse with the Five-Colored Thunderclouds above, suffused with the might of heaven and earth.
The woman in red was aghast, realizing her opponent couldn’t even be bothered to speak to her.
She brandished her banner to form a Protective Body of countless red lights, then dove toward the man below. "We will remember this!" she shouted as she fled. "Just you wait until I—"
"Decree!"
The command was given, and the Thunderbolt roared!
From within the Five-Colored Thunderclouds, a bolt of five-colored, violet-gold Thunderbolt descended. Possessing the might of damnation itself, it crossed the intervening space and appeared above the woman’s head in an instant.
This was a high-level Technique Gu Zhao had mastered once his Cultivation was high enough: the Five Directions Barbaric Thunder Spell!
This single bolt of Thunderbolt tore straight through the red light the woman had summoned with all her strength and struck the banner. The thunderous energy erupted, and the high-quality Magical Treasure was instantly destroyed—its fabric ripped to shreds, its staff shattered!
A single Thunder Technique had destroyed a Magical Treasure.
"AHH!"
The woman in red let out a wretched scream as the Thunderbolt struck her directly. She plummeted from the sky, crashing onto the battlefield below right in front of the man.
"Mother!" the man cried out in shock.
The man panicked. He rushed forward to cradle the barely breathing woman in red. Looking up at the sky, he said fiercely, "My father is Mo Qianlang of Thousand Peaks Mountain in Qinglan Prefecture, Yazhou! My maternal grandfather is the Chi Wang Ancestor of Red Moon Valley in the Southern Border! Do you dare to kill me?"
The answer he received was a wave of Gu Zhao’s hand and the sight of the others closing in around him.
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