Chapter 295: The Lightning Lake
Kael materialized in a flash of blue-white energy.
WHOOSH.
His feet hit solid ground—thud—and the first thing he noticed was the dark sky. A churning mass of black storm clouds. Lightning arced between clouds illuminating the darkness in brief, violent bursts.
The ground beneath his feet was black. Sand that had been superheated by countless lightning strikes and fused into a smooth, reflective surface. It stretched in every direction, a vast wasteland of glass punctuated by jagged formations of volcanic rock.
CRACK-BOOM!
A lightning bolt struck the ground two hundred meters to his left. The impact cratered the glass—shatter—and the residual energy rippled outward in visible waves.
Kael’s aura instinctively hardened around his body absorbing the ambient electrical charge that saturated the air.
His soul sense swept outward mapped the surroundings.
Cultivators. He immediately sensed 5 cultivators in the distance and two dead bodies.
Kael walked toward the group of five. As he approached, he could see them clearly—Eastern sector cultivators based on their attire. Silk combat robes in muted colors, runic patterns along the seams. Three men, two women. Their cultivation levels ranged from Mana Heart Rank 5 to Rank 7.
They noticed him approaching. One man—Mana Heart Rank 7, the strongest of the group—raised a hand in cautious greeting.
"You just arrived?" the man asked.
Kael nodded.
The man gestured at the wasteland around them. "This is the outer zone of Vaelthor’s holy ground. The Thunder Wasteland. Ambient lightning strikes constantly. The strikes here range from Foundation Establishment to Mana Heart Rank 3 in power. Weak cultivators don’t survive long."
Kael glanced at the smoldering bodies his soul sense had detected earlier. Two corpses, half-buried in glass sand. Their flesh was charred black, smoke still rising from the wounds.
"Couldn’t handle the density," the man confirmed, following Kael’s gaze. "The ambient lightning mana here is thick enough to kill anyone below Mana Heart Rank 4 if they’re not careful."
"What’s beyond the outer zone?" Kael asked.
The man pointed west. "The Lightning Lake. A massive body of liquid lightning. To enter the inner zone of Vaelthor’s domain, you have to cross it. Walk on the surface while the lake strikes you with lightning. Fail, and you fall in."
"Falling means?" Kael asked.
"Death. The liquid lightning fries you from the inside out. No one survives the fall."
The man paused. "The lake is about fifty steps across. Each step, the lightning intensifies. Most people can’t make it past step twenty."
Kael thanked them and headed west.
The Lightning Lake came into view after an hour of walking.
Whoa.
It was enormous. Fifty kilometers across and even beyond as far as the eyes could see towards the edges of the realm—a vast body of liquid lightning that stretched to the horizon. Which meant everyone who wants to reach the other end of the lake had to cross the 100 meters lake to get to the other side.
The surface of the lake was condensed liquid energy. Blue-white liquid lightning rippled and churned like an ocean in a storm. Crackle-pop-crackle. The surface erupted with random strikes—arcs of pure electrical energy shooting upward without warning, some reaching thirty meters into the sky.
The air above the lake was hazy with ionized particles.
About twenty cultivators were gathered at the shore. Some sat cross-legged, meditating—building their lightning resistance before attempting the crossing. Others stood with arms crossed, watching the lake with wary eyes. A few nursed injuries.
Three figures were currently on the lake.
Kael’s Spirit Eyes activated—flicker—analyzing the three.
The first was a Mana Heart Rank 6 woman, seventeen steps in. She moved carefully, her mana barrier flickering with each strike. Sweat poured down her face as she struggled.
The second was a Mana Heart Rank 7 man, twenty-two steps in. He moved with more confidence—his mana barrier steadier, his body cultivation absorbing what his barrier couldn’t block. But he was slowing down. The lightning was intensifying.
The third.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
A man at Peak Mana Heart. Thirty-four steps in. Lightning struck him—CRACK—and he didn’t flinch. The energy washed over his body, and his aura absorbed it, converted it, integrated it.
He was tempering himself.
Not just his body—his soul. The man’s soul was being refined by the lightning, growing denser with each strike. And radiating from his soul was a faint but unmistakable pressure.
Lightning rule power.
He’s using the lake to comprehend lightning rule power, Kael realized. While everyone else sees this as a trial to pass, he sees it as a cultivation resource.
Kael wasn’t the only one who noticed. Several cultivators on the shore were watching the man with expressions of awe and jealousy.
To break through to the Spirit Soul realm, a cultivator’s soul strength had to reach a certain threshold, and they had to comprehend at least a sliver of rule power. This man was fulfilling both requirements simultaneously—tempering his soul and comprehending lightning rule power in the most direct way possible.
Kael’s mind shifted to his own situation.
His soul strength was already far beyond the threshold. As a soul cultivator at the Early Soul Tempering Realm, his soul power exceeded that of most Peak Mana Heart cultivators. That requirement was met.
As for rule power—he had already comprehended a sliver of gravity rule power. It was what augmented his gravity abilities, pushing them above his darkness and lightning manipulation. It was also one of the main factors that had allowed him to form his gravity domain.
But lightning rule power? That remained uncomprehended.
The Thunder God Technique. Realm of the Thunder God. A lightning domain blueprint. The technique required lightning rule power to activate. Without it, the third form was theoretical—impossible to execute.
If I can comprehend lightning rule power in this holy ground...
Kael’s eyes gleamed.
I can complete the third form.
He stepped onto the lake.
CRACK!
The lightning reacted instantly. The surface beneath his foot erupted—BOOM—a strike converging on his position. Kael activated Lightning Body. CRACKLE. His form shimmered—electrical energy flooding his cells. The strike hit him and was absorbed—zzzt—drawn into his Transcendent Core, which drank the lightning mana greedily.
Hummm.
The 480% capacity of the Transcendent Core meant his absorption rate was monstrous which allow him to keep up with absorbing such a raw, primal energy unlike other weaker cores that will crack under such fierce energy.
Kael took the second step. CRACK! Another strike. Absorbed.
Third step. CRACK-BOOM! Two strikes simultaneously. Absorbed.
Fourth step. CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! Three strikes. Absorbed. His Lightning Body converted the energy and his core stored it.
Fifth step.
Five lightning strikes crashed down simultaneously—BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!—converging on Kael from different angles. The combined power was Mana Heart Rank 6. The crowd on the shore gasped—gasp—several stepping back.
Kael stood in the center of the explosion. Lightning wreathed his body—crackle—arcing from his skin, his hair, his fingertips. His Transcendent Core absorbed the energy. His aura tempered it.
He kept walking.
The cultivators on the shore fell silent. They watched—eyes wide—as the black-haired figure walked across the lightning lake as if it were a garden path.
Hours passed.
Kael walked. Step by step. Each step brought more fierce lightning. By step fifteen, the strikes were Mana Heart Rank 7. By step twenty, they were Rank 8.
Step twenty-five. The halfway mark.
The crowd on the shore—those still watching—went silent. The woman who’d been at step seventeen had retreated.
He’s already at the halfway line, someone on shore whispered.
In a few hours, another muttered. It took that Peak Mana Heart cultivator a day to reach thirty-four steps.
Kael didn’t hear them. His consciousness was submerged in the lightning.