A few days later, in the afternoon, the sun was setting in the west.
Rumble!
The first thunderclap of early spring in February echoed across the sky, startling Yang Yunhai, who was cultivating alone in his dormitory.
"I can't believe I actually waited long enough for this." With joy on his face, he quickly jumped off the bed and ran outside.
"Xiao Hai, it's thundering outside, why are you running out!?" Seeing Yang Yunhai dash out, the village chief, who was leaning on a crutch and calling the children indoors, was shocked.
"Grandpa, I want to run an experiment!" Yang Yunhai shouted as he sprinted into the courtyard.
At worst, I'll die, but I've already died once. What's there to fear?
Rumble! Another crash of thunder split the sky. The pitch-black clouds briefly lit up, but no lightning struck.
"Nothing happened?" The village chief was momentarily stunned. Then, he saw a spark in Yang Yunhai's eyes as the boy suddenly sat cross-legged on the spot.
"Xiao Hai, what are you doing!?" The chief's face changed again. Yang Yunhai's move clearly meant he was trying to cultivate in the courtyard, an obviously unsafe idea.
Boom! Just as he thought this, a thunderbolt as thick as an arm struck Yang Yunhai directly on the back as he was meditating, circulating soul power.
Like needles stabbing into his body, the searing pain surged through him, and the veins on Yang Yunhai's forehead bulged instantly. Still, he gritted his teeth and endured.
He forced his soul power to flow, driving the searing energy through his meridians.
_Boom!_ Another bolt of lightning struck. His mind went completely blank.
With a thud, he collapsed backward. The ground beneath him was scorched black.
"Boss!" the children cried out in panic.
"Xiao Hai!" The village chief's face changed drastically. He anxiously looked to the sky, where lightning flickered among the clouds, but no more bolts fell.
He immediately rushed over, grabbed Yang Yunhai by the collar, and dragged him back under the eaves.
The children gathered around, helping the chief turn Yang Yunhai over to check on him.
"Boss!" another cry came out in horror. All the veins close to Yang Yunhai's skin were bulging, dark purple in color.
Most terrifying of all, his skin was curled up at the edges, dry and pale like tree bark.
"This" The chief's eyes reddened. He quickly lifted Yang Yunhai and placed his ear to the boy's chest.
Thump... thump... Slow and weak, as if his heart might stop at any moment.
The chief's expression changed. He immediately ordered the children, "Kids, quick! Help Grandpa carry Xiao Hai inside."
Some lifted his hands, others his feet. Working together, the children carried Yang Yunhai inside and laid him on the bed. The chief sat beside him again and placed his ear to his chest.
Thump. Thump. This time, the heartbeat was noticeably steadier and stronger.
The chief finally relaxed and sat upright. Looking at the children, he said, "Alright, kids. Go on home. Your brother Xiao Hai is fine, he just needs to rest."
The next morning, in the single dormitory.
"Hss!" A pained grunt broke the silence as Yang Yunhai opened his eyes, his lips twitching.
"So painful!" Just shifting his hips made his whole body ache. His muscles were tight and stiff, and his meridians felt like they'd been torn.
After awakening his martial soul and starting cultivation, he had become aware of the meridians in his body through soul power.
"Damn it, why is actively drawing lightning while cultivating so much worse than just getting struck passively? I couldn't even handle two hits. Is it because I actively absorbed the energy and it left more residue in my body?"
Yang Yunhai couldn't help but consider this possibility.
He paused, giving up on moving his body, and began meditating to check his internal soul power.
After a moment, he opened his eyes, pleasantly surprised.
"It actually worked!" Though very slight, he could clearly sense a tiny increase in his soul power.
"Let's see what's changed with my martial soul." Enduring the pain, he slowly raised his right hand. In the morning light, his withered skin was clearly visible.
"What the...?" Yang Yunhai was shocked.
He frowned slightly and summoned his martial soul.
Blue Silver Grass appeared in his palm. Its appearance hadn't changed much, except that the leaves were now pointing stiffly upward, looking more like hard blades than tender shoots.
"It looks... like it's been electrocuted?" He reached out with his other hand and touched the leaf.
Sure enough, it was harder, no longer flexible like before.
Yang Yunhai went quiet. He didn't think this was a good sign. It reminded him of the tragic fate of the Thunderclap Hellvine soul beast.
Thunderclap Hellvines, depending on how they grew, usually self-destructed between 20,000 and 50,000 years of cultivation. Very few made it past 50,000 years. Historically, none had reached 100,000 years.
Why?
Besides the restrictions of the world, he believed it was related to their nature.
All plant-type soul beasts, and really all living beings, contained life attributes, just to varying degrees.
Among plant-type soul beasts, Blue Silver Grass could be divided into regular, Blue Silver King, and Blue Silver Emperor based on life force intensity. Animal-type soul beasts like the Emerald Swan likely had a similar hierarchy, even if less explicitly described.
What applied to soul beasts also applied to martial souls, this was why martial soul attributes could be classified as ordinary or extreme.
The Thunderclap Hellvine, a plant-type soul beast with an added lightning attribute, was a rare hybrid.
Its fate of self-destruction could be simply explained: its body wasn't strong enough to handle the accumulating lightning energy. A more detailed explanation would be that its life attribute was too weak compared to its overpowering lightning attribute, breaking the internal balance.
And lightning, being highly unstable and destructive, would explode if the balance tipped.
This could happen with other extreme-attribute soul beasts too.
Too much fire: self-immolation. Too much earth: petrification. And so on.
"So... is my martial soul like this now? Did I absorb too much lightning energy in one go, and the two attributes are now unbalanced?" Yang Yunhai thought to himself. "Life energy is gentle—even if there's too much, the worst result is probably... being too vigorous every night. But lightning? That's a one-way ticket to explosion."
"Of course, it's also possible my life attribute has been squeezed out completely, and now my martial soul is purely lightning-based."
"After all, a martial soul isn't a real soul beast."
He fell silent, then withdrew his martial soul.
"Forget it. Life energy is too valuable, I can't afford to lose it."
"My martial soul and body are only stiff right now. It's not too serious. As long as I stop drawing lightning and stick to normal cultivation methods, my soul power will grow, and the life attribute will naturally increase. I should find a place with lots of Blue Silver Grass to cultivate, might help the life attribute recover faster."
"After some time, once balance is restored, both the martial soul and my body should gradually return to normal."
At this thought, he couldn't help but grumble aloud:
"So my martial soul is basically a bargain-bin Thunderclap Hellvine?"
"But it's not without advantages." A new idea occurred to him. "The Thunderclap Hellvine, as a soul beast, could only rely on time to build up its life energy. But I, as a human soul master, can hunt soul beasts with strong life attributes to gain soul rings and bones, like the Blue Silver Emperor's right leg bone."
"Or even the Blue Silver Emperor itself... And there are herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well too, those are plants. Maybe I should try?"
He paused, deep in thought.
"In terms of life energy, plant-type soul beasts are the most common. My martial soul is also plant-based, same origin. Absorbing plant-type soul rings could not only boost life force, but also toughness and hardness... Hmm, a control-type path seems promising."
"So which plant-type soul beasts should I hunt early on? And how should I combine soul skills?"
"Also... If cultivating outdoors on cloudy days draws lightning, what if it happens during a soul ring absorption on a rainy day? That could get dangerous. Is there a way to control or avoid that?"
He couldn't help falling into deep thought.
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