Chapter 58: First Attempt at Heavenly Lightning

As for the various misdeeds of the heretical cultivators, she would deal with them when she encountered them. In any case, she had already made up her mind that during this upcoming training journey outside, she would drag those heretical cultivators hiding in the gutters out into the light.

Wanting to scheme and stir up trouble in the shadows?

Impossible!

However, her primary task right now was still to attempt to refine and absorb the heavenly thunder.

Gu Mingxi chose to absorb the heavenly thunder inside her spatial domain. After all, the space was her own territory, making it much safer and more reassuring.

The moment Gu Mingxi entered the space and prepared to begin absorbing the heavenly thunder, both Xiaohua and Xiaobai hurried over to surround her.

Xiaobai scratched its head with its paw, asking, "Elder Sister, since you are going to absorb the heavenly thunder, shouldn't you make some preparations first..."

Xiaohua thought for a moment and suggested, "Elder Sister, why don't you go into the spiritual spring to absorb the heavenly thunder? If you get injured, the spiritual spring can help heal you..."

Go into the spiritual spring?

Xiaohua's suggestion...

Was not good at all!

Anyone who had lived through the modern era had studied physics; who didn't know that water conducts electricity? If she were to absorb heavenly thunder inside the spiritual spring, she would only end up getting electrocuted even worse.

If she still wanted to keep her precious little life, she had better stay far away from the spiritual spring.

Gu Mingxi twitched the corners of her mouth, patiently explaining to Xiaohua why she couldn't absorb heavenly thunder in the spiritual spring, and even demonstrating the consequences of lightning encountering water.

Gu Mingxi gathered a tiny bit of thunder spiritual energy and guided it into the spiritual spring. In an instant, a small patch of the spiritual spring water rippled violently, looking as if it were about to explode.

This spectacle truly opened Xiaohua's and Xiaobai's horizons.

They had never known that water could conduct electricity.

Xiaobai exclaimed, "Put that way, if cultivators with water spiritual roots and thunder spiritual roots fight together, wouldn't their combat power double?!"

Gu Mingxi imagined such a scene and nodded in agreement.

If she happened to encounter someone with a water spiritual root in the future, she could certainly give it a try; perhaps it could forge a formidable ultimate killing move.

Gu Mingxi stroked her chin. Maybe she didn't even need to find someone with a water spiritual root to cooperate; she could accomplish it all by herself.

Later on, she could have someone with a water spiritual root collect some spirit beads infused with water spiritual energy. If she used those, the effect should be just the same.

Never mind, let's put these thoughts aside for now; today she should focus on trying out the heavenly thunder.

(Author's note: It is only because there are no outsiders present right now. If there were outsiders, they would be able to see just how similar Gu Mingxi's and Xiaobai's movements were—truly deserving of being master and pet!)

Just like before, Gu Mingxi placed a Great Restoration Pill into Xiaohua's hands. The moment anything went wrong, Xiaohua was to immediately use the Great Restoration Pill to save Gu Mingxi.

After all, the act of absorbing heavenly thunder was something no cultivator had ever attempted before, and Gu Mingxi had no prior experience to rely on in her heart.

"Hoo..."

Gu Mingxi took a deep breath and looked down at the thunder spirit bead in her hand.

Because it had absorbed the heavenly thunder, the thunder spirit bead appeared exceptionally restless.

Gu Mingxi slowly circulated her spiritual energy, guiding a wisp of heavenly thunder out from the thunder spirit bead and into her body.

What did Gu Mingxi feel right now?

She felt nothing at all; she was directly electrocuted into a daze.

When Gu Mingxi used to absorb thunder spiritual energy, she was also frequently zapped by the overflowing thunder spiritual energy, and she had originally thought she had grown used to it. However, heavenly thunder and ordinary thunder spiritual energy were truly not things on the same level.

Xiaohua and Xiaobai surrounded Gu Mingxi, watching her with tense and nervous expressions.

Yet why was there no movement at all after the heavenly thunder entered her body?

Was this a good sign or a bad sign?

Just as Xiaohua and Xiaobai were beginning to grow anxious, Gu Mingxi finally showed some reaction.

"Ugh..."

Every single hair on Gu Mingxi's head stood on end, a puff of black smoke drifted from her mouth, and she stiffly toppled straight over onto the ground.

This scene frightened the spectators, Xiaobai and Xiaohua, to no small degree. Startled out of her wits, Xiaohua immediately picked up the Great Restoration Pill she was holding and prepared to stuff it into Gu Mingxi's mouth.

Seeing Xiaohua's action, Gu Mingxi was also startled. Feeling that she hadn't reached that desperate state yet, she hurriedly struggled and stretched out a hand to stop Xiaohua.

Seeing that Gu Mingxi could still move, Xiaohua and Xiaobai finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, they asked with eager curiosity, "Elder Sister, did this count as a success or a failure?"

Gu Mingxi pondered for a moment before replying, "A half-success, I suppose!"

What did a half-success mean?

Xiaohua and Xiaobai were completely baffled at the moment, finding it hard to make heads or tails of the situation. Success was success, and failure was failure; what was this half-and-half business?

Gu Mingxi fell silent for a moment, organized her phrasing, and continued, "My physical body can withstand the intensity of the heavenly thunder, but right now I can only store the heavenly thunder within my body and cannot actually use it, so it counts as a half-success!"

Xiaobai rummaged through its ancestral memories and discovered that no such situation had ever occurred within the White Tiger clan, so it had no idea how to help Gu Mingxi resolve this predicament.

Xiaobai said, "Elder Sister, there are no similar situations in my ancestral memories, so I cannot help you solve this problem..."

Gu Mingxi smiled nonchalantly. "It's fine, I'll ponder over it later. Absorbing heavenly thunder with a human body is a feat no one has ever attempted before, so it's only natural that there are no ready-made solutions..."

Seeing that Xiaobai was feeling a bit down, Gu Mingxi stepped forward to comfort it.

Gu Mingxi said, "You two go back to your own tasks; I'll figure it out myself here..."

"Alright!"

And so, Xiaohua went back to tend to the medicinal garden, while Xiaobai returned to continue its cultivation.

Gu Mingxi used her spiritual sense to look inward at her own body. That tiny wisp of heavenly thunder remained quietly stationed right inside her dantian.

Her dantian was now split into two sections: that tiny wisp of heavenly thunder occupied half of the dantian, while the remaining half was reserved for the ordinary thunder spiritual energy.

Gu Mingxi couldn't help finding it somewhat amusing as she looked at that other half. No matter how she looked at it, the ordinary thunder spiritual energy seemed to be crouching grievance-fully in its half of the dantian, not daring to provoke that tiny wisp of heavenly thunder in the slightest—which was enough to show just how terrifying heavenly thunder truly was.

Ordinary thunder-attribute spiritual energy and the heavenly thunder bestowed by the Dao were simply not on the same level.

However, just sitting on a supreme treasure without being able to use it was not a viable solution either.

Heavenly thunder was still thunder, and thunder spiritual energy was also thunder; there had to be some similarities between them.

Normally, the thunder spiritual energy used by human cultivators in their practice was also bestowed by the heavenly Dao, and heavenly thunder also belonged to the jurisdiction of the heavenly Dao. Just what was the fundamental difference between them?

Gu Mingxi sat cross-legged on the ground, lost in deep and bitter thought.