Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 277
Lightning Star Sea Breakthrough to Advanced Tier Three (Calamity Thunder Core)
The ninety-ninth stone step of the Kunlun Ancient Tower felt biting cold beneath Lin Feng’s soles.
As his final step landed, the thick sea of clouds that had obstructed his vision since the eighth floor suddenly parted to either side, as if a giant invisible hand had violently pulled back the curtain separating heaven and earth. The space flung wide open into a pristine, dizzyingly vast expanse of firmament.
On the previous eight floors, every single step meant facing countless ferocious ancient battle illusions, with demonic beasts roaring until ear drums threatened to split. But on this ninth floor—the absolute peak of the Kunlun Ancient Tower—not a single shadow of weapon or armor remained, nor did any guardian phantom appear.
Here, there was only a bone-chilling stillness, accompanied by the pungent scent of ozone and scorched metal weaving through every breath.
At the summit of the tower sat an enormous octagonal ritual altar suspended amidst the sea of Kunlun clouds. There were no guardrails of any kind, only endless abysses and razor-sharp gales howling year-round. Looking up, the dome of heaven was draped in a massive, slowly rotating black cloud vortex that stretched from right overhead all the way into the endless reaches of the void.
And right at the dead center of that octagonal altar, a heaven-shaking spectacle struck Lin Feng’s eyes directly.
It was a vast pool roughly a hundred zhang across, ringed by pitch-black megaliths engraved with ancient wind-thunder runes. What surged and churned within the pool was by no means water.
It was lightning.
To be precise, it was an ancient thunder marsh condensed into a viscous, liquid state, radiating a blindingly brilliant radiance: the heavenly Gang Thunder Pool!
Billions of thunder liquid waves rolled and slammed against the stone banks, emitting booming sounds like battle drums that shook heaven and earth. The deep violet of nine-heavens wrath thunder, the golden yellow of solar divine thunder, and the silvery-white streaks of void lightning intertwined in layer upon layer. Each time a thunder bubble surfaced and burst, a dragon-shaped electric arc shot skyward, shrieking as it tore the dark clouds apart and leaving behind pitch-black spatial fissures that lingered for several breaths.
This was where the lightning of the nine heavens had accumulated over tens of thousands of years across the Kunlun mountain range. The pure destructive pressure radiating from the surface of the pool was so heavy that the surrounding air felt as thick as lead. Any mortal soul standing before this precipice, merely sensing that ultimate destructive might, would shiver and wish to prostrate themselves in terror.
“Ooh... Woof!”
Inside the left side of Lin Feng’s chest, the Primordial Dragon Talisman trembled violently. Golden light burst forth from the talisman, enveloping him in a warm barrier of light as if shielding its master from the crushing might of heaven and earth.
Yet, the reaction within Lin Feng’s body was not primarily driven by the Dragon Talisman.
Deep within his spiritual sea, the Lightning System’s Star Sea—which had steadily rested at Advanced Tier Two—was suddenly stirred as if by an invisible hand, churning with monstrous waves!
The 343 purple-black lightning star grains arranged in their stellar map within his spiritual sea blazed like stars on the brink of supernova. They spun at a terrifying speed, emitting the piercing hum of a high-voltage electric field. In particular, the black-purple flame reigning at the core of the star sea—the Nirvana Thunder Seed—was usually proud and cold, but now it roared frantically, releasing shockwaves that demanded to shatter its master’s ribcage and burst forth into the open!
It yearned! A primordial, instinctive yearning welling from the deepest origins of lightning!
To Lin Feng’s Lightning System, this Heavenly Gang Thunder Pool was no death trap, but a magnificent millennium feast—a supreme divine medicine capable of shattering every boundary shackle!
Lin Feng stood imposing by the stone bank, his black hair whipping wildly in the gale and electric fields. His eyes perfectly mirrored the dazzling, brutal brilliance of millions of lightning bolts resting at the bottom of the pool, devoid of even a shred of fear. Instead, deep within his pupils burned a towering flame of ambition.
Ever since stepping into the Advanced tier, despite wielding the Nirvana Thunder Seed and surviving countless life-or-death battles, his Lightning System Star Sea had remained stubbornly locked at Advanced Tier Two. The gap between Tier Two and the Advanced Tier Three peak felt like a mere step away, yet it stood as an unyielding fortress wall that tens of thousands of mages spent lifetimes unable to cross without a heaven-defying fortuitous encounter.
And that exact encounter was surging right before his eyes at this very moment!
“Since I’ve made it all the way here, how could I turn back?”
Lin Feng chuckled softly, his crisp yet heroic laughter echoing amidst the rolling thunder atop the Kunlun summit.
Without the slightest hesitation, he stepped forward, planting his bare foot directly onto the surface of the Heavenly Gang Thunder Pool!
Screech! Boom!
The instant Lin Feng’s foot touched the viscous thunder liquid, the entire surface of the pool instantly boiled like boiling oil meeting cold water!
Thousands of purple-gold lightning bolts, acting like famished pythons catching the scent of flesh, snapped their heads up simultaneously, letting out ear-piercing screeches as they lashed toward him. In the blink of an eye, Lin Feng’s body was completely swallowed within a blinding, colossal sphere of lightning.
Crack! Crack!
A tearing, gut-wrenching agony instantly erupted across his entire body, transmitting from every nerve ending deep into his marrow. The millennia-accumulated Heavenly Gang Divine Thunder contained the pure destructive might of the heavenly dao, a hundred times sharper and more brutal than any man-made lightning.
Every single muscle fiber in Lin Feng’s body tightened to the absolute limit. The skin on his arms and shoulders cracked open in long fissures, and fresh blood barely oozing out was instantly vaporized into wisps of faint red smoke by the terrifying heat of the lightning. Lightning crazily drilled into his pores and snaked through his acupuncture points, acting like ten thousand red-hot steel needles piercing his meridians simultaneously.
Had it been an ordinary mage—even an Advanced-tier Lightning master—dipping so much as a single toe into this thunder marsh for half a breath would have instantly incinerated them to ashes, leaving their soul scattered without a trace of debris.
Yet Lin Feng was no ordinary mortal! His physical shell had just undergone extreme cleansing and tempering from the Kunlun Ice Marrow and the Primordial Divine Spring.
The ancient dragon blood within his veins was stimulated by the destruction, instantly boiling furiously. Every single cellular tissue of his body that had been torn apart by the heavenly lightning was immediately regenerated by the astonishing vitality of his dragon blood at a pace visible to the naked eye. The newly regenerated skin possessed a glossy bronze hue, sturdy as dragon scales, heroically resisting the ravages of the thunder tide.
“Tear me apart? You lot aren’t qualified!”
Lin Feng let out a low roar deep in his throat. Amidst the chaotic thunderstorm, he continued taking steady strides like a mountain, marching straight toward the epicenter of the thunder pool.
The thunder liquid rose to his calves, his knees, and then his waist.
Finally, right at the spot where the thunder liquid churned most violently in the center of the pool, Lin Feng spun around and sat cross-legged upon a submerged stone platform deep beneath the surface of the lightning liquid!
His entire form was completely submerged within the nine-heavens sea of lightning.
Lin Feng closed his eyes tightly, banishing all distractions. He circulated his meditation technique, opening all 720 acupoints across his body to transform himself into a gigantic funnel sucking dry the energy of heaven and earth!
“Lightning Star Sea, open for me!”
A thunderous shout echoed from within his consciousness.
Inside his spiritual sea, the spiritual gate flew wide open. The torrential Heavenly Gang thunder liquid surged like a flood finding its outlet, pouring crazily into Lin Feng’s body through every acupoint, tracing his meridians, roaring straight into the Lightning System Star Sea!
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Lin Feng’s star sea was originally a deep, purple-black ocean of magic energy where 343 star grains were arranged in perfect stellar map orbits. Yet when the violent Heavenly Gang energy poured in, the entire ocean of magic energy instantly stirred into waves hundreds of zhang high!
A fierce rejection erupted.
The Heavenly Gang Divine Thunder belonged to the heavens above, possessing an extremely righteous, yang-heavy, arrogant, and destructive nature. Meanwhile, Lin Feng’s Nirvana Thunder Seed was a mutant thunder variety bearing the attribute of nirvana, corroding and crushing vitality. The two supreme lightning forces met like water and fire, refusing to yield to one another, directly turning Lin Feng’s Star Sea into a battlefield for violent collision!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Wave after wave of mental shockwaves exploded within Lin Feng’s mind, causing his soul to vibrate violently, his eardrums to ring, and a trickle of fresh blood to escape the corner of his mouth. This wave of pain was a direct tearing assault upon his soul—the deepest and most fragile sanctuary of a mage. If he failed to subjugate and fuse these two forces, the sole outcome would be the explosion of his star sea, reducing him to a cripple or leaving him dead without a whole corpse!
“You want to devour my spiritual sea? In your dreams!”
Lin Feng’s face hardened, coldness and relentless tenacity showing plainly across every feature. At that razor-thin moment of life or death, an ironclad, unyielding will erupted as he decisively activated the Primordial Dragon Talisman.
Deep within his soul, a deep, ancient dragon roar resounded. A gigantic golden ancestral dragon phantom coiled up behind Lin Feng’s back, radiating the absolute majesty of the lord of all creatures.
The moment the dragon’s majesty descended, the rampaging Heavenly Gang Divine Thunder tearing through his spiritual sea froze dead in its tracks for a fraction of a second!
Seizing that opportunity, Lin Feng drove the Nirvana Thunder Seed with all his might.
“Taking Nirvana as the root, Heavenly Gang as the bone! Star grains revolve, refine for me!”
Under Lin Feng’s masterclass manipulation down to every single thread of magic energy, the black-purple flame of the Nirvana Thunder Seed soared ten thousand zhang high, transforming into a dark abyssal maw that began swallowing the golden-yellow and silvery-white currents of Heavenly Gang lightning.
Swallow it down, grind it to pieces, and forge it anew!
Every single one of the 343 Lightning System star grains plunged into the epicenter of the fusing flame. Under the scouring of the nine-heavens thunder liquid, impurities within the star grains were burned away cleanly. Their size did not shrink; instead, they swelled several times over!
Every single star grain, after bathing in the thunder liquid, underwent a complete transformation. The original purple-black hue of the Nirvana Thunder Seed was gradually cloaked in a dazzling golden rim of Heavenly Gang Divine Thunder, while intricate silver patterns of void lightning were embedded within. They became dense and rock-solid, resembling genuine blocks of materialized electric diamond.
The magic energy within the star sea surged at a maddening pace. The magical ocean roared in waves, slamming forcefully against the invisible boundary barrier of his realm!
Crack...
A crisp sound echoed deep within Lin Feng’s consciousness. He felt the barrier shaking, his heart pounding with powerful beats. Outside, the lightning vortex of the Heavenly Gang Thunder Pool spun at a dizzying speed, forming a colossal electricity funnel centered on Lin Feng’s body. Millions of lightning arcs from all four directions plummeted wildly toward his head, illuminating the dome of the Kunlun Ancient Tower in a glorious purple-gold radiance.
Gales roared, and the space surrounding the octagonal altar trembled violently.
Ten minutes passed. Half an hour passed.
All 343 Lightning System star grains completed their metamorphosis, arranging themselves into a magnificent Grand Thunder God Stellar Constellation diagram within his spiritual sea. The magical star sea expanded to its absolute limit, swollen tight like a lightning sphere compressed so heavily it was on the verge of bursting!
The time was ripe!
“Break for me!”
A roar that tore the clouds apart burst from Lin Feng’s chest!
BOOM ————!
A heaven-shattering explosion erupted from deep within his soul!
The fragile barrier blocking Advanced Tier Three shattered like a mirror falling from the heights onto stone flags, instantly splintering into billions of tiny specks of light!
The moment the barrier shattered, an unprecedented, supreme wave of exhilaration spread across Lin Feng’s entire body and soul. It was the complete liberation of power! The sublimation of life itself!
The Lightning System Star Sea within his consciousness abruptly expanded dozens of times over! The purple-black ocean of magic energy surged with tsunamis ten thousand zhang high, and the 343 Lightning System star grains shone brilliantly like 343 mini lightning suns suspended across the sky of his consciousness, emitting a string of melodious resonance sounds like a divine hymn descending upon the world!
Advanced Tier Three!
His Lightning Star Sea officially broke through to Advanced Tier Three—the consummate peak of Advanced mages!
With merely a step further, overcoming the heavenly lightning tribulation, he would officially step into the venerable ranks of the Super Tier, becoming a grand grandmaster wielding humanity’s forbidden powers!
Yet Lin Feng’s sublimation did not stop merely at the massive increase in pure magic energy capacity.
The moment the 343 star grains completed the fusion between the Nirvana Thunder Seed and the Heavenly Gang Divine Thunder, a terrifying qualitative change began unfolding at the center of the star sea. The formless purple-black lightning arcs abruptly began to condense, pressing tightly together under the immense pressure of magic energy. They were no longer mere bolts of electricity capable only of explosions or burning; instead, they crystallized into physical, metallic-gleaming solid matter!
Sharp! Cold! Incomparably rigid!
A brand-new set of laws carrying an aura capable of cleaving all things suddenly etched itself deeply into Lin Feng’s soul:
”Nirvana Thunder Core!”
Lightning condensing into solid weaponized essence!
If a conventional mage’s ordinary lightning possessed only explosive and burning power, Nirvana Thunder Core was the flawless synthesis of lightning’s destructive might and the peerless sharpness of divine blades and armaments. It was a tangible weaponized essence that could transform at will, capable of slicing through any magic structure, grinding away defensive magic armor, and even cleaving actual spatial reality!
Lin Feng slowly opened his eyes.
Screech!
Two deep purple lightning beams edged in diamond shot straight out of his eyes, tearing the space ahead into two black grooves more than ten zhang long, emitting a piercing screech!
The aura shrouding his body had completely transformed at this moment. Thick purple-black lightning coiled around him like ancient Thunder God battle armor. Razor-sharp wisps of thunder essence fluttered around his fingertips like blades, clinking with an eerie metallic chime whenever they brushed against one another.
The blazing pressure radiating from his body shook the space atop the Kunlun Ancient Tower so severely that the dark clouds above were torn into a massive circular gap, revealing the deep blue sky of the nine heavens!
Lin Feng gently raised his index finger, and a slender, hair-thin purple-black thunder arc immediately condensed at his fingertip. All destructive power was compressed tightly within, causing the lightning to solidify into a transparent blade of weaponized essence radiating a chilling purple-gold glow.
Screech!
Lin Feng flicked his finger lightly. The blade of the Nirvana Thunder Core immediately darted outward with only a faint rustling sound like fine silk being torn apart.
Yet, the scene that followed next sent chills running down the spine!
Wherever the blade of thunder essence flew, the space there was instantly slashed open into a black, gaping fissure. It chopped straight into an ancient wind-thunder stone pillar over three zhang thick at the edge of the octagonal altar. That wind-thunder stone pillar had originally been crafted from millennial Kunlun Mysterious Stone, harder than top-grade mysterious iron, making it difficult even for the full-strength blow of a peak Commander-level demonic beast to leave a scratch.
Yet before Lin Feng’s blade of Nirvana Thunder Core, that stone pillar was as soft as a block of tofu!
There was no resistance whatsoever. The blade of thunder essence effortlessly pierced straight through the body of the stone pillar, continuing outward into the void of the endless abyss before finally dissipating.
Boom!
The upper half of the gigantic stone pillar slid downward along a smooth-as-mirror cut, plunging straight into the bottomless abyss of the Kunlun range as billowing dust clouds kicked up!
Looking at the polished cross-section of the stone, where tiny purple-black thunder essence wisps were still faintly corroding the remaining stone fibers, the corners of Lin Feng’s mouth curled upward into a satisfied smile.
With this Nirvana Thunder Core, even when facing Monarch-level demonic beasts possessing the most abnormal defensive magic armor, he was fully confident he could shatter their protective barriers in a single strike and crush their life force from within!
This was truly the power of one standing at the peak of the Advanced Tier!
Right at this moment, strange sounds suddenly echoed all around.
Crack... Crack... Crack...
The hundred-zhang-wide surface of the Heavenly Gang Thunder Pool had now dried up entirely. The entirety of the nine-heavens thunder liquid accumulated over ten thousand years had been cleanly absorbed by Lin Feng and the Nirvana Thunder Seed without a single drop remaining.
As the thunder liquid vanished, the bottom of the pool revealed a pitch-black bronze formation plate engraved with deeply sunken, blindingly complex ancient magic runes.
And right at the center of that bronze formation plate where Lin Feng had just sat cross-legged, an octagonal cylindrical seal suddenly cracked open with massive fissures.
Clang! Clang! Smash!
Heavy iron chains rubbing against one another echoed from deep within the earth, carrying a chilling and utterly evil aura that stood in stark contrast to the righteous yang aura of the lightning moments before!
From the cracks of the formation plate, an inky-black, viscous vapor slowly rose, accompanied by a muffled sigh that had remained buried across countless epochs:
“Ten thousand years... Has the lightning tribulation finally run dry...”
Lin Feng narrowed his eyes, his entire body instantly entering a state of high alert. The Nirvana Thunder Core around him hissed and clinked, his sharp gaze staring intently down at the pitch-black fissure beneath his feet.
Beneath the Kunlun Ancient Tower... just what heaven-shaking monster was being sealed?