Splitting the Heavens-Chapter 2128: Depths of the Lightning Prison

Shang Xia had not expected that his greatest gain in coming to the Lightning Prison would not be the absorption of origin qi from the Nightmare Sea of Stars, but rather the discovery of new clues regarding the Eight Trigram Realm, granting him more than a single path beyond merely collecting origin qi from different Star Fields.

Although he had no intention of continuing the pursuit of He Jiubin, his heart was still filled with doubts about that man’s motives for attacking him in secret. Too bad for him, it wasn’t the time to pursue the truth.

After all, he was still in the Flood Star Region. As an outsider, he had to act with caution.

Moreover, having just grasped new information about his rank eight advancement formula, his attention was completely on it. Everything else had to be placed aside.

Once he had restored the energy spent in the earlier battle, Shang Xia once again ventured deeper into the Lightning Prison. He quickly discovered that the lightning within the sea of clouds was not actually silent. The deeper he went, the louder and more powerful the thunder grew, its force climbed to a new level, especially the pressure it put on his divine soul.

Yet after enduring those thunderous strikes upon both his body and soul, he could clearly sense his divine soul becoming purer and more condensed, drawing him several steps closer to true perfection.

At the same time, he was tempering his first martial intent, the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm!

His ability had already nearly reached the power threshold matching his cultivation realm, but under the unique conditions of the Lightning Prison, its refinement advanced even faster. It wouldn’t be long before he gained a third martial intent that matched his current cultivation level.

What puzzled Shang Xia, however, was that throughout the process, neither he nor the Crimson Soul Tablet had detected any further origin qi from the Nightmare Sea of Stars.

Although the tablet had already absorbed ample essence from the strange lightning sphere that had invaded his consciousness earlier, Shang Xia had always believed in preparing for the unexpected. Such energy might aid in restoring the tablet once and for all.

Beyond that, he had another goal. He wished to see for himself the void passage that connected the depths of the Lightning Prison to the Nightmare Sea of Stars, and perhaps encounter an expert from their Star Field.

Because He Jiubin’s ambush and the strange techniques he used left Shang Xia with a deeply unsettling suspicion, he felt an urgent need to meet one of those cultivators of the Nightmare Sea of Stars to verify his guess.

With that aim, Shang Xia advanced into the prison’s depths cautiously, moving forward a distance, adapting, then pausing to temper his soul and refine his One-Essence divine ability. Only after ensuring safety would he move on again.

Thus he proceeded, until he finally encountered once more a mass of lightning similar to the one He Jiubin had used. The instant it appeared, it shot directly toward his sea of consciousness.

This time, however, Shang Xia successfully stopped it before it could reach him with a blast from his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm.

His martial intent, which power was now nearing the limit of his cultivation, had already absorbed traces of the Lightning Prison’s own essence through continuous tempering.

Not stopping there, and drawing on his earlier experience of dispelling the lightning sphere, Shang Xia immediately followed up with his Divine Killing Spear.

The scattered filaments of lightning were caught and annihilated by his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm, while most of the origin qi of the foreign Star Field that had been released was absorbed by the Crimson Soul Tablet.

However, the peculiar lightning sphere contained far less power than the one from before, barely a fraction, perhaps one-eighth of the energy at most.

Even so, its appearance convinced Shang Xia that he was nearing the void passage linking the Lightning Prison to the Nightmare Sea of Stars.

He knew that the closer one drew to the core of the Lightning Prison, the more vital it was to remain calm. Thus, he slowed his pace once more, compressing his aura and concealing his presence, though he understood such stealth was nearly meaningless in a place like that.

Soon, he discovered another of those strange lightning spheres. After capturing and absorbing its essence, he found a third not long after.

This time, he didn’t even wait for it to strike. He attacked first.

At the same time, it only served to confirm his guess.

Yet... After destroying that third sphere, he advanced quite some distance without encountering another. It was as if the lightning spheres had sensed the danger and hidden themselves.

Believing he had passed by the actual passage, Shang Xia turned back along his path.

Indeed... Before long, he detected the presence of another such lightning sphere.

But before he could act, the scene before his eyes made his blood run cold.

Amid the churning clouds and flashing lightning serpents, over ten lightning spheres appeared at once, encircling him in a perfect ring.

“This...” Shang Xia’s heart tightened. Though he did not understand what was happening, he knew the first priority was to escape the encirclement and ensure his safety.

His figure flickered through the lightning-laden clouds, forcing his way hundreds of miles forward through the storm.

But the second he slowed down, those same ten-odd lightning spheres faintly reappeared around him, still enclosing him in their ring.

Without hesitation, Shang Xia struck. Pushing his palm forward, reddish-gold lightning flared, drawing the surrounding lightning down upon one of the flickering spheres before him.

Just as his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm was about to land, the ring of lightning spheres each released an arc of lightning from head to tail, linking together into a giant string of luminous beads.

His strike landed on one sphere, but the power it contained was instantly dispersed among all the others. Apart from the faint dimming of their glow, none were harmed.

Worse still, the connected spheres began to contract rapidly, clearly intent on imprisoning Shang Xia within them.