Inside the small world of the Sword Tower, it took Xu Xian fourteen days to finally complete the construction of the fifth floor.
He had spent over 150 million spirit stones, and both the Immortal Soul and the Five Elements Saint Soul had been refined into its structure.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked up.
In the world shrouded by the sea of clouds, the five-story building stood tall and majestic, white as jade.
The door to the newly built fifth floor slowly opened, revealing lightning flickering faintly within, drifting about as if barely there...
Xu Xian spoke softly, "Is the fifth sword of the lightning-attribute?"
Without hesitation, he stepped into the Sword Tower. In the next second, the world shifted, and he appeared within the Sword Mound.
At the Divine Sword Pool,
The Old Tortoise was still snoring away in a deep sleep, but Xu Xian's arrival startled it.
Rarely did the boy's true body visit in person, so the Old Tortoise hurriedly stood up, beaming with a fawning smile, hoping to butter him up and strengthen their bond.
"Oh, Brother Xian, you've come!"
Unfortunately,
He was met with a cold shoulder.
Xu Xian acted as if he hadn't even seen the turtle, heading straight toward the eight sealed ancient swords.
The Old Tortoise felt a bit dejected.
Why so cold?
Sensing the atmosphere was a bit off, he looked toward where the youth was heading.
Among the eight swords, one was showing signs of movement.
The blade was trembling, and the cold chains surrounding it were rattling.
A thought flashed through the Old Tortoise's sea of consciousness...
Could it be,
That he's going to pull out another sword?
How many days has it been?
It had only been a month since he pulled out the fourth sword in the Cloud-Marsh World.
To step onto the platform and take another sword today, could it be...
The Old Tortoise felt his own thoughts were a bit absurd, until Xu Xian actually grasped the hilt of that sword.
The Old Tortoise knew,
His guess was likely right on the mark.
He subconsciously swallowed hard and muttered to himself.
"Is he really about to reach the tribulation transcendence stage?"
It took him two years to get from the seventh stage to the eighth stage.
But from the eighth to the ninth, it's only been a month?
Who on earth cultivates faster the further they go?
This is ridiculous.
"Maybe I'm overthinking it. To reach the ninth stage, one must face a Lightning Tribulation, after all,"
He whispered to himself.
On the other side, the moment Xu Xian grasped the blade, the same scene played out once again.
Once more, his divine sense soared through the unknown Star Sea, crossing the barriers of time and space to witness a scene from long, long ago.
Its origin.
The birth of the sword.
It was an island suspended alone within a nebula.
It was exceptionally dazzling, its brilliance surpassing that of a great sun.
As his perspective slowly zoomed in,
Xu Xian discovered that it wasn't an island, but a thunder mass condensed from lightning.
Black clouds and white electricity were intertwined.
Thick pillars of lightning churned within, looking like giant dragons weaving through the mass.
The thunderous roars in his ears grew louder and louder, an unending cacophony.
Xu Xian approached the thunder mass, placing himself within the sea of lightning, passing through it...
It was as if a pair of invisible giant hands had parted the layers of thunderclouds and lightning, revealing the true form within.
The world inside the thunder mass was laid bare.
A golden Thunder Pool hung within it, radiating a divine glow.
The golden Thunder Pool was filled with a golden liquid, shimmering brightly.
Inside,
Ten-colored thunder dragons swam leisurely.
Some wove through the liquid carelessly.
Others slept out of boredom.
Thunder island.
Thunderclouds.
Thunder Pool.
Golden Thunder Pool liquid...
Ten-colored thunder dragons...
Unfamiliar scenes, unfamiliar terms, and unfamiliar knowledge points slowly flashed through his mind and surged through his heart...
As Xu Xian organized and processed the information, he gradually began to understand.
Legend has it.
There exist thunder lands in the universe, which form worlds of their own. Within these lands, Thunder Pools are nurtured, and inside the Thunder Pools, thunder dragons slumber...
When a living being in the world breaks through the shackles of the Great Dao, the Thunder Pool will, with the tacit permission of the Heavenly Dao, tear through the void, ignore spatial boundaries, and strike down Great Dao lightning.
The survivors attain the Dao.
The failures perish.
This is tribulation transcendence...
The Triple Lightning Tribulation of the ninth stage.
The Nine-Fold Lightning Tribulation of the Immortal Realm.
And further up, the Immortal King tribulation, the Immortal Emperor tribulation... and even the tribulation of the Extreme Path.
In ordinary tribulations, the lightning comes from beyond the heavens, permitted by the Heavenly Dao to fall, so one naturally cannot see this Thunder Pool.
However,
In the knowledge base Xu Xian had obtained, it was clearly recorded that when a being reaches the fifth stage of immortality, the Immortal King stage,
The Thunder Pool will manifest like a saint descending to the mortal world, reflecting across the heavens and arriving in the mortal realm, carrying an Immortal King tribulation capable of destroying worlds.
According to the records,
Thunder Pools are also categorized by grades and types.
There are purple ones.
Black ones.
Red ones.
Azure ones...
And naturally, there are golden ones, just like the one before Xu Xian's eyes.
If one were to rank them, the golden ones would absolutely reign supreme over all other Thunder Pools.
And a Thunder Pool like this one, which nurtured ten-colored thunder dragons,
Was an extremely rare existence.
At least,
It had never appeared during the Era of Primal Chaos.
Thunder dragons,
Are also thunder spirits.
A ten-colored thunder dragon meant that ten thunder spirits had been born within this Thunder Pool.
Thunder spirits are born from the Thunder Pool and nurtured within the lightning; their strength is formidable, far beyond what ordinary beings can compare to.
They are natural-born kings of the lightning-attribute.
During the early stages of the Era of Primal Chaos, many powerful beings would search for thunder lands in the Star Sea, taking Thunder Pools to refine them into artifacts.
Using them to enhance cultivation,
Or to guard their mountain gates,
It was not considered unusual.
Rumor had it that a branch of the God race had a crimson Thunder Pool stationed on their divine mountain.
An Immortal King level powerhouse, by driving the Thunder Pool, could kill across realms to slay an Immortal Emperor level powerhouse.
And if an Immortal Emperor drove the Thunder Pool, they would be invincible among peers of the same rank.
Of course,
These were all just rumors...
Xu Xian had never seen the truth of them.
However,
Lightning itself was overbearing and fierce, containing the power of nirvana, while a Thunder Pool, nurtured in a thunder land and favored by the Great Dao, was even more violent.
Even Immortal Emperor powerhouses would mostly keep a respectful distance and be unwilling to provoke one.
Those who dared to try and refine one were extremely few.
And among that tiny group, those who could successfully refine one were even fewer.
Most,
Were instead swallowed by the Thunder Pool and struck into dust.
The one before him was not only golden but also spanned ten thousand miles, like a continent, and it had even nurtured ten-colored thunder dragons—each one like a sky-reaching behemoth.
Once they awakened, a single one could destroy a world.
Such a Thunder Pool,
To try and refine it would likely be extremely difficult, perhaps even a pipe dream?
Xu Xian thought.
The fifth sword is related to this Thunder Pool, but surely it wasn't refined using this entire pool, right?
That would be too ridiculous.
While he was lost in thought, the images in his vision continued to shift.
The ten-colored thunder dragons suddenly jolted awake, their originally lazy expressions instantly turning ferocious.
The ten-colored thunder dragons all looked up at once, their gloomy eyes filled with nirvana. With just one glance, a single wisp of Xu Xian's divine sense trembled with fear.
The breath of death spread out.
Xu Xian felt a bit panicked.
They were so real, it was as if they had truly come back to life.
Fortunately,
They weren't looking at him, and their killing intent was not born because of him.
Instead, an uninvited guest had arrived, tearing through the thundercloud mass and heading straight for the Thunder Pool.
Among the ten-colored thunder dragons, the purple thunder dragon's eyes flickered with purple electricity as it let out a roar.
It actually leaped out of the pool and charged forward to kill.
"Awoo!"
The dragon's roar shook the heavens,
Purple electricity galloped across the sky, and the entire firmament seemed to shatter like jade. A terrifying majesty dominated the entire world.
A deep, low shout rang out in his ears.
"Bold mortal cultivator, to dare trespass into the Thunder Domain, you shall be executed!"
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