Chapter 293: The Attraction from the Core Area
High above Thunder Gorge, endless lightning erupted without pause. Then, as if drawn by something, it all surged toward a single point and submerged it completely.
At the very center where the dazzling lightning converged, Yu Tianlin hovered within the clouds in his Dragonized state, his dragon wings beating steadily. The crystalline Dragon horn on his forehead frantically devoured the lightning filling the sky. As this process continued, the Spirit Power fluctuations radiating from the black halo around him gradually grew stronger.
After an unknown amount of time, Yu Tianlin suddenly opened his eyes.
At that instant, the sharp light bursting from his pupils seemed to suppress the surrounding lightning itself.
"I only have about 10 percent of my Spirit Power left. I'll stop here for today."
Muttering to himself, Yu Tianlin ended his cultivation. With a flap of his dragon wings, he shot out of the clouds, reined in the lightning surrounding his body to make himself less conspicuous, and descended toward a certain location below.
Even so, he was still spotted by a flying Spirit Beast.
It immediately spread its wings and launched an attack.
This was a Lightning Winged Bird. Judging from its size, its cultivation had only just reached the 10,000 year level.
If he had been at full strength, Yu Tianlin could have dealt with a Lightning Winged Bird like this with ease. But now, with less than 10 percent of his Spirit Power remaining, it was genuinely dangerous.
Even so, when faced with the Lightning Winged Bird rushing at him, Yu Tianlin's expression did not change in the slightest. He did not even adjust his flight path to dodge, because he knew very well that nothing would happen to him.
Sure enough, in the next moment, a slender yet incomparably solid bolt of lightning shot up from below.
It brushed past Yu Tianlin and struck the Lightning Winged Bird beside him, instantly piercing its right wing. Lightning then exploded across its body, scorching it black and making it convulse as it plummeted downward.
Yu Tianlin was already completely used to this.
This was Yu Yuanzhen taking action.
During the time Yu Tianlin spent high in the sky absorbing heavenly lightning to increase the age of his 1st Spirit Ring, Spirit Beasts that did not know better would sometimes come to attack him. Every time, Yu Yuanzhen would handle them in exactly this way.
With the Spirit Beast gone, Yu Tianlin quickly descended. It did not take long before he arrived beside a towering cliff wall within Thunder Gorge, where he found a familiar cave entrance.
At the entrance, Yu Yuanzhen sat cross legged, wrapped in a layer of glowing blue purple light, clearly in the middle of cultivation. Yu Tianlin did not specifically call out to him and simply entered the cave at the side.
Although Yu Yuanzhen appeared to be cultivating, his senses were spread over the surroundings the entire time, allowing him to perceive everything outside. That was why he had been able to react instantly when Yu Tianlin was attacked by the Spirit Beast.
This cave within the cliff had been dug out by Yu Yuanzhen not long ago. It was quite spacious and served as a temporary place for the grandfather and grandson to rest.
Various preserved foods were piled inside. After entering, Yu Tianlin did not stand on ceremony and immediately grabbed some dried meat and began chewing.
As he ate, his thoughts gradually drifted.
The last time he had entered the core area of Thunder Gorge to hunt Spirit Beasts with the others, he had already noticed something strange the moment he saw the huge vortex at the center of the clouds. At the time, he had only felt a vague and subtle sense of familiarity. He had originally assumed it was just an illusion, but what happened afterward proved it was far from that simple.
When Yu Tianlin used the lightning in Thunder Gorge to temper his Spirit Ring and revealed the power of his external Spirit Bone, that subtle sense of familiarity suddenly intensified more than tenfold, becoming incomparably clear. It also made him understand that it had never been an illusion at all. On top of that, his own 1st Spirit Ring seemed to respond to some kind of summons, trembling faintly from time to time.
Although he still did not know why such a change had occurred, Yu Tianlin's intuition told him that it was definitely connected to the enormous cloud vortex hanging over the deepest part of Thunder Gorge.
Something inside seemed to be calling to him.
Calling to me? What exactly is going on?
Yu Tianlin felt puzzled.
Logically speaking, he had only come to Thunder Gorge a few times, and that cloud vortex had only appeared suddenly in the last few years. There should have been no connection between the two at all.
No matter what, I should go and investigate it when the time comes. Still, Grandpa said the center of the vortex is terrifying, so terrifying that even he cannot approach it. I probably can't either. But then again, if that place is truly calling to me, perhaps things will be different for me.
Yu Tianlin silently pondered this in his heart.
Thus, while thinking about these things, Yu Tianlin steadily finished the food in the cave.
By the time Yu Yuanzhen withdrew from cultivation, Yu Tianlin had already eaten his fill.
Seeing Yu Tianlin chewing on dried meat, Yu Yuanzhen asked, "How was it today?"
"The speed here in Thunder Gorge really is faster than in the Clan," Yu Tianlin replied. "Back in the Clan, it took 3 months to raise it by 10,000 years. But from the progress these past few days, here it should only take 2 months to gain 10,000 years."
"And I think the speed could become even faster if I enter the core area."
The place where Yu Tianlin was currently using lightning to temper his Spirit Ring was still outside the true core area. The heavenly lightning inside those clouds was already much stronger than in the Clan, but it still could not compare to the real core.
"The core area?" Yu Yuanzhen glanced at him. "I have no problem helping you deal with the Spirit Beasts that attack you, but can your body handle it? With your current physical constitution, can you really withstand the heavenly lightning in the core?"
"I think I'm close," Yu Tianlin said after thinking for a moment. "I'll try tomorrow. If I can't handle it, I'll immediately retreat."
Then he paused before asking, "But Grandpa, how has your cultivation been lately? Do you feel like you're close to a breakthrough?"
"It isn't that easy." Yu Yuanzhen raised his hand and drew over a piece of dried meat from a distance before taking a bite. "I'm trying to break through from Rank 97 to Rank 98. Just the accumulation of Spirit Power alone is already a huge problem. It will probably still take another 1 or 2 years."
1 or 2 years?
Yu Tianlin slowly nodded in understanding.
That was already very fast.
As long as Yu Yuanzhen could break through to Rank 98 before Spirit Hall launched the Spirit Hunting Operation, then things would basically be completely secure.
After the two exchanged a few more words, Yu Tianlin finished eating. He moved around slightly to help the food settle, then sat down and began meditating to cultivate his Spirit Power.
Life in Thunder Gorge was exactly this simple and monotonous.
Every day, he would fly high into the sky to use heavenly lightning to temper his Spirit Ring. Once his Spirit Power was exhausted, he would come back down to eat, then meditate to recover his Spirit Power and cultivate, repeating the same cycle over and over again.
.....
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