The Spiritual Thunderstorm is one of the Thunder Clouds' Sect's greatest treasures. In fact, it was the main reason the founder of the sect built it. The thunderstorm produced resources soaked in Thunder and Lighting Qi, and they had created techniques that could only be practiced there or at least another ambient that was soaked in Thunder and Lighting Qi.

So naturally, other sects that practiced the Thunder Arts eyed it with greed in their eyes. But among them, none came close to the Heavenly Thunder Sect. In their minds, the Spiritual Thunderstorm belonged to them, alongside all the other treasures of the sect.

But today that didn't matter as, thanks to rapidly spreading news, the Heavenly Thunder Sect would not interfere with any matter of the Thunder Clouds Sect for five years. Of course, after that it was fair game, that they would be even more vicious was also expected.

After all, was not their young master and number one genius Zou Xiaosi, left humiliated and being between life and death after his fight with Xue Tengfei, his rival of so many years?

And so with that in mind, the Sect Master and the Elders of the Sect, planned for the inevitable counterattacks of the Heavenly Thunder Sect, assigning more cultivators to important areas and expanding their spy network and the search for more resources and opportunities. All Immortal Worlds had a myriad amount of resources that could be used. They were of varying quality to the inhabitants of the Immortal Realm. But even the most poor of them would be useful.

What they didn't know is that the greatest resource of the entire Sect's history was about to be used, and it was not to just help with the cultivation of a royal prince, but also to unveil the secret that only four knew.

Thunder Clouds Sect - The Spiritual Thunderstorm

The moment he stepped into the Spiritual Thunderstorm, Feng Cai felt like he had just returned home. Even as he did something as simple as breathing, he could feel his cultivation rising. If that was just what he felt when he wasn't cultivating, what would be like when he was?

'Besides, this is just the entrance point' He though. 'The place where the Qi Gathering disciples come to either cultivate or train their techniques, it is not the deeper parts, reserved for the Core Disciples, Elders, and Sect Master.' He looked at his group; four cohorts of the Silver Tigers' Royal Legion, Elder Zeng, and Xue Lihua. Xue Tengfei had wanted to come as well, but had been refused.

Even if he was the brother of Xue Lihua, he had neglected her practically her entire life, so it wasn't a good idea to have him come with them. According to Elder Zeng, who was more experienced in these matters, so Feng Cai let it go. Elder Zeng brought him out of his thoughts.

"My Prince, we shall arrive shortly at the desirable location," Elder Zeng said. He simply nodded at his words, still half-stuck in the trance he had even since he walked in the thunderstorm.

With each step they took, the sensation he felt grew stronger. Deep inside, he felt something wanting to come out. Those must be his Spiritual Veins. The mark of a true cultivator is the fact that they can 'release' the power hidden inside their veins, boosting their power considerably, practically if it was of the same element of their cultivation method or a technique that they had.

An example of this was Feng Wei and Zou Xiaosi, who used their respective veins to make their elemental attacks stronger than they should be.

Feng Cai had only opened his Spiritual Veins once, when he started cultivating a few months back. It was the test of his imperial instructors to know how powerful his veins were. He didn't disappoint.

The room they were in had been turned to ash, thanks to the powerful current of lightning. After that he was forbidden of opening his veins unless strictly necessary, after all other forces could see that he had Sacred-Level Spiritual Veins if he opened them.

After that, they quietly forgot the matter as Feng Cai continued his cultivation path. Which was easier than he thought it would be. Sure, discovering the Eight Extraordinary Meridians took some time, but he didn't spend years in the Qi Gathering Stage, which cultivators needed to form a Qi circulatory system using their meridians.

While doing so wasn't that difficult for cultivators of the Immortal Realm, Feng Cai had read once in the Imperial Library that in some worlds of the Mortal Realm, the peak of the Qi Gathering Stage was considered being supreme. Of course, those worlds were still very young and didn't have the amounts of Qi to advance to next stage yet.

If things continued like this, he would probably enter the Core Realm much faster than he predicted. Of course, when advancing to the Core Realm, the cultivator would undergo a minor tribulation, so he must first prepare for that before advancing.

"My Prince, we are here. " Elder Zeng's voice brought him out of his thoughts. The area they were now in was reserved solely for the Core Disciples of the Thunder Clouds Sect. The bolts of lighting that descended upon those that stayed here could reduce any below Foundation Establishment Realm to dust. And even then, they would have to be careful.

Even Feng Cai, who had a natural protection against elemental attacks that carried Lighting Qi in them and was in the Foundation Establishment Realm, could feel the pressure the area gave him. Beside him, from the corner of his vision, he saw the slightly trembling form of Xue Lihua.

It was at that moment that Feng Cai felt like facepalming, as if the pressure of the place was hard enough for him who was in the Half-Step Spiritual Pillar Stage. Then how hard it was to Xue Lihua, who was only in the second step of the Qi Gathering Realm. It must be even worse to her than it was to him.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

Xue Lihua looked at him in shock before she concealed, though it wasn't fast enough to make him think it was just an illusion, she seemed to be genuinely surprised he was concerned with her well being "I... admit that I am not feeling very well, I have never ventured this far into the thunderstorm"

"I see. " Considering both her status within her Sect and her cultivation base, that wasn't surprising. "Do you need some help?"

"It is improper of me to burden you, My Prince."

"Nonsense, what type of senior brother would I be, if didn't help you"

Xue Lihua looked at him with confusion and with a bit of hope in her eyes "What do you mean by that, My Prince?"

"Look, I won't lie to you. After this, I am pretty sure you are coming with us back to the capital," Feng Cai said with seriousness in his voice.

"D-does this mean that I will be no longer part of the Thunder Clouds Sect?"

"Exactly, thought if you want to you can come back here, but this time as a disciple of the Imperial Academy," Feng Cai explained to Xue Lihua, who didn't look sad. In fact, she looked excited. 

"My Prince, Lady Lihua, everything is ready," Elder Zeng called out, bringing them out of their conversation. Feng Cai did not notice the odd glint in his eyes. The Silver Tigers had moved across the area, making sure that 

Both Feng Cai and Xue Lihua sat in front of each other, and assumed the lotus position. Immediately Elder Zeng moved towards Xue Lihua and put a palm on her back. Through his Spiritual Sense he saw the God-Kin seal present in her Dantian. It wasn't surprising that Xue Lihua Sect had never discovered it; it was intertwined with her very essence, though not to where it would be harmful if it was removed. Clearly, it was removed at some point. Likely by her mother.

Though why did the Xue Lihua's mother didn't simply take the child with her or returned to take the girl with her and break the soul later was still a mystery, and something that Elder Zeng would investigate later. After all, he was very curious why her mother would leave her in the Thunder Clouds Sect. Elder Zeng was certain that Xue Tengfei did not have God Qi, or he too would have a seal that would greatly imper his cultivation, but alas, only his sister gained the power of the gods.

Elder Zeng sent a pulse of his own Spiritual Power into the seal, who promptly cracked and break. He rapidly left her and the Ninth Prince position and watched the show.

The reaction was nigh-instant, as Xue Lihua started emitting a fierce golden glow. It was a rather good thing Elder Zheng had deployed a concealing formation. If he didn't, it was likely every single expert on the area would have come running towards the Spiritual Thunderstorm thinking that some sort of heavenly treasure had appeared. Not that they would be wrong.

Sensing this, Feng Cai cultivated as well, and while he didn't have a golden glow like Xue Lihua, if one notice closely they would see how the spiritual fluctuations around him seemed to become erratic. It was something that was actually very normal thanks to his cultivation method, which no one exactly knew where it came from. But even then, his family and attendees payed no mind. There were some cultivation methods that made the user combust into flames when they cultivate it after all.

From the turbulent skies above, two purple bolts of lightning came down and hit the two young cultivators. But something was wrong. While Feng Cai seemed perfectly fine as he assimilated the power in the lightning bolt, Xue Lihua was not. The problem didn't lay in the lightning bolt but on the God Qi that lay in inside her.

It had been suppressed at birth, making so that under the seal, it grew without control. The current quantities were far larger than Xue Lihua's body could contain, as the seal had prevented it from interacting with hidden power inside. In simple words, her body was suffering rejection from the power that was always inside her. And that was something that Feng Cai noticed.

'As I thought, the seal should have been broken much later, or with the help of some artefact to help her stabilize her power.' Feng Cai thought, looking at her slowly crumbling body. 'Fortunately I can help with it... I hope.'

Feng Cai extended his hand, and from it came grey wisps, those were the rolling mists that existed inside him, a benefit from his cultivation method. The Chaos Ascension Primordial Scripture allowed him to absorb other cultivation methods into it with zero rejection rate, something he had used in the past to quickly learn any technique that caught his eye. He would bring the mist outside his body, which would them envelop the Scripture and the information would be sent directly to his brain.

He had never tried this method in forms of Qi, mainly because he never really thought about doing it, as the dangers of absorbing a type of Qi your body was not actually compatible were pretty well known. The most famous example was about an old cultivator that had once tried to gain mastery over the five elements and become a supreme being. His body imploded. The explosion was so large it could have been seen on other worlds.

So he wasn't feeling great about the thought of dying, but having the power reserved solely for the gods was simply too great of a temptation for him. And so he sent the grey wisps to absorb the God Qi of Xue Lihua. He expected some king of pain or agony, as those immeasurable power ups in the novels he read had something like that every time the protagonist found some kind of awesome ancient power in some mountain or cavern, that they randomly found.

But instead he felt... warmth? It was a strange sensation, the closest he could find. It was like experiencing every food he found tasty in this and his previous life at the same time. Even if he considered the food of the cultivation world much better. Thought to be fair to the chiefs and cooks of Earth, all beasts and plants subconsciously absorbed Qi. This enchanted their taste of beyond what it would consider normal back on Earth.

The effects were nigh-instant, as Xue Lihua stopped trembling and the golden glow around her body becoming more orderly. Seeing this, Feng Cai focused back on his cultivation. As he did so, he notice thick golden line that was enveloping his Spiritual Altar. Was it a manifestation of the God Qi he had absorbed? There was no other plausible explanation.

Deciding to ignore this for now, he focused back on his cultivation.

More and more lightning bolts descended from the sky, hitting Feng Cai with enough force to reduce the average cultivator to ash. It was very fortunate that he wasn't an average cultivator. As he possessed Sacred Thunder Spiritual Veins, he could easily absorb a Lightning Bolt, even if it more powerful than himself.

There was a shift in his altar and from it rose nine grey pillars of pure Qi. He was now officially in the Spiritual Pillar Stage. But he knew he could do more than that, and so he continued absorbing the Qi of the lightning bolts. It was slow and steady but it wielded the results, and from the grey mists that surrounded his Altar, now formed a Crucible.

Feng Cai was now in the Spiritual Crucible Stage. He had jumped two minor realms in minutes, something that would be surprising even back in the capital. One must understand that cultivating faster than necessary can cause cracks to form in their cultivation base. Making so that there is the danger that they can lose their cultivation and, at best, they had to start from scratch. So that Feng Cai had advanced that quickly should have been a note of concern.

But he had absorbed a considerable quantity of God Qi, who patched up any damage that appeared, even those that came before the event and that he wasn't aware of even existed. But as he would find later, that at came a cost.

But that didn't matter. Right now Feng Cai had stopped cultivating, which caused the Lighting Bolts to stop their barrage, and was now marveling at his progress. He probably could have entered the Core Realm, but that would have triggered a tribulation, and that was something he only wished to face with preparation and not rushing, thinking that he could survive it with no difficulties.

He wasn't a protagonist after all. He couldn't simply find a random superpowered artifact by simply walking down the street or going to an auction!

 He put those thoughts aside and looked at Xue Lihua, who had finished cultivating and now had a smile on her lips. "Xue Lihua, I see that you have finished cultivating. How do you feel?"

"My Prince, I feel better than before"

He smiled at that. "I see. So how far have you reached thanks to this fortunate event?" Thanks to her status as the protagonist, and someone that had God Qi in their veins, it would make sense that she had advanced quite far, like mid or peak stage of the Qi Gathering Realm-

"Spiritual Altar Stage"

'... What' Feng Cai thought, astounded by what he just heard. He looked at her with fresh eyes. One thing was reading it, another seeing it by yourself. This girl who was stuck in the Second Step of the Qi Gathering Stage her entire life has now jumped straightforward to another major realm in the blink of an eye. 'Truly frightening!'

Before he could say at least something about that, Elder Zeng spoke up. "My Prince, Lady Lihua, I think it is time we return"

"Yes, I agree with that" Feng Cai trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice, which as it seemed like no notice, he successes'd. But really, the speed of Xue Lihua cultivating was honestly frightening. Feng Cai now really hoped that he didn't meet some of the more murderhobo type of protagonists, as in those that killed everyone as much looked them wrong and their entire families.

But as he got back, he calmed down. After all, the world was vast. As he walked his path, what were the chances that he would ever meet with someone like that?

AlucardV

I though I would finish it Sunday, but that didn't happen, but it is now here, Now if you excuse I shall sleep.