Over the next few days, Lu Ming did not go out, choosing instead to cultivate behind closed doors.
On ordinary days, he sparred with the hall's disciples to hone his divine abilities.
In this state of unceasing, diligent cultivation, on the third day after his duel with Luo An, Lu Ming finally sensed that the second Bone Refining of his Divine Ability Bone had reached absolute Great Perfection.
...
On a stone platform in the courtyard, Lu Ming sat cross-legged.
Boom!
With his eyes tightly shut, the primordial energy of heaven and earth surged toward him in an endless torrent, slipping into his body thread by thread through his breath. Immediately after, a profound, low rumble of thunder echoed from within him.
It was the Tiger-Leopard Thunderous Roar that signified the Great Perfection of Bone Refining!
The profound Tiger-Leopard Thunderous Roar rippled through Lu Ming's body. Wherever the soundwaves passed, every inch of his flesh vibrated, as if undergoing a similar tempering, becoming increasingly tough and resilient.
His blood surged like a roaring river, powerful and vigorous.
The transformation of the Divine Ability Bone did not merely increase one's primordial energy; it also amplified and strengthened every single part of the body.
This commotion lasted for a full half an hour.
When the final wisp of the primordial energy of heaven and earth poured into Lu Ming's body, his tightly closed eyes snapped open. Fire and lightning flashed in his eyes, exceptionally sharp and fierce.
With a swift movement, Lu Ming leaped down from the stone platform. Sensing the changes inside his body, the most obvious difference was the amplification of his primordial energy, and his physical strength had also risen to a whole new level.
He extended his palm, and as his primordial energy flowed, a foot-long blade of fire instantly flickered and surged forth. The fiery edge was condensed, searing and sharp.
Furthermore, the flames glowed with a faint green hue.
Flame Blade, Great Success!
This time, Lu Ming did not rely on the amplification of his Fire Lotus primordial energy at all, but purely on his own primordial energy.
Boom!
Lightning flashed beneath Lu Ming's feet, rapidly spreading from his soles up to his torso. In the next instant, with a rumble of thunder, his figure seemed to transform into a faint bolt of lightning, appearing at the other end of the courtyard.
This speed was more than twice as fast as before.
Lesser Lightning Flash, Great Success!
Sensing that both of his Lower Divine Abilities had stepped into the Great Success stage, Lu Ming's eyes filled with joy. His hard work during this period had finally paid off.
“If I convert my primordial energy into Fire Lotus primordial energy and use it to execute the Flame Blade, can I reach the Great Perfection stage?” Lu Ming's mind whirled, but he quickly shook his head and dismissed the thought.
A Lower Divine Ability at the Great Perfection stage was something even veteran disciples like Gao Yu, who had completed their third Bone Refining, had not achieved. Looking across the entire Thunderfire Hall, only Grand Divine Ability Practitioners like his father and second uncle could cultivate the Flame Blade to the Great Perfection stage.
Although the Fire Lotus primordial energy was pure and wondrous, it could not yet elevate his newly advanced Great Success Flame Blade to the Great Perfection stage.
However, Lu Ming believed that as his own primordial energy grew more abundant, that day would not be far off.
“Not bad. In less than twenty days, you have reached the Great Perfection of your second Bone Refining, and both your Flame Blade and Lesser Lightning Flash are at Great Success.”
At that moment, laughter came from the courtyard entrance. Lu Ming looked up and saw Lu Jin standing there with his tobacco pipe, his weathered face covered in smiles. Beside him stood Lu Qingyan and Lu Jinglei.
Lu Jin walked forward, looking at the young man before him. His eyes were filled with an unhideable sense of satisfaction and pride. Lu Ming's cultivation progress was even swifter than he had imagined.
“Excellent, excellent! The Divine Ability Child of our Lu family is indeed different. Compared to Lu Ming, that filthy piece of trash Zhang Yue is practically garbage!” Lu Jinglei laughed heartily, continuing his daily routine of cursing Zhang Yue.
Lu Qingyan's eyes also shone with undisguised joy. For Lu Ming to complete his second Bone Refining in less than twenty days was indeed a massive leap ahead of Zhang Yue's speed back then.
“By now, the progress of the Lower Divine Abilities you cultivate has begun to catch up to the veteran disciples in the hall like Yuan Da and Gao Yu. Thus, you can also attempt to cultivate the hall's Mid Divine Abilities.”
“Which one do you plan to learn first? Mid Divine Abilities are considerably difficult to cultivate, so it is best to take them one by one,” Lu Jin asked.
Hearing this, Lu Ming pondered for a moment. Their Thunderfire Hall possessed two Mid Divine Abilities: first was Palm Lightning, and second was Golden Liquid Fire. Palm Lightning controlled lightning-attributed primordial energy, which was fierce, overbearing, and extremely destructive. On the other hand, Golden Liquid Fire was a type of “divine ability fire.” Once mastered, it could be paired with the Flame Blade, yielding impressive power.
“Let's cultivate the Golden Liquid Fire first,” Lu Ming quickly made his choice. His primary reason for choosing this was the Fire Lotus opportunity within his body.
He had always been highly curious about the fusion technique contained within the Fire Lotus imprint.
That mysterious divine ability called Buddha's Fury Flame Lotus.
Once Lu Ming completed his third Bone Refining, he would find a way to obtain the seed of Life's Flame from the black ring's space. At that time, he wanted to try fusing it with a divine ability fire like Golden Liquid Fire to unleash the Buddha's Fury Flame Lotus.
Lu Jin nodded, reaching into his robes to pull out an object.
Lu Ming looked over curiously and found that it was a golden ore about the size of a palm. The edges of the ore were sharp like blades, constantly radiating a sharp, piercing aura.
“This is a Lesser Gengmetal Stone, an essential item for cultivating Golden Liquid Fire. Next, I will melt it with my primordial energy and guide the wisps of Gengmetal fire energy into your body. Remember my divine ability's circulation path. Once you imprint the divine ability mark onto your Divine Ability Bone in the future, you will have officially mastered the basics of this Mid Divine Ability.”
When it came to teaching Mid Divine Abilities, Lu Jin was clearly much more serious, even taking action personally.
Whoosh.
Lu Jin took a drag from his pipe and exhaled a cloud of extremely hot smoke. The smoke was transformed from his own robust primordial energy, burning like molten lava. The primordial energy enveloped the Lesser Gengmetal Stone, and within a mere dozen breaths, melted it into a golden liquid.
“When the Gengmetal energy enters your body, it will feel like ten thousand needles piercing you. It is exceptionally painful. You must endure it.”
As soon as Lu Jin finished speaking, he flicked his finger. Wisps of sharp, piercing energy rose from the golden liquid. Like sword blades, this sharp energy instantly pierced Lu Ming's palm, then forced open a circulation path along a specific trajectory.
Hiss!
The sudden, excruciating pain made Lu Ming gasp. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his clenched jaw trembled violently.
The pain brought by cultivating this Golden Liquid Fire was far more intense than that of the Flame Blade.
Lu Ming grit his teeth, forcing himself to endure the pain wracking his body. He calmed his mind, circulating his own primordial energy to follow Lu Jin's guidance, beginning to cultivate the first Mid Divine Ability of his life.
An hour later.
Lu Jin looked at Lu Ming, whose expression was gradually easing, and nodded slightly in approval. This grandson of his was talented and possessed a highly resilient character, unlike other young geniuses who became arrogant and superficial because of their talent.
This was the turning point of fortune for their Lu family.
It made his desperate gamble of exhausting the family ancestors' foundation to preserve Lu Ming's Divine Ability Bone grade completely worth it.
“Father, I have prepared all the materials for repairing the Divine Ability Restrictions at the medicinal garden. When are we heading out of the city?” Lu Qingyan stepped forward and asked.
Lu Jinglei also chimed in, “The quarterly Rain Mist Season is in three days. We must quickly secure the defenses of the medicinal garden to prevent any mishaps.”
The so-called Rain Mist Season originated from the most feared Black Rain Zone.
Every once in a while, the rain screen of the Black Rain Zone would intensify. Although the black rain would not expand beyond the sealed boundary, its bizarre rain energy would form a black mist that spread in all directions.
Some Rain Abominations would then use the power of the rain mist to bypass the seal and run rampant everywhere.
Although their Thunderfire Hall's medicinal garden was not within the boundaries of the Black Rain Zone, it would occasionally be affected as the rain mist expanded. Therefore, whenever this season arrived, Lu Jin and the others would head to the medicinal garden to oversee things, repair the Divine Ability Restrictions, and protect the garden.
That medicinal garden was the fruit of Lu Jin's many years of hard work. For the Thunderfire Hall to become a Grade 3 Divine Ability Hall today, this medicinal garden had played the most critical role. It absolutely could not be destroyed.
Hearing this, Lu Jin's expression also grew solemn. He took a deep drag from his pipe, the embers burning the tobacco leaves with a soft crackling sound. After a moment of contemplation, he said, “We will set off the morning after tomorrow. I will go this time as well, and we will bring Lu Ming along.”
“Lu Ming is going too? Rain Abominations might appear that day. Won't it be dangerous?” Lu Qingyan hesitated.
“A greenhouse cannot breed fierce beasts. What Lu Ming will have to face in the future is beyond our imagination. We won't be able to help him then. We can only use our remaining strength now to cultivate sharp claws, fangs, and a resilience that does not fear hardship for him.” Lu Jin's aged face was half-hidden in the smoke, and his deep voice drifted out.
Lu Qingyan fell silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.
...
Two days later.
Lu Ming stared at the wisp of golden flame slowly rising from his palm. The flame was quite mystical, flowing slowly like liquid metal, with a faint intertwining of searing heat and sharp aura.
Mid Divine Ability, Golden Liquid Fire!
Although this wisp of Golden Liquid Fire was extremely weak, Lu Ming had suffered plenty of pain over the past two days for it. He could not help but let out a sigh of relief. “Cultivating a Mid Divine Ability is indeed exceptionally difficult. It actually took me two whole days just to barely condense the first wisp of golden fire.”
“You brat, if Gao Yu or Yuan Da heard you say that, they would probably be so furious they'd leave the hall immediately,” Lu Qingyan scolded, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
One had to know that even Zhang Yue had spent over half a month back then just to condense his first wisp of golden fire when cultivating the Golden Liquid Fire. Gao Yu had taken a full two months. As for Yuan Da, who possessed a Low-grade Divine Ability Bone, just speaking of it brought tears; back then, teaching him had driven Lu Qingyan to near-despair, making him suspect the boy had only come to the hall to scam them for free meals.
Therefore, for Lu Ming to achieve such progress in just two days would utterly crush the confidence of everyone in the hall if word got out.
Lu Qingyan felt both proud and a bit stung by this.
Proud that his son possessed heavenly talent, but stung because he seemed to be included in the group whose confidence was crushed.
“No wonder your second uncle refused to come and supervise your cultivation anymore.”
Ever since Lu Jinglei saw the speed at which Lu Ming cultivated the Golden Liquid Fire on the first day, he had never shown his face again.
“Let's go. Your grandfather and the others are ready. We are leaving for the medicinal garden today.”
“The medicinal garden...”
Lu Ming dazed off slightly. He remembered that back then, his chaotic encounter with Jing Yi had happened precisely because they were heading to the medicinal garden.
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