Thunder Spirits! Hundreds of them, all gathered here!
Shi Hao was utterly astonished, his heart brimming with curiosity and an insatiable desire to explore. He had witnessed that event with his own eyes years ago and had pondered it ever since. Never did he imagine he would encounter it again today.
Who exactly were they carrying? After returning from the Immortal Domain, they had arrived here.
It appeared close—an ancient cave—but as Shi Hao stepped forward, his expression shifted. The path beneath his feet vanished, leaving behind an endless expanse of starry void behind him. The planet and the spatial rift were long gone.
With every step Shi Hao took forward, the path behind him disappeared, leaving no trace. One starfield after another receded beneath his feet, vanishing into the distance.
This was truly a mysterious place. The path seemed short, and the weeping from the cave was audible, yet as he advanced, the ground beneath him grew increasingly eerie.
In just a brief moment, Shi Hao had no idea how far he had traveled, crossing vast stretches of the cosmos.
Finally, he arrived!
Approaching the ancient cave, it exhaled chaos and immortal mist, shrouded in an impenetrable haze. This place concealed earth-shattering secrets.
Suddenly, the hundreds of Thunder Spirits raised their heads, their gazes locking onto him.
The cave brimmed with vital essence—chaos essence, the mother qi of all things, and immortal energy. This was no ordinary place. Ethereal vapors swirled, enveloping the area.
The weeping ceased. Hundreds of eyes fixed on Shi Hao!
“We’ve met before. I mean no harm,” Shi Hao said.
Regardless, their sorrow was palpable, evoking sympathy—especially since these were Thunder Spirits, an immensely powerful and rare race. Their numbers were few, yet hundreds had gathered here.
If not all of them, then nearly so.
According to ancient records, Thunder Spirits were exceedingly rare. Throughout history, only a few hundred had ever been discovered!
The same straw mat lay before them, etched with the marks of time and stained with blood. A millennium had passed, yet it remained unchanged. Whose corpse could this be?
Shi Hao attempted to communicate, but the Thunder Spirits remained guarded, cold, and steeped in profound grief.
This was their final destination—carrying the corpse on the straw mat, guarding it for a thousand years. Their loyalty was absolute.
“They failed,” the master of the forbidden region remarked.
“Roar…”
A golden Thunder Spirit, several meters long and one of the strongest among them, let out a mournful howl, its fury evident.
The others whimpered, tears rolling from their eyes.
Though not humanoid, their emotions were raw, their sorrow overwhelming.
“Woof… Awoo!”
Suddenly, another sound echoed from the cave, startling Shi Hao. For a moment, he doubted his ears.
“Woof…”
It was a cry of grief, but interspersed with barks—an abrupt, jarring noise from the ancient cave.
Shi Hao stiffened, bewildered. After a brief hesitation, he stepped inside.
The hundreds of Thunder Spirits did not stop him. They remained fixated on the straw mat, indifferent to his presence.
“Awoo… Woof!”
The cries and barks melded together, loud and heart-wrenching.
Peering into the depths of the cave, where chaotic essence spilled forth, Shi Hao confirmed what he saw: a small dog, no larger than a palm, lay there, clutching its head and wailing in anguish.
“Lord Wuzhong, how could you leave me like this? Wuwu… I’ll never see you again. You were a supreme Immortal King! How could you wither away? Will you reappear in the mortal world after countless ages? Awooo…”
The dog wept bitterly, tears streaming down its face.
Shi Hao was stunned. This was the same pup he had seen a thousand years ago, when it entered the Immortal Domain. Now, it was here, in this enigmatic cave.
Back then, the pup had declared it was going to a certain place—to verify old truths and seek the Immortal King Wuzhong.
That place, it had said, connected heaven, spirits, and the annals of time.
In the past, Immortal King Wuzhong and Immortal King Samsara had delved into the mysteries of time and reincarnation, pondering whether it was people or events that cycled through the ages.
The pup had once mentioned that this was the path the two Immortal Kings sought to validate.
Who could have imagined that a millennium later, Shi Hao would find it here?
First, the Thunder Spirits carrying the corpse on the straw mat, and now the pup—both had converged on this extraordinary place.
“You…” The pup sensed his presence and jerked its head up, shocked. “How did you get here?”
It was still crying, its demeanor a far cry from the wild, untamed creature Shi Hao remembered.
“Is this the place you spoke of?” Shi Hao asked.
“Wuwu…” The pup burst into fresh sobs.
“Immortal King Wuzhong is dead. He’s never coming back. Even this place couldn’t save him. There’s no hope left, awooo…” Its cries were heartrending.
So, this was indeed that place.
“In this world, there are no reincarnated souls. Only similar flowers, similar people. The true soul of Immortal King Wuzhong—I’ll never see it again.”
The pup convulsed with sobs, nearly passing out from grief.
Shi Hao sighed. For a dog to mourn so deeply spoke volumes of the bond it had shared with Immortal King Wuzhong. It had longed to revive him.
“Tell me, what happened?” Shi Hao pressed.
“I brought the fragments of Immortal King Wuzhong’s bell and his last drop of Immortal King blood, which held fragments of his soul. I placed them here, in this place that connects heaven, spirits, and time, hoping he would revive. But it failed. Ah, wuwu…”
The pup’s anguish deepened as it spoke.
Shi Hao was stunned. Immortal King blood was beyond precious, laden with immense karma.
Even Pan King, at the peak of his power and unrivaled in the world, had only given the master of the forbidden region three drops to settle an old debt.
“What happened in the end?” the master of the forbidden region asked.
“I waited for years. But the Immortal King blood dried up, its vitality gone. In the end, it burned away, and the bell fragments turned to dust, destroyed completely,” the pup said, its voice heavy with despair.
The Immortal King blood was exhausted, the weapon fragments reduced to ashes. All had come to nothing.
“Was there no other sign?” the master pressed.
“At the last moment, I thought I saw Immortal King Wuzhong. He smiled at me… then burst into light. The blood burned away, the bell fragments vanished. Everything was lost!” the pup wailed.
It blamed itself. With the last drop of Immortal King blood gone, there was no hope left. Wuzhong was truly lost.
“Perhaps he succeeded,” the master mused. “But it will take countless ages to know for sure.”
“If there is reincarnation, it belongs to the cycle of epochs—not this one. Perhaps in the next era, Wuzhong will return.”
He was merely speculating, but the light at the end might have carried a glimmer of hope.
The pup stopped crying, staring at him in stunned silence. “In the distant future, in another epoch… Immortal King Wuzhong might return?”
“All is possible. All is impossible. Who can say?” the master sighed.
“Who did they bring back?” Shi Hao asked, gesturing toward the Thunder Spirits.
“The Thunder Emperor,” the pup said, revealing the identity of the corpse on the straw mat.
“Of course,” Shi Hao murmured, nodding to himself. It could only be the Thunder Emperor. Who else would evoke such grief from the Thunder Spirits?
Though he hadn’t known the Thunder Spirits served the Thunder Emperor, their nature—devouring lightning, thriving on thunder—hinted at an undeniable connection.
“That one… What a pity. His potential was unmatched. A life cut short,” the master lamented.
The crystal skull, golden bone hand, and bleeding eyeball—the three ancient monsters—had never heard of the Thunder Emperor. Their era was too remote.
The Thunder Emperor, master of the thunder pool, wielder of divine punishment, was once hailed as the most promising rising star, the youngest of the Ten Ferocities.
His immense potential earned him the title “Emperor.” None would dare claim it otherwise.
Yet his brilliance drew the ire of the foreign realm’s immortal kings. They ambushed him, ensuring his premature demise.
For he commanded thunder, acting as heaven’s executioner. Had he reached his peak, even kings would have trembled.
Thus, multiple immortal kings conspired to strike him down.
No one expected the Thunder Spirits’ loyalty to endure across generations. They had searched tirelessly for his remains—and succeeded.
Somehow, their devotion had opened a spatial rift, granting them passage to this cave.
“The Thunder Emperor’s blood is gone. His vitality extinguished. Not a shred of his soul remains. There’s no hope,” the pup said.
A thousand years of waiting had made that clear.
Shi Hao sighed. He bore the Thunder Emperor’s legacy and once possessed a fragment of his armor. The bond between them was not insignificant.
Approaching, Shi Hao paid his respects. This was one of the Ten Ferocities—a peerless genius, the Thunder Emperor!
The Thunder Spirits’ gazes softened slightly. Their devotion was unwavering.
The master shook his head. Without blood or a trace of soul, even this place could do nothing.
“Unless the corpse is buried here, left to absorb the essence of this land. Over countless ages, it might give rise to a peerless being,” the master said.
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