Chapter 47: The Nine Heavens Thunder Prison
"A soul attack!"
Patriarch Xu Canghai’s voice cracked, the booming resonance of his late-stage Core Formation aura trembling with a mixture of absolute disbelief and apprehension.
Hovering above, Xu Canghai’s mind was spinning, as he tried to comprehend the impossibility of what had just occurred. Xu Lie—a mid-stage Core Formation powerhouse, a man whose physical vitality was akin to a rampaging demonic beast—had simply dropped dead. There was no wound on his flesh, nor did his dantian destroyed. His life had simply been snuffed out like a fragile candle in a hurricane.
How? Xu Canghai screamed, his bloodshot eyes locked onto Lin Yuan’s indifferent expression. How is a Core Formation cultivator able to use a soul attack?!
Did this brat possess a supreme soul artifact? Or had he inherited a forbidden art from an immortal? The implications were terrifying, but simultaneously, they ignited a blinding greed within Xu Canghai’s heart. If the Xu Clan could obtain such a method, they wouldn’t just rule the City; they could conquer the entire province.
But as the Clan Head calculated his next move, a sudden shift in the pressure beside him broke his concentration.
Xu Canghai snapped his head to the side.
Xu Zifeng, who had scoffed at Lin Yuan moments ago, was slowly taking a step backward. His wine gourd was trembling in his grasp, his handsome face drained of all color. Beside him, Xu Shan was also retreating. The swords in his hands were shaking, the sheer terror of witnessing a mid-stage expert die without a fight completely shattering their Dao Hearts.
They were backing away. The pillars of the Xu Clan were actually retreating in fear from Lin Yuan.
Xu Canghai’s momentary shock was instantly shattered by an overwhelming surge of fury.
"Fools!" Xu Canghai roared, his voice like a raging thunderstorm.
He violently slammed his boot down,
BOOM!
The full might of his late-stage Core Formation aura erupted from his body. The purple lightning surrounding him expanded into a suffocating domain. The sheer weight of his power crashed down upon his two retreating subordinates.
Xu Zifeng and Xu Shan gasped, their spiritual defenses crumbling under the weight of their own Clan Head. They buckled instantly, their knees slamming as they were forced to bow before Xu Canghai’s wrath.
"The Xu Clan’s honor is at stake, and you dare retreat?!" Xu Canghai reprimanded them, his eyes blazing with purple fire. "He is one man! We are the absolute rulers of this City! Half of our foundation lies dead in the mud, our reputation is balancing on the edge of a knife, and you dare to show your backs to the enemy?! Cowards! If you take one more step backward, I will execute you myself before this rat even has the chance!"
The two Core Formation experts gritted their teeth, the reality of their Clan Head’s wrath forcing them to anchor their feet. They did not dare retreat any further.
Xu Canghai turned his burning gaze back to Lin Yuan, who was about to use a movement art, his eyes radiating an intense urgency, as he only wanted to return to his wife.
"You possess strange tricks, brat," Xu Canghai snarled, raising both of his hands toward the sky. "But a trick only works once. I will not give you the space or the time to cast your wicked arts again! I will crush you with the absolute supremacy of my clan!"
Xu Canghai bit the tip of his tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood essence into the air to forcefully overcharge his meridians. The sky above the instantly turned pitch black, the spiritual energy violently churning as a massive thunderstorm rapidly formed.
"Second Art of the Five Thunder Arts!" Xu Canghai said, his voice echoing with finality. "Nine Heavens Thunder Prison!"
Unlike the other three arts of the Xu Clan’s legacy—which focused primarily on teleportation, perception, and soul searching—the Second Art was an absolute suppression technique. It was the ultimate trump card used to subdue enemies who possessed slippery movement arts or bizarre techniques.
Upon activation, Xu Canghai condensed his violent, thunderous spiritual energy into a massive formation that instantly spread across the surrounding space for several miles. Countless roaring arcs of purple lightning wove together in the sky, rapidly crisscrossing to form an enormous prison of thunder that completely enclosed Lin Yuan.
Once trapped within the Thunder Prison, escaping was no easy feat.
Instantly, Lin Yuan felt the pressure multiply by a thousandfold. The thunder formation began to actively suppress the movement of everything within its range, locking down the surrounding space and turning the very air into a thick, viscous mire. Ordinary movement techniques became completely useless. Even cultivators who specialized in the wind arts or extreme agility would find their bodies becoming impossibly sluggish beneath the overwhelming pressure of the thunder.
But restricted movement was only the beginning.
The Nine Heavens Thunder Prison simultaneously suppressed the spiritual qi within its confines. Lin Yuan immediately felt a heavy, restrictive chain wrap around his Golden Core. The more he attempted to aggressively circulate his spiritual energy to break free, the stronger the thunderous suppression became, actively feeding on his resistance. It was a cycle designed to make it increasingly difficult for the trapped cultivator to gather enough power to launch a counterattack.
Then came the true terror.
BOOM!
Countless bolts of purple lightning descended from the skies without pause, bombarding everything trapped within the formation. The sky rained destruction.
One bolt might be endured.
Ten could be resisted.
A hundred could still be survived by a sufficiently powerful cultivator.
But the Nine Heavens Thunder Prison did not stop. The longer the enemy remained trapped, the more violent the thunder became, transforming the interior of the prison into a literal thunder barrage.
Furthermore, the formation possessed a terrifying ability that made it particularly troublesome for cultivators proficient in spatial techniques. It actively interfered with teleportation. Within the confines of the Thunder Prison, spatial energy became completely chaotic and unstable. Techniques that normally allowed a cultivator to tear open the void and escape—or even specialized escape talismans—would be disrupted before they were even completed.
Meaning that even Nascent Soul experts could be trapped!
Yet, Xu Canghai did not stop at the basic application of the technique. Fueled by absolute hatred and the blood essence he had sacrificed, he pushed the spell to its ultimate limit.
At the highest level of mastery, the Nine Heavens Thunder Prison underwent an even greater transformation.
The boundaries of the Thunder Prison rapidly expanded, countless strands of thick lightning intertwining with the surrounding laws of Heaven and Earth. The entire region of the sky transformed into a Thunder Domain.
Within this domain, thunder existed everywhere.
Above.
Below.
In every conceivable direction.
There was nowhere to flee, no blind spot to exploit, and nowhere to hide. The cultivator who stood within the Thunder Domain was no longer fighting inside a mere formation. They were fighting inside a world that belonged entirely to thunder.
Lin Yuan stood completely suspended in the center of the domain. He had attempted to immediately invoke the Immortal Cloud Step, but the space around him had instantly hardened like divine steel.
CRACKLE! BOOM!
Dozens of massive lightning bolts crashed directly onto his shoulders, engulfing his entire figure in a blinding sphere of destructive purple plasma.
Hovering safely outside the perimeter of the domain, Xu Canghai lowered his hands, breathing heavily, a cruel, victorious smile spreading across his face as he watched the lightning consume Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan was completely stuck in the prison, entirely swallowed by Xu Canghai.