A few days later, Zhang Ling stopped in front of a mountain peak.
It was a bare, isolated peak with sparse vegetation, especially the upper half, which was a patch of dark green. The summit was covered with clouds, and thunder could be heard from time to time.
With a flash, he flew directly to the top of the mountain, planning to collect heavenly thunder here.
In a short while, he arrived at the summit. Thunder rumbled in his ears, and the dark clouds above felt oppressive, mixed with gusts of wind.
He didn't care about these things. He just stood on a rock, closed his eyes, and released his spiritual sense to explore the surrounding environment. Now, with his spiritual sense fully released, he could survey an area of nearly twenty *li* (里: a Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 meters) around him, which was equivalent to the spiritual sense strength of a peak late-stage Golden Core cultivator.
After more than ten breaths, he carefully examined the surrounding environment. Besides discovering a few low-level demonic beasts, he found nothing else.
Zhang Ling directly patted his storage bag and took out more than a dozen array flags. At the same time, a dark green array plate emerged, and he quickly cast several spells to rotate it.
The array flags emitted various colors of spiritual light and flew in all directions. Soon, they formed a small array covering an area of ten *zhang* (丈: a Chinese unit of length, approximately meters) in size.
This array was the Yin-Yang Thunder Light Array, refined while cultivating the Thunder Essence Spirit Nurturing Technique. This array itself is a thunder-attribute array, so in addition to assisting in cultivation, it naturally has the effect of collecting lightning.
After setting up the array, Zhang Ling raised his hand and directly released the Yang Thunder Wood. With a spell cast from his hand, the Yang Thunder Wood flashed with green light and was inserted into the center of the array.
Streams of yellow spiritual light struck the array plate, and cyan thunder patterns appeared on the spirit wood. At the same time, the thunder light shone brightly, and the sound of thunder echoed continuously. Streams of blue-white lightning constantly jumped and gathered, forming a beam of thunder light about a *zhang* (丈: a Chinese unit of length, approximately meters) thick that directly struck the dark clouds.
Instantly, the dark clouds above swirled around the thunder light as the center.
This scene lasted for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. The dark clouds rotated rapidly, and the thunder light inside became brighter and brighter. Zhang Ling then controlled the array plate and cast a series of runes, which submerged into the Yang Thunder Wood.
Finally, the Yang Thunder Wood also floated in mid-air and slowly rotated, and the thunder light on it became brighter and brighter.
Zhang Ling sensed it for a moment and, feeling that there were no problems, flashed and sat cross-legged on a large rock beside it, closing his eyes to rest.
Only the array plate floating beside him flashed a few times with thunder light from time to time. With the array plate controlling the thunder-attribute spiritual power within the array, he didn't need to worry too much and just needed to wait.
Two days later, above the isolated mountain where Zhang Ling was, the clouds and mist had thinned out by more than half, and a few rays of sunlight could be seen projecting down.
At this moment, in the array, he was holding a shimmering green spirit wood. This was the Yang Thunder Wood, which had accumulated heavenly thunder on it, appearing translucent, like a spirit wood carved from jade. If heavenly thunder were continuously injected, the spirit wood might explode and be destroyed.
He glanced at the sky, and the dark clouds had dissipated by more than half and were no longer suitable for gathering heavenly thunder, so he decided to change to another place.
Thinking in his heart, the Two Instruments Gourd appeared in his hand, and a cloud of blue and white energy swept out, wrapping the Yang Thunder Wood and sucking it inside. At the same time, Zhang Ling controlled the array plate and collected the surrounding array flags, turning into a ray of escaping light and flying away.
Half an hour later, in a mountain cave, Zhang Ling spent some time setting up a set of spirit concealment arrays, then sat directly on the ground and released the Two Instruments Gourd.
With a mouthful of yellow essence qi sprayed onto the gourd, the gourd immediately spun around and transformed into a huge gourd about two *zhang* (丈: a Chinese unit of length, approximately meters) high.
With a flash of his figure, he directly escaped into into the gourd.
In the Two Instruments Gourd, Zhang Ling stood on a piece of yellow sand, the sand under his feet being the refined Heavenly Star Sand. At this moment, he was looking at the Yang Thunder Wood that had just been sucked in here.
With a change of hand gestures, spiritual light emitting a *zhang* (丈: a Chinese unit of length, approximately meters) high appeared on his body. With a thought, a portion of the blue and white qi in the gourd gathered towards him.
Streams of spells struck the translucent Yang Thunder Wood, and the sound of thunder continued to release streams of bright white lightning, like nimble earthworms quickly shuttling, extremely fast.
These were heavenly thunder.
Zhang Ling's ten fingers flicked rapidly, and the spiritual power in his hand transformed into streams of silk threads, wrapping around the lightning.
As soon as the yellow spiritual power came into contact with these heavenly thunders, a portion of it was directly struck into green smoke, but he remained unmoved and released a large number of spiritual power threads again, beginning to compress these lightning bolts.
Three days later, Zhang Ling finished processing these heavenly thunders, and more than a dozen fist-sized thunder light balls floated beside him, the thunder light balls trembling slightly and also transmitting low rumbling sounds.
He breathed a long sigh of relief and, holding the Yang Thunder Wood, exited the Two Instruments Gourd and went outside.
The thunder balls compressed by the heavenly thunder were not taken out by him and remained steadily in the gourd. It was not too late to process them after collecting all the heavenly thunder.
Then, he swallowed a few pills to restore his state and then found another place, set up an array, and used the Yang Thunder Wood to collect heavenly thunder.
He needed a lot of heavenly thunder, and based on the situation, it would take at least two months to collect it all.
Thus, more than a month passed in a flash. The thunder balls gathered in the gourd had reached more than a hundred, and the heavenly thunder had been collected almost completely.
Zhang Ling was in a good mood. In another half month, the heavenly thunder he needed would be enough.
...
A few days later, he was collecting heavenly thunder in a valley gathering dark clouds. The sound of thunder continued to come from the array, and most of the Yang Thunder Wood had turned translucent blue, and the thunder light on it was about to be fully charged.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling's expression shifted, and he opened his eyes, turning his head to look at the sky. At the edge of his spiritual sense, he happened to discover a blue ray of escaping light rapidly flying towards the valley where he was.
His face couldn't help but sink. The ray of escaping light was not fast. With a sweep of his spiritual sense, he could clearly see the figure in the ray of escaping light. It was a young man in a black short shirt. Judging by his cultivation, he was a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, stepping on a flying knife flashing with lightning.
This person seemed to be injured, holding his chest with one hand, and his robe was also damaged in many places. Some blood stains could also be seen, obviously having experienced a great battle.
Zhang Ling's spiritual sense condensed and spread towards the direction where this person was. He immediately discovered that two or three *li* (里: a Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 meters) behind him, there were two rays of escaping light, one white and one red, rapidly chasing after him.
It was actually a man and a woman, both cultivators with peak Foundation Establishment cultivation. They seemed to be chasing and killing the young man.
Zhang Ling frowned slightly a few times, but he did not get up, nor did he put away the array. The Yang Thunder Wood was about to accumulate heavenly thunder again, and he didn't want to fail.
Each time it was fully gathered, it would take him two or three days. Collecting heavenly thunder itself caused quite a stir, and it was difficult to conceal the aura even with the array. After all, heavenly thunder came from the outside world.
If the three cultivators were just passing by, he naturally didn't need to pay attention to them. Of course, this was based on his current cultivation. Even if he faced a late-stage Golden Core expert, he would not be afraid in the slightest.
The sudden appearance of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators would naturally not cause Zhang Ling the slightest fear.
