BOOM!!
The sound that seed to precede Lin Yi’s complete awareness, even as his senses were finely tuned to the environnt.
He then registered the tenth impact just as the noise reverberated through the air. For the better part of an hour, he had been ticulously clearing a route through a dense gathering of territorial beasts, monsters of the mid-level tier who had, for reasons known only to themselves, decided that this particular stretch of terrain leading to the distant mountain range was their domain to guard.
His approach had been deliberate, each movent calculated to avoid any unnecessary show of force or any action that might attract more attention than a lone traveler simply removing an obstruction would naturally incur.
The ninth strike of his blade had put an end to the last of the imdiate threats, a swift and decisive movent that left the path montarily clear. The tenth, however, had followed through, not finding a beast to et its edge, but instead biting into the unyielding stone surface of the path itself.
The Thunder Surge Blade, which had been a guntal grey just monts before, began to glow with high intensity. It wasn’t a gradual transition, slowly building in luminescence; rather, the shift was imdiate, almost violent in its suddenness.
The deep, dark surface of the blade instantaneously transford, rippling with a vibrant electric blue that surged from its hilt all the way to its sharpest tip in a single wave of energy.
It then stabilized at this brilliant hue, the vibrant color pulsed with a life of its own. The internal energy within the weapon, which had for so long lain dormant, a sleeping power rely held in reserve, was now strikingly present, awake, and actively organizing itself.
It moved and arranged with the precise purpose of sothing that had been anticipating this very mont, this exact form of release, for an unimaginably long ti, its patience finally rewarded by Lin Yi’s actions.
From the glowing surface of the blade, a small, vibrant ball of lightning erged, shimring with raw power. It was surprisingly compact, no larger than a man’s closed fist, yet it commanded an undeniable presence.
Then, the orb ascended gracefully into the air, settling to hover directly in front of Lin Yi, approximately at the height of his chest. It emitted a soft, continuous crackling sound, like distant thunder, a mix of contained electrical discharge.
Then, with a slow, deliberate rotation, the small sphere of crackling energy surveyed its imdiate surroundings, taking in the rugged terrain and the vast, open sky with an almost sentient curiosity, as if absorbing every detail of the world it had just entered.
Then, quite distinctly, its luminous presence seed to focus entirely on Lin Yi, its crackling energy patterns subtly shifting to convey a direct, undeniable gaze. It was an uncanny sensation, feeling observed by sothing so utterly alien, an entity of pure, unbound electrical force.
"Little one," a voice erged from the crackling orb, clear and distinct despite its otherworldly origin. "Tell , are you truly the one who has awakened from my long slumber?"
Lin Yi, despite the profound strangeness of the situation, maintained a composed deanor. He t the intense, concentrated focus of the lightning orb with his own steady gaze.
"Yes," he replied, his voice calm and even, betraying little of the surprise he felt within.
The ball of lightning responded not with words, but with a sudden, sharp intensification of its crackling, a rapid series of pops and snaps that quickly resolved into an undeniable burst of mirth. It was a genuine, unrestrained sound of amusent.
The laughter was authentic, without a trace of pretense, radiating from an entity that truly found the current circumstances amusing rather than rely performing a show of joviality. The little orb pulsed with heightened energy, its bright blue glow intensifying with each crackle.
"How can this possibly be?" it questioned, its voice carrying an air of delighted disbelief. "You are rely a human, a straightforward, whole human being, standing there firmly on two legs, complete with all the expected appendages."
"You must indeed possess remarkable strength, little one, for a being of such simple human form to have successfully reached and awakened in this manner."
"I indeed awakened you," Lin Yi said, but he then reiterated how he did so. "Upon receiving this blade, I was told the tenth strike will awaken a lightning sword spirit, I don’t think the whole ordeal was anything but difficult."
"Good," the lightning orb declared, its tone imbued with an easy approval. It sounded genuinely pleased, as if discovering a kindred spirit. "Like your strength, your words, you see, is inherently honest. There is no pretense or deception within it, rely raw truth. I hold a deep respect for anything that is honest."
It then began to rotate slowly once more, its luminous form shifting to examine Lin Yi from a slightly different perspective. This inspection was not idle; it held the attentive, searching curiosity of soone encountering a truly intriguing individual for the very first ti, ticulously noting every detail as if filing them away for future reference.
"Now, little one," it continued, "what precisely is the extent of your current cultivation?"
"Level 230," Lin Yi stated simply, offering the precise nurical value without elaboration.
For a brief but noticeable mont, the ball of lightning went utterly still. It was a relative stillness, of course, for its baseline crackling continued. However, its previous rotational movent ceased entirely, an abrupt pause that indicated a sudden shift in its internal processing.
"Interesting," it finally remarked, breaking the silence as its rotation slowly resud. "You are rely twenty levels away from the monuntal stage of Ascension."
It paused again, a short pause.
"That, little one, is far from insignificant. In fact, it is quite remarkable, truly impressive." A renewed burst of crackling energy emanated from it, now with an added undertone of excitent. "And, I must admit, it bodes rather well for too."
"Why would that be good for you?" Lin Yi inquired, his curiosity piqued by the lightning orb’s sudden, self-interested declaration, prompting him to seek clarification.
"Because, you see, I have resided within that very blade for an exceedingly long ti," it explained, its voice imbued with a cheerful, almost matter-of-fact frankness, utterly devoid of any lingering bitterness, yet clearly desiring recognition of its prolonged confinent.
"The existence of sword spirits, as it happens, is quite different from that of mortals or cultivators. We are simply unable to cultivate experience in the conventional sense, unable to accumulate the points that lead to leveling up. The heavenly dao, the supre cosmic order, created us as we are, defining our essence, and in its infinite wisdom—or perhaps, lack thereof, from my perspective—it then determined that the path of traditional leveling was simply not intended for us. We exist, certainly, and we develop our inherent powers and understandings in various other intricate ways, but the rigid path of cultivation does not deign to grant us any points whatsoever."
"Ruthless, in my humble view, is an apt description of this arrangent. However, I must confess, the heavenly dao has never seen fit to inquire about my personal opinions on the matter."
"So, if you cannot advance on your own, it follows that you are unable to enter the Middle Domain independently," Lin Yi concluded.
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