Chapter 49: The Fatal Experiment

  "It's strange, such a strong aura of Xuan Qing is actually emitted by this stone box itself, but the black jade pendant doesn't have any spiritual energy at all, it just feels that the beast head is particularly ferocious," Deng Ciyu looked at them for a long time and couldn't figure out where these two things came from. "Since the black jade pendant is in the stone box, it must be an even more precious treasure..."

  As she spoke, Deng Ciyu glanced at the black jade pendant on his neck and said solemnly: "These two items are not ordinary treasures, they must be kept properly, and should not be exposed in daily life. Otherwise, with your current strength, you will not only be unable to keep these treasures safe, but also risk losing your life."

  Zhang Zixing had never seen Deng Ciyu speak so solemnly before, and he knew she was right. He quickly hid the black jade gui in his inner clothes and replied: "Thank you for reminding me, Miss. I should be reasonable. This time, searching for treasure also has your credit. I quite like this jade gui, how about I give you that stone box with the Xuanqing aura instead?"

  Deng Ciyu shook her head, revealing a rare and touching smile: "Little thief, don't think that I, Deng Ciyu, am really that kind of greedy person. Earlier, I accepted those many crystal stones from you, which was already a great favor, and I haven't even repaid it yet, how can I take advantage of the situation? Moreover, this is your opportunity, I have no good fortune to enjoy it."

  Zhang Zixing nodded slightly, and Deng Ciyu, who was usually fond of joking around, also had many valuable qualities and was not the kind of ordinary woman who relied on her beauty to be arrogant and unreasonable. He said, "As for the reward, it's just a joke, we're all friends, why bother with these external things?"

  Deng Ciyu's bright eyes sparkled, and her gaze suddenly turned cunning: "Little thief, you said it yourself, don't go back on your word! So tomorrow, send a few hundred more crystal beads to me..."

  "Hundreds of them? You think I'm eating rice! Pretend I didn't just say that!" Zhang Zixing rolled her eyes at her and put the stone box back into her treasure pouch.

  Qing'er saw the two men talking intimately, and she herself couldn't intervene in their conversation about the magical techniques, feeling like an outsider. Suddenly, a surge of inexplicable sadness welled up in her heart. After a long while, she finally thought of something to say: "Sir, now that you've succeeded, it's best to quickly erase any traces here, lest unnecessary complications arise."

  Zhang Zixing nodded in agreement, ordering the five monsters to quickly fill up the large pit and temporarily store them in the Thunder Gathering Bottle. He then called for Song Yiren and informed him that the demon had been subdued, so he could now build his house with peace of mind. Song Yiren was extremely grateful and offered Zhang Zixing gold, silver, and other treasures as a reward, but Zhang Zixing firmly refused to accept them. With Deng Ciyu and Qing'er by his side, he left the scene with an air of elegance.

  However, none of them had expected that Deng Cangyu's previous worries would soon become a reality.

  In the distance behind them, a thin mist like light smoke was slowly following, and occasionally two fine lights rose in the mist, like some kind of eyes. This thin mist was highly refined and not affected by the received demon symbol, but was startled by the colorful light and followed all the way.

  Along the way, Deng Ciyu couldn't help but ask: "Little thief, the Five Thunder Talisman you used earlier was incredibly powerful, almost as good as those personally refined by my master. Who gave it to you?"

  Zhang Zixing deliberately asked in return: "Why did Miss Yuanyu confirm that it wasn't made by me but was given by someone else?"

  "You think you're just a little thief? Don't boast too much!" Deng Ciyu looked at him with disdain: "You may have some talent, but your Taoist skills are extremely lowly. You don't even understand the basics of the primordial soul, let alone create such a powerful talisman! It's just that you're lucky to have obtained two treasures."

  Zhang Zixing knew that the cowhide was broken, and he smiled a few times. He took advantage of the situation to ask Deng Ciyu about her master's origin, but no matter what, Deng Ciyu refused to say anything. Zhang Zixing suddenly furrowed his brow and looked towards the forest behind him, but didn't discover anything unusual.

  "What's wrong, little thief?"

  "I always feel like something is following us, maybe it's just an illusion." Zhang Zixing replied casually, but this time it was not an illusion.

  Deng Ciyu turned around and observed for a while, then said disapprovingly: "Don't suspect ghosts anymore, let's hurry up. Today is already late, soon I still have to go with my sister to the silk store to buy silk fabrics, if we delay, it will be your fault, you ask my sister, isn't that right?"

  Qing'er nodded absent-mindedly, ever since she found out that Zhang Zixing was a married man, she had been preoccupied with thoughts on this journey, as if she and he had fallen into some kind of awkward situation. Zhang Zixing knew where her heart was knotted, but he wanted to break the silence yet couldn't find the right words, several times he wanted to speak but stopped himself.

  When the three men hurried to the south gate of Changge, the sky was already overcast with dark clouds, and the sound of thunder could be heard faintly, as if a heavy rain was approaching.

  Upon hearing the thunder, Zhang Zixing suddenly thought of a most urgent matter, and he shivered with a chill. He didn't care about anything else and said to Qing'er: "I have an important matter that requires me to leave immediately. This matter is extremely perilous and relates to my lifelong fate; I must take care of it alone. You should also think clearly about the matters between us. If I can luckily survive this ordeal, I will definitely give you a proper explanation!"

  Having said that, he bowed his head to Deng Ciyu, bid farewell and whipped his horse to leave.

  Qing'er was shocked to hear that he was in mortal danger, and before she could even think about her own troubles, Zhang Zixing had already galloped far away. The thin fog, who had been waiting for an opportunity to strike, suddenly saw his target speed up and leave alone, and with a sudden movement, also transformed into a clear wind and followed closely behind.

  "What's wrong with him, that he would suddenly say such a thing?" Qing'er thought back to Zhang Zixing's words earlier, which seemed like a farewell speech, and her heart skipped a beat as she felt a chill run down her spine. She had lost her usual calmness, and her mind was in disarray.

  Deng Ciyu watched as Zhang Zixing disappeared from view, a strange light flashing in her beautiful eyes. She muttered to herself: "I don't know either, but I think this little thief is very lucky and should be able to turn bad luck into good..."

  Zhang Zixing galloped his horse wildly, feeling extremely excited, but didn't notice that he had already been targeted by someone with ill intentions — at this moment the wind and thunder were in turmoil, it was the perfect opportunity to release the super brain!

  He hastily arrived at the laboratory in the forbidden area, pushing out the instrument that had been prepared for a long time. The material of this instrument was made by fusing iron ore brought from Dongyi with other metals, and its melting point was much higher than that of bronze, which could be regarded as the highest alloy technology representative of this era. It was connected to the tall bronze pillar standing outside the room, which was like a lightning rod, but its purpose was not to guide the thunder to the ground, but to lead it to the capacitor through the instrument. The weakest link in the past was the capacitor, and now with Yun Xiao's Leibottle, the chances of success have increased greatly.

  Zhang Zixing released the five-road god from the thunder bottle, allowing them to disperse on their own and avoid being affected by the heavenly thunder. At this time, it was already a stormy weather with lightning flashing in the sky. After securing the thunder bottle, Zhang Zixing put his arm through the other end of the device and fastened it with a metal hoop. The principle of this device was to use a lightning rod to guide the lightning in the air into a capacitor, and then from the capacitor, through more than a dozen sets of simple homemade resistors, input into Zhang Zixing's body. Due to limitations in materials and craftsmanship, despite superbrain calculations, those simple resistors could only reduce the danger of electric current to some extent, but could not completely guarantee his life safety.

  He has failed many times in this experiment, and sometimes he was even electrocuted for half a day without recovering. If an ordinary person encountered such a situation, they would have given up long ago. But Zhang Zixing was originally an outstanding scientist who had done more dangerous experiments and encountered countless failures, yet he never gave up halfway.

  Perhaps it was fate, usually the lightning rod could attract lightning with just a little effort, but today for some reason, after thunder and lightning raged on for half a day, it didn't come near the lightning rod. Zhang Zixing waited in vain for half a day, got drenched to the bone, and as the cold wind blew, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. If not for the protection of the True Martial Spirit Incantation, he feared he would have already caught a cold.

  The rushing clear wind turned back into thin mist, watching from afar all that had happened.

  As the wind and rain gradually weakened, and the thunder and lightning became less frequent, Zhang Zixing's anxiety grew. He took a deep breath, pulled out "Tianyan", broke the seal of the talisman, and threw it towards the sky. "Tianyan" transformed into a ball of golden light, dispersing and spreading out, with dots of golden stars shooting straight into the clouds.

  The golden star entered the cloud not long after, and suddenly strange things happened one after another. The surrounding dark clouds unexpectedly all turned into gold color, starting to gather in large pieces above the forbidden area, several electric snakes appeared in the cloud from hidden to visible, and they were golden in color. The thunderous sound shook the ears and was deafening, and the power was terrifying.

  That golden lightning was extremely terrifying, and wherever it passed, everything became scorched earth. Zhang Zixing looked at the ground that had been struck by lightning and found that a large pit had appeared, with scattered sand and stones melted into crystal blocks, and he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. He didn't expect the power of this heavenly punishment to be so great, actually summoning such terrifying thunder and lightning.

  No time for him to think much, the golden lightning poured down one after another, and several more scorch marks appeared on the ground. The air was filled with a pungent smell amidst the wind and rain.

  "Calm down, must keep calm." Zhang Zixing always used self-suggestion to stabilize his emotions whenever he felt extremely tense.

  The astonishing thunder and lightning also shocked the distant thin fog - this person, with only a Golden Core cultivation base, actually dared to invite such a terrifying heavenly thunder for "cultivation", which is no different from suicide. Even those immortal cultivators wouldn't dare do so. Could it be that he had misjudged him, and this was an extraordinary cultivator? If that's the case, then trying to snatch that colorful treasure would be even more difficult...

  Just as the thin fog was born with a mind to retreat, a bundle of golden lightning as thick as a bucket mouth suddenly descended from the sky and flashed into that bronze high column. The energy of this golden electric current was quite astonishing, instantly exceeding the maximum load of the instrument, and those originally poor-quality resistors were immediately melted.

  "Not good!" Zhang Zixing never thought that the amplified lightning would be so powerful, far exceeding his expectations. As soon as he realized something was wrong, his body shook and he was struck by the lightning without any resistance, losing consciousness before he could even feel the pain.

  ※※※※※※※※※※

  PS: Dots would like to express heartfelt thanks for everyone's valuable suggestions and opinions. Many enthusiastic readers' pertinent and detailed comments have moved dots, but as for some malicious and out-of-context attacks, dots won't bother explaining. If you have any questions, please refer to the relevant information about the work. If you like this book, please cast your precious recommendation votes. Dots bows 360 degrees in gratitude.

  ;