Chapter 282: Heavenly Fire Thunder

For safety reasons, Su Che did not draw back all of the mutated true essence at once. Instead, he first retrieved a small portion and carefully examined it…
The attributes of the mutated true essence were undoubtedly extremely advanced. The original fire-based true essence could not dilute it even in a short period of time. However, there were no signs of damage to his meridians or golden core.
So, Su Che mustered up the courage to gradually draw back the mutated true essence into his body. Then, he infused another portion of fire-based true essence into the Immortal Prison Space to begin the second round of refinement.
Thus, after another nine days, the last cluster of mutated true essence was successfully refined and absorbed by Su Che into his golden core. Now, all the true essence in his body was refined mutated true essence, and his golden core was about to undergo changes as well.
Full of anticipation yet somewhat anxious, Su Che activated the Fire God Technique. The true essence began to circulate continuously, in endless cycles. After 81 full cycles, changes finally occurred in his golden core.
Huhuhu…
The golden core slowly rotated, emitting a sound like a thunderstorm. Its diameter increased significantly, and its color deepened greatly…
Another long while passed.
Boom!
An invisible energy burst forth from the golden core, rushing straight toward Su Che’s upper dantian, the abode of his spirit.
With the arrival of this energy, an epiphany arose.
Su Che realized he had successfully advanced to the middle stage of his golden core, and he had also mastered another divine ability…
“What kind of divine ability is this…”
Just as he had an insight, crack! A bolt of lightning struck down from the heavens, piercing through the half-activated protective array of Tianxuan Sect and creating a huge hole in Su Che’s cultivation cave. The lightning struck him directly on the head.
“Heavenly lightning!”
The incident happened so suddenly that Su Che didn’t have time to activate any defenses. Instinctively, he used the divine ability he had just mastered. With a subtle sense, he reached out to grab the lightning heading down and threw it away…
A grab, a throw—seemingly just a simple gesture with no energy or force involved, yet it had an incredibly miraculous effect.
The bolt of lightning changed direction, following Su Che’s gesture as it flew sideways before crashing to the ground with a boom.
Boom!
It was as if ten thousand pounds of explosives had ignited instantly. The entire cave shattered, and rocks flew everywhere atop Xuanju Peak. Dust covered the sky, destroying everything within a hundred feet!
Not only was the cave destroyed, but the extremely hard bluestone ground where the lightning struck also formed a huge pit several dozen feet deep and over ten feet in diameter.

“What happened?”
All the cultivators on Xuanyu Peak were shocked.
Shui Yue immediately rushed out of her cave and flew toward the peak’s summit. Knowing that Su Che was in seclusion, she guessed right away that such a commotion must have arisen from his side.
At the peak’s top, dust covered the sky, rendering vision useless. Shui Yue spread her spiritual sense to carefully locate Su Che’s position.
“I’m fine.”
A figure slowly emerged from the dusty haze, gradually becoming clearer—it was Su Che, unharmed and safe.
A layer of dark red energy surrounded him, keeping the dust at bay. His clothes were neat, showing no signs of disarray. Protected by his vital energy, the explosion earlier had only produced flying debris, which surely couldn’t harm a Golden Core cultivator.
“What happened?” Shui Yue felt slightly relieved.
Whoosh!
Su Che raised his hand, unleashing immense magical power to draw the dust covering the peak from the air and pile it up nearby, forming a mound. The sky immediately cleared.
Just this move left Shui Yue in awe. She quickly asked, “Mid-stage Golden Core?”
Drawing dust wasn’t a particularly advanced spell; any cultivator could do it. But if it were Shui Yue, still in the early stages of Golden Core, it would take her at least a dozen attempts to clear such a large area.
Su Che accomplished it with just one effortless motion. If not mid-stage Golden Core, then what?
“Yes,” Su Che nodded. “There was a small accident during my advancement. It’s nothing serious.”
“That’s good,” Shui Yue said softly. “Congratulations, senior brother, on your successful advancement.”
“Thank you.”
Su Che glanced at the mess on the peak and said to her, “I need to go to the Patriarch’s Hall to meet with the elders. Could you ask the disciple servants to clean up this mess?”
“Sure, go ahead,” Shui Yue nodded gently.
Xuanyu Peak already had hundreds of disciple servants, so tasks like cleaning up after battles certainly didn’t require Su Che and Shui Yue to do personally.
Besides clearing the debris and dust, they also needed to build Su Che a new cave. For cultivators, these tasks could be completed in less than a day.
Su Che then soared into the sky, heading toward the Patriarch’s Peak.
The lightning strike earlier was a crimson-colored “Heavenly Fire Thunder,” a mid-tier celestial thunder. It was at least ten times more powerful than the three Earth Fire Thunders Su Che had endured during his last tribulation.
Su Che initially judged that the power of that Heavenly Fire Thunder was comparable to the Purple Sky Divine Thunder released by Patriarch Zi Xiao. If it had hit him, he would have been seriously injured.

Logically, the rank of heavenly fire thunder is far inferior to the Purple Sky Divine Thunder. However, what just happened was genuine heavenly thunder, not lightning spells cast by human cultivators. The power of heaven cannot be compared to human effort.

Today, inside the sect leader’s hall, only the supreme sect leader, Grandmaster Qiu Yue, and Grandmaster Qing Xuan were present. Upon seeing Su Che appear before them, the three elders were immediately overjoyed.

“Tian Yu, you’ve emerged from seclusion so quickly?”

The three elders could clearly tell that Su Che had successfully advanced. While success wasn’t surprising, they were astonished that he had reached the middle stage of the Golden Core in just half a month—a speed that was truly terrifying.

Originally, the elders had predicted that it would take two months to half a year under normal circumstances. Although Tian Yu was an exception, it should still have taken more than a month. Yet he accomplished it in just half a month—it seemed they had underestimated this little monster…

Su Che first bowed to each of the three elders before saying, “Disciple has advanced to the middle stage of the Golden Core and mastered a divine skill. Something seems amiss, so I’ve come to seek guidance from you elders.”

Su Che had a feeling that the heavenly fire thunder just now was definitely not a heavenly calamity or punishment, but rather something brought about by his own divine skill. Therefore, he needed the elders’ protection before daring to try again…

“Something’s wrong with the divine skill you just mastered?”

The three elders immediately became interested. However, instead of asking Su Che to demonstrate it right away, they sent messages to the other elders, urging them to rush to the sect leader’s peak.

Anything related to Tian Yu was a major matter for the sect, and the elders would take it extremely seriously.

The Yuan Ying elder could fly at incredible speed. In less than fifteen minutes, the seven elders of Tian Xuan Sect gathered together, all filled with curiosity, waiting for Su Che to display that “abnormal” divine skill he had just mastered.

In the square outside the hall, Grandmaster Guang Wu volunteered to let Su Che use him as a target to unleash his divine skill.

Hearing that this skill was related to heavenly thunder, it must be Purple Sky standing by Su Che’s side, providing protection.

“Start,” Grandmaster Guang Wu shouted from thirty zhang away.

Su Che nodded slightly, focused his mind, and silently activated that strange divine skill.

Boom!

A crimson-colored heavenly fire thunder struck the sky and rushed straight at Su Che.

This time, Su Che was well-prepared. He reached out, grabbed it, and threw it back toward Grandmaster Guang Wu.

Grandmaster Guang Wu raised one hand to hold back the sky and released a fiery energy to withstand the strike of the heavenly thunder.

Boom!

The thunderstorm dissipated. Although Grandmaster Guangwu remained unharmed, his body swayed slightly before he said, “Not bad! Its power is comparable to Zi Xiao’s regular strike.”
Zi Xiao is a thunder-based spell of mid-Yuan Ying cultivation level and possesses the strongest offensive power. The fact that it can compare to his regular strike means Su Che’s ability has an extremely terrifying offensive strength.
Don’t forget—Su Che is only at mid-Jin Dan level!
“What kind of ability is this? It seems to involve summoning thunder to attack others?”
The elders were all puzzled. Only Grand Elder Qingxuan changed expression after a brief thought.
“No!”
Grand Elder Qingxuan exclaimed in shock, “This isn’t an ordinary ability; it’s a great art from the immortal realm!”
“What?” The other elders also changed color instantly.
“A great art from the immortal realm?” The supreme leader asked urgently, “Brother Qingxuan, that can’t be right, can it?”
Grand Elder Qingxuan said solemnly, “Although I’ve never seen such a great art from the immortal realm either, summoning thunder is definitely beyond the reach of ordinary people. I believe Tian Yu’s ability is similar to the legendary Great Thunderfall Art of the immortal realm.”
“The Great Thunderfall Art?”
The elders’ gazes turned once again to Su Che’s face, filled with various speculations and doubts.
“The Great Thunderfall Art!” In the Immortal Prison, Lao He was extremely proud, shouting excitedly, “See? I was right, wasn’t I? Adding a little seasoning while cooking turned the ability you mastered into a great art unique to the immortal realm. Haha, I’m truly a genius…”
Su Che was also delighted. At the same time, he vaguely guessed that the dark gray energy within Lao He must be an extremely advanced and extraordinary force. It was because of this force that he was able to master some skills that only appear in the immortal realm earlier than expected…
Of course, this was just a rough guess. To determine the truth, the experienced elders needed to find a more definitive answer.
“Ordinary people cultivate to become immortals, while immortals cultivate the Dao…”
Grand Elder Qingxuan slowly explained, “Ordinary people pursue higher levels of power while striving to unlock their full potential. But immortals have already reached the pinnacle in mastering their own power. Thus, their vision and pursuits transcend themselves and human concepts, rising above the ‘Heavenly Dao’.”

“The Dao is the power held by heaven, and can also be understood as the power of rules. When immortals reach a certain level of understanding of the Dao, they can truly harness the power of heaven and use its strength to wield the supreme arts of the Dao. It is said that there are a total of three thousand known arts of the Dao, known as the Three Thousand Dao Arts…”