Chapter 585: Trouble Again?

After wandering through the labyrinthine complex for over half an hour, the strange fluctuations became increasingly apparent as they delved deeper. At this point, even without the guidance of Master Guanghao, Su Che and the others could find their way by following these sensations.
Finally, the five of them passed through a towering archway several zhang high and saw a huge silver-white metal sphere floating in mid-air ahead. It gave the impression of suddenly being in space, gazing up at a star shining with silver light.
Zzzz……
Countless electric lights swirled around the metal sphere—almost translucent, devoid of any color.
“What pure lightning energy!”
Master Guanghao exclaimed in awe. “Could it be the primal force of lightning?”
“The primal force of lightning?”
Su Che silently activated the Great Thunder Art and sensed it carefully. After a few breaths, he reached a conclusion: It was extremely pure lightning energy, nearly primal, but definitely not.
Normally, as someone who specialized in the path of lightning and had practiced for over 20,000 years, Master Guanghao should not have made a mistake in judging lightning energy. Yet, since he had not yet transcended the mortal realm, his ability to sense primal forces was certainly not as sharp as that of those who mastered the Great Dao.
For him, who specialized in lightning, obtaining the primal force of lightning would undoubtedly be the greatest achievement, far more valuable than any other treasure—thousands, tens of thousands, even countless times more.
So, rather than saying it was his judgment, it was more like, in his excitement, he voiced a hope deep in his heart.
Sure enough, after another dozen breaths as his emotions calmed down, Master Guanghao shook his head and sighed. “No, it’s not…”
“Is this metal sphere the greatest secret buried in the Thunder God Temple for countless years?”
At that moment, Patriarch Shenmu and Saintess Lunan felt a hint of disappointment. They were not lightning cultivators, and if it was merely something related to lightning, it wouldn’t bring them much benefit.
Fortunately, they had been prepared for this. After all, when searching for treasures on Thunder Star, if it wasn’t related to lightning, that would be strange. Thus, their main reason for coming to Thunder Star with Master Guanghao was to avoid the Witch Clan, with treasure hunting being secondary.
As those on the verge of ascending to the immortal realm, they no longer had much interest in so-called mortal treasures…

Xueyu Fairy remained calm as usual, seemingly having anticipated such an outcome, which was why she had previously declared so nobly, “I don’t care!”
At this moment, Su Che gazed at the silver-white sphere with a diameter of nearly a hundred zhang, wondering in his heart, “Is this my opportunity? What is this sphere? What use does it have?”
Chirping and crackling…
Translucent electric lights flashed continuously on the sphere, yet it was impossible to sense the immense energy they contained—in other words, there was no sense of intimidation at all.
Judging from its appearance alone, it seemed even less powerful than the Purple Thunder of the cultivation world.
The translucent electric lights could be seen with the naked eye, but another kind of energy surrounding the metal sphere remained undiscovered by Su Che and the others until now.
Not even Lao Hei’s detection abilities could detect it.
Xueyu, who was always mysterious, also failed to notice it.
It was a peculiar energy that was completely transparent and invisible. As soon as it emerged from the metal sphere, it was instantly destroyed by the translucent lightning energy and turned to nothingness.
It could be said that this invisible energy could hardly stay away from the metal sphere before being completely erased by the translucent lightning energy.
But the problem was that at this moment, Su Che and the others were too close to the metal sphere. A trace of this invisible energy, before being completely annihilated, fortunately attached itself to them and instantly penetrated their bodies.
Once inside their bodies, it was as if they had been saved and freed, no longer subject to the destruction by the translucent lightning energy.
Su Che was unaware of this, and even a powerful being like Xueyu Fairy, at the Mahayana stage, was equally oblivious, not realizing that her body had been invaded by an extremely dangerous energy!
“Brother Guanghao, have you guessed what use this metal sphere has? What benefits can it bring to us?” Lu Nan, the Holy Maiden, asked softly.
“I don’t know for now,” replied Master Guanghao slowly, shaking his head. He turned to look at Su Che and Xueyu and asked humbly, “I would like to ask Master Tianyu and Sister Xueyu for your insights on this.”
Su Che shook his head gently but said nothing; Xueyu also shook her head with a smile and said softly, “I can only guess that the omnipresent lightning on Thunder Star exists to supply energy to this metal sphere… Or rather, this metal sphere represents the purpose of Thunder Star. Without it, Thunder Star wouldn’t exist at all.”

Su Che gave her a casual glance and couldn’t help but send a mocking message: “A bunch of pretentious nonsense—completely incomprehensible.”
“Oh, you saw through me!”
Xue Yu winked at him; such a playful expression was indeed quite rare on her.
Su Che thought Xue Yu had said nonsense, but Guang Hao and the others all nodded in agreement with the fairy Xue Yu’s views.
As they spoke, more and more invisible energy invaded their bodies, and the protective aura surrounding them offered no resistance at all.
These invisible energies were shattered by lightning and should have vanished in that space, with no chance of escaping. But with Su Che and the other four as perfect carriers, more and more invisible energy flocked over, eager to enter their bodies.
Entering their bodies meant salvation—they wouldn’t be killed by those damned lightning bolts…
Su Che and the others remained unaware and unfazed, silently pondering how to approach that metal sphere and fully understand its function and the benefits it could bring to them.
It was like when a virus invades the body—ordinary people feel nothing at first; by the time they do, it means the disease has already spread throughout the body…
“Fellow Xue Yu, do you think this sphere itself is a treasure, or is something sealed inside it?” Guang Hao asked again.
“Both are possible…”
Xue Yu pondered for a moment before answering seriously, “Based on my intuition, the latter possibility is greater. If something is sealed inside and requires the power of all the lightning on Thunder Star to suppress it… then it’s undoubtedly the worst outcome for us.”
In other words, if a demon is sealed inside, releasing it wouldn’t only bring us no benefits but might also invite unforeseen disasters.
Hearing this, Guang Hao’s thick brows furrowed slightly, his mood darkening: If that were true, wouldn’t all his thousands of years of effort be in vain?
As he thought, his brows almost touched each other, and his usual thoughtful expression instantly turned into a terrifying, fierce one.
Huh?
Su Che and Tian Yin immediately noticed that Guang Hao’s expression was extremely abnormal, and he began to emit a strange, violent aura.
What was going on?

Unbeknownst to them, the invisible energy that had invaded their bodies had reached a state of saturation. To accommodate more, they needed to undergo transformation and enhancement. From the perspective of that invisible energy, the five of them needed to evolve—completely evolve!
“Fellow Daoist Guanghao, what are you doing…?”
Xueyu the Fairy was shocked. Before she could finish her question, she glanced around and saw that the expressions on the faces of Shenmu the Ancestor and Lunan the Holy Maiden seemed to be changing as well.
“Something’s wrong!”
Su Che immediately realized that something was extremely off here—seemingly…
“No! I refuse to accept this!”
Guanghao, the first to show signs of change, suddenly let out a furious roar. His blood-red eyes glared fiercely at Su Che as he screamed wildly, “I refuse to accept this! I refuse to accept it…”
Like a person who had completely lost his sanity, with no other thoughts, he kept repeating these words, as if frantically venting his emotions.
With each roar, his facial features and even his physique underwent incredible changes.
Extremely fast!
First, his cheekbones bulged high while his eye sockets sunken deeply. His face stretched several times longer, losing its normal appearance in the blink of an eye. Then, with a series of cracking sounds, the bones throughout his body seemed to ignite like firecrackers. His once upright posture suddenly became hunched, but he didn’t get shorter—instead, he expanded and stretched greatly.
Snap! Snap!
The extremely durable Daoist robes on his body were torn apart by some unknown force, becoming as fragile as rotten cloth.
Su Che and Xueyu saw clearly that what had torn the top-quality Daoist robes was several giant bone spines that suddenly appeared on his back.
As a Great Perfection-stage powerhouse, Guanghao possessed the ability to craft top-quality Daoist artifacts. These robes were his own masterpieces. Normally, even other Great Perfection-stage powerhouses would take a long time to destroy such a fine artifact, yet they were torn to shreds by just a few bone spines!
Snap! Snap! Snap!
The bones continued to crack. In just a few moments, the bone spines on Guanghao’s back grew longer and were connected by layers of fleshy membranes, quickly forming a pair of large fleshy wings.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
Even his hair changed. Thousands of black hairs intertwined and merged, eventually forming dozens of thick, sharp spines scattered across his head.
Sharp fangs and claws, a head full of spines, plus those large fleshy wings…

It’s clearly that same unknown demonic race seen on the mural earlier, one that takes pleasure in torturing and killing living beings!
“Roar, roar, roar…”
Guanghao, now completely transformed into a monster, no longer roared phrases like “I refuse to give up”; instead, he laughed maniacally at the sky, his voice becoming extremely vicious and filled with evil.
Su Che and Xue Yu exchanged glances—how could they not realize that they had unleashed some kind of demon?
“Su Che, you’ve caused trouble again!”
Xue Yu acted swiftly, placing the “Crown of Guilt” on Su Che first: “You really are a troublemaker!”