The fourth day began before the last steam had left the sealed bore.
Five pillars stood in Pei Jing’s Dantian. They could bear weight, keep their temperature steady and heal when strained. The liquid silver moving among them was still as slow as thick oil.
In a fight with a Golden Core cultivator, a flying sword could reach him before he heard it coming. He had to be able to move his qi quickly enough to meet the attack.
He took the lead tube from the west point. The fire inside had come from Storm-Eye Ridge, where the Cloud Mist warships had met the Burning Sun fire chariots. A small Void-Glass Crucible held the lightning in a tight circle inside the tube.
Pei Jing took the cap off. A fist-sized ball of violet fire rose with a whistle. His hair stood on end. Sparks jumped from his fingers and went out against the platform. Even the dust glowed as it drifted through the air.
He took the ball in both hands and brought it to the Great Hammer Acupoint at the base of his neck.
His whole body went stiff. Violet lines flared across his face. The lightning ran down his spine. He felt it reach the marrow he had tempered with lightning at Thunder Cliff, after the Earth-Stalactite Milk at Ghost-Eye Mountain had strengthened his bones, then pass through the new tissue grown by the Verdant Life Pillars. His back rang like a piece of struck metal. The wild…
