The southern stone railing of Tongtian Apex erupted into violent, crackling purple static.
“Blasphemy!” roared Patriarch Lei Kun of the Nine Heavens Thunder Hall, his azure robes whipping wildly as arcs of jagged, violet lightning danced across his fingertips.
He was flanked by sixty thunder-stage sword elders, every one of them bristling with ungrounded, chaotic magnetic auras that made the hair of nearby spectators stand straight on end.
“Lightning is the untamable fang of the Heavenly Dao!” Lei Kun bellowed, his eyes flashing with raw spark malice. “For three thousand years, the Thunder Hall has cultivated the Wild Wrath of the Sky! We conquer our foes with untethered, sovereign destruction! And this whelp... This mortal carpenter’s boy... Claims he can regulate the divine flame with permits, breakers, and check fines?!”
Patriarch Lei Kun pointed his finger at the card table, where Murong Seven stood.
“To cage the lightning inside metal tubes is an insult to the gods!” the old patriarch shrieked. “I’ll strike this arrogant child down, burn up his book of paper laws, and show this assembly that divine thunder obeys no mortal code!”
CRACK-BOOM!
A blinding coil of Ninth-Tier Purple Fiend Lightning—three million volts of unstable, ungrounded arc star-fire—spooled between Lei Kun’s outstretched palms, aiming straight for Murong Seven’s face!
