Xu Changshou was just about to step into the Thunder Marsh.

Suddenly, a gray-robed Daoist burst forth from the depths of the Thunder Marsh. He was an elder, seemingly in his twilight years.

His hair was a frantic, charred mess, and fine arcs of silver static crackled across his scorched flesh.

"Not good, it is Fellow Daoist Wu! He survived!"

"Fellow Daoist Wu, what is the situation inside?"

"Senior Brother Wu..."

The gathered crowd turned their gazes toward the trembling elder.

The old man shook violently, his face deathly pale. He offered a bitter smile. "This Thunder Marsh is absolute terror. Without an art to ward off the lightning, entering is tantamount to suicide."

"Such terrifying might!"

Hearing this, a collective chill gripped the hearts of the cultivators.

Those who had harbored intentions of braving the Thunder Marsh immediately swallowed their greed.

"Flee!"

"Run for your lives!"

"Hurry!"

Suddenly, frantic screams echoed from within the Thunder Marsh.

Immediately after, five or six cultivators scrambled out of the dense purple bamboo. Each was charred black from head to toe, and one man was missing an entire arm, the stump cauterized by blistering static.

"What manner of horror did you encounter?"

"We crossed paths with the Black Antelope Thunder Ox. It ambushed us!"

"Indeed. The Black Antelope Thunder Ox commands the Thunder Marsh like a dragon in the sea. It is an absolute force, unmatched by anyone beneath the realm of a Foundation Establishment grand cultivator!"

"Then how do we proceed?"

"The only viable method is to bait the beast out of its domain."

The crowd dared not step forward, yet greed chained them to the forest's edge. They immediately fell into murmured plotting on how to draw the beast into the open.

"Senior Sister Ye, I am going in."

"Halt!"

Ye Shanhu seized Xu Changshou's sleeve, her delicate face fraught with worry. "Junior Brother Xu, do not be a fool. Dozens of seasoned veterans were routed in an instant. You are no match for it."

"Rest easy. I have the means to subjugate it."

"Within that domain, you will be slaughtered. Listen to me: lure it to the edge, and I will employ a trump card to sever its head."

"Very well. I shall scout the perimeter first."

"Guard your life, Junior Brother Xu."

Watching Xu Changshou slip effortlessly into the Thunder Marsh, Ye Shanhu's complexion paled with helpless anxiety.

"Hm? A fool just walked into the Thunder Marsh."

"Merely a brat at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation. He is actively courting death."

"Who is that boy? Which faction claims him?"

"A nameless ghost, likely."

"Utterly reckless. In my eyes, he is already a corpse."

...

Within the crushing pressure of the Thunder Marsh.

Xu Changshou darted rapidly through the dense purple thicket. As his robes brushed against the surrounding Thunder Leaf Bamboo, visceral arcs of silver static sparked and trailed behind him like ghostly threads.

Harboring a lightning-attribute spiritual root himself, Xu Changshou possessed an innate resistance to the surrounding elemental violence. These ambient sparks failed to scorch his skin.

Nevertheless, he maintained a cold, suffocating vigilance. He gripped his Five Clouds Sword in his right hand, while his left hand clamped tightly around a dozen Lightning Attraction Talismans.

The Lightning Attraction Talisman was his absolute trump card for surviving this domain. Should a catastrophic arc descend, the drafted array would gorge itself on the lethal energy.

Boom!

Without warning, a blinding pillar of heavenly lightning pierced the firmament, detonating just paces ahead of Xu Changshou.

A towering stalk of Thunder Leaf Bamboo took the brunt of the strike and was instantly vaporized into drifting ash.

Though the bamboo thrived on static, its endurance was finite. The raw, catastrophic violence of heavenly thunder could shatter even the most resilient natural vessels.

The residual blast scorched the earth, birthing a localized domain of pure destruction.

Countless silver snakes of electricity danced wildly across the charred soil, causing the surviving bamboo stalks to violently tremble.

Xu Changshou's eyes narrowed coldly. Such absolute destructive force... A standard Qi Condensation cultivator would be instantly rendered into charcoal.

The Thunder Marsh was an unnatural anomaly, acting as a massive lightning rod. Even under a clear sun, catastrophic arcs would occasionally strike the earth.

Under today's suffocatingly overcast skies, the frequency of these heavenly strikes had multiplied to a lethal degree.

Pushing forward for several Li, he finally approached the absolute core of the Thunder Marsh.

Boom!

At that exact moment, a deafening thunderclap ripped through the heavens. A terrifying pillar of lightning plummeted directly toward Xu Changshou's skull.

"Lightning Attraction Talisman, manifest!"

Acting purely on honed reflex, Xu Changshou hurled a talisman straight up. The yellow paper burst with profound light as it intercepted the strike, forcibly siphoning the catastrophic heavenly thunder into its drawn array.

Gorged on an apocalyptic volume of energy, the talisman began to violently warp, expand, and groan under the immense pressure.

"Disperse!"

With a sweeping wave of his sleeve and a rapid one-handed seal, Xu Changshou forcefully hurled the overloaded talisman several hundred meters away, detonating it in mid-air.

Boom!

A torrential flood of lightning was unleashed. A localized storm of silver snakes ravaged the zone, instantly snapping over a dozen thick Thunder Leaf Bamboos in half.

Witnessing this sheer devastation,

Xu Changshou felt a rare phantom chill crawl down his spine.

The elemental violence here was absolute. Had he lacked the Lightning Attraction Talismans, that single bolt would have thoroughly erased his existence from the Dao.

Simultaneously, a ruthless confidence swelled within his chest.

If his arrays could swallow the wrath of the heavens, then suppressing the Black Antelope Thunder Ox would be effortlessly within his grasp.

Moo-!

A sudden, deafening bellow ruptured the crackling air.

The earth beneath his boots violently convulsed.

Xu Changshou locked his gaze forward. Barely a Li away, a colossal black mass was bulldozing straight through the bamboo thicket toward him.

It was the Black Antelope Thunder Ox. The redirected heavenly strike had completely exposed his position.

Even from a distance, its monstrous physique dwarfed the Ferocious Bull King he had slain days prior, easily boasting twice the sheer mass.

Its pitch-black fur stood rigidly on end, resembling a thick coat of forged iron wire.

Visceral silver threads of static violently coiled around its thick hide.

With every snort, lightning snakes as thick as a man's finger flickered menacingly from its nostrils.

Its unnatural pupils radiated a bloodthirsty, electric glow.

Yet, the most lethal aspect was the jagged, lightning-shaped horn erupting from the center of its skull.

As the beast charged, dense, volatile ozone gathered upon the horn, visibly brewing a catastrophic, killing blow.

In a mere breath,

The Black Antelope Thunder Ox breached striking distance. Tearing its massive jaws wide open, it expelled a blinding, cascading curtain of thunder meant to instantly incinerate Xu Changshou into a pile of ash.

Xu Changshou's eyes narrowed. The raw, accumulated volume of that attack easily rivaled the heavenly thunder he had just evaded.

However, the beast was merely a brute; it possessed no profound Dao of control. The attack was wildly dispersed. Had it concentrated that killing intent into a single point, the lethality would be absolute.

"Lightning Attraction Talisman, manifest!"

Xu Changshou flicked a second talisman into the fray. Ascending into the air, the array flared with a magnetic pull, violently seizing the sprawling curtain of death.

The crushing tide of lightning was effortlessly sucked into the tiny slip of yellow paper.

Moo?

The Black Antelope Thunder Ox slid to a halt, utterly bewildered.

Its primitive mind could not comprehend the anomaly. That a puny mortal could simply pocket its absolute power was completely contrary to the laws of its reality.

"Return!"

Forming a lightning-fast hand seal, Xu Changshou pointed directly at the massive beast.

The engorged talisman shot toward the Black Antelope Thunder Ox like a homing dart.

Harboring the budding intellect of a Demon Beast, the ox sensed the catastrophic danger, sharply pivoting its hooves to flee.

Yet the talisman locked onto its aura like a bone-clinging maggot, hovering relentlessly above its skull.

Boom!

Before it could take three bounds, the talisman violently detonated, swallowing the Black Antelope Thunder Ox in a blinding explosion of its own concentrated power.

While its innate affinity rendered it immune to fatal burns, the concussive shockwave battered its massive skull, leaving it dizzy and disoriented.

Moo!

Infuriated by the humiliation, the Black Antelope Thunder Ox whipped back around, opening its maw to unleash yet another sprawling torrent of electrical slaughter.

"Lightning Attraction Talisman, manifest!"

Executing the exact same maneuver, Xu Changshou casually absorbed the catastrophic blow before detonating the overloaded talisman squarely against the beast's snout.

The beast bellowed in absolute fury, yet an unmistakable glint of panic now bled into its eyes.

It was glaringly apparent that after discharging two massive torrents of its core energy, the creature's formidable aura had significantly withered.

"Die!"

Igniting the Wind Manipulation Technique, Xu Changshou blurred into motion. Five Clouds Sword in his right hand, a fresh Lightning Attraction Talisman pinched in his left, he closed in for the execution.

Moo-!

Yet completely defying his expectations, the Black Antelope Thunder Ox unleashed a terrified bellow, abruptly turning tail and fleeing into the depths of the marsh, completely stripped of its will to fight.