Chapter 170: Lei Qing’s Sense of Crisis

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He returned to his tent and sat down to regulate his breath and meditate. After several consecutive battles just now, his body functions had been pushed to the limit. Especially the battle with Yuchi Kou, not only did it drain his Fighting Qi completely, but his internal organs also suffered severe shock and internal injuries.

But at this moment, it was also the absolute best time to heal and cultivate at the same time. Lei Qing took out the remaining half of the Gold-rank Crystal Core, placed it in his palms, and started to circulate the Lei Family’s Fighting Qi Technique, “Three Changes of Heavenly Thunder”.

This was an exquisite and profound Fighting Qi Technique. Even looking at the entire Pan-Continent, it was considered a sufficiently excellent Fighting Qi cultivation technique. The Lei Family relied on this “Three Changes of Heavenly Thunder” to stand proudly in the world.

Lei Qing did not know the specific details very well. Back then, the first Old Ancestor of the Lei Family, the Heavenly Thunder Sword Saint, was originally just a small soldier of commoner origin. As a result, he was blessed with a fortuitous encounter and accidentally obtained this Thunder Element cultivation technique. In the end, he hacked through thorns and thistles all the way, achieved Holy prestige, assisted the founding Emperor of Tianlan to pacify the four directions, and was conferred a hereditary Earldom.

The Heavenly Thunder Sword Saint named it “Three Changes of Heavenly Thunder” and passed it on to his descendants, passing it down all the way to Lei Qing’s generation. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, later on, the Lei Family only produced one Lei Ji Sword Saint, who was also the biological grandson of the Heavenly Thunder Sword Saint. After the Lei Ji Sword Saint passed away from old age, the Lei Family had no more Holy Rank powerhouses. Moreover, their status declined all the way. Until now, although one couldn’t say the Lei Family was half-dead, it no longer possessed its former glory.

In the entire Lei Family, there were only three Gold-rank powerhouses in total.

For some ordinary forces, three Gold-rank powerhouses would naturally be an incredibly amazing thing. But the Lei Family was a thousand-year-old noble clan with a profound foundation. Every generation tried their best to cultivate the most talented individuals, but generation after generation, not a single Holy Rank powerhouse had appeared.

The fewer Holy Rank powerhouses appeared, the more the family fortune declined. By now, even the Lei Family could not bring out too many resources to support the cultivation of the younger generation.

However, all things have their rise and fall; perhaps the time for the Lei Family’s fortune to turn around had arrived. Lei Qing’s father’s generation had already started to improve a little. Especially Lei Qing’s uncle, who cultivated to the Gold-rank before the age of thirty-five and became the Family Head. One must know, unlike those Old Ancestors in the past when the Lei Family was wealthy, his uncle did not have Gold-rank Crystal Cores available for use at every turn.

It could be seen that Lei Qing’s uncle, Lei Dingjun, could be considered an extremely remarkable figure. Unfortunately, perhaps his potential was exhausted, Uncle Lei Dingjun was now over fifty years old, yet he was still stuck at the bottleneck of the peak of Mid-stage Gold. With his gradually declining body, he was almost destined to have no chance with the Holy Rank in this life. Because the vast majority of Holy Rank powerhouses displayed world-shaking talent when they were young, cultivated to the Gold-rank early, and then fought their way to the Holy Rank. The older a person gets, the more their physical vitality degenerates, making evolution more difficult.

Just like Leng Yuewu, she was already at the Gold-rank when she made her debut at the age of twenty. When she was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, while her appearance was still that of a youthful and beautiful girl, she had already achieved Holy prestige. In her thirties, her Master, the previous Palace Master of the Moon Cold Palace, was besieged by two Holy Rank Demonic Beasts in the North Ice Prison. After forcefully killing one, he was struck down into the Endless Abyss by the other and perished.

The young Leng Yuewu then took up the burden of her Master and took charge of the Moon Cold Palace. Moreover, those who achieved the Holy Rank not only saw a surge in their lifespan, but their aging speed would also become very slow. Someone like Leng Yuewu, even if she lived to be over a hundred years old, would still appear as a beautiful woman in her thirties.

It could be said that if Lei Qing had no chance to break through to the Holy Rank in this life, he would enter a state of aging far earlier than Leng Yuewu. Right now, he was a handsome and spirited young man, while she was a beautiful young woman.

In twenty or thirty years, he would be a middle-aged uncle facing a beautiful young woman. In fifty or sixty years, he would be an old man with white hair and beard facing a beautiful young woman.

If Lei Qing maintained himself well and had decent luck to live to over a hundred, then he would be a withered old man on the verge of death, facing a young wife with a face like a peach and eyes like autumn waters…

By that time, it might be the age when Leng Yuewu’s desires were strongest. If she still clung to him begging for intimacy, he could only extend a pair of withered claws and let her choose a rod herself.

Just thinking of such a scene, Lei Qing would shudder even in his thoughts. Even if Leng Yuewu did not dislike it and did not go steal a gigolo because her desires were hard to fill, he would dislike himself. As soon as he thought of these things, a strong sense of crisis arose spontaneously in Lei Qing’s heart.

If he didn’t think for himself, he had to think for Leng Yuewu.

No, even if he had to die, he had to rush to the Holy Rank. If he couldn’t reach the Holy Rank, it would really be better to just die and get it over with.

Thinking of this, Lei Qing gritted his teeth fiercely, eliminated all distracting thoughts, and focused his mind on cultivating. The Thunder Element power, full of active aura, was slowly inhaled into his meridians from the Crystal Core in his palm, traveling along the meridians and repairing the damage to his internal organs.

At the same time, that trace after trace of pure power, following the operation of the Three Changes of Heavenly Thunder technique, began to temper every corner of Lei Qing’s body.

The so-called advancing in rank, the so-called evolution, was about making every life factor within one’s body become stronger. The stronger the function produced by a single life factor, the stronger the overall strength would be.

When life factors became stronger, they could not only produce greater power, erupt with faster speed, and make the five senses and six perceptions more acute, but also, in a unit of time, the more Fighting Qi they could breed and accumulate, and the more pure it would be.

Of course, the body could also better withstand the strong load brought by the eruption of Fighting Qi. The reason was simple: if a person who hadn’t cultivated possessed the Fighting Qi of a Holy Rank powerhouse in their body, once that Holy Rank Fighting Qi erupted, let alone using it to kill enemies, their own body would first be unable to withstand that violent power. The only result would be self-destruction and death.

Therefore, evolution was never singular, nor was it allowed to be singular and unbalanced.

Using one’s own Fighting Qi to nourish and temper oneself was naturally the most common method of cultivation and evolution, and this process was not painful, but very comfortable. However, this process required slow accumulation; it was a slow and grinding effort. Only after a long time would a qualitative change arise from a quantitative change.

Using a Crystal Core to cultivate was a shortcut. What was inside a Crystal Core was not Fighting Qi power, but the root of a certain attribute’s power. For example, the Thunder Element Crystal Core Lei Qing had, the power contained within was a source power that Demonic Beasts relied on to produce Fighting Qi.

Using this Thunder Element source to temper oneself made it easier to stimulate one’s potential and make oneself stronger. But this process was extremely painful.

After all, the Thunder Element source was an external power. Accelerating the cultivation process often required paying a painful price. That method of constantly destroying life factors in a short time, and promoting them to regrow and become stronger, would cause people heart-tearing, lung-splitting pain.

But fortunately, no one would refuse this kind of pain. Crystal Cores were originally a very rare resource. It could be said that if one lacked Crystal Core resources, even a person with incredibly amazing talent would have absolutely no possibility of achieving the Holy Rank.

Why were the Fighting Qi Holy Lands so awesome? Producing Holy Rank powerhouses was like growing leeks, one crop after another without interruption? Was it because their techniques were that powerful and awesome? The reason was not that. It was because they had many resources. With more resources, it was much easier to create experts. And once there were many experts, they could seize even more resources. This was like rolling a snowball, entering a virtuous cycle.

The Lei Family, however, was precisely in an opposite vicious cycle. The fewer the resources, the fewer experts appeared. The fewer the experts, the fewer the resources.

Of course, having resources alone was not enough; having a heart to become a strong expert was absolutely indispensable for becoming a Holy Rank powerhouse. When the Old Ancestors of the Lei Family were still alive, the family definitely had many resources, but among the descendants, was there no one who became successful?

While cultivating, Lei Qing secretly speculated that it was probably because the glory of the Old Ancestors back then was too intense, and their protective umbrella was too powerful. The descendants back then, those little Old Ancestors of Lei Qing, severely lacked the sense of crisis and the will to fight for survival. They were complacent and self-satisfied, sticking to old ways. This era of lacking crisis awareness and being full of comfort probably continued for several hundred years under the lingering prestige after Old Ancestor Lei Ji died.

And when the people of the Lei Family started to realize that the family was declining more and more, when they wanted to strive forward, they suddenly felt the difficulty had increased greatly. Because the resources had already been used up pretty much. That group of little Old Ancestors lived comfortably and spent money like dirt. They had almost squandered the wealth accumulated by the two Sword Saint Old Ancestors.

Therefore, even though the Lei Family now felt a strong crisis and wanted to surge forward, it was like sailing against the current, extremely difficult. Uncle Lei Dingjun had long since stopped using his own resources when he felt he had no hope of breaking through to the Holy Rank.

By Lei Qing’s generation, two rising stars suddenly appeared in the family. They were Big Sister Lei Wan and Second Brother Lei Hong; both had very impressive aptitude. In this way, the allocation of resources was decided early on. Big Sister Lei Wan was cultivated in the direction of the number one expert in the family, while Second Brother Lei Hong was cultivated in the direction of the next Family Head.

In terms of cultivation resources, Big Sister Lei Wan had the most. In terms of network resources, Second Brother Lei Hong occupied the most.

Fortunately, Big Sister lived up to expectations and cultivated to the primary stage of Gold at the age of twenty-six. Then she went out to gain experience, and her whereabouts and cultivation progress are unknown to this day; it is only known that a letter comes back every year.

And Second Brother Lei Hong also began to gain a firm foothold in the army, gradually developing his own power. He was taking over from Uncle Lei Dingjun step by step.

As for the rest of the same generation, regardless of their aptitude, there were not many resources left for cultivation. Including Lei Qing, although his aptitude was okay, the general direction of the Lei Family had long been determined. The only thing that could be done was to concentrate resources to cultivate super experts.

Regarding this, Lei Qing did not have the slightest complaint. Big Sister and Second Brother treated him very well. His uncle and aunt also doted on him, a child without a father or mother.

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