Chapter 55: Deadly Danger

It was deep into the night, and the darkness was thick.

The lights inside the Power Station were dim, and the roar of the electric motors had died down. In a hard-to-notice corner, Chen Chong hid in the shadows, staring at the switch of the current control device in front of him, remaining silent in thought.

Old Xu had already gone back to his room to sleep soundly. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Chen Chong had connected two thin wires from the transformer box, extending them discreetly along the messy tangle of cables all the way here, connecting them to the current controller.

Although it was an extremely crude control circuit, the most basic requirements for Electrotherapy had been met. All Chen Chong needed to do now was connect the two wires extending from the current controller to his own body, press the switch, and immediately, the current would flow throughout his whole body.

“Current Push…”

Chen Chong repeatedly contemplated the details of Electrotherapy in his heart, ensuring there were no mistakes.

According to the normal cultivation progress, the practice of Ultimate Infinite Qigong should first be Refining Essence into Qi, allowing the True Qi to grow, solidify, and reach a point where it fills the entire body. Once this stage was reached, the cultivator’s own physique, nourished and fed by the True Qi, would also become extremely robust. Only after these two prerequisites were met would the foundation for advancing to Current Push be laid.

Next, to achieve Current Push, the cultivator needed to control and compress the True Qi, making it operate in a single thread. Using the dantian as the center, the True Qi would operate at high speed, mimicking the structure of an electromagnetic coil. Once the True Qi’s operation within the body reached an extremely high rotational speed, it would spontaneously generate an electric current, allowing the cultivator to enter the Current Push realm.

And this supplementary Electrotherapy method involved directly connecting the cultivator’s body to an electric current, forcibly using willpower to manipulate the True Qi to absorb the current and grow stronger. Driven by the external current, the True Qi’s operation accelerated, tremendously shortening the process of Refining Essence into Qi, allowing the cultivator to directly perform the introductory stage cultivation of Ultimate Infinite Qigong through the Current Push method!

Electrotherapy was, of course, a huge shortcut, but it also came with corresponding deadly dangers. If the cultivator’s True Qi cultivation was insufficient, their physique not strong enough, and their willpower not firm enough—lacking any of these three points—the danger of qi deviation would skyrocket.

However, for the current Chen Chong, the scarcity of supplies meant he lacked sufficient nutrition and energy intake to make rapid progress with Ultimate Infinite Qigong. Besides, being in a den of danger now, he had no choice but to take an unconventional path and risk a desperate gamble!

“For an ordinary person, 50mA is a lethal current. But an Awakener’s physique and vitality are far stronger than ordinary people’s. Coupled with the tolerance I built up from those shock experiments in the lab, passing a current of over a hundred mA through my body shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Chen Chong took a deep breath:

“Let’s start with 100mA then!”

He took off his insulating gloves, connected the two wires to his arms, turned the current regulator to the lowest setting, and pressed the switch.

Zzzzt—!

The very instant he pressed the switch, an intense feeling of shuddering, paralysis, and stinging surged from both arms toward his entire body, causing Chen Chong’s expression to change drastically!

In the next moment, it was as if thousands upon thousands of ants had simultaneously burrowed into his flesh and blood, and these ants were all biting and gnawing at his flesh and blood at the same time. An unparalleled sensation of pain, itch, and numbness crashed toward Chen Chong’s consciousness like a surging tidal wave.

“What a kick!”

Chen Chong gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his face, which twitched violently. Yet as a current powerful enough to paralyze an ordinary person’s heart and cause shock passed through him, his consciousness remained clear. He forcefully endured it, not even letting out a single groan of pain. And stimulated by the electric current, the True Qi inside Chen Chong’s body suddenly became frantic, abruptly surging and racing like a runaway wild horse!

Knowing he had reached a moment of extreme danger, Chen Chong immediately assumed the meditation posture of Ultimate Infinite Qigong. While resisting the maddening pain with an iron-hard will, he carefully controlled and gathered the True Qi within his body.

Under the current’s stimulation, the True Qi inside him was as restless as a python that had taken a powerful tonic. The True Qi flow that Chen Chong could previously control easily had now become deadly dangerous. Only by straining his willpower to its utmost could he barely gather and control the raging stream of True Qi, guiding it to circulate around his dantian.

One minute… two minutes… five minutes…

After a full ten minutes had passed, a True Qi cycle that previously could be completed in a few minutes had only just finished circulating around Chen Chong’s dantian area. And after the first True Qi cycle was completed, another change occurred!

With the completion of the first True Qi cycle, it seemed the influence of the electric current caused a certain inertia to form within the True Qi along the circulation path Chen Chong had constructed. The flow of True Qi, like a thin stream, suddenly accelerated dramatically, spinning rapidly around the dantian like an electromagnetic coil. At this speed, if Chen Chong’s previous True Qi operation speed was like a moving horse-drawn carriage, then the speed of the True Qi now was like a speeding train!

Not only that, as the True Qi’s operation speed skyrocketed, the trickle-like True Qi began to grow rapidly at a ‘visible’ speed. The electric current passing through Chen Chong’s body seemed to become a nutrient that the internal True Qi could absorb, quickly being converted and absorbed during the True Qi’s high-speed rotation!

This growth speed was so noticeable. With every passing minute and second, the Ultimate True Qi within Chen Chong’s body underwent varying degrees of change. The True Qi, like a small trickle, was continuously being widened, being widened…

Enduring the pain while wholeheartedly ensuring the True Qi’s operational path did not deviate, Chen Chong had no energy to carefully perceive the changes in his True Qi. In fact, as the current continued to pass through, the pain he felt grew more and more intense, making his willpower feel like a tiny boat in a sea of agony, which could capsize at any moment…

This was because the longer an electric current passes through the human body, the lower the body’s resistance drops, causing the current to increase, and the damage to bodily organs to become greater. No matter how resilient Chen Chong’s willpower was, he could not ignore this iron rule.

Half an hour later, it seemed every inch of skin on his body was sending an unbearable warning signal to Chen Chong. His own will was on the verge of collapse. Chen Chong suddenly opened his eyes, let out a hoarse, low roar, and using the very last ounce of his strength, he shuddered his entire body, breaking free from the circuit wires connected to his arms.

“Huff, huff, huff…”

Freed from the electric current, Chen Chong was immediately like a drowning person reaching the shore, lying on the ground and gasping rapidly. His face showed an expression of both joy and lingering fear:

“That was too close!”

The situation just now could indeed be described as extremely dangerous. If he had delayed any longer, his heart likely would have been paralyzed, completely losing control over his body, rendering him unable to disconnect the wires and getting electrocuted alive.