I proved immortality with thunder magic.

Chapter 73 Mysterious Metal Piece

In the Trial Grounds, a small wooden boat floats silently on the blackwater swamp that reeks of decay.

Zhou Tai stood at the bow of the boat with his hands behind his back, gazing into the distance. All he could see was a vast expanse of white, and he couldn't make out anything.

That vast white area is the edge of the trial grounds.

Whether it's a demon beast, a cultivator, or even a blade of grass or a tree, none of them can get even a fraction of a way in there.

It was now the twenty-fifth day since Zhou Tai entered the trial grounds, and he had been in this swamp for seven days.

He has been living alone in the swamp these days, undisturbed by anyone, and his days are quite carefree.

Even though he was deep in the swamp, he would occasionally hear the booming sounds of explosions coming from the distant land, and each time they started, they would last for quite a while.

Clearly, all his worries had come true.

The survivors in the Trial Grounds have indeed started to band together and fight each other.

Now, Zhou Tai's only concern is how these trial disciples will leave after the month is up.

It would be fine if a high-level cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage personally came in and took them away one by one.

If they were all made to rush to a certain meeting place, their safety along the way would be questionable.

Hey!

After a sigh, Zhou Tai lay down on the boat and began practicing the "Turtle Spirit Health Preservation Technique".

This trial ground has thin spiritual energy and is also prone to demonic energy, making it completely unsuitable for meditation and cultivation. The only option is to practice this health-preserving technique to invigorate the blood and qi.

After practicing the health-preserving exercise for an hour, Zhou Tai took out his talisman brush and paper and began drawing talismans.

He has been drifting aimlessly on the swamp these days, spending most of his time drawing talismans to pass the time.

Over the course of nine days, they drew more than twenty lightning strike talismans, replenishing their inventory significantly.

After an unknown amount of time, when Zhou Tai finished drawing another lightning strike talisman, put down his brush, and began to rest, it was already dark and night was about to fall.

After resting for a while, he put away the brush, ink, paper and inkstone he used for drawing talismans, and released the Clawed Wind Owl Laifu, which had been sleeping in the spirit beast bag for a day.

"Laifu, could you please keep looking for that strange fish tonight? It can't stay hidden underwater forever!"

Zhou Tai patted his beloved pet's head, fed it a few pieces of flesh and blood from the Azure-Winged Giant Bat, and then gave it its task for the night.

The strange fish he mentioned was one he encountered three nights ago.

When the strange fish appeared near the wooden boat, Thunder Frog Yuanbao gave a timely warning, and Zhou Tai also quickly attacked.

The result, however, surprised and amazed him.

His lightning strike clearly hit the strange fish, but the lightning didn't cause much damage!

But he was 100% certain that the strange fish was not a lightning-attribute monster, but only knew some water-attribute magic.

This aroused his great curiosity, and he wanted to capture it and find out what was going on.

Unfortunately, their attempt to capture the strange fish failed, and instead, it was startled and swam away underwater. It was not found again for several days afterward.

Now, every night, Zhou Tai sends Lizhao Fengxiao Laifu to search for the strange fish.

After watching his beloved pet take off and leave, Zhou Tai closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, waiting for news.

In the time that followed, the Clawed Owl Laifu took off and landed several times, each time resting for a few quarters of an hour before taking off again.

Goooo!

Finally, when the Clawed Owl Laifu returned to the wooden boat for the fifth time, he brought good news to Zhou Tai.

It spotted the strange fish, and it wasn't far away.

Upon hearing this news, Zhou Tai's face lit up with joy. He immediately took out a white silk scarf magic artifact from his storage bag, threw it, and flew away from the wooden boat, stepping on the artifact.

This silk scarf was a trophy obtained from the belongings of the Yunxia Sect disciples. Before receiving it, Zhou Tai and Pei Hong both thought it was a defensive artifact.

However, its defensive capabilities are not particularly outstanding; on the contrary, it can be used as a flying artifact to carry people into flight.

Although this creature can carry people in flight, its speed is far inferior to that of birds of prey like the Clawed Wind Owl, and its flight altitude is only twenty or thirty feet, making it quite useless.

Nevertheless, Zhou Tai was overjoyed after discovering the true purpose of the object, treating it as a priceless treasure.

At this moment, he flew away on his magical artifact, following the sharp-clawed wind owl Lai Fu for more than ten miles, and then he saw the strange fish swimming on the water.

The strange fish looked like a catfish from a distance. Its mouth was bigger than a water tank when it opened, but it didn't have the barbels of a catfish. Its body was not smooth, and its skin was more like crocodile skin.

After Zhou Tai quietly flew over the strange fish, he immediately raised his hand and cast a water-attribute spell talisman.

A ball of blue light fell into the water and immediately transformed into a water prison, trapping the strange fish inside.

Whoosh!

Trapped in the water, the strange fish immediately began to struggle frantically, creating waves in the water.

Just as it was about to break free of the water prison, a golden ring suddenly fell from the sky and landed on its head.

The moment the golden ring was placed over its head, a burst of golden light suddenly shone from within, forming a ring of sharp blades that began to rotate and cut into its head.

As the golden ring rotated and cut, it slowly shrank inward, sending large amounts of fish meat scraps and blood flying into the air.

This was not the end. Zhou Tai in the sky quickly summoned the Silver Star Sword again and slashed at the fish's tail.

Whoosh whoosh!

The strange fish struggled and resisted frantically, condensing water arrows that shot towards Zhou Tai in the air, but they were all blocked by the four stone shields flying around him.

Before long, under Zhou Tai's repeated slashes, the strange fish's tail was cut off, and its head was mostly severed by the golden ring.

Although the strange fish was not completely dead at this point, it was basically no longer able to cause any waves.

Zhou Tai quickly activated the Silver Star Sword and pierced its head, ending its life.

Shortly after Zhou Tai killed the strange fish, Thunder Frog Yuanbao arrived at the scene with an empty boat.

He landed back on the wooden boat and rowed to the fish carcasses on the water.

"Let me see what's so special about you, you strange fish!"

A glint flashed in Zhou Tai's eyes, and he immediately used his sword to cut open the belly of the dead monster fish, probing inside with his divine sense to search for clues.

Just moments later, Zhou Tai discovered something unusual inside the strange fish's stomach.

He cut off the strange fish's stomach, drained all the food residue in the water, then cut open the stomach and turned it inside out, quickly finding a palm-sized piece of silver-purple metal.

Zhou Tai held the metal plate in his hand and could clearly feel that it contained a powerful force of lightning, but he didn't know why it wasn't showing any of it.

"It seems that my lightning strike spell didn't work before, mainly because this thing absorbed the power of lightning."

He examined the mysterious metal piece in his hand thoughtfully, and he roughly understood how the strange fish had ignored the power of lightning to attack earlier.

Verifying this conjecture is also quite simple.

Zhou Tai quickly made a hand seal and cast a spell, sending out a blue-white arc of lightning that landed on the mysterious metal piece.

Sure enough, the "Lightning Arc Finger" was absorbed and dissipated immediately after it landed on the surface, without even causing any change in the mysterious metal piece.

"It's a pity I'm not familiar with weapon-refining materials, otherwise I might know the origin of this item!"

Zhou Tai picked up the mysterious metal piece again and rubbed it in his hands, thinking with some regret.

However, he quickly thought of something else and immediately tried to infuse magic power into the mysterious metal piece.

At first, he was very careful and only injected a little bit, fearing that too much would cause some unexpected harm to him.

Once he found that there were no unexpected issues with the infusion of mana, he increased the amount of mana he poured in.

But he soon discovered that no matter how much magic he poured into it, the mysterious metal piece did not change at all.

However, from another perspective, the fact that this object can absorb so much magical power indicates that it is not an ordinary metal piece, but rather a magical artifact created by cultivators.

The reason why his current infusion of magic power is ineffective is most likely because his cultivation level is too low and the quality of his magic power is too poor to trigger a reaction from this thing.

This kind of thing is very common in the cultivation world. Now, if Zhou Tai were given a second-tier magic weapon, the magic power he injected would be completely unable to activate it.

Therefore, Zhou Tai was not discouraged. Instead, he muttered to himself with great anticipation, "Since this thing can absorb and contains the power of lightning, it must be an extraordinary lightning-attribute treasure. Perhaps after I reach the Foundation Establishment stage, I can try to explore its true nature!"

After saying that, he carefully placed it in a jade box and put it into his storage bag.

After killing the mysterious fish and putting an end to his worries, Zhou Tai's life in the swamp returned to peace.

This tranquility was finally broken by a flying rider on the twenty-ninth day.

That day, Zhou Tai was drawing talismans on the boat when he suddenly heard the sound of a demonic bird flapping its wings and flying.

He hurriedly put down his pen and looked up at the sky, where he saw a white crane flying towards him, with a male and a female cultivator on its back.

Seeing this, his heart sank, knowing that his worst fears had come true.

Seeing that the white crane had already flown within several miles without showing any signs of slowing down, he had no choice but to shout in a deep voice, "Fellow Daoists, please stop! Otherwise, I, Zhou, will have no choice but to defend myself!"

As he spoke, he casually picked up a lightning strike talisman he had drawn earlier and held it in his hand.

The reason he dared to seek refuge in this swamp was because the environment here was very favorable to him.

If the enemy wants to come here, whether by flying horse or boat, it will be easy for them to launch an attack, and they will not have to worry about being easily dodged like on the ground.

Seeing this, the man and woman on the white crane's back had no choice but to signal the crane to slow down.

Then, the middle-aged female cultivator shouted, "What sect are you from? How dare you be so insolent in front of my Nanhua Sect!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Tai calmly cupped his hands in greeting and said, "So you are a esteemed disciple of the Nanhua Immortal Sect. I am Zhou Tai from Ling Shou Mountain. I greet you two fellow Daoists."

He had actually guessed the other party's origin long ago. After all, among the five sects, only the Nanhua Sect and the Lingxu Sect could send out such middle-aged people, and the Nanhua Sect's White Crane Flying Cavalry was renowned.

Upon hearing his answer, the two disciples of the Nan Hua Sect exchanged a glance. The female cultivator then continued, "Since you are a disciple of the Spirit Beast Mountain, why are you boating here alone? Why don't you go and join the other disciples of our sect?"

Upon hearing her words, Zhou Tai immediately retorted confidently, "Fellow Daoist, what you say is utterly unreasonable. My elders at Spirit Beast Mountain have never said that trial disciples must gather together. What's wrong with me taking refuge here by boat?"

The female cultivator was speechless after being rebuked by his words, and her gaze towards him immediately turned hostile.

The male cultivator, who had remained silent until now, looked at Zhou Tai with sharp eyes and said, "I don't care what your plans are. The five sects of cultivators in the Chongming Ruins have now united. If you don't want to die here, you'd better come back with us to exorcise demons and defend the righteous path!"