Zombie World: Starting as an apprentice of the Thunder King

By the time we got back to Qingzhu Mountain, it was almost dark.

Shi Jian was sitting in the main room drinking tea when he saw his two apprentices carrying food boxes in, and he was taken aback.

"What's going on here?"

Lin Bei placed the food box on the table and opened the lid.

"Master, we have found the auspicious burial site that Master Zhao needed. He gave us fifty silver dollars, and my senior brother and I will split it in half."

"These dishes were bought with our own money as a gift to you."

Shi Jian looked at the table full of dishes, his face expressionless.

"Well, at least you have some filial piety. Sit down and eat."

The three of them ate and chatted, and before long, Lin Bei and Shi Shaojian had finished off the entire table of food.

After dinner, Lin Bei helped Shi Shaojian clear the dishes. Shi Jian sat in the main room, dozing off with his eyes closed.

Days passed by uneventfully, one after another.

Lin Bei cultivated, drew talismans, and practiced swordsmanship every day, and his cultivation level steadily increased.

One evening three months later, Lin Bei sat cross-legged in his room meditating.

The magical power in his dantian had reached 299 strands, just one strand away from the mid-stage of Daoist cultivation.

He guided his magical power to circulate slowly through his meridians, and external spiritual energy surged into his body, flowing along the meridians into his dantian, transforming into strands of new magical power.

As time passed, the wisps of magical power within his dantian slowly coalesced into a single strand!

Suddenly, his dantian trembled, and the three hundredth stream of magical power condensed out.

The speed of mana circulation suddenly increased, and the mana in the dantian began to compress and solidify.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth was frantically absorbed, and the magical power slowly grew stronger, with each strand becoming twice as thick as before.

Immediately afterwards, a powerful aura emanated from Lin Bei.

Lin Bei opened his eyes, a glint of shrewdness flashing within them.

"Finally, a breakthrough!"

Lin Bei sensed the magical power within his dantian and smiled happily, "Almost there, almost there. In a while, I'll be able to break through to the Mage realm, and then I can start cultivating the Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture and the Blue Talisman."

Lin Bei was filled with anticipation, and then entered a state of cultivation again to stabilize his own realm.

In a side room not far from him, Shi Jian nodded with a smile: This kid not only has top-notch talent, but also cultivates exceptionally hard. This boy should be my successor!

As for Shi Shaojian... Shi Jian was somewhat helpless; the kid was sleeping soundly right now.

The next day, before the rooster crowed, Lin Bei got up early.

Upon entering the courtyard, Lin Bei clenched his fist, lightning crackling in his palm.

"Lightning Thunder Fist, First Form: Thunderclap!"

With a punch, a bolt of lightning as thick as a wrist shot out from his palm and struck the wall.

boom!

A crater the size of a washbasin was blasted into the wall, and rubble flew everywhere.

Lin Bei looked at the hole in the wall and grinned.

"If this power were to strike a centuries-old ghost, it would probably reduce him to ashes instantly!"

For the past six months, he has been limited by the amount of magic power in his dantian. Every time he makes a few moves, he has to stop, so he has to use it as a trump card.

Moreover, each time a bolt of lightning is fired, it is only as thick as a finger, with limited power.

Now that I've broken through to the mid-stage of the Daoist realm, the quality of my magical power has improved, and the power of my lightning has also increased.

He carefully sensed the magical power within his body, and it was now enough for him to unleash more than a dozen punches.

Lin Bei then tried out the first move of the Thunder Sword!

"A flash of lightning!"

With a thrust of his sword, the power of thunder within his dantian surged wildly, and a bolt of lightning as thick as a wrist shot out from the tip of the sword, striking the bluestone in the courtyard.

boom!

The bluestone was blasted into fragments, which flew far away.

Shi Shaojian was awakened by the noise. He ran out and saw that the bluestone in the yard was broken all over the ground and there was a big hole in the wall.

"Holy crap, junior brother, why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night? Are you tearing the house apart?"

Lin Bei chuckled, a smug look on his face: "I've just broken through to the mid-stage of Daoist Master, so I'm trying out a new trick."

Shi Shaojian looked at the rubble on the ground, then at the hole in the wall, and his lips twitched.

"Your power... is way too intense!"

"Not bad, but far inferior to Master." Lin Bei sheathed his sword. "Senior Brother, when did you break through to the mid-stage of the Daoist Master realm?"

Shi Shaojian rolled his eyes. "I've only recently broken through to the early stage of Daoist cultivation, and you already want me to break through to the middle stage? Do you think I'm some kind of freak?"

"Take your time, no rush, I'll be waiting for you up ahead!" Lin Bei patted his shoulder.

Shi Shaojian slapped his hand away, "Stop it, you're just showing off."

"I wasn't showing off. I was just asking."

"That's you!"

"I'm not!"

The two brothers argued back and forth for a long time.

Shi Jian came out of the room and looked at them expressionlessly.

"Don't you all know what time it is? The rooster hasn't even crowed yet, what are you all shouting for?"

The two immediately shut up and obediently went back to their room for a nap.

In the days that followed, Lin Bei continued his cultivation.

I've mastered the first move of the Lightning Thunder Fist, but it's not enough.

He tried to practice the second move, but each time his magic power would stop halfway through, and the lightning power in his body was simply insufficient to perform the second move!

According to Shi Jian, once he breaks through to the late stage of Daoist cultivation, he can receive the second heavenly lightning baptism, but he is still far from that point.

The same goes for the Thunder Sword. Once you've mastered the first move, you just can't seem to get the second one right. Every time, you feel like you're running out of steam!

Shi Shaojian has made considerable progress; his Wooden Stake Technique can now summon three wooden stakes, and they are quite powerful.

The two occasionally sparred, and Shi Shaojian was always thoroughly beaten by Lin Bei.

"Can't you just give in to me?" Shi Shaojian lay on the ground, looking at Lin Bei with resentment.

Lin Bei squatted down and patted him on the shoulder.

"Senior brother, letting you win is actually harming you. Think about it, if I let you win, you'll go out and brag to people, but then you'll run into real demons and monsters, and you'll be in trouble."

"I'm doing this for your own good."

"You always say that!" Shi Shaojian got up and patted the dirt off his body.

"Because I'm right," Lin Bei chuckled.

Shi Shaojian glared at him. Arguing with him was just asking for trouble, but he couldn't help but step forward and say a few sarcastic remarks every time.

That morning, Lin Bei and Shi Shaojian were practicing their martial arts in the courtyard when Shi Jian came out of the main hall with a letter in his hand.

"Stop practicing, come in."

The two followed Shi Jian into the main hall.

Shi Jian sat on a futon and handed them the letter.

"A letter from the Quanzhen Sect says that the seal on the Ten Thousand Ghosts Cave they are suppressing has malfunctioned, and they ask me to go and help."

Lin Bei took the letter and read it once.

The letter was brief, but in essence, it said that the seal on the Ten Thousand Ghosts Cave in the back mountain of the Quanzhen Sect was about to break, and invited masters from various sects to come and help reinforce the seal.

"What is the Cave of Ten Thousand Ghosts?" Lin Bei asked with a puzzled look.

Shi Jian remained silent for a while before slowly speaking.

"The Cave of Ten Thousand Ghosts was left behind by a demonic master three hundred years ago. In his lifetime, that demon refined tens of thousands of vengeful ghosts, hoping to use their power to break through to the Celestial Master realm."

"Later, it was wiped out by the Quanzhen Sect and masters from various factions, but those vengeful ghosts could not be eliminated and could only be suppressed in the Ten Thousand Ghosts Cave."

"The leaders and elders of the Quanzhen Sect have been responsible for maintaining the seal for three hundred years without any problems."

Lin Bei frowned deeply: "Then why not call upon the underworld's ghost messengers? They're experts at dealing with these vengeful spirits!"

Shi Jian's expression was indifferent, and his tone was calm: "The ghost messengers don't capture all ghosts. They generally don't capture evil ghosts, vengeful ghosts, or those with deep resentment!"

"Especially things done by demonic cultivators in the mortal realm, they won't pay any attention to them!"

After hearing this, Lin Bei blinked and stared at Shi Jian. Why did this sound a bit... um... like someone who bullies the weak and fears the strong?

If we can't defeat powerful evil spirits or vengeful ghosts, we won't capture them; if those with deep resentment don't meet the criteria, we won't capture them. So what do we capture? Newborn souls of the dead?

If we keep going back and forth, isn't it still just about bullying the weak and fearing the strong?