The Great Ruler (Web Novel)

Weng!

A thick smoke lingered in the spacious cave. Suddenly, the smoke swayed. Then, a strong suction force appeared, emanating from deep within the cave. The power of the suction became stronger, gradually forming a smoky whirlpool, which drew all of the smoke towards it.

Mu Chen was sitting at the center of the whirlpool. His body seemed to have turned into a bottomless pit, the endless smoke being drawn into his breath.

Zzt…zzt…

The more smoke Mu Chen inhaled, the more red and hot his skin became. With a sizzling sound, his clothes turned to ashes, then disappeared.

Even though his clothes had disappeared, Mu Chen remained still, no expression on his face. He was in a higher level of cultivation.

Thus, his mind had been emptied, rendering it in a total blank state. He had forgotten that he was in cultivation, so all that he could do was to visualize the thundering prison.

Boom!

Mu Chen's present mind presently was very different than it had been before. In his mind now, the darkness seemed to be endless, and violent thunders echoed throughout the caverns of his psyche.

As the thunder roared, lightning flashed across the darkness occasionally. The atmosphere was incredibly dark and violent!

After numerous failures, the thundering prison that Mu Chen visualized finally had some structure. Although it was not a perfect one, at least he could finally see the outline of the prison.

Now, the prison was finally ready. All that Mu Chen needed to do next was to perfect it. Since the outline of the prison could be seen, he would need to visualize the thunderbolt for mind power training.

As he was thinking about the next step, the storm clouds in the prison suddenly moved vigorously. The clouds spun at high speed, causing friction with each other.

As the storm clouds started to collide with each other, the thunder roared even louder. Something unusual was forming deep within the clouds.

Rumble!

Suddenly, a loud rumble came tearing through the thunderclouds. Then, a massive thunderbolt came striking down.

The thunderbolt was quite unusual. Although it was invisible, one could feel its existence palpably. It echoed throughout the dark prison, emitting thunderous roars. That was the thunderbolt from the Netherworld Thunder Heart!

Mu Chen had successfully visualized it in just one attempt! Obviously, this was a direct result of his learning of the Netherworld Thunder Heart. After all, in order for one to draw a tiger, one must have first seen a tiger!

Visualization works the same way. If one has never seen or tested a Netherworld Thunder Heart before, they would not be able to imagine the thunderbolt at all. Even their imagination would not be based on reality at all. Hence, it would never achieve the mind power training effect that was spoken about in the scroll.

However, it was just a single thunderbolt from the Netherworld Thunder Heart, so having this alone may not be sufficient to activate the entire thundering prison. Hence, Mu Chen had to visualize the Netherworld Thunder Heart, without stopping to fill up the whole prison.

With this target in mind, Mu Chen dared not procrastinate. He started his visualization again. Within the dark prison, thunder rumbled, thunderclouds collided, and thunderbolts were formed once again.

It was a big and time-consuming task, this filling up the entire prison! While he attempted this, Mu Chen began his dull visualization process.

He emptied his thoughts from his mind, focusing all of his attention on visualizing his Netherworld Thunder Heart. Once his brain got tired, he would stop and fall into a deep sleep. When the mind was awakened, the process would be repeated again and again.

Time seemed to be frozen, when his mind was in that blank state. As such, Mu Chen was completely unaware of the exact time.

For instance, he did not know the exact days and nights in the outside world. All he knew was to focus on his one goal: to continue his visualization, until his thundering prison could form perfectly in his mind.

Thus, he had totally forgotten about the time...

…

Time seemed to stop moving, and Mu Chen did not know how many times he entered into a deep sleep after depleting his mind power. It could have been thousands of times, or even more!

Anyone could go crazy with this type of dull visualization, were it not for their fierce determination! Luckily, the training that Mu Chen had completed all of these years had finally proven useful at this crucial timing.

His perseverance had forced him to endure the dull training, and his patience had rewarded him handsomely! This reward would be the solidification of the thundering prison!

Rumble!

The dark thundering prison had grown to an indescribable scale! Storm clouds were filling the prison, and the intangible Netherworld Thunder Heart roared in the air, as if the end of the world had arrived!

The thundering prison had finally been formed, after many visualizations. The prison was violent and hideous looking.

Mu Chen's mind power lingered in the prison. The Netherworld Thunder Heart would attack him, should his mind want it to. This mind exercise would achieve the desired effect of the training repetitions.

Mu Chen had succeeded in the most critical step in this Nine Calamity Thunder Prison Visualization. However, the next step was equally important!

He would need to make sure that his prison stayed intact. Otherwise, once his mind power left the prison, it would disappear automatically. He would then have to remake the prison, should he wish to continue the cultivation.

After going through the tedious process of creating this prison, Mu Chen understood that it would be impossible to go through the hectic process of remaking one each time that he wished to cultivate! So, he needed to complete the last important step: keeping the prison in his mind. According to the scroll, this step was known as "Prison Manifesting."

It is not difficult to achieve this step. The existence of the prison is dependent on Mu Chen's mind power. If his mind power could remain here, the prison would not disappear.

But, Mu Chen's mind power would eventually leave the current state to return to his consciousness, as his body would not be able to function, should his mind power remain here. The only way to resolve this problem was simple. He had to separate part of his mind power, leaving it here to retain the existence of the prison!

This method was quite conventional, but the scroll suggested its own unique approach for doing it. The proposed approach was called "Mind Power Seeding."

This method involved separating half of one's mind power into a seed. The seed would remain in the prison.

Although this method was unusual, it was also a very creative idea. If a seed was left behind in prison, it would consistently receive thunderbolt training at all times. In other words, even if Mu Chen did not enter the prison with his mind power, by keeping a mind power seed in the prison, it would also receive thunderbolt training and become stronger!

In the long run, this was undoubtedly a cost-effective investment! But, it would require much courage to undertake it!

Apparently, Mu Chen did not lack such courage, as he did not hesitate to split his mind power into two! When his mind power was separated, a horrible pain filled his mind. The pain was so dreadful, his mind power was almost knocked out of his subconscious!

The prison was nearly gone for a moment. Luckily, he was able to endure the sharp pain. Otherwise, his previous efforts would have been in vain.

Half of the mind power was hidden deep in the storm clouds. It then slowly gathered, forming groups of clouds.

Rumble!

Lightning flashed across the sky, just outside of the gathered storm clouds. It was striking right upon the reduced mind power.

Each time the thunderbolt struck, the little cloud of mind power would gather even more. After multiple times of tempering, the little cloud of mind power slowly grew into a thumb-sized cloud. The seed has finally formed!

Mu Chen's remaining mind power felt a sense of relief upon seeing that the seed had formed. He could clearly feel the change in the prison at this exact moment. It seemed to be more tangible now.

"Have I made it?"

Mu Chen mumbled in his own mind. His mind power slowly faded, retreating from the blank state.

The figure, which had been manifested by the spiritual energy on the Sovereign Sea, awakened. His eyes slowly opened, and the information that was blocked previously, now swarmed into his brain. Then, his mind slowly regained control of his body.

"It has been a month…"

Mu Chen was relieved to receive this information. He seemed to be in his own world for a few years, but only a month had passed in the outside world.

Fortunately, the boring training had proven quite beneficial. Mu Chen could feel something was in his mind now, but it was not a real thing. The feeling was intriguing.

"Hmm?"

Mu Chen tried to feel and identify the unknown substance in his brain. Suddenly, his face was full of surprise. He found that his mind power was still as strong as it had been a month ago, even though he had split his mind power in half!

His mind power had greatly improved within this short period of time!