Failed?

Having obtained the technique he had longed for, Chu Han returned to the Leng family estate. By this time, the Leng family had successfully re-established themselves among the Three Great Families, and the entire compound was decorated with lanterns and festoons, buzzing with lively festivities.

"Brother Chu, thank you truly for this. Without your help, the Leng family would likely have been erased from Dan City entirely," Leng Ye said softly, looking at Chu Han with a blushing and delightfully shy expression.

Chu Han smiled faintly. "It is nothing, merely a convenient favor. In a moment, please have a secret chamber prepared for me. I need to cultivate this cultivation technique, and we can discuss everything else once I emerge."

Following Chu Han's instructions, Leng Ye did not hesitate to assign the Leng family's largest and most secure secret chamber to him, personally standing guard outside to protect him.

Once inside the secret chamber, Chu Han sat cross-legged on the floor and unrolled the scroll of the Three Thousand Lightning Flashes. This was a low-tier Heaven-grade technique! In his previous life, the only incomplete Heaven-grade technique Chu Han had possessed was the Thunder Emperor Scripture.

Had he mastered the Three Thousand Lightning Flashes in his past life, even a sneak attack by the Ten Venerables would not have been enough to kill him. Such was the formidable power of a Heaven-grade technique.

He could only wonder where the Pill Sect had managed to acquire such a manual. True to their reputation, even such prized collections were within their possession.

Just as Chu Han finished reading the scroll, it spontaneously burst into flames and instantly reduced to fine ashes. It seemed the creator had enchanted the scroll so that it could only be read once.

That was for the best; at least there was no risk of the Three Thousand Lightning Flashes being lost or leaked. From this moment onward, apart from himself, no one else in the world could ever learn the Three Thousand Lightning Flashes.

Chu Han then channeled his true qi, guiding it along the meridian pathways detailed in the scroll. At first, he felt nothing at all, causing him to wonder if the scroll was entirely ineffective.

However, after completing thirty-three major heavenly cycles, a strange sensation washed over him. A current of heat began darting wildly through his meridians, and soon, a strand of true qi foreign to his own manifested in his dantian.

This strand of true qi was gray, clashing discordantly with his own azure true qi. It occupied a quiet corner of his dantian, neither provoking Chu Han's true qi nor being provoked by it.

As time slowly drifted by, the temperature of the searing heat within Chu Han's meridians grew increasingly intense. Eventually, he felt as though his entire body was about to catch fire, and with a miserable cry, he collapsed onto the floor.

The excruciating pain clouded his consciousness. The kind of torment that pierced straight into one's soul was something ordinary people could never endure. Yet, Chu Han forced himself to remain conscious. After all, he was in the middle of cultivation, and a gray strand of true qi with obvious ill intentions lurked in his dantian; if he fainted now, there was no telling what catastrophe might occur.

Soon, his clothes began to burn, his skin blackened and ulcerated, and the stench of charred flesh filled the entire secret chamber. At this point, Chu Han looked like a living torch, smoking and blazing as he sat there entirely naked, his hair completely singed away, leaving him completely bald.

"Heh, so this is what cultivating a Heaven-grade technique is like. Truly, it is not something an ordinary person can bear. No matter, let the pain rage even more fiercely! I refuse to believe I cannot withstand this level of torment."

As if the technique could comprehend Chu Han's words, the gray true qi in his dantian surged into action, launching a direct assault against Chu Han's own true qi. A thunderous explosion erupted from within his dantian, instantly snapping the half-conscious Chu Han back to absolute alertness through the sheer agony.

He could no longer sense the existence of his dantian; that deafening blast must have been the sound of his dantian shattering. Clenching his teeth through the blinding pain, he took control of his true qi and engaged the gray true qi in a brutal battle.

The gray true qi was exceptionally formidable, rampaging through his body and inflicting severe internal injuries. Yet Chu Han was no pushover either. Under his fierce command, his azure true qi launched a mad counterattack. In the end, the two forces of true qi intertwined, blending into one another until they could no longer be separated.

With that, Chu Han finally lost consciousness and blacked out. However, in the very instant he fainted, he failed to notice that his skin and dantian were recovering at a visible rate, the internal injuries slowly repairing themselves.

How much time had passed, he could not tell. When Chu Han slowly regained consciousness, the intense pain had long since vanished. In its place, his skin had fully regenerated, and his hair had grown back, falling in long locks over his shoulders. His dantian had been completely restored, and a unified mass of true qi now resided within it.

However, the true qi had undergone a transformation. Originally a brilliant azure blue, it was now an interwoven blend of blue and gray, making it impossible for him to distinguish which parts belonged to his original power. Still, he could sense that his cultivation realm had advanced.

He had now reached the sixth stage of the Dao Palace realm. Chu Han stood up and extended his right hand. A bolt of lightning crackled around his palm, looking identical to before. Since his raw power did not seem drastically increased, Chu Han could not help but shake his head.

It appeared his attempt to master the Three Thousand Lightning Flashes had ended in failure. Such a result was likely par for the course upon failure; the fact that his cultivation realm had not regressed was already a minor miracle.

Yet he still felt a deep sense of regret. Had he succeeded, his combat power would have multiplied several times over. Now, with his dantian's true qi turned half-blue and half-gray, he had no idea whether it would negatively impact his fighting prowess. Hopefully, this side effect of a failed cultivation attempt would not manifest as detrimental flaws in actual combat.

Sitting back down on the floor, Chu Han lost track of time once more. Before stepping outside, he needed to adjust his condition to its absolute peak. He attempted to separate the two colors of true qi, but to no avail; he discovered that the gray true qi had fundamentally integrated into his physical being. To forcibly expel it might trigger irreversible consequences for his body.

Unable to remove it, he had no choice but to accept it as it came. After a period of meditation, his condition finally returned to its optimum state. Still, this cultivation session had not been entirely without reward; at the very least, his realm had broken through to the sixth stage of the Dao Palace realm. By his original calculations, without the catalyst of the Three Thousand Lightning Flashes, it would have taken him another half-year to achieve this breakthrough.

After changing into fresh robes, he opened the doors of the secret chamber and stepped out with an unhurried grace.

The moment he stepped outside, however, he was given a severe start. A massive crowd had gathered tightly around the entrance. Leng Ye and her father, Qing Xuan and Qing Yi, along with Elder Xuantian, were all waiting there with anxious expressions, as if desperately needing to speak with him about something urgent.

"Vice Sect Master, Elders, why are you all here? Has something happened?" Chu Han asked, looking momentarily stunned as he hurriedly cupped his fists in salute.

Seeing him emerge safely, the three of them visibly breathed sighs of relief. Qing Xuan immediately stepped forward to grab his sleeve, speaking in an urgent tone, "You're finally out! If you had delayed any longer, it would have been too late. Something major has indeed happened. Come with me first."

Hearing this, Chu Han's expression darkened. It was his first time seeing Qing Xuan in such a flustered state, meaning a genuine crisis was at hand. If his intuition was correct, the Wolf Soul Valley must have made their move.

A dangerous curve formed at the corner of his lips. Now that his cultivation was complete, his next task was to test his newly honed strength against the people of Wolf Soul Valley.

"Chu Han, we have received confirmed intelligence. Wolf Soul Valley has already dispatched forces toward the Imperial Capital. Furthermore, in order to better oversee the mineral mining operations, your father, Tang Hao, moved the Viscount Manor from the Imperial Capital to the border region between the capital and the Eastern Wastelands. That area boasts extremely rich mineral deposits, but it has conveniently provided Wolf Soul Valley with a vulnerable opening to exploit."