The heavens wept, a torrent of black clouds tearing asunder the sun, scattering its light amongst the rain. The shattered rays mingled with the downpour, a mournful shroud upon the land. The rain surged forth, a cacophony akin to a thousand warhorses thundering across the plains, drumming upon rooftops, drenching the earth, and assaulting every soul caught within its tempestuous embrace.

Sheltered within his humble abode, one could clearly hear the staccato rhythm of raindrops upon the roof, cascading down like watery curtains, forming shimmering veils that sparked a sense of melancholic beauty.

Especially captivating were the strings of leaves hanging beneath the eaves, rustling softly in the deluge, guiding the rainwater into tiny rivulets that merged with the watery curtains emanating from the roof.

The parched earth, long starved of moisture, eagerly drank its fill. The first drops stirred a cloud of dust, yet before it could fully rise, the relentless rain pierced it, scattering the particles to rejoin the mud in the growing puddles.

Figures hurried through the streets, cloaked in straw rain gear, heads bowed against the storm, each pressing onward to their daily labors despite the tempest’s fury. Though night had yielded to dawn, necessity beckoned.

Small children pressed against windows, reaching out to touch the watery veil, their joyous laughter echoing through the rain-soaked air.

This storm, it was born of Wang Lin.

Wang Lin pushed open his door, instantly greeted by a damp chill carrying droplets of rain that kissed his face. He looked up at the heavens, a swirling canvas of inky clouds and roaring thunder. As he watched, a bolt of lightning slashed across the sky, followed by a deafening peal that crashed around him, close enough to send the children scrambling back from their windows in fright.

Wang Lin, undisturbed, lifted a flask to his lips, taking a long draught. A faint smile touched his face as he watched the familiar scenes of mortal life unfold before him, the children especially stirring a forgotten memory within his heart.

He remembered a time, long ago on the planet Suzaku, when he too had pressed against a windowpane, watching the rain, reaching out to feel its cool touch, his own childish laughter filling the air.

“Unknowingly, has it almost been two thousand years… cultivators do not concern themselves with the passing of time. Few truly remember their youth… I myself can no longer recall my exact age…” He took another swallow from his flask, his expression tinged with wistful sadness.

The cold of the southern lands bit deep, a chilling gust whipping around Wang Lin and into his house. He paused, about to close the door, when a sudden unease washed over him. Slowly, he raised his eyes to the sky.

The clouds still churned, the rain still fell in torrents, obscuring all from ordinary sight, but to Wang Lin, these barriers were inconsequential. Above the roiling storm, he saw them: two streaks of sword light carving through the clear sky.

Within the light, he discerned a man and a woman. The man, clad in azure robes, possessed a handsome countenance and a considerable cultivation, verging upon the realm of the Ascendant Nirvana. Beside him, the woman was graceful in form, adorned in a vibrant phoenix-feather gown, her beauty undeniable, imbued with an aura of noble bearing.

Below them, the storm raged. From their vantage point, one could see the lightning dancing within the cloud layers, the thunder rolling like the drums of war.

“Yue Xuan, the clan’s urgent summons surely portends grave matters. Your cultivation is not…”

The woman, Yue Xuan, turned a gentle gaze upon the man. “I shall heed your word. But I wonder what could have transpired that the elders would issue such a rare decree of urgent gathering.”

The man’s brow furrowed. The same question plagued his own mind. As he was about to speak, he abruptly looked to the distance and raised an arm before the woman, halting their progress in mid-air.

A vortex of black wind howled from the clouds, heading in the same direction as the pair, yet, upon sensing their presence, it altered course, bearing down upon them.

In a mere instant, the black wind was upon them. As it swirled, a youth emerged, clad in sable garments. His expression was cold, and his gaze lingered on the woman named Yue Xuan.

“Yu greets brother Zhou!” The man, standing protectively before his companion, felt a sudden tension.

“Little sister greets big brother Zhou.” Yue Xuan offered a gentle smile, her voice sweet.

The youth, Zhou, wore a complicated expression. He shifted his gaze from Yue Xuan to the azure-robed man. “The Lightning Flash Clan has been annihilated! Their Grand Elder has fallen and disappeared. The Council of Elders has confirmed this and issued an Edict of the Ancient Starry Sky, informing all clans! This urgent gathering is to announce the Council’s decree!”

“Furthermore,” Zhou continued, “Grand Diviner Si Yun of the Council, utilizing his celestial arts, has divined the image and spiritual imprint of the one who extinguished the Lightning Flash Clan and felled their Grand Elder. These have been disseminated, launching the All-Spirits Ancient Hunt!”

“This matter is of the utmost importance. I fear we must all search far and wide, even meticulously combing these cultivation planets. You, take care!”

“What!” Yu’s expression shattered, disbelief flashing in his eyes. The woman beside him echoed his shock.

“The Grand Elder of the Lightning Flash Clan was rumored to have reached the Fifth Calamity of Heaven and Man! Only a Third-Step Paragon could possibly have extinguished him! Could it be… could it be that this fiend is a Third-Step Paragon?”

“And the entire Lightning Flash Clan, hundreds of thousands strong, with so many masters… How could they have all been annihilated? And what of the Undying Lightning that is said to have existed since time immemorial? This matter…”

The black-robed youth, about to depart, paused. Turning back, he said, “The details are unclear, but the Council’s decree said that the Undying Lightning was devoured by the same man! The entire Ancient Starry Sky is now searching for him. The Elders of the Council themselves have been dispatched to seek him out!”

Below the clouds, in the city drenched by the ceaseless rain, Wang Lin retreated from the doorway, his face impassive, closing the door and seating himself in meditation.

A glimmer of light flickered within his eyes. “So soon they discover… the Council of Elders… my time dwindles. I must swiftly refine the final Lightning Dragon and merge it with the Undying Thunder!”
Wang Lin, in silent meditation, closed his eyes and plunged into his nascent soul. Beneath the raging inferno within, he began the final forging of the last Thunder Dragon of Antiquity.

Time trickled by, and outside, the rain intensified. A suffocating blanket of storm clouds smothered the heavens, casting the city below in a premature twilight.

Even at midday, the sun’s rays struggled to pierce the oppressive gloom. After hours of ceaseless labor, Wang Lin’s nascent soul blazed forth, a roaring tempest of flames. The final Thunder Dragon of Antiquity, its struggles futile, shattered in a final, agonizing cry, its essence absorbed by Wang Lin’s very soul!

At that instant, the eight Thunder Dragons of Antiquity were entirely one with him, irrevocably woven into his being. His nascent soul surged with untamed power, the flames within giving way to an inexhaustible storm of lightning.

Within his body, amongst the five foundational elements, the Source of Thunder swelled, an uncontrollable torrent of raw energy, a celestial explosion contained within a mortal shell! Slowly, surely, the form of Wang Lin’s nascent soul twisted, morphed, no longer resembling a dragon of thunder, but becoming instead, a living bolt of lightning!

A blinding cascade of energy that bridged the heavens and the earth. The sky was his crown, the ground his foundation. This lightning, a conduit between his inner world and the firmament, possessed the same timeless, indestructible nature of the Eternal Thunder of the Thunder Clan, a lightning that defied the ages!

The moment this lightning coalesced, fully manifested, the clouds above roared in answer. More rain descended in an unending deluge, and the lightning within the clouds seemed to writhe in a mad frenzy, a celestial symphony of thunderous fury.

The entire cultivation planet trembled under the ear-splitting roars that erupted from the storm-wracked skies!

Within the eastern capital city, in the Emperor’s towering palace, several robed elders stood upon a high pavilion. Each possessed power equivalent to the Nirvana Scourge stage, with a white-haired elder amongst them who had even attained the Shattered Nirvana realm!

They gazed upon the turbulent sky, listening to the deafening thunder, their faces etched with unease.

“This rain… it arrived with such abruptness… and the thunder, it is almost too intense. Yet, with our combined spiritual senses, we have detected nothing amiss…”

“Perhaps we are merely being overly cautious,” one of the other elders murmured, his voice strained.

“Alas, the mighty Thunder Clan extinguished, their Grand Elder fallen to treachery. To witness this celestial display fills my heart with foreboding. But, perhaps, it is just my imagination,” the Shattered Nirvana elder sighed, falling silent.

“Regardless of who this person is, the Ancient Star Decree has been issued. Should their presence be detected, their demise is assured!”

Elsewhere in the eastern reaches of the cultivation planet, lay a vast and sprawling mountain range, the ancestral home of the Truthspeaker Clan. Unlike the Thunder Clan’s expansive empire, the Truthspeakers were a smaller, more insular group, clinging to a single planet, akin to a minor sect within the Realm.

Upon the peak of one of these mountains stood a lone figure, an ancient man with hair as white as snow. He gazed into the distance, then, with a heavy heart, whispered, “Why do I feel as if some great calamity is about to befall us?”

Wang Lin, knowing time was short, having fully absorbed the eight Thunder Dragons of Antiquity, immediately unleashed the Immemorial Thunder sealed within him. The moment it appeared, the Immemorial Thunder fought to escape Wang Lin’s grasp.

But in that instant, Wang Lin, his nascent soul now a living lightning bolt, crashed upon it, initiating a violent and swift assimilation!

The Immemorial Thunder bucked and thrashed, possessing a potent will of its own, an ancient sentience that clashed with Wang Lin’s in a desperate struggle for dominance!

“Merge with me! Become a part of my nascent soul! Let my Source of Thunder be perfected! And with this divine thunder, I will rend the heavens and achieve a breakthrough in my cultivation!” Wang Lin’s spiritual force roared forth, a tempest that crushed all resistance within the Immemorial Thunder.

“Art of the Dao… Fusion!” Wang Lin’s eyes snapped open, the twin sigils of the Source of Thunder within his right eye spinning at a dizzying pace, giving him an unearthly, almost demonic appearance!