The Dao Sovereign of Shennong

"Old Chen must have done it on purpose!"

"How could he, a military Shennong officer, fail to restrain his power?" Zhao Xing rubbed his somewhat sore shoulder, noticing a patch of frost slowly melting into a puddle.

"He must've been affected by my spell and had a nightmare but refuses to admit it. Or... did he hear me call him 'Old Chen'?"

Zhao Xing had seen Chen Shijie with a contorted face, full of pain, and didn't know what had happened. In the heat of the moment, he had called him Old Chen out of concern.

In this world, dreams aren't just ordinary occurrences. Zhao Xing was genuinely worried that something had happened to Chen Shijie.

"Sooner or later, I'll surpass Old Chen. By then, I'll be calling him 'Little Chen'..." A slight grin appeared on Zhao Xing's face as he patted his shoulder and slowly walked away.

Daytime wasn't suitable for practicing the Yin Wind technique, so Zhao Xing decided to shift his practice to nighttime.

Grasping the fluctuations of the earth vein and capturing the Yin wind from the ground was incredibly difficult.

Yet even without reaching the first stage, the technique's power was formidable. This was a technique Zhao Xing was determined to master, and master it well.

"The Yin Wind technique doesn't just harm people; it's essential for cultivating certain rare treasures."

"For example, the Soul Restoring Grass is incredibly difficult to grow without Yin wind. On the other hand, Yin wind can accelerate its maturation."

In the mornings, Zhao Xing nurtured the young Heaven Origin pear tree, ensuring it thrived and grew strong.

Afterward, he headed to the Shennong Office and went to the backyard of Xue Wenzhong's residence to practice the Lightning Summoning technique.

The old Shennong officer was quite skilled in thunder techniques, and in terms of control and precision, even Chen Shijie might not surpass him.

"Lightning Summoning and Thunder Summoning are only separated by one key element: controlling the direction of the dispersal of the lightning's power."

"Actually, the Thunder Summoning spell already generates significant lightning power. The issue is that it can't break free from the constraints of the cloud formation. Even if it does, it can't follow the caster's intent."

"If you want to summon lightning, you need to strengthen your control over the clouds, so the lightning power can be channeled at a specific angle." Xue Wenzhong taught patiently.

"So, the key to Lightning Summoning isn't in summoning thunder but controlling the clouds?" Zhao Xing observed the cloud formation in Xue Wenzhong's palm and nodded.

Old Shennong's teaching method was indeed unique. After decades of refining his skills, he had developed his own understanding of the techniques.

Summoning lightning from a mere three feet away, controlling clouds in the palm—this alone was something one could spend a lifetime learning.

To shrink cloud formation to such a degree without reducing the power of the lightning was already akin to the "Palm Lightning" Zhao Xing had seen in the Resurgence version!

This was the result of continually pushing the limits of a spell and breaking through.

Old Shennong's control over cloud summoning and lightning summoning had reached a level where even he probably couldn't tell how many stages the technique had advanced.

The Swift Straw Puppet moved with incredible speed and agility.

The puppets, crafted from yuan rice, darted around the courtyard, seemingly evading something.

Above, the clouds covered the entire backyard, and occasionally, a bolt of lightning would strike down.

Crack!

Lightning struck a straw puppet, and in an instant of brilliance, the puppet ignited in flames and collapsed to the ground.

There were not just one or two fallen puppets; there were many more running around, actively dodging.

These straw puppets weren't made by Zhao Xing; they were crafted by Xue Wenzhong.

Hitting them proved much more challenging.

Their movement was so fast that by the time Zhao Xing aimed and controlled the strike, the puppet would have already moved to a new location.

"Unless I bombard them wildly, covering a larger area, my hit rate is far too low—barely 30%," Zhao Xing thought.

However, Old Shennong didn't allow him to do that because the puppets were confined within the range of the lightning cloud, specifically to train his precision.

Who wouldn't be able to just launch a barrage? Then what would be the point of practice?

"If you can destroy 70% of the straw puppets by noon, then your Lightning Summoning technique will have improved significantly," Xue Wenzhong said.

He had already gauged Zhao Xing's aptitude and comprehension and had thus sent out especially fast-moving and agile puppets.

But Zhao Xing didn't get discouraged. Slowly, he started getting into the flow. His past experiences as a player were quite different from controlling spells in reality, but as he gradually practiced, he began to regain some of his old touch.

[You cast the Lightning Summoning technique. Spell proficiency +20]

[You cast the Lightning Summoning technique. Spell proficiency +30]

[You cast the Lightning Summoning technique. Spell proficiency +45]

Boom! Crack!

Zhao Xing, fully immersed in his practice, steadily improved his hit rate.

By the time the yellow almanac showed it was noon, all the straw puppets in the courtyard had turned to ash.

"Whoo~"

Zhao Xing glanced at the progress panel.

[Lightning Summoning: Intermediate-level spell]

[Proficiency: 1025/9999]

[Effect: Summon lightning to strike enemies]

"My Thunder Summoning is already at the seventh stage, and Cloud Summoning has reached the ninth stage. My foundational spells are this proficient, yet after a full morning of practice, I've only advanced one stage. Even though the proficiency cap hasn't changed, it's clear that advancing is much harder than when I was at the basic level." Zhao Xing pondered.

Though Zhao Xing felt the pace was a bit slow, Xue Wenzhong was quite satisfied and even gave him the afternoon off, leaving Zhao Xing to decide how to spend it.

That afternoon's destination was Chen's residence.

At 3 p.m., Shen Zhui arrived promptly at the practice grounds of the Chen residence.

"Brother Zhao, shall we?"

"Brother Shen, let's."

The two stood twenty meters apart, and once again, the pursuit game began.

This was their third sparring session.

The opening unfolded similarly to the previous two.

Zhao Xing cast Cloud Summoning, Thunder Summoning, Rainmaking, and Wind Summoning all at once.

Shen Zhui, already familiar with his tactics, began the chase as soon as the ten-second countdown ended.

But after a few steps in the rain, Shen Zhui sensed something unusual.

"Why is this rain so cold?"

After only a few steps, he realized something was off.

He looked up as water droplets trickled down his straw hat and onto his forehead.

"Shhh~" Shen Zhui shivered involuntarily.

Cold, extremely cold.

It didn't feel like summer rain—it felt like winter rain.

Shen Zhui suddenly felt the need to add another layer of clothing.

"What kind of rain is this? It's completely different from the last two times."

"I have to use my essence energy to resist the cold, or it'll greatly affect my mobility." Though each raindrop had a minor effect, they accumulated over time.

Shen Zhui knew he had to act fast.

On the other side, Zhao Xing was busy creating straw puppets while calculating his next move.

"I can't use Yin Wind on Shen Zhui since he's not like Chen Shijie who can easily withstand it. That leaves Ice Rain and Lightning Summoning."

"First, reduce his mobility, and then strike him with lightning."

Yin Wind harms the soul, while Ice Rain harms the body.

"The Ice Rain spell also uses Yin energy, but it's much easier to cast than Yin Wind. Water is inherently Yin, and by guiding my essence energy and filtering out the Yang from the cloud formation, the ice rain can take shape."

Old Shennong had taught him that the key to Lightning Summoning lay in controlling the clouds, so Zhao Xing applied the same principle to master the Ice Rain spell, and it worked.

Plop—A drop of rain fell on his hand, and Zhao Xing felt its coldness.

Although he had just begun learning the spell, and his proficiency was still far from reaching the first stage, as long as he dragged out the game long enough, it would severely deplete Shen Zhui's essence energy and slow him down.

The chase game? With Zhao Xing, it was no longer just about running away!

Before, it was because he lacked offensive spells, but now that he had them, there was no way he was just going to run and wait to be caught!