"I’ve found the enemy. Their coordinates are my current position, four kilometers ahead."

[Stand by for support. Long-range assault is locking on.]

"Roger. I’ll keep it busy."

The exchange was over in an instant. But even before it began, the human figure that had leaped high into the clouds erupted with a flash of lightning, as scorching as a miniature sun.

Expressionless, Su Zhou raised the Spirit Iron Long Staff. The weapon, provided by the Zhengguo Government, transformed into a pillar of what looked like a magnetic storm. Thick arcs of lightning, visible to the naked eye, coiled around it like Coiling Dragons, crackling with a terrifying aura.

Then, in a single instant, he unleashed it all—one million standard points of Spiritual Power.

BOOM! The Spirit Iron Long Staff was instantly heated cherry-red. At its tip, an electromagnetic current rivaling a small lightning strike coalesced into an azure flash. It took the form of a serpentine dragon of thunder, shooting straight into the sky and plunging into the vast rain clouds!

In the next instant, just as the Shepherd of Spirits gasped in shock and threw up a Spiritual Shield, a violent Celestial Thunder crashed down like a raging wave from the heavens, aimed directly at the cargo ship where the creature stood!

CRACK! The Thunder Strike was blocked by the Spiritual Shield, but the impact shattered it into a shower of Spiritual Light fragments. The air was instantly filled with scalding steam from vaporized rain, and the entire area above the cargo ship was scorched black by stray arcs of electricity!

"The Five Thunders Technique... A Daoist Saint?! A Celestial Thunder strike!?"

"No, that’s not right. Even if that old coot achieved Rejuvenation, he wouldn’t be this young!"

For a moment, the Shepherd of Spirits failed to connect the youthful voice with this ridiculously powerful ability. But then it saw the distant figure, now deep within the clouds, begin to crackle with violent electricity once more, as if preparing to call down another Thunder Strike. A horrifying thought struck the Shepherd of Spirits. ’Could it be that young man from the Holy Ascension Selection Test!?’

But there was no time to dwell on it. Faced with a Celestial Thunder strike from kilometers away, even the Shepherd of Spirits had few ways to fight back.

Worse still, the dark sky lit up once again with a thunderbolt that coiled and twisted like a Dragon Serpent!

Five Extremes Divine Thunder True Technique! 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Scattered arcs of electricity exploded through the atmosphere. A brilliant flash illuminated a vast swath of the sea, revealing everything on its surface with perfect clarity. In the waters further out, countless Sea Beasts could be seen waiting at the perimeter, surrounding the area. They all gazed up in awe at the sky, at the human figure within the thunderclouds.

The lightning struck, followed an instant later by the deafening roar! A massive Thunder Strike slammed into the cargo ship, obliterating the towering bridge in a fiery explosion. The Shepherd of Spirits, who had already taken refuge in the ship’s hold, was nowhere to be seen.

The rain poured down. Su Zhou silently gathered another million points of Spiritual Power. Before his breakthrough, he had 150,000 points. After reaching the Extraordinary level, that number jumped to nearly 800,000. After forming the Spiritual Power Organ: Digestive System, his standard reserves swelled to almost three million points. And with the addition of the ’Eye’ he had recently formed, his total Spiritual Power at full capacity reached a staggering five million points!

A typical Transcendent at the Extraordinary Middle Stage possessed somewhere between one and three million points of Spiritual Power. Su Zhou’s reserves had already reached the Extraordinary High-tier. Combined with the rapid energy recovery of the Celestial Human Cycle, he could call down thunder all day in a storm with virtually no drain on his power!

’Is it hiding, or preparing a counterattack?’

Within the pitch-black storm clouds, lightning crisscrossed the sky. Su Zhou used his Spiritual Power to command the natural bolts, making them his own. Yet he didn’t immediately direct them to strike, waiting calmly instead. ’By my calculations, it’s about time.’

Just then, crimson flashes of light appeared on the distant horizon. Accompanied by a piercing shriek, they rapidly closed in.

It was rocket artillery from the South Sea Fleet... and a missile barrage!

For some reason, in Zhengguo, a weapon with a 400-kilometer range was still called "rocket artillery." But rocket artillery it was. A torrential downpour of rockets and missiles locked onto the small cargo ship and rained down without a moment’s hesitation!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The roar of explosions thundered across the sky. Guided by the tracking system on Su Zhou, the overwhelming firepower seemed to instantly vaporize that patch of sea, boiling it away. A violent shockwave tore through the atmosphere, whipping up a gale exceeding one hundred meters per second. A massive, mushroom-like cloud of scorching black smoke and fire billowed into the air!

The blast radius covered several square kilometers. Even the distant Sea Beasts that had been encircling the area turned and fled in terror. Fortunately for them, they had kept their distance; any closer, and the concussive shockwave and its aftershocks would have finished them all off.

Normally, not even a Transcendent could survive such a salvo. Su Zhou felt that even if he reached the Commander Tier, taking a direct hit from that bombardment would have blasted him to dust. But a moment later, his eyes narrowed. He sensed that something was wrong.

’It’s not dead! No... it’s completely unscathed!’

Through his Spiritual Vision Power, he could see it clearly: in the heart of the fiery bombardment, a massive, ship-shaped Spirit Body was slowly sinking. It seemed to be taking advantage of the chaotic assault to become like a ghost ship, hiding itself deep within the sea.