NABC Chapter 67 Heavenly Thunder
Chapter 67 Heavenly Thunder
The world has changed.
The clouds seemed to be stirred up by something, converging on the mountaintop from all directions.
Purple light flowed through the clouds, like giant snakes swimming in the sea of clouds, sometimes appearing and sometimes disappearing.
Every time the purple light flashes, the entire mountaintop is bathed in an eerie purple glow.
The faces, clothes, and eyes of the crowd were all bathed in purple light.
Baozi's palms were sweaty.
He stood in the corridor, looking at the kneeling people in the square, his mind blank.
Those people knelt on the ground, their hands raised above their heads, their lips moving constantly.
Then they looked up.
Purple light spilled from their eye sockets.
Their expressions changed.
Shock.
Then came ecstasy.
That kind of ecstatic joy is not an expression a normal person should have.
They lowered their heads, foreheads touching the ground, lips kissing the stone slabs beneath their feet.
Baozi's stomach churned.
He took a step back and bumped into a pillar in the corridor.
"Xiaoman" (Grain Buds).
He turned his head, intending to call Xiaoman to come down the mountain.
But he had just opened his mouth, before he could say anything.
A beam of purple light cleaved down from the sky.
"boom--!!!"
The bluestone slab was shattered, and the fragments flew everywhere, creating a crater about half a meter in diameter on the ground.
A pungent odor filled the air.
Sulfur, ozone, and the smell of barbecue.
Baozi's ears were ringing.
He instinctively stepped to the side and covered his face with his arm.
The pebbles hit his arm, stinging painfully.
He lowered his arm and glanced at the pit.
The rocks at the bottom of the pit were melted by the high temperature and turned into a black, glassy substance.
Then he looked up at Xiaoman's position.
The Lesser Fullness (Xiaoman) solar term has already begun.
She and Baozi exchanged a glance.
No need to speak.
They've been together so long that a single glance is enough.
Xiaoman turned around and activated Moon Chase.
She moved with the speed of an arrow launched from a bow, and the water on the bluestone slab beneath her feet was splashed up by her vital energy, forming a mist in the air.
Wen Ranran was held in her arms, and Fei Fei tightly gripped Wen Ranran's clothes.
Baozi didn't follow.
He turned around, facing the sky, with his feet apart, and assumed a horse stance.
Raise both hands from your sides, palms up, fingers slightly bent.
The primordial energy surged out of his body.
"Earthly Kun"
His voice rolled in his throat, and his hands suddenly rose upwards.
"Sandstorm!!!"
The ground cracked.
Soil and gravel gushed out from the cracks, forming a wall in front of the steamed bun.
Flying sand.
Earth-attribute Xia Lan technique.
Baozi didn't expect the wall to block the purple lightning.
He knew he couldn't stop it.
He only needs one second.
In a second, I blocked Xiaoman's view, allowing her to run even further.
The moment the wall was erected, sand and dust filled the air, like a small sandstorm.
Baozi's vision was blocked, and he couldn't see anything.
But he heard it.
"Zi"
The sound of an electric current passing through the air.
Purple lightning pierced through the sand and dust wall.
Lightning burst forth from the sand and dust, shooting straight toward the steamed bun.
A purple light shone in Baozi's pupils.
His body moves faster than his brain.
Moonlit Night.
Earth-elemental primordial energy erupted from beneath his feet, propelling him to the side.
Lightning grazed past his right arm.
The distance is too close.
It was so close that you could feel the heat of the lightning.
I felt like the bones in my arm were burning up on their own.
Baozi rolled on the ground to dissipate the impact, then knelt on one knee and looked down at his right arm.
The jacket sleeves were burned through from the shoulder to the elbow, the edges were charred and curled, and it was still smoking.
The skin beneath the sleeves...
Baozi frowned slightly.
It doesn't hurt.
No, that's not right. It's not that it doesn't hurt, it's that the pain is too intense, and my nerves are numb.
But if I hadn't dodged just now...
If that lightning bolt had struck his arm directly...
I don't even want to think about steamed buns.
That arm is probably no longer on his body.
He stood up and stretched his right arm.
active.
The fingers can make a fist.
The bones are fine.
It was just a superficial injury.
He took a deep breath, suppressing the pain, then looked up at the square.
The sight in the square made him pause for a moment.
Most of those who were kneeling on the ground remained in place.
They remained kneeling, foreheads pressed to the ground, lips kissing the stone slabs.
Purple lightning bolts struck around them, one after another, like rain.
But the lightning did not strike them.
A bolt of lightning struck down, landing less than half a meter away from a person. The bluestone slab shattered, and fragments flew onto the person.
Another bolt of lightning struck, landing at the feet of another person. It blasted a crater in the ground and splattered dirt all over him, but he didn't move.
The lightning seemed to be avoiding them.
It was as if they were deliberately, precisely, and carefully avoiding every kneeling person.
But those who did not kneel down...
Baozi's gaze shifted to the stone path leading down the mountain.
There were several corpses lying there.
Coke.
It was no longer recognizable as a human.
Their clothes were still there, but they had stuck to their charred skin, making it impossible to distinguish between cloth and flesh.
The air was filled with the aroma of barbecue.
Baozi recognizes those clothes.
Those are tourists' clothes.
When the ceremony began, some tourists were not cleared out and mingled with the crowd.
When the lightning began to strike, they panicked, scrambled to their feet, and ran down the mountain.
Then lightning found them.
Each strike precisely hit the running person.
Baozi stood in the corridor, looking at the charred corpses, his stomach churning with acid.
Don't run... You absolutely mustn't run.
God will protect believers.
Although such gods are not worth worshipping, and are even disgusting.
He took a deep breath, suppressed the nausea, then looked up and called out in Xiaoman's direction.
"Kneel down!!!"
The sound was so loud that it felt like his throat had been cut with a knife.
But the rumors were too strong.
The thunder was too loud.
Xiaoman didn't hear clearly.
She had already run to the edge of the square, about seventy or eighty meters away from Baozi.
She heard Baozi shout, but only a muffled syllable.
She turned her head and looked in the direction of the steamed buns.
Baozi's mouth was moving, but the sound was torn apart by the wind and thunder.
Xiaoman frowned, preparing to continue running.
A bolt of purple lightning struck down from the clouds.
It wasn't aimed at her.
It was Wen Ranran in her arms.
The lightning bolt seemed to have eyes; it made a bend in the air and struck straight at Wen Ranran's right hand.
Wen Ranran's right hand was glowing.
Lightning is too fast.
Xiaoman didn't have time to dodge.
She could only hold Wen Ranran in her arms and use her back to shield her.
"Dye!!!"
She closed her eyes, pressed Wen Ranran's head onto her shoulder, curled up, and completely enveloped the little girl in her body.
then……
The lightning did not strike her.
Xiaoman opened her eyes.
Wen Ranran stood in front of her.
It's not standing on the ground, it's standing in the air.
Her feet left Xiaoman's embrace and floated in mid-air.
Raise your right hand high, palm facing up.
The purple lightning struck the mark of sin, but there was no explosion, no splash, and no sound.
The lightning was absorbed.
Purple light surged from the mark of sin into Wen Ranran's arm, from her arm into her shoulder, and from her shoulder into her whole body.
Wen Ranran's body began to glow.
First the right hand, then the entire right arm, then the shoulder, then the chest, and then the whole body.
Her skin became transparent, and the blood vessels and bones underneath could be vaguely seen.
What flowed in the veins was not blood, but purple light.
Wen Ranran's mouth was open, but no sound came out.
"Don't come any closer!!!"
Xiao You's voice was like a knife, slicing through the sounds of wind and thunder.
The steamed bun stopped.
Xiao You jumped down from the corridor.
He wasn't fast, but every step he took landed in the gaps between lightning bolts.
He ran to Wen Ranran's side, reached out, grabbed her raised right wrist, and pressed her hand down.
Then he pushed hard, knocking Wen Ranran down from mid-air.
Wen Ranran fell into Xiaoman's arms.
Xiao You also collapsed.
He knelt on the ground, pressing Wen Ranran's head down with one hand, forcing her face towards the ground.
"Kneel down!!!"
He shouted.
This time, Baozi heard clearly.
He knelt down.
He was in the same posture as the people he had just seen.
Xiaoman also knelt down.
She placed Wen Ranran on the ground, letting her forehead touch the ground, and then knelt down herself.
Feifei rolled out of Wen Ranran's arms, lay on the ground, curled up in a ball, tucked its tail under its belly, and trembled.
Purple lightning struck down from the sky.
One, two, three.
It struck near Baozi, near Xiaoman, and near Xiaoyou.
But none of the arrows struck them.
The lightning bypassed them.
Baozi lay on the ground, his forehead pressed against the cold bluestone slab, and he could feel the ground vibrating.
He turned his head and glanced at Xiao You.
Xiao You also lay on the ground, his forehead touching the ground, in the same posture as Baozi.
But his body did not tremble.
Wen Ranran nestled in Xiaoman's arms, her body trembling.
The mark of sin was still glowing, but it was dimmer than before.
The lightning lasted for about two minutes.
It could also be two hours.
then……
The lightning stopped.
The purple light disappeared from the sky; the clouds remained, but no longer churned.
The air grew heavy.
The people kneeling in the square raised their heads.
They looked at the sky, the purple light in their eyes still lingering, but their expressions had changed.
It was no longer ecstasy.
Rather, it is reverence.
Another voice came from behind.
It was an extremely sharp sound.
The sound was so sharp it felt like Baozi's eardrums were being pricked by a needle.
He instinctively covered his ears, but the sound pierced his eardrums and exploded deep within his mind.
A piercing bird cry came from the clouds.
Only then did he understand the meaning of the mural.
The little man is kneeling, praying, and obedient.
Dancing little figures.
Is it really dancing?
Baozi caught a glimpse of the little man charred by the flames out of the corner of his eye.
They didn't die in an instant.
Instead, they screamed, howled, and twisted their bodies wildly, as if dancing.
They offered their last dance to their god, this great yet wicked deity.