If this was Wen Zhong in his past self, he would never be able to experience the changes that had occurred to Shen Lian. He had now become the Mighty God of Thunder. This position not only brought him ultimate powers, it too gave him a state that was equally majestic.

　　As the saying ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God’, achieving immortality was not necessarily the only way to be venerated as a god. One could become a god through the boulevard. One or another, these two methods led to the same goal.

　　Wen Zhong understood that he could not let Shen Lian had the chance to dwell into such abstruse realization as it would be extremely difficult for him to be taken away.

　　Lady Mother of the Chariot, the eldest goddess in the Netherworld, took out a Talisman order and made Wen Zhong the Lord of Thunder Technique. This way, with the aid of it, Wen Zhong would definitely be able to defeat Shen Lian. In other words, Wen Zhong would be more powerful than Shen Lian.

　　At the point of time, not only the Lady Mother of the Chariot and Wen Zhong understood the situation of it, even Shen Lian himself knew the fact that there would always be a slim chance of survival in this world.

　　And as for Shen Lian, his survival would depend on Wen Zhong as Wen Zhong could only temporarily be the Mighty God of Thunder for two hours, not a second more, not a second less.

　　Although Shen Lian was unsure of the matter, he made a resolute choice to follow the principle of ‘ defend first, attack later ¹ ‘.

　　Only then, he started to restrain himself and summoned up his powers, combining them. He laid out all his cards, all that he had, openly to his enemy. The main motive behind the transparency was to protect himself and not to defeat Wen Zhong.

　　Shen Lian made such a move because he understood a point very well. It was not long since he met Wen Zhong, even though Wen Zhong had received a fortuitous gift, the Goddess should not have raised his powers and state to that extent, surpassing far beyond what he originally had. The standard practice to god in nature was like the Taiyi and Mahasattva, but Wen Zhong was originally a land immortal of Dao. He would definitely have a hard time coping with the sudden and enormous change that he received.

　　It was an unattainable goal for a mortal to become a deity because the Accumulation ¹  in between must not be missed out.

　　With that being said, those accumulations were an undeniable fact. Shen Lian could feel that Wen Zhong had only seized the potentiality to become a great deity but not owning it.

　　He would not need to suppress him with such massive power had he owned the title for good. Instead, as the Lord of Thunder Dao, he could have diligently used his understanding towards the principles of powers to restrain him and torture him to death like cat and mouse game.

　　The more Shen Lian tried to understand that point, the calmer he became.

　　Out of a sudden, Wen Zhong raged. Two Thunder Dragons assailed towards the direction of Shen Lian, as if they were trying to clash-up the sky and the earth.

　　A peculiar scene appeared in the sky with Shen Lian sitting in mid-air. His whole body glowed with divine aura which was shining like the stars in the galaxy. Two Thunder Dragons hovering outside, crossing each other as they moved like a big millstone and Shen Lian situated in the core, being crashed and strangled by it.

　　The scared rays were dim, like a flame that was about to be extinguished, defending hard against the brutal attack of the Thunder Dragons.

　　At that point of time, the citizens in Xiliang City could only see what was happening but could not feel even the slightest eeriness. However, for those who possess Qi would be able to feel that the Qi within them became stagnant.

　　Lightning was originated from the Qi between Yin and Yang. It symbolized the execution from the heaven, possessing a very high divinity. Thus, it was able to repress everything.

　　Li Yuanliang and the other fellows could not provide any help to Shen Lian but only watched him being strangled and tortured by the Thunder Dragons.

　　Chen Jing gnashed her teeth in anger, her stares penetrative and just like others, she could not move a little. On the other hand, the young Chen Ke was merely watching the scenario in the sky, not understanding what was happening. At that moment, only Thunder Dragons and the remarkable deity, Wen Zhong was seen up in the sky. Apart from the shuddering thunder, it was very quiet between the heaven and earth.

　　The silence lingered and even Chen Ke was affected by it. She was cautious with her movements.

　　The divine lights emitted from Shen Lian became dimmer. He could feel that his Primordial Spirit was depleting rapidly but he could not reach out for help from anyone.

　　‘Primordality’ signified the essence in the body which was transformed into Qi through motion and subsequently called Qi; ‘Spirit’ signified the spirit of the body and together they were called ‘Primordial Spirit’.

　　Primordial Spirit was a combination of the divine Qi in the body, allowing the Qi cultivator to separate his spiritual self from his physical self. With a special method, they were able to live for eternity in their spiritual form.

　　Shen Lian had used up the Qi that he accumulated throughout the years to defend himself from the strangulation of the Thunder Dragons and also to protect the spirit within his deepest core.

　　This was the only way for him to prolong his life.

　　The method that Shen Lian used was similar to the Mara Separation Technique but Mara Separation Technique would consume all three elements of essence, Qi and spirit. The technique that Shen Lian was using, however, was able to conserve the spirit completely.

　　Wen Zhong remained silent as he used every single ounce of his power to restrain Shen Lian. All that was left in this matter would be to drain Shen Lian’s Qi completely, rendering him defenseless.

　　As with Primordial Spirit, ‘Primordality’ resembled the brain while ‘Qi’ resembled the limbs. If Qi were to be totally depleted, every power that one owned would disappear. Regardless of the presence of the state, he or she would no longer be qualified as an immortal.

　　Just like the story told among the folks: an immortal that was defeated by his enemy had his five Qi ripped off from his chest and immediately, he became nothing more than the mortals on earth.

　　And as that being said, that was the sole reason behind the phrase ‘training of Qi’ instead of ‘training of spirit’.

　　Apart from exhausting Shen Lian’s Qi, Wen Zhong could not come up with a better plan. The slightest slackness would complicate the whole matter as it would allow Shen Lian to connect with people and channel Primordial Spirit from the other side of the border of his restraint.

　　Even though the Qi between heaven and earth would be incomparable to the Qi that was gained through years of training, it would still stir up unnecessary problems. It would not be beneficial for him if the time were to be delayed.

　　It could be said that Wen Zhong was fortunate to come up with this plan. He would definitely be able to use up all of Shen Lian’s Qi within two hours.

　　If he were to have the spiritual treasure Hunyuan Jindou that was mentioned by his Master, he would have empty Shen Lian’s power within moments and take him away but the treasure was nowhere to be found.

　　Even though the precious and pure Qi of Shen Lian were depleted swiftly, he did not show any sign of agony, he was very calm instead.

　　In between loss and gain, there was no clear demarcation differing between both of them.

　　All the powers within him rooted from Taixu Divine Qi which had enabled him to master all kinds of techniques and masteries. Hence, he was capable of braving the world, rarely defeated by his enemies.

　　On the contrary to these advantages, for him to gain and to loss powers, Taixu Shen Qi was his greatest hurdle.

　　Wen Zhong’s presence had given him an opportunity to discard all his powers, both to defend himself against Wen Zhong as well as to remove his powers through this process.

　　The universe in his heart was not fully formed but Shen Lian understood that he would be expecting a constitutional leap-through.

　　Just when Wen Zhong and Shen Lian had used up all their powers, the two Thunder Dragons let out a loud roar, prepared to contain and bring Shen Lian away once and for all. Just when the dragons were about to do so, a silent rhythm occurred in the Netherworld.

　　This rhythm was like a seed which went through the freezing cold in winter and budded out from its kernel as it welcomed the arrival of spring, touching the hearts of people with its new life.

　　Where there was no distinction between yin and yang, no limits to the boundaries of emptiness, in this state, there were no light, no images, shapeless and nameless. Silent and without any form, this state was called Taiyi. Taiyi was the beginning of all gods but Qi did not exist just yet.

　　Shen Lian smiled, the smile flaunting, breaking the solemn in his face ¹ .

　　Among the practitioners, Taiyi was regarded as the first stage in the birth of heaven and earth where it was an empty universe without boundaries.

　　There, Yin and Yang were not disintegrated into their respective forms; there were no separations between heaven and earth.

　　This explained as well that it was a phase that Shen Lian must go through in order to convert from his original state of heavenly immortal into the State of Taiyi.

　　It was not compulsory for all heavenly immortals to understand the meaning of Taiyi, it was just that when Shen Lian reached the State of Taiyi, Taiyi was the path that he needed to go through. It was a phase that he had to experience however it was not a phase that would be required to credit his achievements.