Chapter Five: Thunder in the Palm

“It’s pointless to fight down there. Here’s the deal: if you can come up here, you can attack me however you like—even kill me, for all I care!” A young cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage laughed uproariously, showing none of the shame a cultivator should feel when oppressing mortals.

“Despicable! Shameless! All you cultivators are the same!” A chorus of furious shouts erupted from more than a dozen mortals on the ground, but despite their anger, they edged even closer. They could neither fly nor leap to such heights; all they could do was shout up helplessly.

Lei Shan’s head lowered slightly; no one noticed as his clenched fist slowly relaxed. Suddenly, a streak of verdant cold light shot from his hand, striking the still-laughing cultivator squarely. It exploded upon impact.

A thunderous boom resounded.

Of the more than fifty cultivators present, apart from the leader and eight Void Tribulation experts, the rest were at the Nascent Soul stage. The explosion shattered the body of the laughing cultivator, and injured more than ten others at the same stage—some so severely that they were rendered powerless.

“Well done!”

The mortals on the ground shouted in unison, eyes bright with excitement as they looked at Lei Shan. Although the arrogant cultivator hadn’t been killed outright, his body was destroyed, and that alone vented their anger.

“Master!” The tiny Nascent Soul, terrified, flew to the side of a cultivator at the Sky Void stage. To lose one’s physical body at the Nascent Soul stage was a fate almost certainly doomed.

“Useless! You couldn’t even dodge a Kuya’s Palm Thunder!” The leader snorted coldly, ignoring the diminished Nascent Soul, his gaze fixed on Lei Shan below. “Palm Green Thunder... I didn’t expect you to have one. If you had a Palm Red Thunder as well, I’d have a hard time keeping you here today!”

“Kuya’s Palm Thunder?” Far away, more than ten miles from the scene, Qin Shuang had already left the small hill and was making his way slowly toward them. There was not the faintest trace of immortal aura about him; at this moment, Qin Shuang had disguised himself as a mere mortal.

“If I had Palm Red Thunder, I’d have struck you dead already!” Lei Shan retorted bitterly skyward, making Qin Shuang, still approaching, sigh in dismay—any fool could see that the leader was wary of Palm Red Thunder, and yet Lei Shan had blurted out that he didn’t have one.

“So, you don’t have many Palm Green Thunders left, do you?” The leader relaxed visibly at this, smiling as he questioned Lei Shan.

“I have two left—enough to kill at least one of you outright!” At the mention of Palm Thunder, Lei Shan unconsciously straightened his back. Among the Kuya people—these mortals—the Palm Thunder was their greatest pride.

The Kuya’s Palm Thunder was entirely different from that of cultivators. Theirs was a small thunder bead crafted with external materials, which, when thrown, produced a massive explosion—much like the bombs used on technological worlds.

Palm Thunder was divided into Palm Violet, Palm Red, and Palm Green Thunders. All were extremely difficult to make; the most powerful, Palm Violet Thunder, had only ever been crafted six times in all the Kuya tribes. If one detonated on a cultivator, even a Tribulation Transcender would perish, and even those at the Great Ascension or loose immortals would be gravely wounded.

Palm Red Thunder was slightly less powerful, but still a nightmare for cultivators at the Void Tribulation stage. Even a Sky Void expert would be gravely injured, and if careless, might even die. There were only around seventy such thunders among the Kuya—used only in direst need.

The most common was Palm Green Thunder, which was weaker and posed little threat to Sky Void cultivators, but could still seriously injure those at the Nascent Soul stage. Only in large numbers could it threaten higher-level cultivators. These were the Kuya’s basic weapons against cultivators, but supplies had dwindled; even a leader like Lei Shan had only three, and with one already spent, only two remained—no longer much of a deterrent to the leader above.

“Lei Tian is your brother, isn’t he?” the leader suddenly asked. Lei Shan started. His brother had stayed behind to protect Ruan Lingyu, allowing the others to escape scattered. For a moment, Lei Shan didn’t understand why the leader would ask such an obvious question.

“How is my brother?” Lei Shan, never the quickest thinker, immediately asked when prompted.

“Hand over Ruan Lingyu, and I’ll tell you your brother’s fate...”

“No! Absolutely not! Ruan Lingyu must not fall into your hands. My brother said, even if we die, we must bring her back to the tribe!” Lei Shan’s roar cut the leader off before he could finish, surprising him with such determination from someone who seemed so dull.

“You brought this on yourselves!” The leader wasted no more words. With a wave of his hand, over thirty uninjured cultivators hurled their flying swords at the mortals below—a classic move, attacking from above those who couldn’t retaliate.

More than twenty Nascent Soul and eight Void Tribulation experts besieged the mortals. As Qin Shuang observed with his immortal sense, he shook his head—these cultivators were a disgrace to their kind.

The Nascent Soul cultivators were manageable, but the eight Void Tribulation masters were true experts. Only Lei Shan barely held his ground; the other mortals were soon wounded, golden light flashing over their bodies as blood flowed ever more freely.

“Useless! You still can’t finish off a single Kuya squad after all this time!” the leader shouted in anger, his mid-grade spiritual weapon smashing down at Lei Shan. Lei Shan was the strongest—defeat him, and the rest would fall, and Ruan Lingyu would be theirs.

This time the leader attacked with all his might. Lei Shan managed to block the fan but staggered back over a dozen steps. Before he could catch his breath, the leader swooped down from the sky, abandoning his fan for a top-grade flying sword. With Lei Shan’s strength, he couldn’t possibly block such a weapon from a Sky Void cultivator.

A deafening blast shook the ground, the tremors lingering long after. Both the cultivators in the sky and the mortals on the ground were covered in dust. At the heart of the explosion, a red mist billowed so thick that not even spiritual sense could penetrate it.

Having nearly reached the scene, Qin Shuang was left speechless. He hadn’t expected Lei Shan, who seemed so guileless, to be so cunning—he himself had been fooled.

Lei Shan’s earlier reply had been a lie, a calculated deception. If nothing else, Qin Shuang knew that Lei Shan did possess a Palm Red Thunder. Lei Shan had tricked the leader precisely to create this opportunity.

As Qin Shuang arrived, the red mist dispersed, and everyone was stunned by what they saw. Then the Kuya people erupted in cheers. Lei Shan, soaked in blood, emerged from the heart of the explosion, a flying sword in one hand and the tiny Nascent Soul of the leader in the other.

“If you value your lives, get out of here—now!” No one noticed that another man had appeared on the battlefield. Lei Shan glared fiercely at the cultivators above, his tone so cold it sent shivers through them.

“Retreat! All of you, retreat! Get the sect master to save me!” The once-arrogant leader, now reduced to a Nascent Soul, was frantic. He knew he’d been outwitted by Lei Shan, whose performance had been all too convincing.

Lei Shan understood that unless Palm Red Thunder was used unexpectedly, it could not guarantee the defeat of a Sky Void cultivator. He only had one, given to him by his elder brother Lei Tian during their retreat. His only chance was to lure the leader down and destroy his body with a surprise attack, capturing his Nascent Soul.

Lei Shan had been as close to the explosion as the leader, but the unique physique of the Kuya allowed him to survive such a blast. Only Lei Shan among them could endure it, which is why he deliberately separated from the group during the fight. Otherwise, even if the leader drove him back, he would never have retreated so far.

Everything had changed in an instant. The cultivators, who moments before had been assured of victory, now stood in stunned defeat—Nascent Soul and Void Tribulation alike.

“Hurry back and tell the sect master to save me! The Flying Ling Sword has fallen into the hands of the Kuya—do whatever it takes to get it back!” The leader’s Nascent Soul howled as the cultivators hesitated. He knew that falling into the Kuya’s hands meant a terrible fate; his only hope was for the sect master to negotiate for his return and let him rebuild as a loose immortal.

“Yes, Elder Ling Jiang, we’ll return at once! If you harm Elder Ling Jiang, you’ll all be dead men!” More than fifty cultivators, wounded and whole, fled in disarray. They left behind threats, but their hearts were full of fear. Elder Ling Jiang was the nephew of the Wuling Sect Master, Ling Yufei; even if they returned unharmed, their own fate would not be pleasant.

“My friend, if you keep squeezing him like that, his Nascent Soul will dissipate before long,” Qin Shuang, clad all in white, finally reached Lei Shan’s side.

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