Advanced Cultivation Civilization

ACC Chapter 43 Lightning Unicorn

Abruptly, Lily rose up from the wooden bench as if she had been shocked by electricity. Before I could ask what had happened, my eyes widened in alarm as a dangerous sensation caused the hairs at the back of my nape to rise up.

My body moved before my mind could come up with any countermeasures. Within just a step, the ground shrunk and I appeared beside her. Teleportation was out of the question because I could make many errors with the atmosphere as charged at it was.

Through my divine sense, every particle around me appeared to hold a charge, vibrating in place as if in anticipation of something!

I tugged Lily over, pasting her to my body, before moving, bursting out of the wooden house in a direction opposite the evolving symbiote. My feet tread upon water, while my body collided with literal curtains of rain as I tried to put a lot of distance between myself and the symbiote.

And within just seconds, a flash of light almost blinded me as the raindrops right in front of me refracted it, before I felt a searing pain upon my back as if I had just been shot at with a laser.

I didn't dare to release my divine sense at this moment because my instincts were telling me that it would be torn apart!

But through the particles making contact with my back, I felt water particles become gas, before hydrogen and oxygen were brutally separated from each other, with the high temperature igniting the gaseous mixtures, setting off an explosion that hurled me into the blue energy shield with such force that I sunk a few meters within, feeling it straining to keep me and the force at my back from breaching into the city.

Through my other senses, I felt bands slither around me, forming a shield at my back, which alleviated some of the heat I was feeling.

Just as abruptly as the explosion had happened, the same happened to the force pushing against my back, which allowed the energy shield around the city to pop back into its original shape, pushing us away in the process.

We didn't land on the ground right away as we turned around towards the scene of the catastrophe.

Vapour obscured much of our gazes, but through glimpses, and picking out the refraction of light through the drops of rain, I managed to get a clear picture of the scene, which was somewhat shocking.

A massive hole had opened up, about a kilometer in diameter, with edges that were glowing red hot and flowing deep into the dark abyss.

"Was that a tribulation bolt?!"

The question brought my gaze into the skies, where the the rain had thinned and the lightning had gone from the clouds.

"I don't think so."

My symbiote had been in the centre of the attack. That much I could see. But that hadn't been a heavenly tribulation. That attack had been too powerful for that.

"Be on guard!" I warned while appearing right in front of Lily before a beastly existence, with lightning as its body, emerged from deep within the pit, bringing with it an aura that set off palpitations of fear within my heart.

If this were to turn into a battle, I was sure that I wouldn't win. Lightning was a volatile spirit energy attunement that didn't agree with wood more than even flame.

From the hooves, to the four legs which were connected to a body ending with a swishing tail that unleashed lightning sparks with every wave, a long neck linking the body to a head, shaped like that of a horse, possessing a long horn that was giving me a powerful sense of danger. This was lightning given form. The spirit had adopted the form of a mythical creature, one called the Unicorn or Qilin.

Where its eyes were supposed to be, concentrated lightning had given birth to blue flames, which were currently regarding me.

Its aura was that of the late Nascent Soul, and my instincts had already gleaned that its power was no less than that of a cultivator with deity arts.

A snort escaped its snout as its head reared back, releasing sparks that lingered in the air for a time, different from normal lightning attuned spiritual energy.

I narrowed my eyes at the hint of gold within the blueish white.

'Is that tribulation lightning?'

The atmosphere was tense... Well, for both me and Lily. The unicorn on the other hand seemed to be at ease, even occasionally gazing down into the hole.

(The evolution of life is interesting. Creatures with... Cells, are simply too fascinating. Don't you think so, my two humanoid beings?)

"You can talk?!" Lily's voice slipped out, filled with incredulity, mirroring my own, though I had chosen to keep my mouth shut, with every muscle tense, and my spiritual energies gathered.

(There is no need to panic human. If I wanted you dead, you wouldn't even be able to react. Having to slow down my great speed is already a concession I am making just to explain myself. So don't patronise me with your puny strength.)

The unicorn's warning made me adopt a more leisurely stance, but I still didn't completely trust its words.

"My symbiote was in the middle of its evolution. Why did you destroy it?" I demanded. Though my heart was hammering within my chest, I still insisted on asking.

It had been hard creating a parasitic cell structure entirely matching me. And my symbiote had been a lucky experiment. Creating another was going to be very troublesome.

(Destroy? No. Its still alive down there. It helped me, so I also decided to award it with a boon.)

And with that, the unicorn turned into lightning, heading skywards, and vanishing into the clouds which dispersed after a few minutes, leaving behind steam bubbling from the few pools of water on the ground.

I went down after that, stepping upon the ground and seating myself upon another bench made of roots that I had grown.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked me carefully.

"That was scary. I never want to meet such spirits ever again. No. After this, I am going to get myself a well earned rest."

"That explosion interrupted my regeneration. I had almost reached the toes, but now I am going to have to recreate the entire foot once again."

"I wonder what it meant by boon." I mumbled while my gaze reached into the large kilometer wide hole.

"What's really interesting is the fact that it could hold a conversation. Could it be because it has advanced in realm, or has just lived long enough?"

"I detected a sliver of tribulation lightning. I think that lightning was meant for my symbiote, but through some means, the unicorn managed to absorb and devour it. Maybe that's what awakened its intelligence."

"For real! This is truly bizarre. Only those undergoing a tribulation can absorb such lightning. How did it manage?"

"It doesn't matter. What matters is I hope it didn't lie about my symbiote, because I will hunt it down to the ends of the Earth if it lied."

"I never took you for someone so vindictive."

"You just haven't known me long enough." I answered before a reaction down in the pit dragged me to my feet, pulling me towards the crater's edges.

A green light was pulsing below, like a heartbeat. It was brightening, then dimming in the same intervals as the beating of a heart.

A shuffle of feet on the ground entered my ears before Lily stood right beside me.

The pulsing light was coming from a cocoon in the form of an egg, half buried within the soil. The other plant matter, the result of the spirit's rampage had been seared away by the lightning, leaving only this cocoon behind.

"Do you want to go down with me?" I asked Lily before I could take off. I had been about to do exactly that by myself, but then I had remembered that I was next to her.

"You said you wanted explorers for the Legends Guild. Why would I flinch back at your invitation?"

My lips widened before I brought her close to my chest. Though, that smile faltered when her expression entered my eyes. She was looking at me gently, as if I was her lover, so I hurriedly looked away and levitated, bringing the both of us down the crater as fast as I could manage.

When she separated from me, I breathed out in relief, with both us now directing our gazes towards the cocoon.

It was emerald, and appeared to have been woven out of many green plant fibres.