The Hammer of Punishment’s Secret

Outside the floating mountain peak, the Nine-Fang God was waiting atop the clouds. Suddenly, he saw his master, Ji Ning, walking swiftly out from a distant mountain peak. Surprise flickered in his eyes. “The Prefectural Lord went to see the Heavenly Thundergod… why has he returned so quickly?”

Whoosh.

Ji Ning took a single step and appeared on the clouds.

“Prefectural Lord?” the Nine-Fang God asked in a low voice.

“Let’s go.” Ji Ning said nothing more. He directly produced the Voidboat, then brought the Nine-Fang God aboard and vanished through the void.

…

In the skies of the Hu Kingdom Major World, a Voidboat emerged abruptly from nowhere.

“When the Heavenly Thundegod first received me, he was actually quite polite. But the moment I brought up the Nine-Horned Lightning Serpent, his face changed instantly.” Ji Ning pondered deeply. In this era of great calamity, the powers on his side generally treated juniors with courtesy. Ji Ning had met Daofather Crimsonbright, Fuxi, and other exalted beings before.

All of them had been perfectly affable. Even the Heavenly Thundergod, for all his famously explosive temper, had been fairly cordial at first.

“Why did mentioning the Nine-Horned Lightning Serpent make him turn hostile on the spot? I offered to trade treasures for it, and he dismissed it with contempt.” Ji Ning frowned, racking his brains. “What can I do? The only major power in the Three Realms who possesses Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents is the Heavenly Thundergod. If I can’t get one from him, I’ll have to go to the Lightning Sea myself to cultivate that divine ability…”

Capturing a Nine-Horned Lightning Serpent was extremely difficult. Even the few major powers who had the strength to do so were unwilling to expend the enormous effort—after all, the serpents were useless to them. Only the Heavenly Thundergod had spent countless eons capturing a fair number of them.

“Prefectural Lord?” the Nine-Fang God asked doubtfully. “Why have we come to the Hu Kingdom Major World?”

“Naturally, to see Immortal Hu Yu,” Ji Ning said.

The Hu clan was a tribe of the ancient human race. Though it had flourished, it had never managed to produce a True God or Daofather. Since the primeval cataclysm and the birth of the Three Realms, the Hu clan had relocated to this major world and taken it over. Given their strength, occupying a single major world was trivial. Back in the ancient era, the Hu clan had boasted over eighteen Gods and True Immortals; by now, the number exceeded thirty.

“Immortal Hu Yu?” The Nine-Fang God was puzzled. He couldn’t fathom why Ji Ning wanted to see her.

“Hua.” Ji Ning released his heartforce, sweeping across the entire Hu Kingdom Major World. He quickly located Immortal Hu Yu.

…

In a quiet, secluded valley, scattered grass huts lay here and there. Some women were chatting and laughing, while others played in a stream.

“Friend Hu Yu.” A voice rang out directly inside the valley.

“Hm?”

One of the women in green, who had been playing in the stream, released her sense and immediately spotted the white-robed youth and the bald old man outside the valley’s protective formation.

“Ji Ning?” The green-haired woman recognized him immediately. “And the bald old man beside him—that should be the Nine-Fang God, one of the seven True Gods from the war in the Crimsonbright Realmverse.”

“Elder Sister? What’s wrong?”

“Elder Sister?”

One after another, the women emerged from their grass huts or climbed out of the stream, gathering around. All of them were Celestial Immortals who had formally studied under Immortal Hu Yu. But since Immortal Hu Yu disliked the formal teacher-student title, they simply called her “Elder Sister.”

“Stop messing around.” Immortal Hu Yu gave the order, and the group of female Celestial Immortals obediently fell silent, though they were burning with curiosity. Who had come to visit?

Immortal Hu Yu waved her hand.

Hua.

A passageway opened at the end of the valley. The entire valley had been blanketed by a formation barrier—not something easily breached. Through the passageway at the valley’s end came two figures: a white-robed youth and a bald old servant.

“Friend Northmont.” Immortal Hu Yu smiled warmly.

“Friend Hu Yu. I’ve come today because I have a request,” Ji Ning said.

“Oh? Let’s talk inside. If I can help, I certainly won’t stand idly by.” Immortal Hu Yu was extremely curious. What could the newly famous Northmont Sword Immortal possibly need from her?

She led Ji Ning into one of the grass huts.

The hut was elegantly arranged. The two sat down facing each other, and Immortal Hu Yu even poured Ji Ning some immortal wine.

“Before coming to you, I paid a visit to your master, the Heavenly Thundergod,” Ji Ning said. “I went to ask if I could trade some treasures for a Nine-Horned Lightning Serpent. Unexpectedly, the Heavenly Thundergod wouldn’t even let me finish speaking before driving me out. I have no other choice, so I’ve come to ask you—do you know any way?”

Immortal Hu Yu was a disciple deeply favored by the Heavenly Thundergod.

The Heavenly Thundergod had been born from the primordial chaos, innately mastering the Grand Dao of Lightning. His temper was notoriously violent, but he treated some disciples with great affection, while being stern with others. The one he cherished most was his only female disciple, Immortal Hu Yu. That was why Ji Ning had come to her.

“You want a Nine-Horned Lightning Serpent?” Immortal Hu Yu was startled.

“Yes.” Ji Ning nodded.

“This is a real problem.” Immortal Hu Yu shook her head. “Hmm… in the Three Realms, only my master has Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents. But to my master, these serpents are extremely important. Back in the day, when Daofather Three Purities asked my master for one to refine a certain treasure, my master was very reluctant. Daofather Three Purities had to offer a chaotic treasure that my master needed before he agreed to trade one. That was a long time ago, though. Now, with the great calamity upon us… don’t even mention you; even if Daofather Three Purities came asking, he wouldn’t get one.”

“Oh?” Ji Ning was taken aback.

“Don’t you know that my master’s most important treasure is the Hammer of Punishment?” Immortal Hu Yu asked.

“I do know that,” Ji Ning replied. “The Heavenly Thundergod wields the Hammer of Punishment, unleashing lightning to punish immortals and demons.” He frowned. “But what does that have to do with the Nine-Horned Lightning Serpent?”

“Where do you think the lightning in the Hammer of Punishment comes from?” Immortal Hu Yu shook her head with a chuckle. “For weaker lightning, my master can draw it directly from heaven and earth. But for more powerful lightning, especially the highest-grade Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents, my master has to laboriously fetch them from the Lightning Sea, refine them, and then forge them into the Hammer of Punishment. At critical moments, he can release the Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents to attack his enemies. After the attack, he can retrieve them.”

Ji Ning was stunned.

Among lightning bolts, the most formidable were the Lightning Sea Serpents and the Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents. The former had no intelligence; the latter were sentient and thus easier to refine. Mindless Lightning Sea Serpents could not be controlled at all.

It was like the ancient God Zhurong—he couldn’t directly control the Sunstar Golden Flame, so he created his own Zhurong Divine Fire. Suiren hadn’t been able to control the Sunstar Golden Flame either, instead creating the Inextinguishable Flame, which was no less powerful.

Why couldn’t they control it?

Because it was too violent!

The Sunstar Golden Flame, being mindless, was incredibly savage. Even Fuxi, the number-one formation master of the Three Realms, could only channel the Sunstar Golden Flame into a grand formation—using the formation to guide it—and even then it was a tremendous struggle. And he had perfectly combined the Yin and Yang Heavenly Daos, with unparalleled formation mastery; even so, that was the best he could do.

The Lightning Sea Serpents were just like the Sunstar Golden Flame—too wild.

The Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents, on the other hand, possessed intelligence and could potentially be refined. But they were extremely rare. Among the vast numbers of Lightning Sea Serpents, only a minuscule fraction could develop sentience and become Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents.

“To my master, the Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents are his trump card—his most powerful weapon. Every single serpent cost him enormous effort to refine and forge into the Hammer of Punishment,” Immortal Hu Yu explained. “If the great calamity weren’t upon us, there might have been a slim chance my master would give one up. But now, the final battle will decide life and death—my master absolutely will not part with any of his Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents.”

“When it comes to life and death, with my master’s temper, no one can move him,” Immortal Hu Yu said, looking at Ji Ning. “As his disciple, I have no influence either.”

Ji Ning nodded. “I see. I was too rash.”

“I think you’d better give up on the Nine-Horned Lightning Serpent,” advised Immortal Hu Yu. “Besides my master, the only place with them is the Lightning Sea in the chaos. And in that Lightning Sea… there are countless Lightning Sea Serpents, and the Nine-Horned ones hide among them. Even major powers dare not enter. My master has a body of lightning—he is probably the best in the Three Realms at capturing Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents—and even he had to struggle painstakingly to catch a few.”

“Mm.” Ji Ning nodded lightly. “Sorry for troubling you, Immortal Hu Yu. I’ll take my leave now.”

…

Ji Ning sent the Nine-Fang God back to the Starseizing Major World for now. Then, alone, he boarded the Voidboat, tore through the void once more, and entered the endless chaos.

Chaotic mist swirled all around.

If one traveled too far into the chaos, one could easily lose one’s way. Fortunately, Ji Ning had a map of the chaos regions surrounding the Three Realms. On the map, two spots were marked as Lightning Seas. Ji Ning naturally headed for the nearer one. Still, it was much farther than his last journey through the chaos. Ji Ning moved cautiously, terrified of getting lost.

Voidboat after Voidboat jump, using the chaotic stars as reference points. After a grueling six hours or more, the distance he had covered surpassed the entire size of the Three Realms many times over.

“I’ve arrived.”

Ji Ning stood atop the Voidboat, gazing into the distance ahead.

A vast ocean…

An ocean of lightning…

As far as the eye could see, countless white lightning bolts formed a boundless, seething sea. The deeper into the sea, the darker it became. In the deepest depths, faint black lightning could be seen, shaped like enormous serpents. Those were the Lightning Sea Serpents. Even major powers dreaded them.

A single Lightning Sea Serpent, or two, was one thing. But deep within the Lightning Sea, the countless black lightning bolts were gathered in an endless mass, and the Lightning Sea Serpents there were virtually infinite. No matter how formidable a major power was, only the very strongest could force their way deep inside with their lives on the line—and even then, the Nine-Horned Lightning Serpents were far rarer. Among millions of Lightning Sea Serpents, it was difficult to find even one Nine-Horned one. The difficulty of capturing them was evident.

“I have no other choice.”

“I have to take the risk.” Ji Ning stood on the Voidboat, gazing at the infinite sea of lightning.

Earlier, Tomato posted on WeChat the original illustration of Ji Ning’s first love, ‘Nine Lotos.’ What do you all think? I thought it was pretty good!