novelraw Chapter 584: Blood Rain Can Be Refined, Divine Aperture Hard to Open
Chapter 584: Blood Rain Can Be Refined, Divine Aperture Hard to Open
A breakthrough to the Void Pierce Stage is within reach!
The 4 million miles of the Siluo Bamboo Sea has had 50,000 formation’s eyes detected by Ning Fan!
If these 50,000 formation’s eyes form a successful array, the formation covering the Siluo Bamboo Sea would undoubtedly be an upper-grade Immortal Void formation!
This is the first time Ning Fan personally set up such a large formation!
Fortunately, this Immortal Void formation is neither for defense nor for attacking the enemy, it is solely used for the purpose of capturing the Siluo Bamboo Sea. It does not need to consider the number of times the formation can be used, only needs to set up a one-time formation light, hence it’s not too difficult to arrange.
After Ning Fan calculated the 50,000 formation’s eyes, he no longer concerned himself with the arrangement of the formation.
The entire Ming Luo Tree began to follow Ning Fan’s orders, holding the formation diagram drawn by Ning Fan, filling each formation’s eye with 500,000 immortal jade, connecting the terrain, and engraving the grand array.
Setting up this one-time formation used up 25 billion immortal jade from Ning Fan, which was indeed quite an expense.
The range of the formation was too vast. Even with all 320,000 members of the Ming Luo Race mobilized, it took a full month to set up the entire formation.
During this month, the task of repairing the puppets was entirely handed over to Qingdai.
Youhuang’s soul body was illusory, only able to offer verbal guidance. Her puppet technique was extremely exquisite, the best in the Tree World during her lifetime. Under her guidance, Qingdai’s chances of repairing the puppets greatly increased.
On the other hand, Guang Hanzi could only work on refining hundreds of puppet materials, doing some rough work, and providing assistance to Qingdai.
After Ning Fan determined the formation’s eyes, he entered the Dark Golden Pagoda of Yuan Yao Realm to make the final preparations for breaking through to the Void Pierce Stage.
First, he refined Solid Void Pills and Taixu Pills to increase the chance of advancement.
Second, he refined a large number of Solid Void Pills, which are a six-revolution high-grade pills, effective in solidifying the Void Pierce Stage realm.
For masters who just broke through to the Void Pierce Stage, unless they possess a heaven-defying physique, it often requires decades of seclusion to solidify their cultivations.
If one takes a Solid Void Pill, it can reduce the seclusion time by 20 years.
If one takes three Solid Void Pills, it can directly solidify the Void Pierce Stage realm!
Of course, the Solid Void Pill also has a certain effect on solidifying the Void Fragmentation Realm, but the effect is considerably diminished...
Ning Fan was not confident whether he would achieve a breakthrough to the Void Fragmentation Realm this time.
However, he still decided to refine Taixu Pills along with enough Solid Void Pills just in case.
A month in the outside world is ten years on the seventh floor of the pagoda.
Within these ten years, Ning Fan repeatedly refined six-revolution high-grade Solid Void Pills and Taixu Pills.
His dan refinement skills were infinitely close to a six-revolution upper rank. He received guidance from the Pill Emperor for the second time, and observed the entire process of the Pill Emperor’s breakthrough to the seventh revolution.
Even though he did not deliberately absorb the soul power of heaven and earth from the Pill Emperor, it still invisibly improved the quality of his Medicine Soul. He was just one step away from a breakthrough to six-revolution upper-level dan refinement skills...
Despite this, Ning Fan’s success rate of refining six-revolution high-grade pills was only one percent.
Fortunately, Ning Fan had plundered a large number of Spiritual Medicine from the Cedar Clan, allowing him to be extravagant.
After more than 40 failures, he finally refined his first Solid Void Pill!
The Solid Void Pill, a six-revolution high-grade pill, can increase his Void Pierce Stage insight and boosts the chance of a breakthrough to the Void Pierce Stage, sought after by countless Void Inquiry and Void Pierce Stage monsters!
After refining this Solid Void Pill, Ning Fan’s dan refinement skills broke through naturally, advancing to the six-revolution upper level.
After his dan refinement skills leveled up, Ning Fan began to refine a large number of Taixu Pills, with a success rate of twenty percent.
After 84 refinements of Taixu Pills, he produced a total of 22 Taixu Pills. Upon completing this batch of Taixu Pills, Ning Fan’s success rate for refining six-revolution high-grade pills reached forty percent.
With both the Solid Void and Taixu Pills ready, he needed only the final Taixu Pill...
The Taixu Pill is a peak six-revolution pill, generally only refined by peak six-revolution Alchemists.
Ning Fan decided to use the Grade Raising Technique to refine this Taixu Pill, using the Blood Revolution Technique within the Grade Raising Technique.
The Blood Revolution Technique requires the consumption of a cultivator’s Spirit with each refinement.
In his hands, Ning Fan had the Spirits of two Return to Origin Tree Kings and one Cedar Clan Leader, allowing him to attempt the refinement of the Taixu Pill three times.
He just needed to refine the Taixu Pill to six-revolution high-grade, and then upgrade it using the Spirit, achieving the successful refinement of the Taixu Pill!
To upgrade a six-revolution high-grade pill, it requires the integration of the Spirit of a Void Refinement Realm master into the pill.
The Spirits of the two Tree Kings were sufficient for the grade, but the Spirit of the Cedar Clan Leader, being only the cultivation level of the Void Pierce Stage, was somewhat lacking...
Ning Fan sighed, thinking if he had known that Youhuang could help him refine the Rain Ancestor’s blood, he definitely would have captured and spared the lives of six Void Fragmentation Realm Spirits from the Four Clans’ experts.
Fortunately, with a forty percent success rate of refining six-revolution high-grade pills, three attempts would likely be enough to ensure success even if one attempt had a slightly lower probability.
After three attempts, Ning Fan finally obtained one Taixu Pill!
With the pills ready, Ning Fan started to regulate his Mana, restoring his state to its peak.
In the tenth year of the pagoda, Ning Fan received a transmission from Qingdai’s Sound Lute, "Brother Lu... mission accomplished!"
The implication of Qingdai’s words was quite clear; she successfully repaired two Void Fragmentation Realm puppets!
With a flicker, Ning Fan returned to the outside world and retrieved the Giant Zhi Huo and Purple Lightning puppets from Qingdai.
Subsequently, he stayed beneath the giant bamboo with Youhuang for half a month.
After half a month, he left the Siluo Bamboo Sea, stepping onto the Ancient Golden Sword, and traveled east for ten consecutive days!
He flew across over a hundred cultivation kingdoms, ultimately crossing the national borders, flying to the easternmost region of the Tree World, amidst the Qinghai.
In this place, there is no more land, no more trees, only a vast expanse of azure waves and a sky filled with white clouds.
The long clouds of Qinghai obscure the snow mountains!
This sea area is unsuitable for the cultivation of Tree World masters, so few people came.
Ning Fan flew through the sea region for several days before settling on an icy island that was the most suitable for a desolate sea area.
From now on, this ice island will be his place of True Immortal Tribulation!
"Beneath the giant bamboo, within half a month, I used the First-rank Bamboo Intent from Senior Youhuang to preliminarily refine the Rain Ancestor’s natal blood rain...though it has not been fully refined, once refined, it could increase magic power by a million Jiazi!"
Ning Fan flickered, then entered the Xuan Yin Treasure.
In the Xuan Yin Treasure, he wanted to refine the Rain Ancestor’s natal blood rain and all the heavenly materials and earthly treasures on his body!
The first thing that needs refining is the natal blood rain granted by the Rain Ancestor.
Luo You stepped out in front of the ghostly thatched cottage, and carefully provided protection and advice,
"The bloodline power of the Rain Ancestor is not as strong as the Fu Li2 and the Evil Luo Mountain. Even if you refine a drop of natal blood rain, it may not allow you to fully condense a single drop of divine ancestral blood, I figure it’ll only reach half a drop at most. According to my judgment, even with half a drop of ancestral blood, you might not reach ancestral-level divine blood, but instead a royal blood level."
"Royal blood level... that’s sufficient."
Ning Fan did not underestimate royal blood. Even in the skies above the four heavens, very few possessed divine blood at the royal level, each one being a deity of the royal clan of the various god races.
To progress from having no divine bloodline to possessing one at the royal blood level was already a remarkable achievement.
He focused his mind, outwardly guarding his Spirit, entangled by a sky-blue Third-grade Rain Intent, and began to refine his natal blood rain.
As the natal blood rain was refined strand by strand, Ning Fan’s Mana began to rapidly increase!
9.2 million units of magic power, 9.21 million, 9.22 million...
Once the natal blood rain was completely refined, Ning Fan’s total Mana reached 10.2 million units, 200,000 units beyond the ten million unit bottleneck required for the Void Pierce Stage!
However, with every strand of natal blood rain refined, some sky-blue rain intent transformed into fine needles, piercing into Ning Fan’s heart.
Initially, the pain was bearable.
But as more blood rain was absorbed, more rain intent needles pierced his heart, and Ning Fan started to feel more intense pain.
The pain began to spread, gradually affecting his entire body, ultimately entwining even his Spirit with severe pain!
This level of pain was still insufficient to elicit a groan from Ning Fan.
But by the time the natal blood rain was completely refined, Ning Fan’s face had paled considerably, clearly a sign of the intense heart-wrenching pain.
"What happened?" Luo You noticed Ning Fan’s pale expression, and asked concernedly.
"Nothing..." Nothing, just sudden overwhelming heart-wrenching pain.
But why did this unexpectedly heart-wrenching pain occur...
Ning Fan’s brows furrowed, holding a hint of a kingly divine power suppression like that of a royal god from the heavens above highlighting his majesty.
The pressure from the divine power was heavy, akin to the descent of a royal deity from the celestial realms above!
Strange, very strange, this pain appeared inexplicably...
Ning Fan had refined Fu Li ancestor blood and Moluo ancestral blood, never imagining the strange phenomena of rain essence becoming needles and twisting the heart...
He inspected inside his body, suddenly shocked!
Under the countless piercing needles of rain essence, his flesh was riddled with wounds.
These wounds were not enough to surprise Ning Fan; what shocked him was the transformation happening in his heart!
At this moment, Ning Fan’s heart was no longer blood-colored but had turned sky blue!
That sky blue was the color of rain essence!
Moreover, there were countless bleeding wounds on the heart, all pierced by the rain essence before!
As Ning Fan took healing pills and summoned his Natal Black Star to heal, his injuries quickly healed, and his complexion gradually recovered.
However, on his heart, there always remained a small aperture that refused to mend!
This aperture wouldn’t heal, there could be only one explanation...this extra aperture wasn’t an injury!
Inside the aperture, endless rain essence was contained!
Though the aperture was small, once opened, it sped up Ning Fan’s mana flow by at least half!
Ning Fan hadn’t yet had time to think thoroughly when suddenly an unimaginable tearing pain came from his heart!
He saw that inside the aperture on his heart, the essence of rain suddenly transformed into a violent vortex.
Accompanied by the spinning rain essence, the aperture on the heart began to expand little by little...
"Hiss!"
Even with Ning Fan’s determination, he couldn’t help but gasp from the tearing pain.
After the intense pain, the sky-blue rain essence inside his body suddenly went berserk!
At that moment, countless illusions appeared before Ning Fan’s eyes!
He closed his eyes, and all his conscious mind was pulled into the vortex of rain essence.
Within the world of his mind, Ning Fan, dressed in white, stood in a bamboo city filled with the aroma of wine overshadowing the heavens.
In the bamboo city, fine rain soaked his clothes.
He stood outside a tavern, and inside it sat many wine guests.
Among them, a black-clothed youth was also drinking alone.
The scene before him was so familiar that Ning Fan immediately realized he had seen all these sights in the mirage of Heaven Controlling City’s first level!
This was the mirage of him drinking with the Rain Ancestor!
The black-clothed youth drinking by himself was indeed the Rain Ancestor!
The youth noticed Ning Fan appear, was first startled, then scrutinized Ning Fan with an extremely peculiar gaze.
"You came too early..."
You came early, how could you come when the rain essence hasn’t reached first grade...the youth looked peculiarly at Ning Fan.
"I came too early? What does that mean," Ning Fan was taken aback.
The reason he appeared here again was due to an anomaly while refining his Natal Blood Rain, causing an extra aperture to appear in his heart...
Could it be that all this was arranged by the Rain Ancestor?
"My point is, you really came too early. You should wait until your rain essence reaches the first grade before coming! With your third-grade rain essence, the chances of opening a ’Divine Aperture’ aren’t high...you wouldn’t think I gave you that drop of blood rain just to let you condense King Blood Divine Blood, would you?"
"...The drop of Natal Blood Rain I bestowed upon you harbors hidden mysteries, it took me millions of years to refine a single drop...if you possessed first-grade rain essence, refining this blood rain would give you at least a fifty percent chance of opening the ’First Divine Aperture’!"
"The ancient divine race says, ’A heart of three apertures can transform the heart source. A heart of seven apertures can establish the heart realm.’ If you could open the first divine aperture, your cultivation speed would at least double, your refinement of spiritual treasures and medicinal effects in increasing mana would also double..."
"’If a divine aperture is opened, then one becomes an ancient god.’ What I have bestowed upon you is an excellent opportunity to become an ancient god, and yet you failed to cherish it...with your third-grade rain essence, the chance of opening the first divine aperture barely exceeds twenty percent..."
The black-clothed youth’s words made Ning Fan reveal a bitter smile.
He truly hadn’t known that the Rain Ancestor’s drop of blood rain contained such deep mysteries...
He initially thought to rely on Youhuang’s bamboo intent to cleverly refine the Natal Blood Rain, but now it seemed that was a flawed strategy...
The Natal Blood Rain bestowed by the Rain Ancestor couldn’t help him condense ancestral blood, but it could assist in opening a divine aperture, becoming an ancient god...
Though he still didn’t understand what a divine aperture was, he realized that due to a momentary mistake, his chances of becoming an ancient god had dropped from fifty percent to twenty...
It’s false to say there’s no heartbreak, but Ning Fan didn’t have time to dwell on these matters, he just wanted to find a way to remedy the situation.
In one’s life, it’s impossible to always have smooth sailing.
Instead of lamenting past failures, it’s better to seek tomorrow’s success.
"I truly had no idea that the drop of blood rain bestowed by Senior had such marvelous uses. Could Senior tell me how to open a divine aperture and cultivate as an ancient god? Even if there’s only a twenty percent chance, I am willing to risk everything to open the first divine aperture!"
Ning Fan’s gaze was as calm as water, no longer showing any ripples of emotion.
The opportunity to become an ancient god was a gift from the heavens. However, opportunities cannot be forced.
Whether the chance is twenty percent or fifty percent, there’s an immense probability of failure.
Becoming an ancient god was never a guaranteed success; gaining it is fortune, losing it is fate. If one cannot endure failure, they aren’t qualified for success.
Ning Fan’s intention was merely to fully seize this opportunity.
But if he’s unable to seize this opportunity, he will have to give up this chance to become an ancient god and seek ways to achieve ancient godhood later.
The black-clothed youth slowly stood up, wearing a half-smiling expression as he looked at Ning Fan, and after a long time, he praised,
"Not bad."
What he was praising was Ning Fan’s stable disposition.
Whether or not Ning Fan could become an ancient god today, just his unruffled mindset was enough to earn the youth’s commendation.
The Rain Immortal World could produce such a junior, truly the younger generation was to be feared.
Being born in the same era with Ning Fan, the two might become formidable rivals.
The youth reached out with a large hand and caught the fine rain, turning it into a sky-blue jade scroll that he tossed to Ning Fan.
"In this jade scroll, there is the cultivation technique for opening the first divine aperture as an ancient god. The ancient divine race perceives the Dao with the heart, harmonizes with the sky using methods, the heart is the source of all methods; if the heart dies, the methods perish. The divine aperture opens in the heart, the methods belong to the sky, one aperture can make an ancient god, three-aperture ancient gods can condense heart source, seven-aperture ancient gods can transcend into the sacred... in my lifespan, I haven’t seen any ancient god with seven apertures, and I am merely a six-aperture ancient god..."
Upon mentioning this, the black-clothed youth showed some expression of recollection and continued,
"I have a method that can increase the chances of opening a divine aperture to a perfect ten; would you dare to try it!"
He didn’t ask if Ning Fan was willing to try, only asked if he dared.
Because many are willing to increase their chances of opening an aperture, but few dare to use, or are capable of using this method...
Ning Fan might be able to use this method but not necessarily dare to use it.
The Rain Ancestor wasn’t a being with heaven-defying talents; rather, his talents were as ordinary as his appearance, as subtle and unnoticed as gentle rain nurturing silently.
Yet he relied on sheer perseverance, cultivating into an Immortal Emperor, presiding over the Rain Immortal World, establishing himself as an ancestor!
He once coincidentally merged the powers of gods, beasts, and demons; that opportunity sounds effortless, but the trials and battles within the blood rain were unknown.
Step by step, he ascended to the peak, not relying on talent, only enduring greater pain than peers of heavenly splendor!
His talents were inadequate for successfully opening a divine aperture, incapable of becoming an ancient god, and for a time he was rejected by his clan.
But he stubbornly thought of a ruthless method, enhancing the chances of opening a divine aperture!
This method is called the ’Method of Heart Severance’, requiring the power of beasts and demons to create a heart mirage, binding the divine power.
Within the mirage, sever one’s heart over thousands of epochs, until a heart aperture is severed, then the mirage will end.
Either sever a heart aperture or die from the pain within the mirage.
"You, will you dare to try!"
The black-clothed youth reached out his hand, forming a second jade scroll and tossing it to Ning Fan.
This jade scroll recorded the complete Method of Heart Severance and contained another piece of information.
When the Rain Ancestor was young, within the mirage, he severed his heart for a hundred thousand years, only then severing the first divine aperture!
The Rain Ancestor endured ten thousand years of heart-severing pain to open his first divine aperture, a torment that ordinary people can hardly withstand!
Ning Fan’s spirit sense carefully scanned through the two jade scrolls, pondered for a moment, then nodded and said.
"This method can be tried."
Luo You once cultivated the technique of heart aperture, enduring seven thousand years of heartache. That was not the true ancient god technique for opening a divine aperture.
Little You Er endured the pain, and today he is ready to bear it...(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to vote with recommended tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)