Ning Fan led a solitary life once again in the abode he created beneath the surface of the star he descended upon.
A single year in the outside world was equivalent to 128 years in this void space. Ning Fan had told Lu Qing that he was going to enter the Lost World Tower for one year. That is to say, he would stay up to 128 years after his intrusion to the seventh floor.
No one was able to bring other people to the Lost World Tower. Thus, he would be able to have a peace of mind as there wouldn’t be any external noises to disturb him.
I have 5884 units of magic power, 71440 units of demon power and 83470 traces of devil qi. My magic power is the weakest of them all. I must improve it to catch up with my other powers.
Ning Fan patted his storage pouch and took out a great number of Profound Primordial Pills.
The Profound Primordial Pill was a Peak Grade Fourth Revolution pill which was refined to aid in raising one’s magic power. These pills were excellent for Peak Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. Each of these pills was able to increase their magic power by 1 unit when consumed.
Ning Fan had gathered a total of 1290 pellets of Profound Primordial Pills.
Since the value of a single Profound Primordial Pill was around one hundred thousand immortal jade, 1290 pellets would cost over one hundred million immortal jade. However, these pills which had such a sizable value in total all disappeared into his gut within ten days.
After assimilating all the pills, his magic power grew to 6940 units.
Mm… It’s 234 units less than what I had expected.
Well, it certainly was because the greater the number of pills one consumed, the weaker the effect of these pills.
Even so, it did not matter much to Ning Fan. During his trip in the Star Sea, he had plundered countless spiritual medicines and ingredients. Besides, he had also taken away some resources from Bei Xiaoman’s possessions. With the amount of ingredients he had on hand which were mostly one thousand years old and above, it was more than enough for him to concoct a few more thousands of pellets of Profound Primordial Pill.
Within his abode, he extended his fingers and clawed at the air. His body then glowed in green. A massive rain cauldron then materialized in front of him. It was a cauldron formed using his divine intent of rain.
His pill refinement techniques were already at the Mid Grade Fifth Revolution. The flames that he conjured were the combination of nine types of Heavenly Cold Qi and Earth Flames.
Every time he opened the lid of his cauldron, it would only take him three days to finish concocting a batch of Profound Primordial Pills and each batch contained ten pellets!
One has to know that these pellets were Peak Grade Fourth Revolution pills. Even a Low Grade Fifth Revolution Pill Master wouldn’t dare to guarantee one hundred percent success every time they concoct these pills. Moreover, they could at most concoct one pellet at a time.
Ning Fan was equipped with excellent knowledge in the Dao of Alchemy, impressive spirit sense and outstanding ability in controlling flames. Even his luck was purple, the strongest color one could ever have.
Combining his capabilities and his luck, he would really need to knock himself to death using tofu if he still fails in concocting Profound Primordial Pills.
In the first month, he managed to produce one hundred pellets. After a year, he had concocted one thousand and two hundred pellets. As time flew by, he was able to produce thirteen to fourteen pills at a time.
Six years later, he finished concocting 8000 pellets of Profound Primordial Pill and decided not to concoct this type of pill anymore.
With such a large number of pills, it would be enough to nurture a Divine Transformation Realm cultivator in the short term.
Even a Peak Grade Fourth Revolution Pill Master would never have enough wealth and resources to refine 8000 pills of such grade.
Besides, even if one has enough wealth and resources, an ordinary Fourth Revolution Pill Master would only be able to concoct one pellet in half a month and it was not even guaranteed whether the pellets would be complete or defective. As such, it would take them at least 300 years to produce 8000 pellets of Profound Primordial Pill without rest.
Six years of his hard work was equivalent to three hundred years of cultivation for ordinary pill masters. Even so, Ning Fan realized that his pill refinement techniques had improved but the improvement was not that obvious.
His Mid Grade Fifth Revolution medicine soul was already dark green in the first place. Currently, however, the dark color grew even more concentrated at nearly one percent of his medicine soul.
If the rest of his medicine soul glows black, his pill refinement techniques could then break through to the High Grade Fifth Revolution.
Let’s set aside the matter about his pill refinement techniques for the moment. After producing the 8000 pellets of Profound Primordial Pill, Ning Fan had no choice but continue his life of chewing ‘beans’. That kind of life lasted for four months.
Doubtlessly, Ning Fan’s resistance towards Profound Primordial Pills grew stronger and stronger.
At first, he was still able to raise 650 units of magic power after consuming one thousand pellets of the pills.
Then, he was only able to increase 520 units of magic power after consuming the next one thousand pellets.
The following one thousand pellets only managed to increase his magic power by 450 units of magic power.
420 units, 330 units, 290 units, 240 units.
The final one thousand pellets of Profound Primordial Pill could only improve his magic power by 50 units because his resistance to the Profound Primordial Pills became so strong that they hardly have any effect on him anymore!
Ning Fan smiled helplessly. Apparently, he was the first individual in the Rain World to consume Profound Primordial Pills to the point where they no longer had any effect.
The eight thousand pellets of Profound Primordial Pills gave him an extra 2950 units of magic power.
Currently, the total amount of magic power he had was 9890.
After spending four months munching on pills, his magic power had also become illusory. He did not consume any more pills but took out countless types of spiritual flames to devour and assimilate.
A minority of these spiritual flames were presents from cultivators of the External Endless Sea while most of them were looted from Revered Flame.
There were nearly one thousand types of Third Grade spiritual flames, two hundred types of Fourth Grade spiritual flames and three types of Earth Vein Demonic Flames.
The three types of Earth Vein Demonic Flames were the Poison Decaying Flame which ranked last among the twelve, the Profound Thunder Flame which ranked ninth and the Seven Rainbows Flame which ranked fourth.
Ning Fan’s eyes burned with zeal as he stared at the groups of flames which were floating in front of him.
If he devours the flames, not only would the power of his fire techniques and the speed of his pill refinement improve, but the soul power of the Stele of Sun and Moon would also be replenished during the process of assimilating the flames!
“Devour!”
Black flames coiled around his body as he opened his mouth wide and inhaled deeply. Then, each group of the flames floating in midair were absorbed into his abdomen.
These spiritual flames were nearly all the reserves of the cultivators in the External Endless Sea.
It took Ning Fan nine months to completely assimilate all of the flames. Nine months later, his magic power managed to achieve a breakthrough in the bottleneck of the Divine Transformation Realm with the aid of the flames he devoured and reached 14200 units!
Within his dantian, his demon soul gradually took the form of a primordial spirit. His primordial spirit which was the size of his palm shared the same look as him. His miniature face was filled with delight and satisfaction.
Finally, his magic power had attained the Divine Transformation Realm!
At the moment he achieved his breakthrough, silver flames fell from the void space. They were obviously the Heavenly Tribulation that one would have to face after attaining the Divine Transformation Realm – the Fire Tribulation.
Ning Fan heaved a disappointed sigh.
It seems like there won’t be any of the blood lightning from the Heavenly Tribulation to temper my lightning whip anymore. But it’s not bad as this Fire Tribulation can be used to replenish the power of the Stele of Sun and Moon.
Without uttering any words, he opened his mouth and took a deep breath, drawing in all of the silver flames from above. They were immediately devoured by the Stele of Sun and Moon in his locket whereas Ning Fan remained unscathed.
After exhaling a mouthful of foul breath, he suddenly rose to his feet. His aura grew even more vigorous than before. As it spread towards all directions, his abode collapsed.
Black flames burned and circled around his body. They gave out an immense sense of danger. Now, they were a combination of five types of Heavenly Cold Qi and seven types of Earth Vein Demonic Flames.
Even though Ning Fan had yet to gather all twelve types of Heavenly Cold Qi and twelve types of Earth Vein Demonic Flames, the number of cold qi and earth flames he had obtained reached twelve.
Currently, curls of black flames danced across his palm. Even Ning Fan felt danger while dealing with the flames. The black flames were now at least comparable to Seventh Immortal Void Flames. Only Void Fragmentation Realm experts were capable of controlling that kind of flames!
Due to the limitation of Ning Fan’s current cultivation base, he was unable to unleash the full power of the flames. However, with the current power of the flames, he could make an old monster of the Void Glimpse Stage back off from fighting him if he activates them.
Evidently, the flames would become his fourth greatest trump card other than his Black Tempest Rupture Art, Wind Mist Finger and Wind Snow Technique!
It would be able to instantly eliminate a Peak Divine Transformation Realm cultivator, grievously injure a Half-Step Void Refinement Realm and leave a minor wound on a genuine Void Refinement Realm expert!
Besides, nearly one third of the soul of the Stele of Sun and Moon in the Profound Yin World was replenished after Ning Fan devoured all the spiritual flames that he had.
*Huff*
Ning Fan gently exhaled a mouthful of foul breath and withdrew the flames surrounding his body. Now, the three different types of power: the magic power, the demon power and the devil qi he possessed had all attained the Divine Transformation Realm. His strength improved greatly. However, his qi had become hollow and illusory.
It happened due to his excessive consumption of pills. In order to condense his qi and make it more solid, he had to use up his power.
Then, an idea struck him. He wanted to refine pills. This time, however, he would concoct Fifth Revolution pills.
Fifth Revolution pills were extremely different from the Fourth Revolution pills. The difficulty in refining these pills would be greater but their effect would, of course, be more significant.
With Ning Fan’s current pill refinement techniques and his black flames, he would need at least half a month to concoct a Low Grade Fifth Revolution pill.
As for Mid Grade Fifth Revolution pills, it would take him at least three months and it was still hard to say whether or not the pills he concocts would be defective.
For ten years, Ning Fan had been refining a type of Low Grade Fifth Revolution pill called Spirit Solidifying Pill.
Just as its name implied, the pill’s effect was to strengthen one’s primordial spirit. The main spiritual ingredients were the Heart Nourishing Grass, the Spirit Soothing Leaf and the Perfectly Warm Zoysia which was specialized in nourishing one’s primordial spirit.
Ning Fan had obtained a great deal of these spiritual medicines from the Lost World Palace. Compared to having Yu Long gather the ingredients for him, acquiring them from the Lost World Palace directly was much faster.
Within ten years, he managed to produce 225 pellets of Spirit Solidifying Pills. His success rate was ninety percent every time he concocted the pills.
Aside from concocting pills, he also fused the golden blood of the demon marshal into eighteen pills.
The eighteen drops of golden blood contained 3600 units of demon power. After fusing them into the pills, its effect changed. Instead of improving one’s demon power, it could now raise one’s magic power.
Ten years of pill refinement made Ning Fan’s magic power more solid than before.
Out of the 225 pellets, he only consumed those with the demon marshal’s blood and left the remaining 207 pellets for Luo You to stabilize her primordial spirit.
Originally, the eighteen drops of golden blood were only enough to raise 3600 units of magic power.
However, after they were fused into the pills, the power within the blood was assimilated even more thoroughly. When Ning Fan consumed the eighteen pellets, he gained 5000 units of magic power in total.
Now, his magic power was at 19060 units!
As his magic power increased and his primordial spirit stabilized, his qi became deep and heavy. He then immediately began to refine the Thunder Profound Pill, a Mid Grade Fifth Revolution pill!
To Divine Transformation Realm experts, this type of pill was expensive. A pellet would cost five million immortal jade!
An Early Divine Transformation Realm cultivator would gain one hundred units of magic power by consuming a single pellet.
To ordinary cultivators, this pill was certainly too costly for consumption. Pill refinement masters, however, could save a huge amount of money since they could gather the spiritual ingredients and concoct the pills themselves. To them, the cost of a single Thunder Profound Pill would be around a million immortal jade.
As for Ning Fan, the cost of concocting this type of pill was much lower since he plundered and took all of his spiritual ingredients from others. Well, who had seen him shopping around markets for medicines and spiritual ingredients in earnest before?
To him, Immortal jade was just a tool for cultivation used in establishing formations and increasing the power of his Inlaid Star Compass.
He rarely spent his money on buying things. At least, he did not need to be cautious of anything in lawless places like the Endless Sea and the Luo Yun Tribe. Since he had formidable strength which almost everyone was dreadful of, he could just reach out his hand and grab whatever he wanted.
Every time Ning Fan opened his cauldron to refine the Thunder Profound Pill, the process would last for three months and he could only produce a single pellet each time.
For the first five years, he only managed to produce 5 pellets of Thunder Profound Pills. His success rate wasn’t even thirty percent.
In the following five years, he managed to refine 8 pellets and his rate of success increased to nearly forty percent.
In the next ten years, he concocted 21 pellets and already had a success rate of more than fifty percent.
When another twenty years passed, he produced a total of 62 pellets of Thunder Profound Pills and his rate of success was almost eighty percent every time!
Forty years flew by so fast that he felt like it was just a single day. The continuous pill refinement process used up all of his ingredients for refining Thunder Profound Pills.
Now, the color of black had nearly spread to half of his medicine soul.
In forty years, he produced 96 pellets of Thunder Profound Pills and the improvement in his pill refinement techniques brought by this was massive. The air of being a grandmaster in the Dao of Alchemy grew stronger in him.
Out of all Mid Grade Fifth Revolution Pill Masters in the Rain World, there were not more than three individuals who could have nearly eighty percent success rate in concocting that pill and Ning Fan was one of them!
It took him five months to completely assimilate all 96 pellets of Thunder Profound Pills.
Five months later, his magic power had been raised to 28320 units which was 340 units lesser than what he expected. Without a doubt, it was due to his resistance to the effect of the pills.
His magic power turned illusory once more. He then spent another ten years concocting quite a number of healing pills. Only then could he stabilize his magic power.
To summarize, it had been 67 years and 6 months since the day he entered the Lost World Tower.
More than half of the 128 years had passed. Next, Ning Fan placed his focus on his Sea of Consciousness, spirit sense and sword intent.
He took out all seventeen pellets of Intent Separation Pills and ingested them one after another. Each of these pills was enough to drive a Divine Transformation Realm sword cultivator crazy back in Ying State Immortal Island. However, all of them ended up in Ning Fan’s belly in the end.
As his body was assimilating the pills, he was also digesting the four thousand and seven hundred traces of Nascent Soul Realm sword qi which were stored in his Sea of Consciousness.
His sword intent gradually stabilized.
Then, it achieved the level of Small Accomplishment.
Eventually, it achieved the level of Large Accomplishment!
Three years later, the sword intent that Ning Fan could muster was at least a few times stronger than before!
After he took in the power of the remnant piece of the Immortal Entrapping Sword, his sword sense became even more solid. The strength of his current sword sense was nearly comparable to Revered Flame’s fire sense.
With that, he could instantly eliminate anyone below the Divine Transformation Realm and inflict lethal damage on cultivators of the Early Divine Transformation Realm!
If he uses his sword sense, his enemies would certainly shed blood like water!
However, sword sense was just a means to get rid of insignificant enemies. If he only depends on his sword techniques to fight a Half Step Void Refinement Realm expert, he would not have a high chance of coming on top.
The secret sword art of the Sword Emperor was getting less and less useful because the grades of these sword techniques were too low.
After thinking about it for a while, he found out that the different sets of Divine Transformation Realm sword techniques in his storage pouch were not worth looking at.
As he continued to think about sword techniques, his eyes suddenly lit up.
He recalled the Eastern Profound Sword Formation of Ying State Immortal Island!
Since he possessed the Art of Heart Formation, why can’t he fight his enemies with sword formations?
The Eastern Profound Sword Formation was a Peak Divine Transformation Realm sword formation. However, after Ning Fan made some alterations to it, it now had more than 5000 formation eyes. With that many formation eyes, it was already a Mortal Void Realm sword formation.
The reason why he made such changes on the sword formation was because he wanted to establish a formation using his Art of Heart Formation to fight his enemies if necessary.
With the He Luo Heart Formation, he could set up a grand formation by just willing it to kill his enemies!
If he could learn the Eastern Profound Sword Formation and integrate it into that technique, he would undoubtedly have another means to resist against a Half Step Void Refinement Realm expert.
The Art of Heart Formation was affected by lots of factors such as one’s cultivation base, spirit sense and their level in the Dao of Formations. However, depending on the profoundness of his sword intent, he would still be able to condense a sword formation. As for the other formations he could condense, they were much weaker than his sword formations.
“Condense!”
Ning Fan then began his dull and monotonous cultivation by condensing every single sword qi with his Heart Formation.
Since the modified Eastern Profound Sword Formation now had 5000 formation eyes, he would need to condense a total of 5000 traces of natal sword qi.
As he was condensing sword qi throughout the years, he was also comprehending formations at the same time, greatly improving his cultivation level in the Dao of Formations. Additionally, his understanding of the Dao of Formations of the He Luo Style became much deeper.
Ten years later, he was filled with sword qi. When he walked out of his abode and pointed at a star which had a radius of ten thousand li* (500m per li) in the distance, sharp sword mountains erupted from its surface in every direction. There were a total of 5000 sword mountains.
Moreover, each of the sword mountains contained a sword qi which was comparable to a Peak Nascent Soul Realm attack.
When the sword qi formed into a formation, a massive sword diagram spread open like a scroll painting in the void space, drawing the entire star within it. At the next moment, a dazzling silver sword light glowed within the sword diagram. It grew brighter and brighter as if the sun had exploded, engulfing the star in its entirety.
*Rumble*
After the sword formation was activated, rays of sword light pierced through it and destroyed the huge star within a few seconds. The impact of the explosion formed into a wind that blew into the void space.
If this sword formation were to be activated, even a Half Step Void Refinement Realm would be in grave danger if he is trapped within it.
Ning Fan nodded his head in satisfaction. As such, he had another method to fight off his enemies.
There were still 50 years left before he had to leave this place. Ning Fan decided to temper his Immemorial Divine Weapon.
The Separation Slayer Sword was carved with the ‘Sharpness’ Spirit Seal. The word ‘sharpness’ consisted of 312 strokes. With Ning Fan’s current magic power, he could carve 600 words on the sword. Within just a year, he finished carving one hundred and eighty thousand ‘Sharpness’ Spirit Seals on his sword!
His Separation Slayer Sword was now a Peak Grade Spirit Treasure! Let’s not forget that it was also reinforced with a Mortal Void Realm divine ability – Soul Ignition.
As for his Spirit Crushing Whip, he carved the ‘Thunder’ Spirit Seal on it. Another year passed and the whip also had the quality of a Peak Grade Spirit Treasure. It was added with two types of Mortal Void Realm divine abilities which were Power Drain and Thunder Spirit respectively.
Since the Inlaid Star Compass was not like the Separation Slayer Sword and the Spirit Crushing Whip, Ning Fan did not carve any Spirit Seals on it.
Suddenly, he had another idea. He took out a handful of blood-red sand. It was none other than the Immemorial Divine Weapon he stole from Revered Flame – Blood Star Sand.
This star sand was already a Peak Grade Spirit Treasure. After Ning Fan carved one hundred and eighty thousand ‘Suppression’ Spirit Seals on it, it was already on par with a Half Step Void Treasure.
It was such a pity that this pile of star sand which Revered Flame had painstakingly cultivated for countless years had become Ning Fan’s fourth Immemorial Divine Weapon.
After spending three years tempering three different divine weapons, Ning Fan did not spend any more time on magical treasures.
Instead, he held two jade slips in his hands. They held records of two different types of magic techniques.
The first one was the Five Graves of Dragon Burial. It was a technique that he obtained after he killed the city lord of the Dragon Burial City during his trip in the Star Sea. The strongest part of this technique was its ability to seal off one’s primordial spirit or demon soul and inflict damage on one’s incarnation.
The second one was the Samadhi Fire Palm. It was a Mortal Void Realm technique that the Rain Palace gave to Revered Flame. Needless to say, it was certainly powerful. If it wasn’t for his Yin Yang Locket which naturally restrained flames, Ning Fan wouldn’t have been able to withstand that technique with ease.
Other than those, he recalled thousands of sets of cultivation methods and magical techniques in his mind. All of them belonged to the women whom he had plucked before.
He sat on the Star Compass, travelling across the void space with the Eastern Ocean Bell hung over his neck while studying and learning different kinds of magic techniques and cultivation methods. Thirty years passed with him doing that every single day.
There were now seventeen years left before he had to leave the Lost World Tower.
In the first seven years, Ning Fan ground a few types of spiritual medicines into powder and turned them into medicinal liquid to wash his left eye. He tried to enhance the ability of his Fu Li Eye in seeing through illusions.
Thus, there were now only ten more years left before he departs from the tower.
In this year, Ning Fan suddenly raised his head. The Fu Li Eye within his left eye radiated with a bright purple light. It seemed like it had broken through a small bottleneck.
His vision improved. Then, when he opened his eyes and looked upwards, his expression changed.
After seven years of washing his Fu Li Eye, it had indeed improved a lot. This time, he could really see that the eight floor did exist in the Lost World Tower!
“The Lost World Tower on Peng Lai Immortal Island only has seven floors in the first place. How could it have an eighth floor? What exactly is inside the eighth floor…?”
Ning Fan stepped on the Star Compass and the entire piece of silver land moved upwards to the peak of the void space at an incredible speed. It only stopped when he crashed into a spatial barrier.
Ning Fan placed his palm on the spatial barrier. He did not immediately tore a hole in it but activated his Fu Li Eye to its maximum power to see through the barrier and find out what thing was inside the eighth floor.
With the power of his keen vision, he faintly saw a dim attic above the spatial barrier.
It was not especially vast as it was only tens of thousands zhang* (3.33m per zhang) wide. Inside the attic stood hundreds of ancient statues. All of them were lined up around seven stone platforms like a myriad of stars surrounding the moon. They seemed to be protecting the platforms. There was a piece of golden crystal placed above each of the platforms.
The crystals gave out strange, mysterious power, as if they possessed the power to manipulate time.
Ning Fan took a deep breath. He finally realized what things were being kept on the eighth floor…
The eighth floor was not designed for cultivators to practice but a place to keep the crystals.
The seven crystals were the ones which altered the flow of time within the seven floors of the Lost World Tower!
“What exactly are those crystals?!”
Ning Fan’s eyes burned with interest. He had no idea what those crystals were but he could tell that those crystals were very likely to be extremely precious.
“Should I steal a single piece and check it out?”
This idea immediately rose within his mind.
Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel.
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