"Bubble, bubble..."
Scarlet flames rose beneath the great cauldron, which billowed with steam. Its emerald-green broth boiled ceaselessly, and even through the cauldron's walls, the tremendous vitality within was palpable.
Yet the cauldron kept all that vitality firmly sealed inside, letting none of it escape.
"Damn, gravestones made of nethershade wood sure are heavy..." Yi You dragged a bundle of broken gravestones slowly toward the cauldron.
Then he dumped the entire bundle into the fire.
The flames beneath the cauldron cooking the soul vine instantly surged. Searing waves of heat rolled outward, and the temperature inside shot up.
The vitality contained in the bubbling green broth grew even more terrifying.
Soul vine was a supreme natural treasure for the soul. Strengthening the soul's core was merely its most basic—and least remarkable—effect.
Oh, and the vitality it accumulated over decades could also bring back the dead and regrow flesh on bare bones.
But even that was its least, least, least remarkable effect.
The effect that had made Yi You and Liu Yue willing to pay a steep price to obtain it...
Was its ability to open a Divine Aperture before a martial artist reached the Divine Ability Realm, granting them a heavenly blessing and a chance to nurture an Innate Divine Ability.
That was the real reason everyone pursued soul vine so fanatically.
The third realm of martial cultivation—the Divine Ability Realm.
Experts of the Divine Ability Realm first had to cultivate as Gang Realm martial artists, refining blood into gang energy, qi into gang energy, and finally, the soul into gang energy.
To break through to the Divine Ability Realm, a Gang Realm martial artist had to nurture a divine ability seed within each strand of Astral Qi.
Once they reached the pinnacle of the Gang Realm, the martial artist's three strands of Astral Qi merged, transforming those seeds into divine abilities and marking a successful breakthrough into the Divine Ability Realm.
The three divine abilities refined into the martial artist's three strands of Astral Qi became their life-bound divine abilities, their most powerful techniques.
They would grow stronger as the martial artist's strength and cultivation advanced, and no other divine abilities could replace them.
Simply put, after reaching the Divine Ability Realm, a martial artist owed most of their strength to the life-bound divine abilities formed when they entered that realm.
And soul vine?
By opening a Divine Aperture within the soul, it allowed a martial artist to nurture an Innate Divine Ability.
An Innate Divine Ability was fundamentally superior even to a life-bound divine ability. If fortune smiled upon someone and their Divine Aperture nurtured one...
Well, they would be invincible in the Divine Ability Realm from then on.
For a Divine Ability Realm martial artist with an Innate Divine Ability, killing ordinary martial artists of the same realm was as easy as slaughtering chickens or dogs.
If prodigies like Yi You and Liu Yue opened Divine Apertures and nurtured innate divine abilities, they would be even more terrifying.
Even against those monstrous first-tier Federation prodigies who had once stood above them...
Both were confident they could crush every last one with absolute strength. That was the power of an Innate Divine Ability.
Of course, Su Bo knew little about the Federation or its first- and second-tier geniuses. After all, he was not a Federation martial artist.
Besides, from his perspective, Yi You and Liu Yue seemed a little weak.
He felt that he would most likely be able to kill both of them on the spot with the strength of the fifth refinement, without even breaking through the internal organ barrier.
Provided neither had any lifesaving measures bestowed by their elders.
"Crunch..." Su Bo ate his Dragon Marrow Fruit, his blood energy surging with thunderous rumbles as more and more of it condensed within his body.
It then flowed into his great blood-energy dragon, slowly tempering his skin, flesh, sinews, and bones.
As his blood energy strengthened, his fourth refinement swiftly reached its limit. Su Bo began the fifth refinement of his sinews and bones, and the great blood-energy dragon roared as it plunged deep into them.
It scoured his tendons and marrow with savage, brutal force.
Yi You returned with another bundle of nethershade wood fragments, cursing under his breath. Nethershade wood had lain in the Soul-Spirit Burial Grounds for so long...
And absorbed so much yin energy from the graves that it had become far heavier than metal.
A fist-sized piece weighed at least several hundred jin. The bundle he had dragged back must have weighed eight to ten thousand jin.
Yi You glanced at Liu Yue, who was practicing against a Withered-Bone Demon Corpse, and curled his lip.
Must be nice to arrive a step late. Just drop off your stuff, find an excuse about training, and run off to slack.
No, I need someone to help me too, Yi You muttered inwardly.
The soul vine needed to cook for at least seven or eight hours. If he had to haul all the nethershade wood himself, wouldn't he collapse from exhaustion?
With that thought, he looked toward the person with the most, most, most free time.
"Su..." Yi You had just started to speak when a powerful aura surged from Su Bo.
The terrifying blood energy instantly silenced him. Shock and horror filled his eyes as he stared at Su Bo, who was in the midst of a breakthrough.
In just an instant, Su Bo's aura subsided.
His breakthrough was complete!
Just like that, he had reached the fifth bodily refinement.
"Wait, you're about to break through?"
"No, no, you just fucking broke through like that?"
Yi You felt as though everything he knew about martial cultivation was about to shatter.
Cultivation in the Body Realm involved three barriers and nine refinements. While it was true that only breaking through a barrier demanded particular care, lest failure damage one's foundation...
Every refinement was still important!
Before entering the Trial Star, he himself had only reached the fifth bodily refinement.
Every time he broke through here, he had his dozen or so friends stand guard, taking every precaution for fear of being disturbed.
Granted, an interruption would only cause a blood-energy backlash, and the injuries would not be particularly severe.
But recovering from that backlash would take at least ten days or more, delaying his cultivation. That was absolutely unacceptable in the trial grounds.
Yet what he was seeing now...
Was Su Bo taking bite after bite of the Dragon Marrow Fruit Liu Yue had given him, his blood energy roaring like thunder.
An endless stream of blood energy tempered his flesh, sinews, and bones, and in a single instant, he had reached the fifth refinement of his sinews and bones.
His terrifying aura grew even more frightening.
Before, Yi You had only vaguely sensed a subtle danger from Su Bo.
But Su Bo now...
Was dangerous. Terrifying. He even gave Yi You a faint sense of death closing in.
He can kill me? The thought flashed through Yi You's mind.
"Is it that hard?" Su Bo continued eating the Dragon Marrow Fruit. His immense blood energy strengthened his great blood-energy dragon further, making him even more terrifyingly powerful.
The feeling of growing stronger was truly addictive.
Assessing his physique and his Baxia Coiling Dragon Stance, which had developed a special trait upon reaching perfection, Su Bo felt he could keep advancing by leaps and bounds.
He immediately took out a second Dragon Marrow Fruit and started eating. He had to reach the sixth refinement today.
In a couple of days, he would break through the internal organ barrier and push for the seventh refinement...
At the seventh refinement, he should have no trouble running rampant across the Trial Star.
"Isn't it hard?" Yi You asked blankly.
How long had it taken him to advance from the fourth refinement to the fifth?
Nearby, Liu Yue, who was practicing against a Withered-Bone Demon Corpse, also froze briefly. His movements faltered, exposing a small opening.
The Withered-Bone Demon Corpse nearly clawed him.
Fortunately, he dodged just as its bony claws came down.
The fourth refinement... the fifth refinement...
Since when had cultivation become so easy?
Wasn't the Ancient Human Race supposed to have poor talent for martial cultivation? The thought surfaced once more in both Yi You's and Liu Yue's minds.
At the same time, they began to wonder whether their elders had been fooling them all along.
Maybe the Ancient Human Race actually has exceptional martial talent, and they were just afraid we'd lose our drive to catch up if we knew.
So they hid the truth?
Thinking about it carefully, quite a few of the Federation's important figures were indeed powerful members of the Ancient Human Race.
That explanation... seemed perfectly reasonable!
While their thoughts ran wild, Su Bo's aura surged once more. His fifth bodily refinement, which he had only just achieved...
Leaped straight to the sixth bodily refinement before their very eyes!
Fuck, you old bastards really were lying to me! The two cursed inwardly almost in unison.
Before you continue