Rise, Rise, Great Rise

"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle..."

Crimson flames soared as rolling heat steamed from the great cauldron. The emerald-green broth boiled without end, and even from outside the cauldron, one could sense the vast vitality within.

Yet all that vitality was tightly sealed inside the cauldron, without the slightest leak.

"Damn it, tombstones made from Nethershade Wood really are heavy..." Yi You dragged a bundle of broken tombstones over to the cauldron, moving at a snail's pace.

Then, in one go, he tossed every shattered tombstone into the fire.

The flames beneath the cauldron brewing the Soul Vine instantly surged, blazing waves of heat rolling forth as the temperature within the cauldron abruptly shot up.

The bubbling emerald broth contained an increasingly terrifying amount of vitality.

The Soul Vine was a supreme heavenly treasure of the soul type. Strengthening the foundation of one's soul was merely its most basic and least noteworthy effect.

Oh, and the vitality it had nurtured over several decades could also revive the dead and regrow flesh from bones.

But those were still its most, most, most insignificant effects.

Its true effect—the one Yi You and Liu Yue were willing to pay a huge price to obtain—

Was that it could allow a martial artist to open a divine aperture before reaching the Divine Ability Realm. With heaven's blessing, there was a chance to nurture an innate divine ability.

That was the real reason everyone desperately coveted the Soul Vine.

The third realm of martial cultivation—the Divine Ability Realm.

Powerhouses of the Divine Ability Realm first cultivated blood into qi, qi into qi force, and finally soul into qi force, all while still in the Qi Force Realm.

For a Qi Force Realm martial artist to break through into the Divine Ability Realm, they had to nurture a divine ability seed within each strand of qi force.

Once one reached the pinnacle of the Qi Force Realm, their three forms of qi force would merge as one, transforming the divine ability seeds into divine abilities. Only then would they successfully break through to the Divine Ability Realm.

These three divine abilities, refined into a martial artist's three forms of qi force, were their natal divine abilities—and also their strongest divine ability techniques.

They would grow stronger as the martial artist's cultivation realm continued to advance and could not be replaced by any other divine ability technique.

Simply put, for martial artists beyond the Divine Ability Realm, more than half their strength lay in the natal divine abilities they had developed upon entering that realm.

And what about the Soul Vine?

By opening a divine aperture within the soul, it allowed a martial artist to nurture an innate divine ability.

Innate divine abilities inherently stood above even natal divine abilities. Once fortune smiled upon you and a divine aperture nurtured an innate divine ability—

Tsk. From then on, you would be invincible in the Divine Ability Realm.

A Divine Ability Realm martial artist with an innate divine ability could slaughter ordinary Divine Ability Realm martial artists as easily as killing chickens and dogs.

If geniuses like Yi You and Liu Yue opened divine apertures and nurtured innate divine abilities, that would be even more terrifying.

Even those monstrous geniuses from the Federation's first tier, who had once pressed down upon them—

The two of them were confident they could crush every last one of them with absolute strength. That was the power of innate divine abilities.

Of course, Su Bo did not really understand anything about the Federation's first-tier or second-tier geniuses, since he was not a Federation martial artist.

Besides, Yi You and Liu Yue's strength seemed a little weak to him.

Without even breaking through the viscera barrier, Su Bo felt that his current fifth refinement strength would most likely be enough to suppress and kill the two of them on the spot.

That was assuming they did not have life-saving means bestowed by their elders.

"Crunch..." Su Bo ate a Dragon Marrow Fruit, his blood and qi surging through his body like thunder as streams of blood and qi continuously condensed within him.

They then flowed into the Blood-Qi Dragon, slowly tempering his flesh, muscles, and bones.

As his blood and qi strengthened, the fourth refinement swiftly reached its peak. Su Bo began the fifth refinement of muscles and bones, the Blood-Qi Dragon roaring as it plunged deep into his muscles and bones.

It violently and brutally scoured his sinews, marrow, and bones.

Yi You returned while cursing under his breath, dragging another bundle of Nethershade Wood fragments. Nethershade Wood had settled in a place like the Soul-Spirit Burial Grounds—

Having absorbed too much yin energy from graves and burial mounds, it had long become more terrifyingly heavy than gold or iron.

A fist-sized piece of Nethershade Wood weighed at least several hundred jin. The bundle he had dragged back had to weigh eight or ten thousand jin.

Yi You glanced at Liu Yue, who was using the Withered-Bone Demon Corpse for practice, and curled his lip.

Being late really was nice. Toss down the stuff, find an excuse to train, then run off to slack around.

No, I need to find someone to help too, Yi You muttered inwardly.

Brewing the Soul Vine would take at least seven or eight hours. If he had to carry all the Nethershade Wood himself, wouldn't it exhaust him to the point of collapse?

With that thought, he turned to look at the most, most, most idle person there.

"Su—" Yi You had barely begun to speak when a surging aura rose from Su Bo's body.

The terrifying power of his blood and qi instantly made Yi You shut up. His eyes widened in shock, his horrified gaze fixed on Su Bo, who was breaking through.

In just that instant, Su Bo's aura withdrew.

The breakthrough was complete!

He had directly reached the fifth physical refinement.

"Wait, you were about to break through?"

"No, no, you fucking broke through just like that?"

Yi You felt as though all the common knowledge of martial cultivation he had learned was about to completely shatter.

Physical Realm cultivation had three barriers and nine refinements. Though one only needed to be especially careful when breaking through a barrier, lest failure damage one's foundation—

Every refinement was important too, all right?

Like him: before entering Trial Star, he had only been at the fifth physical refinement.

Every breakthrough he made here had been guarded by more than a dozen friends. He had been cautious and vigilant, afraid of being disturbed.

Though being interrupted would only result in blood and qi backlash, and the injury would not be too severe—

Recovering from blood and qi backlash would still take at least ten days or so. That would delay his cultivation progress, something that absolutely could not happen in a trial ground.

But what he was seeing now...

Su Bo was eating the Dragon Marrow Fruits Liu Yue had given him one bite at a time, while his blood and qi roared through his body like thunder.

The inexhaustible blood and qi tempered his body, muscles, and bones. In just an instant, he had stepped into the fifth refinement of muscles and bones.

His terrifying aura grew ever more alarming and frightening.

Before, Yi You had only vaguely felt that Su Bo gave him an oddly subtle sense of danger.

But Su Bo now...

Was dangerous. Terrifying. At the same time, he vaguely gave Yi You a sense of death closing in.

He can kill me? The thought flashed through Yi You's mind.

"Is it that hard?" Su Bo ate a Dragon Marrow Fruit. The immense blood and qi made the Blood-Qi Dragon grow several times stronger, and his strength became increasingly formidable.

The sensation of rapidly growing stronger was truly addictive.

Assessing his physique and the Baxia Coiling Dragon Stance, whose derived traits had fully developed, Su Bo felt that he could continue advancing by leaps and bounds.

He immediately took out a second Dragon Marrow Fruit and began eating it. Today, he had to raise his strength to the sixth refinement.

In a couple of days, he would directly break through the viscera barrier and charge toward the seventh refinement...

At the seventh refinement, he should have no trouble rampaging across Trial Star.

"Is it not hard?" Yi You asked blankly.

How long had it taken him to break through from the fourth refinement to the fifth?

On the other side, Liu Yue, who had been using the Withered-Bone Demon Corpse for practice, also paused. His movements hesitated slightly, exposing a small opening.

He nearly got scratched by the Withered-Bone Demon Corpse.

Fortunately, he dodged in an instant just as the demon corpse's bony claw came down.

Fourth refinement... fifth refinement...

When had cultivation become so easy?

Wasn't it said that the Ancient Human Race had relatively poor talent for martial cultivation? The thought surfaced once more in the hearts of Yi You and Liu Yue.

At the same time, they began wondering whether their elders had been fooling them all along.

Perhaps the Ancient Human Race actually possessed exceptionally strong martial talent. Their elders had merely feared that, if they knew, they would lose the drive to strive desperately in martial cultivation.

So they had concealed the truth?

Thinking it over carefully, there were indeed quite a few powerful figures of the Ancient Human Race within the Federation.

This explanation... seemed to make sense!

While they were lost in wild speculation, Su Bo's aura surged once more. His freshly attained fifth physical refinement—

Right before their eyes, leaped straight into the sixth physical refinement!

"Damn it, you old bastards, you really were lying to me." The two of them cursed inwardly almost in unison.