Essence Lake

After resting for quite a while, Liu Yue recovered some of his soul power, and Yi You recovered a fair amount as well.

Their vitality and soul power had nearly been drained dry. The only reason they could recover so quickly was because a considerable amount of the Soul Vine's immense life force remained within their bodies.

Otherwise, with both their vitality and soul power depleted, the two of them would have had to lie in bed for at least ten days to half a month.

"Old Su, it's time for you to go!" Yi You rummaged through his storage space and tossed out a fruit. "I only have one extra gold fruit from the Five-Viscera Yuanchen Fruit..."

"To break through the viscera barrier and temper your internal organs, completing the seventh, eighth, and ninth refinements—with your talent, ordinary resources can't help you cultivate any faster."

"If you want to temper your internal organs, the next place you need to go..."

"The Earth-Cang Mountain Range. You need to go to the Earth-Cang Mountain Range!" Liu Yue said.

"The Earth-Cang Mountain Range is to the east. Deep within the mountain range, there is a lake formed from gathered essence energy. We call it the Essence Lake. At the center of the lake grows a Five-Viscera Yuanchen Tree."

"The fruits of the Five-Viscera Yuanchen Tree are divided into the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, corresponding respectively to the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys..." As Liu Yue spoke, his gaze fell upon the gold fruit Yi You had tossed out.

"It can help you temper your internal organs a little faster..."

"Maybe not necessarily," Yi You suddenly said.

"Old Su has Dragon Race bloodline. The Dragon Race is famous for its powerful physique and fleshly body. Which one of those Human-Dragon Race fellows isn't tough as hell?"

"Maybe Old Su can finish tempering the viscera barrier without needing the Five-Viscera Yuanchen Fruit at all!"

"That's not impossible." After thinking it over, Liu Yue strongly agreed with Yi You's words.

The Human-Dragon Race's physical bodies were not only tough, but incredibly powerful. Their vitality was exceptionally abundant, so naturally, they tempered their bodies at an extremely rapid pace.

They could swiftly complete the nine refinements of the physical body without relying on any heavenly treasures whatsoever.

Then they would refine their blood into astral force and break through into the Astral Realm...

"Still, for Old Su, making the trip would be the best choice." Liu Yue thought for a moment.

"Don't forget, the next opportunity isn't just a huge benefit for you and me. It's also no small benefit for Old Su."

"Five-Viscera Yuanchen essence can speed up the tempering of the internal organs."

"The faster Old Su cultivates and completes the nine physical refinements, the greater the benefits for us."

"Maybe we can hug Old Su's thigh again over there."

"Oh, right~" Yi You's eyes lit up.

"You have to go to the Essence Lake. You have to seize the Five-Viscera Yuanchen Fruit, break through the viscera barrier as soon as possible, complete the seventh, eighth, and ninth refinements, and finish cultivation in the Physical Body Realm."

"If possible, it would be best to complete all nine physical refinements."

"I'm definitely clinging to this thick thigh of yours." Yi You pounced directly at Su Bo and grabbed his hand. "The opportunity there is even greater than the one in the Withered Bone Demon Forest."

"The opportunity there?" Su Bo shoved the brat Yi You away in disgust.

"Tell me about it."

A great opportunity, one even greater than obtaining an innate divine ability—now that interested him.

Liu Yue and Yi You exchanged a glance, then began explaining...

Outside the Trial Star.

Situ Ting, Lin Chen, and Kong Ao stood in opposition to one another. Lin Chen and Kong Ao in particular were covered in burns and scorch marks.

Even their auras had weakened by seventy or eighty percent. It was clear they had suffered considerable hidden losses during the confrontation.

"An innate divine ability?" Kong Ao cried out.

They had been keeping close watch on the situation in the Withered Bone Demon Forest.

Naturally, they had seen with perfect clarity how Yi You and Liu Yue's combined strike had killed and eliminated Heart-Moon Fox in one blow.

As Divine Ability Realm martial artists who had already mastered several divine abilities, they naturally had no trouble recognizing that what Yi You had wielded was an innate divine ability.

For a moment, all three of them stopped fighting, their burning gazes fixed on the three youngsters emerging from the demon forest.

An innate divine ability—that was an innate divine ability!

Lin Chen immediately recalled the records on the Withered Bone Demon Forest within the Federation and abruptly said, "Soul Vine..."

"No, that's impossible..."

"The Soul Vine can open divine apertures and awaken innate divine abilities, but the odds..."

Sure enough, upon hearing the name of this heavenly treasure, Situ Ting and Kong Ao's expressions turned strange, and the way they looked at Yi You changed.

Damn, was this kid really that lucky?

The probability of a century-old Soul Vine opening a divine aperture and awakening an innate divine ability seemed to be less than one in ten thousand, didn't it?

Beast Planet had opened the Starry Sky Trial seven times over nearly two thousand years, while the trial in the Soul-Spirit Burial Grounds forbidden zone had likewise only opened seven times.

During that time, some prodigies had obtained Soul Vines, but the benefits they received were merely a slight strengthening of their soul origins.

Innate divine abilities were practically the stuff of legends, all right?

The three of them looked once more toward Liu Yue and Su Bo, wanting to see whether either of them had also obtained an innate divine ability.

But in the end, they chose to give up.

Unless a divine ability was released, they had no way to directly probe someone else's soul and inspect it.

Besides, they were too far away, and their perception was rather blurry.

"Situ Ting..." Lin Chen's tone turned much colder as the power of his water divine ability spread from his body, forming a vast ocean that set off surging waves across the starry sky.

On the other side, Kong Ao's expression was equally grim as his lightning domain rumbled without end.

Lin Chen said coldly, "Your student is fine, but you won't be leaving today!"

"Violating the rules of the Starry Sky Trial and forcibly breaking into the trial planet..."

"Enough. I admit my crime. Once the trial is over, I'll go to the Ten Thousand Races Battlefield and kill ten or eight Divine Ability Realm cultivators. If that's not enough, I'll kill a few Dharma Manifestation Realm cultivators instead." Situ Ting waved his hand, unconcerned.

As long as he had confirmed that Su Bo was fine, that was enough.

That brat was truly fearless. With only the strength of the second refinement, he had dared to enter a forbidden-zone trial. Wasn't he afraid that one day he would mess around too much and get himself killed?

Damn it, he was even more reckless than Situ Ting had been back then!

When he saw Su Bo suddenly barge into the trial forbidden zone earlier, even the divine ability avatar he had left on the boy had been cut off from his senses.

He had thought that someone from the Martial Alliance was trying to get revenge and had deliberately set Su Bo up.

Then...

What followed was the scene before them.

He had tried to force his way into the Trial Star, and Lin Chen and Kong Ao had come to stop him. The three of them clashed fiercely in the starry sky and fought it out.

Because he had been worried about Su Bo and feared that a few moves might kill them, he had not gone all out.

He had merely broken these two fellows' divine abilities.

Fortunately, while they had been arguing, the brat had emerged from the forbidden zone. He even seemed to have gotten along quite well with the youngsters from the Yi Clan and the Celestial Human Race.

Mm-hm, not bad, not bad. He had half of Situ Ting's old flair for making friends.

If those two had been pretty girls from the Yi Clan and the Celestial Human Race, and he had managed some left-and-right embrace action, then he would have had all of Situ Ting's old flair!

Lin Chen and Kong Ao had no idea what Situ Ting was thinking.

All they wanted now was to keep a close eye on this bastard and prevent him from barging into the Trial Star again, lest he cause them more trouble.

The Martial Alliance would be easy enough to explain things to, but the Federation would not.

As for Heart-Moon Fox, who had been taken out, hadn't he been rescued at the final moment and survived?

What trial in the starry sky did not involve deaths? If he died first, it only meant his luck was poor and his strength lacking. He could not blame the other trial participants.

Besides, even if Heart-Moon Fox's old monster wanted to make trouble afterward, he would be looking for trouble with the Yi Clan and the Celestial Human Race.

What did it have to do with the two of them?