Difficult to Trace to the Source

Ning Fa lay sprawled on the ground. Forcibly breaking through the bottleneck had left him badly injured, and agony wracked his entire body.

Yet he had no time to care about the pain. His mind was filled with the Mysterious Pattern of a circular Thunder Rune that had appeared in his Dantian, along with the Mysterious Scroll's violent reaction.

"The Mysterious Pattern of Thunder Runes that appeared in my Dantian was clearly incomplete. Could it represent my Incomplete Lightning Spiritual Root? And the Mysterious Scroll's violent reaction just now seemed to be trying to trace that incomplete pattern back to its complete form?"

Ning Fa muttered, his voice brimming with excitement and disbelief.

His eyes lit up. He felt that his guess was likely right on the mark.

Then, in an instant, he thought of something that thrilled him beyond measure.

If the Mysterious Scroll truly traced that Mysterious Pattern back into a complete one, would his Incomplete Lightning Spiritual Root become a complete Lightning Spiritual Root?

Judging from the heaven-defying abilities of the Mysterious Scroll, this seemed entirely possible.

At the thought that his Lightning Spiritual Root might have hope of becoming whole again, Ning Fa's heart began pounding violently. Even with his temperament, he could scarcely contain his excitement.

After all, the Witch's threat hung right before him. If he possessed a complete Lightning Spiritual Root, he would no longer need to fear the Witch.

Ning Fa forced himself to calm down. He seemed to have thought of something, and a strange look appeared in his eyes.

Based on what he had previously learned about the Mysterious Scroll, its ability was to trace pills that had reached a certain degree of formation back to the spiritual materials used to refine them.

Yet it could not restore a broken pill to its original complete state.

Out of curiosity, he had previously conducted some experiments on the Mysterious Scroll.

First, the spiritual materials traced back by the Mysterious Scroll were absolutely the same spiritual materials that had been used in pill refinement before.

Ning Fa had even marked the spiritual materials, and the traced-back materials bore exactly the same marks.

Second, if an Essence Replenishing Pill was split in half, either half could be traced back into a complete set of spiritual materials, but the two halves could not be used to trace back two sets of materials.

Once one half of the pill had been used to trace back the spiritual materials, the other half could no longer be used for tracing.

But he had never seen the Mysterious Scroll trace a broken pill back into a complete pill.

Yet judging from what the Mysterious Scroll had just done to that mysterious circular pattern, it seemed more like it was making the damaged pattern whole.

This left Ning Fa somewhat puzzled.

But the scroll was, after all, unfathomably mysterious. It was not something someone of his realm could possibly fully comprehend.

Or perhaps what he saw was the Mysterious Scroll filling in the circular pattern, while in essence it was still tracing it back to its source?

Ning Fa shook his head and stopped dwelling on the matter.

In any case, the completion ability the Mysterious Scroll had now displayed was a tremendous boon to him.

If it could complete the Mysterious Pattern and truly grant him a complete Lightning Spiritual Root, then as long as he was given time to cultivate, there would be no need to fear that Witch at all.

But the problem was that the Mysterious Scroll seemed to struggle greatly when tracing that circular Thunder Rune Pattern back to its source. It did not appear easy.

Still, he had finally seen hope.

Ning Fa decided that once he had recovered as quickly as possible, he would once again attempt to break through the mid-stage bottleneck. He hoped the circular Thunder Rune Pattern would appear again and allow the scroll to trace it back once more.

At this thought, Ning Fa found something else strange. Did all cultivators with Incomplete Lightning Spiritual Roots possess such incomplete Thunder Rune Patterns?

Or did cultivators with normal Lightning Spiritual Roots all possess complete Thunder Rune Patterns?

This Thunder Rune Pattern appeared exceedingly mysterious. Ning Fa vaguely felt that it was connected to something far more than just a Lightning Spiritual Root.

Over the next two days, Ning Fa did not refine any pills. He focused entirely on tending to his injured body.

Once he felt more or less recovered, he began attempting to break through the bottleneck again.

The process was similar to before. When Ning Fa controlled Mana at the current limit of what his body could withstand and used it to strike at the bottleneck, that mysterious incomplete Thunder Rune Pattern appeared once more.

The Mysterious Scroll automatically emerged as well. The pattern appeared on the scroll again, which reacted violently as it tried to complete the pattern, though its progress was extremely slow.

Ning Fa, however, could not hold on for long. After gritting his teeth and enduring for sixty breaths, he finally could bear it no longer and gave up.

Yet by then, the Mysterious Scroll had not even completed half of the Thunder Rune Pattern. It still had a long way to go.

Ning Fa could not help but feel a headache coming on. It seemed that holding out until the Mysterious Scroll completed the Thunder Rune Pattern was simply an exceedingly difficult task.

But he was not one to give up easily. After regulating his breath for a while, he tried again.

Pingchang Island, inside Ning Guichuan's home.

"Zhen'an, do you want to reconsider? This is still too risky. Ning Fa is no longer the same as before. If anything happens to him, it will be difficult for you to get away unscathed."

Ning Guichuan, who usually looked honest and simple, spoke anxiously to the person beside him.

The man was powerfully built, with a face as black as charcoal. He looked rough and ugly. He was Ning Guichuan's eldest son, Ning Zhen'an.

Ning Zhen'an sighed. "Since that person has sought me out, I actually have no room to refuse. Otherwise, the circumstances of our branch in the future will become extremely dire. The First Elder has been nursing his injuries and has not shown himself for a long time. In the family, the Third Elder is practically at the height of the sun. Though the Second Elder may still be able to contend with him for now, the Second Elder is already advanced in years. In the future, the Third Elder's influence in the family will only grow greater and greater."

"That person already holds a high position in the family and is deeply favored by the Third Elder. If I offend him, I fear there will be no place for me in the family from then on. So I have no choice but to agree. Besides, he has been quite generous, offering me many promises."

After hearing this, Ning Guichuan no longer tried to dissuade him. Only, the wrinkles on his old face seemed to deepen further.

Ning Zhen'an said calmly, "Father, there is no need to worry too much. I will mind my limits. But this matter should be done sooner rather than later. Contact Uncle Donghui and begin the operation as soon as possible. Be careful not to let my involvement be exposed."

A flash of worry passed through Ning Guichuan's eyes, but he still nodded heavily before leaving the house.

That day, Ning Fa was shut away at home, racking his brains over how to complete the Thunder Rune Pattern, when a hurried knocking at the door jolted him awake.

He rose and opened the door, only to find Uncle Xilin standing outside with an anxious expression.

"Uncle Xilin, what has you in such a panic?"

Ning Fa asked in surprise.

"Xiaofa, our branch is about to fight Ning Guichuan's branch and Ning Donghui's branch. Hurry and come take a look."

Uncle Xilin said in a flustered rush, his face full of anxiety.

Ning Fa froze, though he was not overly surprised.

At present, Pingchang Island was mainly inhabited by their three branches, along with a small number of Ning Family Members who lived alone.

After Ning Fa's father had fallen, Ning Guichuan's branch, which had formerly followed their branch, happened to produce a Late Qi Condensation cultivator. They then began joining forces with Ning Donghui's branch, seeking to drive Ning Fa's branch off Pingchang Island. Small frictions between the three branches occurred frequently in their daily lives.