Getting on Track

A month later.

Ning Fa was cultivating in the pill chamber. His entire body was enveloped within a round blue-black lightning ball. Countless threads of lightning continuously flared into being and vanished across its surface, carrying not only an aura of destruction, but also vigorous life.

Inside the lightning ball, Ning Fa sat with his eyes tightly shut and a grave expression. Beads of sweat faintly glistened on his face as his hands continuously formed hand seals, turning like wheels.

Then the hand seals in his hands abruptly changed.

A loud "crackle" of buzzing electricity erupted.

The lightning barrier around him immediately contracted into a fist-sized lightning ball that hovered before him.

The lightning ball swelled and shrank erratically. Numerous blue-black runes shaped like lightning continuously drifted across its surface, making it look incomparably mysterious.

The blue-black lightning ball then suddenly contracted and shot swiftly into his abdomen.

Within Ning Fa's dantian, a blue-black point of light first appeared. It then abruptly expanded into a blue-black lightning ball the size of an infant's fist, seemingly formed from countless strands of Thunder Power.

Countless threads of lightning shot from the ball toward Ning Fa's limbs and bones, passing through numerous meridians and acupoints.

Blue-black lightning suddenly burst forth around Ning Fa, making him seem as though he stood amid a cloud of blue-black thunder, an utterly mystical sight.

A Thunder Power, ancient and weathered yet faintly suffused with killing intent, radiated from Ning Fa's body.

In an instant, the blue-black lightning around Ning Fa withdrew. The phenomenon vanished, and the scene from moments ago seemed like an illusion.

Ning Fa opened his eyes, revealing a gratified smile.

After a month, he had cultivated the most important Main Thunder Source described in the Ancient Source Thunder Scripture.

The process had gone so smoothly that even he found it hard to believe.

After all, the Ancient Source Thunder Scripture stated that cultivating the Main Thunder Source in the dantian was extremely difficult, and it would take at least one or two years to have any hope of success.

Yet Ning Fa had cultivated it in a mere month, which was nothing short of miraculous.

Naturally, this was due to the mysteries of Ning Fa's Great Five Elements Thunder Body.

Ning Fa now deeply understood what it meant for the Five Elements Thunder Body to provide an enormous boost to cultivating Lightning Attribute techniques.

Just then, the Five Elements Thunder Rune Pattern within his dantian suddenly appeared, facing the blue-black lightning ball as it slowly devoured it.

Then, from the other side of the Thunder Rune Pattern, another, much smaller silver lightning ball gradually emerged.

Although it had become smaller, the Lightning Power contained within it appeared even stronger.

As this silver lightning ball emerged, Ning Fa's Spiritual Pressure also noticeably rose.

Ning Fa was only slightly startled, but not surprised.

Even the Mana cultivated from the Ancient Source Thunder Scripture was refined by the Five Elements Thunder Rune Pattern, merely at a far higher conversion ratio—roughly three to one.

Now that this Thunder Source had also been refined by the Five Elements Thunder Rune Pattern into a silver Thunder Source, there seemed to be nothing strange about it.

His ability to cultivate the Main Thunder Source in a month was not solely due to his mysterious thunder body. It was also thanks to the many Essence Replenishing Pills he had consumed over the past month.

Ning Fa had personally refined all of those pills, and his mastery over refining them had now reached an extremely high level.

Whether in appearance or medicinal efficacy, the Essence Replenishing Pills he refined surpassed ordinary ones by a considerable margin. They could be called premium Essence Replenishing Pills.

Previously, he had asked his cousin Ning Zifeng to help purchase some spiritual ingredients for Essence Replenishing Pills. After refining them into pills, he would have Ning Zifeng sell them at Jinchang Island Market.

This earned him quite a few spirit stones, nearly all of which he used to buy more ingredients for Essence Replenishing Pills, refining them again to support his cultivation.

Ning Fa used pill-assisted cultivation to make up for the insufficient concentration of his spirit vein.

If other early Qi Condensation cultivators learned that Ning Fa cultivated so extravagantly, they would surely go mad with envy. Most low-level cultivators only dared to consume such cultivation-enhancing pills when breaking through a bottleneck.

Even ordinary pill masters could not afford such extravagance. But Ning Fa possessed a heaven-defying item like the Mysterious Scroll, which allowed him to refine finished pills with nearly absolute certainty.

Ning Zifeng showed no resistance whatsoever to Ning Fa's requests, tirelessly running errands for him.

This cousin had already made his position clear to Ning Fa earlier: Ning Fa could come to him anytime for anything he could do. Ning Fa was now the hope of their branch of the family, and he would assist him with all his strength.

Now, he was fulfilling that promise through his actions.

Ning Fa was even more satisfied with this cousin. He had already decided that once he broke through to Qi Condensation Mid-stage and became a First-grade Mid-rank Pill Master, he would properly support his cousin, helping him break through to Late Qi Condensation as soon as possible and become a dependable assistant.

Ning Fa's gaze flickered.

Now that the Main Thunder Source had been cultivated, he wanted to strike while the iron was hot and attempt to break through to Qi Condensation Mid-stage.

However, after trying only briefly, he gave up. He still could not sense the existence of a bottleneck, which meant his Mana was still insufficient.

"Looks like I still need to try opening up a Lesser Thunder Source. That's fine. The more Lesser Thunder Sources, the better."

Ning Fa smiled. The smooth cultivation of the Main Thunder Source had given him great confidence in cultivating the Lesser Thunder Sources next.

Several more days passed.

Steam rose through the pill chamber as another batch of Essence Replenishing Pills was completed.

The furnace lid opened, and six round, plump milky-white pills flew out of the pill furnace and into Ning Fa's hand.

Ning Fa smiled faintly. He felt that his mastery of this pill had reached a new level. Over the past few days, he had almost always achieved a pill formation rate of at least ninety percent.

This batch, however, was not for his own consumption. It was to be handed over to the family.

The day before yesterday, a family steward had visited. After confirming that Ning Fa had fully recovered from his injuries, he handed over fifteen prepared sets of ingredients for Essence Replenishing Pills.

That meant Ning Fa was officially beginning his monthly pill-refining duties. Every month, he was required to refine fifteen batches of Essence Replenishing Pills, with a pill formation rate no lower than sixty percent.

This was not much pressure for Ning Fa now.

He also planned to refine some extra pills. Aside from taking them himself, he wanted to accumulate enough Contribution Points as soon as possible to exchange for the Travelogue of Yun Songzi in the Scripture Pavilion.

He was very interested in learning about the current state of the cultivation world.

Just then, Ning Fa's expression shifted. He took out a cyan triangular Array Flag and tapped the air before him.

A streak of cyan light shot from the Array Flag. Cyan-white light rippled across the wall ahead, and then a streak of fire rushed in, flying before Ning Fa.

A seductive voice emerged from the firelight. "The Ninth Elder has returned and will be free for the next three days."

Delight appeared on Ning Fa's face. This was a voice transmission from Ning Xiuying.

A month earlier, when he had returned from the Scripture Pavilion on Ningchang Island, he had intended to visit Yun Chang Island and personally thank Ning Shaohong. However, she had happened to depart for Tianshui Market on business, and it seemed she had only returned now.

Ning Shaohong had helped him so much, and she was also his only backer in the family now. Naturally, he had to maintain their relationship well.

After tidying himself up, Ning Fa headed to the docks and boarded a spirit boat for Yun Chang Island.

Moreover, after returning from Yun Chang Island, he planned to make a trip to Lingchang Island as well.

He would have Wei Chengzong teach him the pill formulas for the Qi Replenishing Pill and Spring Return Pill. He also needed to master these two kinds of pills.

Half a day later, Ning Fa arrived once more at the docks of Yun Chang Island.

He saw Ning Xiuying again, her figure fiery and clad in crimson battle armor.

Beneath her short armored skirt were two long, slender legs like white pythons, dazzlingly pale.

Ning Fa first cast an unobtrusive glance at her towering chest. Ning Xiuying gave him a half-smiling look, her chest faintly trembling as if deliberately or not. The surging sight nearly made even the experienced Ning Fa lose control.

Ning Fa hurriedly coughed twice, then said with an unchanged expression, "Sister Xiuying, please announce me. I have something to discuss with the Ninth Elder."

Ning Xiuying shot him a sidelong glance, seemingly mocking him for having the heart but not the nerve.

"Come with me. The Ninth Elder instructed that if you came, you could go see her."

Ning Xiuying said with a light laugh.