Night of Despair

"Feng Xuezi is your master's senior brother and also the last Golden Immortal of our Wanxue Palace. Unfortunately, many years ago, he traveled far beyond the domains, and his whereabouts have since remained unknown," Yu Xuezi said with some regret. "If he were still here, he would be your martial uncle, casually guiding you, which would be invaluable."

Feeling nostalgic, he started recounting Feng Xuezi's path to success step by step.

"Back then, your martial uncle was also of remarkable talent, comparable to Quan He and you. Later, he entered the main lineage, received an abundance of resources, and his cultivation level rose rapidly. Ultimately, he was accepted by the Heavenly Rainbow Long Light Venerable and achieved the status of a Golden Immortal. His ranking was within the top one thousand in the entire Qinghe Mountain, and his powerful strength was renowned throughout the surrounding star domains. Unfortunately…."

He talked while drinking, gradually falling into his own memories, with Yu Hong and others becoming secondary.

It wasn't until more than half an hour later that Yu Xuezi sighed, with an inexplicable loneliness flashing in his eyes, and let them disperse.

At night, Yu Hong and Quan He parted ways with Bai Sheng and Hei Ying, heading back along the mine path.

"It seems that even Immortals are no different from us, just that they see themselves more clearly in many ways and have clearer goals." Having interacted more with his master, Quan He seemed to have gained some insight.

"Does Junior Sister have a goal now?" Yu Hong asked.

"Taking one step at a time," Quan He said, her eyes tinged with a hint of confusion, after witnessing several terrifying Source Disasters.

Although her talent is strong, the terror of Source Disasters is unparalleled, which is why she previously asked, what if she cultivated to the Heavenly Venerate.

But Yu Hong was different. With the Black Mark on him, he was never confused about the future.

The two of them, one deep in thought, the other with a calm expression, walked in the mine without speaking again for a long time.

Returning to the Black Black Spirit.

Yu Hong went straight back to the Cultivation Room.

At this moment, a new trait was in his mind, but he hadn't researched it carefully because he had just been at the banquet.

Now Yu Hong reentered the corner of his mind, examining the new trait that had finished merging.

The new trait was a light mass twice as large as the other light spheres.

He approached and lightly touched it with his hand.

'Trait: Fierce Tiger Type (simulates the destructive power of a tiger's attack with a fivefold increase.)'

'Truly simple and crude...' Yu Hong shook his head slightly. Clearly, Weakness Strike was merged to strengthen the Tiger Form trait.

However, the fivefold enhancement was valuable. With his Foundation Establishment Stage True Yuan, it was stronger than the Inner Strength of Chaotic God Sky Eye Skill. Increasing by fivefold, not counting Tai Ling Skill, his strength had already far surpassed himself when he first came to the Mining Star.

And this was his achievement in less than half a year on the Mining Star.

'Next, it's time to test how many Mortal Martial Arts techniques his body can simultaneously cultivate.'

He had been contemplating this question previously.

Currently, he was cultivating four Cultivation Techniques with the Dao Breath Thunder Transfer: Qingyuan Heavenly River Miao Technique, Chaotic God Sky Eye Skill, Qingwei Heart Technique, and one Mortal Martial Art.

He theorized that his body's strength should allow him to cultivate more techniques simultaneously.

However, the occupied meridians meant he couldn't operate multiple techniques simultaneously. So they had to be alternated.

'Now, the four Cultivation Techniques' pathways don't conflict. If I want to co-cultivate more, I must avoid occupying the existing meridians.'

For this reason, he had carefully chosen several Mortal Martial Arts over the past three months.

Now, upon detailed research, he discovered that the Mortal Martial Arts and Qingwei Heart Technique he previously practiced had minor meridian conflicts with Chaotic God Heavenly Eye's meridians.

Otherwise, his Chaotic God Sky Eye would have long been perfected.

'In other words, when Qingwei Heart Technique and Mortal Martial Arts operate uninterruptedly, Chaotic God Sky Eye is actually stopped...no wonder....'

No wonder he suddenly felt that the speed of Chaotic God Sky Eye Skill had slowed considerably.

Now, with the issue discovered, the Mortal Martial Arts he chose had completely unrelated meridian operations.

At this time, he returned to the Dao Breath Thunder Transfer trait, lightly touching it.

Instantly, in the light sphere, two different meridian white light maps appeared before his eyes.

They were the automatic operations of Qingyuan Heavenly River Miao Technique and Qingwei Heart Technique.

And sure enough, Chaotic God Sky Eye Skill had long since stopped.

After thinking for a moment, Yu Hong forcefully initiated the active operation of Chaotic God Sky Eye Skill. He allowed it to reside permanently within Dao Breath Thunder Transfer.

Over these three months, he explored a method to allow techniques to automatically operate, and now, with his hand on Dao Breath Thunder Transfer....

Soon, Qingwei Heart Technique stopped operating, replaced by another white light map resembling a tiger.

'It seems conflicting techniques can only be operated one at a time....' After some thought, Yu Hong decided to first complete the Chaotic God Sky Eye, obtain the trait, and then talk about it.

Another characteristic of Dao Breath Thunder Transfer is that a skill actively initiated will automatically replace the ongoing automatic operation.

Exiting his mind, he sat cross-legged and browsed through the three Mortal Martial Arts he selected from the Book Collection Pavilion.

"Huntian Palm", "Flying Transition Nine Revolutions", and "Climbing Cloud Skill".

These three Mortal Martial Arts had non-conflicting operation routes with his existing Cultivation Techniques.

Meaning they could be co-cultivated.

He picked up the first technique, Huntian Palm, and quickly entered a state of object-person oblivion.

In no time, after taking the prepared medicinal inducer, he successfully entered the introductory stage of Huntian Palm, producing the first trace of Internal Breath.

He once more entered his mental space, confirming Huntian Palm had begun automatic cultivation, Yu Hong then picked up the second book, Flying Transition Nine Revolutions, similarly entering the introductory stage in less than an hour, producing the first trace of Internal Breath.

The last one was Climbing Cloud Skill, an obscure Qinggong technique requiring exceptionally uncommon meridians, making it non-conflicting with all other techniques.

It took twenty minutes for Yu Hong to master this technique, successfully entering the introductory stage, and adding it to the automatic cycle.

At this point, all his meridians entered into automatic cultivation, leaving no idle ones.

Feeling the simultaneous operation of the three Mortal Martial Arts within, Yu Hong let out a long breath.

Standing up, he had one more task to complete.

Coming to the mirror within the chamber, he lifted his eye patch, removing his right eyeball.

Placing it in his palm, he silently recited in his heart.

'Strengthen Outer Eye, Direction: Extreme Enhancement.'

With all the medicinal enhancements for his various Cultivation Techniques almost prepared over the past three months, and Dao Breath Thunder Transfer progressing steadily, he needed only to follow the routine dosage to supplement resources daily.

The Black Mark was currently unnecessary for the fusion function, so he intended to continue enhancing the strength of his Outer Eye.

Admittedly, his body's aptitude exceeded that of Quan He significantly due to the continuous enhancement of the Outer Eye, which bolstered his entire physique to reach such heights.

Having tasted success, Yu Hong decided to take advantage of the abundant time and strengthen the Outer Eye to its maximum potential in one go.

Soon, a black line flashed by, revealing a countdown: '2 years 11 months 7 days 14 hours 8 minutes.'

Two years....

Yu Hong furrowed his brow, thinking that this seemed rather long.

Yet, the longer the enhancement period, the better the end result, he hesitated for a moment before confirming the start.

Suddenly, he paused, released his hold, and from the pocket of his Daoist robe, he took out a small pill furnace glowing with blue light.

This was the mysterious small object that the corrupt merchant had sold him, which he studied for quite some time but failed to discern its purpose.

However, that guy surely couldn't have sold it to him without reason.

Yu Hong pondered for a moment, beginning to explore the pill furnace by following the earliest method he used when applying the Black Mark.

He placed the pill furnace on the ground before him.

Then, he put his hand on top and silently recited in his heart.

'Enhance Pill Furnace, Direction: Defense Ability.'

A black line flashed, flowing into the pill furnace, but in the next second, it returned.

'No basic defense ability, unable to enhance.'

The Black Mark provided feedback.

Yu Hong's expression remained unchanged, continuing to test other abilities.

This trial-and-error of attributes was his method devised to identify object functions using the Black Mark.

Time ticked away bit by bit.

Quan He called him outside to have breakfast. Quickly going out, he grabbed a pack of instant noodles and canned meat, solving his hunger, then continued testing the pill furnace.

All the tested fields were noted in a small notebook, preventing redundant attempts in the future.

As time passed, the number of tested attributes gradually increased.

Finally...

'Do you want to enhance the Pill Furnace?' The Black Mark's feedback finally changed from having no basic function to offering a yes or no choice!

Yu Hong immediately perked up, realizing he was asked about enhancing the purification ability of the pill furnace.

'Purification direction, then? Next explore the specifics!' What to purify was key.

This time, the speed quickened considerably. Since he didn't care about what needed purification, he only needed to determine whether this furnace provided any functionalities he required.

If it didn't, then purifying other things held no significance for Yu Hong.

Immediately, he quickly tested various Black Disaster powers he controlled, the physical body, Source Disaster radiation, etc.

'Whether to enhance the purification of Black Disaster Red Value?' As expected, the Black Mark feedback reconfirmed the furnace was intended for purifying Red Values.

The countdown appeared simultaneously: 7 hours 11 minutes.

Yu Hong glanced, seeing it wasn't long and acceptable, promptly confirming "yes."

Leaving the pill furnace in the cultivation chamber, he got up, went out with Quan He for morning greetings, and then went to cultivate near the Life Well until the dusk, returning to the safe house when the day was close to ending.

By then, the seven hours had long passed.

Crack.

The second floor's cultivation chamber door was opened slowly, and Yu Hong walked in only to be momentarily stunned by what he saw.

The cultivation chamber initially the size of a basketball court, now had an unexpected fine black pill furnace more than a person high and two meters in diameter in the center.

The outer side of the pill furnace was imprinted with dragon and phoenix patterns along with various odd beasts and birds, with the four ears respectively crafted into wing shapes.

On the furnace lid was a miniature rugged hill, and the slots of the cover radiated blinding blue light, illuminating the entire chamber in a blue glow.

Most critically, a greyish-white instruction sheet hung from the furnace lid.

Yu Hong closed the door with his free hand, walked a few steps closer, reaching out to take the instruction.

'Pill Furnace: Originally named Purification Furnace, created by the Palace Master of Wuji Palace to combat Black Disasters, later incorporated universally by many factions. It can extremely purify all Red Values within ten thousand meters, condensing them into Black Mountain Crystals.'

'Black Mountain Crystal: High concentration condensation of Black Disaster radiation, unknown application. The Palace Master discarded it into the Light Disaster Domain to restrain the spread of Light Disaster radiation.'

"....it's actually this thing..." Yu Hong muttered, somewhat surprised.

It's his first time to steal.. oh no, enhance something that belonged to the Palace Master of Wuji Palace. But it seems it's only usable for establishing factions or sects.

It possesses no other functions.

'However, this is the effect after enhancement. Before the enhancement, the purification ability should have been much weaker. That corrupt merchant sold it to me seemingly with good intentions, meant to purify the high concentration of Red Values near me now.'