Ning Fan had no intention of engaging in deeper conversation with that Female Saint, and she likewise seemed unwilling to speak much with him, so as not to entangle herself in any karma.

Ning Fan’s understanding of her was limited to the name of the realm she was in and the VIP code name she used within the Tongtian Sect.

Ning Fan was a bronze-level VIP of the Tongtian Sect, using the code name "Slaughter Fox" in trades; the other party was a silver-level VIP with the code name [Mistress Qiuling].

Upon learning that Ning Fan actually had 220,000 jin of Eight Hundred Million Years Gloomy Wood, that Mistress Qiuling was clearly somewhat excited, unable to hide her joy.

"Daoist friend, could you transfer all of your Gloomy Wood to me? For each jin of wood, this concubine is willing to offer fifty-five low-grade Immeasurable Pills in exchange."

"Fifty-five?" Ning Fan was startled. He had originally thought that if this trade could reach a ratio of fifty to one, it would already count as a success, but he had not expected the other party to directly give such a high ratio.

"Why, does Daoist friend find this ratio too low? As for the situation of the realm you are in, this concubine does not know, but in the realm where this concubine resides, this price is already several times the market value. If this concubine were not in urgent need of this item, it would be impossible to offer such a high price..."

Ning Fan faintly felt that Mistress Qiuling, who was in another realm, seemed to have furrowed her delicate brows at this moment and explained with a bitter smile, "No, this ratio is not low; precisely because it is somewhat high that I am surprised. Let us trade at this ratio."

"Mm. First send me some wood; I want to test the quality of the timber..." the other side said again.

"As it should be."

Ning Fan nodded, then used the Ancient Country Trade Array to consecutively send ten batches of wood to the Little Mountain Realm, one jin per batch.

"Daoist friend is truly amusing. Just one batch of wood would have been enough for me to test, yet Daoist friend actually sent nine extra batches over. Daoist friend must be conducting a private trade for the first time, yes? Are you testing the probability of spatial turbulence devouring the goods?" Mistress Qiuling on the other side chuckled. As a Saint, her scheming was as deep as the sea; she naturally could see some of what Ning Fan was thinking.

Ning Fan did not deny it. He smiled, acknowledging Mistress Qiuling’s guess, while inwardly feeling somewhat stirred by the results of the test.

Nine batches?

Out of ten batches of wood, nine had actually been transmitted successfully... the transmission success rate was very high, actually reaching ninety percent.

According to what the Tongtian Sect said, if ordinary people did not trade through the Ancient Country Balance, when sending goods across realms, roughly a third of the goods would be swallowed by spatial turbulence.

Ning Fan did not know whether his nearly ninety percent transmission success rate was a coincidence, or the result of good fortune.

If it was merely a coincidence, so be it; but if the success rate of private trades was truly affected by good fortune, then he had a bold idea he wanted to try...

Most Eternal Immortal Venerables only possessed the First or Second Color of Immortal Fate; Ning Fan, however, already had the Fifth Color of Immortal Fortune, absolutely belonging to the category of heaven-defying luck among those of the same level.

Of course, because he had recently killed quite a few Immortal Emperors, his good fortune could in fact become even more heaven-defying...

"Oh? The quality of the goods is quite good. Since that is the case, we can begin trading. A quantity of 220,000 jin is somewhat large, so let us proceed in batches. For every thousand jin of wood you transmit to me, I will send you fifty-five thousand Immeasurable Pills. As for the issue of receiving goods, we will follow the usual conventions of Ancient Country trades. If the goods you send are swallowed by spatial turbulence, you must bear the loss yourself and resupply. In other words, the amount of wood that ultimately reaches this concubine’s hands will definitely be less than 220,000 jin, and this concubine will only pay for what is actually received; similarly, for the pills this concubine sends out, if you do not receive them, this concubine will also have to make up the shipment."

Ning Fan had already inquired about these conventions from the Tongtian Sect; he had no objections to these terms. Furthermore, when the Ancient Country Trade Array transmitted successfully, it would emit the light of the formation to notify the array master; with this benefit, he was not worried that the other party would receive the goods and then conceal it.

Only, before truly starting the trade with Mistress Qiuling, Ning Fan still had some things he wished to confirm. Thus, instead of rushing into the main transaction, he took some random odds and ends—useless items—from his storage pouch and sent them to Mistress Qiuling through the Ancient Country Trade Array.

First, expensive pills: ten bottles shipped, eight bottles arrived in the Little Mountain Realm.

Acquired Treasures: ten items shipped, nine items arrived in the Little Mountain Realm.

One-million-year-old spiritual herbs: ten stalks shipped, eight stalks arrived in the Little Mountain Realm.

Stones picked up on the ground at Lingyun Pass: ten pieces shipped, nine pieces arrived in the Little Mountain Realm.

Weeds casually pulled from the ground: ten blades shipped, eight blades arrived in the Little Mountain Realm.

Ten drops of Boundary River water...

Ten tattered storage pouches...

When Mistress Qiuling received the junk that Ning Fan sent over one batch after another, even with her six cycles of reincarnation worth of cultivation and composure, she couldn’t help feeling a little speechless.

Was this Daoist friend Slaughter Fox on the other side playing with the Ancient Country Trade Array...

Or was this Daoist Slaughter still testing the probability of spatial turbulence appearing?

However, for private trades that did not go through the Ancient Country Balance, each time goods were sent to another realm, a large amount of Heavenly Dao Gold and Silver had to be spent, and for such private shipments, one also had to pay the Tongtian Sect a certain commission each time, which was taken directly by the formation.

One could say that even if Ning Fan was transmitting junk, every transmission would cost quite a bit of money. Mistress Qiuling did not know how long Ning Fan intended to keep testing. Her composure was extremely high; she would not play the villain who interrupted his tests and instead patiently waited for Ning Fan to finish testing and start the real trade.

In the end, Ning Fan spent nearly a hundred taels of gold to send several hundred pieces of junk to the Little Mountain Realm, from which he compiled some data.

The large sample of statistics showed that his success rate in shipping goods was indeed higher than that of ordinary people, able to stably remain around eighty percent. Among those with the same good fortune, his cultivation was the lowest; among those with the same cultivation, his good fortune far exceeded that of his peers. This indeed was helpful for him in conducting private Ancient Country trades.

While others’ private cross-realm trades had a failure rate as high as one-third, his failure rate was only about twenty percent...

If his good fortune were raised further from this base, the failure rate should be able to drop even more...

Thinking of this, Ning Fan smiled slightly, having made up his mind. He suddenly undid the seal within his body and fully released the long-suppressed harvest of good fortune!

Back at the Investiture of Emperor Ceremony that year, Ning Fan had fused Reverse Big Dipper, that heaven-defying Divine Skill, into his Cross Halo.

From then on, even if he did not actively use Reverse Big Dipper, once he activated the Cross Halo to kill, he could devour his enemies’ good fortune.

Within the Dark Clan, Ning Fan had slain Dark Clan Immortal Emperors; upon the Boundary River, Ning Fan had also taken out a large handful of Different Race Immortal Emperors. Any one of these Immortal Emperors, taken at random, possessed the Seventh Color of Immortal Luck, an unparalleled level of fortune. Every time Ning Fan killed an Immortal Emperor, the Cross Halo would automatically seize the other party’s good fortune and feed that massive harvest of fortune back into Ning Fan’s body.

From Five-Color Immortal Fortune to the Sixth Spectrum of Immortal Luck required devouring roughly ten Sixth-Spectrum cultivators.

From Sixth Spectrum to Seventh Color required devouring roughly ten Seventh-Color cultivators.

The number of Immortal Emperors Ning Fan had killed had long since exceeded that threshold. At this moment, he released all the good fortune harvest that had been accumulating in his body and merged it into his umbrella of good fortune, and his fortune level instantly began to soar!

After a hundred breaths, Ning Fan’s fortune level broke through from the Fifth Color of Immortal Fortune to the Sixth Spectrum of Immortal Luck!

Another hundred breaths later, Ning Fan’s umbrella of fortune had turned into seven colors, and there was even a faint wisp of an eighth color appearing.

Seven-colored good fortune was something basically only Immortal Emperors were qualified to possess!

After seven colors, to then cultivate even a trace of an eighth color was something that, above the Four Heavens, only those Quasi-Saints could accomplish!

Without exaggeration, at this moment Ning Fan’s fortune level had already surpassed that of the Seventh Generation Slaughter Emperor and could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Quasi-Saints of the Four Heavens!

For such a level of good fortune to appear on an Eternal Immortal Venerable—one can well imagine just how explosively lucky this Eternal Cultivator was.

After his good fortune broke through, Ning Fan spent several dozen more taels of gold on a second round of transmission tests, and the result shocked him!

He transmitted over two hundred pieces of junk, and only three of them were swallowed; the rest all successfully arrived in the Little Mountain Realm!

His transmission success rate had actually approached ninety-nine percent! This was a trade success rate ordinary people could not even imagine!

Ning Fan nodded with satisfaction; he could now begin his trade with Mistress Qiuling.

In the end, of the 220,000 jin of wood Ning Fan sent out, only 3,000 jin failed to be transmitted; the rest all arrived in the Little Mountain Realm.

Even with Mistress Qiuling’s experience of six cycles of reincarnation, she was still shocked by Ning Fan’s heaven-defying luck. A trade success rate close to ninety-nine percent... truly enviable!

Once the goods were received, payment was due.

Based on the actual quantity received, Mistress Qiuling needed to pay Ning Fan a total of over 12 million low-grade Immeasurable Pills.

Her good fortune was only at an upper-middle level among Initial Saints of the same rank, so the Ancient Country trade success rate she could maintain was but around seventy-five percent. Among all traders, this already counted as a pretty good success rate, but compared with Ning Fan’s success rate, it was rather unsightly.

After over four million pills were swallowed by spatial turbulence, Mistress Qiuling finally finished sending all the pills and concluded the trade with Ning Fan.

By nature, she would never waste words with a stranger, but this time, before the trade ended, she unexpectedly asked Ning Fan a question on a sudden impulse.

"You... should not be an Initial Saint, correct?"

As soon as the words left her lips, Mistress Qiuling realized something was wrong and felt slightly embarrassed. Probing into the other party’s cultivations and background was the greatest taboo in Ancient Country transactions. The reason the Ancient Country trade could be trusted by all heavens and myriads of worlds lay precisely in its confidentiality and reliability.

"My apologies, I have misspoken..." Mistress Qiuling was just about to apologize to Ning Fan, when a hearty laugh came from the other side.

A very young laugh.

It seemed to carry none of the vicissitudes left behind by the sorrow of reincarnation...

As expected, this Slaughter Fox wasn’t a Saint, was he?

"Indeed, I am not a Saint. If this weren’t an Ancient Country trade, but a face-to-face meeting, I would probably have to address Mistress Qiuling as Senior. Unfortunately, the realm I am in is far too distant from the Little Mountain Realm. In this life we likely have no fate to meet in person and allow me to call you that one word, Senior."

He actually answered that question seriously...

Mistress Qiuling was stunned for a moment, then covered her mouth and laughed, bid him a "we’ll meet again if fate allows," then shut off the Ancient Country Trading Formation, ending her contact with Ning Fan.

She did not look down on Ning Fan just because he was not a Saint.

She was simply deeply impressed with him—someone who was not a Saint yet could acquire such a quantity as Eight Hundred Million Years Yin Chen Wood; among those of the same level, his good fortune was unmatched... Even if such an existence was not a Saint at the moment, in the future he had a great chance of stepping into the Firstly, pierce the body with the pin and draw the marks...

However, all heavens and myriads of worlds were so vast that even Saints might not necessarily cross paths. The two of them likely would have no further intersections, so Mistress Qiuling did not keep this transaction in mind.

...

Inside the Xuan Yin Treasure, Ning Fan’s eyes revealed delight as he gazed at the pile of Immeasurable Pills before him, stacked like mountains.

Five hundred Immeasurable Pills were enough to forge an Eternal Immortal Venerable.

He now carried twelve million Immeasurable Pills. If he used them solely in Eastern Heaven to forge Immortal Venerables, it would be enough to create over twenty thousand Newly Ascended Immortal Venerables!

With such a quantity of expensive pills on hand, even if the Divine Spirit Wasted Body devoured most of the medicinal power, it would still be enough to make his cultivations skyrocket.

To what realm specifically it could soar would depend on how he later took the pills and cultivated...

This transaction, thanks to Ning Fan’s astonishing good fortune, could be called a complete success. Not long after it ended, Ning Fan received another piece of good news.

His Sixteen-Heart Pill had succeeded in refinement!

When Ning Fan entered the Realm of Incense Offering, what he saw were six Alchemy Masters in such a ruined state they could hardly be called human, offering up the Sixteen-Heart Pill to him like presenting a treasure.

In order to guarantee the success rate of the Sixteen-Heart Pill, these six spared no cost in destroying their own Alchemy Dao, fusing their own Medicine Souls into the pill; the price they paid could not be called anything but enormous.

Among them, four had permanently fallen from the realm of gold-grade Nine Revolutions of the River Medicine Soul due to the self-destruction of their Medicine Souls; the remaining two likewise suffered severe damage, the foundations of their Medicine Souls grievously wounded, making it impossible for them to ever advance their Medicine Souls again in this life.

These six were all disciples of the Supreme Pill Sacred Domain’s Immortal Emperors, and had once been enemies of Ning Fan.

Ning Fan would not sympathize with enemies, but he had always been a man of his word. Since these six had helped him refine the Sixteen-Heart Pill, he would return their freedom. When he traveled again to the Supreme Pill Sacred Domain in the future, he would naturally let the six leave.

Having obtained Ning Fan’s promise, the six were overjoyed, feeling that the more than ten years of effort had not been in vain, and they thanked Ning Fan profusely.

Ning Fan recalled the Primordial Thunder Cauldron and the Flame Thunder Fire, returned to the Xuan Yin Treasure, and began preparing for the upcoming cultivation.

With the endurance of the Divine Spirit Wasted Body, Ning Fan could use the most overbearing methods to forcibly refine heavenly materials and earthly treasures while he refined them; the time needed was very short.

Others might need tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years to refine these expensive pills, but he was confident he could complete it within several decades!

The only thing that needed consideration was how to allocate the use of the Immeasurable Pills and the Sixteen-Heart Pill.

The cultivations gained from the Sixteen-Heart Pill did not raise a fixed amount of Mana; its effect varied with one’s realm.

There were two plans for taking the Sixteen-Heart Pill: the first was to use it on the lowest of his Ancient Demon Blood Wine cultivations, letting it directly soar to the Fourth Heaven of Ancestral Regression.

The second was to wait until one of his Divine cultivations broke through Four Calamity Immortal King, then take this pill to break through to Five Tribulations Immortal King.

Ning Fan had originally planned to weigh carefully which of the two was superior.

However, after he discovered a certain matter, he rejected both plans.

He discovered that the Blood Lightning cultivations, for which he had never found any way to increase, actually responded to the Sixteen-Heart Pill... This pill seemed able to raise his Blood Lightning cultivations!!!

"My Fiendgods, ancient demons, and Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor cultivations can all be improved through Immeasurable Pills, but my Blood Lightning cultivations alone has always had no cultivation method, unable to increase... In the past, Blood Lightning was my strong suit, while Divine cultivations were my weak spot; now, my Four Series Cultivation has reached a balance. But this balance cannot last long. If my Blood Lightning cultivations continues to stagnate, in the future it will instead become the shortcoming among my Four Series Cultivation..."

"It was hard enough to find something that can raise my Blood Lightning cultivations. If I used it to raise my Divine cultivations instead, it would be far too wasteful. There is only one thing that concerns me: among all the heavenly materials and earthly treasures I possess, why is it that only this Sixteen-Heart Pill can increase my Blood Lightning cultivations... If I can understand the crucial point within this, perhaps I can find a way to continue cultivating Blood Lightning..."

For a time, Ning Fan fell into deep thought.

...

There are no years in cultivation; in the flick of a finger, ten years passed.

For ordinary Eternal Cultivators, ten years was very short; even a hundred thousand years might not be enough to improve their cultivations by much, unless they experienced a tremendous stroke of by chance.

Ning Fan was different. Within these ten years, he refined away all the medicinal power of the Sixteen-Heart Pill and his cultivations advanced greatly!

A Royal Calamity Spirit was comparable to a Saint.

True Blood Three Stars was comparable to an Eternal Immortal Venerable.

Ten years ago, Ning Fan’s Blood Lightning cultivations had been at the level of True Blood Three Stars.

After ten years, his Blood Lightning cultivations broke through one level after another, and ultimately broke through to True Blood Four Stars!

A Taicang Calamity Spirit of True Blood Four Stars was roughly equivalent to a mid-upper level existence among Four Calamity Immortal Kings.

It could be said that from the moment he broke through to True Blood Four Stars, Ning Fan could no longer be considered an Eternal Immortal Venerable, but had truly stepped into the level of an Immortal King!

Although his Mana had already exceeded that of many Four Calamity Immortal Kings before, only at this moment could he be said to truly possess the Immortal King Realm!

"So this is the power of True Blood Four Stars!"

Feeling the continuous surge of Jie Nian Zhi Li within his body, Ning Fan was exceedingly satisfied. After briefly stabilizing his realm, he threw himself into the second round of cultivation.

He began taking Immeasurable Pills!

He began with the cultivation of Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor blood. After taking more than twenty thousand Immeasurable Pills, his Ancient Demon Blood Wine cultivations naturally broke through to the First Heaven of Restoring the Ancestors!

With Five-Hundred Tribulation Power, one could become a Newly Ascended Immortal Venerable.

With a thousand tribulation power, one could become a First Calamity Immortal Sovereign.

With two thousand tribulation power, one could break through to Second Calamity Immortal Lord.

Every time the Timeless Realm rose by one level, it required double the amount of Immeasurable Pills to raise the same quantity of power as before.

Thus, Ning Fan had to take another eighty thousand Immeasurable Pills to have his Ancient Demon Blood Wine cultivations break through to the Second Heavenly Layer of Restoring the Ancestors.

He then took one hundred and sixty thousand expensive pills to push both his Fiendgods and ancient demons cultivations to the Second Calamity of the Eternals.

After that, Ning Fan began to fully assault the Immortal King bottleneck of his Divine cultivations!

All three of these cultivations breaking through to Triple Calamity Immortal King, in theory, would only require five hundred thousand Immeasurable Pills in total.

But this time, the Divine Spirit Wasted Body seemed to go mad, recklessly seizing all the medicinal power of the Immeasurable Pills, not leaving even the slightest shred to Ning Fan.

It seemed that the Divine Spirit Wasted Body had reached some extremely critical moment of evolution...

One hundred thousand pills went down, yet the greed of the Divine Spirit Wasted Body could not be sated.

One million pills went down, and it still could not satisfy the Divine Spirit Wasted Body.

Two million, three million, four million...

Inside Ning Fan’s body, it was as if a bottomless pit had appeared, needing a massive amount of expensive pills to fill it before it could be sated.

Clearly he was at the critical juncture where his Divine cultivation was breaking through to Immortal King, yet that damned Divine Spirit Wasted Body was making trouble behind his back; Ning Fan felt his whole being was going to fall apart!

Originally, he had thought that with more than ten million Immeasurable Pills on him, he would have an extremely high chance of impacting the Immortal Emperor Realm.

Yet the result was that he had only barely managed to break through to the realm of Triple Calamity Immortal King. This damned Divine Spirit Wasted Body, did it intend to gulp down all his more than ten million Immeasurable Pills in one breath!

Do you have any idea that ten million Immeasurable Pills can create twenty thousand Eternal Immortal Venerables!

Fine, but when he thought of twenty thousand Eternal Immortal Venerables, Ning Fan actually didn’t feel any fear at all. His vision seemed to be getting higher and higher; those far inferior to him, no matter how many they were, seemed no longer able to make him feel any apprehension.

This was not arrogance, but a matter of strength. Had it been in the Ancient era, Ning Fan would not have dared to so blatantly disregard the number of Immortal Venerables; but in this Era of Decline, Eternal Immortal Venerables were truly weak, so weak...

Time flew, and flying away with it was also the little mountain of Immeasurable Pills within Ning Fan’s Xuan Yin Treasure.

The number of Immeasurable Pills grew smaller and smaller. Ning Fan felt acute heartache, yet he simply could not satisfy the greed of the Divine Spirit Wasted Body, and could only let the Immeasurable Pills be eaten to its heart’s content.

Reason told him that though such wanton use of Immeasurable Pills would cause him to temporarily lose his chance at a one-shot breakthrough to Immortal Emperor, the benefits brought by its evolution seemed even greater...

The Divine Spirit Wasted Body had never disappointed him; this time, presumably, it would not disappoint either.

When only a few hundred thousand Immeasurable Pills remained, the Divine Spirit Wasted Body, now glutted like a Taotie, at last stopped completely monopolizing the medicinal power of the Immeasurable Pills. As before, it left Ning Fan a sliver of medicinal power to raise his cultivations, as though it were reaching the saturation point of what medicinal power it could devour...

Looking at the few hundred thousand expensive pills that were all that remained, Ning Fan could only give a bitter smile. This quantity of expensive pills was definitely not enough to impact the Immortal Emperor Realm; at most, he could still make a push for Immortal King.

If it were anyone else, with the Immortal Emperor Realm already at hand suddenly flying away, their spirit sense would surely be left with a shadow.

But what sort of experiences had Ning Fan not been through? Back then, when he lost the Heaven-Opening Artifact, even then his spirit sense had not collapsed; how could he now sigh and moan over mere Immeasurable Pills.

Besides, all these Immeasurable Pills had been looted for free from the Eastern Boundary River. Since the Eastern Boundary River possessed such reserves of Eight Hundred Million Years Yin Chen Wood, then the Boundary Rivers of the West, South, and North must also have them. If he wanted his cultivations to soar and to achieve Immortal Emperor in one stroke, he would have plenty of chances; there was no need to be overly dejected.

Once this thought arose, Ning Fan found his spirit sense even more solid. Indeed, between gain and loss, that was when humans most easily attained growth.

He calmed his heart and focused on breaking through the bottleneck of Immortal King. Another dozen-plus years passed, and relying on the remaining several hundred thousand Immeasurable Pills, Ning Fan’s Divine Demon cultivation finally all advanced into the level of Triple Calamity Immortal King!

Thus his Divine Demon cultivations each possessed three thousand tribulations of Mana; added together that was nine thousand tribulations! In terms of the sheer depth of Mana alone, Ning Fan, relying only on his Divine Demon cultivation, could already rival a Nine Tribulations Immortal Emperor!

If he further factored in his Calamity Blood Cultivation, Ning Fan’s total Mana was roughly at the height of thirteen thousand five hundred tribulations.

What sort of concept was such Mana!

One must know that the threshold of Mana for a Quasi-Saint was only ten thousand tribulations; in other words, the depth of Ning Fan’s Mana could already be compared to that of some First Order Quasi-Saints in the Era of Decline!

From this day on, Nine Tribulations Immortal Emperors and Half-Step Quasi-Saints born in the Era of Decline would no longer be huge enemies to him!

Ning Fan’s Four Series Cultivation was finally beginning to show its edge!

If the Divine Spirit Wasted Body had not eaten more than ten million Immeasurable Pills, his Four Series cultivations at this moment might have been even more terrifying...

Of course, once one reached the level of Quasi-Saint, the depth of Mana was no longer the primary standard by which to measure strength. Divine Skills, magical treasure, Control Positions, Eye-Opening and a host of other factors were the decisive elements in judging whether a Quasi-Saint was powerful.

Ning Fan’s current Mana was enough to ensure that when facing a First Order Quasi-Saint, he possessed the power to fight.

Of course, it was only the power to fight. In a one-on-one duel, Ning Fan would likely lose nine out of ten times; even if by a stroke of chance he did not lose, at most he could battle the opponent to a draw, and by no means could he win.

Even Quasi-Saints of the Era of Decline still carried the character "Saint"; they were far from comparable to an Immortal Emperor.

Forget it, Immortal King is Immortal King; Ning Fan knew when to quit while ahead. Driving all Four Series cultivations to Immortal King in one breath had already left his aura somewhat hollow. If he had forced his way straight to Immortal Emperor, he might well have been stuck at Sixth Calamity Immortal Emperor Realm for the rest of this life, never to advance another inch...

"Perhaps I should use some blood-soaked battles to temper and solidify my aura..." Ning Fan thought to himself.

As for the Divine Spirit Wasted Body... Ning Fan was extremely curious what kind of change this gluttonous fellow would undergo after taking in the vast medicinal power of ten million Immeasurable Pills!

When the Divine Spirit Wasted Body slowly finished its evolution, Ning Fan’s eyes suddenly lit up and he burst out laughing.

Previously, because of how domineering the Divine Spirit Wasted Body was, whenever he took Immeasurable Pills, a huge portion of the medicinal power would be forcibly seized away, causing the number of Immeasurable Pills he needed for cultivation to far exceed that of others.

But after this incident, the Divine Spirit Wasted Body had its gluttony unleashed to the fullest and crazily devoured ten million Immeasurable Pills in one go, permanently stuffing itself full, full. From now on, the Divine Spirit Wasted Body would no longer affect Ning Fan’s absorption of medicinal power. When he charged for the Four Calamity Immortal King realm again, it would definitely be much easier; a few tens of thousands of Immeasurable Pills should be enough...

As for a few tens of thousands of Immeasurable Pills, with Ning Fan’s current cultivation, wouldn’t that be something he could obtain with ease, snatch them in one go without fail? Looks like even though ten million expensive pills had been crazily eaten by the Divine Spirit Wasted Body, the Immortal Emperor Realm was still not that far off.

This time, the completed evolution of the Divine Spirit Wasted Body did not directly evolve Ning Fan into an Acquired Deity, but instead brought some strange changes to Ning Fan’s Divine Spirit Body.

First of all, the toughness of Ning Fan’s Divine Spirit Body rose sharply; the increase in defense was utterly terrifying. Ning Fan would have to personally go through an Immortal Emperor–level great battle before he could truly determine just how strong his Divine Spirit Body had become.

Secondly, the scattered Divine Power within Ning Fan’s body gathered together and formed a unique [Godhood]!

In the future, if Ning Fan wished to become an Acquired Deity, he would have to find ways to continuously strengthen his Godhood! The condensation of Godhood also signaled that Ning Fan was officially beginning his campaign toward the Acquired Divine path!

What is Godhood...

If you had to put it into words, Godhood is somewhat like the Control Position of a Control Position Immortal Emperor...

No, that analogy isn’t accurate, because in Ning Fan’s view, all living beings in this world are actually imitating the cultivation of the Far Ancient Divine Spirits.

First there were Divine Spirits, then came Immortal Spirits, and only after that did the cultivators of the All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds appear.

Immortal Spirits imitated Divine Spirits and nurtured Immortal Status, while the descendants of Immortal Spirits then imitated Immortal Status and cultivated Control Positions...

Ning Fan originally did not understand this, but at the instant his Godhood condensed, countless Divine memories regarding Godhood surfaced in his mind—this was the [Ancestral God’s Blessing] that every Crippled Divine Spirit who condensed Godhood would obtain!

Ning Fan had merely taken the first step of possessing Godhood; at this moment, his Godhood was blank and needed things to be filled into it so that the Godhood could continuously rise.

In that case, one had to bring up the cultivation of Wood Yin-Yang.

The cultivation of the Twenty-Seven Yin-Yang, to put it bluntly, is entirely for the sake of step by step cultivating out Control Positions, and in the end obtaining the power of the twenty-seven kinds of Control Positions, standing proudly above the masses.

The Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor did it like this, but Ning Fan did not. His greatest difference from the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor lies in... he is a Divine Spirit, possessing the most orthodox and most ancient cultivation method between heaven and earth!

He already had Godhood—why would he still cultivate Control Positions that were several grades lower than Godhood?

That day when Ning Fan stole the Gloomy Wood, every time he went to a vein, he would capture the Wood Dragons that had been piling up there for countless years.

Thus, while he harvested 220,000 jin of lumber, he also gained several hundred thousand Wood Dragons whose wood qi was incomparably pure.

Ning Fan devoured all these Wood Dragons, causing his Wood Yin-Yang cultivation to skyrocket, actually breaking through from small success in Control Position all the way to the middle stage of Control Position!

Masters at the middle stage of Control Position can nurture the Palatial Void. But here came another problem: to condense the Palatial Void, one needed to use some special methods.

For example, the Method of Opening Eyes, the Dao Fruit of Control Position method, the Heartless Method, and so on... in short, it was not an easy matter.

Ning Fan had originally been studying which method he should use to truly cultivate out the Wooden Control Position Palatial Void.

Very soon, he realized he did not need to agonize over it.

The Divine Spirit Wasted Body no longer snatched the medicinal power of his pills now.

It had changed its taste.

It actually directly ate up the nascent Wooden Control Position Palatial Void he had just begun to condense!

Ning Fan turned to stone on the spot, speechless to the point of choking: After eating ten million Immeasurable Pills, now you’re eating Palatial Void—do you know how many Immortal Emperors dream of possessing a Control Position? What you ate isn’t just a Control Position, it’s the lifelong pursuit of countless Immortal Emperors of the Decline...

Because it devoured the embryonic void of the Wooden Control Position, Ning Fan’s Godhood evolved once more, developing Wood Divine Power and condensing into [Godhood of Wood]...

If in the era when the Far Ancient Divine Spirits flourished someone appeared who awakened a Godhood, that would not have been such a big deal. Among those Divine Spirits who awakened the same Godhood, if there weren’t ten thousand, there would be eight thousand; among them, only the one whose Godhood was strongest could obtain the Ancestral God’s Blessing and advance to become the [Wood Father God] or [Wood Mother God] of that Godhood.

But is this now an age where the gods flourish?

It is now an age of the extinction of gods; how many gods are still left in this world is unknown, and as for how many among them cultivate the Godhood of Wood, that is even more impossible to say.

The result...

Something very wondrous occurred...

At the instant Ning Fan obtained the Godhood of Wood, he simultaneously received the Ancestral God’s Blessing for the second time, causing countless divine memories to appear deep within his sea of consciousness.

Those memories contained the records, from the birth of the Ancestral God across endless reincarnations, of all the Wood Father Gods and Wood Mother Gods.

To his astonishment, under the Ancestral God’s Blessing, Ning Fan was gloriously granted the honorable title of the 9,122nd "Wood Father God".

And at the same time as he received this title, a divine talent called "Control of Wood" appeared within his body...

This was the second divine talent on Ning Fan’s body; it did not sound domineering at all, yet it contained a terrifying power sufficient to rule over the very source of the world!

At this moment, all plants and trees, all wood-born beings between heaven and earth, became Ning Fan’s servants!

At this moment, Ning Fan was the Father of all vegetation in the world, able to grant life to any plant, or strip it away!

Only if another god possessing the Godhood of Wood were to issue a divine challenge to Ning Fan and succeed could they seize Ning Fan’s Father God title. Otherwise, so long as Ning Fan did not die, all wood under heaven and earth must obey his command and acknowledge him as father!

What does this signify?

It signifies that someone like Daoist Wood Pine, whose lifetime of Divine Skills were all in the character "wood," even though he possessed Second-Grade Quasi-Saint cultivation, could have his Wooden Control Position abolished by Ning Fan in an instant, his Taoist attainments washed away like flowing water... As for those wood cultivators inferior to Daoist Wood Pine, they likely would not be able to withstand even a casual strike from Ning Fan...

Father of all wood between heaven and earth—this title alone is enough to shatter the dreams of those Immortal Emperors of the Decline who become so complacent after merely cultivating a Wooden Control Position...

This is a height in the element of wood that Daoist Wood Pine could not reach even if he exhausted his entire life!

It is also a height that even the Ancient Chaos Grand Emperor, who rampaged throughout the Immemorial Evil Vein, never managed to attain!

If this were the era of gods, a crippled divine spirit not even an Innate Divine Spirit would absolutely have no qualification to become a Father God.

The era destroyed the gods.

Yet the era also created Ning Fan.

It is misfortune, yet also fortune. It is great fortune, yet also misfortune.

Ning Fan did not know what kind of great upheaval occurred in the Three Great Realms beyond countless Real Realms at the instant he inherited the Father God title, nor how they were frantically investigating this matter.

In any case, in the Dreamland Realm where he currently resided, no one sensed this event. And the completion of the Father God Godhood meant that Ning Fan had finally ended his more than forty years of cultivation.

Yes, he had been in seclusion for over forty years in total; if one counted the eleven years spent stealing Gloomy Wood, then more than fifty years had passed since that battle back then.

The situation at the Boundary River had undergone tremendous change during these fifty years!

Leaving the Xuan Yin Treasure and returning to Lingyun Pass, the first thing Ning Fan did was to inquire about the current situation at the Boundary River.

To his surprise, after several decades, the fronts of the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Routes still had not been fully reclaimed; all were stuck at the final main pass, unable to break through.

No wonder that after so many years, Emperor Cang and the others still had not summoned him to repair the Immortal Emperor Seal; it turned out that Emperor Cang and the others had yet to achieve the precondition for repairing the seal.

At present, on each of the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Routes, there were no fewer than ten Different Race Immortal Emperors sitting in town. Back then, in order to hunt Ning Fan, the Eleventh Path had used up the vast majority of the quota for Immortal Emperors to emerge from the river. Dozens of years later, those quotas had long since recovered, and several dozen more Immortal Emperors had emerged. However, these Immortal Emperors no longer came out to hunt Ning Fan, but to accomplish a far more important objective.

They needed to concentrate their forces on the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Routes and annihilate as much of the Eastern Heaven Allied Forces’ strength as possible!

During the decades of Ning Fan’s closed-door cultivation, the Allied Forces of Boundary River suffered catastrophic casualties; around sixty percent of the Masters fell in battle at the Boundary River, their bones buried with no one to know.

Nearly half of the Immortal Venerable and Immortal Kings died in battle; even several Immortal Emperors perished...

Lei Xian and his spiritual partner both fell in battle.

Emperor Jizao was captured by the different race, and after his execution, his corpse was refined into a puppet.

Shenkong the Great Emperor of the Godly Void Pavilion fell into an ambush laid by a Different Race Immortal Emperor and was forcibly knocked down in realms, reduced to a mere Seven Calamity Immortal Emperor.

Zhenyuan Great Emperor died in battle.

Lady Guihua betrayed.

Immortal Elder Dongling betrayed. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Emperor Tielie died a gruesome death.

When his subordinates relayed these pieces of bad news to Ning Fan one by one, the joy from the great advance in his cultivations was washed away, and his heart was filled with a heavy weight, like black clouds crowding the sky and sudden wild winds rising—impossible to put into words, impossible to dispel.

While he had his head buried in cultivation, while he knew nothing of the outside world, so many figures had fallen, their bones buried here.

The Lei Xian couple and Emperor Jizao, who once fought shoulder to shoulder with him, were people he would never see again; the dead have gone beyond recall...

What angered Ning Fan even more was that within the Eastern Heaven Allied Forces, there had actually been two more Immortal Emperors who betrayed!

Previously, it had been Maha Emperor who defected to the different race!

Now, Lady Guihua and Dongling—two Immortal Emperors—had fled as well! Is betrayal such a trivial game to play!

Whether these two had betrayed before the war, or, like Maha, had long been entangled with the different race, Ning Fan could not be sure.

His heart grew unbearably heavy, and there was also an indescribable self-reproach; he regretted having wasted over fifty years.

If he had not gone into seclusion, if he had ignored Taiyuan Crossing’s orders and willfully left the Eleventh Path to rush to the aid of the other routes, would Emperor Jizao and the others perhaps not have died?

Would there perhaps have been fewer people sacrificing their lives to defend Eastern Heaven...

The scene of him consulting Emperor Jizao on divination was still vivid before his eyes. Ning Fan had originally planned to find an opportunity to repay this unreserved Divination Grandmaster a little; now it seemed there would be no chance to repay him...

"My apologies. This time my seclusion lasted a bit too long. I’ve only just learned of the situation at the Boundary River..." Ning Fan established contact with Emperor Cang; his tone was icy, yet Emperor Cang still heard the self-reproach and guilt within.

At this moment, Emperor Cang was no longer at Taiyuan Crossing. Because of the drastic worsening of the situation, he could not sit securely at the rear; he had no choice but to rush to the front lines and join the battle.

Receiving Ning Fan’s transmission, Emperor Cang was greatly relieved; coughing as he spoke, he gave a bitter laugh and said,

"I truly never expected that the First Demon of Eastern Heaven, who has always scorned life and death, would actually blame himself for the passing of a few lives. But what obligation do you have to blame yourself? You are only an Immortal Venerable, a vice-commander. Up to now, you have already overfulfilled your duty; you have protected the Eleventh Path, protected your men. You have done more than enough; there is no need to carry the rise and fall of all Eastern Heaven upon your shoulders. I am the Alliance Hierarch! The one who should feel guilt, who should be responsible, is me! We have come to this alliance and defend Eastern Heaven all of our own free will, long prepared to die in battle. That is true enough, but if not for my incompetence, how could the allied army’s interior see traitors appear again and again, without me detecting anything beforehand... First it was Mysterious Scholar Dan and Maha, who drove you into crisis; then Ghost Flowers and Dongling, who caused Daoist Tieli’s death. Hateful, hateful! Cough, cough, cough..."

It seemed that his anger tugged at his injuries; from the other end of the messaging jade scroll came the sound of Emperor Cang’s intense coughing.

When his breathing had calmed, Emperor Cang let out a long sigh and said bitterly, "You’ve heard something of the Boundary River situation as well. This elder never imagined that even Dongling would be a traitor! He leaked our plans to the different race, and he got Daoist Tieli killed. When they learned that reclaiming the water passes would help restore the Immortal Emperor Seal, those different race bastards were greatly shocked; that very day they reinforced their troops and turned the water passes of the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Routes into ironclad fortresses, giving us no chance whatsoever to reclaim them. Thus, to this moment, these three routes have been unable to be fully retaken. In such a case, the next phase of the plan cannot be initiated, and that is why this elder has delayed notifying you to come out, letting you continue in seclusion... Now that you have emerged, what are your intentions?"

"I’ve stayed on the Eleventh Path long enough; it’s time to change places. Among the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Routes, which one is in the greatest need of support... It’s my turn to contribute."

"Go to the Third Route. Recently, I don’t know what has been happening there, but powerful figures have been mysteriously disappearing one after another. Half a month ago, even Daoist Lai Jun was taken away by a streak of red light and vanished without a trace. His soul plate has not shattered, so he should still be alive; I imagine he’s been trapped somewhere by the different race. He hates the different race to the bone, so I doubt he would defect to them. This elder has had quite some dealings with him and knows his character well. His disappearance troubles this elder greatly; I do not wish to see another Immortal Emperor Daoist friend fall..."

"Very well! I will go to the Third Route and investigate this matter!"

If there is a chance, I will also reclaim the main pass of the Third Route in one fell swoop! Ning Fan silently made his resolve in his heart. Had he not spent fifty years in obscurity precisely for this moment to amaze the world with a single feat? If the different race learned that in a mere fifty years he had grown this powerful, what kind of expressions would they have?

According to the intelligence, there were currently nine Different Race Immortal Emperors sitting in town at White Tiger Pass, the main pass of the Third Route.

For the Eastern Heavenly Emperors stationed on the Third Route, nine Different Race Immortal Emperors were enough to plunge them into despair.

But for Ning Fan, with his explosive growth in strength, facing such a number of Immortal Emperors, even without using the Water-Flooding Realm Bottle, he would not be as battered and miserable as he had been last time.

If Emperor Cang and the others cannot reclaim these three routes... then let him complete this task instead, and it will be the same!