Even if Xuan Nu and Wu Ding were unwilling, now that it concerned Ye Fan’s cultivation, and considering this was no longer their first time serving as Ye Fan’s furnace cauldrons, they themselves had already come to terms with it.

But they still carried a knot in their hearts; when facing Ye Fan, they would appear very reserved, especially Xuan Nu and Wu Ding.

Ye Fan, on the other hand, needed to continue cultivating Pure Yang Spiritual Energy. This was currently the best method for him to advance. Right now he had another way to help himself obtain even higher cultivation: using the method of allowing the six small crystals to gain human forms, then using the power of the six crystals after their advancement. But Ye Fan kept feeling that, at present, the six small crystals still lacked the ability to control all elemental forces. So even though he already had some means to let the six crystals, in the form of artifact spirits, provide elemental energy sources, the six crystals would still be lacking in certain respects.

As Ye Fan cultivated Pure Yang Spiritual Energy, his heart was pondering this question: "If what I wield are elemental forces, I’ll always fall short in some areas and be unable to fully bring out my advantages. I’m still not sure what level my limit in cultivation can reach, though I expect it shouldn’t be too bad. But if I can fully master the power of the six small crystals, my strength will still surpass most ancient-era cultivators. As for whether I can battle against top ancient cultivators like Nuwa, Pan Gu, and Fu Xi—that remains unknown!"

Very soon, Ye Fan felt that his Pure Yang Spiritual Energy was already approaching the brink of ascension.

With the fullness of elemental power, his cultivation of Spiritual Energy now yielded twice the result with half the effort. At this moment he was like a cup filled to the brim with water, ready to spill over at any time, yet this flow of water seemed unable to break a certain bottleneck. Standing at the edge between ascending and not ascending, he had to do his utmost to avoid stepping across that ascension threshold.

"Congratulations, young master, your cultivation has increased yet again!"

Sang Yuan was the one who could most directly sense Ye Fan’s cultivation gains. Smiling brightly, she congratulated him.

Ye Fan’s gaze was very deep. In this state, he felt that his Spiritual Energy power had already reached a point where it was hard to suppress. He could even unleash this power completely and thereby step across the gate of ascension. But since he was in a secret realm, if he ascended within it, all kinds of backlash forces might appear out of thin air, and whether he could ever return to the secret realm in the future would be another problem.

The reason ancient-era cultivators did not suffer the restriction of being unable to return to the secret realm after ascension was because when Pan Gu, Fu Xi, and the others created the Pan Gu Secret Realm, they had left a passageway for them. Human cultivators, however, could not pass through such a channel. Ye Fan also knew that once he underwent tribulation and ascended, he would be just like those Immortals—unable to return to the secret realm for a short time. At that point, he had no idea how he would face the difficulties before him, because the secret realm was where the truly major matters he was planning lay. Even those mysterious powers had begun to gradually infiltrate into the secret realm!

Aside from Sang Yuan, the others also awoke one after another from the furnace-cauldron cultivation mode. Their expressions all carried fatigue, because Ye Fan’s furnace-cauldron cultivation helped them gain tremendous benefits, yet such progress exceeded what their current bodies could bear. Only on Xuan Nu’s side, not only was there no improvement, there was even some loss—but this loss was insignificant for an ancient-era cultivator.

...

...

Ye Fan stood up and first tested the power within his body. He felt that his strength was extremely great, yet this strength came from Spiritual Energy, not from elemental force. He was thinking of ways to convert his Pure Yang Spiritual Energy into elemental force, but unfortunately this transformation was single-channel; Pure Yang Spiritual Energy could not be reversed into elemental power.

The six small crystals came out of Ye Fan’s body one after another. Taking on artifact-spirit forms, they flew around Ye Fan. The six small crystals seemed to sense some kind of powerful force swirling around their bodies. They wanted to convert this force into their own, but unfortunately this power could not be controlled by them.

"Master, this power is so strange. Can’t we convert it to our own use? Master, please help me, alright?" Little Purple Crystal asked.

Ye Fan replied through the Tongling Mirror: "This power isn’t under my control either. I feel that my Pure Yang Spiritual Energy can bring about a certain mysterious power. What exactly this power is, I still don’t know. What I can sense is that whenever I use Pure Yang Spiritual Energy, this force always circles around my body. When I realized it couldn’t be used by me, I wanted to drive it away, but that’s troublesome as well!"

Little Red Crystal said, "But Master, when I feel a powerful force around me yet can’t convert it to my own use, it’s such a pity!"

"Perhaps only after you obtain human forms will you be able to fully control this power. But even now, for Zi Ying, her human form still isn’t very stable. The only method I can think of is to let you all obtain human bodies as soon as possible. For now, don’t concern yourselves with the mysterious power brought by this Pure Yang Spiritual Energy. I can summon this power at any time, and as for how to use it in the future, that’s something we’ll have to slowly discover!" After Ye Fan finished speaking, he began pondering another problem.

Namely how he would help the crystals continue to obtain exalted power. The power he had absorbed before in the ** of the Death Sea in the Pan Gu Secret Realm was still not enough to let the crystals fully ignite the potential within their bodies.

The crystals were still circling that mysterious power. Ye Fan had already thought out his next move: he planned to go take a look at the Sea of Death. That was also the most mysterious place in the entire secret realm. He had been there several times before, searching for traces of the ancient Immortal Artifact Tai Ning, but up to now he still hadn’t undone Tai Ning’s seal. At present, Tai Ning was still left with Li Zhaojun.

Suddenly thinking of Tai Ning, Ye Fan couldn’t help asking Xuan Nu, "Do you know any detailed information about Tai Ning? You clearly knew before that Tai Ning could be taken in by Zhao Jun."

"There are many legends about Tai Ning, but the greatest one is that she can be controlled by a female cultivator with a Pure Yin constitution. Because Tai Ning herself is only a Magic Artifact of a human cultivator, there are many things I don’t really understand. If you ask Fu Xi, the result might be better, because Fu Xi is very knowledgeable about such matters. He has deeply researched all ancient Magic Artifacts!" Xuan Nu said.

Ye Fan shook his head. "Right now we don’t even know whether Pan Gu and Fu Xi have awakened. Those two are the greatest threats in the cultivation world, and you’re actually telling me to go ask them? Are you trying to say this matter has nothing to do with you in the first place?"

"If I don’t know, then I don’t know. I absolutely haven’t lied!" Xuan Nu said with firm conviction.