Chapter 345: The Second Crystal Core

In a fairly spacious room, inside a golden sphere, Ye Feng sat in meditation within his own domain. This domain had originally belonged to a powerful dragon, and he had merely re-established its rules. However, he couldn’t predict what changes his rules would bring to this domain.
Using his domain for the second time, he became much more familiar with its original rules and quickly drew the seven opponents into his dream realm. To his surprise, though he couldn’t see what they saw in the dream, he could sense the connection between their souls and bodies. Once trapped in the dream, their souls would enter it, and the longer they stayed, the weaker the connection to their bodies became, until eventually the soul was completely immersed in the dream, severed from the body. This function was entirely unexpected.
After failing to discover anything further, Ye Feng returned the ultimate puppet to the storage space in the void realm and appeared in his domain in his true form. Then he sat cross-legged and carefully checked the condition of his body.
“Using puppets not only requires a large amount of domain energy but also has usage limits. To survive in a place like the Demon Realm, my true form’s strength needs to be greatly enhanced,” Ye Feng said as if to himself. “But for now, finding the pearl is more urgent; I can’t engage in deep-level cultivation.”
As he spoke, he sent his mental energy into his body. A dark cloud occupied half of his dantian, with a linear structure extending from it and connecting to the white crystal core inside Ye Feng’s body, forming a thin layer of black mist outside the core.
Since arriving in the Demon Realm, Ye Feng had hardly had time for cultivation. He simply let the dark cloud nurture the crystal core within him. Over several months, the core grew slightly larger and became much harder, but the dark cloud didn’t shrink at all—instead, it expanded.
“What’s going on?” Ye Feng was puzzled. Logically, the crystal core in his body was formed after he became a Void Walker and was of a high rank. The dark cloud, on the other hand, was residual energy from an attack by an ancient monster in Long Tian’s body, with a higher energy level than his own core. Yet, the core growing larger and stronger should have been due to absorbing some of the dark cloud, but the dark cloud neither decreased nor vanished—it only increased.

If not for Ye Feng having already taken control of this dark cloud with his ultimate repair power, he really wouldn’t have known what to do. Now, he wasn’t worried about the dark cloud growing any further—he knew that as long as he didn’t give the order, the cloud wouldn’t appear again to devour the spiritual crystals within his body.
“This dark cloud…” Ye Feng frowned slightly. “It’s actually absorbing energy from the outside through the dantian on its own… Although I can control this dark cloud now, I can’t use the energy it refines.”
After pondering for a moment, a sudden insight struck Ye Feng. “How about trying the techniques from the martial arts scripture to see if I can also condense this dark cloud into a crystal core… With the refinement through these techniques, who knows—I might even be able to use energy of this level…”
Acting on his thought was Ye Feng’s long-standing habit. After all, many moments of inspiration come in one’s life, and it’s best not to let such a spark slip away—after all, a small idea could completely change a person’s fate. It was precisely because he understood this that Ye Feng became someone who dared to try.
Guiding the black energy along the paths specified in the martial arts scripture, Ye Feng didn’t feel the slightest awkwardness. Yet the black energy’s effect on strengthening his meridians was terrifying—wherever the energy passed, his meridians felt a tingling sensation akin to an electric shock. The meridians strengthened several times over after being passed through by the black energy. This result truly surprised Ye Feng. What surprised him even more was that after one full cycle, less than one percent of the black energy had been consumed—meaning that such significant strengthening of the meridians required almost no energy at all. It could only be said that this black, cloud-like energy was extremely powerful.
Ye Feng slowly closed his eyes. The first cycle of energy circulation was merely for testing; the actual process of forming a crystal core began from this moment onward.

Focusing his mind, Ye Feng began to accelerate the flow of the black energy. The second cycle, the third cycle… By the ninth cycle, the speed of the black energy had reached its limit; no matter how hard Ye Feng tried to speed it up, it could not go any faster. Ye Feng knew that the energy flow had reached a critical stage. Starting from the tenth cycle, the black liquid began to slowly coalesce within his dantian. The eleventh cycle, the twelfth cycle… Just as the eighty-first cycle ended, the black, misty energy in Ye Feng’s dantian had completely transformed into a liquid the size of a thumb. Though small in volume, its surface was turbulent, constantly rolling. From time to time, terrifying vibrations emanated from within, causing Ye Feng to frown deeply.

“This energy is truly formidable. Even the techniques in the Martial Canon can only achieve such a level of cohesion, and it might even disintegrate at any moment…” Ye Feng was filled with awe.

At that moment, a intense white light suddenly appeared in his mental sea, shooting straight into his dantian.

“It’s the Martial Canon…” Ye Feng was slightly stunned.

The newly formed black liquid trembled even more. Before Ye Feng could react, a tiny black dot, like a grain of sand, shot out from the liquid at lightning speed, heading toward the source of the white light.

Ye Feng watched helplessly as the black dot disappeared into the white light, causing no ripples or any other reaction.

“What’s going on?” Ye Feng was completely confused. “Did the Martial Canon swallow that dot? And what exactly is that dot?”

As he pondered, a strong vibration came from his mind, causing him to feel dizzy before he found himself in empty space.

A figure that seemed familiar to Ye Feng appeared before him—it was Hongjun. Yet Hongjun seemed not to see him, his hands behind his back as he gazed at a distant starfield.

“This is…” Ye Feng immediately recalled a similar scene that had happened before. He focused all his attention on Hongjun, not missing a single detail.

Hongjun slowly pulled his right hand back from behind his back, raised it slowly, and pointed at that starfield, no smaller than the Milky Way…

A white light dot gradually formed at the tip of his finger, flickering slightly in the void. Moments later, a powerful shockwave emanated from that starfield. Even Ye Feng, who was in another starfield, could feel the immense residual energy.

“What?” Once Ye Feng stabilized himself, he stared in astonishment at what lay before him—the entire star domain from just moments ago had vanished completely, leaving no trace at all. “How is that possible? Just one finger strike, and an entire star domain the size of a galaxy disappears…”
Before he could recover from his shock, the void before him vanished, and messages that had existed since ancient times streamed into his mind.
“It seems that black dot triggered the martial code to activate this chapter prematurely. It’s a pity it was only a brief glimpse…” Ye Feng felt somewhat regretful. “So all this time I’ve been practicing, I’ve only mastered the first technique in the martial code—the ‘Concentrate’ technique. The fist demonstrated in the martial code earlier was mainly used for defense…”
“That terrifying ‘Break’ technique probably requires divine-level strength to truly unlock…” Thinking of this, Ye Feng sighed again. That single finger strike made him extremely eager.
After this demonstration, fluctuations arose in Ye Feng’s dantian, urging him to focus his mind.
“Huh…” As soon as Ye Feng’s mental energy re-entered his dantian, he discovered something surprising once more—the originally liquid black substance had now partially condensed into a black sphere filled with numerous small particles.
“Once these black crystals are fully formed, my cultivation level should reach the peak of the True Immortal tier or the early stage of the Heavenly Immortal tier. I should be able to handle a Golden Immortal at its peak without trouble. But facing a Mysterious Immortal might be a bit challenging…” Ye Feng made a rough estimate of his own strength. After all, he had already seen the cultivation levels of people like Fat and had a general idea of what a Golden Immortal and a Mysterious Immortal were capable of.
As time passed, the thumb-sized black liquid in Ye Feng’s body finally condensed into a grain-sized crystal, slightly smaller than the white crystals. Yet its power was no less formidable.
Within the golden realm, Ye Feng slowly opened his eyes. It was already noon the next day—he had practiced day and night without even realizing it.
“There are quite a few spies, but with this realm in place, no one has disturbed me throughout the day and night. Apparently, they haven’t figured out my true strength and dare not act rashly…” Ye Feng scanned with his mental energy and immediately detected many spies hiding around. “It seems my actions yesterday were quite effective in deterring them…”
What Ye Feng didn’t know was that the news of him killing seven top-tier warriors the previous day had spread throughout the entire Demon Realm within a day, if not immediately, then at least to all the major cities and first-class towns in the Demon Realm.

There were quite a few strong fighters who came from nearby upon hearing the news, eager to challenge him. However, seeing Ye Feng enveloped himself in a domain, they dared not take any action. Within that golden domain right before their eyes, seven top-tier strong fighters died in just the time it takes to drink tea. Who would dare to rush in recklessly? That would truly be seeking death.

Although some speculated that Ye Feng was in seclusion within the domain, planning to strike when the time was right, they still didn’t dare interfere. In the Demon Realm, it was normal for someone in seclusion to stay for months, and even years wasn’t considered long. Yet Ye Feng had only been inside the domain for a day, which made many who had such guesses wait patiently. They thought that if he still didn’t appear after three to five days, it was highly likely he was in seclusion. One day certainly didn’t prove anything. What they didn’t realize was that their own assumptions were actually helping Ye Feng greatly. Under such cultivation, if disturbed, one might suffer backlash at the least, or even go mad, or even die from internal explosion.

Ye Feng’s lips curled slightly. He had indeed gained a lot in just one day, and his mood improved significantly. He suppressed all traces of his aura, dismissed the domain, and slowly walked out of the inn.

Ye Feng’s appearance attracted a lot of attention.

As soon as he stepped out of the inn, an anxious voice came from not far away, “Blade Edge, Blade Edge…”
Ye Feng looked up…