Chapter 364: Nurturing Growth

Obtaining the two rewards—Refined Domain and Ultimate Bloodline—was completely beyond Ye Feng’s expectations. As for the bloodline, he believed he had made the right choice.
Yet, the Feather Emperor beside him felt regretful.
“270 billion points at the third-tier domain value; converted to the fourth tier, that’s 270 million points. An elite divine crystal costs 1 million points at the fourth-tier domain value, so ten of them total 10 million points,” Ye Feng muttered to himself. “I only have one more chance to use the cross-tier purchase privilege. But I can buy as many of the same item as I want in one go. I might as well buy twenty now and keep ten as a reserve.”
“Those semi-godly beings in the Heavenly Realm probably only have lower-grade divine crystals. It’s unlikely anyone even possesses middle-grade ones,” Ye Feng thought with a smirk. “I might as well buy some middle-grade and upper-grade divine crystals and resell them at this auction. Surely, powerful beings will fight over them…”
“I’ll take 100 upper-grade divine crystals and 1,000 middle-grade ones! It’s not much anyway. If I can’t sell them, I can use them myself. I just wonder if crystals of different grades can be considered a single transaction. If not, I’ll use the privilege again to get the cross-tier purchase ability and grab 100 upper-grade divine crystals first.” Ye Feng calculated silently. Rarity makes things valuable. If semi-godly beings don’t rely on divine crystals for cultivation, their progress will be extremely slow. And higher-grade divine crystals can even help them break through, which is why Ye Feng believed they would be fiercely contested by many such beings. In fact, to semi-godly beings, middle-grade divine crystals are far more valuable than middle-grade divine artifacts. Most powerful semi-godly beings with a solid foundation have entered various secret realms and acquired many middle-grade divine artifacts. But divine artifacts are not consumables—once you have them, the need isn’t as great. Divine crystals, on the other hand, are consumables that run out once used. Moreover, even if you can’t use them all in the Heavenly Realm, you can still use them in the Divine Realm. So, the more divine crystals they have, the better.
“Use cross-tier purchase privilege!” Ye Feng shouted. “Buy 20 elite divine crystals, 100 upper-grade divine crystals, and 1,000 middle-grade divine crystals.”
“Cross-tier purchase privilege used successfully. Ultimate discount privilege activated.”
“100 upper-grade divine crystals: 5% discount!”
“1,000 middle-grade divine crystals: 10% discount!”
“Total required: 38.5 million points at the fourth-tier domain value, equivalent to 38.5 billion points at the third-tier domain value.”
“Confirm purchase?”

“Yes!” Ye Feng’s lips curled slightly. “I forgot—I still have the discount privilege.”
“Deduct 38.5 billion points from the third-tier domain value!”
“Received: 20 top-grade divine crystals, 100 high-grade divine crystals, and 1,000 medium-grade divine crystals.”
“It seems that purchasing similar items all at once counts as using the cross-tier purchase privilege once,” Ye Feng said with a low laugh.
“It doesn’t have to be similar items either,” Yu Huang quickly corrected upon hearing Ye Feng’s words. “As long as it’s a single purchase, it counts.”
“Just like on Earth, when shopping in a supermarket, you definitely pick out all the items first and pay in one go, rather than paying for each item separately. This cross-tier purchase privilege is essentially a right to make a single purchase—you can buy as many items as you want, as long as it’s part of the same transaction,” Yu Huang added.
“I see. It seems I need to plan ahead next time I use it.” Ye Feng looked enlightened after hearing Yu Huang’s explanation.
After storing the other items in his locker, Ye Feng took out ten top-grade divine crystals. These golden-colored crystals were different from the simple rhombic shapes of the low-grade divine crystals. Low-grade divine crystals were hexahedra in the shape of a rhombus, similar to a cube but with two opposite diagonals stretched out. Medium-grade divine crystals were dodecahedra, high-grade ones were icosahedra, while the top-grade divine crystals in Ye Feng’s hands were 48-sided, almost spherical in shape, and several times smaller in volume than the low-grade ones.
“What should I do now?” Ye Feng asked Yu Huang.
“Arrange the divine crystals in a circle around your body. Sit in the middle and hold that seed with both hands,” Yu Huang instructed simply. “This way, the absorption speed will be slightly slower, but it will put less strain on you.”
Ye Feng arranged the ten top-grade divine crystals as instructed, sat back in the center, and held the black seed with both hands. By now, he already knew what to do without further guidance from Yu Huang.
The black crystal inside his dantian spun wildly, and black threads extended from his hundreds of acupoints, tightly wrapping around the ten divine crystals. They also wrapped tightly around the seed in Ye Feng’s hands.
Without any need for him to prompt them, the energy from the ten divine crystals began to flood into the seed.
Ye Feng also noticed that white and purple crystals in his dantian extended their tendrils and connected to the black crystal. The small amount of golden energy that had been overflowing disappeared quickly.

“It’s okay. The three crystals can support each other. If I relied solely on the black crystal, even just one percent of the excess energy would be enough to rupture my dantian,” Ye Feng thought, feeling slightly relieved. The energy contained in ten top-grade divine crystals—even just one percent—was comparable to that of a single high-grade divine crystal, and it was even purer. The energy in a high-grade divine crystal was sufficient for a godly being to restore all the energy in their body. If placed in Ye Feng’s dantian, it would likely cause it to burst. Although his dantian was of high rank, its capacity was only on par with that of a supreme being in the Heavenly Realm, far inferior to that of a godly being.

After about an hour, Ye Feng noticed that the energy in his dantian was beginning to overflow again. The white and purple crystals had reached saturation and could no longer absorb any extra energy.

“Damn it…” Ye Feng frowned. Although this was within his expectations, he hadn’t anticipated it happening so quickly. Glancing at the divine crystals around him, he saw that less than one-tenth of them had been used. He knew that if things continued like this, he would definitely not be able to endure until the cultivation process was complete.

“It seems I need to be stricter with myself!” Ye Feng quickly came up with a plan. “I’ll channel all the excess energy into my bones, nerves, and flesh… As long as I can boost my physical strength by another level, the maximum amount of energy that the black crystal and the other two crystals can absorb will increase again.”

He acted immediately, following his usual style. He activated the other two crystals and directed energy into his body.

A needle-like pain spread from deep within his bones, from his internal organs, and from his muscles… It seemed as though every cell in his body was under attack by needles. This was because the energy level exceeded what his body could withstand, causing cells to die and be replaced by new ones.

After a while, the strange pain subsided. Ye Feng found that the newly formed cells were several times stronger than before.

“This is…” Ye Feng was astonished as he used his mental power to examine his body. All his cells had been renewed three times, and the new cells were somehow able to survive despite the intense energy impact.

Ye Feng knew that the metabolism of people in the celestial realm was much faster than that of people on Earth, which was why their wounds healed quickly after being stabbed. In his own body, cells died in large numbers, and although new cells were formed, given his own metabolic rate, the speed at which new cells appeared was far too slow to keep up with the speed at which that energy killed cells. Ye Feng had originally planned to repair the cells with vital functions first, such as brain cells and liver cells… But unexpectedly, his body’s repair speed far exceeded his expectations. Without even needing to prompt it, it completed three full rounds of repair. Moreover, the strength of the newly repaired cells was nearly ten times that of the original cells.

“Could it be because of my Immortal Bloodline?” Ye Feng pondered for a while before arriving at this conclusion. “The cells regenerate three times, becoming eight times as strong as before, almost ten times… My body, originally as strong as an elite magic weapon, is now almost on par with a lower-grade divine weapon… Although there’s no breakthrough, the maximum capacity of the three crystals has also increased to some extent…”

It was only then that Ye Feng’s crisis was finally resolved.

After what seemed like a long time, someone knocked on Ye Feng’s door.

“A formation has been set up, but he’s not here… What’s this guy up to?” Zi Ji Zunzhe turned to look at Pearl beside him.

“Isn’t he inside the formation?” Pearl asked curiously.

“No. This kind of formation can’t block my mental detection. He set it up just as a reminder,” Zi Ji Zunzhe nodded.

“Strange. He left the auction hall so early. We went around those stalls just now and didn’t see him either. We thought he had already bought what he wanted and returned!” Pearl said frustratedly. “I wanted to see what he bought. It seems I’ll have to wait until he comes back…”

“Strange. Not a trace of his presence can be found inthe entire Dark City…” Zi Ji Zunzhe’s expression became peculiar. Although he knew Ye Feng was strong, the fact that he could completely conceal himself from detection meant either his cultivation was stronger than his own or he had some special secret technique. But under normal circumstances, Ye Feng had no reason to hide so secretly, as everyone knew he had come to Dark Night City. Hiding like this could only mean he was avoiding something.

Just then, an extremely powerful presence suddenly appeared within Zi Ji Zunzhe’s detection range, right in Ye Feng’s room. That presence vanished in an instant, but it made Zi Ji Zunzhe feel an inexplicable sense of danger.

“Who???” Zi Ji Zun Zhe held Pearl and the others behind him, staring warily toward the room where Ye Feng was. Pearl, Long Yue, and the others also looked nervously at the door of Ye Feng’s room. The door creaked open slightly. “Who else could it be? This is my room!” Ye Feng said with a light laugh. “Big Brother Wu Jia, are you too nervous?” “Dao Feng, you…” Zi Wu Ji immediately noticed the difference in Ye Feng compared to before. If before Ye Feng’s aura couldn’t be detected and he seemed not very strong, now it felt as though, although still undetectable, his strength was no less than his own. “Have you broken through?” “Mm… sort of!” Ye Feng didn’t know how to explain it, but it was clear that Zi Ji Zun Zhe thought he had reached the semi-divine realm. Knowing that the more he explained, the more confused things would get, he simply nodded in acknowledgment. At this moment, Ye Feng’s physical strength was already extremely close to that of a lower-grade divine artifact, and the energy within him, after this period of cultivation, had reached the level of a strong individual in the early stages of the semi-divine realm. As for his strength, it had far surpassed that of Zi Ji Zun Zhe.