Chapter 362: An Unexpected Breakthrough

Ye Feng held the black seed in one hand, waiting for the Feather Emperor to give an answer.
The Feather Emperor rested his chin in his hand and pondered for a long time before slowly saying, “In fact, this thing can only be nurtured once one’s cultivation reaches the Saint level…”
“However, as a Void Walker, you can nurture it now. Moreover, under the rules of the Void Realm, the speed at which this seed absorbs energy will also be restricted, so it won’t cause harm to you,” the Feather Emperor continued. “But your cultivation progress will definitely be constrained by this seed, as it will absorb most of the energy you take in. In the best case, your cultivation growth rate might drop to one-tenth of its original level; in the worst case, it could become one-thousandth or even one-millionth.”
“So you mean nurturing it requires a huge amount of energy, and it will instinctively steal energy from my body?” Ye Feng quickly understood what the Feather Emperor meant.
“It can’t really be called stealing. Once nurturing begins, even at the slowest pace, it will automatically consume energy. This amount of energy may not seem much to those powerful beings in the Saint Realm, but for you, it’s a significant burden. Because the energy in the Heavenly Realm is not on the same level as that in the Saint Realm. If it needs to absorb one unit of Saint Realm energy, it will have to absorb hundreds of millions of units of Heavenly Realm energy instead, due to the huge difference in quality.”
“Does that mean I can only nurture this thing after reaching the Saint Realm?” Ye Feng asked, somewhat unwilling.
“Do you still remember that mass of black energy inside you?” the Feather Emperor suddenly changed the topic.
“I do. I refined it into spirit crystals some time ago,” Ye Feng nodded. “But the grade of that black energy seems to have dropped, as if the Wudian absorbed its essence.”
“There’s such a thing?” the Feather Emperor was surprised. “Never mind. We’ll discuss that later. Let’s focus on solving the current problem first.”
“That’s what I think too. That black energy was originally a highly potent devouring energy. Although its essence is lost now, its devouring ability should still remain, right?” the Feather Emperor asked further.
“Mm. That crystal doesn’t even need me to activate it. It absorbs energy constantly on its own and actively distributes energy to nurture the other two spirit crystals,” Ye Feng nodded. Since that black energy was refined into spirit crystals within his body, it had indeed provided him with a great deal of help.

“Do you have any lower-grade Divine Realm crystals?” Yu Huang asked. Ye Feng knew he must have come up with some idea.
“There are three lower-grade Divine Crystals, left by those top-tier experts I killed before. They’re stored together with other Divine Realm ores. There aren’t many, so I didn’t keep them separate,” Ye Feng nodded.
“Take one out and see if it can activate the black crystals in your body and absorb their energy,” Yu Huang continued. “If it causes harm to your body, transfer the energy to me. If it can be absorbed normally, I’ll know what to do.”
“Okay!” Although Ye Feng didn’t understand Yu Huang’s plan, he knew he must have some solution.
Transferring the Divine Crystal from his storage ring to the virtual realm took just a blink. A golden crystal, containing powerful destructive energy, appeared in Ye Feng’s hand.
Holding the golden crystal in his palm, Ye Feng began to activate the black spiritual crystals within his body.
Under his stimulation, the black spiritual crystals generated ripples, and streams of black energy slowly flowed out from them, spreading through all his meridians.
The black energy moved through his body at increasing speed, completing one full cycle in just a few breaths, following the patterns outlined in the martial arts scriptures.
Ye Feng felt a chill throughout his body. The sensation of the black energy flowing through him was completely different from that of the white crystals. He could even sense a cold and fierce aura within the black energy, along with a powerful dominance, as if it were showing him something.
Ye Feng was slightly surprised. He had never thought energy could have such sensations. But after a brief pause, he focused his mind again. Then he discovered something even more astonishing in his meridians—they had all been coated with a layer of black. Upon closer inspection, he saw that a small portion of the black energy had wrapped around the surface of his meridians, forming a protective layer.
“It seems I really have obtained a treasure without even realizing it,” Ye Feng said with a wry smile. “This black spiritual crystal actually possesses a faint degree of consciousness and knows how to protect its master on its own. Just for that, it’s already no worse than the white spiritual crystals I cultivated on my own.”

When the black energy touched the lower-grade divine crystal through his meridians, it seemed to exude a sense of excitement. Ye Feng could clearly feel that although the black energy encountered resistance from the energy within the divine crystal while absorbing it—resulting in even a one-third loss—it still rushed forward without hesitation to plunder as much energy as possible from the crystal.

As the golden energy entered his body, Ye Feng faintly sensed a swelling sensation in his meridians, accompanied by a slight burning pain. However, he could tolerate this level of pain; he knew that the golden divine essence was now completely under the control of the black energy in his body.

A slight smile appeared on Ye Feng’s face unconsciously as he continued to observe the black crystal in silence. At this point, the black spirit crystal no longer required any activation from him. Once the black energy touched the lower-grade divine crystal in his hand, it began to operate frantically, seemingly determined not to stop until it consumed the crystal entirely.

The black energy wrapped around the golden divine essence and circulated continuously within Ye Feng’s body following the patterns outlined in the martial arts scriptures, eventually flowing into the black spirit crystal in his dantian. The black spirit crystal acted like an endless black hole, desperately absorbing this high-level energy.

In the span of a candle’s burn time, the golden crystal in Ye Feng’s hand had shrunk to half its original size, yet he wasn’t aware of it at all, as his attention was entirely focused on his own body. Inside his dantian, the black crystal became even more translucent and significantly larger. Strangely, the originally nearly spherical crystal had grown two small horns.

“Is this another form of the crystal?” Ye Feng explored further. The black crystal remained completely under his control, with no abnormalities, indicating that this transformation wasn’t pathological, which relieved him.

Under Ye Feng’s observation, the two small horns softened and gradually stretched, connecting to the white and purple crystals inside his dantian. Ye Feng was shocked and prepared to take action, only to discover that two streams of energy quickly emerged from the black crystal and flowed into the other two crystals.

“This is…” Ye Feng realized that the energy supplied by the black crystal to the other two crystals had two different attributes. The energy flowing into the white crystal was pure Void Walker energy, one rank higher than that within the white crystal itself. Meanwhile, the energy flowing into the purple crystal was pure lightning energy, also one rank higher than that within the purple crystal.

“What a terrifying black crystal!” Ye Feng’s eyes flashed with excitement. “It can not only absorb energy at will but also convert it as it pleases… The original owner of this black energy must be an even more terrifying existence than the Void Walker…”

As the black crystal changed shape, Ye Feng realized that the black energy, which had once carried golden energy, could now obtain divine essence directly from the divine crystal without any loss.

“The black energy has evolved—it’s at least on par with divine essence, and likely even stronger!” Ye Feng immediately realized that the level of energy within him had risen. “If this continues, given enough time, the energy in the white and purple crystals will also reach the level of the divine realm.”

Another period of time passed, and the golden crystal in Ye Feng’s hand was almost depleted. Ignoring the Feather Emperor waiting nearby, he took out two other lower-grade divine crystals and held them in his hands.

When the Feather Emperor saw that the first divine crystal in Ye Feng’s hand had been used up and Ye Feng had regained consciousness, he was about to say something when he saw Ye Feng take out two more divine crystals and close his eyes again. He immediately understood that Ye Feng must have achieved something.

With the addition of the two divine crystals, the black crystal worked even harder. Initially, only Ye Feng’s right hand held a divine crystal, but now his left hand also had one, allowing the black energy to operate in two directions simultaneously.

Another period of time passed, and the white crystal reached saturation in its ability to absorb energy, yet the input of energy continued. Ye Feng felt slightly anxious; he knew the black crystal was doing this intentionally, so he waited patiently.

Sure enough, a small white horn emerged from the white crystal and connected with the horn extending from the black crystal. Then, a second horn appeared and connected to the purple crystal, forming a triangle within his dantian.

A white glow circulated around the purple crystal, as if soothing, comforting, and encouraging it.

The purple crystal, being inherently smaller than the other two crystals, initially absorbed energy more slowly than the white crystal, resulting in slower growth. Now, with the help of the other two crystals, it grew at full speed.

Another period of time passed, and the purple crystal finally reached saturation in energy absorption. A small purple horn slowly emerged, followed by a second one. Only then did the other two crystals retract their “tentacles” and become quiet.

Ye Feng watched with some relief the changes within his dantian, noting that the two divine crystals in his hands still had one-third of their original size left. Just as he was about to retrieve them, the three crystals in his dantian began to vibrate simultaneously. Three different types of energy were sent out through his meridians and, as they flowed, slowly intertwined like three connected gene chains, following the pattern of the great circular circulation described in the martial arts scriptures. “This is…” Ye Feng noticed the difference between this circulation and the normal one after just one cycle. Under normal circumstances, each cycle required returning to the dantian, but this time the three crystals in his dantian only sent out energy without pulling it back. “This is helping to refine my body…” The three different energies slowly penetrated various parts of his body—blood vessels, bones, nerves, muscle fibers, and even every cell in his body. Ye Feng immediately focused his mind to help accelerate the flow of this energy. With his guidance, the flow of energy became more than twice as fast. After what seemed like a while, the speed of the energy gradually slowed down. Ye Feng realized that the lower-grade divine crystals in his hands had been completely used up. Meanwhile, the strength of his body had increased by far, reaching the level of an elite demonic weapon. “This time, the gains are indeed significant!” Ye Feng slowly opened his eyes.