The Yang Aperture

On the afternoon of the 25th, Zhu Tiandao had a massive shipment of blood essence and weapon-forging materials delivered. Su Yu immediately entered seclusion to extract Heaven Yuan Qi. For 260,000 merit points worth of blood essence, Zhu Tiandao had provided a generous amount—no more expensive than what Xia Huyou had charged. Zhu Tiandao naturally had no intention of turning a profit off Su Yu, just as Xia Huyou had sold to him without taking a margin. It took Su Yu three full days to extract the Qi from all the blood essence. Factoring in the leftover blood essence of the mid-to-late Lingyun Mountain-Breaking Oxen from last time, Su Yu extracted an amount equivalent to roughly three hundred Heaven Yuan Fruits. Given his personal consumption rate, there was hope of completing another fifteen body tempers. *** On the night of the 28th, Su Yu finished extracting the Heaven Yuan Qi and stepped out of his cultivation chamber. Without pausing, he headed straight to the fourth-floor laboratories, where he had converted one room into a workshop suitable for weapon forging. Starting that night, inside the forging room, Su Yu began forging weapons in earnest. He put all the knowledge and experience he had absorbed in the Pavilion of a Hundred Dao into practice. Actual forging proved distinctly more difficult than in the simulation. In the Pavilion of a Hundred Dao, the material ratios were prepared for you, shaped uniformly. In reality, many materials had to be refined and purified from raw ingots from scratch. It took two full days for Su Yu—a blacksmith who could already craft mid-grade Profound-rank civilized armaments inside the Pavilion of a Hundred Dao—to forge his very first Profound-rank civilized armament in the real world. And only a low-grade one at that! *** Not until the morning of May 1 did Su Yu step out of the forging room. People were bustling about on the fourth floor as well. Seeing Su Yu emerge from the forging room, Wen Zhong looked surprised and smiled. "Junior Brother, how are your injuries? Why aren't you resting and healing instead of spending time in the forging room?" Su Yu smiled. "I was getting cooped up from secluding myself for so long. I came out to try my hand at forging to blow off some steam." He then asked, "Senior Brother Wen, how is the spirit fusion art coming along?" Wen Zhong sighed helplessly. "It's extraordinarily difficult. We've been extrapolating based on your Twin Wu Aperture Fusion Art, but we lack experimental data and materials. Yuan apertures are somewhat easier to simulate, but divine apertures are far too complex. Moreover, hardly anyone opens many divine apertures. At this stage, the people who have opened the most have only opened around a hundred." The Myriad Characters Scripture opened seventy-two divine apertures, and while some Invincible experts possessed their own basic cultural arts, those opened thirty-six divine apertures at the absolute most. Consequently, the highest number of divine apertures anyone could currently open in this era was 108—and that was assuming there was no overlap. As for Su Yu's circle, he had passed arts to quite a few people. Chen Yong and Wu Jia each knew four sets, while Xia Huyou and Zhang Hao knew three. However, they had only practiced them for a short time; without major fortuitous encounters, they couldn't open that many divine apertures. Su Yu nodded. That truly was a thorny problem. A lack of experimental materials! To put it bluntly, because there were so many warriors, warriors were relatively expendable. Most death-row convicts were warriors, so if push came to shove, one could grab a few condemned criminals to test an art on them. Civilization Masters, however, were scarce. When you wanted to test something, it was nearly impossible to find a Civilization Master willing to act as a human guinea pig. Su Yu had no solution for that either, so he could only say, "Senior Brother, keep researching for now. I don't have the time to look into it lately anyway. Once my injuries heal, I'll experiment with extracting innate blood essence to see if I can find some common principles." "All right, just focus on resting and recovering." Wen Zhong said this outwardly, but inwardly he was speechless. He cast a peculiar glance at Su Yu. Why do I feel like your strength is even greater than before? Are you sure you're resting to nurse injuries? Over a month had passed since the duel. This was likely the longest stretch Su Yu had ever spent in closed-door seclusion! Su Yu exchanged a few pleasantries with Wen Zhong, thought for a moment, and asked, "Senior Brother Wen, has Senior Hu Qi emerged from seclusion yet?" "No word yet." Su Yu nodded. Still in seclusion. Hu Qi had entered seclusion purely to open apertures, and Su Yu had provided a substantial amount of Heaven Yuan Qi. Could she have failed to open them? Never mind, there was no rush. The Heaven Yuan Qi was extracted, and in terms of forging, he had successfully crafted a Profound-rank civilized armament in reality. As for divine characters, during the time spent conquering the Pavilion of a Hundred Dao and extracting Heaven Yuan Qi, he hadn't been idle either. He had read through several Invincible manuscripts. From King Dahan's manuscript, Su Yu had outlined the character "Strength." From King Dayuan's manuscript, Su Yu had outlined the character "Battle." Clearly, King Dayuan's combat style likely revolved around direct warfare. That day, he had also received a manuscript from King Dazhou. Su Yu had studied it several times and ultimately outlined a supportive divine character—"Quiet." It kept him calm and forced his enemies to fall silent. Su Yu tested it and found it rather terrifying. Its trait made it so that even when an enemy faced mortal danger, they would easily settle their mind, ignore the impending sense of peril, and lose that sudden premonition of danger. For ambushing enemies, it was devastatingly effective. An ambush usually triggered an opponent's perception and vigilance, but deploying the "Quiet" character greatly suppressed that instinct. If their senses weren't sharp enough, they might overlook the danger entirely. Both "Battle" and "Quiet" were outlined from Invincible manuscripts, making them Tier-2 divine characters right from their inception. Aside from those, Su Yu had outlined the character "Change." He had outlined it using several cultivation manual texts introduced by Xu Bin. In truth, the character Xu Bin had outlined was a demon race divine character, whereas Su Yu had tracked down the human translation. In the end, he had outlined a human divine character. Currently, human divine characters were not as powerful as those of the god or demon races, but translating them into human texts of will made them far simpler to write. Over the course of a month, Su Yu had outlined only three divine characters. With that, the total number of divine characters he had outlined reached twenty-one. However, the "Change" character was still weak, having just reached Tier 1. It would take considerable time to push it to Tier 2. As for the spatial divine character he dreamed of, his attempts to outline one had failed once again. This left Su Yu deeply disappointed! That was a true life-saving character. Unfortunately, after studying multiple manuals, he had come up empty. The human race lacked deep understanding in that domain, and corresponding arts were few and far between. Hu Xiansheng's spatial divine character had not originated from the human race either. *** Since Hu Qi had not yet emerged, Su Yu was in no rush to leave. Moreover, because the "Change" character was so weak, he needed to find a way to enhance it. The best method, naturally, was to shatter a Sun Moon divine character and directly absorb the lingering resonance. That produced results with astonishing speed. It was just terribly wasteful! Sun Moon divine characters could almost always be turned into secret realms. To shatter a character and absorb its resonance after it had already been stripped was the action of a lunatic or a fool. Sun Moon divine characters were also the strongest divine characters the human race could currently cultivate. Last time, when five Sun Moon experts were slain, Su Yu had stripped a total of three Sun Moon divine characters. All three were preserved in the divine character chamber. Among them, one was the god race character "Qi," which had the ability to observe auras. Under normal circumstances, it was used for scrying and observation without expending willpower, reading an opponent's aura to gauge their strength without arousing suspicion. As a supportive character, it was ill-suited for creating a secret realm. Creating a secret realm depended on whether the character's traits were appropriate; if they weren't, building one would simply be a waste of money. This character was not fit to become a realm. The other two were a combat-oriented god race character, "Sword," and a combat-oriented demon race character, "Shatter." After chatting with Wen Zhong, Su Yu entered the divine character chamber. He gazed at the three sealed divine characters, pondered for a long time, and finally took out the character "Qi." He didn't have the patience to nurture his divine character slowly right now. It was better to shatter the "Qi" character and advance his "Change" character. Reaching Tier 3 would be ideal, but Tier 2 would suffice. Paired with his Tier-3 "Yin" character and the breath-concealment technique of the xuan turtle race, even a Sun Moon expert might not see through his identity. A solitary Tier-3 "Yin" character was enough to keep Lingyun experts from seeing through him. Combined with "Change" and the breath-concealment technique, a Shanhai expert would be utterly incapable of discovering his true identity. As for the Sun Moon Realm... Su Yu couldn't say for sure yet and needed to test it out. Shattering a Sun Moon divine character just to cultivate a Tier-1 divine character would cause outsiders to curse Su Yu as a lunatic if they ever found out. Of course, cultivating by killing Sun Moon experts was nothing new to Su Yu. Although he hadn't struck the killing blows, he had indeed cultivated whenever Sun Moon cultivators died nearby, and the results had been quite good. This time, he was about to shatter a Sun Moon divine character all by himself for cultivation. It should yield substantial progress. The original owner was dead, and before that person's demise, the character had likely only just crossed into the Sun Moon Realm, so shattering it wouldn't be excessively difficult. Having made up his mind, Su Yu didn't hesitate. He shattered the "Qi" character on the spot! The next instant, a powerful resonance of the divine character billowed through the small chamber. The room was specially constructed, preventing the resonance from leaking outside. Su Yu had no desire for anyone to discover that he was mad enough to shatter a Sun Moon character just to cultivate. *** On Yuexin Island. The moment Su Yu shattered that Sun Moon character, Niu Baidao turned his head toward the Primordial Spirit Research Institute. He stared in that direction for a while before murmuring, "That kid... didn't just shatter a Sun Moon divine character, did he?" That fleeting, extraordinarily faint ripple had given him an inkling. He found it hard to believe. Surely not? Or had an experiment gone wrong, accidentally destroying the Sun Moon character? He shook his head. It was most likely an accident. Otherwise, Su Yu would have to be insane. Who in their right mind would break a Sun Moon character for no reason? Yet Sun Moon divine characters were sturdy; even after their owner died, destroying one was difficult. What kind of experiment was Su Yu running? Had he tried to fashion a secret realm, made a mistake, and overloaded the character until it burst? That was a distinct possibility! *** On May 3, Su Yu walked out of the divine character chamber. Having monopolized the entirety of a Sun Moon divine character, Su Yu wore a bright smile as he emerged, having reaped enormous gains. After absorbing the full resonance of a Sun Moon character, the "Change" character had scraped past the threshold to enter Tier 3. Meanwhile, through continuous refinement over the past several days and the steady absorption of Heaven Yuan Qi, Su Yu felt that his eighth body temper was close at hand. Eight days had passed since his seventh temper. With sufficient Heaven Yuan Qi, Su Yu could complete a temper in at most half a month. He had twenty-one divine characters, with both "Change" and "Yin" at Tier 3. He had easily mastered the xuan turtle breath-concealment technique, his body was on the verge of its eighth temper, and he had swapped his civilized armament for the Profound-rank one he had forged himself. He hadn't forged a saber this time, opting instead for a hammer. For a blacksmith, wielding such a weapon made complete sense. Naturally, his self-forged Profound-rank armament didn't feel much stronger than the peak Yellow-rank armament he had used before; they felt comparable. Master Zhao Li's thirty-six gold-patterned armament truly was extraordinary. At this stage, everything was virtually ready. All that remained was arranging his identity and modifying the perception jade. For the identity, he still needed to see Niu Baidao... Or he could go to Xu Bin. As head of the Merchant Guild, Xu Bin oversaw a melting pot of all sorts of characters. However, if he asked Xu Bin to arrange an identity, he would have to worry about leaks unless the man was locked away. *** Su Yu lived a full and busy life, constantly making preparations for his journey. He waited at the institute for two more days. By May 5, all 144 Yuan apertures that Su Yu had detonated were completely restored! Only forty days had elapsed since he was injured. In forty days, Su Yu had repaired every single aperture—a staggering pace. Once his apertures were restored, Su Yu was in no hurry to seek out Niu Baidao. Inside the cultivation chamber. Su Yu felt a ripple of excitement. The Yang aperture! Yes, with all his apertures repaired, he could test the Yang aperture. When he detonated his apertures last time, part of his motive had been to experiment on Shan Xiong. Like Bai Feng, he couldn't bear to detonate his own apertures for nothing. When Bai Feng had detonated his divine character back then, he had tested it on Xia Yuwen and nearly killed him; detonating that character had long been part of Bai Feng's plan. Su Yu was the same. He couldn't bear to detonate his Yuan apertures without cause, but against Shan Xiong, he could make good use of them. "The Yang aperture!" Su Yu took a deep breath, and his apertures began lighting up one by one. The 360 apertures decoupled once again. Across his body, all 360 apertures flared to life, transforming Su Yu into a figure of radiant light. Su Yu continually gulped down vast quantities of Yuan Qi liquid, stimulating the energy in each aperture! Soon, every aperture was blazing, forming a complete grand circuit. The circuit was already self-contained and perfect; under these conditions, an additional aperture might not be able to link into it. Yet Su Yu knew the Yang aperture might not need to be linked. He stimulated the aperture energies once more! Su Yu gathered the full might of his 360 Yuan apertures into a single point—the precise spot he had discovered last time. Gradually, at his Zhongting point—not on the surface of his body, but suspended deep within the internal void of his viscera—a speck of light began to flicker into view. Zhongting, directly above the navel along the central axis. This shimmering speck was not on the surface of his skin; it lay deep within the cavity of his body, unattached to flesh or bone. As the light flickered, the power of all 360 apertures surged into it. Su Yu abruptly cut off the flow! The Yang aperture was actively absorbing the energy of his apertures like a bottomless pit. The wisp of energy it unleashed was savage and destructive. "The Yang aperture... its energy is far too violent!" "Bai Tianhao must have discovered it back then. As the power of hundreds of Yuan apertures flooded into it, it erupted with staggering might. But because his body wasn't strong enough, the overwhelming power of the Yang aperture ended up detonating him." Su Yu began to understand. After waiting a moment, he channeled aperture energy into it once more. The Yang aperture opened wider and wider! The speed at which it absorbed energy accelerated! Even the Yuan Qi of 360 apertures began to feel inadequate. Su Yu swallowed more Yuan Qi liquid in succession, burning through vast quantities to convert it into Yuan Qi. The power radiating from the Yang aperture grew increasingly violent and formidable. Gradually, Su Yu's viscera could barely withstand the strain. Rather than pushing further, he hastily used willpower to seal his other Yuan apertures. Suddenly, with a low roar, he threw a punch! The Yuan Qi in that strike was ferociously destructive. A thunderous boom rang out! The entire cultivation chamber trembled violently. With a loud crash, the wall directly in front of him was blown to dust. This room had been reinforced and protected by formations, yet it was still shattered by a single blow. Cracks spiderwebbed across Su Yu's fist, blood dripping down. His internal organs had suffered some damage as well. Su Yu furrowed his brows. Far too violent! Yet the power channeled through the Yang aperture was truly terrifying. With seven body tempers, Su Yu's full physical might exceeded 3,500 apertures of force. Just now, he hadn't used his full strength, nor had he unleashed his physical bodily power. He had merely channeled the power of his 360 Yuan apertures, which yielded 1,800 apertures of force after aperture fusion. Once concentrated into the Yang aperture, the erupting power exceeded 2,000 apertures of force—and that was without daring to absorb all his Yuan Qi. Moreover, the released Yuan Qi was significantly more destructive, carrying vastly greater lethality. "If I truly absorbed everything, or even shattered my other apertures to blow open the Yang aperture completely, maybe... I really could fight across realms again!" Su Yu felt a tremor of shock. The Yang aperture could not be opened recklessly. Once opened, the process might be irreversible. Absorbing too much Yuan Qi would make it excessively volatile, potentially blowing him to pieces before he could hurt anyone else. "Harmonizing Yin and Yang!" Su Yu muttered to himself. Yin and Yang had to be balanced; otherwise, opening the Yang aperture would wound both the user and the enemy. There had to be another way. Opening the Yin aperture would likely neutralize that raging, destructive energy. "Unfortunately, I have no way of opening the Yin aperture right now." In Su Yu's view, Yuan apertures and divine apertures were two sides of Yin and Yang. The issue was that they were asymmetrical. One resided in the physical body, while the other lay in the sea of will. Who knew where the Yin aperture was located? He now suspected that the primordial spirit aperture truly consisted of two apertures that had to be united to form the authentic primordial spirit aperture. Years ago, Bai Tianhao must have opened the Yang aperture. Yet the Yang aperture drew in vast sums of Yuan Qi, unleashing savage, overwhelming power. In the end, Bai Tianhao had slain a Shanhai cultivator, but the concussive backlash had destroyed his body or shattered all his Yuan apertures, leading to his death. "Bai Tianhao's body and internal organs weren't strong enough. In the end, the Yang aperture must have self-detonated, blasting his sea of will to bits along with it." He picked up the book he had taken from the Bai family and reread it. He murmured, "Someone in the Bai family must have experimented with this. They shattered their apertures, found the Yang aperture, and then watched it drain massive amounts of power, which either crippled some Yuan apertures or drained them to death! If they survived, but opened the Yang aperture too wide to close or neutralize, it would continuously swallow their Yuan aperture power. That means they would have to resist that suction indefinitely..." At that thought, someone came to mind: Bai Feng's grandfather. The Shanhai cultivator who had been in seclusion for years! Was he in seclusion... or had he opened the Yang aperture too wide to shut it, forcing him into seclusion to constantly expend energy resisting its pull? Su Yu grimaced. If his hypothesis was correct, Bai Feng's grandfather was probably being sucked dry by the Yang aperture right now. No—if the Yang aperture had been absorbing power for so many years, it might be on the verge of exploding. An explosion fueled by decades of a Shanhai's power... If his guess was accurate, Bai Feng's grandfather could blow a Sun Moon cultivator to kingdom come. Of course, he would die in the process. "Unless he opens the Yin aperture to balance it. But if even I can't find it, he has no hope." Su Yu shook his head helplessly. Was Bai Feng's grandfather really in that state? Had he turned himself into a colossal human bomb? Carrying an unclosable Yang aperture that had gorged on energy for years? As for Su Yu, he had merely dipped his toes in, opening it a crack. Without locating the Yin aperture, opening the Yang aperture fully would cause it to actively swallow his Yuan aperture power. Even with 360 apertures, he wouldn't have enough to feed it. It had to be counterbalanced with the Yin aperture. Su Yu rubbed his chin. Opening the Yang aperture to absorb the power of all Yuan apertures shared similarities with a Shanhai cultivator fusing their apertures into one. Of course, while a Shanhai fused apertures one by one, the Yang aperture gathered and united all power in a single stroke. What did that signify? It meant that if you truly opened it, you would effectively possess the power of a single aperture, much like a Sun Moon expert. Though there were differences. A Sun Moon cultivator only had a single aperture, and the Yang aperture was not included among them. Su Yu remained uncertain about the precise distinction; he would likely have to experience it firsthand to understand the difference. "A Sun Moon cultivator possesses a single aperture, and the Yang aperture, having absorbed all apertures' power, also counts as a single aperture. Would opening the Yang aperture be of any use to a Sun Moon expert?" Su Yu was perplexed, with no means of testing it. Nor did he dare open the Yang aperture fully. If he did, he would have to abandon everything else and spend every waking moment cultivating just to resist its suction. "Even if I can't open it all the way, opening a sliver still works. My physical strength increased by at least ten percent—equivalent to an extra body temper. Factoring in the violent nature of the Yuan Qi, it's probably worth two extra tempers!" Su Yu was genuinely awed. Opening it slightly granted a twenty percent boost; if opened fully, his power might double. A doubling of power didn't mean merely fighting two people at once. Bai Tianhao was proof: a Lingyun slaying a Shanhai. "Another trump card in hand!" Even without opening it fully, Su Yu felt thrilled. If his body could withstand Shanhai blood essence, he could swallow it to erupt with power, open the Yang aperture to concentrate that strength, and become vastly more formidable. Layered with willpower and his various other methods... He would likely be no weaker than an ordinary Shanhai. "Nine Lingyun transformations. An ordinary warrior reaching the Shanhai Realm usually commands around ten thousand apertures of force." In Su Yu's estimation, ten thousand apertures of force was the baseline for a Shanhai. Anyone who opened seventy-two apertures had hope of reaching ten thousand apertures of force upon entering the Shanhai Realm. Each of the nine Yuan Qi transformations provided a greater boost to strength than a body temper. Ten thousand apertures of force was the foundation of the warrior's Shanhai Realm. Of course, such a Shanhai was considered weak. "At seven tempers, my body can withstand an explosive output of roughly four thousand apertures of force. If I truly want to swallow the blood essence of a weaker Shanhai, I'll need at least eighteen tempers." Swallowing blood essence meant enduring the full release of Shanhai might. Without an eighteen-temper body, he could hardly endure the backlash without severe injury. "At eighteen tempers, I could probably unleash ten thousand apertures of force on my own... Perhaps sixteen tempers will do." Sixteen tempers corresponded to the peak of the second stage of the Tengkong Realm. Swallowing Shanhai blood essence to unleash ten thousand apertures of force, combined with the Yang aperture, would allow him to genuinely trade blows with weaker Shanhai cultivators. As he pondered this, a voice shouted from below: "You're injured and you still can't sit still? You blew a hole in your room!" Su Yu looked out. The wall had been blasted open, and Wu Lan was glaring up at him. Su Yu chuckled awkwardly. "Apologies. My injuries flared up, and my Yuan Qi went haywire." Seeing his pale face and bleeding fist, Wu Lan quickly asked, "Are you all right?" "I'm fine!" "Do you need someone to treat you?" "No need!" Su Yu exchanged a few words and glanced ruefully at the broken wall. This chamber wasn't sturdy enough. Next time, he would have to find a stronger one. He hadn't even unleashed that much power before blowing right through it. *** Over the next few days, Su Yu experimented with opening the Yang aperture on a small scale, gradually discerning its patterns. As long as it wasn't opened completely, it could be closed. Once opened all the way, however, it might remain open permanently, devouring everything including his flesh and blood. It was almost as if the aperture sought to forcefully collapse all other apertures into one. On May 8, Su Yu received word: Hu Qi had emerged from seclusion! *** Mingxin Hall. Inside the grand chamber. A large gathering had assembled today. A crowd of elderly men and women were looking toward Hu Qi. Compared to the sun-setting frailty of before, Hu Qi still appeared aged, but the deathly aura surrounding her had vanished. Where some of her teeth had fallen out, fresh roots seemed to be sprouting. When Su Yu arrived, Niu Baidao was speaking with Hu Qi. Sensing Su Yu's presence, Niu Baidao turned and gave him a strange look before turning back and saying with a smile, "Su Yu, that cultivation art of yours seems quite effective. What's it called?" "The Primordial Spirit Vitality Art." Su Yu smiled, stepped forward, and cupped his fists toward Hu Qi. "Congratulations, Senior! Though... it seems Senior has only stimulated physical vitality, with little aid to your sea of will." Hu Qi beamed. "It's already wonderful. When the physical body is strong, it nourishes the sea of will. Conversely, a decaying body will cause the sea of will to wither. They are one and the same. The art is exceptionally effective, it's just..." She hesitated, finding it embarrassing to say aloud! *Poot, poot, poot...* No one could avoid it. She had only opened the apertures, and because she had little Heaven Yuan Qi, she had run out after practicing a few times. But during cultivation, that sensation... was truly mortifying! In this room, she and Su Yu were likely the only two who understood that humiliation. Under no circumstances could this art be practiced in front of others. Several old fellows had been pestering her to demonstrate it so they could see the effects, but Hu Qi ignored them entirely. She was old, but a woman was still a woman. If they wanted a demonstration... they could ask Su Yu! Su Yu gave a dry cough and smiled. "Its effect on nourishing the body should be quite good. I've tested it several times myself. Not only does it nourish the body, but using it during body tempering also accelerates absorption." Hu Qi nodded. "Naturally. The art absorbs Heaven Yuan Qi, which inherently aids body tempering. Its original purpose may not have been longevity, but nourishing the body allows aging warriors whose blood and Qi are declining to maintain peak combat prowess if they cultivate it!" She looked at Su Yu. "What do you think?" Su Yu nodded. "Undoubtedly! I share the same thought. I derived this art from several foreign races' cultivation methods, so I suspect certain races possess ancient figures who have maintained peak combat strength indefinitely." Hu Qi said no more. Which race? She couldn't say for sure, but she had an inkling. Perhaps... the Immortal race. If it were the gods or demons, Su Yu would have stated it outright. The others began chiming in: "Su Yu, is this art easy to cultivate?" "Are you going to spread this art?" "The results look extraordinary..." Everyone spoke at once, glancing toward Su Yu with obvious intent. *Brat, we want to cultivate it too.* *What will it take for you to teach us?* Su Yu smiled. "The art can be taught, but there are complications, as I mentioned to the Academy Head. You seniors can resolve the aperture-opening process yourselves, but opening them doesn't mean the art can be used!" "Heaven Yuan Qi?" "Yes!" Su Yu nodded, and the elders fell silent. Heaven Yuan Qi! It likely required a massive amount, which was nearly impossible to acquire. Spending tremendous effort to open the apertures and master the art, only to find you couldn't use it, rendered the whole endeavor pointless. Su Yu chuckled. "You seniors can give it a try. As for Heaven Yuan Qi... perhaps it will become available later. Who knows, a major war might break out soon, and if we shatter the realms of the gods and demons, Heaven Yuan Qi will be everywhere!" The elders smiled wryly. He made it sound so easy—did he think the divine and demonic realms were outhouses you could knock down whenever you felt like it? It was a pity! The art could be learned and read, but not used. It was truly frustrating. The crowd lost some of their enthusiasm. After offering Hu Qi their congratulations, they gradually dispersed. Even though Hu Qi was out of Heaven Yuan Qi, the art had been activated and she had cultivated it several times. At the very least, she was in no danger of perishing anytime soon; living another year or two would be no problem. And with some luck, if her physical injuries healed and nourished her sea of will in turn, she might live even longer. Before long, the elders had all left. *** Once the others had departed, Su Yu stared at Niu Baidao. Thoroughly exasperated, Niu Baidao had no choice but to take his leave as well, having realized that Su Yu had private business with Hu Qi. When everyone was gone, a jade pendant appeared in Su Yu's hand. Glancing at the pendant's data, Hu Qi's eyes shifted slightly. "Zhao Tianbing has remarkable skill. To forge a perception jade of this caliber all on his own... he truly deserves his title as the foremost Earth-rank weapon forger!" She recognized it at a glance! She could also tell immediately that it was Zhao Tianbing's handiwork. Zhao Li was still far from this level. "Senior..." Su Yu looked at her with anticipation. "Senior, this perception jade has a few minor flaws. It can't differentiate between individuals or confirm whether someone is the same person..." "You want me to modify it for you?" Su Yu smiled sheepishly and nodded. "I can do that!" Hu Qi smiled. "A few years ago, had you approached me, I wouldn't have been able to. Modifying something Zhao Tianbing forged is no easy task. But right now... as it happens, I have some expertise in this area. It's really just missing a few minor functions, and I can integrate them for you." It was indeed a minor task; she had decades of experience. She had led the team of several Earth-rank blacksmiths who spent decades crafting the super perception jade, so she knew the inner workings intimately. "Give me about seven days, and I'll have it modified. But the coverage area won't be enormous—roughly a one-thousand-meter radius." Su Yu was pleasantly surprised. That was even larger than before! Was Hu Qi truly that formidable? As if reading his thoughts, Hu Qi chuckled. "It's not that Zhao Tianbing is lacking. This sort of thing simply isn't his forte. This was likely the first one he forged, so he didn't consider every detail, leaving some functions out. I'm merely supplementing them, which isn't difficult." "Zhao Tianbing could do it himself, but he probably lacked the interest to refine it." "Thank you, Senior!" Su Yu was overjoyed. Regardless of the reason, being able to improve it was fantastic news. Hu Qi smiled as well. After a moment, she grew thoughtful. "By the way... don't spread that art around recklessly. It consumes Heaven Yuan Qi, and Heaven Yuan Qi... sigh!" She let out a heavy sigh! There was none to be had! If it spread far and wide, she worried people might take reckless risks to prolong their lives. What if people threw caution to the wind and charged into the realms of the gods and demons? That would be outright suicide. When one's lifespan ran out and the end was near, gambling everything was a common impulse. Yet she hated the thought of watching old friends march to their deaths... Having stood at that threshold herself, she knew how despairing it felt. As for Su Yu... giving her that much Heaven Yuan Qi was likely his limit. She didn't ask whether he had any left; there was no need. Su Yu nodded. "It hasn't come to that. Perhaps I can improve it down the line. I'll look into it!" "Senior, I'll return in a few days..." "Very well." As Su Yu stood to leave, Hu Qi suddenly spoke: "This time, I owe you a debt for saving my life. Su Yu, if you ever have need of me in the future, just come find me." "Senior is too generous!" Su Yu turned back with a brilliant smile, then turned and walked away. Watching him depart, Hu Qi smiled faintly and sighed with emotion. This kid was truly terrifying. Heaven Yuan Qi... did he still have more? If he did, he might just be able to use it to bring... no, not bring under his command, but win over a group of aging Sun Moon experts on the brink of death.