Thinking about the possibility of cooperating with the Elf King to exploit a bug and infinitely produce and harvest talent abilities, Feng Qi's mood immediately became excited.
He felt like he had found a shortcut to growth.
Once this path was fully realized, the likes of Little Black, the Psionic Race, and Mo would no longer pose a threat.
As Feng Qi daydreamed, the mocking voice of the narrator rang out in his mind:
[Kid, I advise you to be more realistic; your idea is simply impossible to achieve!]
"Why?"
Feng Qi was taken aback upon hearing the narrator's response and quickly asked for clarification.
[I've seen the entire process of the Sacrifice Line you've gone through, and I understand that the Elf King uses the Life Furnace to combine life sequences and breed offspring. But I have to tell you, the offspring the Elf King breeds are incomplete. After combining with humans, they absorb nutrients from the human's growth, and only then do they become complete.]
[In other words, the Elf Species needs a growing process before their talent abilities become complete. The Elf King can give birth to a large number of Elf Species, but the problem is, do you have enough resources to cultivate them?]
[Compared to cooperating with the Elf King, relying on future humans to help you capture domain creatures and then hunting them for their abilities seems more feasible... Anyway, let me be frank with you: Little Black, the Psionic Race, Mo, none of these are opponents you can handle, you won't be able to exploit a bug!]
The narrator's explanation was like a splash of cold water, instantly sobering Feng Qi.
Upon careful consideration, what the narrator said was indeed true.
The Elf King had also mentioned something similar before, stating that the Elf Species was just an embryonic seed, incomplete, and needed to co-exist with humans to complete the second stage of its development within the human body.
Alternatively, as with An Mu, it could seek external resources to complete the second stage.
This Sacrifice Line had also implanted a life seed within him.
So, he knew the process of the life seed improving itself by absorbing nutrients from the body.
As the narrator pointed out, to cooperate with the Elf King for mass harvesting of talent abilities, Feng Qi would need sufficient resources for large-scale cultivation.
This clearly required massive "human resources" and a huge consumption of resources.
This path was possible, but it had many prerequisite conditions to be met.
Sighing inwardly, Feng Qi opened his eyes.
The dark golden mental imprint on his forehead shattered at that moment, transforming into a thick blood mist that enveloped his body.
Flesh buds grew from his bones, and in the blink of an eye, his flesh was reforged.
He summoned his attribute panel.
At this point, his bloodline evolution points had reached 89,293/100,000, just over 10,000 points away from advancing his bloodline.
Given that normal domain creatures were worth between 30-80 points each, Feng Qi would need to kill about 300 creatures to begin his bloodline upgrade.
The increase in bloodline evolution points also brought a significant boost to his physical condition.
The dark golden blood within him had notably increased.
This blood was more than ten times stronger than regular blood, acting like an energizing stimulant as it merged with other blood in his body, causing it to surge and push his organs to operate more efficiently.
With every beat of his heart, it rang like a large bell inside his body, supplying endless power.
The rapid increase in strength gave Feng Qi the illusion that he was already invincible.
But he knew this was just an illusion.
When he first gained the Blood Source ability, he also felt that he was on the verge of invincibility.
He even imagined punching Little Black's body to pieces.
But the more he learned, the more he understood one thing.
Invincibility often comes from ignorance. The world is vast, and there is always someone stronger.
The miraculous divine items fought over by countless races in this era were merely relics from the last era's Pillar Gods. This shows how terrifying the Pillar Gods were when they were still alive.
But even the Pillar Gods, god-like beings, had already fallen. What true invincibility could there be now?
This truth was reflected in the rise and fall of dynasties in the Domain World.
If invincibility truly existed, those once-dominant superpowers would not have experienced the collapse of their dynasties or the disintegration of their races.
The sense of invincibility that rose within him was just a self-deceptive illusion brought on by his surge in power.
Feng Qi glanced at the attribute panel and quickly reviewed the descriptions of his new talent abilities. He then turned to Zhang Daowen:
"Xiao Wen, let's go."
Zhang Daowen nodded and then led Feng Qi back toward the entrance of the underground prison.
At this moment, at the surface entrance, Po Jia was standing, his gaze fixed on the eastern horizon, his expression solemn.
"Xiao Jia, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing. Xiao You still hasn't fully unleashed its power and can hold on for quite some time. I'm just surprised by Little Black's abilities. It seems that no matter what damage it takes, nothing works on him. He can always recover in a short time and even improve his strength. There seems to be no end to it."
"You know why I'm helpless now, right? What you've seen is only Little Black's power from its second unsealing stage. According to the narrator, there's still a third sealed form that hasn't been revealed. That's when Little Black is at his most terrifying, but no one has ever forced Little Black to use this third form."
"What's a narrator?" Po Jia was momentarily stunned.
"Didn't Xiao You tell you?"
"No."
"Just think of the narrator as a parasite implanted in my body. Aside from the foul mouth, it's actually been quite helpful at times."
[@#￥%!￥@#]
Ignoring the insults in his mind, Feng Qi decided to follow Zhang Daowen and review the materials, doing his best to memorize the useful knowledge.
At the same time, he made a decision in his heart.
He wanted to leave the Crimson Research Institute's memory preservation technology in Star City, and even in the future Dawn City.
As the amount of knowledge increases in the future, relying on basic memorization to store knowledge will be too taxing on the brain.
[Stupid, lifeless dead people have no brains!]
The narrator jumped out at this moment, holding a grudge and wanting to continue the verbal battle.
But Feng Qi's mindset had long changed.
He used to be young and impetuous, always wanting to outdo the narrator. If the narrator insulted him, he had to retort. The key was not losing face.
But now...
He sneered internally and muttered, "Immature!"
No matter how badly the narrator tarnished him, he turned to Zhang Daowen.
"Xiao Wen, let's go and review the materials you've prepared for me."
"No rush, let's first head to the Blood Soul Clan's place. Uncle Qi, your negative emotions are becoming quite serious. The Heart Refining Platform in the Blood Soul Clan's territory can help you improve your state of mind and suppress those emotions. While it doesn't fix the root cause, it's the only option until we find a perfect solution."
Upon hearing Zhang Daowen's reminder, Feng Qi hesitated.
He feared that during his trip to the Blood Soul Clan, Xiao You would finish the battle, and Little Black would come after him.
He wasn't afraid of Little Black coming after him to the Blood Soul Clan.
What he was afraid of was that the Blood Soul Clan hadn't been completely crushed by Little Black and would now take cruel revenge.
He didn't know how many miracles the Blood Soul Clan had mastered.
If they had something like the Psionic Race's time reversal miracle, or other miraculous items for scouting, it would be easy for them to trace Zhang Daowen. At that time, Dawn City would face a catastrophic disaster.
Old Mist had warned him of such possibilities before.
That was also why Old Mist had taken him away from the Blood Soul Clan.
As for why he was sent directly to Little Black back then, it actually didn't matter anymore.
Little Black's strength grew in battle. By the time Little Black came after him again, even if he fled to the Void, Little Black would still have the ability to chase him down.
It was better to send him directly to Little Black and end things early.
This was also why he didn't dare use Little Black to confront the Blood Soul Clan.
Since the result of the timeline wasn't certain — whether it was a time reversal or a new time path — it was best not to burden his companions who still had to continue on.
They had a future ahead of them.
"Boss, you go ahead. Xiao You deliberately slowed Little Black's growth rate, and he hasn't fully unleashed his strength yet. You still have plenty of time to prepare."
After hearing Po Jia's answer, Feng Qi immediately felt relieved and then asked,
"Are you coming with us?"
"If I go there, I'll definitely never return. All members of the Blade Demon squad are wanted by the Blood Soul Clan. Although we haven't directly faced the strongest battle squad of the Blood Soul Clan, our guerrilla warfare has still caused them quite a bit of loss. I guarantee that if I go with you, we'll all die together."
"I can vouch for that. I saw the wanted list when I went to the Blood Soul Clan. The bounty is quite high." Zhang Daowen smiled and nodded from the side.
"In that case, never mind. You stay here, and I'll go with Xiao Wen."
"Alright." Po Jia nodded.
With a wave of Zhang Daowen's hand, the ice mist spread forward.
This time, the ice mist spread slowly. It was as if countless ice crystal bugs were gnawing at the space, tearing apart black cracks that spread quickly.
When the space was large enough, Zhang Daowen placed his hand on Feng Qi's shoulder.
Feng Qi only felt a brief moment of dizziness, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself already inside the space crack.
The ice crystal-constructed space tunnel quickly expanded forward.
Outside the tunnel, countless reverse-space whirlpools could be seen, along with glowing nodes. Each node led to different coordinates.
After a long while, Feng Qi felt a sense of weightlessness.
The scene before him was very familiar.
A massive floating main island, with the Blood Soul Clan's flag fluttering in the wind, and small islands flying around the main path.
Soon, a member of the Blood Soul Clan appeared before them, asking about the situation.
After explaining that they had paid a high fee to use the Heart Refining Platform, Feng Qi, under Zhang Daowen's guidance, entered the Heart Refining Platform.
At this moment, many figures were already meditating on the Heart Refining Platform.
A strong sense of sleepiness struck, and Feng Qi immediately sat cross-legged, his vision gradually being enveloped in darkness.
Gradually, the familiar eighteen statues appeared before Feng Qi.
The four statues on the far left had already passed the challenge.
They were as follows:
Difficult to walk the road, step by step on mountains and rivers, measuring the world.
Difficult to achieve immortality, with a lifespan surpassing a thousand years, transcending the mundane.
Difficult to cultivate the heart, with all things being suffering, only self-redemption.
Hunger and illness are suffering, the path of all evil deeds, the suffering in the world.
...
Every time he faced a challenge in refining his state of mind, it led to a significant improvement in his mental state, and the pressure from negative emotions was greatly reduced.
For example, the last time he was here, he gained the mindset of "like a mountain" through the cycles of hunger and illness, which greatly reduced the impact of negative emotions.
Feng Qi was filled with anticipation for the upcoming challenges.
At this moment, the fifth statue lit up, signaling the start of a new round of Heart Refining Challenges.
This time, Feng Qi faced the fifth difficulty out of the eighteen challenges: the "right and wrong" difficulty.
He had to experience various right and wrong disputes in the human world after his memories were blocked.
Wherever there are people, there is a world of conflict — this phrase could perfectly describe this round of the mental state challenge.
During this period, Feng Qi continuously experienced the endless cycle of right and wrong, as well as entanglements of favor and grudges, and the never-ending contradictions and conflicts of interest.
It was a brand-new story about human nature.
Once Feng Qi gained enlightenment and broke free from this challenge, he took a short rest for his mind before the next challenge began — the sixth difficulty of the eighteen, the tribulation difficulty.
This time, the experience was completely different from before.
He had to go through various tribulations, such as lightning tribulations, heart demon tribulations, and so on.
He had to experience emotions such as destruction, transcendence, and freedom, among others, in these tribulations.
After completing the tribulation difficulty of the Heart Refining Challenge, Feng Qi could clearly feel the negative emotions that had been suppressed deep within his heart retracting like a tide, sinking to the lowest level of his spiritual consciousness.
The anger that had no place to vent in his heart also dissipated.
Every challenge was a moment of great enlightenment.
The process of Heart Refining Challenge was like opening a book full of infinite knowledge, allowing one to experience the logic and laws of the universe through personal involvement.
Human nature, disasters, suffering, challenges, and climbing — every experience allowed Feng Qi's understanding of the world to become clearer.
Logically, going through suffering should also bring about a lot of negative emotions.
For example, the hunger and disease he experienced in the previous timeline, where he endured various pains and difficulties that ordinary people could not bear.
This pain would inevitably turn into negative emotions during the sacrifice line.
But the most magical part of the Heart Refining Platform was here.
When the experiences in the Heart Refining Challenge ended, all the memories of what had been experienced would vanish in his mind, leaving only the insights from the challenge.
It was this miraculous setting that allowed each round of mental state challenge to result in no negative emotions, yet his mental state was genuinely improved.
After completing two rounds of the Heart Refining Challenge, Feng Qi decided not to continue.
Although the challenge process didn't bring negative emotions, the endless repetition made him feel mentally exhausted, and he was no longer able to start the next round of challenges.
It was like intense labor; Feng Qi still wanted to keep working, but the muscle soreness made it impossible to continue.
With the idea of finishing in mind, the eighteen statues standing before him were gradually swallowed by darkness, retreating, and eventually disappearing from Feng Qi's sight.
His consciousness returned, Feng Qi sighed deeply, then opened his eyes.
His gaze swept over the Heart Refining Platform beneath him.
The ground of the platform was made of some unknown material that was very soft but completely indestructible by external force.
Feng Qi had long coveted this Heart Refining Challenge Platform.
If humanity could have such a miraculous item, they would surely be able to progress much faster and farther in building their cultivation system.
But he understood that his current idea was completely unrealistic.
He had seen how terrifying the Blood Soul Clan's battle strength was during the sacrifice line.
At that time, the Blood Soul Clan wasn't even one of the eight great royal clans, and it was still in its early growth stages, but it could destroy the Thunderbolt Tribe with a mere wave of its hand.
Whether in the past or the future, humanity was far from strong enough to challenge the Blood Soul Clan.
But when humanity eventually grows strong enough to confront the Blood Soul Clan, he would definitely fight for it.
Including that Blood Soul flag — he wanted it as well.
[Enough, enough, wanting this and wanting that — don't you know your own limits? How many times have I told you? Take it slow, eat one bite at a time, don't just daydream about the future. Those things are still far away from you. Accept your mediocre reality, young man... Ah, no, Feng Old Man!]
After hearing the narrator's complaints, Feng Qi couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"Dad won't argue with you."
Before the narrator could start insulting him again, Feng Qi, having finished his cultivation, controlled his telekinesis to lift his body into the air, directly breaking through the transparent energy barrier that covered the Heart Refining Platform. He appeared beside Zhang Daowen, who was waiting in the air, and said,
"Xiao Wen, let's go home!"