Martial Peak

Chapter 5725: Unattainable Opportunities

Inside the Universe Furnace, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling very confused, [Are there different Grades to the Open Heaven Pills in the Universe Furnace? I’ve never heard anything like that before.]

At the same time, many Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were gathered at the Supreme Headquarters. These were the candidates chosen from among the Human Race to enter the Universe Furnace and compete for opportunities. Many were veteran Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, but some were rising stars. Nonetheless, without exception, all of them were Open Heaven Realm Masters whose Martial Dao ended at the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm.

Having advanced directly to the Sixth Order, the Eighth Order was their limit. If they wanted to increase their cultivation any further, then their only option was to compete for the opportunity inside the Universe Furnace.

Once the entrances to the Universe Furnace took form, a great war was bound to break out between the Human Race and the Black Ink Clan. At that time, their duty was to charge into the Universe Furnace as quickly as possible to search for opportunities and advance to the Ninth Order!

As for the rest, there was no need for them to worry. The other Human Race Masters would be in charge of blocking the Black Ink Clan’s attempts at interference.

At this moment, these Eighth-Order Masters were sitting on the ground and studying hard like students in a lecture hall. Meanwhile, standing in front of them was a cultivator wrapped in a layer of Blood Qi. His aura was very showy, but his cultivation was hard to determine. It was Blood Crow!

Blood Crow had personally experienced the emergence of the Universe Furnace last time. Having entered the Universe Furnace once before, his understanding of it was unmatched by anybody else. Therefore, Mi Jing Lun had specially asked him to teach these Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters about the internal situation of the Universe Furnace so that they could prepare themselves in advance.

Blood Crow was no great scholar or teacher, so he simply said what came to mind. Still, the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were careful to record everything he said; after all, nobody knew whether the things he told them would become the key that would allow them to preserve their lives or grab hold of the opportunity at a critical moment.

“Let’s talk about the Open Heaven Pills produced by the Universe Furnace. Most people only know that these Open Heaven Pills can help cultivators overcome their innate limitations, but what you should know first is that even the Open Heaven Pills inside the Universe Furnace have different Grades.”

The Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters sitting below immediately fell into an uproar. In regards to this matter, not only had nobody ever told them, but they had never even heard rumours about it.

To the side, Mi Jing Lun and Xiang Shan exchanged a glance and smiled wryly. They, too, had been very shocked when they first heard this bit of information from Blood Crow. It turned out that the Open Heaven Pills inside the Universe Furnace had different Grades!

Blood Crow did not play any games and continued, “I don’t know how the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters of the Cave Heavens and Paradises categorise them; after all, I don’t come from any of the Cave Heavens or Paradises. I can only divide the Open Heaven Pills in the Universe Furnace into two types. The first type is the Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pills, which everybody knows as the Innate Open Heaven Pills that can help Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters like yourselves advance to the Ninth-Order. Unfortunately, the other type does not have such a potent effect, so we can think of them as Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills!”

Classifying these Innate Open Heaven Pills into Supreme-Grade and Ordinary-Grade was a very rough method of categorisation.

One of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters was confused, “I understand the situation with the Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pills, but Junior Brother Blood Crow, why does the Universe Furnace produce these Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills? What are their uses?”

Blood Crow replied, “I don’t know why the Universe Furnace produces these Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills either, but they are by no means useless. While their medicinal efficacies are not as profound as the Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pills, they are enough to help a cultivator overcome their bottlenecks.”

The ability to overcome one’s bottleneck, but not one’s limitations… Having heard that, the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters seemed to gain a vague understanding of the situation.

The Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master who spoke earlier said, “So, that’s how it is. By that logic, the Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills are rare treasures too.”

A cultivator’s Martial Dao was not always smooth sailing.

Take Lan You Ruo for example. She had advanced directly to the Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm, so her limit should have been the Eighth-Order. Nevertheless, it had taken her some 250 years of cultivating in retreat to finally advance to the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm during her brief period in Void Land.

The same was true for Feng Ying of Dawn Squad. It had taken her more than 200 years to advance from the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm to the Eighth-Order.

Several hundred years was not a long time for Open Heaven Realm Masters who could live for tens of thousands of years; however, they would not need to waste all that precious time if they could obtain one of these Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills.

There were many High-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters, but many of them were stuck at a bottleneck in their cultivation and had trouble progressing forward. They were not at the point where they needed the Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pills. Be that as it may, they would easily advance to the next Order if they had the support of some Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills. One or two Open Heaven Realm Masters might not make a difference, but the strength of the Human Race would surely grow sharply when their numbers increase!

It was not as though the Human Race did not have any kind of Spirit Pills that could help a cultivator overcome their bottlenecks, but the efficacies of such Spirit Pills were not that great. In comparison, the Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills were different. They were the best Spirit Pills to help a cultivator overcome their bottlenecks!

In Xiang Shan’s case, he had originally planned to enter the Universe Furnace for the Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pills, but it would now seem that he might not necessarily need to obtain one. The Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills might be enough to help him overcome his current bottleneck.

“Junior Brother Blood Crow, how many Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pills are there? And, how many Ordinary-Grade?” Another Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master raised the question he really wanted to know.

Blood Crow glanced at the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master and replied, “I’m not certain how many Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pills there are. The last time I entered the Universe Furnace, I was only in the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm and I didn’t dare to carelessly move around, much less dare to compete with the Masters for that peak opportunity. Although I don’t know the exact numbers, I’m certain that there weren’t many such Heaven-defying Spirit Pills.”

After a brief pause, he continued his explanation, “As for the Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills… There are many of those. Even I managed to obtain a few. It was thanks to consuming those Ordinary-Grade Open Heaven Pills that I smoothly advanced to the Eighth Order back then.”

As the topic deepened, the atmosphere in the Grand Hall became more and more heated. The Eighth-Order Open Heaven Masters consecutively asked the questions they were curious about, and Blood Crow did his best to answer. Whenever he encountered a question he could not answer, he did not make any unfounded speculations to prevent misleading others.

…..

Inside the Universe Furnace, Yang Kai was naturally unaware that Blood Crow had differentiated the Open Heaven Pills into Supreme Grade and Ordinary Grade. Nevertheless, he quickly came to an unbelievable conclusion under such close observation. The Open Heaven Pills from the Universe Furnace could be separated into two distinct Grades. The nine brightest lights were clearly the Open Heaven Pills that he had always heard about. Now that he was so close to them, he couldn’t help feeling tempted to grab them.

The Universe Furnace’s projection had appeared in all the various Great Territory Battlefields, which affected numerous Masters from the Human Race and the Black Ink Clan. All of them were waiting to obtain the opportunity within the Universe Furnace. If Yang Kai could snatch these nine Open Heaven Pills in advance, then the Human Race would be the greatest winners no matter what arrangements the Black Ink Clan made. They could use these nine Open Heaven Pills to produce nine Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters. That would be enough to form a crushing advantage against the Black Ink Clan.

Unfortunately, he could neither move a muscle nor freely exert his strength at this moment. The greatest opportunity in the 3,000 Worlds was literally right in front of him, but he was powerless to seize it…

[How annoying! Hateful!]

He couldn’t help cursing at the Universe Furnace. It was bad enough that he was dragged into this place, but he was also completely immobilised and then shown such a wondrous opportunity, yet he was unable to seize it.

[What is this torture!?]

At this moment, Yang Kai had long forgotten his earlier worries of being refined by the Universe Furnace. If the Universe Furnace wanted to refine him, the process would have taken place by now. Seeing as there were no movements in that regard, he was most probably safe for the time being. Now that he was safe, it was only natural for him to become greedy when such an opportunity was right in front of him.

Yang Kai stubbornly began to struggle once more, but it was all to no avail; thus, he became even more annoyed and depressed.

As the nine lights devoured the chaotic and primitive Dao Essence at an increasingly fierce rate, they began to glow brighter and brighter as a result.

A rough estimate of the time indicated that there were only a few more months before the Universe Furnace emerged in the world. Yang Kai did not know the exact location where this Supreme Treasure would appear, but he could practically imagine the scene at the time.

The Masters of both sides had gathered outside the Universe Furnace’s projections. When the Universe Furnace opened under the illumination of the dense and multi-coloured lights, the nine Open Heaven Pills and their companions would fly out of the Universe Furnace. Subsequently, the Masters of both the Human Race and the Black Ink Clan would plunge into a frenzied battle…

He would be freed of his shackles at that time and might even fly out of the Universe Furnace with the Open Heaven Pills. Although he could easily obtain several of them with his abilities, this method was rather risky; after all, all nine of the best Open Heaven Pills needed to be obtained by the Human Race!

[I need to figure out a way so that it will be easier for me to seize the opportunity once I am free. Since the Universe Furnace dragged me here and allowed me to witness the creation of these Open Heaven Pills, then I ought to benefit from this opportunity.]

After pondering for some time, Yang Kai came up with an idea. He immediately attempted to use his Spiritual Energy to place an Imprint on these Open Heaven Pills. If he succeeded, then he would be able to obtain them with a simple flash of his thoughts!

In the next moment, he gave a deep groan and his complexion went pale from his efforts.

At this moment, the nine Open Heaven Pills were indiscriminately devouring the surrounding Dao Essence. When his Divine Sense penetrated the Open Heaven Pills, his Divine Sense was refined and absorbed in an instant…

His Divine Sense was damaged as a consequence, but Yang Kai was not very concerned about this injury; after all, his Soul would be torn apart every time he unleashed a Soul Rending Thorn. This amount of injury was nothing to him. Besides, the Soul Warming Lotus would quickly repair his damaged Divine Sense.

[Spiritual Energy is ineffective, but what about World Force?]

Yang Kai made another attempt, only for the Open Heaven Pills to refine and absorb his World Force perfectly. It would seem that the Open Heaven Pills were not particular about what kind of energy approached them, greedily refining and absorbing anything they could.

Unfortunately, that was not good news for Yang Kai. As things stood, how was he supposed to leave his mark on the nine Spirit Pills so that he could easily make his move when the time came?

He activated the various Dao Strengths he mastered in hopes that he could leave some kind of mark on the Open Heaven Pills, but his efforts remained futile. Even the mysterious Space-Time Strength was ineffective. These Innate Open Heaven Pills were like starving wolves, swallowing anything and everything that was placed before them.

Yang Kai couldn’t help frowning with a troubled expression, [Spiritual Energy, World Force, and even Dao Strengths have proven to be ineffective. What else is there that I can try?]

All of a sudden, he seemed to recall something and silently activated the Great Sun and Moon Marks. His own strength had been ineffective against the Open Heaven Pills. In that case, the only power that did not belong to him was the two Marks that he received from Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan. If that was also ineffective, then he had no other methods to try.

He normally borrowed the power of the two Marks to condense Purifying Light; however, he was now attempting to leave a mark on the nine Open Heaven Pills with their power instead.

It was not a difficult feat to perform. The Mysterious Power of the Great Sun and Great Moon sept out from the backs of his hands. Under his careful control, they slowly extended towards one of the Open Heaven Pills. It did not take long before the Power of the Great Sun and Great Moon was influenced by the pull of the Open Heaven Pills and swiftly absorbed into it.

Yang Kai could clearly feel the Power of the Great Sun and the Great Moon gradually being shaved away and becoming weaker. Be that as it may, he was overjoyed in the next moment. That was because a slight trace remained of the Power of the Great Sun and the Great Moon! They had not completely disappeared!