Revisiting the Celestial Palace, Second Stage Assessment

A flash of white light flickered, and Ye Honglian's figure vanished.

Yun Qingyao reappeared.

"Qingyao, have you grasped a Treasure Art?" Ning Fan asked.

"A Treasure Art?" Yun Qingyao tilted her head.

"It is a cultivation method that stimulates vital blood," Ning Fan explained.

Before he could finish speaking, Yun Qingyao raised her hand. Under Ning Fan's gaze, small sections of dragon scales surfaced along her arm, and her hand transformed into the shape of a dragon claw.

Ning Fan: "..."

As expected.

No matter what he obtained, Yun Qingyao could acquire it as well. Did this not prove that she and Ye Honglian were one and the same?

"..."

Ning Fan shook his head, scattering the distracting thoughts from his mind, and then warned Yun Qingyao of the precautions regarding the Treasure Art.

The toll of a Treasure Art was immense. This was especially true when unleashing it alongside the Dragon Snake Evolution Hand; she needed to weigh the cost carefully before using it.

"Mm, I understand." Yun Qingyao nodded solemnly. Since Ning Fan was the one warning her, she would engrave his words into her heart.

"That is good." Ning Fan felt slightly relieved.

Suddenly, as if struck by a thought, Ning Fan took the little turtle down from his shoulder. He stared at the profound patterns on its shell, lost in thought.

A turtle shell... counts as bone, right??

Furthermore, a faint, almost imperceptible trace of Spiritual Qi seemed to drift from it. Was it possible that this turtle shell was also a Beast Soul Bone?

Having the thought, he immediately moved to test it.

Ning Fan channeled his spiritual power over the turtle shell. To his exhilaration, that mysterious resonance emerged once again, meaning his conjecture was correct.

The turtle shell truly was a Beast Soul Bone.

However, the spiritual feedback from the shell was far too profound and chaotic.

After just a brief moment of attempting to comprehend it, Ning Fan's head spun dizzyingly, and stars danced before his eyes.

Unfathomable!!

Ning Fan immediately dispersed his Spiritual Qi and shook his head.

The good news was that he possessed a Beast Soul Bone whose spirituality had not faded. The bad news was that, at his current realm, he could not glean a single fraction of its secrets.

"I'll wait and see," Ning Fan muttered to himself.

He would have to wait either for his realm to advance or for his next dual cultivation session with Ye Honglian.

In short.

For now, this new Beast Soul Bone was beyond his grasp.

Ning Fan shook his head to clear his thoughts. With a flip of his palm, two more bones appeared in his grasp.

These were precisely the Beast Soul Bones recovered from the Flesh Puppet's corpse. After Ning Fan and Ye Honglian's recent session of comprehension, the innate spirituality resting on these bones had diminished considerably.

Roughly two-thirds remained.

Setting aside the increased difficulty of deciphering them, even if someone managed it, the resulting Treasure Art would be far weaker. In other words, the value of these two Beast Soul Bones had already plummeted.

Even so, Beast Soul Bones were rare treasures that could fetch a handsome price.

"..."

Ning Fan raised his hand and stroked his chin.

He needed to trade them for cultivation resources before their spirituality completely faded. As for how to go about the exchange...

His first choice was the Prosperous Tower.

The Prosperous Tower was a gathering place for disciples from the various main peaks. Beyond idle chatter, it was a bustling market where countless individuals traded heavenly materials, earthly treasures, martial skills, and cultivation methods.

Back then, the martial skills and heavenly materials Ning Fan had seized from Qihua Peak were all fenced by Lin Yu at the Prosperous Tower.

Naturally, Beast Soul Bones could be sold there as well.

However, fetching a high price would require time; otherwise, merchants would eagerly exploit the situation to force the price down. Exceptional items needed to meet the right buyer.

And Ning Fan lacked time right now.

The Peak Competition was fast approaching.

His second option was actually the Peak Competition itself. The grand event also served as an excellent opportunity for disciples to barter their prized possessions.

Due to the nature of the Peak Competition.

Disciples would carry almost all of their Spirit Stones with them. If they lacked Spirit Stones? They would bring Dharma Artifacts, heavenly materials, earthly treasures, and anything else of value.

A single gathering place teeming with massive quantities of Spirit Stones and extraordinary treasures would naturally forge an immense marketplace.

Since Ning Fan was in no immediate rush to offload the Beast Soul Bones, waiting wouldn't hurt.

"As for the time I have left..." Ning Fan muttered to himself.

Cultivation?

It would not yield much.

Unless he expended a vast amount of cultivation resources for dual cultivation, advancing his realm further was practically impossible.

Moreover, squandering ten or twenty thousand Spirit Stones to forcibly push his realm to the fifth layer of the Profound Extreme Realm would hardly make a difference.

He was better off hoarding his wealth for the Yin Yang Tower.

"I should go inspect the ancient ruins," Ning Fan decided aloud.

The Spirit-Evolving Formation likely hadn't gathered enough Spiritual Qi yet, but with his cultivation realm greatly enhanced, he could attempt to challenge the subsequent trials.

It was time to see what rewards awaited in the deeper stages.

"Wife, let's go."

Ning Fan grasped Yun Qingyao's hand. The two left their immortal cave and walked to the foot of Changming Peak, before tracing a specific set of steps to enter the Boundless Celestial Palace.

Boundless Celestial Palace.

Arena Square.

Ning Fan walked past the line of arenas and stopped before the Spirit-Evolving Formation. As expected, the radiant glow upon the array had only advanced a small fraction of the way.

It was taking far longer than he had anticipated.

"It probably won't be fully charged until after the Peak Competition. I wonder just what kind of formation this is to require such a massive accumulation of energy," Ning Fan mused quietly, then cast his gaze toward the testing grounds ahead.

They appeared identical to the earlier stages-nine arenas in total, each occupied by a phantom. Beyond those nine platforms, Ning Fan could spy the distant arena holding a suit of armor and a long spear. Notably, that final stage lacked a phantom defender.

"I wonder if that armor and spear are the rewards for clearing this," Ning Fan muttered to himself.

He slowly approached the first arena. In the next breath, he stomped heavily against the earth, his body leaping with feather-like grace to land squarely on the stage. The dormant phantom immediately sprang to life.

"..."

The phantom clasped its hands and bowed to Ning Fan. While it couldn't be called deferential, there was a faint trace of familiarity in its posture.

Perhaps, by clearing the first stage of the assessment, Ning Fan had earned the partial recognition of the Boundless Celestial Palace, prompting the phantom to treat him with courtesy.

"Come!" Ning Fan let out a low shout. His figure blurred as he charged straight at his opponent.

The phantom's cultivation realm was slightly higher than his own.

-Profound Extreme Realm, fifth layer.

In the outside world, Ning Fan would likely dismiss a fifth-layer Profound Extreme Realm disciple of the Yin Yang Divine Sect. The Boundless Celestial Palace, however, played by different rules.

He remembered all too well that when he first set foot in these ruins, he had been sent flying by a single punch from a Yellow Extreme Realm phantom whose cultivation was lower than his.

Underestimating the trials of the Boundless Celestial Palace would only lead to a bitter thrashing.

"Boom-"

The phantom met his advance with a punch of its own. A dull, heavy thud resounded as their fists collided, forcing both Ning Fan and the phantom back several steps.

They were evenly matched.

"..."

Ning Fan stared at the phantom, his tense nerves loosening slightly. Despite its superior realm, it could only fight him to a draw. It didn't seem impossibly terrifying.

Its strength hovered around the equivalent of ninety-something Spirit Marks-formidable, but not heaven-defying.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A relentless barrage of impacts echoed across the arena as man and phantom clashed in a brutal melee. Ning Fan was in no rush to crush his foe; instead, he treated the phantom as a grinding stone to temper his skills.

The chance to freely brawl with an opponent who possessed near-identical cultivation, strength, speed, and physical fortitude was incredibly rare.

Dozens of breaths later, Ning Fan was panting heavily.

In that brief window of time, the two had exchanged over a hundred blows. Initially, Ning Fan's defense had been somewhat frantic. But as he swapped stances and traded strikes, his body acclimated to the lethal rhythm. Gradually, he began to suppress the phantom.

This suppression wasn't born of superior strength or speed, but purely of martial technique.

"Boom-"

Another pair of fists collided. Borrowing the recoil from the impact, Ning Fan slid backward, opening up a safe distance between himself and the phantom.

"Hoo."

Ning Fan drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly, a razor-sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

"This is enough."

"Time for the next stage."

"Treasure Art: Dragon Cry!"

"..."

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