Chapter Ninety: The Forbidden Domain

To break through to the Human Rank, Yi Tian entered the underground chamber together with the clan chief and the senior elder to enter seclusion.

By then, some of the houses in this underground space had already been repaired. Yi Tian chose one of them and began his closed-door cultivation, his storage pouch packed with dried meat from ferocious beasts, water, and other provisions.

After making all his preparations, Yi Tian at once set about his breakthrough.

As he continuously circulated the Great Sun Divine Art, he refined the three thousand six hundred and fifty acupoints involved in that art.

Under his control, vast true energy surged to open the acupoints one by one. Each awakened point was being tempered, madly drawing in boundless pure yang true energy, faintly gleaming as it underwent a slow transformation.

The three thousand six hundred and fifty acupoints were evolving, unveiling the deeper mystery of opening the source.

Yet the pure yang true energy in Yi Tian's dantian was exhausted in less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

The changes in the major acupoints were almost negligible.

Only then did Yi Tian truly realize how arduous it was to temper acupoints, to unlock their deeper mysteries, and let them transform into spiritual apertures.

He took out a crystal stone and clenched it tightly in both hands, circulating the Great Sun Divine Art. Threads of liquid essence turned into vast, pure energy and poured into his body as he continued to cultivate.

In less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the true energy in his dantian had been fully restored.

Without crystal stones or essence stones to aid him, it would likely have taken Yi Tian days, even ten or more days, to recover to full strength.

With crystal stones, however, he could replenish his true energy in an extremely short time, saving him a great deal of time.

Crack.

A crystal stone suddenly split with countless fissures.

Yi Tian opened his eyes from cultivation, casually tossed the broken crystal stone aside, and took up another one to continue cultivating.

At this point, he had been in seclusion for a full fifteen days.

The three thousand six hundred and fifty acupoints within Yi Tian's body were now shimmering with light. They were only one step away from transforming into spiritual apertures, though this alone had already cost him six crystal stones.

This made Yi Tian understand why many martial artists chose to break through without fully opening all the spiritual apertures throughout their bodies.

The true energy required for each acupoint to transform into a spiritual aperture was simply too immense. Ordinary martial artists needed vast resources merely to open the hundreds of acupoints in their techniques. Only the most powerful factions could afford to support such a thing; otherwise, one could only spend years, even more than a decade, tempering them slowly, or else venture into forbidden lands and perilous zones to seek opportunity.

Of course, before all that there was one most crucial prerequisite: true energy had to be refined to an incomparably pure state. Only then could one temper the acupoints and let them transform into spiritual apertures.

This step consumed an unknown amount of a martial artist's time. Because of their techniques, their true energy was not concentrated or pure enough, and it often took decades of refinement. The older one became, the slimmer the hope of future breakthrough grew. This was why most peak ninth-rank martial artists ultimately found it difficult to advance.

Thus, with crystal stones, one could greatly shorten the time needed to refine true energy and temper spiritual apertures. To all martial artists, it was a supreme treasure on the road to breaking through the Human Rank.

Fortunately, the Yi Clan had discovered a large essence vein mine. Yi Tian had obtained more than four hundred crystal stones, and with the Great Sun Divine Art, a heavenly-tier technique, the pure yang true energy he cultivated was extremely refined, meeting the requirements for tempering spiritual apertures. After consuming crystal stone after crystal stone, the spiritual apertures throughout his body were on the verge of fully transforming, all three thousand six hundred and fifty of them.

For other martial artists cultivating ordinary Human Rank techniques, less than one crystal stone would be enough to support their breakthrough. For those cultivating Earth Rank techniques, no more than two crystal stones would be sufficient to break into the Human Rank.

Their techniques were far less profound or intricate than heavenly arts, and the number of spiritual apertures involved was only in the hundreds or a thousand at most.

Yi Tian's foundation was incomparably deep; he had already consumed six crystal stones, and still had not completed tempering all three thousand six hundred and fifty spiritual apertures.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

At that very moment, the three thousand six hundred and fifty acupoints within Yi Tian's body suddenly blazed brilliantly, as if each had become a star releasing boundless radiance to illuminate endless darkness.

"The acupoints involved in the Great Sun Divine Art have finally all transformed into spiritual apertures."

Joy rose in Yi Tian's heart.

Once the three thousand six hundred and fifty acupoints within him had transformed into spiritual apertures, he could sense a faint, mysterious connection between these apertures and the surrounding world.

It seemed he could open the spiritual apertures at any moment, draw in vast amounts of worldly essence, and attain a trace of harmony with this world.

If he wished, he could condense true energy into true essence and truly step into the Human Rank.

However, Yi Tian did not give up on continuing to temper the remaining acupoints. If he stepped into the Human Rank now, it would become incomparably difficult to temper the other acupoints afterward.

The acupoints not yet tempered were too fragile compared with the overwhelmingly powerful true essence; with the slightest misstep, they would be destroyed.

Next, Yi Tian used the Divine Sun-Shooting Art to temper the twenty-seven thousand acupoints throughout his body.

This time, the process took a very long time.

It took him a full three months to refine all the acupoints of the Divine Sun-Shooting Art into spiritual apertures. This was only because the twenty-seven thousand acupoints of that art already included the great majority of the spiritual apertures involved in the Great Sun Divine Art, saving him the trouble of tempering them again.

Once Yi Tian had refined all the acupoints involved in those two heavenly arts, he turned his attention to the remaining acupoints in his body. There were still more than eight thousand of them.

He then tempered the rest using methods from the Sword of the Firmament, the Instant Shift Secret Art, the Savage Wilderness Divine Art, the Tiger Roar Divine Art, and the Myriad Phenomena Divine Art.

In the end, all thirty-six thousand acupoints in his body transformed into spiritual apertures, with only several hundred acupoints still untouched.

Even now, more than five hundred of Yi Tian's acupoints had yet to be fully refined.

Those remaining acupoints were not covered by the techniques, battle arts, or other methods he cultivated.

So if he wanted to refine them into spiritual apertures, he could only do so one by one.

This greatly increased the time Yi Tian had to spend.

Boom.

At that moment, Yi Tian sensed a powerful aura erupting from a house in the distance.

He immediately understood.

The clan chief, or perhaps the senior elder, had just broken through to the Human Rank. For a time, he could not fully control the true essence within him, and it leaked out in a mighty surge of power.

Yi Tian did not stir.

He remained wholly immersed in the tempering of the other acupoints in his body.

When he was thirsty or hungry, he simply took dried meat from his storage pouch and drank water in rough gulps.

With his Starclay clone, Yi Tian could reflect all the acupoints in his body, so he need not fear overlooking anything.

In the long stretch of time that followed, Yi Tian no longer knew how much time had passed. When the tens of thousands of jin of dried beast meat in his storage pouch were nearly exhausted, he finally refined all the remaining acupoints in his body into spiritual apertures.

Thirty-six thousand four hundred and ninety.

Yi Tian could sense the existence of all thirty-six thousand four hundred and ninety spiritual apertures within him, each bearing a faint connection to heaven and earth.

Through that tenuous link, he could even vaguely perceive some of the mysteries of the world: they seemed close enough to touch, yet also impossibly distant, which was most vexing.

All thirty-six thousand four hundred and ninety acupoints in Yi Tian's body had been refined into spiritual apertures. He could now step into the Human Rank perfectly, laying down the firmest possible foundation.

And yet, Yi Tian was still somewhat unwilling to accept it.

According to a few ancient records preserved by the Yi Clan, the human body had thirty-six thousand four hundred and ninety known acupoints. But those records also preserved a legend passed down among humankind.

That legend claimed there were actually thirty-six thousand five hundred acupoints in the human body, containing the number of the cycles of heaven.

In other words, there were still ten acupoints in the human body that had never been discovered.

It was said that those final ten acupoints lay in a forbidden realm, and once that forbidden realm was opened, one's strength would soar to an unfathomable level, enough to contend with the most ancient and powerful gods and demons.

Even Yi Tian's Starclay clone, which had evolved his physical form, could not discover the location of those last ten forbidden acupoints.

For the moment, Yi Tian could not reach that most mysterious realm of humankind, and could only let it go.

Thus, he began his assault on the Human Rank. Without a doubt, he stepped into it with great ease, condensing true essence.