Chapter 671: 72-Forged Iron Devourer (1)

Su Yu required a large amount of mountainbreak bull blood essence. If he really couldn't get enough, he could always change to a different blood essence. He would only lose some money doing so.

But money was nothing if one could get heavenly source qi in return. There were things that not even money could buy.

If the Human Realm wasn't lacking in heavenly source qi, the heavenly source fruits wouldn't have been something only Invincible descendants could enjoy. And humanity wouldn't have been desperate enough to send two of their Invincibles to enter an enemy realm for some heavenly source fruit trees.

***

15th of February.

Su Yu received a heavenly source fruit from Zhu Tiandao. Not even the Zhu Family had too many of these. They needed these fruits for their juniors and loyal subordinates. Thus, they didn't have that many in stock. Just giving one to Su Yu was enough to demonstrate their sincerity.

The heavenly source fruit was gold in color. It was only the size of a fist. The fruit looked slightly translucent, and inside, strands of heavenly source qi could be seen swirling about like tiny dragons.

Inside a laboratory.

The elderly of the research center had all arrived to satisfy their curiosity. For many people, the heavenly source fruit was something they had only heard about but never seen before. It didn't matter how long these people had lived. Even Wu Lan, the child of a large family, had never seen one either.

While looking at the fruit, Wu Lan said, "The Xia Family has these fruits as well, but they don't have that many. With this thing, you can shorten the time you spend in the Source Opening Realm. Most people will be stuck there for five or six years. With this thing, you can rapidly get through it."

Su Yu asked curiously, "Did Xia Huyou not use any?"

If he had, his cultivation level would have been far higher during his first meeting with Su Yu.

Wu Lan shook her head, "I don't know. I heard that the Xia Family doesn't have the habit of using this thing. For them, the Source Opening Realm is a period of accumulation. Going through that realm too fast is not necessarily a good thing. You will miss the chance to properly accumulate crucial knowledge if you get through that realm too quickly."

Each of these major families had their ways of educating their members. Some focused on nurturing young freaks. And some preferred their young talents to focus first focus on accumulating knowledge.

If one was able to complete the Source Opening process at around seven or eight, one might not be able to spare any time in the future for knowledge accumulation as one would then be too preoccupied with cultivation. Naturally, there were pros and cons to each option. As an outsider, Su Yu wouldn't say anything about that.

After observing the fruit for a bit, he discovered that the heavenly source qi in each fruit was about equal to what he could get from fifty drops of early Skysoar iron-winged bird blood essence.

With the price of twenty merit points per drop, the heavenly source qi within this fruit was basically worth a thousand merit points. But the price of a single heavenly source fruit was far higher. After all, these fruits were too rare.

"So I only need a thousand merit points to get the equivalent of a heavenly source fruit. If I use the mountainbreak bull blood essence instead, I can even reduce the cost to around seven to eight hundred merit points."

Heavenly source fruits were both excellent for Source Opening and body forging. But body forging would require a much larger amount of heavenly source qi. The heavenly source qi each fruit could provide was about the same as what a drop of first divine or original devil blood essence could provide.

Was getting heavenly source fruits easier or was killing first divines and original devils easier? Killing a single Skysoar first divine would grant one at least ten drops of blood essence. That was basically ten heavenly source fruits. Then again, both were extremely hard to obtain, so this was quite a pointless comparison.

After a while, Wen Zhong looked at Su Yu and asked, "Don't tell me you're planning to forge your body with this."

He shook his head, "If you do that, you will need far too many of them. Even if you only choose to do nine forgings, you will need at least a hundred of them. And you won't be able to get that even if you manage to conquer both holy lands of humanity."

There were only five heavenly source fruit trees in the Human Realm. They would bear 180 fruits every 9 years. Thus, if Su Yu alone monopolized the supply of a single harvest, he could probably complete nine forgings. He could do so if his father was the Emperor of humanity. If not, he should stop dreaming.

"Nope!" Su Yu smiled, "I'm only using this fruit for research. I'm curious. What's the difference between heavenly source fruit and heavenly source qi? Heavenly source fruit trees can be planted in areas with natural heavenly source qi. But why plant these trees instead of absorbing the heavenly source qi there directly?"

Wen Zhong had the answer to that. He said, "Pure heavenly source qi is stronger, so it can be used directly for body forging. But at the Source Opening Realm, one can easily burst apart due to the sheer power of heavenly source qi.

"Meanwhile, the heavenly source qi within a heavenly source fruit is a lot milder, making it safe for Source Opening cultivators. There's not much heavenly source qi in the Human Realm anyway. It would be a waste to use it for body forging. We might as well use it to nurture some young geniuses instead."

Su Yu nodded. Basically, it was too wild and powerful for the consumption of Source Opening cultivators. But he didn't feel like the heavenly source qi he had extracted was wild. In that case, the book in his head had probably played the same role as a heavenly source fruit, turning the heavenly source qi into a milder variant. The book had essentially calmed the heavenly source qi down.

"In what conditions will heavenly source qi start appearing?" Su Yu asked, "Why can it be found only in the holy lands and nowhere else in the Human Realm?"

Wen Zhong shook his head. But Cao Hui had an answer. He said, "I researched this in the past. Heavenly source qi exists in many places, not only the two holy lands. But the two holy lands have the biggest uninterrupted concentration in the entire Human Realm.

"Such locations with uninterrupted supply of heavenly source qi exist in the Divine and Devil Realms as well. In truth, heavenly source qi exists everywhere. Even the regular source qi we use originated from heavenly source qi.

"The source qi you can find in the air is produced naturally by the world. When first produced, the heavenly source qi remained pure. But due to the existence of the myriad living beings, the pure heavenly source qi eventually transformed into regular source qi due to pollution. That is why you can find heavenly source qi in the blood essence of even those who had not lived in an area with a concentration of heavenly source qi."

Su Yu nodded and asked, "How are these places preserving the heavenly source qi?"

"Generally..." Cao Hui paused slightly and said, "Well, this is only my speculation. I can't prove it. Generally, types of places can produce heavenly source qi. Firstly, the core of a realm. Secondly, a site where an Invincible had perished.

"The core of a realm is also the place where heavenly source qi is produced. Thus, this is a place that will constantly generate a large amount of heavenly source qi. As for the site where an Invincible had perished, each Invincible is an existence that has touched upon the laws of nature. The death of such an existence will result in the withering of life and disorder of time and space itself. This will interrupt the natural laws of a place, turning it into a place capable of preserving heavenly source qi."

Wen Zhong frowned, "Junior Brother Jin, in your opinion, which category does the War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm fall into?"

"It is likely the former." Jin Sheng answered, "The Dual Holy Prefecture was founded at the core area of the Human Realm. But the actual core itself won't be so easy to find. I have never seen any signs of any dead Invincibles there, so I doubt it's the second category.

"Of course, nothing is certain. Perhaps some Invincibles had perished there in ancient times. Some of the ancient ruins we found contained heavenly source qi inside as well. Some of these probably used to be the residences or sects of those ancient experts. Those are the places that will normally have experts dying in meditation. And that will generally produce an area capable of preserving heavenly source qi.

"These are the two main categories of the heavenly source qi areas in the Divine, Devil, and Immortal Realms."

Su Yu nodded. He had learned something new yet again. These old fellows seemed to know everything. With them here, he was free to ask any questions he had. He would be able to get an answer for almost everything.

"Has anyone ever used heavenly source qi for body forging in the two holy lands?"

Wen Zhong said, "Don't overthink things. The two special areas can't be entered so easily. That will only waste and pollute the heavenly source qi there. Generally, the families of Invincibles will share the slots among themselves. Thus, an average of one person can enter those areas for body forging per year. But any family opting to use this quota will not receive any heavenly source fruits for the next fifty years. That is the price of doing so. And only Invincible families can participate."

Su Yu was surprised. After all, Zhu Tiandao had offered to take him there if he wanted. If Zhu Tiandao did that, they would be forsaking their share of heavenly source fruits for fifty years. Over that period of time, they also wouldn't be able to send a second cultivator there for body forging.

Yet Zhu Tiandao had generously offered that chance to him. Su Yu was the one who had rejected it. He was completely unaware of the high price behind this offer. He had thought that any member of an Invincible family could enter that place as they pleased.

Noticing Su Yu's pensive look, Wen Zhong said, "You can try asking the prefect. It has been many years since the Zhu Family used their quota. They mostly use blood essence for body forging. In fact, for people who are not aiming to undergo too many forgings, blood essence will suffice."

Rather than wasting heavenly source qi for body forging, the people in the two holy lands preferred using the heavenly source qi to grow more heavenly source fruits. As for their body forging needs, they could simply kill some enemies for blood essence.

Su Yu smiled and shook his head without saying anything. Forget it. There was no need for that. He would owe the Zhu Family a massive favor if he accepted the offer. He had his own means of getting heavenly source qi.