Ning Fa's expression immediately shifted.
The name "Immortal Extermination Bead" was something he'd heard of before. It was known as one of the most powerful consumable offensive spirit artifacts, posing a serious threat even to great cultivators.
When Ning Fa had learned of this item in the past, he had considered collecting the materials to craft one as a trump card. However, the main ingredient was too difficult to obtain, so he had to give up on the idea.
The Immortal Extermination Bead before him was different, however. It was apparently a fragment of something called the Great Immortal Extermination Bead.
And this Great Immortal Extermination Bead was clearly a level above the ordinary Immortal Extermination Bead. Just the fact that its main ingredient was the Heavenly Eye of a Fifth-Tier Three-Eyed Heavenly Ape was telling.
A Fifth-Tier Three-Eyed Heavenly Ape's strength was likely beyond that of an ordinary human Spirit Transformation Cultivator.
Especially since a large portion of the Three-Eyed Heavenly Ape's divine abilities resided in that Heavenly Eye, one could imagine the power of that Great Immortal Extermination Bead. It was likely a significant threat even to Spirit Transformation Cultivators.
A sharp glint flashed in Ning Fa's eyes.
He hadn't expected this Immortal Extermination Bead to have such an origin. It was clearly given to him by Pei Nanshu's friend from the Heavenly Ape tribe, which also showed that his relationship with Yuan Gang was indeed unusual.
Ning Fa's face lit up with excitement. If he could trace the origin of this Great Immortal Extermination Bead, then in addition to his Chaos Divine Thunder, he would have another trump card capable of threatening Spirit Transformation Cultivators. This was naturally of great significance to him.
However, Ning Fa thought about it and decided not to trace its origin immediately.
After all, Fourth-Tier Origin Points were too precious. He only had ten points on him, and the current situation wasn't dire enough to warrant using them. It was better to save these Origin Points, as they might have more important uses later.
If he wanted to use it, he could trace its origin anytime.
With that thought, Ning Fa carefully put the Immortal Extermination Bead away.
As Ning Fa's thoughts moved again, two more items appeared before him with a flash of light.
One was a black crystal with countless facets, looking mysterious and unfathomable.
The other was a spherical bead shimmering with black lightning, the remnants left behind by Liao Wuyin and Lei E after their deaths.
Ning Fa first looked at the black lightning bead.
For some reason, he felt an instinctive craving for this item.
And it wasn't because of his Thunder Body, but because his Nascent Soul was craving it. This surprised Ning Fa and led him to make some guesses.
Next, Ning Fa looked at the Heavenly Book.
The surface of the Heavenly Book had once again emitted white radiance. These two items had triggered a reaction from it, and the reaction was even stronger than before.
Before long, the Heavenly Book displayed the patterns of the black crystal and the black lightning bead, and two pieces of information were transmitted.
"Ancient Spirit Core, made from cursed Ancient Immortal Source Blood and [Dusk Sun Ember]. It can provide the Heavenly Book with two Fourth-Tier Origin Points and four hundred Third-Tier Origin Points. Tracing Ancient Immortal Source Blood requires four Fourth-Tier Origin Points. Tracing Dusk Sun Ember requires one Fourth-Tier Origin Point."
"Ancient Spirit Core, made from cursed Ancient Immortal Source Blood and [Ancient Source Thunder Core]. It can provide the Heavenly Book with four Fourth-Tier Origin Points and six hundred Third-Tier Origin Points. Tracing Ancient Immortal Source Blood requires eight Fourth-Tier Origin Points. Tracing Ancient Source Thunder Core requires two Fourth-Tier Origin Points."
Ning Fa couldn't help but be startled.
The two items left by Liao Wuyin and Lei E were truly extraordinary. They were also very rare in that they could both provide Origin Points to the Heavenly Book and also be traced.
And the Origin Points required for both of these uses were astonishing.
They could be considered the items that provided the highest Origin Points to the Heavenly Book that Ning Fa had encountered so far, although they couldn't compare to the mysterious white fragment he had found earlier.
This also seemed to indicate that the Heavenly Book had a particular fondness for Ancient Immortals.
Through the information from the Heavenly Book, Ning Fa vaguely understood how those Ancient Immortals had created the Ancient Spirits.
It turned out they needed their Source Blood, along with some special spirit items.
As for the Dusk Sun Ember, he had never even heard of it, but judging by the Origin Points required for tracing, it was clearly no ordinary item.
The fact that the Origin Points required to trace the Ancient Immortal Source Blood were different for the two items likely indicated the difference in strength between the two Ancient Immortals behind them. Clearly, the Ancient Immortal behind Lei E, Lei Ming, was stronger.
Ning Fa suppressed the turmoil in his heart and then stared intently at the black lightning bead on the surface of the Heavenly Book.
The words "Ancient Source Thunder Core" immediately made him suspect something.
Ning Fa realized that it was likely this Ancient Source Thunder Core that caused his body to instinctively crave it.
Ning Fa pondered for a moment before making up his mind.
As his thought moved, the pattern of the black lightning bead on the surface of the Heavenly Book once again emitted white radiance.
Then, this ball of white light flew up and instantly enveloped the black lightning bead before Ning Fa.
After this anomaly dissipated, the black lightning bead had vanished, leaving behind a silver lightning bead that was slightly smaller in size.
It looked crystal clear, with delicate, crystalline lightning arcs flashing from time to time, and its aura had completely changed, losing its previous malevolent aura.
Joy flashed in Ning Fa's eyes.
Upon communicating with the Heavenly Book, he discovered that its Third-Tier Origin Points had become eight hundred and thirty, an increase of six hundred from before.
Its Fourth-Tier Origin Points had become twelve, an increase of two from before.
This was clearly what remained after the Heavenly Book absorbed the cursed Ancient Immortal Source Blood and then traced the Ancient Source Thunder Core.
Although the Ancient Immortal Source Blood was clearly more valuable, Ning Fa really didn't want to keep such a strange item with him, especially since tracing it required so many Origin Points.
At this moment, Ning Fa stared intently at the silver lightning bead before him.
This item attracted him even more than the previous one. At this moment, as if stimulated, the silver lightning arcs around his body began to flicker erratically.
Ning Fa immediately sat down cross-legged and formed a hand seal.
Not long after, a flash of silver lightning flickered above his head, and a two-inch-sized infant suddenly appeared.
The infant was enveloped in five-colored lightning, its face identical to Ning Fa's. It was Ning Fa's Nascent Soul.
This Nascent Soul stared intently at the silver lightning bead, its small face filled with longing.
Instantly, the Nascent Soul formed a hand seal, then opened its mouth and spewed out a mouthful of silver lightning fire, engulfing the bead. The bead gradually began to melt within the silver lightning fire.
Ning Fa's Nascent Soul's small face lit up with joy. It formed a hand seal, and the silver lightning bead, wrapped in five-colored lightning, flew towards it. It was directly swallowed into its belly.
The Nascent Soul's small face immediately showed a look of satisfaction. It rubbed its little belly, then flashed with white light and returned to the top of Ning Fa's head.
Ning Fa reopened his eyes, feeling a warmth surge within him. His heart was filled with surprise and joy. He could feel a pure power, originating from the same source as his magic power, slowly strengthening his Nascent Soul body.
Ning Fa immediately began to refine this power. Dense silver lightning arcs began to emerge from his body's surface, and behind him, a figure like a Thunder Giant slowly stood up – it was Ning Fa's Divine Firmament Manifestation.
It also sat cross-legged in mid-air, forming strange hand seals. Streams of silver light flowed unstably along mysterious patterns on its body, and the aura emanating from the manifestation was also slowly strengthening.
Two days later, Ning Fa slowly finished his cultivation, and the unusual phenomena around his body disappeared.
He opened his eyes, his face now full of pleasant surprise.
The Ancient Source Thunder Core had a great nourishing effect on the cultivation of his Divine Firmament Manifestation.
Although he had only refined about 20% of the power over these two days, its effect far surpassed Ning Fa's cultivation of the Divine Firmament Manifestation over the past few years.
Ning Fa estimated that if he could completely refine this power, he would not be far from the next stage of the Divine Firmament Manifestation – the Spiritual Manifestation Realm, also known as the First Transformation. He might even reach half or more of that stage.
Such a powerful effect naturally delighted Ning Fa.
Ning Fa also began to speculate about the true nature of the Ancient Source Thunder Core.
It was likely refined from the Nascent Souls of Nascent Soul cultivators who had practiced the Ancient Source Thunder Scripture, specifically those who practiced a flawed version of the scripture.
Clearly, such a counterfeit cultivation method was likely deliberately spread by Lei Ming.
The purpose was to raise them.
Lei Ming must have also practiced the true Ancient Source Thunder Scripture. For him, cultivators who practiced the fake scripture were like pigs and sheep being raised in pens.
Once these individuals advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, their Nascent Souls would be like meat from those pigs and sheep to Lei Ming, providing a great nourishing effect.
They could even be used to refine these special Ancient Source Thunder Cores to create Ancient Spirits.
Ning Fa even felt that refining the Ancient Source Thunder Core would require more than one or two Nascent Souls.
Since Ning Fa practiced the true Ancient Source Thunder Scripture, his Divine Firmament Manifestation had seen such a significant improvement after absorbing the Ancient Source Thunder Core.
Ning Fa sighed, a complex expression appearing in his eyes.
He now had a rough idea of how to save Bai Yueqiu and Canglei. However, it would be somewhat cruel to them. But there was no time to delay; otherwise, it might be too late.
With that thought, Ning Fa took a step and vanished from the room.
Soon, Ning Fa arrived at another nearby secret chamber.
Bai Yueqiu was sitting blankly on a stone bed, black lightning occasionally flashing in her eyes. Her hands and feet were each bound by a slender silver chain.
Ning Fa opened his right hand, and a pillar of five-colored lightning shot into Bai Yueqiu's abdomen.
The next moment, the Nascent Soul in Bai Yueqiu's dantian, more than half of which had turned into black crystal, was enveloped by five-colored lightning.
Subsequently, the black light in Bai Yueqiu's eyes slowly receded, and a hint of clarity returned, but her expression appeared extremely pained.
She looked at Ning Fa and trembled, saying, "Fellow Daoist Ning, there's no need to waste your effort. I'm likely beyond saving. Rather than becoming a monster without self-awareness, kill me now."
Ning Fa looked at her with a solemn expression. "Fellow Daoist Bai, your condition is not untreatable, but the price is very high.
The root of the problem now lies in the magic power generated by your cultivation of the Ancient Source Thunder Scripture.
To save you, I will have to absorb all the origin of your magic power.
This will return you to the initial stage of Qi Condensation.
If you wish to return to the Nascent Soul realm, you will have to cultivate other cultivation methods and continue to cultivate step by step. However, you should not have to experience another Thunder Tribulation. What do you think?"
Bai Yueqiu was stunned for a moment, then said without hesitation, "As long as I can maintain my self-awareness, this price is nothing. Fellow Daoist Ning, please proceed."