Chapter 1161

Thinking of that ancient era, the fighting energy on the Fighting Energy Continent had greatly regressed; Lin Feng immediately furrowed his brows, then, with a belly full of doubts, continued reading.

Since those Dou Emperor powerhouses and upper-realm envoys disappeared, they never came back. I really want to know, so I implore those newly advanced Dou Emperor powerhouses, hoping that after they ascend they can think of a way to give me a heart-pierce and tell me what happened in the upper realm. And I also very much want to break through to the Dou Emperor realm as soon as possible, go to the upper realm to see exactly what happened.

My idea of increasing strength was interrupted; another friend again invited me to help, wanting to try refining an Emperor Pill for a breakthrough. Considering that the other party is both an alchemist and a half-Emperor powerhouse, I agreed. Because he promised that after ascending he would think of a way to send a message telling me exactly what happened in the upper realm. Also, the recipe for refining this pill will also be given to me, and there are two sets of ingredients for this pill.

We went through two rounds of refining, and finally succeeded. However, the concentration of fighting energy between heaven and earth has dropped too drastically. To refine this pill, we all worked together, almost draining one-quarter of the fighting energy of the southern continent, barely managing to gather the energy needed to refine this pill. If this continues, will refining Emperor-grade pills on the Fighting Energy Continent in the future still require forcibly extracting the energy from living beings?

After all, even an Emperor-realm soul can only mobilize so much heaven and earth energy; it's impossible to infinitely use the energy between heaven and earth.

My friend also broke through to the Dou Emperor and ascended, but this breakthrough seemed difficult; could this be the result of the decline in heaven and earth energy concentration?

Seeing this, Lin Feng's brows immediately furrowed slightly.

His intuition told him that the reason this Golden Core sect master's friend found the breakthrough difficult was probably not due to the decline in fighting energy concentration between heaven and earth.

Afterwards, he rubbed his chin with his hand and murmured softly: 'Could it be that this half-Emperor powerhouse's breakthrough is so difficult because, back then, the source energy of the Fighting Energy Continent had already begun to show signs of depletion?'

As he spoke further, his tone also became increasingly certain.

After all, aside from this reason, he really couldn't think of any other cause.

As for that fighting energy concentration decline, he does not believe it is the cause.

However, this also gave me a piece of information: in that ancient era, it seems that the cultivators did not know of the existence of source energy. Of course, it's possible that back then the source energy was abundant in large amounts and also hidden within the fighting energy, leading the ancient powerhouses to believe that fighting energy was composed of these substances.

Saying this, Lin Feng, lost in thought, said: 'If a comparison must be made, it's like how modern Blue Star people view air as being composed of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, etc., with nothing curious about it.'

However, if we say that, combined with the words of that Golden Core sect master, could it be that after that fighting energy concentration decline, the source energy content of the Fighting Energy Continent began to decrease?

As he spoke, Lin Feng gradually formed a conjecture in his mind.

Could this source energy be like the water on Blue Star, which on one hand is self-generated and on the other hand receives a certain amount from the outside world?

But perhaps due to some reason, after that great decline in fighting energy concentration, the generation of source energy on the Fighting Energy Continent ceased.

However, because the channel between the Fighting Energy Continent and Da Qian Shijie has not yet disappeared.

Therefore, with the source energy transmitted from Da Qian Shijie supporting it, it can barely continue to operate normally.

And only after the channel with Da Qian Shijie was completely closed did the source energy on the Fighting Energy Continent lose its source, being used bit by bit until it was finally exhausted in the era of Tuoshe Ancient Emperor!

Of course, some portion of the source energy, for various reasons, has been stored or lost in some remote places.

Forget it, I can't guess anything now; I'd better first personally look at the memory of this eyewitness.

Immediately afterwards, Lin Feng shook his head, cast aside his distracting thoughts, and continued reading.

Unable to eat or sleep, I've waited years; my friend still hasn't sent any news from the upper realm; it's strange—he's not the type to go back on his word, could something major have happened?

Forget it; since that's the case, I'll work hard to raise my strength, striving to break through to Dou Emperor as soon as possible and go see the situation myself.

Why?!

Why did the ascension channel suddenly close?!

What exactly happened in the upper realm that it would actively close the ascension channel? Could it be that our Dou Qi Continent has been completely abandoned?!

We tried many methods but found no clues. Left with no choice, our group of Golden Core masters discussed for a long time and finally decided to jointly refine several Emperor Pills for the eight peak Dou Saints of our continent to take. Once they break through to Dou Emperor, they can go to the upper realm to investigate the cause and plead for the ascension channel to be opened.

After all, without the ascension channel, how will we contact the upper realm in the future? Moreover, even if we break through to Dou Emperor and forcefully open the channel to go up, we would be affected by the turbulence between worlds, posing a mortal danger even to Dou Emperor experts; if something goes wrong, it would be hard to withdraw safely.

Those eight forcefully opened the channel and went up, carrying the hopes of all the people of our Dou Qi Continent, entering the previously closed ascension channel. Who knows whether we will be disappointed this time, after all, to refine those eight pills we nearly drained two continents, and this disaster affected countless beings. If they fail, we couldn't bear to drain another continent.

Years have passed, and we have lost all hope; we know nothing about their situation. What's worse, the Dou Qi production rate of our continent has further deteriorated; the four lands we previously drained are now completely ruined, unable to sustain any life.

Left with no choice, we could only erase those two lands from the Dou Qi Continent; more accurately, we sealed them away. After all, they were too severely damaged by us and need time to rest and recover; we hope that when future generations discover them, those two lands will have returned to their original state.

Today I finally broke through to Nine-Star Dou Saint, bringing me one step closer to the Dou Emperor realm. However, this time I achieved the breakthrough on my own, without relying on pill power. After pondering for a long time, I decided not to take the Golden Core pill for now, and to use pills only after reaching Nine-Star.

After all, the resistance of ninth-grade pills is too great; basically each person can only take each small-grade pill once. Although the Thunder Tribulation Pill, due to its main ingredient being lightning, can avoid this restriction, each person can still only take one Thunder Tribulation Pill. If I, an Eight-Star Dou Saint, were to use it, later breakthroughs would become difficult.

Seeing this, Lin Feng's doubts instantly grew stronger.

Because earlier, when in the ruins, from the words of that ninth-grade Golden Core pill we learned that this Golden Core alchemist's strength was at the Eight-Star Dou Saint level.

Then why, in this recording of his life, does he show that he has already broken through to Nine-Star Dou Saint?

Thinking of this, Lin Feng's doubts arose, and he immediately continued watching.

Because only here could he possibly obtain the answer.

"Upon reaching Nine-Star Dou Saint, this saint has wandered for nearly a hundred years and finally found the lightning I needed; now I can finally refine the Thunder Tribulation Pill. However, I am currently at mid Nine-Star Dou Saint, and this Thunder Tribulation Pill is inherently weaker than ordinary pills of the same grade—can it truly let me break through?"

"Although there were some setbacks along the way, after nearly ten years of effort this saint has finally refined this ninth-grade Golden Core level Thunder Tribulation Pill. However, given the current Dou Qi concentration, the energy required by this pill is too enormous. At this Dou Qi concentration, how many Emperor-grade pills can the Dou Qi Continent still bear to produce?"

"Haha, my luck is not bad; after taking this Thunder Tribulation Pill I successfully reached late Nine-Star Dou Saint. Now that I'm at this level, I should prepare to break through to Dou Emperor. However, because the Dou Qi concentration on the Dou Qi Continent has further weakened, I don't know whether I can successfully break through to Dou Emperor."

"Because now, two peak Dou Saint-level cultivators have reported that, for some unknown reason, when they attempt to break through to Dou Emperor they always feel a sense of emptiness, and this feeling directly causes the breakthrough to fail. Meanwhile, other Nine-Star Dou Saints on our continent, upon hearing this, have been searching around the clock for the cause, believing they will soon find results."

"From now on, Dou Emperors on the Dou Qi Continent will become fewer and fewer, eventually disappearing entirely; at the same time, ascension will no longer exist either!"

"It seems our contact with the upper realm may gradually be cut off. In the end, most people on the continent will likely not even know of the upper realm's existence!"

"After our thorough research, we discovered that some Dou Qi contains a strange energy. This energy can aid the body in purification and strengthening when a Dou Saint breaks through to Dou Emperor, allowing them to succeed; otherwise, due to a weak physique they would be unable to absorb more Dou Qi, leading to failure."

"Although we tried tempering the body and directly forging it to absorb sufficient Dou Qi, after experiments we found that a Dou Emperor expert's bodily strength could be over a hundred times that of a peak Dou Saint, making it impossible to reach the level needed for advancement to Dou Emperor without that energy."

"Now the Dou Qi Continent is basically a mess; many experts, in their struggle for a trace of that energy, have even bashed their own brains out. I, in order to seize a wisp of that energy, fought a peak Dou Saint expert; I haven't managed to grab anything, I myself am seriously injured and my strength has dropped to the Eight-Star Dou Saint level. Therefore, I plan to first slightly recover from my injuries, then raise my strength again to go after those energies."

"Of course, the peak Dou Saint cultivator who was competing with me for that energy has had his soul scattered and his body destroyed by my pupil realm. I didn't expect, however, that those shameless old-timers would take advantage of my injury to launch an attack; outnumbered, this saint ended up in such a sorry state."

"Phew, after recuperating for nearly a year in a hidden place in the southeast, I have finally stabilized my internal injuries. Now I intend to refine a ninth-grade Golden Core pill to boost my strength. However, to heal my injuries and in one go break through to the peak Dou Saint level, I will carefully refine it, striving to produce the highest-quality ninth-grade Golden Core pill."

"Otherwise, if I fail the breakthrough later, that would be awful—but I still don't understand why we previously never lacked this energy, nor have I heard of anyone failing because of it. Now why has this energy suddenly become scarce?"

"After pondering for a long time, I finally feel this matter is related to the decline in Dou Qi concentration on the Dou Qi Continent. Could it be that the continent originally could produce enough Dou Qi and this energy, but later something happened, the continent was heavily consumed, and thus it can no longer generate sufficient Dou Qi and this energy, leading to this situation."

"However, I feel the root of all this seems to have started from that day when we refined the Emperor pills and that evil energy appeared. Now I suspect that evil energy is the cause, greatly draining the foundation of the Dou Qi Continent. After the upper realm learned of this, they sent envoys to help."

"In the end, although they resolved that crisis, they also thereby damaged the foundation of the Dou Qi Continent, leading to this situation. But if this continues, will our Dou Qi Continent still be able to produce Dou Emperors in the future?"

"If we cannot think of a way to restore some of that energy, then once that energy is completely exhausted, everyone on the Dou Qi Continent will be unable to break through to the Dou Emperor realm!"

"Boom~"

And as the preceding words fell silent, that thread of Lin Feng's soul power was flicked away.

Immediately afterward, he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze shocked as he looked at the scroll in his hand.

After a long while, he finally gasped, 'I never expected that the struggle over source qi would have begun since ancient times.'

But upon reflection, this is actually quite normal.

After all, in that era the Dou Qi Continent still possessed origin emperor qi, and after those experts carefully observed it for a period, they could certainly discover its secrets.

Thinking of the owner of that space ring, a mighty late-stage Nine-Star Dou Saint, who was injured in the struggle over origin emperor qi and then assassinated by his own concubine while healing and refining pills, he couldn't help but feel the fickleness of fate, such is heaven's will.

"It's a pity that this Golden Core Master failed to seize the origin emperor qi; otherwise, I would have struck it rich this time."

After a long time, Lin Feng couldn't help shaking his head, his heart filled with endless regret.

After all, if he had enough origin emperor qi, he could pile up all his resources to help Feng'er break through to Dou Emperor.

After all, she is now a mid-stage Seven-Star Dou Saint, the one among them closest to Dou Emperor, so there is always some hope.

"Alas, I can't obtain that thing no matter how hard I try. But now I finally understand the origin of that Golden Core, as well as much information from ancient times. To be honest, this time I've struck it rich!"

Thinking of the numerous medicinal pills earlier and the large unexamined areas within the space ring, Lin Feng immediately shook his head again, silently chastising himself for greed.

He then closed the scroll in his hand, thinking: 'From the experience of that Golden Core Alchemist earlier, we know that in that distant era, Golden Core Alchemists were not necessarily few, but certainly very valuable. This is shown by the fact that such an alchemist could summon many Dou Saint experts to exterminate the Seven-Colored Swallowing Heaven Python clan.'

"After all, the Seven-Colored Swallowing Heaven Python, being an ancient exotic beast, could not be weak; it was probably besieged and killed by many Dou Saint experts at that time."

"Second, back then the Dou Qi Continent had close ties with the Upper Realm, also called the Da Qian Shijie, and they were aware of the Upper Realm's existence. Moreover, Dou Qi cultivators could remain in the Dou Qi Continent for at most a sixty-year cycle after breaking through to Dou Emperor before they had to ascend. In the original work, Xiao Yan gradually felt the Upper Realm's summons after breaking through to Dou Emperor, perhaps due to this mechanism."

"If we follow normal logic, wouldn't the envoy of the Da Qian Shijie, leading a group of Dou Emperor experts, have taken some key object from the Dou Qi Continent? In the end, although they relied on it to resolve the invading energies, they likewise lost that key object."

And if we follow normal logic, could it be that the envoy from Da Qian Shijie, leading a group of Dou Emperor powerhouses, took away some key object from the Fighting Energy Continent? In the end, although people relied on it to resolve those invading energies, they likewise ended up losing that key object.

So only after that did the Dou Qi continent begin to greatly regress.