Ning Fa collapsed onto the ground. Forcing a breakthrough had left him with serious injuries, and his entire body was in immense pain.
However, he couldn't afford to pay attention to the physical pain at the moment. His mind was filled with the mysterious circular lightning pattern that had just appeared in his dantian, and the intense reaction of the Mysterious Scroll.
"The mysterious lightning pattern that appeared in my dantian is clearly incomplete. Does this represent my Incomplete Lightning Spiritual Root? And the intense reaction from the Mysterious Scroll just now seemed to be an attempt to trace and complete that incomplete pattern?"
Ning Fa murmured, his voice filled with excitement and disbelief.
His eyes lit up, and he felt his guess was likely correct.
Furthermore, he instantly thought of something that made him incredibly excited.
If the Mysterious Scroll could indeed trace and complete the mysterious pattern, could his Incomplete Lightning Spiritual Root become a complete Lightning Spiritual Root?
Given the heaven-defying abilities of the Mysterious Scroll, this seemed highly probable.
Thinking about the possibility of his Lightning Spiritual Root becoming complete again, Ning Fa's heart pounded violently. Even with his temperament, he found it hard to suppress his excitement.
After all, the Witch's threat was imminent. If he could possess a complete Lightning Spiritual Root, he would no longer have to fear that Witch.
Ning Fa forced himself to calm down. He seemed to recall something, and a hint of strangeness appeared in his eyes.
From his previous understanding of the Mysterious Scroll, its ability was to trace back to spiritual materials used to refine pills that had reached a certain level of completeness.
However, it could not make a broken pill whole again.
He had conducted some experiments out of curiosity.
Firstly, the spiritual materials traced back by the Mysterious Scroll were definitely the ones used for refining the pills.
Ning Fa had even marked the spiritual materials, and the traced spiritual materials bore the exact same marks.
Secondly, if a single Essence Replenishing Pill was split in half, either half could be traced back to complete spiritual materials. However, one could not use both halves to trace back two sets of spiritual materials.
As soon as one half of the pill traced back the spiritual materials, the other half could no longer be used for tracing.
But he had never experienced the Mysterious Scroll making a broken pill whole again.
And judging by the effect of the Mysterious Scroll on the mysterious circular pattern just now, it seemed more like it was making the incomplete pattern whole.
This made Ning Fa somewhat confused.
However, the scroll was ultimately mysterious and unfathomable, far beyond his comprehension at his current level.
Or perhaps what he saw was the Mysterious Scroll completing the circular pattern, but in essence, it was still tracing back?
Ning Fa shook his head, no longer dwelling on the matter.
In any case, the complementary ability now displayed by the Mysterious Scroll was a tremendous boon to him.
If he could complete the mysterious pattern and truly possess a complete Lightning Spiritual Root, then given time to cultivate, he wouldn't have to fear that Witch at all.
But the problem was that the Mysterious Scroll seemed to be struggling to trace the circular lightning pattern, and it wasn't an easy task.
But at least there was hope.
Ning Fa decided to recuperate his body as quickly as possible and then attempt to break through the mid-stage bottleneck again, hoping that the circular lightning pattern would reappear, allowing the scroll to trace it again.
Thinking of this, Ning Fa felt a bit strange again. Did cultivators with Incomplete Lightning Spiritual Roots all have such incomplete lightning patterns?
Or did cultivators with normal Lightning Spiritual Roots have complete patterns?
This lightning pattern looked extremely mysterious, giving Ning Fa a subtle feeling that it was not as simple as just being related to his Lightning Spiritual Root.
For the next two days, Ning Fa stopped refining pills and focused entirely on recuperating his injured body.
When he felt he had recovered sufficiently, he began to attempt to break through the bottleneck again.
Similar to the previous process, as Ning Fa controlled his spiritual power to impact the bottleneck at the limit of his body's endurance, the mysterious incomplete lightning pattern reappeared.
The Mysterious Scroll also automatically appeared, displaying the pattern again and reacting intensely, attempting to complete it, but the progress was very slow.
Ning Fa, however, could not endure for long. After forcing himself for sixty breaths, he finally gave up, unable to bear it any longer.
At this point, the Mysterious Scroll had not even completed half of the lightning pattern; it was still far from it.
Ning Fa couldn't help but get a headache. It seemed that enduring until the Mysterious Scroll completed the lightning pattern was an impossible task.
But he was not one to give up easily. After a short period of rest, he tried again.
At Ning Guichuan's residence on Pingchang Island.
"Zhen'an, are you sure about this? It's too risky. Ning Fa is not the same as he used to be. If anything happens to him, it will be very difficult for you to extricate yourself."
Ning Guichuan, who looked honest and simple, said worriedly to the person beside him.
That person was stout, with a face as black as charcoal, looking rugged and ugly – it was Ning Guichuan's eldest son, Ning Zhen'an.
Ning Zhen'an sighed and said, "Since that person found me, I actually have no room to refuse. Otherwise, our lineage's future situation will be very precarious. The First Elder has been recuperating for a long time and hasn't appeared. Within the family, the Third Elder is almost at the height of his power. Although it seems the Second Elder can still contend with him, the Second Elder is already old. In the future, the Third Elder's influence within the family will only grow."
"That person already holds a high position in the family and is deeply favored by the Third Elder. If I offend him, I'm afraid I'll have no place in the family in the future, so I have no choice but to agree. Moreover, he was quite generous and made many promises to me."
After listening, Ning Guichuan stopped trying to persuade him, but the wrinkles on his old face seemed to deepen.
Ning Zhen'an said calmly, "Father, you don't need to worry too much. I will be careful. But this matter is better done sooner rather than later. Please contact Uncle Donghui as soon as possible to start taking action, and be careful not to reveal anything about my situation."
A flicker of worry crossed Ning Guichuan's eyes, but he nodded heavily and then went out.
This day, Ning Fa, who was at home, racking his brain on how to complete the lightning patterns, was awakened by a hurried knocking at his door.
He got up and opened the door, only to see Ning Xilin standing there with an anxious expression.
"Uncle Xilin, what's the matter that has you in such a rush?"
Ning Fa asked, feeling a bit perplexed.
"Little Fa, our branch is about to come to blows with Ning Guichuan and Ning Donghui's branches. Hurry and go take a look."
Ning Xilin said, his face a picture of hurried anxiety.
Ning Fa blinked, but he wasn't overly surprised.
Currently, Pingchang Island was mainly inhabited by these three branches, along with a few Ning Family members living alone.
After Ning Fa's father perished, Ning Guichuan's branch, which had previously been subservient to them, happened to have a cultivator reach the late Qi Condensation stage. They then joined forces with Ning Donghui's branch, intending to drive Ning Fa's branch off Pingchang Island. Minor skirmishes between the three branches were a common occurrence.