NINE STAR HEGEMON BODY ART

CHAPTER 81-90

Chapter 81 Both Sides Heavily Wounded

Void Breaking Slash!”

Waves of qi completely constricted Long Chen. That sword seemed completely unstoppable.

That was Marquis Ying’s most powerful sword technique. Long Chen knew that it was definitely also an Earth class Battle Skill, and it was even more powerful than the one he had used before. Its powerful aura completely locked him in place.

Facing death, Long Chen’s mind was completely calm. He entered a strange state at this moment. He seemed to have grasped everything within heaven and earth. Ten thousand laws and Daos, every single creature and object, everything was clearly captured within his mind right now.

He felt as if he had already escaped from his body and was looking on as an observer.

What Long Chen didn’t know was that at this time, his FengFu Star had become completely static as if it was waiting for some kind of enlightenment. It was a shame that Long Chen hadn’t noticed.

Spiritual qi rushed towards his twelve cyclones. They explosively grew and cord-like energy surged through Long Chen’s meridians to enter the broadsword in his hands.

“Split the Heavens!”

Strange lines appeared over the broadsword, and it seemed to come alive. It cut through a mysterious arc, imposing just like an overpowering dragon. This was Long Chen’s strongest attack.

BOOM!! Waves of qi exploded outwards. Both of them were sent flying back, blood filling the sky.

Long Chen’s broadsword was sent flying out of his hands for hundreds of meters, only stopping once it sunk deep into a boulder.

Vomiting out blood, Long Chen felt that his whole body was about to collapse and his aura plummeted. 

A dozen cuts appeared on his body which were bleeding heavily. But what was worse was that all the meridians in his body had become covered in cracks, just a bit away from completely breaking apart.

And this was after Long Chen had gained the experience of using Split the Heavens last time. So when he had used it this time, he had used his entire body’s meridians in order to blunt the explosive force that came from it.

But because he had used even greater force that last time, he was really just the slightest bit away from becoming a completely crippled person.

It was possible to regrow a small portion of destroyed meridians. That was because you could follow the ‘memories’ of the meridians before it. But if all the meridians in the body were destroyed, then even with a Pill God’s memories, Long Chen would be completely powerless to fix it.

The current him was now unable to use even the slightest trace of spiritual qi. His cracked meridians were unable to bear any force at the moment.

On the other side, Marquis Ying’s condition was not that much better than Long Chen’s. The sword in his hand had shattered explosively, its fragments cutting into both of them.

If it was just external wounds, then Marquis Ying would still be able to use his powerful cultivation base to suppress them. But having used his most powerful attack just now, he had lost control of the extremely toxic poison inside him. A trace of that corrosive poison had entered his heart just now.

However, just that slight trace caused his heart to show signs of withering. That completely terrified Marquis Ying, and he hastily used his spiritual qi to defend against the poison’s invasion.

Long Chen took a deep breath and stood up. Going over to his broadsword, he pulled it out of the rock, and slowly began to walk over to Marquis Ying.

He could see a bit of blackness on Marquis Ying’s forehead. That was one of the signs that the poison had reached his heart. It also meant that Marquis Ying was like him and couldn’t use his spiritual qi.

Now he could use his powerful physical body to go kill Marquis Ying.

Long Chen wanted to rush over and split him in two, but his body was unbearably weak. Blood was flowing from the dozen wounds caused by Marquis Ying’s shattered sword. If it weren’t for his powerful physical body, he would have already run out of blood. But even so, bursts of dizziness caused him to feel as if he might faint at any time.

However, he couldn’t fall just yet. Even though he was already out of energy, his eyes were still calm without the slightest trace of emotion as he slowly walked towards Marquis Ying.

“Ying Zhao, now the one who will die is you.”

Long Chen raised his sword and slashed down at Marquis Ying.

Marquis Ying was worried to see that Long Chen still had the strength to come attack him. He hastily rolled to the side. When the broadsword slashed right past his cheeks, it was so close that he could feel the icy coldness coming from it.

“Damn, he actually still has so much strength!”

Marquis Ying’s expression finally changed. That was the first time he had felt fear from an insignificant Qi Condensation ant. He was especially afraid of Long Chen’s completely calm eyes.

Long Chen was just like a deep well. He only revealed the slightest bit on the surface, but as for how deep he was, no one knew.

Marquis Ying could sense the steady killing intent overflowing from him. Now he was at an absolute disadvantage. Without his spiritual qi, he was not a match for Long Chen’s physical body.

“Just treat it as you being lucky today!” Marquis Ying coldly sneered and actually turned to flee.

“You want to run? Leave behind your life first!” Long Chen shouted and charged forward in chase.

However, the broadsword in his hand was too heavy and he was actually unable to catch up. In just a few short moments, he lost Marquis Ying’s tail.

Seeing Marquis Ying disappear, the anger on Long Chen’s face faded to be replaced by relief. He suddenly felt the world spinning around him, and his vision blackened as he lost consciousness.

…

Marquis Ying was celebrating that Long Chen was unable to catch up to him. Long Chen’s physical body might be powerful, but his attacking strength resided with that broadsword.

Now that broadsword had become a burden and caused him to be unable to catch up to him, letting Marquis Ying relax. He didn’t know that Long Chen was actually completely spent; he had just used up the last of his energy to put on an act to scare him off.

In the end, Marquis Ying really was duped. After fleeing madly for a while, Marquis Ying suddenly felt his heart begin to violently beat. He realized his own spiritual qi was starting to run out and was unable to suppress the poison.

He hastily took out a couple of medicinal pills and swallowed them. The Snow Toad Yaowan’s medicinal energy was already starting to decline. But it had only countered an incredibly small portion of Long Chen’s poison.

He would definitely still die if he didn’t promptly neutralize it. Now Marquis Ying could no longer even bother to think about Long Chen. His own life was more important.

Over two hundred miles were traversed by him in just a day. He finally left the forest and arrived at a camp. Marquis Ying let out a breath of relief when he saw the camp.

When the patrolling guards saw Marquis Ying covered in blood and on his last legs, they were all scared stupid. Was that really the Marquis Ying who was practically like a god to them?

Marquis Ying grabbed one of those guards who appeared to be a squad leader and hastily spat out, “Split up your troops and sweep the entire forest. When you see him, you must kill him. Bring me… back to the capital…”

After saying that, Marquis Ying was unable to continue and fainted. That squad only then reacted, quickly carrying away Marquis Ying and sending a report to the higher-ups.

…

Returning back to the third day after Long Chen had killed Xia Changfeng. The fourth prince held a secret report and a light smile appeared on his face.

“Long Chen, you really didn’t disappoint me.”

Lightly putting down the report, he raised a cup of tea from the table and calmly drank a sip. Suddenly, his door was opened and a white-robed man walked in.

Seeing that white-robed man, the fourth prince smiled slightly. “I’ve already prepared some tea for you. But you came a bit later than I expected so it might not be perfect. Please, have some first and don’t take offense.”

That white-robed man’s eyes had been icy cold and filled with killing intent, but because of the fourth prince’s words, he became somewhat startled.

“You know who I am?” he icily asked.

“I know a bit.”

“Then do you know why I’ve come here?”

“To kill me,” replied the fourth prince lightly. Those words which would cause a person’s heart to jump in fear were actually said with extreme calmness.

“If you know I came here to kill you, why are you so calm?” The white-robed man’s eyes narrowed.

“Because I know you can’t kill me.”

“Haha, if I wanted to kill you, even all the people in the capital added together would be unable to stop me,” laughed the white-robed man coldly.

“It’s not a question of being able to block you. That’s because I don’t need to block you; I know you won’t kill me.” The fourth prince was completely certain.

“Oh? Well, I’d like to hear a bit more about that.” Apparently, the white-robed man had become a bit interested in what the fourth prince had to say.

“For one thing, I bet that Xia Changfeng wasn’t the most cooperative partner. He was an imbecile, and so he had to die.”

“... Continue.”

“Now you have a better partner, someone who can serve you much better, someone who can complete twice the work with half the effort.”

“You mean yourself?

“Correct.”

“And your proof of that?”

“The proof is that I have an overall comprehension of your guys’ plans. I know how you can win without the slightest bit of bloodshed.” The fourth prince was completely sure of himself.

Seeing that the white-robed man didn’t say anything, the fourth prince continued, “You’ve been setting your plan in motion for over twenty years. Ever since the beginning when you sent my mother to marry the Phoenix Cry Emperor, you’ve done everything extremely carefully. Your goal was to not attract too much movement.

“You used me and my mother to succeed in controlling the entire Phoenix Cry Empire. The Emperor is already dead and the Empress Dowager is under my mother’s control.

“The people who know this secret are all our people, with the exception of Long Tianxiao. So the only person that we need to worry about is Long Tianxiao.

“But Long Tianxiao has refused to surrender to us even after all these years. He seems to have also sensed some clues that raised his guard. He has always refused to return to the capital.

“So right now, Long Tianxiao is the greatest obstacle in your plans. Am I correct?”

The white-robed man frowned. “Everything you said is useless. You might as well have not said anything.”

The fourth prince smiled slightly. “What if I said that I could resolve the problem of Long Tianxiao? Would that still be useless?”

“You can do that?”

“I’ve never done anything I wasn’t sure of. I was born in Phoenix Cry, destined to be a chess piece. I’ve already endured the lifestyle of underhanded schemes that cannot see the light of day. So, I want to cooperate with you. I’ll help you handle Long Tianxiao, and you help me become the Emperor.” The fourth prince’s breathing became a bit heavy at this point. Obviously, this was an extremely tense moment.

Although he was also a prince, he had really been born into this world with a mission to be a spy. He would forever be like a ghost, never allowed to see the true light.

He had been suppressed for too long. He needed to be set free. When he had seen Xia Changfeng abusing his power arrogantly like an idiot, he had decided that he would kill that bastard and make himself the white-robed man’s partner.

The white-robed man looked at the fourth prince. “What’s your bargaining chip?”

The fourth prince celebrated inside when he saw that the white-robed man hadn’t declined. Full of confidence, he handed something over to him.

Seeing that thing, the white-robed man was shocked.

Chapter 82 The Fourth Prince's Lofty Ambition

That was an animal hide page. There were countless symbols drawn into the page. They didn’t seem exactly like words, but they weren’t exactly not.

“You can communicate with the barbarian tribes?” The white-robed man asked with astonishment.

The barbarian tribes were precisely called ‘barbarian’ because they lived just like wild beasts. But they had their own crude culture and language.

These ugly symbols were precisely the barbarian tribes’ script. Many people had seen that script before, but they had no idea how to read them. It was completely unexpected for the fourth prince to be able to.

“One’s full effort must be invested into achieving one’s goals for there to be a profit. 

“Ever since I was young, I could see through my own destiny. At that time, I had already started gathering the bargaining chips that would change my destiny. 

“I sent countless people to the barbarian tribes to try joining them, but they only treated those people as food. However, there are always exceptions in this world. One person was actually accepted into the barbarian tribes. Then, I started to gradually gain a connection to the barbarian tribes’ power.

“While fulfilling our missions, my mother and I also raised our own power. To tell the truth, three years ago, I already possessed the power to help you seize the Phoenix Cry Empire without the slightest drop of blood, but that wouldn’t have brought me even the slightest benefits.”

The white-robed man nodded. “Continue.”

“So, in order to handle Long Tianxiao, I purposely stopped supplying him reinforcements. I also secretly drew the poor people in the vicinity towards Long Tianxiao’s army. I raised Long Tianxiao’s prestige in secret, letting everyone think he was a god who would protect them. I know what kind of person Long Tianxiao is. He definitely wouldn’t sacrifice the lives of those commoners.” The fourth prince indifferently raised his teacup and took a sip.

“Chu Xia, you really are talented.” That was the first time the white-robed man praised the fourth prince.

The fourth prince’s move had been exceptionally brilliant. He had used the lives of the ordinary commoners to effortlessly lock Long Tianxiao in place.

Most importantly, that was a ploy without a solution. Even if Long Tianxiao understood it, he was helpless. He was unable to ignore the lives of millions of commoners.

Such a simple scheme had kept Long Tianxiao permanently locked at the border. Even the white-robed man felt a bit of admiration.

“Unfortunately, those barbarian tribes truly did cause me extreme disappointment. I secretly sent them so much assistance in terms of food and supplies, but they are still only just able to fight on the same level as Long Tianxiao. So, they ended up in a permanent battle of attrition. Well, I suppose that is all that can be expected from those uncivilized barbarians.” The fourth prince shook his head.

The white-robed man pondered for a moment before asking, “Tell me, where is Long Chen?”

“He should already be dead. If my calculations are correct, his head should be en route back to the capital. That Long Chen really is an oddity. But I’m not someone who likes the unexpected, so I sent Marquis Ying over. I trust that you know Marquis Ying’s power.”

The white-robed man’s expression changed slightly. “I know of him. His cultivation base can count as not bad. But using him to handle a small Qi Condensation ant is making a bit too big of a fuss for a minor nuisance.”

The fourth prince’s expression didn’t change. But hearing what he said, it seemed that even the Tendon Transformation realm Marquis Ying wasn’t anything to him.

From that, it could be seen that this young man whose age didn’t seem that different from his own had to possess an extremely terrifying strength. The fourth prince’s guard went up even higher.

“Haha, I’ve already said I’m a cautious person. I won’t do anything I’m not sure of. It’s just like how I used Long Chen to kill that idiot Xia Changfeng this time.”

The white-robed man nodded. “You really are much better than Xia Changfeng. I can overlook Xia Changfeng’s death and also accomplish your wish. However, if you end up being worse than Xia Changfeng, I can tell you very clearly that even your own death will become something you are unable to control.” 

The white-robed man’s gentle manner of speaking became dark, and an ominous aura filled the air.

The fourth prince ignored his threat. “Don’t worry; I’ve endured patiently for many years just for this chance. I treasure this opportunity even more than you.”

“Then good. With Long Chen dead now, I need to know what your plan is for later.”

Although he didn’t underestimate Long Chen, in front of a Tendon Transformation expert, Long Chen would definitely not have even the slightest chance of surviving.

“Ying Zhao will bring his head back to the capital as well as a recording of Long Chen killing Xia Changfeng. Then, I will need you to communicate with the Grand Xia and get them to send out their elite army to surround the capital. At that time, I will call Marquis Ying and Marquis Wu back here. The Grand Xia will demand us to hand over the murderer, and in order for both empires to stay friends, I can offer up every person in the Long household in a justifiable manner. In fact, I can kill all of them at a suitable time,” explained the fourth prince.

“What do you mean by a suitable time? And furthermore, when you say ‘them’, it seems you aren’t just talking about the Long household?” asked the white-robed man lightly.

The fourth prince laughed, “Speaking with a smart person really does save energy. You’re correct. Before I execute the people from the Long household, I will have the barbarian tribes attack Long Tianxiao’s station at the same time. At that time, I will send news of his family being executed. In the face of the barbarian tribes’ invasion and with the lives of countless commoners on the line, he definitely won’t bring his whole army back to the capital. According to my understanding of him, he will leave his entire army back there to guard and come back to the capital alone to rescue his family. Hehe, at that time, Marquis Ying and Marquis Wu will join hands to kill him without a problem. Furthermore, we’ll even have an honorable reason for doing so, so it won’t cause any huge ripples. As for ‘them’, I naturally mean those people who aren’t suitable to be near me. Long Chen has received the crown prince’s ‘support’ in killing Xia Changfeng. One of his close guards will testify to that. At that time, we just have to gather a bit of ‘evidence’. In order for the two great empires to remain allies, even the crown prince can be used as a sacrifice. And as for his henchmen, although they didn’t directly participate, they are definitely extremely suspicious. In order to maintain the empires’ friendship, it’s best to just also sacrifice them as well.”

The white-robed man stared at the fourth prince for a great deal of time before sighing, “What profound scheming. In that way, the entire Phoenix Cry Empire will easily land in your hands. Chu Xia, you really are a genius.”

“Many thanks for the praise. But you don’t have to worry; my Spirit Root is completely ordinary and I’m unable to walk the cultivation path. I don’t possess the slightest threat to you,” said the fourth prince.

The white-robed man smiled slightly. He had already secretly examined the fourth prince’s body and found that his talent truly was extremely ordinary.

Towards such an intelligent and deeply scheming person, he had to be a bit more careful. He definitely didn’t want to unwittingly fall into someone else’s trap.

If the fourth prince was an extremely talented person in terms of cultivation, then he would definitely possess an extremely great threat to him. Who knew whether or not the fourth prince would end up using even him to step into even higher realms.

Now all his misgivings were dispelled. The fourth prince was incapable of cultivating to a high level. All he cared about was the secular world’s power. It was just like he had said; both of them needed each other.

Gently raising his teacup, the white-robed man smiled. “Excellent, Xia Changfeng’s death truly is a good thing. I hope we can happily cooperate.”

The fourth prince also raised his teacup. The two of them toasted and drained their cups in one gulp.

The white-robed man suddenly thought of a matter. “Doesn’t Xia Changfeng have a little sister? Is she still in the imperial palace?”

A bit of disgust appeared on the fourth prince’s face. “Yes, that idiot woman was left behind by Xia Changfeng in order to control us.”

“You didn’t want to kill her?”

“Well, she is a Pill Adept and has a particular status. I got her two handsome, strong men to wait on her. She’s busy with them and won’t bring any big trouble to us.”

The white-robed man nodded. That Xia Baichi truly was a complete idiot. He relaxed knowing that the fourth prince had handled her.

As for the death of her brother, she definitely wouldn’t care about that. They had never had any familial love to speak of. As long as nothing bad happened to her, she wouldn’t care.

Furthermore, Xia Changfeng was killed by Long Chen. Even if she did feel some hatred, that hatred would land on Long Chen.

“Right, brother Luo, I have something I want to ask your help for.” After the two of them had reached a common understanding, the fourth prince directly switched to calling him brother.

“Speak.”

“You also know that in order for me to control Marquis Ying and Marquis Wu, they have been promised that once this matter is accomplished, they will get half of the empire. Back then when I promised them, I was fine with it since I didn’t have any hope of obtaining the empire. So being generous with them also didn’t cause me any pain. But now all of Phoenix Cry is about to land into my hands. How can I allow others to control my land? So…”

“You want me to help you bring them under your control?”

“Pretty much. I hope brother Luo can teach me how to make them listen to me obediently and also not have them form any thoughts of rebellion,” said the fourth prince carefully.

The white-robed man laughed. “Chu Xia, ah, Chu Xia. You are ruthless. You really are willing to do anything to achieve your goals. Ok, I promise you that once this matter is finished, I’ll teach you a technique that will let you make those two into your slaves.”

Hearing that, the fourth prince was overjoyed. Now everything was going according to his plans. With the final part of the plan about to be finished, Marquis Ying and Marquis Wu had become his greatest problem.

Back then, he had promised to give them control of half the empire. That was equivalent to them being local emperors. 

That was how Marquis Ying and Marquis Wu had been coaxed by the fourth prince’s carrot and stick persuasions to secretly form an agreement. But only the three of them had known about it.

Now the fourth prince had obtained an opportunity to free himself from that. He naturally was unwilling to have others control his empire. The white-robed man’s promise meant that he no longer needed to be worried about that. 

Although the fourth prince didn’t have a complete understanding of the white-robed man, he knew his origin was definitely shocking and beyond his imagination.

So he needed to rely on him. As long as he had the white-robed man’s support, whether it was the Phoenix Cry Empire or the Grand Xia Empire, he would be able to have whatever he wanted.

Now everything was prepared. They only needed one last thing. Once Marquis Ying came back, the final phase of the plan could commence. However, what they didn’t know was that in this world, there was always one thing that never went away. Those were called mishaps.

Chapter 83 Mysterious Voice

When Long Chen once more opened his eyes, he had no idea how much time had passed. Perhaps it had just been an hour; perhaps it had been a whole day.

He had been roused by the sound of those howling monkeys. Looking over his body, most of the blood on his wounds had already dried.

That was definitely something to feel lucky about. Otherwise, he would definitely have died if he had kept bleeding. Slowly standing up, he felt the world spinning around him and almost fell to the ground again.

Leaning against a large tree, he had to wait for a while before feeling a little better. Raising his head to look around, he saw that there were dozens of monkeys on the crowns of the trees. Several of them were howling as loud as they could.

Long Chen knew that most likely meant something had invaded this part of the forest. However, was that something beast or human?

But no matter what, either was a threat to Long Chen. With a wave of his hand, he placed the broadsword into his spatial ring.

Looking over his wounds, he ground his teeth and consumed a medicinal pill. Just that slight raising of his hand caused some of his wounds to tear open.

Blood immediately flowed out. Some of these wounds actually had fragments of Marquis Ying’s sword still in them. Being made from iron, those fragments were definitely extremely dangerous to the body. They couldn’t be left inside for too long.

Although this wasn’t the best place to handle them, if he let them stay in his body any longer, they would greatly hinder his movements.

Long Chen first consumed a few blood clotting pills and did his best to keep the flow of blood to a minimum. If he lost too much blood, then he wouldn’t even have the energy to walk.

With his skillful effort, Long Chen dug out over a dozen sword fragments from his body. Both he and Marquis Ying had been hit by those pieces when his sword had shattered.

After taking out those sword fragments, Long Chen still felt extremely dizzy, a sign he had lost too much blood. Looking up at the monkeys in the trees and hearing that their howls were becoming increasingly loud, Long Chen knew the targets in their eyes were quickly approaching.

After consuming several medicinal pills, he dragged his exhausted body down the mountain. Now that Marquis Ying had fled, he also needed to quickly find a place to heal his wounds.

In that final exchange with Marquis Ying, he had used Split the Heavens. That had caused all his meridians to crack, and he was unable to use spiritual qi anymore. This was his weakest state.

He went over ten miles down a mountain when a river dozens of meters wide appeared before him. Long Chen looked around and saw a wide fallen tree. He pushed that tree into the water.

The tree had been dead for a long time and floated very well in the water. Long Chen crawled on top, allowing his body to be carried down the river without letting the water touch his wounds. Otherwise, the river water would cause his wounds to become even worse.

Luckily, the river flowed very steadily and Long Chen easily managed to stay atop the tree. He flowed along the river for a full day. In a drowsy state, he was suddenly awakened by a loud, continuous booming sound.

Long Chen hastily paddled to the shore. Looking ahead, he was given a big fright as he saw the waterfall before him.

That waterfall was hundreds of meters high. If he had kept sleeping and fallen down, he would definitely have been done for.

The river had yet to exit the forest. Long Chen knew he had to quickly find a place to heal his wounds. Previously, Long Chen had faked coming ashore along several places on the river, so anyone searching for him would definitely have to waste a great deal of time on those diversions.

That should be enough time for him to recuperate. But before that, he still had to find a safe place.

Going through the forest, he saw a canyon before him. The canyon wasn’t large, and it was bordered by stones on either side. Such a place should have a couple of natural caves that were suitable for shelter.

Just as he was about to go forward, he suddenly felt a sense of danger as well as a burst of wind coming from behind. He hastily rolled forward.

A huge creature came flying from behind him, and he only narrowly dodged.

Long Chen rolled along the ground. When he raised his head to look, he saw that it was a large leopard over three meters tall that was staring at him.

“Cliff Leopard.” Long Chen felt a huge headache. That was a first rank Magical Beast. Its fur was the same color as the cliff rocks. When it was hiding itself amongst the rocks, it was extremely hard to notice.

It wasn’t exceptionally large, but its speed was shocking. Its claws and teeth were not inferior to steel.

Having been injured so greatly, his spiritual perception had sharply fallen. He had actually not been able to sense the danger around him. It appeared he had become too dependent on his senses.

That Cliff Leopard appeared somewhat startled that it hadn’t taken him down with one blow. It charged at Long Chen again with its incredible speed.

A normal leopard wasn’t frightening, but the Cliff Leopard’s body was just like a bull. Adding on its sharp claws and teeth, it was at the top of the first rank Magical Beast food chain.

Long Chen coldly snorted. Rubbing his ring, his broadsword appeared back in his hands and he slashed it at the Cliff Leopard.

The broadsword landed right on the Cliff Leopard’s head, but it was Long Chen who was forced back. His broadsword actually got knocked out of his hands and he was sent flying.

“Damn, I don’t even have a tenth of my normal strength!”

Long Chen was unable to use spiritual qi at the moment. Furthermore, his physical body was gravely injured.

His sword had slashed right onto the Cliff Leopard’s head, yet the sword was knocked away and he was sent flying. Some of his wounds even reopened and began to bleed again.

Although Long Chen was in an extremely weak state, his power was still quite great. That Cliff Leopard’s head had been cut by his sword all the way down to the bone. If a regular wild beast received such a heavy injury, they would definitely flee in pain.

But Magical Beasts had an innate, tyrannical nature deep in their bones. Long Chen’s attack had instead provoked its violent nature, and it didn’t even care about the blood flowing down its head as it angrily charged at Long Chen again.

Long Chen rolled on the ground again, dodging its wild charge. At the same time, he also sent out a kick that heavily landed on its abdomen.

That Cliff Leopard was sent tumbling through the air, but its skin and flesh were tough. Long Chen’s kick hadn’t caused any wounds.

As soon as it stabilized itself, it once more charged at Long Chen. Long Chen was extremely anxious inside. If he had a sword, he would definitely be able to kill it.

However, that broadsword had been sent flying thirty meters away. Such a distance was essentially right beside him during ordinary times, but now he was in a tangle with the Cliff Leopard. His body was extremely weak from blood loss. That thirty meters distance was simply untraversable to him.

His body was exceptionally weak, and his reactions were not as sharp as normal. He once more dodged the Cliff Leopard, but its sharp claws managed to cut across his stomach lightly, causing more blood to flow.

Long Chen once more kicked it, sending it flying. But after that kick, Long Chen’s eyes darkened, and he was unable to see anything more.

He sighed inside. He had already lost too much blood. He was actually on the verge of losing consciousness. “Who would have thought that I, Long Chen, would die here at the hands of a wild animal...”

In that darkness, he could sense its bloody mouth. He was about to be swallowed into its stomach.

Plop.

He heard something, and then he felt his throat warm up as if some liquid was being poured into his throat.

He then heard some extremely distant sounds. Those sounds seemed human, one sounding like a woman. Then, he sank into complete and endless darkness.

Within that darkness, Long Chen felt as if his body was floating. It felt like he was both rising and falling at the same time. He was completely trapped within that darkness.

“You must awaken. You have far too many missions that are waiting for you to finish them.

“You must become stronger. You have far too many enemies waiting for you to slaughter.

“Your destiny is to overturn heaven and earth. All gods and devils can only crawl under your foot. Long Chen, quickly awaken.”

Within that endless darkness, Long Chen could hear a voice repeatedly speaking. That was a call that came from the deepest depths of his soul.

Long Chen heard it and wanted to reply. However, he was unable to open his mouth. He wanted to open his eyes, but he was completely powerless.

That voice didn’t seem to be of this world. Could it be that it was part of the past or future? He was unable to touch it.

Once Long Chen memorized those three lines, he completely lost any sense of himself. Sinking into complete unconsciousness, he extremely faintly felt a pair of hands gently rubbing his face, a gentleness that felt like that of a mother.

…

The fourth prince’s expression was exceedingly ugly. Marquis Ying was lying on a bed, his body completely black. He couldn’t believe his own eyes.

A Tendon Transformation expert had gone out to kill a Qi Condensation ant only to end up in such a state. Who would possibly believe such a thing?

When he had heard his subordinates’ report that Marquis Ying had been heavily injured, he had first thought that Marquis Ying had met some sort of powerful Magical Beast.

But looking at Marquis Ying’s current half-dead state, a youthful face appeared in his mind.

He didn’t know why, but when he thought of that face, he immediately became panicked. The most important part of his plan had failed.

Although he had never underestimated Long Chen, he had never expected that he would be able to escape from Marquis Ying and even force Marquis Ying into such a sorry state.

“I was overconfident.” Marquis Ying was ashamed. A grand Tendon Transformation expert had almost lost his life in trying to kill someone at Qi Condensation. That was definitely a disgrace.

The fourth prince shook his head. “I know your character. You wouldn’t carelessly be overconfident against someone and lose like this. It can only be said that we both underestimated Long Chen. I’m also at fault.”

It went without saying that the fourth prince was exceptionally talented at manipulating people. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to win over apex experts like Marquis Ying and Marquis Wu.

Just that one sentence from him completely excused Marquis Ying’s failure and let him feel extremely comfortable inside. 

Since the matter had already occurred, getting angry would be completely useless. In fact, it would further anger Marquis Ying.

In any case, looking at Marquis Ying’s wounds, he had definitely not been too careless. He had only called himself overconfident to find an excuse for himself.

Thinking of that, the fourth prince felt a burst of panic overcome him. Thinking of Long Chen’s decisive and swift nature, his expression became increasingly ugly.

But then thinking of the white-robed man who was his support, he relaxed a bit. Although Long Chen had run off, it didn’t change his plans that much.

He rubbed the photographic jade in his hand. Inside it was a complete recording of Long Chen and Wilde killing Xia Changfeng. With this, he would still be able to go forward with his plan.

Long Chen’s escape was definitely worrisome, but he didn’t have any way to handle him at this point. He turned to Marquis Ying. “You can recover at ease. I’ll get grandmaster Wei Cang to personally come to heal your wounds tomorrow. You’ll be able to completely recover very quickly.”

“Many thanks, prince.” Marquis Ying hastily thanked him. That poison might be temporarily suppressed by him, but he was unable to dispel it. Long Chen’s poison pill was just too terrifying.

They had asked for help from the alchemist guild and grandmaster Yun Qi had also come. But after looking at Marquis Ying’s wounds, grandmaster Yun Qi had only coldly stated that he was powerless to heal him.

Marquis Ying had immediately understood that grandmaster Yun Qi had realized some clues from his body and so he had refused to save him.

Hearing that Wei Cang would come relieved Marquis Ying greatly. Wei Cang would definitely be able to save him.

The fourth prince went back to his room and began to pace around. After a while, he raised his brush and wrote a short missive, handing it to a guard.

Looking at the darkness that was descending on the sky, the fourth prince sighed. Although Long Chen had escaped, they still had to continue with the plan.

Chapter 84 You're My Man

Long Chen slowly opened his eyes. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but seeing the light caused him to sigh in relief. He was still alive.

He realized he was lying on a simple bed. Although the bed was made from coarse wood, the bedsheets had been arranged very carefully for him and even had a faint fresh scent.

He was in a wooden room. The walls had a few animal hides, bows, arrows, and spears on them. Not far from his bed was a small stove that was releasing warmth. The smell of freshly cooked rice floated out of it.

With a creaking sound, the door was opened. A maiden wearing a simple dress walked in.

That woman appeared around sixteen years old. She was slender and tall. Her arms and legs were both bare, and her skin gave off a healthy glow.

She wore her hair in a medium length ponytail. She wasn’t overly beautiful, but her bright eyes appeared very friendly.

That woman first put down her backsack before hastily opening the iron cooking pot atop the stove. 

That young lady let out a relieved sigh when she looked at the food inside. “Ah, close. I almost burned it,” she muttered to herself.

But she suddenly sensed something was a bit off and slowly turned to see that Long Chen was looking at her in confusion.

“Ah, you’ve awoken! Great!” She quickly ran over to Long Chen and hugged him excitedly.

“Cough… miss, isn’t this a bit unsuitable?” Being hugged by this young lady, he could feel her chest against his as well as smell a fresh and energetic scent from her.

But being hugged by a stranger truly did cause him to feel uncomfortable and awkward.

“What’s unsuitable about it? I pulled you back here, so now you’re my man. That’s the rule of our village, so who would dare criticize us?” That maiden was still hugging Long Chen very intimately, acting as if everything was as it should be.

“You...? Pulled me back?” Long Chen was startled. His last memory was of the Cliff Leopard. He hadn’t seen this maiden before.

Seeing his confusion, the maiden released him and said, “That day when you fought with the Magical Beast, at the last moment I shot it with my arrow. To say it directly, your life was saved by me. In the future, you’ll be my man. Your tasks in the future will be to go hunting and make babies with me.”

Looking at her serious expression, Long Chen’s expression became extremely odd. Hunting? And making babies?

When she saw that Long Chen was still as puzzled as ever, she began to explain what had happened that day.

The maiden was a huntress of the village. These villagers all relied on hunting to survive. Other than some essential metal tools that they had to get from a distant place outside the mountains, they were completely self-sufficient here.

There were over a hundred villagers here, most of them expert hunters. Even some of the children frequently went outside the village to set up a couple of traps for smaller wild animals.

There weren’t any true experts in their village. The majority of them were only at Qi Condensation. According to this maiden, their ancestors had escaped to this place in order to avoid the flames of war. They gradually became accustomed to living here, and now hundreds of years had passed.

The main food in the village was meat. They survived by relying on hunting and gathering. But their best targets were wild beasts.

As for the larger, more powerful Magical Beasts, they had to treat them extremely carefully. If they wanted to hunt down a Magical Beast, they required the entire village to participate.

A couple of weeks ago they had noticed that there was a Cliff Leopard in the vicinity. After a bit of investigation and after getting the approval of the village chief, they decided to hunt down that Cliff Leopard.

Although killing Magical Beasts was extremely dangerous, the benefits were also accordingly great. The core of a first rank Magical Beast was enough for the entire village to live off of for half a year if exchanged for goods.

In order to handle this Cliff Leopard, they had prepared for over a month. They had refined enough poisons to apply on their weapons and also stealthily set up many traps. They had finally been prepared to act against it.

But just as they were about to take action against it, they had watched dumbstruck as a youngster walked over into its territory.

The maiden had been hiding in secret along with many other hunters. She hadn’t dared warn Long Chen. That would have alarmed the Cliff Leopard and ruined all the plans their village had spent over a month preparing.

If they had ended up failing, the price would have been many of their lives. That was why they had only watched stupefied as Long Chen was ambushed.

Originally, they had all been feeling guilty about that. They could only hope that the Cliff Leopard would soon enter one of their traps so that they could take their revenge for Long Chen.

But the scene that had played out after that had astonished all of them. Long Chen’s sword had almost killed the incomparably vicious Cliff Leopard in one blow.

They then realized that Long Chen had actually been wounded severely beforehand. Even when the sword left his hands, he was still able to fight barehanded, exchanging several blows that sent the Cliff Leopard flying.

At last, they saw that Long Chen was unable to keep going. She had been unable to bear it any further and shot out an arrow at the Cliff Leopard, killing it. 

But when she said that she had killed it with one arrow and saved Long Chen, she was actually somewhat embarrassed.

Her archery skill wasn’t actually so great. In a moment of desperation, she had shot without even thinking that much. But in the end, her arrow which had been aiming for the Cliff Leopard’s mouth actually went straight through its forehead.

That was coincidentally the same place that Long Chen had hit it with his sword. His slash had already caused the Cliff Leopard’s skull to crack, so her arrow had managed to coincidentally pierce through that crack, killing it.

When everyone had rushed forward to check out her attack, they couldn’t help but take a cold breath. If it weren’t for that luck, then the villagers which had angered a Magical Beast would definitely have lost many lives.

An injured Magical Beast was the most frightening. They would become crazy because of their fear and begin attacking all-out.

“Many thanks.” When Long Chen finally learned what had happened, he respectfully and gratefully cupped his hands to her.

“You’ll be my man in the future, so there’s no need for that.” She giggled and supported Long Chen at the shoulders. “Before, I would send prayers to the forest god every day in hopes of it bestowing me with a powerful man who would go hunting and make babies with me. Heehee, the forest divinity has finally heard my prayers and sent you to me.”

She was completely infatuated with him. Looking at his heroic and handsome appearance, she was extremely satisfied.

“Cough, miss…”

“Call me Xiao Hua.”

“Uh, miss Xiao Hua, as for the matter of a man, let’s discuss that later. Can you tell me just how my wounds were healed?” asked Long Chen. That was because he had noticed his wounds had all miraculously recovered. But according to Xiao Hua, this was only the third day after he had encountered the Cliff Leopard.

Without eating a single medicinal pill, not only had he miraculously healed in just a short three days, but even his cracked meridians had completely recovered. That was completely inconceivable.

“The forest god helped heal you,” replied Xiao Hua.

“Forest god?” Did gods really exist in this world?

“That’s too many questions for right now. Let’s eat first.”

Xiao Hua cut off Long Chen’s questions and brought the large pot from the stove outside.

Long Chen didn’t want to fake being injured, so he hastily went to help. He found that the large pot was merely filled with thin porridge.

After carrying the pot outside the wooden house, Long Chen saw that this village was built against the side of a mountain.

Thick fences ten meters high made of thistles and thorns surrounded the village. Those thistles and thorns were very poisonous plants. Most wild beasts would generally avoid them.

Within the village were dozens of simple wooden houses. After Xiao Hua’s call, all of them walked over to her house. There were a dozen children and five or six seniors.

But the majority were all youths or adults in their prime. Since they survived through hunting, it would be extremely dangerous if their physical strength lagged behind. A single person’s carelessness could lead to the loss of multiple lives.

That was why the majority of the people in the village were all in the prime of their lives. That was life’s cruel natural elimination over time.

A healthy old man walked up to Long Chen and nodded. “Excellent. A person capable of fighting against a Magical Beast on his own.”

Long Chen swept his senses out and found that this senior was in the Blood Condensation realm. However, he was only at the early stage.

If Long Chen’s guess wasn’t wrong, this old man should have only managed to enter Blood Condensation very late in his years. His Blood Qi had already started to decline. Despite stepping into Blood Condensation, his combat ability probably hadn’t increased by much at all.

“Senior flatters me.” Long Chen bowed slightly.

“I don’t dare to be called senior by you. Even in my prime, I was unable to compare to you.” That old man was filled with admiration for Long Chen.

“Grandpa, hurry up and eat!”

Xiao Hua had already split up the porridge for everyone. She brought two bowls for Long Chen and the old man.

“Let me introduce you two. This is my grandpa, the village chief. Oh right, I still don’t know your name,” asked Xiao Hua suddenly.

“Thanks. My name is Long Chen.” Long Chen laughingly received his bowl of porridge.

Everyone from the village, young and old, male or female, now came over to welcome Long Chen. He had to hastily put down his bowl to greet them all.

They had saved his life. That favor had to be remembered. These people were all very simple and sincere. Their etiquette was a bit strange to him, but the friendly warmth in their eyes already said everything to him.

There were over a hundred people in the village. There were only thirty females in the village, and Xiao Hua was the only young maiden amongst them.

“Big brother, I heard you’re really strong! Did you really send a giant leopard flying with a single punch?”

A small child that didn’t even reach his knee hugged Long Chen’s leg. He looked at Long Chen with worship.

“Of course it’s true. My dad told me that big brother is a true warrior. Once he’s with big sis Hua, their babies will be the strongest fighters in our village!” Long Chen didn’t even know how to respond before another child scrambled over.

That child then looked at Long Chen eagerly. “Big brother, when are you going to let our village’s strongest fighters be born?”

Long Chen’s expression stiffened and the surrounding people all laughed heartily. Even Xiao Hua laughed, making Long Chen feel more embarrassment.

He quickly changed the topic, “Didn’t you guys kill the Magical Beast? Why aren’t you eating its meat?”

As soon as he said, the joyous atmosphere immediately became strange. They all turned to look at the village chief.

He was just about to say something when Xiao Hua interjected, “I should be the one to tell you about this.”

Chapter 85 Forest God

“I should be the one to tell you about this.”

Xiao Hua looked at Long Chen and then glanced at her grandpa.

“Xiao Hua…” The old man frowned.

“Grandpa, Long Chen is my man. He will also be one of our villager’s people in the future. He has the right to know about this.” 

The old man argued no more. The others all quickly drank their thin porridge and returned to their homes, leaving only the three of them.

“That Magical Beast was offered as a sacrifice,” explained Xiao Hua to Long Chen.

“Offered as a sacrifice?” That was the first time Long Chen had heard of such a thing.

“Yes. Your wounds were too severe, and you were on the verge of death. We had no other method but to send you to the forest god. The forest god healed you, but the price was that we had to offer the Magical Beast as a sacrifice. That’s also why you were able to completely recover in just a short three days.”

Did gods really exist in this world? This completely toppled his understanding.

“Not only that, but because your injuries were so severe, our village also had to offer all the meat we had stored away. And even so, we still owe the forest god more. We’ll have to pay back our debt slowly through hunting.”

Only now did Long Chen understand why the entire village only had some thin porridge to eat.

The young men definitely required meat in order to get stronger. But because of him, they could only go hungry. He couldn’t help but feel bad about this.

“Long Chen, I’m explaining this to you not so that you will feel guilty. But you’re also a member of the village now, so I thought you had the right to know this.” Xiao Hua quietly explained this all.

However, that only made him feel even more ashamed. This kind of trust and goodwill made him feel incomparably warm, especially since he was used to the cruel schemes inside the royal capital.

“Can you tell me about this forest god?”

Xiao Hua looked at her grandpa, and only after he nodded did she tell him a true story that was practically mythic.

Not long after this village was first established, one of their ancestors found an extremely mystical tree. At that time, that ancestor had been wounded by a Magical Beast and almost died. After fleeing from it, he had arrived there.

The tree had dripped a drop of liquid onto him, and their ancestor’s heavy wounds had completely healed in just half a day.

In order to thank the large tree, they had hunted down a wild beast and placed it as a sacrifice in front of the large tree. Then, they saw the huge tree actually swallowed that dead beast in the blink of an eye.

Ever since then, whenever someone was injured, the villagers would all run over to the tree to be treated, and every time the tree would completely restore them.

In order to display their reverence and respect for the tree, they had begun to call it the forest god. Not long after they began to offer sacrifices to the tree, it actually began to communicate with them and established an agreement with them.

It could heal the villagers’ wounds, but they would need to offer sacrifices to it in reciprocation. As for the amount of sacrifices, it would depend on how heavy the wounds were.

This was just like a doctor asking for payment. But in all these years, the forest god had never asked for that much as a reward.

However, Long Chen was an exception now. The forest god had demanded a shocking price to save Long Chen.

“What did it want?” asked Long Chen.

Xiao Hua looked at Long Chen and ground her teeth. “Ten first rank Magical Beast and one second rank Magical Beast.”

Long Chen was shocked. A single first rank Magical Beast already required Xiao Hua’s entire village to prepare for a long time and it still posed an extremely great danger.

As for a second rank Magical Beast, that would require several Blood Condensation experts to join hands in order to kill one. To the villagers, that was something completely impossible. That so-called forest god’s price was far too great.

Looking at Long Chen’s indignant expression, Xiao Hua hastily said, “Long Chen, you definitely can’t feel any resentment towards the forest god; the forest god has always been extremely fair over all these years. No matter how heavily injured we were, it never required such a high price. There’s definitely a reason for it to demand so much this time. Plus, now you’re healed. You can help us, and I trust that we’ll be able to quickly repay our debt. Even if it was ten second rank Magical Beasts, we still would have accepted. We couldn’t just silently watch you die…”

In the end, Xiao Hua began to sob. She fell into Long Chen’s chest. Her grandpa sighed. “Long Chen, the forest god is absolutely fair. There’s definitely a reason for it to demand such a price. Don’t get angry.”

“I want to go see the forest god.” Long Chen wanted to figure out just what this forest god was.

As for the price that it had demanded, Long Chen wasn’t worried at all. Now that he had recovered, first rank Magical Beasts could be killed in an instant. As for a second rank Magical Beast, as long as he wasn’t careless, that was also something he could bring down.

A second rank Magical Beast was equivalent to a human Blood Condensation expert. However, due to how tough a Magical Beast’s physical body was, humans on equivalent levels were not an equal match for Magical Beasts.

But who was Long Chen? He had no fear for anyone below the Tendon Transformation realm. He didn’t like to have to owe anything. If he confirmed that this forest god wasn’t some fake swindler, he wanted to pay it back as fast as possible. He also wanted to know just what this god was.

Xiao Hua’s grandpa acquiesced and so, Long Chen followed Xiao Hua out of the village on a mountain path.

Xiao Hua was very familiar with this area. With a bow and quiver on her back, she would pause to listen to the surroundings every now and then.

She would also occasionally go bring Long Chen to check some of the surrounding traps and snares that they had set up to see if they had captured some wild beasts.

But there was only disappointment. They checked a dozen snares, but none of them had caught anything.

“It’s so sad that we have no meat. We need meat in order to strengthen our bodies. It’ll get very difficult to hunt without any more…” sighed Xiao Hua.

They were hunters, and meat was something that strengthened them. Having gone without any meat for several days, the villagers’ morale had been greatly impacted.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle that debt. Since it was because of me, just let me resolve it myself,” laughed Long Chen.

Xiao Hua’s expression changed and she angrily retorted, “What are you talking about? Your matters are my matters, which are also the village’s matters. How could we let you go face danger alone?”

Long Chen smiled and shut his mouth. He truly did like this village’s ambiance. There was no selfishness, only a peaceful coexistence. Just how luxurious and rare would such an ambiance be in the world of the royal capital where fights and schemes arose every day?

This was a beautiful place, but Long Chen couldn’t possibly stay, let alone muddle along to make kids.

But his life was saved by the villagers. He had to repay this debt before leaving.

“Wait a moment.”

Suddenly, Xiao Hua stopped. Looking at the footprints on the ground, her expression was completely serious.

“A bear has just recently gone past here. Based on the depth and size of the footprint, it should be a matured Burst Bear. It’s definitely longer than three meters and should have passed through just two hours ago based on the color of the soil.”

Xiao Hua was definitely worthy of being a highly and experienced huntress. She was able to tell so much from just a footprint. The Burst Bear was a first rank Magical Beast that was exceptionally berserk, making it extremely hard to deal with.

Even if the whole village joined hands, they still wouldn’t dare to handle this Burst Bear. They had the ability to attack the Cliff Leopard because its specialty was in its speed, and its attacking and defensive prowess were not particularly great.

As long as they paid attention to its movements and they had enough people, they definitely stood a good chance of killing it.

But the Burst Bear was not the same. It specialized in defensive strength and power. No matter how many people they had, it would all be useless.

“It looks like we should make a detour,” determined Xiao Hua.

“Why?” Long Chen didn’t understand.

“Fool, do you really have to ask? We aren’t a match for the Burst Bear. Even if all the fighters in the village assembled, we still wouldn’t have a high chance of beating it.”

“Says who?”

“You… you really are trying to piss me off!” Looking at Long Chen’s foolish wooden manner, Xiao Hua was both angered and anxious. But suddenly she thought of something and blinked. “You aren’t thinking of going to kill the Burst Bear, are you?”

“Of course.”

She was silent for a moment. She immediately thought of when Long Chen had fought with the Cliff Leopard. At that time, Long Chen had been an absolutely unstoppable god in her eyes.

And according to her grandpa, Long Chen had already received extremely heavy injuries before meeting the Cliff Leopard, otherwise, he probably would have been able to kill it on his own.

Now looking at Long Chen’s current expression, she finally realized that Long Chen might really possess the strength to kill a first rank Magical Beast.

“Have you killed a first rank Magical Beast before?” probed Xiao Hua.

“Nope.” Long Chen shook his head. This was the first time he had gone away from home, and although he had eaten Magical Beast meat several times, those had been defeated by Wilde.

But Long Chen muttered inside, “Although I haven’t killed a Magical Beast, I’ve slaughtered quite a few Blood Condensation experts.”

Xiao Hua shook her head. “Then let’s just let it go. Killing a Magical Beast isn’t done just by relying on a high cultivation base or who is stronger. You have to rely on waiting for a good opportunity. Skill and experience are extremely important. Since you haven’t killed a Magical Beast before, we should try to avoid such a risky scenario. Hunters never take such risks; otherwise, it would be the hunter who is turned into the prey.”

“You don’t take risks? Then what do you call what you did to save me?” laughed Long Chen.

“Tch, you’re not allowed to ever bring that up!” Her face reddened and she threateningly raised her fist.

“Haha, ok. I won’t joke with you anymore. Don’t worry, I won’t risk our lives on a gamble,” said Long Chen firmly.

Long Chen no longer had any of his joking mischievous air. Now he was completely serious and gave off a feeling of great confidence and security.

She didn’t know why, but seeing him like that immediately caused her to calm down and relax. Even her terrifying impression of the Burst Bear became lighter.

With Xiao Hua guiding the both of them with her hunting experience, the two of them followed the tracks for two hours and found a large natural cave.

Within that cave, the originally sleeping Burst Bear suddenly opened its eyes, staring at the two people who had invaded his territory.

“ROAR!”

The Burst Bear suddenly jumped up. Its huge three-meter-tall figure violently charged towards the two of them.

Looking at the wildly charging Burst Bear, Xiao Hua turned pale with fright. That was the first time she had ever let herself be so exposed to a Magical Beast. That went against everything she knew as a huntress.

But Xiao Hua noticed that Long Chen remained as calm as ever. His gaze was indifferent as he punched out with his right hand. 

Chapter 86 Killing With the Wave of a Hand

In front of Xiao Hua’s horrified eyes, the enormous Burst Bear charged at Long Chen, swatting at him with a huge bear claw.

The Burst Bear’s strongest point was its powerful claws. It could easily crush rock, so a human body would immediately turn to pulp.

That was also why the villagers had never dared place any intentions on the Burst Bear. Even their combined forces were unable to severely injure the Burst Bear, while the Burst Bear would be able to kill several of them with a single charge.

BANG! Xiao Hua covered her mouth, unable to believe her own eyes.

That Burst Bear’s terrifying attack was actually stiffly blocked by Long Chen. Waves of qi scattered and the land shook, but Long Chen didn’t even take a single step back.

Although his figure wasn’t imposing, he was able to easily block the huge Burst Bear which was several times his size. The current Long Chen’s hair was dancing in the wind, and he appeared like a god of war.

After blocking that Burst Bear with a single fist, Long Chen coldly smiled. If it was below Tendon Transformation, then even the Burst Bear which specialized in violence was still insufficient to even enter his gaze.

Long Chen made a few calculations. The Burst Bear’s attack had contained a force of over five tons. An ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator would be crushed to death in a single blow.

And even Blood Condensation cultivators would have to reach the mid stage first before just barely being able to block that attack. That was just how terrifying a Magical Beast which specialized in power was.

But in front of Long Chen, that attack posed no danger at all. At the same time, Long Chen thought of Wilde. If Wilde were here, he would probably also be able to block it and then wring its neck.

Long Chen didn’t waste any more time. Taking advantage of the Burst Bear stumbling in shock, a broadsword appeared in his hands and he slashed down.

Blood splattered as Long Chen broadsword slashed right through the Burst Bear’s head. It didn’t even have time to make a single sound as it tumbled to the ground.

Xiao Hua blankly watched it all. She felt as if she was dreaming. It wasn’t that she hadn’t killed a Magical Beast before, but it was the first time she had seen such an overbearing method.

Normally, when the villagers killed Magical Beasts, they had to make ample preparations. They had to set snares and traps and coat all their weapons with poison. To handle a single Magical Beast would require around a month’s preparations.

And despite all those preparations, despite gathering the entire village’s power, killing a Magical Beast still had to be done extremely carefully. A single mistake could cost many lives.

Yet in front of Long Chen, that incomparably frightening Burst Bear had been taken down effortlessly.

“How do we handle this thing?”

Only when Long Chen asked her a question did Xiao Hua awake from her stupor. Looking at that huge Burst Bear’s corpse, she said, “How about we directly bring this Magical Beast up in front of the forest god?”

“Or how about you keep it to eat, and only once you get some more prey do you offer more sacrifices?” proposed Long Chen.

The villagers were surviving only barely on porridge. That was no way to live or even survive in this wilderness. In any case, killing this kind of Magical Beast didn’t require any real effort on his part.

“We can’t! We can’t disappoint the forest god’s trust in us. That’s blasphemous.” 

“Fine.” Long Chen was helpless. Waving his hand, he collected the Burst Bear’s massive corpse into his spatial ring.

“You… how did you do that? Are you a god?” Xiao Hua looked at Long Chen in astonishment.

That giant corpse had disappeared into thin air, and at the same time, she thought of how Long Chen had suddenly summoned his broadsword into his hands at the beginning.

When they had brought Long Chen back to the village back then, they had also brought along that broadsword. But it was so heavy that it had required two people to carry.

Later, they kept it permanently by Long Chen’s bed. Once he had awoken, Long Chen naturally had collected it. Thinking of that, Xiao Hua was completely bewildered.

Long Chen couldn’t help but laugh. “How am I a god? This is a spatial ring and can easily store objects.”

Long Chen rubbed his ring and the Burst Bear’s corpse once more appeared. Xiao Hua enviously looked at Long Chen’s ring, continuously praising it.

Obviously, Xiao Hua had never heard of things like spatial rings. Most likely due to how low quality their beast hides and crystal cores were, they were unable to make much money. They were unable to come into contact with expensive items like spatial rings.

“Xiao Hua, let me give you a present.”

Long Chen took out another ring. That ring had been his only harvest from killing Xia Changfeng.

Long Chen had looked over what was inside while being chased by Marquis Ying. Other than some money and weapons, the rest was all useless to him.

But there had been one good thing inside. There was the manual that Xia Changfeng had won from the auction, Three Style Parting Wind. 

Within the surrounding empires, Earth class Battle Skills were already the highest rank of Battle Skills available. For Xia Changfeng to be able to obtain such a Battle Skill for just five hundred million gold coins was actually quite lucky.

But now that luck wasn’t his, but Long Chen’s. Other than taking out the Three Style Parting Wind, he left everything else inside the ring.

“No, Long Chen, I can’t accept your things.” Seeing Long Chen suddenly hand her a ring, she hastily jumped and refused.

“Why not? Didn’t you say I was your man? You don’t want what your man gives you?” Long Chen couldn’t help but joke.

Although he was kidding around a bit, he definitely did have a favorable opinion of how kind and lively Xiao Hua was. Although it wasn’t that kind of romantic feeling, he definitely did want to be friends.

“This… this….” Xiao Hua was obviously a young woman longing for love. She glanced at the ring in his hands with a conflicted expression.

She was extremely curious towards this practically divine ring, but she didn’t feel comfortable taking it.

“Just take it. Treat it as my gift.” Long Chen placed the ring in her hand. Xiao Hua’s hand was extremely beautiful, however, it had a layer of calluses, another mark of her being a huntress and often drawing a bow.

She lowered her completely red head and rubbed the ring in her hand over and over. That was the first time Long Chen had seen Xiao Hua actually show her shy side.

“Here, I’ll teach you how to use it. Gather your focus to the spot between your eyebrows and from that spot, focus your mind to within the ring. At the same time, inject a bit of spiritual qi with your other hand…”

Ordinary people weren’t able to open spatial rings, but cultivators could do it as long as they had reached the Qi Condensation realm. As long as they could use their qi and combine it with Spiritual Strength, they would be able to open it.

But Xiao Hua didn’t understand the slightest thing about Spiritual Strength. She needed Long Chen to guide her step by step. What surprised Long Chen was that Xiao Hua was extremely smart and quickly comprehended the method in just a few tries.

This made him shake his head inside. If Wilde had just half of Xiao Hua’s smarts, he wouldn’t have to worry so much about him.

Thinking of Wilde, Long Chen couldn’t help but become anxious. He didn’t know if Wilde had brought Little Snow back to the capital.

But according to Long Chen’s calculations, having held up Marquis Ying, there was no one who would recognize Wilde. It was highly likely that he would be able to return to the capital.

As long as he did and then went to ask grandmaster Yun Qi for help, that would shield the Long household from dangers. But plans could never be completely perfect. He also had to quickly return to the capital.

Of course, before that, he still had to complete two things. One of which was to repay the village’s debt, otherwise, with their guileless natures, if they really did go try killing a second rank Magical Beast, who knew how many of them would die.

And secondly, he had to increase his cultivation base. His fight with Marquis Ying had made him realize that he was still lacking. In front of a Tendon Transformation expert, he was powerless to resist. Such a feeling was not one he wanted to feel a second time.

“Ah, so much stuff!” Xiao Hua finally managed to open the spatial ring and saw what was inside.

Inside was a space over ten meters wide. There was a mountain of golden coins along with many weapons that shined coldly.

It was the first time she had seen such fine weapons. And as for the gold coins, she didn’t have any shock towards them because she didn’t even recognize what they were.

They would only ever send anyone out of the village once every now and then. That journey required half a month to reach a distant town. They would exchange crystal cores and hides for the metal instruments, food and other provisions they needed. They never actually touched money.

As for the coldly shining weapons, only they were truly interesting to Xiao Hua who was a huntress. She almost fainted from joy when she saw those excellent weapons.

“Spiritual qi is required to open the ring. If you want to take things out or put things in, then you need to use your Spiritual Strength. Try it.” Long Chen laughed at her excitement.

“Ok.” Xiao Hua tried using her Spiritual Strength several times without succeeding. One reason was because her Spiritual Strength was too weak. Not all people had such vigorous Spiritual Strength as alchemists.

And for another, Xiao Hua was a complete amateur at using Spiritual Strength. Trying to use it was an exceptionally laborious task. That had long since been expected by Long Chen and he didn’t rush her. He continuously encouraged her.

If she could use the spatial ring properly, then the weapons inside would allow the entire village’s strength to rise to another level. It would definitely reduce the casualties of the hunters.

Plus, they would find it much more convenient whenever they had to go out of the village.

In the time it took for an incense stick to burn, Xiao Hua finally managed to use her Spiritual Strength to take a weapon out of the spatial ring. But due to her lack of control, she was unable to control where it appeared and it fell to the ground.

“Wow! Excellent, I can use this divine ring!”

Xiao Hua picked up the sword with one hand and hugged Long Chen with the other excitedly.

“Hey, be careful. You almost ran me through with your sword!” Long Chen laughed bitterly.

She was unable to control her excitement, and she chopped the new sword in her hand at a tree around the thickness of an arm.

With a clean sound, the sword effortlessly chopped through the tree. Its sharpness caused Xiao Hua to exclaim in excitement. The weapons, which they exchanged for in the town where they went to, were unable to compare to such a fine weapon.

Seeing that she had learned the initial ways to use it, Long Chen helped her to take out a spear. To hunters, spears were definitely more useful than swords.

The two of them continued traveling forward when they suddenly ran into a wild boar. It looked to be over a ton. Perhaps the two of them had walked into its territory since it was now attacking them.

Xiao Hua stabbed at it with her spear. The sharpness of the spear made it seem like the boar was made of tofu. Her spear punctured right through the boar’s tough hide, pierced its heart, and came out the other side of its body.

Xiao Hua was incomparably excited. She had been able to bring down a mature wild boar in just a single blow. That was an incredibly great accomplishment to her.

The two of them hurried along their journey. At midday of the next day, the two of them finally arrived beside a certain pond with an enormous tree beside it.

Chapter 87 Spirit World

The enormous tree reached high into the sky, and its canopy spanned several miles. It practically covered the entire mountain top. In front of the huge tree, whose trunk was hundreds of meters wide, was a small pond with incredibly clear water.

There was also a stone platform that had been created by man. It was obviously a sacrificial altar constructed by the village’s ancestors.

When he looked at that immense tree, Long Chen sensed an incredibly strong vitality as well as a majestic and boundless natural energy. It seemed as if this huge tree contained the entire natural will of the world. It was extremely stunning.

“This is your forest god?” asked Long Chen.

“Yes, this is our forest god. You should pay your respects with me. It is the one who really saved your life.” After saying that, Xiao Hua reverently kneeled down and kowtowed.

Long Chen looked at this huge tree. It was this tree which had saved him. Since no one had given him any medicinal pills after he had fainted, he probably would have burned up all his energy and eventually have died. To pay respects to the one who had saved him was acceptable.

Just as Long Chen was about to get on his knees, a soft voice rang out, a voice that made them feel like they were being cleansed by spring wind.

“Please, don’t be like this. I’m unable to accept such a thing.”

Suddenly, a figure appeared atop the sacrificial altar. It was a female figure in a white dress. Her black hair fell to her waist, giving people a fluttering immortal feeling. However, her figure was extremely fuzzy and her features couldn’t be seen clearly.

“Forest god.” Xiao Hua who was kneeling on the ground looked up in shock. She had once heard the forest god’s voice before, but she had never seen it take form.

Not only her, but even in all the village’s history, there was not a single person who had ever seen the forest god take form.

But as soon as Long Chen arrived and before he even knelt, it immediately appeared before him. And furthermore, it even implied it was not worthy of Long Chen’s reverence. Xiao Hua became dizzy. Even a god was unworthy of Long Chen’s worship?

Long Chen was filled with astonishment as he looked at that figure. He knew that this figure wasn’t human, but a soul.

That was something that could only form when one’s Spiritual Strength reached a kind of pinnacle. Long Chen was extremely proud of his powerful soul, but in front of the forest god, he was just like a small stream in front of a huge ocean. This was the first time he had ever felt himself to be so minute.

“You are the forest god?” Long Chen asked probingly.

That woman smiled slightly and didn’t reply. Looking at the kneeling Xiao Hua, she gently said, “Sleep for a while.”

Xiao Hua immediately rolled over on the ground, falling into a deep slumber.

Long Chen was startled. What a powerful technique. Even without using spiritual energy, just her will was able to make people fall asleep.

Only then did she turn to Long Chen. “The words we speak between us aren’t suitable for her to hear, so I could only let her sleep for a while. I am no god. That was simply what they called me. The truth is that I am not from this world.”

“Not from this world?” Long Chen was greatly startled.

“I come from the distant Spirit World. To the current you, that is still extremely far away. But I know that with your talent, it won’t be long before you reach it,” said the woman.

Her words caused Long Chen’s heart to pound wildly. He knew this forest god was definitely a frighteningly powerful existence, but she actually refused to explain just what this Spirit World was.

Spirit World… that was a term that Long Chen was completely unfamiliar with. But when he heard it, he had a kind of deja vu feeling. That was an extremely vague and profound feeling.

Seeing that she didn’t continue explaining, Long Chen didn’t interrogate her. He cupped his fists. “Long Chen will engrave the favor of saving my life into my memory.”

“Actually you don’t need to thank me. You should thank those villagers. According to our agreement, no matter what they needed, I would need to meet their demands. At the same time, I also have to put out an equivalent price. This was our agreement, so you don’t need to thank me.” She shook her head.

“I wonder whether I can ask why you would make such an agreement with ordinary villagers?” asked Long Chen.

This was a question Long Chen had wondered for a long time. This was like a huge elephant making an agreement with a group of ants. It didn’t make sense.

She was silent for a while before replying, “Because I need their help.”

“Their help?” Long Chen didn’t understand. A terrifyingly powerful existence like this actually required the help of ordinary villagers?

“I said that I am not of this world. Due to an intense battle, a crack appeared in time and space, sweeping me away. Originally, I should have died. Although I just managed to survive by luck, my body suffered extremely heavy wounds. After a long time of recovery, my body gradually healed. 

“But if I want to return to my world, I need to sacrifice a great deal of blood. I need to accumulate enough fleshly power in order to open a spacetime channel and return to my original world. You must be curious as to why I don’t personally hunt myself but instead rely on their hands,” she said.

Long Chen nodded. That was the most obvious inconsistency. It seemed needless for her to rely on the villagers.

“That’s because my spirit race has its own restrictions. We can’t go kill others for our own needs. We can’t personally end lives.”

“Why is that?”

“This has to do with the secret cultivation technique of my spirit race. If I personally kill anything, absorbing its flesh will cause me to also absorb its resentment at being killed. That is a kind of unresolvable poison to us,” she explained.

Although Long Chen felt a bit out of his depth when talking to this white-dressed woman, he supposed he now understood a bit of why she would make such an agreement with Xiao Hua’s ancestors.

“You are someone with limitless potential. This time, your meridians were extremely injured. I didn’t only heal them, I also expanded them a bit. I also used my core energy to increase your meridians’ toughness. So your medical expenses were a bit higher.”

Long Chen was surprised. After awakening, he had sensed that his body seemed to have changed a bit, but he hadn’t figured out just what kind of change it was yet.

Now that she brought it up, he quickly examined his meridians and went wild with joy. His meridians had actually become over twice as wide as they had been before.

And most importantly, his meridians which were like glass tubes before had changed to become like flexible tubing. Such meridians could endure a much greater amount of spiritual energy without bursting.

That was a huge surprise. If the current him fought with Marquis Ying once more, his meridians would definitely not crack again. At that time, he would definitely be able to kill him.

“Many thanks.” Long Chen was completely sincere. Thinking back to how angry he had been when he had first heard of this sacrificial offer, he couldn’t help but feel ashamed of himself.

She shook her head. “As someone from the spirit race, I was only following the agreement. So you don’t need to thank me.”

Long Chen laughed. “Let me ask you this: if I were to slip away after you cured me, what would you do?”

That female figure seemed to laugh and shook her head. “You wouldn’t. Members of my spirit race are extremely sensitive when it comes to other people’s hearts. If you were a wicked person, I would have been able to sense it immediately and absolutely wouldn’t have saved you. And even if you left, there would be others to pay back the debt. But in that case, I would forgive that debt and the previous agreement would be void.”

“Then wouldn’t you suffer a loss?” smiled Long Chen.

“It can be considered so. But it would be of no matter. This is the rule of my spirit race. The agreement must be followed according to that initial premise.”

“Like with the village’s ancestors?” Long Chen suddenly thought of the story Xiao Hua had told him.

“Yes, that is our custom.”

Such a custom was definitely a good one, but within the world of the royal capital, such a thing would guarantee that you would suffer great losses. Long Chen sighed inside.

This was an agreement based on good faith, an agreement based on the heart. It was definitely much more effective than any signed contract. The most assured agreement was one that was on the spiritual level.

Long Chen began to feel profound respect for this woman from the so-called Spirit World. She was a pure and innocent soul that had yet to be contaminated by the mundane world.

“Right, how much more Magical Beast flesh do you still require here?” Long Chen took out the Burst Bear’s corpse and threw it onto the ground.

Suddenly, countless roots tore out of the ground and dug their way into the Burst Bear’s corpse. In less than a breath’s time, the corpse was sucked dry. Even its bones were sucked away, leaving behind only a couple pieces of skin.

After that Burst Bear was sucked dry, Long Chen was startled to sense that the huge tree’s vitality grew even stronger, and its leaves seemed to have become much more spiritual.

“In order to heal you, I injured my core. I need ten first rank Magical Beasts and one second rank Magical Beast before being able to heal,” replied the white-robed woman.

“Then wouldn’t you have made no profit?” Long Chen was a bit flabbergasted.

She lightly replied, “It’s still the same as what I said before. That was the agreement set up at the beginning.”

“I understand. But I, Long Chen, am not someone who likes owing others. Having received such a great favor from you, I will definitely remember it,” nodded Long Chen.

He didn’t want to owe others favors. But if someone did help him, he would repay that favor back ten times. Just like how fatty Yu and the others had only helped him out at the beginning by lending him a bit of money, but Long Chen would remember that favor forever.

His meridians had been broadened now, and whether it was to his future cultivation or his use of Battle Skills, it was an enormous benefit. Such a favor was incredibly enormous.

After talking to the forest god, Long Chen gently woke up Xiao Hua. They left the area of the forest god and returned to the village.

After arriving, Xiao Hua excitedly gathered everyone and showed them the wild boar she had killed, as well as telling them about how Long Chen had easily killed a Burst Bear and how the forest god had taken form in front of them. Everyone stared at her with wide eyes.

The most shocking thing was that the forest god had taken shape in front of them. After hearing that, all the villagers knelt down towards the distant direction of the forest divinity.

Because of the agreement between Long Chen and the forest divinity, the forest divinity had given them an allowance on their debt. That very night, everyone celebrated with a large serving of wild boar meat.

Xiao Hua then showed everyone her new spatial ring. She took out the weapons within it one by one, causing everyone in the village to become incomparably excited.

After eating, Long Chen disappeared into the night alone. There was one thing that he absolutely had to do. 

Chapter 88 Heavenly Punishment

Covered by the darkness of night, Long Chen climbed to the peak of a mountain. The bright moon hung high above, lighting up his surroundings so that he could see the scenery hundreds of miles around.

At this time, Long Chen no longer had to be as worried as he had been while being chased by Marquis Ying. This was an exceptionally good spot for him to cultivate.

Within this primal forest, the spiritual qi in the air was several times greater than in the capital. He needed to borrow that advantage to advance to another level.

Ever since he had run into Marquis Ying after killing Xia Changfeng, he had repeatedly fought on the brink of death. Long Chen’s resolution had actually greatly advanced from that.

He could feel that a certain bottleneck was starting to weaken. This was his best opportunity to attack the next realm.

The peak of the mountain top could only be reached by climbing up extremely steep cliffs, so he had no need to fear any beasts disturbing him. Sitting cross-legged atop a boulder, his twelve cyclones began to revolve.

Space trembled and twelve huge vortexes appeared behind his body, growing to a terrifying size of three hundred meters.

This was the first time Long Chen had fully summoned his cyclones outside his body since arriving past the tenth Heavenstage. 

That was because he had been afraid that this oddity would have alarmed his opponents. It was unheard of for someone to possess ten or more cyclones in Qi Condensation. But in this place, he finally had free rein to use his full power to absorb heaven and earth’s spiritual qi.

Those twelve huge cyclones were like twelve gaping maws, like whales drinking in water, greedily absorbing spiritual qi and sending it to Long Chen’s FengFu Star.

Space started to warp as all the spiritual qi within hundreds of miles began to gather towards Long Chen, practically so dense that it could be seen with the physical eye.

BOOM!

In just six hours, Long Chen’s FengFu Star emitted an explosive sound. That was because his spiritual qi had reached a critical boundary, a sign that he was about to enter the next realm.

But Long Chen still wasn’t the slightest bit excited because he knew that this was just the start. There was still a long process which he had to work his hardest to get through.

Back when he had condensed his tenth cyclone, he had experienced the trouble of being ‘close’ to advancing. He was already used to how unorthodox the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art was.

For most martial artists, advancing would only require breaking past a single barrier, which was often thought of as breaking out from a single pair of ‘shackles’. Extremely talented people might have to break through multiple shackles. But no matter how talented someone was, to break through out of Qi Condensation would definitely never require breaking out of more than nine shackles.

However, when Long Chen had broken through to the tenth Heavenstage, although he hadn’t been counting, he was sure that he had long since surpassed a thousand shackles.

The next two times he had broken through, Long Chen hadn’t even bothered remembering how many barriers he had had to break through. In any case, it was just a continuous charge by him until he finally broke through.

So when his FengFu Star emitted this first sound, Long Chen wasn’t excited at all. He simply continued absorbing energy.

More and more energy began to pour into his FengFu Star. It began to quickly circulate, at the same time, emitting continuous explosions.

Long Chen didn’t bother with that. He simply did his best to absorb more and more energy. Clouds and winds gathered around him. All the energy in the vicinity charged towards him.

Hundreds of miles away from Long Chen was an enormous tree. At the top of the tree was the forest god’s white-dressed figure which was now watching him.

“What a powerful foundational aura. It looks like the human race will gain another astounding figure.” After muttering that, her figure faded away.

Long Chen’s FengFu Star was incessantly trembling. This wasn’t out of Long Chen’s expectations. 

This continued for three full days. Long Chen’s FengFu Star was beginning to circulate slower, and in the end, it completely paused. Long Chen couldn’t help but celebrate. This was the true sign he was about to make a breakthrough.

BOOM!

Suddenly, heaven and earth trembled. The twelve cyclones behind Long Chen slowly separated, revealing a thirteenth cyclone amongst them.

When this thirteenth cyclone appeared, the originally sunny and cloudless sky immediately turned dark with pitch-black clouds. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed. Everything within thousands of miles went completely dark.

“What’s going on?!” Long Chen was completely horrified. He realized that all those black clouds were like a huge whirlpool, and the whirlpool’s center was right above himself!

It looked like nothing more than a huge demonic eye focusing expressionlessly on him. At the same time, a terrifying destructive will pushed down upon him.

Long Chen immediately realized that he was unable to move an inch. He was unable to even blink.

He wildly cursed inside as he saw more and more black clouds gather in the sky. The lightning within the sky gradually converged at the center of the black clouds. 

“Is it going to strike me?!” Even if Long Chen was stupid, he would still be able to predict what was about to happen. He madly struggled.

But it was as if his whole body was being pressed by a huge mountain. Despite his best efforts, his body merely trembled continuously.

The huge boulder beneath his foot cracked. Such a sturdy boulder was actually unable to bear the pressure.

Long Chen couldn’t help but tremble in fear. He tried running, but he felt as if a whole mountain was crushing him from every direction. He was only able to make very limited movements and was simply unable to flee.

“This is heavenly punishment. You are unable to flee. Gather your full strength to resist.”

As Long Chen was wildly cursing inside and was incredibly anxious, a voice suddenly rang in Long Chen’s ears.

“Forest god?” Long Chen immediately recognized that voice. But heavenly punishment? He was infuriated. How many evil people existed in the world, and yet the heavens decided to punish him?!

Hearing that voice, it seemed the forest god knew the origin of this terrifying heavenly punishment. Since she had given him a warning, she definitely wasn’t trying to hurt him.

Putting away his anger, he rubbed his ring and his broadsword appeared in his hands. He pushed his power to its peak. 

The thirteen cyclones revolved around Long Chen as a halo of light enveloped him. It was as if a god from the heavens had reincarnated within him and was disdainfully looking up at the sky.

The forest god saw the thirteen cyclones and the halo of light from a distance. She was deep in thought.

Long Chen pushed his thirteen cyclones to the max. Energy from heaven and earth was continuously streaming into his body. Now that his meridians had been transformed by the forest god, he was able to control an even greater amount of energy.

The black clouds in the sky were becoming increasingly thick, and the lightning was becoming more and more concentrated. 

Suddenly, the sky became completely silent. A bolt of lightning several feet wide shot straight down from the center of the black clouds towards Long Chen, its power seeming to want to destroy the heavens and exterminate the earth.

Long Chen watched as that terrifying lightning bolt descended. He felt an endless destructive will coming from it. Raising his broadsword with both hands, a strange light appeared over his sword.

“Split the Heavens!”

BOOM!

The mountain peak which was hundreds of meters tall was destroyed. Rocks crumbled as that one lightning bolt completely flattened the mountain.

Long Chen vomited three consecutive mouthfuls of blood. His body was charred all over, and he could even smell his own flesh roasting.

His full force blow was like an ant waving its antennae in front of an elephant. He was unable to shake that lightning bolt in the slightest. He had been essentially powerless.

This made him feel completely dispirited. In front of that lightning, he felt that he was completely insignificant. His joy from advancing to the thirteenth Heavenstage was immediately extinguished.

“You did very well.”

The sky once more returned to its sunny state as the black clouds scattered. It was as if everything before had been just an illusion. The white-robed woman appeared in front of Long Chen.

Long Chen was about to say something when he once more vomited more blood. That thunderbolt had greatly shaken his internal organs.

The forest god waved her hand and a drop of green liquid came from her body and fell into Long Chen’s mouth. Long Chen only managed to sense that it tasted sweet before it quickly slid down his throat and rapidly spread throughout his body. His wounds began to quickly heal.

The black burned parts of his skin slowly fell off. In less than the time it took for an incense stick to burn, his body had recovered eighty to ninety percent. This was much more miraculous than any healing pills!

“No need to be surprised. The first heavenly punishment is mostly focused on destroying your will. If your will wasn’t sturdy enough, your mind and soul would have been exterminated by the heavenly punishment,” explained the forest god.

“What is this heavenly punishment?” asked Long Chen.

“It is the will of the Heavenly Daos. Anyone that can threaten the Heavenly Daos will attract its punishment when advancing.”

Threaten the Heavenly Daos? Could that be pointing to the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art?

“There are some things that I can’t tell you too much about, or it wouldn’t be beneficial to you. Rest a while and consolidate your cultivation base. I will be returning.”

Without waiting for Long Chen’s response, her figure turned into a wisp of mist, slowly disappearing in front of Long Chen’s eyes.

Seeing her disappear, then looking at the flattened mountain peak, and then looking towards the completely cloudless sky, Long Chen felt as if he had been dreaming.

Thinking back to that bolt of lightning, Long Chen shivered. That lightning bolt was something he had been completely unable to resist. Why hadn’t it killed him?

Then was it really as that woman had said, and the first heavenly punishment only tested his will? If his will had broken down, would he have been destroyed beneath that heavenly punishment?

That heavenly punishment had released an unstoppable aura. He had been trying to flee originally, and it was only with the forest god’s warning that he had dared to face the heavenly punishment head-on.

Without her warning, perhaps he would have already been exterminated in both body and soul. Lingering fear filled him.

At the same time, he also understood just how important a powerful will was for martial cultivators. Cultivation was fundamentally a path of no retreat.

He took a deep breath. With the forest god’s warning, it seemed as if he was seeing an even vaster world unfurling before him.

Space trembled as Long Chen returned his thirteen cyclones into his body. He wanted to clearly test whether his cyclones had changed.

Long Chen noticed that they hadn’t grown any larger. But what amazed him was that after the heavenly punishment, there was now a link between all thirteen cyclones. They were completely tied together.

Now the thirteen cyclones had a ring of light connecting them. They were no longer independent but had formed a single entity. Spiritual qi flowed throughout it.

Under Long Chen’s control, the ring of light, which was really his thirteen cyclones, lightly trembled and began to quickly revolve. The ring of light spun around, forming a huge whirlpool that madly absorbed heaven and earth’s spiritual qi.

The absorption speed was at least ten times greater than before. Even if Long Chen fought a powerful enemy again, he would not have to worry about running out of spiritual qi like before.

Back when he had fought alongside Wilde against Marquis Ying, it was precisely because the consumption had been too great that he had run out of spiritual qi, making it so he was unable to continue fighting. Now that his thirteen cyclones had linked together, he would basically never have to worry about that problem again.

Furthermore, he also noticed that when the mysterious ring had connected his thirteen cyclones, another thing had appeared in his body which was filling him with strength.

Slowly closing his eyes and examining his body, Long Chen suddenly shook and went crazy with joy.

Chapter 89 Three Style Parting Wind

When he slowly closed his eyes and examined his body, he realized that spiritual qi had appeared within his blood. Although it was very faint, he was sure that it was present.

“I’ve entered the Blood Condensation realm? 

“So after reaching the thirteenth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation by using the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, you will automatically enter Blood Condensation.”

The Blood Condensation realm was the point where the spiritual qi in the body had been condensed to a pinnacle. Spiritual qi would be scattered throughout the blood, purifying the blood of its impurities, returning it to its true essence.

With such pure blood nourishing the body, the physical body would become much stronger and one’s strength would multiply. 

Having entered the Blood Condensation realm, Long Chen was so excited that he almost cried. Although, at this point, he still didn’t feel his body immediately becoming stronger.

But as long as the impurities in his blood were continuously purified by his spiritual qi, his strength would quickly rise.

In any case, what the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art cultivated was the physical body. Now that he had entered the Blood Condensation realm, he would even be able to pose a threat to Marquis Ying who was in the Tendon Transformation realm.

Blood condensation was something that couldn’t be rushed. Since Long Chen had thirteen enormous cyclones, he didn’t need to deliberately focus on it to purify his blood. That meant his cultivation speed would be a dozen times faster than ordinary people.

What Long Chen wanted to do now wasn’t to condense his blood, but to increase his actual strength. A Battle Skill appeared in his hand. Long Chen smiled. It was time to see just how powerful an Earth class Battle Skill was.

This was the first Earth class Battle Skill Long Chen had ever obtained. Thinking back to the terrifying moves Marquis Ying had displayed, he was filled with a burning passion.

To Long Chen who lacked Battle Skills, this particular Battle Skill had come at an extremely opportune time. Speaking of which, he should really thank Xia Changfeng. 

He opened the Battle Skill and carefully read over it. His expression became a bit strange. He originally thought that the Three Style Parting Wind had three different moves. 

But as he read, he realized that it was just one move which had three variations. They were split into the Parting Wind Slash, Parting Wind Slice, and Parting Wind Stab.

The principles behind them were the exact same. It was just the final use of it that was different, making it ‘three styles’. It truly was deceptive.

Thinking back to how Yao Niqian had sold it back then and how she had acted as if it was completely unique and amazing, he was completely speechless and felt cheated.

According to this model, this Three Style Parting Wind could easily become Nine Styles. Parting Wind Chop, Parting Wind Thrust, even Parting Wind Swat… there could be as many ‘styles’ as you wanted.

Although he was a bit disappointed, Long Chen wasn’t a person who didn’t know how to be content with what he had. After all, he had obtained it without spending a single cent. The person who should be depressed about it should have been Xia Changfeng.

Reading through the Three Style Parting Wind’s usage of spiritual qi, Long Chen found out that it only used six acupuncture points. That was much inferior to the nine points required by Split the Heavens.

Each time the spiritual qi passed through an acupuncture point, it would require even greater control. It would be much more difficult with each point, but the power would also multiply drastically.

Originally, Long Chen had thought that Split the Heavens was a low grade Earth class Battle Skill, but now that he compared it to the Three Style Parting Wind, its difficulty was clearly much greater.

Wouldn’t that mean that Split the Heavens was at least in the mid grade Earth class, and perhaps even high grade Earth class?

No wonder Split the Heavens was so terrifying that he had been unable to control it!

He had used Split the Heavens against Marquis Ying before, but Long Chen knew that his usage was not the complete form.

He did not dare use its full strength because his meridians weren’t able to endure it. He also felt that even if he activated his FengFu Star to its peak, he would still be unable to fulfill Split the Heaven’s true requirements.

Split the Heavens was just like a bottomless pit. He was still far from being able to use its true power. Perhaps he had accidentally picked up a true treasure.

Long Chen’s sword whistled through the air and a wave of qi shot out, slashing apart a shrub ten meters away.

“It actually contains the wind’s force. Is this Sword Qi?”

Long Chen finally understood why this Earth class Battle Skill was called the Three Style Parting Wind. It actually was a wind-attribute Battle Skill.

Most Battle Skills used the superposition of multiple acupuncture points to increase the physical body’s strength, similar to how Marquis Ying had used his Battle Skill. Although that was powerful, it didn’t have any attributes.

The human body was just like a treasure trove of hidden treasures. Through continuous excavation, one could find endless hidden potential.

For example, Meng Qi used her powerful Spiritual Strength to control Magical Beasts. She could use her Spiritual Strength to open up space just like a spatial ring to store her housepets. 

For example, pill cultivators used the physical body’s strength to condense a Pill Flame. Their flame’s potential was endless, capable of destruction and also of merging heaven and earth’s various treasures into medicinal pills.

For example, martial artists condensed qi and blood, tempered their muscles and bones, forging their originally frail bodies into bodies that were even more powerful than Magical Beasts.

All of this stemmed from the human body. The human body was filled with unknown mysteries. By following the methods that former generations left behind, people could strive to unlock their own hidden potential.

As for the Three Style Parting Wind, by running spiritual qi through six specific acupuncture points, it could actually release spiritual qi outside the body to form an astral wind.

The fact that Long Chen could summon an astral wind to blow apart a shrub ten meters away with just his initial comprehension of the Battle Skill was definitely a pleasant surprise to him.

Long Chen’s Pill Sovereign memories contained the exact routes of his meridians and locations of his acupuncture points, making it so that he was basically able to use a Battle Skill as soon as he learned it.

However, this didn’t mean he would be a master at it immediately. Using various Battle Skills required constant adaptation to find the best tempo and rhythm. Only then could he display its peak strength. That required constant testing and practice in order to do.

But even so, Long Chen’s cultivation speed was absolutely shocking. Even a Tendon Transformation expert like Marquis Ying would require several months of comprehension and practice just to be able to use an Earth class Battle Skill, and if he wanted to have a complete mastery of it, that would require years.

Although Long Chen couldn’t master it immediately, he was still able to gain an initial mastery in the Three Style Parting Wind due to his complete understanding of the meridians.

With his experience in cultivating Split the Heavens which required nine acupuncture points, the Three Style Parting Wind was much easier.

Furthermore, after obtaining the forest god’s help, his meridians had doubled in width and were much tougher. He was absolutely able to control an Earth class Battle Skill that normally only Tendon Transformation experts were capable of using.

The Three Style Parting Wind was actually just one move with three variations, split into a slash, slice, and stab. 

The method of circulating spiritual qi in the body was the same for all three variations. It was only when the spiritual qi left the body that the method from which it entered the weapon was different. That was why Long Chen felt he would be able to change it into the Nine Style Parting Wind and perhaps sell it for an even higher price.

After testing it several times and becoming familiar with the meridians used, Long Chen paused his training of it and returned to the village.

He had truly advanced a great deal this time. He had broken through to the Blood Condensation realm, and his thirteen cyclones had joined together to form a divine ring. In the future, he would be able to summon it out and fight with his full strength. 

He had been unable to do that when he had ten to twelve cyclones for fear of others being shocked by his anomaly. But the new divine ring was something that no one would guess was made of thirteen cyclones. They would only be able to assume that it was some supplementary Battle Skill.

The world of cultivation was boundless and there were countless Daos. Cultivation techniques and Battle Skills were as numerous as grains of sand. All kinds of rare and strange Battle Skills existed. As long as you didn’t ostentatiously show them off, rare Battle Skills wouldn’t cause too much of a ripple.

With the assistance of that divine ring, he would not only be capable of rising to another level when fighting, but he would have tremendous vitality. With it continuously absorbing spiritual qi and adding on how much spiritual qi could be stored in his FengFu Star, he wouldn’t have to worry about running out of spiritual qi again.

Now Long Chen couldn’t wait to fight against Marquis Ying again. Back then he had been forced into despair by Marquis Ying. If Xiao Hua hadn’t saved him, he would already be food for a Magical Beast.

At the same time, Long Chen felt even more anxious. He didn’t know just what was happening within the capital. He also didn’t know whether his father had set any plans into motion after receiving his letter.

Although he was extremely worried, Long Chen still had something he had to do first. That was to repay his debt to the forest god.

After meeting the forest god who had come from the Spirit World, Long Chen felt as if he had managed to peek into a newer, vaster world.

At the same time, that also ignited his passions. The world was so marvelous. The current him who was stuck in a small place like the Phoenix Cry Empire was nothing more than a frog at the bottom of a well.

He was now even more impatient to resolve the matters of the capital. He wanted to bring Chu Yao out to see the world. He wanted to see Bai Ling’s Huayun Sect, Meng Qi’s Wind Spirit Pavilion, and grandmaster Yun Qi’s Pill Valley which was a divine, holy land in the hearts of pill cultivators.

The world was just too big. He had to go out to see it. But before that, he had to resolve his matters.

The enmity of stealing his Spirit Blood, Spirit Bone, and Spirit Root still had to be avenged. Otherwise, what was the point of cultivation? He had already placed most of his suspicions on Marquis Ying.

However, he still wasn’t completely sure it was him, and he also didn’t know why he would do such a thing. Was it because someone had ordered him to? And if so, who?

The fourth prince was only in his twenties at this time, so he would still have been a child at the time when his ability to cultivate had been stolen. So it probably wasn’t the fourth prince who had ordered Marquis Ying to do this.

He shook his head and placed those thoughts aside. Wondering about such things was useless. The fact that Marquis Ying had come to kill him this time meant that whatever plot they had been brewing for so long was finally ready and they no longer had any misgivings. A huge event was about to explode, and the truth would quickly become evident.

What Long Chen needed to do was to increase his strength as much as possible before that final, critical moment. Only then could he protect his family.

He had sent medicinal pills to help his father, but if the people beside him were only of ordinary talent, the chance of them breaking through was not high.

The main target of the hidden scheme against the Long family was Long Tianxiao. Long Chen was just a minor character.

Just to handle a minor character like him, they had sent a powerful figure like Marquis Ying. Then in order to handle his father, they would definitely use an even more overbearing method.

And so, he didn’t hope for any help from his father’s side. All he hoped for was that those pills he had sent could help his father survive the approaching danger.

As for the capital, he would have to rely on himself. So he was extremely pressed and couldn’t waste even the slightest bit of time.

He rushed quickly back towards the village. In order to not to alarm the villagers, he had run out quite far.

He needed to talk to Xiao Hua about the village’s surroundings. It would be best if there were a couple of strong Magical Beasts around. He trusted that the people who had lived here for hundreds of years would have the best understanding of the area.

Despite rushing for over four hours, Long Chen didn’t feel the slightest fatigue. Instead, he was feeling stronger and stronger, the gradual result of advancing into Blood Condensation. His speed only continued to increase, and he was like a wisp of smoke that shot to the village, leaving behind a long trail of dust and leaves.

As Long Chen approached the village, he gradually slowed down. As soon as he walked into the village, he suddenly heard an angry roar.

Chapter 90 Little Snow's Return

All the villagers had gathered together, most of them carrying spears. They were all nervously on guard against a certain thing in front of them.

That was a meter long small wolf. It looked just like an ordinary ferocious dog, but its whole body was emitting a vicious aura that caused people to tremble in fear.

Its eyes were especially filled with a cold, bloodthirsty light that caused those hunters who even often killed Magical Beasts to feel extremely terrified.

Originally, everyone had just been resting when all the babies suddenly began to let out terrified cries that drew everyone’s attention.

When they looked around and saw this small wolf, they were all given a fright. Their village walls were covered in poisonous thorns. Magical Beasts had an innate fear of such things and they wouldn’t force their way in.

But this Magical Beast had charged through, raising everyone’s guard. They were all ready to attack it.

“Stop!”

Long Chen was like a gale of wind as he suddenly burst on the scene and actually hugged that incomparably vicious Magical Beast.

He couldn’t believe his own eyes. It was Little Snow!

Little Snow was covered in blood and mud. Dozens of wounds covered all over his body and some of them were still bleeding while some areas had even been cut all the way down to the bone. 

“Wu wu…” When Little Snow saw Long Chen, the vicious aura around him immediately disappeared without a trace, instead becoming tender and warm. He rubbed his head over Long Chen’s face over and over. 

But as for the villagers, when they saw him suddenly hug a dangerous Magical Beast, they all turned pale with fright.

That was a Magical Beast! To be wild and vicious was in their nature! Even a young Magical Beast was many times more powerful than an ordinary wild beast.

Now they were all dumbstruck as they watched this. How was that a Magical Beast? It seemed more like a puppy!

“Little Snow, you’ve suffered.” Long Chen couldn’t help but feel emotional when he saw all the wounds on Little Snow. 

Perhaps Wilde had forgotten Little Snow, or perhaps Little Snow had secretly run off on his own. In any case, he had relied on his wolf’s nose to find his trail.

But his trail was a thousand miles away in a remote area with countless wild beasts roving around. Little Snow had clearly run into dangerous situations many times.

Little Snow was now three times larger than he was before. By relying on himself to hunt wild beasts, he had managed to grow stronger.

“Wu wu….” Little Snow continuously rubbed against Long Chen, actually trying to comfort him. Long Chen knew this because of the slight connection between their souls.

That made him feel even more guilty. He picked up Little Snow and introduced him to everyone as his housepet, and only then did everyone calm down.

Long Chen carried Little Snow into his room and carefully examined Little Snow’s wounds. Some were teeth injuries from where he had been bitten by wild beasts. One of his feet was swollen greatly and there was a scent of rot coming from it. Long Chen looked at it and saw that there were two small pricks.

He suspected that it was from some sort of poisonous bite. Luckily, Little Snow’s physique was strong and able to block the poison. An ordinary wild beast would probably have long since let out its final death cry.

Long Chen brought Little Snow over to a basin of clean drinking water. He dissolved a medicinal pill within the water first before washing Little Snow’s wounds.

There were simply too many open wounds and some places had become inflamed. Even more importantly, there was a part of his flesh at the bottom of his foot that had rotted and needed to be cut off.

Xiao Hua couldn’t help but feel her skin crawl when she saw Long Chen cleaning Little Snow’s wounds. That was especially the case when she saw him actually bring a knife to cut off some parts of his foot.

Little Snow’s head was perfectly placed right against Long Chen’s neck. As long as he opened his mouth, Long Chen’s neck would immediately be bitten open.

But whether it was while his wounds were being cleaned or when his rotten flesh was cut off, Little Snow merely trembled without making a single noise.

An hour later, Long Chen had finished placing medicinal ointments all over Little Snow’s body and wrapped up his wounds. 

Looking at Xiao Hua who seemed as if she had finally been relieved of a heavy burden, Long Chen smiled and placed Little Snow on his bed. Gently rubbing Little Snow’s head, he explained, “He’s my companion. You don’t need to be so worried.”

Looking at the peacefully sleeping Little Snow, Xiao Hua shook her head. “That really almost frightened me to death. So humans can actually become companions with Magical Beasts.”

Long Chen smiled, “Sometimes, people are even more terrifying than Magical Beasts. Otherwise, your ancestors also wouldn’t have brought you guys to such a place. At least there are warning signs when Magical Beasts are about to attack you. But when humans are planning on attacking you, there aren’t any signs, and you won’t be on guard. By the time you sense the danger, you’ll already be dead. So your ancestors were actually very intelligent people. They understood that the danger you can see isn’t the true danger. The truly dangerous things are those that you cannot see.”

Xiao Hua was bewildered by what Long Chen was saying. She clearly didn’t really comprehend what he was saying, but hearing him praise her ancestors still made her happy.

“Hopefully, our kids will also be as smart and brave as you. Then, I’ll become the person who has contributed the most to the village!” Xiao Hua excitedly laughed.

Long Chen’s expression stiffened. Looking at her open and innocent expression, he bitterly smiled. He supposed this girl didn’t know just how complicated having children was.

Xiao Hua was a naive child. Although Long Chen was fond of her, he had no romantic feelings for her.

He thought this matter over. In the end, he came up with a plan to leave the village in secret. Although that would be very hurtful to Xiao Hua, that was something that could not be avoided.

But before he left, Long Chen still had to complete a couple of tasks. First, he had to repay his hunting debt to the forest divinity, and then he had to tell Xiao Hua what those gold coins were used for.

There were at least several million gold coins. He had to warn her to be careful with their usage and not to let any greedy eyes fall on her.

As long as she learned how to use those gold coins, then with the spatial ring, the amount they could procure from each trip would be enough to last the village for a whole year.

Little Snow’s arrival had caused all the villagers to become nervous. After all, in the past hundreds of years, that was the first time a Magical Beast had intruded on their village.

The next day, when Little Snow awoke and became active, all the villagers once more became anxious. But Little Snow only obediently followed alongside Long Chen, not even looking at the others, appearing very cute.

That caused the villagers to let their guards down slightly. There were even some curious children that stealthily approached Little Snow despite others berating them.

At the beginning Little Snow just ignored them. When that group of small children was around three meters away from him, he suddenly glanced at them.

Just that one glance terrified all those children. They all thought Little Snow was about to attack and fled for their lives, crying for someone to save their lives.

One of those kids even tripped and fell to the ground. He just laid there crying, even wetting his pants.

The adults watched as this happened. They saw that Long Chen merely smiled the whole time without doing anything. Due to their trust in Long Chen, they hadn’t said anything up until this point.

Seeing Little Snow actually send the group of children fleeing away with just a glance, they actually ended up laughing.

This was the first time a Magical Beast had entered their village, so even the adults were extremely curious.

“Long Chen, what Magical Beast is this?” None of the villagers were able to recognize Little Snow.

“A Scarlet Flame Snow Wolf. When matured, it is a third rank Magical Beast,” replied Long Chen.

“Third… third rank?!”

They had only ever heard of second rank Magical Beasts! And that was only from listening to their elders who told a story from over a hundred years ago. One of their ancestors had once come to a halt at a mountain stream while hunting and ended up running into a second rank Magical Beast. The encounter would end up becoming a disaster for the village.

Back then, over thirty hunters had worked together in an attempt to hunt it, the result of which was that only a dozen of them had returned alive. 

From that point onwards, they no longer dared to cross that mountain stream. Moreover, the villagers who ended up committing grave crimes were forever forced over that mountain stream.

In reality, the first thing that had popped into the villagers’ minds when the forest god had requested a second rank Magical Beast was that disaster.

At that time, everyone’s expressions had been extremely unsightly. But Xiao Hua had been determined to save Long Chen. She said that after Long Chen was healed, they would definitely be able to work together and kill a second rank Magical Beast.

And so just a second rank Magical Beast was already a nightmare in their eyes. But as for this little wolf in front of them, it was an even more frightening third rank Magical Beast.

Everyone assembled for lunch and afterwards, Long Chen spoke to the village chief. “Chief, are there any second rank Magical Beasts around?”

His expression changed slightly. “You’re thinking of…?”

“Yes, I’m thinking of going to hunt second rank Magical Beasts to return the forest god’s favor as early as possible. The feeling of owing others is truly uncomfortable.” 

Everyone in the village shivered in trepidation, but Long Chen noticed that some of them were actually eager to give it a try.

“Child, I do know of the location of a second rank Magical Beast. However, it is extremely hard to handle.” The elder was hesitant.

“Don’t worry, village chief. I’m already fully recovered, and an ordinary second rank Magical Beast is not a problem,” laughed Long Chen.

Long Chen was actually being modest. Even before he had broken through to Blood Condensation, ordinary second rank Magical Beasts had already not been his match.

And now that he had advanced, even though he was still only at that initial advancement and had yet to even reach the first Heavenstage, his blood was already being purified with each breath, and his blood and strength continued to grow stronger.

Long Chen wanted to find a second rank Magical Beast and test his strength. He also wanted to see just how many styles of Parting Wind he could use.

Since Long Chen was so determined, the elder sighed, “Fine. All our village’s fighters will bring the best equipment to help you slaughter that brute.”

All the hunters let out a cheer of agreement and they returned to their houses to get their weapons and everything else they needed.

Long Chen looked at those fervent people and immediately realized there had been a misunderstanding.

“Senior village chief, you don’t need to rouse everyone for this matter. Just tell me where it is. I alone am enough,” said Long Chen lightly.

“What?!”