NINE STAR HEGEMON BODY ART

CHAPTER 481-490

Chapter 481 Kill His Way Into the Wind Spirit Pavilion

"I would have thought that you'd want to thank me." Seeing that Long Chen didn't say anything after a long time, Shui Wuhen finally broke the silence.

Within the huge plaza, only the two of them were present. The atmosphere was slightly heavy because from the start, Long Chen had only just been staring into the distance silently.

"If someone should be thanking someone, it should be you thanking me, right?" Long Chen smiled slightly.

"Oh? Why is that?"

"If I tell the truth, will I end up being killed to keep me quiet?" Long Chen looked at Shui Wuhen.

Although in terms of age, Shui Wuhen was old enough to be his grandmother's grandmother's grandmother, her youthful appearance made others forget her age.

If it weren't for a certain look in her eyes that said she had experienced all the vicissitudes of life, others might really think she was a simple and pure maiden.

"You can speak. I'm not so intolerant." Shui Wuhen smiled ever so slightly. She had a strange feeling when she looked at Long Chen, as the intelligence he had displayed did not match up to his age.

If she hadn't sensed that his soul fluctuations matched his spiritual qi fluctuations, she would definitely suspect he had been possessed by some old demon.

"There are two reasons I don't need to thank you. The first one is that this chaotic situation with the first monastery was all caused by you.

"Previously, I didn't really understand what was going on here. But from how furiously Zhou Qingyu was clenching her teeth when she left, I can tell she ended up falling for your trap.

"During all these years, you intentionally let her and her son work together, allowing them to turn the supermonastery into a state of turmoil and chaos. As for yourself, you just kept yourself in seclusion and paid no heed.

"But in truth, you were just waiting for a chance, a chance to catch them in a mistake, a chance to defeat Zhou Qingyu in a single move.

"Although I don't know what relationship you have with Zhou Qingyu, I can guess both of you come from two separate large powers that compete with each other secretly.

"Most likely, she came to the supermonastery to keep watch over you, while you were always looking for a way to get rid of her. You feigned weakness, intentionally giving all the authority to her, all to find a chance to crush her.

"In order to get rid of her, you let her turn the supermonastery into its current state. I wonder just how many people ended up becoming sacrifices because of this little game of yours. And so I don't need to thank you.

"As for myself, although I wasn't a direct part of your game, due to what happened, I ended up affected indirectly. It could even be said I have a right to hate you, as I was just a single chess piece in your hand," said Long Chen, looking at Shui Wuhen expressionlessly.

Shui Wuhen was silent for a long while. In the end, she sighed, "I really wouldn't have thought you'd be so perceptive at this age. Then let me ask you, do you hate me?"

Long Chen shook his head. "I don't hate you. I also don't need to hate you. Hate is the feeling of the weak.

"This matter can't be blamed on you, because even if someone else was in your position, the result would probably be roughly the same. It would just be a different method.

"At the very least, your current position is extremely beneficial to me. And in truth, there is at least one thing that I have to thank you for. You didn't wait until Zhou Qingyu killed all of us before appearing.

"Originally, in order for you to get the most profit, you should have waited until she had trapped herself into a corner before taking action. That way, she would definitely be given the death penalty.

"But today, although you managed to get rid of her for now, her crimes aren't necessarily enough to warrant her death. So that means you still have a bit of benevolence at the bottom of your heart."

Looking at this youth, Shui Wuhen was filled with shock. Long Chen was really too terrifying. With just a few clues, he had managed to deduce the rough situation, and his deduction was quite accurate.

That was especially true when he had said she should have waited until he and everyone else had been killed.

She truly had been thinking like that at the beginning. But in the end, she hadn't been able to bear doing that and had gone out prematurely.

She sighed. "You're right. I really was unable to just watch so many top geniuses be killed so young."

Shui Wuhen had to admit, when it came to being ruthless, she was greatly lacking compared to Zhou Qingyu. Otherwise, she could have long since gotten rid of her.

"So I'll still need to thank you for this," said Long Chen.

"There's no need for you to thank me. I saved you because you were all my supermonastery's disciples. Only once you all grow up can you be useful to me.

"Currently, I've given the first monastery to you. As for how you plan on growing, that'll be up to you. Originally, once you reached the Bone Forging realm, you should have been sent to the supermonastery to be raised.

"However, now you have the first monastery's resources, which is enough for you to grow. Only the lower ranking monasteries have to send their disciples to the supermonastery. As for how you split up the resources, I won't interfere.

"Right now, the monastery competition no longer has any meaning. Thanks to you, the supermonastery's core strength has been greatly damaged. I can only place my hopes on the few of you." When she said these last few sentences, Shui Wuhen's expression became a bit odd.

Long Chen also felt slightly embarrassed. But that had been unavoidable. Who had asked them to try and take his life?

"As for the Yin family, you don't need to be afraid of them. I can help you keep them at bay, and they won't dare do anything to you as long as you are within the monastery. However, you also can't be careless. It seems you've caused that girl to suffer quite miserably. Each time her poison flares up, she feels enough pain as to want to die. During those times, she ends up tearing at Han Tianyu with her teeth. Apparently, Han Tianyu ends up beaten black and blue each time," said Shui Wuhen.

"Han Tianyu also went to the Yin family?"

"Yes. He has a few smarts. When Yin Wushuang was sent back to the Yin family, he knelt on the ground and swore in the face of all those Yin family members that he wished to marry Yin Wushuang, promising to look after her for a lifetime. Back then, he ended up moving quite a few of them, and so they permitted him to stay within the Yin family.

"But for some unknown reason, each time Yin Wushuang's poison flares up, she'll torment him as if her life depends on it. That puzzles her family members," said Shui Wuhen.

Long Chen sneered inside, "Isn't the reason simple? It was all deliberately set up by yours truly. Han Tianyu wanted me to kill Yin Wushuang, and Yin Wushuang wasn't stupid enough to not see that. She saw through that immediately. How could she not hate him?"

In truth, that Thousand Heart Snow Lotus would only cause Yin Wushuang's constant pain to become bursts of pain.

Each time the poison flared up, she would feel enough pain as to want to kill herself. And when she felt that pain, she would naturally find Han Tianyu displeasing and torment him.

With the Yin family's arrogance, they wouldn't help Han Tianyu avoid her. If Yin Wushuang wanted to torment him, then she could do as she pleased. The Yin family always looked down upon outsiders who married into their family.

Originally, Long Chen had been a bit worried about the two of them. Now hearing the two were so blessed, he was much more at ease.

"Long Chen, just what did you feed her? Why are countless pill cultivators completely helpless?"

"It was a mixture containing several hundred different poisons that complement each other. Based on the combination, there are thousands of different possible formulas that could be the antidote. But only one of them is right. If they give her the wrong one, she will immediately die, so they don't dare take the risk," explained Long Chen.

"You really are ruthless. You might be fine within the monastery, but when you go outside, you have to be careful. Ancient families are known for being hard to deal with," warned Shui Wuhen.

"Yes," nodded Long Chen.

"As for the Pill Tower, you don't need to be worried. This time, they ended up committing a grave crime, drawing the Righteous path's displeasure. Due to being in the wrong, they won't be making any movements for now."

Huo Wufang had gone too far this time. To publicly use the name of the Pill Tower to call the Righteous and Corrupt disciples to attack Long Chen, he had completely infuriated the Righteous path.

Thinking of Huo Wufang, Long Chen smiled coldly. Long Chen had fed him a poison that would adhere to his bones.

That poison had seeped into Huo Wufang's bones, and soon as someone tried to heal them, it would immediately trigger the poison, filling him with pain.

Even if they didn't try to heal his bones, that poison would still feel like countless knives stabbing his bones.

Furthermore, the Pill Tower would definitely give him some medicinal pills in an attempt to stop that pain. Those medicinal pills truly could stop Huo Wufang's pain. That was because the poison would treat those medicinal pills as nourishment and focus on devouring them instead of Huo Wufang.

Once the pain-relieving pills were devoured, the poison would once more begin to gnaw on his bones; the poison would become even stronger after having consumed those pills, making him feel even more pain.

"Reporting to monastery head, there's someone looking for boss Long Chen who says she's from the Wind Spirit Pavilion!" Guo Ran hastily ran over.

Long Chen's expression changed, and he was just about to say something when Shui Wuhen said, "You can go."

"I'm truly sorry." Long Chen cupped his fists and hastily followed Guo Ran down the mountain. Arriving at the gate, he saw a round-faced maiden pacing quickly back and forth.

Long Chen immediately recognized her to be the one from the secret realm who had asked Meng Qi to come back to them.

"Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, please come and save senior apprentice-sister Meng Qi! She..." The maiden collapsed into tears.

Long Chen's expression completely changed and he hastily asked, "What happened to Meng Qi?"

"Feng Xiao-zi's death infuriated the pavilion master, and he had senior apprentice-sister Meng Qi imprisoned, as well as crippled her soul root. He wants her married off to Feng Xiao-zi's little brother..."

From that maiden, they learned that from the start, the pavilion master had placed his sights on Meng Qi's soul root, and thus prepared to have her married to Feng Xiao-zi. With their powerful soul energy, their children would definitely be peerless geniuses.

Originally, he had been planning on waiting until the two of them had reached the Xiantian realm before carrying that out. But he had never expected Feng Xiao-zi to die within the secret realm.

Furthermore, Meng Qi had betrayed the Wind Spirit Pavilion to side with Long Chen. That had completely infuriated him, and he had almost directly killed Meng Qi.

However, killing her was too wasteful. He would have his other son take the place of Feng Xiao-zi to marry Meng Qi. He would turn Meng Qi into a tool to birth his progeny.

Hearing this, Long Chen's hair stood on end with fury. He asked for a map of the location of the Wind Spirit Pavilion from the maiden and was just about to kill his way into the Wind Spirit Pavilion.

"Boss, I'll go gather our people," said Guo Ran.

"There's no need to go to that much trouble. I'll go with you."

Suddenly, Shui Wuhen appeared in front of Long Chen. Grabbing him with one hand, the two of them disappeared from their original location.

Chapter 482 Furious Long Chen

The Wind Spirit Pavilion was located on the border between Su Prefecture and He Prefecture. It was the hegemon of the surrounding sects.

Although they didn't have many disciples, perhaps only a few thousand, they were soul cultivators, and almost no one dared provoke them.

The Wind Spirit Pavilion was currently decorated with colorful lanterns and banners, but the atmosphere wasn't very happy. Instead, it was rather grave.

That was because today was the day Meng Qi was supposed to be married off to Feng Xiaoyun.

Meng Qi was viewed as an immortal fairy in the eyes of the Wind Spirit Pavilion's male disciples. But today, that fairy's soul root was destroyed, making her a cripple. Furthermore, the reason she was being married off to Feng Xiaoyun was something they all knew. All of them felt miserable inside.

But although they knew this truth, there was nothing they could do. They could only follow the pavilion master's orders and set up the decorations.

BOOM!

Suddenly, a powerful explosion rocked the Wind Spirit Pavilion and everyone turned pale. A powerful pressure surged over them, making it hard for them to breathe.

"Feng Xiao-zi's bastard father, get the fuck out here!" A furious roar shook the land, shaking everyone's hearts.

Long Chen and Shui Wuhen were standing in the Wind Spirit Pavilion's plaza. Long Chen had destroyed the Wind Spirit Pavilion's statue with a single slash of his saber. That was what the previous explosion had been.

Shui Wuhen had grown two wings and carried Long Chen all the way here. She crossed dozens of miles in a flash, managing to reach the Wind Spirit Pavilion in just an hour.

Worried about Meng Qi, without even thinking about it, Long Chen had directly caused the greatest commotion possible in order to draw out everyone from the Wind Spirit Pavilion.

In any case, Shui Wuhen had come with him. He didn't need to have any misgivings. Following his furious roar, countless experts from the Wind Spirit Pavilion rushed over.

"Who dares be so impetuous in my Wind Spirit Pavilion?!"

Suddenly, a roar rang out and a terrifying pressure descended. A middle-aged man wearing a crown and yellow robes appeared in front of Long Chen.

This man was tall and his aura was unstable, causing the space around him to fluctuate between light and dark.

He appeared to be in his forties, his eyes were gloomy, his lips were very thin, and his chin was pointed.

Behind him were also dozens of Xiantian experts who were glaring at Long Chen and Shui Wuhen.

When this middle-aged man saw Shui Wuhen, a bewildered expression appeared on his face, as he was shocked to find he was unable to sense her aura.

"You are the Wind Spirit Pavilion master?" asked Long Chen icily.

"Brazen brat, how dare you be rude to the pavilion master?!" shouted one of the Xiantian experts behind the middle-aged man.

"Split the Heavens!"

Long Chen suddenly summoned his divine ring, his Two Star Battle Armor, and directly attacked.

As for the Xiantian expert, he hadn't expected him to just immediately launch an attack. He hastily formed hand seals, and a translucent sword-light shot out at Long Chen's saber-image.

BOOM!

What shocked everyone was that the Xiantian expert's sword-light was blown apart by Long Chen's saber, and he was blown back, vomiting blood.

Shui Wuhen was expressionless, but inside, she was also shocked. Long Chen's full-strength attack had already surpassed the bounds of common sense. It contained some kind of unknown energy.

This same attack had been able to sever Luo Feng's arm, and Luo Feng had been at the mid Xiantian realm.

After blowing that expert back, Long Chen didn't look at him any further. He simply pointed his saber at the pavilion master. "Hand over Meng Qi."

"So you must be the one who killed my beloved son, Long Chen! Die!" The Wind Spirit Pavilion master finally recovered from his shock and charged at Long Chen. He sent a palm crashing forward, and a spiritual arrow also shot out of his forehead at Long Chen.

A snow-white palm smashed apart that spiritual arrow and also tightly caught the pavilion master's wrist. It was Shui Wuhen.

Just as the pavilion master was surprised and about to throw her off, another larger hand viciously slapped across his face.

The pavilion master spun through the air and vomited a mouthful of blood, as well as a dozen teeth.

"Bastard!" He roared furiously, and a figure rushed straight at Long Chen. Behind that person was a large illusory image.

That was a young man who looked similar to Feng Xiao-zi. It was his little brother, Feng Xiaoyun.

Seeing his father be humiliated, he immediately charged out and summoned his Dreamsoul Battle Armor, wanting to kill Long Chen with Spiritual Strength.

Long Chen snorted and a lightning spear appeared in his hand. He ruthlessly smashed it into the Dreamsoul Battle Armor that Feng Xiaoyun had summoned.

That huge Dreamsoul Battle Armor instantly burst under Long Chen's spear.

"What?!" Feng Xiaoyun was horrified. Before he even understood what was going on, Long Chen had already slapped him unconscious. With just two slaps, his skin was split open and he was bleeding heavily.

As a soul cultivator, his physical body was very weak. If Long Chen hadn't held back, a slap from Long Chen could have easily caused his head to explode.

All of that happened too quickly. The Wind Spirit Pavilion master had only just tried attacking when he was sent flying by a slap from Long Chen. By the time he stabilized, Feng Xiaoyun was already in Long Chen's grasp.

He raged, "Long Chen, if you dare touch a hair on my son's head, I will tear you into a million pieces!"

"AHH!"

A miserable scream rang out as Long Chen ruthlessly tore off one of Feng Xiaoyun's arms.

"Please, continue threatening."

Long Chen's hand was already on Feng Xiaoyun's other arm, just waiting for him to say more.

"Long Chen..." The pavilion master clenched his teeth furiously.

"Don't give me any more of your shit. Hand over Meng Qi," said Long Chen icily.

"You dare threaten me?!"

"AHH!"

Another arm was viciously torn off Feng Xiaoyun's body. His miserable scream resounded throughout the entire Wind Spirit Pavilion, causing everyone's blood to turn cold.

"Keep going?"

Long Chen's hand ended up on one of Feng Xiaoyun's legs.

The pavilion master's eyes almost tore out of his face. He was about to go crazy with fury at seeing his son's arms being torn off.

"Hand over Meng Qi!"

The pavilion master's chest heaved like a bellows. The killing intent in his eyes had almost taken on solid form.

But looking at Long Chen's icy eyes, he decided to yield in the end. "Go take that slut out of custody."

One of the Xiantian experts behind him hesitated slightly, exchanging a furtive gaze with the pavilion master before leaving.

After a short while, Meng Qi was brought over. Her face was completely pale and grey. Her bright eyes had become much duller, and there were not even the slightest spiritual qi fluctuations from her body.

"Long Chen!" Seeing Long Chen, Meng Qi forced out a slight smile. Long Chen's head began to buzz.

"All of you should die!" Long Chen's furious roar shook the heavens. He seemed to have gone crazy, an icy killing intent surging out of him.

"Long Chen, I've already brought over Meng Qi, now hand over my son." The pavilion master couldn't help becoming a bit afraid at seeing Long Chen become crazy. He was afraid he would instantly kill Feng Xiaoyun. Then his Feng family's bloodline would be severed.

"Long Chen, stay calm. She's still in enemy hands." Shui Wuhen lightly placed a hand on Long Chen's back, and a cool aura spread throughout his body, suppressing his own aura that was about to go berserk.

"Fine. Hand over Meng Qi." Long Chen clenched his teeth.

"You release my son first."

"You don't have a choice." Long Chen glared at the pavilion master, his voice colder than ice.

In the end, the pavilion master decided to yield again. There was no way around it, as he only had that one son left. He didn't dare let anything happen to him.

That Xiantian expert released Meng Qi, who immediately collapsed on the ground. Her soul root had been destroyed, and she was unable to use her soul energy to control her spiritual qi. Her meridians had almost instinctively absorbed the pitiful amount of spiritual qi in her body, and from that consumption, she basically had no energy at all.

However, she still smiled happily, doing her best to crawl over to Long Chen. That scene broke Long Chen's heart. He immediately pounced forward and pulled her over to his side.

Meng Qi leaned against his chest with a contented expression. Her hand gently caressed Long Chen's cheek. "Long Chen... I'm happy you came. We won't have to ever part again in the future."

Killing intent exploded out of Long Chen. He flung out Feng Xiaoyun, and with a wave of his Spiritual Strength, a roar shook the entire Wind Spirit Pavilion.

"Meng Qi, I'll kill all of them as revenge for you!" Long Chen roared.

"Everyone attack together!" The pavilion master caught his son and then handed him off to an Elder. Then his Spiritual Strength erupted, and over ten Xiantian experts also attacked with him, shooting out countless spiritual arrows at Long Chen.

BOOM!

However, when those arrows were about to reach Long Chen, they were all crushed by a barrier of light. Shui Wuhen's hands were still in a hand seal in front of her.

"Little Snow, prepare yourself. We'll kill them all!" shouted Long Chen.

"Don't Long Chen!" cried Meng Qi.

"Why not?!" Long Chen hastily paused.

"The Wind Spirit Pavilion has treated me kindly in the past, and my conduct was no different from betrayal. Now that they've treated me like this, I no longer owe them anything. From now on, neither of us owe the other anything. Long Chen, I'm begging you, just let this matter end here, alright?" begged Meng Qi.

"Meng Qi, why do you have to be so foolish? They're just a bunch of brutes," asked Long Chen.

"If I'm foolish, then I'm foolish. Long Chen, can you let me be stubborn just this once? I promise, I'll listen to whatever you say in the future," pleaded Meng Qi.

Long Chen viciously glared at the Wind Spirit Pavilion's people and then icily said, "Today, Meng Qi has saved you all. From now on, everyone should mind their own business. If you offend Meng Qi again, I swear I will erase your Wind Spirit Pavilion from this world.

"If you don't want to die, then I'd suggest you get the hell out of the Wind Spirit Pavilion, or don't blame me for being ruthless in the future."

The pavilion master's expression was extremely ugly. A junior was actually threatening him like this. All his prestige was lost.

"Who are you?" he asked Shui Wuhen.

"You don't have the qualifications to know. Right now, Meng Qi has left your Wind Spirit Pavilion and is a member of my Xuantian Supermonastery. It'll be best for you to stop while you can," said Shui Wuhen.

"You... you are the Xuantian Supermonastery's monastery head?"

Shui Wuhen snorted. Placing one hand on Long Chen and one hand on Meng Qi, her wings trembled and she disappeared from everyone's view, leaving behind only the Wind Spirit Pavilion's people who were gnashing their teeth in fury.

Chapter 483 Soul Seed

Once Shui Wuhen brought Long Chen and Meng Qi to the first monastery, she gave Long Chen a few warnings before leaving.

Meng Qi's soul root had been destroyed. That was something even she had no way to fix, as Shui Wuhen was not a soul cultivator. Seeing that Long Chen seemed to have many things to do, she let Long Chen decide what he wanted to do about this.

When Long Chen arrived in front of everyone, carrying Meng Qi on his back, they all clenched their teeth. Meng Qi, who had been like an immortal fairy, had now been tormented into her current state. Despite the fact that she was a young woman, the Wind Spirit Pavilion had not held back at all in terms of viciousness.

Long Chen set up a residence for Meng Qi, and Tang Wan-er also came to help. Once they were set up, she deliberately left to give the two of them time to be alone.

"Long Chen, I'm already a cripple. Will you not want me anymore?" Meng Qi leaned against Long Chen, hugging him closely.

"Do you think that's possible? You're my fiancée, and I'll look after you for a lifetime." Long Chen was filled with tenderness as he embraced her soft waist.

Meng Qi smiled, her smile like a flower blossoming, and her eyes filled with happiness. She caressed Long Chen's cheek. "Do you really not hate me even a bit for what I did to you in the Phoenix Cry Empire?"

She was referring to how she had gone to withdraw from their marriage agreement. Meng Qi had always been brooding about that matter.

Even just saying that, Meng Qi began to cry. Perhaps it was due to losing her cultivation base, but Meng Qi's heart had become even weaker now, and her emotions affected her more than usual.

"Fang-er already explained to me that you were helpless about that. You had no choice," said Long Chen.

"That's not entirely true. In the beginning, I really did feel a bit of aversion towards this marriage agreement. I had never seen you before, and I really didn't want to marry a stranger.

"But then when I joined the Wind Spirit Pavilion, when they learned I had a fiancé, they actually wanted to kill you. At that time, I felt you were completely innocent and didn't want you to be implicated. So before they did anything, I took the initiative to find you.

"However, then when I saw how difficult your circumstances were in the Phoenix Cry capital, I really didn't know how I was supposed to say anything.

"In the end, on Sunset Mountain, I finally heartlessly withdrew from our marriage agreement. But instead of hating me, you actually looked after me, consoling me. Long Chen, why are you such a fool? I hurt you, but you treat me so well." Meng Qi tightly clung to Long Chen, bursting into tears.

Long Chen also tightly held her, involuntarily feeling a bit proud. Back then, he really had been too brilliant. He had managed to capture Meng Qi's heart.

When Long Chen did things, he always relied on his feelings. Back when he had first seen Meng Qi, he had felt that Meng Qi was an extremely kindhearted woman, and so his methods back then really had been effective.

Holding this beautiful woman in his arms, Long Chen was filled with emotion. He didn't feel that his methods had been vile. If you loved a person, then you should love them with your entire being, and you should be willing to do anything for them. Who cared about a bit of infamy?

"You don't need to be worried, Meng Qi. Although your soul root was destroyed, that doesn't necessarily mean there's no way for you to cultivate," consoled Long Chen, rubbing her back.

Meng Qi straightened her body, looking at Long Chen. "You want me to walk the ordinary cultivation path?"

Long Chen shook his head. "Of course not. Your body isn't suited to any other cultivation path other than soul cultivation. Even if you tried, your accomplishments would be extremely limited. What I was talking about was to help you rebuild a soul root, reactivating your Spiritual Strength, and then you can continue being a grand Beast Tamer."

"But that's impossible."

"There's nothing in this world that's impossible. Close your eyes." Long Chen touched his forehead to Meng Qi's forehead.

His Spiritual Strength gently circulated and entered her mind-sea. The two of their Spiritual Strengths connected.

Within Meng Qi's mind-sea, the ball of core source qi in her body had already scattered. It had been personally destroyed by the Wind Spirit Pavilion master.

Once this source qi was destroyed, her mind-sea was like a human that had lost consciousness. She lost control over her Spiritual Strength.

As Long Chen poured in his Spiritual Strength, their minds connected, and through his Spiritual Strength, Meng Qi was able to glance into Long Chen's mind-sea.

"You... your mind-sea, how is it so enormous?!" Meng Qi couldn't help being astonished.

For ordinary soul cultivators, their mind-seas would not be greater than three hundred meters wide at the Bone Forging realm. Six hundred meters would mark them as a genius.

Meng Qi was exceptionally talented, and her mind-sea was three thousand meters wide. That was even larger than geniuses like Feng Xiao-zi and Feng Xiaoyun, whose mind-seas had been vastly improved with greater resources than her.

It was precisely because the Wind Spirit Pavilion master had taken note of Meng Qi's talent that he had kept her alive.

But Meng Qi was astonished to find that Long Chen's mind-sea truly was like an ocean and practically boundless. It had to be measured in the hundreds of miles. In comparison, her own mind-sea was truly too minute.

"You saw it?" Long Chen smiled slightly. "Your body is too weak right now. But once you recover, I will use my Spiritual Strength to condense a new soul seed for you. Once the soul seed is planted in your mind-sea, it will become your new soul root. At that time, you'll quickly recover, and furthermore, you'll reach an even higher level than before."

In truth, Long Chen's mind-sea had been around the same size as Meng Qi's originally. But after merging with the primal chaos bead, his mind-sea had explosively grown, and even Long Chen didn't know what was going on.

"But that would cause immense damage to your soul." Meng Qi shook her head.

To use your own Spiritual Strength to condense a soul seed for someone else would come at an immense cost, and there was even danger that your soul root's quality would permanently decline.

"You're my woman. I can do anything for you, so you don't need to decline. Don't worry, I have a method that will ensure I don't suffer any harm," said Long Chen.

Currently, Long Chen had reached an even deeper understanding of the primal chaos bead. With the primal chaos bead, his body, spiritual qi, and soul energy were all being nourished.

That was different from ordinary cultivation. The energy the primal chaos bead offered him could transform into any energy he needed and was capable of benefiting his mind, qi, and soul. So Long Chen didn't need to worry about his soul degrading.

"Long Chen..." Meng Qi looked at Long Chen with tenderness. Long Chen looked back at her.

The two of them slowly approached. Their lips touched. Both of them shook as if a bolt of lightning was coursing through their bodies. A tender and blessed feeling filled their hearts.

After some unknown time, the two of them finally parted. Meng Qi was deeply asleep, and her mouth still held a happy smile, beautiful beyond compare.

Long Chen slowly rested Meng Qi on the couch and gently covered her with a blanket. He also placed a pillow under her head for her to sleep comfortably.

Seeing that sweet face as it slept, Long Chen was filled with tenderness. Meng Qi really had suffered in the past few days.

Thinking of the Wind Spirit Pavilion, killing intent surged within Long Chen's eyes. For them to treat a kindhearted woman like this, they really were not even human.

"Don't let me find a chance, or I'll exterminate all of you brutes..."

Meng Qi's external injuries were now healed. But her body had been weakened greatly in the past few days, and she would need to rest.

Those days, she had always been filled with terror and nervousness. Now that she relaxed, she slept deeply. She should be recovered by the time she woke up.

Long Chen quietly left her room. As soon as he stepped outside, he saw Tang Wan-er standing by the entrance, looking at him oddly.

"Do you not know how to be embarrassed?" After saying that, Tang Wan-er blushed, obviously having guessed what Long Chen had done inside.

She had only just finished speaking when an arm wrapped around her waist. She was just about to make a sound, but she didn't.

Long Chen was firmly kissing her, all the way until she felt like she was about to faint. Only when she began to beat on his chest did he let go.

"Alright, this way no one needs to be embarrassed," laughed Long Chen.

"Shameless scoundrel."

Tang Wan-er was as red as an apple, both embarrassed and angry. Seeing Long Chen smiling at her, she had an urge to dig a hole and bury herself.

"I'm ignoring you. I'll look after sister Meng Qi." Tang Wan-er couldn't bear Long Chen's teasing gaze and quickly went into Meng Qi's room, locking the door firmly.

"Everyone's adults, so there's no need to be so shy. You should learn from me. Look, I'm not embarrassed at all!" teased Long Chen.

The door to the room opened a crack, and Tang Wan-er revealed half her face, clenching her teeth. "You rotten scoundrel, your skin is thicker than a city wall. Just wait, I'll definitely report that you bullied me to sister Meng Qi."

"Alright, then I'll just say some person was feeling jealous and unable to bear seeing me kiss another, so she forced me to kiss her as well.

"Perhaps the angle and strength had some flaws, as a result, being dissatisfied with my technique, she went to someone else to complain. Hey, hey, let's not fight!"

Long Chen ran away. Thinking of how Tang Wan-er had seemed just like a tigress furiously glaring at him, he laughed.

At the same time, he couldn't help feeling emotional. This was what life should be. Accompanying his brothers to drink every day, along with teasing some beautiful woman. He wouldn't trade such days even for the chance to become a god.

Unfortunately, times like these were too rare. He had so much trouble around him. Although Shui Wuhen had said the Pill Tower didn't have an aboveboard reason to target him, what about targeting him in secret?

Furthermore, he had killed a disciple from the so-called Heaven Splitting Divine Sect. He had no idea whether that matter would reach their ears.

Not to mention, he had also caused the Corrupt path to suffer heavy losses. Their army had almost been entirely annihilated this time. He had no idea what kind of award they were planning on bestowing him.

Thinking of these things, Long Chen had a huge headache. Right now, he urgently needed to increase his strength.

But first, he had a certain matter that he had to deal with no matter what. He went straight towards where Zheng Wenlong was staying.

Chapter 484 Big Business

Within a private room, Long Chen, Zheng Wenlong, and that Elder from the Huayun Sect were sitting and drinking tea. From Zheng Wenlong's introduction, Long Chen learned that the Elder's name was Old Qian.[1]

After a simple introduction, Long Chen got straight to the point. "Within the secret realm and also now in the monastery, the only reason I was able to avoid disaster was because of brother Zheng's assistance. I will definitely remember this favor."

"You're too courteous, Long Chen. In truth, we were simply extras. Even if we hadn't been present, with monastery head Shui, you would have been fine." Zheng Wenlong shook his head.

Zheng Wenlong was also a magnanimous person. This time, he had truly been just an extra. Everything had been within Shui Wuhen's control.

"No matter what, I still owe you. After all, the Huayun Sect sacrificed quite a few disciples. That truly makes me ashamed," said Long Chen apologetically.

Within the secret realm, dozens of Huayun Sect disciples had been killed. That made Long Chen deeply apologetic, as death always brought pain with it.

Old Qian, who hadn't said anything up to this point, finally opened his mouth. "To do business is to risk danger. Within this world, there is no business that is risk-free. You don't need to feel ashamed. Under little Wenlong's arrangements, the families of those disciples that died will all be looked after. They'll never go cold or hungry."

Hearing that, Long Chen felt great reverence for the Huayun Sect. Perhaps they were the sect that valued emotions the most.

In other sects, when people died, not only was there no compensation, but even their remains might not necessarily be sent back to their families.

The worst thing was that when some disciples died, if their families were too weak, their wealth would be directly snatched by others. In fact, sometimes they would even be killed for their treasures.

Compared to those sects, the members of Huayun Sect, who only ever spoke of business, were practically saints.

"Then since you're both businessmen, I won't argue. Let's talk about cooperating. I have some medicinal sprouts I want to get rid of. At the same time, I need to buy a large quantity of medicinal ingredients. I'll need brother Zheng's help." said Long Chen.

As soon as the conversation moved to business, Zheng Wenlong and Old Qian's eyes both lit up. Sitting up straight, Zheng Wenlong asked, "How many types of medicinal sprouts do you have? And what quality and quantity of each?"

"I have a lot. As for the lower tier or common medicinal ingredients, there's no need to include them, as there's little profit. In terms of the more precious medicinal sprouts I have, or ones that have nearly gone extinct in the world, I have over a hundred. I should be able to offer you a hundred of each of them," said Long Chen.

"That many?" Both Zheng Wenlong and Old Qian were shocked.

Medicinal sprouts were not the same as medicinal ingredients. That term signified that the medicinal ingredients he was referring to were alive. That made them over a thousand times more valuable than regular medicinal ingredients.

Furthermore, he said he had over a hundred kinds of them and could offer a hundred of each. That was too shocking. Even they, who commonly did big business, were stunned.

"You don't need to find it curious. These medicinal ingredients mostly came from plundering." Long Chen laughed.

Long Chen was entirely right. Within the secret realm, he had killed countless people. Even just the spatial rings of the top experts made his rewards shocking.

Those peak experts were all much prouder, and they didn't keep ordinary items in their spatial rings. Everything they had was the best, and so the medicinal ingredients they had were the best. After those withered ingredients were planted in the primal chaos space, they could be turned into medicinal sprouts.

"Brother Zheng, you have a life ring, right?"

"Yes." As a businessman, he naturally was prepared.

"Good. Then I will take out the medicinal ingredients one by one for you to register." Saying this, Long Chen began to take out items from his life ring.

In truth, that was false. Long Chen was directly summoning them from his primal chaos space. He had no choice but to be careful, as its abilities were too heaven-defying, and he couldn't allow others to learn about it.

"Amazing. Sevenstar Grass, Southern Sky Flower, Nine Leaf Lotus..." Old Qian's eyes shone as he watched Long Chen take out precious medicines one after another.

These were mostly fifth tier precious medicines used for refining fifth tier medicinal pills. Furthermore, just as Long Chen had said, these were all mostly extinct in the outside world. Let alone living ones, just dried up versions were incredibly difficult to find.

Long Chen had taken out a total of one hundred and seven medicinal ingredients. Ninety-three of them had been fifth tier ingredients, while fourteen of them had been sixth tier ingredients. Those were used to refine medicinal pills used by Xiantian experts! They were absolutely priceless.

Some of them were even medicinal ingredients that Old Qian didn't recognize. It was Long Chen who told them what they were, and he would have to go through some ancient records once he got back before selling them.

"Hahaha, big business, definitely big business!" laughed Old Qian. Even those wrinkles on his face lessened greatly, making him appear a decade younger.

Zheng Wenlong was also ecstatic. "Brother Long, if you sell all these medicinal sprouts, you would definitely have enough resources to create your own first-rate power."

Long Chen smiled slightly. "Then I'll let brother Zheng handle these things."

"Don't worry, brother Long, there definitely won't be any problem." Zheng Wenlong patted himself on the chest, also feeling moved inside.

Long Chen was handing this much wealth to him, expressing that he had absolute confidence in him.

"Speaking of which, we conduct business through spirit stones, so after gradually selling these medicinal ingredients off and deducting the normal service charge, we can send you a large amount of spirit stones," said Zheng Wenlong.

That was because in accordance with the Business Dao, only rare things had value. If they took out these many medicinal sprouts and sold them all at once, their profits would shrink.

They would definitely have to split them up and auction them over time. Furthermore, small auctions didn't have the ability to auction off such precious medicinal sprouts, as there was limited purchasing power there. So they definitely needed to come up with a plan first.

"You don't need to send them here. Keep the money with yourself. Other than that, here's a list. Help me buy the medicinal ingredients on it. You can just directly subtract the cost from the profit of the medicinal sprouts. Once you find them, you can directly send them over," said Long Chen, handing over a list.

On that list were many medicinal ingredients. Many of those were ones Zheng Wenlong and Old Qian had never heard of.

As for the ones they did recognize, they caused them to suck in a cold gasp of air. Many of those were items that basically only existed in legends. Very, very few people had ever even seen them.

Such things were all astronomically expensive. It was no wonder Long Chen said there was no need to send him spirit stones.

As for why Long Chen wanted these medicinal ingredients, they didn't ask. In any case, whether Long Chen was selling or buying, the Huayun Sect would still get profit.

Furthermore, considering what level of buying and selling Long Chen was planning, their profit would definitely be exceedingly bountiful. That made Zheng Wenlong ecstatic.

He had never imagined Long Chen would bring him so much profit this quickly. This way, he was no longer under so much pressure, and he could quickly get a large sum of money to give financial support to the families of the disciples who had died.

On the other hand, a large portion of that profit would be his own, and he could use it to buy medicinal pills, cultivation techniques, and various other treasures that would increase his own strength.

In the Huayun Sect, there was a certain saying: the amount of wealth you had, determined how far you could walk on the cultivation path.

"The cooperation this time is just the beginning. In the future, there will be many things I'll need brother Zheng's help with. This is just a small gift for you. You can consider it a bribe." Long Chen laughed, handing Zheng Wenlong a jade case.

"Brother Long, you're too courteous, there's no need... what?!" Zheng Wenlong opened the case and couldn't help letting out a startled cry.

"Qilin Fruit!" Even Old Qian cried out in shock.

The two of them were both businessmen, and their strongest point was their eyesight, the ability to appraise the value of various treasures.

The Qilin Fruit was a heaven-defying treasure capable of upgrading a person's Spirit Root. It was something they had only seen in ancient records.

"Brother Long, this is too precious!" Zheng Wenlong didn't know what to do. This was something cultivators would dream of obtaining. It was effective on anyone within the Xiantian realm.

"Don't decline, brother Zheng. Didn't you say the greatest investment a person could make was an emotional investment? Well then, this can be considered my investment in our relationship. This cooperation will also bring me great assistance, and so this is just a symbol of my sincerity," said Long Chen.

"Alright, then I'll accept it." Zheng Wenlong gratefully and very carefully put away the Qilin Fruit.

This was a treasure that money could not buy. Once he returned to his sect, he could invite a master alchemist to refine it into a medicinal pill. That would bring him endless benefit.

After talking a bit longer with the two of them, Zheng Wenlong left behind his address and left with Old Qian.

Time was precious to businessmen. Each breath they took was money. It could be said Zheng Wenlong was in a race against time. The Jiuli secret realm had just closed, and many treasures were circulating around now. However, some sects didn't dare reveal their treasures so quickly, afraid others would place their intentions on them.

In the past, it was always years before they gradually began to reveal the treasures they had obtained from the secret realm. But this time wasn't the same. The large sects had all suffered immense casualties and were on the verge of going berserk.

As for the smaller sects, they had obtained treasures, but they didn't dare reveal them. If Zheng Wenlong didn't use this time properly, he wouldn't get any profit. But then if he didn't know how to use the medicinal sprouts Long Chen had just provided him, he really wouldn't be Zheng Wenlong.

However, when he returned, there were many things he needed to set up. For the large enough auctions, they needed a great deal of promotion first in order to draw enough people.

These medicinal sprouts would mostly be sold to sects, and those sects all had their own medicinal fields. That was why they would be willing to spend such a large amount on medicinal sprouts.

No matter how much they spent, they would get that profit back in a few decades. Then with continual breeding, it would be a continuous flow of profit.

After sending them off, a disciple ran over with an extremely grave expression. "Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, something's happened to senior apprentice-sister Meng Qi!"

[1] Qian as in the character for money.

Chapter 485 Thousand Star Devouring Soul

Long Chen hastily ran back to Meng Qi's room. Meng Qi was sitting on her bed, a faint black qi appearing on her face. Ling Yunzi had a hand on her back, spiritual qi curling around him, his head covered with sweat.

"Long Chen!" Tang Wan-er seemed to have found hope and hastily explained, "Sister Meng Qi was sleeping fine at first, but out of nowhere, her body began to spasm. I don't know what's going on."

"She's been poisoned. I'm using my spiritual qi to suppress the poison, not letting it invade her soul, but her body is too weak. It's extremely taxing for me," explained Ling Yunzi.

If it was an ordinary person, Ling Yunzi wouldn't find it so difficult to suppress the poison. But Meng Qi's body was too weak, and the slightest mistake might cause her body to explode.

Not to mention, the poison was too fierce, constantly attacking Ling Yunzi's suppression, making it very hard on him.

Long Chen hastily went over and peeled back Meng Qi's eyelids. There were countless little specks in her pupils.

He quickly pressed onto the YuZhen acupuncture point at the back of her head and poured in his powerful Spiritual Strength.

"You can't!" Ling Yunzi cried out. Long Chen's Spiritual Strength was bypassing his blockade to charge at the poison.

"It's fine. This is the Thousand Star Devouring Soul Poison. Now it will focus on devouring my soul energy instead of attacking Meng Qi," explained Long Chen.

Now Ling Yunzi saw that as soon as the poison encountered Long Chen's Spiritual Strength, it was like a hungry wolf that had encountered meat and was crazily devouring it.

"Sect leader, help me guard her YuZhen point. I'll expel the poison." Long Chen increased his soul energy.

His Spiritual Strength was like a python swimming in Meng Qi's meridians. As for the poison, as soon as it saw the Spiritual Strength, it crazily pounced on it, biting down and refusing to let go.

Long Chen's originally transparent Spiritual Strength quickly turned black as ink because of the poison.

He then took out a knife and cut a small opening on Meng Qi's palm. Instantly, pitch-black blood flowed out of the opening, emitting a disgusting stench.

"Everyone, get out. Close the door and get further away from the room."

At this time, there were many people that had heard something had happened with Meng Qi and had gathered here. Now they hastily left.

This was a spiritual poison and extremely troublesome. When Tang Wan-er and the others saw that black blood, they all felt a chill.

Long Chen poured in his Spiritual Strength three times, finally drawing out all the poison in Meng Qi's body. He finally sighed a breath of relief.

He summoned a blue flame and incinerated the black blood. The entire room was filled with the disgusting stench.

Holding Meng Qi, he and Ling Yunzi also left the room. After a moment of hesitation, Long Chen waved his hand and summoned a ball of flames that instantly burned the room to ash.

This poison was too intense. Worried about the remnants, he decided the room wasn't worth it. This way was safer.

"What happened Long Chen?" asked Ling Yunzi.

"It was the Wind Spirit Pavilion." Killing intent surfaced within Long Chen's eyes. When they had handed Meng Qi over back then, they had also poisoned her.

If Ling Yunzi hadn't rushed over here fast enough to suppress the poison from reaching her soul, the results would have been too horrible to think of.

"That goddamn Wind Spirit Pavilion, let's go overturn their bastard lair!" raged Guo Ran. Everyone was completely infuriated now. Even though Meng Qi had already been crippled and half-alive, they still hadn't let her off. They were definitely worse than beasts.

"Let's go, Long Chen. I'll accompany you to the Wind Spirit Pavilion," said Ling Yunzi, patting Long Chen's shoulder. He was also furious.

"Let's cut them down!"

Gu Yang and the others roared furiously. The Wind Spirit Pavilion was truly too hateful.

"All of you calm down. Right now, we've only just settled in, and it's not suitable for us to make any large moves. Don't always think about slaughter and fighting, as that's not beneficial to you. We should use kindness to subdue our opponents. We'll talk it out reasonably."Long Chen smiled.

"What? No way. Are you alright, boss?" exclaimed Guo Ran.

"Alright, that's enough. Everyone should disperse."

Long Chen waved his hand at everyone. With Tang Wan-er, he set up Meng Qi in another room. He also gave her a medicinal pill to help recover her physical energy.

Then, he stealthily left on his own. Changing his clothes, he went down the mountain. But before he got a mile away, he saw Guo Ran and the others had long since been waiting for him.

"What are you all doing?" Being caught red-handed, Long Chen couldn't help being a bit infuriated.

"Hehe, I was right, wasn't I? Boss, you wanted to go on your own," laughed Guo Ran.

Gu Yang said, "Boss, how could you want to leave us behind? You don't think we're brothers?"

"Brother Long, for you to go fight without me, does it mean you don't want me any longer?" asked Wilde, hurt.

"Fuck, what does that have to do with anything?" Long Chen was speechless. "This time, I'm not going to fight."

"Not going to fight? Then what are you doing? To talk about your feelings? Who would believe you?" asked Guo Ran.

"I'm going to get revenge."

"Then how is that not going to fight?"

"That's not the same. This time, the scale is going to be rather large, and if you went, you wouldn't be able to help. Instead, you'd hold me back," said Long Chen.

"Are you telling the truth?" asked Guo Ran suspiciously.

"When have I ever tricked you?"

"Boss, what is going on?" Guo Ran still didn't understand.

"Don't ask so many questions. Just hurry up and scram. Just wait for the news. Remember, don't tell anyone I'm leaving. If anyone asks where I am during this time, just say I'm in seclusion," said Long Chen.

Hearing how solemn Long Chen was, they knew he was planning something. They hastily nodded.

Once Guo Ran, Wilde, Song Mingyuan, Li Qi, and Gu Yang left, Long Chen couldn't help shaking his head.

Now, Long Chen summoned Little Snow, and taking advantage of the darkness of the night, he rushed directly towards the Wind Spirit Pavilion.

...

Within the Wind Spirit Pavilion, there were over ten Xiantian Elders standing together, not daring to say a single word. In front of them, the pavilion master's expression was exceedingly ugly.

"Third Elder, you're sure you poisoned that slut with the Thousand Star Devouring Soul Poison?" asked the pavilion master icily.

"I'm absolutely sure. And I definitely used enough. There certainly wasn't any mistake." The Elder who had gone to bring Meng Qi out of custody spoke, his voice extremely silent from fear.

"Definitely enough? Certainly no mistake? Then tell me, why is that even up to now, Meng Qi's soul tablet hasn't broken?!" roared the pavilion master, pointing towards a jade tablet.

The Wind Spirit Pavilion's disciples were all soul cultivators, and all the stronger disciples were made a soul tablet by the Wind Spirit Pavilion. Once the disciple died, that soul tablet would also break, no matter how far apart they were. It was extremely magical.

Back when Feng Xiao-zi had died in the secret realm, his soul tablet had broken, infuriating the entire Wind Spirit Pavilion. They had moved out in full force to their entrance of the secret realm. As a result, Meng Qi lost any chance of escaping from them when she left the secret realm.

Right now, the Third Elder was clenching his teeth. According to how much poison he had given Meng Qi, she should have already died.

However, this jade tablet was still completely fine. If the Third Elder hadn't followed him for so long, the pavilion master would definitely suspect he had betrayed him.

"Perhaps Long Chen has some ability to temporarily suppress the poison. But you also know that this poison targets the soul, and there's no medicine that can cure it," said the Third Elder.

The pavilion master nodded. He had a great understanding of just how terrifying the Thousand Star Devouring Soul Poison was. It was specialized in targeting soul cultivators. It was a poison that activated slowly. There wasn't any way to sense it at the beginning when a person was poisoned.

By the time the poison erupted, it would take a person's life in just a few breaths' time. It was only because Meng Qi had been lucky that Ling Yunzi had been passing by and had heard Tang Wan-er's cry, thus saving her from death.

That was also why the pavilion master suspected the Third Elder. The Thousand Star Devouring Soul Poison killed its target almost as soon as the poison activated. There was usually no time to save such a person.

"Hmph, the Xuantian Supermonastery really is intolerable. Their monastery head personally came here. Was it to establish her prestige?

"Our Wind Spirit Pavilion has been standing for thousands of years, and we aren't so easy to bully. This time, it'll count as giving them a lesson. My Wind Spirit Pavilion isn't something anyone can take advantage of," said the pavilion master through clenched teeth.

Although the Wind Spirit Pavilion's inheritance didn't stretch back as far as the Xuantian Supermonastery's, they were all soul cultivators, making them incredibly powerful. Over these years, there had been practically no one who dared provoke them, causing their desires to inflate boundlessly.

In fact, they even had some intentions of standing on the same level as the supreme sects. They had been thinking of using Meng Qi and Feng Xiao-zi to stand out in the secret realm's Righteous and Corrupt battle, shocking the seven prefectures, making their Wind Spirit Pavilion's name resound loudly.

However, their name didn't resound, and of their two greatest hopes, one had died and one had left, almost driving the pavilion master mad.

That was why he hated Meng Qi to the bone. If he hadn't cared about her talent, he would have killed her.

But after crippling her soul root, all her soul energy would rest within her mind-sea and would be passed on to the next generation. That had been his extremely malicious thoughts.

But before he could implement this plan, Long Chen had destroyed their Feng family's ancestral statue, almost cutting down the entire Wind Spirit Pavilion and had almost ended up killing his other son.

The pavilion master had only had two sons. Feng Xiaoyun's battle strength was just slightly inferior to his big brother's, making him extremely strong.

However, the Jiuli secret realm was extremely dangerous, and it was possible for anyone to die. The pavilion master hadn't wanted to place all his eggs in the same basket, as that was dangerous.

It had been precisely because he had been smart that he had managed to protect his Feng family's bloodline back then. Now, he was just glaring at the jade tablet in front of him, waiting for it to shatter.

They didn't know that as they all stared at this jade tablet, a death god was stealthily approaching their Wind Spirit Pavilion.

Long Chen looked at the Wind Spirit Pavilion's buildings from a distance. He suddenly waved a hand, and a huge blue ball appeared.

"Little Snow, prepare yourself. Our target is that plaza in the center. We'll raze the Wind Spirit Pavilion to the ground."

Little Snow roared and spat out a huge ball of wind blades. It wrapped around Long Chen's flame ball. It was like a shooting star as it went flying straight towards the center of the Wind Spirit Pavilion.

Chapter 486 Razing Down the Wind Spirit Pavilion

BOOM!

A huge sphere three hundred meters in diameter landed in the central plaza of the Wind Spirit Pavilion, causing a heaven-shaking explosion.

Countless blazing wind blades shot out, an apocalyptic scene that spread in all directions.

It was possible to see hundreds of people sticking their heads out of buildings. But when they saw that wave of blazing wind blades, they all despaired.

Those huge buildings were directly crushed to smithereens and then burned to ash.

Countless screams rose and fell. Some tried to flee, but they were still devoured by that wave and instantly annihilated.

This one wind and flame technique instantly destroyed the majority of the Wind Spirit Pavilion. There was a bottomless hole at the center a hundred miles wide. Everything around it was a complete mess.

"Bastard, who dares attack my Wind Spirit Pavilion! I'll tear you to pieces!"

A hysterical roar rang out, and the land split open. A group of people came flying out of a collapsed building, the person at the front being the pavilion master.

When he flew out and saw the scene around him, he directly coughed up a mouthful of blood, his eyes filled with icy killing intent.

Long Chen's attack had destroyed the base of the Wind Spirit Pavilion, one that had been standing for millennia. At the same time, he had also severed their inheritance.

Each sect had two things that were built as soon as they were founded.

One was the ancestral statue. That was normally a statue of the first generation founder. That statue could not be destroyed, because the statue's longevity was a symbol of how long the sect had survived.

The second thing was the main palace hall. As marks of a sect's inheritance, those two were the most important things to a sect.

Previously, that ancestral statue had already been destroyed by Long Chen. And now, the palace hall had been crushed to smithereens by him.

Even when large sects fought, no one dared do such a thing. That was because that was an enmity where there was no rest until death.

Seeing that his Wind Spirit Pavilion had been destroyed, the pavilion master's eyes turned scarlet, and his hair stood on end.

From the ground and the collapsed buildings, there were quite a few people crawling out of the rubble, looking around vacantly. They didn't dare believe that what they were seeing was real.

Their plaza had already disappeared to become a pit. The surroundings were a complete mess. It was unknown just how many members of the Wind Spirit Pavilion had been killed by this one attack.

"It's Long Chen!"

Someone let out a cry as he saw a man standing dozens of miles away, his hands clasped behind his back, a slight smile on his face. He waved his hands to them as if he was greeting old friends.

"Kill him!" The pavilion master roared furiously, and he immediately shot forward.

Following him, everyone who was still alive charged. Surprisingly, they still had over two thousand experts.

What was strange to them was Long Chen was still standing there with his hands clasped behind his back, still wearing a faint smile. It seemed he had no intention of fleeing.

They all surrounded him, but Long Chen still didn't move. He just lightly looked at the pavilion master, not saying anything.

"It was you who destroyed my Wind Spirit Pavilion?" demanded the pavilion master through clenched teeth.

"Yes," nodded Long Chen.

"How do you want to die?! I'll let you choose!" As he said this, his eyes scanned the surroundings.

"You don't need to look. Today, I came alone to settle our debts. It was you who had Meng Qi poisoned, correct?"

The pavilion master's eyes narrowed slightly, and he icily said, "As expected, that slut didn't die. Have you come to get the antidote? Keep dreaming. Today, I'll kill you in the most horrible way imaginable."

"Idiot, I didn't come for the antidote. I came for your lives," Long Chen said disdainfully.

"Hahaha, good. Then let me see just how you'll take my life. Today, if I let you flee, I, Feng Yaoli, will change my surname to yours!" The pavilion master actually laughed in his fury.

"I, Long Chen, wouldn't have an idiot son like you." Long Chen shook his head, appearing disgusted.

"Courting death!" One of the Elders, who had long since grown impatient, was just about to attack.

"Wait a moment!" Long Chen hastily raised his hand.

"What, are you afraid now? It's too late for that," sneered the pavilion master.

"Don't you all want to say some words?" asked Long Chen.

"What are you talking about?" asked the pavilion master.

"Well, if you don't say anything before you die, you won't have a chance afterward." Long Chen pointed up to the sky.

"Idiot, who are you trying to fool with your childish tricks?" sneered the pavilion master.

"Pavilion master, look!" The Elder beside him was filled with horror, his voice quivering with terror.

"What is it?"

The pavilion master finally looked up. He became completely appalled.

At some unknown time, the entire sky had become covered with black clouds. A region of ten thousand miles had become a vortex.

That vortex was still forming, and countless flickers of light appeared in the clouds, looking like shining dragons swimming through the darkness.

At the same time, a terrifying pressure now descended upon them. Everyone's hearts quivered. The center of this vortex was them.

"These... these are tribulation clouds!!!"

"But won't there only be tribulation clouds once you step into the Xiantian realm?! And the scope shouldn't surpass three hundred meters!"

"Pavilion master, you're about to undergo your tribulation!" cried an Elder.

"That's fucking impossible! I've only just reached the late Xiantian realm. My tribulation is still several decades off. This isn't my tribulation lightning!" cursed the pavilion master.

"Then whose is it?"

After saying that, this Elder involuntarily looked towards Long Chen. He saw Long Chen nod back. "Yes, it's mine. None of you should fight over the tribulation with me."

"Run!"

Someone finally reacted. Who cared whose tribulation it was? Once the lightning tribulation descended, all of them would have to undergo the tribulation together.

Furthermore, that tribulation would set its intensity based on the highest person's cultivation base. If they all underwent tribulation together, the tribulation would be set to the Xiantian realm, and everyone below that realm would all suffer.

"It's too late," laughed Long Chen. His divine ring appeared behind him, and a berserk aura soared into the clouds. He had already reached the great circle of the twelfth Heavenstage of Tendon Transformation. He was attacking the thirteenth Heavenstage.

Only once he reached the thirteenth Heavenstage would he completely transform and enter the Bone Forging realm. These thirteen Heavenstages were the most peculiar aspect of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art.

Originally, Long Chen had touched upon the barrier yesterday and had been planning to handle everything urgent before finding a secluded place to undergo his tribulation.

But in this world, there really were many people enthusiastic to help you find good locations. In fact, some people would be so kind as to offer their home for you to undergo your tribulation in.

This time, the Wind Spirit Pavilion had truly touched upon Long Chen's taboos. Furthermore, last time when he had left, he had already warned the Wind Spirit Pavilion's disciples to leave. As for whether or not they had, it wasn't something he cared about anymore.

Now he no longer had to have any misgivings. He directly broke through that final shackle, entering the thirteenth Heavenstage.

As soon as he fully reached the thirteenth Heavenstage, the slowly revolving tribulation clouds in the sky came to a pause.

Then, with a sudden rumble, countless thunderbolts rained down. A terrifying pressure made it so even the air exploded, and those people fleeing felt as if space had suddenly frozen around them, making it so they couldn't move.

"No!"

Miserable screams of despair rang out. Unable to block the lightning's merciless descent, everyone below the Xiantian realm instantly exploded.

This lightning was simply not something people on their level could block. A single attack killed thousands. Only the Xiantian experts were capable of circulating their Spiritual Strength to defend.

They had a spiritual light barrier around them. The lightning had struck that barrier, destroying it, causing them to vomit a mouthful of blood.

However, that allowed them to block the lightning, saving their lives. Unfortunately, the thunderbolts were like drops of rain. It was not just one wave.

As a result, all those Xiantian experts repeatedly vomited blood. They continuously summoned barriers of light, attempting to survive. Dozens of them vomited blood in unison, an extremely spectacular sight.

They wanted to run, but the thunderforce had locked them down, making it so they couldn't move. They could only forcibly block. Even the pavilion master vomited a mouthful of blood after several attacks.

Within the rain of lightning, only Long Chen was looking at them oddly, wondering to himself, Why isn't the lightning tribulation as strong as last time?

When this lightning landed on his body, he barely even felt it. Seeing that made the pavilion master almost die from rage.

Finally, an Elder ended up being too slow to raise his barrier and was instantly blasted into smithereens from a bolt of lightning.

The fatal weakness of soul cultivators was their physical bodies. Even though they had reached the Xiantian realm, their bodies were not even as strong as the bodies of ordinary Bone Forging disciples.

Furthermore, that Elder's death caused all the other Elders to despair. They looked up at the tribulation clouds and saw there wasn't even the slightest sign of them scattering.

"AHH!"

Miserable screams rose and fell. Those Elders were killed one by one. The pavilion master's heart trembled, his blood turning cold.

"Long Chen, even if I have to die, you'll still die first!" The pavilion master roared, and his Spiritual Strength erupted. The world darkened as a figure appeared in the sky. It was a huge flying Magical Beast.

As soon as it appeared, it let out a miserable cry. Its body was too large, and it was instantly struck by countless thunderbolts and killed.

From the pressure coming from it, it should have been a Xiantian Magical Beast. Although it had been killed, it had still managed to block the thunderbolts from reaching the pavilion master, who now charged at Long Chen.

"Die!" A spiritual blade appeared in his hand, and he slashed it down on Long Chen.

That spiritual blade had countless runes revolving around it that emitted a terrifying pressure. Long Chen didn't dare take it head-on, and he hastily threw himself to the side.

The spiritual blade missed. Furthermore, the Magical Beast's corpse also fell now. The pavilion master roared, "You can still move?!?!"

PFFT!

A huge bolt of lightning struck the pavilion master's body. A generation's expert died just like that.

"It was this simple?" Long Chen almost felt this was hard to believe. Such a powerful person had practically been an ant in the face of this thunderforce.

"Hehe, looks like I've really profited this time. Good, I won't have to suffer." Long Chen rejoiced. Surprisingly, the tribulation was extremely weak this time.

RUMBLE!!!

When the pavilion master died, a heaven-shaking rumble suddenly came from the sky, and a boundless aura locked Long Chen in place.

"What?!" Long Chen's expression instantly changed.

Chapter 487 Lightning Python

Once everyone else was killed, the tribulation clouds began to churn intensely, and countless bolts of lightning gathered.

"What?! That was just a warm up? Now it's serious?!" Long Chen's expression involuntarily changed.

Originally, he had thought he had gotten a lucky break and would pass this tribulation easily. But now he realized just how excessively wrong he had been.

Those thunderbolts had just been the prelude before the tempest. This was the real lightning tribulation. Long Chen had an urge to curse over and over again.

That previous intensity had been able to annihilate Xiantian experts. Just how powerful did his lightning tribulation have to be?

What he didn't realize right now was that soul cultivators' physical bodies were just too weak. Their own tribulation lightning was the weakest of all tribulations. If their own tribulations were on the same level as other cultivators, then this world wouldn't have any soul cultivators.

Life was fair. Soul cultivators possessed abnormal Spiritual Strength, but their weak physical bodies were their fatal weak point.

The Heavenly Daos had taken into consideration that soul cultivators' tribulation lightning couldn't be very strong. But that weak lightning tribulation, which had just been a warm up, had still been something they hadn't been able to bear.

Long Chen had even been celebrating, thinking he had ended up benefiting because of the pavilion master. The tribulation lightning had been adjusted to his level.

But as soon as he was killed, the tribulation lightning changed, going from a kitten to a fierce tiger.

"Fuck, fine! Come at me! I just knew you would try to make life difficult for me! I'm already used to it." Long Chen roared up to the sky.

This was already his third tribulation. Each time, his tribulation was filled with endless destructive will. That was completely different from other people's tribulations.

For other people, the tribulation was just a trial. But Long Chen's tribulation only had one goal, and that was using its full strength to kill him.

BOOM!

A thick bolt of lightning descended from the nine heavens. This thick bolt of lightning enveloped Long Chen and dozens of meters around him.

His clothes burst apart, and a berserk energy spread in all directions, with Long Chen at the center.

RUMBLE!

The ground seemed like water, and a huge ripple spread because of the terrifying energy.

Where that ripple passed, whether it was mountains or buildings, they were instantly destroyed. That berserk energy truly leveled the Wind Spirit Pavilion.

Any remnants that had survived Long Chen's combination attack with Little Snow were now instantly destroyed.

As for Long Chen, within that thick bolt of lightning, his skin was splitting apart, blood pouring out. Even with his physical body, he wasn't able to endure this fierce attack. Just the first attack was enough to injure him.

"Fuck, just keep coming! You goddamn bastard heavens, if you think I'm displeasing, then come smite me!" roared Long Chen crazily.

The pain had stepped on his nerves, causing his fury to soar. There are so many bad people in this world, but you don't smite them. Instead you come to target me. When did I ever provoke you?!

Although heavenly tribulation didn't have any emotions, Long Chen could sense its will. It wanted to completely annihilate him, refusing to allow him to exist in this world.

That was a kind of Heavenly Dao, a kind of law. It was a will that could not be defied. It wanted Long Chen dead, so he shouldn't even think about living in this world. That infuriated Long Chen.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM...!

As if it had been provoked, the lightning crashed down even harder. The entire world trembled. The might of the heavens could not be opposed.

Long Chen coughed up a mouthful of blood. His injuries had reached the point that it was almost possible to see his bones, but Long Chen still clenched his teeth and laughed crazily.

"Keep coming! You idiot heavens, you blind ass heavens, you-!"

BOOM!

The thunderforce made Long Chen cough up even more blood. However, he wasn't afraid. He was focused entirely on using his own thunderforce to devour the thunderforce invading his body.

Long Chen possessed his own thunderforce, thunderforce that had also come from tribulation lightning. However, there was a qualitative difference between it and the current thunderforce attacking him. The power difference was immense.

He needed to devour this attacking thunderforce bit by bit, gradually increasing the strength of his own thunderforce.

It was like a tiger cub trying to devour an elephant ten times its size. It was extremely difficult.

But he was gratified to find his original thunderforce was extremely voracious. No matter how much he fed it, it still didn't get full. Furthermore, as he fed it, it continuously grew larger.

Within Long Chen's blood, countless violet runes were beginning to grow. Those were his core thunderforce runes, and as he devoured more and more thunderforce, they also continuously grew stronger.

Now, Long Chen didn't need to deliberately feed them. They would just automatically devour the thunderforce that invaded his body.

He was covered in blood, but he didn't stop cursing. In fact, he began to curse even louder. Since he wasn't able to reach and hit the heavens, the best thing was to get some satisfaction from his mouth.

However, he was actually cheering inside. His thunderforce was growing stronger and stronger, something he urgently wished for.

Thunderforce was very rare and was capable of blocking Spiritual Strength. It was his greatest trump card when he ran into soul cultivators.

After all, soul items were external forces, and it was much more reliable to use his own strength. So thunderforce was something he urgently needed.

Unfortunately, he was always too busy and had no time to use his spiritual qi to nourish his thunderforce. So this lightning tribulation was also an opportunity for him.

Although he rarely used thunderforce, that was only because he didn't have any high class Battle Skills that could control thunderforce. As for the Lightning Finger he had come up with, it was only useful against some experts.

But against supreme experts, it was useless. The time it took to activate was too long, and true experts would see through that opening in a glance.

So although he didn't use his thunderforce often, it didn't mean that thunderforce was useless. It was simply that he didn't have any good ways of using it.

However, Long Chen still wanted to raise it. After all, there were still many chances for him to obtain higher class Battle Skills in the future, but chances to increase his thunderforce were rare.

In order to not waste this chance, he could only bitterly endure this pain, not using his spiritual qi to block.

Another benefit of doing this was that it would temper his physical body. However, this method was extremely crazy and cruel.

It was a good thing for him that he had been able to continuously use his old thunderforce to temper his body.

Because his thunderforce runes existed in his blood, even if he didn't deliberately activate them, they would help strengthen his body gradually, expelling impurities from his body. Otherwise, he wouldn't possess such a strong physical body now.

Unfortunately, Long Chen hadn't had any time to deliberately temper his body, and so there were still many impurities in his body. Those impurities couldn't be expelled by his passive thunderforce tempering. They would have required Long Chen to circulate his thunderforce to its full strength to be expelled.

Although Long Chen appeared in a terrible plight right now, he was actually borrowing this berserk thunderforce to expel the impurities in his body.

This tribulation lightning was of great help to him. However, that didn't mean the lightning tribulation had good intentions towards him. These results were because of Long Chen's own hard work.

If he hadn't found a way to nourish thunderforce in his own body, then he probably would have long since died to tribulation lightning.

BOOM!

Long Chen once more coughed up a mouthful of blood. The bones in his shoulder were now visible.

Furthermore, the tribulation clouds in the sky suddenly shrank into a ball. The tribulation clouds of ten thousand miles shrank to less than a hundred miles.

Once the tribulation clouds gathered together, the world immediately became quiet. Heaven and earth were deathly silent. It was as if time had frozen.

Long Chen suddenly felt all his hair stand on end. An intense sensation of death enveloped him.

"I just knew it wouldn't be this easy." Long Chen viciously spat on the ground. His two stars circulated, and from his primal chaos space, a pure life energy poured into his body.

His horrifying wounds healed in just a breath's time. However, the price was that the forest of trees in his primal chaos space withered.

Long Chen had already planted a forest in his primal chaos space, which he used as storage for life energy. They were what he relied on to heal himself.

But he hadn't expected that in order to completely recover, the entire forest would die. All their life energy had been used up.

What he didn't know was just what terrifying realm his physical body had reached. Even a small cut on his body required a huge amount of life energy to heal.

As for just now, his entire body had been covered in wounds. He had been fortunate he had planted enough trees, or he wouldn't have even been able to fully recover.

This was not within his expectations. Other than the medicinal field, he had filled the entire primal chaos space with trees. He had thought that with that many trees, he would be able to instantly recover several times. But now, he had run out after just one healing.

But he also couldn't care about that too much at this time. He looked up at the lightning clouds in the sky. A terrifying pressure was locking onto him.

RUMBLE!!!

The tribulation clouds were constantly trembling, as flickering lightning lit up the world.

Suddenly, two huge lightning pythons shot out of the clouds. Those lightning pythons seemed to be living creatures. They were three thousand meters long, and a terrifying pressure came from their bodies.

They let out fierce roars as they charged at Long Chen.

"Fuck, what kind of monsters are these?!"

Long Chen's heart trembled. He sensed immense pressure from these lightning pythons. The lightning had somehow transformed.

A huge lightning blade appeared in his hand as he closely stared at the two lightning pythons.

Chapter 488 Narrowly Surviving

RUMBLE!

As soon as the two lightning pythons emerged from the tribulation clouds, heaven and earth began to rumble. Most terrifying of all, the two lightning pythons suddenly intertwined together, and an even stronger pressure descended, causing Long Chen’s hair to stand on end.

As those huge pythons twisted around each other, a destructive aura attacked Long Chen.

His expression completely changed. This attack was practically world-shaking, capable of exterminating all life. With a furious roar, two stars appeared in his eyes, his divine ring shining behind him. A three-hundred-meter lightning blade appeared in his hands.

At this time, he had condensed all his thunderforce and energy into this blade. He no longer had the luxury to hold back. This lightning tribulation was trying to annihilate him.

“Split the Heavens!”

Brilliant light exploded from his lightning blade. It ferociously hacked into the two intertwining lightning pythons.

BOOM!

Heaven and earth shook. Light lit up the entire sky. Every mountain within thousands of miles was turned to dust.

The tribulation clouds in the sky faded. The ground was a complete mess, and a remnant destructive aura was still present.

The soil bulged, and a charred-black hand broke out of the ground.

Long Chen vomited a mouthful of blood as well as some broken bits of his organs. That final attack had almost killed him.

Now, he was a few breaths off from death. His entire body was charred black, as that final attack had been too terrifying. It had instantly broken through his defenses, almost destroying his body.

His insides had already been destroyed, and his body was like a cracked porcelain jar. Pieces of his skin were constantly falling to the ground, revealing his flesh.

“My injuries are too heavy.” Long Chen looked inside himself. That final attack had been too vicious. Even his bones were all covered with cracks. He might completely collapse at any moment. “But the first thing I need to do is get away from here.”

Clenching his teeth, all the medicinal ingredients in his primal chaos space withered, and a dense life energy poured into his body.

Although that wasn’t as much life energy as had been in the trees, it was enough to make sure he wouldn’t immediately die.

Clenching his teeth, he began to run into the distance with his broken body. He had to leave as soon as possible so others wouldn’t notice him.

Not an hour after he had left, a large number of people appeared where the Wind Spirit Pavilion had been. Those were experts from the neighboring sects.

What they saw was a charred land that had replaced the Wind Spirit Pavilion. They were all stunned.

“Did the heavens bring down divine punishment on them?”

They never would have imagined that this was just the result from a cultivator’s tribulation, and just the tribulation of a Tendon Transformation rookie.

As for Long Chen, he was pushing his Spiritual Strength to its max to avoid others. If it wasn’t for the life energy from the medicinal ingredients supporting him, he would really have died this time.

With his insides completely destroyed, even medicinal pills had no effect on him. At best, they could keep him alive. However, there was no way they could heal his heavy injuries.

Only after rushing far enough away did he summon Little Snow. Jumping onto his back, they fled into the distance.

Because of the battle in the secret realm, too many people would recognize Little Snow. If he had summoned Little Snow at the beginning and someone had noticed him, it would be all too easy to suspect it was him.

By pushing his Spiritual Strength and spreading his divine sense to a constant hundred miles, he was fortunate enough to not run into any experts.

It was three days later when Long Chen took advantage of the darkness to slip into the first monastery. When Guo Ran and the others saw his current state, they almost died from fright. They almost didn’t recognize him.

Once he saw Guo Ran, Long Chen couldn’t hold on any longer and fainted. These three days, Long Chen had continuously pushed himself to keep going.

The life energy from the primal chaos space had only been able to keep him just barely alive. It hadn’t been enough to heal him.

So he needed a place to rest and heal, and the best option was to stealthily slip into the first monastery. Guo Ran and the others still didn’t know what had happened.

But Long Chen had told them to keep everything secret, so they hastily brought him to his room, severely warning any disciples they encountered to keep their mouths shut.

Even Ling Yunzi jumped in fright upon seeing Long Chen’s current state. His injuries were absolutely appalling. His entire body was charred black, and his flesh was almost falling from his bones.

Tang Wan-er was so frightened she cried. Guo Ran and the others didn’t know what to say. This was their first time seeing Long Chen in such a miserable state.

“Who did this?!” asked Gu Yang, clenching his teeth.

“Don’t get any crazy thoughts. That destructive aura on his body is not something a human is able to cause.” Ling Yunzi immediately saw through some clues from Long Chen’s state.

After all, only he and Tu Fang were aware that Long Chen was a Divergent. However, he had never imagined Long Chen would have to go through lightning tribulation so soon.

He was unaware that this wasn’t the first tribulation for Long Chen, but the third. Ordinary people would only have to go through the baptism of heavenly tribulation once they reached the Xiantian realm. That baptism would transform their Houtian qi into Xiantian qi.

The legends said Divergents would all suffer lightning tribulation when entering the Meridian Opening realm. The heavens wanted them dead before they could reach the Xiantian realm.

For Long Chen to undergo lightning tribulation just for the Bone Forging realm toppled Ling Yunzi’s understanding.

“Sect leader, will boss be alright?” asked Guo Ran worriedly.

“Don’t worry, there’s still a trace of vitality in his body. However, his external injuries are too severe. The lightn-... cough, his injuries aren’t light, and so he’s unable to activate his own body’s healing abilities. I’ll use Xiantian power to help him activate the life energy within his physical body. He should recover quickly,” said Ling Yunzi.

Hearing that, everyone sighed a breath of relief. In order to allow Ling Yunzi to heal Long Chen, they all withdrew.

Once they left, Ling Yunzi’s expression became incomparably grave. In truth, the destructive aura in Long Chen’s body was something that even made him tremble. That was a reverence that came from the depths of his soul.

“Is this an opportunity the heavens have bestowed upon me?” Ling Yunzi muttered to himself, looking at Long Chen lying on the bed.

His injuries were incredibly severe, and although he was still alive, the destructive aura was continuously breaking down his body, making it so he couldn’t recover.

Back then, Long Chen had underestimated the lightning tribulation, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he had underestimated the lightning tribulation’s destructive aura. If this continued, then it wouldn’t be long before he died from it. Such an energy had surpassed Long Chen’s limits.

That was why Long Chen had rushed to the first monastery when he had realized this problem. He knew Ling Yunzi had the ability to save him.

With Ling Yunzi’s Xiantian power and his Sword Dao will, he should be able to expel the remnant destructive aura within his body.

However, Ling Yunzi was now hesitating. He didn’t act according to how Long Chen had anticipated. Instead, he extended a hand, touching the destructive aura with his Xiantian power and will.

That destructive aura only had a desire to destroy. Ling Yunzi’s Sword Dao will was essentially provoking it. It suddenly ferociously attacked him.

Almost instinctively, his Sword Dao will raised a powerful defense to block the encroachment of the destructive aura.

Ling Yunzi had a complicated expression as he pondered a difficult problem. In the end, he clenched his teeth and released his defenses, allowing that destructive will to attack his mind.

He collapsed on the ground, unconscious. Now that Ling Yunzi had absorbed the destructive aura attacking Long Chen, Long Chen’s body’s instinctive healing abilities activated.

After some unknown time, Ling Yunzi opened his eyes. “I’m still alive… Looks like I won the gamble.”

He smiled slightly and stood up. He looked over Long Chen and saw a portion of his black skin had already fallen off to reveal new skin beneath.

Shockingly, Long Chen’s body possessed a vast vitality, one that was even more terrifying than a Magical Beast’s.

“What a terrifying physical body. This physical body is already on the level of a Xiantian expert.” Ling Yunzi couldn’t help being shocked as he appraised one of Long Chen’s arms.

According to the legends, Divergents would encounter annihilation lightning tribulations and would always eventually die to one.

But once they passed the lightning tribulation, their benefits were also dozens of times greater than other people. Long Chen’s current terrifying physical body was the best proof of that.

By the time Ling Yunzi left the room, Tang Wan-er, Meng Qi, and the others were all anxiously waiting.

He smiled slightly, reassuring them and saying they could enter. They delightedly charged in to take a look, seeing Long Chen sleeping peacefully. He was snoring, his heart beating powerfully, a stark contrast from his previous self that seemed like he would breathe his last breath at any moment.

However, Ling Yunzi told them not to disturb him right now. Long Chen had suffered a spiritual blow, and his soul was slightly damaged. They should let him sleep until he naturally awoke on his own.

They carefully left his room, all feeling greatly relieved.

Tang Wan-er still had Meng Qi to take care of. As for Guo Ran, Gu Yang, and the others, they took turns guarding Long Chen’s door, not letting anyone disturb him.

They had asked how Long Chen had ended up injured, but Ling Yunzi harshly warned them not to ask again. That was for their own benefit.

That reason was odd, but if Ling Yunzi refused to say, they could only drop it. They would never have imagined that Long Chen’s injuries weren’t from a person, but from the heavens.

What would they do even if Ling Yunzi told them? Would they go demand justice from the heavens? Furthermore, for them to learn Long Chen was a Divergent was not a good thing. It was best to conceal this matter.

The day after Long Chen returned to the monastery, a piece of news spread that shook all of Su Prefecture: the Wind Spirit Pavilion had disappeared.

Chapter 489 A Few Things to Tell You

Your aura has grown slightly again. Furthermore, I can sense you should have found the key. Try and grow up faster.” A voice reverberated throughout endless darkness.

“Who are you? Why are you constantly rushing me?” Long Chen couldn’t help but roar upon once more hearing this familiar voice.

However, for some unknown reason, his voice was devoured by the darkness. Even he was unable to hear his own voice.

“I can’t hear you. You’re still too weak. Only when you grow can I barely feel you within the ten planar worlds.

“Furthermore, that feeling is quickly growing weaker. Master of the Nine Star Hegemon Body, hurry and grow up. You don’t have much time to waste…”

“Who are you?!”

Long Chen roared furiously and then suddenly sat up, covered with sweat.

“Long Chen!”

Tang Wan-er cried out with shock and then hastily rushed over to support him. “What is it, Long Chen? Are you alright? You’re covered in sweat!”

“I’m fine. It was just a dream.” Long Chen shook his head, but he felt as if a boulder was crushing his heart.

That was definitely no dream, but a voice that managed to pass through boundless space to reach him.

However, some unknown energy was blocking him from communicating with that voice.

That mysterious voice had said he was the master of the Nine Star Hegemon Body, as well as something about the ten planar worlds, as well as some key. That completely befuddled him.

The urgency contained in that voice made him extremely uneasy. Just what secrets were behind the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art? He felt as if he was involved in some immense game.

That voice had already rung in his head multiple times, and he was already completely familiar with it. It was definitely the same voice and fluctuations that spoke to him.

However, more accurately, that voice was like a spiritual fluctuation, and he was unable to tell if it was male or female, young or old.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Tang Wan-er was a bit worried upon seeing how grave Long Chen’s expression was.

Long Chen took a deep breath and temporarily put the matter aside. Food had to be eaten mouthful by mouthful. A road had to be walked step by step. There was no use in rushing.

“I’m fine. In fact, I feel full of energy.” Long Chen smiled.

Looking within himself, he saw that after undergoing the lightning tribulation, his physical body had grown even stronger.

There was also a faint jade-like luster over his bones. That was a sign he had entered the Bone Forging realm. After entering the Bone Forging realm, a person’s bones would begin hardening, becoming harder than steel.

Furthermore, the bones would become a separate reservoir of spiritual qi. That spiritual qi was compressed to an even greater degree and could be released to activate an even greater power.

However, the tribulation this time had been far too dangerous, and even now he felt some lingering fear. He had almost died to the lightning tribulation’s final blow.

That made alarm bells go off in his head. If he wanted to pass his lightning tribulations, then he had to make his body reach its strongest possible state before undergoing it, or next time, he would very likely lose his life.

In truth, if Long Chen had fully activated his thunderforce to undergo a body tempering before his tribulation, then at the very least, he wouldn’t have been forced into such a miserable state.

However, there had been too many things that had occurred almost successively, which hadn’t given him any time to breathe. This time, it really had been too close. He definitely didn’t want to have to undergo that a second time.

“What happened, Long Chen? Who injured you? We asked the sect leader, but he refused to say,” asked Tang Wan-er.

“Wan-er, you’re becoming more and more beautiful.” Long Chen smiled, raising a hand to gently caress her beautiful face.

“How dislikable. Do you have to change the subject so obviously?” Tang Wan-er blushed and pushed aside Long Chen’s hand.

However, Long Chen didn’t want them to know the truth. At the same time, he didn’t want to lie to them. “Wan-er, trust me. There’s a reason I don’t tell you.”

“Which one of us doesn’t trust you? Wait a moment, I’ll help you wash your face. You’re filthy right now,” laughed Tang Wan-er, bringing a washcloth to gently wipe Long Chen’s face.

Long Chen obediently enjoyed Tang Wan-er’s attention, his heart filled with warmth. He smiled.

“What are you smiling about?” After wiping his face twice, Tang Wan-er went to clean the washcloth, taking advantage of that opportunity to ask him why he was smiling so mischievously. 

“If I tell you, will I be beaten?” probed Long Chen.

“Why would I beat you? Tell me.”

“I feel today… you really are behaving like a woman. Aiya!”

As soon as he said it, a washcloth landed on his face. Tang Wan-er rebuked, “So you’re saying I wasn’t like a woman before? Well then, you can clean yourself.”

By the time Long Chen had taken off the washcloth, Tang Wan-er had already left. Long Chen couldn’t help but smile.

He knew Tang Wan-er wasn’t actually angry. The two of them were used to bickering, and this was just their style of communication.

He wiped his face, wiping off a whole layer of skin. However, the new skin beneath the dead skin was much more durable.

“Hehe, now let’s see how you pinch me now,” laughed Long Chen. His body was stronger than ever. His face’s skin was something impervious to blade or spear.

Just as he finished cleaning himself and changing his clothes, the sound of footsteps came from outside his door. Tang Wan-er helped Meng Qi walk inside.

“Long Chen!” cried Meng Qi.

Meng Qi was currently wearing an azure dress, and her long hair fell naturally. Even without wearing any cosmetic products, she was still incredibly beautiful. However, her face was a bit paler than usual, and she no longer seemed to possess as much vigor as before.

“Do you feel any better, Meng Qi?” Long Chen hastily jumped forward and helped Meng Qi sit.

Although he had expelled her poison, her body was too weak. Right now, she was an ordinary mortal with a weak body. Just moving was taxing on her.

“Wan-er stays by my side all day, making me good food and helping me to recover. I’m already much better than before.” 

Tang Wan-er said, “But of course. Meng Qi and I are closer than real sisters. We aren’t like certain people that are so busy every day that they don’t have any time to visit.”

Although Tang Wan-er did have some intent to make things hard on Long Chen, Long Chen could hear that she was warning him that Meng Qi was unaware that he had been injured.

Most likely, she had been afraid Meng Qi would become worried, which would have been detrimental to her already unstable health. Long Chen couldn’t help smiling and stealthily giving Tang Wan-er a thumbs-up.

“Wan-er, don’t blame Long Chen. After all, he has so many things to handle, many of which are for all of us. He doesn’t have it easy.” Meng Qi smiled, exonerating Long Chen.

Long Chen couldn’t help being moved. Meng Qi truly had a heart of gold, and always thinking of other people. She was truly too kindhearted.

However, Long Chen decided to keep the matter of him destroying the Wind Spirit Pavilion to himself. He definitely didn’t want her to know that, or with her character, she might feel a bit guilty.

In any case, no one had actually seen him do it, and he felt he hadn’t left behind any absolute evidence. Other than himself, anyone that had witnessed it was in another world now. As for himself, he would just refuse to admit anything no matter what.

“Meng Qi, let me examine your body.”

Long Chen gently held her hand, sending his Spiritual Strength into her body. He saw that her meridians were in a withered state now. Most likely, her meridians had already sucked up all her spiritual qi and had entered a stagnant state.

“Your body doesn’t have any large hindrances anymore. Once you rest a few more days, we can try to condense a new soul root for you. At that time, you’ll definitely be ten times stronger than before,” said Long Chen confidently.

Hearing that, the two sisters were both delighted. Although Meng Qi was a peaceful person, she also thirsted for power.

After conversing for a while longer with the two of them, there was a disciple who came to tell Long Chen that the sect leader wanted to see him.

Long Chen hastily went to see Ling Yunzi and saw that Tu Fang was also present. He immediately thanked Ling Yunzi, “Sect leader, thank you for your trouble. If it hadn’t been for you, I would have already died.”

“Come and sit.” Ling Yunzi smiled.

Long Chen sat. He was extremely grateful to Ling Yunzi and Tu Fang. The two of them truly treated him like their own child. For him, Ling Yunzi had risked immense danger and repeatedly killed other sect leaders.

As for Tu Fang, although he was only in the Meridian Opening realm when calamity had struck, he had still come, bringing others who wished to both live and die together. That kind of heroism was truly emotionally moving.

“Little fellow, this time you really were ruthless. The destruction of the Wind Spirit Pavilion is something on a completely different scale from anything else you’ve ever done.” Ling Yunzi couldn’t help shaking his head as he looked at Long Chen.

“What are you talking about, sect leader? I don’t understand.” Long Chen naturally wouldn’t admit to it. He was always the kind of person who would do kind deeds but not leave behind his name.

“It’s alright. In this world, only Tu Fang and I know a bit about your secrets. However, you don’t need to worry, as we’ll definitely help you keep them secret.

“Other than that, make sure not to tell anyone about the matter of your undergoing tribulation. That would implicate them, and in the future, their tribulations will be much more difficult. You have to be cautious,” warned Ling Yunzi.

Long Chen’s heart shook. Ling Yunzi actually knew about his tribulation, and from his tone, it seemed he also knew some other things as well. However, seeing how solemn Ling Yunzi was acting, Long Chen nodded seriously.

Ling Yunzi was warning him not to let others know too many of his secrets. Otherwise, that would invoke karma, and when they underwent tribulations, they might be more likely to die.

Furthermore, he was clearly only capable of hinting at that matter. The heavens would not allow anyone to speak about matters relating to the Heavenly Daos. Anyone who broke that rule would very likely end up bringing down heavenly punishment on themselves.

Previously, all Ling Yunzi had said was the word Divergent, but he had immediately been injured by heavenly punishment. Furthermore, at that time, he had only been in the early Xiantian realm, and he had been more isolated from the Heavenly Daos.

But now that he had entered the mid Xiantian realm, the Heavenly Daos were able to sense him much more easily, and if he said that word again, he might instantly be killed.

“Today, I called the two of you over because I have a few things to tell you. I’m about to leave this place,” said Ling Yunzi.

Chapter 490 Ling Yunzi’s Departure

You’re leaving?” asked a startled Tu Fang. “Where are you going?”

Even Long Chen was astonished. Ling Yunzi said he was leaving. He didn’t say he was leaving for a period of time. In other words…

“This time, I’ve obtained a heaven-defying opportunity that has enlightened me onto another kind of Sword Dao. I want to go out into the world and see whether or not I can bring my Sword Dao to the pinnacle.” Ling Yunzi smiled.

“How long will you be gone?” asked Tu Fang.

“This is what I will be pursuing for the rest of my life. If I cannot reach that level, then this life of mine will have not had any meaning,” said Ling Yunzi solemnly.

He had dedicated the first half of his life to his monastery. Now it was time for him to live for his own Sword Dao. He wanted to be a true sword cultivator, free and unfettered, walking to the ends of the world with just his sword.

“Then what about the monastery? Will senior Cang Ming take on the sect leader position?” asked Tu Fang.

“Uncle-master has already brought his apprentice away. He said that until he manages to completely fill that little fellow’s stomach, he won’t be returning.” Ling Yunzi laughed.

Now Long Chen understood why he hadn’t seen Wilde during these days. He had already been brought away.

Most likely, Cang Ming had also decided to strengthen his resolve and focus completely on raising his apprentice.

Right now, Wilde had become his entire focus. He wanted to raise Wilde into a supreme expert, and as a result, he had even left behind his forge. It could be seen how determined Cang Ming was.

“So now that we’ve left, only you, Tu Fang, can be the sect leader,” said Ling Yunzi.

“Me? How could that be possible?” Tu Fang couldn’t help being startled. He was still only at the peak of the Meridian Opening realm. Without stepping into the Xiantian realm, how could he take a sect leader position, let alone the position of the first monastery’s sect leader?

“Tu Fang, you are straightforward and upright, impartial and incorruptible. With your character, you can definitely take this position.

“Furthermore, you don’t need to feel any pressure. As long as our first monastery has Long Chen, then our position as the first monastery cannot be budged.

“As for in the future when Long Chen leaves, the first monastery will naturally decline, and the position will be taken away. That just means our fate with that position has run out, and there’s no need to fight over it.

“First place can’t always be dominated by one person. The cycle turns continuously; fortunes rise and fall. But that’s what makes life interesting,” said Ling Yunzi profoundly.

“Yes, sect leader. I understand,” said Tu Fang respectfully. Ling Yunzi was telling him the cycle of the Heavenly Daos could not be reversed.

For example, they had constantly been ranked 108th. But as soon as Long Chen joined, everything had changed.

After experiencing countless dangers, after the suppression of both the Righteous and Corrupt paths, Long Chen had still soared, crushing the Righteous and Corrupt paths. The entire way, he had forced his way through a pile of corpses, bringing them to their current position.

Times change. Any of those who had vainly attempted to block Long Chen all ended up in extremely miserable states. Ling Yunzi was using Long Chen as an example to direct Tu Fang.

What is destined to be yours is something no one can snatch away. What is not destined to be yours is something you can’t obtain no matter what, and if you try, it will cost you your life. These were the invisible rules of the Heavenly Daos.

Ling Yunzi cared deeply about Tu Fang, and he didn’t want him making the same mistake he had. He had ended up becoming too obsessed, ending up in an abyss of despair.

“Long Chen, I know this monastery will not be your limit. Perhaps there will be a day when we’ll see each other again. At that time, I trust you’ll be much stronger than you are right now, and much more domineering.” Ling Yunzi patted Long Chen on the shoulder.

The feeling of parting was always a sad one. All Long Chen could say was, “Take care, sect leader.”

Ling Yunzi smiled and then walked away. Long Chen and Tu Fang didn’t move. They both knew Ling Yunzi wouldn’t want anyone to send him off. From today onwards, he would no longer have any shackles. He would be completely free.

The next day, news of Tu Fang succeeding the sect leader position spread throughout the entire supermonastery.

In all of history, only Xiantian experts had had the qualifications to be sect leaders. Tu Fang was merely in the Meridian Opening realm.

But each monastery had the right to appoint their own sect leader. If they felt they didn’t have enough power, they were able to ask the supermonastery for help, and the supermonastery would send them a Xiantian expert to take the sect leader position.

Other than Tu Fang becoming sect leader, news of Ling Yunzi departing the monastery to pursue his Sword Dao also spread.

That dumbfounded countless people. Now, Ling Yunzi had departed, and Cang Ming had brought away his apprentice to travel.

In the entire first monastery, there was not a single Xiantian expert. That caused countless people to feel greed. Many Xiantian experts from the supermonastery made applications to take the first monastery’s sect leader position.

Those applications were all immediately rejected. The reason? Long Chen had said the first monastery didn’t need any expert as support because they were already strong enough.

That instantly caused those thoughts to die. Those people thought of how Long Chen had killed two Xiantian experts on his own. That made them all turn silent.

Once that matter passed, Long Chen had Tang Wan-er help guard him and Meng Qi.

Currently, his forehead was pressed against Meng Qi’s forehead. Meng Qi was completely red, as this position was too intimate.

Seeing Long Chen suddenly smile and how his smile was slightly naughty, Meng Qi couldn’t help rebuking, “What are you smiling about?”

He laughed. “For Tang Wan-er to guard us as I take advantage of a jade beauty, it seems a bit strange.”

“What do you mean, take advantage of a jade beauty? How vulgar.” Meng Qi rapped Long Chen on the head, turning even redder.

“Alright, well since you’re no longer so nervous, we can start. Don’t worry, I’ll handle everything.” Long Chen had just been purposely teasing her since he had noticed how worried she was. “I’ll begin now.”

After saying that, within his mind-sea, his Spiritual Strength began to roil, seeming like an angry sea as it rapidly circulated.

He continuously compressed his Spiritual Strength. He needed to condense a spiritual seed. If the Spiritual Strength was a tree, then condensing a spiritual seed was like going through the twigs of that tree. Then he would snap off that twig and transplant it into Meng Qi.

Condensing a spiritual seed was not difficult. However, even after condensing a dozen of them, he still discarded them, as those spiritual seeds weren’t strong enough.

Long Chen wanted the strongest spiritual seed possible for Meng Qi. That would be her future cultivation foundation.

It was extremely easy to tell how strong a spiritual seed was by the strength of its spiritual fluctuations.

An ordinary spiritual seed would take up one thousandth to three thousandths of a person’s Spiritual Strength.

However, the quality of a spiritual seed was based on the skill and soul energy of the person who condensed it. Long Chen had even condensed several spiritual seeds that took up eight thousandths of his Spiritual Strength, but he still discarded them.

BOOM!

Just as Long Chen was starting to get impatient, his Spiritual Strength suddenly surged, and an immense spiritual seed appeared in his mind-sea.

“Long Chen, don’t!” cried Meng Qi.

“Don’t make a fuss. Stay still.”

Just like that, he inserted that huge spiritual seed into Meng Qi’s mind-sea.

“Long Chen!” Meng Qi couldn’t help feeling distressed, and her tears even began to fall. That huge spiritual seed contained a full tenth of his Spiritual Strength.

As that spiritual seed left Long Chen’s mind-sea, he clenched his teeth and held back a pained groan. His veins bulged, and his body twitched intensely.

He was essentially splitting a portion of his soul, and so he had to endure the pain of his soul tearing apart. Even though he had long since been prepared, he still almost couldn’t hold back a scream.

The pain of the soul could make a person go insane. As he did his best to endure that pain, he transplanted that huge spiritual seed into Meng Qi’s mind-sea.

As soon as he finished doing that, he felt as if the world was spinning around him, and he almost collapsed, his body drenched in sweat.

But looking at Meng Qi whose eyes were now tightly closed, a smile appeared on his pale face.

Now that his spiritual seed had entered Meng Qi’s mind-sea, it had become ownerless. All Meng Qi needed to do was use her mind to connect to that seed, and she would become its new master. It would become her new soul root.

To Meng Qi, that was something extremely simple, so he didn’t have any worries. It would just take her a bit of time.

Right now, he was in immense pain from the tearing of his soul, and so he hastily activated the primal chaos bead.

Previously, Long Chen had already circulated his two stars to return the primal chaos space to a flourishing state.

The withered medicinal ingredients and trees had all been revived. Now, he drew on the primal chaos space’s energy to heal the injury to his soul. Those huge trees, which had only just revived, now instantly withered.

However, now he no longer felt as much pain. Unfortunately, it was unable to completely replenish the loss to his soul. But Long Chen decided not to touch the medicinal ingredients this time, as the energy within them was too little compared to the trees.

After advancing to the Bone Forging realm, he had received an enormous surprise. After he had advanced, the primal chaos space had gone from being three miles wide to thirty miles wide.

Now he could plant even more vegetation. If he managed to fill the entire space with huge trees, then his recovery ability would be shocking.

As for the patch of black soil, it had also grown by ten times. That black soil was able to devour flesh and turn it into life energy.

Unfortunately, Long Chen didn’t have any powerful Magical Beast corpses. Otherwise, such an immense life energy would be able to instantly heal his soul.

Long Chen had already decided. After he had handled this matter, he would find some huge trees, the bigger the better, with as much life energy as possible. If he could find some immense trees, then he would have access to practically limitless life energy.

Just as Long Chen was planning on how to use the primal chaos space, Meng Qi slowly opened her eyes.