Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)
chapter-153

Long Chen had run several miles away when Qi Xin’s furious roar rang out from behind. He shook his head.

Do you need to be like that? The honey had never been yours in any case, and it wasn’t as if I literally snatched it out of your hands. Was it worthwhile to release such fury?

And furthermore, if it hadn’t been for my idea, you wouldn’t have even been able to touch bee urine, let alone their honey.

And didn’t I also leave you some? That’s enough for you guys to split. But once he reached this point in his thoughts, even he ended up turning slightly red.

If he had had enough time, with his pragmatic nature, he definitely wouldn’t have left any behind at all.

The sky had already begun to darken. But for safety concerns, Long Chen continued running forward. He definitely didn’t want to encounter the crazy Qi Xin.

Such monsters all had shocking techniques. But he was only at the sixth Heavenstage of Blood Condensation, and so fighting with them would definitely make him suffer a huge disadvantage.

After another hundred miles, he began to notice more and more signs of other people. That was a relief, as with this many tracks, it was impossible for Qi Xin to chase after him even if he wanted to.

Looking forward, he saw he had already reached the end of this wilderness and had entered a mountain range. He rushed over to the mountains.

He found a clean cave for himself and took out a cup, pouring half a cup of Queen Bee Honey and half a cup of water. Mixing them with a chopstick, a dense fragrance refreshed his heart.

Drinking a mouthful, its sweetness slid down easily, the sensation deeply penetrating his heart and mind. He felt as if his pores had all been opened, causing him to become incredibly relaxed.

“Delicious!” Long Chen was intoxicated. Such pure honey didn’t need to be balanced with anything else and was still able to let you feel like you were gaily floating in the clouds. At the same time, it swept away any pains.

It truly did have a miraculous effect of calming both body and mind. It allowed you to focus easier and enter your meditative state.

But no matter how great the honey was, it was incomparable to Long Chen’s jade pendant. With the jade pendant, Long Chen was able to enter his meditative state in just a few breaths.

But for most ordinary people, even geniuses, it would require at least four hours to enter their meditative state with the assistance of the Queen Bee Honey.

That was because such a state was extremely miraculous and mystical. It was an extremely rare opportunity. But even so, the Queen Bee Honey’s use was still enough to cause people to go crazy.

Finishing that cup of honey, he lay back on an icy boulder and looked up at the starry sky. Another busy day had passed.

The Long Chen in the day was vigorous and lively, perhaps even too much so. But once it was night and he was alone, he was filled with loneliness.

He didn’t know how Chu Yao was. Was she training hard in the Skywood Palace? With her gentle nature, was she being pushed around?

And Meng Qi… Had she consumed the soul nourishing pill he had sent her? He didn’t know just what realm the current her had reached.

He had even less information about how his parents were… Had his mother become accustomed to passing her days without her son by her side?

During the day, Long Chen would play around as crazily as he wished, making himself as busy as possible. That way he wouldn’t have the time to think about these things.

But during the night, not a single sound could be heard. Worries and anxiety pressed upon his heart, making it so he almost couldn’t breath.

And he was also completely lost when it came to his own future. Back when he had only just been born, someone had taken his Spirit Root, Spirit Blood, and Spirit Bone. It was a miracle that he hadn’t died as a baby after that.

And the powerful expert who had fled with him as a baby was actually just a servant. Then just who were his real parents? Wasn’t it very likely something unexpected had happened to them?

He gently rubbed the jade pendant. The lines of words on them were still completely clear: The Dragon roars at the Heavens, Looking down arrogantly on the mortal world of dust. Live peacefully and happily, Never to be parted.

Within those words were endless warmth and expectations, as well as a powerful feeling of love. That definitely proved just how much his parents loved him.

Even as weak baby, Long Chen had already met such vicious methods. That caused him to be extremely worried about his parents.

To dare do such a thing to him, that meant that his enemy didn’t fear his parents. There was even a possibility that his parents had already… Long Chen didn’t dare continue that train of thought.

Just where had he come from? Just what happened to his body? What person would be so ruthless to a baby, and what could possibly be their goal?

These endless questions continuously bounced around in his head. His mind was a complete mess.

Furthermore, there was that voice that had occasionally rang out in his head, as well as that vision of a fist shattering apart the very heavens from that destructive man. This all made Long Chen feel like his head might explode.

Taking a deep breath, he shook his head, putting away those questions. In any case, as long as he could keep surviving, there would be a day when the truth would reveal itself. What he needed to do now was eat, play, and grow properly. He would save up enough strength that he would eventually uncover his origin.

His father had told him that as long as he one day stood at the peak of the cultivation world, he would naturally learn what had happened.

Currently, he was just a beginner in the Blood Condensation realm. But everyday he was quickly maturing. He believed that that there really would be a day when he would reach that level.

Taking a deep breath, with the assistance of the jade pendant, Long Chen expelled all those distracting thoughts and began to cultivate.

He summoned his divine ring into his Dantian. He began to absorb heaven and earth’s spiritual qi, nourishing his blood.

Although Long Chen’s Dantian was deathly silent, that empty space now had countless uses for him. Long Chen was able to summon his divine ring there to cultivate.

He could also condense the flame energy within his meridians there. And now he could also gather his newfound thunderforce there as well.

His empty Dantian had become a place where he could gather all kinds of different energy. He could ‘rent’ it out as he needed. That was the first time Long Chen felt the benefit of not having a Dantian^[1].

A normal Dantian could only contain a single type of energy and thus you could only cultivate a single path. That was like how a pill cultivator’s Dantian could only contain flame energy. If they tried to cultivate another type of energy, those energies would clash and their Dantian would immediately explode.

Under the full force of the divine ring, his absorption speed of spiritual qi had reached a frightening level. But Long Chen had noticed that after entering the Blood Condensation realm, each level required double the time of the previous level to advance.

If it was just purification, then with the support of his divine ring, it wouldn’t have been any problem. But after each advancement, he needed to wait a period of time to restore his blood energy. Only once that blood energy had reached its saturation point could he once more purify his blood again.

The restoration period was extremely long. Even the assistance of the divine ring didn’t help. It had already been over ten days since his last advancement, but his blood energy had yet to reach saturation, so he was unable to purify his blood again.

The continuous absorption of heaven and earth’s spiritual qi with his divine ring did allow his blood to be nourished and recover about ten percent faster. Although that wasn’t much, at least it was better than nothing.

The next day, Long Chen had already set out before the sun’s first rays had spilled over the horizon.

According to the map, after another two large mountains, he would arrive at a river. Only by crossing that river could he reach the final destination.

Long Chen found that there were more and more people here. He looked around, but he didn’t see Guo Ran and had no idea how he was.

However, that guy was extremely shrewd. He doubted any major problems would come up for him. Long Chen followed the flow of the crowd forward.

Those who were able to reach this point were all experts. Those who had had their jade tiles snatched away had essentially all stayed in their original positions to see if they could find any good opportunities.

According to the monastery’s rules, as long as the trial wasn’t over, even those who had lost their tiles could stay within the trial region.

During the remaining time, they could look all over for some natural treasures. This could also be considered a kind of compensation for them. As for how much those people could obtain, that would be up to their luck.

This way, even those registrants who failed to join the monastery would also have some harvests. This was the monastery’s way to settle things with them. In this manner, there would be no one who would hold a grudge. It went without saying that the monastery’s rules were extremely clever.

Some of those experts had been quietly talking amongst themselves, but as soon as they saw Long Chen, they immediately shut their mouths, a trace of fear in their eyes.

Long Chen shook his head. Was he so terrifying?

But what he didn’t know was that he was even more terrifying than monster-class existences to them. That was because monsters didn’t kill people.

After this long, the news of him killing Zhao Wu had already been heard by everyone.

They naturally had also heard that Long Chen had been struck by Lei Qianshang’s thunderforce seed. But now seeing how lively Long Chen was, it seemed he hadn’t suffered any injuries at all. He was glowing with health; how was that the image of someone who was tormented by thunderforce?

Long Chen continued advancing, going past one of the huge mountains, finally allowing him to see what lay beyond. That would be a huge river.

That river was extremely wide, most likely stretching three thousand meters. The surface of the water was extremely mild. Dozens of experts were standing on the riverbank, seeming to be discussing how to cross the river.

This river was too wide, while none of them could fly or had flying Magical Beasts. They had to think of something.

There were countless terrifying Magical Beasts in this trial region. There had already been quite a few registrants who had died to Magical Beasts during this time. So everyone was wondering just what creatures lay within this river. No one would just foolishly swim across.

Long Chen also paused here. Looking at the river water, he frowned. This water was extremely dirty and it was impossible to see deeply into it.

After pondering for a moment, he took out a cooked cow leg from his spatial ring and threw it into the river. That was just one of his random rations he carried around. The cow leg splashed within the water.

That splashing sound attracted everyone’s attention. They all turned to look there.

Suddenly, large ripples appeared over the water and the cow leg sunk down into the water, disappearing.

“What?!” Everyone was alarmed. That was because they hadn’t been able to clearly see what it was that had appeared before the cow leg had disappeared. That was too strange.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, just what was that?” asked one brave person.

“Tigermouth Fish. This time there’s something fun to play with,” lightly said Long Chen.

“Heavens, how does this place have such vicious things?!” People exclaimed fearfully.

Tigermouth Fish were extremely vicious. They weren’t Magical Beasts, but over two-thirds of their bodies were taken by their mouths. Their mouths were similar to those of a tiger with sharp teeth that could bite even rock.

They weren’t large, only growing to the size of a foot. But they usually lived in groups. Even a huge Magical Beast would immediately be completely swallowed by a school of them. They were extremely terrifying.

“It’s over. There’s no way to cross this river!” People immediately despaired. This was something they couldn’t possibly accomplish.

As more and more people gathered here, suddenly a burst of startled cries rang out. A fragrant breeze blew by as a beautiful woman slowly walked over.

^[1] In case you need clarification, a Dantian is supposed to be an energy well where all the qi and energy of the body is stored. However, Long Chen’s Dantian is empty of such a thing, and so it is just an empty space. So he doesn’t have a Dantian, but he still has that empty place which he calls a Dantian in name only.