Nine Star Hegemon Body Art c1-2048
Page 134
As someone who also possessed her own runic power, Tang Wan-er knew that the rune wasn’t clear only because Long Chen wasn’t activating it to its full strength, not that he didn’t have enough control over it.
And it was precisely because she understood that that she was so shocked. She practically couldn’t believe it. She didn’t seem to recall anyone in history ever having done as he had.
“How is it? Don’t you think the taste would be pretty good if I used such a flame to cook fish?” Although Long Chen was chatting lightly, he was clearly extremely pleased with himself.
“Where did you get this flame?” asked Tang Wan-er.
“I stole it.”
Long Chen knew that the situation within the pill furnace had already stabilized. He no longer needed to focus so intensely on it.
Tang Wan-er stared at him. She knew this fellow barely said one or two truths in his nonsense.
But she also knew that it wasn’t necessary for her to get to the bottom of this. After all, powerful techniques were the life-preserving measures of cultivators. Cultivators wouldn’t just randomly demand techniques from others. That was an absolute taboo.
He knew she had some apprehensions about this flame, and so he was just about to tell her where he had obtained this beast flame when the furnace began to shake intensely.
“The pills are about to be condensed.” Long Chen slowly increased his flame strength, and his right hand covered the lid.
BOOM BOOM BOOM…
Terrifying energy circulated within the pill furnace. It was like there was a berserk hurricane within.
“This is a sign that the pills are about to form. All the medicinal liquid has been concentrated together. Under the powerful urging of the flame, it will almost come to life, automatically separating into several small balls.
“Each small ball will crazily whirl around the pill furnace, absorbing spiritual qi from the surroundings. It will form an outer layer with all the essence collected inside.
“Their shapes are not completely circular at all, but after experiencing that crazy whirling, they end up becoming the standard pill shape.
“This entire process is just like the maturation of an embryo, extremely miraculous to an inconceivable level,” Long Chen explained to the two of them when he saw how curious they were.
Although Long Chen knew all the principles of refining pills, he still possessed profound respect for alchemy. It was a kind of divine technique, an art that could change something trash into something miraculous.
BOOM!
After a final intense explosion, the furnace returned to calm. Long Chen lifted the furnace lid.
A dense pill fragrance filled the immortal cave. Nine pearl-like medicinal pills quietly lay within the furnace.
“Heavens, a pill halo. There are high grade medicinal pills, and five of them!” exclaimed Tang Wan-er.
Long Chen had also not expected this. After all, this was his first attempt at this. Originally, he had been thinking that just one high grade medicinal pill would have been pretty good, but there were actually five.
After just a moment, Long Chen realized that that was the effect of the spirit stone formation. It appeared that its effect was even greater than he had imagined.
“Look, Long Chen! There are five high grade Tendon Firming Pills and the rest all have pill lines, marking them as middle grade. You really are too amazing, Long Chen!” Tang Wan-er held the medicinal pills, an excited smile blooming on her face.
“Ugh, I really am getting rusty. I remember I could refine such medicinal pills with my eyes closed, and they were all high grade,” sighed Long Chen. He shook his head dejectedly.
Tang Wan-er was first startled, but then she immediately rolled her eyes, no longer bothering with Long Chen. She adoringly looked at those Tendon Firming Pills with delight.
With that experience, Long Chen had already learned all the important moments to control his flame. The second furnace was refined much faster, requiring only just a quarter hour.
What caused Tang Wan-er and Qing Yu to be stupefied was that the light which was shining out this time was even brighter than before. The nine pearl-like medicinal pills inside were actually all high grade Tendon Firming Pills.
When all the medicinal ingredients had been refined, Tang Wan-er simply stared at a table of over one hundred and ten Tendon Firming Pills. She had practically gone stupid.
Long Chen had managed to refine that many medicinal pills without rest. Although he said he could easily refine at least another ten thousand of them, he directly crawled into his blankets and fell into a deep sleep.
After Tang Wan-er and Qing Yu recovered from their shock, they began to distribute those high grade Tendon Firming Pills. Long Chen only woke up the next day.
Looking at the jade tablet in his hand, a huge, snow-white figure appeared in his mind.
“It’s time to open a spiritual space.”
Chapter 191 Spiritual Space
Once Tang Wan-er and Qing Yu distributed the Tendon Firming Pills, their entire faction became silent.
That was because everyone had secluded themselves in their immortal caves, borrowing the Tendon Firming Pill’s energy to quickly stabilize their realms.
Only once their realms were stabilized could they continue cultivating. Only then could they keep their foundations stable.
Tang Wan-er and Qing Yu had also secluded themselves in their own rooms. Since they were just stabilizing their realms, they also deactivated the spirit stone formation to avoid wastage.
In their entire faction, only Long Chen didn’t need to be secluded. However, he had something even more important that he had to do. Right now, he was in his room, his Spiritual Strength going through the information within the jade tablet.
“Damn, they’re really swindlers. It’s this easy?” Long Chen couldn’t hold back from cursing. The principle behind the opening of a spiritual space was incredibly simple.
To open a spiritual space, split your Spiritual Strength into two opposing poles within the mind-sea and open a third space in between.
That space was similar to a spatial ring. But every spatial ring contained a space fragment. All the space ring had to do was connect to that space fragment.
Above the land were many wandering space fragments. It was said that in ancient times, gods had fought a huge war that had smashed apart space and destroyed stars. Those space fragments were what was left behind.
But as for whether or not that was true, no one knew. All people knew was that it was possible to use a special technique to merge a space fragment into a ring, forming a spatial ring that could easily store items.
The only fault was that a spatial ring’s space was static, and it was impossible to store living things. Even plants would quickly die within one.
As for this spiritual space, it was different. It was a space formed from his Spiritual Strength. That was a space located between his eyebrows. It was always connected to his mind.
However, it couldn’t store things like spatial rings. It could only contain housepets that were also connected to his mind. Frankly speaking, it was just a housepet space.
That was why that senior apprentice-brother had given Long Chen a warning when he had seen Long Chen wanting to buy it.
“Damn whoever set these prices. I curse your child’s chin to be bigger than their forehead,” Long Chen muttered a curse.
He also hated himself at the moment. It was something so simple. Even without this secret tome, if he had just tried it himself a bit, he probably would have had a fifty percent chance of succeeding.
Thinking of how he had spent sixty-three thousand points on such a simple principle, his heart dripped blood.
Taking a deep breath, he put away those thoughts. He had to find a way to make more points. Regret was useless. It was more important to open his spiritual space.
The mind-sea was located in the space between a person’s eyebrows. That was the place where all of
a person’s knowledge and memories gathered.
This was the most important spot of the entire human body. The hardest part of the human head was the forehead, while the weakest spot was between the eyebrows. The bone there was extremely thin.
And it was precisely because of that that mental energy was emitted from that location, allowing you to be able to sense danger at the earliest moment.
If a person were to stick a steel needle into any other part of the body, it wouldn’t cause any damage. You might not even feel it.
But if you were to pierce such a sharp object between the eyebrows, you would instinctively try to avoid it. That was a reaction of mind-sea. It was the same in all people.
That weak bone allowed one’s mental energy to flow out without restriction. It was the most direct route.
The mind-sea wasn’t a true acupuncture point, but a kind of generic term for Spiritual Strength. It could also be called the sea of consciousness.
When cultivators looked inside themselves, they saw that their Spiritual Strength surged and flowed like a sea, causing them to call it that.
Within his mind-sea, Long Chen gathered all of his Spiritual Strength. As if splitting an ocean, his Spiritual Strength split into two spiritual dragons.
Under Long Chen’s urging, the two dragons roared and began to race around each other. As they did, a vacuum formed between them.
As their speed increased, they became like a huge twister. The core of that twister began to change.
Outside that space, Spiritual Strength was crazily dashing around. But inside, it was completely still. As Long Chen increased the intensity of his Spiritual Strength, the inner portion grew into a vacuum three hundred meters in diameter.
According to that secret tome’s recordings, that vacuum was his spiritual space. As long as he placed his own spiritual imprint on top of it, it would be ready to absorb his housepets that were connected to his mind.
It was no wonder Long Chen would curse. This was extremely simple; the monastery really had swindled him. If someone had just given him a random hint, he wouldn’t have needed to spend so many points.
“Since I’m opening it, I might as well make it a bit bigger.”
In any case, he might as well make Little Snow more comfortable inside. Long Chen continued to urge his Spiritual Strength, causing those two spiritual dragons to increase their speed.
The spiritual space began to grow quickly. He only stopped once it was ten times the previous diameter, and he only stopped because he felt that he had pushed his Spiritual Strength to the max already. He wouldn’t have been able to continue going without injuring his spirit.
This three thousand meter diameter spiritual space was like a transparent ball. Strange lines slowly floated down into the ball. Those lines were Long Chen’s spiritual imprint.
They were like a huge lock, tightly keeping this space under control. Only he would be able to open it.
Those lines turned into countless spots that covered the entire ball.
Long Chen realized that those small spots were smaller versions of the locks. They were quickly absorbed into that ball.
Once those lines completely disappeared, Long Chen found that the entire spiritual space had essentially become a part of his body, and he was able to control it with just a thought.
“Unfortunately, Little Snow isn’t with me,” sighed Long Chen. After being separated for this long, he really was missing that fellow. Little Snow had been with him since he had been the size of a palm. In order to find him, Little Snow had traveled over a thousand miles of wild terrain, almost losing his life. Their feelings for each other had long since become incomparably deep.
Before entering the trial region, Long Chen had told Little Snow to go to the edge of the monastery and wait for him. Once he had made his preparations, he would go find him.
Although he missed him, he knew that as a Scarlet Flame Snow Wolf that was an overlord amongst third rank Magical Beasts, his power was great enough that he wouldn’t encounter any real danger.
Now that he had opened his spiritual space, Long Chen began to think about what to do next. He had already refined the beast flame. With the Flame Salamander’s blue flame that was ranked ninety-seventh on the beast flame rankings, his combat strength had once more risen greatly.
But thinking about his fight with Wu Qi, he knew that was far from enough. That was because the power of his Pill Flame was directly related to his cultivation base.
His current Pill Flame had already merged into his meridians. Long Chen’s spiritual qi was slowly nourishing it, increasing its power.
The degree to which Long Chen’s spiritual qi nourished it was over ten times greater than what a Blood Condensation cultivator was normally able to accomplish. But in comparison to those who had jumped past the barrier and had reached the Tendon Transformation realm, it was far too lacking.
As the first major chasm of cultivators, the Tendon Transformation realm was a huge barrier. After surpassing that barrier, one’s spiritual qi would explosively multiple by dozens of times.
Long Chen was already far behind now. Furthermore. he was also extremely sullen at the moment, as according to the monastery’s rules, new disciples could not leave the monastery for the first month. So, he had no way to go get Little Snow either.
As for the Alioth Pill’s medicinal ingredients, he had seen quite a few in the Xuantian pavilion, but each of them was incredibly expensive, easily in the thousands of points, perhaps in the ten thousands.
Then there was the Netherworld Ghost Steps that he had tricked Gui Sha into teaching him. His meridians were not wide enough to train in it. Whenever he tried to use it, he would feel an intense pain from his meridians as if they might explode.
That actually didn’t sadden Long Chen. He was actually quite happy to have obtained such a precious treasure.
It was even possible that the Netherworld Ghost Steps was an even higher class than Split the Heavens since he was still unable to train in it. Adding on how hateful Gui Sha’s expression had been, he knew that it was definitely a priceless treasure.
He couldn’t get Little Snow, he couldn’t study Gui Sha’s footwork, he couldn’t buy medicinal ingredients, and he was unable to obtain third rank Magical Beast blood essence. He found out that he really had nothing he could do anymore.
But then he suddenly thought of a certain location within the Xuantian Monastery. Taking a glance into the immortal cave, he saw that Tang Wan-er and Qing Yu had both drunk a cup of Jade Butterfly Queen Bee Crystal and had entered their meditative states, trying to quickly stabilize their realms.
Long Chen quietly left and ran to a building on the western part of the Xuantian plaza. This building was extremely ordinary, looking like a regular house.
At the top of it was a large signboard: Mission Distribution.
Long Chen walked in, seeing two bored maidens chatting. The rest of the room was empty of people.
“Is this the place to receive missions?” asked Long Chen, wondering if he had come to the wrong place.
“Yes, this is where the monastery distributes its missions. You can choose missions here, and after accomplishing them, you can come to get your points,” smiled one of the maidens.
Long Chen saw that both these maiden’s auras were extremely powerful. They were both Tendon Transformation experts, and he assumed that they must be senior apprentice-sisters.
“Can you let me see what missions there are?” asked Long Chen.
“No problem. All the missions are here.” She smiled and took out a massive book, giving it to Long Chen.
Opening the book, he saw there were all kinds of missions.
Each mission all had a number of points beneath it, numbering from dozens to thousands.
The missions were also split into four levels. The fourth level of missions were extremely easy. It was basically just guarding, patrolling, and other labor. Each day you would only be able to obtain twenty to fifty points.
The third level’s missions involved gathering medicinal ingredients, raising Magical Beasts, being assistants for alchemists or perhaps Forging Masters. That kind of work required specific skill sets. After accomplishing these missions, you could obtain one hundred to five hundred points.
The second level’s missions were mostly missions outside the sect. Perhaps it was acting as a bodyguard in the outer world, being an escort, or eliminating dangerous things. This kind of mission usually required more time, but the rewards were much more generous. They were in the thousands to the tens of thousands of points.
But when he reached the first level missions, he saw that there was nothing there.
“First level missions are very urgent and aren’t available all the time. There might not even be one in a year,” explained that maiden.
Long Chen nodded. He asked, “Then what kind of missions can I choose?”
Since he had nothing else to do, he might as well as do this.
“I’m sorry, but right now, you do not have the qualifications to accept any mission.”
Chapter 192 Faction Competition Starts
“Why is that?” frowned Long Chen.
“These missions can only be given out once the first Faction Competition is over. We only allow you to see the missions and rewards to give you guys a reminder.
“Within the monastery, the competition is extremely intense. If you want to obtain more resources than others, you’ll need to put in one hundred percent of your effort.
“The Faction Competition is a fight over the mission priorities. You’ll only receive missions in accordance to your ranking.
“If your faction comes in first, the points from the missions you’ll receive will number in the hundreds of thousands.
“If I were to make an analogy, these missions are like beef noodle soup. First place will come and take all the big pieces of meat. Only then can second place come and take the smaller pieces. As for third place, they’ll probably only end up with some leftover ground meat and noodles.
“The rest is also distributed in accordance to the ranking. As for last place, there won’t even be soup for them to drink. They’ll only be able to lick the bowl.” That woman explained it all in one go to Long Chen.