by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“Aren’t there supposed to be five flying boats? Only one can fly?” asked Long Chen.
“It was Guo Zhengyang. He was so stingy that he didn’t even maintain the flying boats. The four flying boats have lost too much spirituality and cannot fly,” said Meng Qi.
“There’s Guo Ran. Have him repair them.” Long Chen was confident in his skills. “Also, tell everyone not to be in a rush to go hunting. Right now, the city is ours. Although the city is already on the verge of collapsing, we’ll still need to defend it in the end. Have Su Mo, Mu Qingxuan, Hua Shiyu, and Wang Zhen go hunting in the surrounding regions. When the flying boats are fixed, we can go hunting in the sea then.”
“What about the Dragonblood Legion?”
“Have everyone go into seclusion and refine yuan spirit stones. They should do their best to increase their cultivation bases. I’m going to check out the city’s defenses.”
Long Chen and Guo Ran flew out of the city and went to see the city’s defenses that bordered the sea.
Crack. When Long Chen landed on the high city walls, a mass of rocks shattered.
“That Guo Zhengyang really was stingy. In order to save spirit stones, he didn’t even activate the protective formation. After several centuries, everything’s corroded and is as weak as tofu.” Guo Ran picked up a rock and crushed it with his hand. He shook his head.
Long Chen also shook his head. This city’s lifespan had already reached its limit. Even if the defensive formation was activated, it would completely break down in another few centuries.
It was because the Xuan Master had realized that the city was reaching its limit that he had allowed Guo Zhengyang to come here. This city’s ability wasn’t actually focused on defense but offense.
However, now that its lifespan had reached an end, it wasn’t able to endure unleashing any attacks. Furthermore, back then, the Xuantian Dao Sect had been in a difficult situation financially and hadn’t had the money to completely reconstruct this huge city. That would take an ocean’s worth of manpower and resources.
Before coming, the Xuan Master had implied that the yuan spirit stones were Long Chen’s. But they weren’t for free. Long Chen had to hold the line during this beast tide and couldn’t allow the sea demons to charge into the Central Plains.
If that happened, the Xuantian Dao Sect would lose their rights over this region. The Martial Heaven Alliance would then replace them with another power, and all the resources that could be gained here would go to the succeeding power.
So Long Chen felt a great deal of pressure. After taking the Xuan Master’s money, he had to get to work.
“Since you’re done forging the sets of armor, I’ll need you to help me forge large quantities of something else,” said Long Chen.
“What? For you boss, anything.” Guo Ran patted his chest confidently.
“I want you to forge supreme bombs, the stronger the better. Can you do that?” asked Long Chen.
“It’s not a problem. I have enough materials. However, it’ll take some time.”
“If I wanted three-feet-wide bombs, how many can you make, and how powerful would they be?”
“Three feet? Then I can easily inscribe a hundred runes on it. I can just merge Phoenix Plume Scarlet Gold and Ink Rock Black Iron. Once they explode, it’ll have an effective area of three hundred miles. And in the core area of one hundred and fifty miles, any ninth rank sea demons would definitely die,” estimated Guo Ran.
When it came to battle power, ninth rank sea demons were weaker than ninth rank Magical Beasts. But the most terrifying aspect of them was their numbers. Furthermore, they were usually covered in scales that bolstered their defensive strength to a high level.
“How many such bombs can you create a day?”
“Even if I focus only on this, I don’t think I can make more than a hundred a day.”
This was an extremely shocking speed. If it hadn’t been for his ancient forging table, just making ten a day would be not bad.
As for ordinary Forging Masters, trying to make more than three a day would exhaust them. Guo Ran had truly turned into a grandmaster existence in terms of forging.
“Boss, what are you planning to do?”
“The city’s defenses are essentially useless. If the sea demon army is too powerful for us to stop, then originally we should have drawn them over to the city to shrink the fighting area. But since the city can’t be used, I’m thinking of having Song Mingyuan and Li Qi create a new dike. They’ll create two large walls that will slant toward here, and all the sea demons will gradually be led to Xuantian City. Then we can use your bombs to make some death traps,” said Long Chen.
“Boss, is the beast tide really so powerful? You don’t think we’ll be enough?” Guo Ran was a bit surprised.
“Do you know what it means to be prepared just in case? Anything can happen, so having some hidden cards is leaving yourself with a higher chance of surviving. This isn’t a joke,” said Long Chen. It seemed Guo Ran was becoming so confident that he didn’t even sense danger. “Don’t think this is a waste. Even if we don’t use them this time, it’s not like we’ll throw them away. We can use them in the future. There’s still some time, so right now, focus on quality, not quantity.”
“Alright, I understand, boss.” Guo Ran nodded and left to get to work.
Long Chen continued to stroll through the original dike. He saw that there were natural barriers on the two sides. Sheer cliffs extended far beside them.
He had no idea who the people guarding the ends of these cliffs were. When his divine sense stretched into the sea, he sensed quite a few towers inside. Those were projects used to mine the minerals beneath the sea. But now they had long since stopped working.
Guo Zhengyang had originally spent a little bit to give those towers a face-lift. Then after more people were baited into coming here, he had stopped caring about those things and happily squeezed those people of their money instead.
Guo Zhengyang had been very confident in his position in Xuantian City, as he had been appointed by the previous Xuan Master to run Xuantian City for five hundred years. Furthermore, he had even had Ma Xingkong as a backer. But before the five hundred years ran out, he had been kicked out.
Long Chen inspected the terrain for a long while, drawing a rough sketch. Only then did he return to Xuantian City.
Chapter 1144 Third Heavenstage of Foundation Forging
Long Chen returned to Xuantian City and saw some Dragonmark warriors patrolling. He couldn’t help being speechless.
“Who told you to patrol?” he asked.
“It was big brother Gu Yang,” one of them replied.
“Go back. This broken city is already this worn down. Even if a thief came, they would just leave with tears. There’s nothing to steal. Other than the cultivation region, the other places don’t need to be so heavily guarded.”
Long Chen sent the Dragonmark warriors on their way. Gu Yang’s thinking was definitely too rigid. All the wealth within Xuantian City had been sucked dry by Guo Zhengyang. Even if you invited people to come and steal from here, no one would do it.
Walking into the city lord’s mansion, he arrived at a small underground formation. At the center of it was a platform.
Long Chen placed all the spatial rings he had gotten from Guo Zhengyang other than the one with yuan spirit stones in it.
Activating the formation, a ray of light shone on the platform, and the spatial rings instantly vanished.
Within multiple recesses of the formation, hundreds of yuan spirit stones shattered.
“This transportation really is expensive.” Long Chen couldn’t help but sigh emotionally. This was a special transportation formation and could only transport small things. Usually, it was used to transmit news, as it was unable to move people.
But for just a few spatial rings to cost several hundred yuan spirit stones, it was truly expensive.
Other than a few dozen disciples guarding the outside, Long Chen a
nd the rest of the Dragonblood Legion were in seclusion. The others were cultivating under the blessing of the Immemorial Altar Lamp.
Long Chen began to crazily absorb yuan spirit stones. There was nothing else to do these days, as Guo Ran needed some time to fix the flying boats.
Without a flying boat, there was no way to go hunting far away. Flying in the air personally without anywhere to land was too dangerous.
As for the shore or the sea that was close to the land, there weren’t many sea demons. Su Mo and the others were hunting in that region, but most likely they hadn’t even killed as many sea demons as they had people. There was basically no profit to be had.
Long Chen crazily absorbed yuan spirit stones, but now he came up with something different from others. He was no longer absorbing them handful by handful.
Instead, he gave all these yuan spirit stones to Lei Long and Huo Long. They devoured them and then transmitted their energy to him.
This was definitely a terrifying way to absorb yuan spiritual energy. Anyone else would instantly explode when so much yuan spiritual energy was poured into them.
Even Gu Yang, someone who walked the path of a body cultivator, would at most be able to absorb energy from ten yuan spirit stones at a time. Any more and his body wouldn’t be able to handle it.
He gave all the five hundred million yuan spirit stones to Lei Long and Huo Long. He then directly absorbed their energy from them. This would save him the trouble of refining them one by one.
Furthermore, he could also control the speed at which he absorbed the energy. Right now, Lei Long and Huo Long were incredibly powerful existences. That was especially true of Lei Long. It had fully absorbed all the energy from when Long Chen had gone through tribulation, and its combat power was even greater than Huo Long’s now.
It was only because they were strong enough that Long Chen dared to do this. The two of them ended up being like a huge reservoir of energy for Long Chen.
As he extracted a torrent of yuan spiritual energy, he sensed the flower design on his immortal platforms rapidly revolving. A new rune quickly condensed.
That rune then greedily absorbed yuan spiritual energy until it was fully satisfied and then a new rune was formed.
With his experience reaching the first Heavenstage of Foundation Forging, Long Chen decided not to even bother looking at how much this was costing him. He was basically cultivating with his eyes closed.
Ten days later, an explosive sound rang out from his body as he entered the third Heavenstage.
This time, he had been prepared, and he didn’t cause a disturbance like when he had reached the first Heavenstage. Sensing the immortal platforms in his body, he sank into thought.
Other people would condense nine runes into a foundation for their immortal platform. For the second Heavenstage, they would condense eight runes into the second level of their immortal platform.
Following that pattern, their immortal platforms would end up being a conical shape in the end.
But his immortal platforms were different. The foundation was condensed through thirteen runes, and the second level was also condensed with thirteen runes. The size was also the same.
The third level had also taken thirteen runes. If this continued, his immortal platform would end up cylindrical, different from everyone else’s.
“Whatever, you can be whatever shape you want. Time to continue cultivating. Hmm, what the fuck?!”
Long Chen was just about to continue when he let out a startled cry. He saw that Lei Long and Huo Long no longer had any yuan spirit stones in their bodies.
“They’re gone?! Five hundred million yuan spirit stones disappeared just like this?!” Long Chen couldn’t believe his eyes. He looked again and again before accepting that this was reality.
Five hundred million yuan spirit stones had only let him advance two Heavenstages. Long Chen was in despair. How was he supposed to cultivate in the future?
If he used the remaining yuan spirit stones he had, perhaps he would be able to reach the fourth Heavenstage. That would leave him at the mid Foundation Forging realm.
But then what about the Dragonblood Legion? Long Chen was speechless. It seemed his cultivation would have to slow down for now.
He stood up and stretched. He did a few exercises, and he felt his body overflowing with energy. It felt like his energy was about to explode out of his control.
Sensing the energy coming from the 108,000 immortal platforms, he almost had an urge to pierce through heaven and earth. Clenching his fist, space rumbled.
“Fine, I admit I don’t begrudge it again.”
Sensing the immense power from his body, he felt much more at ease with having spent five hundred million yuan spirit stones.
Now, Long Chen’s thirst for money was growing greater and greater. It was no wonder the Huayun Sect believed in their Wealth God. Now even he was believing in it.
Money couldn’t buy happiness, but now Long Chen was experiencing how painful it was to not have money.
Without yuan spirit stones, there was no way for him to cultivate. With this new method involving Huo Long and Lei Long, he was confident that if he had enough yuan spirit stones, in less than three months, he would be able to reach the peak of Foundation Forging. Unfortunately, there weren’t that many ifs in this world.
After sighing emotionally, he left his room. Going out into the city, he saw that Su Mo and the others were still nowhere to be found. After asking around, he learned that Guo Ran had already fixed the flying boats while he had been in seclusion. Therefore, Su Mo, Mu Qingxuan, Hua Shiyu, and Wang Zhen had taken the flying boats and gone hunting.
As for Gao Xianyang, he didn’t send any word, and Long Chen couldn’t be bothered with him. As long as he didn’t cause trouble, Long Chen wouldn’t give a damn.
Once Long Chen was out, he saw that the Dragonblood Legion’s warriors had already reached the fourth Heavenstage, and quite a few had reached the fifth Heavenstage.
Suddenly, the sky darkened and a huge figure appeared in front of Long Chen. It was so fast that Long Chen hadn’t sensed it at all before it arrived.
It was the Cloud Chasing Heaven Swallowing Sparrow. It was now over six hundred meters long, and its feathers had grown out, making it appear like a majestic steed.
Right now, its aura was equivalent to a sixth rank Magical Beast, but its power was even greater than a seventh rank Magical Beast.
“Brother Long!” Wilde jumped off from Cloud’s back. During this time, Cloud had ended up close to Wilde.
The two of them were both gluttonous. Previously, before the flying boats were fixed, the others hadn’t dared to go too far, afraid of being surrounded by sea demons. But these two were different. Cloud was incredibly fast. Its very name was a sign of its speed and devouring power.
Even though it was only at the sixth rank, even ninth rank Magical Beasts wouldn’t be able to catch up to it.
Cloud needed a large amount of flesh and blood, while Wilde also needed to constantly eat. Because of this, Meng Qi had finally agreed to let them go out.
However, she had only permitted Cloud to eat seventh rank sea demons and below. They were still in the midst of patching its innate deficiency, so it couldn’t grow too quickly.
So when they went out, the eighth rank sea demons went to Wilde, while the smaller ones ended up as Cloud’s snacks.
The amount they ate was absolutely astonishing. No matter how much they ate, they never got full. Meng Qi had even bought a King item bowl for Wilde before leaving.
It was a spatial tool that could suck in dead sea demons and compress them. Thousands of sea demons could be compressed into the size of a thumb through this bowl, and Wilde could gobble them up after that.
Although Wilde’s cultivation base was unclear, strange lines had now started to appear on his body. It was as if he was undergoing some kind of transformation, and his aura was also growing more terrifying.
As for Cloud, it had it much
easier. It simply opened its mouth, and sea demons would fly in without being able to resist. Thousands or tens of thousands would be swallowed all at once. That was its innate swallowing ability. Those sea demons that were swallowed into its stomach would instantly be killed.
Long Chen checked Wilde’s body and saw that his cells had long since been fully activated, and now each one of them was in the midst of transformation.
According to Wilde, he was unbearably hungry every day. Long Chen knew this was a message Wilde’s body was sending him. It meant he was probably about to advance.
But Wilde’s body was different from others. The way he advanced was also different. Right now, what Long Chen needed to do for Wilde was make him full.
“Brother Long, there aren’t enough ninth rank sea demons around. I can’t get full.” Wilde rubbed his head sadly. Eighth rank sea demons didn’t fill him up at all, and he was in a constant painful state of hunger.
“Alright. Gather up everyone. We’ll also go out hunting.” Long Chen patted Wilde comfortingly.
Chapter 1145 Cloud’s Power
The eastern sea gleamed like crystal under the sunlight. A flying boat slowly flew across its boundless surface.
“Long Chen, what’s going on? How have we not encountered any powerful sea demons in two days?” Meng Qi gently brushed back some strands of hair that had been blown astray by the wind.
“It’s probably the calm before the storm. It means a huge beast tide is about to erupt.” Long Chen’s expression was a bit grave.
According to past records, each time the beast tide occurred, the sea demons would enter a quiet state as if they were preparing their strength.
After flying for so long, they had essentially reached the edges of the deep sea. According to reason, despite that state of calm, there should still be sea demons present. However, things were frighteningly calm.
“Boss, why does the beast tide even occur? I still don’t understand, what’s the point of this periodic attack?” asked Gu Yang.
